MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 5/15/26

24:22Ben Meiselas:Didn't bring him up. And comparing Jimmy Lai to James Comey. Just think about this. Think about that. There's a lot more I want to discuss about Donald Trump's disastrous trip to China. A lot more I want to discuss about what went down in the Senate and the House of Representatives today. Shout out to Senator Gillibrand. I mean, she did some incredible cross-examination of CENTCOM's commander, Cooper, and she did great cross-examination of Scott Turner, Donald Trump's HUD secretary, Housing and Urban Development secretary. There were some other important moments I want to point out there as well.

24:58Ben Meiselas:And there's a lot of other topics we have to cover on this episode. So don't go anywhere. A reminder, hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. also become a member of our YouTube channel. If you can click the join button. We're trying to get as many members as we can. It helps build this network. And I'm sure you've seen our coverage on Capitol Hill and we've built that thanks to you. So if you're able to afford a membership, click join. And if you're able to gift memberships, we know that times are tough economically right now, but if you're fortunate enough to be able to gift people memberships, give people memberships if you can.

25:33Ben Meiselas:Subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio also. So if you watch on video, search Midas Touch on audio. Even if you think you're not going to, you may be wrong. You may want to listen to an audio. It also helps our show grow on audio, which is helpful to the network. So just join on audio if you can. Also leave a five-star review there and go to store.midastouch.com as well and check out the Midas merch. All right, first quick break of the show. We will be right back.

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27:50Jordy Meiselas:One last time, that's 60 % off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com slash Midas. You probably know by now that I've been obsessed with Ridge. I use the Ridge Wallet, which has been such a game changer for me. And now their new 5-in-1 Travel Power Bank is one of those products where you immediately wonder why nobody thought of this sooner. Every device has a different charger these days. Your phone, your headphones, your Apple Watch, your Kindle, you name it. It's ridiculous. Somehow we have all these AI robots and all these tools, but we still have to travel with five tangled cords in our bags.

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29:02Jordy Meiselas:One thing to pack, five ways to power for a limited time, and get up to 40 % off during Ridge's huge Father's Day sale at ridge.com slash Midas. don't miss one of their biggest discounts all year just head to ridge.com slash Midas and you're all set after you purchase they'll ask where you heard about them please support our show and tell them we sent you let's go shout out to our sponsors man 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 I like that Ridge is starting that father's they sell a little bit early that's pretty cool definitely check that out and while we're on the theme of family it was midas's mom's birthday yesterday y 'all happy birthday mom happy birthday to you speaking of mom she uh real quick quick brother thing uh she was cracking up about the knock hockey puck that we were talking about in the previous episode because she's like you guys made it sound like you slept with the puck when you guys won that you like had it in bed with you like curled up sleeping with i was cracking up when she was telling me this because when we were talking about on the podcast i'm like it did kind of sound like that but no one else had called us out we did sleep with that i didn't even well no we put it on our bedside we didn't like cuddle up with it the way we were talking about no i didn't no you

30:19Ben Meiselas:cuddled with it that's right i mean i didn't cuddle with it but it would definitely go under the pillow under the pillow no it was why i wouldn't want you to steal it yeah i wouldn't want anybody to

30:27Jordy Meiselas:steal it yeah if it's on the shelf jordy could come on in and then just i guess the brothers literally slept with the puck and I put mine on my nightstand like a normal person. Big mistake. Benji, where to next?

30:41Ben Meiselas:I was going to say, I'll tell you, probably still sleeps with a puck, but I'm not sure if that's a transition. Lindsey Graham, everybody. What did... What?

30:49Jordy Meiselas:I don't even know what that means. Should we press him, Brett? Should we press Ben?

30:54Ben Meiselas:I'm sure it means something. Lindsey Graham, one of these people who claims to be, you know, I'm a China hawk, this, that, and the other. You know, he pretends that Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz was just a brilliant strategy by Trump. So he was asked on state regime media afterwards. So like, what do you think about Trump's meeting with China? Like, how do you feel about it, Lindsay? Watch what Lindsay had to say. Let's play it. Keeping their war machine going. Same thing with Russia. If China stopped buying Iranian and oil are threatened to do it, the war in Iran would be over. All I'm asking China to do is help us open up the Strait of Hormuz, help us stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, because I think they would use it.

31:45Help us in the bloodbath in Russia, Ukraine.

31:48Ben Meiselas:Help us, by the way, for those on audio, such a ridiculous scene that was on the television right there. So you had state regime media showing what looks like North Korean regime media with these little kids who were trained to basically jump and celebrate Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. I mean, it's straight out of what South Park once upon a time, you know, maybe still with like mock Xi Jinping for, and you have a United States president there with Xi. Like, again, if you wonder like, dude, if, if they did that with like Obama, you know, or Biden, like before they'd be like, no, we're not doing like, you would focus on every detail because most American presidents would view that as humiliating, but also humiliating is you have this so-called China hawk, right?

