What To Know About Nicolle Wallace And Donald Trump's Public Feud

Some feuds instigated by former President Donald Trump fizzle out after a sharp-tongued tweet or two, but others, like his ongoing beef with MSNBC correspondent Nicolle Wallace, have proven far more steadfast. Wallace, who served during the George W. Bush administration and as a senior advisor for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, has long been outspoken about her feelings toward Trump — and the feeling is evidently mutual.

The bad blood seemingly began around 2015 when Wallace was a panelist on "The View." On June 25, 2015, Trump tweeted, "The ratings for The View are really low. Nicole [sic] Wallace and Molly Sims are a disaster. Get new cast or put it to sleep. Dead T.V." That same day, he added, "Whoopi Goldberg better surround herself with better hosts than Nicole [sic] Wallace, who doesn't have a clue. The show is close to death!" (via the The New York Times).

Trump's disdain for Wallace was presumably due to her lack of support for the presidential hopeful despite her republican background. Indeed, these harsh feelings only seemed to grow as Wallace moved on to MSNBC and Trump continued his presidential term.

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace has long been openly critical of the Trump administration and its leader's political views, public commentary, and overall effect on the Republican party. While reading a series of Donald Trump's tweets that accused Democrats of spying on the 2016 election, Wallace stopped mid-sentence and said, "I'm not reading any more of this."

"These are bald-faced lies, and as his audacity and his sort of fantasies expand, I wonder what role you think the truth plays in this for any of them," the host continued in the 2018 broadcast, per The Hill. One year later, she doubled down on her denouncement of Trump's remarks, opting to cut away from footage of Trump's first news conference following the House Democrats formal impeachment inquiry. "We had to do this, really," the MSNBC anchor said on-air. "But the president isn't telling the truth" (via The New York Times).

The public quarrel seemed to reach new heights in 2020, one year after a former staff assistant, Tara Reade, accused President Joe Biden of sexual assault in 1993 while on "The Katie Halper Show," per The New York Times. Wallace accused the political right of mishandling the investigation, calling it a "smear campaign meant to detract from similar accusations against Trump (via X, formerly known as Twitter). Unsurprisingly, Trump was quick to retort.

Former President Donald Trump responded to Wallace's 2020 comments with an insult-laden tweet in May 2020: "[Wallace] was thrown off The View like a dog, Zero T.V.Personas. Now Wallace is a 3rd rate lapdog for Fake News MSDNC (Concast). Doesn't have what it takes!" Three months later, Trump reaffirmed his disdain for the television personality, tweeting, "[Wallace] was fired [from "The View"] because she was boring and never had what it took. Perhaps that has proven to be a mistake!"

Wallace, for her part, hasn't been afraid to throw out the occasional insult in return. In a 2023 episode of "Deadline: The White House," the host played a clip of Donald Trump calling authoritarian Chinese President Xi Jinping "a brilliant man" and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin "very smart." After the clip aired, Wallace remarked, "I don't even know where to start. He's such an idiot on top of all else," referring to Trump. "He sounds like such a bleeping idiot" (via HuffPost). 

The MSNBC host didn't let Trump's ongoing legal woes soften her critique of the former president. Wallace recounted Trump's testimony in his civil fraud lawsuit on the November 6, 2023, episode of "Deadline," saying, "It was short on substance, short on decorum, and very, very short on truth, overflowing with theatrics and deflection and grievance," per MSNBC.