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Iran’s good cop, bad cop game implodes as experts warn regime views US as ‘evil’
Days after Iran’s leadership projected a unified front, undermining the long-cited moderate-vs.-hardliner divide, President Donald Trump canceled planned talks with Tehran in Islamabad, Pakistan, citing “infighting and confusion” inside the regime.
Iranian-American experts argue that social media posts from Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian and other key officials reveal that the “good cop, bad cop” tactic that the regime exploited to deceive adversaries and secure generous concessions in nuclear negotiations has collapsed.
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump announced he canceled the trip, citing “too much time wasted on traveling” and “too much work!”
“Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership,'” the president added, noting “nobody knows who is in charge, including them.”
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“Also, we have all the cards, they have none!” Trump wrote. “If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”
The implosion of the hardline-moderate dichotomy within the regime could have profound consequences for Trump’s approach to the atomic talks in Islamabad, experts said. Trump appeared to allude to a blurry divide between factions within Iran last week.
“Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between the ‘Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), and it is CRAZY!” Trump wrote in an X post Thursday.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei quickly fired back, claiming “due to the strange unity created among compatriots, a fracture has occurred in the enemy.”
“With practical gratitude for this blessing, cohesion has become even greater and more steel-like, and the enemies will become more wretched and diminished,” Khamenei wrote in a reply. “The enemy’s media operations, by targeting the minds and psyches of the people, intend to undermine national unity and security; may our negligence not allow this sinister intent to come to fruition.”
Mariam Memarsadeghi, a senior fellow at The Macdonald-Laurier Institute and founder and director of the Cyrus Forum for Iran’s Future, told Fox News Digital the Islamic Republic has, for decades, fooled Western policymakers by sending moderates to negotiations as a “window dressing for its terror and subjugation.”
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The officials would then tell their counterparts that they are under pressure from hardliners, implying that the West must make concessions to strengthen them internally.
“Because of the war, the Trump administration is in a remarkably advantageous situation vis-à-vis the imperial terror state, one never before attempted, much less achieved,” Memarsadeghi said. “But every time Trump says regime change has already happened, he denies America the opportunity to finally, truly be rid of the world’s top sponsor of terror and the existential threat it poses not just to the people of Iran but to all the world.”
Navid Mohebbi, who worked as a Persian media analyst for the State Department’s Public Affairs Bureau, cautioned that while rivalries and factions do exist within the Islamic Republic, they are united on the regime’s core principles.
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“Their disagreements are primarily over tactics, not fundamental direction,” Mohebbi told Fox News Digital, stressing that real decision-making power in Iran has always rested with the supreme leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“So-called moderates have never had the final say on key strategic issues and are often used to soften the regime’s image abroad,” he said. “From the perspective of the Iranian people, there has been little difference. Across administrations labeled ‘moderate’ or ‘hardline,’ the system has consistently relied on repression.”
Mohebbi cited the example of Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani, who presented himself as a moderate, but whose security forces violently killed 1,500 protesters during the November 2019 uprising.
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“The same pattern has continued under Masoud Pezeshkian in the January 2026 protest massacre, reinforcing the reality that these labels have not translated into meaningful change on the ground,” he said.
A regional official, however, insisted there are clashes between moderates and hardliners in Iran. The official told Fox News Digital that Pezeshkian is a moderate, but he “could not even make good on his campaign promise regarding internet freedom. To be honest, he’s not even been able to do s—.”
“The joint reaction by the heads of the three branches of power was in response to Trump’s reference to the issue of rift, and also to the fact that there are indeed hardliners and moderates,” the official added. “Look, whenever Iran wants to make concessions, they throw moderates under the bus so that the moderates make a deal, and then, the hardliners blame them for the same concessions all of them had agreed to make.”
Lawdan Bazargan, who was imprisoned by the Islamic Republic in the 1980s for her political dissident activities, told Fox News Digital that what officials are seeing now is not the disappearance of the divide, but the exposure of what that divide actually was.
“In reality, all of these figures — Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf [speaker of Iran’s parliament], Saeed Jalili [member of the Expediency Discernment Council], Pezeshkian, Ahmad Vahidi [head of the IRGC], Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei [head of Iran’s judiciary] — operate within the same ideological framework,” Bazargan said. “They are all committed to the preservation of the system, the projection of power in the region, and confrontation with what they define as ‘the forces of evil,’ namely the United States and Israel.”
Perhaps the most compelling moment of the 2026 NFL Draft came in the final round, when the Pittsburgh Steelers selected running back Eli Heidenreich and the pick was announced to the hometown crowd gathered at the event.
The excitement, palpable from the moment Heidenreich was shown on camera, wasn’t because he’s an accomplished college running back. Nor was it because his athletic ability has scouts comparing him to San Francisco 49ers star Christian McCaffrey — only bigger and stronger.
The crowd went nuts because Heidenreich played for the United States Naval Academy.
And having waited for three days in the NFL’s green room backstage, Heidenreich emerged in his Full Dress Blue uniform worn by midshipmen at formal functions.
Heidenreich put on a Steelers cap and saluted. Soon after, he hugged NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and took official photos with a Steelers helmet.
The crowd went bonkers.
