MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 6/19/26

26:41No, he stands for against all the values that I stand for. He's against all of them. So yes, generally that leads me to hating everything he does, you know, but you know, he, I mean, he, the, the fact is he's, he's said stuff in the past few days all randomly that I'm like, oh yeah, no, I, I agree. You know, they, they, okay. You said that we were, had a limited oil and we were never going to run out of oil and we didn't need the middle East. Then all of a sudden yesterday, you said that we were going to be in a great depression because oil was going to run out in four weeks. And yeah, I agree with that.

27:13That's what we've been saying. But when Donald Trump says that he's like, you know, we have four more weeks and, uh, and all the stupid people were telling me we had to keep going. No, you were telling you, that was you. Okay. You were the one saying that you were the one acting like we had unlimited supply. We have unlimited munitions. We have unlimited oil. When we were just following the data, we weren't trying to be partisan. We weren't trying to be Trump haters. We were looking, what do we have in the oil reserves right now? holy shit the data says that we have the amount of oil we have right now is actually less than the amount of oil we had in our reserves in 1983 that seems like a pretty big problem to have and then you have all the trump people gaslighting you and say oh that's fake news we have unlimited oil we're energy and we're algae there's no algae and that's then ben that's exactly where i was going with this, to bring it full circle to where we started this segment, is that these are the same people who, when they look at the green pool that exists right now, the Ninja Turtle green pool, they go, that picture's not from today.

28:19That picture's from Obama. That picture's from the last minute. That's before we fixed it. And at a certain point, there's no getting through to people like that, right? If you're an honest broker, if you're somebody who, and I know a lot of people may even get mad at me for saying this, but if you're someone who voted for Trump and now regrets it and you're, you're open-minded and you're listening to what we're saying and you're kind of having a realization like, oh, these, they've been following the facts and I may have disagree with them, but I, you know, that that's one thing. But if you're somebody who looks at a green body of water and tries to tell me that it's not green, I don't know.

28:55We need to do some psychological tests to see what the hell is going on there. I, I even saw, you know, I got thrown on some tick tock algorithm the other day where somebody was just filming the algae pool, uh, the reflecting pool, and it was bright green. And somehow that must've hit a MAGA algorithm because all the comments were from MAGA people saying fake video, AI, this is from before the renovations. And to me, I just, there's nothing you could do with those people. Right. And it's, it's, it's goes back to kind of the, um, the thing that we would say on the show about kind and a fact versus fiction and not both sides in the issues like so many in corporate media do.

29:35But when we would say, if I look outside and the sky is blue and you're telling me the sky is green, I'm gonna say, no, the sky is blue. It's not somewhere in between blue and green.

29:45Brett Meiselas:But this is the real life culmination of that. Yes, Jordy, this is the real life version of that. Except I'm looking at a pool that is green and you're telling me that it's actually blue, okay? And so I'm sorry, that's not what we do here. And that's what Trump is trying to do with everything. He's trying to act like this is a great MOU and the war went great and we're lethal war fighters and we're the best and I'm amazing at everything. And all of it is BS. It's all a lie. When it comes down to it, all of that is the reflecting pool filled with algae. And over time, the algae will always be there.

30:26it will show itself and you can't hide it. You can't BS your way out of it. The same way Trump could only BS his way out of COVID for so long until people started dying. It came here and the cases went up and up and up and up and up. He tried to call it a hoax. This is the same strategy he does with everything. He's a liar. He's a gaslighter. Everybody around him are liars as well. And we need to continue to stand up to that.

30:50Brett Meiselas:So funny how our brains work because I was going to give the same exact sky analogy and this is the real life culmination like I literally was typing that up as you were speaking I don't know if it's because we're brothers or because we spent so much time together or maybe maybe both but uh we have to put the cherry on top of the segment the only thing that I would further add to the reflecting pool turning ninja turtle green and you know maybe JD Vance seem like he finally agrees with some of our stances here when he's at least speaking public facing now, is this is the same thing that we did and that we take the approach of with everything here at the network, which is following the facts.

31:26Brett Meiselas:We're not just like shooting from the hip and like guessing, right? When we say in May, mid-May, when Ben does the video talking about how and what Trump is doing to the reflecting pool is going to have disastrous consequences. And then you fast forward to June and you see those disastrous consequences. I grew up with Ben. He was not a reflecting pool expert back then, I could promise you. But we speak with people who are and are very knowledgeable about the space who had told us that, hey, what Trump is doing right now, this is really going to actually blow back in his face. Because what he's doing by painting it this blue is there's going to be this buildup of algae.

32:03Brett Meiselas:There's going to be this blah, blah, blah. And I don't have to go further and further. But the main point I'm trying to get at here is we just follow the facts of the network. We do. We take that approach. We're very fact based with everything we do. Yes, we'll give you our opinions, but the reports are deeply rooted in research and consultation with true experts of these fields. And so I know our audience knows that. But again, for any former MAGA who have now found the way to the light that are just so offended that Donald Trump and his regime are trying to tell you that that's crystal clear, blood Ninja Turtle green, crystal clear blue, and have now seen the light.

