MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 5/26/26

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29:11That's truth to 64 ,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes if you're, um, if you'd be so kind, definitely if there's an exit survey, uh, let them know that Midas touched on you. Sorry, I just got really distracted. Something was going on in the background. Anyway, I did want to say this, Ben, before I toss it back to you, like that last clip of Trump is just so damning. In my opinion, he says he gets a kick out of it. He gets a kick out of it when media starts to compare, you know, the loss of other soldiers with the loss of the soldiers in this needless Iran war.

29:49He gets a kick out of it. I mean, that's vile. Like, that is horrendous. Could you imagine? Let's play everyone's favorite game. Imagine if Biden did it. Imagine if after the withdrawal, Biden said, I get a kick at it when people talk about, you know, the 13 debt service members. I get a kick out of it. Are you kidding me? I mean, that's 13 deaths, 13 deaths. Donald Trump is saying he gets a kick out of it when people make the comparisons. I mean, one is too many. One should be too many. And the fact that he can't acknowledge that what has happened thus far, again, in this needless war is all his fault and honestly, horrible that he can't just admit how horrible it is.

30:26It tells you everything you need to know about the guy. But yeah, look,

30:29MeidasTouch Brothers:Just take a look at some of the latest polling data. I know we've seen Donald Trump's personal presidential approvals hitting record lows. But when you look at the generic ballot right now, Democrats versus Republicans in the upcoming congressional race, right now, Democrats up 7.4. That's a new cycle high in this latest RCP generic ballot. And you contrast that to 2018, which was a wave-like election there. Democrats were only up four points at that time. And I think we're going to see this number continue to rise there. And you look where Donald Trump is losing a lot of support. And we know that he's lost a lot of support amongst the Latino community.

31:12He's lost support amongst his core base of white voters and non-college educated white voters he's underwater with. But he's particularly lost the youth.

31:23MeidasTouch Brothers:And don't get me wrong, there's a lot of kind of loud and obnoxious young Trump supporters. So it seems that like there's a lot of them out there. But there really isn't right now. I mean, overwhelmingly, not just the silent majority, but the silent, overwhelming majority against Donald Trump and this fascist regime. The latest New York Times Siena generic ballot, ages 18 to 29, has Democrats right now plus 33. Trump's net approval amongst 18 to 29 year olds, negative 57 right now, net negative 57 amongst the 18 to 29 year old cohort right there, which is a new low for Donald Trump. And I think whether you're talking about young people, Latino people, all people, let's just face it, we are seeing the futures of the American people destroyed.

32:20MeidasTouch Brothers:We're seeing Donald Trump again increase the deficit, bring on trillions and trillions of dollars in debt. Things are not affordable right here. Trump is stealing the future away from young people, all people in general. He's transferred all of this wealth to his right-wing MAGA oligarchy. Trump's been stock trading, building UFC stadiums, talking about removing pillars from the White House and golden ballrooms and triumphal arches and reflecting pools and all these things. And by the way, I'll show you in a little bit more video of what this UFC stadium looks like that's being built in front of the White House.

33:04I mean, it's the biggest embarrassing eyesore. But you take that, and that alone, yes, it's a controversy. Yes, it's a scandal. Yes, it's horrible, as is all of his, I think, unlawful and despicable behavior. But then you take a look at how are the rest of Americans doing right now? And the rest of America right now, consumer sentiment is at all-time historic lows. Since the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey was created, it's never been this low since 1952 when the survey began. And through all the economic turmoil, inflation, great recessions and crises from 1952 to the present, Americans have never felt worse than they do at this moment.

33:52And it's a direct result of Donald Trump's behavior. And so when Donald Trump very cavalierly talks about this catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran, which is increasing inflation, making things less affordable here, further harming American people, then he posts this. It just enrages people. And this was his post earlier. He goes, if I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which gave Iran massive amounts of cash. and a clear and open path to a nuclear weapon. Our deal is the exact opposite, but nobody has seen it or knows what it is. It isn't even fully negotiated yet.

34:36So don't listen to the losers who are critical about something they know nothing about. Unlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don't make bad deals. Now, obviously, you have to fact check false statements like this. Obama didn't give Iran billions of dollars. He unfroze funds that were already Iranian funds to begin with. The JCPOA was a very comprehensive multilateral agreement with allies and adversaries alike and the International Atomic Energy Agency, all working together to ensure that Iran diluted all of its nuclear material well below weapons grade, well below 4 % enrichment.

