What’s startling about this transformation is the extent to which Kelly, who built a career on cool, vaguely aristocratic scorn, has pivoted to her tormentor President Trump’s precise notion of what a female political journalist ought to be: politics- and conflict-free. “Have a laugh with us, a smile, sometimes a tear, and maybe a little hope to start your day. Some fun! That’s what we wanna be doing. Some fun,” she says, framing her show as an escapist pleasure.

She waves her hands, smiles too hard, and delivers exactly what Trump wants: total, unconditional surrender. “I am kinda done with politics for now,” she says, and the audience cheers. It’s a savagely irresponsible declaration from a woman who constituted so great a threat to Trump that he melted down after the debate and — by her own account — made her life a living hell in retaliation. But it’s typical, too: Kelly made no apology for keeping Trump’s efforts to bribe journalists for good coverage under wraps for her book — which came out after the election.