32:33Ben Meiselas:Lindsey Graham out there. It's like, all we're asking for is help us, China. Just can you help us a little bit? So, Lindsey, was that your plan? Just think about it. Warmonger Lindsey Graham with Trump and Netanyahu, who literally foams at the mouth. I mean, there are those photos like, here it goes to it. It's like the guy gets turned on by the war. It's freaking weird to see.

32:59Jordy Meiselas:It's just what happens when you don't have the cards, though. And it's what happens when you're cornered. I mean, think about how this meeting came to be, right? Let's just rewind, what, a little over a month when this meeting was supposed to happen the first time and it got canceled. Well, it got postponed to right now. And why did it get postponed because of the Iran war. And so now we're deep in this war many, many weeks in, far longer than Donald Trump ever promised the American people that this would last. We are completely stuck. The Strait of Hormuz is now fully controlled by Iran. They are working out deals with China and other nations.

33:32Jordy Meiselas:And now the United States is as far away from a position of power in this entire scenario as possible. And so rather than actually being able to ask China for help with things, you have people like Lindsey Graham basically getting on his knees and groveling and begging China to help the United States. I mean, that plays into exactly what Xi Jinping was saying at this entire summit, which is that China is the ascendant power right now, and the United States under Donald Trump is on the decline. It's a very sad thing to be witnessing, and the fact that a leader of China could say that to a United States president and then just have the United States president praise him for it, I think speaks volumes about where we are right now.

34:16Jordy Meiselas:And excuse me if I'm misremembering, but didn't MAGA specifically used to attack Biden for being perceived to be close with China? They would call him Beijing Biden, right? Am I misremembering that? But that was one of their attacks on former President Biden.

34:33Ben Meiselas:Well, all of their things about being deficit hawks and debt hawks and China hawks, they always get the nickname hawks. And then our corporate news like repeats it like we're a hawk and you're weak. There's nothing weaker than what we've just observed Donald Trump do in China, Donald Trump do in Iran, Donald Trump do throughout the entire world. And you think about the Trump regime, what else they're doing. I mean, so think about the contrast here. You have the BRICS nations meeting in India as Trump has alienated India and Trump picked sides when India went to war, India and Pakistan went to war with each other.

35:16Ben Meiselas:And Trump picked Pakistan because Pakistan said Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize. And then they invested crypto in World Liberty Financial. And India didn't say that Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize because India says you didn't stop the war. So you have this BRICS meeting. And then in contrast, you have Rubio attacking NATO aboard Air Force One. So here's Rubio on NATO. Here's what Rubio has to say. Play this clip. The number one state sponsor, Tara, that's troubling to me. Yeah, the problem with NATO, and I've been a supporter of NATO throughout my career in the Senate. And one of the reasons why I supported NATO was because it gave us basing rights.

35:53It allowed us to have bases in Europe that we could use in a contingency like something in the Middle East, you know, where you could have planes flying from some country in Europe and actually protecting our national interests in the Middle East, as an example, or in Africa. And so when you have NATO partners denying you the use of those bases, when the primary reason why NATO is good for America is now being denied to us by Spain, as an example, then what's the purpose of the alliance?

36:19Ben Meiselas:I'll tell you, it's a defensive alliance, not an offensive alliance. It's not an invasion alliance. It's an alliance founded on the principle, essentially, of Article 5 and Article 4, which gets into Article 5, which is mutual defense. If one nation gets attacked, all nations get attacked. And the air bases that are across the NATO countries are not intended for the United States to be predatory and to use it to launch invasions with Netanyahu against countries and kill little schoolgirls. It is for defensive posture. It is a deterrent. That's what NATO was created for. But the fact that you're there attacking NATO while heading to China to bend a knee to Xi Jinping while you have the BRICS meeting, which featured as one of their keynotes, Foreign Minister Aragji of Iran, talking about solidarity amongst BRICS members who have been bullied by the United States, the contrast cannot be clearer.

37:19Ben Meiselas:This was Foreign Minister Aragji from Iran having a key speaking position, being greeted as a conquering hero at India's BRICS Nation conference. Let's play it. Everyone in this room, our resistance against U.S. bullying is not an unfamiliar battle. So many of us encounter slight variations of the same repugnant coercion. It is high time for us to jointly step up and work towards making clear that those practices belong in the dustbin of history. Today, our nations are closer to one another than ever before, and we cannot ignore the common and dangerous challenge we all face. History has shown that empires in decline will stop at nothing to arrest their inevitable fates.

38:04A wounded animal will desperately clow and roar on its way down.

