The United States victimization of Iran citizens began in 1953 by the CIA instigating a coup d’état to over-through the Democratically elected leader and put U.S. friendly Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in power. Known as the brutal Shah of Iran, his secret police, the SAVAK, was notorious for torturing and killing political opponents. Widespread crackdowns on protests, including the 1978 Black Friday massacre, resulted in thousands of citizen deaths. In response, he was overthrown in 1979 and students held Americans hostage in 1979 for a year.

Members of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign covertly negotiated with Iranian leaders to undermine incumbent President Jimmy Carter by delaying the release of 66 American hostages detained in Iran. This is another exmaple of what treasonous bastards Republicans are, who have been using unscrupious tactics to ‘win’ elections no matter what it teakes, and a fact you never hear mentioned by the press or anyone

The Iranian Mess Is Because Of Reagan!

Reagan’s “October Surprise” was confirmed to be true, the Ayatollah helped him get elected. Now, Trump is adding insult to injury and furthering the mess that Reagan created in Iran.

How the US Turned Iran Into a Dictatorship: The 1953 Coup (Documentary)

CIA involvement in 1953 Iranian coup

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Shah of Iran coup d’état. In spring and summer 1953, the United States, through a covert operation of the CIA called Operation Ajax, conducted from the American Embassy in Tehran, helped organize a coup d’état to overthrow the Mossadeq government. The United States CIA organized the coup which put the brutal Dictator “Shah of Iran” in power. This is why students held personnel from the United States Embassy hostage for over a year. It was retaliation for the wrongs the United States did to their country.

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1953 Iranian coup d’état – Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia On 19 August 1953, Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup d’état that strengthened the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. It was instigated by the United Kingdom ( MI6), under the name Operation Boot and the United States ( CIA), under the name TP-AJAX Project or Operation Ajax.

On 19 August 1953, Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup d’état that strengthened the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. It was instigated by the United Kingdom (MI6), under the name Operation Boot and the United States (CIA), under the name TP-AJAX Project[9] or Operation Ajax. A key motive was to protect British oil interests in Iran after Mosaddegh nationalized the country’s oil industry.

Mosaddegh had sought to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), a British corporation (now part of BP), to verify that AIOC was paying the contracted royalties to Iran, and to limit their control over Iranian oil reserves.[13] Upon the AIOC’s refusal to cooperate with the Iranian government, the parliament (Majlis) voted to nationalize Iran’s oil industry and to expel foreign corporate representatives from the country.[14][15][16] After this vote, Britain instigated a worldwide boycott of Iranian oil to pressure Iran economically.[17] Initially, Britain mobilized its military to seize control of the British-built Abadan oil refinery, then the world’s largest, but Prime Minister Clement Attlee opted instead to tighten the economic boycott[18] while using agents to undermine Mosaddegh’s government.[19]: 3  Judging Mosaddegh to be unamenable and fearing the growing influence of the communist Tudeh, UK prime minister Winston Churchill decided in early 1953 to solicit the Eisenhower administration and overthrow Iran’s government. The preceding Truman administration had opposed a coup, fearing the precedent that Central Intelligence Agency involvement would set,[19]: 3  and the U.S. government had been considering unilateral action (without UK support) to assist the Mosaddegh government as late as 1952.[20][21][22] British intelligence and the UK government’s solicitations to the US were instrumental in initiating and planning the coup.

Following the coup, a government under General Fazlollah Zahedi was formed which allowed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran (Persian for ‘king’),[23] to rule more firmly as monarch. He relied heavily on United States support to hold on to power.[14][15][page needed][16][page needed][24] According to the CIA’s declassified documents and records, some of the most feared mobsters in Tehran were hired by the CIA to stage pro-shah riots on 19 August.[10] Other men paid by the CIA were brought into Tehran in buses and trucks and took over the streets of the city.[25] Between 200[3] and 300[4] people were killed because of the conflict. Mosaddegh was arrested, tried and convicted of treason by the Shah’s military court. On 21 December 1953, he was sentenced to three years in jail, then placed under house arrest for the remainder of his life.[26]: 280 [27][28][page needed] Other Mosaddegh supporters were imprisoned, and several received the death penalty.[16] The coup strengthened the Shah’s authority, and he continued to rule Iran for the next 26 years as a pro-Western monarch[15][16] until he was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution in 1979.[15][16][19][29]

In August 2013, the U.S. government formally acknowledged the U.S. role in the coup by releasing a bulk of previously classified government documents that show it was in charge of both the planning and the execution of the coup. According to American journalist Stephen Kinzer, the operation included false flag attacks, paid protesters, provocations, the bribing of Iranian politicians and high-ranking security and army officials, as well as pro-coup propaganda.[30][11][31][32][page needed] The CIA is quoted as acknowledging the coup was carried out “under CIA direction” and “as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government”.[33] In 2023, the CIA took credit for the coup,[34] which some scholars had previously disagreed with[35][36] while others agreed that the U.S. and Britain had engineered the coup.[37][clarification needed]
Background
Mohammad Mosaddegh, the Prime Minister of Iran in 1951

Throughout the 19th century, Iran was caught between two advancing imperial powers, Russia and Britain. In 1892, the British diplomat George Curzon described Iran as “pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the dominion of the world.”[38]: 32 [39] During the latter half of the 19th century, the concession policies of the monarchy faced increased opposition. In 1872, a representative of British entrepreneur Paul Reuter met with the Iranian monarch Naser al-Din Shah Qajar and agreed to fund the monarch’s upcoming lavish visit to Europe in return for exclusive contracts for Iranian roads, telegraphs, mills, factories, extraction of resources, and other public works, in which Reuter would receive a stipulated sum for five years and 60% of all the net revenue for 20 years. However, the Reuter concession was never put into effect because of violent opposition at home and from Russia.[28]: 12  In 1892 the Shah was forced to revoke a tobacco monopoly given to Major G. F. Talbot, following protests and a widespread tobacco boycott.

In 1901, Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar granted a 60-year petroleum search concession to William Knox D’Arcy.[19]: 33  D’Arcy paid £20,000 (equivalent to £2.6 million in 2023[40]), according to journalist-turned-historian Stephen Kinzer, and promised equal ownership shares, with 16% of any future net profit, as calculated by the company.[19]: 48  However, the historian L. P. Elwell-Sutton wrote, in 1955, that “Persia’s share was ‘hardly spectacular’ and no money changed hands.”[28]: 15  On 31 July 1907, D’Arcy withdrew from his private holdings in Persia, and transferred them to the British-owned Burmah Oil Company.[28]: 17  On 26 May 1908, British geologist George Bernard Reynolds struck oil at a depth of 1,180 feet (360 m).[28]: 19  The company grew slowly until World War I, when Persia’s strategic importance led the British government to buy a controlling share in the company, essentially nationalizing British oil production in Iran.[citation needed]

The British angered the Persians by intervening in their domestic affairs, including in the Persian Constitutional Revolution.[41][42][43] Massive popular protests had forced Mozzafar al-Din Shah to allow for the Constitution of 1906, which limited his powers. It allowed for a parliament elected by the people to make the laws, and a prime minister to sign and carry them out. The prime minister would be confirmed by the shah after a vote in Parliament. Nevertheless, the new constitution gave the shah many executive powers as well. It allowed for the shah to issue royal decrees (Farman), gave him the power to dismiss prime ministers, appoint half of the members of the Senate (which was not convened until 1949),[16] and introduce bills to dissolve Parliament.[44][45] It abolished arbitrary rule, but the shah served as an executive, rather than in a ceremonial role.[45] The Constitutional Revolution was opposed by the British and Russians, who attempted to subvert it through the backing of Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar (the son of Mozzafar-e-din Shah), who tried to break up the democratic government by force. A guerrilla movement led by Sattar Khan deposed him in 1910.[44][45]

In the aftermath of World War I there was widespread political dissatisfaction with the royalty terms of the British petroleum concession, under the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), whereby Persia received 16% of “net profits”.[19] In 1921, after years of severe mismanagement under the Qajar dynasty, a coup d’état (allegedly backed by the British) brought a general, Reza Khan, into the government. By 1923, he had become prime minister, and gained a reputation as an effective politician with a lack of corruption.[44][page needed] By 1925 under his influence, Parliament voted to remove Ahmad Shah Qajar from the throne, and Reza Khan was crowned Reza Shah Pahlavi, of the Pahlavi dynasty. Reza Shah began a rapid and successful modernization program in Persia, which up until that point had been considered to be among the most impoverished countries in the world.[44] Nevertheless, Reza Shah was also a very harsh ruler who did not tolerate dissent. By the 1930s, he had suppressed all opposition, and had sidelined the democratic aspects of the constitution. Opponents were jailed and in some cases even executed. While some agreed with his policies, arguing that it was necessary as Iran was in such turmoil, others argued that it was unjustified.[44][page needed] One such opponent was a politician named Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was jailed in 1940. The experience gave him a lasting dislike for authoritarian rule and monarchy, and it helped make Mosaddegh a dedicated advocate of complete oil nationalization in Iran.[15][page needed]

Reza Shah attempted to attenuate the power of the colonial forces in Iran, and was successful to a large extent. However, he also needed them to help modernize the country. He did so by balancing the influence of various colonial powers, including that of Britain and Germany.[44] In the 1930s, Reza Shah tried to terminate the APOC concession that the Qajar dynasty had granted, but Iran was still weak and Britain would not allow it. The concession was renegotiated on terms again favorable to the British (although the D’Arcy Concession was softened).[44][page needed] On 21 March 1935, Reza Shah changed the name of the country from Persia to Iran. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was then renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).[46]

In 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, British and Soviet forces invaded and occupied Iran, which was largely unopposed by the Iranian government and military. After World War II had broken out, Reza Shah had declared Iran’s neutrality, and attempted to appease the British, Soviets and Germans, all of whom maintained a degree of influence in Iran.[16][44] The primary reasons behind the Anglo-Soviet invasion was to remove German influence in Iran and secure control over Iran’s oil fields and the Trans-Iranian Railway in order to deliver supplies to the USSR. Reza Shah was deposed and exiled by the British to South Africa, and his 22-year-old son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was installed as the new Shah of Iran.[16] Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was supported by the Allies because they viewed him as being less able to act against their interests in Iran. The new Shah, unlike his father, was initially a mild leader and at times indecisive. During the 1940s he did not for most part take an independent role in the government, and much of Reza Shah’s authoritarian policies were rolled back. Iranian democracy effectively was restored during this period as a result.[16][44]

The British occupation force withdrew from Iran after the end of the war. However, under Stalin, the Soviet Union partly remained by sponsoring two People’s Democratic Republics within Iran’s borders. The related conflict was ended when the US lobbied for the Iranian Army to reassert control over the two occupied territories. The earlier agreed-upon Soviet-Iranian oil agreement would never be honored.[16] Nationalist leaders in Iran became influential by looking for a reduction in long-term foreign interventions in their country—especially the oil concession which was very profitable for the West and not very profitable for Iran.

U.S. objectives in the Middle East remained the same between 1947 and 1952 but its strategy changed. Washington remained “publicly in solidarity and privately at odds” with Britain, its World War II ally. Britain’s empire was steadily weakening, and with an eye on international crises, the U.S. re-appraised its interests and the risks of being identified with British colonial interests. “In Saudi Arabia, to Britain’s extreme disapproval, Washington endorsed the arrangement between ARAMCO and Saudi Arabia in the 50/50 accord that had reverberations throughout the region.”[47]: 34–35

Iran’s oil had been discovered and later controlled by the British-owned AIOC.[48] Popular discontent with the AIOC began in the late 1940s: a large segment of Iran’s public and a number of politicians saw the company as exploitative and a central tool of continued British imperialism in Iran.[14][38]: 59
Oil nationalization crisis
Main article: Nationalization of the Iranian oil industry
Assassination attempt on the Shah; Mosaddegh becomes prime minister

In 1949, an assassin attempted to kill the Shah. Shocked by the experience and emboldened by public sympathy for his injury, the Shah began to take an increasingly active role in politics. He quickly organized the Iran Constituent Assembly to amend the constitution to increase his powers. He established the Senate of Iran, which had been a part of the Constitution of 1906 but had never been convened. The Shah had the right to appoint half the senators, and he chose men sympathetic to his aims.[16] Mosaddegh thought this increase in the Shah’s political power was not democratic; he believed that the Shah should “reign, but not rule” in a manner similar to Europe’s constitutional monarchies. Led by Mosaddegh, political parties and opponents of the Shah’s policies banded together to form a coalition known as the National Front.[16] Oil nationalization was a major policy goal for the coalition.[49]
Hossein Fatemi, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs

By 1951, the National Front had won majority seats for the popularly elected Majlis (Parliament of Iran). According to Iran’s constitution, the majority elected party in the parliament would choose its prime minister candidate by vote, after which the Shah would confirm the candidate to power. The Prime Minister Haj Ali Razmara, who opposed the oil nationalization,[14]: 30, 33  was assassinated by the hardline Fadaiyan e-Islam (whose spiritual leader was the Ayatollah Abol-Qassem Kashani, a mentor to the future Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,[page needed]). After the National Front dominated the voting in Parliament, Mosaddegh was confirmed prime minister of Iran by the Shah (replacing Hossein Ala, who had replaced Razmara). Under heavy pressure by the National Front, the assassin of Razmara (Khalil Tahmasebi) was released and pardoned.[14]: 34–35, 86  For the time being, Mosaddegh and Kashani were allies of convenience, as Mosaddegh saw that Kashani could mobilize the “religious masses”, while Kashani wanted Mosaddegh to drive out British and other foreign influence.[14]: 7 [16] Kashani’s Fadaiyan mobs often violently attacked the opponents of nationalization and opponents of the National Front government, as well as “immoral objects”, acting at times as unofficial “enforcers” for the movement.[14]: 11, 30  However, by late 1952 Mosaddegh was becoming increasingly opposed to Kashani, as the latter was contributing to mass political instability in Iran. Kashani in turn, berated Mosaddegh for not “Islamizing” Iran, as he (Mosaddegh) was a firm believer in the separation of religion and state.[14]: 76

The Shah and his new prime minister Mosaddegh had an antagonistic relationship. Part of the problem stemmed from the fact that Mosaddegh was connected by blood to the former royal Qajar dynasty, and saw the Pahlavi king as a usurper to the throne. But the real issue stemmed from the fact that Mosaddegh represented a pro-democratic force that wanted to temper the Shah’s rule in Iranian politics. He wanted the Shah to be a ceremonial monarch rather than a ruling monarch, thus giving the elected government power instead of the un-elected Shah. While the constitution of Iran gave the Shah the power to rule directly, Mosaddegh used the united National Front bloc and the widespread popular support for the oil nationalization vote (the latter which the Shah supported as well) in order to block the Shah’s ability to act. As a result, the oil nationalization issue became increasingly intertwined with Mosaddegh’s pro-democracy movement. The dejected Shah was angered by Mosaddegh’s “insolence” (according to Abbas Milani, he angrily paced in the rooms of his palace at the thought that he would be reduced to a figurehead). But Mosaddegh and the oil nationalization’s popularity prevented the Shah from acting against his prime minister (which was allowed under Iran’s constitution), something that Mosaddegh felt a king had no right to do. In 1952 the Shah dismissed Mosaddegh, replacing him with Ahmad Qavam (a veteran prime minister). But widespread protests by Mosaddegh supporters resulted in the Shah immediately reinstating him.[16][page needed]
Oil nationalization, the Abadan crisis, and rising tensions
Further information: Abadan Crisis and Abadan Crisis timeline

