Two of Donald Trump’s MAGA stars appear to be on the outs after a searing rebuke from the president surrounding their comments on his Iran strikes.
Megyn Kelly, 55, had said she had “serious doubts” about the strategy, while Tucker Carlson, 56, has long opposed military involvement in the Middle East. Each former Fox News host has millions of social media followers.
Kelly “outta study her history book a little bit,” Trump, 79, told independent reporter Rachael Bade in response to the conservative podcaster’s comments on Monday.
Kelly “was opposed to me for years when I ran the first time and nothing stopped me,” he added. “And so, you know, some people are against—and they always come back."
As for Carlson, Trump said his opposition “has no impact on me.”
“I think that MAGA is Trump—MAGA’s not the other two,” Trump said. “MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe. And MAGA loves what I’m doing—every aspect of it."
Iran, he claimed, “is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.”
Both Kelly and Carlson supported Trump’s 2024 reelection bid, and delivered speeches at his rallies in the closing weeks of the campaign.
Kelly, on her SiriusXM show on Monday, said that while she supported Trump, she should still be able to question his actions.
“I have serious doubts about what we’re doing,” Kelly said.
“I support the president... But that doesn’t mean... you have to accept another Middle East war without questions. And anybody who tells you that can suck it,” she said. “There’s nothing unpatriotic or unsupportive of one’s conservatism or general adherence to MAGA-type principles to say, ‘I would like to be better-convinced that this is worth the sacrifice of American blood and treasure.’”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed that the U.S. strikes were “preventive” because the administration believed Iran would attack U.S. military bases after Israel attacked Iran. The response has garnered significant criticism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had for weeks lobbied Trump to attack Iran, the New York Times and the Washington Post reported.
As of Monday, six U.S. service members had been killed.
Kelly went on to say that “no one should have to die for a foreign country.”
“I don’t think those service members died for the United States. I think they died for Iran or for Israel,” she said. “No one is crying that the Ayatollah is dead, but our government’s job is not to look out for Iran or Israel. It’s to look out for us.”
Carlson, who tried to talk Trump out of the war, per the New York Times, was similarly skeptical.
“This happened because Israel wanted it to happen,” he said on his show Monday. “This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war. This war is not being waged on behalf of American national security objectives, to make the United States safer or richer... This war is waged purely because Israel wanted it to be waged.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Kelly, Carlson and the White House.
