Max Blumenthal

After the failure of its regime change war on Iran and the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Tehran, the Trump administration imposed a naval blockade on Iran known as Operation Economic Outcast. By preventing the export of Iranian oil, the siege has driven up inflation rates while weakening the purchasing power of average Iranian consumers. But the blockade has so far failed to produce the kind of social unrest which the US regime clearly seeks to instigate inside Iran.To offset the impact of the siege, the city of Tehran has implemented an innovative new campaign called the Zero Inflation Initiative. This October 29, The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal spoke to someone who’s helping oversee the emergency measures and who has special insight into Iranian policy and planning, Dr. Hamid Gholam Zadeh.Dr. Gholam Zadeh is head of the Communication and International Affairs Center at the Tehran municipality, and a top advisor to Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, who The Grayzone interviewed for The Grayzone in his office last July. Beyond the question of how Iran responds to the economic challenges imposed by the US siege, Blumenthal and Dr. Gholam Zadeh discussed how Iran plans to turn the tide of war as a possibly decisive third round of conflict appears imminent. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrayzone.substack.com/subscribe

The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal interviews Mohammad Al-Bukhaiti, a senior member of Ansarulah's political bureau and governor of the Yemeni province of Dhamar, about the Yemeni Armed Forces' war with Saudi Arabia and its successful advances across Yemeni territory previously controlled by its Saudi-backed rivals.Speaking on October 20, 2026, Al-Bukhaiti confirmed that the Ansarulah-aligned Yemeni Armed Forces captured Mount Han overlooking the strategically significant city of Taiz. This marks the latest advance in a military offensive that has seen Ansarulah, known popularly as the Houthis, seize new territory and hammer Saudi Arabia following the collapse of a four year ceasefire between Sanaa and Riyadh. Ansarulah's success seems to have the House of Saud on the ropes, with Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman calling on the UK, Egypt, Syria and possibly even Israel for help in beating back the onslaught.Hekmat Aboukhater provided translation and research assistance for this interview. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrayzone.substack.com/subscribe

