MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/18/26

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27:59Brett Meiselas:It's so nice to have one that's actually clean and includes fiber. And right now, IQ bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20 % off all IQ bar products, plus get free shipping. To get your 20 % off, text TRUTH to 64000. Text TRUTH to 64000. That's TRUTH to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description at the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Helps us out. Benji, where to next, big bro?

28:37Ben Meiselas:Got new glasses. I took the Midas. And they're not smudged. What'd you say?

28:41Brett Meiselas:Sorry. No, sometimes when you wear glasses.

28:43Ben Meiselas:He said they're not smudged.

28:44Jordy Meiselas:Give it a week.

28:46Ben Meiselas:No, these are new glasses. I was reading your comments. You all said I should get new glasses. And to be fair, I see much better. This is a revelation to me. I should have taken, I'm very stubborn.

28:57Jordy Meiselas:I got to say, the emails we get on the Midas Touch inbox, you know, that people, when people submit comments or questions and all that stuff is always very fascinating to read. You certainly have a lot of positive comments, you know, thanks, you know, thanks Ben, watch every day. Thanks brothers, really appreciate what you do. Excited to order the book, just bring out. A lot of really nice comments, right? Also a lot of comments about Ben's appearance and Ben's glass. Ben's glasses, you know, if you were to do one of those word clouds of the things that were submitted to our email account, Ben's glasses were probably high up there.

29:31Jordy Meiselas:I didn't have the heart to tell him because when he's in a flow, right? I don't want him to be thinking about his glasses, right?

29:36Brett Meiselas:It's like when a pitcher is pitching a perfect game, you don't go, hey man, get the next batter out. You just let him do his thing.

29:40Ben Meiselas:It was also one of the reasons why I didn't want to switch because I was getting superstitious and the glass was all working.

29:46Brett Meiselas:And we'll get to the news in a second. Did the comments specifically say he needs new glasses or he just needs to clean them?

29:52Jordy Meiselas:The comments were fairly brutal about the glasses. They were, but they fell into two categories. One, the cleaning, big issue for the Midas Mighty. Ben's dirty glasses, a lot of anger about that, a lot of anger. Number two, though, was the fact that the glasses weren't properly fitting Ben's face. Therefore, Ben, throughout his takes, needed to constantly be pushing his glasses up his nose, up the bridge of his nose. That, too, was irritating a lot of people.

30:19Brett Meiselas:I could see that. Here's the thing.

30:21Ben Meiselas:I took action. I fixed it. I'll tell you who's not taking action and who's not fixing it. Smooth transition, Donald Trump. Let's talk very seriously because while Donald Trump's out there wasting trillions of taxpayer dollars running out of expensive interceptors and attackums and wanting to do a Trump class of nuclear battleships because Trump likes the aesthetic of battleships from circa 1920 to 1940, Donald Trump says he doesn't like electromagnetic launchers for our very sophisticated aircrafts aboard these aircraft carriers. Instead, he likes steam catapults because he likes steam. So he wants a complete redo of what's already been built on our newer aircraft carriers while he's wasting our money on that and ripping away our healthcare and giving Netanyahu money while the American people are like, what a minute, you're bailing out Japan, you're giving Netanyahu, you're doing all these crazy things, you're helping out Argentina.

31:29Ben Meiselas:This was America first. But when Trump says something, just know it's the opposite, right? When it's America first, it's America last. When Donald Trump says, I've rebuilt the military, that's an indication he's destroyed our military. He's literally destroyed our military. I mean, in addition to just morale being at an all-time low, just think about it from the perspective of if our soldiers are not getting the nutrition they need in order to sustain their weight, to be able to live, if the toilets don't work and the showers are rotten, if you just think about all the other issues that exist, and then our weapons have been depleted, our bases were sitting ducks and Iran was able to strike at will.

32:21Ben Meiselas:And they did very tactically while the Trump regime and CENTCOM and those Middle East former Arab nation allies would go along and they'd say, we shot down the drones. We shot down the drones. So while that's happening, while our healthcare has been ripped away, while Trump has helped Netanyahu build an iron dome there in Israel, which is the only remaining area in the Middle East that seems to have protection from Iran, if you will. But not the Arab Dome. That failed right away. It's pretty clear that the Arab Dome was literally just a shield for Netanyahu at this point. What's going on in our homeland?

33:00Well, the Midas Touch Network dug up some statements by Northcom

33:06Ben Meiselas:deputy commander lieutenant general joseph gerard i saw this on youtube and uh i i was i went through this conference and it had like 22 views when i was watching it on youtube and there's a great military blog i think it's called twz they really go into detail on a lot of the military maneuvering but i was but i it kind of cued me into this conference so i watched it and i said holy crap This is a big deal. This is our NORTHCOM Deputy Commander, Lieutenant General Joseph Gerard, giving some major warnings. First, a warning that the US, despite all this money that's been spent, we don't have the capability to defend against any attack by drone swarms at all here in the United States.

33:57Ben Meiselas:Here's what he says. Let's play it.

