Vanity Fair Staff Threatens to ‘Walk Out the Motherf*cking Door’ if Melania Trump on Cover
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BETHESDA, MARYLAND – FEBRUARY 14: First Lady Melania Trump visits the Children’s Inn atTasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Olivia Rondeau27 Aug 20251,116
2:29
Vanity Fair‘s new global editorial director has floated the idea of putting first lady Melania Trump on the cover, prompting employees of the fashion magazine to threaten to “walk out the motherf*cking door.”
Mark Guiducci, tapped to take charge of the magazine’s creative direction in June, is interested in asking the first lady to grace the cover of the long-running publication, Semafor first reported.
The magazine’s parent company, Conde Nast, notably excluded her from Vanity Fair and Vogue during President Donald Trump’s first term, though she said she has “no interest” in appearing on Vogue‘s glossy cover in a December 2024 Fox News interview.
Left-wing Vanity Fair staffers shared their gripes on the prospect of publishing a Melania cover, with one editor telling the Daily Mail, “I will walk out the motherf*cking door, and half my staff will follow me.”
One anonymous staffer told the outlet, “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.”
“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 employee added.
Other Vanity Fair employees cast doubt on their colleagues’ credibility, with one claiming their threats of quitting are “all talk.”
“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,” the unidentified staffer added. “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.”
When speaking with Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade last December, Melania said, “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.”
“I think that life would not change for anybody if I’m on the cover,” the first lady added.