MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 4/28/26

22:28Jordy Meiselas:I got to say, it was a softball interview overall and very cringeworthy for the most part, but she kind of made it up for me personally when she said, oh, wait, you think he was talking about you? Trump had to admit that portion of it, which was, I would say a good part.

22:46Ben Meiselas:No, I mean, I think as a journalist though, if you're in that room, you should point out, what are you saying you're exonerated from? What are you saying you're, just to fleshed that out a little bit. Oh, weren't you found civilly liable for sexual assault? So aren't you a sexual predator based on being found civilly liable for sexual assault? Aren't you on audio and video saying that you grab women by their genitals because you're rich and you get away with it? Don't you say that you inspect their girls in the beauty pageants because you own the shows and you get away with it? I mean, I get that's not necessarily the topic, but if he's going there, you can maybe ask a follow-up.

23:20Ben Meiselas:But what she ended up doing afterwards, she goes, I just want to let you know on behalf of the White House Correspondents Association. Thank you, Mr. President. We were grateful for your leadership. It's like, what? He just called you a despicable person and said that you're horrible and you follow up with that. I mean, there was other weird moments in that as well. Brett, to your point, when Donald Trump's like, I never fell when they wanted to evacuate the room. They told me, get down on the ground. So I went on the ground to listen to their instruction. But then you go from one regime media, CBS, new state regime media to older state regime media, which calls itself Fox.

23:58Ben Meiselas:And you had Jackie Heinrich do this interview with Donald Trump. It's like a media tour on all of this. And she, and there are all the corporate news people like are saying the exact same line. I don't need to show you Nora O'Donnell's line because Jackie Heinrich and Nora like literally read from that same script. You know, that, uh, what was that? The Sinclair script that you saw all of the local affiliates read the, you know, read at the same time. It's basically a version of that, right? Where they were like, thank you, Mr. President. We are so grateful for everything that you've done. Without you, we don't know what the White House Correspondents Dinner would be.

24:29Ben Meiselas:It's like, dude, you're talking to someone with 33 % approval, like far worse than Biden, far worse than anybody. He's least popular, less popular than Nixon when Nixon resigned. Here, just play this clip, quick, quick, this clip quickly of Jackie Heinrich. And Jackie, with that, I have to go. Okay. I want to thank you, Mr. President, for joining us today. And I also want to say how grateful we were last night as a member of the board of the White House Correspondents Association and the incoming president of that association. We were very grateful to have you there taking part in a tradition that recognizes the role of a free press in our democracy.

25:03And we're all sad that it went the way that it did. We're all grateful that we get to come home to our loved ones and be together afterward. And thank you for your leadership in the moments afterward and for coming on and giving the country the strength to not let those who would wish to harm us stop us from our pursuit of our liberties. Well, Jackie, thank you very much. It's very nice. Very nice. Let's do it again.

25:28Ben Meiselas:Let's do it again, Jackie.

25:30Brett Meiselas:It's just so humiliating, Ben and Brett. Am I just mighty? I mean, look, what is like state regime media? That's what you're looking at. And look, my thoughts on the Nora O'Donnell 60 Minutes thing. I saw a lot online like a lot of social chatter this was a really power she did a great job and then i saw the other side of that uh like i can't believe she would you know this is such a softball interview what's going on i i'm kind of in that camp right like part of me i could understand okay norah you're interviewing him you have you know subjects to sort of hit on and you just kind of have to take it in stride as you're going to make sure you hit all these topics he's hurling insults at your face to you.

26:05Brett Meiselas:And we're all here supposed to champion free speech and celebrate him like he's some sort of like national global hero who champions free speech. And meanwhile, he hates you. He hates you. I'm not saying this to be hyperbolic. He hates you. And he hates anyone that actually wants to report accurate information. So for me, the reason I fall into that ladder camp is because, Ben, to your point, you have to be ready for a follow-up question. Actually, the courts found you guilty so what's going on here actually you're lying right now so what don't just use your platform because you're a serious reporter at least you you like you liken yourself as a serious how about this 60 minutes hold on 60 minutes is like supposed to be at its best what it was was supposed to be this like very serious program of course the way that entire direction of that network and that program is crumbling is really just uh it is so horrific for this country that that's where it's falling, that they could just be used as mouthpieces for the press.

27:03Jordy Meiselas:I'll toss it to Brett, the court found civilly liable. Yes, Brett? Yeah. And we were talking about access journalism and the issues with access journalism. I mean, you're praising a guy for coming to your soiree. You're praising a guy for coming to your party. That's what you're doing right now. As that same individual kicks all the press out of the Pentagon, as calling on all of these bullshit outlets that aren't real news sources. I mean, he's destroying your jobs. He's destroying your livelihood. He's destroying the free press. And you're thanking him because he came to your party. Oh, and he's never come before.

27:35Jordy Meiselas:This has been a tradition for a long time. This is the first time he came. And this time he came, not only, you know, he came with preconditions. And so there wasn't even a comedian at the party because he didn't want to get his feelings hurt. And this is the purveyor of free speech now that you want to hold up as like this. I don't even know. Like, what are we doing here, people? And then, like, I think it's just worth mentioning quickly that the ballroom has nothing to do with this event at all whatsoever. The White House Correspondents Dinner is put on by the White House Correspondents Association.

28:12Jordy Meiselas:That is a private organization, has nothing to actually do with the White House as an entity. You think Donald Trump these past, you know, the other many years of his term where he hasn't attended would have allowed this press who he refused to go to this event or he was it would have had them rent out the White House ballroom, which, by the way, as big as it is, isn't even as big as the room where this event was in the Hilton Hotel. It's a non sequitur, which is one of the things going back to when I said it's all weird, like it doesn't even make sense. the ballroom has nothing to do with this event.