32:36Brett Meiselas:That's just the approach we take here at the Midas Touch Network. So if you like that, make sure you subscribe for more of that. We got a lot more to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. I want to thank everybody again for tuning in or listening. And I just want to say, honestly, if I could just take like 10 seconds to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We're so grateful for each and every one of you for tuning in every day, whether you're a daily listener, whether you listen to multiple episodes a day, watch us on YouTube, a sub stack, the audio podcast, follow us on Instagram.

33:02We are genuinely from the bottom of our hearts. So grateful to have you here with us. And we got a lot more to talk about on this episode. I know you're not going to want to miss it. remember to add the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and I promise you we'll be back in just a few minutes after this quick ad break. We'll see you in a second. This episode of the Midas Touch podcast is brought to you by Wild Grain. Wild Grain is the first bake-from-frozen subscription box for sourdough breads, artisanal pastries, and fresh pastas. Unlike many store-bought options, Wild Grain uses simple ingredients you can pronounce and a slow fermentation process that can be easier on your belly and richer in nutrients and antioxidants.

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37:20Brett Meiselas:Where to next?

37:21Ben Meiselas:It's interesting. When you're starting to look at states that have been viewed as more red states or purple-turning red states like Georgia or Ohio, which I think we all view as a red state now, you're seeing Democrats pull ahead there. You take a look at Texas as well, and these aren't just kind of pipe dreams at this point. It just seems that people are sick and tired of this Trump regime, their constant barrage of lies, and their focus on manipulating the market and arches and reflecting pools and ballrooms while the American people are suffering every single day. And I think people also just think this is a bad look for the country, just bad look.

38:06Ben Meiselas:Like when you see Donald Trump out there in the G7 and you see him falling asleep and unable to really function, unable to make coherent sentences. And then when he does speak, he says things that are so internally inconsistent and contradictory. And it was just, it was a really sad sight to see world leaders, you know, treat Donald Trump like, you know, someone in your family who may be in hospice care and you're seeing someone who you knew, you know, just really struggle and you would have, you know, prime ministers and emirs and presidents and leaders, you know, kind of speaking to Donald Trump with a recognition that they were speaking to someone who was really not there, their physical presence.

39:06Ben Meiselas:But did you notice Macron? I felt like Macron almost looked like a caretaker for Trump. Like he was kind of always by his side, like kind of directing him around, like, you know, Donald, you're supposed to be walking in this direction, not that direct. Like it was actually an interesting thing to see. It was interesting to see Prime Minister Carney talking to Donald Trump, you know, So like, I thought you would like this, Donald. Donald, Donald, we're doing caps, caps on Chinese EVs. Do you like that? I like it. I like it. I like it. Just even stuff like that. I mean, you know, seeing that, I mean, Donald Trump arrived late to the G7 meetings.

39:46Ben Meiselas:Everybody's sitting there. Trump shows up. Do we have this clip, Brett? I don't know if we have it with the South Korean kind of delegation, not the leadership, just like their kind of delegation. Trump shows up late to the G7, and then he doesn't know where he is. And then he goes, the boss is here, the boss is here. And then immediately Trump's propaganda arm and social media take it. And they clip the part where Trump goes, the boss is here. And then they try to contrast that to Biden, because everything has to be a way to attack a former president. And in fact, Donald Trump was lost. He showed up late.

40:29Ben Meiselas:You had French President Emmanuel Macron like, all right, let's get started. And just this awkward laughter filled the room. I know it's a moment that probably hasn't gotten enough attention, but if we've got that moment, Brett, can we play that? So he walks in with the Korean delegation and then follows them and follows their instructions until a woman points him to the direction of where the United States is supposed to sit. And then he covers for it with that I'm the boss statement.

41:03Ben Meiselas:Hello, I'm the boss. I'm the boss. Which I feel like is something, I don't know, like an embarrassed toddler, you know, would say in a situation like that.

41:14Brett Meiselas:The entire clip, he looks like a toddler. like he genuinely like he's confused where he's going I mean like makes the unfunny Joe it's concerning like it and Ben for me too it just comes down to that like I I don't like the way this just makes us look like forget all of the other stuff but to just have someone so holy one first off incompetent up there but two so clearly like progressively getting worse in his own you know mental capacity it's it's deeply embarrassing and and concerning for me as someone who loves this country that I look at that guy, I'm like, that's our leader. Like that's the leader of the president.

41:48Brett Meiselas:Absolutely pathetic.

41:49Ben Meiselas:Yeah. Brett did a whole video that I thought was great where he out, I don't, I don't want to play the whole thing here cause I played it on other episodes and you can go and watch, uh, some of the, the, the videos on our Instagram or on our YouTube. We have the Brett did the short where he showed Trump really struggling to walk and talk throughout the G seven. and he had to like hold Prime Minister Modi's hand to get up on the step. And he would wander and French President Emmanuel Macron would say, come here. He would like go in for like multiple kisses with Bridget Macron, Macron's wife, and she would be very kind of uncomfortable about it.