35:21It was effective. It was working. It was being monitored by a global group. And if there were violations, then the world could have worked together in order to take common action. Trump pulled everybody out of the JCPOA, which then Iran said, okay, we see what you did with North Korea and Kim Jong-un. You let you let Kim Jong-un get nuclear weapons. Now you withdrew from the deal that we did with Obama, where we were not making nuclear weapons. So why don't we enrich and try to get to that 90 % enrichment, but let's just increase our enrichment capacity and facilities. And then the Trump regime said they obliterated the nuclear capabilities last June in Operation Midnight Hammer.

36:08It's totally obliterated. If you said, no, it doesn't seem like it's obliterated. They would say, oh, you're a liar. You're supporting the enemy, all these things. And we knew it wasn't obliterated at this point. And then in February, when a deal was worked out, an actual deal, a strong deal, I might add, with the Oman foreign minister as the mediator, the way Pakistan is playing mediator right now, and Pakistan is being played by the Trump regime the same way the Oman foreign minister got played by the Trump regime. There's actually a lot of close parallels to what's going on. The Oman foreign minister acted as the mediator, created a deal in principle between Trump and Iran.

36:53What happened the night where the Omanian foreign minister announced deal? That's when Trump and Netanyahu invade Iran. The day the deal in principle was reached, all they had to do was come up with some technical specifications that Monday, and then they invaded on Friday. What is the parallels here are that the Pakistani mediator, two days ago, deal in principle, started to lay out what those terms were. And right after those terms were laid out, what happens? The neocon warmongers reach out to Trump and start attacking the deal. Netanyahu calls Donald Trump. And then Trump starts posting all of these things that, like, there's no deal.

37:37No one even knows what the deal is. then the terms start to change from what they were before. And then, which I'll talk about in a little bit before I'm going to pass it over to Brett and Jordy, then I'll talk about it a little bit. Then Donald Trump makes a point. When Trump's like, nobody knows what the terms are. I mean, we did. Trump did a conference call with Arab nations, not with our Congress, who's supposed to represent the American people, with the sheikhs and with the royalty and with the leaders of Arab nations. And we know what the terms were because Pakistan was the mediator. And there was like at least eight to 10 other Arab nations who were on this call.

38:16So we know what the terms were. The terms were 60 day ceasefire extension while a final peace deal is negotiated. Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days and starts clearing mines. The US lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports. The US releases at least$12 billion in frozen Iranian assets held in Qatar. Although I heard that number looks more like$25 billion, but it's between$12 billion and$25 billion. For Iran, this is of course a strict precondition because Iran doesn't trust the United States. In order to build initial trust, release the$12 to$25 billion. dollars. Also, Iran wants to make sure there's permanent security guarantees, and that was promised as well as it relates to Lebanon, Iraqi militias, as it relates to the Houthis in Yemen, and that the permanent security guarantees don't just bind the U.S., but bind Israel as well.

39:14And then the nuclear file, the discussions around nuclear weapons, that gets deferred for about 30 to 60 days after it's demonstrated that good faith amongst both parties is taking place, then Iran says that it will negotiate its nuclear file and it has no intention of doing weapons grade, but it will discuss what that looks like. Does the material go to China? Does the material go to Russia? Does it stay in Iran? What type of dilution does that look like? What are the protocols? So that's basically the contours of the deal. And what Donald Trump posts today, though, is he injects a new term. And Donald Trump's term is that all of these Arab nations that are on the call, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, they must, as a precondition to Trump entering into a deal with Iran on behalf of the US, they must all enter into the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel.

40:15Trump says, therefore, I am mandatorily requesting that all countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords as a precondition of the peace deal between the U.S. and Iran. It should be noted the UAE and Bahrain are already members of the Abraham Accords, but the other Arab nations are not. And the other Arab nations, whether it's Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or others, made it very clear. They're not joining the Abraham Accords until the genocide ends in Gaza and until Palestine is recognized with a two-state solution formalized by Israel. And the popularity for them joining the Abraham Accords in their countries, it's like 1%.

40:54Those regimes will be toppled if they enter into the Abraham Accords with Israel. And it's not even under a consideration. It's not happening. It's never happening unless and until there's a full two-state solution that's reached. They made that clear. But Trump has now injected this term. And Brett, I'm going to pass it over to you. But you think about the optics right here, not just the optics, what's actually happening, that the Trump regime goes to war with Iran, with Netanyahu, and Rubio says, because Netanyahu was going to do it, we decided we had to do it. That was Rubio's direct quote.

