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Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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Megyn Kelly has spent Trump’s second term spreading hate and rage on her podcast

She's just been rewarded with a SiriusXM channel launching in November — and here's what you can likely expect

Written by Alyssa Tirrell, Torri Lonergan & Ben Van Bloem

Published

Throughout President Donald Trump’s second term, podcaster Megyn Kelly has repeatedly used The Megyn Kelly Show to target marginalized communities, including Muslims, Black women, immigrants, and trans people. Now, SiriusXM is giving her an even larger platform to spread hateful rhetoric and take aim at anyone she opposes.

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  • Kelly is stepping up her partnership with SiriusXM

    • Megyn Kelly has worked with SiriusXM since 2021, when she launched her radio show. The Hollywood Reporter noted that she renewed that deal in 2023. [The Hollywood Reporter, 10/9/25]
    • Kelly kicked off her new SiriusXM channel, The Megyn Kelly Channel, on November 4, 2025. According to a SiriusXM press release, “The new deal extends the successful relationship that has made 'The Megyn Kelly Show' one of the platform’s most successful political and cultural programs.” [SiriusXM, 10/9/25]
    • This multi-year deal promises to further boost Kelly's influence in the podcast space through collaboration with other pundits. Channel 111 will air The Megyn Kelly Show and Kelly's morning program AM Update alongside contributions from Maureen Callahan, Mark Halperin, Link Lauren, and Emily Jashinsky, all of whom already work within Kelly's MK Media network. The channel will also feature figures from The Jesse Kelly Show and RealClear Politics who have appeared on Kelly's show in the past. According to Kelly, additional shows will be added in the coming months. [Variety, 10/9/25; Twitter/X, 10/31/25; The Daily Mail, 11/3/25; Sirius XM, 11/4/25]

  • Megyn Kelly has pushed Islamophobic rhetoric, associating Islam with violence and terrorism and calling the U.S. “a Christian nation”

    • Kelly pushed a narrative popular with the British right about a “rape crisis in the U.K.” perpetrated by “Muslim immigrants” targeting “young white English girls.” Kelly said, “We've been watching the rape crisis in the U.K., and largely perpetrated by these Muslim immigrants." She continued, “Foreigners were convicted of up to 23% of the sex crimes happening in the U.K., per the Ministry of Justice statistics there. So they don't make up 23% of the population yet, but they're committing 23% of the sex crimes. … And there was just a huge scandal that broke last spring of all these, like, foreign nationals who are in the U.K. who are raping young girls and getting away with it. Like the whole system was covering up for them because they didn’t want to confront the uncomfortable fact that these were brown and Black men raping young white English girls.” [The Guardian, 9/2/25; SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/14/25]
    • Kelly said that Islam is “inconsistent with our fundamental values” and defended being an “Islamophobe.” Kelly insisted, “One thing we don't want here in America is a ton more Muslims immigrating into the United States. Sorry, but we don't.” She continued, “And that business about Islamophobia being used as though it's an accusation of racism is important. It's OK. I think it's fine. Islamophobia, what does that mean? I don't want actual Islam, like the deep tenants of Islam, taking over my country because it's inconsistent with our fundamental values as a people. That's fine. If that makes me an Islamophobe, great. OK. Then I am. I don't care.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/14/25, 10/14/25]
    • Kelly called America “a Christian nation” while criticizing New York City then-mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Kelly said, “Why don't you [Andrew Cuomo] look over at him and say, I don't have to go visit a mosque, alright? I live in America. It's a Christian nation. I'm fine with Muslims, but I certainly don't need to go and listen to Allahu akbar while people are on their knees five times a day in order to run this city.” She continued, “This is the guy who this video came out during the course of the campaign of him eating rice with his hands.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/17/25 10/17/25] 
    • Kelly later called Mamdani a “terror-loving candidate” who she “actually believe[s] doesn't give a shit that we were attacked by Muslim terrorists on 9/11.” Kelly said, “This guy scares me, and it's not just because he happens to be Muslim." She continued, “Islam is not consistent with our Western lifestyle or values, and I am not in favor of all of these hard Muslim representatives taking over as mayors in our cities. I'm not. It's one thing if you're a Muslim who wants to assimilate, you want to become much more like an American citizen. It's quite another if you have traditional Muslim views, which see women as subjugated, which don't believe in free speech, which do believe in merging the state and religion. And by the way, the religion is not a great one, sorry. And that's Zohran Mamdani.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/22/25, 10/22/25, 10/22/25]
    • Kelly said that the “department on Middle East studies” at Columbia University seemed like “the place you go to learn jihad.” Kelly said of Trump, “Then there's Columbia University, where he went in and said, this is a hotbed of antisemitism. You guys are out of control." She continued, “You need us to take over your weird department on Middle East studies, which seems to be, like, the place you go to learn jihad, and we need to take that over, and a bunch of other things.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 3/24/25]

