MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 4/14/26

23:03Ben Meiselas:Your Excellency Pope Leo XIV, on behalf of the great nation of Iran, I condemn the insult to your excellency and declare that the desecration of Jesus, peace be upon him, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is unacceptable to any free person. I wish glory for you from Allah. Now you may be saying, Ben, you're going to fall for that? That's the Iranian president. Of course, it's propaganda. He doesn't really mean those words. Why are you going to show us that? And I'll just say this. In war and in peace, we would be naive if we didn't recognize that propaganda is tools used by governments. We should be able to deconstruct those here as an independent media company, use our own objective, analytical, legal tools and frameworks to try to describe what's really happening and be fearless in calling that out.

24:00Ben Meiselas:But when you're trying to persuade, when you're trying to gain favor and build support, I think it's important to conduct yourself certain ways. And when you have the leader of the United States conducting his behavior in this way, attacking everyone and everything with weird memes and, you know, this abhorrent behavior, then you say, OK, well, what are they doing over there? Because, you know, Trump and Netanyahu and everybody wants to depict these people as savages, as killers, as maniacs who just want nuclear Armageddon. and they're the worst people ever. And I look and I see Donald Trump and Netanyahu talking about annihilation and destruction, and I'll take your bridge down, and I've got you, and I'm going to crumble your civilization, and we loiter over you, and we rain down hell, and we will murder all of you.

24:55Ben Meiselas:I mean, that's like literally what Trump and Exit and Netanyahu say, like they say those things, right? And then on the other hand, I'm like, okay, let me look to see what's, let me see what they're saying over there. And they're out there making comments like, Your Excellency Pope Leo XIV, we stand in solidarity to you. And I understand that. I'm not naive to the way propaganda works. I'm not naive to it. But I also think it's very curious that the Trump regime is behaving precisely the way they've stereotyped the way Iran is behaving. And I'm just making that observation throughout this whole process that Donald Trump is the one who appears to be like an unhinged lunatic in absolutely everything.

25:39Ben Meiselas:I mean, look at what he calls in over the weekend after the failed negotiations because he wanted to change the negotiating framework with Iran. He induced them into a negotiation. Trump posted, I agree to their 10-point framework. I think that is a suitable place to begin negotiations. Trump posted that. And then Trump reposted the Iranian foreign minister, Aragji's post, to induce this negotiation, to ceasefire conversation. And then Trump wanted to change it because Trump realized, I get it, these 10 points, like Iran keeps the strain of her moves, enriches uranium, keeps all of its missiles, long-term security guarantees for Iran, Hezbollah, and all its other proxies, full reparation, US leaves its bases.

26:24Ben Meiselas:I get it. Trump's like, we can't really do those things. But you agreed to them. You agreed to those things. So Iran showed up thinking that those were going to be the framework. I don't think they were naive that you were going to change the framework, but they didn't deviate outside of it. And then Donald Trump and afterwards, J.D. Vance were like, they wouldn't accept the conditions we imposed on them. That right there is one of the fatal flaws of the negotiations, that you wanted to impose said conditions on them versus treat this as a mediation. And also when Donald Trump makes these posts, like we've sunk their ships and we're going to blockade you and their leaders are dead and we're going to kill all of you and whatever.

27:04Ben Meiselas:Look, if your objective is war and you want to speak like a war criminal or a warmonger and you believe the solution is war and that's how you're going to talk, then I reject that as the way that human beings should talk. I will protest it and I will call it out as a human being in terms of a conduct of behavior. But at least your words are logically aligned with your actions of war, right? We all understand that. But when you posture to a negotiating framework and you say, we're going to destroy the hell out of you in a mediation, We're going to pound you to the ground in a negotiated setting.

27:47Ben Meiselas:Well, sorry, that's not a negotiation then. So if you want to make your words congruent with the negotiation, then you have to treat the other side respectfully. You have to recognize the other side's right to exist. You can say the only reason we're keeping the negotiators on the other side alive is to cut the deal that we want, because then you won't be able to ever make a deal that way with the other side that's showing up because they want to be treated like equals. And if you're like, well, why would we treat them that way? You're showing up to a negotiation. If you don't want to treat them that way, don't show up to negotiation.

28:25Ben Meiselas:But it's kind of like the most basic aspect of everything, right? So while, you know, and I've seen all of these things, right, that it's like the negotiations are still ongoing, which I just think is a market manipulation. plate, still ongoing and still ongoing. I mean, I watched Donald Trump go on Maria Bartiroma and trust me, so did the Iranians. Like they're, they're studying all of these words. They're studying what he's saying. And so Trump goes on Maria Bartiroma and he's being asked questions about, you know, uh, what's going to happen with the tankers headed to the, headed to the, the, the, uh, the Gulf of Mexico that Donald Trump calls the Gulf of America.

29:03Ben Meiselas:So what's happening here. Just watch what Donald Trump says. Let's play it. Because you referred to a post that hundreds of super tankers are headed to the Gulf of America to buy oil and gas from the U.S. What can you tell us about that, sir? Well, I can tell you that it used to be called the Gulf of Mexico. That's what I can tell you. Now it's called the Gulf of America because of me. One of my little things that I did, you know, one of my little sidelines. And it's a great honor. People are so happy. You go to Louisiana, you go to Florida, you go to these states, Texas. They're so honored by it.

