MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 4/21/26

20:55Ben Meiselas:We can do it. It's going to cost tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of American soldiers. We'll have to see. I mean, to me, I don't think we could do it even if the generals claim I think it'll look like what's happening with Russia and Ukraine, where there's been potentially millions of deaths of Russian soldiers in that catastrophic, unlawful invasion of Ukraine. But they're saying that's a path. The other path is Donald Trump negotiates with Iran, but then you have to concede defeat or concede a loss because Iran's not moving away from its framework. So you're going to have to agree that Iran can enrich uranium at some point.

21:34Ben Meiselas:You can say, we're going to take everything. We take the Strait of Hormuz. You can support Hezbollah and the Houthis and the Shiite militia groups in Iraq, and you have to destroy your ballistic missiles, and we're going to excavate and get all the nuclear dust, and we get to choose the regime. You can't try to do it in negotiation that which you cannot accomplish on the battlefield. And, you know, I don't know, maybe because Donald Trump's so used to dealing with sycophants and a media that bends the knee and so many weak corporations that Trump's used to like thinking that he's so smart and that he tricks people.

22:09Ben Meiselas:He's not tricking, you know, even the people here domestically. They just believe it's in their self-interest to sell out people and to be, in my view, traitors to this country and democracy for short-term profit over the long-term stability, frankly, of their companies and interest in this country in order to be Trump's sycopants. Like Iran realizes what he's doing. So Trump's in no man's land. In other words, he thinks that he's going to social media post his way out of it and that he can just do extensions, two weeks ceasefire, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks. Maybe everybody forgets about it, like the healthcare plan and everyone's like a miracle.

22:44Ben Meiselas:Nobody's going to talk about it. And then maybe a new crisis develops, or maybe Donald Trump just keeps on delaying it. And then he gets bailed out by Gulf countries who try to reach a solution, or he gets bailed out because Europe is in a jet fuel crisis, or Asia is running very low on fuel. So China may be figuring it out. And then Donald Trump swoops in and goes, I figured it out. I solved it when other countries come in and now try to figure it out. But Trump just keeps two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks. I mean, in terms of bankruptcies, if we think about Trump bankrupting his casino, This would be a bankruptcy in terms of the US security umbrella in the Middle East.

23:22Ben Meiselas:It's bankrupt to the extent there was a version of a Chapter 7 or Chapter 11. We've experienced it in the Middle East. Nobody trusts the United States security guarantees anywhere in the world at this point. Yes, other countries recognize that still America makes some of the most powerful weapons, And the American military industrial complex is the strongest that there is for certain types of weapons, not the nimble weapons necessarily, the drones, the unmanned vessels, and some of the weapons that work today. But there's a lot of very powerful weapons the US has, the F-35s and the 15s and certain types of drones and other types of equipment and the HIMARS and things like that.

24:06Ben Meiselas:but overall the security umbrella broken i mean there was a big conference that was held in turkey over the past uh over this past weekend where lots of gulf countries were there and the constant theme was and they were delicate in how they said it but it was basically like yeah why do we have american military bases in our country what was the point of giving donald trump all of the didn't say it as direct as this but if you read between the lines of their diplomatic language what did we get in return? Why did he not even let us know about the war was even going to start? Him and Netanyahu just went along.

24:44Ben Meiselas:We didn't even get a heads up and they weren't able to protect us when we needed them. And so this is what Trump wants to do and he thinks he can do, which he can't with Iran, is be in no man's land, right? Well, he'll do his threats and his social media posts and, you know, he'll all caps, I'm going to obliterate you. That doesn't make Iran scared. And then what Donald Trump does, because he wants to act a little tough, but it actually makes him look very weak, and Iran's mocking it, is he puts on this blockade right around the Persian Gulf. So Trump's view of opening the Strait of Hormuz is further blockading the Strait of Hormuz, because Donald Trump doesn't want to commit to a ground invasion because he's scared to do it.

25:25Ben Meiselas:And he shouldn't do it. Let me be very clear. I'm glad that he's scared to do it because us. It's unlawful, but I'm not glad that we got in this unlawful catastrophic war to begin with. But this blockade makes him feel tough. But at the end of the day, it makes him look really weak internationally. And what Iran's saying is the most powerful Navy in the world, the United States, they went from saying he's going to do mine sweepers and he's going to control the Strait of Hormuz to basically now the U.S. Navy is acting like pirates going after cargo ships. It's like, we're trying to get our ships to go to China to deliver food.

26:02Ben Meiselas:And the American Navy is bragging about interdicting out of maybe eight ships, it's able to interdict one of them. And then CENTCOM brags like this is some major accomplishment that the most powerful Navy in the history of the world is able to jump on an Iranian ship. And so Trump thinks that's a point of strength. It's a point of weakness. But more significantly, it is something that is anathema. It's something that prevents negotiations from taking place. Because how could you negotiate when Trump views that the blockade is going to put pressure on Iran to negotiate? And Iran says, we're only going to negotiate if you respect our sovereignty, if you respect our 10-point framework, if you respect our right to exist, if you respect us as a country and you demonstrate that that's how you can rebuild trust for us to be at the negotiating table.

26:53Ben Meiselas:And now some of you may watch this and go, why would we do that? Screw that. Well, you know, whether you were the US, why would we respect? Okay, then don't do that. Then I guess do a ground and back. Like you have to choose which way you want to go. Then do a ground invasion and lose tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands of American soldier lives. Try to take over Karg Island. It would be catastrophic. But you have to like, one of the reasons why leadership is so important and temperament and experience and successfully running things before is that you're entrusted to make very difficult decisions.

27:26Ben Meiselas:and sometimes the decisions may have to mean withdrawal and you have to concede a defeat or sometimes it means escalation. But this no man's land, this no person's land that Trump's doing, all that is very much reminiscent of it's COVID all over again. It's saying like a miracle, it's all going to go away two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks. And that's the plan. We're in a two week cycle. But what's happening behind the scenes is that we have this oil shock that is going to cause damage for years, perhaps decades right now, because so much oil is not being shipped and is not even being drilled for at this point because there's nowhere to contain the oil anymore.

