MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/7/26

21:57Ben Meiselas:And I worry that if you look at some of the moves that are happening behind the scenes in Ukraine, they got rid of their defense secretary Fedorov, and then they replaced him with somebody else. They got rid of their commander in chief because he said, get rid of Fedorov. You've got a lot going there, going on there that despite, I think, the incredible work on the front and pushing forward. If they don't get these interceptor licenses or any way to defend against these ballistics, this is going to be every other day we're going to see a massive ballistic salvo. And it's deeply concerning. I'll toss it over to Brett and Jordy.

22:36Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, well, you know, there's been a lot of conversation and rightfully so about the economic effects of the war and other things stemming from the war in terms of those respects, oil markets, treasury yields, stock market, things like that, gas prices. But there are all these other kind of national defense and geopolitical ramifications from the war that are talked about far less. And the implications for this war and what's happening in Ukraine is certainly one of them. Our relationship with China is one of them. Right now, all these countries around the world know exactly what's going on in the United States.

23:13Jordy Meiselas:And frankly, it didn't take the leakers, as Trump wants to describe them as, in order to sound the alarm about these low munitions stockpiles. I mean, we've been reporting on these low munitions now for months, the dwindling munitions and going, it's getting lower, it's getting lower, it's getting lower, the same way we've been reporting on tank bottom with the oil markets. And then eventually it comes around and it gets confirmed by these, you know, quote unquote leakers. And everyone goes, holy crap, how did this happen? And we've been following it the whole time. We've been looking at the numbers.

23:42Jordy Meiselas:We've been looking at the data. We've been seeing what's been happening. And if we know that here on the Midas Touch podcast, I could assure you Russia knows that. I could assure you China knows that. I could assure you Iran knows that. I could assure you countries throughout the world all know exactly what's going on. And that puts the United States and our allies in a very precarious situation. And if Donald Trump's strategy right now is we're just going to continue to do the same thing that we've been doing, that kind of what they say is insanity, trying the same thing with no different results.

24:10Jordy Meiselas:If we're just going to keep trying that over and over, we're just going to bomb them into submission. Well, eventually the munitions run out. Eventually the defense, the interceptors, eventually that runs out. It's not a video game. You can't pull some crypto scheme to all of a sudden build fake value or fake weapons for your military. When you use them, they're done. And it's not like they take very fast to rebuild. It takes a while to rebuild these weapons that we're wasting. And that's the issue when you have these people like a Hexf, like a Donald Trump who go out there and just try to burn it all down and try to act all tough and try to say, oh, we're just going to bomb them and do this and do that.

24:45Jordy Meiselas:There's no thought behind it. It's why you need actual smart people because you need people who actually are viewing things based on strategy, not like this is a video game, not like we have unlimited munitions, not like we could just keep bombing, bombing, bombing, bombing and show American power or whatever the hell they want to call it. It's really showing our weakness and it's showing the stupidity right now of the people in charge. So it's no surprise there is a major crisis in the Pentagon right now. I don't know how this gets better. And I can vouch for Ben that he was saying when Laura Loomer was with Zelensky in Ukraine that Ben was going, I don't think this is a good thing.

25:19Jordy Meiselas:I don't think this is a good thing. And you were sounding the alarm right here that Donald Trump's kind of fake offer to Ukraine weeks and weeks ago at this point was a red herring, that we shouldn't trust it, that we should not believe and that the mainstream media and people in general should not be putting their faith in Donald Trump. He is not a dealmaker. He is a fraud. And he will dangle things to people, and then he'll take it away for his own benefit, and he'll screw you over. And so Zelensky, if he thought that he was going to get a deal from Donald Trump here from playing nice with Laura Loom or playing nice with these people, I mean, he ended up getting fooled at the end of the day.

25:55Jordy Meiselas:Hopefully, he knows better than that. But right now, it's a shame to see everyone in a precarious situation, including us here, including the United States.

26:02Brett Meiselas:Yeah, Ben's spidey sense went off in full effect when that Loomer video dropped. Words have to mean something. Words and promises, I feel like they used to mean something. Maybe I'm sort of romanticizing the past a little bit. But when the president said he was going to do something and made promises to other world leaders, I feel like they followed through on those promises. I could be mistaken. I'm happy for anyone to point it out. Now, anytime Donald Trump opens his mouth, you can't take what he's saying at face value. When he said that he'd even end the war on day one, like that was the big campaign thing, right?

26:35Brett Meiselas:When he was running for this reelection bid over here. He's now gone back on that a couple of months ago. I was being sarcastic. Oh, that was my, you couldn't sense my sarcasm when I said I was going to end the war on day one. It's immensely frustrating as you see Donald Trump go further and further into the conflicts abroad and also understand the ramifications that it's going to have here on the economy that donald trump doesn't care about our nation's debt and so in his mind brett i i think he does think that he'll just keep borrowing money and just like that those munitions they'll be made because he because he took the money because because we got the money that there is no strategic foresight here as far as oh no there's actually like plans and steps that have to go into just getting more munitions for this war that they just don't appear overnight but what donald trump has been good at and i don't say that in a a good way has been taking people's money with no outcome for the masses to to sort of follow and that is a similar pattern that i think we're going to be falling into here where sooner or later he's just going to ask for more money for the war more money we've already seen it it's going to it's there they're they're already asking right they're

27:47Jordy Meiselas:already asking for a trillion five. I mean, the guy couldn't even build a helipad at the White House. They spent all these millions of dollars building a helipad. Then they had to take it, tear it all down, redo it, just another renovation project that they continue to screw up. I mean, the folks who we have right now in the White House are a total disaster. And I know I'm not giving any new news to you by saying that. But, you know, I almost wish we could see like the alternate reality where there was a Kamala Harris presidency or a second Joe Biden term or something because everyone likes to pretend that both sides are the same here.

