Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly unleashed on President Donald Trump during an appearance on the Hodgetwins Podcast, accusing the president of hypocrisy after he criticized former administration official Joe Kent over his remarriage following the death of Kent’s first wife.
The heated exchange stemmed from comments Trump made about Kent, who previously served as the president’s counterterrorism chief before resigning from the second Trump administration in March amid disagreements over the U.S. conflict with Iran.
Kent had publicly broken with the administration after writing a sharply worded letter arguing that Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the United States and accusing Israel of pressuring Trump into military action. The dispute highlighted growing fractures among conservatives over America’s continued involvement in overseas conflicts and the human cost that often follows war.
Kent’s first wife, Shannon Kent, was killed in 2019 during a suicide bombing while serving with the U.S. military in Syria. More than four years later, Kent remarried.
When asked about tensions with his former aide, Trump said he was “not a fan of” Kent and took aim at him for remarrying “fairly quickly” after Shannon’s death.
Kelly reacted furiously to the remark, arguing Trump had no standing to lecture anyone about relationships or marriage.
“Talk about a glass house!” Kelly exclaimed during the interview. “I mean, Trump has cheated on every wife he’s had.”
Kelly pointed specifically to Trump’s relationship with Marla Maples, which began while he was still married to his first wife, Ivana Trump.
“He met Marla Maples while he was still married to the mother of his children, Ivana,” Kelly said. “It was all over the New York papers.”
Kelly then referenced allegations made by Ivana Trump in her first book, in which Ivana accused Trump of raping her following an argument connected to a painful hair transplant procedure. Kelly acknowledged that Ivana later retracted the accusation when Trump ran for president and stated she did not know whether the allegation was true.
“I don’t know whether that’s true or not,” Kelly said, “but just saying, clearly not a great relationship there.”
She also mocked the idea that Trump had been completely faithful during his marriage to First Lady Melania Trump.
“And then he winds up with Melania,” Kelly added, “and you know, if you think Trump’s been faithful to Melania that’s great. You got bigger issues than I can solve here.”
Kelly’s criticism came shortly after she shared a deeply personal story about the sudden death of her own father, who died of a heart attack at age 45. She explained that her mother, then 44 years old, was left devastated and struggling to raise three children after losing her husband.
“They had a true love affair,” Kelly said of her parents. “They deeply loved one another.”
According to Kelly, her mother joined a counseling group for widows and widowers and spent years grieving before eventually meeting another man in the group who had also lost his spouse.
“And she did that every day for three years,” Kelly explained. “And at year four-and-a-half, she got married to him.”
Kelly argued that four years was hardly a rushed remarriage, especially for mature adults rebuilding their lives after tragedy.
“Four years is a long time, actually,” she said. “It’s plenty of time to grieve your spouse and possibly find love again.”
The debate underscores ongoing tensions within conservative circles not only over loyalty to Trump, but also over the emotional toll carried by military families after years of American involvement in conflicts abroad.
