MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/24/26

25:58Jordy Meiselas:And so to me, if I'm the Iranians looking at this or anybody who's studying geopolitics on like a basic level, I'm like, you're trying to delay time because you're getting your troops here so that you can invade my country. Like it seems kind of pretty obvious what's happening. And then Donald Trump, of course, also gets the benefit of these massive market swings where people in the know are always either shorting the market or betting on the market before Donald Trump makes the announcement because people and insiders know what's coming. And it just, there's so many schemes going on right now by Trump, but he's like the least trustworthy person on the planet.

26:32Jordy Meiselas:And with an issue this serious, it just leads to such danger.

26:35Brett Meiselas:That's why it's just so pathetic when you have all these institutions that are literally carrying water for the regime, for the Trump regime, just regurgitating the points. That's why it's so frustrating. That's why I harp on it. Again, I don't attack media just for the sake of attacking media i always say this we need a strong fourth estate in this country we but we need it we absolute it is vital for the survival of this country but we need people that are going to roll up their sleeves and actually ask the questions and really report on what's going on and not just hide behind a statement that donald trump makes on true social then air it on the evening coverage

27:05Ben Meiselas:right being a true patriot my opinion means wanting to ensure that our troops are safe and are protected, and that there are clearly defined objectives and missions, and that when our troops are being put in harm's way, they and we understand what the hell is going on. I'll show you these clips in a moment, but just think about if the outcome of all of this is what Donald Trump lied about and said the outcome would be that Donald Trump and the Ayatollah form a joint venture agreement. Trump and the Ayatollah, shoulder to shoulder.

27:51Jordy Meiselas:Just like an LLC, an S-Corp.

27:53Ben Meiselas:They form a joint venture and they control the Strait of Hormuz together. So we're sending our troops to die for a Trump Ayatollah entity. And what about all of the pro-democracy protesters in Iran back in January, who Donald Trump said, we're coming to save you, we're coming to protect you. When you're sending the signal that the best case scenario is a joint venture between yourself and the Ayatollah, what are you signaling to people who may want democracy in the region? Because they know they do anything, they're going to get slaughtered and killed and you're going to throw them under the bus.

28:37Ben Meiselas:Also, what are you signaling to the Arab nations? And the Arab nations in the region that were involved in all of these pay for play schemes with Donald Trump that personally enriched Donald Trump and his family and Israel are basically saying, you can't just leave right now. Unless you remove Iranian control from the Strait of Hormuz, we won't support anything that you do. So when Arab nations are out there and you may hear them saying, we support more US involvement against Iran, the alternative for them at this stage now is existential because they've thrown their entire security umbrella with Donald Trump, both in terms of their pay for play and their alliance structure vis-a-vis Iran and the United States.

29:35Ben Meiselas:So the only outcome, and this is why emolument clause violations, personal attachments, personal enrichment is prohibited by our constitution and by other laws because from the Arab nation's perspective, we bought you. You can't leave. We bought you. And if we can buy you, we can sell you. And if you don't think either directly or indirectly those messages are being sent, well, I've got something to sell you. Look at what the head of Iran's parliament's been posting today. Iranian people demand complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors. All Iranian officials stand firmly behind their supreme leader and people until this goal is achieved.

30:25Ben Meiselas:No negotiations have been held with the U.S. and fake news is used to manipulate financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the U.S. and Israel are trapped. This is the guy who the United States is leaking that they're having negotiations with. And then before we went live, he posted the following. Iran is fighting for humanity. The world is either with Gaza and against this colonial terror regime, or it stands with the Epstein class and child torturers. There is no middle ground. Hashtag Gaza genocide. And this individual keeps making posts like this throughout the day. Then other officials in Iran are saying there's no direct or indirect communications that have been taking place.

31:15Jordy Meiselas:So it doesn't sound like someone is about to close a deal with Trump.

31:19Ben Meiselas:Let's go back to the trial dynamic that I was talking about before. Trump being cross examined. examined. Okay, Donald, you mentioned that there are lots of points of agreement that you have with Iran, and you've reached these points of agreement. Even though everyone in Iran says there hasn't even been any discussions at all, you've said there are discussions and points of agreement. Can you tell us any points of agreement? Let's play this clip of what Donald says. You said there's many points of agreement with Iran right now. What can you give us a few like 15 points, 15 points. Well, they're not going to have a nuclear weapon.

31:58That's number one. That's number one, two, and three. They will never have a nuclear weapon. They've agreed to that.

32:04Ben Meiselas:What does that even mean? They've agreed to that. With what mechanisms have they agreed to that? With what oversight? 15 points. He's not even a good liar. It is a very bad liar. Like that's like how a, no offense to like lying kindergartners, but like lying kindergartners would do a better job than that. And it just is very striking that just even what we're watching there is even discussed through a lens of normalcy in the United States. Like what the hell was that? And we're going to show you more of this when we come back from our first quick break. A reminder, hit subscribe on our YouTube channel.