28:44Jordy Meiselas:They're completely different thoughts. They're completely different things. And the fact that they deflect and go to that and all this stuff, it just makes you think like, all this is really freaking weird.

28:55Ben Meiselas:Couldn't agree more. Let's talk more about that. Let's talk about what's going on right now as the Iranian foreign minister, Rajchi, is in Russia meeting with Vladimir Putin and coordinating everything publicly. Like, it's not like, how do you know this? Are you just doing, are you just speculating? No, no, like they're literally doing press conferences together, saying that they're coordinating everything. I want to talk about Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz. He's come out with some powerful statements against Donald Trump. So has the premier of Manitoba in Canada, also prime minister Carney, also throughout the world, Leaders, I think, are they're no longer post Trump's unlawful and catastrophic war and invasion of Iran with Netanyahu.

29:44Ben Meiselas:Like people are done with this guy, like they're done with them. I mean, you saw the report today that NATO is really doesn't want to even do any meetings anymore for the rest of Donald Trump's term. That's one of the big proposals. Let's just do a meeting after 2028 because having Trump in the room doesn't allow them to focus on their work. Right. And so Reuters was reporting saying no more NATO meetings with Donald Trump or just because let's just try to get through these years and then maybe we'll do meetings after 2020. Just think about that right now. We'll talk about that and we'll let's take our first break of the show.

30:19Ben Meiselas:A reminder, make sure you hit subscribe. We're so close to seven million subscribers. Help us get to seven million. We know we can do that together. Also, subscribe to our audio feed, our audio podcast. Wherever you get audio podcast, just search Midas Touch and subscribe to our audio podcast as well. Thanks, everybody. We'll be back after our first quick break.

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34:12Brett Meiselas: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. Maybe I was being a little too hard on Norah, but like it upsets me because Trump hates the press. So like this whole idea, that he is like some like gentleman and scholar because he decided to attend the White House dinner, like correspondence dinner. It's just, it's so beyond anything. It's just like, and by the way, the rhetoric, which everyone's saying, hey, time to tone it down, right? Both sides. No, it's primarily coming from one side and like a group and that's MAGA and Donald Trump.

34:47Brett Meiselas:Like, can we just like call out what we actually see and stop gaslighting people?

34:51Jordy Meiselas:They always just want to blame others, right? It's not our fault that people don't trust us, right? Or it's not our fault, if you're the White House, that there's violence and threats and people use charged language. Can't be our fault. But they never look in words, right? They never go, well, maybe I shouldn't be doing this. Or maybe I should be honest with people about all of these other things. And all they're doing is they're stoking doubt in reality all the time. and they're making people pissed off and angry. And they are stoking the violence that they then act all offended by and the language that they act all offended by because they go out there and they say the most horrific stuff you've ever seen a president say and then defend it and double down on it.

35:40Jordy Meiselas:And I think people are just like sick of it. They're sick of this double standard and they're sick of this sort of rhetoric coming from the president of the United States and seeing no consequences.

35:48Ben Meiselas:Right, I mean, just think about, right after this incident, in addition to Golden Ballroom, you have Caroline Levitt. And I think we have the clip, right? Where Caroline Levitt talking about, you know, this all is because of the cult of leftist terrorists. It's like a cult of leftist violent people. And it's like, what are you talking about? I mean, what we talk about on the show and what lots of people talk about who you put these labels on. Can we get people more healthcare? Can we get people free healthcare, access to healthcare, access to education, allow people to afford a home, pay rent, stop people from feeling psychologically tortured all day, not engage in war crimes, not do never-ending catastrophic wars abroad, focusing on allowing people to afford groceries and and things like that.

36:44Ben Meiselas:But they're out there right away after it's the left, it's the cult of the leftist. You know, now we need a ballroom and this is why we need to suppress your vote. And it's like, really? I mean, this is, and I'll just like let people know, I mean, viewers who are my age and older, I think know this. Although perhaps the younger generation, you know, doesn't, This wasn't the way it always was, right? In my lifetime, before Trump, when there was a national tragedy, by the way, this started to stop a little bit during Obama, where the right wing did everything they can to just try to destroy his presidency and everything from wearing a suit that they didn't like the color of became a major Fox story every day and became a major scandal.

37:34Ben Meiselas:By the way, every, I got to get back to my point in a moment. Every time you had Kim Jong-un fire any missile, that was like the biggest story under Obama, right? Man, he's so weak. You're letting Kim Jong-un do missile tests. Dude, every day right now, Kim Jong-un does multiple missile tests and then brags about having nuclear weapons. It's not even a story right now. Who's talking about Kim Jong-un right now? I just remember under Obama. Oh my God, he did another test. What are you going to do, Obama? You're so weak. Trump gave the guy nuclear weapons, basically. He allowed the guy to develop.

38:11Ben Meiselas:And by the way, that's what you want to know with Trump's two week, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks. I'm going to go there. I'm going to shake Kim Jong-un's hand. I'm going to get the headlines. Kim Jong-un developed a nuclear weapon and more missiles than ever. What do you think Iran is going to be doing right now? Do you think they're more inclined or less inclined to develop nuclear weapons right now. And from all of the reporting, they have facilities that were not, this is going to shock you, totally obliterated by Donald Trump and Netanyahu last June. According to lots of reports, they have a facility deep underground near Isfahan, near one of their facilities, where they have enough nuclear material to be able to make over a thousand or at least a hundred, but a hundred and a thousand nuclear weapons if they want to.

