Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly has often branded herself as a conservative voice, but her history with Donald Trump tells a far more complicated story one that highlights how quickly dissent is punished in Trump’s orbit.
Their fallout dates back to the first Republican primary debate of 2016, which Kelly moderated. During the exchange, she directly confronted Trump over his long record of degrading comments about women. She cited his past use of terms like “fat pigs,” “dogs,” and “disgusting animals,” and pressed him on whether that behavior reflected the temperament of someone fit to be president.
Trump brushed off the criticism by framing it as an attack rooted in “political correctness” and deflecting blame toward Rosie O’Donnell. Kelly pushed back, acknowledging Trump’s feud with O’Donnell but stressing that his pattern of behavior toward women went far beyond a single personal dispute. She referenced comments Trump had made on social media about women’s appearances and a disturbing remark to a Celebrity Apprentice contestant, asking plainly whether such conduct should be acceptable in a presidential candidate.
In her 2016 memoir Settle for More, Kelly later described the encounter as deeply unsettling. She wrote that Trump’s response felt less like a rebuttal and more like an implicit threat. According to Kelly, Trump reminded her that he had been “very nice” to her—and suggested that could change if she continued to challenge him.
Kelly also revealed that Trump had contacted her just days before the debate. During that call, she says he warned that if she gave him a hard time, he would “unleash” his Twitter account against her. She understood the message clearly: fall in line, or face retaliation.
That moment, Kelly says, set off what she described as the most difficult year of her life. The backlash escalated quickly. After the debate, Trump publicly attacked her in an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, claiming there was “blood coming out of her eyes… blood coming out of her wherever.” Many interpreted the comment as a crude insinuation about menstruation—an attempt to belittle her as emotional or unhinged. Trump later tried to walk it back online, insisting he had meant blood from her nose, though the damage was already done.
Despite the sustained attacks, Kelly later wrote that Trump appeared to move on quickly. After he won the presidency, the two posed for a photo together—Trump smiling broadly, Kelly later admitting her own smile was anything but genuine. She eventually interviewed him again on Fox News, noting that he conceded he had been angry for months, even as he denied encouraging supporters to boycott her show.
What stands out in hindsight is not just Trump’s behavior, but Kelly’s eventual political evolution. Despite personally experiencing Trump’s intimidation tactics and public insults, she has since become one of his most outspoken defenders. In recent years, she has embraced his agenda, praised immigration enforcement under his administration, and actively campaigned for him.
At a rally in Pittsburgh in November 2024, Kelly went so far as to describe Trump as a “protector of women”—a claim that sharply contrasts with her own detailed account of how questioning him once triggered harassment, threats, and a prolonged public smear campaign.
The episode serves as a revealing case study in how power, loyalty, and political alignment can override lived experience—even when that experience includes being publicly targeted for simply asking a question.
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