32:52Ben Meiselas:Let's help grow the Midas Touch YouTube channel to 7 million subscribers. You see today that with our growth, we are certainly under attack by the right wing media, which tells us we're doing the right thing. It's an honor to have Scott McFarlane join our network as our chief Washington, D.C. correspondent and for us to work with Scott McFarlane on his YouTube channel. So also make sure you all subscribe to at Scott McFarlane reports on his YouTube channel. And Scott's got a sub stack as well. He's got some of the best sourcing in Washington, DC, award-winning reporter, a legend. And now with the Midas Touch Network.

33:35Ben Meiselas:Let's take our first quick break of the show. We will be right back. We have a lot more to cover. Let's take our first quick break.

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35:06Brett Meiselas:Thanks to HomeServe for sponsoring this episode. Owning a home is amazing until it's not. One minute you're sipping coffee and the next you're ankle deep in water from a burst pipe. Repairs don't care about timing, and they definitely don't care about your budget. Regular homeowner's insurance usually doesn't cover a lot of the day-to-day wear and tear. Plumbing failures, HVAC breakdowns, electrical issues, you're often on your own for those. That's where HomeServe comes in. It's like a subscription for your home. For as little as$4.99 a month, they've got your back. Repairs hit fast and hard.

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36:20Brett Meiselas:Help protect your home systems and your wallet with HomeServe against covered repairs. Plans start at just$4.99 cents a month go to homeserve.com to find the plan that's right for you that's homeserve.com not available everywhere most plans range between four dollars and 99 cents to 11.99 a month your first year terms apply on covered repairs shout out to our sponsors links in description about the youtube and the audio use the links use the codes there's an exit survey let them know we sent you benji where to next wait hold

36:54Jordy Meiselas:I just want to say I was been watching the subs on Scott McFarland's YouTube channel over the break, and it is skyrocketing right now. And I want to thank you for subscribing. Let's keep this energy going. You know, there's just there, you know, there's a hunger for reporting that tells it how it is and doesn't both sides. It doesn't wait into that bullshit, not about the screaming between people, but just getting people the facts, not buying the BS, not buying the propaganda, just telling it to you straight. And so I think that's why we're seeing such energy. And Scott is truly the best of the best.

37:27Jordy Meiselas:So thank you. Remember, link is in the description of this podcast. Be sure to go and subscribe. And I also want to shout out Katie Fang. As I said, tomorrow night, Katie Fang is going to be going live on her YouTube channel for the first time, Katie Fang News. And she's doing her show, which we call Sidebar with Katie Fang. And I'm so excited to have Katie Fang back doing a live show. She is also the best of the best. Sidebar with Katie Fang. You can check it out anywhere podcasts are available. It's up right now. If you search Apple Podcasts for Sidebar with Katie Fang, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all those various apps.

38:00Jordy Meiselas:And the first official episode is going to be tomorrow night on the Katie Fang News YouTube channel at 5.30 Eastern, 2.30 PM Pacific time. Be sure, make sure you're subscribed to her channel as well. Make sure that you're subscribed to her podcast, anywhere podcasts are found. And let's make it a huge first live show for her. Ben. Before the break, we painted a picture for you to try to build a framework of assessing credibility.

38:29Ben Meiselas:So I said, let's situate ourselves in a courtroom with representations that are being made by the Trump regime about negotiations with Iran that Iran is denying strongly and mocking the Trump regime and saying none of this is taking place. And I said, imagine that you're on the jury and that Trump is a witness. And we know that Trump likes to invoke the Fifth Amendment a lot when he's a witness. But assume for the sake of argument, assume our guendo here that Donald Trump actually is testifying. A question that then gets asked to him is, so if you claim that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are speaking with people in Iran, who are they speaking with?

39:15Ben Meiselas:Let's see what Donald Trump says. Let's play it. What is Steve Wichoff speaking with, Mr. President? A top person. Don't forget. We've wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two, and largely phase three. But we're dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader. You know, it's a little tough. They've wiped out. We've wiped out everybody. Is that the Supreme Leader? No, not the Supreme Leader. Well, nobody's ever heard of the second Supreme Leader, the son. Are these direct ones? Nobody, we have not heard from the Sun. Every once in a while, you'll see a statement made, but we haven't.

39:53We don't know if he's living.

39:55Ben Meiselas:So we know that the leadership of Iran is not just out there speaking, but they're speaking quite frequently. They're appearing on Iranian media. They're giving interviews with American, British, Australian media. and they are out there describing what's happening. We actually know the leadership structure. I think it is true that the whereabouts of Mojtaba, the new Ayatollah, the son of the old Ayatollah who's viewed as more extreme, is unclear. Is he in Russia? Where is he? What's his health status? That's fair. I think that's what the intelligence suggests. But all the other intelligence suggests that the Iranian leadership right now in the Islamic Republic who have replaced people who have been killed are far more extreme and less willing to negotiate.

40:54Ben Meiselas:And, you know, Iran had someone who used to be their National Security Council advisor, a guy by the name of Ali Larajani, for example, who was viewed as obviously an extreme individual who was involved in very serious crimes against humanity, massacres of protesters and others, a bad guy, but with institutional knowledge that people in the intelligence community viewed that he was at least a rational actor potentially to negotiate with. He got killed. And the people who have been replacing individuals like that are far more extreme than even those extreme people. And so So when Trump says there is no leadership, it doesn't exist, they're all obliterated, that isn't consistent with what's happening.