33:58Brett Meiselas:The next threat to the homeland can be a swarm of inexpensive drones launched from inside or on borders, rather than a missile approaching from thousands of miles away. Does NORAD have the sensor coverage, authorities, and decision speed necessary to respond? No. And could you comment on that, Matt, and on the gap today, the biggest gap you see? Well, I mean, we don't. have the sensors, and we're not, you know, depending on where that swarm is going to attack, depends on whether we have any sensors at all, and also whether we've got any effectors to get after that problem. So we are ill-equipped right now to handle something like that, and obviously that is, we've seen it used, we're seeing it used on a daily basis around the world, and we've got to figure out how to mitigate that threat, but we're not there yet.

35:01Ben Meiselas:So our focus is Trump-class battleships, interceptors that we've depleted, funding iron domes for Netanyahu, and also offensive capabilities used in the slaughter of people in Lebanon. But here at home, while our healthcare has been ripped away, we don't have the most basic protection for people here in the United, like pretty damn big deal. Like that should pretty much be a front page three siren story there, Brett.

35:33Jordy Meiselas:When I saw it, my jaw like actually dropped, like they say things are jaw dropping. My jaw literally dropped when I saw that. And honestly, I found the way he answered the question even very chilling after he was asked if we have those capabilities, how he said no and kind of chuckled a little bit. Like to me, that really chilled me to my core. And you think we have this, what, $1 trillion military budget right now that Donald Trump wants to make$1.5 trillion, but we don't have the most kind of basic of defenses right now to defend in this modern warfare. It's absolutely outrageous. And I think, you know, everybody thinks, oh, the United States military, right?

36:13Jordy Meiselas:Most advanced military in the world, they have tech that you can never even dream is real. Well, the fact that we don't have this technology feels incredibly dangerous. And then I can't help but think about kind of all the other things that Donald Trump has been pushing and saying. I can't help but think, first of all, what kind of Marco Rubio and Trump has been doing with Cuba. Because if anyone is going to launch drones, Cuba is probably a place. And if they're kind of preparing for some sort of a new kind of Cuban missile crisis and that's why Cuba's been on their mind so much right now was one of the thoughts that came across my mind.

36:47Jordy Meiselas:Another thought is Donald Trump incessantly every single day talking about the stupid ballroom and the need for national security with the ballroom and posting on his Truth Social drone ports on top of the White House. We're going to have drone ports and drone defenses and drone, drone, drone. What kind of intel is he seeing where he thinks that he needs to turn the White House, the people's house into a military target, into a military installation in the United States that has weapons and drone ports and defenses and all these other, I mean, I get defenses, but the drone ports on the roof of the White House.

37:20Jordy Meiselas:And this is what he's pushing in order to get his gilded ballroom through, even though the judge who has currently stayed the case is allowing him to continue all the national security features that are apparently being built underground, the whole thing, it really kind of opened my eyes to everything else that was going on and made me think, you know, that there is a kind of deeper threat out there that they are unprepared for and that Donald Trump is increasingly paranoid over.

37:47Brett Meiselas:Yeah, I agree with you. That chuckle sent chills down my spine because usually, you know, when you answer a question, you chuckle like that before saying no. It means not only do we not have it, we're not even close to having the technology that's needed and when donald trump also is so selfish as an individual and you see photos of him with interceptors behind him as he's golfing in his backswing if we have the proper technology brothers might as mighty i mean my simple question to you is do you think it would be deployed correctly anyway or would it look out for the elite of the elite the top 0.1 who buddies up with trump at mar-a-lago sort of pay to keep you safe type of scheme, if you will.

38:27Brett Meiselas:And Ben, to go on and continue to use your analogy that you were using before, right? When he talks about this, it's really that. When he talks about how good of a negotiator he is, and he writes a book called The Art of the Deal about that, you could just know and bet a thousand bajillion dollars, all your money, that he's the world's worst negotiator. And we're seeing it play out live in front of our eyes every single second that this war continues to rage on.

38:48Ben Meiselas:because let's be clear though, Trump creates the threat against the United States by invading places, Brett and Jordy. So Brett, you mentioned Cuba. Well, the US has an embargo on Cuba and it has barricaded around Cuba with ships and is starving the people of Cuba to death. You could say what you want about the Cuban government or regime. We're starving the people to death. and then we're threatening war, Cuba's not on its own going to launch drones against the United States, just launch an offensive attack. They're not going to do that, in my humble opinion, okay? But if the United States invades it, it's going to utilize, it's going to be at a war.

39:37Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump believes that everyone's going to respond like Delcy Rodriguez and allow Trump to steal their money and put it into bank accounts that we don't even know where the hell 13 or$20 billion went. But if you look at what the CIA and intelligence reports are of Cuba, there are some of the same warnings that existed about Iran, that the Cuban government, despite Trump speaking with Raul Castro's grandkid and thinking that that's someone he could work with, that'll be the Delce Rodriguez for him. That is not a realistic solution, most analysts will tell you. We create the threats and invade places.

