Megyn Kelly: Trump's promise of no more Middle East wars was “really fundamental to why many of us voted for him”
Kelly: “It was an extremely important campaign promise. ... It was extremely important that he not do this.”
Published
Megyn Kelly: Trump's promise of no more Middle East wars was "really fundamental to why many of us voted for him"
Citation
From the April 16, 2026, edition of SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Show
MEGYN KELLY (HOST): In the same way a surgeon wants to cut and a hammer wants to hit, somebody in his [Leon Panetta's] role, of course, is going to say, I'm in favor of this. That's exactly what somebody who's held the roles that Leon Panetta has held would say. Like, yes, OK, great, we're going to do that. Ask a military general, most of them say like, yeah, we did the right thing.
It's — there's a different segment of the populace that spends its time working with veterans, interviewing veterans, like having covered those two wars night and day nonstop, that hears from a different class of military expert, and those are the guys who wanted Trump elected. Those are the guys who thought they had somebody who understood them in Pete's role, Pete Hegseth's role, who are very angry. So many of them are very angry about this and feel a betrayal on a very deep letter — level because they were promised no more Middle East wars — not just no more war, no more wars in the Middle East, it'd be a distraction, it'd be incredibly expensive, Trump said all of that.
And, yes, he was saying Iran can't have a nuclear weapon,
STEPHEN A. SMITH (GUEST): OK.
KELLY: which is why people gave him a lot of berth when he bombed them in June and then told us the facilities were obliterated, and we supported him. And then he launched a war anyway.
STEPHEN A. SMITH (GUEST): Right, so in other words, when he bombed their nuclear sites last June, right, and he said we obliterated them, and it was over, your position is that it was supposed to be done. No further action was supposed to be necessary. You've lied to us. Is that what you're saying about president Trump?
KELLY: At that point, didn't sense a lie. I was like —
SMITH: No, I'm not talking about at that point. I'm talking about now. I'm talking about now. That's what you're feeling, like you were lying.
KELLY: I mean, I don't know if he lied or if he just went back on a campaign promise, but it was an extremely important campaign promise. Extremely. And so — like, this is not one of those, like, oh, you know, I'll build the wall. But he doesn't build the full wall, he builds portions of the wall and other portions of it are electronic. And you're like, I don't love that, but I can live with it. The border is closed.
SMITH: All right.
KELLY: This one's really fundamental to why many of us voted for him. It was extremely important that he not do this. And mean, look, I'm not going to have to go fight in a war, but I do have three kids, including two boys. And the draft has now just been made easier than ever because they're doing automatic registrations for it now, starting in December.
SMITH: Right, yeah
KELLY: Anyway, my point is simply it's personal and the vets I've talked to are very against it. Guys who have actually lost limbs, really lost blood and treasure. And he barely even tried to explain it to us, Steven A., barely even did us the respect of telling us why we were doing it.