A growing rebellion among President Trump’s most loyal media allies has escalated with former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly delivering a scathing personal assessment of the commander in chief, calling him “not a moral man,” “not the greatest husband in the world,” and “extremely petty and thin-skinned” during her SiriusXM show with guest Russell Brand.
The brutal takedown comes as Trump’s approval rating has plummeted to 33 percent, according to AP polling, with only 23 percent of independents approving his overall performance and just 21 percent backing the Iran war. Kelly emphasized the dire political reality on her April 24 show: “You’ve got 79 percent of independents against you. You’re effed.”
Tucker Carlson, Fox News’ former primetime anchor, went further than Kelly in his repudiation. On April 21, Carlson told his brother Buckley on The Tucker Carlson Show: “We’ll be tormented by it for a long time — I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people.” The stunning admission of regret for supporting Trump represented an unprecedented break from one of the president’s most influential boosters.
Speaking with Brand during Episode 1301 of The Megyn Kelly Show, which aired Wednesday, April 22, Kelly attempted to provide a balanced critique while acknowledging Trump’s positive qualities. She praised his “charming” sense of humor and “unwillingness to stay down,” saying there is “still, in my view, a lot to like about Trump.” However, she added that “some of those darker demons are much more in the front view right now.”
Kelly accused Trump of betraying his most devoted supporters who oppose the Iran war while embracing establishment figures who “hated him from the beginning and were the original never Trumpers.” She told Brand: “If you have a principled disagreement with something he does, you’re otherized, you’re the enemy.”
The fracturing extends beyond Kelly and Carlson. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones called for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, asking on his show, “How do we 25th Amendment his ***?” Jones also wrote on X that Trump “literally sounds like an unhinged super villain from a Marvel comic movie.”
Candace Owens similarly turned on the president, posting on X that Trump is “a genocidal lunatic” and that “Congress and military need to intervene.” She added separately: “It may be time to put Grandpa up in a home.”
Trump fired back with a 485-word Truth Social post targeting all four critics by name, branding Kelly, Carlson, Owens, and Jones as “losers,” “nut jobs,” and “stupid people” with “low IQs” running “third-rate podcasts.” “They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too!” he wrote.
Kelly’s response came on Piers Morgan’s show, where she declared that “the Trump coalition that got him elected is completely fractured and in smithereens. And he doesn’t care, because he doesn’t care about the Republican Party. He cares about himself.”
Regarding the Iran ceasefire brokered by Pakistan in mid-April, Kelly was equally direct, calling it “very much like surrender on our part — which I’m in favor of. It was folly to begin with. It was folly throughout.”
Kelly noted that she and Carlson have occasionally clashed with Trump over the years despite defending him through criminal indictments and the 2024 campaign. The reward for that loyalty, she argued, is nonexistent.
The revolt appears driven by Trump’s determination to pursue the Iran war despite opposition from his base, combined with his public attacks on Pope Leo XIV.
Beyond the Trump discussion that dominated headlines, Brand opened up extensively during the wide-ranging interview. The 50-year-old British comedian, actor, and author of the forthcoming book How to Become a Christian in Seven Days addressed the rape and sexual assault charges he faces in the U.K., with trial set for October. He admitted to sleeping with a 16-year-old when he was 30 — legal in Britain but “exploitative” in hindsight — and reflected on past drug and sex addictions.
Brand discussed his ex-wife Katy Perry’s relationship with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the recent sexual assault allegations against Perry by actress Ruby Rose. He also spoke about finding God and his Christian faith, distinguishing immoral and criminal behavior.
The conversation ranged across political topics including the alleged connection between the Southern Poverty Law Center and the 2017 Charlottesville rally referenced in a new Department of Justice indictment, the question of why Trump rose to power, and what Kelly called “the fraud of the two-party system.”
Whether the MAGA civil war ends in reconciliation now seems beside the point. The more pressing question, as Kelly herself put it, is no longer who Trump has lost — but who remains.
