MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 5/22/26

22:59Jordy Meiselas:They use these buzzwords to manufacture consent and try to sell these wars, even if they kind of like half-ass it, like Iran didn't even try to sell the war, right? But they use these lines in order to try to manufacture consent and in order to say, listen, we had no choice. They were going to have a nuclear weapon in two weeks. And if we didn't do this, well, you should have seen what would have happened, even when all independent analyses say the exact opposite. Even when all independent analyses say that it's the United States and Donald Trump who is the aggressor. And I think it's a problem right now when we look at the geopolitical landscape out there that we see the United States is the erratic one, the one who our allies are unable to trust.

23:44Jordy Meiselas:And at the same time, these countries who would normally be relying on the United States, be partners with the United States, be working with the United States, they're looking outwards. They're looking to countries like China. They're looking at countries who have been historically our adversaries, and they're going, okay, this may be a communist regime. This may be a regime that does some bad things, but they're stable. They're not nuts, and we know what they do, and we know that we could at least deal with these people. Donald Trump, I don't know. He could rip up our deal tomorrow. He could just start going on a rampage.

24:14Jordy Meiselas:We just don't know. This is a maniac in the White House, and when you don't have stable leadership, everything else falls apart, which is why historically presidents have actually tried to project stability and actually tried to court our allies and try to come from it from a sense of dignity, diplomacy. Donald Trump is none of those things, and it's having effects on every facet of the geopolitical landscape, everything abroad and everything here at home.

24:42Brett Meiselas:What our allies or former allies have realized too is that donald trump is not uh governing for the people and by the people he he's he's ruling for himself and the trump regime and the epstein class and that's donald trump's like main group right there that's all he cares about and so these former allies of ours have just they've come to the conclusion that oh my goodness this guy is so psychotic that he does not care what's happening on a day-to-day basis for the american citizens at large we can't trust him to give a damn about us if he doesn't give a damn about his own people. I mean, Donald Trump says jump.

25:18Brett Meiselas:Their entire Republican Party right now says how high. It is a damning indictment of our entire government here that we have an entire political party that only cares about one person. I mean, I will say this until I'm blue in the face because it is just so crazy to witness playing out in real time and how they bend over the backwards to bend the rules and make up new rules and use these policy things to just benefit Trump. You know, American people be damned. And it is so deeply upsetting as someone who actually loves this country to see it being manipulated and used in such a nefarious way to really only benefit like the top 1 % of the country here.

25:53Brett Meiselas:And again, as oil prices are skyrocketing, as affordability is just out of hand for every, you know, for everyone's lifestyle, whether it be housing or healthcare or putting food on the table, you name it, Donald Trump could care less. The entire Republican party could care less. Literally, they don't care at all so long as Donald Trump and the Trump regime could push forward their agenda, whatever that may be, invading Cuba or going to war with Iran, like whatever Trump wants to do, the entire Republican party lines up, no questions asked, and gets behind them to do it.

26:23Ben Meiselas:At the very beginning, Donald Trump said, I was going to bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours and bring down prices in 24 hours. both of those utter lies and the same thing with ukraine what was he saying give me two weeks one more month we're making progress two weeks one month oh breakthrough two weeks one month all bs right what was he saying with prices we're getting there don't worry give me two weeks give me most favored nations provision look this is going down this is going down we're right around the corner next quarter next quarter's our quarter don't you worry we're about to unleash fourth quarter, first quarter, 2027.

26:59Ben Meiselas:This is what Ponzi schemers do. And they create new crises to try to mask the old crises. And then a lot of the domestic crises are distractions from other domestic crises, which are distractions from other crises, which are distractions from the Epstein files. And then you just have this mess that we find ourselves in heading into Memorial day. We find ourselves in an absolute mess. No predictability, no certainty. People are suffering and saying no predictability, no certainty. That's like generous. It's chaos. It's chaos out there. It's Trumpian. And this is how Donald Trump ran businesses into the ground.

27:39Ben Meiselas:This is how he's destroyed companies and entities. This is his MO and we're seeing it here play out in our country. There's a new global world order that is forming right now where America first has meant America alone and America finds itself weaker than ever. As right now, the person in the Oval Office continues to suck up to Xi Jinping and Putin while they're out there mocking him and forming alliances to weaken the United States. and they're going about doing it methodically with plans and tactically while Donald Trump wakes up and posts photos of reflecting pools and golden statues and ballrooms and all that.

28:20Ben Meiselas:We're going to take our first quick break of the show. When we come back, we've got a lot more to discuss what's going on in Capitol Hill, what's going on in the rest of the world. Todd Blanche, acting attorney general. And by acting, I mean acting and acting. He's Trump's personal defense attorney. What he's doing is an act. It's a farce as well. We'll take our first quick break a reminder. Hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. And also, if you can, become a member. Click member. Join right now. Become a member and gift memberships to others if you can. Let's take our first quick break of the show.

28:59Jordy Meiselas:I've always had the same problems with jeans. If they fit my waist, they're either too tight in the thighs or way too long. If they do fit my legs, the waist is huge. And by the end of the day, I'm doing that awkward mid-conversation adjustment that everyone pretends not to notice. That's why I was honestly skeptical when I tried a pair of the perfect jeans. They sent me a pair. I put them on, did the full squat test, sat down, moved around, and immediately thought, oh damn, these are actually awesome. They look like classic denim, but they feel as comfortable as sweatpants. And that was hugely important to me.

29:28Jordy Meiselas:The four-way stretch means you can bend, squat, sit, and actually live your life without feeling like your jeans are crushing you. Whether you're doing yard work, heading to a Memorial Day cookout, or just going out to dinner, they move with you. And they fit right out of the box. No tailoring, no break-in period, no nonsense. They are built with YKK zippers, reinforced belt loops, and they come in thousands of size combinations for actual human bodies. I wholeheartedly recommend them. Our listeners get 15 % off their first order plus free shipping at theperfectgene.nyc or Google The Perfect Gene and use code MIDAS15 for 15 % off.