29:33I used to say, why? Why is that the Gulf of Mexico when we have 93 % of the frontage? And, you know, it fronts 93 % in the United States. I said, I think I'm going to change it to the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And I did. And I give a lot of credit to Google because once I filed the papers, I did it. And Google Map, once Google Map changed, you know, did it, it was, It was a done deal, but we had lawsuits. We won everything, and it's now the Gulf of America, which I'm very honored by. But do you expect super tankers? I must tell you, I was thinking about calling it the Gulf of Trump, and I decided not to do it.

30:17I think maybe it was a wise. I think that one maybe wouldn't have worked out. I'm not so sure. You'll have to tell me. But I was thinking about it's going to be called the Gulf of Trump. And then I said, you know, that's not going to play too well.

30:29Ben Meiselas:For those listening on audio, Maria Bartiroma is looking at him like he is a very sick patient, like in hospice care or like she's the nurse and the person saying things that are, you know, kind of very frightening to the nurse. And the nurse looking like, OK, OK, OK, Donald. Like, how do you I mean this objectively? How are you supposed to negotiate or do anything with that, with that human being? Right. Like, how do you have any rational conversation with with that? The short answer is you can't and we can't and shouldn't as a country normalize that. It's not just the post of him saying he's Jesus or the hospitals on the moon or asking about Bruce Springsteen plastic surgeries or whatever deranged things he's post.

31:20Ben Meiselas:It is, is this individual fit to be a leader? No, yet alone the leader of these United States of America. No, that's not a political position that I hold. It's just an observation of whatever the hell that is. We're going to take our first break of the show. Of course, we got a lot to discuss when we come back. In addition, we should talk about Donald Trump losing his lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for that Epstein 50th birthday card that the Wall Street Journal wrote about, which Trump still denies was his card. There was a time traveler, I guess, who went back and planted in the Epstein estate.

31:59Ben Meiselas:Well, Trump lost that, but he vows to refile. We'll talk about that and so much more. We'll take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, are you a member of the Midas Touch YouTube channel? If not, would you consider becoming a member right now? When you become a member, you get access to member features like the emojis, like some of the specials that I do with Ron Filipkowski. We make podcasts just for our members. And of course, it helps this network as well, but unlock those membership features. We'll be right back after our first quick break of the show.

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35:55Ben Meiselas:Jesus post and Donald Trump making all these other deranged posts. But, you know, she asked him a very basic question that's on the minds of a lot of Americans. What's going to happen with the price of gas? What's going to happen with the price per barrel of oil? And, you know, we've always been talking about the eerie similarities of this and COVID. Remember right before Easter, Donald Trump was like, we're going to bend the curve like a miracle it's going to go away. Easter's the date. It's done. And then Easter passed. And then afterwards, if you recall, he kind of just pretended it wasn't happening.

36:32Ben Meiselas:Right. He went through all of this. Then he just kind of like, yeah, we're just not going to deal with it right now. You know, one of the things I think about is Donald Trump's first term and how he dealt with Kim Jong-un, who now has nuclear weapons in North Korea. Right. And we don't really even talk about it anymore. But it went from when Obama was in office, if Kim Jong-un did any missile tests at all. It was a front page story in every newspaper, the lead story on Fox, state regime media, and basically all outlets. Oh my God, he's going to get a nuclear weapon. He's going to get a nuclear weapon, right?

37:09Ben Meiselas:During Donald Trump's first administration, Trump let the guy get nuclear weapons. He got the nuclear weapons. He was able to build them under Donald Trump. Trump became good friends with him. He's got the nuclear weapons. And now it's not even talked about anymore. And I think like for Donald Trump, if you follow his life where he bankrupts things and bankrupts other things and then moves on to the next thing, I actually think an ideal resolution for Donald Trump is as follows. You have this purported blockade that's basically there and you don't really enforce it all that much. And people just stop thinking about it.

37:45Ben Meiselas:It's like, ah, just Trump being Trump. But meanwhile, ships aren't leaving the Strait of Hormuz, you know, I think that eventually people start developing other routes, whether it's more ships going into the Red Sea, gas prices go up, then it's just basically accepted that this is like the new norm that we all just accept, you know, that lots of travel doesn't happen anymore through that strait in terms of, you know, oil and maritime, it gets shifted elsewhere, prices generally go up, and then Donald Trump blames it on Democrats or whoever he blames on at a given moment, right? That's to me, his behavior.

38:19Ben Meiselas:Brett, let me toss it over to you.

38:21Jordy Meiselas:Yeah. I mean, the thing is everything that Donald Trump does is a fraud. And there was a reason why throughout the campaign, we'd make an effort and scream from the mountaintops that all the events that Donald Trump was doing were fake, that he did a event with union auto workers and there weren't union auto workers in the event, that he would go to these bodegas and that it would all be a setup, that the whole McDonald's stunt that he did was fake. And we call that out because you You have to understand Donald Trump's pathology. It plays now, unfortunately, into global affairs and into things that have actually nuclear stakes at the moment, which is not a position you want to be in.

