Armie Hammer is back. So are Kevin Spacey, Dustin Hoffman, Jonathan Majors, Louis C.K., Brett Ratner, and other canceled stars. Cancel Culture, which tore through Hollywood over the last decade, is losing its grip. No longer do comedians fear that an old stand-up routine might “resurface” and crush their careers. Artists with troubling pasts can work again, allowing audiences to judge whether they’re worthy of forgiveness. That’s great news, but a strain of Cancel Culture remains very much in place. It’s purely ideological in nature, and it’s supported by mainstream media outlets, Hollywood, Inc., and the culture at large. Embrace MAGA, President Donald Trump, or simply the Right, and watch it snap into action. For some stars, being apolitical is seen as an unofficial conservative pose and, sadly, worthy of condemnation. Sydney Sweeney has faced media scrutiny for not formally embracing a political party. That intensified after press outlets learned she had registered as a Republican in Florida but refused to share her ideological beliefs. That media focus intensified after her far-Left critics complained her American Eagle jeans ad, where she playfully said she had good “jeans,” was seen as a white supremacist dog whistle. Media outlets ran with the absurd attacks. Another tiny example happened recently with the opening of the Great American State Fair. Singer Leonard Cohen’s estate decried the potential use of the late singer’s “Hallelujah.” This particular event highlighted the enduring Cancel Culture movement. The Great American State Fair originally hired a gaggle of fading music stars, including Bret Michaels, Young MC, and Vanilla Ice, to entertain the crowd. The media played up the event’s loose connection to Team Trump – the administration tasked with creating the event to honor the nation’s 250th birthday. The assembled artists quickly fled the gala, either suggesting the concert would be too political in nature (without evidence) or that they’ve been threatened with violence for appearing (Michaels). Comedian Bill Maher called foul on the artists’ decision. Wouldn’t it have been better to play this gig? … It’s a month-long gig, lots of people, like — just celebrating America. Can’t we all just celebrate America itself and leave Trump out of it? That misses the point. The musicians want to keep performing, and they know that being associated with any event tied to President Trump might hurt their careers. Said careers weren’t exactly thriving to begin with, putting even more pressure on them to conform. Yet roughly the same time, we saw a group of high-profile musicians, including U2’s Bono and The Edge, and Bruce Springsteen, perform at President Barack Obama’s presidential museum opening. They didn’t fear professional pushback (nor should they). This wasn’t a patriotic event to honor a national holiday. The opening celebrated the most prominent Democrat in the nation, and in doing so, the musicians didn’t face violent threats or attacks on their professional future. That’s as it should be. Yet there’s an extreme double standard in play. Just ask British singer M.I.A. She joined Kid Cudi’s Rebel Ragers tour earlier this year as an opening act, but she quickly lost the gig for saying the “wrong” thing on stage. She shared Right-leaning opinions, and in a New York minute, she was gone. The singer later filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Kid Cudi. The media reported the lawsuit but didn’t share any outrage over the singer’s free speech rights or the potential of wrongful termination. Nor did reporters note the irony of Springsteen creating an entire tour to spread his far-Left views while M.I.A. lost her job for sharing a fraction (of a fraction) of that political commentary. Perhaps the best example of the media trying to cancel a superstar for aligning with MAGA came courtesy of Nate Bargatze. He’s the most successful comedian of the moment, a squeaky-clean stand-up who sells out arenas and never discusses politics on or off stage. Bargatze attended the recent White House/UFC extravaganza, an event meant to honor the nation’s upcoming birthday and showcase the popular sport. Bargatze was not only on hand for the fights but snapped pictures with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and his wife, actress Cheryl Hines. That sparked several media outlets to shame Bargatze for the snapshots, including The Daily Beast and Parade magazine. They played up a small sample of “outraged” social media users to buttress their flimsy argument. “USA TODAY has reached out to Bargatze’s rep for comment.” What comment? Yes, I attended the event. No, I don’t refuse photographs from people, regardless of their political leanings. It’s absurd and tantamount to press bullying. And it quickly got worse. A few days later, far-Left comedian W. Kamau Bell slammed Bargatze for palling around with “fascists,” sparking a fresh wave of media coverage, including Variety. The not-so-subtle message? Cozying up to MAGA in any way is like supporting fascism. That’s actually fascist. Bargatze had to issue a public statement saying he’s a big UFC fan and remains apolitical. Had