28:09Ben Meiselas:Supply shocks across the board on other things, liquefied natural gas and fertilizer, and all of these things are going to catch up and someone's going to have to fix it eventually, right? And then what's Trump's, this is why we need to frame these issues appropriately because then what Trump does is blame the person who fixes it, right? He's the arsonist. Let's be clear. He's breaking everything. An adult is going to have to come in at some point to fix it. But what Trump's done his entire life, whether it's with COVID, his bankrupt businesses, is that he then blames the fixer. He blames the person who tries to make things better.

28:42Ben Meiselas:So that's why we have to finally have a news company like the Midas Touch Network that gives you the, like we've laid it out. This is what his plan is. And what you have to do is relentlessly call it out every day over and over again. Here's what's happening. And that's why. So we'll take our first quick break of the show. When we come back, I want to talk about Donald Trump firing a cabinet member, Lori Chavez de Reber. That's the third woman on the cabinet who has been terminated thus far. It's not a surprise to me that he gets rid of all of the women on his cabinet. When, look, there's a lot of blame.

29:17Ben Meiselas:They were all pretty bad. Let's be clear. Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Laurie Chavez, Doreem are horrible. But I could just as much make the case that RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth and Howard Lutnick and others should have gone before them or at the same time. Let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers here. And in addition, subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio as well, wherever you get audio podcasts. Help us grow that audio platform. Let's take our first quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

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31:05Brett Meiselas:I've started replacing my mid-afternoon snack with a cup of Broto, and honestly, it keeps me going through the rest of the day. I notice a huge difference in my day when I drink Broto versus when I don't drink Broto. And Broto comes in eight delicious flavors. I recommend trying their sampler pack so you can figure out for yourself which flavor is best for you. Shop the best broth on the planet with Broto. Head to broto.com slash Midas for 20 % off your first subscription order and use code Midas for an additional$10 off. Once again, that's brodo.com backslash Midas for 20 % off your first subscription order and an additional$10 off if you use my promo code Midas.

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32:56Brett Meiselas:Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Go to quince.com slash Midas for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Go to quince.com slash Midas for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash Midas. Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you really quick. Benji, I read all the comments on the audio feeds and all the comments on the YouTube. The next day, I go back to the comment section on the podcast and I just start responding to people.

33:34Brett Meiselas:So people weren't sure if that was me. It's me responding. It really is. So please leave the comments. I will definitely respond. We also, last episode, I was making the effort that we were on 6.2 and we were crossing over to 6.3 million YouTube subscribers. Well, we did it. 6.3 on our way to seven, please subscribe right now to the Midas Touch YouTube channel. You might think you're subscribed, but you might not be. So just double check that. And also please check out the audio feed of the show. It's really, really helpful. Last thing about reading the comments. Someone asked if I could start saying fellas instead of brothers as much and just kind of mixing like into fellas or peeps type of thing.

34:09Brett Meiselas:So I'll consider it. What do you fellas think? Should I do more fella instead of brothers? What do you guys think?

34:14Jordy Meiselas:I think just whatever comes to you. You're going to be natural. You can't, you know,

34:18Brett Meiselas:I don't want to force a fella. That's the thing. It's a special moment when you do what's up, fella. We'll figure it out. Anyway, Ben, I know you love that. All right, Chief.

34:28Ben Meiselas:All right, let me jump into it. Just Iran's parliament leader, MB Galibov, who is the lead negotiator. When there are negotiations with the United States, here's what he posted right before we went live. Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table in his own imagination into a table of surrender or justify renewed warmongering. We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats. And in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield. I mean, this is the lead negotiator. And he's saying, Donald, we're not dumb. We know what you're doing here.

35:12Ben Meiselas:We're not going to allow you to use negotiations for you to achieve that which you couldn't on the battlefield. And if you think that in a war, we're not ready for, we're ready to go after lots of other Middle East nations in ways that we held back before, where there are American interests. Now, I think that the real serious effort to not allow this war to continue. I mean, it's coming from the Gulf countries. I mean, Donald Trump is running around like a headless chicken, although I don't like that's a mean analogy, but that's how it's being described by military leaders and others in the White House.

35:52Ben Meiselas:I mean, this Wall Street Journal expose on Donald Trump that was published this past weekend, I mean, it's as damning as can be because these leaks are coming from within, from top military leaders behind Trump's public rubato on the war. He grapples with his own fears and he's described like, you know, so when people like, Hey Ben, you know, those titles, man, are hyperbolic. You know, you're saying he's panicking and he's running around. He's not panicking. All right. I mean, look, the wall street journal is citing lots of military leaders and cabinet members and other people. They're saying that Donald Trump is panicking and running around and cursing.

36:26Ben Meiselas:And it's gotten so bad. They have to keep Donald Trump out of the situation room when they give him updates of meaningful events because they think that Donald Trump being out there will result in being in the room will result in people getting killed because Trump is so erratic. So just think about that right there. So, you know, but I think a lot of the pressure, this is why you have to study international relations and see the dynamics of what's actually going on here. So Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have a security defense pact. And part of the security defense pact is a lot of resources go to Pakistan, but Pakistan has to help Saudi Arabia.

37:06Ben Meiselas:And so Pakistan is kind of caught up in this situation, you know, as well. And it wants a lot of the Saudi money. And this is how Pakistan in its ongoing existential feud with India, remember there was the India-Pakistan war, which started under Donald Trump's tenure, which Donald Trump claimed that he solved. But then in India, you had Modi say you had nothing to do with it. So Pakistan is well aware of that war. So they, and part of this defense pack, are getting all of these resources from Middle East nations. So Pakistan also, both for their prestige and to help the Saudis, are heavily involved in this negotiation because these Middle East countries, just think about it, whether it's Qatar, having their liquefied natural gas facilities blown up, whether it's Saudi Arabia, key infrastructure, you go to Bahrain, you go to Kuwait, you go to all these countries, right?

