He hasnât even been the former president for three months, but already it has started. The historiansâ evaluation of Donald J. Trump is underway. Itâs not as easy as it looks. Of course, many commentators and historians made tentative judgments while he still was in the White House. Professional historians arenât exactly the jury that the 45th president would choose; men and women who teach in universities, who seek to discover facts through research, who tend to be more contemplative than emotive, are not his best focus group. And a Chronicle of Higher Education survey of 2016 voting patterns in counties holding each stateâs flagship public university â the 2020 election doesnât count, because so many students were home because of the virus â showed that Trump prevailed in only 20% of them.