Trump Now Leads Republican President Rankings

Republicans now admire Donald Trump more than Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln combined, according to new polling that shows just how much the party’s identity has shifted toward its current leader.

Story Snapshot

A CNN/SSRS poll released June 18, 2026, found 53% of Republicans name Trump as the president they admire most.
Reagan came in a distant second at 18%, with Lincoln trailing at just 8% among Republicans.
Among all U.S. adults, Barack Obama led the pack at 30%, with Trump at 19%.
Separate YouGov surveys have shown similar patterns, though Reagan still wins some head-to-head matchups.

Republicans Rank Trump Far Above Party Icons

The CNN/SSRS survey asked Americans an open-ended question: which president do you admire most? Among Republicans, 53% named Trump, more than six times the share who picked Lincoln. Reagan, long treated as the gold standard for conservative leadership, drew only 18% support. The gap shows how firmly today’s GOP has built its identity around Trump rather than past party heroes.

CNN’s chief data analyst, Harry Enten, highlighted the finding on air, calling it proof that Trump is “far more admired” by his own party than the men many once considered untouchable figures in Republican history. Other outlets picked up the same numbers within days, and Trump himself shared the results on social media, framing them as validation of his standing inside the party.

Full Country Tells a Different Story

Zoom out to all U.S. adults, and the picture changes. Obama topped the list at 30%, with Trump at 19%, Lincoln and Reagan tied at 9%, John F. Kennedy at 6%, and George Washington at 5%. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats, 64%, named Obama as their most admired president, showing how sharply the two parties’ loyalties have split along partisan lines.

The contrast matters because it shows Trump’s dominance is a party phenomenon, not a national one. His overall approval has also lagged behind his standing within his own base, a gap other recent polling has tracked closely as his second term has progressed. That split between deep loyalty from Republicans and weaker numbers nationwide has defined much of his time back in office.

A Pattern That Predates This Poll

This is not the first time surveys have found Republicans rating Trump above Lincoln. A 2019 Economist/YouGov poll found 53% of Republicans called Trump a better president than Lincoln, a result Trump seized on at the time. Similar YouGov surveys have found Trump beating Lincoln in head-to-head matchups while still trailing Reagan when respondents pick from a longer list of past presidents.

That inconsistency suggests the ranking depends partly on how the question is worded. Asked to name one admired president outright, Trump wins big among Republicans. Asked to rate every past president on a scale, Reagan and even Washington sometimes edge him out. Pew Research found in 2023 that Republicans were still split between Reagan and Trump as the party’s best recent leader.

What the Shift Signals for the Party

The numbers reflect a broader trend where Republican identity has increasingly centered on Trump as a person rather than on traditional party figures or ideas. For Trump and his allies, the finding reinforces his claim to be the defining figure of the modern GOP, a message useful for fundraising and party discipline.

Trump says voters blame GOP as his favorability hits second-term low.

"They're not angry at me but they are angry at Republicans"😂

MS NOW's @MSNOWNews Jackie Alemany shares Trump's latest polling results ⬇️, which show that his favorability among…
https://t.co/a3Owcj63sF

— CLH (@CLH111354) August 27, 2026

For Americans watching from outside the Republican base, the poll is a reminder of how differently the two parties now see the same history. Democrats rally around Obama with similar intensity, while Reagan and Lincoln, once shared national symbols, now register as secondary figures within their own party’s rankings. That divide over admired leaders mirrors the deeper split over the direction of the country itself.