38:08Ben Meiselas:Falling empires, a desperate animal will claw on its way down. There's a symmetry between the language there and what Xi Jinping was saying about the Thucydides trap, because they're coordinating. They're working as a block, as an alliance. Whereas Donald Trump's America first means America alone. You also had a Bucharest 9 conference that was taking place where Ukraine was involved in that, involving a lot of Eastern European countries, part of NATO, adjacent to NATO. But the commonality in a lot of these major conferences that are taking place is that the U.S. is not involved. For example, this past week, we also had the UK and France set up a conference with about 40 to 50 other countries, not the US, to talk about how are you going to deal, how are they all going to deal with Iran.

39:03Ben Meiselas:Separately, you have Saudi Arabia talking about creating a peace process with Iran within the Middle East that looked like a 1970s version of a Helsinki kind of peace process detente, if you will, with Iran. And so I think Trump's America first means America alone plan is, here's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to keep this blockade for show. I'm not going to do anything. Let's let other nations figure it out. And then if things get really bad, I will blame. And if things get good, I will take credit. But I'm not going to exert or exhibit leadership. That's Trump's, but that's been Trump's whole life.

39:45Ben Meiselas:Basically, let things blow up, blame people. And if a good thing happens, take credit for it, steal credit. And if a bad thing happens, which it usually does, blame. But make sure you personally benefit yourself on its way down. And when things are going bad, people are struggling. People are suffering. And Donald Trump as a predator, Donald Trump as a con artist, knows that's when you take advantage of people on their way down. When people are in natural disasters, elderly people, when people are experiencing economic suffering, he knows that's when people are most vulnerable to be manipulated.

40:20Ben Meiselas:That's what authoritarians have known throughout history. That's what Donald Trump does. So while you have these very coherent, cohesive, united messages coming from the BRICS block, from China and its alliances, well-planned out, well-thought out, all about reducing American power, you have Hegseth, on the other hand, in Trump's Defense Department, which unlawfully calls itself the War Department, releasing videos like this. Let's play this. Despite what you might hear in the media, America is not in decline.

40:49Jordy Meiselas:We remain the strongest military power on earth, but that power requires renewal. And with global threats that are constantly evolving, it's time to make a$1.5 trillion investment, a generational down payment.

41:04Ben Meiselas:It's not like the biggest loser thing, despite what people tell you.

41:07Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, I feel like if you have to say that, it's a bad sign. If you have to say, despite, listen, I promise we're not in decline, folks. And here's what we're going to do. Drop one and a half trillion dollars on our already bloated military budget. That's outrageous. And also just like as a video editor, it pains me to watch that video. Before I lose my thought, Brent, I'm just going to toss it right back to you. That reminded me of Zoolander, like the brainwashing video that he's like in or watches. like that, like for the audio listeners that edit for whatever video was just like the most bizarro propaganda that you could ever witness.

41:43Jordy Meiselas:It was so weird. Relax. Don't do it. Yes. Yes. Kill the prime minister of Malaysia. Now it's, it's, it's so, you know, and it's just like offensive to the American people. Right. And, and Ben was saying before too, right. You know, these people have claimed to be deficit hawks and all this stuff. Now they're demanding spending all of this money for the military,$1.5 trillion. I mean, what an outrageous number. And that's on top of all the other money that Donald Trump is spending. This administration right now is set to just bloat the deficit and the national debt here in the United States by record numbers.

42:19Jordy Meiselas:And it's something that nobody is really speaking about. Like the media tends to ignore that when a Republican's in power for some reason. But when like a Democrat gets into power and actually cuts the deficit, even though the debt is still raised, they get zero credit for actually cutting the deficit at all. It's always, oh, look at these deficit hawks. They just give them these names. And I'm sick of like the press kind of fawning over these figures. I think we've seen this. And I want to just kind of make sure that everybody's in tune with what the media is doing right now, the legacy media with someone like Marco Rubio.

42:49Jordy Meiselas:They are trying to now sanitize this guy, right? They are trying to hold up Rubio as this is the future of the Republican Party. He did that press conference a couple of weeks back. And did you see the press? And they were like laughing and they were smiling. Oh, Marco, you're so funny. You're so it was embarrassing to watch. But when you hear Rubio talk, he's saying the same things that Donald Trump says. But I guess they think he's saying it in a more palatable way or he's not yelling it and he's not calling people names. But the stuff that he's saying about NATO is extremely dangerous. He is willfully torturing the language, the way Republicans torture the language about everything to try to get to their thing.

43:28Jordy Meiselas:The way these Supreme Court justices act like they are strict constitutionalists and then all of a sudden they have this bizarre interpretation that nobody has ever thought about a phrase in the Constitution. That's what Rubio is doing with NATO. I mean, Rubio is the guy, remember? Rubio is the guy who co-sponsored a bill, what, a year ago, a couple of years ago, that said that the United States cannot, a president cannot unilaterally take the country out of NATO without a congressional vote to prevent somebody like a Donald Trump doing it. And now he's holding this BS view that they should go along with any sort of war of aggression from the United States, when the United States completely boxed out all of our partners, didn't even tell them that we were doing any of this stuff.

