Still, the message is notable because it marks the first time Trump has expressed a negative sentiment toward Kelly in several months. And it serves as a reminder that he could break his cease-fire and return to shredding her at any time.

The last major flare-up came in mid-March, when the Republican presidential nominee called for a boycott of "The Kelly File" and called Kelly the "most overrated person on TV."

Fox News shot back. "Donald Trump's vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land," the cable channel said in a statement.

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Who is NBC News host Megyn Kelly? share Share View Photos View Photos Next Image In this Saturday, June 3, 2017, photo released Monday, June 5, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with Megyn Kelly during an interview with NBC's "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly" in St. Petersburg, Russia. Putin says claims about Russian involvement in U.S. elections are untrue, and says the United States actively interferes with elections in other countries. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Kelly has said publicly that she waited for a lull before requesting a one-on-one meeting with Trump, which she got on April 13. The meeting led to an interview that aired in May. At the time, Trump suggested on Twitter that everything was cool between him and Kelly.

But he also warned during the interview that "this could happen again with us," referring to another feud.

Trump managed to restrain himself when Kelly took him to task last month for saying a Hispanic judge is inherently biased, but he apparently objected to these remarks by Kelly during Fox News's coverage of the DNC on Tuesday:

What do you make of this because even though obviously these two candidates are very different, when it comes to how they'll battle terror, the lines are unusual? He's talking about, you know, bombing the oil fields, so that he can decimate ISIS's money source, but then sort of reversed that later. And [Clinton] is more hawkish traditionally but seems to be pursuing more of the Obama agenda that's been, you know, controversial at least back here at home.

That wasn't much of a dig at Trump. Kelly seemed unsure of what his strategy is, exactly — and Trump actually agreed on Twitter, saying she has "no idea" what it is.

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Why was the business mogul upset? He seemed to see in Kelly's observation a subtle suggestion that he ought to be more specific about how he would combat the Islamic State. This is a common criticism — and one that Trump rejects, arguing that it is better to be "unpredictable." He made the same contention when tweeting at Kelly, saying it is a "good thing" that no one knows his strategy. That's debatable.

What's clear is that Trump can be thin-skinned at times. And since Kelly is likely to say things that are far tougher on Trump in the future, his "happily ever after" probably won't last.