Joy Behar has never been one to hold her tongue, but this week, the fiery co-host of The View may have finally pushed things too far. On Wednesday’s show, as the panel erupted over Donald Trump’s latest demand—an investigation into Barack Obama after bombshell intelligence revelations—Behar went off-script in spectacular fashion. “First of all, who tried to overthrow the government on Jan. 6?” she fired, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “That was not Obama. The thing about him is he’s so jealous of Obama, because Obama is everything that he is not: trim, smart, handsome, happily married, and can sing Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’ better than Al Green. And Trump cannot stand it. It’s driving him crazy. Green is not a good color.”

But as clips of Behar’s takedown ricocheted across social media, the backlash was instant—and brutal. Within hours, Fox News reported that White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers had issued a blistering statement, not just slamming Behar as an “irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” but warning that The View itself could soon be “pulled off-air” if Behar didn’t rein in her relentless anti-Trump tirades. Rogers didn’t stop there, mocking Behar’s “jealousy of President Trump’s historic popularity” and twisting the knife by pointing to the show’s “all-time low” ratings last year.

Suddenly, the fate of daytime TV’s most controversial talk show was front-page news. Would The View, a program that’s weathered every political storm for nearly three decades, really be next on the chopping block? Or was this just the latest volley in a never-ending war of words between Trump World and its favorite punching bag?

The drama only intensified when a spokesperson for The View hit back, touting the show’s surging audience and crowing that it’s “ranking No. 1 in households and total viewers among all network daytime talk shows and news programs for the fifth straight season.” Far from fading into irrelevance, they insisted, The View is “up in total viewers and women 18-49, versus the comparable weeks last season, to its most-watched in four years.”

But the numbers, for once, seemed almost beside the point. At the heart of this latest controversy is a question that’s haunted American pop culture since Trump first descended that golden escalator: Can anyone, even a queen of daytime like Joy Behar, survive the wrath of a president—and a White House—that never forgets a slight? Or is this just another headline in the endless saga of American politics, where the only thing more enduring than outrage is the ratings it brings?

As the credits rolled on Wednesday’s episode, Behar looked unbothered, even defiant. But with the White House now openly calling for her show’s demise, and Trump loyalists baying for blood, one thing is certain: The View has never felt more like the front line of America’s culture war. And for Joy Behar, the stakes have never been higher.