Despite Impressing At Congressional Ball, Melania Trump’s Popularity Plummets After Difficult Week

Despite Melania Trump impressing at the Congressional Ball at the end of this week, it has been a difficult week for the First Lady, who has found herself at the wrong end of scathing criticism for an interview in which she attacked critics of the Trump family. But while her husband’s popularity has suffered over the last year, many believed that the First Lady remains much more secure in her approval by the people. It appears, however, that the recent events have had an effect on her popularity as well, with a nearly 11 percent drop in her favorability rating over the course of the last two months, according to CNN.

Only 43 percent of those surveyed said that they had a favorable view of Melania Trump, a sharp decrease from October when nearly 54 percent of Americans said that they viewed Melania in a positive light. According to the poll, whites, men, people with college degrees and people over 45 years of age are much more likely to have a favorable view of Melania than non-whites, women and young people. This is almost true for Donald Trump as well.

Melania Trump’s popularity seems to have suffered as she has attempted to be by her husband’s side at critical moments over the last few weeks. This, added with statements during interviews in which she has called herself “the most bullied in the world,” advocated for “support” of men accused of sexual harassment, and called on women to present more “hard evidence” before accusing anyone, seem to have had a cumulative effect on the trust that the American people place on the First Lady.

Imagine if @MichelleObama said this & played the victim. Republicans would lose their minds. @FLOTUS Melania Trump says her #BeBest policy platform targeting online bullies is personal. “I could say that I’m the most bullied person in the world” pic.twitter.com/7uCQB7jInX

— Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) October 11, 2018

Melania Trump became the subject of criticism earlier this week too when during an interview on Fox, she slammed the “opportunists” who use her name to gain attention. But in doing so, critics argued, Melania was once again able to hog all the attention on herself, not unlike her husband, who likes to make everything about himself as well. CNN‘s criticism of Melania having “proved that she doesn’t understand what it means to be first lady” drew condemnation from the First Lady’s spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, who argued that the response to Melania’s interview validated her point about being bullied.

“Rather than focus on engagements (visits to service members and the Children’s National Hospital, Toys for Tots drive), the good work of the organizations her visits highlighted or the sacrifices of those who serve in the United States military, Brower and other members of the media chose to focus on a soundbite from a 20-minute interview — and a trivial poll released by CNN,” Grisham wrote in a fiery column defending Melania Trump.