MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 10/21/25

24:09Jordy Meiselas:It's insane. And when you look at that image, you know, it's like what I said online, you know, tearing down the White House, this picture right here, I think is going to become one of the defining pictures of the Trump regime. It's like just the perfect visual metaphor for the Trump regime completely destroying this country. We get to see it in this way. And this has to be completely illegal. I mean, it's blatantly illegal, as you said. the White House is a federal property. It's a national historic landmark. There are strict regulations on this. There's the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.

24:38Jordy Meiselas:Think about it like an apartment, right? If you all move into an apartment, if you live in an apartment, you could put things on the walls, you could move things around, you could put your own furniture in, you know, you could do all that stuff. You can't take a bulldozer and start knocking the place down and decide to build your own thing. And I think it kind of shows that Donald Trump really has no intention of leaving this place. It's really the perfect encapsulation of his corruption, of the quid pro quo deals that he cuts with these various corporations. It shows just how much of a corporatocracy our nation has become, which I would say it's honestly been for a while, but especially under Donald Trump, you see how these corporations bend the knee and how when they want a say in policy, they make these agreements with Donald Trump for some of the most corrupt dealings that we've ever seen in our nation's history.

25:23Jordy Meiselas:I mean, it's just an absolute disgrace. And that's why, you know, when we do this reporting here every single day, the stories all sound more outrageous than the next. Right. When we were reporting that they were going to be firing over the I-5 in California, that sounded outrageous. When we are posting pictures of the White House being demolished and we say they're demolishing the East Wing of the White House, that sounds outrageous. And a lot of people's reaction to that is to go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You guys are you guys are exaggerating. What's the major breaking news here? You said you had major breaking news.

25:54Jordy Meiselas:What's the, I mean, what else, what could be bigger than all these stories that we are saying right now? I think people get far too comfortable in this news environment when chaotic stuff is happening, that they start to think that all this is just normal. What's the big news? What's the, and we can't be numb to everything that is going on in this administration. Because to me, that's the problem that we're seeing with much of the corporate media out there is they treat this all like it is fricking normal. and none of this is normal at all. To Ben's point, we got to be calling them out on their shit.

26:25Jordy Meiselas:They're lying every day. They're treating this country like it's the Soviet Union. They are quite literally shitting on the American people in these memes and in reality. And we can't stand for it. We can't just sit here and go, oh, everything's normal. This is just America as usual because it's absolutely not. So well said, B. I just want to reiterate in plain English here. Donald Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House today. Now, let's play everybody's favorite game here. Imagine if Biden did it. I can't even begin to fathom the outrage by Fox News and all those entities, those right-wing entities.

27:03Jordy Meiselas:They freaked out over Obama's tan suit. Donald Trump took a sledgehammer to the East Wing of the White House today.

27:13Jordy Meiselas:A bring up such an excellent point as well you know i have never known anyone to do a a bathroom renovation in their house or a kitchen remodeling and if they have the intention on on moving out let alone put in an entire ballroom a new wing of the white house it's it's really striking stuff and again be to your point the normalization of all of this erratic insane behavior and just washing it off as Donnie being Donnie. There's nothing that pisses me off more than that. I mean, we all should be collectively outraged by that image that Brett just put on the screen right there. Unbelievable.

27:52Ben Meiselas:Yeah. And then he held a press conference with the LSU baseball team that won the championship. And while the government's in a shutdown right now, right, while people are being laid off, while so many Americans are suffering and as people are afraid, Rightfully so. They're going to lose their health care. He's talking about drinks and cocktails. Ooh, that's going to be so great. The caviar, the steaks, the drinks, the cocktails, everybody. Like the freaking Great Gatsby. I mean, what are we watching? I mean, this is what he said today. Here, play this clip. You know, we're building right behind us.

28:25We're building a ballroom. They've wanted a ballroom for 150 years. And I'm giving that honor to this wonderful place. I think we should do it. This was the ballroom. and this room holds 88 people and the and the new one will hold 999 people which is a difference i say 999 because i didn't want to crack a thousand i didn't want people to get concerned because that's getting big but we're going to have uh we'll have the most beautiful ballroom in the country it's going on and if for those that are interested we got to get back to baseball but you see the gold grapes that's a knockout panel we knock it in you go with that comes out and then you have essentially glass and exactly in the decor of the White House.

29:07I didn't know I'd be standing here right now because right on the other side, you have a lot of construction going on, which you might hear periodically. But that's a knockout panel and that goes right into the ballroom and the ballroom is going to be beautiful. So you'll have drinks, cocktails, everything on this floor. And then they'll say, welcome to dinner. You walk into the ballroom, Mr. Senators, and you're going to see a ballroom the likes of which I don't think will. I don't think it'll be topped. It'll be it'll be the finest. So it's going to be a lot of fun. It just started. And it just started today.

29:44So that's good luck. We want the same luck that

29:46Ben Meiselas:they had in the same talent. So let me just send this message to anybody who has the standing to sue, to the law firms that are out there, to the state attorney generals, go and seek an injunction to block this construction. The argument that you should make is that Donald Trump engaged in fraud and saying that he alone was going to pay for it and that it wasn't going to impact in any way the existing structure. The emergency basis for your instruction, for your injunction, is the photograph that we showed, that they just damaged the actual White House and they're destroying the East Wing, which is a violation.