Bargatze attended a similar event with a Democrat in the White House, the moment would have gotten little, if any, coverage. Or, it might have expanded his already huge career. Why would the media pile on Bargatze? He’s technically too big to cancel, but it’s all about sending a message. Align with the Right in any manner, be it a social media post or a simple selfie, and you’ll be “outed” and punished. The comedian will survive this news cycle. Lesser stars might not, and thus they’ll stay quiet moving forward. None of this should be surprising. Actors like James Woods, Kevin Sorbo, Scott Baio, and more have faced retribution for simply leaning to the Right. Hines hasn’t had an acting gig since her husband joined the Trump administration. She isn’t even a part of Larry David’s new HBO Max series, “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness.” That’s despite David working with stars he’s collaborated with over the decades on the show, including Jerry Seinfeld, Susie Essman, Vince Vaughn, and more. And she’s not even conservative. Her crime? She’s married to a former Democrat who felt he could do some good for the country by joining the Trump administration. It’s why Hollywood conservatives created Friends of Abe long ago. The secretive group once met to network, bond, and share horror stories about the professional pummeling they face for being on the Right. The group still exists and remains an off-the-record affair. The ironic part? Cancel Culture against conservatives has existed in Hollywood for some time. The term became popular when that punishment expanded to include anyone who ran afoul of the progressive narrative, AKA woke. Now, as woke fades and Cancel Culture cases shrink, it’s back to where it originally thrived, punishing conservative stars who dare speak their minds or pose for selfies. *** Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. He’s also the host of The Hollywood in Toto Podcast. Follow him at @HollywoodInToto. 

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.  *** For years, we were told not to worry about pediatric gender medicine because it was vanishingly rare. Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, we were assured, were reserved for a tiny number of carefully assessed children with severe and persistent distress. But when new data show that these treatments aren’t so rare, the same defenders suddenly change their tune: the numbers are no longer reassuring because they are small; now they are reassuring because they are large. More children receiving medical transition means that a previously hidden population finally feels safe enough to pursue the care it has always needed. Higher cross-sex identity persistence after social transition or administering puberty blockers means the interventions were obviously appropriate. Any outcome, it seems, can be interpreted as proof that “gender-affirming care” is successful. But this is not how evidence-based medicine is supposed to work. This is how an ideology protects itself from falsification. The latest example comes from Oregon. As Benjamin Ryan first reported, a new study in Research Connections analyzed insurance claims for 868,740 insured Oregon adolescents ages 8 to 17 from 2016 to 2023. The data cover roughly 80% of insured Oregonians. The figures were shocking. Click here for more Manhattan Institute content. By age 17, roughly one in 240 insured Oregon girls was taking testosterone, and about one in 630 boys was taking estrogen. Across all ages in the study, about 1% of insured Oregon youth had a gender-related diagnosis. For girls, the figure was 1.5%. These aren’t nationwide numbers. Oregon is an unusually progressive state with an unusually supportive legal and insurance environment for pediatric gender medicine. But they give us a glimpse of what happens when supporters of child transition receive little to no pushback. The study’s authors don’t view the numbers as alarming. They still describe medical transition as “rare” and emphasize that access remains “limited” even in Oregon. They suggest that the state’s supportive policy environment likely contributed to greater access, while “structural and systemic barriers” may still be holding treatment rates down. Whatever the data, they support the affirmative model. If the rates are low, that proves the panic is overblown. If the rates are high, that’s evidence that access is improving. If the rates rise, that means stigma is declining. If they don’t rise enough, that means barriers remain. Heads, they win; tails, you’re a bigot. This pattern shows up again and again. Years ago, when critics warned that puberty blockers appeared to function less as a “pause button” and more as the first step on a nearly automatic pathway to cross-sex hormones, defenders insisted that persistence meant the children had been properly selected. But if administering puberty blockers changes the likelihood that a child will persist in rejecting their sex from about 15–20% to more than 97%, then persistence isn’t proof that the child’s transgender identity was fixed all along — it’s evidence that the intervention made permanent