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Recorded July 2025: Is Donald Trump the political con man of the century? Journalist Abby Martin unleashes a blistering critique, arguing that Trump’s so-called “peace agenda” was nothing more than a calculated illusion. While his speeches promised calm, his policies, approvals, and escalations told a very different story — one that fueled conflict rather than ending it.
In this breakdown, we explore how Trump sold the image of a dealmaker while quietly feeding the very fires he claimed he could put out. From broken promises to manufactured narratives, this video dives into the gap between Trump’s rhetoric and reality.
Was Trump’s presidency a masterclass in deception? Or is the “con man” label unfair? Watch the full analysis and decide for yourself.
#trump #abbymartin #apt
In this breakdown, we explore how Trump sold the image of a dealmaker while quietly feeding the very fires he claimed he could put out. From broken promises to manufactured narratives, this video dives into the gap between Trump’s rhetoric and reality.
Was Trump’s presidency a masterclass in deception? Or is the “con man” label unfair? Watch the full analysis and decide for yourself.
#trump #abbymartin #apt
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NewsTranscript
00:00So Trump at the end of the day does not care about having allegiance to the promises to his base.
00:05He's a con man at the end of the day and he will do whatever is best for his businesses.
00:11If we don't rise up and stop Israel from committing this horrific genocide in plain day, what is next?
00:19You cannot keep people deprived of basic human rights and liberty.
00:22You can't keep people caged like animals. You can't starve babies.
00:27So growing up as an American, Israel was always kind of an extension of my country.
00:33It was always seen as, you know, essentially the 51st state.
00:37They kind of used Trump as a Trojan horse to try to reinvigorate the neocon plan,
00:42the longstanding dream of regime change in Iran.
00:45My name is Charula Tabiswas and today I'm being joined by Abby Martin,
00:50who is an independent journalist, filmmaker and creator of The Empire Files.
00:55Her film Gaza Fights for Freedom offers a raw, deeply reported account of the siege of Gaza,
01:01something rarely seen in US media.
01:04Today, as the dust settles or the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, we ask,
01:08is peace even possible when the world's biggest superpower,
01:12the United States of America, keeps arming both sides?
01:17And what's really going on behind the rhetoric of peace, security and freedom?
01:23So, Abby, thank you so much for being here. I know you have been covering a lot
01:28and you are in between your news reports and interviews.
01:31So I deeply appreciate you making time for us.
01:35All right. So let me begin with my first question.
01:39Israel attacked Iran's nuclear sites on June 13th.
01:42And now, after two weeks, there's a ceasefire in place between Israel and Iran.
01:47And this came after the US intervened.
01:49But right now, it feels like a pause.
01:53What's your sense? Will this ceasefire hold or are we on a short fuse?
01:57We're living in tumultuous times and the Middle East is a tinderbox right now
02:03at the doing of a genocidal rogue state that has nuclear weapons.
02:07It's a proxy of the US empire. Again, a nuclear armed rogue state that is, you know, of course,
02:14facilitating and subsidizing this horrific genocidal onslaught.
02:17I think this is a pause, a cessation of, of course, relenting, unrelenting massacres
02:24for the last year and a half.
02:26So I think that what we're going to see, you know, Israel already has been assassinating
02:32top nuclear scientists within Iran for years with complete impunity.
02:37They have, you know, they're bombing these people alongside their entire families.
02:41I can't even fathom the outrage if this were Israeli scientists
02:45that were being assassinated alongside their entire families.
02:47So I do think that this is a pause and I do not think it's the end.
02:51I think that there's a lot of arrogance and belligerence when it comes to Israel and the US,
02:56and they're not going to stop.
02:58They don't know how to stop and they are completely shrouded with impunity
03:01and no one is stopping them.
03:03Abi, do you sense that this was all an attempt to change the regime in Iran?
03:08What's your assessment?