38:56Jordy Meiselas:When Donald Trump goes into these negotiations, when he's speaking about what's going on in the strait of Hormuz, when he's talking about any of this stuff, you have to understand how he's supposed to negotiate with someone who's just a fraud. How are you supposed to negotiate with somebody who just makes everything up? And I think that's the issue that right now the world is encountering with Donald Trump. It's the issue that Trump had, quite frankly, with Canada. It's the issues that he was having with Iran. It's the issues that he's having with Greenland. I mean, you name the country, you name whatever the situation is, they're all caused by Trump.

39:31Jordy Meiselas:And they all stem from just being not able to trust the guy at all because he's delusional. He's deranged. He makes things up. He lies. He lies, lies, lies. even today's stunt that they did at the White House was a lie. It was another fraud perpetrated on the American people. Donald Trump at the White House today, he did this whole stunt where, oh, look, this DoorDash driver came to the White House coincidentally, and she wanted to praise me for tax on tips. It was this grandma, sweet lady, and she wanted to praise me for tax on tips. And how convenient that it's almost tax day. And this DoorDash lady wants to praise me for tax on tips.

40:09Jordy Meiselas:I'm so glad it helped your family. Well, when you do just a cursory check on what was going on here, first you see that DoorDash themselves was promoting this. So it was clearly set up between DoorDash and the administration. And then you look further and you realize that the whole thing was set up to begin with. You see the woman, and I'm not going to say anything about her. I'm just talking about Trump here. But you see this woman right here who is delivering the food to Donald Trump, this McDonald's. Well, she came from Arkansas. She wasn't in DC. DoorDash drivers from Arkansas don't drive from Arkansas to Washington, DC.

40:46Jordy Meiselas:So in order to find somebody who supported a Trump policy, they had to find someone in Arkansas and bring them over. And then it turns out when you dig a little deeper on this issue, oh, this woman has also been in hearings for the GOP where she has pushed GOP policies like this post in July 2025, where a representative David Kustoff wrote during the Ways and Means GOP field hearing in Nevada, I had the privilege of speaking from Sharon about how the one big, beautiful bill will make a real difference in her life. And so we see how they're using the same cast of characters and they're bringing them from state to state to promote Republican policies.

41:27Jordy Meiselas:This is all a setup. It's all a scam. And it's all also pushed by this propaganda media that tries to act like it's normal. And I was actually watching Fox as they presented it. And I was like, wow, this is like, this is like, this is how Fox really operates. You see how they go from this McDonald's delivery. And then you go, wow, you know, it's just like, you know, it's so great to see these policies just helping the everyday American. Like there's no tax on tips thing. You know, I know a lot of people are probably feeling pretty good about now about this Trump economy. Yeah, sure, there are a little bit of bumps.

42:01Jordy Meiselas:There are a few bumps out there because of this whole war thing, but there's more money out there and you're about to get rich. This is the scam that they're all pulling on the American people. If you're not in tune with it, I could see how you could fall under the spell, but that's why it's important to continue to expose the fraud when we see the fraud. I'm happy that more people are now paying attention to it, but this is the issue now with all these negotiations. We used to at least be able to trust when the United States government said something happened in negotiation, we could kind of trust that it was at least in the realm of like reality, that we were living in the same like universe.

42:37Jordy Meiselas:Now, unfortunately, when they say something, when the United States government says something, I got to go like, wait a sec, we got to wait till see what Iran says. And then I need to wait to see what an independent mediator says, because I don't believe this. And like clockwork, You could also say, oh, Trump made a threat. This is likely to tank the markets. So I'm just going to go out there on a limb and say that, I don't know, about an hour or two before the markets open tomorrow, that we're going to see a news story that says something like, it's probably going to come from Barack Revit of Axios.

43:09Jordy Meiselas:And it's going to say something like a U.S. official told me that we're actually close in talks now. And there might be some more talks coming up. So don't you worry. It's right around the corner. and I just need to like facepalm and go, why are people falling for this crap? This is the biggest fraud perpetrated on the American people, on the entire world, and it continues to be pushed out like it's normal, like all of this is normal and none of this is normal. And I also want to reflect on a quick story too that just isn't getting enough attention and that's while Trump is going out there and attacking all of our allies, just wrecking all of our alliances.

43:50Jordy Meiselas:There's a big story that's not getting, I haven't seen it covered once. I saw it covered in The Guardian, but I haven't seen it on TV once. I've not heard anybody speak about it. And that's this week, starting today, 189 countries are in Washington, DC for the IMF and World Bank Spring meetings. And the delegates at these meetings have been told quietly not to even bring up climate change because they don't want to trigger Donald Trump or the United States. So they're at this major global finance summit in Washington, DC, super important. And the White House is essentially forcing them to either pick a fight with the United States or shut up about climate change.