41:47Ben Meiselas:We're hearing from the oil ministry giving very specific statements about the amount of crude being exported. We're hearing at very nuanced regional levels from leadership as well. Okay. So the next question is, Donald, who will be in control of the Strait of Hormuz? Are you discussing that plan? And this is where Trump says, me, it's going to be me, me and the Ayatollah, who in the clip before, he just said, no one knows if the Ayatollah is alive. Okay. But it's going to be him and the Ayatollah in a JV, a joint venture agreement. Let's play that clip. Thank you. What about the state of Hormuz?

42:33Who's going to be in control of that? That will be opened very soon, if this works. How soon? And who's in control of it? Will Iran still be able to control the flow of oil? Be jointly controlled. By whom? Maybe me. Maybe me. You want the United States to be in control of the state of Hormuz? Me and the Ayatollah, whoever the Ayatollah is, whoever the next Ayatollah. Look, and it'll also be a form of a a very serious form of a regime change. Now, in all fairness, everybody's been killed from the regime. They're really starting off. There's automatically a regime change. But we're dealing with some people that I find to be very reasonable, very solid.

43:13The people within know who they are. They're very respected. And maybe one of them will be exactly what we're looking for. Look at Venezuela, how well that's working out. We are doing so well in Venezuela with oil.

43:27Ben Meiselas:And by the way, what's not talked about a lot is actually what's happening in Cuba, because Russia gave a shipment of oil and supplies recently to Cuba that Trump apparently allowed in. Cuba's foreign minister has been giving interviews over the weekend with American media and otherwise, saying that our military in Cuba is getting prepared to fight if there is an invasion by the United States. Cuba has shown no signs of allowing another leader, another proxy of the Castro regime from the current leader to step into Cuba and lead. They're indicating that they're ready to fight. I am curious. I'm curious.

44:19Ben Meiselas:And again, I'm just asking questions here. I'll let you know when I am giving an opinion, when I'm asking, or when it's factual. I'm curious, as Russia is bringing ships into Cuba, are they bringing weapons? Are they bringing Shahi drones made by Iran? Are they bringing in the underwater vessel drones that Iran has as well? So what is happening there, I think is something to pay attention to. Also pay attention to what's happening in Hungary, where there is a CPAC Hungary right now, which is the Conservative Political Action Committee, the main kind of one of the main MAGA groups that throws these events, not just in the United States, but to prop up authoritarian regimes, because it is the professed goal of the Trump regime to destroy the European Union and to prop up the far right wing pro-Putin authoritarian parties within Europe.

45:24Ben Meiselas:So Trump has backed Orban, Netanyahu has backed Orban, and this was like a big Orban fest. And meanwhile, again, pay very close attention to Hungary because Orban is now claiming that Ukraine is trying to invade Hungary. And as the elections approach in Hungary coming up, pay very close attention to whether or not Orban and Putin will try to provoke a regional war between Hungary and Ukraine and Zelensky in order to try to interfere with the elections there. We already learned from reporting that Russia was working with Orban to try to fake an assassination attempt at Orban in Hungary. And that was uncovered in order to try to build sympathy for Orban, who's trailing the pro-democracy, pro-EU coalition.

46:23Ben Meiselas:Focus there. Also, focus our attention on not just the Persian Gulf, but focus on what's happening in the Red Sea. Focus on the strait there, because that is the other way that oil is being diverted from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, which we know the Houthis have demonstrated from Yemen an ability to shut down the strait there at command. And they've just been waiting on the orders from Iran in order to be able to do that. Final point I'll make before throwing it back to Brett and Jordy, because I really think it's important that we understand internationally all these puzzle pieces that are coming together.

47:10Ben Meiselas:So we understand the world dynamic of this war, of this conflagration. I'll mention this as well before showing his other clip. But we're about 10 days, I think nine days, from liquefied natural gas running out in the Persian Gulf, Middle East region. And they're one of the biggest suppliers of liquefied natural gas. So when that runs out for export, the only really other place where you have LNG is the United States. So what is the U.S. doing? They're holding it over the head of Europe right now. And what we're learning right now is the following. Trump is threatening to revoke EU's favorable access to US LNG shipments if they do not implement their trade deal with the US.

48:05Ben Meiselas:The US-EU trade deal reached in 2025 had these 15 % tariffs on most EU exports. And the EU is set to vote on that pact on Thursday, which includes an agreement for the EU to buy$750 billion worth of US energy by 2028. Energy purchases include LNG, oil, and civil nuclear technologies. The threat comes at a time when EU LNG prices have surged amid the strait of Hermuz's closure. So going back to these mafia tactics right here as well. Brett and Jordy, let me throw it to you. There's a lot more I can talk about, but I think we got to put these puzzle pieces together.

48:49Jordy Meiselas:We have a president in this country who's running everything like you said, Ben, like it's the mafia, like he's some sort of mob boss and that he could kind of coerce people into doing things for him. And along the way, he sends all these mixed messages. We don't need you. We need you. We won. We didn't win. We need you. Help, please, please help. If you don't help, we're going to threaten you with this. And it's unhelpful, first off, unhelpful way to talk to your allies. If you tell them you don't need them, then get mad. But then when you start threatening them, and when you're looking at just at this global landscape, because I think then you're right, it's important we put all of this in the global context of what is going on.