38:00Ben Meiselas:United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, no one's, who's going to go there for tourism anymore, right? Like, who's going to be moving to these areas? And they spent a lot of time trying to diversify outside of just being, you know, these crude oil countries. And so I think they're putting a lot of pressure on Pakistan. You got to, like, we know Trump's a maniac, but like, keep this ceasefire so that these Middle East countries can try to figure it out. And they're trying to buy time as well. So I think that's one of the things happening.

38:31Jordy Meiselas:By the way, I think they're putting pressure on the Trump administration as well. There's been some crazy reporting that I really don't think is getting enough attention about the United Arab Emirates. There was a story over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal. It was, I got to honestly give it up to them. They've been actually doing a really good job lately. And they were warning the Trump administration, they had a meeting with Trump officials, I believe in DC, that basically, if this war continues with Iran, that it could totally destabilize their entire economy. And this is an economy, United Arab Emirates, which, you know, oil obviously plays such a big role in this economy.

39:03Jordy Meiselas:You know, they thought they had a lot of runway, I think, you know, to absorb the pain from something like this. But they are pissed off right now at the Trump administration. And they're saying, like, if this takes down our economy, we're going to need you to bail us out, Donald Trump. This is your fault. You're going to have to do something for us. They even raised the idea of currency swap lines to give them access to more U.S. dollars in the case of a crisis. And they also threatened, and this would completely destabilize the United States economy. It would be like a death blow. And I think it's incredibly unlikely, but this is what they said to the Trump officials.

39:39Jordy Meiselas:They said that if the UAE ran short on dollars, that they may be forced to start selling oil in Chinese yuan. That would be the biggest blow to the United States of America imaginable. And that's a card that they have. And that's a card that they are threatening to use against the Trump administration. And it just goes to show you, right, you have all these Gulf nations out there. The first thing that they did when Donald Trump came into office here, Mr. Trump, take this jet here. Take this. You know, let's let me give your son in law money. Let me do this. Let me do that. All of this stuff, which is essentially just a bribery for Donald Trump to turn around and just screw them over with this war, destroy their tourism, destroy their economies, get them into this war, into this conflict, whatever you want to call it.

40:26Jordy Meiselas:what they're involved in as a result of Donald Trump's war in Iran. But I think it's very telling that you have the United Arab Emirates meeting with Trump officials in the treasury and elsewhere in the White House to make these warnings, to make these threats, and to say basically, you screwed this up, you better fix it.

40:46Brett Meiselas:He's a serial bankruptor. Everything Trump touches turns to shit. And that's just the most obvious conclusion of any relationship that this man has ever had. It's just, that's just that there is countless evidence, countless of examples of this every single time. And everything, every single time he tries to put his fingers on the scale of doing any sorts of business, he fails miserably. He bankrupted a goddamn casino. I just like, that is the most humiliating thing ever for any sort of businessman to actually do. He's absolutely pathetic. Of course, this was going to be the natural turn or evolution of this relationship.

41:22Brett Meiselas:It does not surprise me in the slightest.

41:24Ben Meiselas:If you look at Donald Trump's past, Jordi, though, of the bankruptcies, he would convince different groups of bankers to basically fund his bankruptcies. And they would be the ones holding the bag. It would be these, you know, lenders. And it would also be the contractors who would get screwed over. And then he would do these reorganization bankruptcies. And then he would screw them over again. And then he would come out with this kind of grandiose plan of building the biggest da-da-da-da-da. And he would, again, manage to convince another group of people. And by the time he was on The Apprentice, he really kind of ran through any type of lender that was out there.

42:06Ben Meiselas:And, you know, when a lot of people were pointing to Trump's foreign entanglements, lots of people were basically saying he ran out of any type of legitimate lenders. And so he had to go elsewhere to potentially get, you know, to potentially get his money and to help kind of bail him out. And now what we're seeing here is he was basically, you know, these Arab nations were basically like the bankers. and they don't like Donald. It's not like, oh, we like you. I mean, Trump's like, they like Trump. They like Trump. No, I mean, they've done the psychological profile and they believed how could our tourism ever be in jeopardy if Donald Trump builds a Trump property in the center of our city or if there's a Trump golf course, we're protected because he's gonna wanna protect his own things.

42:59Ben Meiselas:But the fallacy is the fallacy that Donald Trump is rational, that he's able to actually think through these things or a few steps that, and that he can meaningfully execute successfully because what they should have looked at is all, Jordy, to your point, all of these failures in the past, because they're just the next suckers and losers, to use a Trump term, that gave him all this stuff and then that he screwed over. And now what he's looking to do is find his bad guy, right? I mean, go back to all of these other examples. So who was it that was to blame for this or that or the other? Who was it to blame when he destroyed Atlantic City?

43:41Ben Meiselas:Who was it to blame when, you know, he, you know, destroyed this building project or that building? Who were the bad guys who all, you know, he has to find that in this narrative that he creates so he can walk while others get destroyed. And now it's NATO. NATO is that boogeyman. NATO screwed me over. And these Asian countries didn't help. And these people didn't help. And that's why we're in this situation. It's Ukraine's fault. And Biden did it. And it was Obama's deal, right? This is how losers behave. And we're seeing Trump, again, behave the way a loser behaves, the way someone who bankrupts things behave.

44:17Ben Meiselas:And if you go back to when we first started talking about this regime, when they came into power. And of course, you can go back to Midas Touch Ears and see the in-depth analysis and warnings that we gave, but set that aside. What I had always been saying is the problem is when something goes wrong, he takes something that goes wrong and makes it into a bigger problem. He takes a bigger problem and makes it into a crisis. He turns a crisis into a catastrophe. He turns the catastrophe into something existential. And then there's a bankruptcy event that eventually happens. We see this with him over and over again because someone who doesn't have his pathology, just his nature to lose, he's the gambler who doesn't leave the table until everything is lost.

45:05Ben Meiselas:The malignant narcissist, all of that combined always kind of renders an outcome because someone who holds themselves accountable would come up with a solution that is humbling. And the humbling answer right here may be you have to concede some sort of strategic defeat because you weren't able. First off, you shouldn't have gone to the war in the first place. Unlawful, catastrophic war, let's be clear, you shouldn't have done it. But now that you have not won on the battlefield, pretending that you won is not a legitimate outcome because the other side doesn't agree with that assessment and they're holding on to their victory.

