Fox’s Maria Bartiromo Puzzled By Iran’s ‘Capabilities to Fight’ Despite Trump’s Insistence the US Has ‘Obliterated’ Their Military

Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo questioned how Iran was continuing to strike U.S. forces despite President Donald Trump’s repeated insistence that the U.S. has “obliterated” the Iranian military.

The anchor of Sunday Morning Futures made the comments during an interview with former Trump national security adviser Victoria Coates, as the White House has yet to offer an official statement on the deaths of two U.S. service members.

“You know, CENTCOM says there will be outsized action in retaliation, but I don’t understand how it’s possible that Iran has the capabilities to fight this way and continue to try to lash out at Gulf countries and U.S. military bases,” Bartiromo said. “Because the U.S. has obliterated Iran’s military, and the president continues to reiterate that.”

“Yes. And if you look at the numbers of missiles that they’ve been able to fire off from the beginning of this war in late February, early March, and what they’re able to do now, it is very seriously degraded,” Coates said, continuing:

They’ve gone from over a hundred a day to less than 10, if even that. There have been a number of days where they haven’t fired off anything, and they haven’t targeted Israel for months now. So I think their capabilities are lessened, but they’re not zero, and that’s the important thing. They are a nuisance. They’re going after their regional neighbors, and that in a way though can also in the long term be a benefit for us, Maria, because this unites the entire region behind the united States and with Israel. That would have been impossible ten years ago. Now it’s actually happening in realtime.

Despite the Trump administration’s continued claims, The New York Times reported in May that “classified assessments” showed “Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities.” Specifically, the report said Iran “has operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting that its military remains far stronger than President Trump has asserted.”

“Only three of the missile sites along the strait remain totally inaccessible, according to the assessments,” the report said.

U.S. Central Command reported Saturday that two U.S. service members were killed and one remained missing following Iranian strikes on a U.S. military base in Jordan. Four troops were treated for injuries and released from a Jordanian hospital.

In a brief Saturday phone call, Trump told NewsNation, “It’s a very sad thing. We hate to see it happen…It’s in service to our country…we’re never going to allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted to X, “Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”

Watch the clip above via Sunday Morning Futures With Maria via Fox Business Network.

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