38:58Ben Meiselas:I think it's a hundred nuclear weapons if they want to, which is more than a lot of countries have in a nuclear arsenal. Now, do you think based on Trump's behavior, they're going to be more likely or less likely to actually enrich the uranium into weapons? Great. Anyway, I digress there. But don't you see that this is a path that likely leads to Iran getting nuclear weapons just like Kim Jong-un? We'll talk about that in a moment. But there used to be a time where there'd be a national tragedy or a big situation or whatever, or an incident. And we would just rally around as Americans. That was just like a normal thing.

39:31Ben Meiselas:And I'm not saying this because I hate Trump or this or that. I'm saying it because it's an objective fact. Trump and that bridge with that Tea Party during Obama into Trump, they've, with that whole movement, it's been everything is a thing. that's that's the source that everything then became some political thing you blame the democrats you blame this you blame that everything is a culture war everything is that you remember during biden's term they would make up terrorist attacks that wouldn't take place it'd be like some incident at the border of canada you know and and there would be like someone who was like coming home from a casino and like i forget if there was like you know what what the issue was But someone like crashed into like a barrier in the border and then all right wing pushed out like these like photos of like jihadist terrorist faces.

40:26Ben Meiselas:They're like massive terrorist attack. Look how weak Biden is. They made up the thing and they went like two days on that. It was like a terrorist attack and Biden's weak.

40:35Jordy Meiselas:Every day they would do something like that, right? Like and, you know, I think back towards the end of Biden's term, remember like there were aliens in New Jersey and Biden wasn't telling you the truth about the aliens in New Jersey. And all of a sudden that just magically went away. Oh, yeah, no, we were wrong. But they just move on to the next thing. And I think of one thing that, you know, these ballroom stories allow us to do here is point out to you this kind of flood the zone method of how they try to change the narrative. because you see it happening before your eyes. If you were on social media the other day, within minutes, within minutes of this happening, dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of MAGA-aligned accounts were all tweeting the same exact thing.

41:18Jordy Meiselas:This is why we need to build the ballroom. Now we got to build the ballroom. If only the Democrats built the ballroom, ballroom, ballroom, ballroom. You think that's coincidence? It's not. We even learned from some MAGA influencers who have kind of left the MAGA cult and now expose the MAGA cult and speak about it. We've learned how these MAGA influencers have these group chats with each other, with people from the Trump administration in the chats who dictate their messaging, who tell them what to write, who tell them what to push out. And that's why we see all at the same time, all of these people doing it.

41:49Jordy Meiselas:You know, they have this with the influencers. They definitely also have these chats and other forums with the politicians, with the senators, with the members of Congress. And they are having them also push out that same messaging. And then they're getting them on the Sunday shows to say the same messaging. It's not a coincidence. Everyone just didn't wake up one day and have a thought, oh, I need a ballroom now. I need a ballroom. No, it's a coordinated process. And all we want to do is get the objective damn facts about what is actually going on and stop with the gaslighting. Stop with the lies.

42:21Jordy Meiselas:Stop with the distraction. People are suffering. People want you to help them. They don't want a freaking ballroom.

42:28Ben Meiselas:Yeah. And just whose mind, when an alleged incident like this happens, goes, okay, now I can get the ballroom. Like a sick person, right? I'm going to get a ballroom now out of this. Oh, maybe I could use this to push forward legislation to suppress the vote. Ooh, maybe I can now put ICE people at election centers and say, this is somehow related. Ooh, maybe I can say this is a way to stop no Kings protest. Who thinks about that? By the way, Alina Habba was posting messages. Do you like my fit? Right after, you like my fit? 10 of 10. She thinks she slayed her fit. Look at her look afterwards. I mean, this is again, some bizarre behavior.

43:12Ben Meiselas:Let me just share with you what some of the MAGA people were saying. This is MAGA Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House, who goes, the ballroom is the solution for all of this. Clearly, the way we deal with this is a ballroom. What? The way we deal with it is a golden ballroom. What are you talking about? Here, play this clip. On the opposite. They've incited violence, in my view. I mean, you have some of the most prominent figures in the House and the Senate on the Democrat side effectively calling for war. I mean, they use those kinds of metaphors. And it incites violence because there are crazy people in society.

43:47And they get radicalized online. And so we've got to recognize that. It's time to turn down the rhetoric. We've been saying this over and over and not use that kind of language. I hope that this will be a sobering reminder for everybody about that very important cause. I'm grateful to Fetterman. He's right. The ballroom will be a solution for this because it will be on the most secure compound in the world. It won't have hotel rooms above it. and it'll have seven inch thick glass, for example, on the windows. So it'll be a very safe environment to do events like this. We need a place. We have needed a place like that.

44:18And the president keeps pointing it out.

44:19Ben Meiselas:We don't need a place. What are you talking about? Then you have Mike Lawler, who pretends to be a moderate, but he's a MAGA Republican extremist from New York. He goes, a ballroom is imperative. You're playing. When you go to the White House, you need ID. You need to be on a pre-approved list. You cannot just walk in. Obviously, everybody goes through magnetometers before you even get on site. And, you know, that protocol needs to be applied, especially when you have the president at a major event like this, and especially after now three assassination attempts. So, yes, a ballroom is imperative for a lot of reasons.

44:56I mean, look at tomorrow night. We're going to have a state dinner in a tent on the South Lawn. It's absurd.

