Background Briefing with Ian Masters

An Experienced Negotiator With Iran on Vance's Failure to Make a Quick Deal With an Enemy of 47 Years | An Update on Hungary's Election That Has Trump and Putin Campaigning For Orban | Threatening to Bring Down the Trump Regime, Melania's Former Friend Warns Her "I Will Tear Down the Entire System - Be Careful Bitch...I will Take Legal Action Against Your Pedophile Husband" backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

In Desperation, Our Self-Serving and Imbecilic President Has Strengthened a Brutal Regime and Elevated Its Global Position | Will America's Defeat Liberate It From a Broken Imperial Model? | The Pentagon and Trump's War on Pope Leo

Both the Arsonist and the Fire Brigade, Trump Celebrates His Ceasefire Deal as "A Total Victory 100%" While Iran Says They Dealt the Enemy "A Crushing Defeat" | Questions of Trump's Competence, Morality, Credibility and Sanity Arise | The Cynical Tactics Big Money Now Uses to Attack Progressive Democratic Candidates backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Trump's Long and Loony Press Conference and How He Has Not "Decimated" Iran's Anti-Aircraft Capacity | A Founder of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps on What Is Not Being Done to Free Iranians From Their Brutal Theocratic Government backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's War Has Turned the Strait of Hormuz Into an Iranian Tollbooth With China the Winner | "You're Fired" Pam Bondi and Replaced by an Even Worse Todd Blanche | Trump Told the Truth For Once Trashing Childcare, Medicare and Medicaid as "Scams" With the Military the Only Thing We Have to Take Care Of backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

In Three Weeks Trump Will Declare Victory Without Securing a Victory, Leaving Someone Else to Open the Strait of Hormuz | How Do Iranians Feel About Trump Bombing Them "Back to the Stone Age Where They Belong"? | With Trump in the Front Row, the Supreme Court's Right Wing Justices Express Skepticism of Overturning Birthright Citizenship backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Trump Poised to Announce Victory in a Surrender of His War on Iran | The Origins of Trump's war on Iran | How Serious is An Executive Order That Has Trump Deciding Who Gets to Vote By Mail? backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump Will Either Double Down or Cut and Run Leaving Us, Our Allies and the Iranian People So Much Worse Off | Trump's Strategic Failure In Iran | Trump's War is Holding Him Hostage backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

The Strategic and Moral Danger of Having Adolescent Bullies Running an Ill-considered War of Choice | An Assessment of the Damage Being Done to the US and Global Economy | In Stripping Birthright Citizenship, Trump and Miller Want to Create and Exploitable Class on Non-Citizens backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Dementia on Display at Trump's North Korean-Style Cabinet Meeting Raises the Alarm For VP Vance to Invoke the 25th Amendment | The Political Impact of the Largest Demonstration Against a Sitting President in the History of the United States | Could James Talarico Flip Ruby Red Texas and the US Senate? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

No Kings and 11 Attempts by Democrats to Fund TSA Blocked by Trump As He Tries To Force His SAVE Act on Senate Republicans | Will Congress Balk at Hegseth's Extra $200 Billion and Trump's Extra $500 Billion on Top of a $Trillion Defense Budget? | Trump Postpones His Summit With Xi While Cutting Off Persian Gulf Oil China Depends On backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Our Reality TV President Unable to Deal With Reality, Makes Up Stories About Negotiating With Iran | Trump and Putin Work Together to Reelect Hungary's Kleptocratic Despot Orban | As Trump-Friendly Billionaires Buy Up the Media, the Former CEO of Viacom Now Owned by the Ellisons backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Life in Bomb Shelters Under Bombardment in a War 90% of Israelis Support | An Update on the Story Trump Has Waged a War to Distract Us From backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

TACO Trump Now Claims Peace is at Hand But Iran Says No Such Talks Are Taking Place | Crying Foul Over Cluster Bombs as Civilians Are Targeted | Oil Companies and Refiners Are Making Out Like Bandits With California Refiners Gouging a $1.50 Profit Per Gallon at the Pump backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Contradictory Signals From Trump to Wind Down the War While Sending in More Marines | The Winner of the Iran War Putin Prepares For a Spring Offensive in Ukraine While His Bootlicking Friend Trump Rewards Him With Extra Revenue | Celebrating the Iranian New Year Under Bombardment From Abroad and Repression at Home backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