In late 1951, Iran’s Parliament in a near unanimous vote approved the oil nationalization agreement. The bill was widely popular among most Iranians, and generated a huge wave of nationalism, and immediately put Iran at loggerheads with Britain (the handful of MPs that disagreed with it voted for it as well in the face of overwhelming popular support, and the Fadaiyan’s wrath).[14][50] The nationalization made Mosaddegh instantly popular among millions of Iranians, cementing him as a national hero, and placing him and Iran at the center of worldwide attention.[14][16][50]

Britain now faced the newly elected nationalist government in Iran where Mosaddegh, with strong backing of the Iranian parliament and people, demanded more favorable concessionary arrangements, which Britain vigorously opposed.[47]

The U.S. State Department not only rejected Britain’s demand that it continue to be the primary beneficiary of Iranian oil reserves, but “U.S. international oil interests were among the beneficiaries of the concessionary arrangements that followed nationalization.”[47]: 35

Mohammad Mosaddegh attempted to negotiate with the AIOC, but the company rejected his proposed compromise. Mosaddegh’s plan, based on the 1948 compromise between the Venezuelan Government of Rómulo Gallegos and Creole Petroleum,[51] would divide the profits from oil 50/50 between Iran and Britain. Against the recommendation of the United States, Britain refused this proposal and began planning to undermine and overthrow the Iranian government.[49]

In July 1951, the American diplomat Averell Harriman went to Iran to negotiate an Anglo-Iranian compromise, asking the Shah’s help; his reply was that “in the face of public opinion, there was no way he could say a word against nationalisation”.[19]: 106  Harriman held a press conference in Tehran, calling for reason and enthusiasm in confronting the “nationalisation crisis”. As soon as he spoke, a journalist rose and shouted: “We and the Iranian people all support Premier Mosaddegh and oil nationalisation!” Everyone present began cheering and then marched out of the room; the abandoned Harriman shook his head in dismay.[19]: 106

On a visit to the United States in October 1951, Mosaddegh—in spite of the popularity of nationalization in Iran—agreed in talks with George C. McGhee to a complex settlement of the crisis involving the sale of the Abadan Refinery to a non-British company and Iranian control of the extraction of crude oil. The US waited until Winston Churchill became prime minister to present the deal, believing he would be more flexible, but the deal was rejected by the British.[52]

By September 1951, the British had virtually ceased Abadan oil field production, forbidden British export to Iran of key British commodities (including sugar and steel),[19]: 110  and had frozen Iran’s hard currency accounts in British banks.[53] British Prime Minister Clement Attlee considered seizing the Abadan Oil Refinery by force, but instead settled on an embargo by the Royal Navy, stopping any ship transporting Iranian oil for carrying so-called “stolen property”. On his re-election as prime minister, Winston Churchill took an even harder stance against Iran.[14][page needed][19]: 145

The United Kingdom took its anti-nationalization case against Iran to the International Court of Justice at The Hague; PM Mosaddegh said the world would learn of a “cruel and imperialistic country” stealing from a “needy and naked people”. The court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over the case. Nevertheless, the British continued to enforce the embargo of Iranian oil. In August 1952, Iranian Prime Minister Mosaddegh invited an American oil executive to visit Iran and the Truman administration welcomed the invitation. However, the suggestion upset Churchill, who insisted that the U.S. not undermine his campaign to isolate Mosaddegh because of British support for the U.S. in the Korean War.[19]: 145

In mid-1952, Britain’s embargo of Iranian oil was devastatingly effective. British agents in Tehran “worked to subvert” the government of Mosaddegh, who sought help from President Truman and then the World Bank but to no avail. “Iranians were becoming poorer and unhappier by the day” and Mosaddegh’s political coalition was fraying. To make matters worse, the Speaker of the Parliament Ayatollah Kashani, Mosaddegh’s main clerical supporter, became increasingly opposed to the Prime Minister, because Mosaddegh was squeezing him out of power. By 1953, he had completely turned on him, and supported the coup, depriving Mosaddegh of religious support, while giving it to the Shah.[14]: 97  He was joined in this by a young and relatively unknown mullah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s future revolutionary supreme leader who also condemned the Mossadegh government.[54]

While the National Front, which often supported Mosaddegh, won handily in the big cities, there was no one to monitor voting in the rural areas. Violence broke out in Abadan and other parts of the country where elections were hotly contested. Faced with having to leave Iran for The Hague where Britain was suing for control of Iranian oil, Mosaddegh’s cabinet voted to postpone the remainder of the election until after the return of the Iranian delegation from The Hague:[19]: 136–37

While Mosaddegh dealt with political challenge, he faced another that most Iranians considered far more urgent. The British blockade of Iranian seaports meant that Iran was left without access to markets where it could sell its oil. The embargo had the effect of causing Iran to spiral into bankruptcy. Tens of thousands had lost their jobs at the Abadan refinery, and although most understood and passionately supported the idea of nationalisation, they naturally hoped that Mosaddegh would find a way to put them back to work. The only way he could do that was to sell oil.[19]: 136–37

To make matters worse, the Communist Tudeh Party, which supported the Soviet Union and had attempted to kill the Shah only four years earlier, began to infiltrate the military[55] and send mobs to “support Mosaddegh” (but in reality to marginalize all non-Communist opponents). Earlier, the Tudeh had denounced Mosaddegh, but by 1953 they changed tack and decided to “support” him.[56] The Tudeh violently attacked opponents under the guise of helping the prime minister (the cousin of the future queen of Iran, Farah Pahlavi, was stabbed at the age of 13 in his school by Tudeh activists),[15] and unwittingly helped cause Mosaddegh’s reputation to decline, despite the fact that he never officially endorsed them.[16] However, by 1953 he and the Tudeh had formed an unofficial alliance of convenience with each other; the Tudeh were the “foot soldiers” for his government, effectively replacing the Fadaiyan in that role, all the while secretly hoping that Mosaddegh would institute communism.[14][16]

Worried about Britain’s other interests in Iran, and thanks to the Tudeh Party,[16] believing that Iran’s nationalism was really a Soviet-backed plot, Britain persuaded US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that Iran was falling to the Soviets—effectively exploiting the American Cold War mindset. Since President Harry S. Truman was busy fighting a war in Korea, he did not agree to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. However, in 1953, when Dwight D. Eisenhower became president, the UK convinced the U.S. to undertake a joint coup d’état.[19]: 82
Final months of Mosaddegh’s government
Pro-Mosaddegh protests in Tehran, 16 August 1953

By 1953, economic tensions caused by the British embargo and political turmoil began to take a major toll on Mosaddegh’s popularity and political power. He was increasingly blamed for the economic and political crisis. Political violence was becoming widespread in the form of street clashes between rival political groups.[14][16] Mosaddegh was losing popularity and support among the working class which had been his strongest supporters. As he lost support, he became more autocratic.[56][57] As early as August 1952, he began to rely on emergency powers to rule, generating controversy among his supporters.[57] After an assassination attempt upon one of his cabinet ministers and himself, he ordered the jailing of dozens of his political opponents. This act created widespread anger among the general public, and led to accusations that Mosaddegh was becoming a dictator.[14][16] The Tudeh Party’s unofficial alliance with Mosaddegh led to fears of communism, and increasingly it was the communists who were taking part in pro-Mosaddegh rallies and attacking opponents.[14][16]

By mid-1953 a mass of resignations by Mosaddegh’s parliamentary supporters reduced the National Front seats in Parliament. A referendum to dissolve parliament and give the prime minister power to make law was submitted to voters, and it passed with 99.9 percent approval, 2,043,300 votes to 1300 votes against.[26]: 274  The referendum was widely seen by opponents as treason and an act against the Shah, who was stripped of military power and control over national resources. This act would be one of many key factors in a chain of events leading to Mosaddegh’s deposition.[14][16]

The Shah himself initially opposed the coup plans and supported the oil nationalization, but he joined in after being informed by the CIA that he too would be “deposed” if he didn’t play along. The experience left him with a lifelong awe of American power and would contribute to his pro-US policies while generating a hatred of the British.[16] Mosaddegh’s decision to dissolve Parliament also contributed to his decision.[16]
Execution of Operation Ajax
Mohammad Mosaddegh, the leader of National Front and the elected Prime Minister of Iran

The official pretext for the start of the coup was Mosaddegh’s decree to dissolve Parliament, giving himself and his cabinet complete power to rule, while effectively stripping the Shah of his powers.[14][15][16] It resulted in him being accused of giving himself “total and dictatorial powers.” The Shah, who had been resisting the CIA’s demands for the coup, finally agreed to support it.[14][15][16] Having obtained the Shah’s concurrence, the CIA executed the coup.[58] Firmans (royal decrees) dismissing Mosaddegh and appointing General Fazlollah Zahedi (a loyalist who had helped Reza Shah reunify Iran decades earlier)[15] were drawn up by the coup plotters and signed by the Shah. Having signed the decrees and delivered them to General Zahedi, he and Queen Soraya departed for a week-long vacation in northern Iran.[59] On Saturday 15 August, Colonel Nematollah Nassiri, the commander of the Imperial Guard, along with other elements of his military network, arrested various members of Mosaddegh’s government, including Mossadegh’s deputy Chief of Staff Kiyani, Hoseyn Fatami, the pro-Mosadegh deputy Zirakzadeh, and his Minister of Roads, Haqshenas; the military proceeded to seize and neutralise the telephone centre in Tehran that processed and serviced all calls to and from key government buildings.[60] Mosaddegh had been warned of the plans to overthrow his government by the Tudeh Party, whose cells had infiltrated the military, and as such, Mossadegh was able to avoid arrest.[61] On Sunday 16 August, Colonel Nematollah Nassiri,[15] delivered to Mosaddegh the firman from the Shah dismissing him, but Mossadegh rejected the firman and had Nassiri arrested.[62][63][64] According to Mosaddegh, he rejected the firman for several reasons – in court, he claimed that he was suspicious of the authenticity of the firman; that he believed the date of the firman had been tampered with and was issued prior to the dissolution of the Majles and thus was unconstitutional as the Shah had not acquired the approval of the Majles; that the edict being concurrent with a series of military operations against his government the day before had led him to believe that this was a foreign coup in the guise of a royal edict;[65] while in a meeting with Loy W. Henderson on 18 August, Mossadegh argued that regardless of the authenticity of any firman dismissing him, he would ignore it, as in his view, the Shah had no authority to dismiss him as a purely constitutional monarch.[66] Mosaddegh’s supporters took to the streets in violent protests.[14] Following the failed coup attempt, the Shah, accompanied by his second wife Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari and Aboul Fath Atabay[67] fled to Baghdad. Arriving unannounced, the Shah asked for permission for himself and his consort to stay in Baghdad for a few days before continuing on to Europe.[59] After high-level Government consultations, they were escorted to the White House, the Iraqi Government’s guest house, before flying to Italy in a plane flown by Mohammad Amir Khatami.[67]

After the first coup attempt failed, General Zahedi, along with his son, Ardeshir Zahedi, Gilanshah, and the Rashidiyan brothers, all took refuge in the safe custody of a CIA station in Tehran.[68] Mosaddegh ordered security forces to capture the coup plotters, and dozens were imprisoned. Believing that he had succeeded, and that he was in full control of the government, Mosaddegh erred. Assuming that the coup had failed, he asked his supporters to return to their homes and to continue with their lives as normal. The Tudeh party members also returned to their homes, no longer carrying out enforcement duties.[15][16] The CIA was ordered to leave Iran, although Kermit Roosevelt Jr. was slow to receive the message—allegedly due to MI6 interference—and eagerly continued to foment anti-Mosaddegh unrest. The Eisenhower administration considered changing its policy to support Mosaddegh, with undersecretary of state Walter Bedell Smith remarking on 17 August: “Whatever his faults, Mosaddegh had no love for the Russians and timely aid might enable him to keep Communism in check.”[69]
Nematollah Nassiri

General Zahedi, who was still on the run, secretly met with the pro-Shah Ayatollah Mohammad Behbahani and other Shah supporters. Backed by CIA money (derisively known as “Behbahani dollars”), they developed a strategy to stoke class and religious resentment toward the Mosaddegh government. The Shah’s flight from Iran, Mosaddegh’s arrests of political opponents, and fears of communism had already soured many upper-class Iranians on the prime minister. The plotters sought to capitalize on these anxieties. The Ayatollah Behbahani also used his influence to rally religious demonstrators against Mosaddegh.[15][page needed][16][page needed]

On 19 August, Mosaddegh issued a decree banning all demonstrations on that day. However, mobilization of crowds and street protests widely believed to have been organized with CIA assistance, had occurred to create the impression of popular unrest and opposition to Mosaddegh’s government.[11][70] Bloody street battles were observed to have broken out in Tehran between Tudeh Party activists and right wing parties, whose offices were attacked by the communists. At the same time pro-Shah crowds began gathering in the streets.[16] By the middle of the day, large crowds of regular citizens, armed with improvised weapons, took to the streets in mass demonstrations, and beat back the Tudeh Party members. Under Zahedi’s authority, the army left its barracks and drove off the communist Tudeh and then stormed all government buildings with the support of demonstrators. Mosaddegh fled after a tank fired a single shell into his house, but he later turned himself in to the army’s custody. To prevent further bloodshed, he refused a last attempt to organize his supporters.[71] By the end of the day, Zahedi and the army were in control of the government.[14][15][16]

According to Hugh Wilford in his book published in 2013, despite the CIA’s role in creating the conditions for the coup, there was little evidence to prove that Kermit Roosevelt Jr. or other CIA officials were directly responsible for the actions of the demonstrators or the army on 19 August. It has even been suggested that Roosevelt’s activities between 15 and 19 August were primarily intended to organize “stay-behind networks as part of the planned CIA evacuation of the country”, although they allowed him to later “claim responsibility for the day’s outcome.”[72] In 2014, historian Ray Takeyh stated that the US-led coup attempt was unsuccessful, citing how the CIA wrote to Eisenhower that “The move failed […] We now […] probably have to snuggle up to Mosaddeq if we’re going to save [our influence in Iran];” the demonstrations that led to Mosaddegh’s resignation took place some weeks after the Roosevelt-organized ones, and were composed of average citizens, not the thugs-for-hire that the CIA and MI6 had recruited.[36] Also in 2014, on the other hand, historian Ali Rahnema writes that the British and the Americans had a contingency plan in place in case the firman dismissing Mosaddegh had failed; in a joint SIS-CIA meeting in mid-June 1953, they had planned that if Mosaddegh was to reject the firman dismissing him, Asadollah Rashidiyan would use CIA and SIS funds to unleash his network of ruffians, thugs, and supporters among the underclass, in Southern Tehran to stage mass protests against the government, before being joined by the military.[73] Meanwhile, in 2017, the CIA released documents revealing that the networks established by British intelligence services had been used to run a campaign of propaganda and paid-for protests, resulting in the rapid destabilization of the nation.[74] Scholars Roham Alvandi and Mark J. Gasiorowski wrote in 2019, Ray Takeyh’s view would be based on a “deeply flawed and highly selective reading” of the available evidence.[75]

The Shah stayed in a hotel in Italy until he learned what had transpired, upon which he “chokingly declared”: “I knew they loved me.”[3] Allen Dulles, the director of the CIA, flew back with the Shah from Rome to Tehran.[76] Zahedi officially replaced Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh was arrested, tried, and originally sentenced to death. But on the Shah’s personal orders, his sentence was commuted[15][16][77][78] to three years’ solitary confinement in a military prison, followed by house arrest until his death.[79]
United States’ role

As a condition for restoring the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, in 1954 the US required removal of the AIOC’s monopoly; five American petroleum companies, Royal Dutch Shell, and the Compagnie Française des Pétroles, were to draw Iran’s petroleum after the successful coup d’état—Operation Ajax. The Shah declared this to be a “victory” for Iranians, with the massive influx of money from this agreement resolving the economic collapse from the last three years, and allowing him to carry out his planned modernization projects.[16]

As part of that, the CIA organized anti-Communist guerrillas to fight the Tudeh Party if they seized power in the chaos of Operation Ajax.[80] Released National Security Archive documents showed that Undersecretary of State Walter Bedell Smith reported that the CIA had agreed with Qashqai tribal leaders, in south Iran, to establish a clandestine safe haven from which U.S.-funded guerrillas and spies could operate.[80][81]

The CIA sent Major General Norman Schwarzkopf Sr. to persuade the exiled Shah to return to rule Iran. Schwarzkopf trained the security forces that would become known as SAVAK to secure the shah’s hold on power.[82]

According to a heavily redacted CIA document[83] released to the National Security Archive in response to a Freedom of Information request, “Available documents do not indicate who authorized CIA to begin planning the operation, but it almost certainly was President Eisenhower himself. Eisenhower biographer Stephen Ambrose has written that the absence of documentation reflected the President’s style.”