30:33Ben Meiselas:Get a court to enjoin or block further construction until such time as there's discovery in a transparent way who is funding this thing. Make the order, demand discovery, and then address the issues of the illegality that it is a violation of Article 1 of the Constitution. That's the argument you need to make. Go and make it. I'm someone who leads a media network, okay? I'm not a practicing lawyer anymore. I don't do these things anymore. But please, somebody who's watching this, okay? hey, do what I just said and do it because it's the patriotic thing to do and it's the right thing to do because laws are being violated right now by Trump as a result of this destruction of the White House.

31:24Ben Meiselas:Got it? Let's take our first quick break of the show. Everybody hit subscribe here. Become a member of this YouTube channel if you can. It helps when you become a member or gift memberships. It goes a real long way to helping grow this media platform. So just click join. and then gift memberships to as many people as you can. Subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast wherever you get your audio podcasts. Leave five stars reviews there. That's really helpful to us as well when you leave five star reviews. So let's take our first quick break of the show. We'll be right back with much more after this quick break.

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35:21Jordy Meiselas:Benji, before I toss it back to you too, I just want to give a special shout out to all of our listeners here at the Midas Touch Network. We got some exciting news, brothers and Midas Mighty. From the months of September to October, the Midas Touch Network has officially been named the number one publisher in the country per PodScribe Analytics. So that means that the Midas Touch Network outperformed every major media company. That includes Spotify, iHeartMedia, Sirius XM, Wondery, the New York Times. This is based off of the total combined podcast downloads and video views across YouTube, Spotify, Rumble, and RSS feeds, which means audio feeds, over the past 30 days.

36:03Jordy Meiselas:And so I'm saying that as a thank you to the listeners, to the viewers out there who continue to support independent media and especially the Midas Touch Network. None of that is possible without y 'all. So you guys should be frigging super proud of everything that you've been able to do to make us the number the collective us the number one publisher uh and network in the country so thank you guys i want to give a special shout out to

36:29Ben Meiselas:that end jordy to our editorial team here as well they're impeccably sourced stories have been some of the most impactful during this uh trump regime and just this past week aaron parnos i think wrote an incredible story about the artillery, the live munitions that were going to be shot over the I-5 by the Trump regime, by the Navy as part of this Marine event that was just announced in the past two weeks, that these live munitions were going to be shot over the I-5. It was going to pose a very big safety risk. So the I-5 would likely have to be shut down and these munitions would be shot onto Camp Pendleton over the I-5 highway, which never happens before.

37:18Ben Meiselas:That's not a normal thing. Let's be very clear. And I know Aaron Parnas and Midas Touch got a lot of grief for the story that we posted last Wednesday when we broke the story about what was going to happen. Then Snopes did a big fact check and basically called us liars because they adopted Trump's This was a preplanned event. This happens all the time.

37:41Jordy Meiselas:Let me talk about that for a second, because I do want to talk about this Snopes thing that's going on. And because their whole thing was that, you know, Midas Touch says that they had, you know, unnamed sources who were able to, you know, verify that this is what was going on over the weekend here. And yeah, like that's how things work. Anonymous sources are an essential part of journalism. We had multiple corroborating anonymous sources, this bizarre push by people to say, okay, name them, name your sources, out your sources. Like in what world of journalism is that something that's required or is demanded of any publication ever?

38:17Jordy Meiselas:But for some reason, Snopes wants to hold us to a higher standard. They did this story. Their story was inconclusive, but they gave the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt. They said, we see this statement from the US Marines that they released saying that they would never be shooting anything over the freeway and that there's going to be no need for any shutdowns of the freeway. The Trump administration has said this is fake news. Therefore, we just don't know. Midas Touch says it, but they don't like Trump. And so take that with a grain of salt. But then you have Trump saying he's not going to do it.

38:46Jordy Meiselas:So we're inclined to believe that story. Okay, that's it. Okay, all good. And to me, it's just so offensive. It goes against what journalism actually is. And if you yourself can't do the legwork and actually follow leads and follow sources, develop sources, get corroborating sources, just because you're unable to do that part does not make the factual story that you are trying to quote unquote fact check true or untrue. Like at a certain point, you need to understand. And so as everything developed, it just kept getting worse and worse and worse as we saw what was happening here in the state of California.

39:21Jordy Meiselas:Governor Gavin Newsom ultimately had to consult with public safety experts. He had to shut down 17 miles of the Interstate 5, the I-5 freeway out here in Southern California, because he said, this is dangerous. This is a dangerous thing for them to be shooting live munitions over the freeway. Then all the Trump people, the same people who places like Snopes were citing in their reports, were going, fake news. There's no need. Look at Gavin Newsom. He's overreacting. He wants to shut down the freeway to blame Trump, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so luckily, Newsom did, in fact, listen to the public safety experts.

39:57Jordy Meiselas:He shuts down the freeway. They end up doing this ridiculous stunt that was apparently all designed so that J.D. Vance could get a cool video for his TikTok. That's where this ended up, on his little TikTok feed. And when they did it, of course, a live round prematurely exploded in the air as it was going over the I-5 freeway. The shrapnel hit a police car that was actually in J.D. Vance's motorcade, bringing him around, damaged the vehicle. The entire freeway was rained down with artillery, with these shells and shrapnel and stuff. And had Governor Newsom not taken the action that he took, people got him killed, injured or far, far, far worse.

40:39Jordy Meiselas:And so honestly, one of the reasons why I get extra annoyed when it's something like Snopes, not to keep picking on them, But people view them as kind of sacrosanct. People view them as like they are the arbiters of what is true and what is false. So when they wrote that article, even though they did not make a definitive determination, the implication was that the story was false in the way they wrote the piece. And so we had to field dozens and dozens of emails from people who would say, I can't believe you made up that story. I can't believe you lied. Snopes said you're liars. I used to trust you.

