MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/15/25

22:43Ben Meiselas:And they act like this is normal. Then they see Gavin Newsom standing up and they're like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. You're calling him names. That's mean. No, that's what fight, fight back. That's what people are looking for right now. We're going to talk about that and more. Let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, We've grown with zero outside investors on this network. So if you can help grow this platform, one of the best ways to do it is by becoming a member of our YouTube channel. Hit that join button right there. You see it. You can gift memberships to people as well. Check that out.

23:19Ben Meiselas:We will be right back after our first quick break of the show.

23:25Jordy Meiselas:Okay, you guys, I can't gatekeep this online editing tool we use in Midas anymore. And I think it's going to change the way that you share videos online forever. If you haven't heard of Opus Clip, I'm about to blow your mind. So Opus Clip is an online video editor that allows you to easily upload video files, YouTube videos, you name it. It then takes that long video and automatically cuts it down to the best moments formatted for your favorite social media apps. As a growing but nimble operation here at Midas Touch, this has changed the way we're able to get out content so we can get it to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

23:54Jordy Meiselas:What used to take us hours now takes just minutes. With the auto import feature, we load our podcasts into OpusClip, it then instantly auto edits them into social media ready clips. It reframes videos, making sure the viewer is seeing exactly what they're supposed to, like if somebody's speaking, if two people are speaking, or if we play a clip. We can customize the captions, add B-roll. OpusClip even tells you what clips have the best chance of going viral. In this fast-paced information climate, we need to be able to get the truth out fast, and OpusClip has been essential in helping us do that.

24:23Jordy Meiselas:Even if you don't make your own content by spreading content that tells the truth and calls out all the BS, it does make a difference. For example, even if you have no editing experience, you can make your own social media-ready clips from all your favorite Midas touch reports. So if you hear something that you want to share from this show or any of our episodes, use the link opus.pro.midas to get a full month off their pro plan on top of the one-week trial everyone gets for signing up. Drop the YouTube link into Opus, and in a few minutes, you'll be able to share professional clips across your socials.

24:54Jordy Meiselas:That's opus.pro slash Midas, O-P-U-S dot P-R-O slash M-E-I-D-A-S. Try it now. I'm looking forward to seeing what you all post. So you ever wake up and feel like your body just hit the snooze button on life? Yeah, same. Honestly, aging sneaks up on you in some wild ways. Whether it's a night out or a good workout, I just don't bounce back the way that I used to. One day you're full of energy, the next you're Googling how to stretch without pulling a muscle. I believe one of the best aging breakthroughs of the last decade is qualiacenolytic, and here's why. It's designed to help your body naturally eliminate something called senescent cells, also known as zombie cells.

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26:11Jordy Meiselas:That's Q-U-A-L-I-A life.com slash Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S for that extra 15 % off. Your older self will thank you. And thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode.

26:28Jordy Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsor. Shout out Qualia. Qualia has been with us for a minute, y 'all. Definitely check them out if you're interested. Link in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Shout out Opus, man. They're brand new to the network. Definitely, definitely check that out. We worked out that really special offer. That's really dope. One month free is pretty awesome. So link in description, check it out, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, of course, let them know we sent you Benji. Where to next?

26:50Ben Meiselas:Let me just go through the exhibits. Let me do it. Lawyer Ben. Closing argument, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I first want to show you exhibit A and exhibit A is these two ladies wearing an evening dress standing behind Donald Trump. They're about to unveil a photo of Sylvester Stallone. Donald Trump is announcing that he has reluctantly appointed himself and he has reluctantly accepted becoming the host of the Kennedy Center Honoree Awards in December, that he's personally made sure that the Wokies, as he calls them, that the Wokies won't get awards. The Wokesters. The Wokesters. He's determined who's going to get the awards.

27:29Ben Meiselas:One of his big things that he wants to talk about is grass. He's going to make sure that he'll redo the grass, the finest grasses you have ever seen, the greatest grass ever. Here, let me show you. Here, play this clip. We're doing that and doing some other things, and we're going to also fix up a place called Washington, D.C. We're going to make it so beautiful again. We're going to be redoing the parks, redoing the grass. You know, grass is a lifetime like people have a lifetime, and the lifetime of this grass is long, been gone. When you look at the parks where the grass is old, tired, exhausted, We're going to redo the grass with the finest grasses.

28:07I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses. And if you don't have good grass, you're not in business. Very long, Lindsey Graham. By the way, you have very good poll numbers, Lindsey. I just saw congratulations.

28:20Ben Meiselas:Lots of grass, Lindsey Graham, grass, Lindsey Graham, grass, grass, Lindsey Graham. I'm just going to start saying a bunch of words, Alan. Grass is actually doing pretty good. Only person who destroyed the grass was Donald Trump. He literally destroyed the Rose Garden and put a like a whole concrete area over it. So not sure you should be doing that. Then Donald Trump rags about wallpaper. He does the greatest wallpaper. And if you really wanted to fix the Federal Reserve Building, just some more wallpaper, everybody. Here's what we want to talk about. And they did a job that shouldn't have been done.