44:29Jordy Meiselas:And they are being forced right now to like sneak any sort of clean energy priorities through the back door. And so like, what do I even mean by sneak climate priorities through the back door? Well, Lord Stern, a former World Bank chief economist laid it out. You basically, you fund the metro systems in overcrowded cities. You invest in agriculture, forest, water infrastructure, public transport. You do all of these things, but you make sure that you don't use the word climate, or you don't use the word green energy or clean energy or anything like that. Because all these things help the climate, but they don't want to upset little fragile Donald in the Oval Office and have any money go away from all of this.

45:10Jordy Meiselas:So the strategy is like, okay, we're going to try to do the right thing, but let's not say the quiet part loud. We don't want to trigger the White House. Just keep your head down. Hope the money keeps flowing. And this is just another part of the insanity. We're talking about the World Bank, the single biggest source of climate funding on the planet. The institution 189 countries are counting on to help it. $1.3 trillion a year target was agreed to in the last UN climate summit. And now even its own staff are doing these ridiculous linguistic gymnastics just to avoid upsetting one guy in the Oval Office.

45:45Jordy Meiselas:And obviously, this is happening in the midst of this oil crisis where we don't know what's going to happen. We already know oil prices are through the roof. They're going to be massive shortages. And they're telling right now the World Bank, where the US controls 17 % of the capital, to get back into financing gas, oil, and coal, because now Scott Besant is demanding it on behalf of Donald Trump. And so now these senior officials are self-censoring themselves. I mean, the whole thing is just completely absurd. And it's going to really, honestly, it's going to affect a lot of countries who rely on this funding to help them prevent climate disasters.

46:25Jordy Meiselas:And once again, it's all because Donald Trump lives in these delusions. He lives in this invented reality, and he expects the whole world to go along. And unfortunately, far too long, people go along with his BS because they're afraid of the backlash, like a mob boss.

46:42Brett Meiselas:Well said, B. Look, if Trump spent more time just focusing on real substantive solutions to things instead of trying to dupe the American people or to dupe the world stage, just trying to trick them into thinking what he's doing is good, we could be in a good spot. If he just focused and everyone focused around him and everyone just wanted to to put their best foot forward. But no, the guy has to be a total freaking lunatic, man. Like the Trump regime and Trump, they remind me of the kid in class that would spend more time like scheming about how to cheat on the test versus just putting that same time and effort into actually just studying for the test.

47:20Brett Meiselas:And well, the difference here is when we fail the test, we're now failing the American people. We're failing our troops. We're failing our citizens. We're failing the world. And we lose all of our credibility. It has been a global embarrassment what Trump has done, and it continues to do every single day, Ben.

47:38Ben Meiselas:Well, think about also some of the big lies thus far, and there's so many of them. But obviously, when Trump said there would be Doge dividend checks and all Americans would get$5 ,000, or there would be these tariff rebate checks or tariff dividend checks that so much money would come in that everybody would get all of this money directly handed to them. Think about Donald Trump saying 90 deals in 90 days, we promise you. There's basically been no deals in 90 days in terms of written trade deals that actually take the form of what we would consider to be a traditional trade agreement. They made a bunch of press releases, like seven press releases that were non-binding and are not being enforced.

48:22Ben Meiselas:And then Donald Trump basically made up a bunch of numbers. And he would say, we brought in$17 trillion or$21 trillion. And he would say, Saudi Arabia offered us$5 trillion or Qatar offered us $2 trillion, more money by multiples of what the actual underlying GDP is of these nations. And so there was always that taking place last year. And we were always on the front line saying, fake deal, fake deal, fake deal. We're not bringing in trillions of dollars. This is all part of the Ponzi scheme that he is doing. There's one other post that Donald Trump made. There's been many actually, but the one that's not getting a lot of attention though, that to me probably deserves to because it goes to his psyche as well.

49:07Ben Meiselas:He made this weird post about Ed McMahon and how Donald Trump in 2008 found Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson's sidekick who was destitute in his final years of life and his home was being foreclosed on in Beverly Hills in 2008. And Donald Trump says that he bought Ed McMahon's home in 2008 because he loved Ed McMahon. And as a student in Wharton Business School, Donald Trump said Ed McMahon was someone I'd watch while I was studying for my exams. So I bought Ed McMahon's home so he wouldn't get foreclosed on and allowed him to live out the rest of his life in this home just out of the goodwill. And Donald Trump reposts something that says, this is a side of Donald Trump you never saw before.

49:56Ben Meiselas:He never went to the media about this. He did it quietly. He gave Ed McMahon the best final years of his life by buying a home for Ed McMahon and letting him live there. Trump didn't go to the media, understated, selfless, incredible human being. Trump reposted that. The entire story is fake, is all not accurate. The real story is in 2008, Donald Trump ran to the LA Times to seek publicity for himself, as that was a particular period of time when Donald Trump was being viewed as like a total loser. And he was trying to like reinvent himself and saying, ah, look how great I this, that, and the other.

50:36Ben Meiselas:I need better press. So Donald Trump runs to the LA Times, leaks this story that he's going to buy the home and that he's about to buy it. The true story is Donald Trump doesn't buy it. He leaves Ed McMahon destitute hanging. Ed McMahon's real estate agents are like, didn't you promise to buy this house? Trump just wanted the story in the LA Times. Somebody else ended up buying the house from Ed McMahon. And there was a headline in CBS from 2008 that was like, Donald Trump does not buy Ed McMahon's home after Trump leaked it to the LA Times. And then Ed McMahon's daughter is quoted as saying, when dad was going to lose his house in Beverly Hills, Donald Trump said he was going to buy it because he was such a big fan of dad's and he didn't want dad to lose the house.

