Brian Kilmeade Is Losing It Because Trump Didn't Start a War With Iran Last Night

On Thursday night, President Donald Trump called off a retaliatory strike against Iranian regime targets at the last minute. The strike, which was meant to be a response to the Iranian downing of an unmanned surveillance drone, was already underway when Trump abruptly called it off, as the New York Times first reported.

Per Reuters, Trump warned Iranian leadership that an attack was imminent unless they agreed to talks about “various issues.” The Iranians declined, and Trump apparently did not follow through on his threat. On Friday morning, he explained some of his reasoning in a Twitter thread, calling the planned attack “not proportionate” to the loss of the drone.

This result is almost certainly a good thing for anyone who does not wish to needlessly escalate tensions or start a war with Iran. Unfortunately, Fox & Friends anchor Brian Kilmeade, host of the president’s favorite show, is not one of those people.

Kilmeade has already tried to goad Trump into escalating conflict with Iran once, and on Friday, before Trump’s explanation, he blatantly criticized the president’s decision to exercise restraint (at the last possible minute).

It’s unclear from this clip whether or not Kilmeade knows that the four oil tankers allegedly attacked or sabotaged in the region were not owned or operated by U.S. companies, but yes, it appears that Iran did shoot down an American drones. It was expensive. The drone was flying over international waters, per the U.S., or maybe over Iranian airspace, per the Iranians.

While Trump’s Friday morning tweets are slightly encouraging for the crowd of not-Kilmeades who don’t want more war, it’s unclear what effect the war-horny crowd’s goading will have on a notoriously temperamental president who has repeatedly brought us to the brink of war. Once again, today is already shaping up to be monumentally stupid and dangerous, thanks in no small part to Fox News.