There’s been no love lost — and a lot of sharp words exchanged — between President Donald Trump and his family and Meghan McCain, who share the same political party and little else

Donald Trump, Meghan McCain

From left: President Donald Trump and The View co-host Meghan McCain.Credit : SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty; Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

01of 08

 

Trump Calls McCain ‘Angry and Obnoxious’ After Fox News Appearance & She Claps Back

Donald Trump

President Donald Trump.SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Much of President Donald Trump’s conflict with Meghan McCain lately centers on his continued disparagement of her dad, the late Sen. John McCain. But he’s gone after her, too.

Back in September 2015, while he was running for president, he took aim at her after she appeared on his favorite network, Fox News. “.@MeghanMcCain was terrible on @TheFive yesterday. Angry and obnoxious, she will never make it on T.V. @FoxNews can do so much better!” Trump, 73, tweeted.

Meghan, 34, who is now a co-host of The View, responded: “Oh man, I’ve officially made it in media now that @realDonaldTrump has officially attacked my appearance on @TheFive – thanks for watching!”

02of 08

 

Meghan Suggests Her Dad Was a Much Bigger ‘Badass’ Than Trump

meghan-mccain

On a February 2018 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Meghan talked about why she thought the president continued to target her father in the press.

“I have this theory — which I have nothing to back it up other than just guessing — that when my dad walks into a room, I mean, he’s a badass. He’s a war hero, people are naturally intimidated by him, and I think he evokes a reaction where people just respect him,” Meghan explained.

“And I think that’s what Trump wants when he goes into every room,” she continued. “He wants to be the guy that’s like, ‘I’m the guy that’s going to run in when there’s a shooting, I’m a hardass, I’m whatever.’ But if you have to say that, then you’re maybe not as tough as you think you are.”

Meghan Rebukes Trump in All but Name During Her Father’s Eulogy

Meghan McCain

NBC News

Meghan delivered an emotional eulogy for her father on Sept. 1, 2018, a few days after he died from brain cancer on Aug. 25, 2018. She reflected on her dad’s legacy and decried “the opportunistic appropriation of those who live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served.”

“We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness. The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served,” Meghan began. “He was a great fire who burned bright. … A few have resented that fire, for that light it cast upon them, for the truth it revealed about their character.”

“But my father never cared what they thought,” she added, “and even that small number still have the opportunity as long as they draw breath to live up to the example of John McCain.”

04of 08

 

Meghan Calls Trump a ‘Child’

Meghan McCain

Meghan McCain/Twitter

After a Wall Street Journal report (followed by other articles) showed that someone in the White House wanted to make sure a warship named for Sen. McCain’s family was kept “out of sight” of Trump during a May trip to a Japanese naval base, his daughter spoke out on Twitter.

“Trump is a child who will always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life,” she wrote. “There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won’t let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him.”

Meghan felt compelled to continue to defend her father publicly because Trump would not stop attacking him. (He also praised the official behind the effort to hide the McCain ship but said he had no knowledge of it.)

“It makes my grief unbearable,” Meghan tweeted.

‘My Father Was His Kryptonite’

Meghan McCain

ABC

During a March episode of The View, the co-hosts discussed Trump’s repeated attacks on the senator, who had been a political rival in life but by then had already been dead for several months.

“[Trump] spends his weekend obsessing over great men because — he knows it and I know it and all of you know it — he will never be a great man,” Meghan said after sitting quietly for the first part of the conversation. “My father was his kryptonite in life, he’s his kryptonite in death.”

“All of us have love and families and when my father was alive up until adulthood we would spend our time together cooking, hiking, fishing, really celebrating life and I think it’s because he almost died,” she said, referring to her dad’s time as a prisoner of war.

She added: “And I just thought, Your life is spent on weekends not with your family, not with your friends, but obsessing — obsessing over great men you could never live up to.”

06of 08

 

Trump Keeps Bad-Mouthing Sen. McCain

Meghan McCain

President Trump continued to air his grievances against the late politician publicly. Speaking with reporters at the White House about Sen. McCain’s decision to vote against Republican efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, Trump said he was “never a fan of John McCain and I never will be.”

Trump also retweeted another Twitter user who wrote, “Millions of Americans truly LOVE President Trump, not McCain. I’m one! We hated McCain for his ties to the Russian dossier & his vote against repealing Obamacare.”

After the View co-hosts took turns condemning Trump’s statements in a late-March episode, Meghan thanked the women for their support and urged fans to “not feel bad for her family” and to instead “feel bad for people out there who are being bullied, that don’t have support.”

“I’m just surprised because I do think that this is a new bizarre low,” she said of the president.

“My dad’s not here, but I’m sure as hell here,” she said.

Report of Trump Allegedly Calling Meghan a ‘Donut’

Siege: Trump Under Fire

Henry Holt and Co

Michael Wolff made headlines in 2018 with a salacious book detailing the Trump White House, where he had spent some time. Earlier this year, his sequel, Siege, though no longer based on any White House access, continued to cite anonymous sources making startling claims about Trump’s behavior.

Among them? That the president allegedly became “obsessed” with Meghan’s weight and started calling her “donut.”

After her father died, Trump also allegedly commented on how she would react when he was mentioned: “When she hears my name she always looks like she’s going to cry. Like her father. Very, very tough family. Boo hoo, boo hoo.”

In response to Wolff’s book, a White House spokesman said: “Michael Wolff’s first book was destroyed for its countless inaccuracies, made up accounts, and use of shady sources with personal political agendas that even the author himself admitted to. This latest book is just another attempt by Wolff to line his own pockets by pushing lies and pure fantasy aimed at attacking the President.”

08of 08

 

Meghan Criticizes Other Trumps, Too

meghan-mccain-ivanka-jared

Meghan has had strong words as well for the president’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, who is one of her senior aides along with her husband, Jared Kushner.

She has also repeatedly taken issue with Ivanka and Kushner’s presence at her father’s funeral last year, from which the president was pointedly excluded.

“No offense, they crashed my dad’s funeral. They get nothing from me,” Meghan said on The View earlier this month. (Contrary to how she described it, though, Ivanka and Kushner were reportedly invited with widow Cindy McCain’s permission.)

“They’re not good people,” Meghan said on The View. And of Ivanka, she said, “I still don’t know what she does all day. … I know she does women’s initiatives but that’s all very nebulous.”

The White House quickly pushed back.

“Ivanka is proud of this administration and the work that they have done over the last two and a half years,” a spokeswoman told PEOPLE. “Pledges for the creation of millions of training opportunities for American workers and over a billion dollars in funding towards women’s economic empowerment in Latin America are anything but nebulous.”

“The idea that the hosts of The View … have any factual reads on what goes on within the Trump family is completely asinine,” the spokeswoman said.