From mishandled wars to scandalous cover-ups, presidential blunders have shaped American history. Join us as we explore the most catastrophic decisions made by U.S. leaders that had far-reaching consequences. These mistakes changed the course of nations and left lasting impacts on millions of lives.
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00:00View this the same as the flu. When somebody sneezes, I mean, I try and bail out as much
00:05as possible. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most foolish decisions
00:09and biggest blunders ever made by American presidents. I misled people, including even my wife.
00:19Number 10. Afghanistan withdrawal. Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Trump's 2020 deal with
00:25the Taliban, which promised a full U.S. withdrawal, was an abject failure in diplomacy.
00:31This morning, the president is facing mounting scrutiny after planning and then abruptly
00:36canceling a secret meeting with the Afghan government and the Taliban that was set to
00:40take place Sunday at Camp David, just days before the anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
00:46Not only did Trump initially invite the Taliban to Camp David on 9-11, but the deal itself was
00:52a mess. It set a hard deadline for U.S. withdrawal without securing long-term peace, effectively
00:58sidelining the Afghan government and weakening its position. Trump also agreed to release
01:03thousands of imprisoned Taliban fighters, setting the stage for chaos. Biden's administration
01:09compounded these issues by mismanaging the 2021 withdrawal. So in what way has the U.S.
01:14withdrawal impacted your job as national security advisor? Well, we weren't expecting it to come
01:20this soon. So there hasn't really been a proper transition. Intelligence failures underestimated
01:28the Taliban's rapid resurgence. The withdrawal quickly evolved into an evacuation. The Afghan
01:34government collapsed, causing a humanitarian crisis that left Americans, allies and Afghan
01:39civilians in peril amidst the Taliban's swift takeover.
01:439. The War of 1812 – James Madison
01:51James Madison's decision to declare war on Britain was an utter disaster.
01:56On June 18, 1812, President James Madison signed the Declaration Against Britain,
02:03despite contention about the issue coming from both the House and Senate.
02:07He was driven by a desire to defend American maritime rights and his greedy ambition to
02:13annex Canada. Madison grossly overestimated the capabilities of America's military while
02:18underestimating British strength. The defeats were plenty and humiliating for the Americans.
02:24America was not prepared for war, thanks to poor infrastructure in the West and internal
02:29divisions between Federalists and Republicans. The U.S. invasion of Canada swiftly failed.
02:35British forces eventually marched on Washington, D.C., setting it ablaze in 1814.
02:42The war disrupted trade, hurt the economy, and created political turmoil.
02:46The Treaty of Ghent reverted things back, mostly, to how they were before the combat.
02:51Though the Treaty of Ghent ended the conflict in 1815, it resolved none of Madison's grievances.
02:58As a result, the War of 1812 was both a failure and utterly pointless.
03:038. Kansas-Nebraska Act – Franklin Pierce
03:07America's early history is forever tarnished by the moral stain of slavery.
03:11It is marked by one ridiculous compromise after another.
03:15The Missouri Compromise of 1820 maintained a balance between free and slave states.
03:20But while the Missouri Compromise limited the spread of slavery,
03:23it did nothing to abolish slavery in states that already had it.
03:27The Compromise of 1850 temporarily quelled tensions by admitting California as a free state
03:33and strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act. It was Franklin Pierce's support for the
03:38Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, however, that highlighted the futility of compromise.
03:43So, in effect, what the Kansas-Nebraska Act did was destabilize
03:47the understandings that were part of the territorial question.
03:52Pierce and Congress reignited conflict by allowing these territories to choose whether
03:57to allow slavery via popular sovereignty.
04:00It was never clear who was going to decide. Did the first 10 people into a territory decide?
04:04This decision dismantled the Missouri Compromise and sparked Bleeding Kansas,
04:09a series of skirmishes instigated by pro-slavery guerrillas in Missouri.
04:157. Annexing the Philippines – William McKinley
04:19Fresh off a victory in the Spanish-American War, President William McKinley was looking
04:23to extend America's sphere of influence into the South Pacific.
04:27In 1898, he decided to annex the Philippines, believing it was America's duty to quote-unquote
04:33civilize and Christianize the islands.
04:36President William McKinley even sent out a telegram that said,
04:39quote, There must be no joint occupation with the Filipinos. The Filipinos,
04:45and all others, must recognize the military occupation and authority of the United States.
