President Donald Trump hit back at The View cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin on Tuesday after she failed to follow through on her promise to wear a Make America Great Again hat if he succeeded in freeing Israeli hostages from Gaza, calling her “a total joke” and describing the ABC talk show as “a fraud.”
The exchange came during a joint lunch with Argentine President Javier Milei when a reporter asked Trump about Griffin’s December 2024 pledge.
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“But on a lighter note,” the reporter began, “Alyssa Farah, she is one of the hosts on ABC’s show The View, she said a while back, I’ll quote: ‘If Trump gets the Israeli hostages out, I promise I will wear a MAGA hat for one day on this show and say, “Thank you for doing it.”‘ Your response?”
President Trump responds to Alyssa Farah Griffin's claim that she'd wear a MAGA hat if he freed the hostages.
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) October 14, 2025
"She got hired by The View and they gave her a couple of bucks and she changed her view very quickly." pic.twitter.com/f7axfVigtH
Trump replied, “Well, did she put the hat on?”
When the reporter clarified that she had not, Trump dismissed Griffin’s credibility.
“She used to work for me,” he said. “She gave me the most beautiful letter when, you know, the administration [ended] … She gave me the most beautiful letter you’ve ever seen, [saying] I was a great president [and] what a great job [he did] … And then, she got hired by The View, and they gave her a couple of bucks and she changed her view very quickly. I never thought she’d make it — never thought she had what it took … but it just shows what a fraud The View is.”
Trump said Griffin had written multiple glowing notes to him even after leaving the White House, before becoming one of his most vocal media critics.
Griffin, who served as White House communications director in the final months of the first Trump administration, said last year on The View that she would “wear a MAGA hat for one day and say, ‘Thank you’” if Trump were responsible for freeing the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Sending this to the top. Let’s go. https://t.co/BfTVIxaWzQ
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 13, 2025
“You have to be able to cheer for wins when they happen and call out wrongdoing relentlessly,” she said at the time.
However, Griffin did not appear wearing the hat on either Monday’s or Tuesday’s broadcasts, prompting mockery from conservatives and Trump allies online.
Clips of Griffin’s earlier comments resurfaced Monday following Trump’s signing of the Israel-Hamas peace deal, which resulted in the release of the final 20 living Israeli hostages in exchange for 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians and a phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Trump celebrated the accord alongside global leaders in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, calling it “a deal 3,000 years in the making.”
After the announcement, Donald Trump Jr. reposted the clip of Griffin’s original MAGA-hat promise on X, captioning it, “Sending this to the top. Let’s go.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) joined in, writing, “Alyssa Farah Griffin promised to wear a Make America Great Again hat if Trump helped free the Israeli hostages. That day has come, Alyssa — and I’d be more than happy to let you borrow mine!”
Conservative commentators also piled on when she did not wear a MAGA hat on Tuesday.
One social media post read, “Alyssa Farah is not wearing a MAGA hat on The View today — despite promising to do so if President Trump released the hostages.”
Another wrote, “Not surprised — she punked out on her promise.”
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“She’s a total joke,” Trump said on Tuesday. “But that’s The View — a total fraud.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Alyssa Farah Griffin and ABC for comment.