As he heads into the 2020 election season, President Donald Trump’s rising popularity in his third year in office has elevated him to a tie, 18-18 percent, for Most Admired Man with perennial favorite former President Barack Obama in the annual Gallup Poll, a first for Trump. Former First Lady Michelle Obama topped the Most Admired Woman survey with 10 percent, followed by current First Lady Melania Trump at 5 percent. Barack Obama has been named the Most Admired Man for twelve years in a row, including this year’s tie with Trump.

The Gallup Poll was taken during the lead-up to the Democrat led House of Representatives partisan impeachment of Trump, December 2-15. The vote to impeach occurred on December 18. Trump’s rating is up from previous years of 14% in 2017 and 13% in 2018. Gallup observes the increase in Trump’s position is mainly from Republicans, 45% of whom named Trump as most admired in 2019 compared to just 32% in 2018, and that Trump is at peak popularity overall at 45%.

Obama’s support is in a stable range: 18% for 2019, 19% for 2018 and 17% for 2017. Obama’s twelfth year at the top ties him with former President Dwight Eisenhower in the Gallup Poll. Obama was supported by 41% of Democrats. Trump (10%) and Obama (12%) split independents.

Gallup reported the top ten men and women in the Most Admired survey. The only other presidential candidates who cracked the top ten are Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

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After Obama and Trump, no other man was mentioned by more than 2% of respondents. The remainder of the top 10 for men this year includes former President Jimmy Carter, businessman Elon Musk, philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Pope Francis, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, California Rep. Adam Schiff, the Dalai Lama, and investor Warren Buffett. …The 10% naming (Michelle) Obama this year is down from 15% last year. The 2018 poll was conducted shortly after she released her bestselling autobiography. Current first lady Melania Trump finished second this year, mentioned by 5%, with former talk show host Oprah Winfrey, (Hillary) Clinton and teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg named by 3% of U.S. adults each. The remainder of the top 10 for women includes Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Gallup describes the poll, writing, “Each year since 1948, Gallup has asked Americans to name, in an open-ended fashion, which man and woman living anywhere in the world they admire most. This year’s results are based on a Dec. 2-15 poll.”

Details on the Gallup Poll at this link