49:24Jordy Meiselas:To see somebody like a Netanyahu go out there and support somebody like a Viktor Orban and do it in such a public way. It's also such an FU to Ukraine. And you see how all of these various wars and conflicts now are starting to merge together, which is also just obviously incredibly dangerous, a hugely dangerous situation. But when you have Orban, the guy who's actively helping Russia, meanwhile, you have Ukraine, who's actually been a very strong ally of Israel and has helped Israel a lot. It's such an FU to Zelensky. And it's showing that there's this crew right now around the world. That's this authoritarian crew, this global authoritarian movement.

50:07Jordy Meiselas:And they're all in cahoots. And they're all trying to take down the small L liberal world order that has existed since World War II, these alliances, NATO and the like. And that's why Donald Trump, when he goes and he speaks about the Ayatollah in Iran, when he speaks about Venezuela, you notice he does not give a damn about the people. And this is the thing that we've warned about from the very beginning of this war when everybody was like, but the Iranian people, they're so happy. They're so happy. Well, I think it's our duty to tell the truth and to tell you what is actually going on here and what Donald Trump's intentions are based on the evidence that we have.

50:48Jordy Meiselas:Because we've seen this play out in Venezuela and we've warned about it in Venezuela, that Donald Trump simply wants somebody in power who will do his bidding, who will help him grift off the resources of the land, who will basically be a puppet of Donald Trump so that he could funnel money to a secret Qatari bank account that has zero guardrails whatsoever. And we saw that play out in Venezuela where everybody celebrated that Maduro was gone. And we said it's great that Maduro was gone, but he left the regime in power. So people are just as repressed. Things are just as bad there. They just changed the leader at the top because this leader is willing to play ball with Donald Trump and is willing to give Donald Trump money from oil.

51:33Jordy Meiselas:And so Donald Trump is now openly admitting in this situation that he's happy to work side by side with the Ayatollah in some sort of joint venture in order to extract the resources from Iran so that he gets paid off it. I mean, how insane is that concept just in general And when you just look at it, the grift is so, so, so incredibly obvious. And Trump also, he says like these dumb things, right? He gives away the game when he makes comments like, well, we already did a regime change. We already did a regime change in Iran. Mission accomplished. He's trying to kind of latch on to any little quote unquote win that he can, that he could eventually use as justification for getting out.

52:17Jordy Meiselas:because he knows that the objectives of this war right now are not going to be met. So when he says regime change, let's just be clear about what actually has happened in Iran right now. Donald Trump took out the leadership. He took out Khomeini. He took out the main Ayatollah, and he replaced him with a younger, more hardline Khomeini. Khomeini to Khomeini. Younger, more hardline. And now the people who are in charge are even more hardline than the people who were in charge before. And a lot of the people who were previously sympathetic to the United States of America coming in, in order to help them achieve freedom, now feel utterly betrayed.

52:56Jordy Meiselas:Not only that, but Donald Trump's comments and Pete Hegseth's comments, where they target Iran in general, and not just the Islamic Republic, not just the regime, they are putting a target on the backs of all the Iranian people, all the innocent Iranian people. And they've quite literally done that when they bombed schools and killed thousands of other people by leveling buildings and shooting at streets and all the other things that they are doing. So if you if your goal is to actually foment revolution in a country and have democracy take over, whatever the hell we're doing right now is the complete opposite of what you would want.

53:32Jordy Meiselas:If your goal is to entrench an authoritarian at the helm that does your bidding and allows you to grift off resources, that seems to be more in line with what Donald Trump is trying to do right now more than anything.

53:47Brett Meiselas:Brilliantly said, B. Can I just state it plainly here too? Like Trump answering those questions is so painfully embarrassing to me as someone who loves this country. Like he's not making any sense. He's barely speaking in coherent sentences. And then beyond that, when you actually try to analyze what he's actually saying, it's just gibberish and he's constantly contradicting himself. Like you walk away way less informed than when the reporters actually asked that question. And that is frustrating to me because we just have to get back to a place in this country where truth matters, where words actually have meaning and where that is valued and championed.

54:26Brett Meiselas:And we just can't, I'm not saying we, but like the collective like country, like we just can't let him get away with all of this nonsense because people's lives are on the line. Our American troops' lives are on the line. Civilians' lives are on the line. And he just doesn't give a damn. He does not care. None of this makes sense because he doesn't even understand the plan. There is no plan other than him and him and his continued grift, Ben. It's insane to me and wildly frustrating, especially all of us here as the brothers. Like we have young children. I want this country to be better off for them than when we got here and for better for their children, not just for our kids, but for all the kids, for everyone.

55:02Brett Meiselas:That's what we should aspire to do. And when we look at that, we're like, that's our leader. Like, that's the guy in charge. I use leader like incredibly loosely there, but he is the president. That's the guy in charge, the guy that doesn't care about the citizens, the guy that doesn't care about the troops or the civilians. That's that's who it is. And we just let him get away with this like nonsense, this gibberish, this garbage. And it's just so frustrating.