44:12Jordy Meiselas:Then once we got in a bind, we're like, please help me, please help me. It's just, it's all a fraud. And Rubio is a continuation of the fraud. And that's why I say for the people who are like, well, you know, once Trump is gone, you know, this all goes away. No, Donald Trump has created a bunch of little Trumps. He's radicalized his base in such a way that you are going to see this fight to try to be the next Trump to try to be the most extreme. And they might try to temper their language a little bit and not call reporters names or whatever. But you already see somebody like a Rubio who's trying to position himself that way, call for the exact same things that Trump is calling for.

44:49Ben Meiselas:Here's the thing. When a Democratic president takes over, this is the cycle that we see. And then they have to fix it. The firefighters blamed for being the arsonist and the arsonist blames the firefighter. And then corporate media is complicit in putting all of the blame on the person who needs to actually fix the problem. And to fix the problem, it's bloody, it's difficult, it's challenging. And Donald Trump just leaves the mess to somebody else. Whereas you should hand off something positive the way Obama handed off something positive to Donald Trump during Trump's first term. And then Donald Trump was able to ride that out and then crash it and then claim basically a mulligan.

45:31Ben Meiselas:We shouldn't count the COVID part. Let's just count the Obama glow part and not count the better. That was COVID. That's not my fault. You're the president. Of course, it's your fault. What are you talking about? You said like a miracle it was going to go away. You said that don't worry about it. By Easter, by summer, the curve will be bent. It's absolutely your fault. And then he was handed by Biden, inflation decreasing, all of the metrics going in the right direction. If Trump just kept it on auto drive or autopilot, it would have been fine. Things would have been really, really good. But Trump did tariffs against the world.

46:02Ben Meiselas:He went to wars everywhere. We saw PPI, the producer price index, which is the wholesaler price that rose to 6 % year over year. That means it's 6 % more this year than it was under Donald Trump's last year. And that's continuing to rise. Then you have the consumer price index now up to 3.8 % year over year, and that's continuing to rise. When your PPI is showing 6%, it was supposed to come in at 4.8%. That's what 48 economists or so at Bloomberg thought it was going to be at 4.8%. At 6%, that tells you that the CPI, Consumer Price Index, will keep going up because directionally, if wholesalers are paying more, that gets passed on to consumers.

46:46Ben Meiselas:So as PPI is likely to hit 6.57, That means that CPI, what you pay, the consumer price index, will likely be 442. We will pass 4 % CPI, consumer price index, the inflation that you're paying by the end of this year, in my opinion. At least 4%. I think that will continue to go up. Donald Trump promised on day one, your gas prices, your electricity bills, your grocery bills were going to be cut in half. He's a fraud. He's a liar. and then they pass on the problems to the next president and they just say, hey, like a miracle, it's all going to go away. It's all going to go away. Then they're not held accountable for their actions.

47:25Ben Meiselas:Hopefully with the Midas Touch Network, what we're building here, we're stopping that. We're stopping that not because of a Democrat or Republican or Independent. It's because I just want the truth. I want our country to survive. I want balanced budgets. I don't want there to be this much debt. I don't want to be in endless wars. I don't want to see people not able to afford their groceries and not able to afford homes and not getting paid fair wages for the jobs that they work. I want to change that. That's not being a Democrat, independent or Republican. That's just called fighting for the truth.

47:56Ben Meiselas:All right, we're going to take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, I want to take you into the halls of the Capitol building. Then I want to go into the Senate hearings. I want to go into the House hearings. I want to show you what was going down there. I want to talk briefly about what's happening in Ukraine because I don't want that to fall off the radar. Trump promised that in 24 hours he was going to end that war. And of course, he couldn't even get a ceasefire for 12 hours. Just let that sink in. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers.

48:24Ben Meiselas:In addition to helping us get 7 million subscribers, hit join. Help us grow this network. You can help us by clicking join and gift memberships to others. If you're able to afford it, spread the gift of memberships. Let's take our last quick break of the show.

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54:01Jordy Meiselas:I think it's crazy to see the trajectory of the Rubio career and where he aligns himself with now with the modern day Republican party with, I think what people used to think of him. You know, I forget who, but it was like one of the Lincoln project guys that we had on a while back. And I had asked them, Hey, who's most disappointed you? This was like in 2020 or 2021, who most disappointed you with the modern day Republican party? And right away, Marco Rubio. Like that was the answer that came out because the guy has totally debased himself from the values that at least he had purported to have prior to MAGA taking over.

