McCain said Trump extended an “olive branch” after she called him “pathetic” for criticizing her father, the late Sen. John McCain: “Very gracious.”

Ex-View star, staunch Donald Trump critic Meghan McCain reveals she got president’s ‘permission’ to enter White House

McCain said Trump extended an "olive branch" after she called him "pathetic" for criticizing her father, the late Sen. John McCain: "Very gracious."

Joey Nolfi

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April 23, 2026 10:40 a.m. ET

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John McCain and Meghan McCain on 'The View'; Donald Trump. Credit:

Heidi Gutman/Getty; Kevin Dietsch/Getty

- Former* The View* cohost Meghan McCain has praised Donald Trump after years of criticizing him as "pathetic" over slamming her father, the late Sen. John McCain.

- McCain revealed to Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, that she had to get "permission" to enter the White House.

- She accompanied Tulsi Gabbard to her confirmation, and said the president extended an "olive branch" to her that felt "very gracious."

Meghan McCain, former *The View* cohost and longtime Donald Trump critic, has praised the president for extending an "olive branch" after she spent years slamming his "pathetic" criticism of her father, the late Sen. John McCain.

The conservative commentator revealed for the first time on a recent edition of her *Citizen McCain *talk show that she had a private meeting with Trump at the White House, after she said she had to get his "permission" to attend the confirmation of her friend, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

"The second President Trump term, I much prefer it. I really like the tone of President Trump this go-around for all of the personal reasons everyone can already surmise," McCain told Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, in the episode, before confirming that she was about to tell a story she hasn't "told publicly before" regarding an interacting with the president.

"When our good, dear friend Tulsi Gabbard was being confirmed in the White House, she asked me to come to the White House with her, because it was actually done in the Oval Office," McCain said. "There were conversations behind the scenes of whether or not it would be appropriate for me to come, whether or not President Trump would be okay with me coming."

The former daytime TV host said she "ended up having to get his permission" to enter the building, but that, according to her, "he relayed the kindest message" once she arrived.

"Of course, this is my home, but you are welcome in it," she paraphrased of what he told her. "And then, afterwards, [he said] a private message I don't want to reveal because it's private to me and my husband afterward that was very kind and very nice."

In her view, "Of all the things that have gone on, of all the things that have been said and done, this is very gracious," she said on her program.

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McCain said she felt a "much softer side to President Trump" during his second term, which began in January 2025, and pondered if it's because of the 2024 assassination attempt on his life in Pennsylvania.

Lara, speaking on behalf of the man who earlier in April spoke about the people of Iran on social media by saying that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," responded to McCain's story by voicing that the man she's "always known has a good heart" and "has intention and purpose that I found very pure."

* *has reached out to the White House for comment.

Donald Trump in December 2025.

Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty

Prior to attending the White House with Gabbard, McCain spent years criticizing Trump both from her post on *The View* and beyond.

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Among many other criticisms of the president, McCain called Trump a "piece of s---" after the president mocked her father for giving a thumbs-down to a Republican proposal to strike down Obamacare, while he was unable to fully lift his arm due to an injury he sustained in the Vietnam War.

Watch McCain recount her White House experience in the video above.

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Source: “EW Politicians”