40:21Ben Meiselas:Trump says he's doing peace. They're like, what? You struck back? If you think about even the response to Canada, the Trump regime is saying, we're angry that Canada retaliated against our trade war against Canada. They're supposed to do nothing. They did retaliatory tariffs. Yeah, retaliatory. You attacked them, they retaliated, and they responded. You invaded Iran. You slaughtered schoolgirls in Manab. By the way, that's the most high-profile war crime. But let's not forget early on in the war, the Trump regime tried out a new exploding pellet missile that it was testing and decided it would test it on a gym where young girls, this is a constant theme with the Trump regime, young girls, right?

41:17Ben Meiselas:Where young girls were in volleyball practice in Linaird. And we slaughtered 17 little girls playing volleyball practice together. Okay? So Trump attacks and invades, and then a country responds. And then it's like, oh my God, how could they be responding and da-da-da-da-da? Because that's a frequent response when you attack. If you think about Trump's litigation posture as well, and when you talk about the response by the BBC to Donald Trump's attack on them. It's like he's shocked that they would notice depositions of the Trump kids when they're essential to the claims being asserted against the BBC regarding January 6th and Trump claims, I was defamed by$10 billion because the way you edited the Panorama documentary and it made it seem like I was involved in the J6 insurrection.

42:14Ben Meiselas:That defamed me. Really, at the same time that We heard what you said on J6. You've pardoned the insurrectionists or commuted them. You tried to create a fund, which frankly still exists in other forums right now. And you're saying that defamed you$10 billion? And then the BBC tries to serve subpoenas on Trump's kid and Jared Kushner. And what do they do? They use the Secret Service to shield them from being subpoenaed, as though they should not have to participate in the lawsuit. And Trump doesn't want to turn over his records. Can I do a do-over? Can I change? And Trump, when the person he's suing or corporation he's suing defends itself, Donald Trump then pulls a two-week death loop like the Strait of Hormuz.

43:06and Trump says, I want to amend my complaint.

43:11Ben Meiselas:I want to change it. And then he tries to drag it out over and over and over again until he eventually loses. And he does eventually lose. That's his whole mindset. You can study how he behaves in lawsuits like a loser. You can study how he behaves in war like a loser. You can study how he behaves in business like a loser. That's one of the things here too. I never want us to have an authoritarian. I'll be very clear. But it is also clear that the authoritarian that spawned here in the United States is a loser who one of the main images of him is hiding in a catering container with his human printer, Natalie Harp, trying to escape from a threat that Netanyahu told him about, which probably didn't really even exist, that Iran was going to shoot down the old Air Force One while he was too scared to also fly on Qatari Air Force One.

44:11Ben Meiselas:And here he is this morning posting stuff like this. It's why the title of our book is WTF America, because it ain't normal what is happening. And by the way, I think Senator Ossoff, and we talk about this in the book, does a great job at calling out the stuff that's not normal, but linking it with how people's lives, when people want to live normal lives, how that is being impacted and harmed by Donald Trump's abnormal, loser, traitorous, treasonous behavior, in my opinion. So Donald Trump posts this this morning. It won't really get a headline if it's reported on maybe in a bagel. Look how crazy Donald Trump is.

45:01Ben Meiselas:You're missing the bigger piece of it here. Donald Trump posts this image of Kim Jong-un. Hey, Donald, we cool, right? And it's a photo of Kim Jong-un. And that follows Donald Trump saying Kim Jong-un and North Korea are friends. This is what he posted yesterday, that our own military exercises with South Korea are hostile. He attacks South Korea for not joining the United States in its catastrophic war against Iran and how the United States, he says, pays for all of South Korea's defense, which is false. South Korea pays a lot of money to have the U.S. there, and there's joint spending obligations.

45:51Ben Meiselas:But what we have to connect this all to is the broader situation in the world of how this behavior has destroyed the United States standing in the world. And going back to the point that Jordy made, that is likely irreversible. Because even when Trump is gone, countries are going to remember, you brought that guy back again. Okay, you did it the first time, but you brought the guy back again. And we remember what he did. So I spend a lot of time every episode in the morning focused on international affairs to provide education that perhaps our corporate news is completely ignoring. For example, the formation of the Mecca Pact, a Sunni alliance, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey.

46:41Ben Meiselas:Saudi Arabia and Turkey were rivals for a long period of time. The fact that they created their own version of a NATO, and that's how they refer to it, with Article 5-like defense obligations amongst those nations, Egypt may be joining soon. Who else may be joining soon? Maybe Qatar, maybe somebody else. Because Donald Trump is so weak and pathetic and thirsty for a deal. He praises the Mecca pact as though that's something that he did. And he's like, finally, they did it. I mean, you showed the post. This is the post he made. Finally, these countries did it. Very happy to see that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan have recently and finally signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.

47:20Ben Meiselas:It shows how the Middle East is coming together and how countries will finally be able to defend themselves in a more meaningful way. Congratulations, idiot. It's because you promised to protect him and you failed at doing that. And now you're praising Kim Jong-un while our military leaders, and we'll go back to what the NORAD commander said, is saying, this isn't a game that North Korea poses currently an existential threat to our country right now is what the NORAD guy is saying. And that's who you're praising? North Korea has launched multiple ballistic missile tests recently bragging about its nuclear capabilities.

