El Salvador President Nayib Bukele touted his standing as the most popular world leader, with nearly 90% approval ratings.

What Happened: On Sunday, Bukele wrote, “It's nice to be on top,” in response to a post by widely followed X account World of Statistics, which named him the most popular leader, leaving behind Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden.

Bukele cited a tweet from the “World of Statistics” in the tweet but the source of the underlying data used was not immediately obvious. Morning Consult, an international decision intelligence firm that tracks the major decisions of global leaders, still showed Modi as the most popular leader as per data collected from Sept. 25-Oct. 1.

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Why It Matters: El Salvador, under President Bukele, has made headlines because of its pioneering embrace of Bitcoin BTC/USD, which was adopted as a legal tender in the country in 2021.

His leadership has also earned praise from tech mogul and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who called the president a “very smart guy” at Donald Trump’s rally at the New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

In the past, Musk has lauded the Bukele administration’s commitment to freedom of speech.

However, Bukele's claims about guaranteeing free speech remained debatable. El Salvador was ranked 133rd out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2024, down 18 places from the previous year’s rankings.

His administration has also been accused of detaining thousands of people as part of his anti-gang campaign.

Photo by Gobierno Danilo Medina on Flickr

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