One of our most recent Presidents, with an IQ that remains unknown (slightly problematic seeing as these people are running the country), comes Barack Obama. An American attorney and politician serving for an 8-year term, as well as the first African American to be elected to the presidency, does it really matter what his IQ is? It is clear that he is indeed a switched-on individual, with or without his IQ results.
A constitutional scholar and author of two bestsellers (prior to his campaigning for presidency), Obama was a breath of fresh air amongst his fellow Presidents. A true “American” story with his heartland roots and middle-class upbringing, a test taken well before his university days saw his IQ at 102. However, this was quickly dismissed. Perhaps now that he’s outside looking in to the White House, we’ll soon have our answer!
41. Thomas Jefferson (No. 3) - IQ 160
In tied second place is Thomas Jefferson, the Founding Father who is responsible for the penning of the Declaration of Independence. One of the highest-ranked presidents in U.S history, we have finally found a President who lived up to his IQ. A lesser known fact is during a visit to France as Foreign Minister, where he first sampled French cuisine, his fondness of the fare required his 19-year-old chef James Hemings to learn the art of French cooking.
During his time as President, Jefferson hosted fanciful dinner parties with French dishes prepared by his chef, popularizing ice-cream and waffles! We’ll take a few helpings of waffles a la mode to go, thank you. It seems that just because you have an IQ far greater than the average person doesn’t mean you can’t have a wicked sweet tooth. Perhaps he was a distant relative of Marie Antoinette?
42. John Quincy Adams (No. 6) - IQ 175
Holding the top spot is John Quincy Adams. The smartest President in U.S. history, Adams comes in with an astonishingly high IQ. Particularly in the 19th century, this meant that Adams was smarter than 99.999943% of those around at the time. But as we’ve discovered on this winding journey of scandal, controversy and plain stupidity, it is not the smarts which maketh the man! Despite an IQ which places him in the top 1%, as well as his forward thinking approaches to slavery and free speech, Adams was not as effective as he ought to have been. Nate Silver’s study of US President IQs of FiveThirtyEight concluded there was a correlation between presidential IQ and success as president. In layman’s terms, the smarter the president, the better off the country.
Not so for Adams. Fluent in seven languages, Adams’ talent for languages did not serve him quite as well in the Oval Office. A deep look into the presidential archives reports that Adams loathed party politics, failing to participate just as politics was gaining momentum as well as making tangible change within society. It seems that Adams prioritized skinny-dipping daily to the needs of the nation after a diary entry in 1818 revealed he made a ritual of swimming in the Potomac River completely naked. If that’s what he owes to maintaining his level of genius, we know what we’re doing tomorrow morning.
44. Donald Trump (No. 45) - ???
We reach the man you’ve all been so curious about! Sorry to be anti-climactic folks, but unfortunately, we don’t know! (Read: sarcasm ahead). Labeled by The Guardian as “our child-king”, America’s current President Donald Trump seems to be all talk, and no action. Boasting an IQ that is “very high”, the President assures his fellow Americans that he has more than what it takes to run the nation, however, has failed to produce any scrap of evidence supporting this claim. Late 2016 saw a viral meme reporting his IQ was sitting at 156. Simonton’s findings state that it is highly unlikely that he holds that sort of IQ, challenging Trump to produce his real results. Just this year at a Pennsylvania Rally, Trump assigned Californian representative Maxine Waters the nickname “very low IQ, low, low IQ.”
Maybe those with exceptionally high IQs believe they are also above having manners? We’re sure he wouldn’t say that to Putin. Whilst he isn’t the most popular fellow the country has seen, no one can deny his business acumen and decisive vision for the future. Whilst we wait with bated breath for the all-important results, maybe within that time he and his toupee will “Make America Great Again.”
45. Joe Biden (No. 46) - IQ ???
Though we're unsure of his exact IQ number, Joe Biden, who was constantly challenged about his running age (77), wasn't going to let haters triumph him. When confronted about his age, he challenged an Iowa voter to a pushup match, a running competition, and an IQ test. His offers, unsurprisingly, were greeted with audience applause.
Biden studied at the University of Delaware before earning his law degree from Syracuse University. He became the sixth-youngest senator in American history when he was elected to the Senate from Delaware in 1972, at age 29. From one of the youngest to one of the oldest, Biden continues to make American history.