30:06Jordy Meiselas:Again, our listeners get 15 % off their first order plus free shipping at theperfectgene.nyc or Google The Perfect Gene and use code MIDAS15 for 15 % off. That's M-E-I-D-A-S-1-5. Magic Spoon has figured out how to turn treats into something you could actually feel great about eating. If you're like me and you love having something sweet during the day or after dinner, but you don't want the sugar crash, this is going to be your new obsession. Their Magic Spoon treats are crispy, airy snack bars that taste like dessert, but they have the macros of a protein bar. 12 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, 0 grams of added sugar, and they're certified gluten-free.

30:46Jordy Meiselas:They come in flavors like marshmallow, chocolate peanut butter, and double chocolate. They're perfect to toss in your bag, keep in the car, or grab when that sweet craving hits. And of course, Magic Spoon cereal is still iconic. You know I love it. All the childhood nostalgia you remember with 12 to 14 grams of protein and between 0 to 2 grams of sugar per serving. Fruity, frosted, cinnamon crunch, cocoa, peanut butter. They've got all the classics, and I truthfully love them all. Magic Spoon is easy to find. Just look for Magic Spoon at your local grocery store, and they just rolled out treats nationwide at 7-Eleven.

31:19Jordy Meiselas:And if you haven't tried them yet, check out Magic Spoon's new protein pastries, a high protein, low sugar take on the classic toaster pastries you grew up with. You can get$5 off your next order, including the protein pastries at magicspoon.com slash Midas. That's magicspoon.com slash Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S, for$5 off.

31:42Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description about the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. if there's an exit survey let them know we sent you love me some magic spoon love me the perfect gene they've been great sponsors to us for a while definitely show them love if you're in the market for those products benji real quick i also have to make an apology here to my in-laws uh so last episode you know i may have put them on blast talking about how hot the house was you know about 95 degrees or whatever they listened to the show like they listened to the whole show i thought i buried that deep in the episode they heard it they got upset with me and my father-in-law who's 82 he was extra upset with me because he said it was my fault he said i didn't put the eight apparently there's like a a secret ac unit over here on this side you know where i'm supposed to flip it on so i apologize it was my fault not the house's fault here's me here's the thing jordy you're still sweaty no no i'm not and maybe i'm just a little oily i'm maybe a little hot is jordy not listening to stay relax breath relax i did the apology they asked me to apologize i I apologize, Benji, where to next?

32:43Ben Meiselas:You know, one of the main reasons why, though, Republicans are now standing, I don't want to say they're all standing up to Donald Trump, why on these certain kind of core issues they're pushing back with War Powers Resolution, the $1.8 billion slush fund and Donald Trump wanting$1 billion in taxpayer money to go to the Golden Ballroom. one they see in the generic ballots just getting wiped out. I mean, the midterms are right around the corner. I mean, just think about it. Before we know it, I mean, just think about from Memorial Day to Labor Day, boom, then elections are going to be quite literally right around the corner.

33:23Ben Meiselas:So I think they were in their own mind doing kind of the Trump delay, delay, delay. And now they're like, oh my gosh, elections are really right here. And then also Donald Trump continues his revenge and retribution tour against Republicans. I mean, against John Cornyn, who's definitely a right-wing guy. He's a Trump enabler. He's not like a MAGA MAGA guy, but Cornyn's pretty bad, but he's not like ultra MAGA. Ken Paxton is as corrupt and MAGA as you get the AG in Texas. And then Donald Trump said, I'm going to endorse Paxton in a primary over Cornyn. And Republicans in the Senate were pouring in millions of dollars to support Cornyn, and they still are going to because he's one of their colleagues.

34:10Ben Meiselas:And now when you look at the actual polling that's taking place in Texas, you have James Tallarico leading right now in Texas on a head-to-head with Paxton. And now Republicans are like, well, we're probably going to lose Texas now, and we're going to be spending tens of millions of dollars to fight for Texas while we lose Texas. and now that money could have been spent on other states. And now we're looking at this map and this is deeply problematic for control of the Senate. And so they thought they'd at least control the Senate, lose the House. Now they're thinking in the Republican circles, we're going to lose this.

34:49Ben Meiselas:We could lose the Senate right now if we lose Texas. So you had Attorney General Todd Blanche, he shows up and he talks about that$1.8 billion slush fund. And apparently Republicans were like, we're blocking your slush fund. You screwed us. We're not, you know, you screwed us over. We're not doing the slush fund. We're not doing the ballroom. We're not doing that stuff. It's just not, we're not, we're not going to support it. We will support blocking it. And apparently Blanche started like yelling at them and they were like, who are you? Like, who are you to yell at us? You're Donald Trump's personal attorney.

35:21Ben Meiselas:So that's what went down there. Senate shuts down, House shuts down, and Donald Trump's in the Oval Office. And he's asked in the Oval Office, are you losing control of the Senate? Are you losing control of Republicans in the Senate and even the House? Here, let's play this clip of what Trump said.

35:37Brett Meiselas:Are you losing control of the Senate, Senate Republicans? I don't know. I really don't know. I can tell you I only do what's right. I don't need money for the ballroom. You know, I'm making a gift of the ballroom. This is the biggest misreporting that I've ever seen. The ballroom is being built. It'll cost, it was going to be$200 million. I've doubled the size of it because we need it. and it's being done in conjunction with the military and with the, very much in conjunction

36:03Ben Meiselas:with the military and secret service. What does it even mean? It's being done very much in conjunction with them. We saw the reconciliation bill. You asked for$1 billion for it. I mean, the guy, as I said, every sound, syllable, everything is a lie. You know, I know a lot of diplomats overseas, but when they see someone like Jeff Landry, Donald Trump's envoy to Greenland, the governor of Louisiana. It's like, why are you even there? No one invited you there. There was like a business conference and he showed up and acted like he was invited. And then he goes there and he does like the Trump thing where he goes, no one's ever heard of Greenland since we were there.

