Obama Named Most Admired U.S. President in New CNN/SSRS Poll, Outpacing Trump

WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama has emerged as the most admired U.S. president among Americans in a new CNN/SSRS survey, leading current President Donald Trump by 11 percentage points in an open-ended question about which president respondents admire most.

The finding gives Obama a notable measure of public support nearly a decade after he left the White House, while also highlighting the deep partisan divide surrounding both men.

According to the poll, 30% of U.S. adults named Obama as the president they admire most, compared with 19% who chose Trump. Former presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan each received 9%.

The graphic provided for this story summarizes that finding, stating that Obama was named the most admired U.S. president in a CNN/SSRS survey.

Obama leads Trump among Americans overall

The poll also found a substantial difference in how Americans view the two former and current presidents.

Obama had a 57% favorable rating, compared with 34% for Trump and 30% for former President Joe Biden, according to CNN's analysis of the survey. Obama was particularly strong among independents, where his favorable rating was more than twice as high as those of Trump or Biden.

Obama's support is also strongly concentrated among Democrats. About 64% of Democratic respondents said Obama was the president they admired most.

Trump, however, remained overwhelmingly dominant within his own party.

Among Republican respondents, 53% named Trump as the president they admire most, compared with 18% for Reagan and 8% for Lincoln.

That means the overall result should not be interpreted as Obama defeating Trump across every political group. Rather, it reflects a significant difference between the broader electorate and the Republican base.

The question was open-ended

An important detail is the wording of the survey.

CNN/SSRS asked respondents, in an open-ended format, which president they most admire, rather than presenting them with a list of candidates and asking them to choose one.

That distinction matters because the result measures which presidential figure comes to mind most positively for respondents rather than providing a conventional head-to-head approval rating.

Obama received 30% of responses nationwide, while Trump received 19%. Lincoln and Reagan followed at 9% each.

Nearly 10% of respondents either said they did not admire any president or did not offer an opinion.

A different picture inside the Republican Party

The Republican results tell a very different story.

Trump's 53% share among Republicans was nearly three times Reagan's 18% and more than six times Lincoln's 8%.

The numbers underscore how strongly Trump's political identity has become associated with today's Republican Party. At the same time, Reagan remains an important historical figure for conservatives, while Lincoln retains a unique place in American political history.

Obama's support among Republicans was much smaller, although his overall favorability was not entirely confined to Democrats. CNN reported that 19% of Republicans held a favorable view of Obama, a considerably higher figure than the share of Democrats who viewed Trump favorably.

Obama's post-presidential popularity

The survey comes as Obama opens his presidential center and remains an unusually prominent figure in American public life.

CNN described Obama as the most popular living U.S. president in its latest survey, with his 57% favorable rating substantially above those of Trump and Biden.

The result is also notable because former presidents do not normally dominate “most admired” polling once they have been out of office for many years.

Historical Gallup polling has shown Obama previously performing strongly in similar questions. In 2020, for example, Donald Trump narrowly surpassed Obama in Gallup's “most admired man” survey, ending Obama's 12-year run at the top.

What the viral graphic gets right — and what it leaves out

The graphic's central claim is substantially accurate, but it simplifies the underlying poll.

What it gets right:

• Obama was the leading choice when Americans were asked which president they admired most.
• He received 30%, compared with 19% for Trump.
• The survey was conducted by CNN/SSRS.
• The poll included 2,480 U.S. adults and was conducted from May 7 through May 31, 2026.

What it leaves out:

• Trump was the clear winner among Republicans, with 53%.
• Obama led the overall measure because of much stronger support among Democrats and independents.
• The question was open-ended, rather than a direct Obama-versus-Trump matchup.
• The survey measured admiration for presidents, not presidential job approval or a hypothetical election.

The poll had a margin of sampling error of ±2.7 percentage points for the full sample.

Bottom line

The new CNN/SSRS survey provides a snapshot of an American electorate still deeply divided along partisan lines.

Obama leads when Americans overall are asked which president they admire most, 30% to Trump's 19%. But Trump's dominance among Republicans shows that the national result masks two very different political realities.

The findings also suggest that Obama's public standing remains unusually resilient nearly a decade after leaving the White House, while Trump continues to command exceptional loyalty among his Republican base.

Rather than demonstrating that Americans have reached a consensus about the two presidents, the poll illustrates just how differently Democrats, Republicans and independents continue to view the country's recent political history.