03:09Well, I think that, I think that Trump and a lot of the neocons, I mean, Trump's an empty vessel
03:15for his Wall Street backers, Miriam Eldison, you know, all the people who are really
03:19paid for his presidency. He's an empty vessel. He doesn't really have an ideological root,
03:24but I do think he is beholden, obviously, to his donors and backers, and he is close friends
03:30with Netanyahu. We know that neocons have served a very important role. They kind of used Trump as
03:35a Trojan horse to try to reinvigorate the neocon plan, the longstanding dream of regime change in
03:42Iran. So Israel seized the political capital of October 7th to go full genocidal and try to expand
03:48their greater Israel project. The U.S. seized that political capital to then engage in their greater
03:55project, which is obviously complete hegemony in the Middle East and subservience from any, you know,
04:02state that is not completely allied with U.S. imperialism. So the U.S. kind of catapulted this.
04:08I think that they just went along with it. We know from the former NATO commander, General Wesley Clark,
04:14that this is a longstanding plan back from the Bush administration, seven countries in five years.
04:19Clearly, they weren't able to do that. But we fast forward 20 years and we see the plans are still
04:24clearly laid out. Trump dismantling the nuclear deal when he came into office the first time. Clearly,
04:29they didn't want diplomacy or negotiations. They want complete and total annihilation of any state
04:36that is not totally dominated by the U.S. policy.
04:39Absolutely. I understand. And contradictory to what he promised, Trump's big pitch was to end
04:45forever wars. And now he wants the Nobel Peace Prize so desperately. Right. So wouldn't supporting
04:52another war get in the way of that image? Well, Trump is a con man above all, and he speaks out of
04:58all sides of his mouth. And so even in the ramp up to his first presidency, he was able to kind of go to
05:04the left of Hillary Clinton when it came to her neocon foreign policy. He was saying no more wars.
05:10She's the neocon belligerent warmonger. And you saw him kind of catalyze and try to crystallize those
05:16talking points in the second round, even though he expanded drone strikes, increased them 400 percent,
05:20tried to, you know, he assassinated Soleimani. It was a miracle that we didn't go to war with Iran
05:25the first time he tried to do a coup in Venezuela. All of these things were horrific and laid bare that
05:30Trump was expanding the empire, went against all of his promises of, you know, an isolationist,
05:35America first, non-interventionist. So I wasn't fooled. But I think it's amazing how quickly the mask
05:42fell. I think that, you know, above all, he doesn't have to do anything to MAGA. I mean,
05:48his base elected him, and now he can just totally abandon all promises that he had to this kind of
05:54cult-like fan base because he just doesn't care. He's a con man at the end of the day,
05:58and he will do whatever is best for his businesses. You've had considerable experience
06:04in reporting on Gaza. What do you feel is a solution or at least a starting point?
06:09I think it's very, I think it's very clear after over 75 years of horrific oppression,
06:16apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and, you know, and of course, decades of horrific military occupation,
06:21brutal medieval siege on the people of Gaza in the West Bank. I think it is very clear
06:28that the only solution is one democratic state with equal rights for all and immediate lifting
06:34of this horrific barbaric practice of keeping people subservient into second-class citizens.
06:42I mean, it's absolutely insane. It's a tinderbox. You cannot keep people deprived of basic human
06:48rights and liberty. You can't keep people caged like animals. You can't starve babies. This is a
06:55genocidal policy. They want to kill infants. They are preventing baby formula from getting in there.
07:02Baby formula is the only thing that babies can drink. That is genocidal. That is genocidal. We
07:08need to stop. I mean, it is absolutely barbaric that we're in the year 2025. We are watching this
07:13in 4K on our phones. The audacity, the belligerence, the arrogance of countries to think that this is
07:21acceptable. This is the new precedent that we're setting for the globe. If we don't rise up and stop
07:26Israel from committing this horrific genocide in plain day, what is next? What message is that telling
07:34the other countries of the world that they can do lawlessly? Does law mean nothing? Does human rights
07:41mean nothing? This is a moment that is a testament to the human race. If we do not band together and do
07:49everything that we can, like Jeremy Scahill said, what will be next will be even worse.
