Kim Kardashian has had a rough few years. She was robbed in Paris. She and her husband, rapper Kanye West have feuded with Taylor Swift – who lashes out about the conflict in her new single – and she has been somewhat eclipsed by her half-sisters. All of this conflict, as well as the fickle nature of American’s attention span for celebrities, has lead to a dramatic drop in her polling numbers. A 2011 poll Reuters/Ipsos poll found her unfavorability rating to be 38%. That means that nearly four out of ten surveyed said they had a “somewhat” or “very unfavorable” opinion of her. That figure nearly doubled to 71% in an Ipsos poll conducted in August.
Put another way, Kardashian is now viewed less favorably than the U.S. Congress. The least popular branch of government has a 60% unfavorable rating.
Granted, she still has a sprawling business and media empire and a bazillion followers on social media, so this doesn’t appear to be impacting her bottom line.
The Ipsos poll looked at favorability levels of a variety of celebrities, government and other institutions, media outlets and non-profits. Overall the non-profits were viewed rather favorably with at least two in three Americans approving of groups such as The United Way and Habitat for Humanity. Americans were split evenly on the press as a whole with individual news outlets running the gamut from the New York Times (60% favorable) to alt-right blog Breitbart at just 21%.
The federal government is viewed more unfavorably (52%) than favorably (44%). Barack Obama still enjoys high favorability ratings but others like Elizabeth Warren and Paul Ryan are rated rather poorly. The United Nations is viewed quite well (69%) as is the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump was in the celebrity group in the previous poll. He was listed as one of the least popular even back before fully entering the political realm in 2011 with 31% disapproving of him at the time. The presidency has done him no favors as nearly twice as many (57%) now seeing him in an unfavorable light.
Celebrities are a little more dispersed. On the low end you find Kim Kardashian. On the high end, George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey enjoy high favorability at 71% and 65% respectively. Multiple Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady is in the middle of the pack with Tom Cruise and Beyonce. Rapper Kid Rock, who might also be considering entering the political fray by running for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, is currently viewed favorably by about 44% of the U.S.
Small business are viewed favorably by nearly everyone (91%) putting them far ahead of “multinationals” and “Wall Street.”
Matt Carmichael, Editor, What the Future | 
@mcarmichael