Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly of Fox News make peace in secret Manhattan meeting

For Fox News the end of the feud will come as a relief

Megyn Kelly's contract with Fox expires next year (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

He rarely settles lawsuits and he hates to apologise for anything. So what was Donald Trump doing on Wednesday inviting his biggest nemesis of the 2016 campaign to his lair atop Trump Tower in Manhattan for an hour-long chit-chat? Good question.

His guest was neither Pope Francis nor Vicente Fox, the former President of Mexico, both men with whom he has tangled since he plunged into the race for the White House last summer, or even any of his rivals. This was Megyn Kelly, a mere journalist with a mere cable news channel.

Their secret peace summit - for that is what it was - may only be a footnote when the history books on the 2016 presidential races are written. But right now it is creating a hectic burst of buzz. There may even be a sense of disappointment in the air. Is one of the more diverting, if occasionally squirm-inducing, sideshows in an already diverting campaign year suddenly over?

It all started on 6 August last year when the then much larger field of Republican candidates travelled to Cleveland, Ohio, for their first televised debate. The narrative ahead of the clash was all about how its host, Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch, was set to once again be the arbiter of the Republican nomination scramble. No other network came close to it in terms of its influence on the party and its candidates and its hold on America’s conservatives.

But barely had the debate started when things started to go haywire. One of the network’s own moderators, Ms Kelly, 45, a one-time trial lawyer who first joined Fox in 2004, fiercely challenged Mr Trump on his reputation for treating women badly. He took deep umbrage and, in interviews afterwards, made clear that he considered himself at war.

One post-debate comment set the tone for a barrage Mr Trump has essentially kept up ever since aimed at diminishing Ms Kelly as a journalist and a person. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her... wherever,” he said of Ms Kelly’s questioning of him. The menstrual insinuation caused an instant media uproar. When Ms Kelly was included as a moderator in another Fox debate in January, Mr Trump refused to participate.

The feud, combined with Mr Trump’s vaulting to the front of the Republican pack, scrambled the old assumptions about Fox, which is run by an old party hack, Roger Ailes, and the Grand Old Party. Suddenly, it was being led by a person willing to thumb his nose at it. Of course, the Trump phenomenon has been an overall boon for all the US networks and news channels. Mr Trump, meanwhile, knows how to spin controversy into gold. There was nothing like a good blast in Ms Kelly’s direction on Twitter to get attention on those days when he was feeling bit lonely.

For Ms Kelly too, there has been an upside. If speculation has begun about her leaving Fox when her contract expires next year, possibly to go elsewhere or even start her own syndicated show, it is because Mr Trump has truly made her a household name. This has been a war both sides had some reason to stoke and celebrate. But apparently now, its usefulness is over.

The request for a truce appears to have come from Fox. Ms Kelly confirmed on her show on Wednesday evening that she had visited Trump HQ on Fifth Avenue. And there was another purpose for the meeting. Fox is planning a special edition of the Kelly show on 23 May with what they hope will be tip-top line up of interview guests and they want one of them to be Mr Trump. “We met for about an hour, just the two of us, and had a chance to clear the air,“ Ms Kelly said. ”Mr. Trump and I discussed the possibility of an interview, and I hope we will have news to announce on that soon.” It emerged that Mr Trump and Mr Ailes also had lunch together. They too talked about getting Mr Trump to appear Ms Kelly’s May special.

Few television events, at least on cable, would attract a larger audience in this election season than a sit-down interview between Mr Trump and Ms Kelly. It is no wonder she wants it. And Fox at this point would be glad indeed to see the awkwardness end between it and the Republican front-runner. It is likely also that come 23 May, the race for the nomination will still be a red-hot story, if, as many now expect, Mr Trump’s chances of sewing up the nomination ahead of the convention in Cleveland will depend on what happens on 7 June when California and New Jersey will be among the last batch of states to hold primary elections.

We don’t know if the one-time reality TV host will acquiesce; doubtless he will keep Mr Ailes and Ms Kelly in suspense for a while yet. But appearing on a different Fox programme, he seemed happy to have downed weapons. “Maybe it was time, or maybe she felt it was time,” he said of meeting with Ms Kelly. “I give her a lot of credit for, you know, doing what she did, because I don’t know - that took a certain amount. So let’s see what happens, but it was very nice.”

The penny may finally have dropped with The Donald that among the various tasks ahead of him if he is to capture the Republican nomination before the party’s convention in July and avoid a floor fight there which he could easily lose, is to improve his currently dismal standing amongst women. And it will remain paramount if he does seize the nomination and expects to be competitive in the general election, more than likely pitted against Hillary Clinton.

Ms Kelly noted that the “doormen appeared a bit stunned” when she walked into Trump Tower and headed for the 26th floor. Since there is almost no one left in America who has been unaware of her tangles with Mr Trump that is probably the case. But it shouldn’t have been a surprise really; both sides know it has been a good war but one that has become a bit too costly.