51:26Ben Meiselas:And of course, that was a lie, is what Claudia McMahon said. So here we are, 2026, Donald Trump is at a UFC fight during a failed negotiation with Iran over an unlawful war that Donald Trump started as Donald Trump is attacking the Pope. And he's posting on social media, a fake story from 2008 about helping Ed McMahon save his home from foreclosure, which is entirely false. I just want you to think about how deranged that is. Okay. And if Obama, if Biden, if George W. Bush, if Clinton, if anybody posted like that, it would be game, set, match, impeach, 25th Amendment, see you absolutely later.

52:17Ben Meiselas:Could you imagine if Biden just posted the Ed McMahon story, just that alone? That would see you later. It would be the 25th Amendment would be vote yesterday. What are we talking about here? And, you know, one of the things, and we'll talk about this a little bit when we come back from break, though, that I think Iran is doing during this war, which is a fascinating kind of asymmetrical digital strategy, though, is the constant mockery of the Trump regime, showing what Donald Trump is as a clown, because that's the only way you can deal with such a cloud. and not embrace it. I mean, I saw one of their embassies posting Trump,$20.28 per gallon.

53:01Ben Meiselas:Trump, 2028,$20.28 per gallon. I saw one of their embassies post this video because Donald Trump's been ranting all day about blockade, blockade, and we're doing a blockade. And one of the Iranian embassies was saying, you do realize for you to have a blockade, You have to move your ships a little bit closer. You can't just make a social media post on X. Do we have the video here of just the blockade, Brett, or do we just have the photo? Because if we have a little bit of the video, let's just play a short one.

53:33Jordy Meiselas:You're talking about this one, right?

53:36Ben Meiselas:Exactly, if we've got it.

53:37Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, okay. It's your lucky day because I unfortunately haven't. Thank you.

53:43Ben Meiselas:All right, my lucky day. Let's put it on the whole thing, but we'll get the point here.

53:50I will never give you up. The straight performance must be shot. Blockade, blockade. In my head just look tough. Please let the shits go through. Come on, at least a few. If you block me, then I block you. Blockade, blockade. I thought this was easy peasy. Look, I'm kind. Okay, we get the point there.

54:28Jordy Meiselas:But I'm on the World War. What a time to be alive.

54:32Ben Meiselas:I mean, but take a look at this. I mean, this was his appearance on Maria Bartiroma, though, where he's out there saying, where's the clip with Maria Bartiroma? where he's out there saying, she goes, you know, the blockade in the strait, the opening up capacity. Is this going to be enough to lower the price of oil and gas? Like, like, look at what his actual response is when asked a question about this. Here, play this. Going to be enough, the blockade in the strait, the opening up capacity in the United States. Is this going to be enough to lower the price of oil and gas, sir? Well, it's going to be eventually it's going to be lower.

55:07No, it might not happen initially, but it's going to it's going to go down. When this is all over, look, the stock market, the Dow hit 50 ,000. It was supposed to be in four or five years. They said it won't happen during his.

55:20Ben Meiselas:Okay. Go with the Dow. He's still going. He's still going.

55:24Jordy Meiselas:I had a home run when I was in Little League when I was 10 years old. Imagine if I just kept talking about it.

55:31Ben Meiselas:Well, you know, Justin Wolfers will tell you. I mean, it's also one of these Trump lies. Justin Wolfers, economist who comes on the Midas Touch Network a lot. He was like, if Donald Trump didn't screw everything up the first year, the Dow actually should have been up about 16 to 20 percent more. If you looked at the trajectory of international markets during the exact same time period, America's markets were actually one of the slowest growing with a broader international movement of economic growth in other markets. So one of the points that Wolfer said is, okay, that was a good metric, but where's the other 16 % is what Americans should be asking because America was not number one.

56:13Ben Meiselas:It was actually, all right, let's take our last quick break of the show. We will be right back. We're going to be talking about more of all of this when we get back. Reminder, become a member of our YouTube channel. It certainly helps and it helps you gain access to all of our membership features. We do a special members-only podcast and, of course, unlock the emojis. So become a member right now. You can gift memberships as well. And who doesn't want a taco emoji right now? The new taco emoji is great.

56:45Jordy Meiselas:Anyway, we'll take our last quick break. And such as any taco emoji, it's a taco Trump emoji. So don't get – because there is a taco emoji. Okay, not just the taco.

56:53Ben Meiselas:A taco Trump emoji. All right, we'll be right back.

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1:01:52Brett Meiselas:Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description to both YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know that we sent you. Benji, where to next? Yeah.

