MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 7/28/26

23:35Jordy Meiselas:It's giving them a cause to rally behind. It's having the opposite effect and it's not making them want to come any closer to the negotiating table. It's making them want to run away from the negotiating table.

23:46Brett Meiselas:You think bombing a little girl school is going to be like, oh, okay, now, yeah, let's go and negotiate now. They just bombed a little girl school. Oh, let's go negotiate. They just killed more of our civilians. No, it's infuriating them and we're getting further and further away from ending this war. Sorry about it.

24:01Ben Meiselas:Oh, no. And here's the thing. The US, want to talk about transparency, has banned private companies here in the US from releasing satellite footage of the Middle East, right? So I have to get satellite footage from the Chinese, what they're putting out. There's a satellite called Sentinel-2, which still exists. We'll see how long that thing comes out of Europe. And then Iran often shares the satellite footage from China and Russia of the American bases in the Arab nations that it's striking. And so what we've been following since Trump escalated even more this catastrophic and unlawful war over the past two weeks or so is we've been looking at the photos, the before and after of King Faisal Air Base, of Muwafik Salty Air Base, of Ali al-Salam Air Base, of an air base in Erbil, Al-Udid over in Qatar.

25:08Ben Meiselas:So we're looking at Jordan, we're looking at Qatar, we're looking in Syria. And Iran is releasing these. And one of your instincts, right, is come on, maybe they're putting out the AI, right? Like you almost don't want to believe it. And then you've learned by covering this war for the past five months is that usually, almost always, that satellite footage is accurate. And they show the before and afters. And we see the US air bases, where the hits are happening, where they're being destroyed. And the US hides it for a few weeks. Then we learn what actually happened. The US, through the president of the United States is posting not just AI, but AI slop.

25:51Ben Meiselas:And so, you know, we didn't need, although I'm glad we got it finally, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and other reports saying that we are having a big issue with our US air bases being hit and our interceptors struggling. We knew that for weeks though, because we've been following the underlying source data that exists. And ultimately, as we pull back and we, in this episode, share with you, what's Donald Trump saying about the U.S. economy right now? What are the MAGA Republicans saying, as we're now less than 100 days out before the midterms? What's going on here in the United States more broadly?

26:32Ben Meiselas:why is the Trump regime now saying the biggest threat is communists and they're a bigger threat than ISIS and Al Qaeda and Nazis and World War II? Why? Because we're in a dire situation, a dire situation caused by Donald Trump's catastrophic and unlawful war and his tariff war against the trade war against the world. He's creating a fake AI reality that doesn't actually exist here. And every day where he goes and defrauds us rather than solves the problem and roll up our sleeves with a level of maturity, which obviously is he's incapacitated to even come close to that, the problem gets worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and harder to dig out of.

27:21Ben Meiselas:And that's what's going on right now. Every day it gets worse. Right now, today, if you turned on corporate news earlier today, you would think, oh, major advances were made and we're getting closer and things are looking better. And oh, and the Dow Jones went up today and this was doing better. And we may be, no, this is, it is all fraudulent. It is all, it's not what's happening. That's why I start by saying Red Sea, Persian Gulf effectively shut. There's war everywhere taking place right now. Supply chains are shot right now. And Trump keeps raising tariffs everywhere still, coming up with new justifications to tariff 60 countries at the end of last week, saying that they're involved in supporting involuntary servitude and the US isn't.

28:14Ben Meiselas:So that's why the US will be tariffing Australia and the UK and all these countries. I want to cue us into what's happening right now so we can have a real sober understanding of the situation. Okay, let's pause. And by the way, WTF, right? That's why we call the book WTF America, because WTF, like what the hell is this moment? When we started Midas Touch in 2020, we were asking these questions about how Trump was dealing with COVID when we didn't have political backwards. We were just saying, dude, what the F is happening? And this is WTF, or what, seriously, WTF is at? And how do we get out of this?

28:51Ben Meiselas:Hell, let's take a quick break right now. We'll be right back after this quick break. Hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers. Pre-order the book right now. The pre-orders are critical for us to decide where we might go for a book tour, which cities we're gonna hit,

29:10Brett Meiselas:which countries we're gonna hit. Not where we might been, where we are going. We're going places, but y 'all are going to determine where we go.

29:18Jordy Meiselas:Spoiler alert.

29:19Ben Meiselas:Spoiler alert. Let's take our first quick break of the show.

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32:07Brett Meiselas: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. Benji, where to next, big bro?

