Donald Trump and the Fox News host Megyn Kelly met at Trump Tower on Wednesday morning.
Neither person has shared details about what happened yet. But Trump’s intense dislike of Kelly — whom he has called unfair, overrated and even “crazy” — has been one of the subplots of his run for president.
So was the face-to-face chat a precursor to a Kelly-Trump interview in the future?
Fox said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that Kelly will discuss “the results” of the meeting on her prime time program Wednesday night.
Kelly is known to be seeking high-profile guests for a Barbara Walters-style prime time special on the Fox broadcast network in May.
Fox’s statement concluded with a line seemingly intended to defuse tensions between the two sides.
“Kelly has acknowledged in recent interviews that Trump is a fascinating person to cover and has electrified the Republican base,” it said.
Before Fox issued the statement, people with knowledge of the matter told CNNMoney that Kelly reached out to Trump’s office to set up the meeting.
It was “on-again, off-again” for a while, before the session ultimately took place, one of the sources said.
Fox News chairman Roger Ailes was not in attendance. But Fox’s statement suggested that Ailes had been working behind the scenes on Kelly’s behalf.
“Ailes has spoken to Donald Trump a few times over the past three months about appearing on a Fox Broadcasting special with Megyn Kelly airing on May 23,” the statement said.
What a “special” that would be.
Kelly, much to her chagrin, has been one of Trump’s top targets.
Trump has essentially said she started it by treating him unfairly during the first GOP debate of the season last August.
The candidate and the journalist did not speak for months afterward. In fact, he skipped the next Fox debate, in January, which she co-moderated.
But he did attend a third debate held by Fox, in March, and treated her kindly.
Later in the month, he resumed his insults, accusing her of stacking her 9 p.m. show with anti-Trump guests.
Fox shot back: “Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land.”
Several weeks have passed since then. He has not attacked Kelly via Twitter since April 1.
At that time, he wrote, “Is it possible for @megynkelly to cover anyone but Donald Trump on her terrible show. She totally misrepresents my words and positions! BAD.”
In an interview last week, Kelly said she has not made a formal request to interview the candidate.
“To be honest, every time I prepare an invitation to sit down with him, he attacks me on Twitter or elsewhere,” she told Variety. “I had always been hoping I could reach out to him at a time when he wasn’t angry. I don’t think it would be a good interview if he was angry at me — but then he never stops with the attacks.”
She added, “I was just about to ask him to sit down with me two weeks ago, but then he started up again out of the blue.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Ailes “brokered” the meeting.