Ex-CIA Director Flat-Out Says: ‘I Tend to Believe Iran More Than I Do Donald Trump’

Ex-CIA director John Brennan flat-out admitted that he would “tend to believe Iran more than” President Donald Trump when it came to the president’s Monday morning claims that talks between Washington and Tehran were underway.

Trump had taken to Truth Social to announce that he had paused plans to strike Iran’s power infrastructure in a decision he said followed the opening of “PRODUCTIVE” communication channels with a senior Iranian official. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied the claims talks had taken place at all.

Later, speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Trump doubled down and argued the regime was lying or in miscommunication internally as he insisted that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had spoken with “a top person” and discussions had taken place as recently as Sunday night.

On Monday night, MS NOW’s The Weeknight host Symone Sanders-Townsend appealed to Brennan, a guest on the show, to help her make sense of the day’s confusion, saying that she was “wary” of “taking the word” of Iran’s “authoritarian regime” over the president.

It was at that point Brennan, who served in intelligence roles under multiple administrations, made the stunning admission: “Well, I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump.”

“That’s crazy,” the host replied.

He continued: “Because [Trump] could not acknowledge the truth even when he is slapped in the face with it repeatedly. And it’s clear that, you know, he is flailing right now. He’s trying to figure out how he’s going to get out of this debacle that he has created. And so he’s going to make these claims about negotiations that the Iranians now are sending signals that they really want to make a deal and indicates that it’s going to make a deal on our terms. I don’t think anything close to the truth in that statement.”

“They may be talking to people indirectly, and we know that the Turks and the Egyptians are trying to find some way to mediate this problem,” he caveated. “So there could be some members, you know, distant members of parliament that are out there that are speaking individually.”

“But I don’t believe there’s anybody speaking authoritatively right now on behalf of the Iranian government with the Trump administration,” he said.

Watch above via MS NOW.

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