President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Friday to deliver his most pointed public rebuke yet of right-wing commentator Candace Owens, sharing a mocked-up Time magazine cover labeling her "Vile Person of the Year" and calling her claims about French First Lady Brigitte Macron "despicable."
The post marks the latest escalation in a feud that has been building for over a year between the president and the 36-year-old media figure, a dispute rooted in policy disagreements over Iran that has since spiraled into personal territory on both sides.
Trump wrote that "Candace Owens' stock, which was never very high, has fallen a long way." He added: "Her attack on the First Lady of France is despicable." The mocked-up cover he shared included the line "0% fact check ratio on all credible fact checking sites," the Daily Mail reported.
The rupture between Trump and Owens did not happen overnight. Over the last year, the relationship soured after Owens criticized the president's handling of the situation with Iran. She said she was "embarrassed" to support the president, and tensions spilled into what the reporting describes as a full-blown feud.
Owens' criticism mounted after the outbreak of the conflict with Iran, and the two have been trading public jabs ever since. That pattern of Trump publicly confronting figures on his own side over Iran skepticism has become a recurring feature of the current political moment.
Just days before Friday's post, Owens went further. She questioned whether Trump was "gay" during a monologue on her show, as Mediaite reported. That remark appears to have sharpened the president's response.
In a separate Truth Social post, Trump referenced Owens' ongoing legal battle with the Macrons directly:
"'Crazy' Candace Owens, who 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."
He then added a 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!"
Behind the social media back-and-forth sits a real legal case. French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte filed a 218-page lawsuit in Delaware on July 23, 2025, seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages against Owens.
The suit stems from Owens' repeated and false assertions, made to her millions of social media followers, that Brigitte Macron was born male. The claims originated with French blogger Natacha Rey, who first raised the allegations. Owens amplified them aggressively.
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 case in blunt terms:
"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."
They 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."
Rather than back down, Owens doubled down. In September of last year, she announced the lawsuit would be escalated so that Macron would undergo a "third-party examination." She also referenced Brigitte Macron's past, using the phrase "when he was a man" and calling for a "thorough investigation." The broader pattern of prominent Trump allies breaking with the president and then facing consequences has become a defining subplot of this political era.
The Trump-Owens clash is not a policy debate. It is a case study in what happens when a media figure builds a brand on provocation, then turns that same instinct against her own allies. Owens rose to prominence in part because she was willing to say things others would not. That quality served her well when it was aimed at the left. It has served her far less well since she trained it on a foreign head of state's wife with claims that have no factual basis.
The Macrons stated their hope plainly: "It is our earnest hope that this lawsuit will set the record straight and end this campaign of defamation once and for all." Whether a Delaware court agrees remains to be seen. The case number and specific court have not been publicly identified in available reporting.
The Daily Mail reported it reached out to the White House for comment. No response was included in the reporting. That silence leaves open questions about whether the president's social media posts represent an informal endorsement of the Macrons' legal position or simply personal frustration with Owens.
The feud also fits a wider pattern. Trump has clashed publicly with other conservative media figures in recent months, suggesting a willingness to confront dissent from the right just as forcefully as from the left.
Meanwhile, Owens' trajectory from Trump ally to Trump target mirrors a path others have walked. The question of what happens to those who break with the president is one the conservative movement keeps answering in real time.
Several facts remain unclear. The exact date of Owens' "gay" remark about Trump is described only as "just days ago." The specific Delaware court and docket number for the Macron lawsuit have not been publicly identified. And whether Owens intends to mount a legal defense or continue escalating her claims is unknown.
What is known is this: Owens pushed a conspiracy theory with no factual support, refused multiple opportunities to retract it, and now faces a 218-page lawsuit from a sitting foreign president and his wife. The president of the United States, once her most powerful ally, is now publicly mocking her on social media.
Accountability is not a partisan concept. When someone builds a following by making claims that are demonstrably false and refuses every off-ramp, the consequences that follow are not persecution, they are the system working as designed.
