Politix

Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama are equally admired in the eyes of the world ... according to a recent poll that has a lot of people upset for different reasons.

2019 marks Obama's 12th time in the top spot of Gallup's annual men's poll, and he's got some company this year ... Donald Trump is making his first appearance. Michelle Obama is the most admired woman for the second year in a row.

No surprise ... the results are divided sharply along party lines ... 41% of Democrats name Obama and 45% of Republicans name Trump. According to Gallup, 12% of Independents chose Obama and 10% picked Trump.

As for the rest of the list ... no other man was mentioned by more than 2% of respondents. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 ... President Jimmy Carter, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders, Adam Schiff, the Dalai Lama and Warren Buffett.

You'd think Rudy Giuliani would wanna be as far away from anything Ukrainian right now, but even amid Trump's impeachment ... he's coyzing up with one and talking business.

The President's personal lawyer was spotted Sunday at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, where eyewitnesses saw him chatting it up with a couple dudes in suits who appeared to be pitching him on something, seemingly related to shipping, transportation and logistics.

Rudy and a woman he was with were flipping through literature pertaining to CDL 1000 -- a Chicago-based company that specializes in freight transport and tracking technology.

No biggie, right? Of course not, except for the fact that at one point in the presentation, Rudy was shown a slide that clearly read "Disrupt Global Trading." Nothing fishy about that!

What makes the meeting all the more intriguing is that the guy showing him this stuff comes from Ukrainian heritage himself. His name's Andrew Sobko, and he's the CEO of CDL 1000 -- he's also the son of a former Ukrainian boxing champ ... per past interviews he's done.

We called up Andrew and he said he was simply seeking Mr. Giuliani's legal advice on a business matter. However, it's also no secret Rudy's been traveling to Kyiv recently to drum up intel he hopes will clear his boss's name ahead of a looming impeachment trial.

As all the holiday food comes your way over these next couple weeks, feast your eyes on what presidential candidates (past and present) chose to eat on the campaign trail.

Everyone enjoys themselves a corn dog, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Rick Perry. But, don't forget about the turkey leg -- a holiday classic -- which is right up Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang's alley. Can you tell? Looks like they couldn't get a big enough bite.

Of course, pork chops was another favorite of candidates over the past few years. Folks like Kamala Harris, John Delaney and others made sure to get in some big bites when they could.

Barack Obama just announced his favorite movies of the year, and it looks like he's a mild fan of the studio he and his wife have partnered with to make cinematic magic.

The former Prez released a list of his top movies of 2019, and they include a ton of indie flicks ... most of which were not produced or distributed by Netflix. That's not to say the company was excluded completely -- four of their movies made it in, including his own.

Of the Netflix titles that were mentioned ... "Marriage Story," "The Irishman," "Atlantics" and the mister and missus's High Ground Productions documentary, "American Factory."

It's one of the first projects Barack and Michelle have produced under their recently announced multi-year deal with Netflix, and it's already gotten tons of praise. The doc's about a shuttered GM plant in Ohio that gets resurrected by a Chinese company, which integrates their own factory workers with Americans in what proves to be a culture clash.

Interestingly, there's more independent movies released under different studios Obama seems to have liked more this year ... like "The Farewell," "The Souvenir," "Ford v Ferrari," "Just Mercy," "'Little Women," "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," "Birds of Passage" and others.

He also released some TV shows he was into, and Netflix made the cut there as well with "Unbelievable." From a bird's-eye view, it looks like 44's got pretty sophisticated taste.

President Trump has been 86'd from 'Home Alone 2' by Canadian TV ... but the reason the network is giving for the omission is ... well, sketchy.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation removed Trump's cameo in the classic Christmas movie. The CBC claims it cut out the 10-second cameo in order to make room for commercials. We're not buyin' what they're sellin'. Trump has famously disrespected our neighbors to the north ... from the Canadian PM on down.

Hawk-eyed viewers first noticed that the scene -- which shows Trump giving Macaulay Culkin directions in the then-Trump-owned Plaza Hotel -- was nowhere to be seen and they immediately took to social media -- some voicing approval while others were irate. Someone tweeted, "Just watched 'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York' recorded of @CBC and they edited out the @realDonaldTrump scene. God bless us EVERYONE!"

Others called the move "Orwellian." Either way ... Trump's probably not gonna like the move, especially given what he said Tuesday during a call with overseas troops. The Prez bragged about his cameo saying, "Well, I'm in 'Home Alone 2' and a lot of people mention it every year, especially around Christmas."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is playing the waiting game in 2 venues ... Washington D.C., where he and his colleagues are waiting for the Articles of Impeachment, and Miami Beach, where he's waiting for a bike helmet.