1:02:04Ben Meiselas:So just briefly, that press conference that Donald Trump had outside the White House today, where he was asked by the press, did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ? Did you do that? Take a listen to Donald Trump's response. Let's play it. Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ? Well, it wasn't a picture. It was me. I did post it. And I thought it was me as a doctor. and had to do with Red Cross as a Red Cross worker there, which we support. And only the fake news could come up with that one. So I just heard about it. And I said, how did they come up with that?

1:02:42It's supposed to be me as a doctor making people better. And I do make people better.

1:02:47Ben Meiselas:Of course. I mean, how stupid. I mean, how stupid that that's the leader of the United States. I mean, how humiliating. I just don't objectively how freaking humiliating that of all of the people in this country who could possibly be in the most important position, it's that vile piece of trash right there. And let's use moral clarity when we discuss it. That's exactly what he is. He is a war criminal. Separately, he is an adjudicated felon. Separately, he has been found civilly liable for sexual assault. He's covering up for the Epstein class. He was Epstein's close friend. That's his behavior.

1:03:29Ben Meiselas:I mean, he's bankrupted company after company. So what about J.D. Vance, who converted to Catholicism? What does he think about all of this? He was just asked before we went live, here's what J.D. Vance had to say. Let's play it. When it comes to the disagreements with the Vatican, look, we're going to have disagreements, Brett, from time to time. I think it's a good thing, actually, that the pope is advocating for the things that he cares about. But we're always going to have disagreements on matters of public policy. Or I should say, sometimes we're going to have disagreements on matters of public policy.

1:04:00The pope has been critical of our immigration policy. But ultimately, the immigration policy of the United States is set by Donald Trump. The pope is going to have disagreements on other issues. We can respect the pope. We certainly have a good relationship with the Vatican. But we're also going to disagree on substantive questions from time to time. I think that's a totally reasonable thing. It isn't particularly newsworthy.

1:04:19Ben Meiselas:Pivots away and then separately in a clip, he says that Donald Trump was joking. That was all one big funny joke. And we should all take what Donald Trump says as like, Trump is doing standup right now. So LOL to Donald Trump standup. You had Riley Gaines, who's been one of Donald Trump's closest allies that Donald Trump uses a lot to bully the transgender community, and he frames it as an issue of protecting women's sports. But if you actually look at Trump's policies regarding women's sports, he doesn't believe that women should receive equal pay in college as male athletes. You can take a look at his name, image, and likeness executive order from last year, February 2025, where he said, yeah, you know, Title IX doesn't actually help women get the same amount of money when it comes to all of these huge payments college athletes get with name, image, and likeness.

1:05:11Ben Meiselas:So I always want to point that out. But then separately, you know, my view of the way Donald Trump views the issue over transgender athletes playing sports. It's a way to bully and harm and disrespect marginalized communities. Nothing to actually do with sports competitiveness at all. But in any event, Riley Gaines is Donald Trump's proxy for that bullying. She responded to Donald Trump's post where Trump made himself AI Jesus. And she He goes, why? Seriously, I cannot understand why he'd post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this? Either way, two things are true. A little humility would serve him well.

1:05:50Ben Meiselas:God shall not be mocked. And then Donald Trump was asked by reporters before we went live if he took the post down because of criticism by Riley Gaines and others. And Donald Trump said, no, I don't listen to Riley Gaines. I'm not a big fan of Riley, actually. And it just goes to show you, I mean, everybody in this cult is expendable to him. This is what he does and who he is his entire life, and this is how he behaves. But I don't need to belabor that point. You all understand that. But can I show you what a real leader looks and sounds like? Can I show you Prime Minister Carney in his powerful speech that he gave in front of the Liberal Convention in Montreal all this past weekend.

1:06:36Ben Meiselas:Here, Prime Minister Carney talks about how the days of Canada spending 70 % of every dollar to the United States on military. Bye-bye. Here's what Carney said. Let's play it. The days of our military sending 70 cents of every dollars to the United States are over.

1:07:02Ben Meiselas:he talks about canada moving away from american products and buying canadian products first how it started quietly but then uh began to grow and grow into the elbows up movement by the way midas canada has been on the front lines of that shout out charlie angus play this clip you know it started quietly. People choosing a wine from the Okanagan over one from California.

1:07:33Anyone had any bourbon recently? No? Sorry. Sorry. A family planning a vacation to Prince Edward Island instead of booking flights to Florida.

1:07:55Canadians are rediscovering our country.

1:07:58Ben Meiselas:And Prime Minister Carney said the international order is crumbling and that ties to the U.S. are no longer reliable. The world is changing. Not gradually, but suddenly. Yes, some are still in denial. Well, rather than starting on this journey, they're waiting for the past to return.

1:08:31But hope is not a plan and nostalgia is not a strategy.

1:08:45And if we stand still during this rupture, we will surrender our future to others. My friends, technological change is accelerating. We can either shape our future with AI or let it control our destiny. the foundations of the international order, the order which Canada helped build and from which we have benefited for so long, that order is crumbling.

1:09:15Ben Meiselas:And you hear that in Canada, you hear that in Europe, you hear that in Asia, you hear that in South America and in Africa, you hear that in Australia, you hear that across the world right now. Trump's America first is America alone. That's where we're at right now. Brett and Jordy, I wanted to show that Prime Minister Carney clip though again, because the level of leadership we've seen Carney provide internationally, it's Canada picking the right guy or the right person for the right moment, in contrast to the US doing the exact opposite, meeting the moment versus taking massive steps steps backwards in the wrong direction.

