As the former second gentleman of the United States, it was almost inevitable that Doug Emhoff would find himself on the receiving end of some hate, and when it comes to figures like Donald Trump, to say we were unsurprised by the president’s commentary on him would be the understatement of the decade. That said, political figures aren’t the only ones who have made it clear they aren’t Emhoff’s biggest fans.

Okay, Trump not liking Emhoff might not be a shock, but we can’t not start with him. In particular, we’d be remiss not to point out the time the president learned of the allegations made in a concerning Daily Mail report that Emhoff had physically attacked one of his former girlfriends. In an interview with Ben Shapiro, Trump dragged Jen Psaki’s MSNBC interview with Emhoff, which had hyped him up for representing a different kind of masculinity. “If that were me it would be the greatest story in the last five years,” Trump lamented, claiming that, by contrast, unflattering stories about him were made up. A rep for Emhoff denied the abuse claims a few days later, telling Semafor, “Any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false” (via CNN). 

While Trump moved on surprisingly quickly from the abuse claims, he continued to spar with Emhoff, even after winning the 2024 election. One particularly devastating blow came in April 2025, when Emhoff was removed from the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. In a post to X, Emhoff not-so-subtly blamed Trump for his removal, writing, “Let me be clear: Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized. To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous.” The president did not respond. 

Donald Trump may have moved on from the abuse allegations against Doug Emhoff, but Megyn Kelly certainly did not. In fact, in the wake of his spokesperson’s statement denying said accusations, she came out swinging on “The Megyn Kelly Show.”

Speaking of the statement itself, Kelly made it clear she was unimpressed. “It is the lamest denial I’ve seen from a public figure involved in a scandal in quite some time,” she said. Later on in the episode, she doubled down that beyond being “lame,” she didn’t believe it, either. “You can tell it’s a lie by the way it is worded. That is my opinion,” Kelly continued. The former Fox News star went on to criticize Emhoff several more times in the weeks that followed — but it’s worth noting that even before then, she’d been critical of the prospective first gentleman and alluded to his shady side. This, after the claim that he’d cheated on his ex-wife with his daughter Ella’s nanny. In one August 2024 episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” she noted, “Kamala Harris’ own husband … cheated on his first wife with the nanny. Which, honestly, is worse than with a porn star.”

It bears mentioning that despite seemingly standing up for Emhoff’s ex-wife in August 2024, Kelly had a very tense moment with her nearly a year later. On a 2025 episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” she recounted the back-and-forth they had on X after Kerstin Emhoff called her out for criticizing Jennifer Lopez for dancing sexily into her 50s. We won’t get into Kelly’s full response, but it read, in part, “Let’s just say I’m sexy enough to keep my husband from sleeping with the nanny.” Yes, really. 

Now, on to one of Doug Emhoff’s more surprising detractors. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson revealed in “Original Sin” that the former second gentleman once had a very tense run-in with “When Harry Met Sally” director Rob Reiner. 

Per “Original Sin,” the awkward interaction happened in response to Joe Biden’s red flag-raising debate performance in June 2024. Reiner and several other celebs had been at a fundraiser-turned-debate watching party, but things took a turn when Biden struggled to answer the questions. Reiner supposedly got up and started yelling more generally about the likelihood of a Democrat victory (“We are f***ed,” were his words), before zoning in on Emhoff more specifically. “He seemed to be looking at Emhoff. Daggers. ‘We’re going to lose our f***ing democracy because of you!’ Reiner yelled,” shared an insider. Emhoff, meanwhile, was said to have been confused, which isn’t surprising given he wasn’t running for anything himself. That said, it’s possible Reiner was angry in general, and with Biden onstage, he was simply the next best bullseye. 

Reiner was ultimately a massive Kamala Harris supporter, so perhaps he was simply venting in the moment and Emhoff was the collateral damage. Either way, neither has addressed the situation, so we have to assume they moved on from it (or are just very good at keeping any further beef out of the public eye). 

Of course, no roundup of Doug Emhoff’s disparagers would be complete without mentioning Jesse Watters. As many will remember, Watters made one of his most sexist comments yet (and given his own shady side, that’s saying something) after the former vice president and second gentleman were photographed on a grocery run in January 2025. 

“What kind of husband goes grocery shopping with his wife?” Watters scoffed (via X). That wasn’t the first time Watters felt a need to pick on Emhoff, though. Back in 2023, he criticized Emhoff when he accompanied Harris on a trip across several African countries. At one event, while the couple visited Ghana, Emhoff was draped in traditional Kente cloth, and suffice it to say, the Fox News host was mad about it, accusing the then-second gentleman of “pandering.” It’s not clear what he felt Emhoff should have done instead. What’s more, given the fact that he was there as a representative and refusing the cloth would have been undiplomatic to say the least, we are going to say Watters might have had an underlying axe to grind with the entertainment lawyer. Either that, or Watters was simply reaching for something to say which, TBH, seems likely. 

Emhoff might not be a political figure himself, but he is married to one, and unfortunately that means he’s bound to have at least some vocal critics. That said, it will be interesting to see if any of that criticism wanes now that Harris is on a hiatus from politics.