Greg Gutfeld defended President Donald Trump in a heated April 17 exchange on The Five that turned into a sharp on-air clash with Jessica Tarlov. The panel also included Jesse Watters and Kellyanne Conway, and the argument centered on Trump’s approval rating, his record in office and how his politics are read by critics and supporters alike.
The fight broke open when Conway began to say, “Trump got elected on—” before Tarlov cut in with a challenge: “And what do people think of him now? He has a 35% approval rating in most polls,” she said. Gutfeld shot back, “He’s not a politician.” Tarlov immediately pushed back, saying, “Yes, he is. Stop saying he’s just the host of The Apprentice who came to save us. He’s been in office twice,” and the exchange only got sharper from there.
Gutfeld argued that Trump can be misunderstood because “his political decisions align with his personal and patriotic ones.” Tarlov answered, “Personal? Like his own bank account?” He then widened the contrast, saying, “You understand Gavin, you understand Biden, because their political decisions are divorced from the things people want,” a reference to Gavin Newsom and former President Joe Biden. Tarlov said, “All I hear in my head is your voice,” and Gutfeld replied, “You’re lucky,” before pressing, “What do you got? What do you got? What you have on your side. It is a carnival atrocity,” and Tarlov closed with, “I can’t wait for elections.”
The discussion fits a long-running pattern on The Five, where Trump’s standing and his approval numbers are frequent flashpoints, but Thursday’s argument was the kind that travels quickly because it was built on familiar lines and a direct challenge to Gutfeld’s defense. The clash was shared on X, where one user wrote, “He said nothing at all lmao. They were just rage-baiting her.” Another user took the opposite view, writing that Tarlov’s “he’s been in office twice” line was no gotcha at all and that Gutfeld “nailed it.”
It also lands against a sharper backdrop: the discussion came as the panel addressed former Vice President Kamala Harris speaking out on Trump, and after the article’s separate note that Trump demanded Tarlov be removed from. That makes the exchange more than a passing cable argument. It is part of a recurring fight over Trump’s political identity, his numbers and who gets to define what his supporters are really voting for.
What the debate showed, plainly, is that neither side was conceding ground. Gutfeld cast Trump as a leader whose motives are tied to instinct and country, while Tarlov treated the former president as a conventional political figure whose approval rating is the first fact that matters. That divide is not going away, and on The Five it remains one of the most reliable sources of conflict on the table.