48:04Ben Meiselas:And when Trump says there's nothing that they've done that was aggressive, they've been, quote, unthreatening and respectful. When you say that, the rest of the world who look to the United States for leadership, have a collective gasp of what the hell is going on while Kim Jong-un and Putin are out there just laughing and saying, we couldn't have designed this better. So Brett and Jordy, let's go to the last break right now. I want to cut to you to talk and get your response about all of that. We're playing less clips of Trump, which I think the audience probably appreciates, but more detail as well.

48:42Ben Meiselas:So let's take our last break. reminder order wtf america right now pre-order if you can our publisher says the pre-order is probably the most important thing to sales and keeping the momentum so if you were thinking hey should i get it now or should i wait get it now if you can pre-order it we'll put a link in the description below we've got the qr code up as well you can google wtf america i think it's easier to qr code or do the link let's take our last quick break and brett i'll toss to you and jordy to get your response to what we just said as well.

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51:36Brett Meiselas:That's H-I-M-S dot com slash Midas. HIMSS.com slash Midas. Not available in all 50 states. Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Sidenafil is the generic version of Viagra. Viagra is a registered trademark for Viagra Specialty LLC. HIMSS is not affiliated with or endorsed by Viagra. this. Shout out to our sponsors, y 'all. Links in the description of the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them always send you. Sorry. A lot of commotion over here. Still on Baby Watch, by the way. Could happen any day.

52:08Brett Meiselas:Could happen during the show.

52:09Jordy Meiselas:Could happen right out of that. Maybe that was what your dog was so excited about. My dogs to just bark.

52:14Brett Meiselas:It's a doggy domino effect, you're saying.

52:17Ben Meiselas:Domino effect of dogs right now.

52:19Brett Meiselas:How does your dogs weren't barking and my dogs have such great hearing that they heard that, which triggered them to bark. Just saying. That's why I got to rock the headphones. I think we were going to kick it to you after break.

52:30Jordy Meiselas:Yeah. I don't remember.

52:32Ben Meiselas:All right. Let me show you this here, Brett, because I wanted to go back to Trey Yingst reporting out of Tel Aviv for the Trump regime and state regime media. Here's Trey Yingst over here talking about how Donald Trump told him that if Oman gets in the way. We're going to bomb the shit out of Oman, Donald Trump says. Now, I want to say this before we play the clip. Oman was the last port call for the USS Abraham Lincoln. And so that's a place that we rely on for our troops to be fed. Okay. And the other place was Bahrain, which the fifth fleet over there, which Iran destroyed. So one of the only remaining areas where you can refuel or get your supplies would be Oman.

53:29Ben Meiselas:Oman was the mediator originally who did the deal. Oman's foreign minister did a deal between the U.S. and Iran that was actually better than the JCPOA. And then Oman's foreign minister went on CBS and said, we did the deal. And that was the night that Trump and Netanyahu invaded Iran. And so Oman is a neutral party in this. They've been working with Iran on having a system of control over the Strait of Hormuz, since both Oman and Iran are on the opposite sides of the Strait of Hormuz. So when Donald Trump does this, it's like, dude, you're just an idiot. Why are you threatening to blow up Oman?

54:13Ben Meiselas:What in the hell are you doing here? And all this will do is tell Arab nations, hey, you see what's going on over there with the Mecca pact? By the way, I saw in UAE deep regrets amongst their wealthy people. Why the hell did we join the Abraham Accords that Kushner made us enter into with Israel? This is now given a liability to us. This isn't working for us right now. And then they say, and look, you have all these statements coming out of Netanyahu and Ben Gavir and Smutrich from Israel saying them. I mean, they've always said this, but they've like been ramping it up. If you could even ramp it up from where you go before me, how do you ramp up more than saying genocidal sick things?

54:58Ben Meiselas:But they're just out there saying it every day. I try to cover it in the morning and say, look what they're saying. Like, this is what they're saying out loud. What do you think they're saying behind the scenes? So anyway, here's what he says about Oman. And that's why I wanted to give you the background though. And now just say, oh, here's Donald Trump saying this. Dude, this was the place that helped get supplies to our freaking sailors, you idiot. Here, play this clip. Now I asked the president about these parallel talks that are taking place between Iran and Oman about control of the Strait of Hormuz.

55:25Ben Meiselas:And the president told Fox News, if Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the S out of them. And again, this is someone who doesn't have the emotional intelligence. That's the nicest thing I can say about him, to be in this position. And by the way, Hillary Clinton warned about this during the debate in 2015. If he can be baited by a social media post, what do you think that world leaders can do with this guy? And he's out there saying this. Think about the stuff he said. I'm going to blow the effing S out of them. Now it's Oman. You're going to blow the shit. If Oman gets in the way of what? What if they get in the way of?