45:42Ben Meiselas:The Strait of Hormuz, still the uranium that exists, which you did not obliterate back in June. All of their Shahid drones, or they still control 40 % to 50%, still exist. The ballistic missile launchers, the ballistic missiles, their stronger relationship with Russia and China, Iran being a major regional player right now, charging a toll. So you can't bullshit your way out of this. You can't. And so you have to, again, get out of no man's land and make a decision. And being there, again, Iran, to their point too, why they may extend the ceasefire if they do is that they see Donald Trump squirm.

46:23Ben Meiselas:The expression of like, you don't need to do anything. You could just watch your opponent when they're making mistakes. Let them make them. And you could just watch Donald Trump go back and forth, back and forth. And nothing materially has changed in this trade of removes. Iran controls it. They control it. They want to charge tolls. So they could sit back and be like, okay, you want to extend it two more weeks? Sure. We're going to keep building up our missiles. The Arab nations know that we could shut down the strait at any given moment, and we could start attacking them again.

46:56Brett Meiselas:The only thing that's changed is Donald Trump has become increasingly and increasingly desperate. That's the most obvious change that we've seen come out this to your point ben there's nothing material that have substantially moved the needle in any way except it's very clear that donald trump is panicking sorry brett how's this for a stat ready

47:18Jordy Meiselas:this is via lloyd's list iran's shadow fleet is moving at least 26 vessels have reportedly bypassed the u.s blockade with 10 plus ships crossing just this past week since april 13th 11 tankers and one bulk carrier have successfully navigated out of the region. So while Trump and CENTCOM, they like to spike the football and say, look, we stopped this one ship, there are all of these other ships going through at all times. And I saw an interesting analysis and some sourcing from inside Iran about these negotiations as well. And we will see what happens. We're in this period right now where it's kind of like all sides are posturing and are are kind of chest beating and are, you know, kind of feeling each other out.

47:59Jordy Meiselas:But one of the things that I saw, which kind of made a lot of sense to me, to be honest, is that Iran on some level doesn't even understand what getting into a negotiating room with Donald Trump's team would even do. Like, what is the benefit of that? If when you make the deals inside the negotiating room, Donald Trump goes on Truth Social, and then he lies about what was discussed in those meetings. They're not dealing with an honest person on our side. And so it makes it difficult. Like last time when they had agreed that Lebanon was included in the ceasefire, then Donald Trump decided, oh, Lebanon was not included.

48:36Jordy Meiselas:When Donald Trump said in his post and reposted the foreign minister of Iran saying that we have agreed to Iran's 10-point framework to discuss this, to have the ceasefire and discuss a deal going forward. than Donald Trump saying that he did not actually agree to that 10-point plan at all, despite literally writing that out in his own social media post. So I've seen some sources close to the Iranian regime say, maybe we don't even do these sorts of meetings because they're unproductive. Donald Trump is just going to lie about it. We need written agreements. We should have this. This should be public.

49:12Jordy Meiselas:We should be showing our written agreements and having it kind of litigated in public so that people are seeing what is actually happening in the negotiations. It's hard for me to look at that and think like, oh yeah, that actually makes sense when you're dealing with somebody as deceitful as Trump in this process.

49:27Brett Meiselas:Absolutely. And look, it's kind of also what we've always said here at the Midas Touch Network when Donald Trump would tout the, I have this plan with India. I have made this agreement with China. I've made this deal with Japan. And it's like, what do you even say? What is the deal? What is the framework? Can we see the paperwork? Can we see the signatures on the paperwork? You can't just say you have a deal, Donald, when there's actually no deal in place. Then he goes, oh, it's a framework of a deal. Dude, you're a putz. You're a putz and no one takes you seriously. And you know what? His own internal people don't take him seriously.

49:59Brett Meiselas:I want to go back really quickly to where we started this segment, which was that Wall Street Journal article. I mean, this was damning. This was as damning as it gets. I want to emphasize this from the article. The military essentially staged like a quiet internal coup of the situation room because Donald Trump's ego and his temperament, they're just viewed as such a direct threat to the American lives that he can't even be like in the room with them. Like in its most basic form, it's that, that Donald Trump's own handlers view him as this liability. So again, let me just like get this straight.

50:32Brett Meiselas:During the high stakes mission to rescue our downed US airmen in Iran, military advisors intentionally excluded Trump from the command room. They didn't do this for his security or for reasons to protect Trump. They did it because they feared his erratic temperament would just totally derail the mission. Do you know how insane that is? Just take a step back. If any other president had done this, this would be wall-to-wall coverage. And by the way, this part is often overlooked in that story that instead of receiving real-time live feeds of the situation, which is standard for any president, like we all know that Trump's aides were giving him updates of meaningful moments, like whatever that means.

51:11Brett Meiselas:Even Trump's own handlers, they treat him like this kid that just cannot be trusted with like our secrets or the safety of these missions. And so like, I just look at this audience and more so I look to MAGA specifically, I'm asking MAGA, are we great yet? Like, is this the golden age? Is this a president who is stable and bringing back the dominance of this country? Are we alpha? Are we alpha enough for you? Because all I'm seeing is like one misstep after the next, absolutely pathetic handling of all of this to the point where his own people don't trust him enough to be in the commander.

51:49Ben Meiselas:Two quick points I'll make. Where are those F-15E pilots, right? You would normally think we'd learn who they are. They would show up on state regime media, Fox. And so I have serious questions about that whole operation. Why were there hundreds of special operations forces in order to recover two F-15E? Wouldn't you want to go in with less people to try to be more stealthy? Why would you use C-130s? Why would you conduct an operation where you build a whole airstrip? Why was it so close to the nuclear facility in Iran where there was previous plans that special forces would take this uranium?