The CIA document then quotes from the Ambrose biography of Eisenhower:

Before going into the operation, Ajax had to have the approval of the President. Eisenhower participated in none of the meetings that set up Ajax; he received only oral reports on the plan; and he did not discuss it with his Cabinet or the NSC. Establishing a pattern he would hold to throughout his Presidency, he kept his distance and left no documents behind that could implicate the President in any projected coup. But in the privacy of the Oval Office, over cocktails, he was kept informed by Foster Dulles, and he maintained a tight control over the activities of the CIA.[84]

Confirmation for execution of Operation Ajax

One version of the CIA history, written by Wilber, referred to the operation as TPAJAX.[85][86]

A tactic Roosevelt admitted to using, was bribing demonstrators into attacking symbols of the Shah, while chanting pro-Mosaddegh slogans. As king, the Shah was largely seen as a symbol of Iran at the time by many Iranians and monarchists. Roosevelt declared that the more that these agents showed their hate for the Shah and attacked his symbols, the more it caused the average Iranian citizen to dislike and distrust Mosaddegh.[87]
Shaban Jafari, commonly known as Shaban the Brainless (Shaban Bimokh), was a notable pro-Shah strongman and thug. He led his men and other bribed street thugs and was a prominent figure during the coup.

The British and American spy agencies strengthened the monarchy in Iran by backing the pro-western Shah for the next 26 years. The Shah was overthrown in 1979.[19][88] Some Iranian clerics cooperated with the western spy agencies because they were dissatisfied with Mosaddegh’s secular government.[89]
Fazlollah Zahedi

While the broad outlines of the operation are known, “…the C.I.A.’s records were widely thought by historians to have the potential to add depth and clarity to a famous but little-documented intelligence operation”, reporter Tim Weiner wrote in The New York Times 29 May 1997.[90]

“The Central Intelligence Agency, which has repeatedly pledged for more than five years to make public the files from its secret mission to overthrow the government of Iran in 1953, said today that it had destroyed or lost almost all the documents decades ago.”[90][91][92]

Donald Wilber, one of the CIA officers who planned the 1953 coup in Iran, wrote an account titled, Clandestine Service History Overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran: November 1952 – August 1953. Wilber said one goal of the coup was to strengthen the Shah. In 2000, James Risen at The New York Times obtained the previously secret CIA version of the coup written by Wilber and summarized[93] its contents, which includes the following:

In early August, the CIA increased the pressure. Iranian operatives pretending to be Communists threatened Muslim leaders with “savage punishment if they opposed Mosaddegh”, seeking to stir anti-Communist sentiment in the religious community.

In addition, the secret history says, the house of at least one prominent Muslim was bombed by CIA agents posing as Communists. It does not say whether anyone was hurt in this attack.

The agency was intensifying its propaganda campaign. A leading newspaper owner was granted a personal loan of about $45,000, “in the belief that this would make his organ amenable to our purposes.”

The Shah remained intransigent. In a 1 August meeting with General Norman Schwarzkopf, he refused to sign the C.I.A.-written decrees firing Mr. Mosaddegh and appointing General Zahedi. He said he doubted that the army would support him in a showdown.

The National Security Archive at George Washington University contains the full account by Wilber, along with many other coup-related documents and analysis.[94][95][96]
Release of U.S. government records and official acknowledgement

In August 2013, on the 60th anniversary of the coup, the US government released documents showing they were involved in staging the coup. The documents also describe the motivations behind the coup and the strategies used to stage it.[7] The UK had sought to censor information regarding its role in the coup; a significant number of documents about the coup remained classified.[31] The release of the declassified documents, which marked the first US official acknowledgement of its role, was seen as a goodwill gesture on the part of the Obama administration.[97][31] According to Aljazeera, the deputy director of the National Security Archive, Malcolm Byrne, disclosed that the CIA documented the secret histories purposely for official use.[98]

Public awareness of American and British participation in Mosaddeq’s overthrow was long-standing. An internal narrative from the middle of the 1970s called “The Battle for Iran” makes a clear reference to the CIA’s involvement. In 1981, the agency made a highly edited version of the report public in reaction to an ACLU lawsuit, but it blocked out all mentions of TPAJAX, the code name for the American-led operation. These references can be found in the most recent release in 2013, which is thought to be the CIA’s first official admission that the agency assisted in the coup’s planning and execution.[99]

In June 2017, the United States State Department’s Office of the Historian released its revised historical account of the event. The volume of historical records “focuses on the evolution of U.S. thinking on Iran as well as the U.S. Government covert operation that resulted in Mosadeq’s overthrow on 19 August 1953”.[100] Though some of the relevant records were destroyed long ago, the release contains a collection of roughly 1,000 pages, only a small number of which remain classified.[101] One revelation is that the CIA “attempted to call off the failing coup but was salvaged by an insubordinate spy.”[102] The reports released by the U.S. had reached 1,007 pages, consisting of diplomatic cables and letters according to VOA News.[103]

In March 2018, the National Security Archive released a declassified British memo alleging that the United States Embassy sent “large sums of money” to “influential people”—namely senior Iranian clerics—in the days leading up to Mosaddeq’s overthrow.[104] According to the Guardian, despite the U.S. showing regrets about the coup, it has failed to officially issue an apology over its involvement.[105]
United States financial support

The CIA paid a large sum to carry out the operation. Depending on the expenses to be counted, the final cost is estimated to vary from $100,000 to $20 million. CIA gave Zahedi’s government $5 million after the coup[19][page needed] with Zahedi himself receiving an extra million.[38]
United States motives

Historians disagree on what motivated the United States to change its policy towards Iran and stage the coup. Middle East historian Ervand Abrahamian identified the coup d’état as “a classic case of nationalism clashing with imperialism in the Third World”. He states that Secretary of State Dean Acheson admitted the “‘Communist threat’ was a smokescreen” in responding to President Eisenhower’s claim that the Tudeh Party was about to assume power:[106]

Throughout the crisis, the “communist danger” was more of a rhetorical device than a real issue—i.e. it was part of the cold-war discourse …The Tudeh was no match for the armed tribes and the 129,000-man military. What is more, the British and Americans had enough inside information to be confident that the party had no plans to initiate armed insurrection. At the beginning of the crisis, when the Truman administration was under the impression a compromise was possible, Acheson had stressed the communist danger, and warned if Mosaddegh was not helped, the Tudeh would take over. The (British) Foreign Office had retorted that the Tudeh was no real threat. But, in August 1953, when the Foreign Office echoed the Eisenhower administration’s claim that the Tudeh was about to take over, Acheson now retorted that there was no such communist danger. Acheson was honest enough to admit that the issue of the Tudeh was a smokescreen.[106]

Abrahamian states that Iran’s oil was the central focus of the coup, for both the British and the Americans, though “much of the discourse at the time linked it to the Cold War”.[107] Abrahamian wrote, “If Mosaddegh had succeeded in nationalizing the British oil industry in Iran, that would have set an example and was seen at that time by the Americans as a threat to U.S. oil interests throughout the world, because other countries would do the same.”[107] Mosaddegh did not want any compromise solution that allowed a degree of foreign control. Abrahamian said that Mosaddegh “wanted real nationalization, both in theory and practice”.[107]
Pro-shah sympathizers

Political theorist John Tirman points out that agricultural land owners were politically dominant in Iran well into the 1960s, and the monarch Reza Shah’s aggressive land expropriation policies—to the benefit of himself and his supporters—resulted in the Iranian government being Iran’s largest land owner. “The landlords and oil producers had new backing, moreover, as American interests were for the first time exerted in Iran. The Cold War was starting, and Soviet challenges were seen in every leftist movement. But the reformers were at root nationalists, not communists, and the issue that galvanized them above all others was the control of oil.”[108] The belief that oil was the central motivator behind the coup has been echoed in the popular media by authors such as Robert Byrd,[109] Alan Greenspan,[110] and Ted Koppel.[111]

Middle East political scientist Mark Gasiorowski states that while, on the face of it, there is considerable merit to the argument that U.S. policymakers helped U.S. oil companies gain a share in Iranian oil production after the coup, “it seems more plausible to argue that U.S. policymakers were motivated mainly by fears of a communist takeover in Iran, and that the involvement of U.S. companies was sought mainly to prevent this from occurring. The Cold War was at its height in the early 1950s, and the Soviet Union was viewed as an expansionist power seeking world domination. Eisenhower had made the Soviet threat a key issue in the 1952 elections, accusing the Democrats of being soft on communism and of having ‘lost China.’ Once in power, the new administration quickly sought to put its views into practice.”[49]

A 2019 study by Gasiorowski concluded “that U.S. policymakers did not have compelling evidence that the threat of a Communist takeover was increasing substantially in the months before the coup. Rather, the Eisenhower administration interpreted the available evidence in a more alarming manner than the Truman administration had.”[112]

Gasiorowski further states “the major U.S. oil companies were not interested in Iran at this time. A glut existed in the world oil market. The U.S. majors had increased their production in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in 1951 in order to make up for the loss of Iranian production; operating in Iran would force them to cut back production in these countries which would create tensions with Saudi and Kuwaiti leaders. Furthermore, if nationalist sentiments remained high in Iran, production there would be risky. U.S. oil companies had shown no interest in Iran in 1951 and 1952. By late 1952, the Truman administration had come to believe that participation by U.S. companies in the production of Iranian oil was essential to maintain stability in Iran and keep Iran out of Soviet hands. In order to gain the participation of the major U.S. oil companies, Truman offered to scale back a large anti-trust case then being brought against them. The Eisenhower administration shared Truman’s views on the participation of U.S. companies in Iran and also agreed to scale back the anti-trust case. Thus, not only did U.S. majors not want to participate in Iran at this time, it took a major effort by U.S. policymakers to persuade them to become involved.”[49]

In 2004, Gasiorowski edited a book on the coup[113] arguing that “the climate of intense cold war rivalry between the superpowers, together with Iran’s strategic vital location between the Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf oil fields, led U.S. officials to believe that they had to take whatever steps were necessary to prevent Iran from falling into Soviet hands.”[113] While “these concerns seem vastly overblown today”[113] the pattern of “the 1945–46 Azerbaijan crisis, the consolidation of Soviet control in Eastern Europe, the communist triumph in China, and the Korean War—and with the Red Scare at its height in the United States”[113] would not allow U.S. officials to risk allowing the Tudeh Party to gain power in Iran.[113] Furthermore, “U.S. officials believed that resolving the oil dispute was essential for restoring stability in Iran, and after March 1953 it appeared that the dispute could be resolved only at the expense either of Britain or of Mosaddeq.”[113] He concludes “it was geostrategic considerations, rather than a desire to destroy Mosaddeq’s movement, to establish a dictatorship in Iran or to gain control over Iran’s oil, that persuaded U.S. officials to undertake the coup.”[113] Faced with choosing between British interests and Iran, the U.S. chose Britain, Gasiorowski said. “Britain was the closest ally of the United States, and the two countries were working as partners on a wide range of vitally important matters throughout the world at this time. Preserving this close relationship was more important to U.S. officials than saving Mosaddeq’s tottering regime.” A year earlier, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill used Britain’s support for the U.S. in the Cold War to insist the United States not undermine his campaign to isolate Mosaddegh. “Britain was supporting the Americans in Korea, he reminded Truman, and had a right to expect ‘Anglo-American unity’ on Iran.”[19]: 145

According to Kinzer, for most Americans, the crisis in Iran became just part of the conflict between Communism and “the Free world”.[19]: 84  “A great sense of fear, particularly the fear of encirclement, shaped American consciousness during this period. … Soviet power had already subdued Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Communist governments were imposed on Bulgaria and Romania in 1946, Hungary and Poland in 1947, and Czechoslovakia in 1948. Albania and Yugoslavia also turned to communism. Greek communists made a violent bid for power. Soviet soldiers blocked land routes to Berlin for sixteen months. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear weapon. That same year, pro-Western forces in China lost their Civil War to communists led by Mao Zedong. From Washington, it seemed that enemies were on the march everywhere.”[19]: 84  Consequently, “the United States, challenged by what most Americans saw as a relentless communist advance, slowly ceased to view Iran as a country with a unique history that faced a unique political challenge.”[19]: 205  Some historians, including Douglas Little,[114] Abbas Milani[115] and George Lenczowski[116] have echoed the view that fears of a communist takeover or Soviet influence motivated the U.S. to intervene.

On 11 May 1951, prior to the overthrow of Mosaddegh, Adolf A. Berle warned the U.S. State Department that U.S. “control of the Middle East was at stake, which, with its Persian Gulf oil, meant ‘substantial control of the world.'”[117]
News coverage in the United States and the United Kingdom

When Mosaddegh called for the dissolution of the Majlis in August 1953, the editors of the New York Times gave the opinion that: “A plebiscite more fantastic and farcical than any ever held under Hitler or Stalin is now being staged in Iran by Premier Mosaddegh in an effort to make himself unchallenged dictator of the country.”[118]

A year after the coup, the New York Times wrote on 6 August 1954, that a new oil “agreement between Iran and a consortium of foreign oil companies” was “good news indeed”:[119]

Costly as the dispute over Iranian oil has been to all concerned, the affair may yet be proved worthwhile if lessons are learned from it: Underdeveloped countries with rich resources now have an object lesson in the heavy cost that must be paid by one of their number which goes berserk with fanatical nationalism. It is perhaps too much to hope that Iran’s experience will prevent the rise of Mosaddeghs in other countries, but that experience may at least strengthen the hands of more reasonable and more far-seeing leaders. In some circles in Great Britain the charge will be pushed that American “imperialism”—in the shape of the American oil firms in the consortium!—has once again elbowed Britain from a historic stronghold.[119]

The documentary Cinematograph aired on 18 August 2011 on the anniversary of the coup. In it, BBC admitted for the first time to the role of BBC Persian radio as the propaganda arm of the British government in Iran. The Cinematograph narrator said:

The British government used the BBC Persian radio for advancing its propaganda against Mosaddegh and anti-Mosaddegh material were repeatedly aired on the radio channel to the extent that Iranian staff at the BBC Persian radio went on strike to protest the move.[120]

The documentary quoted a 21 July 1951 classified document in which a Foreign Office official thanked the British ambassador for his proposals that were precisely followed by the BBC Persian radio to strengthen its propaganda against Mosaddegh:[citation needed]

The BBC had already made most of the points which you listed, but they were very glad to have an indication from you of what was likely to be most effective and will arrange their programme accordingly… We should also avoid direct attacks on the ‘ruling classes’ since it seems probable that we may want to deal with a government drawn from those classes should Mosaddegh fall.

