During Donald Trump’s first term, there was a lot of chatter about how none of the major American magazines would put Melania Trump on their cover. You have to understand, the Obama era was the golden age of “political spouses engaging with print media and pop culture.” Michelle Obama was on all of the magazine covers, from Vogue to InStyle to Essence to Good Housekeeping. MO also regularly appeared on talk shows. Melania Trump was not and is not welcome in those spaces at all. It felt like such a small thing, but I’m grateful for it all the same, that magazine editors around the country all said “absolutely not” when it came to whitewashing or glorifying the Trumps. Well, in Trump’s second term, there is once again chatter about Melania appearing on various magazine covers. Well, Vanity Fair’s new global editorial director has apparently suggested giving Melania a VF cover. Only VF’s staffers are in revolt.
Vanity Fair’s new boss reportedly wants first lady Melania Trump to grace the glossy magazine’s coveted cover — leaving disgruntled woke staff threatening to “walk out the motherf–king door” if it goes ahead. The fashion mag’s global editorial director, Mark Guiducci, has floated the possibility of putting President Trump’s wife on the cover of the Conde Nast-owned publication as he tries to make his mark in his newly minted role, Semafor reported. But the mere thought of having the former model as a cover girl sparked fierce backlash from raging lefty staffers.
“I will walk out the motherf–king door, and half my staff will follow me,’ one sensitive editor fumed to the Daily Mail. “We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we’re just not going to do it. We’re going to stand for what’s right,” the unidentified staffer whined.
“If I have to work bagging groceries at Trader Joe’s, I’ll do it. If [Guiducci] puts Melania on the cover, half of the editorial staff will walk out, I guarantee it.”
Others, meanwhile, dismissed the outrage — insisting there’s no way employees would give up such a prestigious job out of protest. “It’s all talk,” one employee said. “If they put her on the cover, people will protest and gripe about it, but I don’t see anyone quitting such a prestigious job over that. Honestly, there will be people who push back, but it’s ultimately Mark’s decision. He’s the one who will sink or swim over that choice, not the rest of us,” the employee added.
Melania was notably excluded from Vanity Fair and Conde Nast’s Vogue during Trump’s first administration. That’s in sharp contrast to Michelle Obama, who graced Vogue’s cover three times while she was first lady. Despite the snub, Melania has previously said she has “no interest” in appearing on the illustrious covers.
“Look, I’ve been there on the covers — on the cover of Vogue, on the covers of many magazines before … We have so many other important things to do than to be on the cover of any magazine,” she told Fox News. “I think that life would not change for anybody if I’m on the cover.”
“We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife.” Exactly. Not to give these people any ideas, but I wonder why there’s such a focus on Conde Nast-owned publications? Is it because Vanity Fair and Vogue are seen as the most prestigious? I honestly don’t think any Conde Nast magazine will give Melania a cover, especially not while Anna Wintour lives and breathes. Wintour despises the Trumps, and while Wintour is out as EIC of Vogue, she still wields enormous power within Conde Nast. If Melania wants a magazine cover so badly, she should go for a non-Conde Nast magazine. But even then, I suspect editors would still say “absolutely not.”
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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