Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade urged Vanity Fair staffers to hunt out their colleagues who anonymously complained about the possibility of the fashion magazine placing Melania Trump on the cover, saying that those employees “should be fired.”
Meanwhile, Kilmeade’s co-anchor Ainsley Earhardt declared that she would buy several copies of the magazine if they gave the first lady a cover feature, adding that she would want the magazine’s “stock to go up” if they were willing to “tell both sides.”
Over the weekend, Semafor reported that new Vanity Fair editor Mark Guiducci – who recently replaced Radhika Jones at the top of the Conde Nast publication’s masthead – “has made his presence felt” since taking over the magazine.
Besides looking to make some splashy hires while moving the outlet away from “commodity Hollywood coverage and focus on editorially distinct output,” Guiducci is also pushing the magazine in a different editorial direction – which could include overtures towards MAGA world.
“But the post-COVID cultural swing to the right, capped by Trump’s election in 2024, has impressed upon the new editor that Vanity Fair needs to change who appears in its pages,” Semafor noted. “Guiducci’s mandate to rethink the publication’s relationship with power and celebrity is likely to mean a greater open-mindedness to seeking access to figures likely to repel magazine’s liberal readers. He’s told people he’s potentially interested in putting Melania Trump on the cover.”
The Daily Mail soon reported that Vanity Fair staff erupted “in fury” over the proposed cover with Donald Trump’s spouse, with some even vowing to “quit their jobs” if Guiducci granted her the spot.
“I will walk out the motherf***ing door, and half my staff will follow me,” a “mid–level editor” told the Daily Mail. “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 fact that Conde Nast’s fashion mags had excluded Melania Trump from their covers during her husband’s first term has long been a sore spot for conservatives and the first lady herself, as well as a consistent source for ragebait in the right-wing media ecosystem for years. Therefore, it was hardly a surprise that the president’s favorite morning show would seize on this latest story.
“I can tell you that was a leaked story from Vanity Fair because they are trying to soften up the opposition they are going to face when this happens,” Fox & Friends co-host Charlie Hurt noted on Tuesday’s broadcast.
“A lot of people that work at Vanity Fair are not in favor of this,” Earhardt reacted, referencing the Daily Mail’s story about the staff’s reaction to the Semafor report. “And they’re raging at the idea based on the cuss words in the paragraphs I am reading from people who work here.”
After Earhardt quoted the one editor’s comments to the Mail, complete with the Fox & Friends star butchering the pronunciation of “despot,” Kilmeade jumped in and demanded that the staffer be outed by their colleagues.
“You should be fired if you are not exposed,” the Trump-boosting host grumbled. “If you’re at Vanity Fair right now, walk around and look for a mid-level editor that sounds angry, and toss them out and send them to Trader Joe’s!”
With Hurt and Earhardt smiling and chuckling, Kilmeade added that the grocery chain may not take this ousted employee “because they have standards.” Before Kilmeade could continue his tirade against Vanity Fair staffers who disagree with giving Melania Trump the cover, Earhardt interjected to heap praise on the outlet if they pulled the trigger.
“I would buy the magazine. I’d buy several of them if they would do this just to prove a point that I want your stock to go up because I’m in support of this,” she declared. “You need to tell both sides.”Earhardt added: “You had Michelle Obama on Vogue several times. You had Jill Biden on Vogue several times. You had Hillary Clinton inside the magazine on one of the pages. No Melania after she became First Lady!”
The curvy couch crew then aired an interview they did with the first lady this past holiday season, which saw the hosts asking her if she expected fashion magazines to reverse course and feature her on their covers during the second term.
“I’ve been there on the cover of Vogue, on the cover of many magazines before, and for me, we have so many other important things to do than to be on the cover of any magazine,” the president’s wife said at the time. “I think the life would not change for anybody if I’m on the cover of the magazine.”
Following the clip, Kilmeade paraphrased the first lady by claiming she was essentially saying “it’s your loss if you don’t put her on the cover,” while Earhardt – whom the president recently praised for being in the “greatest relationship” with his pal Sean Hannity – insisted that publications would see a financial windfall if they just celebrated the Trumps.
“I agree. Especially at a time when magazines are not doing well, this would do well for them,” she concluded.
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