{"id":6159,"date":"2026-05-31T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/50000-troops-zero-reporters-why-trump-and-hegseth-are-keeping-the-press-away-from-iran\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T10:00:00","slug":"50000-troops-zero-reporters-why-trump-and-hegseth-are-keeping-the-press-away-from-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/50000-troops-zero-reporters-why-trump-and-hegseth-are-keeping-the-press-away-from-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"50,000 Troops, Zero Reporters. Why Trump and Hegseth are Keeping the Press Away From Iran."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=\" width=\"100%\" height=\"210\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span>Fifty thousand troops. Zero reporters on a ship. Zero reporters on a base. That&#8217;s the reality of the Iran deployment under Trump and acting secretary of culture war Pete Hegseth \u2014 and it&#8217;s the kind of information vacuum that&#8217;s never existed in modern American conflict. Paul is joined by ABC News chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz, one of the most respected and trusted voices in military journalism, for a no-BS briefing on what happens when the Pentagon shuts the press out of a shooting war.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This is a conversation about more than access. It&#8217;s about trust \u2014 the trust the American public places in a non-political military, the trust troops place in journalists who actually show up, and the trust that gets shredded when a defense secretary turns a West Point graduation into a culture war rally. Paul and Martha walk through the Memorial Day lines that got crossed, why embeds matter, what the rank and file actually think about the politics being shoved down their throats, and why the easiest way to stop the truth is to never let anyone see it in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-WATCH <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/csFq7E8MGxA\"><span>full video of this episode here<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-Join <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/independentveteransofamerica.org\/no-more-forever-wars\/\"><span>IVA and stand up to Trump\u2019s Forever Wars<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-Learn more about Paul\u2019s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/independentveteransofamerica.org\/\"><span>Independent Veterans of America<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-Learn more about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/americanveteransforukraine.org\/\"><span>American Veterans for Ukraine here<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-Remember <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/do8wjRtDZJ4?feature=share\"><span>Independent is an Attitude<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-Learn more about<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/theheadstrongproject.org\/\"><span> The Headstrong Project <\/span><\/a><span>for Veterans, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taps.org\/\"><span>Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS)<\/span><\/a><span>, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/health-care\/health-needs-conditions\/mental-health\/\"><span>Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area<\/span><\/a><span>. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. 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Hook into our exclusive Patreon community<\/span><\/a><span> of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8211;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/independentamericans.us\/merch\/\"><span>And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch<\/span><\/a><span> now in time for the new year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/righteous.us\/\"><span>Righteous Media<\/span><\/a><span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And now part of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bleav.com\/shows\/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff\/\"><span>the BLEAV network<\/span><\/a><span>!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href=\"https:\/\/pcm.adswizz.com\">pcm.adswizz.com<\/a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fifty thousand troops. Zero reporters on a ship. Zero reporters on a base. That&#8217;s the reality of the Iran deployment under Trump and acting secretary of culture war Pete Hegseth \u2014 and it&#8217;s the kind of information vacuum that&#8217;s never existed in modern American conflict. Paul is joined by ABC News chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz, one of the most respected and trusted voices in military journalism, for a no-BS briefing on what happens when the Pentagon shuts the press out of a shooting war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-episodes","entry"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ia-promo-square-ep536.jpg",1400,1400,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ia-promo-square-ep536.jpg",1400,1400,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ia-promo-square-ep536.jpg",1400,1400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ia-promo-square-ep536-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ia-promo-square-ep536-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ia-promo-square-ep536-1024x1024.jpg",750,750,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ia-promo-square-ep536.jpg",1400,1400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ia-promo-square-ep536.jpg",1400,1400,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ia-promo-square-ep536.jpg",1400,1400,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/category\/episodes\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Episodes<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Fifty thousand troops. Zero reporters on a ship. Zero reporters on a base. That's the reality of the Iran deployment under Trump and acting secretary of culture war Pete Hegseth \u2014 and it's the kind of information vacuum that's never existed in modern American conflict. Paul is joined by ABC News chief global affairs correspondent&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}