Anna Wintour visited the White House on Thursday despite Melania Trump’s irritation at not appearing on the cover of Vogue as first lady.
The legendary editor of Vogue was at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a meeting with Donald Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles to discuss the impact of the president’s tariffs on the fashion industry.
But the internet lit on fire with speculation the meeting may result in Melania Trump getting her first Vogue cover as first lady.
It was notable in the first Trump term that Melania Trump was missing from the pages of the fashion bible. She and Donald Trump knew Wintour socially, had attended The Met Gala and Melania graced the cover in February 2005 wearing her wedding dress.
In comparison, Jill Biden and Michelle Obama appeared on the cover of Vogue three times each during their tenures as first lady.
But Melania never received a single cover shot.
Neither the White House nor Vogue magazine responded to DailyMail’s inquiry as to whether the subject of a Vogue cover came up in Wintour’s meeting with Wiles.
Wintour was captured on social media coming out of the West Wing entrance wearing a black and white floor length coat and carrying a large white bag.
She and Melania Trump have a lot in common – both are foreigners who came to America to make their mark. They share a love of Italian designers and fashion in general.
But Wintour met with Wiles, Trump’s stylish chief of staff who has cultivated her own fan base with her signature look of a powersuit, silver bob and aviator sunglasses.
Wiles has earned the nickname the ‘Ice Maiden’ for her steely resolve, while Wintour’s staffers have been known to refer to her as ‘Nuclear Wintour’ because of her frosty demeanor.
During the sitdown at the White House, Wintour was joined by Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), and Stephen Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA).
The trio explained to Wiles that the fashion industry is already one of the most heavily tariffed industries in the United States and ‘extra tariffs on top of existing duties would place the fashion industry at a disproportionate disadvantage compared to other industries,’ according to a post on the meeting on Vogue Business.
‘From the meeting, plans were made to further engage with the administration in the weeks ahead,’ the post noted.
Anna Wintour seemed to leave the door open to a Melania cover during the first term, telling the Wall Street Journal in 2017 that: ‘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.’
Yet no cover materialized.
There were reports Melania Trump was offered a Vogue photo shoot and feature story during her first White House tenure, but was not guaranteed the cover.
Often Republican first ladies – such as Laura Bush – get inside features in Vogue but not the coveted cover shot.
Melania seemed to confirm this during a 2022 appearance on Fox & Friends.
‘They have likes and dislikes, and it’s so obvious,’ she said.
Wintour is a top fundraiser for the Democratic Party and at one point was rumored to be in the running to be the American ambassador to the Court of St. James in London.
She was last at the White House in early January, when then-President Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
As Wintour became more political, her relationship with the Trumps cooled.
Vogue also ran a critical piece on Melania Trump’s official portrait as first lady when it was released in January, writing she looked ‘more like a freelance magician than a public servant’.
The writer of the piece, Hannah Jackson, also noted that ‘Trump looked more like she was guest starring on an episode of than assuming the role of First Lady of the United States.’
Trump’s conservative supporters hit back, calling the parent company of Vogue ‘Conde Nasty.’