MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/21/26

21:36Brett Meiselas:I think it's also a big reason why, too, Donald Trump starts to point his fingers at our allies and starts to attack our allies because he's not getting, I guess, the emotional gratitude when he goes after these other leaders like the King John. He's not satisfied with their responses and that they push. It's so bizarre to me to see the pivot to attack our allies.

21:57Ben Meiselas:Well, it's just like when he's a loser in litigation. He's a loser in everything in life, right? So what does he do when he loses the case? He attacks the judge. It's so unfair. What does he do when he doesn't like the fact that the treasury yields are rising or he doesn't like the fact that interest rates will probably have to increase. He attacks the Fed and goes after them and just screams at them. And it's like, dude, it is you. You're the loser. Everybody knew that tariffs would increase inflation. And when you run a trade war against the world, they're going to respond. And it's also going to cause the consumers here in the United States to pay more money.

22:37Ben Meiselas:And it's going to be bad when you invoke a 1930s tariff statute that has not been used since 1930. Maybe the reason is because that's what led to the Great Depression or accelerated the Great Depression. And the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act is not something you want to rekindle in 2026. But in any event, you have President Lee of South Korea. Who'd he meet with today? And who is he meeting with in the next 48 hours? Wang Yi of China. That's China's foreign minister. South Korea is going to turn to China and say, got it. well, we're not with the U.S. anymore under that security umbrella. So we're going to have to look elsewhere and we'll look to China and we'll have to improve our relations there.

23:21Ben Meiselas:And President Lee, in his post, this is what he says, and this is obviously mocking Donald Trump. He goes, I have carefully reviewed the recent SNS messages and photos posted by President Trump. SNS are the social network messages. He's saying, I've closely reviewed Trump's social media messages. And then he goes on to say that this message from Trump feels like a significant decision, deeply infused with deliberations aimed at transcending hostility and confrontation on the Korean peninsula to create peace. And it's Donald Trump's meme of Kim Jong-un saying, hey, Donald, we cool, right? They're mocking.

24:04Ben Meiselas:I want you all to realize what President Lee of South Korea did. He's mocking Donald Trump and saying that this is deliberation infused with great amount of thinking. And then he goes, okay, you want to be peacemaker? Good luck. We wish you the best. And what did Kim Jong-un do in the past 12 hours? I could go back 48 hours, past 12 hours, ballistic missile test, 10 ballistic missiles or so, 10 short rain ballistics the guy shot after Donald Trump saying it. And then that's what Kim Jong-un did. And so President Lee of South Korea is like, I've seen first the messages on social media. And he's mocking Donald Trump for not like you're not going to go through commanders.

24:45Ben Meiselas:You're not going to go through the military. You're not going to go through your ambassadors. But that's how the world views the United States right now.

24:52Jordy Meiselas:You know, I feel like every kind of major power right now in the world is employing the same strategy against Donald Trump. And that's the famous never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake. And I think Iran's doing a version of that, right? Like, you know, all the, you know, assassination threats, this, that it's like, as Ben has said on the show many times, like, why would they even want to do anything to Donald Trump? He's destroying everything on his own. He, he is their weapon of mass destruction. So let him destruct. I think Canada's handling things the same exact way. I think you see China just stepping back.

25:25Jordy Meiselas:Okay. America retreat. Okay. Retreat. Okay. See you later. All right. South Korea, hey, what's up, guys? You doing good? You doing good? Let's want to hang out. Want to hang out? I know that guy was crazy. So let's chill, man. Let's chill. Let's hang out. And so you're seeing all these countries right now take this opportunity. And all they have to do is nothing. Nothing. It's like Seinfeld, the show about nothing. It's a geopolitical war where all they have to do is nothing. They just have to sit back and let it all happen.

25:53Ben Meiselas:You know, they're like the first year they were kind of feeling it out, right? You think about like a boxing match, right? And you kind of feel it out. You feel it out. Even where you are a quote unquote inferior power, you're still a heavyweight, right? I mean, countries usually still know what they're doing, right? If you're in the World Cup, you may not be Spain or Argentina, but you're still in the World Cup for a reason. You could still play, right? You know what I mean? And so you're feeling it out. You usually have the smartest people, top people around you, expert. So you're feeling out.

26:24Ben Meiselas:You're like, okay, this person, this entity, the United States, they have the reputation of being the best, the strongest, the power. They created the game. Okay, we got to respect the game, even if it's a crazy person. And then it's like in a boxing match, you know, like what if the boxer who's, you know, the undisputed heavyweight starts just like going like this, like going crazy. It's like, all right, that's a little weird. That's a little weird. But like maybe that's part of the plan. And then we're going to get like sucker punched. And so like, even though they're doing that, it's not, I've never seen that boxing strategy.

26:55Ben Meiselas:That's a little freaking crazy. All right, let's, let's wait a little bit. Then round two, they do it again. All right. It's a little bit weird. And then you start to jab, jab. And then the, and then the big boxer keeps, okay, are they going to punch back? Oh, then they go, I'm going to punch you really hard. I'm going to punch you really hard. Okay. Pop, pop, pop right back at you. And the big heavyweights still like doing that. Okay. This is good. Could this person actually fight? Like, what are they doing? Like, what are they doing? And then they keep seeing the person in there and then the person starts punching themselves in the face and that's what trump's doing like this starts punching himself and then so these countries are like oh oh it's like that like like like you dumbed up like like oh got it i this is the game oh okay and then trump's like what you want you want this you want this you think you could handle this and then

27:44Brett Meiselas:these countries are watching him like okay okay okay for the audio listeners ben is punching himself

27:52Jordy Meiselas:And on that, this is a very physical bit.

27:54Brett Meiselas:It's a very physical bit.

27:56Ben Meiselas:That's why you got to make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and check right now and make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel. That may not translate at all for any audio listeners.

28:04Brett Meiselas:There was so many action things. There were so many actions.