what would have been ephemeral. Kenneth Zucker, one of the world’s leading experts on childhood gender dysphoria, has warned that even social transition is not a neutral act. Changing a child’s name, pronouns, clothing, and social identity is a psychosocial intervention. It may reduce distress in the short term, but it also seems to increase the likelihood that a child’s cross-sex identity persists into adolescence, when puberty blockers and hormones are put on the table. That possibility should haunt the field. Instead, it is dismissed. Consider a new Canadian study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health and shared by pediatric psychiatrist and gender medicine proponent Jack Turban on social media. Researchers examined 445 adolescents referred to gender clinics. After a median follow-up of 2.4 years, 97.1% still identified as transgender or nonbinary, and only 1.1% of those who started cross-sex hormones stopped taking them. The study presents this as reassuring evidence that adolescent transgender identity is extremely stable, and that concerns about regret and potential detransition are overblown. The same logic appeared in response to the Oregon data. Trans activist Ari Drennen said on X that it “should not be shocking” that 0.4% of 17-year-old girls in Oregon are chemically transitioning. But it is shocking. If one in 240 girls aged 17 in a state were receiving any other powerful intervention for a new psychiatric diagnosis that permanently deepened their voice, caused them to grow beards, altered their sexual function, and affected their fertility, no serious person would shrug and say, “Sounds about right.” At some point, defenders of pediatric gender medicine must answer several simple questions: What result would make you reconsider? Would it be one in 100 girls on testosterone? What about one in 50? What rate of regret or detransition is too high? Would you accept that as evidence that suicidality and mental health don’t improve after treatment? How many systematic evidence reviews must conclude that the evidence of benefit is extremely weak while the risk of serious harm is significant? We should have insisted on answers long ago, before we ever started performing this medical experiment on children — not after the results come in, when activists have had ample time to devise explanations about why the latest horrific finding is actually wonderful news. Falsifiability is a basic principle of science. No claim that can be supported by every possible outcome has any business being called scientific or “evidence-based.” *** This is republished with permission from the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. The original can be found here. Colin Wright is an evolutionary biologist and Manhattan Institute Fellow.

This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** The field of psychology has its own special version of obtuse, especially when it comes to the trans debate. I am a therapist, but I’m an outlier nowadays, and that is simply because I have common sense. I continue to be dumbfounded by what passes as professional expertise, such as the mythological, non-scientific idea that people are “born in the wrong body.” It is Pride month, which means we are being surrounded by the LGBTQ alphabet soup. Most of us are sick and tired of the rainbows and perverted celebrations. However, behind these narcissistic displays, we must remember that there are still vulnerable populations being recruited into a cult. One of the largest vulnerable groups the rainbow cult exploits is autistic people.   While many young people overplay an autism label for clout or special treatment, it is undeniable that there are higher rates of autism compared to 20 years ago. The explanations for this phenomenon shall be saved for another day; the point is there are more vulnerable autistic young people, who are easy to recruit into gender ideology and are harder to pull out of it. In fact, the strong connection between autism and transgenderism is so apparent that the pro-trans crowd even acknowledges it. NPR  states uncritically, “Transgender and nonbinary people are up to six times more likely to have autism.” A 2021 study by the National Institutes of Health titled, “The lived experience of gender dysphoria in autistic adults: An interpretive phenomenological analysis,” begins by stating that “autistic people are more likely to be transgender.” Colleen Cira, one of many likeminded psychologists with large followings on social media, cites these statistics: “Autistic adults are 8.1 x more likely to identify as asexual and 7.6 x more likely to identify as non-heterosexual. Trans and gender diverse adults are three to six times more likely be autistic than cisgender adults.” But her response to these statistics is not curiosity or concern; it is affirmation. She continues, “This neuro-queer community deserves to be seen and celebrated, so this Pride Month I am celebrating every queer and autistic person out there.” Dr. Cira is not an outlier. You can find countless posts and websites of mental health professionals and institutions with a similar sentiment. Even