A Vanity Fair cover featuring First Lady Melania Trump made the rounds on social media on Friday — only it very well could be a fake.
The cover story in question labels her “The American Queen” and the “most enigmatic First Lady,” and teases a story about “Melania Trump’s Silent Revolution.” The keys to that revolution are, apparently, “Fashion, power & the art of staying silent.”
Dubbing Melania the “American Queen” seems to be a direct dig at protestors of the Trump administration, who filled the streets earlier this summer for a set of nationwide “No Kings” protests. Shortly after the image surfaced, longtime Trump supporters began praising it.
“Let the meltdown begin. Love it,” Laura Ingraham wrote on X.
The purported cover comes just days after rumors circulated about the First Lady being potentially offered the slot. But, according to Page Six, she wasn’t interested (her husband Donald Trump has previously said he’s been begged to do things he “didn’t want” to do but done them anyway).
It appears the image originated from Next News Network, a conservative channel on YouTube that boasts in its X bio about being credentialed by the White House. In a post on Thursday with the image, the channel claimed the photo was leaked to them, that it was taken by Annie Leibovitz and earned internal outrage from staffers.
This would not be the first time one of the Trumps has been centered on a fake magazine cover.
Back in 2017, The Washington Post revealed that a TIME magazine cover featuring President Trump — one that was proudly displayed in several of his golf clubs across the country — was actually a fake. A few days later, TIME itself asked Trump to take it down.
Naturally, California governor Gavin Newsom immediately trolled the new image of Melania on Friday morning, continuing his trend of trolling Trump by simply mimicking his posting style.
Shortly after the VF cover posted, Newsom’s press office responded with an AI mock-up of their own. In it, Newsom declares himself the king, and the headline teases a story about “Hair, Gel and the Art of Being so Handsome.”
“AN HONOR!” the X post reads. “THANK YOU!!!”
TheWrap has reached out to Condé Nast for comment.
