Prospect of Melania Trump appearing on Vanity Fair cover spurs staff outrage

First lady Melania Trump has been shunned for years by fashion magazines, and some industry insiders want to keep it that way.

A report that Vanity Fair’s newly hired editor is considering putting the former model on the cover spurred an internal revolt, with one anonymous magazine editor predicting that half the staff would quit in response.

“I will walk out the motherf—-ing door, and half my staff will follow me,” a source identified as a “midlevel editor” told Britain’s Daily Mail.

The anti-Trump editor framed the issue not as an editorial disagreement, but a moral choice.

“We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we’re just not going to do it,” the source said. “We’re going to stand for what’s right.”

The outcry came after Semafor reported Sunday that Mark Guiducci, who took over as the top editor in June, indicated that “he’s potentially interested in putting Melania Trump on the cover” as part of an editorial shake-up at the flagging magazine.

As far as the outraged editor was concerned, almost any job would be preferable to working at Vanity Fair if it spotlights Mrs. Trump.

“If I have to work bagging groceries at Trader Joe’s, I’ll do it,” the editor said. “If [Guiducci] puts Melania on the cover, half of the editorial staff will walk out, I guarantee it.”

Trump fans were OK with that, leaving comments on X such as “Let them walk.”

Vanity Fair editor rages over potential Melania Trump cover, predicts half the editorial staff ‘will walk’.

Oh boo hoo. Wha whaaa

Let them walk. Take them all with you.

What an infantile position to take.  Melania is a person of interest to the public.  What did Melania… pic.twitter.com/WbRc8PEXJa

— Denise (@Likeshesays) August 27, 2025

Showcasing the glamorous, photogenic first lady would seem like a no-brainer for a style publication, but Mrs. Trump has been the subject of an unspoken boycott within the industry since her husband was first elected in 2016.

She appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair Mexico in February 2017. Since then, she’s received the mean-girls treatment from the industry, notably Vogue, a magazine known for its photo shoots of presidential wives.

Last year, Vogue published a retrospective titled “From Jill Biden to Jackie Kennedy: Looking Back at First Ladies in Vogue” that began with a 1929 photo of Lou Henry Hoover, wife of President Herbert Hoover, and ended with a 2023 picture of Jill Biden.

Conspicuously absent was Mrs. Trump, who served as first lady from 2017-21, even though she appeared on the Vogue cover in February 2005 wearing her wedding gown in an issue timed to her marriage to Donald Trump.

Of course, that was before Mr. Trump entered the political arena as a Republican, putting him at odds with left-of-center fashionistas such as Anna Wintour, Conde Nast global chief content officer and Vogue editor-in-chief. Both Vanity Fair and Vogue are owned by Conde Nast.

Ms. Wintour, a powerful presence in the fashion world, is no Trump fan. She actively supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in her failed 2016 presidential bid against Mr. Trump, as well as the 2020 and 2024 Biden presidential campaigns.

Even so, Ms. Wintour seemed open at first to the idea of featuring Mrs. Trump in Vogue, telling The Wall Street Journal in 2017 that the magazine had a “tradition” of covering the sitting first lady. By 2019, however, it was clear that no photo shoot would be forthcoming.

“I think it’s important for Vogue to support women who are leading change in this country,” Ms. Wintour said in a 2019 podcast interview when asked about why Mrs. Trump had yet to appear in the magazine.

Mrs. Trump has shrugged off the industry’s cold shoulder, saying in December that “I’ve been there on the covers — on the cover of Vogue, on the covers of many magazines before.”

“For me, we have so many other important things to do than to be on the cover of any magazine,” she told Fox News Channel host Brian Kilmeade.

Her situation comes in sharp contrast to Vogue’s recent practice of giving first ladies the star treatment by featuring them on the cover in pictures taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Former first ladies Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden — all Democrats — appeared on Vogue covers during their time at the White House. Mrs. Obama is a three-time cover girl, with Mrs. Biden going out front twice.

Republicans Laura Bush and Nancy Reagan, plus Democrat Rosalynn Carter, were also featured in Vogue during their White House tenures, although not on the cover.

Vogue ran an inside photo of Republican Barbara Bush in 1951, way before her husband became president, and upon her death in 2018.