Mehdi Unfiltered

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com

We know a lot about Donald Trump, perhaps more than we’d ever like to know about someone known for being hateful and racist. Given how long he’s been famous for, you’d imagine we’d seen all the layers beneath his spray tan.

But we haven’t.  

“I know Donald. I've known him so well over the years, decades, during his formative years and business career and his political career,” says Donald Trump’s nephew Fred Trump III, who poured a lot of that history into the writing of his new book ‘All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way.’  

Fred’s interview with Mehdi this week gives Zeteo subscribers a behind-the-scenes look into the Trump family, with incredible anecdotes about his uncle and former president, Donald Trump. From uses of the N-word to an instance where he quotes his uncle in the Oval Office saying, “These people [the disabled], the cost, they should just die.” 

Trump’s rhetoric towards disabled people cuts deep for Fred, who has a disabled son of his own, and who Trump also apparently said 'should just die' in a separate conversation with Fred, three years after that first one.

Rather alarmingly, Fred also tells Mehdi that Trump’s “purpose right now” is “definitely” to get revenge on his enemies.

If you are a paid subscriber, you can watch the full interview above to hear how Fred reacted to Trump’s insults in the past, his views of the Republican Party under the leadership of his uncle, and whether he thinks his book marks the end of the relationship with him.

Free subscribers can watch the first 5 minutes for free, so do please consider becoming a paid subscriber today and financially supporting Zeteo’s journalism.

*Fred Trump III’s new book ‘All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way’ is published by Gallery Books. 

In case you missed them, here are some recent Zeteo stories you might be interested in:

President-elect Donald J. Trump sent shockwaves through the Pentagon this week, after announcing his pick for secretary of defense: Fox weekend host Pete Hegseth, who has zero experience in government. 

But frankly, it’s not the lack of experience or his association with right-wing media that should worry people the most – it’s his clear love for war, war crimes, and war criminals. 

With apologies to Donald Rumsfeld, he may be about to become the most extreme defense secretary in American history. 

Watch the short video above to see Mehdi unpack six of Hegseth’s insanely war-mongering views and ideas, all of which are bound to break Trump’s ridiculous promise to bringing lasting peace – to the Middle East, or anywhere else!

Also, make sure to check out Zeteo’s other highlights from this past week:

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zeteo.com/subscribe

“President Biden's inaction, given the suffering in Gaza, is shameful,” Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland tells Mehdi on this week’s ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’. “I mean, there's no other word for it.”

It’s not often that a top Democratic senator and long-term party loyalist unleashes on a sitting Democratic president, but Van Hollen – who has been critical of the US’s unconditional support for Israel since October 7th – doesn’t hold back in this wide-ranging and exclusive conversation with Mehdi and Zeteo.

“If the president doesn't mean what he says,” about holding Israel to account for the lack of aid going into Gaza, adds Van Hollen, “then he should stop saying it because he looks so weak.”

For the Maryland senator, Biden has “essentially been played by Netanyahu from day one. And every time the President of the United States says ‘this is what we the United States think is in our interests, please do it,’ he gets the back of the hand from Netanyahu and refuses to take any action.”

Van Hollen also criticizes the Biden-Harris administration for failing to uphold the humanitarian aid deadline they set for Israel last month, which has now passed, and questions their motivations.

“My concern is this was a political attempt to try to send a message to voters a month ago that, ‘oh, the president really does care about the situation,’” Van Hollen tells Mehdi. 

Watch the full and eye-opening interview above to hear more about Senator Van Hollen’s top concerns over a second Trump presidency, whether Democrats have alienated working class voters, and what he made of the Harris campaign touting their endorsement from Dick Cheney. 

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zeteo.com/subscribe

When chaos erupted in Amsterdam between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax fans, photographer Annet de Graaf watched the violence unfold across the city first-hand. 

Her footage of Maccabi fans attacking a Dutch resident went viral, and was picked up by several media outlets, who then spun a different narrative that it was the Israelis being attacked.

