Former CIA Director John Brennan told MSNBC on Monday that he believes Iran more than he believes the President of the United States. The context: a panel discussion about whether negotiations between Washington and Tehran are actually taking place.

Brennan chose the side of the regime that has chanted "Death to America" for decades.

As reported by Fox News, the remarks came after President Trump revealed Monday that there have been conversations with Iran, describing them as "very good and productive conversations." Iran's parliamentary speaker countered that no negotiations have occurred. Faced with conflicting accounts, Brennan didn't hesitate.

"Well, I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump, because he could not acknowledge the truth even when it is — he's slapped in the face with it repeatedly."

That's a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, an agency whose entire reason for existence is to protect American interests against hostile foreign powers, siding publicly with one of those hostile foreign powers against the sitting president.

The Panel Piles On

Brennan wasn't alone. The MS NOW segment featured host Michael Steele, the former head of the Republican National Committee turned reliable cable news critic, who offered his own assessment of the president's claims.

"I think Donald Trump is doing what Donald Trump always does, and that is talking out of his behind."

Co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend, to her marginal credit, acknowledged that the Iranian regime is known to lie. But whatever analytical thread that observation might have produced was quickly abandoned. Instead, she turned to Brennan for reassurance: "I'm confused! What is going on? Help me, calm me down."

Brennan obliged. He claimed Trump was "flailing" and trying to escape a "debacle" of his own creation. He asserted that Trump's descriptions of deal-making signals from Tehran were fabricated. "I don't think anything close to the truth is in that statement."

He went further, saying he doesn't believe anyone is "speaking authoritatively right now on behalf of the Iranian government with the Trump administration." One day later, CNN reported that an Iranian source acknowledged there had been "outreach" between the U.S. and Iran. So much for Brennan's intelligence analysis.

A Credibility Problem Brennan Can't Outrun

This is the same John Brennan who signed the now-infamous letter suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop story bore the hallmarks of Russian disinformation. That letter, wielded as a political weapon weeks before a presidential election, was wrong. The laptop was real. The disinformation was the letter itself.

Brennan is also currently being investigated by the FBI over wrongdoing allegedly related to the Trump-Russia probe. His security clearance was revoked by Trump in January 2025.

So to tally the ledger: a former CIA director who helped discredit a true story about a political family, who is under FBI investigation for potential wrongdoing in an intelligence probe that targeted a presidential campaign, now sits on cable television and asks the American public to trust the Islamic Republic of Iran over their own government.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly responded to Brennan's comments directly.

"Believing a terrorist regime that has chanted 'Death to America' for decades over the United States of America is shameful and Trump Derangement Syndrome at work."

The Real Story They Keep Missing

Trump announced a pause on strikes against Iran on Monday. Diplomatic channels, by every indication, are active. Even Iran's denials carried the flavor of posturing; Iranian officials characterized the situation as "psychological warfare," which is not the language of a country experiencing zero contact with Washington.

Then CNN's own reporting, just one day after Brennan's confident declaration that no authoritative communication existed, confirmed outreach between the two nations. The timeline alone dismantles Brennan's claim.

But this was never really about Iran. Brennan's willingness to side with Tehran is a symptom of something deeper. A certain class of former officials, the ones who populated green rooms during the Trump-Russia years and lent their titles to partisan narratives, cannot process a world where the people they opposed govern effectively. Every diplomatic move must be a con. Every negotiation must be a fantasy. The alternative, that Trump might actually be managing a volatile situation with strategic intent, is inadmissible in their framework.

Sanders-Townsend acknowledged Iran lies. Brennan acknowledged Iran lies. And yet when forced to choose between two parties they both admitted are capable of dishonesty, every person on that panel chose Iran.

What This Tells Conservative Voters

The Brennan segment is useful precisely because it is so clarifying. It strips away every pretense of nonpartisan intelligence expertise and reveals what remains: a man with an active FBI investigation and a discredited track record asking Americans to place their faith in a theocratic regime over their elected president.

This is the state of the opposition. Not a serious counter-argument about diplomatic strategy. Not a substantive critique of negotiating posture. Just a reflexive willingness to believe anyone, including a government that sponsors terrorism and enriches uranium, as long as the alternative is agreeing with Donald Trump.

The CNN report the very next day didn't just undercut Brennan. It exposed the entire segment as what it was: performance, not analysis. Conviction without evidence, broadcast to an audience already primed to believe it.

Brennan trusted Iran on Monday. Iran's own side confirmed contact on Tuesday. The facts didn't need a full news cycle to prove him wrong.