  • Kelly has made racist comments about people of color, particularly Black women, belittled DEI, and targeted Democratic cities with significant minority populations

    • Kelly said that “a lot of Black women” in positions of power “have ascended to these positions on very thin credentials.” Kelly named Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook as an example, claiming that she had “DEI-ed her way” into her position at the Fed. [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 9/2/25]
    • Kelly has repeatedly belittled prominent Black women who attended Ivy League universities, including Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, and Joy Reid. Kelly said that Obama “did not have the scores — another way of saying it would be brainpower, it is an aptitude test — to get into Princeton on her own, that they had to lower the standards for her, and they were willing to do that because of the color of her skin.” She continued, “The color of her skin is the reason she got into Princeton and got a lifetime of advantages that she's still living high on the hog from.” Kelly added, “Joy Reid went to Harvard. I mean, that's all you really need to know about what a farce affirmative action is.” While attacking Kamala Harris in another episode, Kelly asked, “Are they not very smart at Howard? I'm sorry. I, like, what's wrong with the girls at Howard? Can't they do math?” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/17/25, 10/17/25, 9/30/25]
    • Kelly complained that “you can't say anything that is in any way critical of a minority racial group, especially Blacks in America.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 7/28/25]
    • Kelly called Obama-appointed federal judges “absolute idiots” who were hired because of their “DEI profile.” Kelly said, “I mean, we saw all these DEI hires under Obama. We saw some of these confirmation hearings that get through. These judges were absolute idiots. They didn't understand anything about the Constitution, but they had the right DEI profile.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 2/13/25]
    • Kelly called the late George Floyd a “derelict career criminal.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 9/10/25]
    • Kelly justified a National Guard presence in Chicago by saying “Blacks are killing other Blacks and Hispanics like it's going out of style” and called Baltimore “absolutely disgusting.” Kelly said, “And my only question in watching Trump talk about this today was, how about the other cities? Because New York is practically still in my backyard. … Baltimore is absolutely disgusting. … Chicago and its murder rate on the South Side where Blacks are killing other Blacks and Hispanics like it's going out of style, the left never says a word about it.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 8/11/25]
    • Kelly said, “We're over the stupid ‘end racism’ Black national anthem nonsense in the NFL," calling it “utter bullshit.” Complaining about the NFL playing the Black national anthem before a game, Kelly said, “It really is kind of amazing we're still dealing with this utter bullshit five years after George Floyd.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 9/5/25]

  • Kelly has ranted about immigration, complaining that the United States is being “overrun with foreigners”

    • Kelly raged at migrants, saying, “My god, get out, go home. Why are we so overrun with foreigners? Like, we need to have a country again.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 8/25/25]
    • Kelly said that “illegal immigrants” are “big fans of exploiting, raping, molesting children as a rule.” Kelly said, “These guys always have crimes against children. They're big fans of exploiting, raping, molesting children as a rule. If you're going to go collect some huge group of illegal immigrants here on Tom Homan's watch, the odds are you're going to find child sexual predators.” [Sirius XM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 6/9/25]
    • Kelly pushed the “great replacement” theory, arguing that immigrants from “predominantly Black and brown countries” were “diluting the votes” of “white rural voters.” Kelly said, “While the left was attacking rural whites as the problem, Joe Biden was letting in some 10 to 20 million illegals — from predominantly Black and brown countries — effectively diluting the votes of those rageful white rural voters.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/5/25; Media Matters, 1/12/24]

  • Kelly has repeatedly made hateful comments about trans identity and targeted specific trans people