52:24Ben Meiselas:And so I'm not doubting that F-15E pilots may have gone down. But I'm also not doubting that once that happened, it was then used as a broader pretext as part of a search and rescue operation to then bring in lots of special forces to engage in a mission that was then aborted. And so I have lots of even broader questions about the whole thing. I just want to...

52:45Jordy Meiselas:This is an administration, the Trump administration, the Trump regime that has quite... That has literally... They post everything. Every illegal strike they do on boats in the Pacific or in the Caribbean, they show you, right? They show you everything. They try to post anything that they think could possibly make them look good. So it is shocking to me that there's no footage of this at all, nothing, zero. They haven't even told us even the pilot's name, what their rank was. We know nothing about these people. It just is odd. It really is a very...

53:18Brett Meiselas:It's such a good point because the same way too, they weaponize American iconography, like they wrap themselves in the flag. And again, they spike the football over any tiny, teeny win. You would think that they would name these pilots. In fact, probably bring them up, give them medals of honor, like do the whole show, do the whole show. But no, like not even they, oh no, but they did this one thing. No, they haven't done anything. And that right there, that gives it all away to me.

53:45Jordy Meiselas:I like that Trump's new thing is every time now he like pauses bombing Iran, he views it as him ending another war. So now he's up to like, he's ended 12 wars. He'll end 11 wars if the ceasefire goes in. It's also stupid.

53:58Ben Meiselas:Well, look, when you look at what these Gulf nations would say when Iranian drones and missiles would hit their targets, they would never say the drone hit it, right? It would always be the debris hit it, right? And you'd be like, yeah, you think I believe it's the debris. I'm seeing the Shahid drone, you know, hit the target, you know, and, and Jordy, to, to, to your point, we would know these F-15E pilots. They would be like, there would be press conferences. Donald Trump would like have them right next to him. There'd be like a UFC fight dedicated to them. They'd go march in the UFC. I mean, there would be something that would be done there.

54:29Ben Meiselas:And then it brings me to just another point as well. Like the story that I think is going to gain more attention that there were two Americans who were, I'm not sure if they were CIA affiliated, but two American officials were in Mexico conducting operations there. And then our regime in the United States said they were involved in a car accident with two Mexican officials who were also involved in going after drug dealers in the area. And so two Mexican officials, two American officials got killed. And then some story about it was like a car accident. It's like, stop treating us like we're stupid, okay?

55:04Ben Meiselas:I'm sure it was a CIA operation or it's part of ongoing military operations that are against Mexican law. And now Claudia Scheinbaum, the president of Mexico says, you know, she's, she's looking into that. Sorry, Brett.

55:17Jordy Meiselas:No, I was saying, I was saying totally. When I, when I read this, that there was this, you know, bizarre car accident that killed two American officials, two Mexican officials in Mexico. And then Claudia Scheinbaum said she didn't even know about that. Didn't even know what they were doing. And they said that this was part of something to do with counter narcotics or something. The whole, the whole thing seems incredibly suspicious to me. We know that the United States government and the CIA does a lot of activity that they try to hide in places like Mexico and in Latin America and in South America.

55:48Jordy Meiselas:And that just, it just didn't pass the sniff test, all the explanations there. They're given on that one. And they sort of swept it right under the rug as well. Like I've had so many people watching this haven't even heard about that.

55:58Ben Meiselas:Right, right. Last point I'll make. Trust Trust is the ultimate currency in international affairs. And Donald Trump, you know, broke all the trust immediately. 90 deals in 90 days. Jordy, the point that you make when there was not 90 deals, there were frankly no deals in 90 days. Nothing was ever written on paper. We started to hear things like, oh, well, there's a framework or there is organizing principles. We did a framework over here. And then like press releases were written and say, OK, well, where's the actual deal? And then you start there's a framework of a framework. There's a concept of a deal.

56:31Ben Meiselas:And one of the reasons we were pointing out that these are all fake is when Donald Trump's out there saying he was getting trillions of dollars here and trillions of dollars there. And he brought in twenty one trillion dollars. We're saying it's not real because ultimately the question is, is if you brought in twenty one trillion dollars, what's the impact of that going to be? I get you can lie and you can get a good press release. But ultimately, if people don't feel it, if you don't experience it, eventually people know that you're a liar. And it's some of the most dangerous and weird things to lie about to say someone gave you $21 trillion or countries gave you$21 trillion, which is totally false.

57:06Ben Meiselas:And all of these things that happen, Donald Trump, like say during my first term, I rebuilt the military, which he didn't rebuild the military. What the hell are you talking about? And in my second term, I use it. Okay. What do you, it's a ridiculous thing to say. But in the first year of the second regime of Donald Trump, he screwed up all the relations and created a demolition of all of the structures that were needed. So then when he actually started invading everybody and engaging in his catastrophic wars, the impact was extra harmful as a result. All right. I know we've said a lot in the segment.

57:38Ben Meiselas:Let's take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, we'll talk about Lori Chavez de Reimer being fired by the Trump regime, the third cabinet member to go, the third female cabinet member to go. All the cabinet members who have been fired are female. We'll talk about that and more. Reminder, hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. Subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.

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1:00:50Brett Meiselas:Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Look, I hate to even play this game because I just don't know if it's like a useful exercise, but part of me feels like it is. And it's just viewing things through the lens and the context of like, imagine if Biden did it. Imagine if that Wall Street Journal article came out under President Biden and that his temperament didn't allow him to even be in the room as they were conducting missions. It is so beyond anything, man. Just imagine the wall to wall coverage on Fox News about this.

1:01:25Brett Meiselas:Really, really, really like sycophant stuff out of Donald Trump and the regime. And I, I, I, at this point, it's a very, very leaky faucet, in my opinion. Like these are just the first strips. Cause you know, there's internal sourcing that goes into all of this type of stuff, all this type of reporting. And it is, it's just the first sort of shoe to drop here. We've kind of seen it throughout this term in general, but I think as we get closer and closer to 28, like this is going to become more of the norm, more stories like these coming out from the inner circle, as at least his like internal team and staffers try and figure out what's next for them.

