Conservative media personality and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly sharply criticized President Donald Trump\u2019s handling of the recent U.S.\u2013Iran conflict, describing the resulting ceasefire as resembling a \u201csurrender\u201d by the United States\u2014even as she acknowledged supporting the decision to end the fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking in an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored<\/em>, Kelly offered a blunt assessment of the agreement reached between the Trump administration and Iranian officials, a two-week ceasefire brokered with the help of Pakistani mediators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou got to say, the deal sounds very much like surrender on our part, which I\u2019m in favor of. I mean, great. This needed to end, ugly, or any other way, it needed to end. It was folly to begin with. It was folly throughout. It remains folly,\u201d Kelly told Morgan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ceasefire came shortly before a deadline Trump imposed for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route. Despite the pause in hostilities, Trump warned that U.S. forces would remain positioned in and around Iran and could carry out further strikes if Tehran failed to comply with a broader agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet Kelly\u2019s critique extended far beyond the ceasefire itself. In a wide-ranging and at times blistering exchange with Morgan, she questioned how the conflict began and why Trump embraced it in the first place\u2014pointing in particular to the influence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat led Trump, what, at 79 years old, to sit in there in that situation room when Bibi Netanyahu was seated as an equal?\u201d she asked. \u201cTrump didn\u2019t even sit at the head of the table. Trump sat at the side of the tables and Bibi was across from him as an equal in the American situation room. What led him to sit there and buy what that guy was selling hook, line, and sinker when every other president was able to see through that liar? What was it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly cited reporting<\/a> from journalist Maggie Haberman and co-author Jonathan Swan, which described internal skepticism from top U.S. officials\u2014including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2014about intelligence presented by Netanyahu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause he was told the next day by our own top advisers, from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to the secretary of state to the vice president, that these are lies and that these objectives are not going to be attainable. Don\u2019t believe him!\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She acknowledged that limited military gains may have been possible but rejected the broader claims made by Trump about the outcome of the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe might be able to wipe out the Ayatollah, not regime change, Ayatollah. And we might be able to decimate some portion of their missiles and their military. OK, that\u2019s true,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the goals as stated by Trump when we did pull the trigger. We\u2019re all over the board into this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly was especially critical of Trump\u2019s assertion that the U.S. had achieved regime change in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s pushing the BS claim that we effected regime change. No, we didn\u2019t! It\u2019s the same regime, just different players. There isn\u2019t somebody more moderate in there at all. We have no reason to believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, she argued, the outcome may have strengthened more hardline elements within Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn fact, it looks like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is in control now, which is far more radical. And the fatwa that had allegedly been issued by the Ayatollah on developing nukes is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She added that Iran now appears to hold increased leverage, both economically and strategically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIran is more powerful economically. It controls the Strait and now is demanding the lifting of all sanctions against it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly also criticized what she described as Trump\u2019s shifting position on a proposed 10-point plan to resolve the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd what Trump did with that 10-point plan was go from Monday saying, no, not good, to Tuesday saying, very workable. We can do it as a means of saving face to bail off of his insane threats about annihilating an entire civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her frustration extended to Trump\u2019s rhetoric more broadly, including social media posts in which he referenced extreme military action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t know about you, but I am sick of this s—! I\u2019m just \u2014 I\u2019m sick of it. Can\u2019t he just behave like a normal human? I mean, honestly, like the president \u2014 \u20183D chess\u2019 \u2014 just shut up,\u201d she said on her podcast. \u201cF—ing shut up about that s—! You don\u2019t threaten to wipe out an entire civilization. We\u2019re talking about civilians, just casually in a social media post.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, Kelly placed responsibility for the conflict on a combination of external influence and presidential decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo I don\u2019t know how we got here, Piers. I\u2019d like to know just as much as anybody else, but all I can think in my head, based on what I\u2019ve read in the paper, is we got her thanks to Bibi Netanyahu, Lindsey Graham, and Mark Levin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd ultimately, President Trump, that\u2019s not to take agency away from the president, who was bamboozled. I don\u2019t know why he was too weak to say no. He was too gullible to see through the lies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne way or another, he allowed himself to be pushed into this insane conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch the full video here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n