07:56And I don't want to live in a world like that. And I don't think any of us do. And so we have to
08:01motivate each other to stop this atrocity because it's the worst thing I've ever seen. And every day
08:06people die needlessly. And every victim of this genocide is a whole world lost. And I don't want
08:14that on my shoulders. I don't want the blood on my hands anymore as an American citizen. It's my
08:21government subsidizing this. And I cannot sit idly by and watch this for one more day without shouting
08:28from the rooftops. Stop it. Stop. The only solution is a complete and total end to this
08:34horrific policy, sanctions on Israel, accountability for all of the war criminals, mass re-education of
08:42the horrific genocidal mentality and mania that has taken over Israeli society, and a full democratization
08:49of the state, integration of the Palestinians as equal players. That, and only that, is when we can
08:57see true peace come to Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East at large. Because we know that this is
09:04the crux of so much tension and strife in the region. Abhi, the photos you posted recently of your
09:11friend's family who were killed in the middle of saving the wounded, that was quite heart-wrenching to see.
09:18How do you see the solution on Gaza being arrived at?
09:22Yes, my friend's family, Ahmad Salam, he was one kind, gentle soul who spent the last year and a half
09:29giving food and clean water and trying to help the children around him. Every soul lost is a person's
09:36world. And so to see my friends who I worked with on Gaza Fights for Freedom just day in and day out,
09:42losing brother after brother after cousin after neighbor after child over and over again.
09:51It's horrific. It's unrelenting. The loss is so immense. How do you wrap your mind around this? How
09:57do you wrap your mind around the fact that every single day, Israeli forces are committing massacres
10:03akin to the worst atrocities that I learned about in history books? From the crime of the century,
10:09the Iraq war. I mean, everything that happens every day. Just look at the last two weeks.
10:13Tanks shelling into crowds of civilians, starving people coming to just get morsels of food and tanks
10:21are shelling them, murdering dozens of people at once. I just cannot fathom. I cannot fathom the fact
10:30that we have let it get this far and that this kind of death and atrocities are normalized every single
10:36day. I can't fathom the fact that starvation is a necessary weapon of war to the so-called civilized
10:42world. This is barbaric and savage. And I can't stand behind it. And I am shocked and disgusted at
10:51the rest of the world, the leaders that are just sitting there with just only rhetoric and no actions.
10:56Israel should be completely isolated for its horrific acts against humanity. And instead,
11:01they're coddled and protected. You know, there is a popular saying that no matter whoever becomes the
11:07US president, whether it is Democrat or Republican, the full-fledged support for Israel is always there.
11:13So why do you think it's there? And why is the US always there to protect Israeli interests?
11:20Well, the US, you know, growing up in the US, Israel was always seen as an extension of the United States.
11:26Zionism was not really seen as a separate ideology. It was simply an extension of American exceptionalism.
11:32So growing up as an American, Israel was always kind of an extension of my country. It was always seen
11:38as, you know, essentially the 51st state. I mean, the only democracy in the Middle East, we had to
11:43protect it, right? It was part of us. And so, you know, not even knowing what Palestine was, not even
11:50knowing what Gaza was, the complete indoctrination of not just the distortion and mistruths about
11:57Palestine, Israel, but just the entire apparatus of global affairs, foreign policy. I mean,
12:02all we are is lied to. The entire media acts as an arm of the state, and it activates as a
12:08propaganda apparatus whenever this consent is needed to be manufactured. So when you see a Pew poll from
12:14last year saying more Americans didn't, you know, half Americans don't know if more Israelis died than
12:18Palestinians. That shows you that there's vast, deep-seated ignorance in even what is going on
12:24and the consequences of these policies around the world and how they're even linked to our government.
12:29But every U.S. president, I mean, every presidential administration has staunch allegiance
12:36to Israel because that's just the name of the game. That's the way the institutions are set up. You
12:41don't get into these positions of power unless you're a Zionist, unless you're a true believer
12:45in imperialism. So it's adjacent to U.S. exceptionalism to U.S. imperialism.
