Trump White House plagiarized Iran war manifesto from Israel-aligned think tank

The Trump White House plagiarized its justification for attacking Iran from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), the main DC outfit promoting war with Tehran.

“The Trump White House plagiarized its justification for attacking Iran from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the main DC outfit promoting war with Tehran”

The Grayzone

The think tank was originally founded to enhance Israel's image and partners closely with the Israeli government.

The Grayzone

The Trump Administration appeared to plagiarize its official justification for its war on Iran, copying almost word-for-word a document originally produced by FDD, a pro-war think tank with close ties to Israeli intelligence.

The FDD document was authored by Tzvi Kahn, the former assistant director for policy and government affairs at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Analyst Stephen McIntyre noted Thursday that the White House statement accusing Tehran of 44 instances of terrorism against American citizens is virtually identical to the list published by FDD in June 2025.

The White House made superficial alterations to the text, mainly appending the label Iran-backed to every mention of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

The Grayzone

In the few instances where Trump administration officials bothered to make significant changes to the original FDD list, the edits were almost always to ratchet up the underlying allegation, McIntyre concluded.

Among the most egregious examples was a 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, which FDD described as Hezbollah al-Hejaz being deemed responsible; in the White House version, the group’s responsibility was asserted as factual.

A 2009 investigation by journalist Gareth Porter based on interviews with former CIA, FBI and Clinton administration officials demonstrated that the FBI's inquiry into the Khobar Towers attack was precooked to blame Iran, when Al Qaeda was mostly like the culprit.

The White House’s claim that Iran and its proxies were responsible for the 2024 drone attack on a US base in Jordan is also highly questionable, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saying we don’t know how involved Iran was, but it really doesn't matter.

FDD began as EMET, Hebrew for truth, in 2001 and described its mission as working to enhance Israel's image in North America and the public's understanding of issues affecting Israeli-Arab relations.

“The Trump White House plagiarized its justification for attacking Iran from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the main DC outfit promoting war with Tehran”

The Grayzone

It has since emerged as the leading Washington-based think tank pushing the US toward war with Iran, and it participated in a $1.5 million State Department initiative to attack critics of the policy of maximum pressure on Iran.

FDD staff are brought to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee more than those of any other think tank, invariably to advance conflict with Tehran.

At a 2017 conference of the Israeli American Council in Washington DC, Sima Vakhnin-Gil named FDD as a partner in a covert Israeli campaign to spy on Americans involved in Palestine solidarity activity.

The Adelson family foundation and Miriam Adelson are major donors to the Israeli American Council and FDD, and according to Megyn Kelly, Miriam Adelson has become a top donor to Trump’s campaigns, which the article links to expectations of war on Iran.

Since Trump attacked Iran, FDD has provided the White House with more than talking points for justifying war on Iran and proposed civilian targets in Iran, including the Tehran oil depot which Israel bombed on March 8, triggering retaliatory Iranian attacks on oil infrastructure in US-allied countries.

After the strike, some advisors reportedly expressed regret, but it was too late to avoid escalation, and they followed the FDD-authored, Israeli-designed script into a quagmire.

The Grayzone

The article also notes that donors such as Miriam Adelson expected Trump to wage war on Iran on behalf of Israel, according to Megyn Kelly.