WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — This week, 13News has been getting questions about President Trump and whether a national poll found him to be the most admired man in the country.
The questions are related to reports of the president winning an annual poll conducted by the analytics company Gallup.
Every year, Gallup asks Americans which man and woman in the world (not just in the U.S.) they admire most.
This year, Donald Trump won the survey with 18% of Americans citing him as the most admired man.
Barack Obama came in second with 15%, ending a record 12-year run by Obama as the nation’s most admired man in the Gallup poll. Last year, Obama and Trump tied.
President-elect Joe Biden (6%) and Dr. Anthony Fauci (3%) finished in third and fourth place in the 2020 poll, followed by Pope Francis, businessman Elon Musk, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, basketball player LeBron James and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, according to Gallup.
Critics of the president wonder how he won the “most admired man” poll during a year when Trump’s national approval ratings have been historically low, while his supporters point out he just earned more than 75 million votes in the 2020 presidential election, shattering the old record for an incumbent president.
In explaining the 2020 results, a Gallup statement said: “Even though Trump is … unpopular now — 39% approve of his performance — his dominant performance among Republicans, contrasted with Democrats splitting their choices among multiple public figures, pushes him to the top of the 2020 most admired man list.”
So while both the popular vote count and Electoral College vote count show Trump lost the 2020 presidential election by large margins, Gallup confirms he did win the company’s annual most admired man poll by being selected by 18% of Americans.
As far as the nation’s most admired woman, former First Lady Michelle Obama won that title for the third year in a row with 10% of the vote. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (6%) finished second with First Lady Melania Trump placing third (4%).
The rest of the top 10 most admired women list includes television personality Oprah Winfrey, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Queen Elizabeth II, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
If you have a question for the 13News VERIFY Team, email us at VERIFY@wthr.com.