36:42Ben Meiselas:Just think about it. There's been no diplomats who ever showed up here until me, like you all should be very thankful. And what, you know, so many diplomats who I speak to in Europe and elsewhere, you know, say is like, we're used to like certain propaganda And like we're used to kind of, you know, tough and sharp practices sometimes when it comes to, you know, foreign policy issues. But like just the outright living in a whole other universe, we just don't understand what world you're all living in. Like Colin Powell was there. John Kerry was there. You know, you have every major – Anthony Blinken went to Greenland.

37:24Ben Meiselas:People recognize the importance of Greenland. And so it's a very weird thing when you said you put us on the map. You didn't put us on the map. We had a good relationship with the United States. You had military bases here. We had a NATO alliance that protected it. We just don't even understand what world you're living in where every single word, every single thing is a lie. I mean, Trump says there, it's a gift. I'm paying for it. What are you paying? We've seen no indication that you personally are paying anything for this golden ballroom. And you asked for a billion dollars. And that's one of the things that you're frustrated about is that that billion dollars is not in the reconciliation bill because Republicans and Democrats are like, no.

38:09Ben Meiselas:Then he was asked a question that I find very telling also, which is, are you attending your son's wedding? And listen to what he says to that question. Let's play.

38:17Brett Meiselas:Are you ever pending your son's money this weekend, by the way? He'd like me to go, but it's going to be just a small little private affair, and I'm going to try and make it. I'm in the midst. I said, you know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things. That's one I can't win on. If I do attend, I get killed. If I don't attend, I get killed. By the fake news, of course, I'm talking about. No, but he's got a very person I've known for a long time, and hopefully they're going to have a great marriage.

38:53Ben Meiselas:Okay, so it's a small event. Usually at a small family event, the dad would be at the family. The family. You would be there. And then he goes, I have something called Iran, but didn't you say that we won in Iran? So what are you doing? You say we control the Strait of Hormuz. and everything's going great. We've already won. We've obliterated them. And it's just, so you're using that as an excuse not to go to your own son's wedding.

39:23Brett Meiselas:Also, he said like, you know, the fake news media would kill me if I went there. I mean, like, I think it'd be the one thing that people would be like, oh yeah, it's your son's wedding. Like, yeah, you show up for, I don't know, at least five minutes. It's so weird. And then I understand what I think he was trying to say, but I'm not trying to make excuses for him. Because at the end of that, he basically said, he's someone I've known for a long time. Like, it sounded almost as if he was referring to his son in that moment.

39:47Jordy Meiselas:He slurs his word. He could have been talking about the wife, the soon-to-be wife. Exactly.

39:51Brett Meiselas:But I don't even want to give him that out because that's not what he said. It's just not what he's like. He's someone I've known for a long time. And I'm like, your son? Of course. Yeah, you've known him his whole life. This is so insane to me. This guy has no idea where he is. and yet he's bombing countries left and right and bringing us into wars. It's madness. It really is madness.

40:15Ben Meiselas:It definitely is madness. And then he goes on to say that he controls the Strait of Hormuz. So what are you spending time on doing if you control the Strait of Hormuz? And if you control the Strait of Hormuz, then great. Then the ship should be leaving. Everything should be fine. What's even the question? We control it. Okay, so we're done. And again, it's just, What do you mean we control it? We know we don't control it. We know that you asked for a billion dollars. It's just lie after lie. Here, play this clip.

40:45Brett Meiselas:They've had a relationship with them before, and we'll see. We have total control of the Strait of Hormuz, as you know, with our blockade. The blockade's been 100 % effective. Nobody's been able to get through. It's like a steel wall.

40:59Ben Meiselas:31 ships got through today. I mean, like 31 ships. and they're all using Iran's route that Iran and Oman have worked out this kind of port authority where they charge tolls and their allies get exemptions and people are negotiating bilaterally with Iran to get their ships out. They're not allowing any ships that are allied with the United States out and that's what's going on. You don't control the Strait of Hormuz. And then Donald Trump brags about the arch, building an arch. It's going to be bigger than the arch in Pyongyang, the biggest arch there is. And by the way, just so you know, the arch is right by Arlington Cemetery.

41:42Ben Meiselas:And it's just like this, and it just obstructs the view of both the Lincoln Memorial and the cemetery if this thing gets built the way it is. And there's no congressional, again, no congressional authorization for this at all. And what the Trump regime is arguing is that 100 years ago, and something completely unrelated, Congress talked about doing some beautification project that involves some sort of arch 100 years ago. And then they're like, so Congress authorized us to build this arch 100 years ago today. And that's what we're relying on. And it's just all this stuff is just like enough is enough.

42:24Ben Meiselas:It's humiliating to our country. And here's what he says about the arch. Let's play.

42:28Brett Meiselas:Do you need Congress to sign off on it?

42:30Ben Meiselas:No, we don't.

42:31Brett Meiselas:No, no, we're doing it. The land is owned by Secretary, by the Interior Department. We don't need anything from Congress.

42:39Ben Meiselas:The land isn't owned by the Interior. The land is owned by us. It's public land, not the Interior Department. It isn't a corporation that owns land. It's American soil. It's in our capital. When you do things with our money, you need our approval for it as exercised through the legislature. This is not a complicated thing, whether it's an arch, whether it's a ballroom, whether it is a$1.8 billion slush fund. If Congress voted for a$1.8 billion-dollar slush fund for insurrectionists that was then signed into law, we can hold members accountable for voting on such a thing because they would have cast their vote.