28:20Jordy Meiselas:And I'm not going to pretend that everything was all amazing under Biden. But I could tell you it certainly was not the hell that they're trying to describe it as. And it was significantly better. And if you just literally followed the policies that were laid out, you'd have a stronger NATO. You'd have Ukraine being protected. You wouldn't have this war on Iran. You'd have a stock market continuing to rise without all this volatility. You would have the yields at normal levels not spiking to crazy amounts. You would have stability in the world. You'd have the United States as a leader on the world stage, Canada liking us.

28:54Jordy Meiselas:You'd have our institutions remaining built. You'd have our working Department of Justice actually focused on criminals and not bailing out criminals and give them billions of your dollars. You'd have more transparency on Epstein. I mean, it's literally, you could go with every single issue would be significantly better. And it's not even a question. And anybody who denies that to me, you're just not being intellectually honest.

29:16Brett Meiselas:And that's why you need leaders who are going to lead, that are actually going to make this country better for everyone and not just themselves. I think Donald Trump, it's abundantly clear to me, actually, that he's grappling with his own mortality. That's the golden arch. That's the reflecting pool. That's the memorials. It's renaming the buildings. That Donald Trump is in here for some sort of perceived legacy play, where he wants his name and his aura to live on post post Trump presidency, post Trump, whatever existence and where we are right now. That's how he's leading. There's no again, foresight here as far as how and how we actually get out of this in a way that sustains the economy.

29:55Brett Meiselas:That's better for the American people. That's better for the troops. That's better for just everyone involved. Donald Trump is only looking at this as how can this benefit me and how can I get out this in a way that benefits me the most. And it's why I worry about the nuclear option here. Right. Like Donald Trump has already said, they're going to see things like they haven't seen since World War II. We obviously know what he's referring to there. And I don't rule that out. And I'm not saying that for clicks and I'm not saying it, you know, it's like be jokey here. I genuinely think he does not care about the ramifications should he proceed with that matter.

30:30Ben Meiselas:Let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, our new book comes out, our first book comes out October, October 20th, pre-order it now. Our publisher has, you know, emphasized us the pre-orders are one of the most important things. It helps us promote the book better. It helps us decide where we're going to go on the book tour. And that's a real difference maker. They say there's a lot of great momentum around the pre-orders. So pre-order it right now. You can scan the QR code. You could do a link in the description below, or you could do the old-fashioned way, Google. You can Google WTF America.

31:08Brett Meiselas:Did you just break some news, Ben, about a little book tour? I like a little news-breaking moment right there. Usually I cough it up.

31:14Ben Meiselas:I think we've said it. Let's take our first quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

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33:59Brett Meiselas:Schedule your free inspection today at leaffilter.com slash Midas. And for a limited time, get up to$500 off LeafFilter with$0 down at leaffilter.com slash Midas. Restrictions apply. See rep for warranty and promotion details. Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Someone DM me that whole spiel the other day. Say, I know what you say. It's in my head. Can you mix it up a little bit? So I'm going to come up with a new one when we come back from break. And I don't know what that's going to be.

34:35Jordy Meiselas:Don't fix when I'm broke, you know?

34:36Brett Meiselas:I like it and I know it really well, but I don't know if I'm annoying people by saying the same thing. So I'm going to mix it up. Benji, What do you think? And where do you want to go next?

34:46Ben Meiselas:Where do I want to go next? I think all your ideas are great. Let's talk about Drunk in the Oval. He was asked, do you believe Max Miller should withdraw from his race? Obviously, you've seen the very serious allegations of abuse against Max Miller, that he abused his wife for allegations, his daughter, that he's abused two other girlfriends, his former father-in-law Senator Moreno of Ohio said that Max Miller is someone who's sick and needs to resign. You've heard other Republican senators talk to the Midas Touch Network, actually, and say that Max Miller needs to resign and be out. Even Max Miller's behavior in the interviews on Jake Tapper, on Newsmax and others have been really kind of sick and demented.

35:35Ben Meiselas:he's like released he's released these like photo these these images and these photos which then his um uh ex-wife uh has said lawyer basically said you know you released like nude photos of our little girl which is like sexual child sex abuse content and then it's like then his lawyer said we inadvertently released the material we didn't mean to like release the photo that shows that um and then you know you see these text messages that his ex-wife released and his ex-wife someone who's really big in the conservative, was it big in the conservative movement too, as the daughter of Senator Moreno.

36:10Ben Meiselas:And they were like, you know, holding the little baby girl's bunny hostage. And then Max Miller would release more of like their private tech, like putting all their stuff out there. And the whole thing is really, you know, it's very disturbing. This isn't a Democrat or Republican or an independent thing. This is just an abhorrent thing. And one of the things that Max Miller cites, why he stays in is he models his behavior off of Trump. He goes, I'm just like Trump. We both had allegations from women. We both are strong. This is how we respond to allegations. Max Miller has said in the interviews, he said, Donald called me and said, Maxie, it's going to be tough for you, Maxie, but I'm with you, Maxie.