One of our producers ran into the Senator from New York Thursday at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel, where Schumer planned to jump on a bike and enjoy the 70+ degree weather. The concierge must have been busy, because Chuck waited and waited.

He told our producer he's certain Trump will lose the election, and certainly intimated that 2020 will be a make-or-break time for the United States of America.

It's interesting ... by saying Trump will lose, he seems to be conceding what has become pretty obvious ... that the President will not be removed from office by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Adam Carolla resents people telling him what to think and how he should speak his mind, so speak his mind he did on "TMZ Live."

Adam's got a new movie out -- "No Safe Spaces" -- which deals with the intolerance in America and the cancel culture which he says is out of control.

Adam thinks we've gotten soft because we coddle everyone who feels aggrieved. He's especially critical of what goes on on college campuses, where students have a super strong sense of entitlement.

Ryan Phillippe and a bevy of other high-profile stars are catching tons of flak for promoting a Saudi Arabia event -- but Ryan is digging his heels in and going to bat for the nation.

Here's the deal ... Ryan and a bunch of other stars like Sofia Richie, Armie Hammer, Irina Shayk, Scott Disick and other models and influences all went to this music festival called MDL BEAST in SA over the weekend, and they all seemed down to plug the hell out of it.

Ryan was in a festive spirit, as he rocked traditional Saudi headgear and face paint. While he called it a "cultural exchange," others found it offensive ... for more reasons than one.

The "Cruel Intentions" star's Instagram comments got flooded with people shaming him for promoting a country that's known for their human rights violations -- especially against women and the LGBTQ community, not to mention journalists they don't like.

Ryan didn't seem to care much about all that though -- he fired back early and often.

He responded to several of the comments -- and his message was basically this ... the country's changing, bro! He doubled down in his support of Saudi Arabia, saying he'd feel good about bringing any woman who was important to him for a visit.

On the other side of things, Sofia also caught tons of backlash for what many deemed tone-deaf posts, including one of her and two other ladies, which she captioned as "Saudi girls." The caption has since been deleted, but Sofia was all over the place touting SA and MDL BEAST.

Ditto for Armie, who likened the event to "Woodstock in the 1960's" and going on to say that he felt things were progressing and moving forward there. Similar messages from most everyone else too, BTW ... who all probably got paid a pretty penny to do this.

Emily Ratajkowski sounded off on the issue, saying she actually turned down payment because she felt the country's practices don't line up with her principles.

Pete Buttigieg was able to get at least one new Hollywood A-lister to endorse his bid for the presidency -- but his opponent, Bernie Sanders, has him beat in that department.

Kevin Costner showed up to a modest-sized town hall Sunday in Indianola, Iowa and publicly backed the Southbend mayor for Prez ... reportedly telling the crowd of about 1,200 that he didn't wanna tell them who to vote for, but was simply sharing who he supported.

Of course, that's PB. Kevin went on to tout Pete's steady hand among the Democratic contenders, calling him a man of "this moment" and someone who could right the ship.

Kevin then introduced Pete and embraced him in a hug. Pretty cool moment ... but it kinda pales in comparison to the VIP treatment Bernie was met with in L.A. the day before.

Wayne Brady is roasting Sarah Huckabee Sanders for making fun of Joe Biden with a stuttering joke ... calling it alarming, offensive, misinformed and ... not even funny.

We got Wayne -- who has a stutter you might not know about -- at UCB Theatre in L.A. to get his reaction to Sarah's hurtful words ... and he doesn't hold back.

Wayne says Sarah needs to shut the hell up because she has no clue how daunting a stutter can be for people who deal with speech impediments every single day ... and thinks it's disgusting she would even make a crack about it.

As you know, Sarah tried poking fun at Biden after the most recent Democratic debate, when he relayed a story about stuttering young people coming up to him and asking his advice on dealing with a stutter.

Sarah tweeted, "I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I hhave absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about" ... then quickly deleted it after she started catching tons of backlash, including from Joe himself, who pointed out how he's worked his entire life overcoming his stutter.

SHS apologized, saying she didn't know Biden had struggled with stuttering.

Anyway ... Wayne says her apology doesn't mean squat, because even if Biden didn't have a stutter, there are still plenty of people who must cope with the condition and all the difficulties it presents, so best not to go there in the first place.

Pete Buttigieg isn't apologizing for raising some serious cash at a wine cave fundraiser, despite criticism from his Democrat opponents ... because he says it's vital in the fight against Donald Trump.