45:02Ben Meiselas:I don't think any other president was like, you know what is absurd? That we do state dinners on a tent in the South Lawn. I mean, there's Trump's like, for the last 150 years, people have been asking this. No, no, no one's asking for a golden ballroom, okay? One of the strengths of the United States and one of the messages that the White House sends is a message of humility. If the U.S. wanted to build golden palaces, we could do that. But the point is, is that here you have the people's house, not the Trump house, the people's house. I could show you other. I'll just show you. Every Republican had this talking point today.

45:42Ben Meiselas:You had MAGA Republican Congress member Michael Rowley. Here's what He said, what needs to be done now? I think we got to build that ballroom as soon as possible. We can't have functions like this on things that aren't secure. Then you had MAGA Republican Pat Fallon. He said the following. Let's play this clip. Certainly the White House ballroom is a great argument. There's something that they can completely control. They can have events there. All right, you got to toss it over to you, Brent. I mean, I could show you every Republican congressman.

46:10Jordy Meiselas:I was like, after school shootings, all of a sudden, let's not talk about it. We can't do gun control. Nothing. We can't protect these kids. There's just nothing we could do. And after this, it's like, oh, that's and that's why we need a ballroom.

46:22Brett Meiselas:That's what I was going to say. Anything but sensible gun reform, right?

46:26Jordy Meiselas:You know what every school needs? Forget, you know, a security guard in every school, you know, and things like every school needs a ballroom. If only every school had a ballroom, none of this would happen. Like I said, it's just a non sequitur. Like it doesn't make any sense. It's another distraction technique. They don't want you talking about Epstein. They don't want you to talk about the failing war effort. They don't want you to talk about the failing economy. They don't want you to talk about the high prices, the high gas prices. They don't want farmers to be thinking about the fact that they can't afford fertilizer and they have to cut down on their crops this year.

46:59Jordy Meiselas:They don't want you to talk about that. So they want you to talk about a ballroom.

47:04Brett Meiselas:Exactly. And it's just yet another instance of MAGA and specifically the Republican Party. They think you're stupid. They're treating you, the American person, like you're stupid. right? That you don't have real concerns about your healthcare or housing or how you're going to put food on the table and the economy going sideways. They think you're so dumb that they're like, I'm going to dangle the golden ballroom over your head and you guys are just going to be so happy about it. And the thing with MAGA specifically is they get duped because of the trillion dollar propaganda operation that is Fox News, that is right-wing media, where they're able to just flood the zone with with with shit and like i i i kind of made the joke earlier but but for real it was build the wall in trump's first term and then in biden's term it was all about you know the mag of people saying build the wall and now they've somehow duped and i say somehow well because they poured that billion dollar propaganda arm into this messaging to to build forget the wall build the ballroom for the elites for the for the top one percent of the one percent build the ballroom for those folks.

48:10Brett Meiselas:We don't care about the wall anymore. That was so 2016, 2018, 2020. No, no, no. We need a golden ballroom for our Supreme Leader, Donald Trump, who, by the way, by the time this thing, if it gets constructed, is to come up, in theory, he should be out of office, right? Just how construction generally works in this country. He shouldn't even be able to reap the benefits of this ballroom as president of the United States. It's hard for me to believe that someone who is putting a major renovation up in their home or their area is going to be so willing to move out once that renovation is fully up and complete.

48:49Brett Meiselas:A renovation that you've got in your entire party to do for you. I'm just saying that now.

48:54Ben Meiselas:Yeah, look, all his posts though are like triumphal arches, golden ballrooms, the new one he's been doing like over the weekend, I think he posted close to 50 times. It's not an exaggeration. I think he did like 50 posts, if you add the past few days, about the reflecting pool. And he'll do like a photo of the reflecting pool from 2004, which was George W. Bush. And Trump will write Hussein Obama. And either Trump uses AI or whatever they do to kind of make the reflecting pool look dirty. And then on the photo next to it, it says Trump. So one says Hussein Obama and the reflecting pool is dirty.

49:36Ben Meiselas:The other, when you actually analyze it, it's the exact same photo because you can see the birds in the same place. The clouds are in the same location and it doesn't have the AI that makes it look dirty. And he goes Trump. Like there are things like just that in a normal presidency, you would say this guy needs to go. That would be a front page story. Like could you imagine if former President Biden made a post just like that and did nothing else. The uproar would be the biggest story for two weeks and probably calls for resignation. I mean, Trump does, as I've said, probably 20 to 30, in my opinion, impeachable things, many of which, in my opinion, I'm just giving you my opinion, protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

50:23Ben Meiselas:Feel free to agree or disagree with my opinions here. I think by noon, he commits multiple criminal conduct every single day. And it's just like, oh, it's just, as Brian Stelter would say, it's not newsworthy at this point. So why even publish it? If he just keeps on criming, it's not even newsworthy. You got to do your job and you got to explain to people why it is newsworthy and why it isn't normal. and you got to stand up to it and you got to call it out. And it's not a political thing to call it out. You got to call it out if you value truth and you have to call out his behavior and you have to just say, this is wrong behavior.

51:01Ben Meiselas:Even if he does it every day, you can't get numb to it. You have to not be numb to it. And you have to, as a journalist, also make sure people don't get numb to it by explaining it and by reiterating what we can do about it. That's what we do here on the Midas Touch Network. But I'll give Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries some credit here because he was asked about Caroline Levitt's presser. I don't want to even play her presser. I did a video on it before, so we don't need to, I don't think we need to play it. But she was basically saying Hakeem Jeffries has used the words, we want to do warfare everywhere all the time.

