MS NOW Host Rips Trump and Hegseth for Unleashing a ‘Bit of Racism’ on Iran — Which Is Merely an ‘Opponent’

MS NOW star Antonia Hylton said it is “disturbing” how the Trump Administration talks about Iran’s theocratic regime, with Hylton saying there is a “bit of racism” in how President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discuss the country.

Hylton went off on the Trump administration’s “messaging” around Operation Epic Fury on the Saturday episode of The Weekend: Primetime.

She said the way Trump and other officials talk about Iran — which has killed more than 1,000 Americans since 1979 via its terrorist proxies — is unsettling, considering the country is simply an “opponent.” And in particular, Hylton was upset with Hegseth saying Iran is run by “savages” earlier this week.

Here is what she told Ayman Mohyeldin and her other co-hosts:

The other piece of this that I found really disturbing in the messaging around the war recently — and Ayman, I really want your thoughts on this in particular — is some of the language in the description of their opponent. Sort of the way they seem to create this image of the Iranians and all of their sort of proxies or allies, the sort of imagery that they conjure up.

And I think that it takes a certain amount of arrogance and I’m also going to say it, a bit of racism, to constantly talk about people like they are savages.

That is a word that we have heard Hegseth use. [They] talk about people as though the are subhuman, too stupid to engage in a war with the United States, incapable of possibly out-maneuvering us, and then find ourselves in the exact position in which it appears they are consistently out-maneuvering us.

The MS NOW crew then rolled a clip of Hegseth on Tuesday saying “For 47 years, these barbaric savages in the Iranian regime have murdered our brothers in arms. My guys, your guys, our guys.”

Primetime:Weekend then played a clip of Trump telling Fox News host Brian Kilmeade that the alleged culprits in multiple attacks this week do not have “exactly your genetics. It’s one of those problems.”

Those comments were made on Thursday, days after a man shouted “Allahu Akbar!” and hurled an explosive device at a protest in New York City; that man and another suspect both told investigators they were inspired by ISIS, according to the criminal complaint. Trump’s comments were also made the same day a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen plowed his truck into a Michigan synagogue.

Hylton said those comments from Hegseth and Trump had “racialized undertones” and were examples of “casual eugenic talk.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

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!