Time and again, media outlets have reported that President Donald Trump is a pretty big fan of polls — especially the ones that portray him as well-liked among the masses. But there is one survey that the president may not be too excited to tweet about or boast about in front of the press. According to the YouGov's 2018 survey, former President Barack Obama is more admired than Trump on both national and international levels.
When it came to the United States, Obama's popularity was at 24 percent, while Trump won 10.7 percent in terms of the "admiration score," according to the poll. Coming in third was evangelical Christian figure Billy Graham, followed by Pope Francis, tech tycoon Bill Gates, celebrity Dwayne Johnson, Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood, and a whole bunch of others.
It was pretty much the same when it came to former First Lady Michelle Obama and current First Lady Melania Trump. The previous first lady's admiration score was at 13.2 percent, making her the most admired woman in the United States. On the other hand, the Melania's popularity was a solid nine places lower than Michelle's.
Oprah Winfrey was the second most well-admired woman in the United States, followed by Queen Elizabeth II (apparently Americans dig the queen), former Secretary of State and previous Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, television celebrity Ellen DeGeneres, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai.
It may be interesting for some to know that White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was as well-liked as the current first lady. Both shared a 3.6 percent admiration score, according to YouGov.
The president may not be happy to hear that he didn't surpass Obama at a global level either. While Gates and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie top the international index of admiration for the YouGov poll, they are closely followed by both the Obamas. Gates' admiration score was at 9.9 percent, while Barack Obama ranked at 9.7 percent.
In the women's international index, Jolie scored an 8.2 percent ranking at the very top of the list, while Michelle was right behind her at an impressive 8 percent. The third most well-liked male figure was action movie star Jackie Chan among men and Winfrey among women. Ranking at a pretty low position at 17 was Donald Trump, while Melania didn't make it to the top 20.
However, fans of the president need not worry: Trump scored higher than Obama in Russia, according to the survey's results. While Trump lagged behind Obama in 34 countries, his admiration score was lower than Trump's in Russia. Even then, though, Obama was only one spot behind Trump. Competition, it seemed, was tough.
Methodology-wise, YouGov wrote that it began its survey in December by asking participants to nominate figures they admired. The website said it asked its participants, "Thinking about people alive in the world today, which do you most admire?" It then created two separate two lists of nominated men and women. Each list contained 20 people on both sides. YouGov fielded responses from 37,000 people from 35 countries.
The president has yet to comment on YouGov's findings, but as far as his stance on polls is concerned, it is reported that Trump cares about what these surveys say. In 2015, a source close to Trump anonymously spoke with Politico and said that polls are critical to Trump because they are similar to television ratings, which work as a "barometer for success." Last year, that point was corroborated by an anonymous adviser who spoke with the same publication and said "polls are about the base." Trump, that adviser added, "cares about the base."