32:18Ben Meiselas:General Motors, Jordy, Michigan, another U.S. auto manufacturing plant where the crowd was not loving what Donald Trump was selling. You remember back in January at a Ford plant where there was that courageous person who called Donald Trump a pedo protector? True. Trump was. Trump is a pedo protector. That's what Trump and his DOJ are doing right now. Well, we heard that again at the General Motors plant when Trump gave a speech in Michigan today. I'll I'll get to that in a moment. And when I show you that clip, though, too, I think it's notable because, you know, Donald Trump immediately responds.

32:56Ben Meiselas:When Trump was at the Ford plant in January, he gave the guy the middle finger, the guy who was saying pedo protector. And so now because the whole shtick with MAGA is they call anybody who they don't like communists and that's their whole thing. Communism! You're a communist and you're a communist and you're a Bolshevik! You're a Bolshevik! and this is what state regime media pushes. Notice, notice they used to call their enemies pedo protectors, right? They called their enemies pedo. That was the whole thing. They accused everybody else of being Epstein's person. Well, now because the Trump regime is literally covering up the child sex trafficking ring, their thing now is labeled people, communists and Bolsheviks, the Bolsheviks.

33:41Ben Meiselas:And I just want to say this, you know who handles it the best when media tries to like, you know, do this, you know, AOC. Because when they go AOC, oh, what are you, democratic socialism and communism? And AOC like laughs. AOC, you know, and it's the reaction that I have to, I'm like, dude, what the hell are you talking about? I don't have time to buy into your stupid shit. Excuse my language. I don't have time for that, okay? The American people are suffering right now, okay? Donald Trump starting never-ending wars with Netanyahu. He is destroying our economy. He is causing endless suffering right now.

34:22Ben Meiselas:He's out there building himself golden ballrooms or whatever the hell he's doing. He's making billions of dollars while American people are psychologically tortured right now. He's ripping away healthcare. I'm sorry. I don't want to. I don't need to have discussions with you about, oh, what do you think about, is that person a socialist? You know what I care about right now? I care about what the American people are going through with this regime who has promised that they were going to make everything amazing and things would be free and incredible. And you'd get those dividend checks and you'd be richer than you ever wanted.

35:02Ben Meiselas:And what they did instead was the regime took control of the modes and method of production. Sounds familiar. Took over companies, enrich themselves, help the right-wing oligarchs while screwing over everybody else. That sounds a little communist to me with the people in power right now, but I don't have the time. I don't care. That's not a debate that most Americans are having. It's a manufactured one. Most debate the American people are having is what the hell is going on right now because I'm being psychologically tortured by this regime. I'll just share with you. These are people in Michigan right here, as Donald Trump speaking at the General Motors plant, you've got people out there who are protesting Donald Trump, rightfully so, because he wants data centers in every community.

35:52Ben Meiselas:If it was up to him, he would put data centers in every person's backyard. He calls it liquid gold. Let me show you what this protest looked like. Let's play.

36:17Ben Meiselas:And if you go, well, Ben, are you being hyperbolic by saying he wants data centers in every communities? Who would want that? We know how unpopular it is because it destroys communities and it eats up their power grids. and it has all of these horrific environmental and health impacts and it's loud and it destroys communities. So there's no way that he says that I want it. Yeah, this is what he said at the end of last week, that the smart communities are the ones that have data centers and the stupid ones are the ones that don't want it.

36:52Brett Meiselas:And even communities compared to other communities, you have some communities that really want this. This isn't all negative stuff. This is you have communities that really want the data centers. And frankly, those are the smart communities because it means tremendous numbers of jobs, very little actual disruption. And the ones that don't want it, you know, the happiest people in the world are foreign countries, number one. And number two, other communities within our country because they're begging for them to be there. And some of them are great communities, very, very forward looking communities, very smart communities.

37:28Brett Meiselas:Can you see that now? They're begging.

37:31Jordy Meiselas:Everyone's begging for a data center in their backyard. Ben right now is, he froze at a great time, actually. Ben is away right now.

37:39Brett Meiselas:Do you have the Cynthia Rugrats I sent you on the side?

37:41Jordy Meiselas:You mean this one? I mean, it's uncanny when you pull it up. I don't think they beat me like that. Right now you got Ben with the, we're pulling back up the image to digress for a second, of Ben with the hair plant behind him and to the side of his head. And it does indeed look like the mom, Tommy Pickles' mom from Rugrats. And the, what is it? Cynthia doll, Jordy? Is that right? That's what Jordy looks like. I mean, it's just so, you know, because even the Trump voters, this is a very passionate issue for them. This is a passionate issue for most people. You know, we spent a lot of time kind of during the Biden administration where the kind of MAGA folks and the media would be like, look at the Democrats on the wrong side of another 80-20 issue, on the wrong side of another 80-20 issue.

