Megyn Kelly's Journey Since Leaving Fox News Has Been a Bit of a Roller Coaster

Few commentators have been on a wilder ride over the past eight years than Megyn Kelly. Megyn was one of the most prominent hosts on Fox News prior to Donald Trump's election, but shortly after he was elected president, she left Fox News behind.

After a short-lived stint on NBC, Megyn disappeared from mainstream journalism altogether and now hosts a podcast in which she appears to be avidly pro-Trump. In fact, she appeared with Trump at one of his final rallies ahead of the 2024 election. Given all that, many want to know why Megyn decided to leave Fox News behind in the first place. Here's what we know.

In a 2017 interview on Ellen, Megyn explained why she had chosen to leave Fox. Her reasoning might be surprising to anyone who knows what her political beliefs appear to be today.

“Donald Trump has a way of clarifying one’s life choices," she explained, saying that she wasn't a political person until she became one of the primetime hosts on Fox News.

“Just as I was sort of wondering if [primetime news] was where I wanted to be and how I wanted to live, the universe came and shone a light, and it was clear to me what I wanted to do," she continued. “Bill O’Reilly, of all people, told me when I got to cable news primetime that cable news primetime is a snake pit. And that’s how it felt, and I didn’t want to be in the snake pit, I just wanted to cover the news.”

Trump famously went after Megyn pretty hard during the 2016 Republican primary, posting several misogynistic tweets about her. Megyn said at the time that those tweets just helped her confirm that she didn't want to be a part of the toxicity of primetime at Fox News.

Clearly, though, a lot can change in eight years, and Megyn's opinions about Trump are among the things that seem to have shifted quite radically.

Given how far Megyn has moved in the Trump-ian direction in the years since she left Fox, it's hard to believe that her ideological bent is anything other than a career move. She was against Trump when she thought it might help her get ahead in her career, and now she's supporting him in part because her move to become a mainstream journalist at NBC failed spectacularly.

Megyn even rallied with Trump in Pittsburgh prior to the election, calling him a "protector of women."

"He will close the border," she continued. "He will keep the boys out of girls sports and where they don't belong. And you know what else? One more thing. He will look out for our boys, to our forgotten boys and our forgotten men. Guys like you. Guys like these guys."

"Who got the calluses on their hands?" the one-time apolitical commentator said. "Who work for a living with the beards and the tats. Who maybe have a beer after work and don't want to be judged by people like Oprah and Beyoncé, who will never have to face the consequences of her disastrous economic policies."