Some newsmakers inspire warm, fuzzy feelings in the hearts of Americans. Others elicit frostier thoughts.
Recently, Gallup polled 1,002 Americans aged 18 and older from all 50 states and the District of Columbia to find out how they feel about 14 prominent global newsmakers.
Gallup used those opinions to rank newsmakers by net favorability. That’s the share of survey respondents with a “favorable” opinion of a newsmaker minus the share with an “unfavorable” opinion.
For example, in this poll, 57% of respondents said they had a favorable opinion of the pope, and 11% said unfavorable. There’s a 46-percentage-point difference between those two segments, giving the pope a net-favorable rating of 46 percentage points.
Pope Leo XIV is far and away the most admired of the newsmakers ranked. In fact, he is the only figure viewed more favorably than unfavorably by all three U.S. political groups — Democrats, Republicans and independents.
Pope Leo’s high ranking should not come as a surprise, as the two pontiffs who preceded him — Pope Francis and Pope Benedict — also earned similarly high rankings shortly after they were elected pope.
The pope is one of only three newsmakers with positive net favorability:
- Pope Leo XIV: net-favorable rating of 46 points (57% favorable, 11% unfavorable)
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy (president of Ukraine): 18 points (52% favorable, 34% unfavorable)
- Bernie Sanders (U.S. senator from Vermont): 11 points (49% favorable, 38% unfavorable)
The remaining 11 figures in the survey received negative ratings, with more Americans viewing them unfavorably than favorably.
Billionaire Elon Musk received the worst marks in the survey. Others who get low marks from Americans include both Republican and Democratic politicians, as well as the leaders of nations overseas.
The eight figures who earned the worst ratings are:
- Elon Musk (business leader and billionaire): net-favorable rating of -48 points (33% favorable, 61% unfavorable)
- Benjamin Netanyahu (prime minister of Israel): -23 points (29% favorable, 52% unfavorable)
- Marco Rubio (U.S. secretary of state): -16 points (31% favorable, 47% unfavorable)
- Donald Trump (president of the United States): -16 points (41% favorable, 57% unfavorable)
- Pete Hegseth (U.S. secretary of defense): -12 points (26% favorable, 38% unfavorable)
- Gavin Newsom (governor of California): -11 points (30% favorable, 41% unfavorable)
- JD Vance (vice president of the United States): -11 points (38% favorable, 49% unfavorable)
- Joe Biden (former president of the United States): -11 points (43% favorable, 54% unfavorable)
Back in January, Musk’s ratings were much higher, but his unfavorable rating remained the higher of the two — 43% favorable and 47% unfavorable.
The billionaire has courted controversy in a couple of ways. For one, he was the head of Trump’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency before stepping down. Subsequently, he became embroiled in a war of words with Trump.
The newsmakers who are viewed slightly more unfavorably than favorably include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. secretary of health and human services (-5 points), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, U.S. representative from New York (-4 points) and Emmanuel Macron, president of France (-1 point).
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