“That excitement with Eli,” Steelers general manager Omar Khan said, “I mean, I wasn’t expecting to see that on TV and you can’t help but get emotional when you saw that at the end. But truly, truly, truly awesome …”
The NFL, being the public relations steamroller it is, decided to milk the moment for everything it was worth. League handlers gave Heidenreich a chance to walk through the crowd and dap up the adoring fans.
Then they brought Heidenreich to the ESPN set for an interview.
That’s right: the 230th overall pick — an otherwise routine pick in the final round — was treated like royalty, perhaps because fans understood that the United States and its Navy and other military forces are conducting operations in the Middle East.
Oh, yeah, did we mention Heidenreich is from Pittsburgh?
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This script just keeps getting upgrades with every rewrite.
Heidenreich is scheduled to graduate from the Naval Academy in May. Had the NFL not come through as a possibility, he planned to start his five-year commitment to serve as an officer in the Marine Corps.
But Heidenreich understood that commitment would wait when, earlier in the seventh round, he got calls from teams wanting to sign him as an undrafted free agent.
“I actually committed to a team,” Heidenreich said.
Then the Steelers called to tell him about their plans to pick him.
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So he will initiate a 10-year service contract with the Marine Corps that will allow him to defer his service while he pursues his professional football career.
“I’m thankful that they gave me this opportunity,” Heidenreich said. “I initially committed to them for five years of service afterward, but they’re allowing me the opportunity to go out and pursue this football career first and give my service later. So, I’m thankful for that.
“But to be able to represent them — the United States Marine Corps, the United States Navy, I mean, just the military as a whole — it’s an honor and something I don’t take lightly.”
Heidenreich comes from great stock. His grandfather, Chris Heidenreich, was a naval officer, and his uncle, Chip Heidenreich, served as a corpsman with the Marines.
And now Eli Heidenreich, among the best of what this latter American generation has to offer, carries on the family tradition.
But only after he gives professional football a chance.
“I’m grateful,” Heidenreich said, “that I have the opportunity to be able to go out and do that in the NFL.”
The Carolina Hurricanes were looking to put away the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon, and boy, were the Sens not willing to go down without a fight.
Or, in this case, one heck of a cheap shot.
The Senators are a team that has no problem with mixing it up, and that can be a good skill set in the postseason. I mean, the Florida Panthers just won back-to-back Cups doing it.
However, you’ve got to make sure you don’t cross the line, and Senators forward Ridly Greig did just that.
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First, Greig had a hand in ramping up the intensity in Game 4 when he ran over Carolina netminder Frederik Andersen.
That’s a slam-dunk, no-question-about-it penalty, and while it’s not classy, it’s not outside the scope of what you’ll see in the playoffs — especially in an elimination game.
However, that animosity boiled over later in the period, and that’s when Greig dropped one of the dirtiest moves I think I’ve seen all season.
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Things got completely out of hand, and Greig and teammate Warren Foegele got tied up with Carolina’s Sean Walker.
Foegele got Walker in a headlock, and Greig disengaged… at least momentarily.
Because with Walker tied up, Greig delivered a vicious uppercut straight to his chops.
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Dude… seriously?
That’s about as cheap and as dirty as it gets.
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Believe it or not, out of all of that, there were only three minor penalties, and two of them went to Carolina’s Nic Deslauriers.
So Greig got away with that one on the ice, but he could still be facing a potential suspension and an almost certain fine.
The Senators ended up losing this one 4-2, so their season is over, and the Canes will move on to face the winner of the Flyers-Penguins series, which Philadelphia has a chance to sweep on Saturday night.
But, if Greig is suspended — and I think that was definitely suspension-worthy — he’ll have to serve it at the start of next season.
King Charles III will meet with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani during his state visit to the U.S. next week, his office confirmed to Fox News Digital on Saturday.
The king and the mayor will attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in New York City on Wednesday.
The meeting will come after the king is greeted by President Donald Trump at the White House after he arrives in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
The king and Queen Camilla will join the president and first lady Melania Trump for a private tea at the White House soon after landing at Joint Base Andrews and receiving a military arrival ceremony.
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On Tuesday the king and the president will hold a bilateral meeting and Charles is also expected to address Congress, the first British monarch to do so since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1991.
The evening will end with a state dinner at the White House before the king and queen leave for New York on Wednesday.
“The Mayor will not meet privately with King Charles,” Mamdani’s press secretary Joe Calvello told Fox News Digital. “He was invited to join a number of New York elected officials next week at a wreath laying at the 9/11 memorial with members of the British royal family.”
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Sixty-seven British citizens were killed on 9/11.
The king will leave for his last stop, Virginia, on Thursday, where he’ll meet with indigenous and Appalachian cultural groups and attend a block party celebrating 250 years of American independence.
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On Thursday, Trump told a BBC reporter he believes the king’s visit will “absolutely” ease current tensions between the U.S. and the U.K. that escalated over Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reluctance to join Trump’s military action in Iran.
“I know him well, I’ve known him for years. He’s a brave man, and he’s a great man,” Trump told the BBC, adding that his and Camilla’s visit will “absolutely be a positive.”
Trump made his last state visit to Britain in September, which included a state dinner at Windsor Castle.
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