Pope Leo XIV owns the highest favorability rating among 14 world newsmakers, recording a +46 net-favorable score, according to a new Gallup poll released Tuesday.
Pope Leo's 57% favorable rating against an 11% unfavorable made him the No. 1 newsmaker on the list, far ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (+18 net favorable) and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. (+11), according to Gallup. The three registered the only positive net-favorable marks on the list.
Pope Leo's +46 net favorable is on par with the first Gallup rating of the past two popes, Francis in 2013 (+48 net favorable) and Benedict in 2005 (+43). Pope Leo breaks from his predecessors in that he scored better with liberals vs. conservatives (65% vs. 46%), whereas Popes Francis and Benedict scored better with conservatives than liberals in their inaugural rating, according to Gallup.
"Pope Leo has broad appeal in the U.S., setting him apart from public figures with clear party associations, whose images are often highly polarized," Gallup said in its analysis. "Although liked by all party groups, he gets better ratings from Democrats and liberals than Republicans and conservatives. Given the similarity to Francis' image in his later years, this could indicate that Americans perceive Leo to be continuing Francis' approach to religious and social questions, or that they are assuming that's the case until shown otherwise."
Favorable ratings for President Donald Trump and several of his current and former administration officials plummeted since January's survey.
Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. all saw 13- to 14-point drops in their net favorability from January, according to the survey. All three have a negative net favorability rating in this report.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio suffered a 24-point decline since January, going from +8 to -16. Former White House senior adviser and billionaire Elon Musk also sustained a 24-point drop in net favorability from January. Musk's -28 net rating in this report ranks him last among the 14 newsmakers, according to the survey.
"The dampened favorable ratings of key Trump administration officials since January are broadly consistent with the decline in Trump's job approval rating over the same period, down 10 percentage points," Gallup wrote. However, one expert told Newsmax last month that Gallup's results were an outlier among other polls given how they conducted their survey.
Gallup surveyed 1,002 adults from July 7-21. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 points with a 95% confidence level.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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