Independent candidate Diane Sare decries US complicity in global wars

Independent US presidential candidate and Schiller Institute associate Diane Sare has delivered a wide-ranging critique of contemporary American governance, warning that US foreign policy has been captured by an elite billionaire donor class, subservient to foreign lobbies, and dangerously disconnected from the economic realities facing ordinary citizens. Speaking in an in-depth interview with international relations specialist Professor Dr Hasan Ünal on his Strategic Compass programme, broadcast on the Harici digital platform, Sare argued that the United States is accelerating towards catastrophic regional conflicts and structural domestic decline due to a bipartisan consensus that has betrayed the electorate.

Opening the discussion, Professor Dr Ünal highlighted the glaring contradictions surrounding the administration of Donald Trump, who campaigned aggressively on a mandate to terminate endless foreign wars that have severely drained American economic resources. Ünal questioned how an administration that promised swift diplomatic resolutions to conflicts such as the Ukraine war and disengagement from Middle Eastern entanglements could instead find itself drawn into deeper confrontation, particularly with Iran. Ünal noted that Trump had assured voters he would bring public funds back home to rebuild domestic infrastructure, yet the reality on the ground has sharply diverged from those campaign commitments.

“Trump has betrayed the trust that people placed in him”

In response, Sare affirmed that a substantial contradiction defines Trump’s governance and that political support for the president is deteriorating rapidly across the country. Sare, “Well, no, obviously there is a contradiction and Trump is losing support very, very rapidly,” observed, pointing directly to grassroots electoral shifts in key swing states. “I saw a study in Michigan that six out of 10 Trump voters would vote for Abdul Sayed in the US Senate race, not the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate,” she stated, adding: “So, he has betrayed the trust that people placed in him, and I would not say it was profound trust. I think that Americans feel they have been burned repeatedly, actually. And therefore, Trump frankly faced the vulnerability that I think he was not really aware of and not the people around him, which is that the trust in him would evaporate very quickly. And that is what has happened.”

To explain how this disconnect arose, Sare cited the analytical framework of the late political figure Lyndon LaRouche, recalling conversations during Trump’s first presidential term. When supporters questioned why a candidate who campaigned on reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act would immediately appoint former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin to head the Department of the Treasury, LaRouche provided a blunt explanation. Sare, “LaRouche said he thinks like a businessman or real wheeler-dealer,” noted. “So, the guy raised a lot of money for his campaign, so he gives him a post. And then someone who raises a lot of money says, ‘Well, you got to bring on John Bolton.’ All right, well, John Bolton was a horrible saboteur neocon who sabotaged what might have been the end of the Korean War in Trump’s first term. It looked like things were moving that way.”

According to Sare, this transactional approach has subordinated national strategy to an insular, ultra-wealthy elite that operates above traditional democratic structures. Sare, “So, I think what you have is the class of billionaires who are calling the shots,” emphasized, identifying prominent venture capitalists and financiers as key gatekeepers. “It has come to my attention that Peter Thiel, one of the notorious members of this class, was literally doing the vetting of Trump appointees for Trump to his administration,” she stated. “So, I think this is how the policy has gone so far awry. And unfortunately, when people are born into this class, they never had to work; they do not understand how things work, like how does the food get from the farm to your table, and how does the farmer get the fertilizer to grow the food? These things mean nothing to them, so their policy, frankly, has been reckless even to the point of detonating perhaps the entire transatlantic economy. That is going to be the result of the policies that Trump himself has become the purveyor of.”

“Both parties have betrayed the people”

When Professor Dr Ünal pressed further into the mechanics of the US political architecture, asking how massive campaign contributions and foreign influence groups can dictate terms under the guise of democratic elections, Sare asserted that the systemic decay has created an unprecedented political awakening. “We have seen it with the Israeli lobby, too,” she remarked, indicating that public frustration is reaching a boiling point. “I do think we are in a bit of a revolutionary period because of what I said earlier: the American voters feel very much betrayed.”

Sare pointed out that institutional complacency is blinding established political machines to this voter revolt. Recounting her recent participation in a national convention of independent candidates, she expressed astonishment that as many as seven independent candidates for the US House of Representatives and the US Senate are currently polling ahead of their major-party rivals, creating real possibilities of unseating entrenched Democrats or Republicans. Sare, “This is unheard of,” noted, rebuking the Democratic Party leadership for misjudging the popular mood. “The Democrats made a big mistake because they are very arrogant. And we remember Hillary Clinton could not imagine that she would lose the election in 2016. She thought she was so great, but voters rejected that. So, the Democrats have not learned anything. They think they can just sit there, complain about Trump, and they will be the beneficiaries of the people leaving Trump. But Americans are getting wiser.”

