The Secret Network Steering Trump's Iran Agenda

The White House just got caught pushing false claims about Iran’s nuclear program. Last week, Trump’s official X account posted propaganda straight from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies claiming Tehran ramped up uranium enrichment under Biden.

There’s one massive problem: it’s a lie.

Iran’s enrichment was capped at 3.67 percent under the 2015 nuclear deal. That’s nowhere near the 90 percent needed for weapons. Tehran only accelerated enrichment AFTER Trump himself torched the deal in 2018.

But here’s where it gets darker.

The FDD didn’t just slip talking points to the White House. One of their senior lobbyists is now literally sitting on Trump’s Iran negotiating team. Nick Stewart, who ran advocacy for FDD Action (the organization’s lobbying arm), just got appointed to the Office of the Special Envoy for Peace Missions. He’s directly advising envoy Steve Witkoff on Iran negotiations.

This is the definition of a conflict of interest.

Stewart spent years at FDD Action arguing for military pressure on Iran while the group spent $150,000 lobbying Congress in early 2025 alone on Iran sanctions, Israel arms sales, and the United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act. Now he’s shaping actual US policy.

The FDD itself is no ordinary think tank. It originated as EMET (Hebrew for “truth”) in 2001, founded by major pro-Israel donors right after the second Palestinian Intifada exploded. After 9/11, it rebranded to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and quietly became the intellectual engine behind every hardline Iran position in Washington.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace nailed it: the FDD supplies the “intellectual firepower” behind pro-Israel advocacy while AIPAC handles the money and political muscle. FDD provides the “crisp talking points” through congressional testimony, TV appearances, and policy papers that inevitably resurface in actual government policymaking.

During Trump’s first term, virtually every position the FDD pushed became law. When Richard Goldberg served on Trump’s National Security Council, he helped coordinate the “maximum pressure” campaign that strangled Iran’s economy.

The organization’s leadership is packed with former Israeli military and intelligence operatives. They deny acting on Israel’s behalf, but their own website states flatly: “Israel is America’s most valuable, reliable, and vulnerable ally in the Middle East.”

So there you have it. A think tank founded by Israeli donors, staffed by Israeli intelligence veterans, openly aligned with Netanyahu’s worldview, is now directly writing US Iran policy through a newly appointed lobbyist sitting in the Trump administration.

And the White House is already spreading their propaganda.