28:08Ben Meiselas:And for the audio listeners, they're going to be like, what are we doing here?

28:11Jordy Meiselas:Ben is taking off his shirt right now. Ben, you don't have to get into this bit. Ben, easy.

28:18Ben Meiselas:Let's take our first quick break of the show. So WTF America is the name of the book that I wrote with my brothers. It comes out in October 20th. Pre-order WTF America right now. Lots of momentum behind it. We hope you'll pre-order it. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel as well. Let's take our first quick break of it. It's a good bit. I came up with it on the spot. Let's take our first quick break of the show.

28:43Brett Meiselas:After checking how much I spent eating out last month, I was honestly shocked. So switching to Home Chef, that's been a real game changer for me. Home Chef makes cooking simple, fresh food delivered, easy recipes to follow, and meals that actually taste great. Take the stress out of your week with convenient weekly deliveries that keep your fridge stocked and eliminate meal planning and grocery runs. No long shopping list, no complicated prep, and best of all, easy cleanup. It's perfect for busy schedules, whether you need a 30-minute meal or an oven-ready tray or even a quick microwave lunch.

29:16Brett Meiselas:Home Chef has you covered. And it's not one size fits all. Home Chef has over 30 meal options each week with choices for different tastes and dietary needs, including calorie conscious and even GLP-1 friendly meals. And here's something pretty cool. Home Chef's GLP-1 friendly meals also make it easy with pre-portioned ingredients and dietician approved nutritional guidelines. And people really love it. Home Chef is rated number one by users of other meal kits for quality, convenience, value, taste, and recipe ease. Customers say they spend less time planning, shopping, and prepping meals. Plus, it's affordable.

29:53Brett Meiselas:Home Chef customers save an average of$86 per month on groceries. For a limited time, Home Chef is offering my listeners 50 % off and free shipping for your first box, plus free dessert for life. Go to homechef.com slash Midas. That's homechef.com slash Midas for 50 % off your first box and free dessert for life. Homechef.com slash Midas must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert.

30:20Jordy Meiselas:Do you snore? Did somebody hand you a CPAP and did you quietly stop using it? The mask that never quite seals the hose tugging at you every time you roll over and a machine sitting abandoned in a closet. Well, Excite OSA works a different way. It treats a root cause instead of managing the noise, and you use it while you're awake. It's an FDA-cleared prescription device for primary snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea. And here's what the routine looks like, 20 minutes once a day. While the coffee brews while you watch one episode of something daily for six weeks, then a lighter routine to keep it.

30:52Jordy Meiselas:Most people notice a change in just four to six weeks, and then when it's actually time for bed, you go to bed like a person. Nothing strapped on, nothing plugged in. In clinical studies, 90 % of patients saw a reduction in snoring. And getting started is simple. No sleep lab, no waiting room. You answer a few questions online, a licensed provider reviews them, and it ships to your door. See if it's right for you. Get ExciteOSA at springsleep.com slash Midas and use code Midas for 20 % off. Again, that's ExciteOSA at springsleep.com slash Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S. Thanks to Spring Sleep for sponsoring this episode.

31:33Jordy Meiselas:Excite OSA is an FDA-cleared, prescription-only device for primary snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea. Not for everyone. Individual results vary. Risks and benefits at springsleep.com.

31:46Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in the description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Spring Sleep, new sponsor to the network. Definitely check that out. That's very, very, very cool. Home Chef, obviously. Everyone loves them. uh real quick before we move forward just want to say uh the bit with the my my phone over here earlier not planned for those who listened to the show on tuesday watched it monday night i had a lot of noises going on i i did not force a phone call here i saw some comments saying i did that on purpose did not do that on purpose and ben great physical podcasting today so far i'm really happy you know like physical comedy like the guys that eat like on snl back in the day ben's a physical podcaster tonight.

32:28Brett Meiselas:Fantastic.

32:28Jordy Meiselas:And speaking of physical comedy and audio comedy, I want to remind everyone to make sure you're also, uh, that you're subscribed to the Midas Touch podcast on audio. We did get some emails from people saying that they were having trouble playing the episodes on the feed. So just go into the Midas Touch podcast, be it like Apple podcasts or wherever you listen, play the episodes, make sure it's working for you. Let us know in the comments. All right, Ben, what's next?

32:48Ben Meiselas:Look, I think I approached this. I know. I hope I approach this or you feel I do. This isn't coming like the democratic perspective, the independent perspective, Republican perspective, or whatever. I mean, using the World Cup football analogy or soccer in the United States, you want your best players out there, right? You don't want to send out a JV team to play against other teams that have the best from their countries. You can't underestimate it. And the Trump regime always underestimates while putting out the worst people. And it's led by the worst possible captain in Donald Trump, who is not a leader at all, who is a bankruptor, who's been a lifelong failure and a lifelong fraud, who's put out a team of JV fraud, not even good fraud.

33:36Ben Meiselas:They're like JV frauds. And you watch them all head out, do their state regime media propaganda bits today. And I'll tell you, today more than ever, and this was deeply concerning, and Brett and Jordy, tell me if you feel this way also, amongst really bad propaganda, today kind of seemed the worst I've seen it with them. Like they all just kind of didn't even have their heart in the fraud anymore. Like they all just kind of were like, yeah, want to talk about the Grand Prix race? It's like, no, no, we don't. But we're doing a great race. and the cars, they're going to go zoom, zoom, zoom in Washington DC.

34:18Ben Meiselas:Do you like that? People are like, dude, what are you talking about? We're still doing America 250. It's freaking August. We're still doing this bit.

34:29Jordy Meiselas:Yeah. We've reached, we're in the bread and circuses phase of the Trump regime right now, but they forgot the bread. People can't eat. So it's just these bizarre circuses while people are going hungry and while people can't afford things. So they're like, Hey, you see the race we're doing at the way. You see that UFC fight. That was pretty cool. That wasn't last week.