28:53It was unnecessary to be done that instead of I could have gotten the greatest wallpaper anywhere in the world from the finest stores in the world I could have fixed up a wall a little bit. It would have taken about two hours and Covered it with the most magnificent silk then most magnificent paper for Thousands of dollars as opposed to tens of millions of dollars. What a shame it is that they did But they would take down areas of the building that shouldn't have been taken down that could have literally been painted and they didn't do that. So they've got a long way to go. And I think it's just grossly incompetent.

29:30Jordy Meiselas:But Mr. Newsom, but Mr. Newsom, can you explain your all caps tweet, please? We need an explanation.

29:36Ben Meiselas:Please, please, please, please. And then Donald Trump goes, I guess this would be exhibit, I lost track, exhibit D, I guess, another exhibit. Donald Trump saying, and I've been asked to host the awards by myself because I'm also the chairman. Here, play this clip. As we officially announced the incredibly talented artists who will be celebrated later this year at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, it's going to be a big evening. I've been asked to host. I said, I'm the president of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that? Sir, you'll get much higher ratings. I said, I don't care. I'm president of the United States.

30:19I won't do it. they said, please. And then Susie Wells said to me, start rocking our house. I said, okay, Susie, I'll do it. That's the power she's got.

30:30Ben Meiselas:What did she say to you? Because it sounded like you just said, she said to me, but then look on a serious note, he's asked a question, right? Donald Trump said that he would bring peace to Ukraine, not just in 24 hours of taking the presidency, but after the election, it would be very easy. He said he would bring Putin in a room and Zelensky in a room. It would be the easiest thing to do in 24 hours. Now Donald Trump says he was being sarcastic about it. He was just joking. LOL, everybody. He didn't really mean that he was going to bring peace to Gaza or bring peace to Ukraine. You got to realize when he's doing his standup comedy routine and when he's talking about real matters of war and peace.

31:11Ben Meiselas:But while he's there, photos of Sylvester Stallone, ladies in evening dresses, reporter asks him, can you convince Putin to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine during your meeting on Friday? Let's see what he says. Play this clip. Yeah. Do you believe you can convince him to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine? Well, I'll tell you what. I've had that conversation with him. I've had a lot of good conversations with him. And then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the street. So I guess the answer to that is no, because I've had this conversation.

31:48I want to end the war. I guess the answer is no.

31:52Ben Meiselas:I will not be able to stop the killings of the civilians. I'm just going to meet with him. But what do you, you know, there's a lot of reports out there, Donald, about you're considering giving him natural resources from Alaska, rare earth minerals from Alaska in the United States, rare earth minerals from Ukraine. So you forced Ukraine to sign a rare earth minerals deal with you. Then you're going to take those rare earth minerals and give them to Putin in exchange for basically nothing and also give Putin huge chunks of land in Ukraine. And we've also heard that you've proposed a Israeli style occupation with Putin of Ukraine.

32:34Ben Meiselas:The way Israel's occupying Gaza and the West Bank and all of the atrocities coming in there. That's your template. Telegraph reported. That's your template for Ukraine.

32:45Jordy Meiselas:When I think things that are going great and have worked out great for humanity, I think the occupation of Gaza.

32:52Ben Meiselas:I couldn't think I would agree. You know, look. Like if you were to literally make sure everybody knows. That's being sarcastic. Like if you were to say truly, what is the worst way to approach Ukraine? Like come up with the worst possible thing. Like other than basically saying, you know, look, Putin's going to put like sharks with lasers that are going to kill everybody and keep like, like without getting like crazy, you know, which I wouldn't pass Trump to say something like that. But going at a very serious, like the worst thing you could literally say right now, 2025, is let's mimic what Israel is doing in Gaza and the West Bank and bring that to Ukraine.

33:29Ben Meiselas:And then let's give Russia all of these minerals from Ukraine and the United States. But Gavin Newsom, why are you posting all caps things like Donald Trump? You're supposed to have the moral. Why are you doing that, Gavin? What are we talking about? today's press conference in the oval i'm not even sure what that voice was though i guess that's how it sounded just like the reporter you know what are you doing man that's what i heard that's exactly what i heard out angie the ox my role from guys and dolls oh wow six great hey natan you say who's in town sky masterson sky masterson's in town that was my one that's probably Were you ever going to play?

34:13Ben Meiselas:Okay. That was the key line. By the way, don't let anyone tell you that those seven words were not significant in Guys and Dolls. I literally introduced those coming to town, Sky Masterson, which was a pivotal moment in Guys and Dolls. But anyway, Donald Trump in – that was my only line, by the way. Donald Trump today was asked, Are you prepared to offer Putin access to rare minerals to incentivize him to end the war? The answer should be no. Let me tell you how a president should answer this. We're not going to agree to anything until there's a ceasefire. Once there's a ceasefire, we can then start having conversations.