04:51He also pitched the invasion as a means of expanding America's strategic military and
04:56economic interests in Asia. Unfortunately, the resultant Philippine-American War turned
05:01out to be a bloody, miserable quagmire. There were hundreds of thousands of casualties,
05:06the overwhelming majority of which were Filipino civilians.
05:10There were also reports of American soldiers robbing civilians of everything they owned of
05:16value. The fierce Filipino insurgency quickly eroded American support for the war.
05:21The War Department even conducted a major investigation.
05:24When Elwell Otis found out about his soldiers writing to the media, he freaked out.
05:30Worse, it created long-term resentment towards America in the Philippines
05:34that still reverberates today.
05:366. Inaction during the Great Depression – Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover
05:42In the 1920s, President Calvin Coolidge leaned into a laissez-faire philosophy,
05:48eschewing government intervention and espousing deregulation.
05:51The 30th president was so committed to small government, for example,
05:54that it sometimes eclipsed his humanity.
05:57He failed to support the agricultural sector,
06:00leading to widespread rural bank failures and farm foreclosures.
06:04His tax cuts worsened wealth inequality, and easy credit left many Americans in deep debt,
06:10laying the groundwork for the Great Depression.
06:12Enter Herbert Hoover, who clung to the belief that market forces alone could correct the crisis.
06:20Refusing to provide direct relief or intervene aggressively,
06:24Hoover underestimated the scale of the collapse.
06:27The Depression quickly worsened as unemployment soared and banks failed.
06:31Hoover's inaction deepened the economic catastrophe, amounting to widespread suffering.
06:37Despite having won in a landslide in 1928, he was swiftly kicked to the curb four years later.
06:43No surprise here. Franklin Roosevelt won, becoming the 32nd president in American history.
06:49He received 472 electoral votes and 57.4% of the popular vote.
06:55It was the first win for the Democrats since 1916.
06:59Number 5. Failing to Protect Black People in the South
07:03Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes
07:06The 1876 presidential election was one of the worst political disasters in American history,
07:11leading to more than a century of discrimination and violence.
07:15As returns came in on the evening of November 7, the nation held its breath.
07:21Much of it lies at the feet of President Ulysses Grant. He failed to effectively use American
07:26troops to protect black voters from violent white supremacist groups like the KKK.
07:31The nation was thrown into chaos.
07:34These groups used murder and violence as tools of stochastic white nationalist terror,
07:40severely corrupting the election process.
07:42Just 11 years after the Civil War, it looked like it could start all over again.
07:48Amid this chaos, Samuel Tilden won the popular vote,
07:52but contested results in several states led to an electoral dispute.
07:56Ultimately, Rutherford B. Hayes struck a corrupt bargain to secure the presidency.
08:02He agreed to completely withdraw federal troops from the South,
08:05ending Reconstruction and abandoning black people in the South for generations.
08:10Number 4. Mishandling COVID. Donald Trump.
08:14The COVID-19 pandemic wrecked havoc all over the planet,
08:18resulting in massive death tolls and widespread long-term economic devastation.
08:23And the question is, will it get worse or will it get better? Right now, the map is troubling.
08:27In America, President Donald Trump's willful mismanagement made it worse than it needed to be.
08:33He began with consistent and repeated misinformation about the virus's severity.
08:37It's going to disappear. One day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear.
08:41He spent weeks throwing up roadblocks to testing,
08:44wanting to downplay official numbers while the virus spread.
08:48He dismissed expert recommendations like mask wearing and social distancing,
08:53and promoted unproven treatments like ivermectin. He even suggested ingesting bleach.
08:59And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute,
09:04one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that?
09:07Trump refused to implement a coordinated federal response and slowed aid to Democratic-leaning
09:13states, leading to overwhelming hospitals, economic collapse and widespread job losses.
09:20Some 4.4 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week.
09:24That brings the tally for the last five weeks to more than 26 million Americans.
09:29Over one million Americans died. The Lancet has since estimated that 40 percent of U.S.
09:34COVID deaths were preventable. Number three, the Vietnam War, Lyndon B. Johnson.
09:41In July 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson made the critical decision to double U.S. troops in
09:47Vietnam, making it a full-fledged American war. While he expressed grave doubts in private,
09:53he championed the war in public. I do think our cause is just.
09:58I do think our purposes and objectives are beyond any question.
10:04Johnson believed that withdrawal would signal weakness to the world, damaging U.S. credibility.
