Breaking Afternoon UN Updates with Ben 9/22/2026

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31:23Take control over your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete.me, now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20 % off your Delete.me plan when you go to joindeleteme.com slash Midas and use promo code Midas at checkout. The only way to get 20 % off is to go to www.joindeleteme.com slash Midas and enter code Midas at checkout. That's www.joindeleteme.com slash Midas, code Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S. Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Micellis. This is your breaking news. We're zooming in on what went down at that disastrous speech that Donald Trump gave before the General Assembly at the United Nations.

32:13But it just wasn't that. It was also what took place on the sidelines, which we'll talk about also. So, right, you have the General Assembly speech itself that the world leaders all have an opportunity to address the General Assembly. Tomorrow, Iran's President Pesekian is going to do that. Also today, we heard from French President Emmanuel Macron. We heard from a number of world leaders as well, which we've covered. But you also have the meetings on the sidelines, right? So we talked about earlier Iran's foreign minister having a lot of sideline meetings and the fact that you have the European Commission Vice President, Kaha Kalas, who is the former president of Estonia, meeting with the foreign minister of Iran, Foreign Minister Arangchi.

33:00It's a big deal, right? Also, the fact that you have Norway's foreign minister and Italy and Qatar and Belarus, also after Donald Trump was bragging, right, about the potash deal, right?

33:15Ben Meiselas:Nothing says superpower like the president of the United States bragging about a potash deal with Belarus, an ally of Russia, right? We did a list at the Midas Touch Network, and I talked about it in the video I did this morning, so you can check it out. Like the Trump regime, you know, praising scarcity as a result of their horrific policies. Like, little girl should only have one doll, two dolls. We shouldn't be eating beef anymore if it's too expensive. Let's just make sure we eat chicken and let's eat fish. And if beef is too expensive, we should only have two, three pencils max, right? We should brag about the amount of soybeans that China is buying when it's half the amount they were buying under former President Biden.

34:11Let's brag about 13 million metric tons of soybeans when under Biden, it was 26 million metric tons. And now we have found the best supplier of potash, everybody. The best supplier, Belarus. You know, it could be like Canada's right there with a lot of potash. We don't like Canada anymore, according to Trump. We're against Canada. Why do we talk about our best ally? They're mean to us. They're mean. We're talking to these bunch of losers. I mean, just the idea that could you imagine former President Obama or even former President Biden making a post bragging about Belarus potash. Come on, what are we talking about?

34:56Ben Meiselas:What are we talking about here? You know, and then you have Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, just dumb and dumber, like running around. It would be a parody of like a horrific straight to tape or straight to DVD movie. They don't do those anymore. of these two idiots going around acting like they're diplomats and screwing everything up, even worse, wherever they go. They're the least respected people. They're self-interested, by the way, whether it's Whitcoff's World Liberty Financial Crypto Dealings, where he's made whatever he's made. You've got Jared Kushner doing his fund, making billions of dollars off in the middle of these countries.

35:41Ben Meiselas:And in the middle of these countries don't get these security guarantees that they're promised. But there was a meeting that was just held of Donald Trump and some of the Gulf states, like you had Turkey there and Syria and Pakistan and a few other nations that were at this meeting. UAE notably wasn't there. I think they kind of like divided it. Like if you're part of the Abraham Accords, you're not in this. This is the non-Abraham Accords meeting. Then there's another one that's like the Allied with Israel meeting. So it's fascinating dynamic to think about. But I read you earlier the statements from the Iran state TV and from the IRGC about Whitcoff reaching out to Iran at the UN and Whitcoff begging for a meeting and Iran's foreign minister taking the meeting, but Iran very quickly posted knowing that it would be misconstrued, not misconstrued, that Trump would lie about it and say, here are our non-negotiables.

36:45Ben Meiselas:Basically, we're reiterating the MOU. So at this meeting that Trump just held, he says, Kushner and Witkoff, the Iranians respect them both very much. This is what Trump says. Let's play. Where are you, Mike? Good job, Mike. Jared Kushner, who's between Steve and Jared, we have two very smart people and they're doing a job, and I think they're gonna get this thing ended. We have a lot of respect on both sides. They respect him. The Iranians respect them both very much, and I think it's important, but I think we're gonna get it done. And CEO of the U.S. International... I think we're gonna get them done.

