Megyn Kelly has accused Donald Trump of hiding the Iran war’s true death toll.
Kelly, 55, used her show on Tuesday to bash Trump, 79, for speaking breezily about the conflict—and his controversial new White House ballroom—while American troops were dying and suffering life-changing injuries.
The official number of U.S. service members killed since the war began is 13, with at least 12 wounded in the March 27 Iranian strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and more than 300 injured overall.
But Kelly claimed the U.S public was not getting “the full extent of the deaths” or the real story on how U.S. aircraft had been lost.
She said Tuesday: “President Trump there saying just like the ballroom, we’re way ahead of schedule. We’re talking about American troops dying, like putting their lives at risk. It’s not just like the ballroom.
“It’s not just like a fun little excursion into Iran. We’ve already lost 13 servicemen and women. We had another 25 injured over the weekend when Iran hit the Saudis and our plant, our base there. So we had another 25 American service personnel injured there, many severely.
“What does that mean? Lost limbs, severe head wounds? They don’t tell us. That information has been largely censored from the American media.”
Going further, Kelly added, “We don’t believe that we know the full extent of the deaths either. And we don’t believe we know the full extent of exactly how all these planes have come down, that we’re getting the full story.”
Kelly did not offer evidence for the suggestion that deaths or aircraft losses were being concealed, or that the number of injured was higher than reported.
But the Trump administration is facing a credibility fight around the war. The president said Tuesday the U.S. could be out of Iran within two to three weeks, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio again floated direct talks. Iran has denied direct negotiations.
At the same time, critics have pointed to the gap between the rosy official messaging and battlefield reality. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Iran was still mounting roughly 30 strikes a day, with nearly 40 percent getting through defenses, despite repeated administration claims that Tehran’s military had been effectively smashed.
Kelly is not alone among once-loyal MAGA figures now questioning Trump over the conflict. As the Daily Beast reported, Rep. Tim Burchett, 61, warned that a ground war could cost the president support inside his own party. Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked whether he had been sold an “in and out” fantasy.
Far-right commentator Ann Coulter and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked Fox News’ chest-thumping coverage.
Kelly’s comments come amid a personal war with Trump’s close ally Mark Levin, 68. The pair has spent weeks trading ugly insults after Kelly turned on pro-war voices at Fox. When Levin suggested Vice President JD Vance should be sidelined in Israel talks, Kelly dubbed him “Micro.” Levin answered by calling her “Deep Throat,” and Trump later jumped in to defend him as “THE GREAT ONE.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