autism organizations such as Autism Speaks promote so-called gender-affirming care as the only valid treatment for the population in which it claims to specialize. Never once do these professionals question why so many autistic people claim a trans identity. To them, the dogmatic belief that any declaration of a trans or queer identity is real and true, no matter the context, is all they need. Their blind spot is so big they make Ray Charles look like a hawk. It’s not a coincidence that trans communities love-bomb and provide a welcoming atmosphere for new recruits, something that easily attracts a lost soul who can’t figure out how to make friends. LGBTQ groups attract other “quirky” people who don’t otherwise fit in and provide a new sense of belonging. In addition, the trans community plays into the minority stress belief system, so the autistic individual can blame his or her problems on external oppression, rather than personal social deficits.  The identity also becomes a type of shield for the socially awkward person. When the autistic person behaves inappropriately, he gets a pass because he is trans. And in many circumstances, he is given extra positive attention for being trans. Finally, the trans culture provides a language and a script for people who can’t figure out the complexities of human-to-human interactions. Detransitioner Maia Poet wrote in her Substack, “My trans identity was the mask I wore, as an elaborate way to conceal the confusion and overwhelm I felt as I navigated the world encumbered by my autistic social deficits.” For anyone who knows an autistic person, the real explanations for this connection are glaringly obvious, and it is not because autistic people were suddenly disproportionately mismatched with their bodies. Autistic people struggle socially. They have difficulty interpreting social cues, understanding unspoken expectations, recognizing context-specific norms around clothing and behavior, and navigating social roles. Plus, they have trouble flirting, dating, and getting attention from the opposite sex. When you are truly different and get left behind, it would be natural to claim a “queer” identity instead of facing the pain of feeling ostracized.  Autistic people have sensory issues, which makes body changes and puberty even more difficult than normal. Also, they may prefer baggy clothing, which in and of itself is enough to identify as “nonbinary” or “trans masculine.” Binding (or flattening breasts) may feel good, or it can seem like a way to control changes happening to their bodies.  Autistic individuals often spend more time online than their peers, and many are drawn to activities such as gaming and online communities on platforms such as Discord, Reddit, Tumblr, and others. Digital spaces can feel easier to navigate because social expectations are more explicit and interactions can happen from the comfort and predictability of home. Features such as likes, reposts, and other forms of feedback also provide clearer social cues about what is rewarded or positively received online, for better or worse. Because of this, online communities can become especially influential during identity formation, and many young people are recruited to social movements and learn ways of understanding themselves through these digital environments. Flags, symbols, and categories attract the autistic mind. They enjoy categories and ways to acknowledge details. The many trans/pride flags are a great outlet for those who experience the world this way. There is even an autistic trans flag, which appears like a targeted marketing campaign. The most concerning aspect of the trans-autism connection is that many autistic individuals tend to be more inwardly focused and exhibit rigid patterns of thinking. Although much of gender ideology is not grounded in logic, it can still foster an inflexible mindset that becomes difficult to challenge. As a result, it can be especially hard to help an autistic person reconsider beliefs she has strongly adopted. Parents of autistic children face unique challenges in helping their children recognize when they may have been misled or influenced by systems and industries that financially benefit from reinforcing the belief that discomfort with oneself means being born in the wrong body. Despite these obvious factors, NPR repeats in its article that “researchers are working to understand the connection” as if it is a complete mystery. My profession used to understand that vulnerable people often seek certainty, categories, belonging, and explanations for pain. We once recognized that distress can be real while the explanation for that distress may still deserve exploration. Somehow, in this one area, psychology and medicine forget their own principles, pretend to ignore the obvious, and continue to remain obtuse. *** Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, LCSW, is a licensed therapist. She is the author of “A Practical Response to Gender Distress: Tips and Tools for Family” and “Froggy Girl.” You can find her on Instagram at @the.truthfultherapist, X as @pgarfieldjaeger, and Substack as Pamthetruthfultherapist.

Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture.  This weekend, Academy Award-nominated actor and prominent veterans’ advocate Gary Sinise chats with The Daily Wire to celebrate the most magical year of his late son Mac’s life, offer words of wisdom for those journeying through heartbreak, detail how the Gary Sinise Foundation serves with holy purpose, and unwittingly prove why his trailblazing legacy just might last forever.  *** Gary Sinise settles into his home office in Nashville, sporting a black polo emblazoned with his foundation’s logo and a fittingly off-duty Lt. Dan Band ball cap. If you only know him for his lauded film and television career, or for founding Chicago’s world-class Steppenwolf theater, you should know he’s also a monster on bass. He’s flanked by candid family photos carefully placed among various awards and mementos, an assortment of handheld U.S. flags, a military service banner, and other cherished treasures. The latest vinyl collection of his son Mac’s posthumous musical work, “Resurrection & Revival: Part Three,” suits the tableau. Each album cover in the three-part series features a portrait of Gary’s then-17-year-old grandfather on horseback before he shipped out to France to serve in World War I.  Gary’s smile is warm and present. I don’t find out until later that he was just on the phone with the wife of someone killed in the recent crash at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He meets me in the moment. “Hi there,” he says. I can’t believe I’m talking to Lieutenant Dan. Still, Gary’s iconic “Forrest Gump” character takes a respectful backseat to this chapter of life, much of which quietly beckons grief to the surface.  I’ve listened to Mac Sinise’s stunning “Arctic Circles” and soulful “Shenandoah,” featuring the harmonica Mac taught himself to play as a rare cancer overtook his body, making it impossible to drum like he once did. He recorded both tracks with a studio orchestra on the cusp of his death in 2024 at age 33. “He was able to finish that album before he died, and I mean just weeks before he died. It’s a beautiful thing because —” Gary wells up. The silence feels sacred. “In some ways, that final year for Mac was one of the greatest years of his life because of what he accomplished.”  Mac was diagnosed almost in tandem with Gary’s wife, Moira Harris, who is now in remission from Stage 3 breast cancer. After six years of supporting family through surgeries and treatment, Gary is sharing Mac’s music with new audiences and putting pen to paper on his own journey. “It’s really the story of my son and the family and dealing with all of it,” Gary says of his upcoming release “Graceful Warrior,” a follow-up to his debut New York Times bestseller, “Grateful American.” “It’s been a hard couple of years navigating through the stuff that bubbles up just at the drop of a hat,” he says. “You have one thought and boom, there you are in the middle of it.” Gary tears up, recalling the year he surprised Mac with a professionally recorded version of a song he had written during college. “It was just a rough little recording of him singing and playing,” Gary says of the initial inspiration. After convincing two musician buddies to preserve “Eyes of Marigold” in the studio, Gary presented it to Mac. “I have a great picture of him with earphones in his ears in a restaurant when we took him out for his birthday dinner … with this gigantic smile on his face, listening to his song.” I know I’m just barely scratching the surface on Gary’s inner wellspring, but it almost seems there was a greater force at play when Gary took on his role in “Forrest Gump.” Somehow, Lieutenant Dan’s impassioned outcry on the boat feels like an honest prayer from humanity’s depths, giving voice to our struggles as he screams at the heavens. “You call this a storm? … I’m right here. Come and get me! You’ll never sink this boat!” The Nashville chapter Ten years after its founding in 2011, the Gary Sinise Foundation relocated its headquarters from Los Angeles to Franklin, Tennessee. Gary’s family followed.  “I stopped acting at the end of 2019 because things were getting so tough,” he explains. “I just needed to step away from it … and then I started to realize I don’t really want to live in California anymore.” The move hinged on his daughter Sophie agreeing to move from SoCal with her three kids. Soon, Gary’s daughter, Ella, relocated from Virginia to the Volunteer State. Another driver was the security in knowing that his wealth would stretch further in a state with no state income tax (and less of the “dopey things they do out there”), plus gas that’s routinely $3 cheaper than it is in LA. “I have a lot of friends in Nashville,” he adds. “I’ve always loved Tennessee.” The whole family, including Gary’s six grandchildren, is planning a getaway this summer. It’s their first vacation since Mac died. Gary’s face lights up when he tells me, “I can’t get enough of my grandkids and daughters.” A morning fit for reflection I’m convinced that some of the most fascinating people think their personal lives deserve no headlines. “It’s not that interesting, quite frankly. You know, I don’t do that much,” Gary says with a smile. I don’t believe that for a second. “I’ll get up at about 5 o’clock every day,” he shares. Usually, he gets straight to responding to emails, but if he’s looking for something a little more analog, he heads outside to walk the hills of Tennessee. “It’s peaceful, and there are deer, turkeys … It’s really a beautiful area that we’re in and I get my exercise that way,” he says.   