Donald Trump’s campaign announced this week that he is sitting out a Jan. 28 GOP primary debate hosted by Fox News, explaining that the billionaire businessman refuses to participate so long as Megyn Kelly is included as a moderator.
The decision was spurred in part by a sarcastic press release, which was reportedly written the network’s top executive, Roger Ailes, that mocked the candidate as thin-skinned.
But the debate boycott didn’t come out of nowhere. Trump’s ongoing feud with Fox and its top anchor dates back to August, when Kelly pressed him during the first GOP debate to respond to disparaging remarks that he has made about women.
Here’s a timeline of the continuing and increasingly bitter public spat between Fox and the front-running casino tycoon:
Aug. 6: Trump vs. Kelly at the GOP debate
Kelly appears to catch Trump off guard with a question about his treatment of women.
“You call women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals,'” Kelly said. “Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?” she asked.
Trump responded with remarks about how “political correctness” is destroying the country. He complains later to reporters after the debate that Kelly’s questions were “unfair” and “not nice.”
Aug. 7: Trump attacks
Trump goes on social media and says directly to Fox’s Twitter handle, “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Aug. 8: Blood
According to some, Trump suggests in an interview with CNN that Kelly may have been menstruating during the debate.
“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever,” he said, adding that her questions were “ridiculous” and “off-base.”
Aug 10: Apologize!
Trump is still on the offensive, and says in an interview on MSNBC that Kelly owes him an apology.
“She should really be apologizing to me, you want to know the truth. And other candidates have said that,” he said.
Aug. 10: A Cease fire?
Things appear to calm down finally after Trump says Roger Ailes called him to put an end to the sniping.
“Roger Ailes just called. He is a great guy & assures me that ‘Trump’ will be treated fairly on [Fox News],” the 2016 Republican presidential candidate tweeted Monday morning. “His word is always good!”
It is announced later that Fox’s temporary Trump blackout is lifted, and that the real estate mogul will appear for exclusive interviews on Sean Hannity’s show as well as “Fox and Friends.”
Aug. 10: Maybe not
Kelly appears on her program Aug. 10 and makes it clear that she will not apologize to Trump.
“I’ve decided not to respond [to Trump],” she said Monday. “I certainly will not apologize for doing good journalism, without fear or favor … It’s time now to move forward. And now back to the news.”
Aug. 14: Trashing
After a brief lull, Trump continues to trash Fox News employees, including Chris Wallace, who also moderated the first GOP debate.
“I was asked some very inappropriate questions,” he said Friday in a phone interview with Newsmax’s Steve Malzberg.
Trump suggests in that same interview that Kelly was told to take a brief vacation until things blew over. Kelly maintains that she had already planned to take a couple days off, and that the brief hiatus has nothing to do with Trump.
Aug. 17: Fox gets snarky
Fox News responds sarcastically to Trump’s suggestion that Kelly was told to take a couple of days off following her debate performance.
“The conspiracy theories about Megyn Kelly’s vacation rank up there with UFO’s, the moon landing and Elvis being alive,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “Megyn is on a pre-planned, annual summer vacation with her family, which is much deserved. To imply otherwise as Donald Trump and his campaign operatives have is not only wildly irresponsible, but downright bizarre.”
Aug. 25: Trump rejects Ailes’ demand for an apology, continues to ding Kelly
Ailes demands an apology from Trump after the GOP front-runner goes on social media to disparage Kelly. Trump refuses.
“I do not think Megyn Kelly is a quality journalist. I think her questioning of me, despite all of the polls saying I won the debate, was very unfair,” Trump said in a statement. “Hopefully in the future I will be proven wrong and she will be able to elevate her standards to a level of professionalism that a network such as FOX deserves.
Aug. 26: A change of mind?
Trump appears for a moment to have a change of heart, and signals that his fight with Fox is over.
“Actually I watched [Kelly’s] show last night, she was very nice and I appreciated it,” Trump said in a radio interview with Laura Ingraham, adding that he watched Kelly’s show recently and that he liked it “very much.”
“Roger Ailes is great,” Trump added. “Roger Ailes is a special guy. He’s a good friend of mine. We just spoke two minutes ago and Roger Ailes is a great guy and no, I have no problem and I actually liked her show very much last night, if you want to know the truth.”
Oct. 18: Social media
After another lull in their public spat, Trump goes on social media to encourage his supporters to boycott Kelly’s evening program.
“Best thing my supporters can do if you don’t like the way @megynkelly and her puppets unfairly treat ‘us’ is don’t watch her show!” he tweeted.
The call for a Kelly blackout comes shortly after Trump published a string of similarly critical tweets.
“Megyn Kelly has two really dumb puppets, Chris Stirewalt and Marc Threaten (a Bushy) who do exactly what she says,” Trump said in one tweet. “All polls say I won debates.”
A few days later, the feud mostly dies down, as Trump regulates his criticism to social media.
Dec. 21: Kelly again
Fox confirms that Kelly is scheduled to moderate a second debate, setting the stage for yet another showdown between the anchor and the former reality TV star.
Jan. 25: Things in motion
Trump amps up his criticism of Kelly ahead of the Jan. 28 Fox debate, having already spent a few days grumbling the fact that she will appear as a moderator.
“I don’t like her,” he told CNN. “She doesn’t treat me fairly. I’m not a big fan of hers … I thought she was very unfair in the last debate. A lot of people said I won that debate. Everybody said I won the last debate.”
Trump continues to flirt with the idea of sitting out the debate unless they remove Kelly as a moderator.
Jan. 26: Polls
Trump asks his followers on Twitter if he should participate in the debate even though Kelly will also be there, and uploaded a video criticizing her as a bad journalist.