Mayor Pete appeared on "TMZ Live" Friday and noted the Prez and his allies have already raised hundreds of millions of dollars and in order to keep pace for the 2020 push ... so he's not going to turn down money from ultra-rich donors. Besides ... the max the donors can fork over is $2,800.

Buttigieg says he's proud more than 700,000 people have donated to his campaign, and with big-money donations included ... the average contribution is around 30 bucks.

As for the now-famous wine cave -- which is actually more of a fancy basement -- Buttigieg says it's as remarkable as advertised ... and he's happy to have the support of the billionaires who own it. BTW, many Democrats before him have felt the same.

Andrew Yang's done his research, and knows there's no way to completely stop foreign interference in elections, but says there's still a right way to respond ... and President Trump ain't cutting it.

In the wake of a strong showing in the latest Democratic Presidential debate ... Yang joined us Friday on "TMZ Live" to tell voters why he'll get tough with Vladimir Putin and any other foreign leader who tries to screw with our elections.

Yang said he views Russia's meddling in the 2016 election as an act of hostility and aggression, one he wouldn't take lightly if he's in the Oval.

He's already thinking about who he'll need by his side to get to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. -- as in, who's gonna be his running mate. It's clear Yang's working on a short list, and gave us the criteria for his Veep.

Best of all, Andrew gave us his best Rocky impression.

Something happened during Thursday night's debate that had him feeling very Stallone-esque.

Robert De Niro has a very interesting item at the top of his holiday wish list -- he'd very much like a bag of poo to hit President Trump right in his face.

He doesn't say what kind, though.

"The Irishman" star revealed his desire on Michael Moore's podcast Friday, telling the documentary filmmaker ... "I'd like to see a bag of s**t right in his face. Hit him right in the face like that and let the picture go all over the world."

De Niro added ... "And, that would be the most humiliating thing because he needs to be humiliated."

The famous actor's overall point, after sifting through all the s**t talk, is he believes whichever Dem ends up taking on the Prez in 2020 needs to stand up to him ... and embarrass him as much as possible.

De Niro says this person has to "confront him and put him in his place, because the people have to see that, to see him be humiliated."

This isn't the first time Robert's gone after Donald in an audacious way ... you'll recall he dropped a "F**k Trump" at the 2018 Tony Awards, ripped him during an American Icon Awards Speech, called him crazy on CNN and has mocked him multiple times on 'SNL.'

Andrew Yang is riding high after getting a big thumbs-up from Donald Glover, using the celeb endorsement to push merchandise and raise funds for his presidential campaign.

This is America as the decade comes to an end.

We got the 2020 candidate Thursday at his Donald Glover X Andrew Yang pop-up merch shop in Hollywood, where Andrew was busy getting mobbed by a huge throng of supporters chanting his name.

The Yang Gang was out in full force, and Andrew says his collab with Glover is doing wonders for his campaign's bottom line and helping spread his message to voters. Ya gotta hear how much Andrew says he's pulling in thanks to his most famous fan.

Donald was there too, hanging out in the back while Andrew schmoozed with shoppers on the store's floor. Yang seems like he's having the most fun of any White House hopeful.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is doubling down on her defiant decision to merely vote "present" to impeach President Trump ... because she firmly believes it was the right call for America.

The Congresswoman from Hawaii tells us she was making a stand by not voting yes or no ... in order to appeal to folks in the center. She says her goal is to bring unity to the country.

Gabbard elaborated though, saying she DOES want Trump out of office and, in her mind, there's a better step Congress can take to rebuke his conduct. As for getting him out of office ... she believes it should be done more conventionally ... by voting him out in 2020.

Keep in mind, Tulsi's still one of the Democratic candidates gunning for the nomination to run against Trump ... so she's taking a big gamble that her stand will pay off.

Former President Barack Obama ripped a page out of Prez Trump's trolling playbook -- or so it seemed -- by chilling on a golf course while his successor got impeached.

POTUS 44 hit up the course at Mid-Pacific Country Club Wednesday in Hawaii -- nearly 5,000 miles away from where the House of Representatives made history by voting to impeach POTUS 45 ... just the third time in U.S. history.

Okay, we doubt Obama really was trolling Trump, but think about the optics. The one thing we KNOW Trump would always rather be doing is playing golf -- so while he was making the wrong kinda history ... his nemesis flaunted his retirement swing on the links.

If it really were a troll, even Trump might tip his hat to Obama -- that is, if he weren't so busy lashing out at the Dems during his Michigan rally.

Trump's Wednesday night speech -- immediately after the impeachment vote -- included a disgusting remark about late Rep. John Dingell that implied the congressman is "looking up" from hell ... because his wife, Rep. Debbie Dingell, voted to impeach.