Melania Trump to exit WH with lowest favorability rating of tenure, way below Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton
Owing to a flurry of events and the repercussions of the January 6 Capitol attack, which her husband President Donald Trump is being attacked for, first lady Melania Trump will be ending her tenure with the lowest favorable rating since the time she entered the White House. The poll, conducted by SSRS for CNN, puts Melania's favorable rating at 42%. Since CNN first asked people about their views of the FLOTUS in February 2016, the network found that Melania was disliked by 47% of the participants in the survey, which was a percentage far greater than ever recorded before by the same poll. 12% of those who were asked about the FLOTUS, answered that they were unsure of their feelings about the first lady.
Incidentally, the highest favorable rating for the mother-of-one -- 57% -- came in May 2018, in a poll conducted soon after the first state dinner and her attendance at the Texas funeral of the late first lady Barbara Bush, which was attended by her sans her husband. However, her favorability ratings saw a sharp drop in December that very year following her solo trip to Africa. Her favorability was recorded at 43% and her unfavorability at 36%, according to a CNN poll conducted at the time.
She did manage to carry a higher favorability than her husband as the first couple prepares to exit the White House to make way for President-elect Joe Biden. Trump presently has an approval rating of 33% according to the same poll. Melania's approval rating is also higher among the Republicans (84%) when compared to the president (79%) or the vice president (72%).
However, if Melania's favorability percentage was to be weighed against her predecessors, she does fall short. According to a CNN/ORC poll in January 2017, former first lady Michelle Obama departed the White House with a 69% favorable rating, which was similar to the one she received when she entered the White House. Even ex-FLOTUS Laura Bush managed to score a largely positive rating despite her husband's unpopularity at the time. In 2009, a CNN/ORC poll put her approval percentage at 67%, while George W Bush was only viewed positively by 35%. Even Hillary Clinton, a former first lady, and President Donald Trump's former presidential opponent, beat Melania in the polls. In a November 2000 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, recorded just prior to Clinton's exit, her favorablity stood at 56%.
According to the survey's methodology explanation, "A total of 1,003 adults were interviewed by telephone nationwide by live interviewers calling both landline and cell phones. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Among the entire sample, 33% described themselves as Democrats, 26% described themselves as Republicans, and 41% described themselves as independents or members of another party. All respondents were asked questions concerning basic demographics, and the entire sample was weighted to reflect national Census figures for gender, race, age, education, region of country, population density, and telephone usage. The sample was also weighted to reflect partisan identification and lean computed from the weighted average of the current poll plus three recent CNN polls."