Megyn Kelly predicts Trump may SACRIFICE the White House to win tariff war… and reveals the only thing that’ll force him to backtrack

Megyn Kelly is urging Americans to stick with President Donald Trump amid his ongoing tariff war that has sent shockwaves through global markets.

‘He’s asking everybody to be a little patient. I think given the guy’s success in the first term, economically, we should give it to him,’ Kelly, host of The Megyn Kelly Podcast, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.

Indeed, during Trump’s first term, before the COVID pandemic shutdown, the US economy was humming along with low inflation, low unemployment, historic wage growth and the US poverty rate hit an all-time low.

‘He’s earned the right to our patience and I’m prepared to provide it,’ added Kelly, who recently launched a new podcast network, MK Media.

Kelly points out that there are early ‘glimmers of hope’ for Trump’s policy, even though US equity markets have fallen every single day since the president revealed his tariff plans on April 2 – a day he deemed ‘Liberation Day.’

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business that nearly 70 countries have already reached out to the White House asking to negotiate new deals. Among the suitors is the European Union, whose representatives reportedly proposed ‘zero for zero’ tariffs – essentially a free trade agreement – all on cars and industrial goods.

Kelly also cited recent reporting highlighting surging enthusiasm among Gulf Coast shrimpers and shrimp processors, who say they were struggling to compete against suppliers of cheap, farm-raised shrimp exported from Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum’s crackdown on fentanyl trafficking into the U.S. is another positive result of Trump’s tariff policy, according to Kelly.

Sheinbaum is, ‘trying to crack down on the number one killer of young people in America… that’s good news,’ said Kelly.

However, Kelly cautioned, don’t expect to hear much of the rosier news in the mainstream media or as she labelled them the ‘Acela media,’ a reference to press outlets headquartered on the East Coast along Amtrak ‘Acela’ train line, running from Washington DC to Boston.

‘It’s all Acela media that’s watching their own stock portfolios go down precipitously, and that’s one less square foot in the Hamptons,’ she said. ‘So yeah, they’re all going to cover it very negatively.’

Though, Kelly joked, the fact that media professionals and Wall Street gurus are not defending Trump’s policy comes as little surprise to her.  

‘I can’t really think of many reporters who make it their mission to go and speak to the working class and see how their lives are,’ Kelly told the Daily Mail. ‘One of those people became Vice President of the United States [JD Vance] and he’s Trump’s closest advisor.’

‘It’s almost a good sign, in a way, that every rich person I know is upset,’ she continued. ‘If you are somebody who’s well off, perhaps your immediate circles in the Hamptons aren’t exactly the proper focus group for whether these things are a good idea.’

In contrast, despite Trump’s wealth, he has always connected with working Americans. Kelly believes that Trump has exhibited a singular ability to understand and speak to America’s middle class.

‘I went and spoke for Trump at that final rally of the campaign in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the night before the election,’ Kelly recalled of the November 4, 2024 event.

‘Behind me were all these guys in hard hats and the neon vests, you know, men who work with their hands, who get their hands dirty for a living every day.

‘Those guys get no respect anymore in America. They were told by Hillary [Clinton], by Joe Biden, by Barack Obama, learn to code… They don’t want to code.

‘They’re men with testosterone running through their veins. They want to get dirty and build things and take risks and do what their dads and their granddads did to make the country great. And Trump gets that. He grew up in construction – of course, he was on a different end of it – but he understands those guys, and he sees what’s happened to them’

With that said, Kelly concedes that Trump likely will not abide by months and months of negative economic news, if tariff talks drag out and the US stock market continues to suffer.

‘Trump, in his soul, is a rich guy with rich friends who loves rich people and successful American stories. So the last thing he wants is to lose his entire base of rich friends because he’s devastated their fortunes with this move,’ said Kelly.

In six to 10 months, if the economic picture does not improve, Kelly predicts that Trump will back off his bravado, as only Trump can – by claiming success.

‘I do think to judge whether the tariffs have been a success or a failure, we will need to look beyond Trump,’ Kelly said. ‘I think Trump will declare them a success no matter what, and we’ll need to have objective economic indicators.’

However, until that time, Trump won’t blink, according to Kelly. In fact, she believes he’d be willing to compromise political expediency in pursuit of this policy.

‘I don’t feel like he’ll be as invested in making sure Republicans keep the White House when he leaves [office] as your average politician might be,’ she concluded.

‘Trump was elected in large part because he has not forgotten about the forgotten man, and he ran the first time and second time around on trying to bring manufacturing back to America and cracking down on China.

‘For Trump, for better or for worse, it’s mostly about Trump, and I think he’s doing what he thinks is right and what he promised he would do, and something has been a lifelong core principle of his.’

Kelly has long been at the center of American politics, as a Fox News Channel reporter and anchor and eventually host of the network’s top-rated primetime show ‘The Kelly File.’

After a brief stint at NBC News, Kelly launched her own daily podcast in 2020, before switching to a live radio format in a deal with SiriusXM the following year. The Megyn Kelly Podcast has since become one of the most popular in the country.

Capitalizing on her show’s success, last month she announced the launch of her own video and audio podcast network, MK Media.

The first three creators to join the network are journalist Mark Halperin, influencer and political commentator Link Lauren, and Daily Mail’s own culture columnist Maureen Callahan.

Kelly shared her excitement over the move and lauded Callahan as the best culture journalist in the country.

‘There’s just no one better,’ said Kelly. ‘God help you if she turns her pen against you – it’s going to be so fun for the rest of us, though.

‘She’s just so clever, and she never says anything that you’ve heard anywhere else. That’s a gift. She never repeats somebody else’s talking point. She never comes in on an angle that you’ve already heard three places. She’s just totally unique in her views and the way she expresses herself – and she’s a cultural Maven.’

Kelly said the aim of her network is to continue to platform independent voices. ‘I think we have a pretty good formula for how to grow a program now,’ she said.

‘In the end, it comes down to the person who’s in the chair. But it helps if all the things around that person are working and have been well greased. And so we’re going to help these guys get off to a running start.’