The most influential man in the US revealed: Trump’s reaction as DailyMail+ unveils the America 250 Power List ranking… that gives major clue about our NEXT president

Ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday on July 4, DailyMail+ today reveals America’s biggest power players.

Based on exclusive surveys, our America 250 Power List ranks the men and women who people truly believe have the most influence.

Once a week we will focus on a separate group in public life. These will include America’s most powerful political commentators, morning show stars, couples, influencers and more.

We’ll also highlight those quietly shaping Washington behind the scenes ahead of the 2026 World Cup, the real forces in the Nashville country music scene, the best-dressed Americans and the biggest names in football.

Today we start with our ranking of America’s most powerful men, and we’re in for some stunning surprises.

The list includes lawmakers, tech giants, Wall Street wizards and corporate tycoons.

Interestingly, in second place is a man who mostly retired from public life a decade ago.

The results also paint a bleak picture for Democrats; The octogenarian is the top seed of the lot and only comes in ninth place.

There’s an early glimpse of the path to 2028, with two potential Republican challengers going neck and neck.

Several trends are emerging, including how the guardians of the AI ​​revolution are increasing their power and the increasingly influential role of the Supreme Court.

According to a survey conducted by JL Partners, Donald Trump is the most powerful and influential man in America.

Reacting to the news in an exclusive phone conversation with the Daily Mail, the President said it was a “huge honour” and “very nice” to be at the top of the list.

‘Yes, it’s a great honour,’ he told us.

‘The Daily Mail is sometimes wonderful, often a great honour. That’s very nice, thank you.’

Meanwhile, in a conspicuous setback for Democrats, wide-ranging voter polling has revealed a distinct absence of political rivals to Trump.

His closest rival was not a current Democratic politician. Instead, it was Barack ObamaHe has not been in office since January 2017.

The next strongest Democrat, in ninth place, was 84-year-old progressive firebrand Bernie Sanders.

While America is on the verge of the artificial intelligence revolution, technology giants Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were in the top five of the list, after Trump and Obama.

Our Power List also found that no member of Trump’s cabinet made the top five.

And all the Cabinet secretaries were less powerful than Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is at loggerheads with Trump and came in sixth place.

As speculation grows about the Republican 2028 presidential candidacy (Trump is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term), Vice President J.D. Vance took issue with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They ranked seventh and eighth respectively on the Power List.

“The most likely outcome right now is a Vance-Rubio ticket,” a Washington insider told the Daily Mail. ‘This is what people are talking about. Now, if things really go wrong for Trump, I think Rubio will have to defend, even though he’s weakening that case with all these battles.

But he will have a case to make to prove that he is the more reasonable and therefore more electable choice, and Vance will be seen as a pale shadow of Trump.

‘(But) I don’t think they will leave easily because they need everyone to march at the same time to win. Vance and Rubio were actually in close contact, and so were their key people.’

Obama’s second-place finish shows that many Americans continue to see him as a great president, said presidential historian Robert Watson, a professor of American history at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘Some presidents remain powerful years after their presidency; This is not a ‘power’ per se, but rather an ‘influential’ situation.

‘Washington, Lincoln and FDR, for example, cast a shadow over the presidency and their successors for years. Their impressive presidency and leadership impacted America for years to come.

‘Think, for example, of FDR’s New Deal or LBJ’s Great Society. Both have profoundly affected Americans for decades. Or consider Washington, which has created enduring precedents for the office.’

Bernie Sanders came close to winning the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020.

His rise to the top of the Power List will likely be seen as an indication of a leftward move in the Democratic Party ahead of midterm elections in November.

Sanders edged out Pennsylvania’s more centrist Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, who came in 13th, and California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who came in 14th.

This would be a blow for Newsom, who is a frontrunner in the race for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth, who led the war against Iran, became the most powerful member of the Cabinet after Vance and Rubio in the 15th.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was the 16th most powerful man in America.

And JPMorgan Chase’s chairman, Jamie Dimon, was Wall Street’s highest ranked figure at No. 21.

Dimon, a widely trusted voice on economics, recently issued a stark warning that the Iran war could fuel inflation (what he calls “the stink of the party”), raise the cost of living and force interest rates higher.

No member of Trump’s Cabinet made the top five, but Vice President JD Vance (left) came in 7th, Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C) came in 8th, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (right) came in 15th.

Former President Barack Obama is still the second most influential man in America, according to the Mail+ Power List.

Meanwhile, MAGA figures Donald Trump Jr and Steve Bannon ranked 28th and 33rd, respectively.

The Power List was compiled by JL Partners, which polled 1,017 registered voters between March 25 and March 27.

One of the most striking features was that there were three technology leaders in the top five.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, also rose to 19th place.

Tesla boss Musk, Amazon founder Bezos and Facebook chief Zuckerberg took positions of honor at Trump’s inauguration.

They would be “a big part of where the president goes in his second term,” one official said at the time.

Technology giants Mark Zuckeberg (L), Jeff Bezos (C) and Elon Musk (R) were in the top five

84-year-old Senator Bernie Sanders came in as a surprise 9th place on the Power List, showing that his influence on the Democratic Party continues.

The net worth of Musk, the richest person in the world, increased by $16 billion this year to $636 billion.

He owns 15 percent of Tesla and 45 percent of SpaceX, which could go public this year, which would further increase his wealth.

The power of tech giants may be growing, but Sanders wants to limit it.

He is boosting his campaign for a five percent wealth tax on America’s 938 billionaires, who he claims were $1.5 trillion richer last year because of Trump’s tax cuts.

“We have a completely fraudulent tax code,” he wrote recently. ‘Why, in a country with such extraordinary wealth, advancing technology and vastly increasing worker productivity, are so many people struggling to survive?’

Meanwhile, Chief Justice Roberts’ position near the top of the Power List comes despite his determination to keep a low profile.

Roberts has described his role as a neutral umpire who ‘calls balls and strikes,’ but he is increasingly calling those strikes against Trump.

In February, he wrote the Supreme Court’s majority opinion rejecting Trump’s global tariff policy.

Trump later called the judges who opposed his tariffs “disloyal” and “unpatriotic” and claimed the decision was “not written by smart people.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, who has publicly disagreed with President Trump, scores high on Power List

Is there work to be done? California governor Gavin Newsom, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2028, ranked only 14th.

He wrote in Truth Social that the Supreme Court ‘is little more than a weaponized and unjust Political Organization’ and that its members ‘are damaging our Country.’

In rare public comments, Roberts responded: ‘Personally directed hostility is dangerous and must end.’

In April, Trump personally attended a Supreme Court hearing in a case in which his administration sought to end birthright citizenship.

Roberts appeared skeptical and told US Attorney General John Sauer that the White House’s claim was ‘interesting’.

Roberts made a notable criticism when Sauer suggested that ‘eight billion people are one plane ride away from having a US citizen child’.

‘This is a new world,’ he said. ‘But it’s the same Constitution.’