LEFT: Donald Trump (Screenshot) RIGHT: Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (AP Photo/APTN)
Fox News contributor and former Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker made a stunning comparison between President Donald Trump and an infamous propagandist for the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Monday.
Baker, a familiar face on both Fox News and Fox Business as well as the editor-at-large of the Journal, made the comparison after Trump and the Iranian government made contrasting statements about negotiations that may or may not be taking place between the two parties.
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“I AM PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” declared Trump in a Monday morning Truth Social post. “BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Iranian state-controlled media, however, disputed the president’s claims.
Shortly after the president fired off his post, Fars News Agency reported “there has been no direct or indirect contact” between the two warring governments. It also asserted that Trump had “backed down” after the Iranians threatened to target “all power plants in West Asia.”
The Iranian foreign ministry, meanwhile, offered up the following statement:
The US President’s statements are within the framework of efforts to reduce energy prices and gain time to implement his military plans.
There are initiatives by regional countries to de-escalate tensions, and our response to all of them is clear: We are not the party that started this war, and all these requests should be referred to Washington.
Baker expressed more faith in the Iranians’ story than Trump’s.
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“The unsettling reality is that with this president, Americans in wartime are in the unprecedented position of having to suspect that the enemy’s version of events is more likely to be true than our own,” he wrote shortly after the Iranians issued their denial. “We have become Baghdad Bob.”
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf served as Hussein’s minister of information from 2001 through the collapse of his regime in April 2003. He was the subject of much mockery over his insistence that the Iraqi government was repelling America’s invasion even as Baghdad and his government fell, earning the nickname “Baghdad Bob” along the way.
The post ‘We Have Become Baghdad Bob’: Wall Street Journal Editor Delivers Stunning Condemnation of Trump first appeared on Mediaite.