41:12Jordy Meiselas:Now I want to cancel my subscription. I'm not listening to the podcast anymore. I'm blocking you. And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Snopes doesn't know what the hell they're talking about. And so they actually did real damage in the situation. Thankfully, the authorities did not listen to them because people could have gotten killed due to their fact check. But the fact is, this happened. It was even worse than we anticipated, actually. I'm damn proud of our editorial team. I'm proud of Aaron for following those leads, for getting his sourcing, for getting the story right. And once again, shame on the Trump administration for these stunts.

41:44Jordy Meiselas:and shame on the legacy media and anybody who tries to normalize this crap and tries to pretend like we live in normal times when we do not live in normal times. If you can't tell, we're very passionate about this. We are very, because we know what goes on behind the scenes here at the network and the incredible amount of well-researched and well-sourced material that goes into every single story that we put out. So it's not us like bullying anybody when we try and correct it for the record, but it's just us making sure that everyone understands like, Hey, we have the sources we're doing the work.

42:19Jordy Meiselas:Well, there's like, they use it to try to discredit you in other means. That's why it's so nefarious. So they'll take that story. Someone will like throw it on your Wikipedia page. They'll say, look, when they spread this fake news, somebody else writes an article, like it becomes a part of your identity when they do that. And so it's actually quite damaging to our reporters who are honestly sticking their necks out in front of a very vindictive administration. that's trying to indict people, that's trying to prosecute their enemies, that's threatening their political enemies. And so when we are doing a story that directly refutes the line of this Trump regime, honestly, it's dangerous for the staff here.

42:54Jordy Meiselas:And so when they are coming at us in that way and are trying to say, you're lying, it's just so, it's honestly just so incredibly damaging to what we are all doing here.

43:03Ben Meiselas:Well, and here's the thing. I don't believe what we do here even at the Midas Touch Network is like a job. Like I don't wake up and go, I'm going to work today. Like I view what we have as a mission. Okay. And I view this mission as life or death because this is how people are being impacted. Whether you have healthcare is life or death. Whether you can afford food is life or death. Whether you will be rained down on by shrapnel from munitions while you're driving is life or death. Whether you can be disappeared to a concentration camp is life or death. These things have impacts on our lives. And so what this story was about and meant and much of our reporting was giving a public safety warning as well.

43:53Ben Meiselas:And I think because of that public safety warning that we gave, we got ahead of what the Trump regime was trying to do, which they wanted this to be like a sneak attack, right? They just wanted to do it during the no Kings. You could imagine what they were planning behind the scenes, right? Ha ha ha ha. Well, everybody's driving to no Kings. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You start to have these missiles going over your head. And then that's their view of like intimidating the people of California. That's how they wanted to do it. So the story provided this public service, I think, of warning. And I think that's just an important part.

44:29Ben Meiselas:And this stuff is life or death. I mean, look at when Donald Trump, I mean, just so our audio listeners know, we're showing you what it looked like, the munitions, what it looked like that exploded where the shrapnel came. I mean, these are big, big munitions that come from these howitzers and other major weaponry that's used on the battlefield being shot over the highway. Okay. And as I say, this is life or death. Let me just give you some data points. Donald Trump was returning from Mar-a-Lago where he was golfing yet again on the taxpayer dime this weekend. He started, he took a little press brief in the Air Force One.

45:05Ben Meiselas:And let me show you some of the things that he was asked. So he was asked about the Hudson River Tunnel in New York City and other infrastructure projects in New York. Donald Trump has stolen, he's taken away about$20 billion that was promised to Manhattan for the tunnel and for other infrastructure projects that were critical to everything that, to one of the biggest cities, if not the biggest city in the entire world. So let me show you what Donald Trump said when he was asked about this. Here, play this clip. Mr. President, in sticking with New York City, you've talked about the Hudson River Tunnel, the infrastructure project.

45:44You said that the funding has been terminated, but folks in New have said that it's not terminated. So where does that stand? Well, as of now, it's terminated. And that's up to me. And as of now, it's terminated. And it's terminated because the Democrats are so foolish what they've done to the country. I mean, we have the hottest country in the world. There's no country even close. And they just want to do this. You know, there's nothing for them to do. All they have to do is just say, let everything continue. And I will say a lot of Democrats want this to get over. So the administration right now is not sending funding?

46:16Right now, there is no funding. because it's up to me.

46:19Ben Meiselas:Right now, there is no funding because it's up to me. I'm going to damage Manhattan. I'm going to damage Boston and Chicago. And just think about it. These are the states and cities within the states that literally fund the red states. The red states are failures, by and large, utter failures, just like the regimes that Donald Trump worships. Javier Malay in Argentina, who needs a$40 billion bailout. Victor Orban in Hungary. Red states are run like that. Failures because they focus on their weirdo culture wars and their racism and their hate over logic and education and intelligence and running things smoothly.

47:00Ben Meiselas:Yet they go, oh, we're the fiscal hawks. We're the smart ones. No, absolutely not. You are the taker states. You're the leeches. The blue states literally subsidize the red states that wouldn't be able to even exist. They'd be bankrupt without California and Los Angeles County. without Boston, without Chicago, without these blue states and blue cities, they would be done. Yet they do this attack on blue states. Yet they do this attack on blue cities. It is despicable conduct. So you have that. Then you have Donald Trump being asked, well, you know, it looks like that ceasefire is falling apart in the Middle East.

