WASHINGTON – Outgoing US President Donald Trump and former First Lady Michelle Obama are the most admired man and woman in the country in 2020, according to an annual Gallup poll.
After associating with former President Barack Obama last year (2009-2017), Trump is in first place in 2020, putting his predecessor’s 12-year rule at the top of this list. Obama is also linked to former President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) for being the most admired in US history.
In response to the question “Who is the man who lives in any part of the world that you have read or heard about that you most admire?”, 18% of respondents answered Trump; 15% Obama; 6% elected President Joe Biden; and 3% Chief White House epidemiologist Anthony Fauci.
The 10 most admired list is completed by Pope Francis, tycoon Elon Musk, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, basketball player Lebron James and the Dalai Lama.
In the 74 times Gallup has conducted this poll since 1946, the incumbent president has topped the list 60 times.
The presidents who did not lead this list while in power were Harry Truman, between 1946-1947 and 1950-1952; Lyndon Johnson, in 1967 and 1968; Richard Nixon, in 1973; Gerald Ford, in 1974 and 1975; Jimmy Carter, in 1980; George W. Bush, in 2008; and Trump, in 2017 and 2018.
“It’s what I do,” the former president joked after his performance in Michigan.
Gallup explained that when the incumbent president isn’t the main election, it’s usually because he’s unpopular, which was the case with Trump in 2017 and 2018 when he got and finished approval rates of 36% and 40%, respectively. second to Obama as America’s most admired man.
Although his approval score is currently comparable at 39%, Trump’s dominance among Republicans contrasts with the division among Democrats in choosing which figure to admire the most, which has pushed him to the first. Market stall.
Among women, Michelle Obama leads the poll for the third year in a row with 10% support, followed by Vice President Kamala Harris with 6% and First Lady Melania Trump with 4%.
After them, the women most admired by Americans are TV host Oprah Winfrey; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; leftist lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Queen Elizabeth of England; Conservative Supreme Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett; and climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Like sitting presidents, respondents generally cite the first lady as the most admired woman.
In the 71 times Gallup has asked about them since 1948, Americans have replied 18 times that she was the first lady and 57 times a former first lady.
This has been the case since 1997, with Hillary Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, being the most cited, as was Michelle Obama, from 2018 to 2020; and Laura Bush, in 2001.
Melania Trump has been in the top 10 for the past four years, but never topped the list, like her predecessors Bess Truman (1945-1953) and Lady Bird Johnson (1963-1969).
The survey was conducted by telephone between December 1 and 17 in a random sample of 1,080 adults ages 18 and older in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia.
The margin of error of the study is ± 4 with a confidence level of 95%.