37:24Ben Meiselas:We're gonna get them done. Iran respects him. But here's the thing. Intentionality. Iran doesn't. And so when you say that and it's so false, Iran looks at you like a clown. And if you're trying to show like dominance or whatever false bravado you're also putting on, why is that a strategically significant thing for you to say as well as though they've earned the respect of Iran? I mean, just a fascinating, like it's just word vomit out of the guy's mouth. And if you're Iran, you look at that and go, got it. They're weak. They're pathetic. Like, we don't respect him. He's going to pretend that we respect Whitcoff and Kushner.

38:16Ben Meiselas:And the whole world knows Whitcoff and Kushner are clowns. But that's how he behaves. So here's what Donald Trump says at the UN while he's giving a speech about Venezuela. Here's how he refers to the US taking over Venezuela. You can hear for yourself. Let's play this clip. And the numbers are absolutely incredible. When you add the United States and Venezuela together, we have more than 60 % of the oil in the world. So it's perhaps the biggest deal. It was a war, but it's perhaps the biggest deal ever made. To the victor belong the spoils. You've all heard that. Our actions in Venezuela are approved.

39:00Ben Meiselas:Okay, well, gas and diesel are at record highs. So if there's all this Venezuelan oil that's flowing into the United States, where is it? If the United States is releasing, unleashing all of these resources, where is it? Where is it? I previously showed you when Congress came back into session for basically half a day and Treasury Secretary Besant was cross-examined. He was asked by a Congress member, I believe it was Kasson, okay, Donald Trump says we brought in 13 or 12 billion dollars from Venezuela oil. Who's the we? Where's the money? To which Besant flipped through the book that he had in front of him so he could filibuster because with Republicans controlling Congress, they limit the amount of time a witness has to answer questions.

39:59from any particular Congress member. So they're filibustering.

40:02Ben Meiselas:And he goes, I'm not allowed to say, okay, you can't tell me where the money is or how much money? No, I can't tell you. What we do know is that Trump set up a Qatari bank account for himself. Just think about this. We know about the Qatari jet. There's a Qatari bank account where apparently money from Venezuela is going? Is that Trump's account? Is Trump the signatory on the account? Why isn't this? First off, we shouldn't take over Venezuela and take their resources. Let me be very clear about that. The idea that a president of the United States deranged lunatic going to the victor goes the spoils to the victor goes.

40:43Ben Meiselas:I mean, what a horrific and heinous thing to even observe take place in the name of the United States. But then also where's the money? Oh, it's in a bank account. And then Besson's like, but it's being audited. Okay, have you seen the audit? The audit hasn't happened yet. Okay, so it's being hypothetically, you're just using the word audit because it's a big word and you want us to, oh, I guess it's being audited. I guess that solves the issue. Well, where's the audit? And why aren't the American people seeing the audit on a daily basis? You know, this oil belongs to Venezuela. Let's be very clear.

41:20Ben Meiselas:The resources belong to Venezuela. Obama could have taken over Venezuela if he wanted to. Biden could have taken over Venezuela if he wanted to. But the idea from the perspective of the US place in the world is that that is not what the US should do because then it encourages essentially the destruction of any rules-based order, which would then have a domino effect of wars everywhere and wars increasingly targeting civilians when the U.S. just goes to the victor goes the spoils and we're going to take over Venezuela. The message gets sent to Putin or to whoever that this is okay. This is how we're allowed to behave because the U.S.

42:10Ben Meiselas:isn't supporting any rules-based order. So if they're out there doing it, why shouldn't we just say, well, you're doing it, we're doing it. and having a moral authority to speak from, I think is important. Did you see the video I did this morning? If not, go and look at it, where it was an interview at the LBJ Center with retired Admiral William McRaven, four-star admiral. He led U.S. Special Command. He was in charge in 2011 of the raid by the Navy SEALs that ended up leading to the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden. And he spoke at length at the LBJ center, at the library over there, about how the US has lost its moral authority in the world, what that means.

43:00Ben Meiselas:And when you watch this deeply serious person, retired Admiral McRaven, I don't know what political party he's from. I don't care if he's a Democrat, if he's a Republican, if he's an independent. The point is he's sharp as hell. He's a leader. He's behaving with a level of seriousness that we should expect of leaders. That's it. To me, we have lost the plot, is an understatement, in the purpose of governance. And treating all of this as a gamified horse race or a reality show leads the dystopian reality show guy to ultimately be the person who became the president. And now we, the people, no longer are we the people.