36:54Ben Meiselas:That's how he said. And we've heard Trump say, I'm not going to get involved in this. We've heard MAGA Mike Johnson

37:02Jordy Meiselas:basically support Max Miller. And by the way, that's that to me, you know, while this situation isn't necessarily a Democrat, Republican or independent thing, this response to it certainly feels like a Republican thing to me. When you have Maga Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, being like, yeah, I don't know, you know, that's just between him and his family. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do anything. He's got my, I got his back, you know, if he needs it, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever he wants to do. I can't, I can't control all my people here. I mean, you know, they're going to have their own lives.

37:29Jordy Meiselas:Like, really, really? And these are the same people who, you know, were so forceful with Graham Plattner. And, you know, anytime there's also like any sort of little kind of scandal on the democratic side. And typically the democratic party takes care of that stuff. Republicans are going all in right now on, on Max Miller. And it's truly like, it's disturbing stuff. Everything that Max Miller releases, the text that Ben was speaking about, he just keeps stepping in it further also as, as been explained with the CSAM material, but also, you know, just every text that he's trying to put out there to kind of quote unquote, clear his name ends up actually showing that a lot of these allegations are actually for real.

38:06Jordy Meiselas:Like you, you see what people are accusing him of in the text messages. And I think in my opinion, he has this sort of abuser mindset that he kind of permeates throughout all of this stuff that when you see it, like he, he doesn't even almost like realize what he's saying, but the language that he uses is kind of textbook and it's incredibly disturbing. But here was Donald Trump today in the Oval being asked about it. Mr.

38:30Brett Meiselas:President, the deadline for Representative Max Miller to withdraw from his race is coming up next week. Do you believe you should withdraw? Well, I'm not going to get involved in that. It's a very sad situation. And I know Max very well, but it's very, very sad that a situation like that takes place.

38:52Ben Meiselas:And going back to something I talk about a lot, leadership. You're in a position of leadership. It's not a Democrat or Republican thing. You are a leader and he doesn't behave like that. He never takes accountability for anything. And whenever there's something difficult and it doesn't immediately go his way, he backs out and he runs away from it. I mean, you take a look at BBC and what's going on over there, right? And Trump's scared of BBC. clearly they but he got bailed out by a judge that he appointed when he was 36 years old this judge and so you know you all know the story there trump sues bbc for some documentary that never aired in the united states and trump said this documentary by the bbc which like nobody saw didn't air in the u.s panorama got like no people saw people saw it in the uk it's a big it's a big United States.

39:50Ben Meiselas:I'm not in the United States. I mean, he's saying the UK, how many, did it get

39:54Jordy Meiselas:any views in the United States? It wasn't even in the US. No, it wasn't broadcast in the United States. Panorama's a, you know, I lived in London. Panorama's a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, let me just tell that BBC story.

40:03Ben Meiselas:Okay. You know, you know, everything about Panorama. Okay. And the United States probably very geographically specific. Okay. As I'm trying to deal with facts here, Ben. I'll deal with the, I'll deal with the BBC Trump facts. Okay. Then Trump sues them. And they respond by saying, let's get discovery. OK, you know, you said$10 billion in damages. All right, show me where you're damaged. $10 billion. OK, I mean, you filed a lawsuit. What does Trump do? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to show you. And they get an order from a magistrate judge who handles discovery. And then Donald and then the judge says, turn it over.

40:39Ben Meiselas:And then rather than turn it over, Trump files an emergency. He says there's an emergency. What's the emergency? We're going to file a new complaint. Well, the deadline to file a complaint was March. So you missed the deadline, but it's an emergency now. I can't turn these documents over. No one forced you to sue BBC for$10 billion and claim that your corporations were damaged. So now you're going to have to turn over your corporation documents. $10 billion, say$1 ,000. So he's like, no, no, I want to amend my complaint and say it was just reputation harm. your reputation was harmed and you're saying$10 billion of damage and that I want to amend the, I want to change, I want to do over.

41:23Ben Meiselas:Well, the magistrate judge ruled against Donald Trump, but he, Trump showed that he was scared of BBC there. And then he goes to the Trump appointed judge, who's the judge in Southern district of Florida, who Trump appointed in 2019. And the guy goes, you raise good arguments there. Okay. I'll give you a participation trophy. We'll probably, allow you to amend your complaint so you can now just say, it was your reputation that was harmed, Donald. And by the way, Trump ain't winning. The judge ain't winning. The United States is losing. Nobody's winning from this behavior to see a cowardly human being sue for$10 billion because he's so soft that his reputation is harmed.

42:05Ben Meiselas:He's so soft that that's why he goes after BBC and then BBC scares him. Then he's like, oh no, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. The issues get bigger than this because think about it. You don't think Iran studies this behavior that our allies and enemies and everyone's, they have a pathological profile on the malignant narcissist that ultimately shows when you really come down to it, he's a weak loser. That's what they all have decided. They've all, this guy's a loser. He's a reject. He's a pathetic weasel. He's just a whiner. He's just a complainer. He's a failure. He's a failure of a human.

42:45Ben Meiselas:So you push back, push back, push back, and then he gives up. That's what everyone sees. He pushed back. Don't get me wrong. He's now co-opted, hijacked the United States of America. So he's got, it's not like he can't inflict damage. He's inflicted real damage in Iran. I'm not trying to paint some rosy picture that like, you know, it's nothing. No, he's caused harm here. He's kicking off people from food stamps who needed 100 ,000 people recently kicked off in Arizona, 450 ,000 people total. That's what they're bringing to state after state, saying the little children who are on food stamps are committing fraud.