42:25Ben Meiselas:You know, again, he had these swollen ankles, swollen legs, cuts all over his hands, the makeup on his hands. I mean, he looks like he's gained another 40 pounds or 30 pounds over the past, few weeks even. He doesn't seem to know where he is. When he does talk though, I'll show you this, there is this disinhibition where he keeps on talking about how attracted he is to the men around him. He keeps saying that they're good looking and how handsome they are. It's very bizarre. I'll just show you this short clip that Brett put together of just some of the stuff he was saying. This goes on and on and on.

43:07Ben Meiselas:He's been doing this a lot lately. Lots of the, anytime he sees a man next to him, he's like attracted to the man. He's like, oh, you're so handsome. You're so good. So strong. You're so tough. I want to be next to you. Can I touch your muscles? Can I touch you? It's very strange. Here, just play this clip. He was in a hotel

43:24Brett Meiselas:and I met him and we fell in love, deeply in love. So we had a good relationship right from No, we met. We didn't know each other before that. We had great chemistry. And I stayed twice as long as I was supposed to. So you look at this man. I'll give you a lesson. He's the most beautiful looking man. He looks so nice. He's like an angel. The press conference seems to have gone well. You shot your load pretty much, Steve, right? Pretty much.

43:52Ben Meiselas:First, he was talking to President el-Sisi of Egypt. Then he was talking to Prime Minister Modi. And there's a lot more clips like that. I'm just showing you for the sake of brevity that right there. He was talking to the reporter about how handsome while he was with the president of the UAE, who's the emir of Abu Dhabi, kept on saying, oh, you got good looking guys here. Is he one of yours? Is he one of yours? And in between that, he's talking about how enriched uranium is never something that's even that valuable. We don't care about enriched uranium. It's like, OK, but that's literally the thing you've been saying.

44:29Ben Meiselas:so much so that you wanted to get rid of all of the dust. Not only did you care about the enriched Iran, you wanted to get rid of the nuclear dust. We were going to bring in people to get rid of it. And now that's not even like an issue to you. That's not valuable. The whole thing that you and Hegseth were saying when people were like, yeah, but the nuclear capabilities aren't imminent. So what'd they say? Well, Iran has a conventional ballistic missile shield. That's what they would say that protects against the nuclear capabilities. And now Trump is saying we don't care about their ballistic missiles.

45:02Ben Meiselas:If Saudi Arabia has ballistic missiles, why doesn't Iran get ballistic missiles? Which, by the way, is not an invalid point. And you can say, well, Ben, the United States is allied with Saudi Arabia. But then I could also go back and say, well, they killed reporters and they had a lot of people involved. I'll put it this way. I don't think there's a single country in the world that is not allowed to make ballistic missiles. I mean, these are sovereign countries. We may not like them, but it's a sovereign country. But the fact is that they made this their entire premise for the war and for extending the war and so now to go back and say oh actually ballisting missile we didn't actually who cares i mean whatever nuclear material nuclear it's really not a big it's honestly it's not even you know it's not even that big of a deal it's not it's actually not even that dangerous so like maybe we'll like check it out in a few months or something but it's it's really not even like the fact that you could even say that with a straight face if that is truly your view that you're the only thing that you care about as they're trying to make it seem now is that we want Iran to promise that they will not make a nuclear weapon in the future.

46:06If that's legitimately the only thing that you care, you never would have ripped up the JCPOA in the first place because it did that and it did that with proper monitoring and requirements and it was actually quite strong. I think if quite frankly, any of these Republicans who criticized Obama's JCPOA and are now praising this deal should be utterly ashamed. And I think it speaks to honestly how good of a negotiator Barack Obama was and how good of a job that he did, that he was able to secure those things from Iran and make a deal for the region that is so much better than the one that we have right now.

46:43And once again, what we have right now is not even a deal. It's a memorandum of understanding to do a future deal. But Obama's deal was a real deal with teeth that was far stronger by far, by, by far than anything we have now. And he did it without disrupting the entire world economy. And he did it without going to war, without killing innocent people. I think that actually speaks a lot to how good of a leader Obama is. And frankly, Trump should be apologizing to Barack Obama for what he did and apologizing to all the United States rather than being like Obama's fault for the algae in the pool.

47:17It's Obama's algae. Shut up.

47:19Brett Meiselas:everyone remembers everyone remembers obama's 2012 algae who could forget the infamous 2012 algae yeah i remember obama was like affordable care act we don't need it i want to talk algae nothing that bad uh you know there's this guy the trump regime lie the trump regime lies with such impunity that you just know you just know when the straight is fully open and accessible and running at full capacity, they're going to spike the football. Straight's open. Like, I already see the X post, the Twitter post all about that. Like, oh, it's open. We did it. Dude, it was open before you got us in this in the first place.

48:03Brett Meiselas:Like, that's what we're going to be celebrating. I just know that's the path we're sort of leading towards because there is no win here for the U.S. Like, the way we've utterly surrendered right now is absolutely, it's pathetic. I was going to kill Osama bin Laden, but I decided I needed to kill some algae instead.

