The Fix takes a look at why Trump hates Megyn Kelly with a burning passion, quoting her saying recently that she thinks it's because he can't manipulate her. In fact, he manages to manipulate the men on Fox much more easily.
But really, it's this:
We also can't ignore the possibility (likelihood) that Trump's anger toward Kelly burns all the hotter because he sees her as a woman who — try as he might — he just can't charm. A profile of Kelly in the February issue of Vanity Fair imagined the candidate's frustration: "After all, in his mind, what beautiful woman didn’t want to go to bed with him, right?"
Trump's habit of trying to flatter his way into the good graces of female journalists is well-documented. He tried it last week on his visit with The Washington Post editorial board, when he called Karen Attiah "beautiful." He had used the same line three days earlier on People magazine senior editor Charlotte Triggs, whom he also invited, on a whim, to join him aboard his private jet for a flight to his next rally in Arizona. (Triggs wrote that "campaign aides quickly quash[ed] that," citing Secret Service protocol on background checks.)
Kelly herself has said that Trump turned nasty only after his attempts to "woo" her, as she put it, failed. From the Vanity Fair piece:
In the past, she says, “he would send me press clippings about me that he would just sign ‘Donald Trump.’ And he called from time to time to compliment a segment. I didn’t know why he was doing that. And then when he announced that he was running for president, it became more clear. But I can’t be wooed. I was never going to love him, and I was never going to hate him.”
Put it all together, and it's actually pretty clear why Trump picked Kelly as his media nemesis. It's not just because of one tough question at a debate or because "he cannot control the editorial" on her show. It's also because Kelly is an unattainable female quarry who bruised his ego and just so happens to anchor one of the most-watched hours in cable news — with an audience full of Republican voters Trump desperately wants to reach.
I knew that's what was going on from the moment I saw this clip from 2011:
He's always considered himself to be quite the swordsman.