54:38Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, I've never seen anything like it the way that, well, I guess I have, but the way Rubio has just totally folded and become this creature, you know, just to appease Donald Trump is so, so deeply pathetic and troubling. But I guess not shocking anymore, you know, after we've seen over these courses, you know, the last couple of years, it's just absolutely insane to me. Rubio, who again, I think is genuinely a smart person, just plays to like the most evil qualities to appease Donald Trump and the dumbest thinking. And there's just no logic there. There's no there there right now, other than Rubio just trying to appease Donald Trump and keep him happy.

55:14Jordy Meiselas:And that's so frustrating for me to see. Yeah.

55:17Ben Meiselas:You know, one of the things I think though, that's even perhaps more deeply troubling because Rubio is a political animal who is drawn to power the way a mosquito is drawn to one of those neon buzzers or whatever, is CENTCOM, Central Command, the military, which I would always think, look, as bad as Donald Trump is, as bad as the sycophants around him are, CENTCOM will give it to me straight. And I would always hear top military people, and they would say, but Ben, look, we've got the top people at CENTCOM. We have the top people in the military, the generals, the admirals. They're not political people, okay?

56:01Ben Meiselas:And they're not going to go out there and say certain things, but they're not political people. That's at least good to know. Well, I have to disagree with you all now because as Donald Trump has purged the military, as he's pushed out the army chief of staff, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, C.Q. Brown, some of the other top commanders were forced to resign or quit if they didn't want to commit the war crimes. Lots of people forced into retirement. I mean, we're talking about dozens of top generals, admirals, and other officers at different levels who have basically been pushed out. I think a message has been sent.

56:41Ben Meiselas:You have to be a MAGA general. If you want to stay in power. You have to be a MAGA general. And, you know, I've seen this guy, I believe, be clown himself, Admiral Brad Cooper. You know, this guy to me started out as someone who I look to as, okay, this guy's calling balls and strikes. But I've just noticed over many, many months and over a period of time, he's just become kind of like a Rubio, Jordy and Brett and Midas Mighty. He's become a sycophant. And I think what he did today, frankly, is unforgivable. And I think in normal times, he should immediately tender his resignation. I don't just say that, you know, resign, resign, resign.

57:23Ben Meiselas:It's not about that. It's that he was exposed covering up other war crimes that the United States has committed. And he was called out during this kind of perfect textbook cross-examination by Senator Gillibrand. I remember my days as a trial lawyer. I don't think anyone that I've ever seen, some of the top trial lawyers, did it better than what I just observed, what she did, because she was listening and she caught on to the fact that he was covering up these war crimes in real time. And then she said, so let me ask you, have you done any investigation? She assumed they did investigations. And then it became clear to her that he was hiding something and she caught she caught it.

58:11Ben Meiselas:And he was trying to be kind of cool with it. And then she figured out what was going on. Let me show you what went down. Let's play this clip. Have you been implementing all the laws that are required under current law to minimize civilian death? Senator, we have executed every operation consistent with the law of armed conflict. The subject of civilian casualties is a particular passion of mine. We pay attention to it. We follow all the procedures and have gone above and beyond to, in my case, personally warn the Iranian people of several instances during conflict where they were being If they've been warned, how did we then bomb 22 schools?

58:51There's no indication that we have that that has been corroborated. How many schools have we bombed? There is one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13 ,629 munitions. So how do you explain the publicly available information that 22 schools have been hit and multiple hospitals? There's no way that we can corroborate that. No indication of that whatsoever, Senator. There's no way you can corroborate or no indication of it? Which one? No indication. Well, the indication is what's publicly available. There is indication. Have you investigated those claims? We have not. Why have you not?

59:25if this is a passion of yours, if you believe that the civilian casualties are not consistent with the law of war and not consistent with human rights obligations that our military regularly follows with great pride and great diligence, why have you not investigated those allegations when they're publicly being made on the cover of the New York Times? I'll be happy to take a look at each instance. I would like a report. I would like a report from you, from your team, about whether there have been attacks that have resulted in the destruction of schools and hospitals? And if so, why? And how then last have you managed the 90 % cut to the personnel who are supposed to avoid civilian targets?

1:00:11Happy to provide any report, and I would invite you and every staff member here to come to Tampa to look at the process to see exactly how it works. Thank you. Thank you, Admiral.

1:00:20Ben Meiselas:Yeah, actually, no thank you, Admiral. You tried to cover up war crimes. She wanted to say that, but she kind of held back. And he starts off by saying, civilian casualties, stopping civilian casualties is a passion of mine. And then he goes, there's no indication that these other things happen. It hasn't been corroborated. And she picks up onto that. She hasn't been corroborated. And he goes, hasn't been corroborated. And she's like, well, have you investigated it? No. So you haven't corroborated it because you've intentionally not done the investigations of the war crimes so that you can say that there's no indication of it because you never even tried to corroborate it.