43:23Ben Meiselas:Now, this guy's a wrecking ball. He can cause a lot of damage with his behavior, and he has caused a lot of damage. He's made all these affordability issues even worse. He's screwed up everything here. But ultimately, what it comes down to is the guy's a loser. And he runs from BBC. He runs away from Iran. He runs away from a difficult thing that you may have to do, which is if you called out Max Miller, who, by the way, is now trailing significantly in the polls in that House district in Ohio. Good.

44:00Jordy Meiselas:That'll be that. him out of the race, by the way. Not all this screwed up stuff.

44:03Ben Meiselas:But you know what? You may have to figure out a plan, maybe replace them. I don't know, come up with something else. But to me, all of these things often come down to be an adult, be a grownup, be a leader, behave with dignity, at that level, just that. He's asked in the Oval office. Has a deal been reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz? Has a deal been reached? The very nature of this question, Trump's not involved even in the, the Trump regime has been sidelined. They're not involved in this at all right now. They're not, how do we know that? Are they in Qatar? Are they in Pakistan? Are they, no, they're not involved in any of this, nothing.

44:49Ben Meiselas:it is purely iran and oman that is it right now and trump wants to take credit for that deal that will give iran control over the strait and from say look i did a deal i did one i took a look what i did everybody look at what trump says when he's asked has a deal been reached let's play has a deal been reached to reopen the strait of hormones well i don't want to say it has been it's sort of open right now you know we have a thing called the blockade headed up by the u.s navy and we control it. And now we control it, but they can always shoot something. They always have something or drop a mine.

45:23Jordy Meiselas:We don't control it. It's a stupid thing to say. Remember how this week began, by the way? The week began with all the headlines across all the papers saying, Scott Besant says a deal on the street of Hormuz is coming tomorrow. Like, I don't know why, like people just forget this stuff. Like, they just move on. He said that, that was, I believe, Monday. And so the markets open and they go crazy. Like all the US stock market goes nuts off of this fake comment that Scott Bessett made. And it's not like it's the first time they've done this. They keep doing this all the time. They say, oh yeah, deals around the corner, a deal's going tomorrow, there's gonna be a deal tomorrow.

46:02Jordy Meiselas:And the stuff, they still react to their comment. Like how do you take anything these people say seriously? And as Ben said, the entire premise of the question is incorrect because the United States isn't even involved right now in these negotiations. It's between Iran and Oman, and the Iranian news sources right now are also saying that they're trying to figure out their way of opening the strait, which is going to formalize Iranian and Omani control of the straits, have some sort of tolling system perhaps, some sort of other authorities that they did not have prior to this war, making sure that they have complete and full control over it and that the United States does not and that everybody has to go through them.

46:43Jordy Meiselas:I mean, that's worse. That's like horrific. That's, that's the worst case scenario. Yet Trump just gets these questions. Like he's going to have a deal tomorrow and everybody reacts. Like it's like the greatest thing ever. I feel like I'm like, I feel like I'm going nuts sometimes when I watch this stuff.

46:57Brett Meiselas:Could we also just comment quickly on the fact that like, do y 'all find it strange that every time he answers a question during one of these formats that he's constantly just covering his hand, like he can't answer questions without covering that hand. He is deeply insecure about what's happening. And I just think it needs to be a bigger issue. Like, I think people need to be like, what are you doing? It's objectively an odd way for someone to answer 100 questions while they're sitting down. It's to just, yes, exactly. It's to cup one of their hands behind another for the duration of the Q &A process.

47:28Ben Meiselas:I couldn't agree more with you, Jordy. Let's take a look more at what he's doing. Before going, what he's doing in the Oval Office. I'll show you one more. This is what he says on a fourth. The big issue everybody's confronting, the cost of living is impossible in the United States. people can't afford homes he ran on affordability now he claims it's a made-up word he promised electricity prices would be cut in half gas would be under two dollars everybody would be having homes things would be amazing and then he's asked what's your message on affordability pretty basic

47:56Brett Meiselas:question right here let's play this clip republicans are arguing a lot right now about affordability what is your message on affordability going into the mid-term well that's a good question but it's sort of simple to answer. I inherited the highest prices ever. I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country. And we have done an amazing job.

48:18Ben Meiselas:Okay. And again, it's like, you haven't done an amazing job. Stop whining about what you inherited. Inflation was going down. Inflation was heading towards 2%. We know the reality of it. And it's just like, you're, you're in it two years now.

48:33Jordy Meiselas:Can I share some other midterm messaging with the, with, with, with everybody here, with you, Dan and Jordy and Midas Mighty. So let's, let's go. I just want to go quickly from Donald Trump's fantastic midterm messaging about affordability there and highlight a comment that I actually haven't seen got all that much attention today. And this is from Dan Crenshaw, just to show you like what people on the right are saying in general. Dan Crenshaw was responding to, there was a right-wing influencer. Right-wing influencers have been coming out now and saying things like, they got to, like, Trump really needs to focus on this affordability thing.

49:12Jordy Meiselas:Like, things are so expensive. And there was one influencer, like, yesterday who said something like, I just bought a burrito and it cost me like 25 bucks. And so this was Dan Crenshaw's response. This is the GOP message on affordability. He said, just hearing about this dumb$20 burrito debate. So just thought I'd make the losers on social media angry before going to bed. Stop whining. Get a job. Eat ramen like the rest of us did in college on a budget with four roommates. The market doesn't care what you think something should cost. Only communists care. Are you a communist or are you an American adult male capable of handling his own shit?

49:51Jordy Meiselas:Wow. Inspiring. Inspiring midterm messaging.