34:55Ben Meiselas:I'm demanding as a precondition for this meeting an immediate ceasefire. President Zelensky of Ukraine has agreed to a ceasefire. Putin must do the same. Otherwise, I'm not meeting. But we live in a Trump regime, clown, fascist presidency or dictatorship. Here's what he said. Let's play it. President, one on your meeting and then one on D.C. crime. Are you prepared to offer Vladimir Putin access to rare minerals to incentivize him to end the war? We're going to see what happens with our meeting. We have a big meeting and it's going to be, I think, very important for Russia. and it's going to be very important for us and important for us only that we're going to save a lot of lives.

35:36Look. How about...

35:40Ben Meiselas:How about important for Ukraine? Ukraine, the party that you're not inviting to talk about them giving up chunks of land and natural resources and rare earth minerals and their sovereignty. How about them? It's going to be very important for Russia and us. Fortunately, we have Europe now, the coalition of the willing, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, European Union, European Council, President Keir Starmer. I don't love a lot of the things that Keir Starmer is doing in sucking up to Trump on a lot of areas. But I think with Ukraine, he's strong. I don't like when I like the Macron approach to Trump more than the Starmer approach.

36:28Ben Meiselas:I like the Mark Carney approach to Trump over that. That's just me. But in any event, Europe is standing up and laying down their rules. Cease fire first. Ukraine's not going to give up land. And Europe needs to be involved in every step of the way. Here's what President Macron of France wrote. It's just funny. They act like these meetings with Donald Trump are excellent. when Donald, they clearly aren't, but like they push it as though like Donald's agreeing with them, right? He goes, excellent meeting today with our European partners and President Trump ahead of his upcoming meeting with Putin on August 15th.

37:07Ben Meiselas:Unity and strong alignment with our allies on the priorities. Nothing about Ukraine should be decided without the Ukrainians. A ceasefire is the essential prerequisite for any negotiations. These negotiations must lead to a solid and lasting peace with security guarantees, ensuring Ukraine's sovereignty and the stability of our continent. We all agree that until a ceasefire and lasting peace are achieved, our support for Ukraine will remain unwavering. Translation, what the hell are you doing? Why are you doing this? You're not gonna be able to cut a deal with Putin without Ukraine and us. They're absolutely never going to happen, Brett Jordy.

37:47Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, and it's the whole thing's a total disgrace. The fact that he's boxing Ukraine out of these decisions and like not even having Zelensky there is like criminal in and of itself. And the fact that he's inviting Vladimir Putin to a US military base in Alaska. And I thought all that was bad enough, right? He's looking to sell out Ukraine. He's inviting Putin into America. He wants to remove sanctions. And then on top of that, to offer basically to give up a part of the United States of America and give it to Putin. Like what an absolute disgrace. and how did that even possibly come into the discussion?

38:23Jordy Meiselas:Like, okay, Vladimir, yes, you want to end this? Well, what if I give you some of Alaska's rare earth minerals? Take it, take it, take it. Is that what he wanted, Senator Lisa Murkowski? Is that what you envisioned for your state when you backed Donald Trump, that he would take the rare earth minerals from your state and give it to the Russian dictator? It's such a disgrace. It's so treasonous. This is so anti-American. As I said in the beginning, nothing about this shit is normal at all. And we need to stop pretending like it is. I know we don't. I know the people listening and watching don't.

38:53Jordy Meiselas:But these reporters, people out there, the Republicans, I know they're beyond repair, the ones who are in office at least. And any of these Democrats, independents, stop acting like this crap is normal. Go on the offense and call it out. Absolutely. And Donald Trump, I can't stand those who think, oh, Donald Trump is this expert dealmaker. What a sharp businessman this Donald Trump is. He's literally, quite literally, the worst dealmaker in the world. And it's playing out in front of our eyes. And none of this could be normalized how just utterly anti-American this behavior is. I mean, this week has just felt like the longest month of the year.

39:32Jordy Meiselas:It's been an insane week and it's not even over yet. And I just want to implore our audience here, stick with it. Stick with it because that's what they're trying to do. He's trying to tire you out. The endless gaslighting, the endless just anti-American behavior that he's exuding from the highest office, it's all meant to get you down and just make you want to look away. But now's the time to dig your heels in even more and say, uh-uh, we give a damn about this country and we're not going to let you ruin it, Donald. No way, not on our watch, Ben.

40:00Ben Meiselas:You know, look at just the people who Donald Trump puts into kind of key positions of power, right? Donald Trump fires someone who was approved on a bipartisan basis to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So that commissioner gets fired. Then Donald Trump brings in this guy, E.J. Antony. E.J. Antony, now we learn, was there in the insurrection. There's like photos of the guy. And he's like, I just happened to wander there into the crowd of the insurrection. Look at me. I was just there. And then in his office, it happened to the best of

40:33Jordy Meiselas:us, Ben, like you're just, you're just hanging out and you're like, Oh my God, how did I get in the middle of this violent insurrection against the United States of America? How did I end up here? This is great. How did I end up in the middle of the pack? I'm showing a picture right now for the, uh, for the audio listeners out there that shows the guy was like in the thick of it. It wasn't like he was reporting from the outside of it. He was wearing a red, you know, he was matching all the other insurrectionists. He's wearing their outfit at minimum. That guy looks like the voice that we were doing before would be his voice.