43:31Ben Meiselas:They're elected by the people. They'd have the ability to do that. I think it would be a travesty if they did that, but that's our system. We could hold them accountable. When there's lawsuits that are filed and there's conflict, there's adversity between the plaintiff and the defendant, and there's a jury verdict or a judge makes a ruling on something, and there's a fair resolution that is reached in the context of a court adjudication, and a federal judge approves a settlement, that's part of a process that's used and that's been used in the past to deal with disputed claims. What we've seen before happen was when there were lawsuits filed, when there was a judge who approves a settlement agreement, that is viewed as a way to have an independent authority adjudicate claims.

44:35What Donald Trump wants to do is just what authoritarians do, handpick a commission of

44:40Ben Meiselas:people that he likes and then just have them vote for whatever he wants and then go around Congress or go around the courts or go around everything. That's not America. It's not our system. And if you like that system of kings and authoritarians, there are other countries where that system, but that's not fundamentally, that's not the American system. I don't say this as a Democrat. It isn't a Republican thing. I'm just telling you what our system is. So,

45:03Jordy Meiselas:you know, when you say, by the way, you see him doing that now, as you look at the ballroom, right? The Fine Arts Commission that he put together, it's all Trump lackeys. You see that with the commission that Todd Blanche is putting together with this$1.776 billion fund. It's going to be all people who are directly approved by Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's former personal criminal attorney. I know he gets upset when you call him that, but the facts are the facts, Mr. Blanche. Now, he also does that everywhere. Every aspect you look, he's making these kind of fake committees. He's putting his people on, he's stacking it.

45:35Jordy Meiselas:And I just want to give you like a list that this was compiled by Ron Filipkowski in our daily bulletin on MidasPlus.com just to show you the consequences now of Donald Trump dangling this 1.776, what a stupid number for him to put behind this, which just shows it's all another like stunt, right? This$1.776 billion dollar fund. I'll just read some of these because it is absolutely reprehensible. Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, said, I'm not greedy, but my life was all effed up because of this. He is asking for between two and five million dollars from United States taxpayers.

46:15Jordy Meiselas:Peter Tington, an attorney representing more than 400 January 6th defendants, said that that 1.8 billion dollars is not going to be enough. He said, quote, people lost multi-million dollar businesses while they were locked up. I don't think the Department of Justice is ready for us yet. You have Mike Lindell saying that he's going to file a claim for$400 million saying, quote, it costs the brand and my pillow$400 million. It is horrific that our own government can do this. It will be a blessing to my employees made whole who are stockholders in my pillow. Brandon Fellows to CNN. The number I've put in for is$30 million.

46:51Jordy Meiselas:According to ChatGPT, I'm in the three to five percent here of how strong a case i have how i rationalize people getting paid for january 6 is because the government set it up and on top of that they stole the election i could go on and on and on we got a huge list the q anon shaman told cnn he's putting in a claim because he's filing a filing a 40 trillion dollar lawsuit and is representing himself this to me there there's no This is why I like to say there is no gray area when it comes to things like this. And so I don't see the point of even trying to debate somebody on issues like this and muddy the water.

47:30Jordy Meiselas:The truth or the right versus wrong on this issue is not somewhere in between. Do we pay the people who stormed the Capitol and tried to overthrow our democracy? Or do we not? Oh, let's settle somewhere in the middle. There must be a gray area and we could find that in the middle. No, that's not how these things work. There is right and there is wrong. And this is so clearly wrong. And when Todd Blanche is out there justifying this sort of stuff, he is showing that he is indeed, as Ben said earlier, the quote unquote acting attorney general. He is putting on an act here. And I will also add, he's not only putting the acting and acting attorney general, But Todd Blanche is putting the criminal in criminal attorney.

48:17Jordy Meiselas:There is no justification at all for what we are seeing here. Every American, even the most ardent Republican, should be absolutely enraged that your tax money could go to these people. And all these people want you, right? Think about the language they constantly use, right? Of people who actually could use government assistance, of disabled people, of people below the poverty line. and they call them freeloaders and they say they don't deserve shit, right? As they give away millions and millions of dollars to people who ended up in a situation of their own making by breaking the law, by trying to attack our politicians, by trying to overthrow our government.

48:59Jordy Meiselas:It is an absolute disgrace any way you look at it. And I'm sick of hearing these clowns, these evil people try to defend this.

49:09Brett Meiselas:This is why too, I champion having a strong fourth estate in this country. And this is why like corporate media, we just need you guys to do your job and hold folks accountable here because this is one of those issues in my opinion that needs to be talked about every single day until this is stopped. And also every single Republican needs to be put on record as to what their stance is about this. That's why I'm so happy that we have our Washington DC bureau out there asking these questions on the ground. And I just wish that there were other medias doing the same, specifically corporate media out there.

49:45Brett Meiselas:So shout out to independent media, you know, getting these answers and getting the answers to these questions and putting these Republicans on the record because it's vital. It's absolutely crucial that we know where every single Republican stands on this issue specifically, Ben.

49:57Ben Meiselas:Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, make sure you hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers. In addition, make sure you, if you can, join the Midas Touch YouTube channel and gift as many memberships as you can, if you can afford it. That would be great to help other people get access to some of our bonus features, including the special podcast that Ron Filipkowski does now with Pablo Monriquez, our Washington, D.C. Bureau reporter who does an incredible job. When we come back, I'm going to show you some of the video that Pablo captured on Capitol Hill, some powerful interviews, him and Scott McFarland leads our D.C.

50:40Ben Meiselas:Bureau. We'll talk about that and more. Let's take our last quick break of the show.

