'It sickens me': Vanity Fair staffers threaten walk-out over possible Melania Trump cover
The new global editorial director of venerable publication Vanity Fair is confronting a firestorm of his own making by floating the prospect of putting Melania Trump on the cover of the magazine in the near future.
Since taking over, Mark Guiducci has been forcing out longtime writers and restaffing the Condé Nast publication in an effort to put his own stamp on Vanity Fair.
According to a report from the New York Post, the possibility of a Melania cover appears to be a bridge too far for those remaining.
One editor speaking with the Daily Mail tabloid, “I will walk out the motherf–-ing door, and half my staff will follow me.”
Another staffer complained, “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,” before adding, “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.”
Another bluntly stated, "It sickens me – even the idea of it.”
The failure of two-time first lady Melania Trump, a former model, to land a cover of a major fashion magazine has long been a particular irritant to Donald Trump, with NBC News reporting back in 2018, “There’s a clear reluctance among editors to put themselves in the cross-hairs of the culture wars.
Mostly New York-based editors may fear having to face unhappy readers or advertisers if they go with a choice so closely tied to the president.
Trump was famously tagged with the epithet "short-fingered vulgarian" by longtime Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter when he worked for Spy magazine in the late 1980s.
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