41:27Now they're telling the Arab nations who are then thrust into this war and not consulted and the rest of the world and to the American people are being told that we're not going to enter into a peace deal with Iran unless Arab nations forge a direct alliance with Israel. And everyone's like, what are you doing? So when Trump says nobody knows the terms, well, we know that term right there. And again, you are selling out the interest of the American people and you are selling out the American interest for the Abraham Accords. Like what's going on? Yeah. And what does it mean to mandatorily request something?

42:05I mean, the things he said just make no sense. But throughout this entire process, I think what we've seen is Iran has continuously accused the United States of being difficult to negotiate with. And we've seen this so many times, right? But the thing they keep saying is that the US keeps moving the goalposts. And Ben, we saw that, you know, back before the war even began when we were dealing with the Omani mediator, who said that we were incredibly close to reaching a deal back then, a deal that was what we had heard was actually a pretty strong deal. but the reality is in covering this whole war, one of the most difficult parts is that there's really not a whole lot of people you could trust when it comes to things about these conversations, like you can't really trust Trump at all.

42:49It's hard to trust the Iranian regime. However, as we kind of reflect back on the past few months of this thing, what we've seen is unfortunately, the Iranian regime has proven to be a lot more accurate than the information coming out of our own White House. That's not a props to them. That's a sad state of affairs as to what's going on here in the United States of America. But now we are seeing what that looks like in real time by seeing Donald Trump's posts. There was a report from over the weekend, I think it happened on Saturday, where Donald Trump was actually on the phone with these people, where he pitched all of these countries joining the Abraham Accords, what he demanded that they do.

43:29And it went to dead silence on the other end of the line. This is not the first time I've heard this happen with Donald Trump and foreign leaders. But Trump says, you all have to join the Abraham Accords. It's now a requirement in order to end this war. This is what you have to do. And so Donald Trump says that and they go silent to the point where Donald Trump then goes, anybody there? Hello? Hello? Hello? Like how embarrassing is that to see from a United States president? And it's not the first time that we have seen that, as I said. And I think just the concept right now that Donald Trump is now injecting new demands from the few allies that we have in the Middle East is just kind of disgraceful.

44:12I mean, throwing a wrench into this process by making these new demands from these allies who are already furious at Trump, who are already furious at the United States, because we We left them high and dry, right? We went into this war really without telling anybody. We put them at risk. Iran attacked them. The United States did nothing to protect them. They're already looking for other ways that they can move on just like all these other countries in the EU and Canada. How could we move on without the United States, right? Because Ben, you did an interview with Ben Rhodes, which released today or yesterday.

44:49You should listen to it on the Midas Touch podcast audio feed. It's a really incredible interview. But the thing that Rhodes said that I think really sat with me was that there was this kind of pact that has been made between the United States and the Middle East, and that's that the United States would be there to help provide defense, and the Middle East would provide energy to the United States. And this was sort of the unwritten agreement that kind of let the entire global economy work as is. But when these countries in the Middle East got attacked by Iran, the United States was nowhere to be found.

45:23Now Donald Trump has the nerve to make demands of these Middle Eastern allies. And I assure you, they are not happy about it. They're not going to go into something like that, that will enrage the people, enrage their followers. It would be political suicide for them to even consider that. It's a non-starter. So we're going to see where these things go. So I got to say, like, at this point, I would prefer Trump to make a bad deal than no deal at all. I hate to say that. But I actually saw Senator Chris Murphy talk about this over the weekend. And Chris Murphy said something that I basically agreed with.

46:04He said, and I took the quote right here, if this deal with Iran is real, I will welcome it because every day this war goes on, America gets weaker. The priority is to end the war now, but make no mistake, these are Iran's terms. our nation emerges humiliated. The deal is basically this. We give Iran billions to get back to where we were before the war. And reports suggest the deal might codify Iran's right to control the strait. What a disaster this whole thing was. I mean, I essentially agree with the point that he is making there. And Donald Trump has really backed himself into a corner in this whole situation because at this point, you could do one of two things.

46:42And Ben, I feel like you've said this numerous times, but you could either be serious about negotiations and get in the room and actually be willing to engage in diplomacy and give up concessions, which in this case, given everything that's happened, given the devastating losses taken by the United States, the US would have to be giving up stuff. We'd have to be making concessions to Iran. Whatever those concessions would be, would be up for negotiation, but there has to be some give and take. That's just what negotiations are in general. And if you don't want to do that, then I guess your strategy has to be to just bomb them into oblivion the way that Donald Trump keeps saying that he wants to destroy them and hope that they surrender.