43:52We're treated as non-consensual extras in this dystopian reality show that we don't want to be a part of, where Donald Trump posts memes in the morning of himself leering over the globe like the sex predator that he is, and it says, his hemisphere. That's sick. That's sick behavior. And again, I approach this not as Democrat ban or independent ban or Republican. This is just, this should be basic stuff that we should be discussing and describing. Now, I'll show you what else went down. You know, Donald Trump, when he gives this speech, he's like, America is back and our country is greater today than ever before and like nobody claps here play this clip we've got this i can report to you with pride that america is back and our country is stronger today than ever before our economy is the envy of the world the hell is that now i want to share this with you as well because i want to switch gears just for a moment because i don't want to hear more of him at the UN now.

45:06I want to switch gears though and talk a little bit about what Abdul El-Sayed said. I'll show you what he said recently. I want to show you what was going down when he was in front of a gas station, showing how high the prices were in Michigan to show the consequences of what went down. And so let's just play this first one right here if we've got it. Let's play that one, Salty. You say you're a capitalist. What do you mean? Capitalism is the process by which we enable supply and demand to allocate capital so that it's the most productive in an economy. We are not in a situation where we have capitalism.

45:43We have corporatism. Yeah. And I would go a step further. I would say we have a form of communism right now. I know people are uncomfortable saying that. But right now, there is a form of communism led by the Trump regime of state-owned, you name it, with this kind of corporatism, right?

46:09Ben Meiselas:And Trump owns stakes and companies. The Defense Department has an oil company that does business with Delcy Rodriguez, but it also doesn't give free healthcare. So it's that version of authoritarian communism without healthcare where Trump takes your loaf of bread, then he dangles breadcrumbs in front of you. And then he never gives you the breadcrumbs when you had the loaf to begin with. And then he tries to berate you and wear you down to make you beg for the breadcrumbs. And he doesn't even give you the breadcrumbs. That's the system that he has. That's what he does every damn day. So let me show you this other clip right here of Abdul El-Sayed from earlier today.

46:55Ben Meiselas:I think, can I say this about him? A lot of things. But I think he is demonstrating that he's also an incredible campaigner because he's a smart guy and he speaks from the heart. and his ideas are very well thought out. I did a video where I shared one of his answers. It was nine minutes. One answer was nine minutes where a young lady who just graduated to become a teacher, she was going to become an elementary school teacher. She went to a Dr. Abdul El-Sayed event And she started crying. And she said, I'm crying because I want to be a teacher. But I also know that by going into this profession, I'm not going to be able to afford a home in Michigan.

47:47I am going to struggle to pay rent. And I look at the life that I've chosen going into a noble profession of teaching, and I see really hard times ahead where I don't know if I can survive by being a teacher. And Dr. Abdul El-Sayed talks about how our education system is under attack, how we need to set a guaranteed wage with dignity for teachers that can allow teachers to afford homes and be treated with respect and how we can actually make a functioning public education. It was an incredible answer and a complex answer with layers and wealth. That's what I like. That's what I like to hear. And the way he's campaigning in front of the gas station today, I thought that was just A plus because everybody's feeling it, right?

48:49Whether you are a Trump supporter or whether you are a Demac, whatever, everyone, this is painful. And Trump specifically ran on$2 a gallon. Electricity prices would be cut in half. No more never-ending wars. He would end the war in Ukraine 24 hours after the election. And it would have been lie after lie, like he's done his entire damn life. So watch what Dr. Abdul El-Sayed said here in front of the gas station. Let's play. opponent primarily because initially he supported donald trump and the war in iran that has caused gas prices and really everything else to go up but how do you get but do you think about this well you actually apply your thoughts to the problem not drapes in a ballroom so when you're the president of the united states and people are struggling with gas you don't sit there and talk about your new helipad or your drapes in a ballroom you actually go and do your damn job That's what it's about.

49:45Do your damn job. Stop talking about golden ballrooms and helipads and that you're going to turn triumphal arches into sniper positions with drones everywhere. And what are you even talking about? How is this behavior even not called out for being the most lunatic, disqualifying thing imaginable, right? How did we get here? And we got here because we turned politics into reality TV, into games, Mets versus Yankees, Celtics versus Lakers, Cowboys versus whatever the team, you name the dynamic, right? Cowboys versus Giants, pick the teams. And that's not what it should be. We should be on Team America together and we should want to elect leaders who have demonstrated exceptional character and exceptional results.