38:29Jordy Meiselas:This is what Trump is doing right now, and he's doing it with increasing frequency. This is an issue that most Americans agree with. Most Americans do not want these data centers in their backyards. There have been mass protests when people have tried to build these massive structures inside states like Utah, like a Kevin O 'Leary. The communities pushed back. Kevin O 'Leary accused them of being Chinese agents. So he had to, he's now being sued for defamation over it. This has become a big battle right here. And it is really like the kind of clearest and most physical representation right now of the kind of class divide in our country, of what billionaires are doing and what billionaires want to force on the people and what the people actually want.

39:12Jordy Meiselas:You know, we had Justin Pearson, a state representative from Tennessee, on an Instagram live with our Dina Dahl the other day. And Justin Pearson said something like, you know, they want us to pay for these data centers, which are being built so that they take our jobs away from us. Like, no, we don't want that. And I think that's why you're seeing such rage. This is really one of the ultimate tests of kind of Donald Trump's cult of personality for his people. because he is trying to get them to kind of drink the Kool-Aid in a big way. You know, it's metaphorical, but not so much because he's basically telling them to put aside your life, put aside your livelihood, and let us build these monstrosities in your community that are going to take your jobs.

39:57Jordy Meiselas:And they don't really bring any jobs to the community.

40:00Brett Meiselas:And that's the biggest thing too here is like what we see. This is another one of those moments where it's like, don't piss in my mouth and tell me it's lemonade. You know that expression, guys? because it mag is like, Hey, even this lemonade tastes a little funky, even MAGA, even his core, like most core MAGA folks like I don't really like his lemonade. And that's because this is such a hard sell. So many people have so many questions rightfully so about these data centers and communities. And it's just important that these questions get answered before we just so quickly rush into putting them everywhere.

40:30Brett Meiselas:And Donald Trump just so blatantly lying, saying you have people begging, begging for data centers. I don't know a single person that's ever been like, we need one. Please, sir, put it here. Please put it here. It's unbelievable to me just the lengths he's willing to go to and how easy it is for him to just so blatantly lie like that. And I guess it is believable because we've seen it. We've seen it time and time again. He says it's liquid gold. Yes, Donald, liquid gold likely for you because who knows what type of back-end contracts that you or your sons may have with these come. Who knows? Who knows?

41:06Brett Meiselas:But I'll tell you who it's not liquid gold for. And that's the people living right up against the data center that don't want this, that are concerned about what it does to the water quality, that are concerned about what it does to the air pollution in their communities. There are very legitimate questions that people are asking. And I think it's right to be skeptical of putting data centers in every community, as Donald Trump so obviously wants to do, seemingly to line his own pockets with this liquid gold, while people have really legitimate questions.

41:33Ben Meiselas:Well, you take a look at what was going on in this Michigan speech that he gave as well. Someone there protesting him, calling him a pedophile protector. That's objectively true, right? I mean, they're covering up the Epstein files. So if you cover up the Epstein files, that is protecting Betos. That seems to me. I mean, I'll express that as an opinion, but you tell me what your opinion is. That's my opinion. That's the opinion of this person who was there, that it was objectively true. And then Donald Trump calls the person, you're a communist. And it doesn't also reveal the whole game. Someone protesting him, that makes you look at, if you just disagree with him, you're a communist and you're worse than Nazis and Al Qaeda and ISIS.

42:20Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip of what went down. Let's play it.

42:23Brett Meiselas:These companies were coming in and just robbing us blind and it was causing tremendous problems for your jobs. But now all of that is changing because I've placed historic tariffs on foreign producers and manufacturers, including a 25 percent tariff on foreign automobiles, something that no other president had the courage to ever do.

42:53Brett Meiselas:He's a communist. He's a communist.

42:59Jordy Meiselas:he's a communist he's a communist then by the way trump was like he had said after like he's like i didn't even hear what he was saying i didn't even hear oh he heard it he heard it absolutely but then what trump wanted the audience to know i've done more for you like this this is like some sick

43:15Ben Meiselas:stuff some real sick stuff he goes i've done more for you than your parents i won't knock your parents, but I'm bet he's not saying this as a joke. He's saying it's I'm better for you than your mom and dad were in your life. And this is his cult. This is deranged, strange, disqualifying, lock this person up in a mental sicko institution. And how anybody normalizes this stuff to me is is WTF. It's WTF. Here, let's play it.

43:50Brett Meiselas:I hate to say you wouldn't have an auto industry right now if they got elected. You wouldn't have an auto industry. But I don't know what happened to the guy. Somebody said he got fired. But I can tell you, the people that count, those people love Trump. Because I've done more for you than your parents, okay? Your parents are good. I'm not going to knock your parents, but I have been better to you than your parents. That I can tell you. And they would agree with me. Wherever they may be, they would agree. Also, I mean, not to read too deep into this, but we know that he likes when his followers refer to him as daddy.