47:24But we've learned from all the analysts that they have no desire to surrender. That's not the way Iran works. And so now he's stuck basically in between these two parts. And I think this also kind of negates the whole fact of going back to the objectives in the beginning of the war, what Donald Trump pitched this war as, and what Donald Trump pitched the Iranian people going back to February when they were taken to the streets in protest of the Iranian regime. Donald Trump said, take to the streets, we would have your back. Right now, these negotiations and this whole war has nothing to do with overthrowing the Islamic Republic of Iran and replacing them with some sort of regime changed like they said they would.

48:07It was this whole position as this whole, we're going to, you know, save the Iranian people from this regime. All they've done was bringing them closer, brought them closer together. I mean, by all metrics, no matter kind of where this lands at this point, it's a failure from that initial objective that they set out for. Meanwhile, those Iranians back then got killed by the regime. And then Trump managed to bring the Iranian regime and the people closer by making these threats that were going to destroy your entire civilization. This thing has been completely mismanaged from the start. It's been an utter disaster, and we'll see where it lands.

48:43But I think any way you even look at it right now, it's already a complete failure. You know what I was thinking about, Ben, Jordan? Remember the first day of the war when we bombed, and they beamed into the homes of the Iranian people, of all things that they could possibly beam into the homes when they took over their communications. Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump saying, now's your chance. Take to the streets. We got you. They thought that was going to work. That's got to be the last thing that the Iranian people want to see is Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump telling them, we're going to save you or saying, we're going to pick your next leader.

49:26It's going to be someone who we think will be a puppet of us. go accept this person as your leader. Alec, this plan was so ill-advised from the start. It's insane. Donald Trump has no idea what he's doing. Trump is the single worst person to be leading us out of this war, a needless war that we didn't even need to be in, in the first place that he brought us into. Donald Trump doesn't know how to negotiate. He's never known how to negotiate. He's not a great businessman. And now we're not even talking about business. Now we're talking about life or death. You want to know why it feels like we're moving the goalposts?

49:56It's because we're moving the goalposts. you know it's become apparent at least to me that trump has been uh leading by vibes like literally just by vibes in terms of like when when the deal terms leak out i think he's just got rabbit ears and he's trying to see or you know get a sense from his inner circle of like what social media is saying like do people do do people i respect donald trump respects do they think it's a good deal are they are they heaping praise on me does this look does this look like we won and once he figures out, oh, no, everyone's actually really angry with this. This is way worse than where we were in the first place.

50:32He moves the goalpost once again and again. And I agree with Senator Murphy. At this point, well, should have been a little bit ago, but we just need to get out because every day we're in this war is another day of embarrassment for this country and another day that our troops are put at risk of dying every single day. And so you just have to ask yourself, like what is the point of anything that's happening right now and is donald trump actually looking out for the country or is he trying to look out for himself to me it also sort of goes back to the reflecting pool again and then the pillars and it's it's all like this ego it's like this ego driven thing around legacy but like legacy be damned our soldiers are dying what are you doing donald trump get end this thing like end this right now it's pathetic ben right and then there

51:19MeidasTouch Brothers:is the short term and then there is the long term. And both the short term and the long term are both disastrous. But the long term, we've already seen a tectonic shift in the balance of global power, how we are in this multipolar world away from American leadership in the world, away from America championing liberal democracies. And not to say, oh, America's always been on the right side, far from it, but at least the arc moving in a direction of America championing values and principles that at least on the surface were things that we wanted the world to rally around. And we've already seen right now China assert itself as probably the main global hegemon, I would say even a more significant role than even what the United States has right now.

52:10MeidasTouch Brothers:Look where Pakistan is. Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif is in China right now as well. That follows Putin going to China. That follows Foreign Minister Aragchi going to China. And, you know, ultimately, the dollar weakening long term, the American bond market weakening long term is something that will have catastrophic consequences for our grandchildren and their grandchildren. And that was put in motion by Donald Trump, frankly, during his first regime in 2016 and now accelerating at this rapid pace right now. And it's important that we observe why I do and why the Midas Touch Network focuses so much on international affairs to make the connections of what's happening right now.

53:02America first is America alone right now.

53:06MeidasTouch Brothers:Let's take our last quick break of the show. when we return. I want to talk about some of the red flag surfacing regarding this White House shooting that took place and specifically how this shooter was someone who was known to Trump's DOJ before. I want to talk about what they knew about the shooter, how Trump is using it now to say, look, I need a golden ballroom. It seems like Donald Trump himself drafted another motion to the federal judge in DC saying, stop blocking my construction of the golden ballroom. Look at what happened. Another assassination attempt. We'll talk about that. I want to show you Graham Plattner's recent speech, portions of it, Senator Ossoff's recent speech, some portions of it.