51:40Ben Meiselas:And Hakeem Jeffries was talking about fighting for redistricting. It's like, that's violent rhetoric. That's what led to this. And then she's like, Governor Shapiro used language like head should roll, you know, regarding the corruption in the Trump regime. Head should roll. Maximum warfare. They're calling for this. Look at the rhetoric. And it's like, you're taking it out of context what's being said, whereas Donald Trump's out there just outright calling for violence every single day, in my opinion. But watch what Hakeem Jeffries does when he's asked. So do you think you should tone it down a little bit?

52:15Ben Meiselas:He has a really good response. Let's play it.

52:17Jordy Meiselas:Mr. Leader, I know you said you stand by your comments. At the same time, you have been the subject of threats as well. So with respect to this comment about maximum warfare, even if it's about redistricting, why not tone down the language here in this moment? I think that what's interesting to me, as you pointed out, is that the so-called White House press secretary who's a disgrace, she's a stone-cold liar, had the nerve to stand up there and read talking points being critical of statements all taken out of context that Democrats have made and didn't have a word to say about anything that MAGA extremists have said or done including providing aid and comfort to violent insurrectionists here at this capital on January 6th who brutally beat police officers.

53:14The president then pardoned those violent rioters, many of whom have gone back into communities across the country to re-offend. And as you pointed out, one of whom threatened to kill me. He said, kill the terrorist. Where did that language come from? What Republicans use that language? Why did that pardon, MAGA extremist, violent insurrectionist choose to use the language of terrorism directed at me when he threatened to kill me at an And so how can we take them seriously when they raise these partisan attacks and completely ignore the fact that a lot of folks, including Governor Shapiro, his home was attacked by an arsonist when he and his kids and wife were there.

54:18and this so-called White House press secretary wants to lecture America and lecture us about civility, get lost, clean up your own house before you have anything to say to us about the language that we use.

54:34Ben Meiselas:Yeah, and I think that's the energy right there that needs to be had regardless of your political party when you stand up to Trump. That's it. I mean, And that's what American people are. That's how American people feel, like what he just said. And so it was good to see that. Brett, Jordy, I want to get your thoughts on it in a moment. And I do want to talk about this meeting between the Iranian foreign minister and Russia, Donald Trump's lie that Iran's about to blow up in now 48 hours, the whole country, because the naval blockade is going so well that the pipes are clogged and it's going to cause a major blow up, which if that was the case, why aren't any of the other Arab nations blown up because they had the issue about 30 days ago.

55:17Ben Meiselas:But okay, we're just going to go with that one. No one's going to like fact check it or whatever. I want to talk about what Germany's chancellor is saying about Donald Trump. And I think it's actually pretty spot on. And more, let's just take our last quick break of the show. Reminder, hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers, subscribe to the Midas Touch On audio and word of mouth really helps grow this channel. So share this network with a bunch of people that you know. Tell them about it after the show ends. We'll be right back after our last quick break.

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59:47Brett Meiselas:have a system and we get it done. I just want to comment on this really quickly, Ben. So like Caroline Levitt, for example, going after Josh Shapiro for his quote unquote rhetoric. I mean, to me, it's just like laughable. First off, like I like Josh Shapiro. I think he's doing a great job here in the Commonwealth. He's not exactly like the rhetoric guy though. Like it's not his slant.

1:00:09Jordy Meiselas:When I think Josh Shapiro, I think radical. Yeah, radical Josh Shapiro.

1:00:14Brett Meiselas:I mean, But that's what I mean. Like they think we're stupid and they think you're stupid that like you wouldn't realize that she's like misquoting or taking his quotes totally out of context. It's ridiculous, but they do it all the time. Shapiro, by the way, he's going to win his reelection here with like 65, 70 percent of the vote.

1:00:31Jordy Meiselas:He's like one of the most popular governors in the country.

1:00:33Brett Meiselas:But that's what I mean, though, Brett. Like, aren't I right? And because it's to your point, like they just lie about the dumbest stuff.

1:00:39Jordy Meiselas:They lie about the dumbest stuff. They make up, you know, the most offensive things about politicians they don't like when they have nothing else to say, like Ben was saying with Biden. I mean, you know what? Here's an example. They've been doing this with Momdani, right? Like, they have nothing really to complain about with Momdani. So, like, what do they do? Momdani's to blame for the New York Mets having a bad season. Momdani's, the Mets have lost 11 games in a row thanks to Mayor Momdani. And they'll run that seriously over and over again on their nightly segments, like in prime time, as if it's serious news.

1:01:15Jordy Meiselas:It's the Obama playbook. It's the tan suit playbook. And that's what they – even in a very peaceful time without the Trump chaos, when things are normal and you got someone who's doing a good job, they'll always find something to latch onto and try to make a big deal out of it. And you got to say they're good at that. Like they are very good at that. But it needs to be combative. It needs to be the way they flood the zone with shit. You got to flood the zone with the truth. You can't just say, oh, well, we're used to hearing them say all that. So we're not going to even bring it up. No, you got to report on it.

1:01:49Jordy Meiselas:You got to fact check it. You got to push back. You got to show what's actually true, what's true is happening and not these phony narratives.

1:01:57Brett Meiselas:I'm going to say really quickly, there's just so much stuff happening. I actually haven't seen the stuff about the Mets being bad because of Mandami. For me, it's just that, again, this dumbest lie. As a suffering Mets fan my whole life, they're bad just because they're cursed. It's not his fault. That's wild. I'm going to get to that after the show. It's just the Mets curse. Yeah, these people are sick.

