Sean Salai | August 6, 2025
(The Washington Times) — Pope Leo XIV has the highest favorability rating among 14 world leaders, according to Gallup polling that finds the first American pope enjoying rare bipartisan support in his homeland.
The company reported Tuesday that 57% of U.S. adults responding to a recent survey expressed a favorable view of the new Roman Catholic leader, 11% gave him an unfavorable rating and 31% had no opinion.
The resulting +46 net favorability rating placed the 69-year-old Leo, who was born in Chicago as Robert Prevost and ascended to the papacy in May, well ahead of other public figures.
“Pope Leo has broad appeal in the U.S., setting him apart from public figures with clear party associations, whose images are often highly polarized,” Lydia Saad, Gallup’s director of social research, wrote in a summary of the findings.
The only other newsmakers to receive a net-positive rating were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent. Survey respondents gave them net favorability ratings of +18 and +11, respectively.
On the negative side, Gallup has tracked slipping favorability ratings for President Trump and his GOP team since they took office in January, with the latest poll finding them as unpopular as prominent Democrats.
The latest survey found net unfavorable ratings for former President Joseph R. Biden (-11), Vice President J.D. Vance (-11), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (-11), Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (-12), Mr. Trump (-16) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (-16).
This is the first time Gallup has included Pope Leo in the survey. Ms. Saad noted that his rating closely mirrored what Pope Benedict XVI got in 2005 and Pope Francis in 2013 after their elections.
Although those two popes received higher ratings from Republicans in their first Gallup surveys, Tuesday’s poll found Leo better liked among Democrats.
That likely reflects a rift that emerged between American conservatives and Francis, who adopted a pro-immigration stance and softened church rules on communion for divorced Catholics living in civil unions.
“Given the similarity to Francis’ image in his later years, this could indicate that Americans perceive Leo to be continuing Francis’ approach to religious and social questions, or that they are assuming that’s the case until shown otherwise,” Ms. Saad said.
Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 1,002 adults from July 7-21. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