55:26Ben Meiselas:Let me give us three quick points. And then I want to show you what Trump has been saying in Tennessee and also what's happening right now since we're in a partial government shutdown. I know lots of people aren't talking about that. But despite the Democrats continuously trying to fund the TSA, the MAGA Republicans are saying, we don't want to do that unless you basically give ICE unlimited money because they already received hundreds of billions of dollars. And as a result, you have major issues in the airports today and over the past week, because Donald Trump and MAGA is manufacturing a crisis, just get TSA funded.

56:17Ben Meiselas:The Democrats want to fund TSA. And a plan was reached, Democrats and Republicans. By the way, a plan that I don't agree with because I believe we should abolish ICE and abolish Border Patrol. I don't think they do what they were supposed to do. I wanted to see abolished. In any event, Democrats were basically like, all right, take off their masks. No being around polling stations. They have to identify themselves and they have to use due process and have search warrants before they enter a premises. That's the Democrats' demands. And then Donald Trump's like, you know what? Genital mutilation.

56:58Ben Meiselas:Like, what? What the hell are you talking about? Genital mutilation. It's like, okay, you want to address those? No, we need to do the SAVE Act and voter ID and then randomly no transgender athletes in sports. And we're going to attach. That's what you need to do. Otherwise, we won't make a deal with you at all. By the way, Republicans and Democrats did something sneaky that I didn't like that would have had a deal. And the deal basically is you fund TSA and then a few months from now in a reconciliation bill, the Republicans sneak in funding where they don't need the Democrat votes for ICE and then ICE gets paid.

57:45Ben Meiselas:Sneaky. I wouldn't have liked it. But the Democrats and Republicans worked that out, which got Republicans their funding for ICE, which we don't want. But it got the TSA agents paid right now, which they should be paid right now. Sneaky. It's why people don't like politics. But Trump then tells the Republicans, nope, until Democrats agree to the SAVE Act, which is a voter suppression act disguised as voter integrity and randomly includes something about transgender athletes in sports, then we're not doing a deal. And then Trump creates the pain. And then on the Department of Homeland Security website, it's like, this is the Democrat shutdown.

58:31Ben Meiselas:The Democrats are screwing you at the airport. support. I just think Americans like enough of this crap. Like what are we doing there? I know I said that I was going to discuss that when we got back from the break, but I discussed it now. So that's your update there. We're still in a partial government shutdown. Those other points I'll discuss when we come back from our last quick break of the show. A reminder, Brett, as you said before, during the last break, I saw all of those subscriptions to Scott McFarlane's YouTube just soar. Is there any chance to get close to 100 ,000 subscribers in 24 hours?

59:06Ben Meiselas:There's so many people watching this. What a collective mission we can do right now. So if you're watching this, do me a favor. Go search Scott McFarlane Reports at Scott McFarlane Reports on YouTube.

59:17Jordy Meiselas:It's actually youtube.com slash at Scott McFarlane News. And that is where you will get to the channel or look up Scott McFarlane on YouTube.

59:27Ben Meiselas:Yeah, just never listen to what I say. Listen to what Brett says when it comes to technical stuff. But his network is called Scott McFarlane Report. Totally free to subscribe. Totally free to subscribe. Totally free. It's totally free. And then remember, yeah, just click subscribe. All right. And subscribe here. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. Last quick break of the show. Oh, become a member too. Support the growth of the Midas Touch Network. Let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

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1:03:46Brett Meiselas:To get simple online access to personalized affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit HIMSS.com slash Midas. That's hymns.com slash Midas for your free online visit. hymns.com slash Midas. Featured products include compounded drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Actual price will depend on product and subscription plan. Brothers, it's come to my attention that we say the word because differently than most people. and I've gotten a lot of comments because of the way I say this word.

1:04:29Brett Meiselas:And quite frankly, it's never been brought to my attention prior to doing the podcast. I bet, well, because most people didn't used to hear me speak as much as we do now. But apparently all three of us do it, Ben. So this concerns you if you want to look out.

1:04:42Jordy Meiselas:We've come a long way though. If you heard some of the footage of Jordy in high school, you wouldn't understand a lot of words. He said a thick, thick New York accent.

1:04:49Brett Meiselas:Thick New York accent. We don't have that on hand, do we though, Brett? We don't, we don't.

1:04:53Jordy Meiselas:But, you know, we do our best here. It adds character, you know?

1:04:57Brett Meiselas:Ben, what do you think?

1:05:00Ben Meiselas:Because let me give you some additional data points. We should be talking about the fact that Americans can't afford rent right now. They can't afford homes right now. They can't afford groceries right now. They can't afford gas right now. There's more people percentage wise searching how do I deal with a mortgage default than during the housing crisis and the great recession of 2007, 2008, 2009 right now. People are really struggling out there. Also in Hawaii, They're facing the worst flooding in 20 years, 5 ,500-plus evacuations, a 120-year-old dam at risk, homes and roads destroyed in Nebraska, historic wildfires have burned over 800 ,000 acres, killed one, are still threatening ranches.

