Conservative commentator Meghan McCain shared this week on her podcast "Citizen McCain with Meghan McCain" she much prefers the "tone" of President Donald Trump during his second term, revealing she had effectively buried the hatchet after receiving a kind message from him.
After years of a contentious relationship between the McCain family and Trump, the former "View" co-host and daughter of the late Sen. John McCain shared that they had made peace.
McCain, a friend of Tulsi Gabbard, said she was invited to the Trump White House when Gabbard was confirmed as director of national intelligence.
There were "behind-the-scenes" conversations that occurred if it would be appropriate for her to attend, given their past acrimony, and it required Trump's permission for her to attend.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI SURPRISED BY BACKLASH TO TRUMP MEETING, SAYS IT'S BECAUSE 'PEOPLE ARE REALLY SCARED'
According to McCain, Trump responded by saying she was welcome. She added Trump sent her and husband Ben Domenech a "very kind and very nice" private message that she would keep to herself.
"And I was like, of all the things that have gone on, of all the things that have been said and done, this is very gracious," she said.
Trump memorably said in 2015 that Sen. McCain was not a true war hero because he was captured in Vietnam and continued to criticize McCain before and after his death. John McCain, who died in 2018, did not support Trump's presidential campaign and famously was the deciding vote against his Obamacare repeal in 2017.
Meghan McCain once said Trump would never be a "great man" like her father in response to a social media post disparaging him during his first term. In 2024, she said she couldn't vote for Trump despite her opposition to Kamala Harris.
WHY TRUMP IS STICKING WITH GAETZ, HEGSETH DESPITE NEW ACCUSATIONS - AND HIS 'MORNING JOE' MEETING
McCain added, "I have heard this from other people that [Trump] has sort of been very gracious to other people that maybe have had things that have happened in the past that haven't been positive."
Speaking with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, McCain questioned if this could be because of his second term, age or the phase of life the president is in but said, overall, she has witnessed a "softer" side to Trump.
McCain surmised that these experiences and the softer side of the president might be from the assassination attempts against him.
Lara Trump said the president had told his family he believed people would come after him if he accomplished his goals in office.
"I think when you have these moments that truly your life could have ultimately been changed or ended, I don't think you can discount that at all," Lara Trump said. "I think that 100% had a huge impact on him."
Trump was shot in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, in an assassination attempt that killed one of his supporters in the crowd. Another attempt on his life that year was foiled in Florida before any shots were fired.