50:44Not someone who's been found civilly liable for sex assault, who's on audio bragging about it. Someone who we clearly would have known would cover up the Epstein files because he was friends with Epstein. That's what he wrote. He rolled with Epstein's crew. It wasn't just Epstein. It was all of them. It was Epstein and Jean-Luc Brunel and this part, they were all friends. That was their crew. That's what they, what do you think was going on? And he bankrupted everything, all of his casinos. And now you have Treasury Secretary Besson's like, I'm the house now. That's the problem. With Trump, the house lost.

51:21The house went bankrupt. So stop bragging about being the house under Donald Trump. Under Trump, the house went bankrupt. Not once, not twice, not three times. How do you bankrupt it four times? You know, you shouldn't bankrupt it the first time, but you do it over and over and over again. It's the definition of insanity. And then you pretend that you're, it's all great.

51:40Ben Meiselas:It's not my fault. It's this person's fault. It's that person's fault. It's Dr. Fauci's fault. It's Biden, this one, that one, the whininess. Enough. All right. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, our book's called WTF America. I wrote it with my brothers. It's out October 20th, but get your copy today. You can pre-order it now and it'll arrive October 20th. So pre-order it. You can scan the QR code. We'll put a link in the description below. Take our last quick break of the show. I had to show you those clips of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. I thought they were so compelling and even Fox couldn't deny.

52:17Ben Meiselas:All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. By the way, if you're on Medicare, I've got good news and bad news that you might want to hear. According to the National Council on Aging, the average senior on Medicare is overpaying by more than$1 ,000 a year for their coverage. And it gets worse. One in 10 is overpaying by$2 ,000 or more. And only about 10 % are on the plan that actually fits their needs best. It's easy to see why the system is so confusing. And that confusion allows unscrupulous brokers and insurance companies to rob you blind. That's why it's so important to talk to a trusted advisor whose only job is getting you the best coverage for you at the best price.

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54:51Are you ready to give your liver the support it deserves? Head to dosdaily.co slash Midas or enter Midas to get 35 % off your first subscription. Your body does so much for you. Let's do something for it. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y dot C-O slash Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S for 35 % off your first month subscription. Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Micellis, and this is the Breaking News. Got a lot to discuss that I want to share with everybody. I think it's worth reflecting, though, on anecdotal information and then compare that with the polls. Anecdotally, you'll hear people in red states saying the Trump flags are down, Trump bumper stickers are removed, No one's seeing the red MAGA hats anymore.

55:48And we're also hearing stories every damn day of former Trump supporters, three-time Trump voters, and they're saying the same thing. You betrayed us. You said America first. You said that you were going to lower prices. You said you would not be involved in these never-ending wars. It seems that you're putting Netanyahu's agenda over the United States agenda, or you're putting the agenda of other countries over the United States. You've screwed over farmers. You've screwed over ranchers. You can't just be like, I love you. It's enough. We fell for that before. We're not going to fall for that again.

56:28The Maha people are like, you support all of these herbicides like glyphosate in food.

56:34Ben Meiselas:Not only did you not do any Maha agenda, but you pursued the most pro-chemical, pro-herbicide agenda imaginable. And it seems like every other day there's a major recall that's happening of some food product or something that's going on there. And then Trump's constant focus on ballrooms and helipads and Qatari jets and the weirdness with Natalie Harp and hiding in catering containers when you're on a NATO trip and the constant attacking of NATO allies. It's just, you know, so you have the anecdotal, right, statements, what you're seeing in red states, the videos that three-time Trump voters, but you don't want to buy into all of that.

57:24Ben Meiselas:We've seen that story before, right? But then we have to look at the polling data. And, you know, you take a look at the latest Morrist polling data from inside Iowa, for example, where they're the Democratic Senate candidate, Josh Turek. And I know Josh's sister is also a big fan of the Midas Touch Network. So we always want to say what's up to her. And she's an incredibly courageous and wonderful person. So I just wanted to say that. But Josh is up 50 % to Ashley Hinson's 42%. And what we increasingly see is MAGA extremists, like MAGA extremist Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, she is now running ads that are like, I want to do compromises with the Democrats.

58:12Really? Because you supported Trump's trade war

58:15Ben Meiselas:against the world, his tariffs against Canada, his never-ending wars, his disastrous budget bill. You're responsible for the pain and suffering that the people in Iowa are facing. You see that also against Dr. Abdul-Sayed's opponent as well. It's like, I want to now do, we understand that the price of the pump is hurting you. So here's my solution. We're going to do bans of diesel exports. And here's what we're, it's like, you caused the problem. It's you and your support of Trump. Like you are, you people know that you caused the problem. I want to say this about this diesel export ban as well.