49:55Brett Meiselas:That's their message on affordability. get a job get it it's you're not working hard enough you don't have you don't have enough jobs

50:02Jordy Meiselas:you don't you're not working you need more jobs you need more ramen more jobs more ramen more

50:07Brett Meiselas:roommates that's their that's their affordability message anything else anything else is communism

50:12Ben Meiselas:here's a guy who said on day one here's what i was gonna do here's the promise i mean it's very clear what he said was i know no war i'm gonna i know zelinski i know i don't think it was clear it's sarcasm corporate media studies easy electricity prices this would be down in half you know it's it's why when i spoke to senator sanders bernie sanders you know he and i were both saying you know donald trump when he says he'd make the greatest communist like lenine or Stalin, Trump does. I mean, he made all these promises. He didn't deliver. He's taken, what now, at least 30 companies that we know of the United States has significant equity stakes in.

50:58Ben Meiselas:Whereas former President Biden used the CHIPS Act in order to bring the semiconductor industry here by doing incentives, where if companies hit benchmarks, certain funds could be unlocked to incentivize them. Instead, what Donald Trump did is said, ah, this money for incentives, I'm going to use it like they do in communism. We're not going to give you the funds. We're going to take control over your company for that. And we're going to take equity stakes in your company and we will be the owner and I will have control over how the companies do certain things. And, you know, Trump's turned our entire economy into what you normally see in what are referred to disparagingly as third world nations or banana republics, where Trump apparently is on the phone on a nightly basis with Warsh, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, kind of planning and coordinating, which is not what's supposed to happen at all.

51:57Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump's manipulating the markets. He's literally selling an insider trading feature on his social media platform. He's personally doing 21 ,000 trades to the tune of billions and billions of dollars in money that he's making. Then he's giving himself tax immunity, which fortunately was just challenged in a Virginia court. Talk about some of these court cases when we come back. Katie Fang, the Virginia case, David Hearn, other major cases, big legal updates to report from. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, pre-order WTF America, the book I wrote with my brothers, WTF America.

52:35Ben Meiselas:Pre-order now, the book comes out October. Pre-orders are helpful. So if you were thinking about, I'm just going to wait until it comes out, please do the pre-order now. Our publisher says that's way more helpful for the sales and the momentum than waiting until October 20th. So pre-order now, you can Google it, WTF America, if that's easier for you, or we have a link in the description or use the QR code. All right, let's take our last break.

52:57Jordy Meiselas:Oh, and I'll wait, I'll make this flag too. There are fake books that come pop out apparently when you write books that are trying to dupe you. And so they're fake books that steal your title and they're all written by AI. So make sure you get the one that's written by Brett, Ben and Jordy Mycelis and not the AI slop garbage that they're trying to trick you with. Okay. We'll be right back after this break. I'm excited to get into these legal updates and shout out Katie Fang, a lot to report on the Epstein's Files case when we get back. I'm always looking for a simple way to upgrade my daily routine.

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56:16Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. There's an exit survey. Let them know we sent you. Benji, wait, is the QR code up there for you guys? No, opposite direction, folks. So you messed me up because on the graphics, just for the record, it's that way for me. That's why I didn't -

56:38Jordy Meiselas:You know, they say the best audio podcasts are when you speak about visual things for a long time.

56:42Brett Meiselas:It entices people to be like, maybe I should check out YouTube. That's what Jordy's like.

56:46Ben Meiselas:Look, Ben, before I call to you for you to give me all the legal breakdowns, I'm going to just go and - I'm going to talk about this QR code graphic.

56:54Brett Meiselas:You guys have to understand, that's why our audio listeners are specific. They like when I talk about where the QR codes on the screen are.

57:01Jordy Meiselas:That's high content right there.

57:03Ben Meiselas:Okay, I do want to mention some things I said at the outset, which is there have been major attacks in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 48 hours and in the Red Sea. There have been Saudi tankers hit in the Red Sea and kind of right outside the Red Sea area by the Houthis. The Houthis launched a major attack in northern Yemen as well in an area that's still controlled by the Saudi-backed government. The Houthis control most of Yemen, western Yemen, the area by the Red Sea, a lot of the most kind of valuable territory in Yemen. But this northern area, there's a smaller stronghold controlled by the international, by the government that's recognized elsewhere, not by the west in certain places in Saudi Arabia, which is really the Saudi-backed Yemen government.

57:48Ben Meiselas:And the Houthis launched a major attack there. The Houthis are part of the axis of resistance of Iran that also involves Hezbollah, the Houthis, these Iraqi militia groups, some Somali groups, and others. They realize the U.S. is out of weapons. And if the U.S. is out of weapons, that means Saudi's out of weapons, right? And that means Jordan's out of weapons. That means the whole region's out of weapons. And that's why these nations, these Arab nations that thought that they were getting the Arab security umbrella, the Arab dome, the way Israel has the iron dome, they are left saying, what the hell?

58:28Ben Meiselas:We did all these quid pro quo deals with you, Donald, in year one and right before then, because you promised you were going to protect us and you didn't protect us. That's been Iran's strategy. So some people are like, well, why wasn't Iran attacking Israel? Because Iran actually had a strategy, their strategy. Why would we attack them? If we attack them, then they have a working iron dome. We're going to waste a lot of our munitions and our ballistics on them versus really putting the pressure on the United States. So while Trump had a strategy of wasting the interceptors, Iran was like, we're not going to waste the ballistics on Israel's Iron Dome.

