Former First Lady Melania Trump can’t ever catch a break. According to a new poll, Donald Trump’s wife has been labeled the least popular first lady in history. Of course we all know it has much less to do with Melania than with a media whose unhinged hate for her husband sloshed over the entire family.
The CNN poll, published in January, found that only 42% of people polled found favor with the First Lady at the end of her tenure. Not only was that the lowest approval rating of her time under the title, but according to the outlet, it was the lowest rating among First ladies in the history of the poll.
According to popculture.com, which published the findings of the CNN survey, Michelle Obama departed the White House with a 69% favorable rating, Laura Bush at a 67% favorable rating, and Hillary Clinton at a 56% favorable rating. Compared to those numbers, Melania’s measly 42% meant she practically left the White House in disgrace.
But the real story is that Melania received much the same press treatment that painted her husband as the literal worst president in American history. This hostility, which she herself has called “shameful,” no doubt contributed to her low favorability. Most first ladies who’ve kept as low a profile as Melania haven’t been targets. (Hillary Clinton, elected to nothing at the time, stepped into the policy arena in the first year of her husband’s administration. Michelle “I’ve never been really proud of my country before” was the lefty media’s fantasy FLOTUS.)
As Fox News Contributor Joe Concha said, Melania was “treated the worst of any first lady we’ve seen in the modern era.” Here are just a few examples showing how the media defamed Melania for four years.
The media’s attacks on Melania Trump’s accent constituted the pettiest of her poor treatment. Late night host Jimmy Kimmel went low when he mocked the then-First Lady when she read a book to young children at the 2018 White House Easter celebration. During a segment of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," the comedian mocked Melania’s pronunciation of “this and that” as “deese and dat.” Terribly classy.
In another more recent example, Animal House actor Tim Matheson slammed Trump’s lack of command on the English language. In a since-deleted tweet, Matheson praised new First Lady Jill Biden with a swipe at Trump: “So wonderful to have a First Lady with class and heart. And, can speak English!” he wrote. Well, Melania can speak five languages, including English, but Hollywood would never focus on her accomplishments.
One of the worst recurring instances of media hatred for Melania involved Hollywood and the media slamming the then-First Lady’s Christmas decoration, especially during Christmas 2018, when Trump opted for a more avant-garde look characterized by red Christmas trees. In addition to outlets calling her decor “jarring” and “spooky,” actors like Misha Collins and Ron Perlman claimed that Trump’s style choice went for “Russian Red” -- a dig at Trump’s RussiaGate accusation -- and that she turned Christmas into a “horror film.”
The abuse even upset the First Lady, whose exasperation at the media’s dirty reporting was secretly recorded by her so-called friend, leaked to CNN, and then rebuked by the outlet on air. CNN seized on Trump asking “Who gives a f**k about Christmas [decorations]” in a candid interview and acted as if she was a cruel, cold woman. Of course, Melania was slamming the media who had bullied her for years, and -- surprise! -- they used it as another opportunity to bully her.
Another over-the-top display of bias towards Melania Trump involved fashion magazines like Vogue snubbing the former supermodel from its cover shoots, but putting First Ladies like Michelle Obama on the cover of its fashion magazine on multiple occasions. InStyle acknowledged that Obama graced the cover three times over the years, though reported that the Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, admitted they’d never put Trump on the cover in the near future.
Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but when Michelle Obama gets Vogue three times during her time as First Lady and a former supermodel-turned First Lady can’t get even a spread in Home & Garden, then you know the media has it out for her. It’s fair to say that making the beautiful Melania look bad in the public eye was their goal and the poll proves they tried their damndest.
