President Obama Beats Out Donald Trump as 'Most Admired Man' of 2016

President Obama was selected by 22 percent of respondents as the man most admired by Americans in 2016, a full 7 points ahead of the President-elect Donald Trump's standing at 15 percent, according to a poll released by Gallup Wednesday. This was Obama's ninth consecutive win.

Both of these numbers show improvement over the previous year's findings, when Trump won 5 percent and Obama won 17 percent. Obama's peak was 30 percent in 2012.

Interestingly, the only year before 2015 that Trump registered on the survey at all — the year he began his presidential campaign — was 2011 (with 1 percent of the vote), the year he made headlines for extensively questioning Obama's birthplace.

Despite her stunning electoral defeat in November, Hillary Clinton topped the list of admirable women in the country. She got 12 percent support, with Michelle Obama closely behind at 8 percent. This is the 21st year Clinton topped the list; her first was 1993, when she became first lady.

Other notable figures earning support were Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders, Angela Merkel and Oprah Winfrey, though none of these got above 4 percent. About 9 percent of respondents chose a friend or relative for their most admired man, and about 12 percent made a similar choice for most admired woman.

Obama recently rankled the president-elect when he said in an interview, "If I had run again and articulated [my vision], I think I could've mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it."

Trump did not take kindly to the suggestion that he might have lost to an incumbent president were term limits not an issue.

"President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me," Trump said in a tweet. "He should say that but I say NO WAY! - jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc."

Obama's presently high approval ratings — up to 56 percent in Gallup's most recent measure — are something of a puzzle in combination with Trump's low favorability ratings, given the election results. These figures suggest that Trump's win was due to particular features of the campaign itself, rather than broader trends in the country.

See the full results of the recent Gallup poll>>

Photo credit: Jesusemen Oni / VOA