RRI’s Personality of the Year in 2025
US president Donald Trump is chosen Personality of the Year in 2025 by RRI's listeners and Internet and social media users.
Eugen Cojocariu, 01.01.2026, 14:00
Radio Romania International again held its now already traditional survey among its listeners and Internet and social media users to decide who among international public figures from all areas had the strongest positive contribution on the world in 2025.
So, the 2025 Personality of the Year on RRI is United States president Donald Trump. Fan Hongjie, of China, chose Trump for “his unusual and daring approach in the field of migration control and domestic reforms, as well as for his international peace initiatives”; while Stefano Citterio, from Italy, argued: “For me, the personality of the year in 2025 was, undoubtedly, for better or worse, Donald Trump. First he increased customs tariffs for a number of countries, then he lowered them; he promoted a number of peace initiatives, not all acceptable or accepted. Despite his not always likable manner at European level, he is without a doubt one of the few who really does get involved in order to solve things. His arrogance is sometimes counterproductive, but it’s hard to find politicians on the world stage who are not arrogant”.
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, María Corina Machado from Venezuela, was a close runner-up among RRI’s listeners and users.
Other public figures who were nominated for the title included United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the late Pope Francis, the new pope Leo XIV, Romania’s new president Nicuşor Dan, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian president Vladimir Putin, Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni, Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi, United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese and the former United Nations humanitarian affairs coordinator Martin Griffiths, as well as the businessman Elon Musk and Stanford University computer scientist Fei-Fei Li.
There were also proposals for collective winners, such as “the people behind the AI technology”, the journalists from across the globe who are opposed to war and convey accurate information to the public, and the peoples who continue to suffer because of absurd wars, extremism or for religious reasons.