34:48Ben Meiselas:Did you see what we did in Ohio? And they did their hunger games when they do it. I did a video on it. And I, you know, I really couldn't keep it. By the way, I don't think anyone saw it.

34:57Jordy Meiselas:They didn't know other than the people that watched your thing.

35:00Ben Meiselas:I did a video on it and I was reading the comments as I watched these individuals who were purported to be the best high school athletes. And so it was called the Patriot games. I did a whole bit on it. I won't spend that much time on it right now, but the Trump regime put out a notice to Christian schools, particularly Christian private schools, that you send an essay and a video of yourself to join the Patriot games. And then they say, if you qualify, like it's not, it's not even like, I don't want to offend, even though these kids are probably like MAGA families, I don't really want to offend the kids.

35:33Ben Meiselas:Like I wasn't trying to mock the kids, but they're not the best athletes. They weren't really even good athletes. They were mostly all white kids. There was like a few people who were not white in it. It was, so it was just like Trump's.

35:43Brett Meiselas:Someone's got to make a meme of Ben, like the MJ meme to fuck them kids. I was very careful.

35:49Ben Meiselas:I was very careful in how I presented it, but they basically had these like white Christian kids run around like, like, you know, those dog races that they do. but I'm not even Joe Jordy I'm you go watch they had him do the dog obstacle course and they run around and these kids are out of shape mostly and they and they're trying really hard you know but you know I'm 41 it would look like me doing it right you know it's like you know and they're like these are the best athletes in the country so the whole thing was utterly deranged I'm not even sure why I'm even bringing this up but the point is is that we're doing America 250 that was last week.

36:29Ben Meiselas:They want to talk about Grand Prix this week. And the American people, going back to the way Senator Ossoff does it, which I think is the right way you have these discussions, it's like, no, no, no, no, no. You promised us on day one that groceries would be incredibly cheap and that you would decrease inflation. Inflation has increased. You promised electricity would be half. You promised us gas prices would have a two in front of it. It would be two bucks. Now, it's the highest nationwide ever in the history of the United States. You promised us no never ending wars or no wars. You promised you would resolve Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

37:05Ben Meiselas:You've lied about everything. And now you're doing Grand Prix. Now you're doing this with Natalie. Now you're doing golf tournaments and ballrooms and anything like what the hell's going on? So the Trump regime brings out Brooke Rollins. Brooke Rollins, agriculture secretary, goes on Newsmax, pretty safe channel, regime media, they say. So is food affordability becoming a test on whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promise? Is affordability becoming a test? Here, play this clip.

37:38Brett Meiselas:With the midterms approaching, how do you see this playing out? Is food affordability really becoming a test of whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promises? No, affordability, you know, I think continues to be a key conversation as it should be. But I think we have to put this all into context and certainly on the food side, which is what we look are looking at at USDA, protecting the food supply, number one, but affordability as well. Under Joe Biden, the cost of food went up almost 25 percent. I mean, this is what we're battling against right now. Under Trump, we are right at the 20 year average, which is around two to three percent.

38:16Ben Meiselas:Blame Biden, blame Biden, blame Biden. But here's the thing, even though it wasn't Biden, but whatever, just except for the sake of argument, just except for the sake of argument. Biden didn't run. Biden dropped out of the race. So by that logic, Trump should drop out, or Trump should, y 'all hated Biden. I mean, them being the Trump regime. So you're comparing the two? Okay. So even if that's your comparison, Trump promised he would make things better. He's actually made things worse by far. and also when they talk about, you know, they always bring up Biden's like first year or second year and using my sports example, it's like analyzing the game in the second quarter versus the fourth quarter.

38:57Ben Meiselas:You know, it's like after the team wins the game and goes through fourth quarters, it'd be like saying, but did you see the second quarter? It's like, okay, yeah, we were down in the second quarter, but they won the game at the end. We can look at the totality and say,

39:09Brett Meiselas:let me sharpen that analogy for you there. It's as if it's a complete rebuild. When President biden had taken over he was rebuilding what trump had destroyed it's like when new ownership and a new coach actually comes in and tries to get things back on track and by the way starts to make progress there and then all of a sudden you know it happens when it happens and now the bad

39:27Jordy Meiselas:coach is back and they do it in the inverse too right like they're always cherry picking data and they're always trying to find like what was the sliver of time we could point to where things were okay and you see that with the way they speak about donald trump's first term which uh by the way, was also a headed for disaster in manufacturing before COVID happened. But what did you hear, Donald Trump? And when you hear all these people say, well, we were doing great. We were doing really great. But then something happened and you just you can't actually count that last year. You know, you can't count the year before either.

40:00Jordy Meiselas:Like you could actually only count this this tiny little period. And that's how we should be judged upon. And it's like that's that's not how it works, especially when you're the guy who's mishandling all the crises when it's your job to manage the crises i also can't get over the fact of of how

40:16Brett Meiselas:un tv ready so many people in the trump regime truly are like that clip right there is super pathetic first off for the audio viewer she's on newsmax she's on newsmax and she just had a layup of a question and all of a sudden her her maga uh brain rotted brain just couldn't answer a simple for yes affordability is a huge crisis we're we're doing our best to correct the just give any of that, but instead it's no, it's Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden. I mean, honestly, they have Biden derangement syndrome. Everyone in his cabinet, including Donald Trump, suffers from deep, deeply disturbed Biden derangement syndrome.

40:51Ben Meiselas:Yeah. And Donald promised on day one that he was going to make it better. That was his whole pitch. I mean, his whole pitch was day one, day one. And then they said, ah, give us another quarter. give us another quarter ah beginning of 2026 ah give us until the end of 26 ah give us over here and it's like i just think the american people are like time's up like the ponzi scheme the ponzi scheme is over and look that's why his approval right now is the lowest in modern presidential history period since 1953 it's it's the lowest i know for our international viewers and people here and then i say it's still like wait 33 percent of people still so that's a high number man.