12:51And of course, the lobby, to the extent that America has subsidized and emboldened the lobby,
12:56it's kind of become a runaway train where now you see lobby representatives undermining actual
13:01constitutional rights of American citizens, lobbying to state legislatures to pass anti-BDS
13:06laws and things like that and undermine our free speech. So it is confusing to people to think,
13:10how did this lobby get such undue influence? But it all does come back to the fact that it is empowered
13:17by the largest, most violent military apparatus the world has ever seen. And when Israel is a proxy to
13:24that, a rogue nuclear-armed state, an empire that's holding the world hostage with nuclear weapons, no one
13:31can bat an eye to that. No one can stand up to that because everyone's terrified of the implications of
13:37standing up to what Iran calls the great Satan. Abi, you have called the U.S. a glorified
13:43arm dealer. And this year's defense budget really seems to prove your point. It is the highest in
13:49American history. Both Trump and Biden talked about cutting spendings. So who's really benefiting from it?
13:57Well, the president is really the arms dealer in chief. That is what the job is. I mean, you look at all
14:04arms sales around the world. The United States empire provides nearly 50% of all weapons. It is
14:09the largest force of instability and violence in the world today. And that is without a doubt.
14:15We have the five premier defense contractor companies here in the U.S., Boeing, Lockheed Martin,
14:21Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics. And all of those companies are pariahs. I mean,
14:27no one should be working for these engines of death and destruction. The lobbyists for the defense
14:33contractors sometimes outweigh even the congressional representatives. I mean, it's absolutely cartoonish
14:39when you see the actual way that the institution is built to just benefit defense contractors.
14:46War is a business and business has never been better. And it doesn't matter what the outcome of
14:50the wars are as long as the money keeps flowing and the weapons keep flowing. These contractors
14:56will make out with billions of dollars. It doesn't matter the millions of people that are thrown in
15:03the meat grinder in Ukraine. No, they are making record earth shattering profits year after year.
15:10And Gaza, I mean, you see the internal phone calls and stuff with these board of directors. They're
15:15probably just salivating over the profits that are skyrocketing through this genocide. So it is
15:21absolutely insane. It is all to benefit U.S. capital. And then you have the U.S. military basically as the
15:28muscle to protect the business. So it's enforced around the world to just protect global capital.
15:34And the defense contractors make the laws and they enforce all of the policies. And you have this
15:41revolving door with the military industrial complex going right back into the defense industry and
15:47then right back in the military industrial complex. And it's just unbelievable how transparent it is.
15:54So Abi, while we talk about war abroad, there's another war brewing at home. And I'm talking about
15:58the immigration crackdown. Trump's deportation campaign is back and billions are being funneled into
16:04that so-called big, beautiful wall. What do you expect to see on the ground in the coming months?
16:12You know, Trump announced that he wanted a trillion dollar defense budget.
16:18This is astronomical. If you actually look at the true cost of our defense spending,
16:22quote unquote, defense spending is really war. It's $1.5 trillion already when you count in
16:28veterans benefits. So this is how much the United States is already spending in totality year after
16:33year on war and just making war a business. And like Martin Luther King Jr. said,
16:40when a nation is spending that much on an engine of war at home, there's spiritual death.
16:47So you see this hollowed out of all the social programs, 60% of Americans have no money even for
16:52savings or for an emergency. People are at the edge. And so what you're seeing is
16:58with this horrific draconian overreach, this fascist, you know, Gestapo in the streets,
17:04ripping people out of their homes, kidnapping people, ripping mothers away from their screaming
17:09children in the streets. Even people who maybe thought that they wanted to deport illegals or
17:14whatever the mantra is that Trump ran on, but obviously the Democrats agree to a certain extent.