I can’t imagine doing this before dawn without coffee, but Gary skips the hard stuff. “I found out that my gallbladder was shot … I was like, okay, I’ll get rid of coffee, I’ll get rid of alcohol, I’ll stop eating spicy food, you know, whatever it was.” He occasionally treats himself to decaf or Ryze superfood mushroom coffee, but he knows his limits. “As soon as I have a cup of caffeine, it’ll be back to three or four a day,” he says. Still, he adds, “I do like this sort of ritual of having something warm in the morning.”  He tells me he eats yogurt with “this sort of cereal and fruit,” and I gently tease him for sounding MAHA with this and his mushroom drinks. “You know, a couple days a week … I’ll do like steak and eggs,” he finally admits. “I’ll go protein, like heavy protein.” There it is. Spirit-boosting work “I’m always working,” Gary says, confirming my hunch. He’s the kind of person who recharges his batteries by serving others. “Years ago I used to try to play golf.”  The Lt. Dan Band is currently set to head out on tour, eventually stopping by the Opry in September in salute to our nation’s heroes. “I’m an actor who happens to have a band,” Gary says. “I’m not a songwriter or anything like that. I play other people’s music; we do some of Mac’s songs.” Even though the band was founded to honor veterans, it also serves as a creative outlet for Gary’s many talents.    Courtesy of Gary Sinise “Playing in the band is about the mission work that I’m doing,” he explains. “I pay everybody else; I play for free. Even though that’s part of the mission, my sort of relaxing enjoyment is to get up there with my bass and play these songs for people and lift them up. I get a lot of joy out of that.” A legacy of service I catch up with Gary at a local firehouse just outside of Franklin, where he’s serving Martin’s Bar-B-Que to first responders alongside his longtime friend Joseph Carr, founder and CEO of Josh Cellars. This is clearly not Gary’s first rodeo on baked beans duty. But even though the Gary Sinise Foundation has served nearly 1.5 million meals of appreciation, Gary zhuzhes up the chafing dish and loads up plates like he baked the beans himself.    Lauren Bair But it’s really not about the food or leveraging America 250 for the brand. “This is what we do every day of the year at the Gary Sinise Foundation,” he says. “The food is great, but the message of appreciation and remembrance is really what this program is all about.”  It’s a perfect sunny day. Gary makes himself available for photos with each firefighter and rallies everyone for seconds. The firefighters assure me they never eat like this (usually it’s pizza or takeout). They’re gifted full-fledged catering, maybe once every two years. I hear we’re lucky the siren didn’t go off before everyone got fed. Still in his apron, Gary ribs me about sneaking a glamor shot of the banana pudding. “What about the beans!” he laughs. If you remember those old Bush’s commercials, we got some beautiful bean footage before the beans ran out. Gary’s staff alerts him to the fact that his servings were extra large today. Gary jokes back, “We’re outta beans! My team has totally failed!” He has everyone in the station laughing. “Service is a great healer,” Gary says. “I would recommend it to anybody when you’re going through a tough time.” He’s been doing this for decades. Unlike other stars chasing photo ops, there’s no question his dedication comes from the heart. I ask if anything changed when his wife and son were in treatment. He says helping others renewed his spirit.  “[I’d] come back from a trip where I’m just watching kids jump up and down, and spouses who have deployed service members overseas, and they’re worried about them, and they’re smiling,” he says. “I would always come back nourished and energized to continue the fight.” “When your heart is broken over something, you know how it makes you feel when you lift somebody else up,” he explains. “When you put your arms around them, you lift them up, and you see the smile. You forget about your own broken heart for a while. I never stopped doing the mission work throughout the entire painful period of fighting for my son. He loved that I was out there on the road, helping families of our fallen heroes, and helping our wounded through difficult times.” It really seems like Gary’s operating on another level, spiritually, holding vigil for people exactly where they are. He’s living his legacy. I can’t help but think of Lieutenant Dan on the dock, joining Forrest on the shrimp boat. “I told you if you were ever a shrimp boat captain, that I’d be your first mate,” he says. “Well here I am. I am a man of my word.”

