Fair Fight? Vanity Fair Facing Backlash for Considering Melania for Cover

Melania Trump was a supermodel–in the elite of the elite in a hypercompetitive industry. 

But, you probably noticed, she was shunned by designers and magazines during Trump’s first term as president, and so far has remained a pariah among the glitterati during his second. 

The new editor of Vanity Fair magazine–who recently took over after a failed tenure from his predecessor–is considering breaking the taboo. He noticed that the descent into woke madness has hurt the premium brand of Condé Nast, the parent company that also owns Vogue, and thinks that expanding the appeal of his product beyond AWFLs might help. 

His employees are revolting. 

Vanity Fair employees lash out over proposed Melania Trump cover: ‘I will walk out the motherf—ing door’ https://t.co/rqoqF5sJAw pic.twitter.com/al3nZc9nC9

— New York Post (@nypost) August 26, 2025

Yes, I know that word has a double meaning, and I think both of them apply in this case. 

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.

It would be glorious if any of these pampered staff members actually did walk out the door, and Mark Guiducci would do himself a huge favor to take them up on the challenge and put Melania on the cover. He could save himself a lot of money and grief if he could separate out the wheat from the chaff and get rid of the complainers. 

Alas, getting a job at Condé Nast is about as common and as remunerative as winning the lottery, and nobody in the publishing industry with two brain cells to rub together would actually follow through with such a rash move. They would take the Jennifer Rubin path and hang on to their jobs until they were kicked out the door unwillingly. 

Rubin, you will recall, applauded her colleagues at the Los Angeles Times who resigned when the paper didn’t endorse Kamala Harris, but when The Washington Post chose to follow the same path, she went radio silent. Now she runs a tiny podcast and opinion site that receives precisely zero attention from people. 

There are media personalities with actual brands — Catherine Herridge, Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger — but most of us in the publishing world are interchangeable cogs or artificially elevated through our corporate backing. We may think we are special, but what we really are is lucky to get paid to do this for a living. 

Woke staff at Vanity Fair threaten to walk out if First Lady Melania Trump is put on the cover.

The magazines global editorial director, Mark Guiducci has floated the possibility of putting the First Lady on the cover, leading to staff threatening to quit.

“I will walk out… pic.twitter.com/RkMe4v48b5

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) August 26, 2025

So it is all virtue signaling, of course. However, it remains a marker for where our cultural elite stands. Those who have to pay the bills have noted the cultural shift, and at least a few are trying to adjust. Those who can afford to spout off without consequence still think that they control everything, and chances are good that if they FA, they will FO. 

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