50:45Jordy Meiselas:You know what's easier than fixing a problem? Not having the problem in the first place. Your liver is one of those organs that you don't think about until you have to. Supporting it daily is one of those small things that can make a huge difference in how you feel overall, and that's where Dose comes in. Dose for your liver is a clinically backed liver health supplement. This isn't just another capsule or powder. Dose is a liquid supplement. It's taken in a daily two-ounce shot, and it tastes like fresh-squeezed orange juice. Here's why it matters. Your liver is your body's filter. It processes everything you consume and handles over 500-plus daily functions, energy production, digestion, fat metabolism, vitamin storage.

51:21Jordy Meiselas:When your liver is overworked, you feel it. Dose helps cleanse the liver of unwanted stressors, that may be slowing your liver down, and it promotes daily liver function so that your liver can do its job. Zero sugar, zero junk, zero calories. And when you take dose daily, you're going to reduce sluggishness, get rid of those midday crashes, support your metabolism, and even aid your daily digestion. Plus, this is the real deal. There are two double-blind placebo-controlled studies showing doses positive impact on liver enzyme levels. Are you ready to give your liver the support it deserves? Head to dosdaily.co slash Midas or enter Midas to get 35 % off your first subscription.

52:02Jordy Meiselas:Your body does so much for you. Let's do something for it. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y dot C-O slash Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S, for 35 % off your first month subscription. When we started building Midas Touch, it felt like we were wearing every head imaginable. We were producing shows, writing scripts, managing graphics, building websites, and trying to grow a business all at the same time. It was exciting, but also overwhelming. And we still do most of that, by the way. But it's good to get help where you need it. That's why I love Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all e-commerce in the United States.

52:41Jordy Meiselas:It gives you hundreds of ready-to-use templates to build a beautiful online store that matches your brand style. Shopify also helps you market your business with easy email and social media campaigns, wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling, and it puts everything in one place, from inventory to payments to analytics, so you're not bouncing around between different tools and websites trying to keep everything organized. If you ever get stuck there, award-winning 24-7 customer support is always there to help. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing, sign up for your$1 per month trial today at shopify.com slash Midas.

53:18Jordy Meiselas:Go to shopify.com slash Midas. That's shopify.com slash Midas. M-E-I-D-A-S.

53:29Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Link in description of the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the code. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. And just a heads up, speaking of Shopify, we use Shopify here. Store.midastouch.com right now, We are running, and I don't even think the brothers know this yet, one of our biggest sales of the year, our Memorial Day sale. 20 % off. Use code MIDAS20 at store.midastouch.com. That's code MIDAS20. You'll see it when you go to the website. Get 20 % off your order. Let's do this. Benji, where to next?

54:01Ben Meiselas:I just want to share with you these two clips from that Todd Blanch interview with CNN. I thought the reporter on CNN did a very good job asking him some pretty basic questions that he gets an F on. First question, wouldn't the average taxpayer respond, why do my tax dollars need to go to people from the January 6th insurrection? Why are you taking my tax dollars and giving it to them? Here, play this clip.

54:27Brett Meiselas:But wouldn't the average taxpayer respond and say, okay, but why is that now my problem? Why do my tax dollars now need to go to people who are upset about their involvement in investigations? Well, if you're just upset, you're not getting it done. On the other hand, I think if you said to the American taxpayer that there is a horrible wrong committed by your government, and now you can apply and you can have your lawyers fees back, you can be compensated for what you lost financially, what American would say, oh, my gosh, that's terrible? I mean, I very much disagree with the idea that the American taxpayer is indignant about the fact that a victim of weaponization, a victim who suffered, whether it was legal fees, lost a job, had their life turned upside down in a way that was not appropriate.

55:12Brett Meiselas:If it was appropriate, there should be no compensation. And that's why we have five commissioners who will take a look at it. But I do not think the American people have issues with that.

55:21Ben Meiselas:To the contrary, I think they do want their tax dollars spent on things like that. tax dollars to go to January 6th insurrectionists. That's why you have five commissioners. Let me explain to you what we have in America. We have courts. If somebody is a victim of so-called weaponization and they have been maliciously prosecuted, that's called a cause of action. They have a claim that they can file a federal lawsuit under a federal statute or under state law. One of those federal statutes is what's called a Section 1983 claim, a civil rights violation for violation of your due process rights. You can file a federal lawsuit.

56:03Ben Meiselas:It gets assigned to a federal judge. You then prove that you have a claim. A judge decides whether you've established the requirements to assert a claim. If the judge thinks you've met those requirements, The case goes to a jury, and you can argue to a jury what your damages are, and a jury decides it. Not five commissioners appointed by Donald Trump and Todd Blanche. A jury decides what that's going to be. That's what our system is. And you're not maliciously prosecuted if you pled guilty. You're not maliciously prosecuted if you were convicted, especially if the guilty plea or the conviction is for attacking police officers, if it's for assaulting the Capitol building, if it's for trying to overthrow an election, you will get laughed out of court if you filed such a lawsuit, especially if you were convicted or pled guilty, it's automatically bars you from the lawsuit.

57:04Ben Meiselas:And you would have no claim. You would have zero claim whatsoever. So you creating a commission is not the way our system works. And taxpayers are not. We have federal courts. That's the way the system works. He was then asked, would you be OK with people who are convicted of hurting police getting taxpayer money? Let's play this clip.

57:30Brett Meiselas:You're the nation's top law enforcement official right now. Would you be okay with people who were convicted of hurting police getting taxpayer money? Just to be clear, people that hurt police get money all the time, okay? There's a process where if you believe you have your rights violated, you can apply for funds. You can sue. You can file a claim. You can go to court. In some of those cases, the state, the government, the federal government settles those cases. It's abhorrent to ever, ever touch a law enforcement officer, which is why anytime anybody does that and it's a federal officer, we'll prosecute them.

