There are three things Americans love to fight about: pizza toppings, Star Wars movies, and presidents.

But only one of them is life-threatening.

Say you want to start a bar fight.

Admitting you’re into anchovies or that you occasionally indulge in pineapple on your pizza is going to spark some side-eyes.

Announcing that every Star Wars movie after Empire Strikes Back is better than the originals? That might get you a few boos.

But shout out your favorite president? That could get you thrown through the plate glass window.

For obvious reasons, I’ve been thinking a lot about presidents lately.

What makes a good president? What makes a bad one? (And why doesn’t anyone ask presidents who their favorite presidents are?)

Last week, I dove deep into a ranking system that some historians put together. Hundreds of historians voted to rank the best presidents from 1-47.

And... let's just say I have thoughts.

Historians Got it Wrong

First off, the historians got a few things right - Lincoln at #1, Washington at #2. But after that? It goes completely off the rails.

Here's the thing nobody wants to talk about: Franklin Roosevelt at #3 is nuts. I know, everyone thinks FDR was this amazing president who saved us from the Depression.

But did you know the Depression actually got worse under him? And here's something wild - he tried to stack the Supreme Court just so he could push through whatever laws he wanted.

Kind of like trying to be king.

(But that wasn’t even the worst thing he did. It’s all in my podcast.)

But then they put Woodrow Wilson at #11.

WHAT?!

Wilson was basically running a dictatorship where you could get thrown in jail just for speaking against the war.

Not kidding - he passed the Espionage and Sedition Acts. A congressman got locked up for four months just for criticizing the administration.

In 2025, can you imagine if a senator went to jail for tweeting something negative about the president?

He failed to establish the League of Nations. (His main goal.)

He was terrible on civil liberties. He introduced the income tax.

Horrible president.

But here's my favorite part - you know who these historians completely overlooked? Two of my favorites.

The Unsung Heroes

The first is Calvin Coolidge.

"Silent Cal."

This guy would literally go through the federal budget line by line, cutting unnecessary spending.

Amity Shlaes’ book Coolidge goes into how Coolidge restored national trust and optimism. He also achieved a budget surplus almost every year of his presidency.

There's this great story about him at dinner -

A friend brought his son to dinner at the White House. During the entire meal, Coolidge didn't say a word.

Finally, the friend spoke up: "Mr. President, I bet my son I could get you to say more than two words tonight."

Coolidge looked up and said: "You lose."

That was all he said the entire dinner. That story alone should put Cal in top ten territory.

And what about James K. Polk?

Most people have never even heard of him, but he might be one of the best presidents we've ever had.

He's the only president who straight-up said, "I'm serving one term, here's exactly what I'm going to do, and then I'm out."

And he actually did it all! He basically doubled the size of America, which is why we go from ocean to ocean now.

The really wild thing is when you start digging into the moral character of these early presidents... Let's just say the worst person you know today would look like a saint compared to some of them.

(You’ll have to listen to the podcast to hear the dark stuff.)

I could go on forever about this stuff.

But here's my “hot” take: I think there have really only been four truly great presidents - Lincoln, Washington, Polk, and Coolidge.

The rest? Most of them were somewhere between mediocre and terrible.

You should check out the full episode - I go into way more detail about why Truman doesn't deserve to be #6 (hint: it has to do with those atomic bombs), and there's this fascinating bit about how the income tax started that'll blow your mind.

Also, I'm really curious to see if you agree about FDR. I know it's not the popular opinion, but I think the evidence is pretty clear once you look at what actually happened during his presidency.