Dr. Phil's Donald Trump Endorsement Has Oprah On Everyone's Lips

As the countdown to Election Day reaches its final stretch, Donald Trump held a rally at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Dr. Phil McGraw was an unexpected attendee, who took the stage to give Trump his endorsement. Yet, it had many folks thinking about another celebrity endorsement: Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

McGraw is best known for his eponymous talk show, "Dr. Phil" and it was Winfrey who gave him his start on TV. They met when McGraw helped Winfrey in a libel trial against her in 1996. Two years later, she invited the psychologist on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." He became a weekly guest before his own show launched in 2002, which Winfrey produced. 

McGraw clearly has Winfrey to thank for a lot of his success. Yet, since his very public endorsement of Trump on October 27, it's easy to wonder if Winfrey is still a McGraw fan. After all, Winfrey endorsed Harris at the Democratic National Convention back in August. This could have been enough to put McGraw and Winfrey at odds, but it goes a bit deeper. 

In September, Winfrey hosted a livestream alongside Harris on behalf of her campaign. Trump took this opportunity to take aim at Winfrey. "When I watched her interview yesterday with a woman who is destroying, through her complete and total incompetence, America, I couldn't help but think this isn't the real Oprah," Trump wrote on Truth Social, per Newsweek, before noting his disbelief that Winfrey could disagree with him about immigration policies.

Dr. Phil McGraw's choice to endorse Donald Trump after the former president criticized Oprah Winfrey has raised some eyebrows. "Guess Dr Phil no longer agrees with Oprah," one X, formerly known as Twitter-user wrote. "I guess Dr Phil and Oprah are not best friends anymore..." said another. "Boy Dr Phil just got taken off Oprah's Christmas Card list. Lol," another joked. In fact, McGraw's endorsement had so many folks thinking about who gave him his start that some X-users even started blaming Winfrey for McGraw's fame. "I like Oprah Winfrey but I'll never forgive her for making Dr. Phil famous," one X-user wrote, raking in more than 6,000 likes.

Still, while plenty of folks on the internet were worried about how Winfrey viewed McGraw's rally appearance, it doesn't seem that McGraw, himself, shared this concern. McGraw stood before the crowd and explained that he doesn't "like or agree with everything that Donald J. Trump does or says," but asserted, "It's time that we push back against cancel culture. It's time that we push back against intimidation tactics," per Deadline.

In line with this, he acknowledged that he would receive backlash for his endorsement. He claimed that the myriad celebrities who have endorsed Harris didn't get flak from the media, but said, "You watch what happens tomorrow morning when people find out I came here to talk to you." How is Winfrey feeling about it this morning? We can only imagine.