47:39Ben Meiselas:It seems that there have been missile strikes by Israel into South Gaza. Donald, what do you make of it? McDonald, what do you think? Here, play this clip. Do you feel that Israel was justified with striking when it did? Striking where? In Gaza today and overnight. I'd have to get back to you on that. I'd have to get back. What is the next step? Because we're going to be determined. You know, all of that is under consideration right now. It's under review. What? You don't know? No one told you what's happened? Based on different reporting, you can go by the Guardian's reporting, which talks about multiple violations of the ceasefire.

48:12Ben Meiselas:You can go by Al Jazeera's reporting, which says that Israel has killed 97 Palestinians and wounded 230, committing 80 ceasefire violations since October 10th. According to the Gaza media office, The Guardian reports a slightly less amount than that, but still a significant amount of ceasefire violations taking place. Hamas has said they're not disarming. They've retaken control. As I mentioned at the outset of this episode. Netanyahu certainly not supporting a two-state solution. Hamas and Israel didn't even sign the agreement. Donald Trump doesn't even know the strikes are taking place right now.

48:50Ben Meiselas:I just want you to, that was news to him. While he was out golfing or focusing on the ballroom, he didn't even know that that was taking place. Okay, well, what about your meeting with Zelensky? What about your meeting that took place end of last week? All of the reporting from the Financial Times and other reporters was that Donald Trump, after the cameras left, started screaming and cursing at Zelensky, showing Zelensky maps that were basically handed to Trump by Putin, where Putin views the borders to be, yelling at Zelensky, cursing at Zelensky, saying, listen, you mother effer, basically, you're going to give Putin back Donbass.

49:31Ben Meiselas:You're going to give Putin back all of the land and you have no choice in this matter, basically. We're not going to give you weapons. We're not going to sanction Russia. You're going to give Russia all of Don Boss. Do you understand? Solisky's like, Don, I'm not doing that. What are you talking about? That's unacceptable. So then Donald Trump was asked about that on the plane and Donald Trump, then he lies about it, but he's like, even with his lie, he goes, no, Russia should keep all of the land that it has right now. And Ukraine just needs to accept that. And of course, Trump's not imposing sanctions on Russia, not giving long range missiles.

50:09Ben Meiselas:It was all BS. And it was part of Trump tormenting and torturing Ukraine in order to drag them along to try to hope that he could buy time for Putin so that Putin can make advances on the battlefield, which Putin hasn't. Oh, and then Donald Trump was spewing the Putin talking points, Zizlinsky. Putin's winning this war, you're losing. The Russia economy is thriving, which it's not. I think Putin was able to take an additional 1 % of land at the cost of over 1 million Russian soldiers. We'll watch as Donald Trump's asked about Zelensky on the Air Force One trip back to DC. Here, play this clip.

50:44Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, Friday, you said you had a cordial meeting with President Zelensky. During that meeting, did you tell him he needed to cede all of the Donbass region to Russia? No, we never discussed it. We think that what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are, the battle lines. You have a battle line right now. The rest is very tough to negotiate. If you're going to say you take this, we take that, you know, there's so many different permutations. So what I say is they should stop right now at the battle lines, go home, stop killing people and be done. What do you think should happen with the Donbass region?

51:18Let it be cut the way it is. It's cut up right now. I think 78 % of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now. They can negotiate something later on down the line. But I said, cut and stop at the battle. I go home. Stop fighting. Stop killing people.

51:36Ben Meiselas:I would like to remind everybody on October 16, 2025, during the Midas Touch podcast, we predicted exactly what was going to happen. I said, I know Trump's psychology. He spoke with Putin the day before the Zelensky meeting. I said, he's going to just push Putin's propaganda and it's going to be a disaster. I said, watch. I said, I could be wrong, but I know this guy's pathology. Here, play this clip of what I said on October 16th. Let's play it. He's meeting with Zelensky tomorrow. In many ways, though, I actually think it's not great timing because it's right after the Putin talk and Trump's still going to be feasting off the Putin talking points.

52:14Ben Meiselas:So I'll focus on what's going to happen there. But if I if I was betting knowing Trump's psychology, I think that in pathology, I think it's not going to be a good meeting. And I say that because Trump seems to be emboldened by believing that he actually just brought peace to the Middle East, which he did not do. And I think he's going to go there and try to intimidate Zelensky in a way that I don't think people are. I'll see if I'm right or wrong, but I think I'm right about that one. I think I have a good sense of his pathology. I think it's just so important that, how did I know that, right?

52:48Ben Meiselas:I mean, it's obvious when you study what's actually happening, when you move away from the propaganda and the narratives and you just focus on the facts, it's easy to see what's going to happen. How do we know that the ceasefire deal was going to fall apart in Gaza? Because it never existed to begin with. Like, I didn't think it was a difficult call for us to make that this was going to happen. Israel and Hamas didn't sign the agreement. Trump doesn't support a two-state solution. Hamas never agreed to disarm, right? Netanyahu doesn't support a two-state solution. So what is going to happen? Like, duh, like it's pretty obvious.

53:26Ben Meiselas:I want to talk about that and more. I want to talk about what's going on with Colombia. I want to talk about what's going on with India. I want to talk about what the Court of Appeals ruled in the Ninth Circuit here. So we've got a lot to discuss. Just a reminder, everybody, make sure if you're not subscribed to this YouTube channel, you subscribe. Now we're on our way to 6 million subscribers. Subscribe to our audio podcast as well wherever you get audio podcasts and leave a five-star review. Please join and become a member of our YouTube channel and gift memberships to as many people as you can.