44:29Brett Meiselas:They've done it on Fox News. They've interviewed people before. We've heard the phone calls of his most loyal followers and congresspeople referring to Donald Trump as daddy. That's how he sees himself. Like he truly does see himself as a cult-like champion to this mega base where he can do no wrong, and they will just blindly follow whatever he does. was and I mean look for the most part he's not wrong they they do there's always that 30 right it's that number that we always see that 30 from the Republican Party on like the most radical issues is always that MAGA base that will just kind of fall in line with Donald Trump it's gross to see and and it's even grosser to hear him like like even like he just he he despises them he despises his most loyal support like he hates them I I'm better for you than your parents everywhere.

45:16Brett Meiselas:Like he just like loves talking down to them, man.

45:19Ben Meiselas:Right. Then his message on affordability. Let's play the clip of what he said about affordability.

45:25Brett Meiselas:But I had nothing to do with it. You know, they have this term. So here I am. I'm one day in office and the fake news goes affordability, affordability. I said, what's affordability? What's that all about? prices are too high. I said, I'm here for less than 24 hours, but we've brought down prices.

45:47Ben Meiselas:I wonder who said that in 24 hours, I would make your electricity half the price. I would bring down gas prices in 24 hours to under$2 a gallon. I would end the war that Russia started in Ukraine in 24 hours and that everybody would be amazing. Who was it who said those things? But now Donald Trump with, okay, objectively, most Americans are far worse off, far worse off. And that's borne out by all of the polling data across the board. I mean, you take a look at the latest CBS poll, state regime media CBS, Donald Trump's policies are making you better off, worse off, the same. Only 13%, 13 % of Americans say that they are better off today.

46:39Ben Meiselas:That's a wild number. And it's accurate because objectively, everybody is worse off. But what's Donald Trump out there saying? What was he pushing at Michigan? He says, we've had the single greatest year we've ever had as a country. Let's play it. We got that clip of the single greatest year as a country. No, I'm not sure we had that one. Okay. What about Donald Trump saying the Iran war is like playing a banjo? Do we get that one?

47:10Brett Meiselas:Down faster than at any time in the last six years. When the fuel comes down, which it did for a little while, then they didn't behave and I had to go back. And now they're behaving again. You know, it's like playing a banjo.

47:23Ben Meiselas:It's like playing a banjo. They stop behaving. now they're behaving again. Again, this world that he creates, this fictitious world, isn't the real world. It's not reality. And he may bend reality in the minds of his cult that's increasingly dwindling every single day. And he may have state regime media parrot this stuff, but it isn't the world that exists. In the actual world that exists, he's flailing. The US is out of munitions. The US has lost the war repeatedly, multiple times we've lost a war against Iran. He continues to go through these open the gates of hell iterations and then, oh, they're coming begging for a deal.

48:16Ben Meiselas:They're out there saying, no, we're not. We're not begging. We're not talking. We don't want a deal. Who controls the Strait of Hormuz right now? It's that simple. And Donald Trump may have CENTCOM continue to claim we do. That ain't reality. Who controls the Red Sea right now? What's up with Bab el-Mandab Strait? What's going on in Erbil, Iraq? What's going on in Saudi Arabia? Why do we have all of our military equipment in Israel right now, where there is an iron dome, but nowhere else right now in the Middle East, where those bases have been destroyed? Why does Iran keep on striking our bases repeatedly in the Arab nations there?

48:56Ben Meiselas:What the hell is going on? WTF? I mean, we have to take a look at what the reality is. And it's our job as reporters to objectively report what the heck is happening. And that's what we're going to continue to do here. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A quick reminder, get your copy of WTF America. You can hit the QR code, wherever that QR code is. Pre-order it right now. Apologies if I've had a few technical issues while I've been traveling, but y 'all forgive me for that. Pre-order it right now. We'll take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, we've got a lot more to discuss.

49:38Ben Meiselas:us. Let's take our last quick break.

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52:33Brett Meiselas:Shout out to our sponsors, y 'all. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's that exit survey, please let them know we sent you. Benji Brett, real quick question. I'm being serious. The banjo comment that we played before break with Donald Trump saying like a banjo, was he saying the war is like a banjo dude I couldn't even begin bombing is like a banjo

52:55Jordy Meiselas:no one knows no one it's provocative it gets the people going I I have no idea what he's talking

53:00Brett Meiselas:about I mean just again but again that's another that's a not to get too serious here but to get a little bit serious that's just another way of him making light of this war and the real life ramifications that this war has had there are 18 dead troops as we know that that's been allegedly reported right now that we at least know of that the Trump regime acknowledges. 18. And he's out there saying stuff like a banjo. I had to go back. I had to go back. It's really disturbing, disturbing stuff.