59:11Ben Meiselas:We want to expose the Arab dome doesn't work because then if we can corral support there, then we can start putting pressure on Trump and Israel, but we don't even have to fire a shot at Israel. That's their strategy. And if we just studied Iran strikes on Tel Aviv in 2024, which again, no one really covered. And by the way, that was under Biden. and there's a lot of learning we should all do about, man, people weren't covering that. We probably all thought it was propaganda when Iran hit hard and telling me that they didn't really do that. That's AI or maybe it wasn't AI back then the way it is today, but like, yeah, that didn't really happen, right?

59:53Ben Meiselas:The same way now there's all these, all of the missiles were intercepted. No, Iran really hit hard in Israel in 2024 and showed their capabilities. And had that been studied versus written off or covered up, people could have seen what was going on. So Red Sea, lots of tankers hit by the Houthis, Strait of Hormuz, tankers hit. In fact, before we went live, right by Keshem, we learned that there were, that the Iranians announced that they had hit, this is, let me just read you the post about what they said went down, that they hit some targets there as well. They said, Iranian state media, the sound of two explosions heard in Keshem was due to confronting hostile enemy targets near the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz.

1:00:42Ben Meiselas:The achievements of this operation by our brave forces will be announced to the public in the coming hours. Now, you may go, well, Ben, it's Iran. Iran lies. Sure, they're going to do propaganda. I'm not naive and go, well, Tasneem Fars or Mer says it. Therefore, let's just agree that everything they say is true. But I'll tell you, as between CENTCOM and Tasneem, the fact that you even have to go, who's telling me the truth here? Well, I guess I have to observe who controls the Strait of Hormuz. I have to look at this satellite footage to see what's going on. And then I have to make my own judgments about what's really happening here.

1:01:17Ben Meiselas:And that's a sad place to be in where CENTCOM and Trump and the United States, or Trump has caused sin to just lose all credibility. It's like, okay, everything's not just a lie, but like a dumb lie that's easily disprovable. So we've had a lot of that. There was a Kuwaiti base that was struck this past week that no one wanted to report on. In Dubai, there appeared to be a Houthi strike, which in Dubai and UAE, they said, it was just a random explosion. That's not really what happened. And so that's what's actually taking place right now there. So if you're Saudi Arabia, you're MBS, you're looking around and you're saying, you're saying WTF, what the hell is this?

1:02:00Ben Meiselas:What do you think we gave all this money to? What do you think we gave the money to go? What the hell are you even doing here? And that's why Donald's like, well, let me try to dangle, you want civilian nuclear technology, right? Because you got to figure this out. So you know, MBS is like, you know, you screwed us badly. We're in a lot of trouble. We need civilian nuclear. And if you don't think that MBS knows that if you can downblend, you can upblend. What do you think they want? What do you think the do you think that the promise was really civilian nuclear? Or do you think it was once you have the enrichment, you can just enrich it even more and get weapons grade.

1:02:45Ben Meiselas:Because don't you think if you're Saudi Arabia, you're now thinking the only thing that's going to protect us now is a nuclear weapon because Iran's going to get a nuclear weapon now. Trump can't stop us there. So we need one. We need a nuke. What do you think is going on in the United Arab Emirates right now? Donald, you didn't help us. So what do you want? What do you want, UAE? Well, it's like Oprah. It's like the Oprah. You get nukes. You get semiconductors. You get this. What does UAE get? They got our classified Blackwell semiconductors, the most highly classified. And we gave China our second most highly classified, not the Blackwell, but the tier right under it.

1:03:31Ben Meiselas:So UAE got the top, top of the line. China got the one right below it. You don't think UAE is going to go to China and give them top of the line too? Why do you think China didn't even want to place many orders on the number two? Because they know how to do it themselves now. Of course they know how to do it themselves. But this is also because our security umbrella doesn't work. So Donald Trump and the Ponzi schemes now, giving them this and giving them that. That's what's going on in the region. It is Oprah on Christmas. You get this. You get that. You get this. I mean, it's much worse than that.

1:04:06Ben Meiselas:But that's what's actually going on at an international level. And we need to recognize that that's what's taking place. And meanwhile, Donald Trump is out there with the$1.5 trillion military budget, like$300 billion he wants to build freaking Trump class battleships because he liked the way battleships looked in World War I. He liked the thing about the idiotic. He likes battleships and he doesn't like stealth. So he said, build me Trump nuclear battleships. Really? In the age of drones and unmanned submersives, you idiot, you want Trump battleships? And you watch these idiotic members of Congress said, okay, Donald, that's what you want.

1:04:52Ben Meiselas:We'll give it to you, Donald. It is pathetic. WTF, these deeper concepts we talk about in the book, by the way. I'm watching this. I'm like, what are you doing? It takes two drones, one drone, one unmanned submersive. Say goodbye to your$20 billion Trump battleship. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, we're firing all of these nuclear subcommanders. Did you see that as well? I did a whole report on it. You had Ohio class nuclear subcommander was just fired. We had the destroyer commander of the USS Mason get fired. You had the secretary of Navy get fired. You have all of our top generals getting fired.

1:05:35Ben Meiselas:While Hegseth runs out of munitions, he's the worst. He couldn't run a nonprofit for veterans. You expect him to run freaking the United States military? The guy was forced out for misconduct, running nonprofits for mismanagement. But let's end with hope. Let's end with hope. David Hearn, case officially dismissed. Yes, we know Jeanine Pirro filed the notice to dismiss, fabricated evidence against David Hearn. Judge officially dismissed it. That's good news. Senator Murkowski of Alaska was asked tough questions by the Midas Touch DC Bureau. Thanks to you, we built that DC Bureau. Pablo Manriquez asked her some questions, got her on the record.

