Candace Clips and Candace Owens
Apr 29, 2026
[Candace Owens] I do feel like Trump's just repeatedly humiliating himself over and over again, and he can continue to do that in front of the world. I will say real power never has to name itself. "I am MAGA. I built MAGA. I am loved 100% by the people. Just look at these polls." It's like, come on old boy. Who are you fooling? You know, you weren't even worth replying to while I was on holiday in Italy....
And I will say that never when I went through that, and to people who are sick and going through things, never could I have imagined that my lowest moment would one day become President Trump's lowest moment.
Donald Trump named Candace Owens TIME's "Most VILE Person of The Year." Candace responds — and points out the irony of Trump using an image from her lowest moment to mark what may be his.
Transcript
[Candace Owens] It gives them a laugh, and that's okay. Like, who cares what you look like? Okay. You have low moments. You get through them. And I will say that never, when I went through that, and to people who are sick and going through things, never could I have imagined that my lowest moment would one day become President Trump's lowest moment.
[Candace Owens]Okay, so what did I miss? Well, apparently I won, and I like to win. I just want to be clear, you know, and I don't get to win often because despite my thinking I have a lot of accomplishments out here podcasting independently -- I had to rebuild my entire YouTube channel from scratch after being gloriously, publicly fired and hanged for suggesting that genocide is always wrong -- despite all of that, and taking this podcast to No. 1 globally with a very small team, I just don't win anything. So, you can imagine that when I found out that Donald Trump was publicly announcing me, naming me, Candace Owens, as Times person of the year, there was this little glimmer of hope, right?
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116461858227528789
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Candace Owens’ stock, which was never very high, has fallen a long way. Her attack on the First Lady of France is despicable. I believe, in this case, without verification, she is an extremely Low IQ individual!
Apr 24, 2026, 3:42 PM
Okay, I'm not going to lie. Here is what he sent out on Truth Social. He wrote,
[Donald Trump] Candace Owens's stock, which was never very high, has fallen a long way. Her attack on the first lady of France is despicable. I believe in this case, without verification, she is an extremely low IQ individual.
[b][size=115]Look at that photo. Ouch. Yikes. I'm not looking too hot, right? And also, like why what was going on on that day between me and Trump, or even in the previous week, like actually to what do I owe this dishonor, and hasn't he already said this? Is he kind of repeating himself here? He called me low IQ. He's already asserted that I was uglier than Brijit. That actually between the two of us, it's not even close. Does he feel like his point was not delivered effectively the first four times that he made it? Yeah. This is actually the fourth tweet about me in the span of two weeks from the leader of the free world. What is going on?
But before we get to who demanded that the tweet be sent -- it wasn't Trump -- we should address the points that are made within it, because what actually was he trying to accomplish with it? What was the administration trying to accomplish with that tweet?
Okay. Well, the first was a little bit of politicking. To be sure, by now, you are plenty aware that Washington DC runs on blackmail and secrets, right? They send operators out to find your deepest, darkest, most humiliating secrets that you wouldn't want the public to know. And once they discover these secrets, you're kind of presented with really just two options. One, fall into line, deliver the talking points. And if you're in Congress, vote how we want you to vote. If you're in media, say what we want you to say, and we'll make sure the public never finds out. Or here's your other option. Don't stand against us, and we will reveal all. We will make your lives miserable. That's how it works. That's how it works in politics.
And it's incredible to me what people will do, what shame they will put themselves through, and the statements they will make that we know are abundantly untrue simply to avoid public embarrassment. And I guess in that regard, I got to give Trump a little credit here, because the photo he shared of me, to be clear with you guys, it is real. It is not AI. People were suspicious. "Is this a real photo?" I'm not going to sit here and lie to you guys. And you can imagine that was at least refreshing after four days of his top advisor, Laura Loomer, sharing AI photos, delusory stories about drunken hit and runs, and fairy tales about secret trusts to hide money from Mcrone, all in this manic fit to try to land a hit on my rather boring life.
You can imagine that there must have been some satisfaction when they stumbled upon something that is authentic, right? But you see, the only problem with people who are cartoonishly evil, is that they also tend to be equally as dumb. So you can imagine how deflated they are going to feel to learn that the photo that they stumbled upon, my deepest darkest secret, was actually at first shared by me, on my Twitter account. This was not found by some journalist.
So, back in 2019, I shared that because I'm actually proud of that photo. And so, I will briefly tell you the story as to how it came to be, because I was not that well-known in 2019. And so, you may have missed it. The story is from 2016, before I had any public profile whatsoever. I had moved into a brand new newly built luxury apartment, and one night I received a knock on the door from the building maintenance claiming that there was a systemwide HVAC leak. They needed to pull the carpet back in a spare bedroom, and it was completely soaked through in the closet. They ran a fan and they advised us not to go in that room for a couple of days while the fan was running. Okay.
It must have been a few days later that I woke up and my eyes were completely red, and they were pussing, and it was itchy, and I was like that's weird. I don't know what this is about. Within weeks, I then broke out, and that is what you were seeing. Head to toe in eczema, something that I had previously never had. Giant, I'm talking giant patches of eczema all over my skin. My hair fell out in clumps. And this is now over a couple of months. And I kid you not, I even got athletes foot, which is insane. I had two asthma attacks that landed me in the hospital. And I had no idea what was happening. I had no idea what was happening, were it not for somebody that was in my life who instantly recognized the picture of all of the symptoms, and told me that there had to have been a toxic mold presence for which I needed to have the environment tested immediately. And I genuinely think that that person could have potentially saved my life. I would have never figured out what was going on, because everything seemed so separate and sporadic.
