# The ideological circle

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The ideological circle," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-ideological-circle/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's long-held claim that the political spectrum is not a straight line from left to right but a circle, on which the two ends meet — and that in the case of MAGA and the progressive left, the point where they meet is war and peace.*

- **The claim:** The ideological spectrum is a circle, not a line
- **Where the ends meet:** Issues of war and peace
- **The two ends named:** MAGA and the progressive left
- **Test case:** The Pentagon budget reversal

The **ideological circle** is a formulation [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says he has long maintained, and which he offers when asked to place a given administration on the political map.

## The shape

Asked in February 2026 how he would characterise the second Trump administration against the moment he blew the whistle, Kiriakou called it *"actually a pretty tough question,"* and began by conceding that MAGA as an ideology is *"something that I think many, many Americans can agree with."*[1]

Then the framework: *"I've long maintained that the ideological spectrum is not a straight line from left to right. It's a circle. And at some point it meets the left and the right meet. In the case of MAGA and the progressive left, I think that that is on issues of war and peace."*[2]

His illustration of the meeting point is at [the Pentagon budget reversal](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-pentagon-budget-reversal).

## Where he declines to follow the circle

Kiriakou was careful not to convert the geometry into an endorsement. *"My friends on the left would disagree with me if I said that that I believed that the Trump administration would go down in history as one of the more humanitarian administrations. I don't think that it will, but that's not to say that it's necessarily a bad thing. Because on the other side, on the flip side, open borders aren't humanitarian for anybody. And so we have to make a decision."*[3]

## What the circle is for

The purpose of the frame, in his telling, is to argue that the division is manufactured. Kiriakou dated the depth of it against his own memory — see [sitting on my father's lap](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sitting-on-my-fathers-lap) — and drew the prescription from there: *"I think that the political parties have put us there. And I believe that we shouldn't be loyal to political parties. We should be loyal to the Constitution... And I think people get distracted by this political silliness."*[4]

## See also

- [The Pentagon Budget Reversal](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-pentagon-budget-reversal)
- [Sitting On My Fathers Lap](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sitting-on-my-fathers-lap)

## Sources

1. War with Iran - Interview with John Kiriakou (2026-02-11), at 1:23:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v73fo1y&t=5030s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-11-health-ranger-report-war-with-iran-interview-with-john-kiriakou/
2. War with Iran - Interview with John Kiriakou (2026-02-11), at 1:24:25. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v73fo1y&t=5065s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-11-health-ranger-report-war-with-iran-interview-with-john-kiriakou/
3. War with Iran - Interview with John Kiriakou (2026-02-11), at 1:24:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v73fo1y&t=5096s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-11-health-ranger-report-war-with-iran-interview-with-john-kiriakou/
4. War with Iran - Interview with John Kiriakou (2026-02-11), at 1:26:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v73fo1y&t=5165s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-11-health-ranger-report-war-with-iran-interview-with-john-kiriakou/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-ideological-circle/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt