President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Friday to deliver his most pointed public rebuke yet of commentator Candace Owens, calling her claims about French First Lady Brigitte Macron "despicable" and sharing a mocked-up Time magazine cover labeling Owens "Vile Person of the Year."
The post marks a sharp new chapter in a dispute that has been building for more than a year between the president and the 36-year-old right-wing commentator, one that now runs through a Delaware courtroom, a French presidential family, and a widening fracture on the American right.
Trump did not mince words. In his Truth Social post, as the Daily Mail reported, the president wrote that Owens' "stock, which was never very high, has fallen a long way." He added:
"Her attack on the First Lady of France is despicable. I believe, in this case, without verification, she is an extremely low IQ individual!"
He went further, referring to Owens as "Crazy" and siding explicitly with Brigitte Macron in the ongoing legal fight. Trump wrote that Owens "accuses the Highly Respected First Lady of France of being a man, when she is not, and will hopefully win lots of money in the ongoing lawsuit."
Then came the personal comparison. "Actually, to me, the First Lady of France is a far more beautiful woman than Candace, in fact, it's not even close!" Trump wrote.
The backdrop to Trump's broadside is Owens' repeated public assertion, made to what the Daily Mail described as her "millions of social media followers", that Brigitte Macron was born male. Owens has referred to the French First Lady using male pronouns and claimed to have based her allegations on what she called a "thorough investigation" originally raised by French blogger Natacha Rey.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife responded with a 218-page lawsuit filed in Delaware on July 23, 2025. The suit seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
A statement shared with the Daily Mail said Owens had "promoted a preposterous narrative about the Macrons, including incendiary and verifiably false accusations of identity theft, incest, violent crimes, and mind control."
The Macrons' legal team laid out the rationale plainly:
"Because Ms Owens systematically reaffirmed these falsehoods in response to each of our attorneys' repeated requests for a retraction, we ultimately concluded that referring the matter to a court of law was the only remaining avenue for remedy."
The filing added that Owens' "campaign of defamation was plainly designed to harass and cause pain to us and our families and to garner attention and notoriety. We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused."
Owens, for her part, has not backed down. Last September, she announced that the lawsuit would be escalated so that Macron undergoes a "third-party examination." She has continued to press the allegations publicly.
Trump's attack on Owens did not happen in isolation. The president has spent recent weeks publicly distancing himself from several prominent right-wing media personalities who once operated firmly in his orbit. As we previously reported, Trump issued a blistering Truth Social post targeting Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones after all four criticized his handling of the Iran conflict.
The Washington Examiner reported that Trump framed these commentators as outside the true MAGA movement, writing on Truth Social: "They're not 'MAGA,' they're losers, just trying to latch on to MAGA." He added that "MAGA is about WINNING and STRENGTH in not allowing Iran to have Nuclear Weapons."
The four commentators had criticized Trump's stance and rhetoric on Iran since the conflict began on February 28, with some suggesting he had abandoned anti-war campaign promises. Trump pushed back hard.
National Review noted that Trump had previously helped elevate figures like Jones and Owens by appearing with or interviewing with them, making the public break all the more striking. The outlet linked Trump's outburst to dissatisfaction with the results of his Iran cease-fire and broader frustration during the conflict.
The pattern extends beyond media figures. Trump has shown a willingness to publicly correct or remove people in his own administration when disagreements surface, as seen when he removed Navy Secretary Phelan over shipbuilding disputes.
Just The News reported that Trump specifically mocked Kelly and said the commentators were "not MAGA" and were just trying to "latch on to MAGA." He called them people with "low IQs" and "nut jobs, troublemakers."
The Daily Mail reported that Trump's and Owens' relationship soured over the last year, following her criticism of his handling of the situation with Iran. Owens said she was "embarrassed" to support the president.
Just days before Trump's Friday post, Owens questioned on her show whether Trump was "gay," according to Mediaite as cited by the Daily Mail. She had also previously claimed Trump called her personally to ask her to stop targeting Brigitte Macron.
The mocked-up Time magazine cover Trump shared bore the title "Vile Person of the Year" alongside an unflattering image of Owens. Text on the image included "0% fact check ratio on all credible fact checking sites."
This kind of public fallout is not without precedent. Trump recently distanced himself from Riley Gaines after the activist criticized one of his social media posts, following a similar pattern of public correction when allies step out of line.
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson has publicly expressed regret for endorsing Trump, adding another data point to a growing list of fractured relationships between the president and commentators who once counted themselves among his most vocal supporters.
The Macrons' lawsuit remains pending. The Daily Mail said it reached out to Owens, the White House, and the Macrons for comment. No responses were reported.
For Owens, the legal and political walls are closing in from two directions. A foreign head of state is suing her for defamation in an American court. And the president she once championed is now publicly mocking her and siding with her legal adversary.
The Macrons stated their position clearly: "It is our earnest hope that this lawsuit will set the record straight and end this campaign of defamation once and for all."
Whether the lawsuit accomplishes that or simply fuels more content for Owens' audience remains an open question. What is not open to question is that Trump has made his position clear. He does not consider Owens' claims credible, he does not consider her conduct defensible, and he is willing to say so in public, with his name on it.
There is a lesson in this for every commentator who confuses a large following with a license to say anything. Audiences are not the same as credibility, and when the facts catch up, even your friends stop returning calls.