Presidential historian explains who America’s smartest and dumbest Presidents were.
The director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, Barbara Perry, has some things to say about US Presidents and their intelligence levels. Her opinions are based, in part, on a 2006 study by psychologist Dean Simonton published by the International Society of Political Psychology.
Though Simonton’s study doesn’t include presidents after 2006, Perry used a variety of factors, including native intelligence, grades, transcripts and what universities they attended, to assess America’s most recent leaders.
She also based her analysis on language usage, wit and speaking and writing ability.
Of President Obama she says he is in the “highest category of intellect,” pointing out that even his fellow students at Harvard University felt the future 44th president was “on a different plane than most of the other brilliant people in the classes.”
President Clinton is also rated by her to be in the top 5, saying he has an ability to comprehend, to analyze and synthesize. A different study rated Clinton’s IQ as 148.8. Jimmy Carter was rated with an IQ of 145.1.
Of Trump, Perry says it is difficult to rate him because he refused to release his school transcripts, and other limited information about him. She says, Trump’s favorite form of communicating, tweeting, “does not demonstrate a complexity of thinking.” She does say of Trump however, “I think he's our most cunning president, and I think there is a certain amount of intellect that that requires.”
And then there is President Joe Biden. She doesn’t believe Biden is particularly intellectual or engaging. “I just think he is of average intellect, but obviously he has parlayed that [into the presidency] by virtue, I think, of his personality.”
The smartest ever US President? John Quincy Adams with an IQ score of 168.75.
The dumbest? Ulysses S. Grant with an IQ Score of 120.
And in case you are wondering, George W. Bush’s IQ is 124.88.
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