41:03Jordy Meiselas:Hey, how'd I end up here? What the heck is Daniel? What is going on, Ben?

41:08Ben Meiselas:How did I end up in this insurrection? Do not compare him to Angie the Ox. Angie the Ox is a hero. Angie the Ox. Angie the Ox is a saint. Without Angie the Ox, there's no guys and dolls. How did I end up in this year? Look for stars in the sky. You can bet that he's doing it for a doll. Call it sad. Anyway, here he is. He's got a poster of Hitler's favorite ship behind him as well. E.J. and Tony's office decorated with Hitler ships. I don't think he's a ship behind me.

41:41Jordy Meiselas:I would just say it's a little Hitler ship. Hitler ship is part of it. You guys know that?

41:46Ben Meiselas:Hitler ships. It just keeps on happening, everybody. the most Mussolini merch hit the ships it's just kind of par for par for the course um okay we got we got stuff a lot more we we have to we have to never though lose our joy in this i mean this because we're gonna get through this situation together and we're gonna keep our joy while we fight together through this because trump and all of these idiots want us and these mega fascists want us to lose our joy. We're not going to lose our joy at all. We got a lot more to discuss on the show. A reminder, the Won't Back Down Tour, the Midas Touch Network Tour with Move On is passing through Omaha, Nebraska.

42:32Ben Meiselas:We're going to be in Omaha, Nebraska, August 23rd. We have a few spots remaining. So please, if you're from that area, RSVP at won't back down tour.com show up our very own Adam Mockler will be hosting it. Guests include Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congress member Maxwell.

42:52Jordy Meiselas:I'll say this, Ben, there were, there were a bunch of people last time, uh, Mockler did this in Tucson the other day. Um, same part of the same tour. And a lot of people in the comments after the fact went, Oh, I wish I knew about it. I live in the area. I would have been there. Well, now is your time. If you live in the Omaha area, sign up, go. These are inspiring. They are real concrete plans. It's Midas touch, top lawmakers hitting the pavement, actually putting in the work. And Adam Mockler absolutely brought down the house in Tucson. And I know the same is going to happen in Omaha. So sign up at won'tbackdowntour.com RSVP today.

43:29Ben Meiselas:Also, if you can become a member of our YouTube channel, you never know what the membership features are. Maybe I will sing, sit down, you're rocking the boat. Sit down, sit down, sit down, you're rocking the boat. Maybe I do that for members. I don't know if that persuades you or not, but I do have a special exclusive podcast I do with Ron Filipkowski and you get access to the emojis and we've grown with zero outside investors. So please, if you can become a member of our YouTube channel today, and you can let out, you could gift memberships to people as well who may not be able to afford memberships during these tough economic times.

44:02Ben Meiselas:We'll be right back. Last quick break of the show. Don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere.

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45:21Jordy Meiselas:Drink a pre-alcohol before drinking and enjoy every day of summer to the fullest. Go to zbiotics.com slash Midas to learn more and get 15 % off your first order when you use Midas at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with a 100 % money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash Midas and use the code Midas at checkout for 15 % off. Fall is planting season. Did you know that many plants and trees actually do better when planted this time of year, but you have to know where to start. That's why I love fast growing trees.com.

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49:08Jordy Meiselas:Let's go. Oh, Z-Biotics, fast-growing tree, simpler hair color. I mean, some of my favorites on the network. Links in description of YouTube and audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, please, please, please let them know. We sent you. Benji, real quick, before I toss it to you, last quick play story of the podcast, I think. You probably don't remember this, but Brett does. I was in a rendition of High School Musical. I do remember this. Yeah, I was 15. So you have been eight years older than that. So you probably don't even know. But I sang and danced. And I'm just saying, I'm probably going to regret this.

49:40Jordy Meiselas:Somewhere on the internet, a video of me exists as Troy Bolton in High School Musical from start to finish. It's like an hour and a half. So I haven't been able to find it since it went live back in the day. So if anyone finds it, please send it my way. Angie, where to next?

49:55Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump continues to attack foreign countries, allies, trading partners during Donald Trump's disastrous press conference in the Oval Office today. He says, when it comes to Mexico and Canada, I just tell them what to do. Mexico, you do this. Canada, you do this. I just tell them and they do it. Here, play this clip. Now they know it meant a lot. And Mexico does what we tell them to do. And Canada does what we tell them to do because we had the two borders. We had the northern border, the southern border, and they were both horrible. But now it's, some people say it's a miracle. Well, Canada's gone elbows up, let's be very clear.

50:37Ben Meiselas:And right now, tourism from Canada's down, I think conservative estimates, about 40%, which is just destroying the economy of Vegas, destroying lots of other vacation spots where Canadians would go and visit. but also the boycott on U.S. goods outside of any retaliatory tariffs has been crushing numerous industries in the United States. But Donald Trump continued to say, we're going to take your sovereignty. I mean, you have to understand for people in Canada, Donald Trump's words were not funny. Although Canada had a lot of patience for Donald Trump, way too much patience. Many Canadians would say that, you know, he said it at first, then he said it again, Then he said it again that he wanted to take them over.

