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The View hosts stunned Friday viewers after they stayed silent about President Donald Trump and his former billionaire ally, Elon Musk’s, very public, bitter feud.
The co-hosts of the popular ABC talk show have been outspoken critics of Trump and his allies for years now. However, during the latest episode, they made no mention of the headline-dominating drama between the tech mogul and the president.
Instead, they discussed Malia Obama’s surprising decision to drop her last name as she starts a new career in filmmaking, as well as Leah Remini’s friendship with Jennifer Lopez.
They also interviewed Mark Hamill about his role in Mike Flanagan’s new Stephen King adaptation, The Life of Chuck, and later invited Ginny & Georgia’s Brianne Howey to speak about the new season of the Netflix drama.
During their discussion with Hamill, the subject of Trump briefly surfaced when the Star Wars legend explained his previous X quips aimed at Trump.
“You gotta do it with humor. I think I don’t get angry, and I don’t drop F-bombs,” Hamill said. “I mean, I know I have a lot of kids who follow me, but I think you have to have fun with it, yeah? Mock him. That’s the kryptonite to a malignant narcissist.”
Besides that, no other mention of Trump was made. The uncharacteristic omission was not lost on fans, who immediately called out the panelists for including “nothing on the elephant in the room.”
“Where are the current events? I am so disappointed,” one wrote on X. “Is the show pre-taped last year. Love y’all, but you missed the mark. Not a word about the break up of the bromance.”
“No talk about the biggest and best news in ages, very disappointing!” a second huffed, while a third noted: “This must be a taped show. I’m so disappointed. I was looking forward to it.”
“Is this taped!? Or did they get censored?! I want ‘the view’ on the girl fight yesterday!!” a fourth demanded, with another labeling the silence “odd.”
The Independent understands that the episode was pre-recorded Thursday afternoon, before Trump and Musk began trading blows on social media.
The hosts’ apparent hush-hush approach comes after reports broke last month that Disney boss Bob Iger and ABC News chief Almin Karamehmedovic asked them to tone down the political rhetoric on the show.
According to The Daily Beast, Karamehmedovic called a meeting with the show’s five hosts — Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin — and executive producer Brian Teta, suggesting “the panel needed to broaden its conversations beyond its predominant focus on politics.”
One source familiar with the matter stressed to The Independent that there was really nothing out of character with this particular meeting, noting that the network “constantly has conversations with talent based on viewer feedback, and this instance was no different.”
“This is not about talking about Trump. It’s about balance in the show on topics,” the source added. “This conversation is really about making sure there’s just balance in the show.”