53:29Ben Meiselas:I mean, and from the perspective of our coverage, when I say the president of the United States is referring to the war in Iran as a banjo, and he continues to say that we control the Strait of Hormuz and that Iran is begging for a deal and everything is amazing right now. And I go, that's what, and CENTCOM says, navigation, free, everything's perfect as you see. Tankers getting destroyed that use the non-IRGC route, right? When you see what's happening in Babel Mondab Strait, when you see that, that's the United States and CENTCOM. And then I have to like report. I'm like, well, on Tasneem, Iran media, they've got a show with two podcasters who have said the following, $21 billion in US losses in two weeks of recent war against Iran.

54:29Ben Meiselas:So why did the US temporarily back down from large scale attacks on Iran? Many reasons are cited. These two Iranian podcasters on Tasnim, say. Many reasons are cited for the U.S. once again pulling back from the attacks on Iran. From the rise of U.S. Treasury bond yields above 5 % to oil prices surpassing$100 a barrel, these are the reasons that we suppose in Iran the U.S. is unilaterally backing out. And I read that and I go, are US Treasury bond yields? Were they above 5 %? Yes. Was the price of oil surpassing $100, which was then manipulated again, so it's lower than that now based on this idea that we're now back in a ceasefire when I'm telling you what's the status of this trade-off from Moose?

55:21Ben Meiselas:That's why I start with this, the Bob Malmandam, and I'm seeing what Tasneem is reporting. Then I see Donald Trump saying, everything is great. We've got more munitions than ever. They're begging. Then I see the Iranian general on whether it's Mares or Tasneem or Fars. And he's like, here are all the bases we've hit. Here's the satellite images that we have. And I'm like, dude, is the Iranian general on Fars or Mares or Tasneem telling me more accurate information than Donald Trump and CENTCOM? And I'm like, just the even idea that I'm asking the question is disturbing in and of itself. Don't even get me started on the fact that the answer is what they're providing is more accurate information of what is happening.

56:08Ben Meiselas:Now, I understand that in wars, there is massive propaganda and in peace, there is propaganda. I understand that when Iran puts out the Lego videos, which clearly get under the skin of Marco Rubio, and that when they say certain things that they are propaganda, I get it. But ultimately, I want the objective damn facts of what's happening in this war. And when I see three Saudi Arabian refineries that are destroyed right now, that are destroyed in Yambu, in Jazon, and the latest one that was just destroyed as well, which is their biggest refinery in Abqaik, the Abqaik oil refinery. I say that seems to be, there's a lot of issues going on right now.

57:01Ben Meiselas:Then Donald Trump aboard Air Force One. And Donald Trump says, Iran took a beating over the last 14 days. So they asked us very nicely, please, please, sir, can you please stop? This is Trump aboard Air Force One. Here, play this clip.

57:18Brett Meiselas:Well, Iran took a beating over the last 14 days. And they asked us very nicely, please stop let's meet and that's what we are right now see what happens if we don't make a

57:30Ben Meiselas:deal we go back to this if we don't make a deal we go with deal you're gonna do a deal i did the deal i do deals deals deals here's a deal there's a deal dude shut up again with the stupid deals and he's a lot i mean he's a liar about everything he says he's asked have you been frustrated with secretary hegseth because of the advice he gave you early on in the war and how it turned out Do you think this is a great job right now? I mean, you all promised that this war would end in days, then four to five weeks. We're now five months. Iran and its proxies control the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.

58:05Ben Meiselas:They're striking Saudi Arabia right now. You have China basically getting involved. Things are escalating. People are suffering. Inflation is surging. You believe this is a good job? Here, let's play this clip.

58:20Jordy Meiselas:On the Iran war, have you been frustrated with Secretary Hegstatz because of the advice he gave you early on in the war and how it's turned out?

58:29Brett Meiselas:No, I think he's done a great job. We've pretty much destroyed their military. They want to meet, and we're meeting. We'll see what happens. There's a chance we can make a deal. Without what we did, they wouldn't even be talking to us. They requested a meeting through their surrogates and directly. And we're meeting. and you know good things can happen i guess oil dropped very big today uh stock markets as of about an hour ago was like through the roof but no they requested a meeting they would not have requested the meeting if we were doing poorly the only reason they want to meet is because we've been hitting them very hard yeah how much patience do you have left with the box sir i have plenty of

59:14Ben Meiselas:The only reason they want to meet is because we've been hitting them so damn hard and they requested a meeting. They begged for it. Now the market's doing good. No, you are manipulating the market again. Iran began the day. Just think about how embarrassing this is, right? That Iran begins the day with their foreign ministry spokesperson saying, today, Donald Trump is going to get out there and say, we don't want to meet with him. We're meeting with Oman. There's no meetings taking place. Just look who controls the Strait of Hormuz. Just look at it. I got to find this quote from the Iranian spokesperson because it's so damn devastating and painful as an American to read, but this is what we've gone through as a country.

