Hillary Clinton and Melania Trump have markedly different styles as first ladies. But they do have something in common: They’ve stood by difficult-to-defend men, and public opinion has rewarded them for doing so.
By the time allegations of Oval Office infidelity with an intern surfaced in 1998, Clinton had already made a name for herself as ambitious, chairing a task force on healthcare reform in 1993. The plan received immense pushback from the health insurance industry and ultimately failed.
Trump, however, has offered no such indications of a future career in politics, preferring a more traditional role. Her “Be Best” campaign has focused on combating cyberbullying and childhood well-being.
“Melania, I think, will be seen as protecting herself, which Hillary was trying to do, too, but protecting herself and her family is different than protecting yourself for a political career,” said Jean Harris, a professor of political science and women’s studies at the University of Scranton.
Trump recently broke her silence on the allegations that her husband had been unfaithful during their 13-year marriage, referring to it as “gossip” reported by news outlets to boost their bottom lines.
“It is not a concern and focus of mine,” the often-stoic first lady told ABC News when asked about the effects the allegations have had on her marriage. “I’m a mother and first lady and I have much more important things to think about and to do. … I know what is right and what is wrong and what is true or not true.”
Harris said the Clintons tried to show they had a loving marriage as the former president battled misconduct allegations, but the Trumps have not put on a similar display. The Trumps reportedly sleep in separate bedrooms in the White House residence and use separate hotel suites when traveling together.
“During the presidential campaign, and even early on, they took a page from the Clinton playbook. They denied, they called the women … liars and they denied these accusations,” Harris said. “But they didn’t necessarily do much to show that they had a loving, affectionate marriage. So that piece of the Clinton strategy was not part of what the Trumps are doing.”
Trump has said very little from the beginning of the presidential campaign to defend her husband, despite standing by him. When the then-Republican presidential nominee faced a barrage of calls to drop out of the race weeks before Election Day after he was heard on an “Access Hollywood” tape bragging about groping women without their permission, the former model called her husband’s comments “offensive” but urged voters to accept his apology.
[Also read: Man arrested for groping: Trump said it was ‘OK to grab women by their private parts’]
President Trump has since been accused of having extramarital relations with porn star Stormy Daniels at the beginning of his marriage to the first lady and paying $130,000 for her silence in the days before Americans voted him into the White House.
The White House has adamantly denied the affair, yet the first lady’s silence led to increased speculation about the Trumps’ marriage. Amid news of the payoff, the first lady canceled her trip to Davos, Switzerland, with the president and rode in a separate vehicle from her husband on the way to his first State of the Union address. On the one-year anniversary of her husband’s inauguration, she tweeted an image that did not include the president, but showed her linking arms with a member of the military.
Trump’s first major solo international trip abroad to Africa earlier this month fell on the same week Daniels released her memoir, in which she give intimate details about her alleged tryst with the president. Trump publicly announced her plans to visit Africa in October, without giving specific dates, weeks before Daniels revealed her forthcoming tell-all.
“He’s harder to defend, than even Bill Clinton was, especially for a wife,” Katherine Jellison, professor of history at the University of Ohio, said, pointing to President Trump’s ever-changing explanations and constant dominance of media coverage.
Trump appears to be more concerned with the well-being of her young son than proving she has a healthy marriage, Harris added. The Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, was 18 years old around the time the Lewinksy scandal played out.
Twenty years after President Bill Clinton admitted he had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which eventually led to his impeachment, Hillary Clinton is still defending her husband in public.
When asked last week whether her husband should have resigned after his affair with Lewinsky became public, Clinton responded “absolutely not.” She also dismissed criticism that the affair was an abuse of power, arguing that Lewinsky “was an adult.” Her comments, amid the #MeToo movement, drew swift backlash.
Clinton’s comments echoed her attitude in 1998, when she vigorously defended her husband, declaring in a televised interview that the accusations against the president were a “vast ring-wing conspiracy.” At the time, public opinion was with her. Clinton wouldn’t enjoy the favorable public opinion she held at the height of her husband’s impeachment hearings until during her stint as secretary of state in 2011. The pronouncement would come back to bite her once her husband admitted the affair had happened; the moment was used against her in the 2016 campaign to paint her as a hypocrite.
“She didn’t come back out and try to backpedal and put her humiliation on display,” Jellison said. “That’s when she took more of the low-profile approach and continued her duties as first lady.”
Clinton and Trump’s poll numbers have told a similar story, though public opinion revealed greater sympathy for Clinton. Clinton had a 64 percent favorability rating in February 1998 as a growing number of Americans believed her husband lied under oath about the Lewinsky affair, up from 55 percent a year earlier.
“There was sympathy toward her and empathy toward her, and people who maybe weren’t her biggest fans still respected the way she stayed with her marriage,” Jellison said of Clinton.
In a May poll, Trump saw her popularity surge by double digits, to 57 percent, when Daniels and her lawyer Michael Avenatti were breathlessly featured on cable news shows. Trump’s favorability rating slipped in June, but rebounded 3 points to 54 percent in a poll taken during Trump’s trip to Africa.
Of Trump, long the most popular member of the Trump family, Jellison said the public is giving her the benefit of the doubt.
“If she were a more high profile, out-front first lady like Hillary Clinton was … maybe we wouldn’t see her popularity numbers faring as well as they are because her husband if such a controversial figure. In her instance, doing the opposite of that, the public appreciates it,” she said.