56:04Ben Meiselas:They're negotiating with Iran. You have no involvement in this right now. And you're out there taking credit for the Mecca Pact, which is a reaction to your weakness. And then going back to what our NORAD commander is saying, as I've said before, that I was going to show you when we come back, the NORTHCOM deputy commander is saying, look, North Korea has successfully tested ICBMs that could attack us. And that North Korea is a current present threat against us. Listen to what he says. Here play this clue.

56:36Brett Meiselas:Since 2022, China has launched eight Shang-3 class nuclear powered guided missile submarines and likely will have all eight operational by 2027, providing the Chinese with a clandestine land attack option against critical infrastructure in Alaska and along the West Coast. Meanwhile, adversaries are developing and fielding advanced nuclear and conventional delivery capabilities. crews, hypersonic and ballistic missiles, as well as fractional orbital bombardment systems, or FOBs, to threaten not only Alaska and Hawaii, but the entire continental United States. The Chinese are developing ICBMs equipped with hypersonic glide vehicles, as well as FOBs weapons, that can approach North America from the south rather than the traditional northerly vector for which our legacy early warning radars were designed.

57:29Brett Meiselas:such systems would would involve strategic stability would erode strategic stability by degrading our ability to provide granular and actionable warning of our inbound of an inbound

57:43Ben Meiselas:attack so you get the point and one thing i wanted to mention to brett as you were talking about the defensive capabilities that trump wants on the white house i think that was the most significant in part is that while the United States homeland is not protected, Donald Trump wants to only protect himself. That's one of the main issues. He wants the White House to be a military facility that has anti-drone and anti-ballistic capabilities, while the rest of the United States remains unprotected while he diverts trillions of dollars to the military industrial complex.

58:19Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, and it goes to what Jordy was saying before, right? He's going to make sure He's going to make sure he's safe. He's going to make sure all of his rich buddies are safe. They're going to be in their bunkers that they've been building, right? But the rest of us, who cares, right? He doesn't care about it. He doesn't care about the rest of us. And what I was going to say before about all this is when you look at just the geopolitical landscape overseas right now, and you see what we've been doing to Iran and just invading, bombing them, relentlessly blowing up schools, all this stuff. And you see the way Donald Trump is speaking about North Korea and the way he's just abandoning our allies, the way he's just screwing over South Korea.

58:53Jordy Meiselas:You can't help but think strategically, if you're Iran or if you're any other kind of non-nuclear country, a country that doesn't have nuclear weapons, you're probably thinking right now, I better get me some nuclear weapons. A, it's clear that the United States isn't going to screw with any country that has nuclear weapons. Look at how nice Donald Trump is being to Kim Jong-un. Look at how nice he's being to North Korea since they got nukes, right? Donald Trump doesn't say anything nice. He just says love letters and he's great and what a good guy and all this stuff. But Iran, maybe he would have thought twice about bombing Iran if they had nukes.

59:27Jordy Meiselas:Maybe he'd think twice about bombing whatever the next Iran would be if they had nukes. I think that has to be the calculus that a lot of these countries are going to have. And I think a lot of the countries in the region also who we basically promised like, don't get nuclear weapons because we will protect you in case anything happens. They also have to be rethinking right now all of this, especially, I mean, even in light of how Donald Trump has really just abandoned Ukraine, right? That was like kind of the whole deal with Ukraine that we'd have your back throughout all the, you know, throughout all this, you know, no need to, you know, get, you know, all these, all those sorts of weapons.

1:00:00Jordy Meiselas:But Donald Trump just has continued to screw over these countries, screw over our allies, but he's also kind of shown his cards as to, okay, well, what is it going to take for the United States for the next Donald Trump or whoever, whatever warmongering president that is, what's it going to take for them not to screw with me? And maybe it's nukes. And to me, that creates a much more dangerous world when for a period of time, the world was leaning towards nuclear denuclearization across the world, not proliferation. And so I think we're just in an incredibly dangerous place globally. I'll toss it back to you.

1:00:36Brett Meiselas:I just want to add this really quickly. I mean, Donald Trump is the single most emotional president that the United States has ever had, right? What are these misogynists in MAGA always say? Like when a woman is running for president, oh, she can't lead you to emotion. I mean, that's the dumbest frigging shit ever, especially after watching Donald Trump and how he is quote unquote leading, yeah, leading us right into a loss. That's what's happening right now because he can't take a breath and actually make a decision that's going to better impact the American people and our troops. He is way too emotional to lead.

1:01:03Brett Meiselas:Sorry, Ben, go ahead.

1:01:04Ben Meiselas:No, I was, I stepped on you because I just wanted to make one point when Brett's talking about nuclear proliferation that doesn't get nearly enough attention. And we've been covering it a ton on this network that a little less than a year ago, Donald Trump authorized nuclear weapon testing within the United States, actually using nuclear weapons in a testing format inside the continental United States in places like Nevada or New Mexico, to which the senators there said, What the hell are you doing? And Donald Trump claimed that he had super secret intelligence that nobody else knew about. Our allies didn't know about, nobody knew.