41:32Ben Meiselas:Like how does 33 % still support him? But, you know, I think you have to realize that there has been decades and decades and decades of very kind of tribal behavior and right-wing media propaganda that basically has told people in some of these, you know, red states or whatever, that the worst thing in life is being a Democrat, that they're the enemy from within, that they're really horrible people and that this has been generationally passed down and it didn't just happen. Although I do think people are waking up and I think people are waking up not to say, oh, I really love Democrats and the donkey logo and I love political party.

42:15Ben Meiselas:I don't think people really like politics. I think they realize that Trump and MAGA have weaponized politics to divide us and to hurt them. So now people are looking for a politics of accountability and a politics of humanity and empathy that protects people, seeing how politics was weaponized by these con artists and losers to inflict pain and suffering upon us. Speaking about con artists, losers, here's Treasury Secretary Besant. This guy's the Treasury Secretary, okay? and he's asked a very basic question about today's spike in oil. And we all knew this was coming. We all, because it's been happening for a while and they've been manipulating the markets for a very long time.

43:01Ben Meiselas:But as I said in the first segment, and we say in WTF America, the reflecting pool metaphor holds. You can paint it blue for a little bit. You can try to cover up your problems. You can come up with a catchy slogan. You can blame others. You can defraud. But guess what? The algae always comes back. The gas prices are going to do what market forces do when you have supply and demand issues. When you blow things up, both in terms of a trade war and in terms of actual war, when you blow it up, guess what? There's less things. When there's less things, things, there's less supply of it. When there's less supply of it and there's more scarcity, the prices go up.

43:45Ben Meiselas:It's not a hard thing to realize. We don't control the Strait of Hormuz. Okay. And the Houthis also control the Red Sea and they're only enforcing their blockade against the Saudi tankers right now. But that is a major issue also. Also, Trump didn't resolve Russia's invasion of Ukraine on day one. And now you have Russia striking hard in Ukraine and you have Ukraine striking hard in Russia, destroying lots of refineries over there. And so we have a massive, massive issue when it comes to oil, when it comes to crude. And we're seeing that reflected. And by the way, when Donald Trump's like, it's not like the price of gas is$200 a barrel.

44:28Ben Meiselas:It is. I understand, Donald, you're an idiot. And you don't understand the difference between the paper price of crude WTI and Brent, which is now in the nineties. You don't understand that, but at the refinery, the crack spread, we're talking about$102 for diesel. We're talking about the price of diesel per barrel, close to$200 per barrel. When you actually, when you actually have to buy it from the refinery, what the price of diesel is. Okay. So it is at those levels. It is. And the fact that Besant is like, we don't know. We very much know. Let's play Besant. Let's play.

45:10Brett Meiselas:We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand. You know, our announcement is for economic action. And I think that the economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner. I mean, Brett and Jordy.

45:26Jordy Meiselas:I just don't understand. Our market manipulation was supposed to work, but it didn't today. I just don't get what's going on. It's such a crazy thing to say. Obviously, it's all related to Donald Trump and his war. It's all related to the fact that the war is still ongoing, that the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, that there's ships being struck in the Bab-Aum-Aum-Dab Strait, that there's chaos in the region, that Ukraine and Russia are still at war. That's why Scott Besson. It's all of those things that Donald Trump said he would either fix or never start in the first place. That is the cause of it.

46:02Jordy Meiselas:Literally, if Donald Trump went into office and hid in a catering cart and stood in that catering cart and ate McDonald's and KFC all day or Taco Bell or whatever he does, the economy would be better now than without him. By the way, even the stock market, which has been doing quite well, would be better if Donald Trump was in a catering cart than what he is doing right now with his market manipulation and all the volatility. It just would be. I mean, when you look internationally, you see other markets have been doing, not all of them, but markets have been doing better than the United States.

46:32Jordy Meiselas:And so Donald Trump is a destructive force. And for Scott Besson to play dumb, for Brooke Rollins to play dumb about all of this, like it all traces back to one person, but also to you, because you all are responsible for actually holding this person responsible, giving them the information. And frankly, I think this is why the Natalie Harp story actually takes on more importance because remember what her supposed job actually is. It's giving Donald Trump fake data is essentially her gig. Why is she called the human printer? Because she prints out flattering articles or fake news articles or memes or whatever.

47:11Jordy Meiselas:And she shows things that Donald Trump wants to see, not the actual facts. And so sometimes you don't even know, is Trump seeing the truth about X, Y, or Z. Because if he's just watching things like Fox or propaganda like that, and he's just being handed things by Natalie, then you're actually like, what is this guy even basing his decisions on if he's not even living in reality? And so that is also part of the problem. And it's why this is also worth further investigating. And it's why the fact that you didn't have security clearance is such a major issue. And to Ben's point, I think all of this This chaos is why we're seeing such an erosion of Donald Trump's support all over the place.

47:50Jordy Meiselas:I saw this truly, truly wild exit poll from CNN. And Jordy, I think this was in your Commonwealth over there, Pennsylvania, exit polls from the state over there from the elections the other night. Trump was plus 34 points amongst white working class voters in the 2024 election. And the exit polls taken this week have him at negative four points among white working class voters. I mean, that is theoretically Donald Trump's base. That is essentially the reason why Donald Trump is president. And to see a 38 point swing in this category is unheard of. And I saw pollsters speaking about it. They have never seen something like this happen so quickly.

48:40Jordy Meiselas:And it is all a testament to what Trump is doing every day.

48:44Brett Meiselas:You know, you could only pull the rug from under people so many times before I think they finally hit their heads and wake up and say, hey, what you're doing right now seems to only be helping you, your kids, and the top 001 % who hang out with you at Mar-a-Lago. And not me, the working class, not me, the person that wants to put food on the table, not me that needs healthcare, there. Not me that needs to be able to afford my house. Not me that it is so truly despicable what the Trump regime has been doing. A couple points here. First with Besson and Brooke Rollins. Again, I want to say this very clear.

