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Iran Accuses Trump Allies of 'Fascist Mindset' Akin to Hitler for Invoking Ancient Empires to Justify Aggression
"Even though the US has no ancient empire, it now claims to represent the 'West' and uses European history to justify its brutal military aggression on the Iranian nation," said a spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry.
Apr 01, 2026
As President Donald Trump and his allies invoke the conquests of ancient empires to justify waging war across the Middle East, a leading Iranian diplomat says they have adopted a "fascist mindset."
"Even though the US has no ancient empire, it now claims to represent the 'West' and uses European history to justify its brutal military aggression on the Iranian nation," wrote Esmaeil Baqaei, the spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a post to social media Tuesday.
The regional war launched at the end of February by the US and Israel has entailed numerous attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, residential areas, and water and energy facilities in Iran and Lebanon.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on Tuesday that at least 1,598 civilians have been killed in Iran, including 244 children. The Lebanese Health Ministry said on Wednesday that at least 1,318 people had been killed since Israel began its assault on Lebanon, including 125 children.
As Baqaei pointed out, multiple figures in Trump's orbit have justified the carnage by portraying the war as an existential conflict of civilizations.
He referenced a comment made by former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, who is now one of MAGA World's most popular podcasters.
In a recent episode of Bannon's War Room show, he called for "total war" against Iran and said the US was "gonna go back and redo what Alexander the Great did 2,300 years ago."
STEVE BANNON: If we're gonna go to war, let's go to total war. And what I mean by total war, let's shut down everybody trading with them. Let's go to UAE and say, hey, you’ve got like two hours to go to Dubai and shut it all down. The Pirate Cove in Dubai. Gotta stop. We gotta… pic.twitter.com/t4xDqSmCS5
— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) March 28, 2026
Bannon was referring to the Macedonian general's famous invasion of Persia in 330 BCE. Alexander's conquest, which led to the absorption of Persia, was carried out with historic brutality—from the mass killing, displacement, and enslavement of countless people to the razing of entire cities like Persepolis and Tyre.
Similarly, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), perhaps the most vocal proponent of a full-scale invasion of Iran, asserted on Fox News Sunday that with overwhelming military might, the US could end a “2,000-year-long conflict,” as if to imply that the modern hostilities between the West and Iran are ancient and intractable when they are actually less than 50 years old.
"Such distorted historical references are revealingly similar to Nazi and fascist thinking," Baqaei said, pointing to the German and Italian dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
"Adolf Hitler justified invading other countries by invoking 'Lebensraum' and praising the Roman Empire," he said. "Mussolini used the glory of the Roman Empire to excuse his aggressions in North Africa."
Baqaei's comments also come as Israel has launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, which it has suggested will result in an indefinite occupation. Defense Minister Israel Katz has described plans to fully demolish Lebanese villages adjacent to Israel's border without allowing displaced residents to return.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Israeli officials are also privately discussing plans to press Lebanon's Christian and Druse communities to "force out any Lebanese from neighboring Shiite Muslim communities who have sought refuge among them as Israeli bombardments flatten Shiite towns.”
Some figures in Israel's growingly influential far-right have described the conquest of Lebanon as part of a broader project to establish "Greater Israel," which would expand the nation's territory to neighboring states across the Middle East and clear out local populations to be colonized by Jewish settlers.
The expansionist vision, and the accelerating violent displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli settlers, has been described by critics as an eerie parallel to the Nazi goal of creating "Lebensraum" by pushing out or killing ethnic groups viewed as racially inferior, particularly Jews, in order to create "living space" for Germans.
Portrayals of the war in Iran as a civilizational clash are omnipresent among Trump's closest allies. Some, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, portray it as part of a holy "crusade" by Christendom against the Muslim world. Others like White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt have described it as a war to defend "Western civilization" from "brutal terrorists" who want to destroy it.
Baqaei said, however, that comments lionizing the war as a renewal of bloody old-world conquest are "reviving" a "dangerous pre-World War II fascist mindset—torpedoing the very modern values of human rights and international law the West claims to stand for."
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'We're Gonna Make a Ton of Money': Unhinged Lindsey Graham Hails Profit Potential of Iran War
"We're going to blow the hell out of these people," declared the Republican senator.
Mar 09, 2026
US Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the most fanatical cheerleaders of the Iran war in Congress, on Sunday hailed the profit potential of the ongoing military assault, which has plunged the region and entire global economy into chaos.
"When this regime goes down, we're gonna have a new Mideast," Graham (R-SC) said in a Fox News appearance. "We're gonna make a ton of money. Nobody will threaten the Straits of Hormuz again."
Graham went on to respond dismissively to estimates of the massive financial costs of the war so far—roughly $1 billion per day, according to a preliminary Pentagon assessment—and warn of even more devastation in the weeks ahead. More than 1,200 Iranians have been killed by the US-Israeli onslaught so far.
"You just wait to see what comes in the next two weeks," said Graham, who has characterized the assault on Iran as a "religious war" that "will determine the course of the Middle East for a thousand years."
"We're going to blow the hell out of these people," the Republican senator said on Sunday.
The illegal US-Israeli war on Iran, which is now in its 10th day with no end in sight, has been a boon for American weapons contractors and liquefied natural gas giants, which stand to make tens of billions in windfall profits if the conflict and its reverberating impacts on global energy markets continue.
The Trump White House has repeatedly declined to provide a clear objective or timeline for the war. On Sunday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president has not ruled out a ground invasion of Iran.
A classified report assembled by the US National Intelligence Council found that "even a large-scale assault on Iran launched by the United States would be unlikely to oust" the country's "entrenched military and clerical establishment," the Washington Post reported.
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Damning CNN Supercut Exposes GOP Doublespeak About Trump's Iran War
"To Republicans in Congress: This is a war," said MS NOW host Joe Scarborough.
Mar 03, 2026
CNN on Monday aired a montage of Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials that exposed major inconsistencies in how they discuss the unprovoked US-Israel war against Iran.
The supercut began with President Donald Trump on Saturday morning acknowledging that "we may have casualties" in the conflict with Iran because that "often happens in war."
The video then showed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that "I don't know if this is technically a war."
CNN put together a montage of conflicting messages from Republicans and administration officials on whether or not we’re in a war. pic.twitter.com/jJjNc85Buw
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 3, 2026
It then cut to a clip of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday giving a news conference in which he said, "We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it."
The video went next Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who declaratively told CNN on Monday that "this isn't a war," before cutting back to Hegseth saying, "We set the terms of this war, from start to finish."
Next, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), was shown telling CNN Saturday that "I don't think I don't think anybody should classify this as war," before cutting back to Hegseth saying, "War is hell, and always will be."
Reacting to the montage, CNN host Abby Phillip said, "It does seem like we're in a war."
MS NOW host Joe Scarborough, a former GOP congressman from Florida, reposted the CNN video and urged elected Republicans to be honest with US voters.
"To Republicans in Congress: This is a war," he wrote. "Just ask the President."
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