1:06:21Ben Meiselas:This is why Independent News, this wouldn't have existed without your help, by the way, in building this network and doing what they're doing in DC. And by the way, They also inspire the Midas people in D.C., all those people in D.C. now doing that schtick, doing the Midas thing, whether it's TMZ D.C. asking, having a unique perspective, whether it's all these other entities. They saw what we were doing back earlier in the year, and they're like, holy shit, we can do this. That's great. We want to inspire others. Let's hold politicians accountable. They work for us. They work for us, damn it. Let me play for you the audio of when Monriquez spoke to Murkowski in the halls of Capitol Hill.

1:07:06And what are you hearing from your constituents about your vote on Blanche?

1:07:13We hear a lot. Is it mostly that they want you to vote for or against? Most of the most of the constituent mail or calls that we're receiving are opposed to the nomination. much of which has to do with Epstein, based on my weekly readouts.

1:07:40Ben Meiselas:Then why would you consider supporting him?

1:07:47I'm now supposed to go to, I haven't been commenting on my position on him, in terms of what's going to go on with the vote. Senator, do you feel any closer to any type of decision? Yes.

1:08:04Ben Meiselas:What's moved you closer? You know what? I think you are all taking advantage of the fact that I dared to answer a few open-ended questions there about Epstein. And you're now getting closer to just, what are you going to do? I'm going to have an opportunity to issue a statement and rather than do it in little dribs and drabs here and there, you all will see it. Also, the way she frames herself as the victim in the narrative because she was answering the questions and she's like, you're taking advantage. No, I'm taking you. You're a United States senator. State senator.

1:08:51Jordy Meiselas:We're asking you questions, but I got to say, shout out to Pablo. So that's a big scoop right there. And so we'll see what happens. But you know, we've seen the charade before, right? We've seen, and you know, it's all coordinated behind the scenes at the end of the day. And with this Blanche vote, the math is because McConnell's out, McConnell was supposedly discharged from his, wherever he was, his rehab center, whatever, whatever's going on there. And he's not going back to work for a long time. And so they're down McConnell. Republicans could afford to lose two votes. And Susan Collins has already said that she is not voting for Blanche.

1:09:25Jordy Meiselas:And so that means you would need theoretically Murkowski and one other to block Blanche. That would traditionally, you know, people lean on someone like Murkowski who Pablo spoke with. And then there's Bill Cassidy. And they always tend to find a way to have the just the right amount of votes. Just right through. And so Murkowski was saying most of her constituents oppose Blanche. Perhaps she votes no, but then there's the likely chance that Cassidy votes yes and he gets through. Remember, Cassidy was the guy who was responsible for voting yes on RFK Jr., Cassidy himself, a medical doctor. And then, of course, everyone warned him exactly what was going to happen when he made that vote.

1:10:07Jordy Meiselas:He ignored it. He feigned concern. And then he acted all surprised after RFK started dismantling all these agencies and all these disease outbreaks. Wait a second. How could this happen? Because of you. Because of you. because you have power and you failed to use it. There was another moment, that interview, we actually have the full clip of that interview on MidasNews.com. It goes on for like six minutes. That was the end of it. But Murkowski also says that she received a note while she was on a plane. She's from Alaska. Murkowski's in Alaska and a woman came over to her and left a note to Murkowski on the plane that said, I am from Alaska and I'm an Epstein survivor.

1:10:46Jordy Meiselas:We hope that we can talk with you. And so Murkowski was speaking about these personal kind of firsthand interactions that she's had with Epstein survivors, including from her own state. So we'll see if that has any effect on her vote. To me, if the majority of your constituents are calling you and writing notes telling you not to vote for a person, you work for your constituents. You don't work for Donald Trump. So you should listen to your constituents. That's maybe my naive opinion here.

1:11:12Brett Meiselas:I just feel like we've been there with Murkowski before. And if that's where we're putting our eggs in that basket, I think we know how this is going to end. They always seem to sort of find a way, if you will. And the reality is Blanche could be acting AG for Trump's whole term if he's not approved.

1:11:33Ben Meiselas:On that front, it was good to see that in the federal court in Virginia, You have the amended complaint being filed regarding Trump's tax immunity that these other Republican senators were okay. I mean, you're just okay with giving the guy tax immunity that he can't be investigated for tax crimes. I mean, why should anybody be given immunity that you can't be investigated for tax crimes? And what does that have anything to do with anything? If he filed a frivolous$10 billion lawsuit, so then he gets tax immunity. and his sons get it too. That's the craziest thing ever. So in the same case where a preliminary injunction has already been granted, blocking the anti-weaponization fund, which again, the Trump regime refused to put it in writing in that case.

1:12:24Ben Meiselas:It was one of the big red flags that the fund doesn't exist. Instead, they did that whatever order. Now the same plaintiff said, well, we saw what a federal judge did in Florida, Florida said that the settlement was executed via collusion and fraud and impropriety. So if the settlement agreement's void, you can't have an addendum to the settlement agreement. So they want the preliminary injunction now to also include blocking Donald Trump and his family's tax immunity. And so that's now been added to that lawsuit. And they said, well, now it's clear for the first time that that's actually what Trump wants, tax immunity.

1:13:07Ben Meiselas:So we want to include that in our lawsuit. So we'll have to wait to see what the federal judge does there. But the federal judge has already ruled against Trump and the DOJ on the anti-weaponization fund. So let's pay attention there. Let's take a look at what's happening in Katie Fang's lawsuit. Just to remind you, she sued under the Epstein Transparency Act. It was the first of its kind lawsuit alleging that she as a reporter was deprived access to files critical to her reporting under the Epstein Transparency Act by the DOJ's coverup. She then filed a preliminary injunction to release a certain group of documents.

