Conflict makes good TV. Barbara Walters knew this when she launched The View in 1997. Since then, messy political disagreements have helped fuel the show’s success.
Epic on-air clashes include Rosie O’Donnell vs. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Alyssa Farah Griffin vs. Sunny Hostin, and Meghan McCain vs. Everyone Else (Including her hair stylist.)
But this year, the open racism and misogyny from the Trump/Vance campaign has created a situation where, like menstrual cycles, the hosts’ politics have synced up. Even the two fillers of the “conservative” seat–Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House director of strategic communications for President Donald Trump, and Ana Navarro, a longtime Republican strategist–loudly voice disgust for Trump. Or as Whoopi Goldberg calls him: “That man.”
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Goldberg refuses to utter his name on camera. When she slipped up once, she immediately spat the bad taste out of her mouth.
The feeling is mutual. At the recent Al Smith dinner, Trump used the black tie event to inform the Archbishop of New York, three NYC mayors, and a bunch of billionaires that The View is a “stupid show.” He said the show was “bad” and slammed the hosts. “I know every one of them and they are bad news,” he said, before claiming that the show “doesn’t do very well either.” (Actually, The View routinely ranks first in both households and total viewers among the daytime network talk shows and news programs.)
The monolithic dislike of Trump could sink a show that thrives on conflict but, fortunately, the hosts have found something else to argue about: Who despises Trump the most?
To answer this question, the Daily Beast polled a handful of devoted watchers of The View and asked them to rank the hosts from mere hatred to utter revulsion. Please note that results are subject to change depending on who Trump is attacking that week.
6: SARA HAINES
Journalist Sara Haines has called out Trump for never serving in the military and triggering an “alarming rollback in women’s reproductive health.” After Hurricane Helene, she was incensed that Trump politicized the suffering. Haines pulls no punches, but her training as a journalist keeps her from emotional outbursts and places her at the bottom of the list.
HAINES: “When you read the transcripts [of Trump’s speech], it is some of the most unhinged and incomprehensible things I’ve ever heard.We cannot elect a leader that believes facts are optional and that stokes fear and hate every time he opens his mouth.
His best retort [to co-host Goldberg] is ‘You’re dumb.’ I haven’t heard that since second grade.”
5: SUNNY HOSTIN
A former federal prosecutor, Hostin corrected Trump’s claim that he knew all the hosts of The View. As she explained, the only time she’s crossed paths with Trump was when she was covering his Manhattan hush money trial. (He was found guilty on all 34 felony charges and is out on bail while awaiting sentencing.) Seeing him was a jolt, as she told her co-hosts, “I didn’t realize he was that orange. It’s almost like a radioactive orange.”
Hostin is called upon to add legal notes at the end of segments which is always a variation of Trump denying any wrongdoing. Recently, she added what she called a “personal legal note” that tore Trump a new one. But she did it with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.
HOSTIN: “I have a personal legal note. Donald Trump: I want to thank you for personally telling so many lies and committing so many alleged crimes and providing us with material on a daily basis. You help us do our jobs, and I’m so appreciative. Because of people like you, a former prosecutor and legal expert can become a fixture on a show like this and, again, I’m so grateful. I admit, I may not have spent as much time in a courtroom as you have… And like Madame Vice President Kamala Harris, I’ve had a history of prosecuting sex offenders, so thank you for keeping people like us in business. And as for ‘dumb questions,’ you’re always welcome to come here and answer some… if sitting so close to a prosecutor won’t make you nervous. I’ll even give you a free View mug–not to be confused with a mugshot.” .
4: ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN
Alyssa Farah Griffin’s resume would not point to her appearing on this list at all. But working for Trump directly in the White House allowed her to witness him up close. Griffin resigned her post in December when it became clear that the campaign would not admit it had lost.
Griffin, along with former colleagues Cassidy Hutchinson and Sarah Matthews, have been warning the public not to vote for their old boss. This principled stance has cost Griffin personally. Her Trump-loving father and stepmother even boycotted Griffin’s wedding in 2022 in protest. For this reason, Griffin places ahead of Haines and Hostin.