1:01:46Ben Meiselas:He said that Russia and China were actively doing nuclear testing, like right now, which no one's done nuclear testing since like the early 1990s. What they are doing is they're testing the delivery systems, the ballistics, for example, that can carry nuclear weapons, and they've run simulations as part of the testing, what the nuclear weapons would do in terms of the fallout, but they did not actually do nuclear weapons testing. It would register like an earthquake if they did. We'd be able to have objective criteria to see if it actually happened. And we know that's not true. But on that basis, Donald Trump, MAGA Mike Johnson, JD Vance, and the entire Trump regime said, we will be testing nuclear weapons, to which Russia responded through Peskov and Lavrov and their people over there.

1:02:45Ben Meiselas:Well, if you're going to test, then we're going to have to test. And then you have the same statements coming out of China, which is, well, if you're going to do it, then we may have to think very differently about all of this. And again, that's a story that kind of in the Trump news cycle disappears. But it's our duty as members of independent media to say, let's remember that's an objective fact. That's what Trump said. And that's incredibly dangerous. And that fact alone, to say we're going to be doing nuclear weapons testing and premising it on false information, should itself not just be impeachable, it should be criminal, in my opinion.

1:03:26Ben Meiselas:We are going to do nuclear testing in the United States. What the hell is even going on here? But I want to bring us some hope as we approach the end of this episode. And the way Senator Ossoff, there's a reason. I mean, he has the it factor. There's some things that are just so intangible, but there are some things that you can observe and say, here's what he's doing very well. We can all obviously mock or call out this bizarre relationship, whatever it is between Donald Trump and Natalie Harp, his human printer, right? This is bizarre. This is odd. You can speculate what's really happening there.

1:04:03Ben Meiselas:The notes that she's leaving for him, we could all probably get a sense and form opinions on it. But the broader issue is, again, while he's out there with Natalie hiding in catering containers, stock trading, throwing golf tournaments for himself where he wins the senior level tournament and the regular tournament, even though we know he's not shooting below 70 or whatever he claims. When he's doing that, we can't just be like, oh, look, he's crazy. We know he's crazy. Oh, look at he's a horrible human being. We know that. But the issue is an issue of good governance, of leadership, of empathy, of public service.

1:04:51Ben Meiselas:And so what Ossoff does brilliant here is connecting these themes. And others would be wise to watch how he does it. He's not a fast talker. I like slow talkers sometimes. And he makes his words count. And they're delivered with emphasis. and the whole package is delivered. And you can see that it's really gotten to the Trump regime's kind of core sensitivities. Stephen Chung says, John Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics. Now, Stephen Chung is the White House communications director. I can say a lot about this guy's appearance. I could say a lot about it. Okay. The fact that this guy is making these types of comments, there's a saying, obviously, he who lives in a glass house.

1:05:59Ben Meiselas:I'll just resist some of the references I'm going to be making and I'll be the better man here and I won't go. Won't go what? Hypothetically. Hypothetically, I was going to go Star Wars Jabba the... Okay, stop, stop, stop. Stop it. Mature. Rise. No need to go there.

1:06:17Jordy Meiselas:Rise above it. We'll cut this out of the pocket.

1:06:20Ben Meiselas:Cut that out. Instead of denigrating hardworking people serving their country, John should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he's a miserable person who hates this country. it's because he's a radical extremist democrat scott jennings says this is quite a message for the democratic party to send to young women working in politics party of women pretty ugly stuff and the way they shirk into victimhood right away it's like dude the guy in the oval office is literally someone found civilly liable for sexual assault like y 'all are covering up the epstein files okay you manage to take a meeting with the survivors and have your new ag further traumatize the survivors and and and you're you're hiding behind as though you're the champion of of women brett i know you were going to say something i'm just going to say the nerve the nerve of these

1:07:20Jordy Meiselas:people to play the victim and go, oh, do you ever think about the feelings of women? Okay. That's what you're going to make this about right now. Really? Really? When like the same day today, you have Donald Trump screaming, berating a female reporter in the Oval Office yet again, after asking a very simple question. These people are the biggest cowards imaginable. The fact that they go. Okay.

1:07:45Ben Meiselas:I just, while it's on my head, this is something that they're doing also. And I just want everyone to see the propaganda tactic that they use. And it's like super creepy. And they do it every year when there is like the back to college sorority rush. The MAGAs will show these videos of rush taking place where the young college girls are joining a sorority and they do their dances and they do their kind of group activities. and MAGA will show their videos and they'll be like, the libs will never like this or the libs hate this or the libs don't want to see this. And it's like, number one, why are you all out there finding these clips of like young ladies in sorority rush, like ages 18 to 19?

1:08:35Ben Meiselas:Like, why are you, can't you just let them have you?

1:08:37Jordy Meiselas:Why are y 'all creeping like the ASU Tri Delta sorority Instagram again?

1:08:41Ben Meiselas:Why are you creeping on sorority Instagram stuff? And two, there's no lib who wakes up and goes, ah, this is making me angry. And so they try to create this artificial culture war, and then they fight within their own culture war. This is how woke they are. They're angry at these sorority girls. And it's like, no, we just want no never-ending wars. And we want people to have healthcare, and we want people to be able to afford homes. there's not a lot of people who are thinking, oh man, that sorority makes me angry. The only thing who I think that people who it makes angry about are the right-wing people who are posting it and they feel, I don't know, a certain way.