The BBC was at times even used directly in the operations, sending coded messages to the coup plotters by changing the wording of its broadcasts.[121]

An early account of the CIA’s role in the coup appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in late 1954, purporting to explain how “the strategic little nation of Iran was rescued from the closing clutch of Moscow.” The report was approved by the CIA, and its authors may have been assisted by Kermit Roosevelt Jr., who had written for the Post before.[122]
Britain’s role

The National Security Archive released two declassified documents in August 2017 which confirm the British solicitation of the United States’ assistance in ousting Mosaddegh.[20][123] According to these records, the British first approached the American government about a plan for the coup in November 1952[124] “repeatedly” asking U.S. to join the coup,[125] claiming that the Mosaddegh government would be ineffective in preventing a communist takeover,[124] and that Mosaddegh was a threat to America’s global fight against communism,[126] which they believed necessitated action; the records also state that UK and U.S. spy agencies had by then had “very tentative and preliminary discussions regarding the practicability of such a move”.[21] At the time, the American government was already preparing to aid Mosaddegh in his oil dealings with the British, and believed him to be anti-communist—considerations which made the U.S. government skeptical of the plot. Since President Truman’s term was drawing to a close in January 1953, and there was too much uncertainty and danger associated with the plot, the U.S. government decided not to take action against Mosaddegh.[124]

According to the 1952 documents, it was Christopher Steel, the No 2 official in the British embassy in Washington, who “pitched” the idea of the coup to US officials amid the US-Britain talks which had begun in October. The document also says that the British officials rejected Paul Nitze’s suggestion that, instead of executing a coup, they mount a “campaign” against Ayatollah Abolqasem Kashani, “a leading opponent of British involvement in Iran’s oil industry”, and the communist Tudeh Party. They “pressed the US for a decision” since they knew “the Truman administration was in its final weeks”.[125] According to Wilber, the British Secret Intelligence Service launched a propaganda campaign via “the press, handbills and the Tehran clergy” to “weaken the Mossadeq government in any way possible”.[127]

More broadly, the oil nationalization law led to a direct conflict of interests between Mosaddegh and the British government, and the latter proposed to regain its control over the oil industry in Iran by following a “three-track strategy” aimed at either “pressuring him into a favorable settlement or by removing him from the office.” The three components of Britain’s strategy consisted of (1) refusing direct negotiation with Mosaddegh, (2) imposing economic sanctions on Iran and performing war games in the region, and (3) the removal of Mosaddegh through “covert political action”.[49]

In the lead-up to the 70th anniversary of the coup in August 2023, David Owen, who was the UK Foreign Secretary in the late 1970s, said that MI6 should follow the example of the CIA and acknowledge its role in the coup.[128]
Clergy’s role

Mosaddegh appointed a series of secular ministers to his cabinet during his premiership, losing his support with the clergy.[129] In 1953, Ayatollah Abol-Qasem Kashani and his followers organised a series of protests against Mosaddegh’s liberal reforms. By July 1953 when Mosaddegh asked for a critical extension of his emergency powers, “… Clerical members of the Majles who supported Kashani left the National Front Coalition and set up their own Islamic Faction…”.[130] (Muslim Warriors). This faction then boycotted the 1953 referendum about the dissolution of parliament.[131]

At 8am on 18 August Ayatollah Behbahan mobilised 3000 stick and club wielding anti-shah protestors formed a mob in Tehran. This was done in the hope that the removal of Mosaddegh would create a more religious government.[132] Separate mobilisation was instigated by Ayatollah Kashani in the country at this time. There has been documentation that both Ayatollah Behbahani and Kashani received funds from the CIA by some sources.[133] The former’s mob would lead Mosaddegh to abandon his residence, and ultimately his capture. Iranian Historian Michael Axworthy stated that “… [The clergy’s] move to oppose Mossadeq was the decisive factor in his downfall…”.[134]
Aftermath

The coup has been said to have “left a profound and long-lasting legacy.”[135][136]: 122
Blowback

The coup caused long-lasting damage to the U.S. reputation, according to documents released to the National Security Archive and reflected in the book Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran:

The ’28 Mordad’ coup, as it is known by its Persian date [in the Solar Hijri calendar], was a watershed for Iran, for the Middle East and for the standing of the United States in the region. The joint US-British operation ended Iran’s drive to assert sovereign control over its own resources and helped put an end to a vibrant chapter in the history of the country’s nationalist and democratic movements. These consequences resonated with dramatic effect in later years. When the Shah finally fell in 1979, memories of the US intervention in 1953, which made possible the monarch’s subsequent, and increasingly unpopular, 25-year reign intensified the anti-American character of the revolution in the minds of many Iranians.[137]

The authoritarian monarch appreciated the coup, Kermit Roosevelt wrote in his account of the affair. “‘I owe my throne to God, my people, my army and to you!’ By ‘you’ he [the shah] meant me and the two countries—Great Britain and the United States—I was representing. We were all heroes.”[87]

On 16 June 2000, The New York Times published the secret CIA report, “Clandestine Service History, Overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran, November 1952 – August 1953”, partly explaining the coup from CIA agent Wilber’s perspective.[citation needed] In a related story, The New York Times reporter James Risen penned a story revealing that Wilber’s report, hidden for nearly five decades, had recently come to light.[138]

In the summer of 2001, Ervand Abrahamian writes in the journal Science & Society that Wilber’s version of the coup was missing key information some of which was available elsewhere:

The New York Times recently leaked a CIA report on the 1953 American-British overthrow of Mosaddeq, Iran’s Prime Minister. It billed the report as a secret history of the secret coup, and treated it as an invaluable substitute for the U.S. files that remain inaccessible. But a reconstruction of the coup from other sources, especially from the archives of the British Foreign Office, indicates that this report is highly sanitized. It glosses over such sensitive issues as the crucial participation of the U.S. ambassador in the actual overthrow; the role of U.S. military advisers; the harnessing of local Nazis and Muslim terrorists; and the use of assassinations to destabilize the government. What is more, it places the coup in the context of the Cold War rather than that of the Anglo-Iranian oil crisis—a classic case of nationalism clashing with imperialism in the Third World.[106]

In a review of Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes, historian Michael Beschloss wrote, “Mr. Weiner argues that a bad C.I.A. track record has encouraged many of our gravest contemporary problems… A generation of Iranians grew up knowing that the C.I.A. had installed the shah”, Mr. Weiner notes. “In time, the chaos that the agency had created in the streets of Tehran would return to haunt the United States.”[139]

The administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower considered the coup a success, but, given its blowback, that opinion is no longer generally held, because of its “haunting and terrible legacy”.[19]: 215  In 2000, Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State, said that intervention by the U.S. in the internal affairs of Iran was a setback for democratic government.[140][141] The coup is widely believed to have significantly contributed to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which deposed the “pro-Western” Shah and replaced the monarchy with an “anti-Western” Islamic republic.[142]

According to U.S. President Obama. “For many Iranians, the coup demonstrated duplicity by the United States, which presented itself as a defender of freedom but did not hesitate to use underhanded methods to overthrow a democratically elected government to suit its own economic and strategic interests”, the Agence France-Presse reported.[143][failed verification]

United States Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, who visited Iran both before and after the coup, wrote that “When Mosaddegh and Persia started basic reforms, we became alarmed. We united with the British to destroy him; we succeeded; and ever since, our name has not been an honored one in the Middle East.”[144]
Iran
Perceptions of the Shah

When the Shah returned to Iran after the coup, he was greeted by a cheering crowd. He wrote in his memoirs that while he had been a king for over a decade, for the first time he felt that the people had “elected” and “approved” of him, and that he had a “legitimate” popular mandate to carry out his reforms (although some in the crowd may have been bribed).[citation needed] The Shah was never able to remove the reputation of being a “foreign imposed” ruler among non-royalist Iranians. The Shah throughout his rule continued to assume that he was supported by virtually everybody in Iran, and sank into deep dejection when in 1978 massive mobs demanded his ouster.
Bloody suppression of the opposition

An immediate consequence of the coup d’état was the Shah’s suppression of all republicanist[16][page needed] political dissent, especially the liberal and nationalist opposition umbrella group National Front as well as the communist Tudeh Party, and concentration of political power in the Shah and his courtiers.[136]

The minister of Foreign Affairs and the closest associate of Mosaddegh, Hossein Fatemi, was executed by order of the Shah’s military court by firing squad on 10 November 1954.[145] According to Kinzer, “The triumphant Shah [Pahlavi] ordered the execution of several dozen military officers and student leaders who had been closely associated with Mohammad Mosaddegh”.[146]

As part of the post-coup d’état political repression between 1953 and 1958, the Shah outlawed the National Front, and arrested most of its leaders.[147] The Shah personally spared Mosaddegh the death penalty, and he was given 3 years in prison, followed by house arrest for life.[16][page needed]
Mohammad Mosaddegh in court, 8 November 1953

Many supporters of Iran continued to fight against the new regime, yet they were suppressed with some even being killed. The political party that Mosaddegh founded, the National Front of Iran, was later reorganized by Karim Sanjabi, and was later led by the National Poet of Iran Adib Boroumand, who was a strong Mosaddegh supporter and helped spread pro-Mosaddegh propaganda during the Abadan Crisis and its aftermath.[148]

The Communist Tudeh bore the main brunt of the crackdown.[136]: 84  The Shah’s security forces arrested 4,121 Tudeh political activists including 386 civil servants, 201 college students, 165 teachers, 125 skilled workers, 80 textile workers, and 60 cobblers.[136]: 89, 90  Forty were executed (primarily for murder, such as Khosrow Roozbeh),[15][page needed][16][page needed] another 14 died under torture and over 200 were sentenced to life imprisonment.[147] The Shah’s post-coup dragnet also captured 477 Tudeh members (“22 colonels, 69 majors, 100 captains, 193 lieutenants, 19 noncommissioned officers, and 63 military cadets”)[citation needed] who were in the Iranian armed forces.[136]: 92  After their presence was revealed, some National Front supporters complained that this Communist Tudeh military network could have saved Mosaddegh. However, few Tudeh officers commanded powerful field units, especially tank divisions that might have countered the coup. Most of the captured Tudeh officers came from the military academies, police and medical corps.[136]: 92 [26]: 92  At least eleven of the captured army officers were tortured to death between 1953 and 1958.[136]: 89, 90
Creation of a secret police
Hossein Fatemi after arrest

After the 1953 coup, the Shah’s government formed the SAVAK (secret police), many of whose agents were trained in the United States. The SAVAK monitored dissidents and carried out censorship. After the 1971 Siahkal Incident, it was given a “loose leash” to torture suspected dissidents with “brute force” that, over the years, “increased dramatically”, and nearly 100 people were executed for political reasons during the last 20 years of the Shah’s rule.[136]: 88, 105  After the revolution, SAVAK was officially abolished, but was in reality “drastically expanded” into a new organization that killed over 8,000–12,000 prisoners between 1981 and 1985 alone, and 20,000–30,000 in total, with one prisoner who served time under both the Shah and the Islamic Republic declaring that “four months under (Islamic Republic’s) warden Asadollah Lajevardi took the toll of four years under SAVAK”.[136][149][150]
Oil policy

Another effect was sharp improvement of Iran’s economy; the British-led oil embargo against Iran ended, and oil revenue increased significantly beyond the pre-nationalisation level. Despite Iran not controlling its national oil, the Shah agreed to replacing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company with a consortium—British Petroleum and eight European and American oil companies; in result, oil revenues increased from $34 million in 1954–1955 to $181 million in 1956–1957, and continued increasing,[26]: 419, 420  and the United States sent development aid and advisers. The Shah’s government attempted to solve the issue of oil nationalization through this method, and Iran began to develop rapidly under his rule. The Shah later in his memoirs declared that Mosaddegh was a “dictator” who was “damaging” Iran through his “stubbornness”, while he (the Shah) “followed” the smarter option.[16][page needed] By the 1970s, Iran was wealthier than all of its surrounding neighbors, and economists frequently predicted that it would become a major global economic power, and a developed country.[16][page needed]

When the Shah attempted during the 1970s to once again control the oil prices (through OPEC), and cancel the same oil consortium agreement that caused the 1953 coup, it resulted in a massive decline in US support for the Shah, and ironically, hastened his downfall.[151]

CIA staff historian David Robarge stated: “The CIA carried out [a] successful regime change operation. It also transformed a turbulent constitutional monarchy into an absolutist kingship and induced a succession of unintended consequences.” The 1979 Iranian Revolution was a most impactful unintended consequence.[152]
Internationally

Kinzer wrote that the 1953 coup d’état was the first time the United States used the CIA to overthrow a “democratically elected”, “civil government”.[19][page needed] The Eisenhower administration viewed Operation Ajax as a success, with “immediate and far-reaching effect. Overnight, the CIA became a central part of the American foreign policy apparatus, and covert action came to be regarded as a cheap and effective way to shape the course of world events”—a coup engineered by the CIA called Operation PBSuccess toppling the duly elected Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, which had nationalised farm land owned by the United Fruit Company, followed the next year.[19]: 209

A pro-American government in Iran extended the United States’ geographic and strategic advantage in the Middle East, as Turkey, also bordering the USSR, was part of NATO.[153]

In 2000, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, acknowledged the coup’s pivotal role in the troubled relationship and “came closer to apologizing than any American official ever has before”:

The Eisenhower administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons. … But the coup was clearly a setback for Iran’s political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.[154][155][156]

In June 2009, the U.S. President Barack Obama in a speech in Cairo, Egypt, talked about the United States’ relationship with Iran, mentioning the role of the U.S. in 1953 Iranian coup saying:

This issue has been a source of tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is indeed a tumultuous history between us. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians. This history is well known. Rather than remain trapped in the past, I have made it clear to Iran’s leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward.[157]

Legacy

In the Islamic Republic, remembrance of the coup is quite different from that of history books published in the West, and follows the precepts of Ayatollah Khomeini that Islamic jurists must guide the country to prevent “the influence of foreign powers”.[158] Kashani came out against Mosaddegh by mid-1953 and “told a foreign correspondent that Mosaddegh had fallen because he had forgotten that the shah enjoyed extensive popular support.”[159] A month later, Kashani “went even further and declared that Mosaddegh deserved to be executed because he had committed the ultimate offense: rebelling against the shah, ‘betraying’ the country, and repeatedly violating the sacred law.”[160]

Men associated with Mosaddegh and his ideals dominated Iran’s first post-revolutionary government. The first prime minister after the Iranian revolution was Mehdi Bazargan, a close associate of Mosaddegh. But with the subsequent rift between the conservative Islamic establishment and the secular liberal forces, Mosaddegh’s work and legacy has been largely ignored by the Islamic Republic establishment.[19]: 258  However, Mosaddegh remains a popular historical figure among Iranian opposition factions. Mosaddegh’s image is one of the symbols of Iran’s opposition movement, also known as the Green Movement.[161] Kinzer writes that Mosaddegh “for most Iranians” is “the most vivid symbol of Iran’s long struggle for democracy” and that modern protesters carrying a picture of Mosaddegh is the equivalent of saying “We want democracy” and “No foreign intervention”.[161]
External videos
video icon Presentation by Kinzer on All the Shah’s Men, 8 October 2003, C-SPAN

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kinzer’s book All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror has been censored of descriptions of Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani’s activities during the Anglo-American coup d’état. Mahmoud Kashani, the son of Abol-Ghasem Kashani, “one of the top members of the current, ruling élite”[162] whom the Iranian Council of Guardians has twice approved to run for the presidency, denies there was a coup d’état in 1953, saying Mosaddegh was obeying British plans to undermine the role of Shia clerics.[162]

This allegation also is posited in the book Khaterat-e Arteshbod-e Baznesheshteh Hossein Fardoust (The Memoirs of Retired General Hossein Fardoust), published in the Islamic Republic and allegedly written by Hossein Fardoust, a former SAVAK officer. It says that rather than being a mortal enemy of the British, Mohammad Mosaddegh always favored them, and his nationalisation campaign of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was inspired by “the British themselves”. Scholar Ervand Abrahamian suggests that the fact that Fardoust’s death was announced before publication of the book may be significant, as the Islamic Republic authorities may have forced him into writing such statements under duress.[136]: 160, 161

Christian Religious Fanatics believe the Iran war is part of God’s plan and Trump was anointed by God to cause Armageddon & Jesus return

Several U.S. military commanders told their troops about wild religious conspiracies as justification for Trump’s current illegal war against Iran. Jonathan Laresen reports, “A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” Also, according to Larsen, a commander told his NCOs, “to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and return of Jesus Christ.”

