Donald Trump Once Compared Melania To Jackie Kennedy (And The Internet Wasn't Happy)

To suggest that former President Donald Trump is no stranger to saying things that cause an uproar is a major understatement. He once made a comment about his wife, however, that sparked a particularly interesting bit of criticism. Melania Trump was a first lady unlike any other. In fact, many people speculated that she didn't even enjoy the gig and wondered how she really felt about being first lady. 

Consequently, it was risky for Donald to compare his wife to any former first lady — let alone a beloved one. Plenty of folks want to know the truth about Melania and Donald Trump's marriage, but regardless of what goes on behind the closed doors of Mar-a-Lago, Donald has never been shy about talking up his wife. This is why it likely came as a surprise to few that he drew a comparison between Melania and Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Naturally, folks across the internet were determined to prove that comparison wrong. 

Back in 2019, during a call with "Fox & Friends," Donald Trump made an interesting comment while discussing the color of Air Force One. Donald had decided to change the paint from the baby blue shade that Jackie Kennedy Onassis had chosen in the '60s to navy with a red stripe. "You know the baby blue doesn't fit with us," he explained, per HuffPost. "People get used to something, but ... That was Jackie O. and that's good, but we have our own Jackie O. today, it's called Melania. Melania. We'll call it Melania T." 

Donald continued to drive the point home, "By the way, people love her. She gets no credit from the media, but she gets credit from the people." And, he didn't simply refer to Melania as the new Jackie O; the former president actually tried to draw a very specific comparison between the two women. 

Jackie O. was known as a fashion icon, so it was noteworthy that Donald made a point about the public's affinity for Melania's own style. "When I go speak in big crowds — we have tremendous crowds and so many people are holding up banners, you know, 'we love our first lady,' 'we love high heels,'" he insisted (via The Hill). 

The internet was quick to respond to the comment for two main reasons. First, many folks pointed out that "it" was a notably strange way to refer to Melania Trump, with one Twitter user arguing, "Don't sleep on donald trump calling his wife an 'it.'" Others, unsurprisingly, jumped at the opportunity to cast doubt on claims that Melania and Jackie O. shared any similarities whatsoever. One viral tweet showed a photo of Jackie O. smiling with a child in a hospital bed next to a photo of Melania sporting her infamous "I really don't care, do u?" jacket. 

Yet another tweet featured side-by-side photos illustrating the starkly different styles of the two first ladies' holiday decorations. Whatever side you're on, comparing first ladies is asking for trouble, but choosing this one, in particular, is risky. According to a poll from Siena College from 2014 (via Politico), based on ten specific qualities, Jackie O. was considered the third favorite first lady in U.S. history, with Eleanor Roosevelt and Abigail Adams being the first two. 

Melania Trump, on the other hand, left the White House with the lowest approval level of any first lady with 47% (via CNN). So, while it's safe to say that Donald Trump may see some similarities between Melania and Jackie O., and he certainly wants others to see them too, the public opinion on these two first ladies couldn't be more different.