1:02:18Ben Meiselas:Look, I want to show this as well. You have Lindsey Graham then holding a press conference at Donald Trump's behest. I mean, talk about raising major red flags here. And Lindsey Graham's out there saying, now the taxpayers need to pay for the ballroom. I just want to show this clip as well because I forgot to show it before. Here, let's play it. We're going to introduce legislation that would authorize$400 million to be spent to build a presidential ballroom. Underneath, there will be a lot of military stuff. There will be a Secret Service annex, and we've paid for it by offsetting it with custom fees.

1:02:57But the estimate is$332 million. We're going to do$400 million because I think it's probably going to take more. Private donations can be used, but I think they should be used for buying China and stuff like that. Underneath this ballroom will be infrastructure that is national security-centric. The ballroom itself will avoid the dilemma of having to leave the White House grounds with future presidents and dispresidents to go downtown in a place that's less secure. President Trump said to me this morning, excuse me, yesterday, we need the ballroom not just for me but for future presidents. He literally could have left his bedroom, walked out the back of the White House, and been at the ballroom.

1:03:46That's what needs to happen when you have 1 ,000 or 2 ,000 people gathered in a daily environment. And the sooner we get the ballroom built, the more hardened it is, the better for the country. So I hope and pray that most people in the Senate after Saturday night will support this bill.

1:04:08Ben Meiselas:Doesn't that tell you everything right there?

1:04:10Jordy Meiselas:We told you from the beginning that you were going to be paying for this stupid ballroom, right? When they were saying, oh, it's paid for. It's fully paid for. Donors are paying for it. They got these quote unquote commitments from donors. That's obviously going to cost a lot. Even if donors did cover it first off, I think that's so incredibly corrupt given Donald Trump's deals with these companies and his -

1:04:32Brett Meiselas:Yeah, just all the commitments what they are, they're bribes. They're bribes from other oligarchs. It's crazy.

1:04:36Jordy Meiselas:Yes, Jordy, you're right. They're bribes and the money hasn't even materialized. Now they're begging the American people for the money. The ballroom is just another example of all of this crap out of the Trump administration where they really, like in a very offensive way, don't give an F about the American people. They don't care what you think. Because to me, you know, if I just say, okay, he wants a ballroom, sell it to the American people. Like, don't just knock down the East Wing and say we're building a ballroom. Try to do it the right way, right? Try to explain why you need it. You got the super, you know, secret national security bunker or whatever the hell you're building underneath the ballroom.

1:05:15Jordy Meiselas:And so you need this ballroom so Donald Trump could party about. I don't know what it is, but sell it to the American people. Try to make the case for it. Try to explain why you need it. And then you control every branch of the government. You're in charge of the Congress, of the Senate. You control the courts. You control the executive branch. So just pass the piece of legislation then. I don't understand this. Let's knock down the thing. And then let's all of a sudden just say we're building a ballroom. That's not going to get anybody on your side. It's exactly basically what he did with Iran, right?

1:05:46Jordy Meiselas:He didn't try to who sell the American people on the Iran war. He just bombed them one day and then expected us to go along with it, expected all the European countries to go along with it. Like try to communicate with the American people. You have the press, going back to the press this episode, they praise him for, oh, he calls me, picks up my phone calls, I call him and he picks up. But yeah, then he just fucking lies to you. Excuse my language, he lies to you. He says things that aren't true. How is that helpful? And then you were just regurgitated as if it's fact. You just regurgitated like you are a stenographer.

1:06:19Jordy Meiselas:Your job isn't to be a stenographer. And don't get confused and think that getting more contact with Donald Trump or more information from Donald Trump, don't think that that means you're getting better information. I can assure you, I know that President Biden did not speak to the press as much as Donald Trump. Maybe he didn't take your calls as much, didn't call you personally, text you, whatever. But I can guarantee the words coming out of his mouth actually meant something. unlike this guy where his words mean crap. His words mean absolutely nothing, yet you just fawn over it because this guy is speaking to you like enough is enough, man.

1:06:56Ben Meiselas:Well, to your point, Brett, let's take a look at what Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, had to say when he was talking about the lack of planning here and that there's two clips I want to show you. The first one is in the elementary school where he He says, you know, Trump's been absolutely humiliated. The U.S. has been humiliated because there wasn't a plan and Iran has a plan. And Iran, you know, he said, is in a very sophisticated way handling negotiations or not handling negotiations. But they're very intentional what they're doing while Trump isn't. Here, play this clip. It is quite obvious that the Americans have absolutely no coherent strategy whatsoever.

1:07:37And the fundamental problem with these kinds of conflicts is always the same. It is not enough to simply get yourself in, you must also figure out how to get yourself out again. We witnessed that reality quite painfully in Afghanistan over the course of 20 long years. We saw the exact same thing happen in Iraq. So this entire situation is, as I have mentioned previously, at the very least it was ill considered and I really do not see at this present moment which one you mean. what strategic exit the Americans are choosing now, especially since the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully or for that matter, very skillfully not negotiating.

1:08:17And making the Americans travel to Islamabad and then letting them leave again empty-handed, a whole nation is being humiliated there by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called revolutionary guards. As Europeans, we have also extended an offer stating that we are prepared to assist in ensuring that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, just as soon as these hostilities have finally come to an end. Furthermore, we have offered to dispatch specialized minesweepers from Germany to clear that vital strait of all its mines. After all, it has quite obviously been mined, at least in some significant part.

1:08:56Well, we could certainly do something about that. But first of all, the fighting has to come to a complete and total stop. And right now, I honestly do not see how that is even remotely achievable in the short term, because the Iranians are proving to be much stronger than we had initially thought. And the Americans clearly do not have a truly convincing or coherent strategy for these negotiations either. I truly hate to have to say this, but I'm afraid it is a rather complicated and difficult situation at this moment.