1:10:00Brett Meiselas:Brett, before you go, Bea, I just want to say, I'm never more jealous, envious, you name it, than when I watch Carney speak. I mean, it is, it is like just so, so missed here in this country to have such a dignified, well-spoken leader. And it's just like, oh yeah, talk about someone like an adult with a hand on the wheel. You could kind of tell, hey, Carney's that guy. And it's just like, it's night and day. Sorry, Brett, go it.

1:10:25Jordy Meiselas:And honestly, I think everybody and I think Canada really led the way here for all countries throughout the entire world. They're showing how you stand up to Donald Trump because they've taken the punches, right? They've taken the bullying, the name calling, the governor, this the 51st state that they've taken these hits repeatedly. But I think you have to watch the way that they conduct themselves. I mean, Carney right there, that was a total smackdown of Donald Trump. That was a total smackdown of the current United States policies. But he did so in such a dignified way. And he did so in such a Canadian way, I'll just say.

1:11:11Jordy Meiselas:And I think the tactfulness that Carney uses, I think should be emulated throughout the world. And the way that Carney does not buckle to Donald Trump and bend over for Donald Trump should be looked at by the entire world. People like Mark Rutt or Mark Ruddy, however you say the NATO guy's name, he should be looking at Mark Carney for how to handle Donald Trump instead of trying to constantly praise Trump and try to play to his ego. That's not how you get things done in this world when Donald Trump as president of the United States. You need to show some strength. You need to stand up for yourself.

1:11:47Jordy Meiselas:You need to stand up for your values. That's how you win the support of your people, but that's actually how you move the ball forward for democracy. Shout out to Canada. Shout out to Hungary. That's what their leaders, their new leader just did as well. He built these coalitions. He bulldozed past the gerrymandering and the propaganda press. He bullied past all of the very, just like, once again, just like Trump, all the very shady tactics that Viktor Orban was trying to deploy and employ, these false flag operations, just all the nonsense that he put up with. But he also did so in a dignified way.

1:12:31Jordy Meiselas:He built these coalitions. He brought everyone together. And the people rose up. And they showed that no matter how many roadblocks that these autocrats want to put in the way of the people, that the people can overcome them if they have enough energy, if they have enough enthusiasm, if they are pointed in the right direction. That's why I view this Midas Mighty as a pro-democracy movement across the world, not just in the United States. And I love all of our international friends and partners. And, you know, I think it's important that we have a value-based network here that doesn't cheerlead individual politicians, but that presents a list of values that we all want to follow, that we all want to see in this country.

1:13:14Jordy Meiselas:And I think if you have that, then you could report on things honestly. You could report on things in a straightforward way. And unfortunately, as we've seen over these past few days, as we've seen, hey, since the beginning of time, politicians will let you down. We saw this with Eric Swalwell, the multiple accusations now that have come out against them, which are horrifying, ranging from the sending of inappropriate photos to allegations of rape, awful stuff. And shout out to all the victims who are coming forward. And I hear more are coming forward as well in the coming days. And I think it's important for us to stand with those women and understand that this isn't about any one politician, right?

1:13:58Jordy Meiselas:This isn't about that. This is about our, it's not about a political party. This is about values that we want to see, that we want to uphold. So today, to go back to the beginning of the episode, we learned that Representative Eric Swalwell has announced that he is resigning from Congress. And we've also learned that Representative Tony Gonzalez, Republican, is also resigning from Congress. Gonzalez is going to be resigning from Congress tomorrow, he says. Gonzalez had admitted to having an extramarital affair with a former staffer. She later died by suicide under mysterious circumstances. And this led to a House investigation into sexual misconduct and abuse of power.

1:14:39Jordy Meiselas:And there was a lot of other horrific behavior as well with Gonzalez. So now he is leaving Congress, and I think it's good. Clear all these people out. We do not want people who do not share the values of a polite society, of a democratic society, of a society that upholds morals, because we're learning what it leads to when you have a degradation of those values, when you have someone like a Donald Trump in charge who embodies all of this, right? You see the destruction it has on an entire country. You see the destruction it has with partners, with alliances, with the ability to get things done, with the ability to make advancements with clean energy, with the ability to push the ball forward in the United States in every conceivable way.

1:15:26Jordy Meiselas:And so let's continue to stand together and let's continue to fight against all that crap and fight for what's right. That's got to be our North Star.

1:15:35Ben Meiselas:It's precisely what we mean when we say we don't cheerlead politicians at this network. I'm not rooting for a specific politician because of their personality or their charisma or because they gave a great speech. I'm looking to champion the values that I think matter most to this community, starting with democracy and empathy and love and compassion and uplifting marginalized communities and helping build a better, more prosperous country that works for everybody and to make sure that people get the health care that they need and they should get health care. as a human right and to make sure people get the education they need, want and desire as a human right and to make sure people can afford housing and make sure that people can afford things and live prosperous lives and have a good life with their family and with loved ones and know that they're protected and secured and that they can pass on a better world for future generations.