1:09:28Ben Meiselas:I don't know what makes them post it to begin with, but I just want to call that out because it's happening again and I keep seeing it. And then on the right-wing algorithms, they push it. It's like 3 million views, 5 million views. and then like all the comments are like, yeah, man, libs are getting angry at this. And I'm like, no one's angry at this. There's no one other than you all weirdos who keep posting, who are, you know, it's like everything's stolen valor with them too, right? Like they can't just leave people alone. Like Trump's got to meme himself as a four-star general and steal the, just let them have their enjoyment in college without making it a weird political thing, okay?

1:10:03Ben Meiselas:No one's angry about it. Just you're being weird and creepy and stop posting these damn things. Sorry, Jordy.

1:10:11Brett Meiselas:though sorry you're right i was on mute i was so stunned by the fact that their algorithms are just flooded with us that they're creepy there's nothing like that's why they do it though they're they're all freaking creeps like all these maga operatives man all these like right wing red pill folks sorry i'm staying in my in-laws they're the only people left with the house line that in the three minutes that i get to speak during the pot but but they're creeps man these right wing folks are creepy friggin let's toss it over to jordy ruff ruff ring ring ring ring ring it's my bit what if everything you guys do you guys hear the ringing i'll i could make it louder

1:10:46Ben Meiselas:probably yeah yeah i'll hear it right to you all right why don't we why don't we go to the jordy's that that's jordy's my job every time you guys toss to me during the episodes like i just some commotion in the background it's a good bit it's a good bit it's a good bit it's a good bit at least What did you say? I was going to say, I'll just leave it at that. Let's just pull it back. Let's show you Senator Ossoff.

1:11:18Jordy Meiselas:And there's something uniquely despicable about lying a nation into war.

1:11:29Ben Meiselas:Treating citizens as fools and those who serve as pawns.

1:11:37Jordy Meiselas:Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, they've now been at sea for 240 plus days without a port call. It's a Navy record. and still and still and still they serve with excellence. And still they serve with excellence. God bless the sailors,

1:11:59Ben Meiselas:marines, aviators and all aboard the United States ship Abraham Lincoln.

1:12:11Ben Meiselas:See, they don't expect luxury.

1:12:14Jordy Meiselas:They'll endure hardship, but they deserve competent leaders who send them into combat only when necessary and with decisive clarity of purpose, not fools who lie about the purpose and progress of war. And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.

1:13:05Jordy Meiselas:That is how it's done. Brett, Jordy. He's really, really good. And also, you know, Ossoff's background is he was a documentary filmmaker. And so one thing I noticed is that at his rallies, he has some very cinematic angles that I haven't seen at other rallies. It feels like you're watching a movie when you watch him. And I think he understands kind of that this is a big aspect of running for office in 2026 is a look in the part and having these good visuals. And he's definitely kind of mastered that. And that's exactly how you need to tie Donald Trump's erratic nature, his corruption, all the chaos that everybody in the kind of corporate media likes to be like, do voters really care about democracy?

1:13:48Jordy Meiselas:They don't really care about democracy. They do, actually, I'm going to say. And they especially care about it when you connect it to the important aspects of their lives and why Donald Trump's erosion of democracy is actually hurting you in your day-to-day lives. And Ossoff is incredibly effective at doing just that. I also heard that whole kind of chattering class going, should he have invoked the name Natalie? Who is that even for? Is that just for the internet? Sometimes you have to set the narrative, right? You don't just run with what's trending. You don't just run with what the people on cable news are talking about.

1:14:24Jordy Meiselas:Sometimes you need to force those people to speak about the issues that you want them to be talking about. And by doing that, Ossoff has sparked a conversation about this topic that has people debating it. And now people will watch that full clip and see his entire message. And they will see exactly what he was saying in the whole buildup and how targeted his, I'm not even going to call it an attack, but how targeted his criticisms of Donald Trump and his disastrous war and everything he's doing to the American people, how targeted it truly was and how effective it is. Now more people are going to see that.

1:15:01Jordy Meiselas:It's one of the reasons why that clip went viral, why it's reaching more people. And I'm sure it's also one of the reasons that Google searches right now are probably spiking for who is Natalie.

1:15:10Brett Meiselas:And really quickly, I don't have any information on the back. Really quickly, I just wanted to say I really do appreciate his communication style. It's clear, it's effective, and it really just gets the job done. Ben, sorry.

1:15:22Ben Meiselas:Oh, no, no, Jordy. Jordy, it's okay. I just wasn't sure if it was going to be, you know, I don't know, some sirens in the background. Now we cut to Jordy. Wee! Wee! Wee! Send me out. The dogs. Oh, that's Ben.

1:15:35Brett Meiselas:For the audio listeners, that's Ben. That is Ben's. And by the way, my favorite film, it was... All right, all right.