53:48MeidasTouch Brothers:And then I want to conclude by showing you what Obama and Biden have said on Memorial Day. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, subscribe to our YouTube channel. Help us get 7 million subscribers. And once again, let me just make the pitch that if If you can afford to get memberships here, gift memberships to others. I know there are lots of people who are struggling financially. You can give the gift of memberships to other people so they get exclusive access to the stuff that we have here that the members get. So if you can, give some memberships to people, no pressure, but only if you get.

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57:55MeidasTouch Brothers:Look, I just want to stick to the facts when we talk about this shooting that took place near the White House grounds. It was on the outer perimeter by 17th Street. This shooter who was killed during the incident never really got close to the White House. We heard about 30 rounds Saturday evening in connection with this shooting. Most of those rounds were coming from the Secret Service shooting down and the White House security shooting down. If anything, it shows that the White House security is effective. It doesn't, to me, say, you know what? As a result of this, we need a golden ballroom. Why would this have anything to do with a golden ballroom?

58:36But in discussing the facts, we need to talk about a lot of things that raise a lot of

58:42MeidasTouch Brothers:red flags here. Let's talk about who this shooter was who's since been killed. 21-year-old, his name is Nasir Best. Worked in an Amazon factory previously, had schizophrenia. People who knew him at the factory said, you know, he started having these delusions that spiraled. He no longer worked at the factory. And he was living in D.C. for around two years, at least in terms of being known to live in that area for two years. and he was known because he made numerous threats against the White House before. In 2025, multiple times, this guy would show up to the White House, and he would make threats, and he would try to get access to it.

59:23And he would say that he's Jesus Christ or God, and that God and Jesus, he's Jesus Christ, and God's telling him he needs to get in there. And he would make these threats. He was someone who was known so much so that he was prosecuted by Judge Pirro's office. So Judge Pirro, I shouldn't call it Judge Pirro, the United States Attorney Pirro now, Fox Host Pirro, let's call him that, who became the top federal prosecutor in Washington, DC. So when you're the top federal prosecutor, when you're the United States attorney, you also supervise the prosecutors at the superior court level. So D.C. is a district.

1:00:02It's not a state, right? But like the state government is the District of Columbia government, the feds oversee still the state or in this case, the district government. So the United States attorney of D.C. at the federal level oversees and supervises the state level prosecutors. So back in June and July of 2025, this guy was prosecuted multiple times, Nasir Best. And he had a court date and he did not show up to his court date on August, in August 2025. There was a stay away order for him to stay away from the White House, which he would violate. And then he had to show back up to court as he was being prosecuted for another incident where he was threatening the White House.

1:00:51and he didn't show up. And so the Trump regime knew that there was a guy in DC named Nasir Best who would threaten the White House, who failed to appear at his August 2025 hearing, who was known to be in this area. And at best, this was a pretty major security breach, right? And no one's really talking about it that way, but think about the Trump regime and the resources that they have made to go after the abuelo and abuela and the hardworking immigrants who are here, who have been here for 30 years, 40, right? They would track these people down. They'd pay taxes. They've been here with their grandkids.

1:01:36These are the people who were being sent to like El Salvador and thrown in these camps and wherever they would hunt them and ice and border patrol, right? We we remember? And it's still going on to this day. So a guy known to be threatening the White House, who would be in the vicinity quite frequently, who had schizophrenia, who was threatening the White House, who failed to appear at a court appearance. There was no effort by Pirro and the Trump regime to try to find this guy. Think about it. So while they're talking about golden ballroom and shields, they just let this guy roam around DC. And then when we talk about the incident that took place.

1:02:16Again, the schizophrenic guy, he's on the outer perimeter right here. We hear all of these gunshots. And then what was it? Within hours, less than hours, Donald Trump uses it to start making social media posts. This is why we need a ballroom. This event is one month removed from the White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooting. Goes to show how important it is for all future presidents to get what will be the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, D.C. And then Trump's DOJ, which did not prosecute this guy, which let this guy stay out on a failure to appear, an FTA, they then, after letting the guy out, letting him roam D.C.

1:03:00and then killing him, they then say, this was the fourth assassin. They call it a fourth assassin in the filing. They call it another assassination attempt. They go, this was the second assassination attempt on the president within a single month, referring to the White House correspondence as an assassination attempt, and this as an assassination attempt. And to this federal judge, the Trump DOJ says, this is why Trump needs his ballroom and you need to revoke your injunction. By the way, if you're wondering, well, the judge issued an injunction, how are they still building the ballroom? The injunction is stayed or paused pending a ruling by the Court of Appeals.

