Melania attacks ‘biased’ Anna Wintour for putting Jill Biden on cover but failing to do same for her

Former first lady Melania Trump has lashed out at the editor-in-Chief of Vogue Anna Wintour for putting Jill Biden on the front cover of her magazine, yet failing to do the same for her while husband, Donald Trump, was in office.

In her first interview since leaving the White House, Melania Trump told Fox Nation that she believes media bias against her is the reason for the discrepancy. 

Interviewer Pete Hegseth took a moment to outline the purported bias against her.

‘We did a little research. You were the only first lady to go to the border. You did it twice,’ Hegseth began. ‘How did you put up with the constant criticism?’

‘Take Vogue, for example — five months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Jill Biden’s on the cover. [Vice President] Kamala Harris is on the cover before she’s even sworn in. Hillary Clinton was on the cover when she was first lady. Michelle was on the cover three times. Yet with your business background and your fashion background and your beauty, never on the cover of Vogue. Why the double standard?’, Hegseth inquired.

‘They’re biased and they have likes and dislikes, and it’s so obvious. And I think American people and everyone sees it. It was their decision, and I have much more important things to do — and I did in the White House — than being on the cover of Vogue,’ Melania said in response. 

Melania did once make the cover of Vogue, back in February 2005, when the Conde Nast title scored exclusive shots of her in her wedding dress as she married Donald.   

She was also offered a Vogue shoot shortly after Trump came to power, but refused to accept after the magazine said it could not guarantee her the cover, her former fixer Stephanie Winston-Wolkoff has claimed. 

Other conservative first ladies including both Laura and Barbara Bush were denied the chance of a vogue cover, sparking accusations of liberal bias.  

Five years prior to that, she starred in a nude cover shoot for British GQ when she was still known by her maiden name, Melania Knauss.

More recently, she covered the February 2017 issue of Vanity Fair Mexico, though the story and photos were recycled from a profile featured in GQ in April 2016. Both publications share the same parent company as Vogue, Condé Nast.  

Wintour never explicitly said she would not have Mrs. Trump on the cover again, but she had suggested that she wasn’t interested in doing so.

The distinction of appearing on the front cover was afforded to her predecessor Michelle Obama on three occasions, first in February 2009, less than a month after President Obama’s inauguration, then again in 2013, and finally in November 2016. 

The only other First Lady to appear on the cover before Michelle Obama was Hillary Clinton in 1998. 

A shoot inside the magazine’s pages has become something of a tradition for Presidents’ wives that began with Lou Henry Hoover in 1929. 

Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter,  Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Laura Bush, all appeared in the pages of Vogue during their husband’s respective presidencies. 

Melania’s absence from the publication, along with the US’s other major glossy magazines, sparked fury from Trump and the Republicans throughout his presidency. 

Trump would regularly blast them for failing to give his wife a cover. 

Weeks before he was due to leave the White House, the then-President made his outrage known by tweeting a comment from right-wing publication Breitbart, which called out the ‘elitist snobs in the fashion press’ with Trump adding that Melania is ‘the greatest of all time’ and blasting the magazines as ‘fake news’. 

Melania’s absence as a cover star was keenly felt by the President who often commented that his wife was overlooked, particularly when compared to Michelle Obama, who landed cover shoots with a host of magazines, including Glamour, Elle, O The Oprah Magazine, and Essence. 

Melania did once feature on the cover of Vogue, back in 2005 shortly after she married the billionaire, however Anna Wintour – who has been outspoken in her criticism of Trump and his administration – suggested in 2019 that she would not feature her again, telling Christiane Amanpour: ‘Those of us that work at Conde Nast believe that you have to stand up for what you believe in and you have to take a point of view.’

Melania’s former spokesperson Stephanie Grisham then hit back, insisting that being ‘on the cover of Vogue doesn’t define Mrs. Trump’, adding that she had ‘been there, done that long before she was First Lady’.

When Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on the magazine’s front cover in January 2021, it wasn’t without controversy after the magazine made the decision to swap out her chosen image for another photo at the last minute.

Harris’ debut for the magazine sparked outrage when it was published with hundreds of social media users hitting out at Vogue and Wintour, accusing them of ‘lightening’ the the VP-elect’s skin in the images.      

 Harris had thought her preferred image – which shows the VP-elect in a powder blue suit – would be used on the cover, and said she was only made aware that the more ‘casual’ photo of her wearing Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers had been swapped in when the cover was leaked online. 

Despite the backlash, Harris said that she hoped the cover would serve as an ‘inspiration’ to people of all genders, races, and ages, and demonstrate that ‘your dreams are achievable.’ 

