WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2026
His statement was disappeared: What does an act of "sifting" look like? To answer your question, let's visit the first segment of yesterday's The Five.
Co-host Dana Perino introduced the day's first topic—and frankly, the co-host was suitably stunned. The program started like this:
PERINO: (3/24/26): Hello, everyone. I'm Dana Perino, here with Kennedy, Jessica Tarlov, Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is The Five!
And a stunning divide here at home over who to believe—Trump or Iran. The president says he's having productive negotiations with the terror regime on a deal to end the war, claiming Iran agreed to no nukes and even revealing that the Iranians sent a gift related to oil and gas.
Who to believe—Trump or Iran? There was a stunning divide!
At this point, producers played tape of the president's public statements about the negotiations and about that "very big present," which he further described as "a very big prize."
That said, who should you believe? Perino's intro continued:
PERINO (continuing directly): Iranian officials are denying that negotiations are even happening, and some Democrats, including Barack Obama's former CIA director, appear to be more inclined to believe Iran over the president.
To her credit, she didn't say Barack Hussein Obama!
"I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump," former director John Brennan was now shown saying, in a tightly edited video clip in which he seemed to be chuckling. There followed other tightly edited video clips in which Senators Van Hollen, Schiff and Schumer were not shown saying that they trust the Iranians more.
What had these solons actually said? As is often the case when Fox presents tightly edited video clips, there was no obvious way to know. But what had been shown was "close enough for Fox News Channel work"—was close enough to justify the shocking summary messaged on this chyron:
DEMS BELIEVE IRAN'S TERROR REGIME OVER TRUMP
With that, the program's viewers had been messaged. There was only one problem:
As we noted yesterday, one major figure from Fox's own Murdoch empire had made a tougher statement than anything Perino had shown on the screen. That major player was Gerard Baker, former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal. He had punched hard, below the belt, in an X post which was featured in this report by Mediaite:
‘We Have Become Baghdad Bob’: Wall Street Journal Editor Delivers Stunning Condemnation of Trump
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.
[...]
Baker expressed more faith in the Iranians’ story than Trump’s.
“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.”
Baker is still an editor-at-large over at the Journal. To see his latest weekly column for the Journal, you can just click here.
Also, he's a Fox News contributor! Did we forget to mention that?
That said, Oof! What Baker posted was much more cutting than anything Brennan or the three Democratic senators were shown to have said. In his post, he said that Trump has managed to turn the United States into the new Baghdad Bob!
At the nation's top-rated "cable news" show, everyone knew how to handle this awkward state of affairs. Baker's assault was disappeared, as Perino smiled reassuringly.
To see Baker's post, you can just click this. But, dear friends, please play by the rules:
In service to tribalized spotless minds, Please don't tell your Red American associates, neighbors and friends!
Obviously -- quite obviously -- Iran is more believable. The immense fuckup of this ill-conceived, poorly-prepared war is hard to underestimate. Trump has quickly surpassed Bush II as the most destructive president in US history.
ReplyDeleteThere's a NY Times article how Trump was suckered into this war by the Saudis, or MBS to be precise, who considered Iran to be a major nuisance. The problem now, of course, is that if the US pull back, Iran will truly assert its dominance over the region. If the war continues, it'll bankrupt the US, just like the cold war bankrupted the Soviet Empire. The US is crumbling before our eyes. Trump is the great catalyst for that.
Trump kills everything he touches. I am still sick over what he did to the Kennedy Center
DeleteIt’s striking how onexside sees an immense fuckup while the other side sees an immense success. Who’s right?
DeleteSuppose Iran had destroyed the entire US Navy, sir force, and 90 per cent of our missiles, while only incurring a few dozen casualties. Would you call that an immense fuckup for IRAN? I don’t think so
5:13: this isn’t a board game , dickface, you fucking fascist imbecile
DeleteSeriously, can Ilya or anyone explain how in the world this can, at this point be considered an "immense fuckup" for the US? How much more should we have accomplished in just 3 weeks?
DeleteI think of something like the battle of Midway as being an immense fuckup for Japan.
Accomplish? Are you out of your mind, David? Accomplish would only apply if there was something to accomplish. Pointless, idiotic war at the behest of foreign powers, with whom Trump has business, is antithetical to accomplishing anything. So far, the only accomplishment is a plethora of war crimes, wanton destruction, and the death of dozens of school children.
DeleteYour irrational fear notwithstanding, there was no compelling reason for this idiotic adventure.
I just paid over $4/gal to fill my car, but orange dumbfuck says he was given a prize yesterday
Delete"Seriously, can Ilya or anyone explain how in the world this can, at this point be considered an "immense fuckup" for the US?"
DeleteSure. Iran has a chokehold on the strait and will squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. It can export and sell its own oil, but it will allow no one else through the strait without payment of a toll. Because of the resulting diminished supply, all oil producers (including Iran) will get a supply shock premium price for their oil. Anyone who buys oil will suffer. (The gas station nearest my house now charges $6.39 for a gallon.)