1:03:39So Trump is able to build, even though there was an injunction against it, until the Court of Appeals rules. The Court of Appeals panel has been this right-wing DC circuit panel. So they are holding off on ruling, which they should be ruling soon, but they're delayed, delayed, delayed. And so Trump's rushing the construction of this ballroom while there's no ruling taking place. But here they're arguing to the district court judge while the ballroom is being built. You see, Judge, the ballroom is being built. And it's like the judge stayed the order. So it hasn't even been blocked yet officially, even though the judge issued an injunction.

1:04:14So look, as I've said, there's nothing conspiratorial about what I just said. I just laid out the facts for you that the Trump regime allowed a schizophrenic guy who threatened to do lots of bad things to the White House, roamed the perimeter, killed the guy, and then used it to justify the golden ballroom. Back in my litigation career, what I would say, if I was doing a summary judgment motion, those are undisputed facts, Brett and Jordy. And I just leave it at that. I don't have to veer into anything else. You could draw whatever conclusions you have, but with the Trump regime's behavior, and then this happens, and then immediately after it, you use it to talk about golden ballroom after the GOP agreed with Democrats not to do a billion dollars in funding for it, people are going to feel a certain way.

1:05:07And it's because the Trump regime is conspiratorial about everything. A hundred percent. And, you know, this is a regime, the Trump regime, that is just focused on anything but the things that actually matter, They put a guy in charge of looking after domestic terrorism threats who's like in his early 20s who has no experience in this. Every day they're out there talking about a ballroom or an arch or a UFC stadium on the White House lawn. As Ben said, they're taking innocent immigrants and they're taking them and they're sending them off to El Salvador to these prison camps, doing all the various things.

1:05:49while they're not actually looking for the people who are actually dangerous out there, people who they actually have records of. And so they're turning a blind eye to those issues. And simultaneously, they're also turning a blind eye to the issues that the American people actually care about. Nobody has been asking for any of this shit, right? Nobody's asking for a ballroom. I mean, maybe, you know, when the MAGAs people get their new chips, you know, they get their little update from the Trump talking points. They go, we need a ballroom now. We need a ballroom. you're suddenly this passionate about a ballroom out of nowhere.

1:06:20Okay. But the reality is the average American person does not care about a ballroom. They don't care about an arch. They don't want to see UFC on the lawn in the white house. Uh, they don't want their prices to be what they are. They don't want to see gas the way they are. But Donald Trump knows that he's not going to be able to win on those issues. He's not going to be able to win people over. So he constantly is throwing out these distractions every single day. Don't look at the fact that You're paying$6,$7 a gallon gas. I saw the other day by me at one of the gas stations, like$7.50 for premium.

1:06:54It blew my freaking mind when I saw that I had to do a double take. But he doesn't want the conversation to be about that. So instead, it's ballroom, it's arch, it's UFC fights. It's just chaos, constant chaos. But the chaos cannot outrun the actual feelings that the American people are feeling. They're feeling chaos in their everyday lives, not this external chaos. So they're going in the store. They can't afford things. They can't afford gas. I frankly don't know how a lot of people are even surviving right now, given that costs are so high everywhere you go. And then you have an administration out there that just doesn't seem to give a damn at all.

1:07:33And they kind of rub it in your face every day that they don't care about any of the stuff that actually matters to people. They absolutely rub it in your face. Oh, you can't afford gas. Oh, you can't afford groceries. We're going to build a golden ballroom. Isn't that so great for us? It's really so despicable. And what it comes down to for me is truly like, we just need to get back to a point in this country when we have leaders who are serious people who actually want to work on behalf of the American people. And look, maybe you could tell me that's never been the case here. And I'm, you know, fantasizing about this America that, that, that I want this utopia, but I, I know we could get there.

1:08:08I genuinely, in my bones, know that when this country could operate on all cylinders, it could be great. I'm not saying it ever was great, but I'm just saying that there are real leaders out there that want to do good work. But there are so many Donald Trumps out there and so many of the MAGs out there that are just there to beat you down, to make you as an American citizen feel so tired and so distracted by all of the chaos. And it is exhausting. And so I'm grateful for this community here that I know it's exhausting, but we're in this together. And that's what they want. They want you to be exhausted.

1:08:42So much so where you just totally tune out. So it's like, stop bullshitting us, right? Like, stop with the non sequiturs. Okay, there was a shooting on 17th and Pennsylvania Avenue, so you need a ballroom. What does A have to do with B? They don't have to do anything with each other at all. What are you saying? It's insane.

