Hegseth Goes On Offense, SCOTUS Arguments on LGBT Curriculum, FDA Fights Food Dyes: AM Update 4/23
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Good morning, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. It's Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025. And this is your AM Update. They've come after me from day one.

Just like they've come after President Trump. It's not hard for me to do this job. I know exactly why I'm here. Secretary Pete Hegseth goes on offense against leakers with the Pentagon and in media looking for a win against the Trump administration. I guess I'm not understanding why Montgomery County School Board stands alone, I think, in the country. The U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments over mandated LGBT curriculum for young children

And RFKJ announces the FDA will phase out artificial food dyes. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth going on offense against the drip, drip, drip media narrative, suggesting under his leadership, the Pentagon is in chaos. Mr. Hegseth telling Fox News the attacks against him will not prevent the administration from accomplishing badly needed reforms within the Pentagon. They've come after me from day one.

Just like they've come after President Trump. I mean, I've gotten a fraction of what President Trump got in that first term. What he's endured is superhuman. It's not hard for me to do this job. I know exactly why I'm here.

To bring war fighting and the war fighting ethos back to the Pentagon. To rip out the insidious ideologies and not compromise and not back down. To bring in new press voices into the Pentagon, which we've done. To reestablish standards and accountability. To not tolerate leakers. To 100% operational control of our border. To get rid of trans lunacy in the military. We haven't backed down. See, here's the thing. A lot of people come to Washington and they just play the game.

And it's you punch their ticket and get along to go along and, you know, start doing meet the press and and go into the Council on Foreign Relations and spending time with all the new cocktail sipping crowd. That's not why I'm here. I'm here because President Trump asked me to bring warfighting back to the Pentagon every single day. Right. That is our focus.

The Pentagon currently conducting an investigation into a series of leaks, including military plans relating to the Panama Canal and a planned briefing for Elon Musk allegedly regarding China and Ukraine.

Amid preliminary results of the Pentagon's investigation, three of Secretary Hegseth's top aides fired and escorted out of the building on Friday. One aide, Senior Advisor Dan Caldwell, a longtime friend of Secretary Hegseth's, going back to Mr. Hegseth's work at Concerned Veterans for America.

Mr. Caldwell telling Tucker Carlson on Monday he believes he was fired not for leaking, but because he opposes military intervention with Iran. There are obviously specifics I can't get into, but I think it is fair to say that a war with Iran risks...

being incredibly costly in terms of lives and dollars and instability in the Middle East. Lives and dollars, American lives, American dollars. The lives of Americans, the lives of Iraqis, of Saudis, of Iranians, of Israelis, Emiratis, yes, of Israelis. And of course, Iranians. It could be an incredibly costly war.

And I think that that is very obvious to anybody who's been watching the region for a while. The Trump administration is currently negotiating a new Iran deal with the president repeatedly threatening if diplomacy fails, all options are on the table. I think that Iran has a chance to have a great country.

And to live happily without death. And I'd like to see that. That's my first option. If there's a second option, I think it would be very bad for Iran.

We can confirm, as Mr. Caldwell told Tucker Carlson, that his phone was not searched, nor was he subjected to a polygraph before termination. However, there are other methods of ascertaining leaks. Checking who printed which documents, for example. The Pentagon's investigation is still ongoing.

No sooner had these three been fired from the Pentagon than the hit pieces on Pete Hegseth began. For example, the New York Times attempting to revive the Signalgate controversy with reporting based on anonymous sources of a second Signal chat in which the secretary allegedly shared sensitive information with his brother and his lawyer, both of whom work at the Pentagon, and with his wife, who does not.

The White House making clear they think these hits are payback against the secretary. They were Pentagon employees who leaked against their boss to news agencies in this room. And it's been clear since day one from this administration that we are not going to tolerate individuals who leak to the mainstream media, particularly when it comes to sensitive information. And the secretary of defense is doing a tremendous job and he is bringing monumental change to the Pentagon.

And there's a lot of people in this city who reject monumental change. And I think, frankly, that's why we've seen a smear campaign against the Secretary of Defense since the moment that President Trump announced his nomination before the United States Senate. Secretary Hegseth addressing head-on his longstanding ties to Mr. Caldwell and the other recently fired aides.

If one or two of these guys is exonerated after an investigation, great. That's what investigations are for. But we took it seriously. It led to some unfortunate places, people I have known for quite some time. But it's not my job to protect them. It's my job to protect national security, the president of the United States.

and let the investigation go where it is. So when that evidence is gathered sufficiently, and this has all happened very quickly, it will be handed over to DOJ, and those people will be prosecuted if necessary. Steve Bannon, longtime Trump advisor and senior counselor to the president under Trump 1.0, telling The Megyn Kelly Show, while Secretary Hegseth's focus on rooting out leakers is understandable, it risks pulling attention away from key Trump 2.0 priorities.

up. We have to have a sense of urgency. Right now, we are burning daylight. We're 18 months away or however long away from the midterm elections where if they raise $2 billion and flip a couple of seats in New York and California, Hakeem Jefferson is going to speak at the House. They're going to impeach Trump in the first weeks. And people are not at DOJ, at FBI, and others are not

moving quickly enough and fast enough with a sense of urgency and even CIA and DNI of taking down the deep state. These people are at war with President Trump. What's happening to Pete Hexeth is part of that war. They're dug in now more than ever and understand they need to get rid of Trump and they need to get rid of Trumpism.

Folks, you have to understand this deep state. This just didn't occur overnight. This had been 40 or 50 years. All those generals and field officers and civilians have been around forever as part of the deep state of the Pentagon. They're just not going to have Pete Hanks come in with President Trump's ideas and a handful of people and say, oh, this is terrific. Why didn't we think of this? Because they're going to bury President Trump in that way. And that's why I think we have to be even more aggressive.

Coming up, could the Supreme Court be ready to side with parents suing over mandated LGBT curriculum for young children? And RFKJ announces the FDA will phase out artificial food dyes.

As President Trump is settling into his new administration, one of the top Democrats in Congress aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Democrat Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. And according to our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, Senator Durbin has a new plan, a government takeover of your credit card. Today, Americans have thousands of choices in credit cards, but they say Senator Durbin's plan will result in less competition and less security, which means more

more risk for your credit and your identity. You can learn more for yourself at guardyourcard.org. And you could consider telling your senators to stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of your credit card before it's too late. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday hearing arguments from a group of Maryland parents seeking to exempt their children from public school lessons involving LGBTQ-themed books.

the parents who are Muslim, Christian, and Jewish from one of the most Democrat-leaning counties in the U.S., suing Montgomery County Superintendent Thomas Taylor. The dispute beginning in November 2022 when the school district introduced a set of LGBTQ-inclusive books into the English language arts curriculum for pre-K through fifth grade students. Some of the books in question—

Pride Puppy, a story about a dog lost at a pride parade. Love Violet, about a young girl overwhelmed by her crush on a female classmate. Jacob's Room to Choose, about transgender students who lead a campaign to make their school's bathrooms gender neutral.

Each of these texts accompanied by bright and colorful pictures appealing to small children. Initially, parents were given the choice to opt their students out of lessons involving this curriculum. But in March of 2023, the school board reversing course, announcing families could not opt out and parents would no longer be informed even of when their children were exposed to these materials.

Lawyers for the school board arguing an opt-out policy, quote, gave rise to three related concerns, high student absenteeism, the infeasibility of administering opt-outs across classrooms and schools, and the risk of exposing students who believe the storybooks represent them and their families to social stigma and isolation. The

The conservative justices on the high court pressing the lawyer for the Montgomery County School District on why opt-out programs are not feasible from Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito. I guess I'm not understanding why Montgomery County School Board stands alone. I think in the country, you can tell me if there's another school board that's done something like this. The kind of books that are being used and prohibiting opt-outs and

I guess I'm just not understanding. They're not asking you to change what's taught in the classroom. They're only seeking to be able to walk out so that the parents don't have their children exposed to these things that are contrary to their own beliefs. What is the big deal about allowing them to opt out of this? Attorney for Montgomery County Schools, Alan Schoenfeld, telling the court the school board tried to implement an opt-out program but found it increasingly complicated.

Let's say the school, an exquisitely competent and well-resourced school, is able to say on Tuesday at 9 o'clock, we're going to read Uncle Bobby's Wedding, we're going to make arrangements for alternative space, we're going to give suitable supervision for our six-year-olds, and we're going to give them an alternative assignment that accomplishes the same ELA goals. Let's say that happens, right?