17:20I think when you see this night nightmarish dystopian reality playing out, people are shocked
17:25and horrified. They don't want to live in a country where it doesn't matter if your crime is stepping
17:30over an invisible line because maybe your country was bombed or sanctioned by the US and you have no
17:35economic viability. What's the bigger crime? Ripping a mother away from her child and throwing her in
17:41a detention facility or deporting her from the country away from her children? That's a horrific
17:48crime against humanity. So I think that people really need to take a step back and look in the
17:54mirror. What kind of person do you want to be? What are you supporting? What kind of policies are you
17:59supporting? So I do see this as a burgeoning mass consciousness. All these people are linking these
18:03struggles together and Trump's policies are having an enormous backlash because people at the end of
18:09the day do not want to live in a country where fascism has taken over. People want to live in a
18:14country where their fellow human beings are treated with dignity and respect and that is not what we're
18:20seeing now and I think we're going to see a mass uprising against Trumpism and we're already seeing
18:25that. And do you see a glimmer of hope when we see someone like Mamdani who won the nomination in
18:31New York? Do you think that that sort of is like a reflection of what you're seeing?
18:37I think the Mamdani win in New York is a huge moment. It's the most Jewish country, sorry,
18:45New York City is the most Jewish city in our country. And they just elected for the the primary
18:52candidate a man who basically is saying exactly what I'm saying. That no, an apartheid military
18:58occupation state that has Jewish supremacy. No, this shouldn't exist. A state with equal rights
19:04for all. I mean, the fact that a mayoral race is exposing just this absurd obsession with Israel.
19:10Why should the mayor mayor of New York even be commenting on a foreign country? So I think it's
19:15exposed a lot to not only New Yorkers, but I think Americans in general who are thinking, wait a minute,
19:21what's going on. But I think above all, it's dealt a huge blow to Israel in general and all of its
19:28supporters because it is finally saying your propaganda does not work. AIPAC does not scare us
19:35because at the end of the day, people are not hoodwinked by this absurd, baseless propaganda
19:41anymore. This upside down reality, this gaslighting that you're telling us. No, people see the truth
19:45with their own eyes. You can no longer tell us that it's anti-Semitic to care about Palestinian
19:51lives. So this is the fatal blow to the propaganda machine. Hasbro is no longer working. Even the most
19:58Jewish state in the country, we see polling among young Jews. They no longer sympathize or even identify
20:05with Israel. The conflation with a peaceful religion with a genocidal death cult is no longer
20:11applicable. And so we're seeing a complete title change in the sentiment and the consciousness.
20:18And now Israel and its defenders are going to be on the defense for the rest of time until they
20:23advocate for the fall of apartheid. Have you ever been censored or shadow banned or blocked from
20:29speaking at universities? Or do you think there is any room left in US media for pro-Palestine or anti-war
20:36space right now? I think that we've seen with the Silicon Valley oligarchs who are curating our
20:43reality, working in concert with the political establishment, unabashed, Zionist, unapologetically
20:50imperialist, capitalist. I think it is up to us to elevate Palestinian journalists, those who are left,
20:57Palestinian voices. We need to continue to uplift those voices and try to showcase what they are
21:05telling us and what they've been trying to tell us for the last 75 years. Because thanks to social
21:10media so far, we have learned the truth. We have gotten the truth dictated to us from the bottom
21:16up, from the grassroots, from the voices that were attempted to be marginalized and erased.
21:21And so I do see hope, I see eternal optimism with the fact that we can get a pipeline directly from
21:27Palestinians without the filter of the New York Times or the so-called egregious papers of record that
21:32are essentially propaganda rags for war profiteers. I'm extremely optimistic with where we are going
21:40with this mass consciousness and this kind of solidarity that I'm seeing included worldwide with
21:45my brothers and sisters with an international lens of how to approach global struggles with a global
21:51solution. So I'm very optimistic that we will see not only an end to this genocide, but an end to Israeli
21:57apartheid within this generation. All right, Abi, thank you so much for joining me in this conversation
22:04and sharing your insights. And thank you viewers for tuning in. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe
22:09to our channel. Thank you so much.
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