1:13:50Ben Meiselas:There were three categories. One, the redaction privilege log. Two, the notes of the FBI in connection with specific allegations by an underage girl regarding Donald Trump. Trump denies those allegations. There was an FBI 302 report, but the notes have been hidden. And so produce the notes. And then the other category of damages or the other category of documents that were being sought were, what was the other category, Brett? I'm trying to think of category one. I'm just drawing a blank on it right now. I can't read that. I'll get to it in a moment when I take a look at what that other category was.

1:14:32Ben Meiselas:But then there was the other category of damages as well. So three categories of damages that were being sought there. And then she sought the preliminary injunction. She was granted the preliminary injunction. And then Todd Blanche did not turn over the documents. Let me pull up category one. Oh, the redactions. Todd Blanche redacted the names of co-conspirators, but claimed that they were victims. And he said, well, the lawyers contacted me and said they were victims. So therefore I treated them as victims. And Katie Fang was like, what makes you believe they're victims? They seem to be clearly co-conspirators.

1:15:14Ben Meiselas:So it seems what was happening, this is really sick. It seems that one of the ways that the co-conspirators tried to keep their names secret was just by having these wealthy men, these powerful men, these Epstein class men would have their lawyers call up Blanche and say that they're the victims. So while the victim information was leaked, the co-conspirators had their names redacted because their powerful lawyers called the DOJ under Trump to say they were the real victims, real sick stuff. And that's why Katie Fang focused on these categories. And so the judge ordered Blanche turn over these three categories.

1:15:53Ben Meiselas:I want to review them in camera, meaning I'll review them confidentially. Katie Fang won't be in the room. The public won't see it yet. I'm going to look at it, just the judge. So I can see, are these actually victims or are they co-conspirators? Prove to me they are victims if you're claiming them as victims. Todd Blanche turned over nothing. Turn over the notes. Why aren't you turning over the notes? We're withholding them on the basis of they're substantially similar to the 302 report, says Blanche, to which the judge says that's not an exception. There's no such thing as substantially similar.

1:16:32Ben Meiselas:And the judge had held off on issuing any order about the privilege or redaction log. That's all of the documents that have been withheld. But then now that you've lied to me and you have not given me justification for redactions, and you have not given me information regarding the other category of damages, I want to know where the privilege log is. And I want you to release the privilege log and show me every one of these documents that you've withheld. And I want to know that because you're still withholding. Are you making these objections as well that the FBI 302 notes don't count? If you've withheld 5 million documents, I want every one of those documents logged.

1:17:21Ben Meiselas:So the judge, Judge Sullivan, has ordered Todd Blanche and the DOJ to show up August 13th and give answers. So I want to give a hat tip to Katie Fang because this is really a big ruling. The judge has now drilled down into these categories, right? Fake redactions, which is a big issue, withholding notes, privilege lock. And now the judge is saying, show up, explain to me why. And that now can open up everything. And it was a brilliant strategy by Katie Fang and her lawyers. It's an honor to be working with Katie Fang. We'll, of course, be covering that hearing on August 13th. Katie Fang will be in the courtroom.

1:18:03Ben Meiselas:And Katie Fang's also been working with another Midas host who has a show on Midas, Alison Gill, who's been doing FOIA requests also. And Alison Gill discovered that there was a training video to FBI agents, how to flag and cover up Trump-related documents. So she's pursuing that. So you've got Allison, you've got Katie, you've got Scott McFarland from the courthouse, you've got Michael Popak working with the top legal groups on Legal AF, and we're bringing them all together to share knowledge and to get out all the knowledge to the public. That's how we've always wanted this to operate. What we talk about, though, the thesis in WTF America, it's how you build something like this that now all of a sudden and worked together each one of these independent networks working as a unified force, pushing the message forward, Brett and Jordy.

1:18:56Ben Meiselas:That's why everyone pre-ordered WTF America now.

1:18:59Jordy Meiselas:Pre-order WTF America, QR code on the screen and link in the description. And let us know in the comments if you pre-ordered it. And I also wanna give a shout out, I've been following Katie's updates on the case, which is always great, like hearing it straight from her on her podcast, Sidebar with Katie Fang. That's like, you know, wherever you go to podcasts, it's really good. Like Katie, her analysis is just so good. And she speaks, you know, from first-hand experience, obviously, on this Epstein case and all the kind of trials and tribulations of it, and also all the other various cases that are out there.

1:19:30Jordy Meiselas:You know, she's given her incredible analysis, and, you know, and she does not hold back. I truly think Katie Fang is just fearless and incredible.

1:19:39Brett Meiselas:Absolutely. I mean, no, it's like living through history as it's happening, as Katie is doing the fight, is fighting the good fight. she's absolutely crushing it again that's sidebar with katie fang wherever you get your audio podcast it is phenomenal to listen to and she just explains in such a way that makes it you know for us to understand is is incredible benji brett this has been an incredible episode thank you everybody

1:20:01Ben Meiselas:for watching we're grateful for you pre-order put in the comments confirm that you pre-ordered uh hit subscribe and again just thank you from the bottom of my heart this is all possible because of you the mightest mighty community we dedicate the book to you we talk about you throughout the book. Like the big through line in the book is the Midas Mighty. So it's truly a book by you, for you, with you in mind. Pre-order it now. We appreciate you. And thanks for watching this episode. We covered a lot of topics. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:20:46We will get it right whenever we get it.

1:21:15Thank you.