Both the photographer and the model would have contractual a say in that, rights are "managed" and detrimental use would not have been approved by the model in this instance, imho.
What modeling agency represented Melania Knauss at the time?
To follow up on this, I read a small comment earlier today from the photographer who owns the photograph of Melania Trump.
He pointed out that the photo is UK copyrighted, not USA - and he was surprised no one contacted him to get his permission. So while he was very pleased his pic was getting all sorts of attention, he was not happy it was used without his permission.
So, if this comment is legitimately from the true photo owner—GQ had no legal right to authorize its use.
(and as an aside, GQ was snarky in their initial mention of Trump — AND -— they downplayed, probably on purpose—just what the real details were about how the photo was used.)