1:00:04Ben Meiselas:Here, let me find this quote.

1:00:05Jordy Meiselas:As you pull it up, I'll just say like, it's so wild how much he gives away the game on when he speaks about the war. Like the war, if you're going to enter into this war and this campaign, you don't want to let everybody know that your biggest concerns are the markets. And Donald Trump, every opportunity he gets, he's like, look, we stopped and look, the oil's coming down, right? The oil, oil, you see that? All right. And then the stock market, it's going up, it's going up. It's like, that's all he really cares about. And so, you know, when you give that sort of leverage to your adversary in a war, you're giving them a whole lot of power because they know exactly your pain points to hit.

1:00:44Ben Meiselas:Okay, let me read for you these points. Ready? This is what he says. Don't pay attention. This is the Iranian foreign spokesperson early this morning. Like when I wake up at 5 a.m. to do my videos, I'm looking at what he's saying, what CENTCOM is saying. CENTCOM says we control the Strait of Hormuz. Things are great. Everything's amazing. We're obliterating them. never been better. In Iran, they're saying, do not pay much attention to these media speculations. We have no negotiations with the United States. The negotiations we are having, which may sometimes be subject to different interpretation, are the ones we are holding with Oman, focused on making necessary arrangements regarding the Strait of Hormuz.

1:01:22Ben Meiselas:Then the Iran spokesperson goes on to say, I don't know how you think that they, Trump and the United States, are managing the war, A war that was supposed to lead to Iran's collapse within three days, forcing Iran to surrender, and yet now after five months, they are stuck in a quagmire of their own making. This is not war management. Committing war crimes every once in a while while taking pride in them is merely flailing in a disgrace created by their own hands and tempted by a Zionist regime. Naturally, they must pay the price for it. Then regarding the United States announcing it was going to do a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, and then less than 24 hours, Donald Trump then says, well, actually, Saudi Arabia has to join the Abraham Accords.

1:02:09Ben Meiselas:If they join the Abraham Accords and become allies with Israel, then we may do it, but then they can't enrich uranium, even though even civilian nuclear plants enrich uranium. This is what the guy says about Trump's Saudi Arabia deal that broke apart in 24 hours. Regarding the matter itself, according to the usual behavioral habit of the United States, this agreement apparently did not last more than 24 hours and they raised conditions. And they're mocking Saudi Arabia for believing that they did a deal with the United States. So you've got that going on. And then I'll show you the clip that I was talking about earlier.

1:02:47Ben Meiselas:I know, Brett, you found it. So do you all feel objectively, right? That we had the best year, that this year for our economy was the best we've ever had. I mean, objectively, I mean, I don't care what political party you're from. Do you feel that way? That this year was great. It was amazing. Everybody thrived. What a great year. Well, Donald Trump does. So this is the reality he inhabits. Is that the reality you trust? It was a great year for him. He made$4 billion, maybe more, probably more. $4 billion we're aware of, right? Did you make more money or are you struggling right now and suffering?

1:03:24Ben Meiselas:Here's what he had to say. Let's play this clip. We're having the single greatest year

1:03:30Brett Meiselas:we've ever had as a country. We're not going to let these people destroy it.

1:03:35Ben Meiselas:We're having the single greatest year. And again, when you see that deranged and psychotic behavior, that's the individual who is the commander in chief, the commander in chief of the United States armed forces. And you want to know why we lose over and over again, why we're put through this humiliation ritual? Because he's a loser. He's a bankruptor his whole damn life. And now we're all losers because that's, you know, the reality is in Trump's America, we're all losers other than him. And for short periods of time, the right wing oligarchs do well. But once they lose favor, they're the next target.

1:04:20Ben Meiselas:Brett and Jordy.

1:04:21Jordy Meiselas:I don't think anybody would agree with Trump's statements there. I think it's ridiculous. And it makes me think about during the Biden administration, all the kind of think tanks and think pieces and everything that was released when Biden was dealing with the inflation, which was a legitimate issue. And people don't like to say that it was caused by Donald Trump, but it was caused by Donald Trump. It was caused by the COVID supply chains. It ended up reverberating and ended up actually hitting during the Biden administration, which was then made worse during the oil crisis when the Russia-Ukraine invasion happened, which the markets reacted wildly different to than what we're seeing right now, apparently, for some odd reason.

