Stop the presses! At least that’s what some social media users are posting after hearing that Anna Wintour may consider putting First Lady Melania Trump on the cover of Vogue.
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Wintour said, “We have a tradition of always covering whoever is the first lady at Vogue, and I can’t imagine that this time would be any different.”
This may come as a surprise to those who believe Vogue leans left. Not only did the fashion bible openly endorse Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, it supported former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, the latter of whom graced the mag’s cover no less than three times.
But does that mean that the venerable fashion magazine — whose editor-in-chief even campaigned for Clinton — would snub Trump as a cover girl? Probably not, and Twitter has thoughts:
If Vogue puts Melania Trump on cover, Teen Vogue can be all “Mom! You’re embarrassing me!”
— Carl Rigney (@carlrigney) February 10, 2017
Teen Vogue is about to dye its hair black and refuse to speak at dinner. https://t.co/wpt8HFphFF
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) February 10, 2017
Per Anna Wintour, Expect to See Melania Trump in Vogue https://t.co/rJshO51269 via @thecut. May be time to boycott Vogue #novogueformelania
— Michael Lyle (@bluecatexpress) February 10, 2017
Wintour: Vogue Will Likely Feature Melania Trump https://t.co/VUAqhJdskV NOPE.
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) February 9, 2017
Oh @voguemagazine The anorexic young girls, fur and @MELANIATRUMP , never will my hands touch a vogue magazine again. #boycott https://t.co/r3nRB5dlbx
— Amy Aiello Lofgren (@azsweetheart013) February 10, 2017
Beyond Trump, the famed editor, 67, also explained the mag’s endorsement of Clinton — the first time Vogue ever publicly endorsed a candidate for president with a column printed inside an issue. “Obviously we felt it was a moment in history for women,” Wintour told WSJ. “At times like that, you need to take a leadership position. … To me, it was in support of women.”
Trump’s potential placement on Vogue is hardly the first time the magazine has caused political controversy. Back in 2012, at the start of the Syrian civil war, the mag ran an exclusive with Syria’s first lady, Asma al-Assad. Though married to the country’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, during whose regime thousands of civilians have been killed, the article called her “a rose in the desert” — which, understandably, many took issue with, considering that Vogue also called both her and her husband “wildly democratic.” (Bashar has since been accused of a list of war crimes by the United Nations.)
Still, Vogue senior editor Chris Knutsen, who edited “A Rose in the Desert,” stood by the story. “We felt that a personal interview with Syria’s first lady would hold strong interest for our readers,” he said. “We thought we could open up that very closed world a very little bit.” And when asked why the article wasn’t harder on the first lady’s husband, Knutsen replied, “The piece was not meant in any way to be a referendum on the al-Assad regime. It was a profile of the first lady.”
It’s worth noting that a future Vogue cover wouldn’t be Trump’s first. The first lady, 46, appeared on Vogue‘s February 2005 issue wearing her custom Dior wedding dress, which she wore to marry President Donald Trump. Inside, she dished about their Palm Beach nuptials. At the time, Donald, 70, was best known for his role on The Apprentice.