51:23Ben Meiselas:And then they started getting annoyed. Canadians are polite people, but Canadians have a history of fighting fascists. And once it was clear, oh, got it. Like, you really want to invade Canada. This isn't just like trade war language, which would be bad. This is war war language. This is Putin language versus Zelensky. And whereas Putin talks about denazification, you're saying that Canada's killing Americans with fentanyl. That's your version of the kind of fictional pretext to invade Canada or attack Canada or strip Canada of its sovereignty. You're serious about this. Canada went elbows up and inspired an international boycott against the United States.

52:03Ben Meiselas:Not just Canadians not traveling here. It's people across the globe not traveling to the United States. and it's causing massive, massive problems with our economy here. Also, in a changing global world order where America was once the leader, America is now either getting laughed at by our former adversaries or just our former allies and trading partners look at us with horror, and they're finding new alliances. Whether you have the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meeting in China with Xi Jinping and saying that's our most important trading partner, whether we have Japan working out deals, ships with Australia, whether we have South Korea, Japan, China at a minister level meeting with each other, Brazil and China, Prime Minister Modi of India, first time going to visit China in seven years, the BRICS block, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.

53:04Ben Meiselas:BRICS is growing stronger than ever. People are looking away from the United States, a Canada security agreement with the European Union. And all these countries, either they will either do a fake deal with Trump or they say, we're going to give you X billions of dollars, which they then say, actually, we're not going to give you because there's nothing binding in writing. Trump's done actually zero trade deals. You either go that approach or you do what Canada's doing, which is like, we're not doing fake deals with you. We're going to do a deal in the interest of Canada. I'm going to give you a fake deal.

53:36Ben Meiselas:And we're going to stand up for Canadian sovereignty. Donald Trump was then asked at this press conference, well, what do you say about the fact that Mexico, Brazil, Latin American countries are increasingly doing deals with China? What's your response? Like, they're moving away from the United States. Isn't that problematic? And Trump's like, nah, those countries are fails. They're failures. We're richer than ever. We don't need them. We don't we don't need to do business with them. Here, play this clip. I would like to see it. And on tariffs, Brazil, Mexico and Latin America are getting closer to China.

54:11And they say it's partly because of the tariffs you're imposing those countries. Are you concerned that they're getting closer to China? No, not at all. I'm not concerned at all. They can do what they want. You know, none of them are doing very well. And what we're doing in terms of economics, we're blowing everyone away, including China. We're doing better than any other country in the world right now. Brazil.

54:33Ben Meiselas:The thing is, that was true under former President Biden, right? The headlines from The Economist and Wall Street Journal were some variation of America's economy is the envy of the world, but will politics get in the way to stop its growth? Because America was truly surging at the end of the Biden presidency. America's economy, the Goldilocks economy of the world. Just right. It was the place where foreign countries and sovereign wealth funds and wealthy people would want to buy treasury bonds. They'd want to buy American real estate. They'd want to travel to the United States. People and countries accepted a structure where the United States was the leader of the world in terms of the economy, in terms of the military.

55:19Ben Meiselas:And Donald Trump has ruined that and destroyed that. And he's destroyed all of these relationships. And he goes, I don't care. And instead, he's meeting with Putin in Alaska on American soil where Putin's thrown down his preconditions. He wants huge chunks of territory of Ukraine, wants natural resources from the United States. and Trump's agreed to meet knowing that he's just, or maybe not knowing or wanting rather to give Putin this real like PR victory that Putin's this conquering hero in the United States. It's a horrible, horrible look for our country. And then you have the United States ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra.

56:02Ben Meiselas:He went on a right-wing Canadian podcast and I'm not going to, I'll just show you this one short clip, but he continues to say, you know, really like Canada has been treating us horribly. They've been so vindictive and how dare Canada do this. And, um, you know, one of the things you'll hear him talk about is maybe the United States needs to get out of KUSMA, the Canadian U S Mexico agreement, sometimes referred to as the USMCA, United States, Mexico, Canada agreement, the free trade agreement that Trump entered into his own first term. He's like, maybe we need to leave KUSMA because Canada is treating us horribly.

56:37Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip of the United States ambassador to Canada. Some of the retaliatory tariffs to the U.S. are a huge irritant. We have protected the integrity of KUSMA. OK, our negotiators have said we are not going to implement tariffs on any products that are covered under Kuzma. Canadians have said. Those guardrails are off. Canada is calling into question the future of Kuzma. It's not the United States of America. It's Canada. Powerful, powerful betrayal of the truth. I don't know how else to describe it other than how powerful Canada is standing up against that. And I mean, just how ridiculous that, I mean, does he know the definition of retaliatory?

57:42Ben Meiselas:That's what I was going to say.