49:17Brett Meiselas:Incompetence is encouraged under the Trump regime. And what I mean by that is they have one obligation. That's all they care about. And that is singly protecting Donald Trump. They do not care about making your life better as an American person. They do not care about making your housing more affordable. All they care about is how in this TV hit, when the press asks me questions, when I have to do reports, how can I continue to run cover for Donald Trump, a failing, aging, grotesquely evil and ugly president that is just hurting Americans day in and day out. Back to the Natalie Harp situation very quickly too.

49:51Brett Meiselas:I wanted to say this because I know I fairly made light of it a little bit earlier on the show, just talking about how utterly bizarre and weird it is well it is but it is also incredibly dangerous for the points that my brothers have laid out here mainly the fact again that she didn't have clearance she didn't do security clearance since when is that like an okay thing to be the person that's hanging around the president of the united states and not going through the proper channels that everyone else has ever had to go through to be that close to the nuclear football at all times and not be properly clear is absolutely banana land to me, man.

50:23Brett Meiselas:And again, it's a testament here to this community, this pro-democracy community who continues to call this stuff out and make those types of points, because it is only with a community like this and people who deeply care about this country that we can start to build back something that could be better than this, hopefully one day.

50:41Jordy Meiselas:Did you say build back better?

50:45Brett Meiselas:What if that was my new bit? I just kept dropping Biden puns throughout.

50:51Jordy Meiselas:I'm having PTSD from hearing those words said in that order. Thanks, Joe Manchin. I'll give you another three letters there.

50:59Ben Meiselas:WTF, that's the name of the book that my brothers and I wrote, WTF America. Because when we wake up in the morning, sometimes we just say, what the F? I look at my phone. They say never a good idea to look at it right away, but that's what I do. So, you know, turn it, look, I go, what the F did he do today? He did this. He did this. He did this. And pre-order it right now. A lot of momentum around the pre-orders. I did an interview with Mooch Scaramucci. Mooch. I co-hosted Scaramucci's podcast. I see. Check. You can check that out as well. We've got a lot to discuss when we come back. I want to talk a little bit more, Brett, about the Pennsylvania results.

51:38Ben Meiselas:Kevin McCarthy freaking out. MAGA Republican disgraced speaker saying MAGA Mike Johnson has no plan. When Kevin McCarthy is saying MAGA Mike has no plan, that is a Russian nesting doll of destruction right there. Let's take our last quick break of the show. Reminder, subscribe on audio, please. Become a YouTube subscriber and an audio subscriber. We'll be right back after this last one.

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54:57Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, where to next, big bro?

55:05Ben Meiselas:You know, when I say I really do my best to approach this, even not as this party or that i when i try to just give you the analysis i just try to give you just the facts the objective damn facts and i think about something like what's donald trump doing with a steam catapult what what does it make any sense donald trump doesn't like that on aircraft carriers they were electromagnetic uh launch pads because that's the current best technology. And then Donald Trump says, I don't like that. Okay. What do you mean you don't like that? Who are you to judge that? You don't know what you're talking about.

55:46Ben Meiselas:He goes, I like steam catapults. What do you mean you like stink? Okay. I like chocolate chip cookies. Should I just start eating chocolate chip cookies when I'm doing this podcast? Like I mean, a lot of things that I like, like it's a very strange, you know, if I start eating chocolate chip cookies while doing this show, I'm not going to be able to speak because I'm going to have cookies in my mouth just because I want, but I want a cookie monster. That's like a version. It's like, what are you doing? Donald Trump likes the way battleships look between 1920 and 1940. Likes the aesthetic. Doesn't like stealth.

56:23Ben Meiselas:Doesn't like aircraft carriers. Doesn't like the drone technology. He really likes back to the basics is what they're calling it right now at the Defense Defense Department. So they fired their top four stars or pushed them out like Randy George of the Army. They pushed out their head of Southcom who didn't want to commit war crimes. They pushed out another General Donahue, top Army general. He was known as the last soldier in Afghanistan. They pushed out C.Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint. So many more incredible top military people were pushed out and they bring in sycophants who say, we got to get back to the basics.

57:02Ben Meiselas:You know, one of the issues, you know, if you study World War II, as you reflect on, you know, with the U.S. kind of security umbrella in Asia collapsing, I think about Bushido and the Bushido code and like almost like the kind of samurai code in Japan, if you will, and the warrior spirit as lots of other countries were advancing in certain types of technology. and the world is moving in a certain direction, this idea of U.S. going back to basics is a bit like what he's talking about. Wars are fought today with drones, drone interceptors, unmanned submersives, the FPVs, variations of what Iran is producing in the Shahids.

57:47Ben Meiselas:They're called different things here. Yes, ballistics, you need your interceptors. You need an arsenal of these things. That's how modern warfare exists. And when the U.S. runs its military simulations and did exercises with Ukraine, Ukraine kicked the U.S. military's ass where the U.S. had to respawn like a video game in the simulation over and over and over again in the war exercises. Within minutes, Ukraine's drone swarms destroyed the entire United States military. Now, China is learning the lessons of modern warfare, and they're working with Iran. They're working with Russia. It's not a secret, okay?

58:28Ben Meiselas:They can say, we know, and North Korea, they're working together, and BRICS block nations are cooperating as well. The US and Trump, Trump likes battleships. Trump likes steam. Trump no like drone. Trump like testosterone. own, you know, and then they have, you know, people who, you know, look very low T, but pretend this is what a man looks like, like a Hegseth or whatever. And he's too scared to even be around the media. So he has to kick out all the media from what he's doing. By the way, hat tip to those defense reporters. They're still doing great work at New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Financial The defense reporters who have been kicked out of the Pentagon are awesome.

