Donald Trump is used to loyalty from Fox News. Comfort. Praise. A friendly mirror that reflects his worldview back at him with minimal friction. That’s why what happened next reportedly hit him like a cold splash of reality.
This time, the criticism didn’t come from Democrats, activists, or late-night comics. It came from inside the house.
Donald Trump is used to loyalty from Fox News. Comfort. Praise. A friendly mirror that reflects his worldview back at him with minimal friction. That’s why what happened next reportedly hit him like a cold splash of reality.
This time, the criticism didn’t come from Democrats, activists, or late-night comics. It came from inside the house.
Taxpayer-funded insults. Permanently engraved.
On Fox News, Kilmeade didn’t cheer. He didn’t spin. He didn’t deflect.
“I’m not for the trolling,” he said flatly, visibly uncomfortable. He stressed that history often reassesses presidents long after their time and warned against reducing the presidency to petty score-settling. For a MAGA host, this wasn’t a mild deviation—it was a rupture.
And it didn’t stop there.
Conservative intellectuals at National Review, a publication firmly on the right, went even further. One writer described Trump’s behavior as “emotional incontinence,” arguing that the plaques weren’t strategic messaging but raw, unfiltered anxiety carved into marble. Another openly stated what many conservatives whisper but rarely say aloud: it is possible—and necessary—to criticize Trump without abandoning conservative principles.
The criticism cut deep because it came from Trump’s own ideological neighborhood.
According to National Review, Trump’s plaque obsession reveals a president increasingly cornered. With midterms approaching, pressure mounting over healthcare subsidies, economic uncertainty looming, and approval ratings hovering just above 40%, Trump appears to be lashing out the only way he knows how—by attacking ghosts of rivals past instead of confronting present realities.
The irony is brutal. A self-proclaimed “builder,” Trump has struggled to create lasting policy achievements, yet now appears fixated on physically reshaping the White House as an expression of dominance. Gold-plated labels. Rant-filled plaques. A personal stamp on history that critics argue will outlast the tantrum—but not in the way Trump hopes.
Even conservative commentators who dislike Biden and Obama acknowledged an uncomfortable truth: their legacies will endure in ways Trump’s may not. Obama’s policies, they argue, are now systems Trump is forced to sustain. Biden’s reforms remain political realities Trump must grapple with. By contrast, Trump’s most visible additions are symbolic—insults etched into walls.
That contrast matters.
The backlash also exposes a widening fracture within conservative media. Figures like Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld may still cheer the spectacle, but Kilmeade’s break signals something larger: unconditional defense is cracking. The spell is wearing off.
One National Review writer put it bluntly: you do not have to defend Donald Trump when he’s being “a complete idiot.” Doing so doesn’t revoke your conservatism. It doesn’t erase your voting history. It simply acknowledges reality.
And reality, increasingly, is this: Trump’s behavior repels more voters than it attracts. Swing voters don’t see “strength” in engraved insults. They see instability. Pettiness. A president consumed by grudges while real problems pile up.
For years, critics wondered when Trump’s own side would finally say “enough.” Not quietly. Not anonymously. But out loud.
That moment may have just arrived—live on Fox News.