57:45Jordy Meiselas:These retaliatory tariffs are really, really, they don't realize how much of an irritant they are. And why are they retaliatory tariffs? What happened first? You see them do this all the time where they try to kind of change around the actual time frames of how things actually happened to try to always make themselves the victims when they are the bullies in every single aspect.

58:09Ben Meiselas:Oh, absolutely. Just so people know, that was my pivot right there because I'll drop a secret because people are going to get to see it right after this show ends. So I'm interviewing California Governor Gavin Newsom. And as soon as this show ends, I'm going to do that and then put the Newsom interview up like right away. And so I got an interview from – I got a message from my team there as that one played. And then I saw that the camera went back on me and I was like powerful, powerful. That was like the least powerful thing. like powerful, powerful betrayal.

58:44Jordy Meiselas:It happens. It's a big interview. We've been, and obviously, you know, we're excited to speak to Governor Newsom, especially on this day when he made this big announcement and had that big, beautiful rally that he had earlier in Los Angeles. And I'm excited to hear what he has to say about all this, what the next steps look like, his thoughts on, I'd love to get his thoughts on the press question that we played earlier, but definitely everybody after this episode, just keep a lookout for the interview with Governor Newsom. And if you're listening to this on audio, it's up already. So check it out.

59:16Jordy Meiselas:And it'll be on the Midas Touch podcast audio feed very soon as well.

59:20Ben Meiselas:Let's talk about these inflation numbers. I mean, from earlier in the week, seeing that kind of core inflation rising year over year to 3.1%. I think it's important for people to know, too, the Consumer Price Index, CPI, it ingests all of this data on consumer prices, on the price of goods. It's like a poll, and things need to get reported to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics. And they take all of this data together, and they are able to make these projections, kind of the way polling works. because Trump fired so many data people, a lot of the data that's being ingested, if you even want to call it that into the consumer price index now is what's called like imputed.

1:00:10Ben Meiselas:It's like guesses. It's like estimates versus the actual costs of things because we no longer really have the people who can go out and actually document this data. And so yes, Yes, it's 3.1%, but is it higher than that? I mean, when you look at certain goods and services and you see some of the costs of things like the cost of coffee at 15 % or the cost of clothing is up significantly, kind of toys are up significantly, back to school supplies. I mean, you just take a look at this. Coffee up 25.9 % actually. Beef and veal, 14.7%. Cookies, 14.5. Peanut butter, 14.1. Canned vegetables, up 12 % canned fruits, 11.1.

1:00:56Ben Meiselas:Ice cream, 9.1 % higher. Dried beans, 8.6. Vegetables, 8.4. Frozen fruits, 7.4%. Fish, 4.3%. Spices, 4.4%. I mean, when you talk about energy costs, your home energy significantly higher. So that was one of the first reports. Then we got this other report, which is called PPI, producer price inflation. And that spiked 3.7 % year over year, but even bigger than the fact that it was 3.7%, it was just how significantly it jumped from 2.6 % to 3.7%. So it jumped a full percentage really just in one month. And it was expected that it may rise 0.3%, but it jumped to 3.7%, which nobody even expected in the worst case scenarios.

1:01:54Ben Meiselas:And it makes sense when you think about it because what's happening right now is the tariffs are not being eaten by the countries that are exporting to the United States. Now, sure, we could have an honest conversation about this, right? Is it possible that manufacturers abroad are going to try to lower their prices because they're worried that the American importers will try to find another factory? It's possible that that happens at some point, but at some point, they can't really make the price is much lower than they are and what they're exporting it from. So they export it. The tax is not paid by them.

1:02:39Ben Meiselas:The tax is paid by the importing company, which in this case with the PPI, the companies that get the stuff in the United States are the ones who are ultimately paying the taxes. Now you then have people in the United States who are making products, like lots of wholesalers and other, they have to assemble lots of products come from all different countries. So like, oh crap, I got to pay that tariff from this country, that tariff from this country, that tariff from this country, that tariff from this country in all of my products. So the American companies are the ones that are paying the tax.

1:03:23Ben Meiselas:They're putting together, even if they're fully made in the USA products, they're often getting their stuff though from still other countries, even if the factory is literally in the United States. So then the question becomes, how much can the company, because they're the ones paying the tariff, How much can they eat? How much do they suffer? And they may do their best because they realize, holy, if we all of a sudden raise prices, we're not going to be able to sell. The consumers are going to stop spending. And we're seeing that. We're seeing consumer spending dry up. And so they can hold for as much as they want.

1:04:03Ben Meiselas:But we've also seen the biggest bankruptcy numbers in the past 15 years because if you keep doing that, the companies then go bust. They go bankrupt when we're seeing the highest bankruptcy numbers. And then so they can hold it, hold it. Can we hold it a little longer? No, maybe we'll start passing this off to the consumer and we'll pass that to the consumer. And before you know it, mostly all of the stuff gets passed on to consumers, which is why the data has lagged a little bit because everybody's been trying to figure out the situation. And now we're seeing it get passed on to the consumer and consumers are really getting screwed.