Trump and Israel War with Iran 3 bible Prophecies

Trump Is Pure Evil and May be The AntiChrist

Per a post at gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/263-religion/74921102

“Trump has a CULT-Like following when it comes to his supporters. They DEFEND him over everything and will DIE for him. You will NOT change their minds when it comes to Trump..

Trump stated that he has never asks GOD for forgiveness because he does not believe he has ever done anything that needs forgiven.

He avoids the question if he has a relationship with God.

The Antichrist has “a mouth that speaks boastfully.. prospered in everything he did, and truth was thrown to the ground.. he will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior”.

The Bible describes the Antichrist as the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thess 2:3). “He will exalt himself over everything……He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie.” Jesus warned his disciples not to be deceived by false prophets. In Daniel 7:25, it says the antichrist will think to change times and laws. Daniel further describes him as a charismatic speaker (7:8), crafty politician (9:27), distinct physical appearance (7:20), selfish, ambitious, egomaniac (11:36), greedy materialist (11:38), controlling (7:25), proud and self-exalting (Daniel 11:36) and utterly lawless (2Thess 2:8).

Trump Is Pure Evil

Trump embodies the worst traits a human being is capable of possessing; Liar, Lawless, Vile, Evil, Vindictive, Hateful, Mean Spirited, Selfish, Lacks Empathy, Braggart, has No Humility & Never Apologizes

15 Bible Verses Identifying Trump as the Antichrist

Trump has gotten away with a staggering amount of lawless, outrageous conduct, has defied being held accountable for crimes any other person would have been sentenced to prison for years and against all odds, managed to get himself back in the White House. It’s as though evil forces from hell are helping him.

This Theologian says he has Proof that Trump the Antichrist w/ Dr. Rev. Matthew Fox

Why Trump’s Agenda Is Anti-Christ

Description from youtube: Trump Is The Antichrist! Christian Testimonies From Born-again Christians testify about the rise of Antichrist Trump in light of God’s Word.

4123 Satan, as deceiver – Dictionary of Bible Themes – Bible Gateway

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Satan’s character is deceitful, devious and cunning as in a variety of guises he seeks to influence people for his own ends.

Satan’s deceitful character

He is evil Mt 6:13 See also Mt 5:37; Mt 13:19; Jn 17:15; 2Th 3:3; 1Jn 2:13-14; 1Jn 3:8,12; 1Jn 5:18

He is a liar Jn 8:44 See also Ge 3:4-5; Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Rev 3:9

He is devious 2Co 11:14 See also 2Co 11:3; Eph 6:11; 2Th 2:9; 1Ti 3:7; 2Ti 2:26

He is scheming Eph 6:11 See also 2Co 2:10-11

He is a slanderer Job 1:9-11 See also 1Ti 5:14-15; Rev 2:9

Satan’s deceitful work

He deceives individuals 1Ti 2:14 Eve was deceived by Satan the serpent. See also Da 8:25; 2Ti 3:13; Rev 12:9; Rev 20:3,10

He appoints false prophets Mt 7:15 See also Dt 13:5; Jer 23:26; Jer 28:15; Jer 29:21; Eze 13:6-10; 2Pe 2:1-3,18-19

He misuses Scripture Mt 4:6 pp Lk 4:10

He blinds unbelievers 2Co 4:4

How EVIL Is THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION!?

Trump’s Threat; “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!”

Trump PROVES he’s a LAWLESS CRIMINAL & THUG who should be ARRESTED and LOCKED UP for making threats: “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” This is how MOB BOSSES behave.

Trump promoted a video featuring an extreme close-up photo of his face in black and white, and audio of him making an obvious threat: “If you f— around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.”

Trump posts disturbing baseball bat photo with Alvin Bragg, threatens ‘death and destruction’

Former President Donald Trump has sparked outrage by sharing images of him holding a baseball bat next Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s head.

March 24, 2023: Trump threatened “death and destruction” if he’s criminally charged in New York — writing the shocking social media warning after posting an image of himself holding a baseball bat next to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s head. Trump shared the image of himself holding a baseball bat — with Bragg’s hands up — on his Truth Social platform Thursday as he devoted his day to attacking the prosecutor for pursuing a case over a “hush money” payout to porn star Stormy Daniels.

More PROOF that Trump IS the Most Lawless, Corrupt & Dangerous President in History

Does Trump look EVIL in this photo during the 2016 debate or what?!

Massive Protests across the United States and the world over Murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis by ICE FASCIST NAZI GOON

VIDEO ANALYSIS: Jen Psaki breaks down multiple video angles of ICE killing Minneapolis mom

Bodycam video proves ICE agent committed MURDER. After the girlfriend of Renee made comments the ICE agent didn’t like, he demanded Good get out of the car. When she tried to drive away he shot her at point blank range and said ‘f**** bitch, proving he acted out of rage and revenge.

Just two days after the deadly ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, several videos, shot from different perspectives have been released to the public, including video taken by the shooter, which many on the political right claim supports the argument that the ICE agent was defending himself when he shot and killed Good in her car. Jen Psaki synchronizes several videos for a closer analysis of what the shooter’s video actually shows, and what the videos tell us about what Good was doing when she was killed.

Psychiatrist Analyzes Jonathan Ross’ Mind at the Moment He Killed Renee Good

PETITION: Impeach Trump, Kristi Noem & JD Vance for Slandering & Lying about Renee Good

Sign the Petition

Renée Good, mother of three children was murdered by an ICE agent, out of what appeared to be rage by his own comments after firing three bullets at point blank range. Then, Trump, Kristi Noem and VP Vance made outrageously false statements, calling her a ‘Terrorists’ and falsely accused her of attempting to run over the ICE agent who shot her.

Trump, Kristi Noem & VP Vance Slandered and lied about a 37 yr/old mother of three children, who was murdered her in cold blood by an ICE agent, out of what appeared to be rage by his own comments after firing three bullets at point blank range. Then, Trump, Kristi Noem and VP Vance made outrageously false statements, calling her a ‘Terrorists’ and falsely accused her of attempting to run over the ICE agent who shot her

Lawrence O’Donnell details the claims and justifications Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are making after the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE agent in Minnesota

PETITION: Impeach Trump, Kristi Noem & JD Vance for Slandering & Lying about Renee Good

Sign the Petition

Renée Good, mother of three children was murdered by an ICE agent, out of what appeared to be rage by his own comments, calling her a ‘f**** bitch’ after firing three bullets at point blank range.

Trump TELLS INSANE, provably false lies about ICE Agent Murdering a Minneapolis Woman

Jesse talks about Donald Trump and his merry band of lying fascist freaks who are lying at record-setting paces to cover for the anonymous masked armed secret police who gunned down American citizen Renee Nicole Good in her car

Psychiatrist Analyzes Jonathan Ross’ Mind at the Moment He Killed Renee Good

VIDEO ANALYSIS: Jen Psaki breaks down multiple video angles of ICE killing Minneapolis mom

Just two days after the deadly ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, several videos, shot from different perspectives have been released to the public, including video taken by the shooter, which many on the political right claim supports the argument that the ICE agent was defending himself when he shot and killed Good in her car. Jen Psaki synchronizes several videos for a closer analysis of what the shooter’s video actually shows, and what the videos tell us about what Good was doing when she was killed.

BACKLASH from ENTIRE WORLD over ICE MURDER

Trump Finds Way to MAKE RENEE GOOD’S MURDER ABOUT HIMSELF

Due to being a narcissistic psychopath, Trump can’t see past himself in any situation, even when discussing the death of an American citizen at the hands of his masked secret police force of Proud Boys that is seemingly loyal only to him.

‘They’re liars’: Rep. Jayapal slams Trump admin’s response to Minneapolis ICE shooting

Rep. Jasmine Crockett calls Republicans out for their lack of decency

Can Trump admin’s ICE shooting face homicide charges? Video stokes calls for independent probe

The LAWLESS and ILLEGITIMATE Trump administration is blocking state officials from investigating the deadly ICE shooting of an American citizen in Minneapolis.

Trump administration unleashes torrent of untruths after woman shot dead by ICE

Victim-blaming began almost as soon as Renee Nicole Good was killed – we examine the claims and the reality

Trump is further proving to be a War Criminal by his illegal invasion of Venezuela, kidnapping of President Madur and he should be prosecuted by the Hague

Rachel Maddow calls out the real reason Trump invaded Venezuela

Republican turns on Trump over Venezuela in powerful speech

Marjorie Taylor Greene DISMANTLES Trump over Venezuela invasion

Trump’s INSANE Venezuela SECRET gets exposed

Trump and his Lawless, Incompetent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to demote Senator Mark Kelly and cut his military retirement pay for reminding members of the military of their duty to refuse to obey unlawful orders. Another example of what scum of the earth Trump and his illegitimate fascist regime are who’s destroying our country.

Sen. Mark Kelly and former Rep. Gabby Giffords speak out

Mark Kelly drops BOMB on Pete Hegseth for trying to downgrade his rank

CBS, SkyDance & Paramount should be boycotted for being bought by Radical Right Wing MAGA Trump supporter Multi-Billionaire Larry Ellison who is turning CBS into a Pro-Trump Propaganda outlet like FOX FAKE NEWS

If these Radical Right Wing idiots think they’re going to brainwash people into liking and respecting Trump, they’ve got another think coming! I haven’t watched CBS News since they fired Dan Rather and have no intentions of EVER watching it again. HOPE THEY GO BANKRUPT!

CBS News shelves ‘60 Minutes’ report on notorious prison in El Salvador

‘60 Minutes’ correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is slamming CBS News’ editor in chief Bari Weiss for postponing a report slated to air on December 21. Alfonsi wrote “it is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” The story focuses on a notorious prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has deported some undocumented immigrants.

CBS shelves ‘60 Minutes’ story on Trump deportees at the last minute

CBS News suddenly shelved a “60 Minutes” segment featuring the accounts of Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Now one of its own correspondents fears the program is being “dismantled,” and some employees are threatening to quit. CNN’s Brian Stelter reports.

New CBS News Anchor Says He Will Be Ignoring Experts

Jesse talks about Tony Dokoupil’s new announcement that he will be ignoring the experts.

Per the above article: Newly minted host of “CBS Evening News” Tony Dokoupil had a message for viewers to ring in the new year, but not everyone was on board with his new approach for the legacy network’s reporting strategy.

Dokoupil outlined a new direction for CBS News, vowing to focus on the perspective of the average American after years of media putting too much weight on “advocates … academics or elites.” The anchor, who filled the seat once held by Walter Cronkite, Norah O’Donnell and Dan Rather, was appointed under the new corporate ownership of Paramount and the stewardship of new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

CBS News has fallen,” Dr. Kevin Young wrote in a post to X, following the anchor’s social media PSA video. “Americans must now rely on international news outlets rather than US based state run media for factual journalism.”

Another user mocked the anchor asking, “Why is CBS posting Tony Dokoupil’s Fox News audition tape?”

In his straight-to-social media video, Dokoupil named several stories that Americans believe the press missed over the years: NAFTA, the Iraq war, Russiagate, COVID lockdowns, Hunter Biden’s laptop and “the president’s fitness for office.”

Larry Sabato on X (formerly Twitter): “Absolutely! You wouldn’t want “academics and elites” who have actually studied a subject to outweigh the off-the-cuff opinions of village idiots. This is how we’re seeing the resurgence of measles, and the widespread belief in almost non-existent vote fraud, among many other… https://t.co/Ouodl7Flx0 / X”

Absolutely! You wouldn’t want “academics and elites” who have actually studied a subject to outweigh the off-the-cuff opinions of village idiots. This is how we’re seeing the resurgence of measles, and the widespread belief in almost non-existent vote fraud, among many other… https://t.co/Ouodl7Flx0

Per the photo above which is being shared on Social Media; “Billionaire Larry Ellison who believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump used his own money to buy CBS and install his son as the boss”

Larry Ellison Just Quietly Became the Most Powerful Man in America

With the Paramount-Skydance merger approved by the FCC, Larry Ellison just showed the world who is the real shot caller in the White House.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, the 80-year-old software tycoon and second-richest man in the world, became the Most Powerful Man in the World

On Thursday evening, the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve Paramount’s $8.4 billion merger with fellow entertainment firm Skydance Media. The controversial, long-awaited deal only came about thanks to Paramount’s appeals to this administration: settling a baseless lawsuit that Trump brought against 60 Minutes for “deceptively” editing its Kamala Harris interview, pressuring subsidiary CBS News to shift its “balance” in a right-wing direction, and canceling presidential foe and beloved comedian Stephen Colbert’s highly rated late-night talk show.

Of note: Skydance is owned by Ellison’s son, David, who personally met with both Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr to get the deal done. The elder Ellison is covering most of the cash to close the Skydance-Paramount merger, which will give him significant control over the new company and a chance to carry out, as he detailed in federal filings, a wholesale transformation of CBS in his vision—including broadcasts of complimentary PSAs for Trump administration initiatives.

When Carr announced the merger approval, he positively affirmed “Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network,” including the impending hire of an “ombudsman” who’ll monitor CBS News broadcasts for “bias” as the overall company slashes its diversity, equity, and inclusion guidelines. Said Trump himself of his “friend” Larry Ellison: “I think he’s going to run CBS really well, and I think he’s making a good deal to buy it.”

Through this brazenly corrupt arrangement, the U.S. president has granted one of his pals uninhibited control over a longtime bastion of mainstream, fact-based news, which he openly intends to bend toward his conservative vision. And that’s just one of the ways Trump is helping Larry Ellison become the most powerful and not-so-secretly influential tech mogul in the country.
Oracle, which Larry still runs as chief technology officer and board chairman, is also in talks with David Ellison’s Skydance for a major deal that would see the latter pay the former $100 million a year to run all of Paramount’s tech through Oracle’s valuable cloud-computing software. Skydance already pays Oracle $2.2 million a year for its cloud and platform products, and the FCC explicitly signed off on David Ellison’s plan to run all of Paramount’s and Skydance’s software on the same cloud tech, which will be provided by Oracle.

