Fox’s Kilmeade Predicts Trump Ends Up in a ‘Kinetic War’ With Iran Before Labor Day

Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade warned Tuesday that the U.S. could be headed for a “kinetic war” with Iran within weeks, putting the potential escalation before Labor Day.

While a senior Pakistani minister said Tuesday that the two countries are near “some sort of arrangement” over the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump told Axios on Sunday that after months of back-and-forth, the U.S. is “low-keying it” and “only semi-negotiating” with the Iranians.

After discussing Monday’s reporting from The Washington Post that revealed the president was secretly whisked off Air Force One in an airport catering truck amid a credible Iranian assassination threat, Kilmeade told his fellow panelists on The Five, “This president, of course, is a target. Having said that, I think that’s a small part of the story. I think the real story is what we do next in Iran.”

The Fox News host continued, “I think the president is gonna put the economic squeeze on them. I think the misery index is up to 91%… I think we’ll end up in a kinetic war to finish this thing off before Labor Day, because the Iranians need to understand who the superpower is.”

“Kinetic” has become a favored term among Trump administration officials, including the president himself and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to describe military action involving physical force, such as bombs or missiles, as opposed to cyber or intelligence operations. The term has increasingly become shorthand for direct combat, and, according to war studies professor Lawrence Freedman, who spoke to CNN in January, carries “sort of a macho element,” because “kinetic sounds like you’re being really tough.”

Yet not all Republicans appear confident that the conflict will end favorably. Polling highlighted Tuesday by CNN’s data guru Harry Enten found that just 41% of Republicans believe the U.S. will ultimately reach a “good deal” with Iran, while only 27% of voters overall said the same.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!