1:01:59Jordy Meiselas:I got to say, you know, it's been interesting because the first few months of Trump's second term, he actually held the cabinet and held his people together a little bit. It was a lot less leaky than during his first term. There weren't as many firings. There was some semblance that he had a bit of control of that, right? And also, Trump has this thing now, especially now, where he doesn't want to, and I've heard his, I've heard people from his team use this term where they don't want to give the media a scalp is what they call it, right? The media is coming for somebody on their team, even if it is completely legitimate, even if the person is abdicating their duty, using drugs, extramarital affairs, drinking, whatever it is.

1:02:51Jordy Meiselas:They don't want to give the media a win, so to speak. Like that is the worst sin for Donald Trump, not that behavior. So Trump either has to figure out a way to do it where he's not, where in his head he could spin it as he's doing it on his own and it's not to give the media a win, or he just doesn't end up firing these people who are just wholly incompetent and have no, no, no reason at all to be in these jobs. And so he usually has to launder it through a source by him, like on his team, so to speak, in order to be able to justify it. And I think you saw that at those congressional hearings a few weeks back with that Senator John Kennedy.

1:03:31Jordy Meiselas:John Kennedy, who talks in this kind of bizarre, whimsical way. He's actually like a very smart guy, but he plays an idiot. And when he was questioning Kristi Noem, it felt very much like he was questioning Kristi Noem in order to get the sound bites from her that Donald Trump actually needed to get rid of her. And I feel like that's how they do all of this stuff, right? If the Atlantic writes an article about Kash Patel and makes allegations against Kash Patel, Donald Trump is not inclined to act on that because he doesn't want to give the Atlantic, He doesn't want to give the liberal press, so to speak, a win, right?

1:04:08Jordy Meiselas:But if he could get a Breitbart reporter or a Fox reporter or a Republican in Congress to catch somebody in a certain statement, then he's built his own justification for it that he's doing it on his terms. It's another one of those weird psychological things that you kind of have to watch that Trump does and something he's doing differently this term compared to his previous one.

1:04:29Ben Meiselas:Could you imagine, though, any FBI director filing a defamation lawsuit because their feelings or reputation purportedly was harmed by a media outlet? But regardless of even what the allegations are, while you are the acting FBI director, other than the attorney general, you're the top law enforcement person in the United States. And you're running the Federal Bureau of Investigations, a sprawling organization that is kind of the pinnacle of law enforcement power. And people say all different things, whether you're Merrick Garland or Christopher Wray, when Christopher Wray was the FBI director, or Comey or whoever.

1:05:17Ben Meiselas:But while you are running this sprawling organization, you believe your reputation, and I'm not setting it aside, the allegations, just to get to the point where you're like, you know what, I'm going to call a civil plaintiff's lawyer firm and file a defamation lawsuit and make stories about me suing. And now I'm going to be a litigant and I'm going to have to deal with discovery and I'm going to have to deal with document requests and I'm going to have to deal with the trial. Like what if, what if the Atlantic, rather than filing a motion to dismiss and then having like a protracted year long battle over the legal issues of the defamation case and the actual malice standard and times versus Sullivan and all of these first amendment issues and then cash Patel files amended complaints and drags it on.

1:06:07Ben Meiselas:Like when Donald Trump files all of his defamation claims. What if the Atlantic says, you know what, let's just do a trial. Let's just do an expedited trial cash. I want your deposition. I'm going to take your discovery. I'm going to take discovery of your girlfriend. I'm going to take discovery of all of the people around you. I want to see receipts. I want to see where you've been. I want your credit cards. I want your cash. You know, I'm going to subpoena the various clubs that the article says that he was at. Like, I'm going to do all of that and we'll do a trial. And then what? There's going to be a three-week trial potentially with the FBI director.

1:06:43Ben Meiselas:while there's actual, I mean, here's the thing too. And look, the allegations against cash are bad and they're disturbing and all of that. But set that aside. Think about a more broader issue. You're supposed to be a public servant. You're supposed to be doing public service. You're supposed to be making sacrifices for the people, a servant for the public. That's what it means to be a politician. Well, you should be. That's why I always say on this network, stop gamifying these politics. Stop exalting the personalities of these policies. These are supposed to be public servants who work for us.

1:07:27Ben Meiselas:You're not supposed to be in the Winter Olympics making the men's gold medal hockey about you holding up a beer can? What if the Atlantic in Discovery asked Kash Patel the following questions? Admit that you said that while you were in the Olympics in Italy, you were on duty and you were there for work. Admit or deny. What's he going to say? Oh, the statements that they put out were that he was there for work. Admit. Admit that while you were working in Italy, you went into the locker room with the hockey team and you started to drink beer. Admit or deny. Admit. Admit that it would be a violation of FBI protocol for other positions to be drinking on the job in any situation.

1:08:12Ben Meiselas:Admit or deny. Just take that one instance. Remove every other allegation. Just take the one that was public. Admit or deny that it would be against, what's he going to say? Deny? You're going to say, admit. Admit that that was broadcast to millions of people, admit or deny, admit. Okay. So then if you're representing the Atlantic, setting aside any other aspect, you would say, how could we have acted with actual malice in anything if he's on videotape doing that and look at his admissions? And then he's going to have to testify to those things at a trial. So imagine if the Atlantic just said, you know what, we want a trial.

1:08:49Ben Meiselas:And now we have an FBI director who should be focused on protecting against terrorism, investigating, you know, child predators and, and, and finding the next Epsteins out there. Like you should be focused on all of these issues that are happening. And he's so focused on like himself and the girlfriend's country music career. It's like, stop it. This is stop trying to be famous and celebrity. This should be about the people going to Lori Chavez de Reber. It's like, you know, from all the stories, she's out in Vegas. She's going, and these are the allegations partying in Vegas, going to strip clubs, partying, drinking, booze-fueled office.

