Former CIA Director John Brennan sparked a fierce backlash from the White House and critics on social media after saying during a cable news appearance that he finds Iran more credible than President Trump on the question of whether negotiations to end the war are underway.

Brennan made the remarks Monday on MSNBC’s MS NOW, after host Symone Sanders noted that Iran has flatly denied it is engaged in talks with the Trump administration — directly contradicting the president’s public claims that negotiations are proceeding. Sanders told Brennan she was “wary of taking the word of Iran … an authoritarian regime that’s known to lie,” and asked what he thought was actually happening.

“Well, I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump,” Brennan replied. He accused the president of “flailing” and said he doubted Trump was negotiating with anyone speaking authoritatively on behalf of the Iranian government.

The White House responded sharply. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly called the comments “shameful,” saying that “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.” White House aide Patrick Adams wrote on X that “Barack Obama’s disgraced CIA Director John Brennan backs the word of Iranian regime terrorists over the United States of America.”

Brennan is no stranger to controversy in Trump-era politics. He was one of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter suggesting that the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop bore hallmarks of a Russian information operation — a claim that was later widely discredited. He is also currently under criminal investigation for his alleged role in what Trump allies have described as a conspiracy to promote claims that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia ahead of the 2016 election.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)