MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/8/25

24:31Ben Meiselas:We got to take our first quick break of the show. A reminder to everybody, please, if you can become a member of our YouTube channel, The memberships have been so key. We've grown with zero outside investors. Thanks to you. Please help grow this network and you can gift memberships to as many people as you want. People can't afford memberships. And if you are able and so fortunate to gift the memberships and it unlocks emojis and special podcast episodes like the one I do with Ron Filipkowski. So check it out, become a member, click join and gift as many memberships as you can. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show, everyone.

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28:43Let's go.

28:44Brett Meiselas:Oh, 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. Huge fans of both of those. Simpler Hair, Color, and Miracle Made have been with us for quite some time. So check them out. They're fantastic, both incredible. Benji, where to next?

29:01Ben Meiselas:So Donald Trump made his real estate buddy, the special envoy to Russia, a guy by the name of Steve Whitcoff. He's the guy who puts his hand on his heart whenever he sees Putin. And he's the guy who shows up without anybody from the United States embassy and allows Putin to put Putin's own KGB operatives as the translator for Whitcoff. OK, I'll just use you as my translator. I'll hang out with you all day. Whenever Whitcoff rolls into town in Russia also, it's covered the way they cover like car chases in Los Angeles because they make a spectacle of it that America's here basically begging. Like that's how it's framed on Russian propaganda.

29:42Ben Meiselas:And whenever he's there, the leaders in Europe and Zelensky always know Donald Trump is about to taco. Trump always chickens out when it comes to sanctions against Russia. And Whitcoff will say, I had a major breakthrough in the conversations with Putin. There's never actually a breakthrough at all. It's just Putin saying, I want to meet with Donald. We should have a meeting. And then Donald, oh, you want to meet with me? And then Russia will just continue killing innocent Ukrainians. Let's just all not forget, just pull it back for a second. Right. Donald Trump promised there would be peace in Ukraine in 24 hours from taking office.

30:19Ben Meiselas:Now Donald Trump's line is that was a joke that he was being sarcastic the same way he was joking and being sarcastic about bringing peace to Gaza in 24 hours. These are all jokes, according to him, never actually meant it. It's actually pretty challenging stuff. And of course he was being sarcastic. We played multiple clips of Donald Trump saying that. Well, here Donald Trump yesterday says, my special envoy, Steve Whitcoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made. Great progress, like Borat. Afterwards, I updated some of our European ally.

30:55Ben Meiselas:Success! Everyone agrees this war must come to a close, and we will work towards that in days and weeks to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter. As Jay and Keeve and others who cover this stuff write Trump getting conned by Putin yet again. So Donald Trump's asked at a press conference yesterday, how do you know Putin's not playing you? Because he's done this now to you since you've taken office, as everybody predicted he would. You know, Putin will dangle things in front of you while Putin starts bringing in North Korean troops and others onto the front lines to try to advance in this summer offensive.

31:32Ben Meiselas:And Putin is just trying to buy time, build the differences between the United States and NATO allies, and continue to attack cities in Ukraine. So Donald Trump's asked, so what's the difference right now? And then Donald Trump's response, as always, is a few weeks, a few weeks. I just need a few weeks. Here, let's play this. Mr. President, in the past, you said you would know if Putin was happy to move along. What is he too many confidence that he is or isn't doing that this time around? Can't answer the question yet. I'll tell you in a matter of weeks, maybe less. You know, a good follow up would be, didn't you promise, though, there would be peace at 24 hours?

32:11Ben Meiselas:So Donald Trump then calls our European allies or, frankly, former European allies based on the way Trump's treating him and says, I'm going to meet with Putin. You can't be there. and maybe Zelensky and Putin meets. But if there's a meeting between Zelensky and Putin and me, Europe, you can't be there. That's one of the conditions. So he holds a conference call with Europe and says, you're out. This is exactly what Putin wants. Why? Because Putin wants a two-on-one. He wants Putin and Trump to bully Zelensky the way you saw J.D. Vance and Trump do it in the Oval Office. That's the scene that they want to set up.

32:51Ben Meiselas:Why wouldn't you want Europe to be there? So Donald Trump is asked, you know, even today. So with your meeting with Putin, does Zelensky have to be involved in this at all? Just listen to what Donald Trump says here, Planned Squad. That's actually important because the president, President Putin said this morning, he was pretty dismissive of this idea of meeting with President Zelensky. President Putin was. I don't know. I didn't hear you to meet with him. He doesn't have to agree to meet with Zelensky. Is that what you're saying? No, he doesn't. No, no. So they would like to meet with me and I'll do whatever I can to stop the killing.

