On his first day in office, President Donald Trump granted security clearance to former anti-Trump officials, including retired General Michael Hayden, an adviser to News Guard, a pro-establishment censorship group that runs a news blacklist against conservatives. was deprived of.
President Trump has lifted the security clearances of 50 people, including former CIA and National Security Agency director and retired Air Force general Michael Hayden.
Hayden is a controversial public figure, even to the “Never Trump” camp.
For example, in late October 2023, he called for Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to be removed from the “human race” in a social media post.
Hayden is also an advisor to Newsguard, an organization that uses browser extensions to rank the credibility of news organizations. Newsguard claims to be neutral. However, even when they publish verifiable disinformation without correction, they often favor left-leaning, corporate-owned media outlets and target right-wing news outlets. In reality, it's a blacklisting tool aimed squarely at conservatives and the basis of what Trump FCC Chairman Brenda Carr calls the censorship cartel.
In March 2022, Hayden was a board member of NewsGuard, a company that claims to target disinformation and misinformation spread by news organizations and celebrities. He had not yet retracted his claim that the laptop issue was “Russian disinformation.”
Later that year, Hayden agreed that the Republican Party was the most “nihilistic, dangerous, and despicable” of any other movement. Other groups compared to the Republican Party include al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the Chinese Communist Party.
“Throughout my career, I have covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world. I have never encountered a political force as nihilistic, dangerous, and despicable as today's Republican Party. Nothing comes close. Yo” financial times Associate Editor Michael Ruth said at the time:
“I agree,” Hayden said. “And I was the director of the CIA.”
In November 2023, Hayden spent Thanksgiving week comparing patriotic American Christians to Hamas.
“There's no difference at all,” Hayden said.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter at Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