1:06:03Ben Meiselas:You haven't heard Trump say a word about either. Also, the horrific plane crash that took place at LaGuardia Airport where that big jet hit the fire truck. And it does seem, you see right here, two killed and over a dozen injured in a collision between Jazz Airline Flight 646, a Canada Air regional jet, and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. I'm not going to play the footage, but it's a horrific footage of the crash. It looked obviously preventable. It will be called likely air traffic control error. But it's what happens when you've worked these people to a level that we've always known is unsustainable.

1:06:52Ben Meiselas:and air traffic control was working on both the emergency vehicles and the landing. And we've seen a number of close calls very recently as well. And so our heart goes out to the victims and their families there. And also let's not forget that the Trump regime continues to cover up a child sex trafficking ring with the Epstein files. You had the accountant Khan and the lawyer Indyke testify last week before the House Oversight Committee. Last week, you also saw Pam Bondi in an impromptu basis on 24 hours notice call saying that she wanted to show up and voluntarily offer information to the House Oversight Committee as a status update, which Democrats very quickly smoked out was an effort for her to avoid showing up at her subpoenaed appearance before the House Oversight Committee.

1:07:53Ben Meiselas:And she was going to use this carefully choreographed appearance with MAGA Republicans in the Trump regime to say, I showed up already. Why would I need to show up and be subpoenaed? I've already given you the information. And Democrats walked out the moment they saw what she was trying to do. And it was a very smart move by Democratic Congress member Garcia to say, we can't be complicit in the cover-up. The setup by Comer and Bondi and Blanche and Trump was have the Democrats sit there and then say, we gave you the information. You sat there and you didn't object to it. So I guess we don't need to show up in response to a subpoena.

1:08:32Ben Meiselas:So Garcia, the Democratic leader of the House oversight, the ranking member, he's like, we got to get out because it's a setup. And the setup was what I just said it was going to be. So these are the types of games that the Trump regime is playing. Now, I want to talk about a few other things that are happening right now. The insider trading and what's going on with smart money. I put that in quotes, which we should just refer to as insider money, right-wing oligarch money, inside, whatever you want to call it. So Apollo is one of the biggest private equity firms out there, right? And these private equity firms have different funds where they raise money for their funds, and then their funds have certain investors in them, and then their funds pay out based on the profits made by the funds.

1:09:25Ben Meiselas:Or if they lose money, You lose money by putting your money into these funds. So Apollo has now capped redemptions from one of its largest private credit funds after today's withdrawal, the Kobayashi letter reports that the requests for redemptions exceeded 11 % of outstanding shares. Cracks in private credit market seem to be spreading. So this means a huge amount of people who have their money with Apollo, this private equity firm, we need to take our money out right now, 11%. So Apollo then capped it and said, you can't take out your money right now. We're going to hold on to it. Why? They want to avoid what we would refer to as like a run on a bank, right?

1:10:15Ben Meiselas:Where everybody gets panicked and they take their money out. So the fund loses all of its money. I think that's an interesting indicator because we've seen other funds do the same thing. So to me, that's another kind of glaring red alert signal. The Kobayashi letter also reported that traders placed$580 million worth of oil trades 15 minutes prior to Trump's post about a potential peace deal with Iran this morning that we talked about earlier in this episode. So 6200 Brent and WTI, those are types of crude futures contracts, were traded between 6.49 a.m. and 6.50 a.m. Eastern time today. 1.5 billion in notional value worth of S &P 500 futures were traded at the exact same time.

1:11:10Ben Meiselas:It is not known whether one entity or several entities were behind these trades, but just these trades alone, and there's lots of other bundles like this, generated over$100 million worth of profit in less than a 20-minute period of time. So this is the type of insider. Who knew that that announcement was? Clearly, people knew and were making lots of money on it. And then again, you have Donald Trump putting this five-day deadline. We then get into the weekend. Remember, Trump usually does his invasions when? Friday nights, into the weekend, on Sunday, or Monday morning before the markets open.

1:11:58Ben Meiselas:He declares some sort of deal or something happens, manipulates the market. And at the end of the day, who's getting screwed by all of these moves? Ultimately, the American people and ultimately future generations of American people. Because these gimmicks and schemes may work every now and then, but ultimately what this is doing is severely weakening, fracturing, and destroying the grand bargain that existed post-World War II with the United States and most of the rest of the world as the United States being a stabilizing force, as a rational actor, as having markets that you can trust. And now Trump has turned the United States into the most arbitrary, capricious, oligarchical, anti-capitalist, cronyism, a la Putin type of system.

1:13:04Ben Meiselas:And so, Jordy, you talked about your child. And if you're watching this, whether you have children or not, or grandchildren or not, We all care about the future of this country. And all this stuff just shatters this country. And even if we didn't have this war, even if we didn't have this war, okay, we would be talking about inflation surging. We would be talking about economic crises taking place. And again, Brett and Jordy and Midas Mighty, I appreciate when people are like, you called it, you called it. But some of this stuff is so obvious, which is in a few days and then weeks, there will be economic reports.

