For decades it was part of my New Year’s tradition to google Gallup’s most admired poll to see who the most admired man and women of the previous year was. You see, virtually every December since 1948, Gallup had been asking a representative sample of American adults to name (without prompting) the LIVING man and woman in the entire World they admired most (prior to 1948 they just asked the most admired person). Then without warning, the poll seems to have suddenly ended in 2020 (because Donald Trump dethroned Obama as the most admired man?). What a shame to end a 72 year tradition over petty politics, so with the help of survey monkey, I took over the poll myself on representative samples of Americans at the end of both 2023 and 2024.

Despite some media describing Barack Obama as the biggest loser of 2024 (given the defeat of the Democratic party and the backlash he endured from black men on social media) he towered as the most admired man in the entire World with an astonishing 17% of Americans naming him their most or second most admired living man. Obama was more admired than President-elect Trump (8%) and Elon Musk (7%) combined which is both a testament to Obama’s God-like status, and to the fact Musk has effectively seized half of what would normally be the President-elect’s support. They’re not calling him “President Musk” for nothing.

Despite this, Trump still enjoyed twice as much support as sitting President Joe Biden (4%), perhaps the only sitting President in the history of the poll to never be the most admired man or the most admired self-made man.

On the female side of the poll there is no clear winner, with both Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama tied with 11% of Americans naming either as their most (or second most) admired woman. But Harris can outright claim to be the most admired self-made woman since unlike the First Ladies who typically top the female side of the poll, she is admired in her own right, instead of standing in the light of her husband.

Most admired man (Dec 2024)	Most admired man (Dec 2023)	Most admired woman (Dec 2024)	Most admired woman (Dec 2023)
Barack Obama 17% (self-made)	Barack Obama 14% (self-made)	Kamala Harris 11% (self-made) Michelle Obama 11%	Michelle Obama 12%
Donald Trump 8%	Donald Trump 9%	Oprah Winfrey 5% (self-made) Hillary Clinton 5%	Oprah Winfrey 7% (self-made)
Elon Musk 7% (self-made)	Elon Musk 5% (self-made)	Malala Yousafzai 3% (self-made) Catherine, Princess of Wales 3% Dolly Parton 3% (self-made)	Hillary Clinton 3% Kamala Harris 3% (self-made) Dolly Parton 3% (self-made) Jill Biden 3%
Pope Francis 4% (self-made) Joe Biden 4% (self-made)	Jimmy Carter 4% (self-made) Keanu Reeves 4% (self-made)	Brett Cooper 2% (self-made) Melinda Gates 2% Gisèle Pelicot 2% (self-made)	Mary J. Blige 2% (self-made) Candace Cameron Bure 2% (self-made) Selena Gomez 2% (self-made) Alicia Keys 2% (self-made) Candace Owens 2% (self-made)
Volodymyr Zelenskyy 2% (self-made) Bernie Sanders 2% (self-made) Warren Buffet 2% (self-made) Bill Gates 2% (self-made)	Joe Biden 3% (self-made)
	Jeff Bezos 2% (self-made) Jackie Chan 2%(self-made) Bill Gates 2% (self-made) Gavin Newsom 2% (self-made) Arnold Schwarzenegger 2% (self-made) Sylvester Stallone 2% (self-made) Bernie Sanders 2% (self-made)

With Presidents and first ladies dominating the poll, it seems to be a good measure of what most people consider “power” in the conventional sense, and indeed in a putative democracy like the United States, the most popular, should be the most powerful. But the winners of this poll are not merely popular (and in some cases actually have low approval ratings) but rather they are the most worshiped (admired more than virtually any human on Earth) by what was until recently, the World’s sole super power, and thus these people are essentially Gods. Especially the “self-made” ones, because God, by definition, would be the only thing that literally made itself.

So let’s take a look back at the most worshiped men and women each year, within the World’s top super-power; arguably the most powerful man and woman each year (self-made and legacy). Note that all the polling was done by Gallup except for 2023 and 2024 when I rescued the abandoned poll via survey monkey. For every year self-made status was decided by me.

The most striking thing I notice about the poll results below is how consistently white the poll winners were before the 21st century. Despite being over 12% of America, it was simply unthinkable that a black could be the most worshipped man or woman (self-made or legacy) in a country as powerful as America. Then in 1997, Oprah shattered the color barrier in the self-made woman category, followed several years later by Colin Powell in the self-made man category. However Powell like Barack Obama are at least half-Caucasoid. Sadly, there’s no evidence that ANY true black in World history has ever been the most worshiped man or self-made man within the most powerful nation of any time. Only among the less powerful sex have the truly black (Oprah, Michelle Obama) been able to recently attain God status.

*Note the female half of the poll was not given in 1967, and the entire poll was not given in 1975 & 1976.

*Note 2020 was the last year Gallup conducted the poll but I resurrected it in 2023 via survey monkey.