58:06Ben Meiselas:But that's a completely different question with whether an individual is allowed to apply for a claim, whether they'll get a claim. Disqualifying. Frank Leach loses bar license for that answer. People that hurt police get money all the time. Name me one. Name me someone who hurt police, who pled guilty for hurting police and got money and got rewarded for hurting police. What are you talking about? I mean, seriously, you're the acting attorney general and that's what your view is. anybody, I suppose, can file a lawsuit in the sense that you can click file, but the lawyer who filed that case asking for money in a federal lawsuit when you attack a police officer, your client does, you will get Rule 11 sanctioned, and you will have to pay the other side's fees, and you will probably get referred to the state bar by the federal judge.

59:02Ben Meiselas:this and i say this on a bipartisan basis and the federal government doesn't settle cases for people who attack and hurt police what what what in what world are you living in and again it's stuff like that to me that whether you're a democrat or republican or independent we should all rally around and we should all call out as just being wrong and inappropriate You know, the same way when Donald Trump trades 3 ,700 times, 3 ,700 stock trades in Q1 of 2026, right around the dips and the rising of the markets and the manipulation that we saw during the war, that's deeply problematic. We can still focus on all of the other horrible things that Trump is doing.

59:50Ben Meiselas:We can still focus on the Epstein file cover-up. We could still focus on the fact that things are not affordable and that people are struggling and that healthcare is being ripped away. All these things, we could walk and chew gum at the same time. And we could also say, why are you selling stocks, even if you're doing it through a broker or whatever, in companies, individual companies that you're traveling with, their CEOs, and you're inviting to the White House, and you're making social media posts where you post the stock ticker. Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that? And if you're already a billionaire before you were in the Oval Office, you need to be more of a billionaire?

1:00:32Ben Meiselas:You need to do more? Why? Why are you doing this? Is the greed that insatiable that you have to trade that amount of times? You shouldn't be even trading once. And so on the Midas Touch Network, we spoke with some of these MAGA Republicans and asked them, what do you think about it? So we spoke to Tommy Tuberville, Tuberville MAGA Republican Senator from Alabama. Here's what he had to say.

1:00:58Brett Meiselas:So coach, what do you make? I got to ask Donald Trump, 3 ,700 stock trades in the first quarter of this year. What do you make of that? Donald Trump, 3 ,700 stock trades. Yeah. In the first quarter of this year, it's like every nine minutes and 45 seconds of trade. I know it's not him personally doing that. Exactly. And I do the same thing. I never look at my stocks. He does the same thing. You give it to somebody who knows what you're doing. That's how this country runs. People have jobs. Give them your money. If you don't invest in the country and corporations, that's what we all do. I'm getting sick and tired here.

1:01:29Brett Meiselas:Republicans and Democrats say, we need to stop all this trading. Sure, if you're inside trading, you need to stop. But I guarantee you, President Trump's not inside trading. I'm not inside trading. and it's ridiculous even people bring that up most people that bring it up don't have a clue what you're talking about got it coach who's gonna win the world cup world cup you got me on that i'm an american football fan bro just say usa man wait we just say the event like you couldn't think

1:01:58Ben Meiselas:of one team that's you're you're you're a coach you should know a little bit about sports like And even if you don't, let me just train you on what the answer is. USA. Country that you live in. Just say the USA.

1:02:11Jordy Meiselas:What a crazy response. Hey, like, oh, we all do that. We all trade like that. We all do that. I think it's actually disgusting that people are upset. You're upset that we're trading these stocks and controlling policy at the same time. That's what you're upset about, really?

1:02:24Ben Meiselas:I guarantee you he's not inside trading. He just brings the folks over from Dell, then tells people Dell's a great stock. And then he buys Dell. I guarantee you there's nothing shady with that.

1:02:34Jordy Meiselas:He buys Intel personally, and then he has the government buy a large stake in Intel, which then shoots up the price of the stock. But I'm sure there's nothing nefarious going on there. The crazy thing about this issue and for him to take that stance is this is one issue that has incredible crossover appeal. When you look at the Democratic Party and when you look at the Republican Party, it's like somewhere near 90 % of both parties actually agree that Congress should be prohibited from trading stocks. The only people who think that Congress should not be prohibited from paying stocks, Congress and members like that.

1:03:07Jordy Meiselas:And you're seeing this movement start to grow, right? You're seeing people like Ro Khanna push forward policies that legislation that would say that members of Congress cannot trade stock. But you have these holdouts and it's people like Tommy Tuberville who justify in those terms. In my opinion, my personal opinion, if you are making decisions that could dictate the price of stocks, if you are making these decisions with insider knowledge by nature, right, being on a Homeland Security Committee, being on any committee that could impact any of these various businesses. I mean, you are literally pulling the levers and deciding what happens.

1:03:48Jordy Meiselas:It makes a very perverse relationship with the stock market and you if you are the ones who are doing that. And so this is like, I think everyone in our chat right now agrees. I think everybody out there agrees. I mean, it's just such a reprehensible, even if you're going to take that position, a reprehensible way to try to be like, how dare you? What do you mean, how dare you?

1:04:12Brett Meiselas:How dare you? I'm not saying Tommy Tuberville is insider trading. That's not what I'm saying. However, what I am saying is he answered that question as if he is the most guilty person doing insider trading that you could imagine. I mean, he used the word insider trading.

1:04:27Jordy Meiselas:I got a good follow-up for What do you got? That we might have to talk to Pablo and Scott about. Oh, okay. Okay. So you're okay with politicians insider trading, right? Okay. So you're a football coach? Would you be okay with your players betting on the betting markets, on the poly markets, on the betting markets about your own games? Yes or no? Would you be okay with that? Because there's a relationship there that if they bet against your team or they bet that they... There's a reason why people are getting into trouble for these things and why that is incredibly not allowed. So are you okay with that?