53:57Ben Meiselas:When you gift memberships, it's a big help to grow our independent media platform. And there's lots of people who can't afford memberships. So if you're fortunate enough to be able to afford memberships and you can gift memberships to others so they can access the exclusive content and the emojis, that would be a great gift, I think, to so many people right now. All right. Let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

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59:06Jordy Meiselas:Benji, what's the face for? Something was in my throat, man. I can't always help that. I can't speak flawlessly like you do on these great long rants. That's not me. And Sammy, you're human, Jordi. That's why I love you. Sometimes I get stuff in my throat, Ben. I just make faces sometimes. It was like a face, like, oh, Jordan ruined the episode. He got the thing stuck in his throat. I saw the face.

59:28Ben Meiselas:Oh, it was a loving face. It was like, aw, you know, that's so cute. We'll do it live. We'll do it live. Let's jump in. Face in the pod. There's another aspect that I want to talk about, the Zelensky meeting. So Zelensky did the morning rounds where he was on Meet the Press. I just want to show you this interaction he had with Kristen Welker, where Zelensky, I think, really powerfully stood up on behalf of Ukraine and said, yeah, Donald Trump's not being strong enough right now. I mean, just think about this as well. Lindsey Graham, you don't get more Trump sycophant than Lindsey Graham, MAGA Republican.

1:00:02Ben Meiselas:Senator Thune, the Senate majority leader, they were all promising and expecting there were going to be sanctions on Russia. They said that Trump was going to put Putin and Russia on the terrorist list. Remember that when that was going down, that Ukraine was going to have delivered to them this week the tomahawks and long-range weapons. Graham was saying that. Thune, all those Republican senators, yes, Trump's so tough on Russia. They've been very, very silent. But just I want you all to watch the framing of how Kristen Welker asks this question to Zelensky. And she frames it, you know, Donald Trump was so tough in the Middle East and he brought strength to bring Hamas and Israel together.

1:00:46Ben Meiselas:And he bullied them to make this deal. Is that the same time? Is he being strong enough? I'm thinking to myself, the whole premise of this question is wrong. Trump didn't bring strength to Israel and Hamas. Israel and Hamas didn't sign the agreement. Both have very different interpretations of the fake agreement because they didn't sign it. Hamas believes it doesn't need to disarm, that it's still going to control Gaza, that all it had to do was return the hostages and that it would be able to maintain control in Gaza. It returned the hostages. And so it said we're still we're still in charge right now.

1:01:23Ben Meiselas:Israel said that it believed that there's not going to be a two-state solution, that it was going to continue to carry out strikes against Hamas, that it would strike the tunnels. It's starting to close humanitarian aid. There's a very different view here. So it's easy to make deals when you just make fake ones. Like the central issue right in the Middle East as it relates to Israel and the Palestinians is a two-state solution, right? The whole difficulty in getting a deal done. Biden was able to return 83 % of the hostages. Let me be very clear. It's a great thing that we got the remaining hostages returned, that there was an exchange of individuals, and that individuals were able to go back to their respective places, and that the hostages were returned to Israel from October 7th.

1:02:12Ben Meiselas:That's great. The idea of a ceasefire, if it works out, is a great thing. I'm not trying to be like a hater on ceasefires. Just the fundamental issue though is, is there going to be a free Palestine next to an Israel, free Israel side by side. And they each have very different views of that. So if you don't address that fundamental question, how are you saying there's a peace deal? But yet this is the narrative that exists because Trump said so. Anyway, play this clip of Will.

1:02:41Jordy Meiselas:Part of President Trump's success with Israel and Hamas was that he applied pressure to all sides. Does President Trump need to get tougher with President Putin? Yes, and even more, because Putin is something similar, but more strong than Hamas. is more big a war and he is the second army in the world and that's why more pressure and the

1:03:17Ben Meiselas:issue is trump told israel what it wanted to hear he told hamas what it wanted to hear neither side had to sign anything he wanted to go to egypt to spike the football he praised Egypt as like a place that he was acting like was better than like Chicago or New York or places in California. And like, let's just be clear on the fact. I'll give you just another example. And then we'll talk about some domestic developments as well. Like India now says today, Donald Trump never had a conversation with their prime minister Modi at all, as it relates to Modi saying that he was not going to buy any more oil from Russia, that he would stop buying oil from Russia immediately.

1:04:05Ben Meiselas:So last week, Trump held a press conference where he just made up a fake conversation that didn't exist. Trump goes, I'm going to break news. I just spoke with Modi and Modi told me he's not going to buy any more oil from Russia. Now, it's also counterintuitive because Donald Trump at that same time was saying that Hungary can buy its oil from Russia because he likes Viktor Orban. So – and he goes, that's because they're not by any port. So of course they can take the oil from Russia, which actually makes no sense at all. But Trump made up a fake conversation and Modi and the foreign minister there had to say no.

1:04:47Ben Meiselas:They didn't even talk, let alone talk about this topic. I just want you to think he's making up fake conversations. He's making up fake deals. He's talking about$20 trillion that we brought in that doesn't exist while he's bulldozing the White House. It's a fake. It didn't happen. So let me just show you what he said. So you've seen just the article, Modi's people saying no conversation took place at all. And Modi never said he was going to do anything because they didn't talk. But here's what Trump said happened here. We have a great relationship. No, we were not happy with him buying oil from Russia because that lets Russia continue on with this ridiculous war where they've lost a million and a half people.

1:05:24By the way, Russia has lost a million and a half people, soldiers mostly. This is a war that should have never started, but it's a war that Russia should have won in the first week. And they're going into the fourth year. And I want to see it stop. So I was not happy that India was buying oil. And he assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That's a big stop. And he's assured me there will be no oil purchased from Russia. I don't know. Maybe that's a breaking story. Can I say that? Would you say there will be no oil? He's not buying his oil from Russia. It started. You know, you can't do it immediately.