The Global Impact of the Trump/Netanyahu War on Iran as Energy Prices Shoot Through the Roof | A Former DIA Intelligence Officer on the Folly of Sending Marines Into the Gulf | Trump is Being Played at We Deplete Expensive Weapons on Cheap Iranian Drones backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Organizer of an International Humanitarian Flotilla Delivering Aid to the Desperate and Starving People of Cuba | Possible Scenarios to End the US/Israeli War on Iran and a More Likely Escalation of Attacks on Oil and Gas Terminals and Storage Facilities backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Today's Blowback and the Historical Record of US Meddling in Iran | The Intensifying War Between Afghanistan's Taliba And Their Former Sponsor Pakistan | Trump's Claim He will Have "The Honor of Taking Cuba" Which is Likely to Fall in a Matter of Weeks backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Although the US Navy Won't Go Into the Gulf, Trump is Demanding Other Navies Escort Tankers Through the Strait of Hormuz | Iran's Strategic Plans For a Long War With Layers of Redundancy in the Ranks of Leadership | The Crackup on the Right Against Trump's War on Iran backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Trump's War of Choice Rattles Allies While Rewarding Russia | Our Commander-in-Chief is a Senile Old Man Who is Losing His Mind | Trump's Cynical SAVE America Act Will Not Save Republicans in November backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

After Declaring Victory Over Iran, Trump Vows That Cuba Is Next | What Can Be Done To Reign In If Not Abolish DHS | AI's Sweeping and Growing Impact on Every Aspect of Society backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Trump, Epstein and Putin | The Silicon Valley Billionaire Bros Are Determined to Have the Tech-Industrial Complex Replace the Military-Industrial Complex | The Iran War and the Return of the Neocons backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Trump Reverses Himself on Ending the Iran War After A Call With Putin | Iran's New Supreme Leader Will Likely Reverse His Father's Fatwa Against Nuclear Weapons | A Military Analysis of the Iran War and the Russia/Ukraine War backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

A War Iran Only Has to Stay in While We Can Only Win At a Price We Are Unlikely to Want to Pay | An Analysis of a Brutal Regime From Which the Iranian People Desperately Want to be Freed But Have No Power to Do So | A Lawless World Trump is Dragging Us Into Based on Force and His Whims backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

How Relying on Regime Decapitation Could Backfire | As Evidence Mounts That the War on Iran Is a Disaster, We Will Look For Some Kind of "Success" | Our Gen Z Reporter on the Texas Senate Race as Republicans Panic Over the Talented Young Talarico backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

The U.S. Continues to Resort to Force at Growing Cost in a Region of Diminishing Importance | How Do Iranians Feel About Being Bombed to Become Free as Their Government Increasingly Oppresses Them | A Highly Decorated Former CIA Officer Who Operated Against Iran in Iraq and Lebanon Explains What a Disaster Trump Has Blundered Into backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Could Kristi Noem be the First in the Trump Kakistocracy's Clown Car Cabinet to be Impeached? | A Report From Iraqi Kurdistan On the CIA Arming Kurdish Iranian Militias | The Anointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran's New Supreme Leader backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

March 3, 2026 - Sidney Blumenthal | Sina Toossi | Bruce Schneier by Ian Masters

March 2, 2026 - Thanassis Cambanis | Daryl Kimball | Robert Pape by Ian Masters

Trump's Reality TV War and the Prospect He Will Sell Out The Iranian People Just as He Sold Out the Venezuelan People For Oil | The DoJ Leaks the FBI Reports Bondi Held Back to The Guardian and Breitbart to Discredit Trump's Then 13 Year Old Rape Accuser | Following the Putin-Orban Playbook, Right Wing Trump-Friendly Billionaires Are Buying Up the Mainstream Media backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