58:51Ben Meiselas:I think in theory, it sounds like appealing. I think we have to to be thoughtful about it, though, because it could end up backfiring and raising the prices pretty quickly because we do produce a lot of diesel in the United States. So if you do an export ban to say that the diesel will only be used in the United States, a lot of states still import a lot of diesel from outside. So what you will be doing, because there is a global market, by doing a diesel export ban, which you have to really guard against, is it will cause the overall price of crude to go up, the overall price of diesel to go up, because you're going to be adding to the shortage, the supply shock that exists.

59:43Ben Meiselas:And so it could actually backfire on you if one of the biggest exporters of diesel is no longer exporting it in global markets. So I just want to point that out. And again, this is where I think debates should have happened, not the debates, and it shouldn't happen now, but in normal political times. And it shouldn't be about, you know, export bans because it clearly demonstrates that we're in a catastrophic supply shock situation. So I'll be clear there. But where we should be talking is over, okay, well, here's how I think we can do better. Or here's how I think we can do better. Can we reach a compromise?

1:00:23Or here's this approach. Oh, wait a minute. That's not working. Let's test this. Let's figure out the best solutions versus whatever deranged lunatic behavior we're seeing from this Trump. It's not – the issues to me are being cast as political when in reality we have a psychotic lunatic sex predator that's in charge of the United States who's behaving as such here and abroad. And it's like, well, actually, what's the Democrat messaging? The messaging shouldn't be a Democrat. It should be this guy's a freaking lunatic. This guy's actually psychotic. And what we're seeing happen on the world stage is psychotic behavior, not like, oh, the Democrats say this or that.

1:01:07Ben Meiselas:What is notable, though, as well, is when you look at just issues right now beyond the polling, I talked about Reuters, Donald Trump's approval is at 32 percent. America Research Group, Trump's approval is at 29%. But when you look on these specific issues, so if you look at taxing billionaires, very popular, plus 34, DACA for young arrivals, helping immigrants, plus 20, Medicare for all, plus 17. And then it goes deporting undocumented, plus six, an Obama endorsement, plus six. Trump's tax bill pulls at a net negative six, Abolish ICE, negative 18. DSA policy is negative 19. Trump endorsement is a net negative 22.

1:01:55The$5 ,000 GOP checks that Trump promised, which is just more fraud, is a net negative 25. Sending weapons to Israel is a net negative 30. And the war in Iran is a net negative 33. and where we've seen a lot of the recent rapid decline in Trump's approval. He dropped nine points in one week amongst Republicans, where his approval now on the issue of cost of living for Republicans, he is underwater. More Republicans disapprove of Trump handling cost of living. And that's a pretty big freaking deal because living and the cost of it is pretty much the main thing on voters' mind right now. And he's underwater on that issue in the Republican Party.

1:02:45And so we're even seeing people like MAGA Republican extremist Congress member Byron Donald from Florida who's running for governor there. He's removed the references to Donald Trump from his campaign website. It's so phony baloney stuff. Like, stand on business, dude. You were MAGA. You support Trump. You supported all this stuff. So now you're going to just remove him from the website and hide that you supported the disastrous budget bill, ICE and Border Patrol, Gestapo terrorizing people, the disastrous trade wars against the world, the catastrophic war in Iran. You do stand on business. You supported this crap.

1:03:23And it resulted in bad things happening. Just admit it. Stop with this phony shit. But that's the MAGA Republicans for you right there.

1:03:32Ben Meiselas:I want to go back to just a few other quick points of what went down at the UN. This was a notable deranged moment that I think deserves more attention. And I want to explain the dynamic of what's going on here. And I call it out a lot, but I want to cue you into it because it may not be getting the attention it deserves elsewhere or with the right context of what's really happening here. So Melania was there with Trump. Natalie Harp was there too, but Melania was there. And so it's interesting how Donald Trump also utilizes kind of Melania's presence. And this is a dynamic I think we've seen go back to a lot of the questions over their charities before he was in office and all of the stuff that was, I think, deeply problematic before.

1:04:17Ben Meiselas:So this is how they work hand in hand with each other. So Melania has been claiming that she does these reunifications of children between reunifying children that she says that Ukraine took from Russia, that Ukraine stole Russian children and bringing these children back to Russia, and that Russia stole Ukrainian children, which we believe took place, and that she's returning the children back to Ukraine. So she treats it as a both sides issue, as though Ukraine's stolen children, Russia's stolen children, and she's done a reunification of the both sides issue that both countries are stealing.

