Megyn Kelly completes MAGA Makeover by meeting with Trump

Nine years ago, Donald Trump accused Megyn Kelly having “blood out of her eyes, blood out of her everywhere” after his first debate as the Republican presidential nominee in 2015.

What a difference a decade makes: Now the former Fox News anchor will reunite with his one-time nemesis Monday night in Pittsburgh.

In the latest episode of her podcast, Kelly said she’ll do something she’s “never done before” when she campaigns with Trump on Monday night.

Trump, or at least his campaign, seems to believe her help is needed to rally a certain type of female voter during his final stop in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania.

As she explained it, the Trump campaign reached out to her directly over the weekend with an invitation she “never expected” to speak at the rally on Trump’s behalf.

“I will proudly explain to that audience, anywhere, why I think it is absolutely necessary that he win this election,” Kelly said.

The move by the Trump campaign suggests a recognition of weakness in his appeal to female voters. Last week, Kelly publicly criticized the campaign for its “bro-tastic” rally at Madison Square Garden, asking, “Don’t they have any women advising their campaign?”

She complained out of concern that it might make him lose.

Kelly has been a staunch supporter of Trump during this campaign — and an even louder critic of Kamala Harris. She recently defended Trump’s comments about putting Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad and dressed up as literal garbage for Halloween in a performative show of MAGA solidarity. It’s a remarkable development given their contentious history dating back to that 2015 debate.

Her first question that night highlighted Trump’s history of calling women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.” And Trump didn’t take kindly to the question, lashing out at Kelly in the days that followed by apparently implying that she was on her period and calling her a “bimbo” on Twitter.

In 2023, Kelly made it clear that the bad blood was behind them, so to speak. But as recently as March 2009, it sounded bad from Trump from his rally stage in Georgia.

“Megyn Kelly. May she rest in peace,” Trump joked, before adding, “She’s kind of making a career out of pretending to like me.”

Trump has also turned to another former Fox anchor, Tucker Carlson, as a crucial prop during his last-minute rallies. He appeared at the Madison Square Garden rally in New York on the penultimate weekend of the campaign and at an event in Duluth, Georgia, where Carlson, instead of appealing to women voters, launched into a sly rant: “When daddy comes home, you what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl and you’re getting a good beating.’