While President Donald Trump and Iranian leaders appear stuck in a back-and-forth about whether or not negotiations to end the war are happening, former CIA director John Brennan told MS NOW he believes Iran over the truth bender in chief.

As conflict continues to rage throughout the Gulf region, Trump has claimed that U.S. diplomats and Iranian government officials are having “productive” discussions about how to wind things down.

But Iran has said there is “no dialogue” happening between Washington, D.C., and Tehran, calling Trump’s story a ploy to calm down a jittery stock market and tamp down escalating oil prices.

During Monday’s episode of “The Weeknight,” co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend told Brennan she was “wary” of taking the word of Iran’s “authoritarian regime” at face value.

Brennan disagreed, however, telling the panel he would “tend to believe Iran more” than Trump.

“That’s crazy,” she replied.

Citing the president’s penchant for exaggeration, Brennan said Trump “could not acknowledge the truth even when he is slapped in the face with it repeatedly.”

“It’s clear that he is flailing right now,” the Obama appointee went on. “He’s trying to figure out how he’s going to get out of this debacle that he has created. And so he’s going to make these claims about negotiations that the Iranians now are sending signals that they really want to make a deal and indicates that it’s going to make a deal on our terms. I don’t think anything close to the truth in that statement.”

Brennan said it was possible America and Iran were trying to hash things out through proxies, telling Sanders, “They may be talking to people indirectly, and we know that the Turks and the Egyptians are trying to find some way to mediate this problem.”

“So there could be some members, you know, distant members of Parliament that are out there that are speaking individually,” he went on. “But I don’t believe there’s anybody speaking authoritatively right now on behalf of the Iranian government with the Trump administration.”

The timing of Trump’s diplomatic updates seems to support Iran’s accusations that he’s angling his announcements around the stock market.

The president announced he was extending his ultimatum for Iran to make a deal right before Wall Street opened on Monday morning, prompting the Dow Jones to surge. He set the new deadline forward five days to Friday ... after most trading closes for the weekend.

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