Gallup: Barack Obama is still America’s most admired man; Donald Trump isn’t even close

| 1:54 pm EST December 28, 2016
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

With the year 2016 about to end, Gallup has formalized its standings for the most admired man in America. And if Donald Trump seems more pissy than usual on his infamous Twitter account today, it may because he lost badly to guy he seems to hate the most of all. Gallup says outgoing President Barack Obama is the most admired man in the nation, and as it turns out, Trump didn’t even come close to competing with him for the title.

Barack Obama finished first in Gallup’s 2016 list of the most admired men in America, after being picked by twenty-two percent of Americans surveyed. Donald Trump came in a distant second with just fifteen percent. That means nearly three people picked Obama for every two who picked Trump. In contrast, when Obama was the president-elect in 2008, he won the “most admired” title over then-president George W Bush. So Obama is winning coming and going, a testament to his initial and enduring popularity. It may explain why Trump put out an angry tweet today which was inflammatory even his standards, bitterly accusing Obama of having put up “roadblocks” to sabotage him out of the gate.

None of the above should come as a surprise, however. Donald Trump approval rating is one of the lowest of any “president-elect” ever, since such things first began being tracked. Equally galling for Trump: his 2016 election opponent, Hillary Clinton ha just been named America’s most admired woman for the fifteenth year in a row. Perhaps that explains why Hillary beat Trump by nearly three million votes in the popular vote.