1:09:32Ben Meiselas:Affairs with staffers. What did you say? Affair with a staffer. Affair with a staffer. Your husband's accused of sexual misconduct inside the building. What the hell is going on? You're supposed to be the labor secretary. Your job is to help unions, help workers. And we know that manufacturing jobs have suffered. We know that there have been job law. Trump's been the worst for jobs. Your job isn't your job isn't to go out there and like party. And, you know, it's like RFK Jr. doing these like weird videos, like with milk mustaches, with his shirt off and Kid Rock. It's like, what are you doing?

1:10:11Ben Meiselas:You're supposed to be the health secretary. People are out there dying. And not only are you spreading anti-vax messages, but you're out there like shirt off. What do you think this is? It's supposed to be the government. And this should shock our conscious. And I think because our media has been so broken, because of the proliferation of social media and these algorithms and all these things, you know, there's been this idea that politics is this reality show. And so the person who leads this warp dystopian reality show is a reality show guy in Donald Trump. The transportation secretary is a reality show guy who's on the real world road rule challenge.

1:10:53Ben Meiselas:These are all people who want to be famous and never made it in Hollywood. And they're out, Dr. Oz and this one and that one, who are out there like, what are you doing? We have to just, again, deconstruct this conscious, shocking environment and ecosystem and say, snap the hell out of this mass psychosis. And let's remember what the hell government is supposed to do. It's supposed to be by the people for the people. It's supposed to deliver. It's supposed to give people health care, not rip it away. It's supposed to help people get better education. It's supposed to help people afford homes. It's supposed to be there to protect people and make life better and more affordable.

1:11:32Ben Meiselas:It's supposed to uplift and protect, not bully marginalized communities. That's what government's supposed to be. It's not supposed to be this dystopian reality show of strip clubs and drinking and all of this other crap out there. That's not what government's supposed to be. It's not supposed to be oddity and weird. Oh, can you believe it? So I don't want it to be that way. I want it to be, what did you help do to buy more housing? What did you do to help more people get healthcare? You know, one of the things we saw with Lori Chavez-Darema right away, which was, you know, we covered in depth, was at her confirmation hearing.

1:12:05Ben Meiselas:You know, before she was the Labor Secretary, she was supposed to be a moderate Republican Congress member from Oregon, where she said she supported unions, she supported labor. And, you know, and so that was her big thing, that she supports the PRO Act, which is a piece of legislation which protects unions from all of these hostile acts by big corporations. And so the idea that you had this moderate Republican from Oregon who supports the PRO Act, that's how she branded herself. But like all of these Trump people, it's phony. They're all phony. Remember during her, we can talk about all the salacious stuff and the this and the that and the strip clubs and the Vegas vacations and the husband, all these allegations.

1:12:47Ben Meiselas:And to be clear, she denies the allegations for what it's worth. But her top staffers also resigned during this investigation. By the way, the inspector general who Trump hired was a MAGA Republican Congress member who was also involved in like extramarital affair allegations as well. So there's all of that. But this was at her confirmation hearing back in February 2025 when Rand Paul asked her, so do you no longer support the PRO Act, the important legislation for unions? And watch what she does over here. Play this clip.

1:13:17Jordy Meiselas:Do you still support the PRO Act or don't you support the PRO Act? Thank you, Senator Paul. And I appreciated our meeting as well. I thought it was quite...

1:13:30Jordy Meiselas:What you shared with me is how important it is to you and your state. And I heard that from many members.

1:13:36Brett Meiselas:The right to work is a fundamental tenet of labor laws, where states have a right to choose if they want to be a right to work state, and that should be protected.

1:13:44Jordy Meiselas:Pro Act will overturn that. Yes. Thank you, Senator. I signed on to the PRO Act because I was representing Oregon's 5th District. But I also signed on to the PRO Act because I wanted to be at that table and have those conversations. But I fully, fairly, and support states who want to protect their right to work. I have said that to every senator that I have visited. So you no longer support the aspect of the PRO Act that would have overturned state right to work laws? Yeah.

1:14:10Brett Meiselas:There were so many parts.

1:14:11Jordy Meiselas:That's a yes?

1:14:12Brett Meiselas:Yes. Yes, sir.

1:14:18Ben Meiselas:No more questions.

1:14:19Brett Meiselas:Thank you, Senator.

1:14:21Ben Meiselas:Right there. That's a moment where she sold her soul. And we know she did before then, but you saw the moment. Basically, you can literally see it. You know, I don't know if she had one to begin with, but it came out of her. Boom. I'm MAGA. So she goes from that to then she did the Trump cabinet meetings where she would make Kim Jong-un proud. Here, play this clip of her at the cabinet meeting.

1:14:41Brett Meiselas:If you all haven't stopped by the Department of Labor, Mr. President, I invite you to see your big, beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor, because you are really the transformational president of the American worker, along with the American flag and President Roosevelt. Yeah.

1:14:58Ben Meiselas:And beyond embarrassing, Brett and Jordi, I'll turn it over to you.

1:15:01Jordy Meiselas:Stop putting your names on things. Stop putting your face on things. Stop trying to be celebrities. Just like cut the shit. Cut the shit. What are you doing for the American people? That's what government is supposed to be. And Ben, it's funny. I remember when Donald Trump was picking his cabinet members and he selected Lori Chavez de Reimer. I remember saying to you, because I try to judge everything objectively. I, of course, have my personal opinions. And I think Donald Trump is an incredibly destructive force, not only to the country, but to the entire world. But when he was picking his cabinet, I try to keep an open mind on an individual-based cities person.

1:15:34Jordy Meiselas:Is this person actually qualified for this position at least? And when I heard her name and I was looking her up, I was like, oh, she voted for the PRO Act. She actually seems like a pretty normal person who might actually be good in this role. And Ben said, watch your testimony. And I said, why? He said, watch what she said about the pro act during her testimony. I said, well, she voted for it. And Ben said, well, she's against it now. I was like, how can you say you're pro labor and not before this? All these people always show their cards and they're chameleons. They really don't believe anything.