That they were able to pull off. The next week, someone says, that was my favorite book ever. I'm going to pull it off the shelf and I'm going to ask Alan to sit down and read it with me. What happens then? The teacher can't simply summon a librarian to come to the school, say those were the kids who opted out of that lesson. Well, I don't think you're really answering my question. Justice Katonji Brown Jackson, a progressive appointed by Joe Biden, appearing to side with the school board. It wasn't as though the books were being introduced publicly.

for the purpose of enhancing the gender and sexuality component, and therefore people can opt out of that whole thing. It was that we're talking about English here, and in addition to the other kinds of picture books we have on the shelf and we talk about in class, we're going to introduce these books as well. I think that seems pretty infeasible in English when you're talking about reading instruction, that every time this particular kind of book comes out, we have to start letting people leave the classroom.

Mr. Baxter, for the parents, arguing that under existing Supreme Court precedent, the inability to opt out of the lessons places an unconstitutional burden on parents seeking to adhere to their religious beliefs. I think there's three main ways this court has reviewed that. Under Yoder, it would be, is there substantial interference with the parents' ability to direct the religious upbringing of their children? We think we've shown that here. Under cases like Sherbert that have continued through to Fulton, it's

Are the parents being pressured to abandon or modify their religious beliefs in order to access a public benefit like public education? And then I think we also have what I think Justice Gorsuch may have been suggesting, just if there's straight up discrimination where some religious students are opted out and others aren't, then that itself would also be a burden. And I think we satisfy any one of those tests.

Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt addressing the case from the White House briefing room on Tuesday. We hope the Supreme Court will do the right thing, and the president has been very clear. He stands on the side of parental rights, and he believes strongly that parents should have a greater say in their children's education. Restoring parental control in education, a cornerstone of the Trump administration, following years of DEI-driven curriculum that the administration argues is antithetical to traditional American values.

The Supreme Court's decision expected in June. HHS Secretary RFKJ and FDA Commissioner Marty McCary on Tuesday announcing plans to phase out FDA-approved artificial food dyes from America's food supply within two years. Today, the FDA is taking action to remove petroleum-based food dyes from the U.S. food supply and from medications.

For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals.

The scientific community has conducted a number of studies raising concerns about the correlation between petroleum-based synthetic dyes and several health conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, cancer, genomic disruption, GI issues, as I've seen in the hospital, and allergic reactions. They want to eat petroleum. They ought to add it themselves at home.

They shouldn't be feeding it to the rest of us. In the last days of the Biden administration, the FDA begrudgingly moving to ban the use of red dye number three. The FDA citing a statute known as the Delaney Clause prohibiting FDA authorization of a food or color additive if it has been shown to cause cancer in humans or animals.

Two studies show red dye number three causes cancer in male rats exposed to high rates. The FDA at the time saying, quote, the way that red number three causes cancer in male rats does not occur in humans.

Under the leadership of Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Marty McCary, the FDA now taking a different approach. Dr. McCary describing the administration's philosophy in an exclusive interview last week with The Megyn Kelly Show. What I don't understand is if there's enough preliminary data to suggest that there may be carcinogenic effects or genomic disruption or associations with attention deficit disorder or a whole

whole plethora of families that are saying, hey, once we started eliminating these petrochemical food colorings from the food of my child, their behavior improved. When you have enough of that, it's not, look, they're not giant randomized control studies over 10 years for each food dye. We're not going to get that. But when you have enough preliminary data to suggest these petrochemical food dyes are concerning,

Who then would conclude, you know what, let's just risk it. It's fine. We'll wing it. We'll be, you know, the kids will maybe find. Why do that? Right. When we have all of these chronic diseases increasing right in front of our eyes that were rare a generation ago.

These artificial dyes are found in many desserts and products marketed to children, sugary cereals and fruit snacks, but they also show up in places you might not expect, like pickles, farm-raised salmon, and granola bars. Multiple studies linking some of these dyes to behavioral issues in children, including hyperactivity and attention problems, raising serious concerns about their widespread presence in so many foods, especially those targeted at children. The

the latest move part of a broader campaign to clean up the U.S. food supply and identify root causes of chronic diseases and neurological disorders affecting Americans at unprecedented rates. Earlier this month, Secretary Kennedy bucking the establishment narrative, calling autism an epidemic.

Mr. Kennedy acknowledging that genetics may play a role, but genetics alone cannot account for the sharp rise in autism diagnoses. Now one in 31 children. The secretary promising answers by September on what else may be driving the surge. And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megyn Kelly. Join me back here for The Megyn Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash Megyn Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.