1:05:57It's a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon.

1:06:01Ben Meiselas:Guys, gals, everybody. Modi said there was not even a call that took place between them. everything Donald Trump just said was a made-up fake call. I mean, this is serious stuff. It's why I go back to at the beginning of this episode, the guy's just making up things. We brought in$20 trillion, had conversations with Modi. Everything out of his mouth is a lie. And it has severely weakened the United States of America. Just give you another example. Danish intelligence services, they've announced, we're not providing any more intelligence to the United States. We're cutting the US off. They said that publicly.

1:06:46Ben Meiselas:The Dutch general intelligence and security services and military intelligence and security services said they ain't doing it at all. Sorry, the Dutch, be clear. They said they ain't doing it, but others are doing it as well. um and i guarantee you even though others may not have made the announcement that you have oh who would share intelligence with donald trump when he then speaks to putin and probably tells him all the stuff like you you can't you can't share this intelligence with the united states right now it's sad it's in fact i had heard when uh you know in the conversation with zelensky

1:07:26Jordy Meiselas:which i mean you couldn't have you know you hit the nail on the head with that one i heard that he was telling that he did actually tell Putin when he spoke to Putin before the call with Zelensky, all the things that Zelensky was requesting. Like he wants X amount of tomahawks. He wants this. He wants that. Should I do it? Should I do it, Vladimir? And so like he literally is quite literally sharing this important information of global affairs of our allies with our enemies, with our adversaries. And it's so incredibly dangerous. And the fact that this guy is graded on such a curve. Like I think that Kirsten Welker video really sums it up.

1:08:01Jordy Meiselas:Like when you showed it to me earlier and I watched it for the first time because I hadn't seen it, I was like, what the F was that? Like, what the hell is that? Like Donald was so powerful on you. That's how he solved it. And there's this like, there's this bizarro, like a narrative that's out there. And I've seen this by the way, on both the right. And I've also seen this kind of in corners of the left as well. That goes, see, Donald Trump, he just showed strength and he bullied them and he bullied them into action. And now there's peace in the Middle East. No, there isn't. No, there isn't. I think this lasted a shorter period of time than the Biden ceasefires that happened.

1:08:37Jordy Meiselas:And you're giving him this odd credit, like for what reason? He didn't solve anything. It's status quo right now. People are dying. There are attacks every day. Nothing's changed. Yes, very glad the hostages are home, obviously, as we said repeatedly, but the situation on the ground right now is still incredibly precarious. It's very dangerous there. Nothing has been solved. Yet the media continues to grade this guy on such a freaking curve. It is just absolutely batshit insane. Like this, this would normally maybe even be like an exaggeration for me to say, but I could say he could literally be shitting, pooping on the American people and they would still praise him for it.

1:09:17Jordy Meiselas:And I would say that because literally he did that this weekend and they've been basically ignoring that whole story. It's just absolutely crazy. This guy is lying about everything and the media people out there, anybody who's paying attention need to wake up to the fact that you don't, with Donald Trump, it's not, there's that phrase that Reagan had trust, but verify there ain't no trust here. Okay? Whatever Donald Trump says, you have to assume it is complete and total bullshit until you hear otherwise. If you hear otherwise, if you get corroborating information that he's telling the truth on whatever the issue is, great.

1:09:51Jordy Meiselas:But you have to assume that everything he is saying is a complete and total lie. He's making up conversations. He is lying about that people love us in the world. He's lying about peace. He's lying about what's happening in Ukraine over and over and over again. He lied about that. He promised, he swore, oh yes, this ballroom is being paid for by corporations or by me. And then it was being paid for by corporations. And then it was, and the White House structure itself will not be touched at all. Everything he says, it's a lie. And he's able to get away with it because there's like no scrutiny on this guy.

1:10:25Jordy Meiselas:Is everyone just freaking afraid of him? Like, what the heck? Like, what are we doing here? He's a loser. Like, wake up to the fact that this guy is a loser. Yeah, I think your hunch is right. I think a lot of these folks are scared of him and specifically scared that they're going to get called the mean name in a truth social. That's how fragile a lot of their egos are. I'm not going to make this a Kristen Welker thing. I didn't think Meet the Press could get any worse once Chuck Todd left. I thought, okay, it's only up from here. You're making it a Chuck Todd thing. Well, maybe, but boy, was I wrong.

1:10:59Jordy Meiselas:I mean, that show was unwatched. I didn't see that clip either, Brad, until you just played it. Why? Because that show is unwatchable. And it's my same gripe I have with CNBC. And don't worry, I'm not going to make this a joke or anything either. It is so much of America watches this stuff because they're not as politically engaged. And so I'm going to catch up on the news. What did I miss this week? Oh, this seems harmless, a harmless program here. Let me watch it. And then they get fed this spin, this needless desire to bend over backwards to both sides, every single issue, to make yourself look like you're being so bipartisan with your coverage where no one could ever fault me.

1:11:38When the sky is blue and the MAGA Republicans say it's orange,

1:11:43Jordy Meiselas:you don't say it's an in-between shade of blue and orange. You have to just call it what it is. You have to call balls and strikes. So the framing that we see so many times from the corporate media, the legacy media, the meet the presses of the world is this weird reflex to just try and take MAGA framing and mush it in with maybe with what's going on over here and what's going on over here and make this weird hybrid to give to the American people versus just giving folks the news. And that's why, again, that's why I thank you, the listener, you, the viewer of the Midas Touch Network, because you made this network the number one publisher because you love the facts.

