Why Hasn't Melania Trump Graced Any Magazine Covers Since Becoming First Lady?
Long before Melania Trump became the first lady of the United States, she was a working model. She started her career when she was 16 years old and living in Slovenia before she uprooted to Milan at age 18. Then, in 1996, her profession brought her to the U.S., where she lived and worked as a model in New York.
In fact, it was Melania’s career that essentially landed her at a party during Fashion Week in September 1998, where she met her husband, President Donald Trump.
Melania Trump never reached supermodel status. Her former roommate and photographer Matthew Atanian told Vanity Fair in 2016 the future first lady was only getting “second-and-third-tier modeling work” when she arrived in the states. Regardless, Melania Trump has experience as a working model, so how come she hasn’t been featured on the cover of any fashion magazines since her husband came into office?
It’s a question actor James Woods raised on Twitter on Saturday, which has since sparked a huge debate. “If the Trumps were Democrats, Melania would be on every cover of every chic women’s magazine in the world every month,” he wrote, along with an old photo of Melania Trump sitting in a blue strapless dress.
A wave of people seemed to agree with Woods’ sentiments, noting that U.S. magazines have apparently become politically biased, favoring the left over the right, while others compared Melania Trump’s lack of magazine covers to the several features former first lady Michelle Obama received while her husband, former President Barack Obama, was in office from 2009 to 2017.
During Barack Obama’s eight-year tenure, Michelle Obama graced a total of 12 magazine covers. In addition to appearing on the cover of famous fashion mag Vogue three times, she’s also advocated national interest issues in two Essence magazine features, twice for Time magazine and Glamour magazine, and once for Redbook, Instyle and Radar.
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