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Donald Trump has been voted the worst president in US history by nearly 200 top political scientists.

The current leader comes in last place out of 44 in the 2018 Presidents & Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey.

Abraham Lincoln was voted the best president of all time, while the disgraced Richard Nixon came in at 33.

The study, conducted once every four years, asks researchers from the American Political Science Association to rank each president’s greatness on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 representing total failure and 100 for greatness.

Mr Trump’s average score of 12.4 saw him move below James Buchanan, the president who led the US into civil war.

His predecessor Barack Obama jumped up ten places to eighth, while George W Bush also climbed five places to 30th.

The top seven presidents remained unchanged from 2014, with Mr Lincoln followed by George Washington, Franklin D Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.

Joining Mr Trump in the bottom five was Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Harrison, and Mr Buchanan.

The researchers also rated Mr Trump as the “most polarising” president.

The survey read: “President Trump is ranked as the most polarised by all party identifiers. On average, Republicans view President Trump one full spot less polarising than Democrats.

“Independents found President Trump the most polarising president than either Democrats or Republicans and in general Independents rank President Trump as the most polarising president of any modern president.”

After just a year in office he has already sparked huge controversy by pulling the US out of the Paris climate change agreement, officially recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and enacting a so-called “travel ban” on seven mainly Muslim countries.