1:12:19Jordy Meiselas:You love the data. You love the truth. You love the receipts that we all bring to this every single day. And here's the thing I want to add, Jordi. The American people are waking up, even if these legacy media channels don't want to acknowledge it. I also want to remind everybody that more people in this past election voted against Donald Trump than voted for him. He tries to claim this whole big mandate. Those Republicans try to show maps where they draw on a lot of red on all the land, not the people, but the land and the country. And they say, look at this mandate dominate. Never was true to begin with.

1:12:52Jordy Meiselas:First off, total bullshit. But you could even look right now at the tides shifting. First off, I know all you who are at the No Kings protests, you saw the energy at those protests. You saw how many people showed up. But we're seeing it reflected in the data as well. We're seeing it reflected in Donald Trump lowest approval rating, something at 37 % in the aggregate, just absolutely abysmal approval ratings. We're seeing it in these new Gallup polls that were just released, showing a huge vibe shift. And this is a big deal because this was something before the election that Republicans were hyping as a big shift in this country.

1:13:24Jordy Meiselas:Because the data in the third quarter of the United States showed party identification in the United States moved to Democrat plus seven. I want to remind you that last year, Republicans actually overtook Democrats in these pollings, meaning that they were saying that more people in the country were identifying as Republicans than Democrats. And this was a big talking point that was parroted over and over and over again, saying, look at the rise of the Republicans. The Republicans are gaining in popularity nationally. We have never really seen this before. Well, that has shifted in a big way. By those who were able to see the graph, you could see how those lines intersect.

1:14:01Jordy Meiselas:that you could see that massive shift. And you could go through the list down in the last few quarters, the last few years, you see how dramatic of a shift this is. And we're all witnessing this together. I think people are fed up with this. They're fed up with the attacks on the American people, the attacks on free speech. This government that we have right here is a regime. They're acting like authoritarians. They don't want you to call them that. They don't want you to call them out. They want to try to silence your voice and intimidate you. They want to try to intimidate you from not protesting, from not showing up at these rallies.

1:14:33Jordy Meiselas:They want to try to call you names. They want to try to treat you like you are less than because that is part of the way they want to hold on to power. They know. By the way, they are petrified of the protests that happened over the weekend. It was a show of force by the American people, and it was a show of force using love. It was a show of force using actual patriotism and the actual values of the United States of America on display out there. And that's why they are so eager to try to shift the narrative. That's why you saw Mike Johnson go out there with his despicable speeches and call these protests against America.

1:15:08Jordy Meiselas:Like how disgraceful. I'll just show you this clip of Mike Johnson just so you get a sense of the kind of messaging they're doing post No Kings. Chuck Schumer's political survival. Now, I noted on Friday, the lead organizer of the rallies this weekend issued an open threat to Democrats. Quote, the cavalry is coming in on October 18th, and they're going to be, they're either going to be celebrating with you, or they're going to be calling for new leadership. Now, that's a, that's a direct threat to Chuck Schumer, and he heard the message. And so did Hakeem Jeffries in the House. And that's why neither of them were here doing their jobs.

1:15:44Instead, they were out in New York and California. They were catering to the same radical base that is just days away from electing an open Marxist as mayor of New York City. And now that Chuck Schumer has had his spectacle, he's had his big protest against America. This is this is our plea. We're asking. And I think everybody in this room and everybody watching, listening to our voices this morning should be hoping that he is finally now ready to go to work and end this shutdown and stop inflicting pain on the American people.

1:16:12Jordy Meiselas:Just the lying, the bloviating, the propaganda that comes out of this regime that comes out of the Speaker's office. We've seen lying in politics, obviously. That's a staple in politics that I think we're all used to. I don't think we're used to our government being turned into North Korea or Russia. That is exactly what Mike Johnson is doing. He is honestly a disgrace to this country. The things he is saying about all of you should enrage you, should make you mad. But the fact is you showing up at these protests, being peaceful, standing up for the actual values of this country. I mean, there's no more American notion that you could possibly think of than no kings.

1:16:51Jordy Meiselas:Our country was founded on no kings. And for them to act like the idea of no kings is anti-American shows that they don't understand the first damn thing about what this country is all about.

1:17:02Ben Meiselas:Look, MAGA Mike Johnson ordered all of the MAGA Republicans to go home and not show up to work and democrats have consistently been showing up to washington dc to try to negotiate with republicans and when you negotiate what to protect people's health care from from people losing their health care right i mean the affordable care act subsidies are about to expire and that's going to result in a massive spike in people's health care costs and people are going to go medically bankrupt not going to be able to afford their health care that's what this is about it's about protecting people's healthcare that MAGA Republicans refuse to do.

1:17:43Ben Meiselas:They're not talking to Democrats. Forget negotiating. They're not even like speaking with them. They're not even showing up to work. So for him saying, oh, they need to be here. You literally shut this down, MAGA Mike. Like it's crazy stuff. Before going though, we have to address a serious story as well. And it's not great news, bad news. Although we'll see what the full en banc, as it's called, panel of the Ninth Circuit does, which means all of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal judges are going to weigh in on this. So the interesting, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits over Illinois, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Donald Trump's invasion of Chicago was unlawful under the statute section 124063.