Sare identified current Middle East policy as a primary catalyst for this bipartisan disillusionment. “For example, over the Iran war, 70% or so of the American people are against this war,” she stated. “We do not know why we are in it. It serves no purpose. Iran never attacked us, and it is costing us a lot of money. And then others who know the kind of crimes that are being committed, like the attack on the girls’ school in Minab, know we do not want it.”

Crucially, Sare insisted that primary culpability cannot be pinned entirely on the executive branch or foreign leaders alone. Sare, “Of course, you can blame the war on Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, but the US Congress has the power of the purse,” stressed, recalling the legislative actions that concluded past American interventions. “The Vietnam War was ended when the Congress stopped funding it. So, we know that the Democrats could have stopped the funding of this war. There was a War Powers Resolution maybe a month and a half ago, and the Democrats, Gregory Meeks and Hakeem Jeffries, would not allow the vote to go to the floor. It could have been a winning vote. So, it means that both parties have betrayed the people.”

Addressing the broader dynamics of oligarchic influence over the two-party system, Sare explained how big money hedges its bets: “Of course, if I were a billionaire and I wanted to control the outcome, I would give money to both parties. You do not put all your eggs in one basket. You want everyone who is elected to feel that they are beholden to you.” Nevertheless, she argued that the traditional monopoly is cracking: “I think Americans are wising up to this. I think what we are going to see is that candidates who are not with either party or who are considered mavericks, who in the past would not have even gotten 1% or 2% of the vote, are going to suddenly be very close to winning seats or even winning. It is a very, very different situation where everything is in flux.”

“I don’t see a third party; what I see is the same class money trying to capture the independent movement”

Responding to Ünal’s question about whether the collapse of public trust among voters, particularly disillusioned working-class Make America Great Again supporters, could coalesce into a viable third political party, Sare expressed deep scepticism towards conventional party structures. Sare, “I do not see a third party,” stated directly. “What I see is the same class money trying to capture the independent movement. Like there is Joe Manchin, this former US senator who was a Democrat that often voted with the Republicans. He is pretending to create an independent movement, but he is up in Maine campaigning for Susan Collins, a Republican senator. So, it is kind of a fraud. And I think a lot of people who are truly independent like myself, who are peace candidates, do not want to be part of this.”

Instead of adding another partisan entity to the ballot, Sare advocated transcending the party framework altogether, invoking the constitutional warnings of America’s first president. Sare, “I would much prefer really that we get rid of the party system,” asserted. “Our first president, George Washington, warned about it very much in his Farewell Address. He said when you get parties, then you are going to have tribalism: ‘my team, your team’. And suddenly everyone is more interested in the team than the principle or the good of the nation or the people. So, I do not know that a third party would actually solve anything. I think we have to really have a new system that does not rely on parties in that way.”

Addressing systemic impediments to open political discourse, including monopolistic control over communication channels, Sare highlighted corporate media and technological censorship. “It is so hard to know because we are suffering so much under censorship also here,” she remarked. “Is there anything Larry Ellison does not own? Or maybe his ownership stops where Jeff Bezos’ ownership begins?” Despite these hurdles, Sare noted that institutional reforms such as ranked-choice voting and open non-partisan primaries could allow genuine non-affiliated representatives to emerge: “Were there to be allowed to be a natural process, people are moving toward things like ranked-choice voting or open primaries where people do not vote by party and it is the top two or top three vote-getters. So, I do find it conceivable that we could get away from a party system.”

“They want to destroy sovereignty; they want to make countries ungovernable”

Examining domestic stability, Professor Dr Ünal drew parallels with widespread civil unrest and street demonstrations across Europe, notably in France, asking if comparable mass upheaval could erupt across the United States. Sare expressed doubt that unrest would manifest through identical patterns, citing American political traditions that channel dissent primarily into electoral cycles.

However, Sare expressed serious concern regarding heightened state vulnerability, political manipulation, and potential provocations designed to derail the democratic process. Citing concerns raised by international Schiller Institute leader Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Sare questioned whether an engineered domestic or foreign crisis might emerge as an October surprise. Sare, “People in this country are asking whether there would be something to create a pretext to disrupt the elections or postpone them or cancel them,” warned. “I do not think that that will occur, but I think we are in a period of great instability.”