(the above text is from facebook.com/TheAttitudeWithArnieArnesen/posts/what-does-larry-ellison-the-second-richest-man-in-the-world-the-totally-corrupt-/1461463645410540)

CBS / Paramount Caved to Trump’s extortion by paying a multi-million dollar ‘bribe” to settle Trump’s baseless law suit so his corrupt FCC Chief will approve the Paramount-Skydance merger, plus agree to cancel Stephen Colbert, turn CBS into the new FOX NEWS PRO-TRUMP PROPAGANDA outlet and end DEI.  As stated in an article below; “Trump’s FCC Chief Brendan Carr Is Acting More Like a Mob Enforcer Than a Federal Regulator”.

While the ultimate decision to settle involved multiple actors within Paramount, including the board of directors, reports indicate that Shari Redstone, the chair and controlling shareholder of Paramount, was a key proponent of exploring a settlement with Trump. Some executives viewed Trump’s lawsuit as a potential hurdle to completing a proposed sale of the company to Skydance Media, which required the Trump administration’s approval.

Other individuals involved in the settlement process included CBS News executives and legal teams who initially opposed a settlement, citing the First Amendment and the perceived lack of merit in the lawsuit. However, the settlement was ultimately reached through mediation efforts

In a secret meeting between CBS and CBS News’ new owner (Skydance) and the Trump Administration, promised Trump that they would effectively be the new Fox News Propaganda outlet, running Trump approved ads, and putting Trump friendly news and programming on the air.  Trump’s FCC crony just approved the sale of CBS’ parent to a big Trump supporter’s son. Michael Popok takes a  look at a new letter that reveals it all, and what it means for CBS and its viewership.

After his most recent interview with Norah O’Donnell on CBS News, it’s clear Trump’s control over the media is stronger than ever. Steve Schmidt reacts to the O’Donnell interview and highlights the influence of tech oligarchs.

Trump’s Top 10 Lies on 60 Minutes, in 10 Minutes

POLITIFACT: Fact-checking Trump’s ’60 Minutes’ interview

60 Minutes HID THIS TRUMP INTERVIEW SEGMENT & Kash Patel uses Gov’t Jet as Uber

Trump LOSES IT in HIGHLY EDITED 60 Minutes Interview

Trump claims he doesn’t know Binance billionaire he pardoned

Fact check: 18 false claims Trump made on ’60 Minutes’ | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump littered his new “60 Minutes” interview with a wide-ranging assortment of false claims, the vast majority of them previously debunked. We counted at least 18 inaccurate assertions.

Fact check: 18 false claims Trump made on ‘60 Minute

• Falsely claimed “$17 trillion” is being invested in the US “right now,” though the $17 trillion figure is nearly double the White House’s own wildly inflated figure.
• Falsely claimed each alleged drug boat the US has attacked in recent weeks “kills 25,000 Americans,” though experts note this figure plainly does not make sense.
• Falsely claimed some recent former presidents invoked the Insurrection Act “28 times,” though no individual president has invoked it on more than six occasions with this record set by President Ulysses S. Grant in the 1800s.
• Falsely claimed he has ended “eight wars,” though his list includes two situations that were not wars at all and at least one war that continues.
• Falsely claimed CBS aired an edited interview with Trump’s 2024 opponent Kamala Harris “two days” before the election, though it was actually more than four full weeks before Election Day.
He falsely claimed former President Joe Biden gave $350 billion in aid to Ukraine (the real number is well under half that) and allowed in “25 million” migrants (the real number here is well under half that, too).

And Trump made a variety of additional false claims on several subjects, including the government shutdown, the artificial intelligence boom, tariffs, his first impeachment and his former legal battle with “60 Minutes” itself.

• Trump falsely claimed, “We have no inflation” and “we don’t have any inflation.” (He said at another point of the interview that “essentially we don’t have inflation.”) He also falsely claimed, “We’re down to 2%, even less than 2%.” There is inflation; it has been worsening since May after hitting a four-year low in April; and it’s not 2% or less than 2%. The year-over-year rate was about 3% in September, up from about 2.9% in August; the September figure was nearly identical to the roughly 3% rate in January, the last partial month of the Biden administration and first partial month of the second Trump administration.

• Trump falsely claimed that President Joe “Biden gave me the worst inflation rate in the history of our country” and that “I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country.” Trump could have fairly said the US inflation rate hit a 40-year high under Biden in June 2022, when it was 9.1%, but that was not close to the all-time record of 23.7%, set in 1920 — and, again, the rate then declined to about 3% in January 2025, the month Trump took over from Biden. Trump’s claim was also wrong if he was claiming there was record cumulative inflation over the course of Biden’s presidency. It was about 21%, compared with about 49% during President Jimmy Carter’s term.

• Trump repeated his frequent false claim that “we have $17 trillion being invested in the United States right now,” then said moments later that it is “more than $17 trillion right now.” This “$17 trillion” figure is fictional even without the “more than.” As of the time the “60 Minutes” interview aired on Sunday, the White House’s own website said the “major investment announcements” this term totaled “$8.9 trillion” — and a detailed CNN review in October found the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges from foreign countries and companies, pledges that were about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment in the US, or vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges

• Trump claimed, as he often does, that China and other foreign countries pay the tariffs he has imposed on their exports. In reality, US importers, not China or other foreign countries, make the tariff payments to the US government, and they often pass on at least some of the costs to consumers; study after study, including one from the federal government’s bipartisan US International Trade Commission, found that people and entities in the US bore almost the entire cost of Trump’s first-term tariffs on Chinese products.

• After Trump was asked about the recent US military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, he said, “Every one of those boats kills 25,000 Americans. Every single boat that you see that’s shot down kills 25,000 on drugs, and destroys families all over our country.”  Aside from the fact that the Trump administration has not presented public proof for his repeated claims that the boats carried fentanyl, the drug involved in the highest number of US overdose deaths — the Caribbean is not known to be a significant fentanyl-smuggling route — his “25,000” number does not make sense. The total number of US overdose deaths from all drugs in 2024 was about 82,000, according to provisional federal data. Trump is essentially claiming, in other words, that attacking 16 boats prevented more than four years’ worth of American overdose deaths.

• Trump told his usual lie that the free and fair 2020 election was stolen from him. He lied again that grocery prices “are down” even after CBS’ Norah O’Donnell informed him they are up. He declared once more that there is now “no inflation,” though there certainly is, and then that inflation is 2% or “even less than 2%,” though the most recent available Consumer Price Index figure is now up to 3%.

• The president also deployed multiple other fictional numbers during his exchanges with O’Donnell, which were recorded Friday and released by CBS on Sunday.

Grocery prices

When O’Donnell noted that Americans have “seen their grocery prices go up,” Trump repeated his regular false claim that grocery prices are actually declining: “No, you’re wrong. They went up under Biden. Right now they’re going down. Other than beef, which we’re working on, which we can solve very quickly.” Trump repeated later in the interview, “Our groceries are down.”

Grocery prices are up under Trump — and while there has been a particularly large increase in the price of beef, there have also been increases in the price of numerous other products. Consumer Price Index figures for September showed average grocery prices had increased since August (about 0.3%), since September 2024 (about 2.7%), and since January 2025 (about 1.4%), the month Trump returned to office. Prices in all six major grocery product categories tracked by the Consumer Price Index, such as “fruits and vegetables” and “cereals and bakery products,” are up over the past year.

Inflation under Trump

• Trump falsely claimed, “We have no inflation” and “we don’t have any inflation.” (He said at another point of the interview that “essentially we don’t have inflation.”) He also falsely claimed, “We’re down to 2%, even less than 2%.” There is inflation; it has been worsening since May after hitting a four-year low in April; and it’s not 2% or less than 2%. The year-over-year rate was about 3% in September, up from about 2.9% in August; the September figure was nearly identical to the roughly 3% rate in January, the last partial month of the Biden administration and first partial month of the second Trump administration.

Inflation under Biden

• Trump falsely claimed that President Joe “Biden gave me the worst inflation rate in the history of our country” and that “I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country.” Trump could have fairly said the US inflation rate hit a 40-year high under Biden in June 2022, when it was 9.1%, but that was not close to the all-time record of 23.7%, set in 1920 — and, again, the rate then declined to about 3% in January 2025, the month Trump took over from Biden. Trump’s claim was also wrong if he was claiming there was record cumulative inflation over the course of Biden’s presidency. It was about 21%, compared with about 49% during President Jimmy Carter’s term.

Investment in the US

• Trump repeated his frequent false claim that “we have $17 trillion being invested in the United States right now,” then said moments later that it is “more than $17 trillion right now.” This “$17 trillion” figure is fictional even without the “more than.” As of the time the “60 Minutes” interview aired on Sunday, the White House’s own website said the “major investment announcements” this term totaled “$8.9 trillion” — and a detailed CNN review in October found the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges from foreign countries and companies, pledges that were about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment in the US, or vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges. You can read more here.

Who pays tariffs

Trump claimed, as he often does, that China and other foreign countries pay the tariffs he has imposed on their exports. In reality, US importers, not China or other foreign countries, make the tariff payments to the US government, and they often pass on at least some of the costs to consumers; study after study, including one from the federal government’s bipartisan US International Trade Commission, found that people and entities in the US bore almost the entire cost of Trump’s first-term tariffs on Chinese products.

Strikes on alleged drug boats

After Trump was asked about the recent US military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, he said, “Every one of those boats kills 25,000 Americans. Every single boat that you see that’s shot down kills 25,000 on drugs, and destroys families all over our country.”

Aside from the fact that the Trump administration has not presented public proof for his repeated claims that the boats carried fentanyl, the drug involved in the highest number of US overdose deaths — the Caribbean is not known to be a significant fentanyl-smuggling route — his “25,000” number does not make sense. The total number of US overdose deaths from all drugs in 2024 was about 82,000, according to provisional federal data. Trump is essentially claiming, in other words, that attacking 16 boats prevented more than four years’ worth of American overdose deaths.

The president’s figure is “absurd,” Carl Latkin, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health with a joint appointment at its medical school, said in October. “He’s claiming that he’s solved the overdose mortality crisis” with four boat strikes, and “that does not have any semblance of reality.” You can read a longer fact check here.

Trump and wars

Trump repeated his false claim that he “knocked out eight wars,” adding, “I took eight wars and stopped (them) during an eight-month period” this presidency. Reading from a paper, he listed “Cambodia-Thailand,” “Kosovo-Serbia,” “the Congo and Rwanda,” “Pakistan and India,” “Israel and Iran,” “Egypt and Ethiopia,” “Armenia and Azerbaijan,” and “Israel and Hamas.”

Trump’s “eight” figure is a clear exaggeration.

There was no war between Egypt and Ethiopia for Trump to end; the two countries were in a long-running diplomatic dispute about a major Ethiopian dam project on a tributary of the Nile River, but that is not a war, and the dispute is unresolved. Trump’s list includes another supposed war that didn’t occur during his presidency, between Kosovo and Serbia.

Trump repeated his false claim that “Joe Biden gave $350 billion to Ukraine, including a lot of weapons, a tremendous amount of weapons.” The “$350 billion” figure isn’t close to accurate.

The US government inspector general overseeing the federal Ukraine response says the US had disbursed about $94 billion as of the end of June 2025 (and had appropriated about $93 billion more), including money that was spent in the US and in broader Europe rather than Ukraine itself. And a German think tank that has closely tracked wartime aid to Ukraine says the US allocated about $135 billion to Ukraine (and had committed about $5 billion more) through August, at current exchange rates.

Critics Slam Heavy Editing Of Trump’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview

CBS aired a condensed, 28-minute version of a 73-minute interview for “60 Minutes.”

Per the above article: Here’s What CBS Cut Out Of Its ‘60 Minutes’ Interview With Trump

Trump, who told O’Donnell she could cut his comment from the interview, said, “’60 Minutes’ was forced to pay me a lot of money… You can’t have fake news. You’ve gotta have legit news.” He then went on to say he sees “good things happening in the news” thanks to the recent acquisition of Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, by David Ellison’s Skydance Media: “I think it’s the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press” (last month Trump called the Ellisons “big supporters of mine”). Among other comments cut from the initial broadcast were claims the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen” and an attempt to get O’Donnell, who lives in Washington D.C., to admit she’d seen a reduction in crime in the city since he took office. After asking her several times if she’d noticed a difference, O’Donnell said she hadn’t “been out and about that much,” to which Trump replied, “Oh, that’s not a fair answer. You see the difference.” Trump several times acknowledged that the interview was going to be edited, saying things like “you don’t have to put this on” and “you don’t have to use that one.”

Key Background

The interview was the first Trump has done with “60 Minutes” in five years and the first since his lawsuit over the Harris interview. He sued for $20 billion and claimed the show deceptively edited Harris’ answer to a question about the Israel-Hamas war after a preview of the interview used a different answer than the official broadcast. The network later released a full transcript of the interview that showed it ran the first sentence of her answer in the preview and the last sentence during the show. Paramount later agreed to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit, and admitted no wrongdoing. Networks commonly edit interviews for clarity and length to fit their broadcast schedule.

Chief Critic

CBS and O’Donnell have taken flack from elected officials and other journalists for how the interview was conducted, and the heavy edits. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., posted to X: “Maybe I should file a complaint with the FCC against the Trump White House for editing his unhinged 60 Minutes interview. It will use the exact same language Trump lodged against Vice President Harris.” Jonathan Uriarte, spokesperson for FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, said the edits and Trump’s seeming awareness they would be made “could qualify as news distortion and deserves an investigation” according to the standard set by the Trump FCC. Political commentator Tim Miller posted on X: “60 Minutes did not air the part where Trump discusses his success in extorting the network and calls them Fake News. This edit is harmful to me and I’m considering suing.” Former MSNBC host Joy Reid called out the interview style itself, saying, “Norah let Trump lie and lie with barely any pushback or provision of corrective facts.”

Brian Stelter explains $16 million settlement between Paramount and Trump

Veteran reporter Dan Rather Blasts CBS for Caving to Trump’s extortion so a corporate merger can proceed without being blocked by Trump’s LAWLESS administration

‘Climate of fear’: Fmr Air Force secretary warns of Trump’s ‘abuse of power’ in chilling TV interview

Ending DEI, clash over freedom of press: Inside the Paramount-Skydance merger

The Trump Fascist Regime approved the sale of CBS’ parent company Paramount to Skydance. Puck founding partner Matthew Belloni joins Katy Tur to explain more on the details of this $8 billion merger and to react to “South Park” making fun of Trump and Paramount.

Nicolle blasts Paramount’s capitulation to Trump: ‘The short-sightedness is what’s stunning’

President of Media Matters for America Angelo Carusone and President of Brialliant Corners Research Cornell Belcher join Nicolle Wallace to discuss the FCC’s approval of Paramount’s merger with Skydance after they made a series of decisions favorable to the Trump administration.

Senator Chris Murphy discusses Paramount-Skydance merger and Trump’s censorship

The politics behind the $8B Paramount-Skydance merger

The FCC approved Skydance Media’s $8 billion bid to acquire Paramount, the parent company of CBS. The green light from the FCC comes after Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement with President Trump over his lawsuit accusing “60 Minutes” of deceptively editing an interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Per the above article: CBS News facing new ‘disaster’ and plummet in ratings after ‘failing’ experiment

It appears changes meant to try and bring ratings back up at CBS News after struggles are failing, plunging the network into a further crisis.