1:04:57We never really get to see who these kids are. We never really hear the stories. There's never a deep dive into the background of what – we just hear a number. She's done her fifth reunification or her sixth reunification. unification. And at the same time, I've been doing reports and not just me, but everyone,

1:05:14Ben Meiselas:other people, I think I cover it a lot here on the Minus Touch Network more than lots of other places. Though you can see the children being killed in the catastrophic war. So what I see is mass death of children and women in Ukraine, Russia, but especially in Ukraine, especially in Gaza, in Lebanon. And so to me, this idea of these, you know, it's like, look, we're showing that diplomacy is working between Russia and Ukraine and its children. So it pulls at your heartstrings. So it makes you feel better about the situation. To me, that's what this is about. And I just have, I don't know. So I'm just sharing with you my opinion protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

1:06:04Ben Meiselas:But I have a lot of questions about this program, who these children are. If she's saying both sides, which Ukrainian, when did the Ukrainians steal Russian children? Because she says it's happening. I'm doing swaps. So what does that look like? I mean, and why aren't we getting the detail? You could try to answer for yourself, but here, play this clip. I also want to recognize the extraordinary work of our great First Lady, who has secured the safe return of many displaced Ukrainian and Russian children back home to their families. So many. Thank you very much, First Lady. Thank you very much.

1:06:45Where is our First Lady? Where is she? She's around here someplace. Can you imagine I can't see the First Lady? Thank you very much, First Lady.

1:07:00Ben Meiselas:yeah i mean what displaced uh both and thank you first lady and then people what are we watching the hell are we watching over there um i'll show you then trump meets with zelinski and it's always a both sides issue he goes both putin and zelinski want to see the war at now if you watch the midas touch network i try every morning or at least every other morning to show you what's happening in the war. It is escalating far more on a daily basis. And I also have showed you what's going on in Europe, what's going on in Estonia and Lithuania and in Poland, where they are on red alert with the view that Russia is going to be launching hybrid warfare into Europe.

1:07:50Ben Meiselas:And I talked to you about, I was looking at Estonia in an area and East Estonia that has a lot of Russian links and Russian heritage. And I was wondering and positing, might Russia do what they did in Crimea or might they do what they did in some of these other areas in East Ukraine and try to claim, well, look, based on the Russian links, that area of Estonia is going to be annexed or we're going to take over certain cultural centers over there and then test NATO's Article 4, Article 5. As I've been trying to read between the lines about what the CIA meetings were and what I've observed happening over Polish airspace, over Estonian airspace in Romania, I kind of come back to that as my working theory.

1:08:39Ben Meiselas:Estonia, the links of East Estonia to Russia, certain cultural centers. But look, I'm just positing that. But also then you have Putin saying, well, we think that this is being done to further escalate and to justify the strikes deeper in Russia as we see Zelensky being able to successfully target refineries and petrochemical facilities in Moscow and elsewhere. So here is what Trump said that I think both Putin and Zelensky want to see the world end. Let's play it. He's willing to meet. He'd like to see the war end. With both you and Red Cross? I think they both want to see the war end, to be honest with you.

1:09:20It's time. A lot of people being killed and they don't want that. But I think they both want to see the war end. You know, and Zelensky has to just sit there and be like, really?

1:09:32Ben Meiselas:He's asked, well, talk to us about Belarus and the Potash deal. well, Belarus obviously allied with Russia. So by buying potash from Belarus and attacking Canada, doesn't that ultimately help Putin's war in Ukraine? Is that the goal? I mean, it seems like it's not inflammatory, it just seems what the outcome is. So what's your response to that? Let's play this clip. How does the deal look with the Belarusian present over potash. And if that goes through, are you concerned that the money for that deal would strengthen Russia's hand at all in the world? No, not at all. But Belarus has a lot of potash and our farmers need good prices and we want to get a lower price than Canada.

1:10:21And we'll continue to go with Canada, but Belarus would like to sell it for a much lower price. Also, Lukashenko in Belarus previously said they're out of potash for the rest of the year. It's all been committed to Asia.

1:10:37Ben Meiselas:Pesky thing called facts. But regardless, why is the president of the United States talking about potash? Potash. I mean, the hell? What's going on? Salty, in that first stack, there's also Donald Trump saying that we have munitions and that we're not out of munitions. And anybody who says we're out of munitions is not telling you the truth. And this is one of the things that he says in this speech. Cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low on munitions. Do we have this clip? If we do, let's play that one. Cowards and traitors would love to say the US is out of munitions.

