A top Wall Street Journal editor is delivering a striking rebuke of the Trump administration’s handling of information surrounding the war with Iran.
Baker, the Journal’s editor at large and former editor-in-chief, compared Trump’s messaging to that of Saddam Hussein’s propagandist-in-chief, Baghdad Bob.
“The unsettling reality is that with this president, Americans in wartime are in the unprecedented position of having to suspect that the enemy’s version of events is more likely to be true than our own,” Baker wrote on X. “We have become Baghdad Bob.”
The comment stems from the dueling American and Iranian accounts of negotiations between the two countries.
Trump, in a post to Truth Social, said the U.S. and Iran have had “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.”
But Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency reported that there had been no talks between the governments.
Additionally, the Iranian foreign ministry said the president’s words were “within the framework of efforts to reduce energy prices and gain time to implement his military plans.”
As a longtime contributor to Fox News and Fox Business, Baker’s comparison of the U.S. to Baghdad Bob was especially searing.
Baghdad Bob, whose real name is Muhammad Saeed Al-Sahhaf, served as Saddam Hussein’s minister of information during the Iraq War. He became a source of worldwide ridicule for his bogus claims and brazen lies about his government and the war in general.
This is not the first time since the war began that Baker has leveled criticism at the Trump administration’s communication apparatus. After the White House posted a video on social media that alternates between clips of NFL hits and air strikes in Iran, set to the tune of Thunderstruck, Baker offered a blistering response.
“I think historians will look at things like this, contrast it with the kind of wartime messaging from past presidents and find in it evidence of how fundamentally unserious we have become as a culture,” he said.
Baker has not always been an outspoken critic of Trump. As Politico reported in 2018, Baker stepped down as editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal after battling staff who said he was too reluctant to criticize the president.
But his barbs, especially as they relate to the objectives of the war with Iran, have gotten sharper.
On Monday, a new column from Baker appeared in the Wall Street Journal, warning of the consequences of a conflict where each side has vastly different objectives and tolerance to pain.
“For our weaker enemies, not losing is winning,” Baker wrote. “For us: How much longer can we go on merely not losing?”