1:04:44Ben Meiselas:So that's, but then I think we have the clip for Donald Trump today when he says our inflation, this is what he says. Yeah. Inflation's perfect. We got it down to the perfect number. We've done it. We've solved it. And things are great. Watch what he says today. Let's play. We're also fighting the menace of inflation to make life more affordable for American seniors and we've ended Biden's inflation nightmare. So we had the worst inflation in the history of our country. And now our inflation is down to a perfect number, a beautiful number, hardly any at all. And yet our country is taking in tens of billions of dollars and trillions of dollars, actually trillions of dollars in tariffs.

1:05:26And you know all about it. It's been amazing. They say, why are we taking in so much money? Last week, they found$29 billion, and they couldn't figure out where it came from. I said, check the tariff shelf. And they said, how did you know that's where it came from? We're taking in billions and even trillions of dollars in tariffs, paid by other countries who, frankly, were taking advantage of us for many, many years. And they were doing that to us. But our people didn't know it. We didn't have smart business people.

1:06:02Ben Meiselas:Yeah, that's not what's happening. And Brett, as you've reported to, our deficit right now is skyrocketing. The U.S. budget deficit soars. New data shows that the deficit jumped 19 % to$291 billion in July. This is despite, let's have the real number,$21 billion is what was collected from Americans due to the higher import taxes, taxes on Americans. which have now led to higher cost of goods like furniture, footwear, and auto parts. The deficit for 2025 is already at$1.63 trillion, up 7 % from the same period last year. And we saw the national debt soar past$37 trillion as well. And so with Doge, federal spending is actually higher.

1:06:53Ben Meiselas:With the tariffs, it's actually increasing the deficit year over year significantly more than under former President Biden. And all Trump has is his fraud and his Ponzi scheme and his state regime media widespread.

1:07:08Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, we're looking right now at basically a block of TNT with a fuse and we're watching that flame go down the fuse slowly but surely. And Trump's saying everything's OK. Nobody worry about it. going back to what he did through COVID. You know, if you don't test, there are no cases. Don't test, there are no cases. Let's get rid of the data people. Let's get rid of anybody who's going to tell you what's going on. Let's just guess with inflation. Trust my word on it. Inflation's going down. Real reports come out. We see how bad it is. These companies are desperately trying to eat as much of the cost as they can, but ultimately they can't because they will all go out of business.

1:07:43Jordy Meiselas:And we are watching right now the complete and utter obliteration of the United States economy by Donald Trump. We are seeing the yields spike like crazy, showing uncertainty with our economy. We are seeing Trump just continue to lie and gaslight about what is going on. And similarly to COVID, we're seeing that same stubbornness and that same refusal to admit that you were freaking wrong. Admit that you were wrong when you said that tariffs would not be inflationary. You had J.D. Vance a couple of weeks ago or a couple of months ago, you know, when one of the inflation reports came back and it was kind of in line with expectations.

1:08:21Jordy Meiselas:J.D. Vance was like, see, all you economists, you are all wrong. All you experts. Well, what are you saying now, J.D. Vance? This is a real problem. This is going through our wholesalers as we see in the PPI. This is going to eventually hit consumers. It's already hitting consumers. It's going to hit consumers hard, hard, hard, hard. And you cannot tell the American people with a straight face that their prices are coming down when they are going to the grocery store week by week and they are seeing the cost of beef skyrocket or the cost of everything skyrocket that they go to purchase. And that's one of the issues.

1:08:55Jordy Meiselas:That's why Donald Trump's approval rating is in the toilet. That's why his disapproval is record highs. That's why he's getting the worst marks ever on inflation. It's why inflation is the top issue and the economy is the top issue on voters' minds right now. It's not immigration, it's inflation. It's the economy, stupid. And Trump is failing on that metric just like he's failing on every single metric. He's a liar. He's a fraud. He's a criminal. He's a felon. We need to continue to call him out. We need to call out these lies every single day. Remember what he said to him, Brett, about COVID?

1:09:25Jordy Meiselas:Like a miracle, it will just disappear. Like a miracle. I mean, that's how he's handling inflation at this point, other than the fact that he's telling people, no, what you're feeling, you're not actually feeling. A gaslighter in chief, Donald Trump at the moment. And what do they say all throughout that, Jordy? They go, oh, we were right. Vaccines weren't good, actually. vaccines weren't good. Let's get rid of the mRNA vaccines that actually helped end the COVID pandemic. And it's the smugness of the behavior too, which for me is the most frustrating part about it. Like just admit that you were wrong, right?

1:09:54Jordy Meiselas:At the end of this, there are real American lives at stake here who are being impacted by your stubbornness. So shouldn't we just live like in this country with our politicians in a way where the politicians actually want to help the American people and not just be right all the time? I think it's really important here as we continue to go forward here that to remember there's a real human element on the other side of this so when donald trump is upstairs talking about the epstein hoax ladies and gentlemen there are real victims there there there are real victims there so him calling that a hoax is ridiculous and we still demand the release of the epstein trump files donald trump release the epstein trump files donald trump and while we're added to inflation same thing donald trump says inflation solved That is so arrogant and just stubborn.