1:13:50Ben Meiselas:There will be the producer price index, the consumer price index, all of the inflation metrics. And it's going to be very bad reports, really bad. And then the markets are going to crater on those reports. And so, you know, you see certain people making their money now, but ultimately this is destroying the United States of America Britain Jordan

1:14:12Brett Meiselas:I just wanted to add this really quickly be it's just it's going to take so long Ben you know you talk about our kids and future kids and grandparents who have kids or you know grandkids and whatnot it's going to take so long for us to get to a place where we could be trusted again frankly I don't know how long it will take you know I like to use the analogy of like the smelly kid in class like like we're the smelly kid in class right now and it's not just gonna take one shower to no longer be the smelly kid in class like we're gonna need to take some consistent showers here to figure this out and then hopefully hopefully one day the kids around us I'm really going far with this analogy can think that we don't smell anymore or at least not smell as bad and and we're going to have to do some legwork here Brett that's why I interrupted you I really wanted to get that that's

1:15:03Ben Meiselas:you really you wanted to go in that direction it's great i mean after my after my analysis that will probably get clipped not the very deep sophisticated enough after you know i went micro level i went apollo redemptions listen i dug into hungary's election you gotta put it in terms that people understand okay so true and jordy so true thanks for uh thank thanks for interrupting

1:15:28Jordy Meiselas:with that. That was important. I'm just kidding. I want to remind everybody is what I was saying, that the reports that we saw that came out like last week that were horrific reports showing inflation surging amongst wholesale prices, that was prior to the war. And so that was from the buildup of everything happening previously. So as Ben said, what's going to happen in the future now is going to be absolutely devastating because those price reports for wholesale end up going through the system, the supply chain, and they end up in the PPI. And so we are going to see the impacts of that soon. And Donald Trump has run this economy from the very beginning of this presidency, like a house of cards.

1:16:12Jordy Meiselas:Quite frankly, it's incredible that we didn't see a full on collapse already. But it seems like a war may be the one thing that doesn't let him kind of BS his way through it the same way during his first term, COVID was the one thing that didn't let him BS his way through it. You can say all you want that the economy is great. Everyone loves it. Gas prices are down. Things are cheap. We're living in the golden age. But in terms of COVID, when you see a million plus people dying and you see bread lines and mass unemployment, when you're feeling it, people are like, oh no, I know this guy is bullshitting me.

1:16:50Jordy Meiselas:And I think that's a big reason why Donald Trump did not win that second term then. Now he's in a similarly precarious situation. He's using the same exact tactics where he's trying to lie his way through it, but people are suffering and people are seeing, they're going to gas. Some people are spending $7 a gallon gas,$6 a gallon of gas,$8,$5, whatever it is, people are spending an exorbitant amount. Things are costing a ton of money across the board. There are massive problems with our farms, fertilizer, like people can't get fertilizer on the farms. They're talking about another farmer's bailout yet again, just like Donald Trump's first term.

1:17:25Jordy Meiselas:He destroyed the farmer's livelihoods and then he had to give them a bailout. We're seeing the same things play out yet again. I just want to bring up before I toss it back, I want to bring up this tweet that I saw earlier from a guy named Greg Karlstrom. And he said, this is from earlier in the day when oil prices started tumbling after Donald Trump started lying about this deal. He said, oil prices tumbling on the news that Hormuz is still closed. America and Israel are still bombing Iran. Iran is still bombing Gulf states. Thousands of Marines are still en route to the region, but Whitcoff may have texted Arachi.

1:17:57Jordy Meiselas:And he's obviously being sarcastic there just to show you how these people are able to manipulate the markets with the dumbest of things. He just says, oh yeah, we're talking, we have a deal. And all of a sudden you see these massive swings in the market. But what those lies cannot hide is the fact that oil actually is not getting to people right now. prices are exploding. So whether we see these short-term spikes or short-term drops or whatever, right now we are already seeing locked in major disruptions to the supply chain of LNG, of oil, and these are going to have massive ripple effects across the entire global economy.

1:18:36Jordy Meiselas:It's already massively more expensive. And you're already seeing people like United Airlines. The CEO came out the other day and the United Airlines CEO says, we are preparing right now for$175 a barrel of oil. That's what our preparations are as an airline. We need to be prepared. That's what we're expecting. You're seeing a lot of other organizations, companies like Goldman Sachs, predicting extremely high elevated oil prices. And some people are predicting even higher than that. So Trump can try to wave this magic wand and lie all he wants, but the prices are going to be the prices at the end of the day.

1:19:09Jordy Meiselas:And the effects that people feel are going to be real, they're going to be tangible, and people are going to understand that they're suffering while Trump keeps lying to them.

1:19:18Ben Meiselas:And where this current dynamic would favor increasing interest rates as inflation will start to surge, Donald Trump will pressure his new chairman of the Federal Reserve when that guy gets sworn in and the Federal Reserve Board in general to do dramatic decreases in interest rates, to drop the interest rates, which we know through basic economics, the same way we know that tariffs against the world will cause an increase of inflation, will actually exacerbate the system and make things worse. Now, if the war ended tomorrow, the war ended, which we all know it's not going to happen tomorrow. But if it ended tomorrow, would there be some initial days of positive sentiment on the markets?