Fernando Cerimedo is known as MAGA’s man in Latin America. As one of the region’s most influential political operatives, he advised right-wing presidential candidates from Argentina to Honduras to Bolivia to Peru. In the last two years, every single one of his clients won their elections. But this August Cerimedo was arrested following allegations he oversaw the attempted murder of his former partner, Nadia Beler.Beler has since made public a series of private chats and audio recordings attributed to Cerimedo which expose how elections won by politicians aligned with Donald Trump across Latin America. The leaked exchanges also reveal the influence of foreign interests from Washington to Tel Aviv over governments in the region.In one of the most shocking recordings, Cerimedo claims to have personally intervened in the replacement of a U.S. ambassador to Bolivia. But what is even more revealing is that he claims the replacement ambassador was part of his own MAGA political circle.Fernando Cerimedo: “I’m not going to risk my professional career. If [Paz] won’t make decisions… Look, I reached out to the United States and got the ambassador replaced—because that ambassador was a total b***h. I was the one who got her replaced. I was the one who made the call to ensure that…”Senator Alejandro Reyes: “Is the person coming in any good?”Fernando Cerimedo: “He’s good, he’s good. He’s on my team—he’s part of my MAGA-aligned circle.”VO: Cerimedo is not simply claiming to have influence over President Rodrigo Paz. He’s insisting that he was able to exercise veto power over U.S. diplomatic appointments, and to have the backing of a network within the State Department aligned with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.Replacing a U.S. ambassador would be a major political intervention for an unelected Latin American political fixer. But claiming to have replaced one with a member of his own political circle raises another question: Who exactly is Cerimedo working for, and how far does his network reach?Cerimedo’s connections to Trump’s network are well established. He worked directly for Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager, who is now a foreign agent for the government of Israel in the United States. In one audio exchange recently leaked by Beler, Cerimedo referred to himself as a partner of Salem Media.Fernando Cerimedo: “I own a media group—a chain of media outlets. It’s called *La Derecha a Diario*. In the United States, I am now a partner in one of the companies associated with Trump—Salem Media—which owns 135 radio stations and 43 newspapers in the U.S. We integrate this with a significant portion of our work alongside two other companies: EyesOver Technologies and Nucleus—the very firms that provided services to the Trump campaign. Yes, those are the systems we represent in Latin America.”That’s the MAGA-aligned media network which has been formally incorporated into Parscale’s massive contract with the Israeli government, and which is now responsible for broadcasting Tel Aviv’s messaging through its hosts.This points to another component of the network represented by Cerimedo: the pro-Israel faction of the American right, whose support for Zionism has also become a dividing line within the conservative movement itself.The expansion of Israel’s infiltration of Latin America is already visible through companies such as the Israeli state owned water company Mekorot, which has been advancing water management agreements in regions of Argentina, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico. Similar projects are in earlier stages in Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Honduras.Fernando Cerimedo: “I put my reputation on the line with the State Department, and I leveraged my name with Noboa to get them to give us tear gas. I did the same with Israel to secure tactical equipment. And… I managed to get a plane from Argentina, [to collect the gear]. Damn it! I even took all the heat from the lawmakers.” “It’s like: [To an imaginary Paz] “Listen, man—either we start making decisions, or I’m out.”These claims demonstrate Cerimedo’s central role in the projection of Trumpian right wing politics across Latin America. He takes credit for guiding his candidates to victory through the politics of division, weaponizing political bot operations and his tabloid newspaper “La derecha diario”.THE UPRISING IN BOLIVIAMany of the right-wing governments supported by Cerimedo have become deeply unpopular, while their electoral victories remain tainted by allegations of irregularities, which are extensively documented.These controversies, along with revelations from Cerimedo’s leaked communications, have contributed to growing protests and the sense that democracy has been suffocated across Latin America.One of the most significant protests took place in Bolivia, where Indigenous, peasant, and labor movements kept the government under pressure for several weeks, from May 1 to June 23.President Rodrigo Paz responded with a two-front strategy: negotiating with organized labor while militarizing the confrontation with the Indigenous movement.Bolivia has a long history of governments using exceptional powers to confront popular resistance. Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Rodrigo Paz’ uncle grandfather, who governed from 1985 to 1989 during his fourth presidential term, declared states of emergency in both 1985 and 1986. Rodrigo Paz’s father Jaime Paz was also forced to use violence against the indigenous, but never resorted to a formal declaration of Martial Law.Rodrigo Paz would eventually declare a state of emergency equivalent to Martial Law on June 20. But the leaked conversation appears to have taken place before that decision, as Cerimedo was already pressing the president to take such measures. In the recording, he claims to have spoken directly with the president and his ministers, and to have given Paz an ultimatum.Fernando Cerimedo: “I also spoke with the President. I’ve already—look, this is just between you and me—but I’ve already told him. I’ve given him an ultimatum, backed by arguments. And I just got off a call with the relevant ministers. He’s giving me a few hours to make some decisions. So, it’s going to get resolved—either the easy way or the hard way. But it will get resolved.”Fernando Cerimedo has claimed from jail that the audio leaks released by his ex-girlfriend are not real, but “Ai made”. However, they’ve been published worldwide.Cerimedo was clearly not advocating for a negotiated solution. He wanted the president to impose a state of emergency and end the protests, even if that meant the use of lethal force. Rejecting President Paz’s double prong approach of negotiating with the workers union and using force against indigenous, he demanded a ruthless crackdown on all resistance.Fernando Cerimedo: “Apparently, he sent a letter to the community today, trying to put forward a list of demands—supposedly even including a law to ensure campaign promises are kept, or some such nonsense, right?Come Saturday, a state of emergency must be declared—period. I’m not interested [in negotiations]. I told Rodrigo, I said, “Mr. President, either we fall because we’re incompetent, or we fall because people end up dead.” And, I’d rather take the risk of people dying.Senator Alejandro Reyes: “People are begging for a state of emergency. I really hope he makes that decision.”NOBOA AND BUKELE: MODELS FOR BOLIVIASenator Alejandro Reyes brings another Trump favorite, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa into the conversation, presenting him as an example Paz should follow.Cerimedo then reveals that Paz himself had asked for his help to turn Bolivia into another El Salvador by emulating Nayib Bukele’s iron-fisted security model, in which thousands are thrown into maximum security prisons at once, often without trial. In Ecuador, President Noboa has expanded the use of military force in domestic security operations, while Bukele has governed El Salvador under an extended state of emergency, with mass incarcerations … This is a public episode. 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The Grayzone’s Wyatt Reed sat down with Radwan Mortada, the Lebanese journalist behind The Trap — a new documentary on Israel’s notorious pager attacks that’s become one of Al Jazeera most-watched documentaries in recent history.In this exclusive interview, filmed in Beirut, Mortada took The Grayzone behind the scenes and revealed how he tracked down key players in the attack, why it’s likely many of them knew they were working with Israel, and why he believes the cover up continues to this day.Watch The Trap here. For English subtitles, click the settings icon and choose the second option. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrayzone.substack.com/subscribe

Max Blumenthal joined Tucker Carlson to discuss the repression he’s met from the US government for his reporting from Iran, and the Israeli forces behind the campaign to silence him and The Grayzone. Blumenthal explains how Israel and its network of assets inside Trump Inc. manipulated the president into a failed war that has shattered Trump’s legacy and dealt a devastating blow to US empire. He then delves into the destabilizing psychology of Zionism, its toxic impact on Jewish life in the West, and the Zionist movement’s cynical recruitment of American Christians as unquestioning footsoldiers amid a stunninng collapse in global support.Watch the viral interview that has sent pro-Israel forces into meltdown mode. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrayzone.substack.com/subscribe

Robert Kraft has played a central role in recruiting athletes, entertainers and influencers as assets for IsraelHe’s also a high-level member of the Epstein class implicated in sex crimesThe Grayzone's Max Blumenthal explains how Kraft’s insidious influence goes beyond canceling Macklemore This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrayzone.substack.com/subscribe