Possible Melania Trump magazine cover sparks fury
A Fox News host has urged US Vanity Fair staff to find a colleague who anonymously complained about a possible Melania Trump cover, saying they “should be fired”.
Source: Fox News
Anger has brewing for years over an alleged policy at some of America’s biggest fashion magazines to shun the first lady from their covers.
The controversy intensified after a weekend report on online site Semafor that newly installed Vanity Fair editor Mark Guiducci was pushing the magazine in a different editorial direction – which could include overtures towards MAGA world.
“The post-Covid cultural swing to the right, capped by Trump’s election in 2024, has impressed upon the new editor that Vanity Fair needs to change who appears in its pages,” Semafor reported.
“He’s told people he’s potentially interested in putting Melania Trump on the cover.”
Britain’s The Daily Mail soon reported that Vanity Fair staff reacted “in fury” at a possible Trump cover, with some vowing to “quit their jobs” if the former model was included.
“I will walk out the motherf—ing door, and half my staff will follow me,” a “mid-level editor” was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
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“We are not going to normalise this despot [Donald Trump] and his wife; we’re just not going to do it. We’re going to stand for what’s right,” they reportedly said.
“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.”
The fact that Vanity Fair and its fellow Conde Nast-owned fashion magazines – including Vogue – excluded Trump from their covers during her husband’s Donald’s first term as US president has been a bone of contention for many US conservatives.
Therefore, the angry reaction from Fox News to the Daily Mail report was predictable.
“I can tell you that was a leaked story from Vanity Fair because they are trying to soften up the opposition they are going to face when this happens,” Fox News host Charlie Hurt said Tuesday US time.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade demanded that the employee quoted be outed by their colleagues.
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“You should be fired if you are not exposed,” he said.
“If you’re at Vanity Fair right now, walk around and look for a mid-level editor that sounds angry, and toss them out and send them to Trader Joe’s.”
Trump appeared on the cover of numerous high-profile magazine covers – – including British GQ and US Vogue – during her time as a model.
Her absence was notable after Donald Trump first took office in 2016.
Conde Nast chief content officer and longtime Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has known the Trumps for many years, but made no secret of supporting Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016.
During a Fox News interview in 2022, Melania Trump accused the major fashion magazines of political bias for not featuring her.
In December 2024 she was asked in yet another Fox News interview if she expected to be on fashion magazine covers during her husband’s second term.
“I’ve been there on the cover of Vogue, on the cover of many magazines before and for me, we have so many other important things to do than to be on the cover of any magazine,” she said at the time.
“I think the life would not change for anybody if I’m on the cover of the magazine.”