Mainstream and legacy media networks have all been feeling the pinch in recent years as ratings decline across the board, seeing shifts in personnel who leave, shuffling around of schedules, and consideration of layoffs.

“It’s a disaster,” a source credited as a former CBS News exec told The Daily Mail. “It’s been critically panned, ratings down week by week and from this time last year.” Following a parade of exits by Executive Producers and CEOs, the network has been in a ratings slump that is even being categorized as a “five-alarm fire.”

“It’s mind boggling,” another source said. “They took the ‘news’ out of the Evening News!’ It’s not surprising the audience is leaving in droves.'”

With viewership allegedly down 14 percent year-over-year, it’s believed the decline is directly related to the format change, which is similar in structure to shows like 60 Minutes and Access Hollywood. The Evening News allegedly saw a 24 percent drop in the 25-54 demographic from last year the week of February 10, according to Nielsen ratings, showcasing what many feel is a sure sign the change isn’t working. “That demographic is very important to advertisers,” the exec said. “The experiment is failing.”

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In 1969, CBS canceled The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour after their anti-war satire and civil rights advocacy clashed with right-wing network censors. 56 years later, in 2025, history repeats as CBS axes The Late Show with Stephen Colbert its Top-Rated Program — after Colbert condemned Paramount’s $16M settlement with Trump, calling it a ‘bribe’.

Both shows were silenced under the guise of ‘financial reasons,’ but the truth is clear: CBS has always aligned with fascist, anti-free-speech agendas when power feels threatened.
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

— George Orwell, 1945

Trump’s FCC Chief Brendan Carr Is Acting More Like a Mob Enforcer Than a Federal Regulator

With a new GOP majority, the incoming FCC boss aims to punish criticism, reward obedience-and screw the public.

Per the above article: Trump’s FCC Chief Brendan Carr Is Acting More Like a Mob Enforcer Than a Federal Regulator

“With a new GOP majority, the incoming FCC boss aims to punish criticism, reward obedience—and screw the public.

Once a wonky telecom regulator that mostly avoided politics, the FCC is now at the leading edge of President Donald Trump’s crusade to turn the federal government into an instrument of his own will.

Since January, Trump’s FCC chief Brendan Carr has weaponized the agency to intimidate news organizations and media companies by threatening their broadcast licenses and launching sham investigations into their business practices and diversity programs. Carr is also racing to roll back FCC regulations, eliminate consumer protections, and unleash further media consolidation. Last week, the Senate confirmed former GOP congressional staffer Olivia Trusty to the agency, giving Carr the majority he needs to forge full-steam ahead with his MAGA agenda.

Free speech advocates call Carr’s actions a blatant violation of the First Amendment and federal law, and an egregious and unprecedented abuse of the agency’s power. A bipartisan group of former FCC commissioners recently accused Carr of turning the agency into the “White House’s personal censor.” In addition to cracking down on disfavored speech, the agency has already begun offering favors like merger approvals to media companies in exchange for their loyalty to the president.

“This is the most corrupt FCC in the agency’s history,” Victor Pickard, a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Nation. “What we’re seeing now is outright Mafia-style behavior where the FCC is trying to shake down corporations and entire industries to carry out Trump’s agenda.”

Carr has threatened Comcast, which owns MSNBC, with the loss of its broadcast licenses because Trump was offended by the network’s coverage of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man the administration admits was mistakenly sent to a prison in El Salvador. And he’s launched an investigation into CBS after Trump repeatedly called for the cancellation of the network’s broadcast licenses and demanded that the FCC impose “maximum fines and punishment” over a disputed 60 Minutes broadcast.

“The idea that we would revoke a broadcast license based on editorial decisions is antithetical to the First Amendment,” Anna M. Gomez, the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner, told The Nation. “We need the FCC to honor the Constitution, to comply with the Communications Act prohibition against censorship, and to stand up to these types of attempts to weaponize the agency in order to retaliate against broadcasters.”

It’s quite a turnabout for Carr, who in 2021 declared that “a newsroom’s decision about what stories to cover and how to frame them should be beyond the reach of any government official, not targeted by them.”

For nearly a century, the FCC operated mostly outside the realm of politics, regulating the nation’s airwaves, licensing TV and radio stations, and promoting competition and diversity across the media landscape. Although FCC commissioners are nominated by the president, Congress designed the agency to act independently from White House influence, and for the most part, FCC chiefs treated that independence as essential to ensuring free speech and diversity over the nation’s airwaves.

Trump and Carr’s complete disregard for that principle is evident in their campaign of coercion against 60 Minutes, which has infuriated the president with its critical coverage of his hostility to Ukraine and imperial ambitions for Greenland. In an apparent attempt to bolster Trump’s bogus $20 billion lawsuit over last summer’s disputed Kamala Harris segment, Carr launched a “news distortion” investigation into CBS and has slow-walked approval of its parent company Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media. Paramount, in turn, has reportedly begun influencing 60 Minutes news coverage, leading to the resignation of two senior executives.

Carr, who has recently taken to wearing a gold Trump-head lapel pin, is also doing his part as a loyal MAGA minion by pressuring media giants like Comcast and Disney to join Trump’s anti-diversity crusade and abandon their DEI hiring policies. He’s threatened to block merger proposals from companies that fail to do so. In an abject display of corporate capitulation, Verizon dutifully obliged in order to win approval of its $20 billion buyout of Frontier Communications.

The Trump FCC’s assault on the First Amendment has been so shocking that it has diverted attention from Carr’s extreme pro-business, anti-consumer agenda. In April, Carr launched what he called a “massive deregulatory initiative” that public interest group Free Press described as “a brazen attempt to roll back consumer safeguards on a widespread scale for industry’s convenience.” The pro-consumer FCC policies on the chopping block amount to a big-business wish list that includes eliminating broadband label and truth-in-billing requirements, rolling back restrictions on scam robocalls and texts, and watering down digital discrimination rules that encourage equitable broadband deployment.

Given Trump’s illegal firing of two Democratic commissioners at the FTC, public interest advocates warn that Trump could fire Gomez, the remaining Democratic FCC commissioner, while elevating recently departed GOP commissioner Nathan Simington’s former chief of staff, 31-year-old MAGA ideologue Gavin Wax, who once declared that Trump’s reelection would be a “time for retribution.”

Wax would fit right in. If President Trump behaves like a Mafia boss, then Carr is acting like a MAGA enforcer, threatening Trump’s media enemies while doling out favors for corporate interests with little regard for the collateral damage done to the rule of law or the public interest. It’s a familiar Trump formula: weaponize the federal government to punish criticism, reward obedience—and screw the American public”.

Ted Cruz compares FCC chair’s threats to mob tactics

Skydance pledges to Trump’s FCC it’ll eliminate DEI, install ‘ombudsman’ to root out ‘bias’ at CBS News | CNN Business

Skydance needs FCC approval in order to take over Paramount. It’s now promising to root out “bias” at CBS News in order to get it.

After settling with Trump, CBS News staffers fear what comes next | CNN Business

Paramount Global is being hammered for bowing to presidential pressure and settling a lawsuit that it likely could have beaten in court.

Per the above article: “Employees at CBS News, which produces “60 Minutes,” feel the same way. “There is great fear about what comes next,” a CBS News staffer told CNN on condition of anonymity. Even though Trump’s “60 Minutes” lawsuit is now history, his bullying tactics will continue to challenge media companies for the foreseeable future.

“Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said Wednesday. “This settlement will only embolden the president to continue his flurry of baseless lawsuits against the press — and against the American people’s ability to hear the news free from government intrusion.”

A ‘monument to Paramount’s surrender’

According to the terms of the settlement, which were announced late Tuesday night, Trump will drop the suit in exchange for $16 million toward his presidential library. The financial terms mirror the deal that Disney’s ABC struck with Trump last December.

“Trump’s presidential library will be a permanent monument to Paramount’s surrender,” remarked Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

Other press freedom advocates called the CBS parent’s decision a “spineless” and “shameful” capitulation.

Veteran media reporter Paul Farhi said on X that it was “fascinating how Paramount has borne the bulk of the criticism for agreeing to this payoff. As if Trump is a passive bystander who played no role.”

The conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, focused on Trump’s conduct in a sharply critical piece on Wednesday night.

“The President is using government to intimidate news outlets that publish stories he doesn’t like,” the Journal wrote. “It’s a low move in a free country with a free press.”

David Ellison, son of the billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, was seen schmoozing near Trump at two different UFC matches earlier this year, stoking speculation that he was leaning on personal relationships to help get the merger approved.

On Wednesday, Paramount pushed back on a New York Post report about a “side deal” between Ellison and Trump involving TV airtime for public service announcements promoting Trump-aligned causes.

“Paramount has no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to President Trump other than those set forth in the settlement proposed by the mediator and accepted by the parties,” the company said.

But the report only intensified questions inside CBS News about how Ellison might approach owning the news division in the future.

While journalists at “60 Minutes” and across CBS News are concerned about the situation, they ultimately want to move on and continue doing their jobs.

“This settlement is not a reflection on the essential and bold work of 60 Minutes of CBS,” Tompkins told CNN. “It is a reflection of a vindictive president and corporate heads who did not value one of the fundamental principles that underpin the ownership of a news organization.”

“That principle,” he said, “is stated as the second tenet of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics: Act Independently.”

Right-wingers turned Hungary into a anti-democratic fascist one-party-rule dictatorship. Trump & Republicans have followed the same playbook

Trump Endorses Right-Wing Autocrat In Hungary

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and former FBI special agent Clint Watts discuss with Nicolle Wallace the former president’s endorsement of Viktor Orban ahead of the Parliamentary elections in Hungary.

Trump is following Viktor Orbán’s playbook of how he destroyed Democracy in Hungary and became a de-facto Dictator

Thom Hartmann explains in the video above how Victor Orbán and his Radical Right-Wing Party took over the once Democratic government in Hungary and turned it into a anti-democratic authoritarian fascist one-party-rule dictatorship where elections & the courts are rigged, all of the media is state controlled and praise for Victor Orbán Propaganda is seen everywhere.

This is where the United States is headed unless Trump is stopped by impeachment or exposing him as a Illegitimate President who rigged the 2024 election (as detailed this site).

Thieves hooked an ATM to a stolen SUV and ripped the machine out of a Texas convenience store in a brazen robbery captured on video, but NO NATIONAL GUARD Troops to stop Rampant Crimes in RED STATES by TRUMP. More Proof, Trump sending Troops to Blue States is about REVENGE and about being a Narcissistic Psychopath who expects everyone to kiss his ass.

Worst Ever Illegitimate President Trump’s insane, delusional shouting address to the Nation full of anger and lies

Trump seemed ‘angry at the truth’ as he read a ‘teleprompter full of lies’

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries joins MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell to respond to Donald Trump’s White House address, calling it “an unhinged speech that was, of course, untethered from reality and truth.” Jeffries also warns of the Republican threat to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Trump HUMILIATED After Lie-Ridden National Address Backfires

Trump SCREAMS AT AMERICA FOR 18 MINUTES

Trump LOSES IT With Major Slip Up During Disastrous Speech To Entire Nation

SCREAMING Trump BOMBS SPEECH on LIVE TV

Trump fixated on Biden in rushed national address

Trump is like the 6 yr/old Spoiled Brat Monster from the Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life”. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth and raised by millionaire parents in a 23 room mansion, he’s used to getting everything he wants and everyone kissing his ass. This continued into politics after he won the 2016 election. If anyone says or does anything he doesn’t like, or if he doesn’t get his way, his past conduct proves he wants them destroyed.

This is what the United States has become due to REPUBLICANS who could have Impeached Trump but failed to do so. REPUBLICANS are destroying our country by enabling Trump and never saying NO to any of his lawless or insane actions.

Trump is facing a massive backlash after his insensitive post saying Rob Reiner was Murdered due to Trump Derangement Syndrome

Jesse talks about Donald Trump’s sickening, belligerent, & intentional cruelty on Truth Social when he posted the following this morning in the wake of the apparent murder of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele: A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.

Trump’s Grotesque & Indecent Attacks on the Late Rob Reiner PROVE Trump is UNFIT FOR OFFICE!

Trump’s Reiner post proves he is ‘a psychopath’

Trump’s Own Fans Repulsed By His Comments On Rob Reiner’s Death

Donald Trump’s own fanbase was left sickened and shocked by his comments on Monday about the death of Rob Reiner and his wife. Trump claimed that Reiner was a sick individual suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and went on to repeatedly attack the actor and director. Trump’s hardcore fans couldn’t stand it, and they didn’t hold back in calling out the man that they love for such a disgusting response.

Two Republicans Denounce Trump Following His Reaction To Rob Reiner’s Horrific Passing

Discussing Rob Reiner’s passing, how Donald Trump reacted (including a couple reactions to him from Republican lawmakers), and what Rob Reiner stood for.

What a Disgusting Human Being.

Impeach this monster now!

GOP Reps PART WAYS with Trump after his comments BACKFIRE!”

Trump’s Post Should Make EVERYONE Furious

“Trump Faces Massive Backlash After His Statement About Rob Reiner’s Death | Bill Clinton”

Trump’s post is another example of how he’s an out-of-touch-with-reality Narcissistic Psychopath who thinks the world revolves around him and how if you don’t support him or criticize him, you deserve horrible things to happen to you.

His claiming “the golden age of America is upon us” shows he’s a Narcissistic Psychopath who thinks America can only be great IF he’s President, when in truth, the U.S. is being destroyed due to his insanity and and isolated from the rest of the world

Dr. John Gartner stated; “If we could construct a psychiatric Frankenstein monster, we could not create a leader more dangerously mentally ill than Donald Trump,” Gartner began. “He is a paranoid, psychopathic, narcissist who is divorced from reality and lashes out impulsively at his imagined enemies.”

Ted Cruz called Trump a “Pathological Liar who doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies” and claims Trump “is a narcissist at a level this country’s never seen”.

Even ex-Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan referred to Trump as an ‘Authoritarian Narcissist’. No normal person would lie with impunity like Trump has (over 30,000 times while President), refuse to admit he lost the election, claim he won after he lost, then instigate a coup and insurrection to overturn the election after he lost.

American psychologist and psychotherapist, Dr. John Gartner once stated; “If we could construct a psychiatric Frankenstein monster, we could not create a leader more dangerously mentally ill than Donald Trump. He is a paranoid, psychopathic, narcissist who is divorced from reality and lashes out impulsively at his imagined enemies”.

Dr. Gartner stated Trump has the most dangerous form of mental illness that you can find in a leader… Malignant Narcissism. He explained that Malignant narcissism is a combination of 4 traits, which includes narcissism, paranoia, antisocial personality disorder (the psychology of a criminal and someone who routinely lies) and sadism. The sadist aspects of Trump’s apparent mental illness means “that he is driven and gets intense pleasure from harming, humiliating, and degrading other people. He is reveling in the chaos and the destruction he is causing. The more he feels threatened, the more he needs to experience the exaltation of feeling drunk with power, through his ability to harm, humiliate and degrade other people.”

Let’s not forget how after losing the 2020 election, Trump sped up executions of 13 Death Row Inmates, right before leaving office. It’s as though he wanted to make them pay and suffer for his loss.

Trump acts like the 6 yr/old Spoiled Brat Monster from the Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life”. Growing up as a SPOILED RICH BRAT, Trump is used to everyone kissing his ass. If anyone says or does anything he doesn’t like, or if he doesn’t get his way, he becomes ENRAGED and wants them destroyed.