To illustrate how deep-state institutions manage public unrest, Sare referenced admissions made by former Italian Prime Minister and interior minister Francesco Cossiga regarding the deliberate deployment of provocateurs to justify draconian police action. Sare, “We were reminded of the interview given by Cossiga in 2008, where he gave a description of what seems to be happening in France and other places,” noted. “He said what you want to do to get control of mass unrest is send in the provocateurs, let people burn everything down for about 10 days, and then you do not want to jail people, you want to beat them, basically. He said you want the ambulances to drown out the police. So, let everything get crazy, and then the population will support harsh, violent suppression of the protest, and that is how you get control, which is pretty sick.”

Sare linked these domestic tactics to broader intelligence operations aimed at eroding national independence. “We know that in France the police have been extremely brutal; young people have lost eyes and hands, and I am sure there are provocateurs as well,” she argued. “I do not doubt that the conglomerate, the blob of the CIA, MI6, and Mossad, as I call it, has a hand, because they are run by these billionaires. They want to destroy sovereignty. They want to make countries ungovernable. And I think we are seeing that unfold, and we really need a higher principle.”

“We are not supposed to be the club whereby some colonial legacy bludgeons the world into submission”

Turning to specific foreign policy trajectories, Professor Dr Ünal pressed Sare on Trump’s actions in West Asia, notably the aggression directed against Iran and total alignment with Israeli strategic objectives. Ünal pointed out that this belligerent posture stood in stark contrast to Trump’s promises of peace, questioning why Washington consistently succumbed to provocative maneuvers designed to trap the US military in catastrophic regional conflicts.

Sare did not mince words regarding Washington’s failure to exercise its diplomatic leverage over Israel. Sare, “I think that the United States is powerful enough that we could insist that Bibi Netanyahu stop the genocide in Gaza,” declared. “And we could have insisted that he not do his assassination spree against Iran and the occupation of Lebanon and all of his other adventures. But the United States chose not to do that, probably because of the influence of these networks.”

Addressing persistent public speculation regarding compromising material that may influence top officials, Sare expressed revulsion at the institutional refusal to prosecute high-level actors implicated in legal scandals. Sare, “People hypothesize that there may be something in the Epstein files about President Trump; that is definitely a possibility,” remarked. “I have to say I am a little disgusted by the idea that we have released three million of these files and nobody has been indicted. We have people like Howard Lutnick, who is a real problem, and he has not been thrown out of the administration.”

For Sare, this moral paralysis exposes a fundamental betrayal of American constitutional identity. “The United States really has to reflect on what is the mission of our republic,” she stated. “We are not fulfilling it. We are not supposed to be the tool, the club whereby some colonial legacy bludgeons the world into submission. And I think perhaps even more than this pro-Zionist element was the fatal decision when the Berlin Wall came down, where some of these neocons decided that the United States was the global hegemon. That is so opposed to the whole principle of our founding against colonialism. Once you decide that, then everything after that will be a wrong policy.”

“All 18 of the US intelligence agencies told him Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz”

As the dialogue shifted to the acute perils of direct military confrontation with Iran, Professor Dr Ünal noted that seasoned military experts had warned that Iran represented an adversary far more formidable than any the US had faced since the Second World War. Ünal queried how Washington decision-makers planned to extricate themselves from a strategic impasse of their own making.

Sare warned that rather than seeking a responsible diplomatic off-ramp, figures inside the US national security establishment are contemplating catastrophic escalation. Sare, “A friend of mine, Colonel Douglas Macgregor, just wrote a piece saying he is afraid there is a discussion of using a tactical nuclear weapon,” revealed. “We know Elbridge Colby had brought that up some months ago. And what Macgregor said is that Trump is now so boxed in. The Middle East war is not going the way he wanted; the Ukraine-Russia situation is not; the midterm elections do not look so good. Would he, in desperation, do this thing? And we hear them talking about the MOAB, the mother of all bombs, or whatever it stands for, massive ordnance.”

Dismissing delusions of easy military dominance, Sare pointed to recent American operational setbacks: “Iran has been preparing. Look, we did not win in Afghanistan. We were defeated by the Houthis not so long ago, a year ago, in Bab al-Mandab. So, the idea of defeating Iran is really sick.”

Furthermore, Sare voiced alarm over Trump’s personal capacity and susceptibility to foreign manipulation. Sare, “I also think there is a factor that Trump is aging; I think he is not sharp,” observed. “He has been making some peculiar kinds of comments lately that indicate perhaps some kind of dementia setting in. And apparently, they do not want people around him who disagree with him. He will not hear anyone who tells him, ‘No, that is not true.'”

