On the Thursday morning after Congress ended the longest government shutdown in American history, I went to the White House. Nine hours later, I left with a giant shopping bag filled with presidential M&M’s featuring Donald Trump’s signature, a portfolio of photography, and an appreciation that this government—this relentless, clamorous, smash-and-grab government that is changing so much about the country and the world—is run by about half a dozen people. And they had agreed to spend the day with Vanity Fair.
The magazine has been visiting the White House since the ’80s. Tina Brown wrote that she “could hardly breathe” the moment Harry Benson captured “The Reagan Stomp” for the cover of our June 1985 issue. The Reagans got a “farewell” cover in 1988.) VF returned in 1993 to document Clinton’s “New Guard” and again for the second Clintonian West Wing in 1997. In 2002, Annie Leibovitz shot the Bush administration for a portfolio titled “War and Destiny,” and in 2009, VF forewent our annual Hollywood Issue cover for President-elect Barack Obama.
This time, to document Trump 2.0, I was joined by photographer Christopher Anderson, deputy editor Claire Howorth, global creative director Jennifer Pastore, two assistants, Benjamin Coppola and Trip Peters, and Chris Whipple, who, over the course of a year, interviewed White House chief of staff Susie Wiles 11 times.
The resulting story and portfolio—“Eye of the Hurricane,” published online in two parts—is a diary of crisis that goes inside the first year of this administration. And for more on VF’s trip to the White House, read my full editor’s letter.
—Mark Guiducci, global editorial director