This is what the United States has become due to REPUBLICANS who could have Impeached Trump but failed to do so. REPUBLICANS are destroying our country by enabling Trump and never saying NO to any of his lawless or insane actions.

Trump saying he hates Democrats is another example of how Trump is a Narcissistic Psychopath who hates anyone who refuses to kiss his ass

Trump saying he hates Taylor Swift is another example of how Trump is a Narcissistic Psychopath who hates anyone who refuses to kiss his ass

Trump shows he’s a spoiled brat 80 yr/old narcissistic psychopath who hates anyone who criticizes him by re-posting this video showing him hitting Bruce Springsteen with a golf ball

Trump LAUNCHES CRIMINAL PROBE Into Bruce Springsteen & Beyonce for Supporting Kamala Harris

Jesse talks about Donald Trump’s announcement that he’s launching a criminal investigation into at least Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, and Kamala Harris for their support of the Democratic Presidential ticket in 2024.

Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of iconic rock band Pearl Jam, took the time to defend fellow rock star Bruce Springsteen while doubling down on his criticisms of Donald Trump and his administration during a recent concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, highlighting how crucial civil rights protections are being destroyed in front of our eyes wile chided the the President for his childish response to Springsteen’s digs.

Tucker Carlson didn’t hold back on his disdain for Bari Weiss in an interview with Theo Von. Tucker Calls Bari Weiss who has made head of CBS; “Stupid, Non-Creative & an Idiot”

John Oliver discusses the Paramount Skydance merger, how they’ve named Bari Weiss the new Editor-in-Chief of CBS News, and what her editorial history and perspective mean for the future of U.S. journalism.

BARI WEISS IS F*CKED | The Kyle Kulinski Show

Fake Peace Prize is given to Trump further proving he’s like a 80 Yr/old spoiled brat child who needs praise to appease his Narcissism

Title from YouTube: “White House Aides Admit They Treat Trump Like A Child To Protect Him”

Description from YouTube: “According to a report, aides to Donald Trump admit that they have to treat Donald Trump like a child in order to placate him. For example, they’ve admitted to using distraction techniques to appease him when they have no intention of actually doing what the man says. These are the kinds of reports that should spark some sort of action from leaders in Washington to remove Trump from office”

White House Aides Say Trump Acting Like Spoiled, Clueless Child

Baby Trump Throws Temper Tantrum at a meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in the Whitehouse demanding his border wall

Baby Trump Throws Temper Tantrum at Covid 19 Briefing, berating a reporter

Baby Trump Trashes The White House

Giant inflatable chicken resembling Donald Trump outside White House

‘Trump Baby’ balloon takes flight at protest in London

TRUMP TWO MINUTE ATTENTION SPAN

The Washington Post citing inside sources say Trump has the short attention span of a child of 2 to 4 minutes

Trump Gets Folder Full of Positive News About Himself Twice a Day

Three current and former White House officials tell Vice News that Donald Trump receives a 20 to 25-page packet of positive news coverage and flattering tweets about him twice a day.

Speeches Limited to 4 Minutes to Keep Trump’s Attention

NATO tells heads of state who will be addressing President Trump at their upcoming summit to keep their speeches between two to four minutes in order to keep his attention

Donald Trump, the President of ‘Fantasyland’

Kurt Andersen joins Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss his new book “Fantasyland” that argues Donald Trump’s rise can be traced to America’s inability to separate fact and fiction.

Trump Exhibits Traits of Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Experts within the psychological and psychiatric community have expressed concern that Donald Trump is too unstable and impulsive to have access to U.S. nuclear codes.

According to news reports & various sources, White House Staffers & Cabinet Members claimed Trump is “an idiot”, “a f***ing moron”, “dumb as shit”, “dope with the intelligence of a kindergartner”, “like an 11 year old child”, “a professional liar”, “thinks he God”, “he tries to divide us”, “don’t think he’s fit for office”, was unable to stay focused, had a 2 minute attention span and required a ‘Special Folder’ with flattering news and photos about himself twice a day. Former DHS official Miles Taylor stated Trump was “Incandescently stupid”, that he had to “dumb down” classified memos so Trump could understand them and what he saw firsthand terrified him.  National Security Advisor John Bolton stated World Leaders considered Trump to be a “laughing fool”.

A book called “The Toddler in Chief” details more than 1,000 reports by Cabinet members, Oval Office advisers and Republican Party officials describe Trump engaging in childlike behavior and temper tantrums. Reports claim White House aides had to treat Trump like a child in order to placate him.

Trump is like the 6 yr/old Spoiled Brat Monster from the Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life”. Growing up as a Spoiled Rich Brat, Trump is used to everyone kissing his ass. This continued into politics after he won the 2016 election.

If anyone says or does anything he doesn’t like, or if he doesn’t get his way, Trump becomes enraged and wants them destroyed. This is what the United States has become due to REPUBLICANS who could have Impeached Trump but failed to do so. REPUBLICANS are destroying our country by enabling Trump and never saying NO to any of his lawless or insane actions. 

In the above video, Dr. John Gartner stated; “If we could construct a psychiatric Frankenstein monster, we could not create a leader more dangerously mentally ill than Donald Trump. He is a paranoid, psychopathic, narcissist who is divorced from reality and lashes out impulsively at his imagined enemies”.

Former Professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Lance Dodes stated; “He lies in the way anybody who scams people does. He tries to sell an idea or a product by telling you something that is untrue. There is also the kind of lie he has that in a way is more serious — that his grasp of reality, his attention to reality is loose. We can say that because he lies about things that aren’t that important. I think what that indicates is that he can’t stand an aspect of reality that he doesn’t want, so he rejects it. This is an extremely dangerous trait in a president. It actually makes him unqualified.”

Ted Cruz calls Trump a “Pathological Liar who doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies” and claims Trump “is a narcissist at a level this country’s never seen”.

Even ex-Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan referred to Trump as an ‘Authoritarian Narcissist’. No normal person would lie with impunity like Trump has (over 30,000 times while President), refuse to admit he lost the election, claim he won after he lost, then instigate a coup and insurrection to overturn the election after he lost.

Trump saying he hates Taylor Swift is another example of how Trump is a Narcissistic Psychopath who hates anyone who refuses to kiss his ass

Trump shows he’s a 80 yr/old spoiled brat narcissistic psychopath who hates anyone who criticizes him by re-posting this video showing him hitting Bruce Springsteen with a golf ball

This video shows how Trump has managed to evade consequences for his disgusting and despicable conduct his entire life.

Steven Bannon worked overtime to paint Jeffrey Epstein in a good light. Ana Kasparian discusses on The Young Turks

Trump and Republicans prove what lying pieces of shit they are by gaslighting the American people about the Economy, claiming everything is great when it’s clear they’ve totally destroyed our country.

Trump is such a delusional, out-of-touch-with-reality idiot that he thinks he could beat Lincoln & Washington if they were on the same ticket in 2025

Trump, who had a 42% approval rating in early 2020, said he could beat Washington and Lincoln in an election. In 2022 polling of presidential historians, Lincoln was ranked the second-best president in our history, and Washington was ranked the third. Trump is ranked at the very bottom of all presidents.

Trump ranked dead last as worst president ever in U.S. history

Trump has been ranked the worst president in U.S. history in a new poll of historians and scholars. NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss joins Joy Reid to discuss.

Worst President ever Trump has Tanked the Economy, caused loss of GDP, Loss of Tourism, Rising Inflation, Increased Health Insurance costs and increased costs of consumer goods

Voters Unhappy with Trump Economy

MAGA loses as Trump-inflation drags polling to -33% Levels

Recent polling shows 66% of Americans say Trump has fallen short of his campaign promise to tackle inflation and cost of living.

Markets plummet after China retaliates with tariffs

‘Buffoon of a president’: Trump exposes ignorance of U.S. farming in speech to Congress

Michelle Norris, MSNBC senior contributing editor, joins an MSNBC panel to discuss the effects of Donald Trump’s trade war and tariffs on American farmers and the degree to which Donald Trump does not appear to understand the necessity of foreign markets for U.S. agriculture.

Farmers blame tariffs, immigration crackdown for business losses, wasted crops

The Farm Crisis Will Shock You

The Farm debt is expected to reach $560 billion this year—a record high. But it’s not just because of the trade war with China. Farmers told us it’s because a handful of corporations have taken control of their markets to ensure they always win, and farmers barely break even.

Trump tariffs will likely hurt U.S. consumers, negatively impact political relations

Trump can talk about a con job but the public not happy with his handling of economy

According to news reports & various sources, White House Staffers & Cabinet Members claimed Trump is “an Idiot”, “a f***ing moron”, “dumb as shit”, “dope with the intelligence of a kindergartner”, “like an 11 year old child”, “a professional liar”, “thinks he’s God”, “he tries to divide us”, “don’t think he’s fit for office”, was unable to stay focused, had a 2 minute attention span and required a ‘Special Folder’ with flattering news and photos about himself twice a day. Former DHS official Miles Taylor stated Trump was “Incandescently stupid” and had to “dumb down” classified memos so Trump could understand them. National Security Advisor John Bolton stated World Leaders considered Trump to be a “laughing fool”. .

A book called “The Toddler in Chief” details more than 1,000 reports by Cabinet members, Oval Office advisers and Republican Party officials describe Trump engaging in childlike behavior and temper tantrums. Reports claim White House aides had to treat Trump like a child in order to placate him.

Numerous mental health professionals claim Trump is a Malignant Narcissist. Dr. John Gartner stated; “If we could construct a psychiatric Frankenstein monster, we could not create a leader more dangerously mentally ill than Donald Trump. He is a paranoid, psychopathic, narcissist who is divorced from reality.”

During the 2016 GOP primaries, Ted Cruz called Trump a “Pathological Liar who doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies” and claims Trump “is a narcissist at a level this country’s never seen”.

Even ex-Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan referred to Trump as an ‘Authoritarian Narcissist’. No normal person would lie with impunity like Trump has (over 30,000 times while President), refuse to admit he lost the election, claim he won after he lost, then instigate a coup and insurrection to overturn the election after he lost.

With opinions such as these being expressed by former Staff & Mental Health Professionals, it’s clear Trump is UNFIT and Incapable of making ANY rational decisions.

Trump Admits He’s Not In Charge And Other People Are Directing Him

While talking with reporters on Friday, Donald Trump admitted that he’s not actually the guy in charge and that other people were apparently calling the shots. This was revealed when he said that HE wasn’t actually the one who invoked the Alien Enemies Act, which he said was done by other people. This comes as quite a shock seeing as how his signature is on the order – and it comes just days after he wanted an investigation into President Biden for allegedly using an “autopen” and not knowing what he’s signing.

White House Aides Admit They Treat Trump Like A Child

A book called “The Toddler in Chief” details more than 1,000 documented reports by Cabinet members, Oval Office advisers, Republican Party officials and the President himself having childlike behavior and temper tantrums.

Former DHS official claims classified memos had to be ‘dumbed down’ so Trump could understand them

Required a ‘Special Folder’ with flattering news and photos about himself Twice a Day

Staffers claim Trump was unable to stay focused & had a 2 – 4 minute attention span

TRUMP TWO MINUTE ATTENTION SPAN

The Washington Post citing inside sources say Trump has the short attention span of a child of 2 to 4 minutes

White House Aides Say Trump Acting Like Spoiled, Clueless Child

Sportscaster Bob Costas Explains why Trump is the Worst President in History

“Trump is by far the most disgraceful figure in modern presidential history. He’s only become more disgraceful since 2016. he is a bubbling cauldron of loathsome traits and it’s only those who are suffering from Trump derangement syndrome which is the way they and Fox News and all the rest of MAGA media try to brush aside all the legitimate criticisms of trump you have to be in delusion in an a toxic cult to believe that Donald Trump has ever been in any sense emotionally psychologically intellectually or ethically fit to be president of the United States but his supporters are locked in on that.

Chief of Staff John Kelly said: the depth of his dishonesty is astonishing. He is a person who has no idea what America is all about. A person who has nothing but contempt for our Democratic institutions our constitution and the rule of law. God help us all. The Trump delusion is not going away on the right

National Security Advisor John Bolton says World Leaders considered Trump to be a “laughing fool”

Former Republican Strategist Steve Schmidt calls Trump an Imbecile and Worst President in History

Trump Regularly ‘Can’t Remember What He’s Said,’ White House Insider Says

“Behind closed doors his own top officials deride him as an ‘idiot’ and a ‘moron,'” an anonymous senior Trump official says in a new book.

The above article claims “White House Insider Says Trump Regularly ‘Can’t Remember What He’s Said or Been Told”

Miles Taylor served as the Chief of Staff of Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. What he saw firsthand terrified him.

Republican Campaign Manager Steve Schmidt calls Trump an ‘Imbecile’ and ‘The Worst President The Country’s Ever Had

‘God help us’: John Kelly issues scathing statement on Trump

John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, offered his harshest criticism yet of the former president in an exclusive statement to CNN. CNN’s Jake Tapper discusses with former Trump administration national security advisor John Bolton.

Trump Wanted to Launch Missiles into Mexico

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in his new memoir “A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times”, that President Trump suggested to him at least twice during the summer of 2020 that the United States could “shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs,” and that it could be done secretly. Trump even said the operation could be conducted “quietly” and that the U.S. could simply deny it had anything to do with it. “No one would know it was us,” Trump said, according to Esper.

Trump also suggested shooting migrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and shooting Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrating outside of the White House. “Can’t you just shoot them?” Trump asked, according to Esper.

Axios reporter Jonathan Swan describes a December 18 meeting between President Donald Trump, White House officials and conspiracy theorists that ended in a profanity-laced shouting match. Swan, who has covered Donald Trump’s presidency for years, called it one of the most dark and demented meetings of the administration.

Former White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, has told friends that President Donald Trump “is the most flawed person” he’s ever known. “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life,” the retired Marine general has told friends.

Ex-DHS Official: Trump Wanted To Trade Puerto Rico For Greenland

Ex-Trump Official Endorces Biden, Calls Trump Terrifying

Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is heard criticizing her brother in private, saying the president “has no principles.” CNN’s Jake Tapper discusses the audio, first reported by The Washington Post, which was secretly recorded by President Trump’s niece, Mary Trump.

Foreign Diplomats Call Trump A Laughing Stock Who Is Obsessed With Obama

Trump is not a ‘super genius,’ but rather he is an unstable incompetent narcissist who conned his way into the White House with help of foreign interference.

Ex-Pence aide details task force struggles with White House

Former Assistant Secretary for Threat Prevention in Trump’s DHS discusses her experience with the president and why she’s ad .

Had enough of Trump?

This is who Trump is

Nothing Else Like Trump’s ‘Cavernous Stupidity’ In U.S. History

Historian and presidential biographer Douglas Brinkley and Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post react to the wild speculation we have seen from the president amid his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders called President Trump the ‘worst and most dangerous president in the history of our country’ and blasted him as not being a friend of the working class.

4-Star U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey say Trump is a “Serious Threat to our National Security”

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/10/17/americas-economy-is-bigger-and-better-than-ever

The United States went from having an Economy which was the envy of the World under President Biden to tanking under Trump

Robert Reich compares Trump’s presidency to the worst presidents in American history.

Trump loses his bid to indict two perceived opponents, FBI vet Comey and NY AG James. The judge dismissed both cases and found the DOJ’s temp prosecutor does not even legally have the job, a blow with longer term implications

Judge tosses James Comey, Letitia James cases, rules prosecutor was illegally appointed