1:16:51Ben Meiselas:I mean, that's what we talk about most here and where politicians want to meet us in those values and principles. You know, they can, but I'm not rooting for this politician or that politician. It's why I frequently say, you know, although it may sound counterintuitive to a network like ours, I say I really don't actually like politics and I don't really like politicians. I like the values and principles set that we stand for and we fight for the people, but we situate the Midas Touch Network. We situate this movement in the people. And the most important thing you can do in that scenario or in any scenario is listen to the people, be there for the people, fight for the people, fight for you, and use our platform to do that.

1:17:44Ben Meiselas:And then to call out injustice wherever it is, here or abroad, this political party, that political party, doesn't matter. At the end, what matters are enduring values and principles. And oftentimes that may align more with one party than another in a given period of time. I'm not going to be ignorant or naive to that, but there's no specific aligned legions to this specific politician because they're so charismatic and funny. No, that's one of the things that got us into this mess in the first place is being led down a road of demagoguery and cult of personalities. And we need to be mindful of that and root our power in the people, power to the people.

1:18:31Ben Meiselas:And that's been the fuel for the Midas Touch Network. And that brings us to the last topic of the show, which is Donald Trump being handed a loss in the Epstein case that he filed against the Wall Street Journal. District Court Judge Gales, in a 17-page decision, dismissed Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of the Wall Street Journal, Robert Thompson, and the reporters of that article for their reporting on a letter that he sent to Jeffrey Epstein for Epstein's 50th birthday. Donald Trump claims that this letter, which was in the Epstein estate file, which we now all have seen publicly, thanks to the good work of Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, and specifically Ro Khanna, Congress Member Garcia, and others who have really pushed to get those files released.

1:19:27Ben Meiselas:It's in there. I mean, everybody else who sent letters say it's their letters, but Donald Trump claims that a time traveler went back in time and planted it there to frame him. and on that basis and others, Trump sued the Wall Street Journal. Because Trump says, ain't my letter. I never sent that and you frame me. And the district court judge said that Donald Trump hasn't even been able to assert claims against the Wall Street Journal. The judge did give Donald Trump an opportunity to amend his lawsuit to try one more time to bring it again, which is sadly normal in our judicial system. It's liberal leave to amend pleading standards, it's called.

1:20:12Ben Meiselas:And that's usually given to any type of litigant, that if you get the case dismissed the first time, you usually have one more, sometimes two more shots in order to file it, which lots of people who look at our system go, that's kind of odd. And Donald Trump takes advantage of that all the time. He drags these cases out. He will refile a new complaint against the Wall Street Journal. He'll ask for multiple extensions and he'll try to drag this out another six months. I think it'll, in my opinion, it will definitely get dismissed again. And then, you know, he'll try to like not even talk about it and bury it in an avalanche of other headlines, but he got the headline he wanted that he's suing them and he can go out on the campaign trail and say, look, I'm suing, you know, I'm suing Rupert Murdoch.

1:20:58Ben Meiselas:I'm suing Wall Street Journal. So just if you're wondering like what I would, how I would handle a lawsuit like that against Donald Trump, I don't even think I would file a motion to dismiss. I think I would just do what's called an answer to the complaint, get the case going, and then just do discovery right away. Notice Donald Trump's deposition, get him in a room. Donald Trump will be like, oh, am I going to sit for a deposition? You kidding me? There's nothing more I would love than do seven hours of a deposition with Donald Trump on his connections to Epstein. Like the Wall Street Journal has that opportunity right now.

1:21:30Ben Meiselas:And because of Murdoch's relationship with Trump, they're not really pushing the discovery. They both agreed to like hands off. They'll just litigate it with motions to dismiss. But if you were really to litigate this case, like the war that it should be, you would notice Donald Trump's deposition right away. And I mean, seven hours every, they have full rights right now to have seven hours with Donald Trump at least, because that's usually the limitation. Although you can request leave for the judge to do more and do seven hours on Epstein. Imagine just asking him about that. So your contention is this is fake.

1:22:02Ben Meiselas:This is not your handwriting. Get him under oath to just lie under oath. So I actually think it would be a gift if you were sued on that. But that's just me and I guess the old litigator in me who would, that would be my strategy if you were wondering.

1:22:18Jordy Meiselas:Once again, force his hand, right? I mean, that's what we've been saying the whole episode. Just force his hand because he's going to, he will back down. He always backs down.

1:22:26Ben Meiselas:There you have it. Well, that's all I got for this, which I think was a lot that we covered on this episode. We're going to be paying close attention to the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea as well, Persian Gulf Red Sea, seeing what's going on there, seeing what's happening with this mine sweeper operation. How's Iran going to react to that? Will we see escalation? We will keep you posted every step of the way there. We're closely monitoring the events in the Middle East and the rest of the world. And of course, we're monitoring events here at home as well. Thank you, everybody, for watching and listening.

1:23:00Ben Meiselas:We appreciate you. Brett, anything you want to say before you go? Paul Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:23:22We will get it right whenever we go.

1:23:50Brett Meiselas:It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch.