Donald Trump's long‑simmering rift with conservative commentator Candace Owens erupted into open warfare on Friday, 17 April, after the US president used his Truth Social platform to brand his one‑time ally 'really dumb' and 'mentally ill' in a post attacking several right‑wing media figures.
The news came after weeks of increasingly sharp criticism from Owens over Donald Trump's handling of the war with Iran, a conflict she argues betrays the populist, anti‑interventionist message that helped propel him to the White House. Once a loyal supporter, frequently defending him across television and social media, the 36‑year‑old podcaster has in recent months recast Trump as a cautionary tale about broken promises and what she calls a 'forever war' mentality in Washington.
Trump, 79, fired off the latest broadside in a late‑night Truth Social rant, grouping Owens with other former allies who have publicly soured on him. 'Tucker is a Low IQ person – Always easy to beat, and highly overrated!!! So are Megyn Kelly, "Candace" (Really Dumb and mentally ill!), and Bankrupt Alex Jones, who is completely 'fried,'' he wrote, before musing that he should compile a list of his 'good, bad, and somewhere in the middle' commentators.
Owens, who has built a lucrative brand on combative, often mocking responses, declined to meet the insult with overt outrage. Instead, she posted a clipped, almost weary rejoinder on X: 'Why is my name in quotation marks though?' The brevity barely concealed the underlying point. Politically, the break is already done.
Donald Trump And The Iran War: From Ally To Accuser
For context, the public feud did not start with schoolyard taunts but with policy. Since the United States and Israel launched their first attack on Iran in late February, Owens has turned her platforms against Donald Trump's approach to the conflict. On her podcast and YouTube channel, she alleged that he has abandoned the nationalist, anti‑war stance that distinguished him from the Republican establishment in 2016.
'Donald Trump has very clearly betrayed the American people,' she said in March, accusing him of aligning with the same foreign‑policy figures she and his base once campaigned against. 'The very people we had to fight to get Trump into office, he is now partnered with and insulting us and he thinks we're too stupid to notice or something?'
Owens framed her criticism in terms that cut to the heart of his 2016 message. 'He promised low gas prices,' she continued. 'He promised no more forever wars, no more involvement in Middle East conflict. And we are now getting the exact opposite.' In her telling, Trump is not merely making hard choices in a volatile region, but actively abandoning the voters who trusted him to stay out of new conflicts.
From there, the language escalated. 'He is a coward for doing this to the American people and that's going to be his legacy,' Owens said, pinning on Donald Trump a label his supporters once reserved for traditional Republican hawks.
'Crazy Candace' And A Very Public Conservative Divorce
Their clash hardened earlier this month when Trump used another lengthy Truth Social post to label her 'Crazy Candace,' attacking both her judgment and her judgment of others. In the nearly 500‑word message on 9 April, he highlighted her past claim that France's First Lady Brigitte Macron was secretly a man before transitioning, holding it up as evidence that his critics on the right were 'nutjobs' and 'stupid people.'
It may be time to put Grandpa up in a home. pic.twitter.com/ruBJFA3RZw
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 9, 2026
Owens responded by striking at Trump's age and capacity, something she had previously avoided. 'It may be time to put Grandpa up in a home,' she said, positioning him as a once‑formidable figure now unfit for the office he still covets. It was a line calculated not just to sting personally, but to raise questions about whether the 79‑year‑old should be anywhere near nuclear decision‑making.
The trigger for some of her fiercest language was Trump's threat earlier this month to 'take down' Iran altogether. In a post dated 7 April, he warned: 'A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.' The statement, brisk and apocalyptic, offered no underlying evidence in the excerpts seen and read more like an ominous prediction than a considered policy argument.
Owens seized on that tone. The same day, she called for the 25th Amendment, which provides a mechanism for removing a US president deemed unable to discharge the duties of the office, to be invoked. Describing Trump as a 'genocidal lunatic,' she argued on X that 'Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness.'
The 25th amendment needs to be invoked. He is a genocidal lunatic. Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness. https://t.co/b60wlO4OuW
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 7, 2026
There is no indication that Republican leaders or US defence officials are entertaining such a move, and Trump's camp has not, in these excerpts, issued any formal response beyond his own social‑media posts. For now, the record of this quarrel is almost entirely self‑documented: two high‑profile conservatives, once mutually useful, now dismantling each other's reputations in real time.