    • Kelly claimed trans people and other culture war issues are “the road to end times” and take us back to “the fall of the Roman Empire.” She explained, “Right before the fall of the Roman Empire, the culture completely imploded with debauchery." She continued, “We're back there in some ways with, like, throuples and people trying to normalize pedophilia with the ‘minor attracted person’ label, and the cutting off of children's genitals in the name of, like, ‘equity and inclusion,’ dividing us by race, trying to make little girls boys when they're not, like, all this stuff.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 7/21/25] 
    • Kelly compared the use of trans people’s correct pronouns to “the date rape drug” Rohypnol. “Pronouns are Rohypnol. Pronouns are Rohypnol. They want us to dull them. They want us to give our natural instincts — Rohypnol, the date rape drug, which dulls our senses, so that we won't act on all of our instincts telling us this is a man.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 5/27/25]
    • Kelly insisted, “There's no question that there's an increasing trend that trans or trans-identified people are committing mass shootings or, you know, motivated at least in part by that.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 9/29/25]
    • Kelly referred to trans women as “men posing as women” while discussing their inclusion in Sports Illustrated. She continued, “You know, like, people with penises in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/16/25]
    • Kelly said “I really don’t think there’s any such thing” as transgender people. Kelly: “Transgender people, you know, so called — I honestly, I don't, I just, I really don't think there's any such thing. There's people who have gender dysphoria who say they're a sex other than the one they are.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 2/4/25]
    • Kelly fearmongered about schools socially “transitioning” students “without telling the parents.” Kelly said, “Kids who express gender confusion, if you just leave them alone and you don't start socially transitioning them, or changing names, or — 90% of them plus will revert to their biological sex and forget the gender nonsense. But, what happens is these schools, without telling the parents, start transitioning them. And then they don't tell the parents anything.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 3/4/25]
    • Kelly has repeatedly lobbed personal attacks against trans people. In the last year, she has repeatedly singled out specific trans people with disparaging comments, including Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), American Civil Liberties Union attorney Chase Strangio, actor Elliot Page, fencer Red Sullivan, and influencer Dylan Mulvaney. She even went so far as to suggest trans swimmer Lia Thomas was an “abomination to God.” [Media Matters, 5/22/25; SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/5/25]

  • Kelly has encouraged prosecutions of perceived political enemies and fearmongered about Democrats and the left, saying “they have to suffer”

    • Kelly has expressed approval of Trump targeting political enemies, saying, “It's time. I'm fucking done taking the high road. They have to suffer.” While discussing the federal investigation into Lisa Cook, Kelly said, “We're done with the excess exercise of discretion,” adding, “That's fine by me.” She continued, “We didn't prosecute Hillary Clinton. We did not go after her. We did not lock her up. We tried to take the high road. They didn't accept the olive branch.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 8/26/25; CNN, 9/25/25]
    • Kelly has also repeatedly called for Trump to prosecute his political enemies. While discussing the temporary suspension of The Jimmy Kimmel Show, Kelly said, “To me it's just like the lawfare. They won't stop unless we give them a taste of their own medicine." She continued, “I'm sorry, but they need to suffer the consequences of their own behavior,” and went on to name former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), all of whom have been indicted or threatened with indictments under the Trump administration. Two days later, Kelly again called for Comey, James, and Schiff to “get prosecuted, assuming that they have a good-faith basis for the charges.” She added, “There is no other way of restoring things to normal.” [SiriusXM,The Megyn Kelly Show, 9/23/25, 9/25/25; NBC, 9/26/25; The Washington Post, 10/27/25; PBS, 10/24/25; MSNBC, 10/23/25] 
    • In a discussion about online radicalization, Kelly downplayed the threat of far-right extremists, saying instead that she worried about “lying-in-wait Democrat killers” and “transtifa getting their next victim.” Kelly said, “When I think about 4Chan … I think about lying-in-wait Democrat killers." She added, “I'm not worried about racial slurs by a bunch of losers who feel empowered by saying them. I'm worried about transtifa getting their next victim and assassination planned, because that's what we're actually seeing off of those discussion forums.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/16/25]
    • While discussing the No Kings protests, Kelly said that “Leftist protestors” were “spending the weekend wishing death upon conservatives.” Kelly asked, “How do you deal with them?" and continued, “Because winning at the ballot box is not the solution. It’s not the be-all-end-all solution.” Later she said, “Somebody was joking, like, yeah, we had our own No Kings rally back in November, and it was an entire country awash in red Republican voters, so like, we're good, but they're still out there and they're actually killing us now.” She continued, “This isn't just a differing POV, these people have no care for human life.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 10/20/25, 10/20/25]