Melania/Vanity Fair Opinion, August 2025
Analysis by Matt Towery of InsiderAdvantage and Robert Cahaly of Trafalgar Group:
Our joint survey by Trafalgar Group and InsiderAdvantage shows that most Americans (64%) disapproved of reported threats by workers for the magazine to walk out if First Lady Melania Trump were to be featured in the publication. Their readership, according to the most cursory of AI searches, skews towards highly educated affluent women, and their content and editorial policy leans left of center. So, the news reports likely did not damage the magazine with most of its readers.
However, these reports appear to provide additional confirmation to most Americans that the “mainstream” media has treated Mrs. Trump “unfairly” (63%) as compared to recent First Ladies such as Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.
Both a strong majority of Republican and Independent registered voters agreed that the current First Lady has received unfair treatment when compared to that of Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden. We don’t do “job performance” approval surveys for First Ladies. But it is worth noting that the response to both questions exceeded even the highest approval rating for President Trump. That suggests that Mrs. Trump, when she chooses to be, is a very powerful voice for his administration.