1:11:20Yeah, I know you're finding that one. And I want to play this clip specifically because you're the United States of America. Okay.

1:11:28Ben Meiselas:If you have to address whether or not you have munitions also in front of the United Nations, which is a global body that focuses on diplomacy and you're bragging that you have munitions, isn't that also the ultimate weakness that you have to brag? Like, I want potash. I want munitions. We're at it. We have a lot of munitions. Okay, we're the United States. We should have munitions. that the fact that you are talking about it clearly calls into question what you're saying. Let's play this clip. The cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low on munitions, but that's not true.

1:12:08We have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using. And we're building them at levels that we have never done before. We are adding to our stockpiles faster than we have ever been able to do before. Top of the line stuff.

1:12:28Ben Meiselas:Again, you're bragging because you think that makes you look tough to the United Nations General Assembly. And again, I don't care what political party you're from. That's weak. That's weak sauce. We shouldn't like that. That doesn't make our nation look strong. And we're also not that strong anymore right now because we're out of weapons and we're out of munitions. And they've so recklessly operated a war that we shouldn't have been involved in at all that we ran out of weapons. But what else would you expect with Trump and Hegseth? Of course, that's going to be the consequence of it. I'll show you two final things.

1:13:13Ben Meiselas:First, a guy by the name of Robbie Smither, always would vote Republican. And he goes, I'm going to tell you why in the first time in my life I'm voting Democrat, why I'm going to vote David Jolly in Florida over Byron Donald. And let's listen to what he has to say. Let's play it. I'm a Republican, but you know what pisses me off more than anything is when the people that I vote for sell me out for globalists on the other side of the world who want to have a global police state and use our resources, our men and women of our military, and our wealth to fund it. This right here is a direct result of bad policy that was put in place by Republicans that I voted for.

1:14:05That's shameful for me to say. And I hope that, like me, you remember in November who did this. And I've been seeing a lot of videos like that as well of people recording themselves by the gas pump as they're paying record prices for gas when Trump's promise was no more never-ending wars and the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, half the price of electricity, everything would be cheaper. And this is what we're seeing. By the way, did you see that post about what Matt Gaetz said in response?

1:14:40Ben Meiselas:Doesn't this perfectly encapsulate the MAGA Republican Party? He's like, bro, we need your vote. I hate the war too, but the Democrats want want to trans your kids. The Democrats want to trans your kids? What the hell are you talking to me? The Democrats, what does it even mean they want to trans your kids? You know, and so much of the discussion about, you know, that how, it's not a trans issue. I want to be very clear. It's the trans issue. It's a culture war issue. Sometimes we fall into the trap of saying it. transgender people are people. Okay. This is about respecting people's dignity and the value of their life.

1:15:27Ben Meiselas:And before you proceed and you want to talk about sports and men and women, all of that, what is very obvious is that it is used as a tool to divide and to bully and to dehumanize human beings. And so again, to me, shouldn't be viewed as an issue, a political, how are we going to message this? You know how you message it? If you respect people's basic decency and humanity, you start with that. You go, I stand with the trans community because they are people. And we deserve to treat all people with respect and appreciate the value of their life. And that what the MAGAs want to do is they want to post photographs of transgender people and then mock the photographs.

1:16:25Ben Meiselas:That's what they want to do because they think that that is a wedge issue to divide us as people. And I just think we have to start with the core principle of human beings and let's treat people. They're going to trans our kids. What are you talking about? What a sick, what a strange thing to even say. Anyway, I wanted to make that point at the outset because so much as it's an issue, it's a this, it's a culture war, it's this, it's a that. You're people, human beings, people's lives, beautiful, incredible people. So stop it. Stop it. And finally, I'll leave you with this. This is what J.D. Vance said.

1:17:07Ben Meiselas:And it's always projection. It's always telling on themselves. Here, play this clip. I struggle to understand the mindset and the psychology of a person who makes billions of dollars in the greatest country in the history of the world and decides to use that money, not to maybe provide health care to people who need it, but to ensure that we're unable to check the eligibility criteria for programs that American people depend on. It's just a sick, sick use of charitable dollars. What a scandal that is. And thank you guys for fighting it in court and getting back to a point where we can do the common sense thing, which is check whether the people who get your tax dollars actually are entitled to get them.

