IRAN BREAKING NEWS: Watch Mehdi and Guests LIVE on Illegal US Attacks
Mehdi goes live at 4pm ET / 9PM GMT on YouTube and Substack to discuss Donald Trump’s latest war Americans don’t support.
Donald Trump finally made Israel’s dream come true: war with Iran. The US president unilaterally declared war on the Islamic Republic after launching a joint attack with Israel, causing a needless and illegal conflict that saw retaliatory strikes spread across the region.
Tune in to Zeteo on YouTube or Substack to watch Mehdi’s take with Prem, Swin, and special guests today, at 4pm ET / 9pm GMT / 1pm PST. Joining the discussion will be Iranian-American relations expert Trita Parsi, and Negar Mortazavi, Editor and Host of The Iran Podcast and Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy
This important discussion will be free for all subscribers to join and take part in. Support independent and unfiltered journalism by donating to Zeteo so we can hold more important discussions like this without paywalls.
The Question We Were Afraid to Ask: Was Trump's Middle East Policy Really About America?
Remember 2016? When Hillary Clinton warned about election interference and shadowy networks manipulating American democracy, the media ran with one story: Russia. Russia hacked emails. Russia influenced voters. Russia, Russia, Russia.
Looking back now, that narrative feels uncomfortably incomplete. What if "Russia" was just the politically safe answer — the one both parties could agree on because it didn't force anyone to look too closely at certain allies?
What if the interference they sensed came from somewhere else entirely?
Here's a question that's been hiding in plain sight: Which country benefited most from the last four years of American foreign policy? Which nation saw its regional ambitions accelerated beyond anything previously possible?
The answer isn't Moscow.
Israel wanted to reshape the Middle East on its own terms. For decades, even the most pro-Israel American presidents maintained some boundaries. They pushed back when necessary. They understood that American and Israeli interests, while closely aligned, weren't identical.
That required a president who could think independently. A president with boundaries.
Enter Donald Trump — a man with more personal baggage than most international airports, and just enough narcissism to believe he was running the show while others pulled the strings. The perfect combination: compromised enough to be manageable, vain enough to never notice.
Which brings us to Jeffrey Epstein.
For years, the Epstein scandal has been treated as tabloid fodder — gossip about rich people doing terrible things. But that framing misses the point entirely. Epstein wasn't interesting because of the parties. He was interesting because of the access. The connections. The secrets.
In politics, secrets aren't just embarrassing. They're leverage. And leverage explains everything.
When you follow the Epstein network, you don't find just one party or one country. You find powerful figures across the political spectrum, all connected to a man who collected kompromat like baseball cards. And once that material exists, once powerful people know their secrets aren't their own, the question isn't whether it gets used. It's how.
Suddenly, foreign policy decisions that seemed baffling start making sense. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem. Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. Brokering normalization deals that reshaped the region. Each step perfectly aligned with Israeli strategic interests, often over the objections of American intelligence and diplomatic professionals.
Was this strategy? Or was it pressure?
You don't need conspiracy theories to connect these dots. You just need to follow the beneficiaries. When American policy shifts dramatically toward one country's interests, and that country has historic reasons to want influence over American decision-makers, the reasonable question isn't "did it happen?" It's "how?"
Trump protected Trump. That's what narcissists do. Countries, allies, even American interests — they all come second to personal survival. And when you're compromised, survival means keeping your handlers happy.
This is the question most Americans still don't want to ask: Are we choosing our presidents, or are they being chosen for us? When foreign policy serves foreign interests so consistently, is that democracy — or something else entirely?
Look at the current trajectory toward conflict with Iran. Watch how events unfold. Follow who benefits.
The traces are there if you're willing to see them.
Five Structural Realities This Moment Exposes
1. Crisis Compresses Process
Urgency reframes deliberation as weakness. Rallying behind action replaces constitutional debate.
2. Incentives Trump Duty
Political survival often outweighs legislative responsibility, leaving Congress on the sidelines.
3. Norms Collapse Without Enforcement
Reliance on precedent rather than explicit authorization erodes the intended checks and balances.
4. Institutional Tools Become Symbolic
War powers resolutions and oversight mechanisms exist, but without will, they remain ornamental.
5. Courts Are Structurally Reactive
The judiciary cannot proactively restrain executive military action; it only reacts to cases that make it through the system.
The Human Element
Beyond strategy and precedent, this escalation highlights a deeper problem: the casualness with which human life is discussed in the calculus of war. Decisions that may cost American and Iranian lives are framed operationally rather than morally. The ethical weight of each action — each life at risk — is subordinated to narrative, strategic, or political goals.
This moment is not just about a specific foreign conflict. It is a mirror reflecting how American institutions respond when real pressure arrives.
When power can be exercised without effective constraint, and the institutions empowered to act hesitate, constitutional balance bends toward concentration.
History will judge not only what happened abroad, but how the system at home responded — who spoke, who stayed silent, and how seriously human cost was treated.
Silence in moments like these is never neutral.