Headlines poured in about antisemitic attacks in Amsterdam. But these stories largely overlooked on-camera, blatant, anti-Arab racism from Maccabi supporters.

In an exclusive interview, de Graaf tells Mehdi that outlets like CNN, BBC World News, and the New York Times “told the opposite of what happened in that footage.” She adds that they erased the responsibility of the Maccabi fans behind the attacks because “the truth is inconvenient.”

Watch the video above to hear how de Graaf witnessed the violence unfold and how she’s handling the fallout from the misuse of her footage — and the threats against her from the Islamophobic far right in the Netherlands.

For more on the Amsterdam rioting, and how it was misrepresented by the mainstream media, be sure to check out academic Marc Owen Jones’s latest piece for Zeteo: Innocent Israelis, Bad Arabs? How the Media Scripted Amsterdam's Soccer Violence

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zeteo.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com

You’ve seen Piers Morgan interview Mehdi plenty of times over the past year. This week, Mehdi and Morgan flipped roles for the first time, with our editor-in-chief sitting down for an exclusive interview with the controversial British broadcaster in New York. 

Their discussion starts with Mehdi offering a twist on a classic Morgan question: “Do you condemn Benjamin Netanyahu's terrorism against the children of Gaza?” 

As difficult as it is for a defiant Morgan to use the T-word to describe Netanyahu’s brutal actions in Gaza, he goes even further to avoid using the G-word to describe Israel’s relentless assault on the embattled strip.

“I think to use the word genocide about what Russia is doing there is the wrong term, and I shouldn't have used it,” says Morgan.

“I look at Piers Morgan, I say here's this uncensored person, very bold, outspoken, opinionated man. He says, ‘Syria is a genocide. Burma is a genocide. Ukraine's a genocide’… Israel? ‘No, it's not a genocide,’” Mehdi says to Morgan, perhaps stunned by the latter’s new stance.

Oh, and wait until you hear Morgan’s response to Mehdi’s questioning about his amplification of the ‘beheaded babies’ lie!

Our editor-in-chief’s exclusive interview with the outspoken British broadcaster was taped a day after former president Donald Trump held a hate-filled rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, which Morgan proudly attended. 

“My view of Trump has evolved a lot because I know him personally, I like him personally, some of the things he does I think are very effective, some of the things he does I think are completely wrong,” Morgan tells Mehdi. 

Mehdi presses Morgan to defend his friend Trump’s insane rhetoric, unhinged behavior, and long-standing racism. Morgan, you’ll be shocked to hear, pushes back hard. 

Watch the full and explosive interview above to hear why Morgan doesn’t think Netanyahu is a terrorist and doesn’t think Trump is a fascist, and what he makes of the US and UK media bias in favor of Israel. 

If you are a paid subscriber to Zeteo (thank you!), this exclusive interview is available to you in full, and you can also leave your comments below. Free subscribers get a 15-minute preview of this special interview with Piers Morgan. So do consider becoming a paid subscriber today! 

We all know Donald Trump said and did a lot of racist, offensive, and Islamophobic things when he was president the first time round - and is promising to do so again if he wins a second term next week. 

It seems, however, that he has not said or done enough to deter the endorsement of a growing minority of Muslim Americans, such as Imam Belal Alzuhairi of The Great Mosque in Hamtramck, Michigan.  

“I never claimed that he is infallible,” Alzuhairi tells Mehdi. “I never claimed that he is a saint. I never gave him a blank check. I see him as a leader who, in our discussions, committed to supporting values that matter deeply in our community… We said these are the five points, he said I agree 100% with you.” 

The imam not only stood on stage at a Trump rally in Michigan to announce his endorsement, in what became a viral online moment, but he also separately met with the Republican nominee – something the Harris campaign, reportedly, refused to do (though they have met with other Muslim and Arab groups in that key swing state). 

“The other party [Democrats] does not have any time for us and does not have any regards for us as Muslims,” says Alzuhairi. “Now, they understand that… we're not in your pockets. I mean, we have alternatives.”