1:08:59MeidasTouch Brothers:It's insane. And then while what's on the American people's mind this Memorial Day, It's gas prices. It's grocery prices. It's rent. It's their house going to be in foreclosure. It's student loan delinquency, credit card delinquency. I mean, it's job recession. It's psychological torture by this Trump regime, people living paycheck to paycheck. What the Trump regime just wants to talk about is ballrooms this, UFC fights that. I mean, they had their national economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, make his rounds on the weekend shows. and I'll just give you a taste of what he was saying. This is Hassett, Trump's national economic advisor.

1:09:36MeidasTouch Brothers:Let's play. The Wall Street Journal editorial board really took a swipe at the president over that fund, over the ballroom on Saturday. They said, quote, Republicans don't want to say this publicly, but privately they do. President Trump's personal political obsessions are hurting his presidency, hurting the chances for further foreign policy gains, and putting control of the House and Senate in jeopardy. Does the president realize that he is putting Republicans in a tough spot by forcing them to take votes on things that are unpopular, like the fund, like the ballroom, like the war in a midterm election year?

1:10:14Look, I respect the Wall Street Journal very much. I saw Paul Giaveau at the Kevin Warsh signing in just on Friday. But the bottom line is the president believes that the ballroom is something that should have been there for a long time. And he's using his own money and the money of donors to make it so that the taxpayers don't have to pay for that ballroom. And as far as weaponization, I don't think that you or I would disagree. Well, they would have to pay a billion dollars, correct? No, it's not for the ballroom. That's for securing the entire White House. And my goodness, to argue about that after we were all here yesterday, I actually wasn't here.

1:10:44I was at my home a couple blocks away when the shooting happened.

1:10:47MeidasTouch Brothers:Of course, we've got to make the White House more secure. You see how they use the incident there. He goes, it's not for the ballroom. It literally is for the ballroom. It says the billion dollars is for East Wing modernization. That's quite literally what the legislation that was killed actually says. You know, and even though, you know, I guess that reporter pressed him a little bit. Do you notice that it was through the prism, first of a Murdoch property, the Wall Street Journal said? And so you have CBS, which has become regime media, using Wall Street Journal, which is a Murdoch property, but it's also framing things in terms of an election as a gamification.

1:11:29Isn't this hurting the Republicans' chances in the midterm? And to me, the very framing of that, and by the way, that's not just a CBS thing. That's how most corporate news will cover this, whether they're regime media or regime adjacent media. How is this going to impact the midterms? How is this going to affect this race or this person or that person? And when the discussions are that and that's all you hear, you miss the very essence of the American experience right now, regardless of the outcome of the midterms or this or that or this personality or that person. What we need to be doing is saying, Trump is doing this.

1:12:07Why isn't he focused on the American people? Hey, Kevin Hassett, you've been out here saying that we would be in a golden age and by this time gas prices would be$1.98. You've been on this show repeatedly and have made these promises. And not only have you failed to deliver those promises, but things are so much worse. So what do you say to the American people who are suffering? Is it going to be next quarter, the quarter after that? To me, it should be framed around what the American people are experiencing, not the gamification of, well, isn't this bad for Republicans in the mid? It's bad for the American people that this is what Donald Trump is focused on.

1:12:44Contrast that to, I said, Graham Plattner, what Graham Plattner, what he's messaging. Listen to the message right here, because there's a reason why this message is the type of message that resonates right now. Here's a speech that he recently gave. Let's play. I believe that in our country, the voices of working people are far more important than the voices of those who simply have money. I believe that we should not be settling for scraps that they throw to us from the table where they dine with the Epstein class.

1:13:26I don't think that a CEO should have more power than a union member. I don't think that private equity deserves more time with a senator than someone who works two jobs just to get by.

1:13:47We are in the straits we are today because that is exactly what has happened. But the world that we live in is not how it has to be. We can have a health care system that is not just another mechanism of extracting wealth out of working Americans, but a guarantee of safety and health for all.

1:14:14MeidasTouch Brothers:I'll share with you Senator Ossoff from Georgia. Here's what he just said. Let's play it. You also probably saw that as he continues his project of turning the White House into his royal palace, he's demanding vast sums of money, your money, the people's money, for his ballroom. And this is just the tip of the iceberg in a pattern of corruption and abuse unprecedented in the history of the presidency. But you can rest assured that both of my opponents would be voting for this insurrectionist slush fund and would be voting for this crooked ballroom. And they're going to come down here to Georgia and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try to elect one of these two Trump puppets to the United States Senate.