1:20:11Ben Meiselas:Absolutely. But then we would have to grapple with, Brett, to your point, the systemic issues. That Qatar's LNG facility in the north has suffered about 20 % damage, and that supplies about 20 % of the LNG to the entire world. What's going to happen with fertilizer supply chains? What's going to happen with helium supply chains? What's going to happen now that Iran can show that at any moment, it has the ability to seize the Strait of Hormuz and control it with an iron fist. Will the Arab nations now continue to invest in private equity companies, in startups, in entertainment companies, in debt in the United States?

1:21:08Ben Meiselas:Will our treasury bond auctions be coveted or be rejected? Will our dollar continue to weaken? Let's just assume that the deal that Trump says, joint control with the Ayatollah is the deal. How does that even function? Are we going to have our military ensure that the Ayatollah follows the deal? Who's involved in this, right? You think that's going to be palatable to the Arab nations, knowing that at any time Iran can just do what it did? So of course not. And so these second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh consequence of things are not being discussed, but they are obviously there. That's why we're discussing it here on the Midas Touch Network.

1:21:54Now, I don't

1:21:56Ben Meiselas:need to go into all of the things that Donald Trump said in Tennessee. It was deranged. It was demented. But I'll just show you very oddly, Donald Trump kind of seems to be equating Tennessee with like sexual relationships. I don't, you tell me what you think he means here. Here, play this clip. So I happen to like the state. I love Tennessee. Maybe someday I'll move to Tennessee. I might have to move. No, I love it. You never know what that is. You know, you just have a relationship with the state. It's a lot safer than relationships with other things. I can tell you as a politician. I mean, just very weird things to say.

1:22:36Ben Meiselas:I'm like, I don't need to show you any more of that. I just, I show you that purely to say American people are struggling and suffering and don't want to be in this war. And we have this demented individual out there saying things like that. And he was posting weird photos of himself from like the late 1980s, 1990s from Mar-a-Lago. Look what I looked like back then. Or like third term or Trump's the goat. Just like weird, weird, weird stuff. I want to leave where we began, which is Scott McFarlane, the new Midas Touch Network, Washington, D.C. chief correspondent. What an honor to have Scott on our network.

1:23:20Ben Meiselas:And we will be building Scott McFarlane Reports, which is his network. You can search that on YouTube at Scott McFarlane News when you go search YouTube. Scott McFarlane News. Subscribe there. We have a link in the description. Yeah. And link in the description. Let's take a listen to Scott McFarland's announcement, which has since gone mega viral about joining the Midas Touch Network and announcing this incredible partnership. Let's play it. Some news to share and it's good news. I have a new platform for my independent unfiltered reporting. Effective immediately, I'm Chief Washington Correspondent for the Midas Touch Network.

1:24:00And beginning in about two or three weeks, I'll begin as anchor of a daily program called Scott McFarlane Reports. The Midas Touch and I share this same North Star of communicating, that when you have news to break or something important to explain, just get to it. Straight to the point. As soon as you open the camera and open the microphone, simply, declaratively, and conversationally explain what's happening, explain what it means. Put aside the production theater and the useless bells and whistles. Just get to it. I'm not an opinionist. I'm not an editorialist. I'm far from a politician. I'm an enterprise reporter and have been for a quarter of a century.

1:24:38What I'll do is bring this enterprise reporting to all the components of the Midas Touch Network, all the contributors of the Midas Touch Network, and anybody who sees, watches, or hears the Midas Touch Network. And you'll still see all of my reporting on my many platforms that you may have been seeing over the past few months or past few years. This is such a critical moment. It's important we underscore how significant this moment is. This moment of unique political toxicity and unique political danger. And the Midas Touch and I have long shared this same philosophy. You don't platform lies.

1:25:12You don't platform conspiracy theories and you don't allow for the whitewashing of history. We'll do that together. And you and I will do that together. If you're in this with me, you know I'll be here 365 days a year chasing news, giving you news, trying to give you context and explanation. We can run through walls together to get to the other side of whatever this is. That's how important a moment it is. And I hope this announcement is important.

1:25:38Ben Meiselas:Powerful. And it's such an honor to have Scott on our network. Again, make sure everybody you subscribe to at Scott McFarland news on YouTube. Search that again. We'll have a link to that in the description below as well. subscribe to his platforms on Substack also. It's an honor. It's a privilege. And it's part of the growth of the Midas Touch Network. Thank you, everybody, from the bottom of my heart. This isn't possible without you. You make this possible. And we're so grateful for this Midas community. Subscribe, support, become a member of our YouTube channel, spread the word about the Midas Touch Network.

1:26:23Ben Meiselas:Let's keep spreading the truth together each and every day. Brad, anything else to say before we go?

1:26:30Jordy Meiselas:I think you summed it up well.

1:26:32Ben Meiselas:Jordy,

1:26:33Jordy Meiselas:shout out to the Midas Mighty!

1:26:52Brett Meiselas:Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com. How many discounts does USAA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount, safe driver discount, new vehicle discount, storage discount, legacy. How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit USAA.com slash auto discounts. Restrictions apply. You know what they say. Early Bird gets the ultimate 30A vacation rental. On select homes, when you book early, you can save over$530 on a week-long stay with Vrbo.

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