1:01:05Ben Meiselas:And meanwhile, we know that all of these war crimes are being committed in the name of the United States under the red, white, and blue, and they're not even investigating it and they're covering it up it's truly horrible it's trump's plan with everything

1:01:19Jordy Meiselas:that's that that's that whole strategy though don't investigate the war crimes there are no war crimes don't test for covid there is no covet i mean this is what he does they close their eyes they put their hands over their eyes and they pretend that there is nothing bad happening in order again to appease one person in one regime it's crazy to me but again it's happening again that was a truly wild clip and i've seen admiral cooper like i've seen his presentations that they post on the CETCOM account. And the first time I saw him give a briefing on the Iran war, I actually found myself impressed by him.

1:01:52Jordy Meiselas:Because we had seen Hex Seth all these days go out there and just clown himself at those insane press conferences. And then here you have a guy who is serious, who's articulate, who doesn't appear to be lying necessarily about what's going on and and presenting himself well in these videos. And I was like, okay, you know, I think all this information is horrible for the United States, but I at least like understand what he's saying and he's not being some like mega douche like Hegseth about everything. Like he seems like a normal dude. But that right there was truly horrifying. And it goes back to what I was saying before, how they always torture the language, right?

1:02:30Jordy Meiselas:They always try to parse words in order to try to hide things. And that's exactly, or to try to get their, what they want to say across or pass their, or make their Supreme Court decisions, or you name it. And that's exactly what he was doing in that moment. And there's a broader issue with that, of course, which is that it results in you not being able to believe anything that this administration is saying. And this is something that I talked about at length on one of the previous episodes, so I don't need to belabor the point here. But if you're willing to lie about something as horrific as that, and are willing to just dance around it unless you're absolutely cornered by somebody who's skillfully interrogating you, then what else are you willing to lie about?

1:03:15Jordy Meiselas:I'm gonna guess a whole lot of stuff. And the lack of trust that that then instills in the American people who are wondering, was there actually a pilot rescue? Did that actually happen? Did it not happen? They said it happened, but where is he? And all of a sudden you start asking all of these questions for everything that happens. And I think at that point, You can't blame people when their minds start getting a little conspiratorial and they are asking all these questions because it's clear that the Trump regime is not telling it straight on any of this.

1:03:44Ben Meiselas:Right. No indication versus no corroboration. You didn't corroborate. Therefore, you didn't find an indication. And you're parsing language where the fact is you're covering up war crimes. That's what the American people know you're doing. And you're dancing around it by using words like corroboration, no indication. It was like when I read the transcript of Howard Lutnick regarding the Epstein files, where, by the way, he didn't sit under oath. He refused to be videotaped. And he refused, this was a new data point that I didn't realize last week. He refused to answer any questions about his communications with Donald Trump about covering up the Epstein files.

1:04:27Ben Meiselas:He said that's entitled to executive privilege, that Donald Trump and Lutnick's conversations about covering up Epstein is subject to an objection, executive privilege. They made the objection. And when it was shocking. And so if that was also on videotape, I think people would have been like, whoa, you're not answering whether you covered up with Trump based on executive privilege. but Lutnick said, I was being truthful when I went on that podcast and said that I never had any dealings with Epstein professionally, personally, or in any philanthropic capacity. I was being honest, to which the person questioning says, what do you mean you were being honest?

1:05:08Ben Meiselas:You did hang out with him on the island and you did do a business deal with him. You've done all these other things with him. So you did. So you still think your characterization on the show about not having any further dealings with him in any capacity was true? Yes. What do you mean, yes? Well, I said I. I brought my children. That's we. So I didn't go, but it was I plus my children and my wife. So we went to the island. I brought other children as well. We were there. I wasn't personally alone, but we all went. So that's what I was saying. People are like, what do you mean I, we? You were there.

1:05:50Ben Meiselas:You went to the island. You're a liar. You're all liars. Stop lying. Stop being lying liars and just level with us. You promised that you would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours and you didn't do it. So stop saying, oh, I've been 24 hours in the future. No, you didn't. You meant 24 hours from when you were taking office. That's what you said. or even before that, after the election. You weren't even able to get a ceasefire for 12 hours because Putin refused to return prisoners after Zelensky agreed that he would not attack the parade that Putin did over the weekend in Red Square. Zelensky kept his part of the deal.

1:06:29Ben Meiselas:Zelensky wants a long-term ceasefire and Putin unleashed the biggest ballistic missile attack and drone attack on Ukraine since the war began yesterday. While Donald Trump was in Beijing, that's when Putin did it. Why? Because all of this is being coordinated, damn it. And Donald Trump's out there, oh, Chinese food. Oh, you're so powerful, Xi. I love you, Xi. And you've got China playing a multi-dimensional game of reorganizing global security architecture. and Donald Trump's out there just behaving like an idiot and a dangerous one. He's bringing Eric along with him, what, to scoop up more quid pro quo deals?