As Vice President JD Vance leads negotiations aimed at ending the war against Iran and delivering on the administration’s promise that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, one major question looms over the whole process. Can we trust Iran? The U.S. negotiating team has signaled that Iran’s team has shown itself to be much more pragmatic than Iranian negotiators in the past. Little attention, however, has been paid to who exactly these more pragmatic Iranians are. Iran’s delegation is not composed solely of career diplomats. The team includes former Revolutionary Guard commanders, officials tied to violent crackdowns on protesters, figures accused of human rights violations, and regime insiders linked to corruption scandals and political repression. Their records offer a revealing look at the team helping shape the Iranian regime’s approach to the West and its response to dissent at home. Here are the three top men representing Tehran in negotiations with the United States. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Photo by Iranian Parliament Speaker Office / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images) As speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has emerged as one of the key figures representing Tehran in negotiations with the Trump administration. A veteran of the U.S.-designated terror organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ghalibaf has spent more than four decades in some of the regime’s most powerful positions, including commander of the IRGC Air Force, chief of Iran’s national police, mayor of Tehran, and, since 2020, speaker of parliament. Across that span, Ghalibaf has faced repeated allegations of corruption and human rights abuses while earning a reputation as one of the Islamic Republic’s most prominent enforcers of violent suppression of civilian protests. During the July 1999 student protests, he was one of 24 senior IRGC commanders who signed a letter warning then-President Mohammad Khatami that the military would intervene if his government failed to crush the demonstrations.  In a leaked 2013 audio recording, he allegedly boasted about personally assaulting student protesters, saying photographs showed him riding on the back of a motorcycle “beating them with wooden sticks,” before adding, “I was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that. I didn’t care I was a high ranking commander.” He went on to describe his role in later efforts to suppress dissent, including the 2003 student demonstrations, claiming he pressured officials to authorize security forces to enter university campuses and use force against protesters.  “I went to the National Security Council meeting and raised hell, spoke very harshly. Didn’t observe proper protocol and I told them as head of the Police, I will demolish anyone who would show up tonight on the campus to protest,” he said.  Discussing the mass protests that followed Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election, Ghalibaf boasted that Tehran’s municipality played such a significant role in suppressing the unrest that officials ranked it among the government’s top-performing institutions in responding to the protests. “Although the Mayoralty is not a security agency, we were ranked third in how well we responded… and this is amongst intelligence-security organs, not all state organs,” he said. The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s mandatory hijab law, sparked nationwide anti-regime protests in 2022. Ghalibaf dismissed the demonstrations as an effort to overthrow the Islamic Republic and called for those he accused of threatening public order to be dealt with harshly. As the regime carried out a sweeping crackdown on anti-government protests in late 2025 and early 2026, with some estimates placing the death toll as high as 32,000, Ghalibaf defended the government’s response at a state-organized “Iranian Uprising Against American-Zionist Terrorism” rally. Speaking to the crowd, he portrayed the unrest as foreign-backed terrorism, arguing Iran was fighting a “war against terrorism.” Ghalibaf has also faced repeated corruption allegations, including during his tenure as Tehran’s mayor, when his administration was accused of improperly transferring valuable municipal properties to politically connected insiders.  Years later, as Iran struggled with inflation topping 40%, he was engulfed by the 2022 “Sismonigate” scandal after members of his family were photographed returning from Turkey with luxury baby goods and nearly 20 pieces of luggage. The scandal sparked calls for his resignation. It deepened further after reports that members of his family had also purchased two luxury apartments in Istanbul worth roughly $1.6 million. Despite four unsuccessful presidential campaigns, repeated corruption allegations, and more recent attacks from hardline lawmakers over negotiations with the United States, Ghalibaf has remained one of the Islamic Republic’s most influential political figures. His critics have accused him of shielding the negotiations from parliamentary scrutiny and crossing Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s red lines, reported Iran International. Abbas Araghchi Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images) As Iran’s foreign minister and one of the regime’s longest-serving nuclear negotiators, Abbas Araghchi has become the face of Tehran’s diplomacy with the West.  