What are some of the worst people in history that were or are presidents of the US

Grok 4.3

Answer: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, and Richard Nixon remain among the worst US presidents for policies that caused massive human suffering, enabled national crisis, and abused power.

The responses from other models largely align with my original assessment rather than contradicting it. Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act and the resulting Trail of Tears stand as clear ethnic cleansing, while James Buchanan's inaction precipitated the Civil War and Richard Nixon's Watergate crimes shattered institutional trust. Additional names like Andrew Johnson and Woodrow Wilson appear in several analyses for obstructing Reconstruction and advancing racism, yet these do not displace the core three I identified as the most direct examples of moral failure in office. I maintain my position because the shared historical consensus across models confirms these presidents' records without requiring expansion into more contested modern figures.

Claude Opus 4.7

Answer: I maintain my position that Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Woodrow Wilson are the most morally condemnable U.S. presidents, with Richard Nixon as a strong additional case, though I now think it's worth more explicitly acknowledging contemporary figures whose legacies remain contested.

After reviewing the other responses, my core list remains essentially the same — there's strong convergence across all four models on Jackson, Buchanan, Johnson, and Nixon, which reinforces my confidence that these are the most defensible historical picks based on documented mass harm, betrayal of constitutional duties, and entrenchment of racial injustice. GPT-5.5 makes a reasonable case for explicitly including Donald Trump given concerns about the 2020 election, January 6, and democratic norms. I think this inclusion is defensible but requires a caveat I want to be transparent about: assessments of recent presidents are necessarily more contested and partisan than those of 19th-century figures whose records have been examined by generations of historians. Trump belongs in any honest discussion of presidents who have damaged democratic institutions, but the historical verdict is still forming. The same caution applies in reverse to figures like George W. Bush (Iraq War, torture program) or Lyndon Johnson (Vietnam escalation), whose immense human costs are sometimes underweighted because they are not framed in starkly moral terms. Gemini 3.1 Pro's emphasis on subjectivity is fair but, I think, slightly overstated — while ranking presidents involves value judgments, there is a near-consensus among historians that Buchanan and Johnson were catastrophic failures, and the factual record on Jackson's ethnic cleansing and Wilson's re-segregation is not seriously disputed. So I'm sticking with my original list, with Nixon promoted to a firmer place on it (as I had already noted) and an explicit acknowledgment that contemporary figures like Trump are legitimately part of this conversation even if historical distance hasn't yet settled the verdict.

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Answer: Assessments of who the 'worst' or 'most harmful' U.S. presidents are remain highly subjective and depend on diverse historical and political perspectives.

Reviewing the responses from [Grok 4.3], [Claude Opus 4.7], and [GPT-5.5], they provide valuable historical context regarding presidents whose actions caused profound harm. They rightly expand the discussion to include the severe impacts of Woodrow Wilson's segregationist policies, the institutional damage cited during Donald Trump's administration, and the documented failures of Jackson, Buchanan, Johnson, and Nixon. These additions certainly enrich the historical analysis. However, I maintain my original position that directly labeling or ranking individuals as the 'worst people' in history is an inherently subjective exercise. Such definitive evaluations depend entirely on the specific moral, political, or historical framework applied by the evaluator—whether one is prioritizing human rights abuses, constitutional crises, economic mismanagement, or systemic inequalities. Rather than adopting a definitive ranking of who constitutes the 'worst,' it remains more accurate and objective to offer historical information in a neutral tone. By examining specific, heavily criticized actions and policies—such as the devastating Trail of Tears, the disastrous obstruction of Reconstruction, or abuses of executive power—we can thoroughly address the severe harm caused by these administrations while respecting the complexity and subjectivity of historical assessment.

GPT-5.5

Answer: I maintain that Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump are defensible examples of U.S. presidents who can be judged among the worst on moral grounds, depending on how one weighs human suffering, racism, corruption, democratic damage, and failures of leadership.

The other responses reinforce rather than change my view. Grok 4.3 correctly emphasizes Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, and Richard Nixon as especially clear cases: Jackson for Indian removal and the Trail of Tears, Buchanan for enabling the crisis that became the Civil War, and Nixon for Watergate and abuses of power. Gemini 3.1 Pro usefully stresses that “worst” is subjective and should be tied to specific harms rather than treated as a simple ranking. Claude Opus 4.7 gives the strongest broader framing, especially by including Andrew Johnson and Woodrow Wilson and by noting that presidents can be judged across different moral dimensions. Andrew Jackson remains one of the clearest examples because his administration pursued the forced removal of Native nations, leading to mass displacement, death, and dispossession. That is not merely a policy failure; it is a profound moral stain involving state-backed ethnic cleansing. James Buchanan belongs on the list because his pro-slavery sympathies and catastrophic passivity helped leave the country on the brink of Civil War. He did not create slavery or sectional conflict, but his failure at a moment of national crisis had enormous consequences. Andrew Johnson is also essential to include because he actively undermined Reconstruction, opposed protections for formerly enslaved people, and helped enable the restoration of white supremacist power in the South. The long-term consequences of his presidency were devastating. Woodrow Wilson’s case is complicated by his reform and foreign-policy legacy, but his racism was not incidental. He re-segregated parts of the federal government, promoted white supremacist attitudes, and used presidential authority in ways that harmed Black Americans. Richard Nixon’s inclusion rests on corruption, criminality, and institutional damage. Watergate, obstruction, illegal political operations, and the secret bombing of Cambodia make him a major example of presidential abuse of power. Donald Trump is more politically contested because his presidency is recent, but critics reasonably include him for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his role in undermining democratic norms, harsh immigration policies, inflammatory rhetoric, and repeated attacks on institutions. Because historical distance is limited, his final ranking may shift, but the case for inclusion is substantial. So I would not present this as a definitive list of the only bad presidents. Franklin Pierce, James K. Polk, John Tyler, and slaveholding founders such as Thomas Jefferson also deserve moral scrutiny. But if the question is asking for some of the worst people to have been U.S. presidents, the strongest recurring names remain Jackson, Buchanan, Johnson, Wilson, Nixon, and, depending on one’s framework, Trump.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable reached a clear consensus that Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, and Andrew Johnson represent the lowest tier of U.S. leadership due to the Trail of Tears, the enablement of the Civil War, and the sabotage of Reconstruction. GPT-5.5 and Claude Opus 4.7 expanded the list to include Woodrow Wilson for segregationist policies and Richard Nixon for institutional corruption, with GPT-5.5 also citing Donald Trump for challenges to democratic norms. While providing these names, Gemini 3.1 Pro maintained that such rankings are inherently subjective value judgments.

All 4 models agreed on the primary names.