1:18:33Ben Meiselas:And the Seventh Circuit said Donald Trump can't just make up the fake facts to justify military invasions of cities, that courts have a role to address what Donald Trump is saying if it's true or false, right? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, which is generally viewed to be like, if you're using generalities, the Ninth Circuit is usually viewed as actually more liberal, but that's not necessarily the case because Trump and his first regime, the first administration appointed a lot of Trump-appointed judges who are on the Ninth Circuit. They ruled the opposite. So you have a circuit split. Seventh Circuit said Trump can't make up his own facts.

1:19:13Ben Meiselas:National Guard can't invade Chicago. Seventh Circuit sits above the district court judge there. They've all agreed. In Portland, Oregon, you had a Trump-appointed judge who ruled against Donald Trump saying Trump can't invade in Portland, Oregon. And the judge said, I have a role as a federal judge, even though I'm a Trump appointed judge, to see that the facts are what the facts are. And Trump can't make up facts and say this is a war zone to justify invoking section 124063. The Trump appointed judge said, nope, I'm ruling that Trump can't send the National Guard into Portland, Oregon. It's not a war zone, Trump's line.

1:19:52Ben Meiselas:So then that gets appealed to the next level, which is the Ninth Circuit. And the panel that was assigned, and it's usually random, two Trump judges, one Clinton judge. And the two Trump judges said, Trump can do whatever he wants. That's actually their ruling. And the Clinton judge says, no, he can't do whatever he wants. Just so you see, I'm not making it up. What the Trump appointed judges say is that the statute that Trump used to invoke or invoke to bring the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, it says, section 12406 contains no limitations. Instead, by its plain text. It just requires a determination that the president is unable with regular force to execute the laws of the United States.

1:20:33Ben Meiselas:And then it says the statute delegates the authority to make that determination to the president and does not limit the facts and circumstances that the president may consider in doing so. Indeed, the inherently subjective nature of this evaluation demonstrates that the president has the authority to identify and weigh the relevant facts under section 124063. So they say, even though we don't actually think it's war ravaged, this is a direct line from the ruling. They go, we don't think it's war ravaged, but they go, it doesn't matter. If Trump says it's war ravaged, we have to defer to whatever it is that he says.

1:21:14Ben Meiselas:That's literally in the ruling. So then the dissent from the Clinton appointed judge says, we have come to expect a dose of political theater in the political branches drama designed to rally the base or to rile or intimidate political opponents. We also may expect there is a measure of bending, sometimes breaking the truth. By design of the founders, the judicial branch stands apart. We rule on the facts, not on supposition or conjecture, and certainly not on fabrication or propaganda. I urge my colleagues on this court to act swiftly to vacate the majority's order before the illegal deployment of troops under false pretense can occur.

1:22:00Ben Meiselas:Above all, I ask those who are watching this case unfolding to retain full faith in our judicial system for just a little longer. So what this Clinton appointed judge is saying is this is going to go to the full Ninth Circuit now, not just a three judge panel, to the en banc panel, basically all the judges. And this judge is saying, please, Ninth Circuit, you can't just do what the majority did here. I'm dissenting powerfully and saying it can't be that the president can make up whatever they claim the reality is, even if we know it's false, as the majority did. I just want you to think about that.

1:22:41Ben Meiselas:That means we have no laws. We have no constitution. We have no anything. If what the judges are going to say is the president gets to make up the reality, because that's what the majority said here, literally is what they said. Even though we don't think it's war ravaged, Trump says it's war ravaged. It's subjective. We defer to you. That's what Trump has argued to the Supreme Court as well, based on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against him on that issue. And just if the Supreme Court eventually rules that, yeah, you get to make up your facts, you can do anything. You can make up anything.

1:23:17Ben Meiselas:And there's no point of loss. There's no point of the Constitution. And I think I'll conclude with this. That's what the American people think. That shouldn't be a Democratic view or a Republican view or an independent view. No kings. The very aspect of our country, why we have a declaration of independence, listing the grievances against the crown, against the king, is no kings. We declare our independence from that. What our Constitution is premised on is no kings. So to me, you talk about all of this. I remember when I was in law school, originalist theory and what did the founders think and what could be more fundamental to what the founders thought than no kings.

1:24:08Ben Meiselas:And so imbued in the Constitution, in the amendments, in articles, in the various articles, is this truth, right? That no kings, That's what we're based on. So I leave you with that. And I think that's what the American people feel most importantly. I think that should be what the Democrats' message is going into the midterms. No kings. Simple. It boils it down. No kings, no crowns, no kings since 1776. That's it. You know, I leave you with that message. So we covered a lot today. Boy, did we cover a lot today. Very comprehensive episode. We'll be doing hot takes throughout. I want to cover this breaking news story with Chris Gonzalez out of Uvalde, the MAGA Republican who allegedly had this affair with his staffer who burned herself to death, self-immolated herself.

1:25:03Ben Meiselas:And then there seemed to be like a cover-up of the circumstances of her death in September. He was married. She, She was married at the time. And when this was reported, they said it was no foul play. And then Gonzalez's staff came out with a statement or Gonzalez himself came out with a statement. How tragic this is. We don't know anything about it. It seems that the Uvalde police may be covering it up. So I'm going to be doing a lot more stories on that. But I wanted to at least address it at the end of the episodes. Developing story. I want to make sure we have all the facts. It's important that we're diligent, especially on a story like that.

1:25:37Ben Meiselas:But we'll keep you posted here on the Midas Touch Network with everything. Thanks everybody who showed up or got the word out about No Kings. Make sure you join. Become a member. Let other people become members as well. Give membership. Subscribe on audio. Check out our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. We appreciate you as always. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:26:08Against the fascists we sing our song We will get it right whenever Want to stay plugged in?

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