59:14Ben Meiselas:MS now, they are really doing a very, very good job.

59:17Jordy Meiselas:I almost feel like they lit a fire under them in like a weird way. Like, you know, Trump, because for, you know, those who may not understand the context, you know, Trump kicked out all the real reporters from the Pentagon and replaced them with all these right-wing hacks who aren't reporters. And the Pentagon reporters are really freaking good, really, really talented. it. Like I, I commend them and they're really good once they're able to kind of lock in and hone in and, and start getting their sources and poking here and poking there and trying to uncover what's actually going on. And they've realized pretty quickly, like we don't actually have to be in the building to do that.

59:55Jordy Meiselas:And there are a lot of people in this Pentagon who want to talk to us outside of this building anyway. And so they've been getting just like some incredible, incredible You know, I feel like the kind of line in the Trump administration for the second term in the beginning, people were like, oh, there are a lot fewer leaks going on. Well, I think if you thought that earlier on, those days are certainly over. I mean, this thing is leaking like a sieve. You know, everybody's talking because every move seems like to be made with such disdain towards the people who are working and all in order to support Donald Trump in the weirdest, most cultish ways.

1:00:34Jordy Meiselas:Even like when you look at one of the things that CNN was reporting on earlier today, that the Trump regime is considering renaming the USS Doris Miller, which is an aircraft carrier that honors a black sailor who celebrated for his heroism at Pearl Harbor. They're considering renaming it after Donald Trump. And that's a real story in the mix of a lot of stories that's happened today and this week, right? And so this is a real thing. They don't know who they may rename it after, but they want to take this ship that's named after this historic black sailor. They want to rename it after somebody.

1:01:07Jordy Meiselas:And Donald Trump's name is in contention is basically what the story says. And this we're dealing with like a sick, like sick people. Like this is sick, sick, sick, sick stuff. And, and, and so, you know, when, when you're dealing with that, I think as a reporter, you have to understand that you're dealing with sick people. Um, you have to understand that the people, especially at the top, the Trumps, the Hegseths, Those people are going to constantly lie to you. So you have to actually get to the people who understand what's going on, who actually maybe understand strategy, how weapon systems are supposed to work, understand the needs of the military or the soldiers aboard the USS Lincoln, you know, like our Aaron Parnas here at Midas Touch has been speaking with the families, you know, on those ships, which is finally, you know, back home.

1:01:51Jordy Meiselas:But we're seeing all this every single day, and it really paints a picture of tumult and turmoil.

1:01:58Brett Meiselas:Absolutely. And like, I'm not saying this throw shade, although it may sound like it. It's just, it's amazing the reporting that could be done when you're not worried about access constantly. We're not worried about having that access on Air Force One or access. It's amazing the type of work that can actually be done. It feels freeing. Benji.

1:02:14Ben Meiselas:I want to go bring back the World Cup analogy, international football, U.S. soccer. So the U.S. had the undisputed best team in the world by far. Like imagine a team who are some of the best players in this tournament, Messi, Holland, Bellingham, whoever, right? You name the players. Who did we have as our generals? We had the Joint Chiefs chairman. We had CQ Brown Jr. The Army Chief of Staff. You had Randy George, beloved, cutting edge, four star. And people loved his wife, Patty. They were like the morale booster of like the military. And Randy George was like, you know, he was like the Holland.

1:03:02Ben Meiselas:He was like the most popular person also. And then we had another guy, General Donahue, who was a four-star general widely known for being the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan during the 2021 evacuation, Christopher Donahue. And he wasn't even responsible for the evacuation. He was just, he went there to help and help the situation. And he's a beloved individual as well. And so what did Hegseth do? Imagine a team is stacked with the best players, right? He got rid of the best players. He got rid of them. He pushed them all out. And he replaced them with people who aren't really that good, who are like, let's go back to the basics.

1:03:45Ben Meiselas:Let's go back to the basics, everybody. And let's do what we did in World War II to fight wars in 2026. And to me, that should infuriate you, whether you're a Democrat, whether you're a Republican, whether you're an independent, whether you're not political. That's just, that's a competence issue. It's a leadership issue. It is a just basic running operations issue. And that to me is where a lot of my criticism comes from. I mean, when you look at this Darlene Graham debate that a lot of people are talking about, and rightfully so, where she was asked a question, well, what's your view about Taiwan?

1:04:23Ben Meiselas:What should the US do about Taiwan as it relates to China? What's your perspective? And her response is, I don't know anything about it. I don't know much about it. And then she tried to justify it by basically saying, you know, at the end of the day, I don't know national security. I don't know anything about any of this. And so I just wanted to be honest with the people at the end of the day. And so I care about domestic issues, but I just don't know anything about national security. And that's like her line. It's like, you're currently a United States senator. These national security issues relate directly to domestic issues.

1:05:04Ben Meiselas:As we talked about before, the reason why prices are what the prices are is because there's a world and there's trade in the world and Trump's policies are having an impact here. So let me show you what happens when she goes and speaks at an event and she's asked about that answer in a very MAGA crowd. Let's play this clip.

1:05:25Brett Meiselas:Because there are votes that go toward funding wars or declaring wars. And if you're deciding voting that factor, how can we trust as constituents that you'll make the right decision if you're not informed on national security issues at this moment in time?

1:05:38Jordy Meiselas:That's a fair question right but you know I answered it honestly because I'm not a national security expert. Lindsey was right because he talked a lot about national security. You know why? He spent 33 years in the Air Force. He had a military background so he had a lot of foreign relations and that was his focus. To me as I walked around this room and I've asked people are y 'all concerned about Taiwan? You know what they said? No, they're concerned about the price of groceries, the price of gas, rising health care costs. Is national security important? Absolutely. Can I learn? I'm smart. Yes, I'll learn.

1:06:20Jordy Meiselas:I'll become informed. Everybody has a first day on the job. President Trump, was he a politician? Has he done a good job? Yes, he has.

