Elon Musk voted least liked public figure in new Gallup poll

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News on Aug 5, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

A Gallup poll ranking more than a dozen public figures in terms of popularity found that Elon Musk has the highest unfavorable rating while Pope Leo XIV is loved by many.

The survey was based on telephone interviews with roughly 1,000 adults between July 7 and 21, during which they were asked about 14 of the most reported-on people alive.

The first American Pope scored a 57% favorability rating to only 11% unfavorable. Nearly a third of respondents said they no opinion on the pontiff.

While Musk recoded a 33% favorability to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu‘s 29% — the lowest score in the poll — Musk’s 61% unfavorable rating topped Netanyahu’s 52% negative ranking, making the Tesla founder the least popular of anyone in the poll.

The lowest favorability rating went to U.S Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was liked by only 26% of respondents. On the bright side for the former Fox News host, only 38% of those surveyed had an unfavorable opinion of him and nearly the same number had no thoughts one way or the other.

Hegseth was one of three Trump administration members to rank among the survey’s five least-liked people. The president himself had a 41% favorable rating to a 57% unfavorable mark with 16% or respondents giving no opinion.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was liked by 31% of those asked and liked less by 47% of respondents.

Aside from the pope, only two other newsmakers had higher favorable than unfavorable ratings. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy was seen favorably by 52% of those polled and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders did well with 49% of participants. The liberal stalwart’s unfavorable rating was 34%.

Others included in the poll were Emmanuel Macron, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joe Biden, JD Vance and Gavin Newsom.