Sare underlined that this belligerent trajectory was pursued in direct defiance of professional intelligence assessments. “Just as Joe Kent said, all 18 of the US intelligence agencies told him Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz,” she stated. “They were not building a nuclear bomb. Our intelligence agencies did not mislead President Trump, at least that is what Kent says. But some other factor, the Israelis most likely, somehow persuaded him to launch this illegal war of aggression, which is not going the way that he was told it was going to go.”

When Ünal asked how the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and associated lobby groups would navigate mounting public outrage over foreign wars, Sare indicated that their historic grip on Capitol Hill is eroding. “Now even many pro-Israel candidates do not want to accept money from AIPAC because they know it will make them look bad,” she noted. “They are losing their power. I had said that instead of the Congress being 99% controlled by AIPAC, it may go down to 82% controlled by AIPAC. They are going to take a hit. Ultimately, they are not going to be dictating the policy in the US anymore at all.”

Sare cautioned that an escalation against Iran prior to the midterm elections would be politically disastrous for the administration, explaining why reports suggest any high-risk military actions might be postponed until after voting concludes. Citing observations from former Trump attorney Robert Barnes, Sare noted that outside of hard-core bases like Florida, Trump’s personal campaign appearances are actively depressing polling numbers for his endorsed candidates: “Every time he shows up to speak, the ratings of his endorsed candidates go down. So, his travels are causing a net loss.”

“It’s worse than insider trading because you’re putting the fate of billions of people on your ability to make money”

Looking ahead to the post-midterm political landscape, Professor Dr Ünal raised the prospect of congressional investigations, impeachment proceedings, and allegations of personal financial corruption tied to military crises. Ünal noted pervasive public speculation that members of Trump’s inner circle, including family members, have profited from market volatility sparked by late-night presidential statements on military action, moving global stock indices and oil benchmarks in places like Rotterdam.

Sare confirmed that such practices constitute egregious abuses of executive authority that fully meet the constitutional standard for removal from office. Sare, “I know that some people were actually looking at the trading, because various anonymous sources seemed to be placing bets on certain political outcomes which then happened, and they would make a lot of money,” stated. “Obviously, that is an impeachable offense. It is worse than insider trading, because you are putting the fate of billions of people on your ability to make money. I think Jared Kushner is a big one to look at in this. He is a huge vulnerability to the Trump administration, and of course, Trump himself. He posts one thing on Friday night, and quickly before the markets open Monday morning, then he says something else. And absolutely, this is certainly one of the many impeachable offenses.”

However, Sare cautioned that partisan impeachment battles led by establishment Democrats often distract from deeper structural imperatives. While acknowledging that Trump has committed impeachable offenses, Sare argued that fixation on personalities obscures institutional continuity. “What concerns me again is that the thinking of people is at such a low level, because I see these Democrats who are just rabidly anti-Trump,” she said. “We have had actually a continuity of policy no matter which party was president since September 11th, 2001. We have been marching closer and closer and closer to nuclear war. It was Barack Obama who presided over the overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2013-2014, and then Joe Biden. When people obsess about a particular individual, at this point they are avoiding their own responsibility. I am not interested in punishment or being right; I am interested in the United States dramatically changing course to make sure that the world does not plunge over an abyss from which there is no return.”

“This war really has nothing to do with principle; it’s this defense contracting Wall Street bubble making money”

Turning to the conflict in Ukraine, Professor Dr Ünal noted that while Trump frequently expressed a desire to halt hostilities, contradictory reports persist indicating that behind-the-scenes arrangements involving corporate investments in Russian energy assets are motivating executive actions. Ünal also criticized European leaders, such as Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, for adopting aggressive stances toward Moscow despite possessing negligible independent military capacity.

Sare agreed that financial motives permeate the conflict, emphasizing that rhetoric surrounding territorial integrity masks predatory economic interests. “I suspect there is a great deal of truth to what you are saying, that there are deals behind the scenes,” Sare remarked. “If Trump felt so strongly that this war would not have happened under his watch, he should have done more to end it sooner, and of course he has not. I think that perhaps the motivation for wanting it to come to an end now is that we are a bit overextended. There is a great deal of economic damage being done by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and frankly, getting diesel from the Russian markets does not really make a dent in that, but you can use it to build confidence, get the markets to go up, and make some money.”