1:15:19MeidasTouch Brothers:Again, powerful words right there. And those are winning messages, not because they're winning elections. They're winning messages because you're fighting for the American people. this is what the american people are talking about right now and that's what's paramount and i would be remiss if i didn't mention on this episode right now um what's going on uh in ukraine and russia right now because yet again you see donald trump's cycle of fraud the same way donald trump promised that on day one prices would go down and gas would go down and everything would be more affordable. He promised that before he even took office, there would be a peace deal and that the war, the invasion of Russia, of Ukraine would end and everything would be great.

1:16:08MeidasTouch Brothers:He's got good relationships, he said, with Putin and Ukraine, and it would be great. And, you know, what Donald Trump tried to do there is what he's doing with Taiwan. He picks out who he thinks is the weaker party, and then he goes and he attacks, you know, Ukraine and does everything he can to force Ukraine to surrender. It's exactly what he's now going to be doing with Taiwan. He's going to deprive Taiwan of military assistance, and he's going to take the side of his authoritarian Xi Jinping, and take the side of Putin over Zelensky. That's Trump's MO right there. We've seen Zelensky and Ukraine develop perhaps the most innovative, technologically capable army, military in the world at this point with its drones, its drone interceptors, the submersive drones, its technology, radar detection, how modern warfare is being fought.

1:17:07Ukraine is pioneering it right now so much so that European leaders talk about how they're gaining info from Ukraine. In many ways, Ukraine is helping them now more than they are helping Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine needs financial assistance and there's a certain equipment Ukraine can't afford. But what Ukraine has developed militarily is first rate. And now as Ukraine is striking inside Moscow, you now have Russia also using some of its Arishniks and some of its missiles to strike in Kiev, which it's always been doing. And we've seen an escalation by Russia of killing civilians in Ukraine and striking civilian targets in Kyiv.

1:17:49And so the war actually rages more out of control right now. Russia's gotten more aggressive, not less. And the prospect of there being a resolution of this invasion by Russia of Ukraine and a resolution resulting in peace there is far less attainable than when Donald Trump first got to office. He's made things much, much worse. And his instincts, his vibes, Jordy, which he runs on that are devoid of experts are also the worst vibes imaginable. And if you look historically, it's why he's bankrupted so many things over and over and over again. He goes by vibes. He defrauds with his vibes and he just makes things worse and worse and worse.

1:18:34And so we continue to cover what's going on in Ukraine. We continue to cover what's going on in that region as we focus on these international developments. And we also showed also these protests against the Trump regime in Venezuela, where they were burning Trump and Rubio and effigy there also. And then you have there Maria Machado, who won the Nobel Prize, and Trump basically shook her down in order to get the prize, for her to give him the prize that she won. She says she's going back in order to run for office there as Donald Trump's not, doesn't want democratic elections in Venezuela. He's got Delcy, his authoritarian puppet in Venezuela.

1:19:14And so while Trump was there on Memorial Day bragging about Venezuela, you know, it's like the hostage negotiator bragging with the hostage taker that they formed a joint venture agreement. How'd you negotiate with the hostage taker? Oh, we did an alliance. And now we're both the hostage takers. Yeah, but that doesn't seem to be a deal. You just join the bad guys. Well, we did. And that's what Trump wants to do around the world. Trump just wants to be one of the bad guys and to dilute America's power to play second fiddle to the bad guys he admires. That's the status right now. That's what the world sees.

1:19:53And I'll leave you at that, Brett. I'll pass it to you if you want to mention as well. No, I think that's a good place to end it. I want to thank everybody for joining us on Memorial Day. I know you could be doing a lot of other things. So I appreciate you spending our time with us here. I want to also remind everybody to check us out on Substack, MidasPlus.com. A lot of great articles. Ron's daily bulletins are incredible. We've been doing these midday recaps also. I guess I know some people are like, hey, I can't wait till the end of the day for the news. I got to know what's happening earlier.

1:20:21So we got that. We had a lot of great interviews. Check out Ben's interview with Ben Rhodes, former Obama National Deputy National Security Advisor. Really good, really insightful, speaks to the exact things that Ben was just speaking about in terms of the shifting global landscape, the shift of the United States' place in the world, Donald Trump's kind of view of the United States in the world, the new world order that is forming. I found it incredibly insightful. What a great conversation between the two Bens. That's available also on the Midas Touch podcast feed. Go and check it out. And thanks again for joining us.

1:20:59I really appreciate it. And on that note, Jordy, I will leave it to you. Shout out to the Midas My Day!

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