1:05:07Jordy Meiselas:And if you're not okay with that, then maybe you shouldn't be okay with this. They're kind of the same thing. That's a good follow-up. Dude is doing 3 ,700 stock trades in the first quarter, having his own personal criminal defense

1:05:20Ben Meiselas:attorney become the acting attorney general, then enter into a settlement agreement with Trump, Trump's own criminal defense attorney, entering into a settlement agreement with Donald Trump in his personal capacity, preventing the DOJ, IRS, and the United States from ever auditing Donald Trump and releasing all claims for all past audits of him. Seriously? Like, I don't, I just, I mean, honestly, what Nixon did is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what Donald Trump does almost every damn day. And it's of a scale that's so massive that it just becomes another day's story, though, which is why we here at the Midas Touch Network hold on to that story and don't just let it have its three hours on Tuesday.

1:06:07Ben Meiselas:That's why we talk about it every day. And the important thing is to then connect it with, okay, this is what Trump is doing. Here's how the Epstein class is living. And here's how the American people are suffering right now. Here's how inflation is impacting Americans. Here's how Americans can't afford rent. Here's how Americans are getting their healthcare ripped away. Here's how Americans are having data centers built by their homes and they can't stand it. Here's how the American people are getting absolutely screwed right now. And that's how you have to just, you can't just take these stories and be like, oh my God, could you believe what Donald Trump just did?

1:06:45Ben Meiselas:That doesn't, that's not a story. I get it. He does shocking things and horrible things and illegal things all the time. But you have to take that and then you have to make the connection with he's doing this and here's how he's treating you. That's the most important thing when we talk about all of this. So forget a Democratic autopsy. Just listen to that, folks. That was Tommy Tuberville. Let me show you Nels. Here's what Nels has to say. MAGA Republican Congress member. Troy Nels. Let's play it.

1:07:18Brett Meiselas:Carson, what do you make of Donald Trump doing 3 ,700 stock trades in the first quarter this year?

1:07:23Ben Meiselas:Why don't you guys focus on something that's really, really important instead of worrying about Donald Trump and his stock trades? Why aren't you more concerned about what's happening with Iran and their willingness to have a nuclear weapon? Donald Trump was over there in China trying to cut some deals, trying to bring manufacturing here. He's trying to end wars across our entire globe. And all you're focused on is stock trades. Go ahead. Stock trades. Corruption. We have corruption. You want to talk about corruption? Yeah. Let's talk about the previous administration. Now, that's corruption. Yeah.

1:07:58Ben Meiselas:And all these people complaining.

1:08:00Jordy Meiselas:It's kind of funny that there's no good issue that they could even pivot to at this point. It's like, why are you talking about these stock trades? Why don't you guys talk about Iran? Okay. It's a disaster.

1:08:13Ben Meiselas:He's out there. He's trying. We're trying to give him a participation trophy. He's trying to cut deals. He's trying to bring manufacturing. He's trying to end wars. people don't elect people who are getting participation trophies for trying and failing. I mean, again, just think about when they elect one of their MAGA fascists to office, their view of somebody succeeding is trying and failing when they're not like, we should applaud somebody for trying. And he's not even trying. He's trying to do the opposite, by the way. And it's like, he's out there. He's just working really hard. Did you see him?

1:08:51Ben Meiselas:He bowed down to Xi Jinping. He told Putin, you're going to get another extension of your sanctions being removed on oil. He's telling Zelensky, can you help us a little bit with the potash right there that from Belarus? We need your help on these issues, please. Can you please help us right there?

1:09:09Brett Meiselas:It's so comically evil. Like Nels's response, he sounds like a cartoonish villain. He goes, why are you asking about insider trading? Why you asking about stock trading it's like because this is this this doesn't not probably subs that

1:09:23Jordy Meiselas:he can't have a cigar in his mouth inside it doesn't seem up now i know why he has a cigar in his mouth his journey if you thought if you thought he asked about inside a trick what if you thought he looked like a movie villain and sounded like a movie villain may i present to you

1:09:38Brett Meiselas:representative ralph norman people who assaulted police Look, January 6th is an issue that was made up in the first place. People weren't convicted of assaulting. Made up, sir? That was a staged thing from day one. What about it? The riot was staged? When you had police officers letting people in the building, when you had people that's not being prosecuted, Ray, forget his name, there's no excuse for that.

1:10:05Jordy Meiselas:Your colleagues, though, your Republican colleagues ran for their life and barricaded themselves in their chamber. Do you think they were acting?

1:10:12Brett Meiselas:No, there was a riot there, but it was a self-made riot, but members who hate Trump, that's made up.

1:10:17Jordy Meiselas:People who hate Trump, members who hate Trump. Now, let me show you, before you go, Jordy, let me just show you. That's Ralph Norman, right? Let me pull up Ralph Norman's communications, his tweets from around the January 6th time. Let's see if he had a bit of a different perspective back then, okay? I'll pull these up just for reference. On January 6th, 2021, Representative Ralph Norman, the same person you just heard say that the January 6th was staged, all that nonsense. He said back then, this is utterly unacceptable. This is not who we are. And I condemn in the strongest possible terms, the actions of rioters who breached the Capitol building, attacked U.S.

1:10:53Jordy Meiselas:police, and in doing so have jeopardized the safety and lives of everyone at Capitol Hill. As the U.S. Capitol Police and others supporting law enforcement agencies work to get the situation under control, I cannot say enough about their bravery and heroism. Thank God for these men and women. Then he also said this. He showed a, he had a literally on his door and underneath his plaque with his name on it had a sign that read, thank you, US Capitol Police, hashtag heroes. And he wrote on Twitter, I could not be more proud to display my support for the hashtag heroes of the United States Capitol Police.