1:06:36Jordy Meiselas:That's my answer. But I will always be honest.

1:06:39Brett Meiselas:I will always be honest. Listen, no, baby. Is encouraged.

1:06:43Jordy Meiselas:Well, because here's the thing. And then they're saying it out loud, Jordi, right? Because you see who's running against her. Is it Ralph Norman running against her in the primary? Yeah, yeah, Norman. And so one of the things that you can kind of continue to hear Trump world say is, you know, they're like, well, what's wrong with Ralph Norman, right? He's a guy who's been in the House of Representatives. Like he's a very right-wing guy. Like, what's your issue? And they're like, he's not for Trump. He's not all in on Trump. And the whole thing is not about competence. The whole thing is, are you all in on Trump?

1:07:17Jordy Meiselas:And everything is judged by that. You could be Darlene Graham with zero experience and not understand foreign policy, even one iota. But if you're all in for Trump, then that's okay. That's all that matters in the MAGA cult.

1:07:30Ben Meiselas:And Brett, Ralph Norman's response may have actually even been worse. I mean, she said she didn't know. And then Ralph Norman's response is, why do you think China's so scared of us right now? Why do you think, it's like, why do you think China's so scared of, what world are you object, like what world are you living in? America's security, objectively, America has no security umbrella in Asia. Our last supercarrier is gone. We have no security umbrella anywhere anymore. We're all alone. Idiot, psycho, lunatic, flagpole boy, Donald Trump, is talking about being friends with Kim Jong-un. What world are you living in?

1:08:08Ben Meiselas:This is not Brett, Jordy, Midas, Mighty. This is not like, I'm not giving you, this is a democratic position. I'm just like, y 'all are the most dangerous freaking psychotic humans imaginable that you can see the world we're in now with all of the suffering happening here, with America's objective. This isn't a talking point. This isn't an effing game. This is real life. And you're out there saying, you think Xi Jinping is scared of Donald Trump? Xi Jinping could not be happier. And the craziest thing with these psycho humans who are like, oh, I'm a China hawk. This is what we wanted. You wanted to be this weak?

1:08:43Ben Meiselas:We couldn't be weaker. Dude, freaking Elbridge Colby, the number two at the Defense Department, who's Mr. I'm going to decouple from China. He is begging Xi Jinping for a visit to Beijing. And Xi Jinping is like, nah, get the hell out of it. Weren't you the decouple boy? Weren't you the guy who said you were going to harm us? And you saw what we did with rare Earth in two minutes and made you bow to Xi Jinping? You didn't see that? You think we want you to visit us? I mean, do we realize it's so obvious what's happening? And again, this isn't like, oh, Midas, you're reflecting, I'm just telling you the facts.

1:09:18Ben Meiselas:This is the reality. What you choose to do with the facts, choose, but that's what's happening, bro.

1:09:22Jordy Meiselas:Yeah. It's like, have you heard of beer goggles? I feel like all these people wear MAGA goggles, and they put them on, and all of a sudden, it's like a bunch of transgender people running around trying to play sports, trying to turn your kids as well. It's Donald Trump full of muscles running around, you know, with a AK-47 and Iran going, oh, sir, I'm sorry. I'm Jordy in any event. Jordy, what do you want? I'm just joking. It's like, it's nuts. It's the craziest thing. You know, there was another clip of Darlene Graham on Fox that was crazy also, where she was like, you know what? I don't think my constituents care so much about this national security stuff.

1:10:05Jordy Meiselas:I'll learn that. But you know what people are really concerned about? Transgenders and sports. I was like, really? That's what people are concerned about? Not even a thing in South Carolina at all. And again, you're going after this marginalized community because you're a bigot for no reason and an issue that is not an issue. You're trying to make it an issue while you're diminishing national security, which has major implications on every single thing in our lives, as you can see right now from the disaster of the Iran war, how it's affecting people's pocketbooks, how it's affecting everything.

1:10:39Jordy Meiselas:And so, you know, it's one thing if you're a random person on the street, right? I mean, I don't expect people to know foreign policy. But if you're a United States senator, I at least hope that you have a rudimentary knowledge of these things before becoming a Senator and before deciding to then rerun for the Senate or whatever. I mean, the whole thing's crazy. People's lives are in your hands at the end of the day. Your decisions affect people's lives to that. And I want to clarify something I said before, just in case I wasn't clear about the USS Lincoln, which was it was finally relieved. They were relieved of duty.

1:11:14Jordy Meiselas:Finally, today, the USS George Washington took over that deployment, made its way to the Middle East. And so the USS Lincoln finally relieved from that deployment and should be making its way back. Hopefully they get back safely and soon, and hopefully they get to some better conditions because we all know how much of a disaster that was. And all of our service members who are out there wishing them all the best.

1:11:39Ben Meiselas:Jordy, that brings us to your Commonwealth, buddy. Were you saying there? Were you saying there? That brings us to Pennsylvania.

1:11:46Brett Meiselas:I just want to say this one quick thing is that Darlene Graham is the world's worst sequel that absolutely nobody asked for that never needed to happen. But here we are watching this all unfold. And like it's it's it's like a train wreck watching every single interview she does live. And it's crazy. It's crazy how uninformed she is running for this seat. Sorry, I thought I really needed to add that to this.

1:12:08Ben Meiselas:She goes, well, Donald Trump didn't know much about foreign policy. And how good is this?

1:12:13Jordy Meiselas:Worked out great for everybody. It's the golden age, no wars. Everything is great.

1:12:18Ben Meiselas:I mean, that's the part where like you go like what, what, what, you know, and, and that's, I think what you're seeing in a Pennsylvania where you have a plus 18 Trump district. It's Butler. It's where Donald Trump won't release the medical records where he claimed he was shot in the face by an AR 15, but miraculously the AR 15 bullet was injured. Not him.