1:10:40Jordy Meiselas:And again, at the other side of us, there's humans, Americans being impacted by Donald Trump's ridiculous policies every single day. And they feel it with their wallets and their families are feeling it. And that is the most frustrating part for me.

1:10:52Ben Meiselas:And then you've got criminals from this criminal regime, like Peter Navarro, right, who was convicted of crimes. He was also part of the Green Bay sweep to steal the 2020 election. He's one of Donald Trump's top economic advisors. And he goes on CNBC. And CNBC, you know, to me, it's just been it's been atrocious on. I mean, they they platform this MAGA nonsense with very little pushback. It's really sad to see. They've got that Joe Curtin guy who's the biggest MAGA guy in the world. And then even the other hosts are just they let these they let these Trump talking points go. But they bring on Peter Navarro and Peter Navarro says, why would you listen to who do you trust me or the economists?

1:11:37Ben Meiselas:Literally what he says here. Play this clip. There's no tax cuts, no tariffs, no tax cuts. It was our tariffs price hikes or tax cuts. I say they're tax cuts. I mean, many, many economists would say that they're they're tax hikes because ultimately a consumer will pay for some of those increased prices. Look, that debate has been going on since the first term. And most economists just don't agree with us. The problem with most economists is they got it wrong the first time around. Just spectacularly wrong.

1:12:12Jordy Meiselas:So who has credibility here? The Trump administration or the economists? No, it's been better than thought. I mean, come on. Every day here. Every day I say that.

1:12:23Ben Meiselas:And you hear what she said there, that the almost more disturbing than him is her. because she then co-signs that. And if you're watching, I give you credit. What do you give them credit for? What are you talking about? Inflation is surging. People can't afford. I mean, maybe for her that she lives in some fancy apartment in Manhattan for millions. I'm sure she does for millions of dollars a year and she gets paid millions of dollars. You're so disconnected to what people are actually experiencing, right? Inflation is crushing people's lives right now. This economy is destroying people's lives.

1:12:58Ben Meiselas:I don't know in what idyllic world you think that people aren't paying the tariffs right now. Every data point shows this is happening and this is getting worse right now. And then his argument to her is, who do you trust, the economists or us? And her response is, I give you a lot of credit. We don't see the, we do, we do, we do. All of the things that came out show that we do. And if you go into a grocery store or go into the market or go buy anything, you go, holy crap, how did that get that much more expensive? So I want to leave on that note because to me, that identifies the problem. I could easily show you a Fox clip, but that's too easy.

1:13:42Ben Meiselas:State regime media, more insidious, that's CNBC. They're supposed to be, we're giving you the straight economic news nah you there in many ways were worse than fox and then you're co-signing the fascist propaganda you're reciting fascist propaganda so then going back to the point of the might as touch network and going back to that interview i did on the show when they asked the question are you the answer to the joe rogan i hope that i'm just the answer to the lies by telling the truth. I don't think that even what I am, I mean, yes, I'm anti-Trump because Trump lies. I'm anti-lie. I'm anti-fascism.

1:14:26Ben Meiselas:I'm pro-democracy. That's what we are on this network, and that's what we're building here. A reminder, I hope to see you all in Omaha on August 23rd. It was a great turnout in Phoenix. Adam Mockler will be hosting the Won't Back Down Tour with MoveOn. Go to won'tbackdowntour.com. Reserve your spot in Omaha. We've got a third trip coming that we're going to be announcing soon as well. So we'll do a third trip and then we're off to the races because it is important for me that we go across the country with this Won't Back Down Tour and we're going to hit red states, purple states, blue states, wherever.

1:15:03Ben Meiselas:We're going to meet you. Adam Mockler's going to meet you. I'm going to try to meet you. we're going to go to Canada, we're going to be everywhere. Excited for that. Of course, be in the United States as well. Reminder, try to become a member of this YouTube channel if you can. We've grown with zero outside investors thanks to you. So please, if you can, gift memberships to people. If you want to also check out MidasPlus.com, that's our sub stack. Go there right now. Number one on sub stack right now as well on their rising charts. So please go to MidasPlus.com. Make sure you spell it right, M-E-I-D-A-S-B-L-U-S.com.

1:15:38Ben Meiselas:You can check out all of our sponsors. The discount codes Jordy got for you is in the description below. I'll also give a shout out to our friends over at Snapstream. You know, all of those clips, Snapstream is a tool that helps us kind of people like Aston on our team and others help capture those clips. So if you have a business that wants to get these clips and know how we do them, Snapstream, There's a link as well. You can go and find out, reach out to them. It's really more for businesses, but feel free to reach out to them and tell them Midas Touch sent you as well. That's all I got. Thank you, everybody.

1:16:13Ben Meiselas:We appreciate you. Jordy, you want to take it away? Shout out to the Midas Mighty. The Midas Mighty is standing strong.

1:16:25Jordy Meiselas:Against the fascists we sing our song. We will get it right whenever we go.