28 March 2026
President Trump has been inconsistent in telling us what he believes the purpose and goals of the Iran war are. All wars are covered in a fog of misinterpretation and uncertainty. This one, even more. Join moderator Jeffrey Goldberg, Peter Baker of The New York Times, Susan Glasser of The New Yorker, David Ignatius of The Washington Post and Missy Ryan of The Atlantic to discuss this and more.
WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS:
Trump's mixed messages and shifting goals in the Iran war
• Trump's mixed messages and shifting goals ...
Is Trump’s war of choice becoming a war of necessity?
• Is Trump’s war of choice becoming a war of...
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We look at the 70th anniversary of the August 19, 1953, U.S.- and U.K-backed coup in Iran, which took place two years after Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry that had been controlled by the company now known as British Petroleum.
“If nationalization in Iran of oil was successful, this would set a terrible example to other countries where U.S. oil interests were present,” explains Ervand Abrahamian, Iranian historian and author of Oil Crisis in Iran:
From Nationalism to Coup d’Etat and The Coup: 1953, The CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations.
While the CIA has historically taken credit for Mosaddegh’s overthrow, “the British have not admitted their leading role,” notes Iranian filmmaker Taghi Amirani, whose documentary film Coup 53 uncovers the influence of MI6 agents who sought to preserve their imperial-era access to Iranian oil and pulled in the Americans by promising a “slice.”
