{"id":3026,"date":"2026-08-14T12:47:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/?p=3026"},"modified":"2026-08-14T12:47:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:47:57","slug":"shocking-ratings-show-what-america-really-thinks-of-melania-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/?p=3026","title":{"rendered":"Shocking Ratings Show What America Really Thinks Of Melania Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

The people of\u00a0America\u00a0have spoken and revealed what they really think of First Lady Melania Trump.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the first week of February 2026, YouGov asked Americans to rank 11 first ladies from a scale of \u2018outstanding\u2019 to \u2018poor.\u2019<\/p>\n

The results reflected that American adults might not be as divided on Melania as they are on her husband,\u00a0President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Who was Melania before Donald Trump<\/h2>\n

Before she met the billionaire and soon-to-be President Trump, Melania had dreams of pursuing an international fashion career.<\/p>\n

She had humble beginnings, growing up in state-funded apartment housing in the small town of Sevnica in Yugoslavia (now Slovenia).<\/p>\n

Throughout her childhood, she was known as Melanija Knavs, but after being scouted by a photographer at the age of 16, she began traveling Europe working as a model.<\/p>\n

\"Donald
Melania Trump met Donald Trump while at a party in Manhattan. Credit: Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She soon changed her name to Melania Knauss and eventually moved to New York City in 1996, where she met her future husband at a party in Manhattan a few years later.<\/p>\n

Despite Trump being 24 years her senior, the couple married in 2005, and Melania soon gave birth to their son, Barron, the following year.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s first term<\/h2>\n

When Trump first ran for President in 2016, Melania didn\u2019t hide her disinterest in the idea of being first lady.<\/p>\n

In fact, she reportedly burst into tears when she realized he was going to win the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

This came as no surprise, after a friend of the Trump family revealed that Melania didn\u2019t want to be first lady \u2018come hell or high water.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Melania
Melania Trump is reported to have originally been uninterested in being the first lady. Credit: Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet as President Trump\u2019s first term unraveled, she seemed to slightly embrace her new position, starting her own campaign for anti-cyberbullying after stating: \u201cI could say that I\u2019m the most bullied person in the\u00a0world.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this benevolent campaign soon fizzled out, perhaps because it clashed a bit too much with her husband\u2019s ruthless tweeting hobby.<\/p>\n

Trump returning \u2013 was Melania happy about it?<\/h2>\n

According to her friends, Melania was even less keen for Trump to be re-elected in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing first lady again is not what she wants,\u201d one of her close friends admitted to CNN. \u201cFor her, it was a chapter \u2013 and it\u2019s over, and that\u2019s that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supposedly, Melania prefers a private\u00a0life\u00a0away from the public eye, say her friends, which is why she\u2019s rarely seen at Trump\u2019s campaigns and events.<\/p>\n

For this term, she\u2019s said to be taking a step back from being a full-time first lady \u2013 and instead is dividing her time between being the President\u2019s spouse and a \u2018hands-on mother\u2019 to her son, Barron.<\/p>\n

Melania\u2019s movie<\/h2>\n

Despite Melania apparently disliking being in the public eye, she\u2019s been all over screens since her documentary came out.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Melania<\/em>, we follow the first lady\u2019s daily activities for 20 days in January 2025, as her husband prepares to return to the White House after winning the 2024 US presidential election.<\/p>\n

The movie, directed by Brett Ratner, was reportedly the most expensive documentary to ever be made, costing a total of $75 million.<\/p>\n

Melania: 20 Days of History<\/em>\u00a0was shown in cinemas across the world \u2013 but the\u00a0reviews\u00a0weren\u2019t exactly kind.<\/p>\n

\"Melania
A documentary following Melania Trump as the first lady earned 1.4\/10 on IMDb and 1.1\/5 on Letterboxd. Credit: Amazon MGM Studios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Xan Brooks (The Guardian) labeled it as \u2018dispiriting, deadly and unrevealing,\u2019 while Joy Press (Vanity Fair) wrote \u2018all the money in the world can\u2019t make good propaganda.\u2019<\/p>\n

The wider public didn\u2019t seem too impressed either, with the documentary earning ratings of 1.4\/10 on IMDb and 1.1\/5 on Letterboxd.<\/p>\n

Throughout the 104 minutes, Melania is painted as \u2018doing what no First Lady has done before \u2013 and doing it better, grander, and on a bigger scale.\u2019<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that her lavish lifestyle has proved entertaining for some audiences, with a score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes\u2019 Popcornmeter.<\/p>\n

Clearly, Mrs. Trump shares the marmite quality that her other half is notorious for.<\/p>\n

What do ratings say about her husband?<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s fair to say that Trump has been one of the most contentious presidents to date.<\/p>\n

And while Melania\u2019s documentary was clearly an attempt to shine a more positive, relatable light onto the Trump family, it might be a bigger challenge than they expect.<\/p>\n

Since Trump returned to the presidential office, his actions have been met with concern.<\/p>\n

His past 12 months have included disputes with NATO allies and giving ICE agents free rein to threaten and, notably, kill American citizens in broad daylight.<\/p>\n

\"Donald
Donald Trump\u2019s second term as President has been met with scrutiny. Credit: Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In January 2026, an AP-NORC\u00a0poll\u00a0found that just four in 10 US adults were happy with Trump\u2019s performance this term.<\/p>\n

The poll also showed that 59% of American adults disapproved of the way he was running the country.<\/p>\n

However, the POTUS responded to the unsteady ratings in classic Trump fashion, saying the polls were fake and were spreading misinformation.<\/p>\n

Melania\u2019s ratings<\/h2>\n

Mrs. Trump has faced ratings that are even less favorable.<\/p>\n

In a poll from the first week of February 2026, Melania was voted the second least popular of the 11 recent first ladies.<\/p>\n

Receiving a plummeting -16 net rating, Melania was only beaten to the spot of the most-disliked first lady by Hillary Clinton, the wife of Bill Clinton and a previous presidential candidate, who received a net rating of -17 points.<\/p>\n

In the 2026 rating, 36% of people said Melania was \u2018poor,\u2019 with 10% more voting \u2018below average.\u2019<\/p>\n

But maybe the documentary was worth the millions of dollars, because the first lady\u2019s ranking has actually improved slightly.<\/p>\n

Back in 2023, YouGov\u2019s poll revealed that 39% regarded her as \u2018poor\u2019 or \u2018below average,\u2019 which suggests the documentary may have contributed to a modest shift in public perceptions following the multi-million-dollar production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The people of\u00a0America\u00a0have spoken and revealed what they really think of First Lady Melania Trump. In the first week of February 2026, YouGov asked Americans to rank 11 first ladies … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-3026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3028,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions\/3028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}