Maria Puente

USA TODAY

Talk about awkward: Vanity Fair Mexico put an old picture of first lady Melania Trump — dripping in jewels and pretending to eat a bowl of sparkly baubles — on its cover just as the U.S.-Mexico relationship is starting to deteriorate under President Trump.

She plans to become "the new Jackie Kennedy," the cover proclaims in Spanish, as the immigrant first lady sits at a table pretending to eat ropes of diamonds as if they were spaghetti.

"Melania Trump, on February cover," the magazine's tweet on Thursday said. "A report that reveals the past of this intriguing first lady."

The tweet appeared on the same day President Trump vowed again to build a border wall that could cost $20 billion and make Mexico pay for it. He also floated the idea of charging a 20% import tax on Mexican goods. That led Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto to cancel a planned visit to Washington.

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The cover did not go over well in Mexico nor in the USA, judging from tweets. "Total lack of sensitivity," said one tweet in Spanish; "worst timing in all editorial history," charged one in English.

By Friday afternoon, the magazine's tweet had disappeared, replaced with a message reading, more or less: "The magazine detaches itself from offensive messages that in social networks have been attributed to its publishers."

The story and photo were recycled from GQ's April 2016 issue. GQ and Vanity Fair are owned by the same parent company, Condé Nast, but President Trump especially loathes VF and its editor, Graydon Carter, with whom he has feuded for years.

"No talent, he will be out!" he shout-tweeted in December.

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