Melania Trump has the worst-ever final popularity rating for a First Lady: Report

Not just Donald Trump is leaving the White House with historically low popularity ratings, Melania Trump is also set to leave the office with the worst First Lady popularity rating ever, a poll by CNN says.

First Ladies are, traditionally, nearly uniformly admired, most ratings show, as the position of a First Lady is non-elected and noncontroversial. However, the tarnish on the Trump brand has gone beyond the outgoing President and has now hit the First Lady. 

Even though it is hard for the First Ladies to be unpopular, Melania, according to CNN/SSRS poll, has a favourable rating at 42% and unfavourable rating at 47%, highest ever recorded for the First Lady and also high from a historical perspective. 

According to a CNN analysis, since Pat Nixon, the average first lady’s final popularity rating, before Melania, was +50 points, with a 71% popularity rate and 21% unpopularity rate. 

The report says that Hillary Clinton was the only First Lady to leave the office with a rating below +40 points, as she had a 52% popularity rate and a 39% unfavorability rate, giving her +13 points of net favorability. 

Melania’s popularity might be associated with her husband’s negative impact, however, the outgoing First Lady was also not much involved in the day-to-day management of the White House and was very less visible to most of the Americans. 

According to the CNN report, no First Lady, this century, has left the White House with a popularity rating of 85% since Barbara Bush in 1993, and upcoming First Lady Jill Biden will not either. 

Although, Jill will start off a lot more popular than her predecessor Melania.