1:12:43Brett Meiselas:And for those unfamiliar, Butler County, I need you to think of the most MAGA district wherever you exist. Times that by 10, and that's Butler. Right. So in Butler, Butler County, Donald Trump plus 18 2024.

1:13:03Ben Meiselas:And now right now, the Democratic candidate, Brandon Dukes, won that by one point. So it was a 19-point swing in favor of a Democrat. What did Brandon Dukes run on? He ran on kitchen table issues. Let's talk about the economy. Let's talk about the roads. Let's talk about education. Let's talk about things are too expensive. Let's talk about what we can do for people in Pennsylvania. Let's get stuff done, right? It's Governor Shapiro, the get stuff done governor says, like, let's get it done. Like we work, we were working for the people. Like we're not, we're not doing culture war stuff. We're not, we're, we're, we're getting stuff done.

1:13:45Ben Meiselas:Right. And what was his MAGA opponent running on? Transgender hate bathrooms, WNBA, Donald Trump's amazing ballrooms. Isn't the big, beautiful bill amazing. No, it's not. People don't like that disaster. It's a disaster. and people weren't buying it. People weren't falling for it there. It was also plus 18, but in the prior state house race, it was a plus 30 Republican as well. So it is a massive swing, but this is what we've seen over and over again in these special elections. We've seen a 12 and a half to 13 point Democratic overperformance in these special elections over and over again. And it frankly started pretty early on late January.

1:14:40Ben Meiselas:We were covering it in Iowa and Pennsylvania and elsewhere where you would have these major flips taking place. And so I'll leave everybody with this. This is Kevin McCarthy talking about how he's very concerned. And let's play the clip of Kevin McCarthy if we've got it. How do you size up the midterms right now?

1:15:00Brett Meiselas:The midterms right now, I'm worried because the generic ballots over six. That's advantage to the Democrats. I'm worried that I'm not seeing the clear message from Republicans. What is the plan of why you should stay in the majority? What is your economic plan going forward? What are you touting as the successes that you've had already? I'm worried about certain states. I'm going to watch Iowa. I think that governor's race very cold. Ashley Henson is the best Senate candidate probably in the country. I think she ends up winning. But we've got four congressional seats there.

1:15:29Ben Meiselas:When I first came in, we only had one Republican one. They're going to be some tough. Pennsylvania is going to be a swing state. Democrats have a very good governor that will probably try to run the tickets up because

1:15:37Brett Meiselas:he wants to run for president. I'm worried about Arizona because I don't think this Republican nominee we have, Biggs, could actually move out, could cut across, get moderates and others. And we picked up seats from Democrats to win the majority. If he underperforms, he could cost Congress's majority.

1:15:52Ben Meiselas:Brad, Jordy.

1:15:54Jordy Meiselas:I don't even understand. Like, why even put Kevin McCarthy on TV? He was like a failed speaker, ousted from his job. Like what political insights does he have? He cow-toed to Donald Trump the same way that Magamike is cow-toed to Donald Trump. He'd probably be doing the same exact thing right now. He now gets to be out of that bubble. And so he gets to act like, oh, I could be the critical one and I'll be the moderate thinker here. And I'll say, oh, we need actually more normal people. And perhaps we should be focusing on the issues that matter for people. Like, come on.

1:16:22Brett Meiselas:Feel free to flame me for this. but I thought it was pretty astute analysis right there by McCartney. I actually think that's probably a much better role when he's able to actually... It actually sounded like he had some soul in his chest.

1:16:33Jordy Meiselas:That's my point though, because he's a shapeshifter, right? Totally. All I'm saying is he's an actor and he was ousted from Congress for doing the opposite of the advice that he's saying right now. If he was in the position, he'd be doing exactly what Megamike is doing and you cannot convince me otherwise. 100%. You think he'd be going, and I'm not saying you, Jordy, you probably, you think he'd be going against Donald Trump right now? He'd be doing the same exact thing. And then there'd be some other guy going on TV. I don't know, some other former speaker or someone who was ousted would be saying, well, I just think Kevin McCarthy and these Republicans aren't understanding people's issues.

1:17:11Jordy Meiselas:It's just the cycle. It's what they do. It's this talking head BS. It's this cable news BS. Kevin McCarthy is a hack. He's a hack, hack, hack. he was ousted from his job because he was shitty at it and he had an opportunity to show some spine but he ended up cow-towing to donald trump and being a pathetic little weasel like the rest of

1:17:29Brett Meiselas:them so you know anytime they're in positions of power they all cow they are they're all weasels and they're all pathetic i mean that that's what's proven but it's interesting when it they can freely speak or you know they don't have the pressure of the mean donald trump tweet that's

1:17:43Jordy Meiselas:all I'm saying there is 100 % 100 % and like like you know objectively unless you're looking at things through Mac goggles objectively when you look at the data right now for Republicans I mean it's it's very grim for them it's a fair it's a it's a very rough environment for them

1:18:00Brett Meiselas:I don't think he was going out on the ledge I like I don't think he was like like I have some brave stance I'm gonna take I mean I think let me tell you something you don't know yeah but hey for

1:18:09Jordy Meiselas:fox audience you know maybe maybe they aren't hearing that so yeah exactly great show brothers

1:18:14Ben Meiselas:great show sports analogies i did some physicality that the audio listeners big time physical podcast

1:18:21Jordy Meiselas:big time physical podcast that's why the audio listeners need to go make sure they subscribe on the youtube the youtube watchers need to go right now you gotta go you know it's easy you just open up the apple podcast here's the thing i know we kind of make light of it when we ask you

1:18:33Brett Meiselas:to subscribe to these platforms but it does tremendously help us out it helps get this information out it takes two seconds and best part all 100 free and easy to do what a wonderful episode this has been great spending this hour with y 'all thank you guys so much and as always shout out to the midas mighty

1:19:07We will get it right whenever.

1:19:11Brett 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.