1:09:26Ben Meiselas:I'll show you the other clip of Maher's, Germany's chancellor. Let's play it. As far as Iran is concerned, yes, I have become disillusioned with that by now. And that is simply because the United States of America and Israel had assumed right at the beginning that this problem would be solved within a few days. And today we have to realize that it has not been solved. That is why we on the European side also want to make a diplomatic effort to find a solution. I have pointed out that for some time now diplomatic efforts towards Iran have been taking place again from Germany as well. we are coordinating closely with the american side on this but we also state that we have our own european ideas on how to reach a solution to the conflict i hope we succeed but i am not sure now take that and contrast it to what donald trump said when he called jackie heinrich on state regime media which calls itself fox here's what trump said about the iranian And pipes are getting so full of the oil that they can't keep the pressure.

1:10:29Ben Meiselas:So it's going to result in a mechanical failure. And in 48 hours, Iran's about to blow up. Cowabunga, dude, it's going to blow up, man. Here, play this clip. But what you're referring to is that when you have lines of vast amounts of oil pouring through your system, if for any reason that line is closed because you can't continue to put it into containers or ships, which has happened to them. They have no ships because of the blockade. What happens is that line explodes from within, both mechanically and in the Earth. Something happens where it just explodes. They say they only have about three days left before that happens.

1:11:13And when it explodes, you can never, regardless, you can never rebuild it the way it was. In other words, it will always be, if you rebuild it, it's hard to rebuild it all, but it would only be about 50 % of what it is right now. So it's a very powerful thing that takes place, sort of having to do with nature. But when that gets clogged at the end, in other words, when you have to turn it off because you have no place to store this oil, either put it on ships or storage tanks, which they are just about finished with, a very bad thing is going to happen. So I think they're under pressure.

1:11:50Ben Meiselas:Yeah, so just inject yourself with horse medication or inject yourself with bleach and Clorox and see if that gets rid of your COVID, everybody. I mean, this is not how oil facilities work. It's Daniel Davis, an expert in this area, but you don't need to be an expert to tell you because common sense would say, huh, so they build these pretty complex oil facilities that just blow up and spontaneously combust. Yeah, no, it's not the way they're built. Go back to the post for one more time. Daniel Davis says that's not how oil facilities work. Pipelines don't just blow up because they can't stir enough oil.

1:12:27Ben Meiselas:That's a lie. If that was a risk, then five of the six GCC countries, that's the Gulf Cooperation Council, right? Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, they would already have their pipelines explode and none have. So literally, the systems are designed with fail-safe measures to make sure that doesn't happen. Plus, Iran is definitely not three days away from full storage capacity. It takes a lot longer than that to reach that level. If an Iranian pipeline suddenly blows up in the next three days, the likely culprit will be a U.S. missile, and that will trigger a massive retaliation from Iran.

1:13:02Ben Meiselas:If Trump is trying to be cute again, it's going to blow up in all of our faces. Well said, Daniel Davis. Now, the way Donald Trump was saying that too, he's like, that's how nature works. That's how nature works. And it's like the fact that he just spews that incoherent slop that is not tethered to any reality at all is just complete and utter madness. Like that's just a made-up thing. It's not happening. He makes up negotiations. He makes up these like weird movie scripts that are not real life. These aren't real things that are going – and the issue is that when people who exist in real world, foreign leaders, they, you know, again, maybe you can fool who's ever left in that 30 % or 33 % of Trump support that exists.

1:13:52Ben Meiselas:Maybe you fool them. And this is like, ah, that's why we're okay. They're going to all blow up. This is all part of the blockade. This is going to be amazing. But in the world of reality, it ain't working that way. And it's deeply problematic. And everybody looks at this and goes, oh my God, this guy is a freaking loser. And he's turned America into a loser country. I would say they're all laughing, but lots of people are horrified. What are we going to do? I mean, this guy is an absolute loser. And yeah, he has. He's been his whole life. He's been a damn loser. That's why he's bankrupted so many things.

1:14:27Ben Meiselas:He's an idiot. The one thing that he's able to do is somehow convince people. He's a great con person. He's as greatest as con person. I truly don't understand how he taps into people's reptilian brains and convinces them of this ridiculous crap that isn't tethered to reality. Although I would say he feasts on the chaos. He waits to the crisis and the chaos. And I think that one of the things that he's doing is he waits two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks. Eventually, what's happening in Iran is going to be cataclysmic, not in the sense that it's blowing up. But at some point, we're just going to run out.

1:15:04Ben Meiselas:The world's supply of stuff is going to blow up. But see, what Trump does, if you look at his whole life, is he waits for these moments. And when people are suffering and scared at their worst, that's when he comes in and either blames or takes credit. And usually it could be both. Blame, blame, blame, take credit. Because that's actually what his skill is, stealing credit from other people who do things and blaming people during catastrophes or during events, often manufactured catastrophes, but also other catastrophes. And that's what he's built. I don't want to call it a skill set because it's so nefarious, but that's the thing.

1:15:46Ben Meiselas:And meanwhile, you have Iran, their foreign minister is in Russia right now. You have Foreign Minister Aragji shaking Putin's hands. And yes, they are laughing and all smiles. While Donald Trump is laughing after this alleged incident in the White House Correspondents' Dinner with his team, oh my God, we're going to borrow. That's what they're laughing about. Look at the jesters. Look at the clown squad. I would say the B team, but these people are like the Z team. Look at the Z team, a bunch of freaking losers and grifters and the worst possible people for their position. Look at what they're laughing at, the aftermath of the incident at the White House Correspondence Dinner.