Araghchi has spent more than two decades climbing the ranks in the Islamic regime. After earning a Ph.D. from England’s University of Kent, he served as Iran’s ambassador to Finland and Japan, Foreign Ministry spokesman, deputy foreign minister, chief nuclear negotiator, and, in 2024, foreign minister. To Western audiences, Araghchi is often viewed as a seasoned diplomat. But before entering the Foreign Ministry, he spent nine years serving in the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War. The IRGC remains one of the most powerful pillars of the Islamic Republic and has long been accused of supporting terrorism abroad and brutally suppressing dissent at home. Araghchi has consistently defended the regime’s hardline positions toward the United States and its allies. Following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2025, he accused Washington of committing “a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT” and warned the attacks would have “everlasting consequences.” Araghchi has also brushed off Western criticism of the regime’s human rights record. In 2023, amid global demonstrations supporting Iran’s protest movement following the death of Mahsa Amini, Araghchi urged Iranian officials to prevent demonstrations against the Islamic Republic from taking place abroad. He argued the protests were fueling an effort to “defame and delegitimize” the regime and warned the campaign was “very dangerous” because it was harming Iran’s relationships with other countries. During the regime’s squashing of the protests in January 2026, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused Tehran of using “disproportionate and brutal violence” against demonstrators. Araghchi dismissed the criticism, arguing Germany had forfeited its credibility on human rights because of its support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Ali Bagheri Kani Ali Bagheri Kani (Photo by Marwan Naamani/picture alliance via Getty Images) Another key figure in Iran’s delegation is Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a longtime regime insider whose career has taken him through Iran’s security establishment, judiciary, and nuclear negotiating team. Bagheri Kani’s rise through the Islamic Republic has been closely intertwined with one of the regime’s most influential political families. His father, Mohammad-Bagher Bagheri Kani, is a prominent cleric and former member of parliament and the Assembly of Experts. His uncle, Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, served as acting prime minister, interior minister, and later chaired the Assembly of Experts. His brother is married to a daughter of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Al Jazeera. He served as deputy foreign minister for political affairs and briefly as acting foreign minister after Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was killed in a 2024 helicopter crash. He also held senior positions in Iran’s judiciary, serving as deputy for international affairs and secretary of the regime’s Human Rights Headquarters, which is responsible for defending Iran’s human rights record on the international stage. He also worked under hardline negotiator Saeed Jalili from 2007 to 2013, when the Supreme National Security Council handled the country’s nuclear file. Bagheri Kani managed Jalili’s 2013 presidential campaign, defending his confrontational approach to negotiations while opposing then-candidate Hassan Rouhani’s push for a nuclear agreement with the West. He later defended Iran’s strategy of stalling negotiations, saying Tehran deliberately sought to “buy time” so work at the Fordow and Arak nuclear facilities could continue. After Rouhani took office and pursued President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Bagheri Kani became one of its most outspoken critics. He repeatedly attacked the negotiations in parliament, wrote op-eds condemning the agreement, and argued it was a Western trap that surrendered Iran’s sovereignty. He later described Iran’s negotiations with the United States as “a bitter historical experience.” In 2021, he became Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator and led the Vienna talks aimed at reviving the very agreement he had spent years opposing. Bagheri Kani has consistently taken a hard line against the United States. He denounced what he called Washington’s “unlawful and inhumane sanctions,” argued in July 2024 that the U.S. “cannot be part of the solution” in the Middle East but is instead “the main obstacle,” and, in June, he accused Washington of seeking to “destroy Iran’s civilisation, capabilities, and self-confidence.” Leona Salinas contributed to this report.