Mehdi, of course, pushed back on the idea that Trump can be trusted or considered “the peace candidate” or the candidate of “family values,” in the provocative words of Imam Alzuhairi.

You’ll have to watch the full interview above to hear how heated their discussion got! 

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zeteo.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com

Note to Subscribers: Interested in chatting with Mehdi on Zoom TODAY? He’ll be hosting a Town Hall ‘Ask Me Anything’ where he’ll be talking about this year’s elections, voting, and taking your questions! This live online event will be at 3pm PT / 6pm ET / 10pm GMT and is exclusively for paid subscribers. Please register via the link at the bottom of this email.

“In this country, four generations on, we don’t matter, we don’t belong, that we’re still othered, and that it doesn’t matter how much blood, sweat, life you give, you’re still seen as the enemy within.” — Sayeeda Warsi

Muslims don’t matter. That’s not just the reality for a lot of Muslims living in Western countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, where Islamophobia has gone mainstream in both politics and the media.

It’s also the name of a new book from Sayeeda Warsi, the British baroness and former Conservative cabinet minister, which examines her fear and heartbreak when it comes to the way in which even the perception of being a 'Muslim’ results in dehumanization and bigotry.

Mehdi recently traveled to London and sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with Baroness Warsi on the growth of Islamophobia in the US and the UK and how Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, in the wake of the Oct 7th attacks, has resulted in further hatred directed at Muslims across the globe.

The two also discuss the state of the UK’s Conservative Party with Warsi, who served as the country’s first Muslim cabinet member, recently resigning the Conservative whip, saying her party has moved too far to the Islamophobic right.

“I think that the Conservative Party's relationship with the Muslim community is deeply toxic and flawed,” Warsi tells Mehdi.

Gaza also comes up, with Warsi condemning the UK’s support for “war crimes” against the Palestinians under both Conservative and Labour governments. In 2014, Warsi quit David Cameron’s Conservative-led coalition government in protest over the then Israeli assault on Gaza. 

Watch the full interview above, it’s a great conversation. Paid subscribers can watch the full 37-minute interview, while free subscribers can watch the first 5 minutes.

Paid subscribers: Register via the link below for today’s Town Hall with Mehdi…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com

With less than two weeks to go until election night, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and Michigan native, Michael Moore, talks to Mehdi about why Kamala Harris is losing voters in that key swing state.

“We're not going to ask the Muslim community to vote for the people that are funding and doing the slaughter. So that means Vice President Harris is going to lose about 40,000 Arab and Muslim votes.” Moore tells Mehdi. 

To his point, Harris is already feeling the brunt of this as new polls show her lead over Donald Trump has disappeared and, although time is running out, Moore argues that the answer to the vice-president’s problem is clear. 

“You don't have to do a lot,” he says. “You just have to say that when you are president on January 20th, this ends, the slaughter of civilians ends. I'm not going to continue that… I am not Joe Biden.” 

Many have pleaded with the Harris campaign to break away from Biden’s policies on Gaza since she began her presidential campaign, but to no avail. Moore is disappointed with the lack of change so far, as you’ll hear him discuss in the interview.

Watch the full conversation above to hear how history could be repeating itself and what a lot of Arab-American voters are telling Michael Moore is their preferred alternative to the two-state solution in the Middle East. 

If you are a paid subscriber, the interview is available in full, and you can also leave your comments below. Free subscribers get a six-minute preview of this special interview with Michael Moore. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber today!

On this week’s episode of ‘Mehdi Unfiltered,’ Mehdi Hasan exposes the details of “The General’s Plan”:

"Israel enjoys such impunity on the international stage - thanks to the blind support it gets from the United States - that its political and military leaders don’t just bomb, besiege, starve, and ethnically cleanse civilian areas, they brag about it. They advertise it. They give their genocide a name. The General’s Plan."

Watch Mehdi’s monologue above to learn who Giora Eiland is, how this plan came to be and how, despite Israelis openly bragging or discussing it, there’s been very little coverage of it in Western media.  

