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President Trump and former President Obama are the most admired men in the U.S.
The annual Gallup poll conducted since 1984 asks Americans this open-ended question: Which man and woman that you have heard or read about, living today in any part of the world, do you admire most?
And Donald Trump and Barack Obama tied for first place among men this year, collecting 18% of the vote from U.S. adults. This was an upset for Trump, who has never claimed the top spot, while Obama has been in first place 12 times. Former first lady Michelle Obama was named the most admired woman with 10% of the vote, while current first lady Melania Trump came in second with 5%.
Those votes were largely split along party lines, with 41% of Democrats selecting Barack Obama, and 45% of Republicans picking Donald Trump; meanwhile, just 3% of GOP respondents named Obama, and only 2% of Democrats named Trump. Independents were evenly split: 12% for Obama, and 10% for Trump.
The same was seen among the women, with Michelle Obama taking 23% of the Democratic vote, while Melania Trump was the top vote getter among Republicans with 11%.
The Gallup report notes that the incumbent president has typically been named America’s most admired man, taking the title in 58 out of 72 previous Gallup polls. The exceptions are when the sitting president is unpopular politically, as was the case with Trump in 2017 (when he had a 36% approval rating) and in 2018 (when his approval rating was 40%).
Yet despite becoming the third president in U.S. history to become impeached after an historic House vote earlier this month, Trump is more popular now than he has been over the past couple of years. His 45% job approval rating is among his best as president. This paved the way for him to tie with Obama as most admired, although it was not enough to end the latter’s streak of 12 first-place finishes.
Michelle Obama has been named the most admired woman for the past two years, while Hillary Clinton, the former presidential candidate, secretary of state, senator and first lady, finished first 22 times of the 25 previous years.
Rounding out the top 10 most admired men were former President Jimmy Carter; Tesla’s TSLA, -3.32% founder, Elon Musk; philanthropist Bill Gates, the Microsoft MSFT, -0.64% co-founder ; Pope Francis; Sen. Bernie Sanders, the presidential hopeful and a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination; Rep. Adam Schiff of California; the Dalai Lama; and investor Warren Buffett, who heads the Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, +0.00% BRK.B, -0.08% conglomerate.
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Among the women, media mogul and Weight Watchers WW, -4.36% spokeswoman Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton and teen climate activist Greta Thunberg tied for third with 3% of the vote. And rounding out the top 10 women were” Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; presidential hopeful and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
