Likely U.S. voters respect former President Donald Trump much more than any other recent president or chief rival, Rasmussen Reports found.
Rasmussen asked voters, "Which one of the following people do you respect most as a leader: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or Mitt Romney?"
Trump, with 42% of the vote, blew away the rest of the field, Rasmussen Reports survey results showed.
President Joe Biden, with half the support given Trump, was second.
Biden was followed by former President Barack Obama (17%), Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (5%), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (5%), Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (3%) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2%).
Trump's dominance among respondents was boosted by 75% of Republicans identifying him as the leader they respect most.
Democrats, though, were more divided. A total of 43% said Biden is the most respected leader and 30% said Obama is the most respected.
A total of 30% of moderate voters said Trump is the most respected leader, followed by Biden and Obama, each with 23%.
Interestingly, among unaffiliated voters, Trump (39%) earned more support than that given Biden (13%) and Obama (17%) combined.
Also, more women voters said Trump (43%) was the most respected leader ahead of Obama (22%) and Biden (18%).
Men (25%) were more likely than women voters to name Biden the leader they respect the most.
Older voters showed a stronger preference for Trump, compared to younger voters, Rasmussen Reports said.
Voters under 40 were more likely to name Obama (24%) than Biden (16%) as the leader they respect the most.
Based on income categories, Biden gets the highest level of respect among voters in the highest bracket, earning more than $200,000 a year, while Trump is most respected among those with annual incomes below $100,000.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2008 Democratic Party nomination to Obama and the 2016 general election to Trump, was considered the most respected leader among the choices by only 1% of Democrats.
Rasmussen also found that more GOP voters said Haley, more than Romney, was the leader they respected most. Romney lost the 2012 election to Obama.
The latest Rasmussen Reports survey was conducted Feb. 5-7 among 749 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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