1:05:02Jordy Meiselas:But I remember when Biden was trying to approach the subject because he wanted to tout his accomplishments, but also wanted to acknowledge that people were feeling pain. He would try to kind of walk the line on this issue, right? He would say things like, I understand that a lot of people out there are still not feeling the success in the economy though, and we need to work to make sure that every American is feeling the success of the economy. He would say a lot of things like that and get with these endless think pieces written about him, that Biden just isn't caring enough about the American people.

1:05:37Jordy Meiselas:He's just not saying enough. He's lucky. He touted the stock market. How could you tout the stock market? Okay, yeah, he said the other thing, but how could you possibly say that? Trump says this stuff all day, and people are like, oh yeah, what are you going to do? What are you going to do about it? It's so offensive to just regular, ordinary people to see this and this sort of rhetoric every day.

1:05:59Brett Meiselas:the single greatest year I mean he just like says it with no shame and then you hear the lemmings clap saying some good lemonade Donald thanks for that lemonade in my mouth it's I I hope it is graphic by the way because that's how frustrating and ridiculous the time that we're living through really is and Ben again big on giving you your flowers Brett I want to give you your flowers but Midas Mighty specifically the pro-democracy community that watches this I want to give you guys your flowers because day in and day out, I read all of the comments. I see all of your posts, whether it's on threads or Blue Sky or X or Facebook or Instagram, like wherever you are, we are.

1:06:36Brett Meiselas:And we're constantly seeing you guys push back against all of this madness and calling this stuff out in real time. And for us, I mean, that's half the battle, at least. Real time, like speaking up and saying, this is a lie. This is BS. We're calling it out together collectively. and we're going to make some noise about why this is such BS, as Donald Trump loves to brag about the greatest time we're all living through. Ridiculous.

1:06:59Ben Meiselas:Let me tie this all together, though, because something that got almost no attention, which to me was the biggest tell, was one of the random posts that Donald Trump made earlier today, where he was seemingly attacking John Thune, the Senate majority leader. But Trump was giving you the tell of how he's going to cast blame when even more economic catastrophe takes place. So he makes this post, John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to leave town until it passes the Save America Act, or far better still, terminates the filibuster, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep-throated Save America Act, the budget, and the ever-looming debt ceiling disaster, comma, 1929, exclamation point.

1:07:56Ben Meiselas:The Democrats will do it on day one and can't believe how lucky they got, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. I've highlighted the point I want people to focus on. First off, again, what a sicko mind referring to the Save America Act as like deep-throat, like full and deep throated. Why would that be full and deep throated? It's a very, very like, yeah, that never is just bizarre, bizarre phrase. But the ever looming debt ceiling disaster, comma, 1929 exclamation point. The looming debt ceiling disaster, Donald Trump has added more debt than anybody by far. I mean, trillions and trillions of dollars have been added to our debt.

1:08:40Ben Meiselas:Our deficit is increasing massively right now. Our debt will soon hit over what, what,$30 trillion, you know,$40 trillion,$40 trillion soon,$39.5 trillion,$40 trillion soon. and 1929, Great Depression, right? And so what Donald Trump is setting up as a dynamic right here, where he knows the Save America Act, which he labels Save America Act, which has nothing to do about saving America. It's a voter suppression act, but he calls it Save America Act. If you don't pass Save America Act debt ceiling crisis, comma, 1929 exclamation point. Do you see what he's doing? What he's doing right now is he doesn't care when there is an economic Great Depression, which is coming.

1:09:37He doesn't care because he got rich.

1:09:41Ben Meiselas:In fact, he probably wants there to be an economic Great Depression as long as he gets rich. That's his whole life. bankrupt company A, bankrupt company B, take the money for himself, blame people for the bankruptcies and move on to the next one, right? This is what he's actually good at. He's good at being a fraud and he's good when people are suffering to blame people because very few people other than the worst scumbags in human history use suffering to cause to lie about it. And that's what he's going to do. So what he's saying is because you didn't save America, that's what's caused 1929 Great Depression.

1:10:24Ben Meiselas:I had it all figured out. I was going to fix it. We had the greatest year ever. Everything was going amazing. Things could, all not true, right? That's how he also cast his first presidency before COVID. All lies, right? All lies. But I was the best then. COVID hit. And so what he's setting up is the dynamic his whole life has been. I was about to be there. We were in the golden age. I told you everything was right around the corner. 2025 set the stage. 2026 was the banquet. It was about to happen. Then the Republicans didn't pass the Save America Act. The Democrats came into power. And it's a fictional narrative where he now has his bad guys and he fixed it.