“Megyn Kelly is really biased against me,” Trump said in the video. “She knows that. I know that. Everybody knows that. Do you really think she can be fair at a debate?”
Jan. 26: Outright mockery
Fox officials respond to Trump’s question about boycotting the debate by mocking him in a statement reportedly written by Ailes himself.
“We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president — a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings,” the network said Tuesday afternoon.
Ailes says elsewhere in a statement to the Washington Post that they have no plans to replace Kelly.
“Megyn Kelly is an excellent journalist, and the entire network stands behind her,” he said. “She will absolutely be on the debate stage on Thursday night.”
Jan. 26: Trump bolts
Trump’s campaign team officially announce that he will sit out the Fox Jan. 28 debate, and they say they’re planning a counter-campaign event at the same time.
Trump’s team forgets to tell campaign’s spokeswoman Katrina Pierson about the decision prior to her appearance on CNN.
Jan. 26: Accusations
The network responds to Trump’s boycott by accusing his campaign of threatening Fox employees, especially Kelly.
“Capitulating to politicians’ ultimatums about a debate moderator violates all journalistic standards, as do threats, including the one leveled by Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski toward Megyn Kelly,” Fox said in a statement.
“In a call on Monday with a Fox News executive, Lewandowski stated that Megyn had a ‘rough couple of days after the last debate’ and he ‘would hate to have her go through that again.’ Lewandowski was warned not to level any more threats, but he continued to do so,” it added.
Jan. 27: It’s not what it looks like
Trump’s campaign insists the boycott has nothing to do with Fox’s top host.
“This has nothing to do with Megyn Kelly,” campaign manager Lewandowski told MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “It’s Roger Ailes, it’s Fox News. They think they can toy with Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump doesn’t play games, you guys know that.”
Jan. 27: Bimbo
Trump goes on Twitter yet again to lob insults at Kelly.
“I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter!” he said on Twitter.
Jan. 27: Surprised
Kelly isn’t convinced Trump is serious about boycotting the debate.
“I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t come,” Kelly said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“I know he says he doesn’t want to now, but I’ll really be surprised because I feel like the people of Iowa are still persuadable,” she added.
Jan. 27: Debate set
Fox reiterates it is not backing down from its decision to include Kelly, and confirms that it has no plans to leave an empty podium on the stage just in case.
Jan. 27: It’s official
Trump officially announces an event to benefit veterans groups, which will be held right when other Republican candidates are debating.
February 17: On Twitter Again
Trump goes after Kelly again on social media.
“Why does @megynkelly devote so much time on her shows to me, almost always negative? Without me her ratings would tank. Get a life Megyn!” he said.
February 22: Trump Declines
Trump declines to participate in a Fox-hosted town hall, which included all of the remaining GOP candidates.
Kelly was tapped to moderate the event, leading to suspicions that the GOP front-runner backed out of the event to give her the cold shoulder.
March 3: They Meet Again
Trump and Kelly have a pleasant but tense exchange at GOP primary debate. It’s the first time that they’ve met under these conditions since the first debate on Aug. 6, 2015.
March 18: Boycott Time
Trump asks his Twitter follower to boycott Kelly’s show.
“Everybody should boycott the @megynkelly show. Never worth watching. Always a hit on Trump! She is sick, & the most overrated person on TV,” he said on social media.
March 18: Fox Goes on Offense
Fox brass has apparently had enough of Trump’s feud with Kelly, and they step up to defend her publicly.
“Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land,” the network said in a statement.
The statement came after Trump called on his Twitter followers to boycott Kelly’s evening program.
March 20: Trump Fights On
Trump responds to Fox’s statement, and vows to fight on against Kelly.
“So the highly overrated anchor, @megynkelly, is allowed to constantly say bad things about me on her show, but I can’t fight back? Wrong!” he said on social media.
April 1: Trump Keeps It Up
More Twitter attacks on Kelly.
“Is it possible for @megynkelly to cover anyone but Donald Trump on her terrible show. She totally misrepresents my words and positions! BAD,” he said. “If @megynkelly stopped covering me on her show, her ratings would drop like a rock! My h to h interview with @AC360 beat her by millions!”
April 6: Kelly Blames Media
Kelly blames media for the rise of Trump. To her, the wall-to-wall coverage has enabled his behavior, and made him a viable candidate in the 2016 GOP primary.
“If everyone had stood up from the beginning and asked very tough questions, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” she said. “Our job is to press. We’re supposed to press. [Trump] had cowed other journalists…What if everybody had gotten really tough? It could have been a moment of solidarity among the press that I think we missed.”
April 13: Kelly Meets Trump
Kelly arranges a private sit-down with Trump. She allegedly set up the meeting herself. She meets the mogul at Trump Tower in NYC to broker a “peace deal.”
She wants him to call off the feud, and she wants to secure an exclusive one-on-one interview with him. Details of their off the record meeting are scarce.
April 25: Kelly’s Big Interview
Kelly secures her exclusive interview with Trump, Fox New announces.
“Mr. Trump and I sat down together for a meeting earlier this month at my request. He was gracious with his time and I asked him to consider an interview. I am happy to announce he has agreed, and I look forward to a fascinating exchange — our first sit-down interview together in nearly a year,” she said in a statement.
May 12: Kelly Comments
In a rare moment, the Fox anchor opens up in an interview on the “Tonight Show” and comments on the ongoing war that Trump has waged against her.
“I wanted him to stop,” she said of his months of insults and jabs, “and I knew if I could get face-to-face with him he would stop.”
Since August, she has mostly refused to speak about the feud. The “Tonight Show” interview marks a change.