1:11:31Jordy Meiselas:That's January 11th, 2021 on january 8th 2021 he wrote heavy hearts this morning with the news of brian sicknick an officer with the u.s capitol police has come last night to injury sustained during the horrific riots on wednesday his killer deserves nothing less than the full weight of american justice but now it's all fake it's all fake now his killer should get paid from our tax

1:11:53Ben Meiselas:money yeah and get rewarded and then the acting attorney general says that that happens all of the time. It is so, in a non-political way, so dystopian, so Handmaid's Tale-esque that you couldn't even write this in a script because you'd be like, no, they can't do it. But it's happening. I suppose the good news, which is what we talked about at the beginning of this episode, is that Donald Trump's crashing. I mean, the approval is lower than Nixon when Nixon resigned, even though if you watch corporate news, they don't talk about it like that. They talk about the gamification of this side, that side, this, that every day.

1:12:38Ben Meiselas:What they should be talking about is why isn't this guy resigning yesterday? Because his numbers reflect someone who should be resigning. That should be the types of talks. The way in the UK, there's talks, you know, should Keir Starmer resign, right? You know, and that's through some of the links he has to Epstein through the ambassador of the UK. It wasn't even him. It was the ambassador from the UK to the United States. It was Starmer's chief of staff who brought the guy in. Donald Trump, with covering up the Epstein files,$1.8 billion slush funds, 3 ,700 stock trades, golden ballrooms and arches and demolishing the East Wing.

1:13:21Ben Meiselas:Like, oh my God, dude, if Obama demolished the East, could you, if Obama, let me give you this guarantee. If Obama demolished the East wing at the White House without going to Congress, I can assure you that Obama at best would be doing life in prison. Does anybody here have any doubt that not only would he be impeached, he would be sentenced to life in prison? That's what would happen. And here you have Donald Trump doing that on a Tuesday, stock trading on a Wednesday. He's out there meeting with Vladimir Putin on red carpets on a Thursday. He's out there helping, you know, bowing down to Xi Jinping on a Friday.

1:14:12Ben Meiselas:it everything destroying our NATO alliances on another day you know and and and it's like here we stand by all accounts the Strait of Hormuz no not going to be opening up anytime soon you know you wake up in the morning and you and you and you hear I'm sure you all heard this morning we're very close to a letter of intent we really got it this time the issues are narrowing Iran is ready to sign, except there's two major issues that they're dealing with, the nuclear material and the Strait of Hormuz. You mean like the main issues? They're not giving up the Strait of Hormuz. They're not going to transfer any nuclear material to the United States or to another country.

1:14:56Ben Meiselas:The Islamic Republic is going to stay in power. They have their ballistic missiles. They've been able to restore all of their Shahid drones and ballistic missile arsenals and launchers. They have all of that. And so what's going to happen? And then you hear later on, no, there's actually no progress. War is imminent. And then it's just a back and forth market manipulation. Iran's, for their credit, I guess, they've remained pretty consistent since early to mid-March when they said, here's our framework, 10 points. If you've been watching the Midas Touch Network, I've gone through all of those points, what they are, They want reparations.

1:15:33Ben Meiselas:They and their proxy groups want permanent security guarantees. They control the strait and Hormuz. The Islamic Republic stays in power. They're not going to hand over their nuclear enrichment at all. They're agreeable to an Obama-style deal, but they're not going to hand over nuclear material to other countries. One of the things that they and others have said is that because the Trump regime got rid of all of their Iran experts, and we got rid of all experts in nuclear material, that the Trump regime doesn't even understand the way enrichment works, weapons-grade, non-weapons-grade, how you bring 20 % enrichment to 60 % to 90 % and how it becomes weapon-grade, nuclear material dilution.

1:16:16Ben Meiselas:We don't even have people in the government at a technical level who can explain the way nuclear material works, And we don't have allies anymore either. And so here we are. Here we are, May 21st. Will war break out tomorrow? Could. Will war break out tonight? It certainly could. I mean, this is a fake ceasefire to begin with. America's security umbrella in the Middle East, gone. Security umbrella in Asia, gone. The strength of the dollar forever tarnished. Our alliance is forever gone. Other countries are like, you know what? You elect Trump once. Okay, maybe we'll say that was a fluke. You put this guy back?

1:17:02Ben Meiselas:At any point in time, America, you could go bring back another version of a Trump, a DeSantis, Francis, a Rubio, a Vance. Hopefully that never happens. How could we ever trust you again when you did this? The ultimate betrayal, the ultimate betrayal. And so the rest of the world's preparing for a future in a multipolar world where I don't think America is going to be weakened to the extent of a non-power. America with its population size and its companies will always have a certain degree of strength and power, but it ain't going to be, it ain't the global superpower. Trump basically gave that to Xi Jinping in China right now.

1:17:42Ben Meiselas:The rest of the world is looking at what's happening and you've got global alliances forming where the US, America alone is America first. America first is America alone. That's what it looks like right now. So look, as we head into Memorial Day, we have to keep up our fight. We can't allow this regime to completely break our spirits. We have to fight back. We're very close to the midterms. And democracy is ultimately that needs to, to me, it's democracy that needs to prevail more than anything. And that's where we're going to fight for. Democracy, basic values, principles. That's what we're fighting for here on the Midas Touch Network each and every day.

1:18:22Ben Meiselas:So thank you, everybody. We appreciate you. We We covered a lot on this episode. Thanks for watching. Brett and Jordy, I'll let you take away.

1:18:29Jordy Meiselas:Brett, anything else? No, just have a good weekend. Have a good Memorial Day weekend, everybody. Hope you get some time to relax, recharge, and we'll be here every single day, pumping out more videos, more reporting, more content, and so continue to check in. We look forward to it.

1:18:45Brett Meiselas:Store.Midastouch.com, code MIDAS, 20 % off your entire order. Biggest sale of the year. Check it out. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:19:10Brett Meiselas:Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

1:19:25Brett Meiselas:Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just$15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.

1:19:47Ben Meiselas:Upfront payment of$45 for a three-month plan, equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. Thank you.