1:16:07Jordy Meiselas:Like what the hell, by the way, is Tulsi Gabbard doing right now, right? Tulsi Gabbard and Miss Anti-War in the past had gone after Donald Trump for Iran, for saber rattling with Iran, for any sort of foreign entanglements. But now she's singing a different tune. Well, she's not really saying much, but what she's doing now is she's kind of being quiet and she's doing Donald Trump's dirty work in order to try to build this kind of phony case for Donald Trump to say that the 2020 election was stolen and to give him more justification to try to prevent people from voting in the midterms and future elections.

1:16:47Jordy Meiselas:That's what she's focused on right now. And so I think all the people who you see in this administration, they all kind of fit into a similar pathology, a similar psychology. They all are kind of like, they all want to be famous. They all really don't have any sort of moral core or moral beliefs. It's all whatever is going to benefit them at the moment. And in this case, it's all whatever, you know, Donald Trump wants is what they're going to do. And nothing else really matters. And that's a dangerous place to be in a democratic government. It's a dangerous place to be at a small d democratic government.

1:17:22Jordy Meiselas:And it's a dangerous place to, you know, to be in a country, especially when things get serious, when we're in matters of life or death, when we're dealing with matters of war or peace. And that's where we find ourselves right now, at the hands of a reality show TV host who, unfortunately, the repercussions of the show that he thinks he's putting on are far too real for the Americans who are suffering right now, whether it's from high prices, whether it's from the war, you name it. this is getting very, very, very real. And you can't escape the reality at a certain point. Donald Trump could try to make his own alternative facts and try to will things into existence.

1:18:06Jordy Meiselas:But when you're on a collision course with reality, that doesn't end well.

1:18:11Brett Meiselas:Absolutely. And like the saddest part for me, Brett, to your point about how dangerous this is for our society, is just like this country could be so good. Like it genuinely could be. There are there are enough smart people. There are enough people who actually love this country to want to make this country perform as best as it can perform to work for the people as best as it can work for the people and not work for Donald Trump and his ilk. When Donald Trump's cabinet, when he says to jump, they say, how high? You say, oh, we used to have this belief. Now that now Trump says, no, now you believe this.

1:18:46Brett Meiselas:They go, OK, sir. Yes, sir. And that's just what I always come back to. It's like just so pathetic from these Trump regime cabinet members, all of these people that they just pledge allegiance, not to this country, but to Donald Trump. Their one goal in this administration is to help make him look good or just to do his bidding, right? I'm not saying that they're doing a good job at making him look good, but I'm just saying that's their whole goal for anything that they do is how will this reflect Donald Trump? How can this impact and make his life better? Him, Donald Trump, the reality star, the guy who bankrupted casinos and countless businesses.

1:19:23Brett Meiselas:Him, Donald Trump. It is so beyond the pale to me because, again, this country at its best could be so high powering if all of our elected officials actually wanted to work for the American people. If they wanted to dig in and figure out a sustainable healthcare plan, if they wanted to dig in and understand affordability for housing for the countless of Americans across this country, If they wanted to dig in and figure out, hey, how can we make sure that no one's going hungry in the society? Or how can we figure out that there are no homeless folks? Or how can we figure out the mental health crisis that's just ravaging our society?

1:19:55Brett Meiselas:We could do that. Genuinely, we could figure that out. If people wanted to actually work that are in government for this country and not to serve some person and only that person. It's upsetting to me and frustrating because to me, it is that simple. To me, there are so many good people in this country that actually want to do the good thing. But the system right now is so upside down, topsy-turvy, that it only ends up benefiting people like Donald Trump. And it is so disheartening to me. But I truly believe, like the folks in this community and the Midas Mighty and the pro-democracy community, that we could get there, that we can be that high-powered, high-functioning society that, you know, I can only aspire that we reach to one day because people are truly fed up and that they're seeing through all of this BS more so than they ever have before.

1:20:49Brett Meiselas:And the megaphones and then the microphones are pointed towards independent media, exposing all of this BS and all of this corruption on a daily, daily, hourly, minutely basis. And we've all had enough. And so we just have to ask ourselves, do we want to live in the society where Donald Trump and his ill continue to benefit? and they're not working for the American people or any person in government isn't working for the American people? Or do we want to live in a society that actually benefits us all? Benji.

1:21:16Ben Meiselas:I never want to hear again that we don't have enough money for this, that, or the other. Okay. They're trying to do$1.5 trillion for the defense budget right now,$200,$300 billion for ICE and Border Patrol, Gestapo, hundreds of millions of dollars, not from private funds, but from public funds for so-called White House renovations. And if you go and look down the list of hundreds of millions of dollars for Trump golfing and all of this stuff. And so I never want to hear, oh, we don't have enough money for healthcare. We don't have enough money for them. We don't have enough money for them. I never want to hear a MAGA Republic go, I'm a fiscal hawk.

1:21:55Ben Meiselas:I'm a deficit. No, you're not. You're a fraud. You are a fraud. You are crooked as hell and you hate this country and you hate people and you live a miserable existence and your entire life's work is to cause pain and to hurt other people. So you could do the bidding of right-wing oligarchs. It's despicable. That's all I got. I'll leave on that high positive note right there. Thanks everybody for watching. We appreciate you. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. A reminder, let friends, family members, everybody know about the show. Send this episode to people you know, so they're so they can see it.

1:22:31Ben Meiselas:Say, hey, try out the show. Tell me what you think. These guys come with receipts and make sure you subscribe on YouTube, subscribe on audio, and maybe send a text message or an email to 10 people, you know, after watching this and tell them to check out the Midas Touch Network and specifically send them a link to this episode so they can see what everybody's talking about. So thanks. I'm sorry, Ben,

1:22:51Brett Meiselas:let me just cut you off there. I just want to emphasize that the word of mouth for this network is incredible. It's what this whole movement has been based off of. We have never done any specific advertising to promote the network, any paid advertising, all of this is truly organic growth and word of mouth. So please continue to do that. Your voices are so trusted within your own circles that it really helps this network continue to grow. Sorry, Ben, any more? That's all I got. Thanks, everybody.

1:23:14Ben Meiselas:We appreciate you. We're listening to you. We're fighting for you. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:23:28Jordy Meiselas:It's the fascists we sing our song. We will get it right whenever...

1:23:37Brett 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.

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