48:22Ben Meiselas:You know, but here's the thing. The way these outcomes occur, it is what you might expect in an episode of some weird reality show like The Apprentice, right? Was Vanilla Ice going to win? Oh, it's Penn and Teller. You know, from the, and it's like, okay, that's a weird show. You know, like, I don't know, like, like a, like a TV show we grew up with, right? Like you think one thing's going to happen, then all of a sudden, you know, it was this outcome. I think like an episode of Saved by the Bell or whatever we grew up with, or, you know, like the movie Rambo, he's about to get caught. And then this happens.

49:04Ben Meiselas:And there's an expression, I think it's called deus ex machina, where like at the end of the - machina yeah right what do you say do sex machina yeah we're at the end of it the like the act of god kind of comes in and you know and then like like all of a sudden like there's a major change now we're pro-or on you know like like we were working with this side and now we're this side overnight and we're like we're like a step away from a trumpian like and uh death to america what What a good phrase.

49:40Ben Meiselas:One of the things that J.D. Vance said was Donald Trump could get elected as the Ayatollah himself and the Democrats would be mad. That's an exact quote. Yeah, I don't think I want the president of the United States to be the Ayatollah to be the supreme leader of Iran. I think that, you know, it's a complete 180. But when you hear that, but by the way, JD Vance's entire whole life is a 180. I mean, you know, all these people, the RFKs and this whole regime of people. It's the one connective tissue between all of them. We're all wrong. And this is something we warned about all of you also throughout the campaigns, right?

50:21For those who are watching us throughout the actual presidential campaigns, Trump could say one thing to one crowd and then go to another crowd and say the opposite thing. And then you'd have his followers just pick and choose what they wanted to believe that he was saying when it's pretty clear, like what Trump's belief is by his actions. But he would go to Dearborn, Michigan, and he would say things that would make them think that he'd be this protector of Gaza. Right. And then he would go to a community that was very pro-Israel, and he would tell them that he would make sure that Gaza would be in the hands of Israel and he would do everything to protect it.

50:58And he would hold those two diametrically opposed positions at the same time. And so, and even the media would fall for this often too, right? They would fall for it on the abortion issue, right? Donald Trump could say that women should not be allowed to get abortions, that there should be some punishment for the women. There was that famous comment from Trump during the first campaign. And then he could say the opposite. He could say something else. And then you, as an independent reporter, could say, well, we've heard what Donald Trump's opinion is on this, right? And then the reporters will be like, oh, but he said this.

51:31I'm like, yeah, he said that because he saw that there was bad press because he said the other thing. But then guess what he did? He put in the Supreme Court justices that overturned Roe v. Wade. So don't give me a fact check because Donald Trump said two different things. Yeah.

51:46Ben Meiselas:Or remember what he said about Project 2025. I don't know what it is. I don't support it. And then we at the Midas Touch Network would report, no, They're going to implement Project 2025. And we would get hit with like those Daniel Dale style fact checks and this fact check organization and Snoopy's or Snopes. And they would all be like, Donald Trump said no. Fact check. I go, I know he's saying the words no, but he's a liar. The guy lies about everything. There is no thread of a value and a principle and you can't believe it. So you have to assess what he's actually doing. And the thing is when you try to assess what he's doing, he's fine with quite literally doing the exact opposite the other day than he did the day before.

52:34Ben Meiselas:And then when he has you so deep down into the cult, you're already right there. So to the extent you go against the cult, he sticks the cult on you. And then you feel like you're under attack or you're going to lose a job or whatever, whatever the – or you're just so far down the rabbit hole that you might as well keep going down because it's so embarrassing to admit that you're not or you see what happens when people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massey and others start saying it. But the reality is, is that even right now, the complex part about me covering – and I'll show you this a little bit when we come back from the break.

53:09Ben Meiselas:Trump will say something now as it relates to the Middle East that America shouldn't be involved. And why would we continue to go to war if that causes a depression? And all these tough guys out there want us to be involved in a never-ending war. Really? You want to be the person to take responsibility for a depression? You want to be the person to be there when we have oil lines or no oil? We can't let that happen. I listen to that personally. And I'm opening up to the audience. I'm being vulnerable. I go, whoa, what he said there at that moment, how do I feel? Because I actually, whatever that segment was, I'm in agreement with that, but he's a fraud.

53:48Ben Meiselas:And he's just saying that because he's desperate. And when he's a cornered rat, he'll say anything to dig out of it, including, I think the Iranians are great people. He changes the whole thing from these are radical extremists who all need to die to I think they're strong and powerful people. It's pure survival. When I hear J.D. Vance speak up and seem like he's standing up against Netanyahu and Netanyahu blowing up buildings in Lebanon, and J.D. Vance will say something like, well, what's your game plan? You're just going to try to kill everybody? You think that's going to be effective? And why would you attack us?

54:23Ben Meiselas:We're the only country that still supports you. He goes, you're lucky that Donald Trump's the only person who still supports you right now. So let us get this deal done. What the heck are you even trying to do? And he says something like that. And I'm like, yeah, but he's a liar about everything, J.D. Vance. Who knows who any of these people are? And when you're dealing with any aspect of life, whether it's international affairs, domestic affairs, your personal relations with other people, how you carry yourself, it is important to have some reliability and consistency and for your words to matter, right?