GRIFFIN: [After Trump attacked Goldberg] “Trump has a filthier mouth than Whoopi Goldberg. He called you a loser and I would just note you’re an EGOT. He lost the last election and can’t admit it. He’s always been triggered by women. It’s why he has such a challenge with women in this election and why I think they will be a deciding factor when he loses.
“I want to shake people and be like ‘Why are you not believing us? How many more four-star generals need to tell you the truth about who this man is? He is so deeply dangerous.”
3: WHOOPI GOLDBERG
After the jury issued a verdict in the hush money trial, Whoopi Goldberg broke her vow not to use his name and took great pleasure in announcing, “I’m going to say something you’ve never, ever heard me say before: Donald John Trump is a convicted felon.”
Goldberg has called Trump a racist and clearly despises him. Still, sitting in the moderator’s seat forces her to be a calming presence and blocks her out on the top two slots.
GOLDBERG: [After Trump called her ‘dumb’] “How dumb are you? You hired me four times, and you didn’t know what you were getting? You know how dirty I wasn’t? I never grabbed anybody by their genitalia.
[After the debate] “It’s exhausting. Do we say, ‘Hey, listen, pronounce her name right, you moron… I’m tired of being threatened by lies and things that don’t make sense, and I want more [media] people to pay attention… because this man is unhinged.
“Make sure you get out there and vote… we’re all in danger here.”
1 (TIE): ANA NAVARRO and JOY BEHAR
Determining which View co-host hates Trump the most is a bit like having to name Prince’s #1 song. It’s impossible to choose between “Purple Rain” and “Raspberry Beret” which are each sublime but suited to different moods. In these cases–as with Ana Navarro and Joy Behar–it’s best to call it a tie.
These two women come from very different backgrounds and alternate at the top of the list depending on who Trump is attacking that week. For example, when former Chief of Staff John Kelly revealed that Trump praised Hitler, Joy Behar’s anger burned white hot as she explained that her father and uncles fought in World War II. When Trump insults Latinos, a go-to since he glided down the escalator, Ana Navarro reacts with righteous fury.
Navarro emigrated to the United States after fleeing a dictatorship in Nicaragua in 1980. She earned a law degree and registered as a Reagan Republican before taking a job with Florida governor Jeb Bush. She served as the National Co-Chair of John McCain’s Hispanic Advisory Council and stumped for his 2008 presidential campaign. Maybe it’s her feelings of betrayal by the GOP that allows her outrage to go to eleven. One of the OG Never Trumpers, Navarro even convinced her husband Al Cárdenas, the former chair of the Republican Party of Florida, to cast his vote for Kamala Harris.
NAVARRO: [After Trump said he knew her] “I’ve never shaken that man’s hand. I’ve never given him a kiss. I’ve never watched his show. I’ve never bought any of his crappy products and I never voted for him!
[To Chris Christie] “We are holding her to this high standard of her closing message needs to be this, and this, and this, and that. His closing message is Arnold Palmer’s package… dancing for 39 minutes like a wacko job… making fries at McDonald’s. So why don’t we talk about his closing message?
“He is insane… and he has absolutely no empathy.”
A New Yorker, Behar was once friendly with Trump and even attended his wedding to Marla Maples in 1993. Like that marriage, their friendship fizzled to the point that after the 2016 election, Behar wrote The Great Gasbag about how to survive a Trump presidency. [An alternative title, according to Behar, was Moby D---head.] This week, Behar’s anger surged, forcing her to admit on air that she was having “a breakdown” over the election.
BEHAR: [To undecided voter] “Get off the fence, all right? It’s a presidential candidate with credentials versus some kind of a nutcase.
“If people still follow this fascist pig, then I don’t know what else to say. I really don’t. How many times do we have to hear him referring to immigrants as ‘animals’? And Hitler called for cleansing Germany of all those ‘parasites,’ referring to immigrants. And he called Jews ‘lice.’ This guy–Trump–calls people vermin. It’s the same language that Hitler used. How many times do we have to hear him say that John McCain was not a hero because he was captured? Or people who served in the United States military–my father… my uncles… World War II… How many of us have relatives who served in WWII to preserve democracy in this country. I don’t want to hear from his people anymore. Because they’re ignorant. Or willfully ignorant. They’ve crossed the line for me now.”
