Writers at the uber-liberal Vanity Fair are having fits about the new editor’s reported decision to run a cover featuring Melania Trump. Some say they’ll quit their jobs, so deeply do they feel their morals would be compromised by celebrating the First Lady and wife of Donald Trump.
Vanity Fair Staffers Reach for the Smelling Salts as Editor Ponders Melania Cover https://t.co/QJfDcVJ7fD pic.twitter.com/01Lpr5AoZd
— Liz Peek (@lizpeek) August 27, 2025
Shame on them. Answering their playground threats to pick up their toys and go home, I ask: What has Melania Trump ever done to you?
Semafor was the first to report that VF’s new global editorial director, Mark Guiducci, was trying to set up a photoshoot with the first lady. In the piece delivering that tidbit, Semafor trashes Vanity Fair, describing it as suffering from “A long slide in budgets, relevance, and web traffic, [as well as] subscription fatigue”; in addition, “layoffs and departures have decimated key parts of the publication…”
Otherwise, the woke one-time plaything of Graydon Carter is just doing super. Its struggles may be why Conde Nast’s uber-everything editor Anna Wintour put a 37-yer-old in charge of the worn-out rag. If he sinks, so long VF; if he succeeds by bringing the magazine into the 21st century, it will get a new lease on life.
Semafor says Guiducci wants a “more swashbuckling Vanity Fair plugged directly into America’s power centers.” His challenge will be that most of our power centers are currently dominated by President Trump, a leader VF has vilified for years, along with all the other Conde Nast publications, none of which has heretofore offered Melania a cover. Given the First Lady’s style and obvious fashion sense, Vogue would be the obvious choice, but that would offend the dandies running that mag, too, and would be anathema to doyenne Anna.
I should note that Mrs. Trump did make Vogue’s cover in 2005 when she married The Donald, but unlike every other First Lady, has not appeared during her husband’s time in office.
That is a disgrace. Melania has carved out an important role in the Trump White House promoting the online safety and overall care of children around the world. Her official biography (from her husband’s first term) includes elevating “awareness around issues such as Sickle Cell Disease, Social-Emotional Learning curriculum (SEL), protecting Native American children in the Indian Health Service System (IHS), and issues within our Nation’s child welfare system.” She has used her campaign BE BEST to “raise awareness about the dangers of opioid abuse—notably the devastating effects it has on infants and unborn babies.” For more on her activities, click on this link .
More recently, FLOTUS launched Fostering the Future, a BE BEST initiative, which gives college scholarships to those aging out of the foster care system. The funds for the program are generated from her Web 2 and Web 3 platforms.
And, Melania has weighed in on the Ukraine-Russia war, penning a letter to strongman Vladimir Putin asking that he return to their families Ukrainian children abducted during the conflict – a letter which the president delivered in person during their recent summit.
One wonders which part of her resume so offends VF’s faint-hearted staff? That she is an immigrant who chose to become a US citizen the right way? That she has conducted herself with grace throughout her White House years? That she is clearly a devoted mother to Barron?
No, their problem is she’s married to Donald Trump. Liberals were once considered open-minded and – yes – liberal, defined as “willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own”; that is no longer the case. In academia, media and entertainment, the Left shows us everyday what real authoritarianism, the urge to control thought and speech, looks like. Unlike Melania, it’s not pretty.