Joining Mehdi on the show is Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California’s 17th congressional district. Khanna was recently part of a Congressional delegation that traveled to the Middle East and also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“I think it's important for progressive voices to be in the room, and I was very, very, candid with him,” says Khanna.

Mehdi pressed Khanna on several topics, including the options the US has when it comes to holding Israel accountable and why it doesn’t use them. 

Khanna said: “Should the United States have done more, and should we do more, to hold Netanyahu accountable? The answer is absolutely yes… if I were to say, look, you know, we're going to continue to not give you offensive weapons, etc., he will say you were on the losing end of that [Congressional] vote.”

Watch the full interview above to hear more from Khanna about what Democrats are and not doing in the campaign, and why he thinks Elon Musk could have been on the side of the Democrats this election.

In the show, Mehdi reminds us of the Biden administration’s terrible record so far, but also of the awful policies that Donald Trump (and the people around him) implemented in Israel and Palestine when he was president. He is joined by Palestinian-American political analyst Omar Baddar to discuss this and what a potential Trump presidency might mean for Palestinians.  

“Donald Trump by the time he left office, was indisputably the most pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian president in US history. We don’t need to rehabilitate or whitewash Donald Trump in order to critique Biden or Harris,” says Mehdi. 

Baddar adds that “The Biden Harris policy so far on Palestine and Israel has been just a despicable horror from beginning to end. It's been a year now of watching this genocide unfold day after day on our phones.” And, on Trump’s recent assertion that Biden is holding Netanyahu back, but that he would allow Bibi to ‘finish the job’, Baddar says: “That could be the significant escalation and flat out endorsement from the White House of Israel taking over all of North Gaza and pushing Palestinians completely out of it and beginning that process in the West Bank as well, and saying that we recognize, you know, Trump already recognized the legitimacy of Israeli settlements and what that expansion looks like.”

Listen to the full conversation above where they also cover the current situation in Northern Gaza, Trump’s anti-Palestinian track record, and why there’s even an illegal Israeli settlement named after him.  

DON’T MISS THIS LIVE EVENT TOMORROW:

The F Word: Fascism, Trump, and the Threat to American Democracy

In a special event organized by Substack, Mehdi and Steve Schmidt of The Warning with Steve Schmidt will discuss the political dynamics surrounding Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, consider the broader implications for US democracy, and won't shy away from tough questions about the movement’s ideological direction.

When: Wednesday, October 23, 8 p.m. ETWhere: Only on this link, for the Substack App

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zeteo.com/subscribe

“I don't think we should be writing blank checks to any country that we're allied with. I think that's a very sensible way to conduct foreign policy.”- John Legend on conditioning aid to Israel

Last week, we shared a wide-ranging exclusive interview with John Legend that covered a lot of ground: from homelessness and criminal justice, including current propositions on the ballot in California, to the 2024 presidential election and the war in Gaza.

We thought it’s worth re-sharing the section on Gaza, Israel, and Kamala Harris in particular. That’s the part you can watch above, now available, free, to all of our subscribers. (Paid subscribers to Zeteo can still also watch the full discussion here.)

Legend answers Mehdi’s questions, from what Harris needs to do to win votes in swing states like Michigan, to the dehumanization of Palestinian children, to why more people in Hollywood aren’t speaking out the way he is now.

“They've seen people lose their agent or lose jobs from it,” Legend tells Mehdi, in a rather blunt exchange. “They're afraid they'll suffer professional consequences.” He also shares why he’s choosing to be vocal and isn’t scared of being “punished”.

It’s a great discussion, and the first time the award-winning artist has opened up in this way on Israel and Gaza. Give it a watch and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

As always, if you believe in the work we’re doing at Zeteo, do consider becoming a paid subscriber. We are not supported by ads or corporate sponsors, and so all the work we do has been possible because of individual paid subscribers, who we cannot thank enough.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zeteo.com/subscribe