1:15:41Jordy Meiselas:So I'll take over because we've got two noisy brothers on the episode. Who have all these noises. Yeah, Ben, I know what you want to play. I'm going to play... So here's a clip of... A lot of people haven't heard her. I know. I'm going to show you Natalie Harp. And you could... You're going to see... I'll let you form your own judgment. This is Natalie Harp, the woman who has been rumored and reported on to be having a very, I'll say, peculiar relationship. A human printer boss relationship. With Donald Trump, a very peculiar relationship between the two of them. She writes some love letters and notes, and there's a whole thing going on.

1:16:14Jordy Meiselas:I'll let you be the judge of that. This is who also brought up. But let's actually look at who she is when she speaks. Let's play this clip.

1:16:21Ben Meiselas:We can't talk about winning back the House and Senate in 2022. and the White House in 2024 if we don't act on the fact that we actually did win the White House and the Senate in 2020. We shouldn't be afraid to say that because it's true. We the people know America as we know it could be ending in the next two or four years, which is exactly what President Trump is warning of. They think if they can get President Trump, they can get the 75 million people to shut up and stand down.

1:16:51Jordy Meiselas:She's nuts.

1:16:54Ben Meiselas:She's nuts. Well, I think we've covered a lot. I think we've covered a lot on today's episode. Should I show the one clip of when Donald Trump was asked about Natalie and what his response was? Or should I show the clip of Donald Trump just yelling at the press and just screaming at the - Let's show his response,

1:17:11Jordy Meiselas:because I thought it was actually an incredibly weak response when he was asked about Natalie It's a question he had to assume was coming. But I think the interesting thing is when, Bendy, we were talking about Steve Chung and we were talking about Scott Jennings, the White House, official White House rapid response account. I've not seen them be this defensive about a story in a while. And I think it's very odd that they've taken this story as the one to try to push back against and try to name call and all those things. So here was Donald Trump being asked about that. Mr.

1:17:44Brett Meiselas:President, what did John Ossoff say, did you rather travel with your aide, Natalie Hart, and build the ballroom than do your job as president? What is your response, John Ossoff?

1:17:52Jordy Meiselas:You mean Pee-wee Herman? Pee-wee Herman lookalike? No, I would much rather do other things. It's a, we're building a great facility here. We're fixing a White House that hasn't been taken care of. You can look at this. This room was a disgraceful situation, the Oval Office. And it was, it was let go. The whole building, the White House was let go. The exteriors were falling apart.

1:18:17Ben Meiselas:And then I want to show this because the White House is now attacking the CNN reporter who asked Donald Trump, I think a very basic question about Kim Jong-un and, you know, it was about Donald Trump's behavior. And the White House told the CNN reporter, someday your children will come across, from the White House, your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question. They will be sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous and vindictive. It's quite troubling. And I mean, they're attacking. I mean, just think about the language that they're using. CNN responded and said that we stand behind our reporter.

1:19:00Ben Meiselas:We stand firmly behind Kristen Holmes, one of the most respected and accomplished journalists covering the White House. She did her job and asked the president thoughtful newsworthy questions on behalf of the American officials. Public officials are free to challenge the reporting they disagree with. The personal attacks on journalists for asking questions are beneath the office and inconsistent with the principles of a free press. I'll just show you Donald Trump screaming. He was screaming at all the reporters today. Let's watch one example.

1:19:25Jordy Meiselas:Obama, he didn't like anybody, but I get along with him very well. No, what I'm doing is making things safer. Just the opposite. Quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet. You're very disrespectful in front of this young man. Okay? Don't you find her disrespectful? He understands. Quiet. Who are you with? I'm with CNN. Fake news. You're fake news. You're a loud, boisterous person. You're fake news. Be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. You're a fake reporter and you report fake news. Go ahead. Mr. President, is there enough food on the USS Lincoln? Yeah, it is. That was a CNN fake report.

1:20:08Ben Meiselas:And I want to say this too, and I'll leave with this too, because character leadership is very important. And there, Trump turned to a 16-year-old lifeguard who made a heroic rescue in Santa Cruz. That's who Ryder Williams is. Trump didn't know who he was. He had to look at a card and realize the name of who the person even was. But Trump turned to the 16-year-old and said, don't you think that she's disrespectful? As though he needed the 16-year-old's cosign while he attacked the reporter. Think about what a weak and pathetic human being does that. And think about that's the exact type of weak and pathetic human being who disgraces our troops every day, who harms our country every day.

1:20:55Ben Meiselas:Who the hell does that? And as I started with this episode saying, a felon, a traitor, a loser, a predator, an abuser. That's who it is. Jordy. We out of here?

1:21:10Jordy Meiselas:Unless it's going to go, meow, meow. Moo, moo. Jordy lives on a farm. Listen. Jordy lives in between a farm and a data center, apparently. I have a lot going on. I love you guys. Great episode.

1:21:29Brett Meiselas:Subscribe to the audio podcast if you aren't already. Shout out to the Midas Mighty. Hey, bro, bro, bro.

1:21:53Brett Meiselas:Before you go, our book, WTF America, is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.