Megyn's 'dark' turn from MAGA critic to booster exposes the 'rot' warping the GOP: report

At one point, following her turbulent exit from Fox News, Megyn Kelly attempted to fashion herself as a mainstream-friendly figure, openly critical of President Donald Trump and ready to move past politics altogether.

Fast-forward to the present, however, and she has again embraced "all standard fare for a right-wing provocateur in 2026," according to an extensive new breakdown from Slate, often praising Trump's agenda and hailing him as a "protector of women," where once she feuded with him over his overt sexist impulses. This transition, writer Christina Cauterucci argued, tells a "dark story" about the "cycle of rot" underpinning the modern Republican Party, and offers a glimpse at how much worse it might get.

"The story of Megyn Kelly isn’t just about a once promising broadcast star who chose radical partisanship over journalism," Cauterucci wrote. "It’s the story of how two American institutions, the Republican Party and the news industry, have warped and withered over the span of the last decade. Trace Kelly’s transformation, and you’ll see a new social order emerge. In a self-sustaining cycle of rot that bodes nothing positive for American democracy, certain sects of the MAGA movement reward their bards for every step they take down the rabbit hole of bigotry and truth denial. The shape of Kelly’s resurrection holds clues about how much deeper it could go."

Prior to Trump's emergence on the GOP political scene, Kelly had the "notable if not breathtaking accomplishment" of being one of the "saner, smarter" voices at Fox News, despite still espousing "all manner of odious far-right views and [seeming] fixated on the notion that the real racism was against white people." It was a temperament that perhaps contributed to her willingness to go after candidate Trump for his boorish behavior.

Leaving Fox amid this conflict with the new GOP standard-bearer and amid a reckoning at the media giant over sexual harassment, many observers thought Kelly "had the potential to thrive outside the right-wing bullpen," setting her up for success in a post-Trump world where "media outlets were looking to burnish their conservative bona fides. She ultimately landed a plum gig at NBC, including a slot on Today, but flamed out after less than two years, after a scandal in which she argued the blackface Halloween costumes were not racist, following a meager tenure at the network where it "became clear that [she] was less a journalistic powerhouse than a glutton for controversy."

Now, she has made the lucrative transition to the world of podcasts, YouTube and radio shows, which has seen her embrace increasingly more extreme rhetoric in order to stand out.

"Today, in the podcasting world, Kelly is encountering a different incentive structure," Cauterucci explained. "To be taken seriously and stand out in a crowded field, blistering, often unhinged takes are mandatory, and journalistic norms have little relevance. You can probably guess their general thrust. In recent episodes, Kelly has declared that Rachel Maddow is 'completely smug and ignorant.' 'No Kings' protesters are 'morbidly obese' and 'leftist freaks.' Trump never called the Charlottesville neo-Nazis 'very fine people.' (He did!) Michelle Obama... is an ungrateful snob. 'Everything with her reduces to a racial grievance,' Kelly said. 'I’ve had it with this b——h.'"

She continued: "But whether Kelly is motivated by ideology, money, celebrity, or some combination of those, her transformation is a disturbing bellwether of where the GOP and the media are today, and what happens when they collide. Animated by the edgelord paradigm Trump has ushered in, today’s right-wing podcast game is an arms race of sensationalism and spite, a race to the bottom with the bottom dropping ever further out of reach."

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