And just so you know, Trump, I have way worse pictures than the one that you shared. And it was beyond just physical symptoms, beyond itching. My hair fell out.
Mentally, I was a completely changed person instantly. I was exhausted. I was sleeping up to a day. The only way that I can describe it to you all is I just suddenly was not myself anymore. And it was as though my brain could not think or process thoughts. Everything that I had to do, even things that I didn't have to do, was overwhelming. It was a task. If somebody texted me, I would cry, and I would become overwhelmed, because I couldn't think of how to respond back. Like I was exhausted at the idea of having to answer somebody back in a text message. It it just seemed like an impossible task.
So in a couple of months I felt like my looks and my brains, everything, is just gone, right? And I had not realized up until that moment how much of my personal confidence was actually tied to my looks. Like certain things have been easier for me for being -- and Trump, you're free to dispute this -- generally good-looking by most people's standards. And I didn't appreciate that I tied that so much to who I was. At that time of my life, I would just pop on a red lip -- I was doing the Taylor Swift thing for a little bit -- and run out of the door, without putting on any makeup.
I'm going to show you pictures leading up to this HVAC leak. This is a picture of me in August of 2016. There's another picture of me before this happened in August. Another picture of me in August of 2016 rocking the red lip. No makeup here. Just like doing some hiking with my cousins. Another picture of me where I wasn't needing to wear makeup at all. And another picture of me just traveling, feeling confident in myself.
And yeah, the picture that Trump shared was taken just 3 months later. I was sick. I was very, very sick, and immediately humbled. I did not want to see anyone. I'm not going to pretend that I was this profound person. I did not want to see anyone. I did not go out. I also didn't have the energy to see anyone. I only let my cousin Mia see me, snf you've heard me mention her on the show. She took care of me day in and day out, snd eventually a doctor told me I can keep prescribing you pills, but the only way that you're actually going to be able to beat this infection is you have to go on an unbelievably restricting diet. You cannot have any sugar, even fruit. It's a very strict candidiosis diet, and I said to omyself, this is just what my life is going to have to be. I cried a lot. I mean, I am not a big crier, and I can tell you you wouldn't have known it if you knew me during that time period. And also for the first time in what felt like a very long time -- because prior to that I had been living in New York City going out all the time -- I started praying again. I felt like since the first time since, you know, I was living with my grandparents, maybe in middle school, I hadn't made prayer a daily habit, but I did. And I I remember vividly lighting this candle in my bedroom at night, and getting on my knees and praying. And I will say, I know it's not acceptable, but I was bargaining with God. I remember specifically saying, "I don't even care about the looks. I just want my mind back. I just want to be able to think again. I just want to be able to write again. I want to be able to have energy again. I want to be Candace. I just I want to be Candace on the inside. And when it came down to it, that's all I wanted. Not to look like myself again, but to be healthy again.
And I came away from that experience realizing that health is everything. Your health is everything. Your looks mean nothing in the scheme of things. I was happy to accept that that was how I was going to look for the rest of my life.
Anyway, the story ends well. Actually, I moved out of that apartment, did that strict diet, eventually had to chop my hair, but I did it in a cute little bob. Here's a picture here. With a lot of time, I would say probably maybe like 6 months, my skin fully cleared up, which was not something that I was expecting. And what followed that was I think it was August of 2019, I started for the first time my political YouTube channel, having no idea how successful it would be. And when it became successful, I really enjoyed enjoyed the hindsight of that story. Like, this is probably me inserting this, but I felt like God was giving me a little bit of a test before I had life in the limelight. And I always think, what if I had instead prayed and said, "Oh, please God, give me my good looks back. Take my mind, but give me my good looks back." And for whatever it's worth, I entered the space of politics with a very real understanding of how fickle it all is. I felt completely that I was at God's mercy. I wanted to sort of keep my circle really small.
As you guys know, my cousin Mia still works with me. She is the person who actually helped me upload my first video onto YouTube. She filmed me, and she's still rolling with me today. She was the one I took with me to see EriKa because of vibes. And so I feel like I went into politics with the right attitude, and not impressed by a lot of the things that other people were impressed by. I knew the importance of family, and again, how quickly everything could be stripped away from you. All I wanted was my health, and I was just so grateful to be able to think again.
So to Trump, there you go. And to you directly, I guess it's important for you to know that you have no power over me and my life. I chose to share that picture. That's why you have it. That's why you could have somebody put that on an AI cover. I made a decision to share that with the public because it was the lowest moment of my life. And I do not want people digging through to find that, and try to embarrass me. I'm not embarrassed of it. I'm proud of who it made me into today.
People get sick, okay? In fact, there are people who email us daily about their chronic illnesses, and tell me how much this podcast helps them get through the day. People who are going through surgery, people who are going through cancer, and similarly wearing bandanas and have no hair, enjoy listening to this podcast. It gives them a laugh. And that's okay. Who cares what you look like? You have low moments, and you get through them.
And I will say that never when I went through that, and to people who are sick and going through things, never could I have imagined that my lowest moment would one day become President Trump's lowest moment.