55:02Ben Meiselas:That's what I was always raised and told. You know, my dad would say, Ben, you got to be a man of your word, right? That's what my parents was. I mean, mom, I'd have to be a man of your word. They would say to me, you know, look, you've got to, you know, if you say you're going to do something, you got to deliver. You know, if you're going to show, if you say you're going to show up, You got to show up, you know, you know, just basic stuff that this regime doesn't have. And so that's why when J.D. Vance will say something, I'll go, huh? I go, yeah, but his name is not even J.D. Vance. Like the guys had two other identities before this.

55:36Ben Meiselas:Right. It's why Ben, you always have to know. And we've said this honestly for what, six years at this point, the beginning of Midas. Trump will always screw you. Trump will always screw you. If you try to chain yourself to Trump and think that he is going to be your savior, everything Trump touches dies. It's going to end badly for you. So even if you're Israel and you think now's the time we're going to burn all of our bridges, I'll say it metaphorically because they do a lot of stuff like that. We're going to burn all of our bridges and we are going to go all in on Donald Trump. Donald Trump is our savior.

56:14He could do no wrong. Let's go all in on BB and Trump and BB is going to go all in with Trump and it's going to be this whole alliance and it's going to work out great for everybody. Now like a lot of these rally people are pissed. They're actually they're pissed at Trump. They view it that they viewed as he sold out and Trump's net approval rating in Israel right now. It's swung like 46 points in like weeks. And to me, it's like, what do you think was going to happen? It's kind of the same story about, you know, the Islamic population in Dearborn, Michigan. You know, they put a lot of trust in Trump.

56:44A lot of them did not vote for Kamala Harris because Trump made promises to them. All of a sudden they're like, what the hell? This isn't what we voted for. I wish it weren't, but this is a guy who will screw you over no matter what. If you're that union worker, right? And Donald, you see Donald Trump is doing fake union events and then you vote for the guy and then he starts screwing you and your union. Then what the hell did he think was going to happen? I could go down the list of basically every group of people, every farmers. I mean, I could go through every group of people. Do not put your trust in this man because he believes in nothing except his own survival.

57:20And the only reason he even ran for president in the first place was because he was terrified of going to prison and this was a way out. So he used his cult and he used all of you and he divided and he conquered and he went group to group to group and told them all what they wanted to hear, all so that he could avoid being in prison for the rest of his life. And I will say that worked out for him, but it's not looking so good for him right now. And he is not looking good right now.

57:48Ben Meiselas:It's why you've got to ground things in values and principles and try to set aside tribal politics and just call out, is this right or is this wrong? Is there a genocide in Gaza? Yes. Are they bombing Lebanon and slaughtering people and want to do more atrocity? Yes. Is that bad? Yes. Do you call it out? Absolutely. Do you call it out? If Hezbollah is attacking, you know, in Israel and you say, is that wrong? You say, yes, you call, you call out what's wrong. You have to have, again, a foundation of values and principles when they're out there attacking unions. Are you okay with that? No, you can't be okay with that.

58:26Ben Meiselas:When they're attacking marginalized communities and transgender people and bullying people, are you going to go, well, I think voters like that in 2024. Or Donald Trump put out an ad that said, you know, she's with they, them and not with us. No, you don't fall into that trap. You go, you know what we do? We stand up for people. We stand up for marginalized. We fight for people. You stand for something or you fall for everything. That's what life has to be about. What's the point of living in this life if you truly stand for nothing and you're just basically being led into the abyss by a psychopath like Donald Trump.

59:04Ben Meiselas:And it's what I always say, Brett, to your point too, with these right-wing billionaire oligarchs, really, you don't have enough money that you are going to just allow yourself to be pulled into this direction and to cataclysmic consequences. Because the moment he lifts you up and puts you in the White House, he can just as equally crush you and it goes in the opposite direction. And you're setting a whole framework for that to occur and the destruction ultimately that you've ushered in of any type of predictability or accountability, you know, in the underlying system. Anyway, we have a lot more to discuss.

59:37Ben Meiselas:Well, we'll take our last quick break of the show when we come back. I want to chat about what some of these voters are out there feeling. We got to show some of the Obama clips. I got to show you what clip that we have of Senator Ossoff, what's going on there. Let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back. You know, one thing I've learned is that it's not always the big expenses that get you. It's the little subscriptions and charges that quietly pile up in the background between work, family, and trying to keep up with the news cycle. It's easy to lose track of where your money is actually going.

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1:03:53Brett Meiselas:Schedule your free inspection at leefilter.com slash Midas. That's up to 35 % off at leaffilter.com slash Midas. Minimum purchase required. Restrictions apply. See rep for warranty and promotion 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 there's an exit survey, let them know. We sent you really quick. Daniel Dale took a stray in that segment. Daniel, I hope he's doing well. I saw something the other day that he hasn't reported in 100 days. CNN doesn't put him on the air anymore. Yeah, they just don't put him on anymore.