Sare condemned politicians who obstruct diplomatic realism, criticizing House figures such as Gregory Meeks for attacking the relaxation of sanctions. Sare, “We really need an even-handed policy which is rooted in principles of natural law, of respect for sovereignty of other nations,” maintained. “I know President Vladimir Putin has said on multiple occasions we need an entirely new security architecture, and of course that has been Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s position and mine. At this point, there is no crisis on the planet that we are going to solve pairwise. Russia and Ukraine is not about Russia and Ukraine. Israel and Palestine is not about Israel and Palestine. Unless you come up with regional agreements where there is a mutual benefit for every nation involved, we are not going to be able to end these conflicts.”

Sare expressed deep scepticism that European officials hold any meaningful sway over the conflict’s outcome, predicting instead that Moscow will continue to determine realities on the battlefield unless Western leaders genuinely embrace negotiated settlements: “I do not think the European leaders are that relevant. I do not think the American administration has really earned the trust of anyone, because they keep flip-flopping. So, it may be the case that the war just grinds on and that Russia solves it on the battlefield, as they have been saying. Russia, if anything, has been completely consistent from prior to the beginning of the special military operation regarding what their concerns were and what their interests were.”

The commodification of the conflict, Sare noted, was epitomized by long-term procurement announcements. Sare, “When I heard that Ukraine, now several months ago, announced they were going to be buying some airplanes from Sweden that were not even going to be manufactured until 2029, then you realize this war really has nothing to do with principle,” stressed. “It is this defense contracting Wall Street bubble making money over the misery and suffering of millions of people.” Professor Dr Ünal concurred, observing that American arms manufacturers book immense backlogs of contracts from foreign states without possessing the industrial capacity to fulfill production schedules in a timely manner.

“The fact that every time it rains you have floods and power outages, it’s almost like we are the third-world country”

In the concluding segment of the broadcast, Professor Dr Ünal and Diane Sare evaluated the precipitous collapse of the United States’ international moral standing and the visible deterioration of its domestic infrastructure. Ünal noted that global respect for Washington has been on a sustained downward trajectory for decades, a decline that has visibly accelerated in recent years.

Sare observed that the moral capital accumulated by earlier visionary American leaders has been squandered. Sare, “We had a reservoir of goodwill from some of our better presidents, from Franklin Roosevelt, from John F. Kennedy, even going back to Abraham Lincoln or John Quincy Adams: ‘seek not abroad for monsters to destroy,'” reflected. “There was a principle that people admired and loved us. Sukarno at the Bandung Conference said that the whole movement against colonialism was inspired by the American War of Independence.”

That historical legacy, Sare argued, has been supplanted by complicity in atrocities broadcast worldwide: “And now everyone watches our country aiding and abetting a genocide, which is on everybody’s screen in Gaza.”

Simultaneously, Sare described a severe internal decay that disillusions visitors and citizens alike. Sare, “People have traveled here and they see the condition of our cities,” stated. “The fact that you can lose half of your car in a pothole in New York City; the fact that every time it rains you have floods and power outages, it is almost like we are the third-world country, the banana republic, in a sense.”

Sare expressed sorrow that domestic propaganda shields large sections of the American electorate from recognizing how far national conditions have fallen relative to global peers. “Too many Americans, particularly those who still support President Trump, do not know anything about the rest of the world,” she said. “They will actually tell you that our nation is the best, the standard of living here is the best, that we have freedom. Anyone who has traveled in the world is blown away by the infrastructure, the cleanliness of cities in Russia, in China, and other places, the fact that you have high-speed rail in different places.”

This blindness, Sare concluded, is reinforced by an arrogant imperial doctrine in Washington that mirrors despotic history. Sare, “If you believe that might makes right, you do not really care about how you look to people,” warned. “It does not matter to you if they think you are corrupt and rotten as long as they are scared of you. That was Caligula: ‘Let them hate me, but let them fear me.’ And I am afraid that that is more the dynamic among some in our policy-making areas.”

Closing the dialogue, Sare issued an appeal for international collaboration based on shared humanity rather than geopolitical domination. “Given the rate of the crisis, my chances are only going to increase,” Sare said of her independent presidential campaign. “I really want to extend a hand to the people of the world, because I think as human beings we have universal principles and a universal identity that really makes it much more natural for us to find areas of common interest and collaborate. I am looking forward to the day that mankind grows up, and we do a better job of that.”

Professor Dr Ünal concluded the program by wishing Sare success in her campaign, expressing hope that American voters weary of continuous domestic crises, crumbling infrastructure, and compromised two-party politics will seek principled alternatives capable of restoring foundational national ideals.