With the President of the United States Accused of Raping a 13 Year-Old Girl, the Brazen and Shameless Hypocrisy of Mike Johnson's Christian Nationalists and the MAGA Movement | Sasha Linden Cohen With Heather Ann Thompson on a Crucial Turning Point When Rupert Murdoch Stoked White Rage in the Reagan 80's backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Had All the Democrats Boycotted the State of the Union, Trump Would Have Been Left Insulting Empty Chairs | The Performative Nature of US/Russian Negotiations as Putin Strings Trump Along | The Top 10 Companies Profiting From ICE's Cruelty Host: Ian Masters Producers: Graham FitzGibbon, Asher Price & Sasha Linden Cohen

February 24, 2026 - Tamar Jacoby | Eric Blanc by Ian Masters

February 23, 2026 - Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera | Robert Creamer | Josh Gerstein by Ian Masters

Trump's Tariff Meltdown and What the Supreme Court Ruling Does and Doesn't Do | In a Plea Deal Could Former Prince Andrew Implicate Others Including Trump? | "The Age of Kleptocracy: Geopolitical Power, Private Gain" backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Justice With the Arrest of the Former Prince Andrew in the UK But In Contrast, a Coverup by the Consiglieres at DoJ Protecting the Mob Boss in the Oval Office | Will the Environmental Movement Become More Radical as Trump Kills Off Efforts to Curb Global Warming? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

The Breathtaking and Brazen Corruption of Trump and His Family As They Shamelessly Monetize the Presidency | Thanks to Trump, Trust In Elections is Cratering As Trump Claims They're Rigged, Unless He Happens to Win | Why the US Media is in Crisis and How to Rescue It backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

A Close Friend Who Worked With Jesse Jackson for 40 Years On Jesse's Fight to Give Peace a Chance | The Bloodbath at The Washington Post and Censorship at CBS | The Trump/Republican Crackup Has Begun backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Contrast between AOC and Rubio's Reception in Munich and the Possibility They Will be Running Against Each Other For President | How Trump's Top-Down Fascism Could Meld With Bottom Up Authoritarianism From America's Police Forces and Police Unions | An AI Video Has Hollywood Alarmed They Could Be Replaced By AI as Wall Street Pours Billions Into AI and Tech Bros Buy Up the Media backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump and Rubio Turn the Screws of Collective Punishment on the Cuban People | Rubio Makes Nice in Munich Without One Word About Ukraine | Trump Issues a Death Sentence on Our Children, Grandchildren and the Planet With His Payoff to the Fossil Fuel Industry backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Today's Senate Hearing Grills a White Supremacist, Racist, Homophobic Antisemite Trump Nominated to Interact With the UN and international Organizations | Will Trump's Yearning For a Nobel Prize Overwhelm Netanyahu's Opposition to Making a Nuclear Deal With Iran? | With a Lawless DoJ Acting as Trump's Crooked Law Firm, How Do We Protect and Preserve the Rule of Law? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Trump Has Finally Found His Roy Cohn in the Disgraceful and Corrupt AG Pam Bondi | The Trump and Republican Plan to Prevent a Blowout Electoral Loss in November: The SAVE Act | How to Fight the Oligarchy and Reclaim America With Positive Populism backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing

Trump's Demented Rant Warning Canada that China Will Terminate ALL Ice Hockey and Eliminate the Stanley Cup Suggests We are Nearing the 25th Amendment | The Heads of ICE and CBP in the Hot Seat Today Before the House Homeland Security Committee | Why Are So-Called MAGA Intellectuals With All The Power and Billionaire Money, So Angry? backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

America's Cultural/Political Divide on Display at the Super Bowl's Halftime With a Wildly Popular and Joyous Bad Bunny Versus a Washed Up Right Wing MAGA Relic Kid Rock | The History of the Border Patrol's Murderous Impunity | "The Predatory Hegemon: How Trump Wields American Power." backgroundbriefing.org/donate x.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The DNI Gabbard Covered up an NSA Intercept of Someone Close to Trump Colluding With Foreign Intelligence | How Trump’s Break With the Liberal International Order Was Shaped by Decades of US Policy in the Middle East backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia linktr.ee/backgroundbriefing