A heated debate has emerged after a poll concluded that Donald Trump is the 'most admired man in America' knocking Barack Obama off the top-spot for the first time in 12-years. The poll was conducted by respected polling firm Gallup and included over 1,000 US citizens.
The survey has been conducted every year for the last 74 years and asks which man or woman each person admires the most. The Americans sampled did not have to choose a fellow American as their most admired person. Trump took this year's crown with 18% of the vote, with Obama in second place with 15%. It should, of course, be noted that there is a 5% margin of error in the poll meaning Trump could have been as high as 23% or as low as 13%.
Other famous faces who scored highly in the poll include former First Lady and wife of Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, who scored 10%, which is even higher than president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president elect Kamala Harris who each scored 6%.
Other who scored between 2 and 3% include Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Hillary Clinton, Anthony Fauci, and Angela Merkel. Scoring slightly lower with around 1% each were individuals such as Elon Musk, Bernie Sanders, Bill Gates, and climate activist Greta Thunberg.
For 60 of the last 74 years, the US president has been named the most admired person. However, this was not the case during Trump's years in office when he was routinely beaten by former President Obama.
One reason for the change in fortunes of Trump in the poll is that many of those who previously favoured Obama, have now backed other nominees such as Biden and Harris. Those who identified as Republicans voted for Trump with 48% of them saying he was their most admired person while only 32% of Democrats backed Obama, down from 41% last year. This indicates that instead of Trump's popularity rising, the Democrat leaning vote has just been split in a number of different new ways.
The evangelical preacher Rev. Billy Graham holds the record for the most times appearing on the list, 61 times, while Oprah Winfrey has appeared 33 times.
Heart-warmingly as many as 11% of respondents to the poll nominated a close friend or relative as their most admired person.
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