1:17:43Mary Margaret. And again, they're just always telling on themselves, right? Right. They're always telling on themselves. And this is, again, why I think, you know,

1:17:56Ben Meiselas:when I talk about this in the book, the way out of this hell is we have to look beyond the gamified politics of this team versus that team. When you treat politics like, again, Mets versus Yankees or Celtics versus Lakers, I say it like this. Just think about what sports team do you really like, right? Let's just say for the sake of growing up in New York, right? A Mets fan, right? And so when you're a Mets fan versus a Yankees fan, could you ever see yourself ever becoming a Yankees fan if you are a Mets fan, right? You can never see it. So what if all of a sudden, even the Mets start like, you know, making fun of you or being rude to you.

1:18:45And you think to yourself, man, the Mets, they just became

1:18:49Ben Meiselas:dicks. Like what the hell happened? Why are the Mets such, the Mets happened to torture your childhood if you're a Mets fan, but I won't go there right now. Like why are they being rude? Why are they be, but would you still be like, I'm going to join the Yankees, right? So think about that example, but now pull back and think about something that's even more deeply and core rooted than Mets versus Yankees, but you think about in the context of Democrats and Republicans, your very core identity of how your parents told you to live, how you've lived, and how intrinsic that is. And then you wonder, well, how could there still be 29 % approval or 32 % approval.

1:19:37Ben Meiselas:And the divisions and the tribalism of the political parties, it's gotten so much worse, especially as you've had, I think, a lot of right-wing propaganda operations launching post-Nixon in order to, how do we help in the future future Nixons? And that's what Roger Ailes' his memo was about actually, you know, in the declining days of Nixon to Nixon. And so to me, what we have to recognize is that very framing of the Democrat Republican tribal fight is a gamified way that will always lead to a seesaw of destruction of a Biden, Trump, you name the next person, you know, whether it's, you know, who do you think it's going to be?

1:20:34Ben Meiselas:Whether it's a Ossoff or AOC or a Gavin or a Buttigieg or a Kelly or a, you know, you name whoever the person is. I'm not trying to exclude people. I just don't want to list the whole thing. So you have your person. But then who does it go to next? Does it go to like a DeSantis or a Rubio and then the pendulum swings this way, the pendulum swings. That's bad. Even if you get whoever you want next, that pendulum is a bad, so we have to look beyond that. And that's why I keep on stressing on these episodes. We have to talk about values and principles and what makes us American and what that means and not chase personalities, but have them chase these values and principles.

1:21:20Ben Meiselas:And then once you have these values and principles, you find connections like we do here at the Midas Touch Network with Midas Canada, like we then do in Europe and Australia and South America and Mexico and Africa and Asia. And we start to build bridges in the Middle East. We start to then build bridges and understand our shared humanity. And that to me, I know it sounds corny, but it just isn't talked about. And I think it needs to be talked about. And I think as leaders, we need to focus on that. And that's something we need to spend a lot of time. And that's what we'll continue to discuss here a lot at the Midas Touch Network.

1:22:01Ben Meiselas:So I wanted to say that before we go, especially when we see the insanity of what happens. I'm going to report on it. I'm a journalist. I'm a reporter. I have to tell you, here's what happened. Here's what they said. Here's what happened. Let's talk about it. Play the clip to me is based on being a trial lawyer. When I would say, let's pull up exhibit A. What is exhibit B? What is exhibit C? What does exhibit D say? I have to show it to you. We have to know. But then we have to have these discussions at the end of it. Why? And the why just can't be why we want to win. It can't just be why and the answer can't because we want to win.

1:22:38Ben Meiselas:But what are we trying to win for? We should try to win because we want a better world, because we respect ourselves and our neighbors and our country and the world, and we want a better world for future generations. When we win, it's not just to win to beat the other team. That gamifies it. We want to win to make the world a better place. And that's not corny. That's why we should be, that's what we should be doing. And we should take enjoyment out of life together and talk about shared humanity. Anyway, I'll leave you with that. Thanks everybody for watching. Get your copy of WTF America. I talk about things like that in WTF America.

1:23:18Ben Meiselas:Pre-order it right now. We got to keep that momentum going. The book comes out October 20th, 2026, but you can pre-order it right now. If you're planning on getting it, can you do the pre-order? Because that helps us plan what we're going to be doing. Are we going to be showing up here? or there? So pre-order it if you can. We'll keep doing updated videos throughout the day. We're grateful for you. We appreciate you. Thanks everybody. Shout out Midas Mighty. This has been Ben on Breaking News. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add three episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at midasplus.com.