1:04:26It's wild. I mean, you know, because they're like, Trump lies a lot. No need to fact check him anymore. I remember back in the day.

1:04:34Ben Meiselas:No, we don't have to do the whole thing.

1:04:35Brett Meiselas:We don't have to do the whole thing. I don't, we don't, don't.

1:04:38Ben Meiselas:I won't go down the road. My only point was that we were proven to be correct. That's my point.

1:04:43Brett Meiselas:Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's just, that's the larger point. That's the larger point. During Trump won, like he would, they put him on all the time. The only thing I mean, we're still on the air. I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. Don't make me do it. Ben, where are we going next?

1:05:00Ben Meiselas:Yeah, it could be.

1:05:01Brett Meiselas:That gets upset when we do it.

1:05:02Ben Meiselas:Okay, I'll just show you Ohio Trump voters saying F you to Donald Trump. Let's show this video of the Ohio Trump voter.

1:05:08Brett Meiselas:If you could talk to President Trump directly right now, what would you tell him? Should you want me to really say it on air? I say, you. I don't mean to be disrespectful to any leader, but he's disrespectful to us, and he doesn't care.

1:05:23Ben Meiselas:Or Harry Enten. His name was Rob Couch. J.D., hope you didn't play. Harry, Harry Enten was looking at some of these state regime media Fox polls. And here's what Harry Enten had to say earlier today about Trump's approval. Let's play it.

1:05:36Brett Meiselas:The American people are going, what was the point of all of that? What was the point of all that? Because the American people hate it. And the way you can know that they hate it, just take a look. Trump's net approval ratings hits lows for Fox poll. And this is Fox polls. In May, he had his lowest ever rating at minus 22 points. You come into the poll that was released last night, the second lowest ever. One point better at minus 21 points. Way underwater. And with independents, I know you love when I point out the independents, Johnny B. 55 points underwater. I mean, my goodness gracious, this was a political disaster.

1:06:13Brett Meiselas:No wonder the president wants to move on from it. He said he didn't want to be Herbert Hoover.

1:06:18Ben Meiselas:It may be that voters were already looking at him like that in a manner of speaking. What about on inflation, which may be driving some of these numbers and directly related to the war with the Russians?

1:06:27Brett Meiselas:Yeah, you know, you mentioned Herbert Hoover, the economy, right? That sunk his presidency. Inflation is what is sinking Donald Trump's presidency to all time lows, at least according to Fox. Because just take a look here. Look at Ipsos polling. Trump's not approval rating on inflation. Pre-ararm war, it was bad, right? It was 33 points underwater. But then look in the past month, the average, according to the Ipsos polling, look at that. 51 points underwater. There was no president ever before that had any poll in which he was 50 points underwater on inflation or worse. And the average of the Ipsos polling over the last month was 51 points underwater on inflation.

1:07:07Brett Meiselas:The Iran war absolutely drove Trump to new lows on the issue that got him reelected in the first place, inflation.

1:07:14Ben Meiselas:Then you have J.D. Vance talking about Israel and Israel's cabinet speaking out against this MOU. Here's what J.D. Vance had to say. It's what I was referencing before. Let's play it.

1:07:25Brett Meiselas:What I will say, and this does bother me, is that you've seen people within Bibi's cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal and in some ways very personally attacked the president of the United States. And I guess my message to them would be twofold. Number one, Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. And he happens to be the head of state of the world's superpower. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.

1:08:03Brett Meiselas:And the second message I would give to some of those cabinet members, Bibi, to his credit, has not gone down this path, but to some of these cabinet members in Israel who are attacking the president of the United States, the other thing that I would say is that over the last three months, two thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars. The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump and anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.

1:08:40Brett Meiselas:Thank you all.

1:08:42Ben Meiselas:Then he did a podcast on the New York Times. And here he is. I mean, yes, treated Parsi says, Holy smokes, JD Vance to Israel opposing the MOU. Let's play this clip.

1:08:52Brett Meiselas:But yeah, you've seen people in their system, Ben Gavir and Smotrich who've attacked the deal. And I guess my response to them would be, what is your exact proposal? And you're a country of 9 million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.

1:09:11Ben Meiselas:And what makes JD Vance though so dangerous is that he had basically a diametrically different position five days ago or seven days ago or 10 days ago than what you just saw there. And he delivered that message. I mean, we all know he's a fraud, but to a lot of people, you would view that as he's delivering that message convincingly. And what he said there is what's on a lot of people's mind right now. I mean, as you have Israel saying, we have our security zone inside Lebanon and we're gonna keep on blowing up Lebanon buildings and we're gonna go take, you know, Daya and Tyre and then Gaza is ours.

1:09:54Ben Meiselas:You know, when you hear Smutrich and Gavir and Bibi and all of these people say these horrible things, a lot of the criticisms that we've had, and I think rightfully so against this Netanyahu regime, frankly sound a lot like what, you know, not the part where, you know, Donald Trump's your only, you know, you know, ally in the world, but we've been talking about, you know, how you've, you know, how you've not just destroyed the region, you know, you've irreparably harmed whatever you think you're building for Israel. You've destroyed that too. You're, you're, you're all, you've created a situation where you're all alone.