1:07:13Ben Meiselas:I don't know. I mean, you've got Elon Musk doing selfie photos. I'm like, what are we even watching there? And you have, meanwhile, in the background, you've got the BRICS meeting, you've got Russia launching its biggest attack yet on Ukraine. Ukraine was able to shoot down 93 % of the drones and missiles. That's how good they've gotten. But that still meant 7 % got through. And that caused massive devastation. An entire apartment complex in Kiev was destroyed. You had many, many, many people who were killed there. Wanted to point that out as well. And Trump said, I'd end the war in 24 hours. I want to go back to Senator Gillibrand, though, for a second, because she then cross-examined Donald Trump's HUD secretary, Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Scott Turner.

1:08:07Ben Meiselas:And all Gillibrand wanted to know was, okay, I understand you don't like Biden's policies regarding housing, but you've made major billion-dollar cuts to housing. So if you have done that, do you have a better plan? Can you submit a report to us about what your plan is for housing? Your department is called Housing Urban Development. Housing is the first thing. So here we are, May 2026. We know you hate Biden. Got it. Understood. You don't like Biden. What's your housing plan? Do you have one? Here, play this. And what I will say, and I offer this, is number one, the point in time report in the Biden administration HUD said that we had 770 ,000 people in America that were homeless at one given time.

1:09:02And this is with record funding. So we have record funding, but yet we have an increase in street homelessness. Right. So what is your record? You had this job for well over a year. I just want to know, did you get the number down? Do we have 700 ,000 homeless still, or is it a million or a million point five? So I get you want to do things differently. And this committee will support you as long as the goals are good. But where's the results? The report is delayed over a year, over a year. Can I offer this to you? Yes, but we have no, I just don't want to hear about what you don't like about the Biden administration.

1:09:38You're in charge. You have a vision. Let's see it. Let's see the results. And you know what I do? I thank God that I'm in charge so we can do stuff different. because the plays that were ran before I got here, they failed. I've been here. Let me speak, if you will. I got here. You said I have been here a little bit over a year. But you all had, during the Biden administration, four years. Stop talking about Biden. Talk about your record. This is so inaccurate, unhelpful, and doesn't let this committee do our job. If I may, the point-in-time report would be out by now if we did not have an unprecedented government shutdown.

1:10:14it would be out by now. If we weren't in constant litigation, it would be out by now. HUD has a great form. We have a great team, and we move very expeditiously. In what way does litigation... We could not work during the government shutdown. I think you're obfuscating. I'm not obfuscating. What way does litigation slow down your report? A government shutdown helps us to not be able to work. It was a government shutdown. But tell me about the litigation. The point-in-time report would be out right now if we did not have a government shutdown. Irregardless of all of that, during the Biden administration, record funding.

1:10:47Oh, my God. If you talk about, it's like. Record funding. It's like two children saying, I didn't do it. My brother did it. Stop with the excuses. That's what I have to go off of. Just explain. Record funding. Your record. Record homelessness. We have to do something different. Okay, switch topic. If after I'm gone. Switch topic. Honestly. If after I'm gone, if it's still record funding and record homelessness. You know what? After you're gone, it's too late for the families that are suffering in New York today. It is. today. Do you know what it's like to be a homeless little girl who has to have a Girl Scout troop just for other homeless little girls because that's all they have?

1:11:21That's the only consistency they have in their life. So I get you have a different vision. It's happened in my family. Yes, ma 'am, I do. I need to know. I'm not talking about what I heard. I'm talking to you about what I know and what I do know.

1:11:34Ben Meiselas:The housing first model failed. And meanwhile, you have the Trump family putting out Trump Mobile now after not releasing the phone for over a year. They release a$499 device that appears to just be a double of the same T-Mobile Wing Tech Rebel 7 Pro 5G. By the way, made in China, which they said it's like a made in America. And lots of people are saying, whatever this AI thing that you're showing appears to be just like a T-Mobile phone and an old one that you're like selling for double. And then the Trump regime, rather than respond if that's true or not, they turned off their comments. So, I mean, you have that going on.

1:12:24Ben Meiselas:I mean, just so you see, I mean, this is the Trump regime across kind of all disciplines also. So I wanted to bring up the phone thing before I went. You have Maxwell Frost trying to ask basic questions of the ATF director, Robert Cicada. And it was like, can you just answer this question? And the guy also wanted to parse the words. Here, just let me show you this. Let's play. Did you agree to enact any of these regulations in your discussions? Say that again? Did you agree to enact any of these regulations in your discussions before you were nominated? Well, first off, these are proposed. It's just yes or no, sir.