1:11:12Ben Meiselas:And now it's all destroyed. When what I'm trying to convey to you is right before our eyes, everything's destroyed right now. All of the preconditions, everything is a fugazi and a fraud and a lie. We are currently living in right now a horrible time with war everywhere, with healthcare being ripped away, with treasury yields at record highs, with mortgages rates so high, no one can afford homes or rent right now. But he's going to repeat over and over again. And with compliant oligarchy corporate media, they're going to keep saying, we're there. Things are good. Donald Trump said, Donald Trump said, Donald Trump said.

1:11:50Ben Meiselas:And what I want you to be aware of, and I know you know it, but don't let them gaslight you, is he did it. He did it. He did it. And all of these scumbags around him did it. They were the ones who did this to you. These are the scumbags who hurt you. These are the scumbags who hate America. These are the scumbags who are not patriotic. These are the scumbags who hate you. They hate you. They hate this country. And this is what they do because they hate you. I want you to know that. And they're taken from you and they're ripping you off every damn day. And let's be very clear where it is coming.

1:12:28Ben Meiselas:Is it a Democrat or a Republican thing. This is a good versus evil thing. And this is who the Trump regime are. Evil, evil humans, demons amongst us. And we've got to call them out for what they are. And that's what we're going to do every damn day here. So I'll leave you at that point, Brett and Jordi, anything else you want to say?

1:12:47Jordy Meiselas:Well said. I certainly don't have anything to add to that, but I just, I do want to highlight, you know, the power of private citizens stepping up and taking action. And, you know, at a time when our institutions are failing us, when you see corporate media failing us, when you see the courts failing us, I could go on and on. You see examples of folks who actually are able to get stuff done. And so I just do want to give a shout out to Katie Fang here at the Midas Touch Network for her incredible work. She has been tenacious. She has been relentless in pressing the Trump regime to release the Epstein files.

1:13:22Jordy Meiselas:The court has continued to agree with her arguments and is telling Todd Blanche now that I believe it's by this Thursday. I may not have the date right, so don't quote me on that. But Todd Blanche basically now has to show the judge. The judge said, Todd Blanche, I don't believe you for a second when you say, trust me. Trust me that our redactions are all good. I'm not going to show you, but just trust me that I redacted everything just for the right reasons. And the judge said, you're going to show me, the judge, you're going to show me all these redactions. And I, as the judge, I will determine whether you are lying or you're not lying.

1:14:00Jordy Meiselas:This is a huge phase of this Epstein investigation. It would not have happened if Katie Fang didn't file this lawsuit. So shout out to Katie Fang. And it just really shows you, when Katie Fang filed that lawsuit, everyone was like, on what standing, on what grounds, they were saying it was going to get thrown out of court. But no, this is moving ahead. So shout out to her. Katie, obviously make sure you're following Katie on her YouTube channel at Katie Fang News. And Katie has a podcast too, which is great. And Katie has been breaking down all the updates in her case for her podcast listeners.

1:14:33Jordy Meiselas:And it's really worth a listen. And she does so much other reporting too. It's called Sidebar with Katie Fang. So you could search for that on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and all the apps. Sidebar with Katie Fang. Add the show. I just am so impressed with Katie Fang. Huge shout out to Katie Fang. Such an honor to have her here on the Midas Touch Network. And I'll just leave on a light note with the book. First, I want to thank everyone for your support of the book, WTF America. But you learn a lot about this process as you go through it. And so before I got on this episode, it's funny, I had like a legal call about the book because they go through every single word of the book, right?

1:15:12Jordy Meiselas:To make sure that you're not saying anything over the line about somebody. and it's just, I just want to share this with mine because it was so funny to me. You know, they'll go like on page whatever, you call Cash Patel a doofus. Yeah, that's, you know, that's okay. That's your opinion. So they go through one by one, every single line said about everybody. And it just, you know, it's a funny process. It's been surreal. I'm grateful for the support. We have the QR code on the screen if you want to pre-order. Pre-ordering really, really, really helps. And there's also a link in the description to this podcast.

1:15:45Jordy Meiselas:So you can check the link, pre-order the book. Let us know in the comments if you pre-ordered the book. If you're watching on YouTube live, do those WTF America. There's an emoji. You could let us know by doing the emoji. And we're really grateful. We're excited to, at some point, be in a city or town near you. And we are just thrilled for you to get your hands on this. I think it's honestly going to be a great resource for everybody. Really, really grateful. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty. The mightest, mightest standing strong

1:16:22Jordy Meiselas:Against the fascists we sing our song We will get it right whenever Breaking news right now.

1:16:33Brett Meiselas:My brothers and I wrote a book. It's called WTF America. And well, doesn't that just say it all? It comes out officially this October, but you can pre-order your copy today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description below.