1:10:27JD Vance delivers that as though he was on this side

1:10:32Ben Meiselas:the whole time. And he's the same guy who rose to power saying that Donald Trump is America's Hitler and that he was the guy who said that. And so he got a lot of support being, I'm the guy from Appalachia who calls out Donald Trump and Trump's going to kill everybody in Appalachia. And then he goes, I'm actually a big Trumper. I'm never the never Trump guy. these people, you go through Treasury Secretary Besant. Look at all the, Lutnik, all these people's, their common thread, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK, the only commonality, the only consistency is their inconsistency in fraud. RFK Jr. could be the guy who leads the movement against glyphosate.

1:11:23Ben Meiselas:That was his thing, going against the glyphosate pesticide. That was one of his big come-ups with Maha. Then he's literally the guy who's pro-glyphosate, who wants to make it the preferred pesticide and herbicide of the United States government and says, no, that's what we really wanted the whole time. By the way, did you see about glyphosate today? They said they're going to spray it across the 850 ,000-acre Lake Tahoe National Forest. I mean, this was like their whole big thing, the reason why. And this goes back to what I was saying before about the union workers and the Muslims for Trump and the pro-Israel for Trump and the auto workers for Trump and that whole list.

1:12:04It's that like the Maha moms, the make America healthy again mom, the people who were like, oh, well, he's going to get RFK in there and they're going to be great on health and wellness and da, da, da, da, da. Well, now he's like spraying all of our crops and all of our forests, our national forests with glyphosate, which was like your main cause de celebre. So like, I don't even like, like, like at some point you just have to realize and it's okay. You know, it's, it's truly, it's okay. If you got tricked and said, some of these people could be very convincing and, and you could have been, you know, down the rabbit hole, you know, quite a bit, but, you know, at a certain point, I think when the evidence piles up, you got to acknowledge that the pool is green.

1:12:44Okay. Like you have to acknowledge the pool is green. I have to admit it and I have to just come to terms with it. And in the Middle East right now, I think also, you know, you obviously have a lot of people and I'm not going to say really any of these folks in the region are necessarily good actors. You know, there are a lot of bad actors going on, but it's going to take people to step up. It's going to take people to step up and say, you know, I am not going to continue hostilities. I'm not going to continue attacking and, you know, let other people be the bad guy, right? If you're Israel, stop bombing Lebanon.

1:13:16If Hezbollah bombs you, that's another thing. But if you keep doing this back and forth, tit for tat, tit for tat, it's going to go on forever. It's going to go on for another thousand years because they're going to say, well, they attacked you because you attacked them. And you attacked them because they attacked you. If you're Iran, don't attack anyone else in the region. If you're Lebanon, don't attack anyone. Just stop it. Just quit it. My only hope, possibly, if anything could possibly, and like I said, hope is not a strategy. But my one hope is that, you know, people could just chill for a second over there and understand, like, take this opportunity, take this rare opportunity, take this mess, this chaos, this destruction, this horrific situation, and try to turn something good out of it.

1:14:00Like, if you can, for the benefit of your own countries, for the benefit of the world, like the people are sick of this crap. They truly are sick of this crap, and they're sick of these duplicitous leaders constantly lying us into these conflicts.

1:14:12Ben Meiselas:We'll pass it over to Jordi, but look, since the purported Gaza ceasefire from what was it last October, over a thousand people have died. And most of those thousand people are innocent people, mothers and children and other people like that. That is to say unacceptable does not there's no words to describe just the how how horrific that is. That's not something that can be done. There needs to be a two state solution. That's what everybody should be working to every single day and recognizing Palestine. And that needs to happen. You know, there's been, what, 3 ,000, 4 ,000 plus deaths in Lebanon.

1:14:51Ben Meiselas:Again, medics, hospitals, mothers, kids. And then I don't want to be gaslit. Oh, that didn't happen. That's not real. No, that's real. Those are real. Those are real videos. Those are real people. Or, oh, you know, we killed those little girls. But guess what? They were near a military base. So it's their fault. Guess what? We have schools on military bases, hundreds of them throughout the United States of America. I think you'd be pretty pissed off if a foreign country came in here and bombed a school because it was adjacent to or on a military base. It's unacceptable. You can't bomb, frankly, as Trump said in the past week, you can't bomb a whole apartment building because you're trying to get one guy who you think is part of Hezbollah.

1:15:30You can't do that. You're killing a lot of innocent people. This is not how the world is supposed to work. These are war crimes. These are genocidal actions. It's not okay. It's not okay. And you should be able to say that, you know, whether you hate Trump, whether you're for Trump, whatever, and you're, you're, you're, I, the way you perceive the world should not be built around what some random other person believes. If Trump says one thing one day to these Trump supporters and they say, and then all of his supporters just parrot what he says, and then he says the opposite thing and they parrot what he says again, you've, you've given up your agency.

1:16:02You've given up your entire ability, your entire worldview, your entire ability to think for yourself. You have to think for yourself. You have to have a core of values and principles and let that be your guide every day. That has to be your guide, not individuals who lie to you and change their mind and change what they say. Enough of that. That goes for all sides of the aisle. Don't put your faith in politicians. Put your faith in ideas. Have strong principles, have strong values, and follow them.

1:16:31Brett Meiselas:Notice how when JD was being critical of Israel too, He didn't go all in, right? He did what so many right-wing influencers here in the States do when they want to try and criticize Donald Trump. What do they do? It's never Trump's fault. It's Trump's cabinets or it's the people around Trump. The people around Trump are really messing up. That's what JD said. He said, no, not BB. It's BB's cabinet. BB's cabinet has to learn. BB's cabinet needs to figure this out. It's a very interesting thing when you see - It's funny, Jordy, because that reminds me. I saw a quote from, I think it was like an unnamed Republican.

1:17:02So brave, so brave.

1:17:04Brett Meiselas:So brave. There was a congressional reporter and I'm unfortunately forgetting who it was, but they interviewed an anonymous Republican about the MOU who was like, this is a disaster. I can't believe J.D. Vance did this. You know, the president isn't getting good advice from his vice president. You know, they did that whole shtick that you're talking about. But the White House was actually pissed off by it. And so here they probably thought this was their way of circumventing getting Trump annoyed. But then the rapid response of the White House account or they responded to the report and they were like, how dare you say that, you know, the president was not behind this historic.

1:17:40And so, like, it's funny watching them even, you know, try that and then it backfiring. But, you know, that's the situation of of that party right now. It's it really is a party in chaos and a party in crisis. And and they don't quite know who they are at this point.

1:17:56Ben Meiselas:You know, which leaves me with, I think, a great way to sum up this episode and what we've been talking about. And it's frankly how the Midas Touch Network started. You know, it was one of our very, very first videos we ever made. And it was called Trump the Snake. Because everything with Trump was projection and confession. And we saw Trump would tell the story on the campaign trail about letting the snake in and a woman let the snake in. I'll say this to the last few years. If you remember Trump the snake, just throw snake emojis in the chat. I want to see the OGs right now. Yeah, and Trump would act like letting immigrants in is like letting the snake in.

1:18:36Ben Meiselas:They may seem vulnerable and helpful, but then they'll kill you is basically what he said. And our point was, no, Trump is the snake. Don't you get it? Why do you think he's obsessed with this story? He's telling on himself like he always does. And we were talking about this six years ago. and this is, I think, a perfect way to end this episode because this has been our theme. He is the snake that you let in, not you, but that this group let in, that that group let in and you all thought that you were whatever and that this snake was gonna fight for you. No, he's gonna bite you no matter who you are and so the only way to deal with it is to recognize it is to stand for something.

1:19:15Ben Meiselas:It's to be reliable and consistent, stand on values and principles and you gotta oppose the snake. You really do. And you got to stand for values. You got to stand for dignity and you got to stand for, you know, people and supporting people and peace. That should be a drive. Why else are we here for this short period of time on earth to kill each other and to have war and to make this short time shorter? No. Or is it to help leave this a better place for other people, try to contribute? That's what it's all about. So without further ado, this was a video we did six years ago called Trump the Snake.

1:19:50Ben Meiselas:Let's play. Who has heard the poem called the snake? My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars. Well documented and severe financial downturn in the past year.

1:20:02Brett Meiselas:You know about sexual predators and things like that. I mean, you are one. All right. It's more than anger. It's hatred. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. their rapists. Down the path, along the lake, a tender-hearted woman saw a poor,

1:20:18Ben Meiselas:half-frozen steak. You'll absolutely love Trump's steaks. More than 150 former students alleged Trump University was a fraud. Persistently illegal conduct at the president's charity.

1:20:30Brett Meiselas:Take me in, oh tender woman. Take me in, for heaven's sake. Take me in, oh tender woman. Sigh the vicious.

1:20:38Ben Meiselas:Would you denounce what happened in 2016?

1:20:39Brett Meiselas:President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. He withheld the money. He withheld the meeting. He used it to coerce Ukraine to do these political investigations. The American embassy in Baghdad under siege. He stroked his pretty skin again and held him tight. The Chinese government awarded Ivanka Trump's brand seven new trademarks. They're packed a grift. His campaign manager's got two condos, a Ferrari, a yacht. They're all just leasing the campaign. That snake gave her a vicious bite. The coronavirus. This is their new hoax. The U.S. now leading the world in death. No, I don't take responsibility at all.

1:21:23Ben Meiselas:This is a great success story. I have saved you, cried the woman. And you've bitten me heavens wide. You know your bite is poisonous, and now I'm going to die. We want to terminate health care. And then I see the disinfectant.

1:21:39Brett Meiselas:Shut up, silly woman, said the reptile with a grin. You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.

1:21:51Brett Meiselas:Shout out to the Midas Mighty. The Midas Mighty is standing strong.

1:22:01Against the fascists we sing our song. We will get it right whenever...

1:22:58Brett Meiselas:J-E-R-R-Y dot A-I slash L-I-B-S-Y-N.