Months later, in August 2021 Jill Biden graved the cover, complete with a lengthy profile praising her as ‘a goddess’ and ‘a joy multiplier’. 

The issue featured a gushing 6,000-word profile about her, as well as several dazzling photos taken at the White House by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, who also snapped former First Ladies Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton when they posed for their own covers of the magazine.  

In the 6,000 word profile, Biden is described in saccharine terms: ‘a joy multiplier,’ ‘a goddess,’ ‘driven, tireless, effortlessly popular, but also someone who reminds us of ourselves,’ and ‘a very stylish person who even in jeans and a cashmere sweater over an untucked chambray looks totally pulled together.’ 

Her appearance on the cover of the magazine saw her following in the footsteps of her close friend Michelle, who posed on the front of Vogue three times during her husband Barack Obama’s presidency – a point that sparked fury from Donald Trump and the Republicans, who questioned why Melania was never given the honor during her time as First Lady. 

But Melania shouldn’t feel too left out – former first lady’s Laura Bush and her mother-in-law, Barbara Bush also never graced the front covers of the fashion mag.  

‘It’s heartbreaking to see’: Melania slams Biden over baby formula crisis and says it’s ‘sad’ children are struggling to eat in ’21st century USA – as formula boss warns crisis will last ALL YEAR

Melania Trump has described the shortage of baby formula nationwide as ‘heartbreaking’ – using her first interview since leaving the White House to say the crisis was down to ‘leadership’.

The former first lady sat down with Fox News’s Pete Hegseth for an interview to be aired in full on Sunday.

In a clip released on Friday night, Hegseth asked for her views on the baby formula problem.

‘It’s heartbreaking to see that they are struggling and the food is not available for children in 21st century in the United States of America,’ she said.

Asked what was causing the shortages, took aim at Joe Biden’s administration and replied: ‘Leadership.’

When Hegseth asked if she meant a lack of leadership, she said: ‘Yeah.’

The 52-year-old has kept a low profile since leaving the White House in January 2021, with only rare sightings by members of Mar-a-Lago.

She has spent her time promoting the sale of her NFT collection of digital artworks.

In January she denied a report in Bloomberg that she was behind the $180,000 purchase of the art after it was claimed no-one else had come forward. 

Her return to the headlines came as the baby formula crisis dominated discussion. 

The head of one of the four companies that control 90 percent of the U.S. market for baby formula has warned that the shortages nationwide could last until the end of the year, and President Joe Biden’s critics mocked his claim that ‘only a mind reader’ could have predicted the current crisis.

On Friday CEO of formula giant Perrigo, Murray Kessler, told Reuters he expects shortages and heightened demand to last for the ‘balance of the year.’

Kessler said their factories in Ohio and Vermont are running at 115 percent capacity, to compensate for Chicago-based Abbott’s shutdown, which happened in mid-February – but added that supplies would remain erratic for the remainder of 2022. 

‘We have stepped up and are killing ourselves to do everything we can,’ Kessler said.

At the request of the FDA, Perrigo is focusing on four items: the store-brand versions of Similac Pro Sensitive and Pro Advance, and Enfamil Gentle Ease and Infant, Kessler said.

The company added that it is making other formulas as well.

It also has a smaller business making some national formula brands, including Bobbie.

The closure of Abbott’s infant-formula plant in Sturgis, Michigan, exacerbated national pandemic-related shortages, leading to empty shelves in big box stores and supermarkets and panicked parents.

Abbott’s brands include Similac formulas.

Perrigo is working with retailers including Walmart and Target Corp so they ‘get something each week,’ Kessler said.

Retailers’ allocations are based on an average of what the retailers received prior to ‘this crisis,’ he said. 

Meanwhile Biden has sparked fury after claiming that the issue could be sorted within weeks – the same as what the FDA has previously said – without offering further unique detail on how he plans to tackle the issue.

He was also accused of being glib after telling reporters Friday that he’d have needed psychic powers to predict the crisis, despite alarm bells sounding as far back as summer 2021.  

The nationwide ‘out of stock’ level has been consistently above 10 percent since August, and in January this year The Wall Street Journal warned of an impending problem.

Brian Deese, Director of the National Economic Council, said on Friday morning that the White House had been urging states to take action to combat the issue in February – after the shortage was exacerbated by a February 17 recall of some products produced by Abbott Laboratories, and a shutdown of one of their plants.

‘We actually gave states the guidance on using flexibility the day after this recall happened in February,’ he told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins.