Melania Trump’s time as First Lady has always been a bit of a mixed bag, much like her husband Donald’s presidency. She’s kept a pretty low profile overall, making selective appearances while staying mostly out of the spotlight. Before heading back to the White House last year, she mentioned her second stint would look different—she’d split her time between Washington, Palm Beach, and New York, all while still handling her official responsibilities.
She’s kept up with her Be Best campaign, but a lot of the focus lately has been on that documentary about her life and role. She announced it right before the inauguration, and Amazon shelled out a reported $40 million for the rights. The film dropped in January and got some mixed reactions from critics, though Melania seemed genuinely pleased with how it turned out.
She told CNN something along the lines of, “I’m very proud of the film so people may like it, may not like it, and that’s their choice. We achieved what we wanted to achieve. For myself, it’s already successful. I’m very proud of what we did.”
With Donald facing some tough numbers in the polls ahead of the midterms, people have been curious about how the public sees Melania in her role. A fresh YouGov survey sheds some light on that.
The poll ran online with 2,255 adult U.S. citizens across two waves—February 2-5 and February 3-5, 2026. They pulled a random, stratified sample based on things like gender, age, race, education, region, and voter registration, then weighted it to match demographics, past votes, party ID, and more for a solid cross-section.
The results? Melania’s net approval as First Lady sits at -16. That’s a bit lower than Jill Biden’s -9 from before, but actually edges out Hillary Clinton’s -17. Still, when you stack her up against others, the contrast is pretty clear. Nancy Reagan comes in at +25, Lady Bird Johnson at +23, Rosalynn Carter leads with +32, Barbara Bush at +21, Michelle Obama at +21, and Laura Bush at +19.
The standout, no surprise, is Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who clocks in at an impressive +56 from her time in the early ’60s.
Not surprisingly, Melania scores much better with Republican voters than with Democrats.
What do you make of Melania’s time as First Lady? Drop your thoughts below—I’d love to hear what everyone thinks!