1:12:54Well, sir, sorry. That doesn't answer the question. It does answer the question. Did you agree to enact any of these regulations or put forth these rules or proposals? I know how the process works, Director. So you don't actually? Yes, I do. No, you don't. Yes, I do. Did you agree to put forth these proposals for rule changes while you were having discussions about your possible promotion? Yes or no? That's it. The answer is not going to be yes or no. So the answer is there are proposals, not enacted rules. And yes. There are proposed rules, yes. where they discussed while you were talking about your promotion, yes or no?

1:13:29Sir, this has nothing to do with my... Sir, I answer the questions. You answer the questions, sir. I'm just asking. I'm not going to answer yes or no to a question that can't be answered yes or no. Sorry. Why can't it be answered yes or no? Because you're intentionally trying to argue with me here about something that you're completely wrong on. First of all, the regulations are not finalized. I know. I'm saying proposed rules. Because you keep telling me they're enacted and they're not enacted. Proposed rules. You keep mixing. Proposed rules were those discussed while you were talking about the possible promotion.

1:14:00Yes or no? They were discussed with no guarantee of any sort of promotion. As you know, the Senate does get to make a decision that I'm not involved in. Yeah. So in your discussions with folks in the administration about your possible promotion, the proposed rules were discussed with them. You're saying yes. Of course they were. I've told you that. Thank you. That's all I wanted.

1:14:20Ben Meiselas:Okay, so you get the point here. I mean, these are, I think the word is sociopaths, but there may be other words for it. And I leave you with this, and I'm not trying to overcomplicate it, right? These are bad human beings. Like, these are scumbags. Like, these are terrible people, right, who do bad things, who lie, who want to see you suffer. These are not your friends. They don't want to be. These are bad humans who delight in your pain and suffering. And then when they're asked very basic questions, they lie and they behave like I'm sure you've known people in your life who you've seen that exact personality trait before.

1:15:09Ben Meiselas:And it reminds you, it may even give you PTSD to see that or hear that and go, oh my God, I know exactly what that, that's who MAGA is. That's what they do. all I want and I keep on saying on this network I don't care if it's Democrat Republican Independent some new heretofore name that I haven't heard of before non-political I don't care religion no religion this that just be good be competent help people uplift get results tell the truth, behave respectfully, with dignity. When you make mistakes, people do. Own up to them. Help others. Be a mentor to people. Just stuff like that. Stop the drama.

1:16:10Ben Meiselas:Stop the me, me, me, me, me. Be a good person. Help yourself. Help your family. Help your community. help the country, help the world. I leave you with that message. Brett, I don't know if you want to say anything before we go.

1:16:23Jordy Meiselas:Good message. I, you know, it's just, it's, it's abuser behavior that we see all the time from this Trump regime. It's disgusting. I wonder, like, do they go to some class? Are they taught this? Is there like a lighting 101? I genuinely think they are like media trained in some way to behave in this way. And then they're taking instruction from the top because there's really not much more of an explanation that there could possibly be because they always answer all this stuff the same exact way. Just be straight with the American people. I think ultimately, we need people who are going to actually fight for the values of this country.

1:17:00Jordy Meiselas:People are going to actually show a spine or have a spine. By the way, that is for the democratic side also. We need people to continue to stand up. We need people to continue to push back, understanding that progress is never a straight line. There will be setbacks, as we've seen. There have been many a setback, but you need people really now more than ever to get in this, to really say, I'm going to stand for something in this moment. I'm going to stand up to the Trump regime. I'm going to do what's best for the people, not for the oligarchs, not for, I don't even, I don't even know some of the stuff Donald Trump is doing.

1:17:40So keep that in mind.

1:17:42Jordy Meiselas:I would say I want to thank everybody for watching this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Midas Touch podcast wherever you get your podcast. Remember to go check out the show on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, on all the various platforms. Join us on Substack. We're doing a lot of cool stuff on our Substack lately at midasplus.com. We've got Ron's Daily Bulletins, which are honestly the best bulletins out there. Incredible daily newsletter that recaps all the day's news. We've been doing this midday recaps as well earlier in the day, which are incredible.

1:18:14Jordy Meiselas:I think you'll really like those as well. We got this new Midas Defense Initiative on there with the biggest, best actual experts in the field of defense speaking about the intricacies of many of the things that we spoke about on this episode. We have Midas Health over there with Dr. Vin Gupta. Once again, that's at MidasPlus.com. Oh, and ad-free episodes of this podcast, the Midas Touch podcast. We put that up there on Midas Plus Substack. So thank you so much. We appreciate your support. Let's keep fighting, everybody. We got this. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty!

1:19:07Jordy Meiselas:Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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