Americans Say Barack Obama Was The Best President Of Their Lifetime

Remember this guy? Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

A new Pew Research poll revealed that the majority of Americans feel Barack Obama is the best president the United States has ever had in their lifetime.

The question proposed to those polled was, “Which president has done the best job during your lifetime?” Various age groups responded — from millennials, ages 22 to 37, to the “Silents,” ages 73 to 90 — ranking presidents back to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Of those polled, more than 44% said Obama is the best or second best president of their lifetimes, while roughly 33% said Bill Clinton was the best, and 32% said Ronald Reagan.

The numbers vary depending on age.

The clear winner among millennials is Obama. 62% said Obama was one of the top two presidents in their lifetime, and 46% said he was the best president. The view of Gen Xers — ages 38 to 53 — was split down the middle with 45% saying that Reagan was the best president. Obama got 41% of their vote, and Clinton got 39% of the vote.

For those wondering where Trump favored in this poll, there’s a surprising revelation: His numbers aren’t that different than Obama’s when people were polled about his presidency around the same time.

Pew Research shows that in 2011, halfway through Obama’s presidency, an estimated 20% of people polled said that he was the best president. That’s roughly how people feel about Trump today. The 2018 poll shows that 19% of people say Trump is doing the best or second best job of any president.

Trump — who is obsessed with figures — had something to say about this recent poll, sort of ... While in the middle of NATO talks in Brussels, Trump pulled out another poll that questions the Pew Research data.

The current president tweeted: “A recent Emerson College ePoll said that most Americans, especially Hispanics, feel that they are better off under President Trump than they were under President Obama.”

Those numbers aren’t that far off from a poll conducted by Pew last year, which showed Latinos are split when it comes to Trump. In 2017, soon after Trump was elected, 54% of Latinos said felt confident about their place in the U.S., while 41% said they had serious concerns.