Former Trump Aide Steve Bannon Says Fox News Is Pushing 'Pure Propaganda' On Iran

WASHINGTON — Right-wing pundit Steve Bannon on Wednesday blasted some conservative media outlets and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for encouraging U.S. participation in Israel’s ongoing war against Iran — accusing Fox News of pushing “pure propaganda” and highlighting a deepening rift among the coalition close to President Donald Trump.

Fox is promoting “the exact propaganda you had in the Iraq War,” Bannon said. referring to America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, which set off years of bloodshed and instability in the Middle East. “The traditional Republican Party” is using Fox and other platforms like National Review magazine to pursue “forever war,” while “that part of the Republican Party can’t win national elections,” he continued, noting that Trump’s rise to political prominence involved a rebuke of President George W. Bush for the Iraq War.

“There’s no difference between the pitch they’re making here and the pitch they made on Iraq,” Bannon said.

The former Trump White House adviser made the remarks at a Wednesday breakfast with reporters organized by the Christian Science Monitor. 

His fierce comments demonstrated how right-wing factions supportive of Trump are openly clashing as the president says he has not yet made a decision about entering American forces into the war. And while he called himself a supporter of Israel, Bannon repeatedly criticized Netanyahu for attempting to influence the conversation in the U.S. and weighing in on the pro-Trump slogan “America First.”

“If [Trump] decides to use combat operations, he will explain it to the American people and not be hectored and lectured by Bibi Netanyahu,” Bannon said. “Having the gall to come on ABC News and lecture the MAGA movement: ‘Do you want America first or America dead?’ That is inappropriate for any foreign leader to tell us, particularly somebody that’s dependent upon the United States.” 

Bannon believes Trump may still avoid involving the U.S. in Israel’s offensive, defying pressure for a strike from some on Trump’s own team and prominent hawkish voices, including many GOP lawmakers.

“The Israelis have to finish what they started … There’s no rush for the United States” to intervene, he said, arguing Trump’s ongoing buildup of American military forces in the Middle East is because “Trump likes optionality” and he may seek “coercive diplomacy” with Iran.

The focus of the diplomacy would be beyond the current fighting, to a long-running dispute over Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. Trump was pursuing a deal with Tehran to limit the program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions — akin to the Obama-era nuclear deal that he abandoned — and appears to believe such an agreement can still be reached.

On Wednesday, the president told reporters that U.S. and Iranian officials might soon meet, even potentially at the White House. Iran’s mission to the United Nations slammed the idea and most analysts believe the country will not negotiate under Israeli bombing, which has killed hundreds of Iranians while Iranian retaliatory attacks have killed at least 24 Israelis. Trump also said he told Netanyahu to “keep going” and suggested the next several days or up to a week would be “very big,” adding: “Nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

Bannon said he agrees Iran should not get a nuclear weapon. But Trump’s negotiation effort was attempting to reach that goal, he said, and questioned why Israel launched its strikes last week, saying he does not see why the U.S. should trust officials who “had the biggest intelligence failure since 9/11 on October 7,” 2023, when Palestinian militants invaded Israel.

While Bannon praised a range of Trump appointees like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, he blasted U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East and whose hawkish chief, Erik Kurilla, is wielding significant influence in Trump’s decision-making.

“The Pentagon has a CENTCOM mentality. Until we break that, we’re not going to have any progress,” Bannon said.

The rifts among Trump supporters have gone viral through moments like right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson challenging pro-war Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a Tuesday interview about his limited knowledge of Iran.

Still, flaws in the understanding of the country and surreal ideas about U.S. influence exist across those factional divides.

Bannon repeatedly mispronounced the name of Iran’s most sensitive nuclear facility, Fordow, as he discussed the prospect of the U.S. helping Israel to attack it. He frequently referred to Iran and Iranians as “Persia” and “Persians” — terms that, while appealing to pop historians, ignore the potent force of modern Iranian nationalism and seem to try to divorce the country from Islam, which has been deeply rooted there for around 1,000 years. And he suggested his own interest in regime change, the bugbear among anti-war conservatives, by saying Trump waged “economic warfare” against Iran through sanctions during his first presidency, which Bannon claimed helped drive Iranian protests in 2022. (Iranian activists have decried attempts by Netanyahu and other outside hawks to co-opt their calls for change in their country.)

“That’s kind of how you want to play it, right?” he said.