10:09He rejected full mobilization, providing troops incrementally to protect his domestic agenda.
10:15His choice failed at controlling events on the ground.
10:18I think that even if it were a success, we still have no business being there.
10:24And that's the important point. The war would prove to be a costly mistake,
10:28with more than 58,000 American soldiers, sailors and airmen killed or missing.
10:34Americans' trust in their government was irrevocably damaged.
10:37For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam
10:42is to end in a stalemate. Vietnam suffered tremendous casualties
10:46and destruction. It would take an entire generation for the nation to recover.
10:50Number two, Watergate, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
10:54The decision to break into the DNC offices at Watergate was, in retrospect,
10:59utterly insane and completely unnecessary. Mr. Nixon says emphatically that the White
11:04House is in no way involved in the burglary and bugging of the Democratic headquarters,
11:09and he'll have no further comment on that matter.
11:12Richard Nixon was a relatively popular incumbent who would go on to win re-election in an
11:16overwhelming landslide. Nixon surrounded himself with sycophants who followed his paranoid lead,
11:22born of Nixon's deep-seated insecurities. He saw enemies everywhere, even when he had all the
11:28power. He always saw people in the shadows, and his motto, I believe, was do unto others before
11:36they have a chance to do unto you. The subsequent scandal exposed a culture of
11:41corruption that annihilated his legacy. Therefore, I shall resign the presidency
11:47effective at noon tomorrow. Gerald Ford's controversial choice to
11:51pardon Nixon proved to be an equally disastrous mistake.
11:54My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that
12:01continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. It solidified a dangerous precedent, a tacit
12:11acceptance of misconduct in the White House. A generation later, this precedent helped
12:16Donald Trump avoid accountability for his alleged crimes committed while president.
12:21Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions.
12:26Alien and Sedition Acts. John Adams. Adams attacked his critics with a pair of dangerous,
12:32undemocratic, and unpopular laws. By the law's expiration, U.S. federal courts
12:37prosecuted no less than 26 individuals under the Sedition Act, nearly all of them editors
12:44of Republican newspapers who opposed the Adams administration.
12:48The Iran-Contra Affair. Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan illegally sold arms to Iran
12:54to fund right-wing nationalist Nicaraguan rebels. A few months ago, I told the American people I
12:59did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true,
13:05but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.
13:09Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal. Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying under oath
13:14about an affair with a White House intern. It constituted a critical lapse in
13:18judgment and a personal failure on my part, for which I am solely and completely responsible.
13:24The Bay of Pigs. John F. Kennedy. Kennedy greenlit a failed,
13:28CIA-funded invasion of Cuba by Cuban expat rebels.
13:32You could say about Egypt, for men they were serving their country,
13:37the flight that cost them their lives was a volunteer flight.
13:42Interment of Japanese Americans. Franklin Roosevelt. FDR gave in to racist fears by
13:48interning innocent Japanese American families during World War II.
13:52More than two-thirds of those people were native-born American citizens. In the rush
13:57of relocation, they were forced to abandon or sell their homes and businesses, leaving behind
14:03their friends and communities that they love.
14:22Number 1. The Iraq War and Mission Accomplished. George W. Bush.
14:27George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 is arguably
14:31the worst decision ever made by an American president.
14:35On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance
14:41to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war.
14:44Two decades later, his own party has overwhelmingly rejected the choice as foolish in retrospect.
14:50Driven by a mix of neoconservative ideology and personal motivations,
14:54Bush plunged headfirst into a decade-long quagmire.
14:58I am certain that abandoning or drastically curtailing our efforts will bring failure.
15:06Bush was convinced by his warmongering advisors that America would be greeted as liberators.
15:11They also believed the war would trigger a wave of democratic revolutions across the Middle East.
15:16They toppled the government quickly, leading to Bush's infamous Mission Accomplished speech.
15:21Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.
15:25In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.
15:31That's when the disaster began, with years of bloody insurgency.
15:35The Iraqis are probably wondering how in the hell are they supposed to believe in
15:40a system that we forced-fed them, when our system doesn't even work.
15:44The war cost more than $1 trillion, claiming thousands of American
15:49and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives.
15:52American presidents are just people, which means history is replete with blunders,
15:57goofs, and stupid choices.
15:59Let us know which presidential mistake shocked you the most in the comments below.
16:03May God bless our country and all who defend her.