Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk are least popular, polling suggests.
1 of 9 | Data released Tuesday by the Washington-based Gallup suggested American-born Pope Leo XIV (pictured May 18 in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican) had a 57% favorability rating and 11% unfavorable in a +46 net-favorable score. File Photo by Stefano Spaziani/UPI | License Photo
A new Gallup survey shows that Pope Leo XIV is the most popular global figure among 14 names in its poll with a “strongly negative” skew for Elon Musk and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The data released Tuesday by the Washington-based firm suggested the pope had a 57% favorability rating and 11% unfavorable in a +46 net-favorable score.
“That’s unheard of in today’s political climate,” Christopher Hale, a Democratic Party figure and nonprofit leader, commented on social media.
It showed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in second at 52% favorability but far below the Roman Catholic Church leader with a 34% unfavorable rate.
Vermont’s Independent-affiliated Sen. Bernie Sanders was third at a 49% favorable viewpoint in the Gallup Poll but with a 38% negative rating, too.
“The direction of the American people’s sentiments bends towards Bernie,” Faiz Shakir, a Sanders adviser and nonprofit newsroom chief, posted Tuesday morning on X.
A large number of survey participants left no opinion of French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. AOC’s 34% favorable rating was matched with a 38% unfavorable with Macron’s own 30% favorability and downside of 31%.
Meanwhile, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sat near the middle of the survey resutls at 42% favorable, a 47% unfavorable but 3% of poll participants with no opinion of him.
At the bottom rung of the 14-name poll was ex-White House DOGE adviser Elon Musk with a 33% favorable but 61% negative unfavorable rating.
Musk was below Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at number 13 with only 29% of those in the survey having a favorable opinion of the far-right leader as the Gaza war continues with Hamas on top of a worsening humanitarian crisis among Palestinians.
The Gallup favorability rating poll indicated that newsmakers viewed more negative than positive included U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio with a -16 unfavorable rating, followed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at -12%.
But tied at an 11% unfavorably were rumored Democratic presidential candidate and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Vice President JD Vance and ex-U.S. President Joe Biden.
Media figure Bill Kristol, director of Defending Democracy Together, suggested the survey means Americans “haven’t entirely lost our minds.”
