Megyn Kelly: We thought Trump would be an “antidote to the system” but “there were a lot of signs that Trump was not going to be that”
Kelly: "You know, the self-dealing that Trump's always done on economic matters, like finances around his family business should have telegraphed to us he was buyable”
Published
Citation
From the June 1, 2026, edition of The Shawn Ryan Show, posted on YouTube
MEGYN KELLY (GUEST): I mean, ideally a candidate will come along who will represent an antidote to the system. And I know that we thought Trump was that, but like if you look back, there were a lot of signs that Trump was not going to be that. You know, the self-dealing that Trump's always done on economic matters, like finances around his family business should have telegraphed to us he was buyable. I don't think everyone is, you know, I do think like Thomas Massie wasn't. There are certain people who actually have deep principles and they stand by them and they couldn't be bought and paid for. Now, could they win in a presidential election? That I don't know. I haven't seen that in recent years. But I, you know, for me, I still, and I — the line between left and right is merging.
You know, like there's, there's something rising out of the middle of that. That is —
SHAWN RYAN (HOST): You're talking like Ana Kasparian.
KELLY: Yeah, I love her. That's —
RYAN: It's awesome.
KELLY: I love her.
RYAN: I do too. She's awesome.
KELLY: Well, you know, people think of me as a Republican, but I haven't been a Republican in over 20 years. I was a registered Democrat when I was fresh out of school, and then I was a registered Republican for a few years when I was like, right around when I joined Fox News. And then I quickly realized like, I don't wanna wear either of these team jerseys. I'm against both of these guys. And I registered as an Independent. That was back in like 2004 or someplace around there, which I have been ever since. And I voted for Dems and Republicans. So I'm like, I'm pretty centrist in my politics and my cultural sensibilities are definitely more on the right these days than they used to be, but I share a lot in common with some on the left.
So I think something's coming out of the middle that is going to be the future. It's gonna complicate politics in a really, probably good way. Not for the existing parties, but there will be as a result of that emergence, there will be a candidate or more who stand for what's happening there in the middle, that's anti-war and pro-America, America first, actually supports American workers and, you know, bringing back manufacturing, doesn't cede, you know, the job fair to what's happening in China. Like, there's a few issues on which I think we agree removes culture wars from the discussion.
So in other words, the leftists who are there, I'm not trying to cut off the body parts of our children and the people who are on the right are willing not to make -- you must fight with me to stop it as a terms of, you know, whether we can bond together. So I don't know. I mean, some of those issues are my pet issues, right? Like, I could never vote for somebody who's gonna chop off the body parts of children. I could never vote for somebody who's voluntarily sterilizing children or supporting it or the boys and girls sports thing. I can't, so I still will vote Republican. But what I'd love to see is a different alternative. And I just think necessity is the mother of all invention.
And someone will come it, whether it's a Massie maybe, you know, we weren't prepared for that. Like we didn't have enough money in the coffers to fight AIPAC, but we'll get it, because their popularity's on the way down and there is a rising group of political power that opposes them in their mission. That's why they're in such a panic. That's why we're all getting boughted, you know. But they're not going to win. That's a lobby that's bought and paid for lobbyists who buy loser politicians. But the people have outed them. They've been outed for what they do. They're no longer getting ignored, which is great. And it's been the Democrats who first have realized that they're too dependent on these groups and they're too dependent on politicians who just back Israel, knee jerk. And the Republicans have been the last to that party. But we're getting there. There's only that one core part of MAGA, which is the Mark Levin party now, the NeoCon-backed Mark Levin party.
RYAN: The Baby Boomer generation.
KELLY: Yeah. That's the only part left that's under, that -- that is pro-Israel and doesn't understand what AIPAC is doing to us. So that's a good thing, that actually lays a pretty good golden path out of this mess.