1:16:38Ben Meiselas:Now look at what Putin and Foreign Minister Aragchi are laughing at. You know what they're laughing at? They're laughing at the jesters. They're laughing at the Trump regime. They're laughing at Donald Trump saying, oh, Iran's going to blow up in 72 hours because the oil pipelines are congested, everybody. Jared Kuzner and Steve Whitcoff are negotiating. We've got talks in Islamabad, everybody. No, you don't. And they're out there planning and plotting in Russia about what they are doing to destroy America's role in the world. And frankly, all they got to do is sit back and watch you squirm while they laugh at you.

1:17:21Ben Meiselas:They're the ones laughing in your face, Donald, while our allies or former allies are absolutely horrified. Brett and Jordy.

1:17:32Jordy Meiselas:Well said, Benjamin. It's just, it's such a disgrace. It's made the country so much less safe. And, you know, I think all those pictures tell a story and all these clips that we've shown have told this story. You know, I mean, when you see the German chancellor, those are pretty strong words that he's using about the United States. You know, remember when Donald Trump would say that the world is laughing at us under Biden? I mean, quite the contrary. The world was relieved and thankful that somebody like Biden was president, working to strengthen NATO, working to expand NATO. And now the world is both laughing and is horrified at the United States.

1:18:06Jordy Meiselas:And it's because of Donald Trump and it's because of his sycophants. And everywhere you look, You see Donald Trump pushing people away from the United States. All this progress that the U.S. was making right now being reversed. And there's even this major global summit happening right now. The New York Times is reporting on this earlier. 60 countries meeting in Colombia to figure out how to phase out fossil fuels. And so they invited all of these countries, except guess who didn't get the invite, brothers? I'll give you one guess, Jordi. Guess who didn't get the invite to the Clean Energy Summit in Colombia?

1:18:39Jordy Meiselas:Was it us? Was it us? Yeah, yeah. No, it was us. It's ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, unfortunately. And so that should be a big deal, right? That should be very big news. And this obviously comes in the middle of this insane energy crisis that's caused by Donald Trump and his war with Iran. And so you have all these countries across the world right now, as Ben was saying, facing these shortages, these prices going through the roof, they're rationing fuel. If you see some of the conversations that prime ministers and presidents in these other countries are having with their people, I mean, it's almost reminiscent of COVID.

1:19:16Jordy Meiselas:They're telling people, get ready. Like, we need to, you know, start, you know, really conserving energy here. If you don't need to go to work, don't go to work. You know, try to limit your use of gas and oil. Like, they're really sounding the alarm over there. And the U.S., meanwhile, has, like, pulled back and reversed course on all of this clean energy stuff that they're doing. And so the world is off on their own trying to build a coalition of the willing to actually get things done, to try to actually help the planet develop new sources of energy that don't require our presence in the Middle East.

1:19:49Jordy Meiselas:And so there's this major moment happening right now in Colombia, and the United States is not even part of it. And it's a combination of climate policy, yes, but also global economics, national security. It's all of these things colliding right now at the same time due to the geopolitical dynamics that we are seeing. It's just, you know, it's a sad indictment of where the country is right now.

1:20:13Brett Meiselas:Look, when you're the annoying kid in class, when you're the bully, you can't be shocked when you don't get invited to the birthday party. And Donald Trump has made us the bully for no good reason other than just to isolate us from everybody else. Tell me one time in history when this notion of isolationism actually worked out to benefit a country or a citizenship. Just absolutely never. So for me, it comes to this. Where I could sort of hang my hat as we close this episode is Donald Trump's approval rating, as we mentioned earlier, has never been lower. Collectively, this country is seeing through the BS.

1:20:50Brett Meiselas:The world is seeing through the BS, even though it's still a horrible reflection on the United States and us as individuals. It's just brutal. But I feel confidently that one day in the not too distant future, we could start to reclaim what this country is supposed to be about, which is doubling down on the truth, doubling down on data and the facts and championing democracy in a way that's supposed to be championed. Not by just praising one man and having our leaders in Congress and the Senate or whatever, just do the bidding of an individual, but to work for the people. And so I'm excited to get back to that point.

1:21:28Brett Meiselas:And this country just means too much to me personally, and I know brothers to you too, and might is mighty, to give up on that hope that we can reclaim that. because I know we can, and I know this country at its best when things are firing at all cylinders. And quite frankly, I don't know if it ever has, but when we could get our leaders and our citizens to start working together and having the leaders in this country, quote unquote, work for the people as it's meant to be, public servants versus trying to just do the bidding of one specific man in one ballroom, right? We could be so great. And so I think that's truly where we could ultimately go here as a country.

1:22:06Brett Meiselas:And I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful because I've seen the growth of this audience. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel if you aren't already. Many people think they're subscribed, but you might not be subscribed to the audio feed, right? We are on our way to 7 million subscribers. We are already over 9 billion views. You can't tell me that truth doesn't have a place in this society. I'm seeing it. We are seeing it with our own eyes that people are fed up, man, with this corporate BS and this corporate glazing and this media that has just let the people down and are tired of that and are hungry for truth and facts and data.

1:22:37Brett Meiselas:So thank you guys for watching the show tonight, Benji.

1:22:40Ben Meiselas:As Jordy said, make sure you subscribe. We're grateful for you. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:22:50Jordy Meiselas:The Midas Mighty is standing strong

1:22:58Jordy Meiselas:Against the fascists we sing our song We will get it right whenever Want to stay plugged in?

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