33:27So last month they lost 14000 people killed last month. Every week is four or 5000 people. So I don't like long waits.

33:41Ben Meiselas:I think it's a shame. So Putin says he doesn't want to meet with Zelensky. you one more clip, Brett, then I'll throw it over to you. So Trump is asked, so is tomorrow a deadline to impose secondary sanctions on Russia? What's going on with that? And Donald Trump says, actually, I'm just going to leave it for Putin to decide. Putin will be the one who decides if there'll be sanctions against them or not. Here, play this clip. Is your deadline for Vladimir Putin agreeing to a ceasefire still stand tomorrow? Is that fluid now that talks. Is your deadline still standing for Vladimir Putin to agree with ceasefire tomorrow?

34:17Ben Meiselas:Or is that fluid now? It's going to be up to him. We're going to see what he has to say. It's going to be up to him. Very disappointed. Yeah. The guy's just such a coward. You know, he's he talks such a tough game. He lied to the American people over and over and over again, saying that this was all going to be solved within 24 hours, not even from his election. He said it was going to be 24 hours since he said, well, since the election, not even for his inauguration. And you can give him the benefit of the doubt and say, okay, once he's in office, maybe he'll take care of this. Well, what's happened?

34:44People like Vladimir Putin know how to play Donald Trump. They know Donald Trump's weak points. They know that Donald Trump just likes people sucking up to him. They know that Donald Trump is easily manipulated. I mean, Putin was a KGB agent. He knows exactly how to manipulate somebody as simple-minded as Donald Trump. And we see him doing just that. And every time he gets this extension, That's more Ukrainians who are dying. That's more destruction. That's a win for Putin. And so he knows that he could just continue to string Donald Trump along here. And Trump has also obviously alienated us from so many of our allies and continues to do so the way that he's handling this entire crisis right now, this Russian invasion, that it makes America weaker and makes us less able to deal with this.

35:25I know we're going to talk soon also, but the same thing's happening in Gaza, obviously, as well, where Donald Trump talked a big game, led a lot of people on in these communities across the United States, saying that he was going to solve this issue. He was going to put an end to the death, the destruction at the hands of Netanyahu and that government. And all we're seeing right now is him also giving Netanyahu the green light to completely take over and occupy Gaza. We'll show what he's saying about that also. But it just – this shouldn't be shocking to anybody who's followed Donald Trump, to anybody who knows who Donald Trump is.

36:02But the fact that he's been able to fool so many people into thinking that he's someone he's not, to me, always just absolutely blows my mind when the evidence is just staring you in the face, Jordy.

36:13Brett Meiselas:What infuriates me and I hate – I hate the constantly beating on corporate media is bad at their jobs. But corporate media is bad at their jobs, flat out. Let's play everyone's favorite segment. Imagine if Biden did it. Imagine if President Biden said that he was going to end a war, any war in 24 hours, and he didn't. You bet your ass that he'd be asked every single time that he was in front of cameras, Mr. Biden, Mr. President, you said you were going to end the war in 24 hours. Why is it still going on? For me, it stops and ends with that. Yes, I know Donald Trump's on record now saying, oh, I was being sarcastic when I said that.

36:48Brett Meiselas:Really? I mean, we all played the clips. No, that was like a key focal point of his campaign when he was running that he was going to end these wars in 24 hours. what are we over 100 plus days now well over and these wars are still raging if not getting worse and so i just don't understand why no one has the backbone or the spine to meet him there and say hey president trump you said during the campaign trail these wars would be over by now what is happening why are you letting president putin president quotes there why are you letting him dictate the timeline to your deadlines that you put why is it now up to putin to decide what's going on You said and you promised the American people this would be over within 24 hours and people are still dying.

37:29Brett Meiselas:Why? And you know what? Ultimately, it comes down to they're scared of losing their access. And that is just so cowardly to me. And that's why I love that we have this platform here in the Midas Mighty is to hold these folks accountable and especially hold Donald Trump accountable for once again, another failed promise, Ben.

37:43Ben Meiselas:So then Donald Trump is asked if he would support Israel annexing Gaza and just fully reoccupying it. We know that a lot of our allies, or I should say former allies, right, whether it's Canada, Australia, France, the UK, and others, are recognizing, clearly recognizing the Palestinian state and being very vocal and public about that. So the media is asking, well, what are you going to do, Donald? Because you said you would bring peace to Gaza in 24 hours. There were all of those events with Muslims for Trump, Palestinian for Trump event. At the time when I was covering it, I was like, Palestinian for Trump?

38:24Ben Meiselas:What are you doing? Muslims for Trump? Do you not remember the first administration? you know when they would say at these events donald trump has guaranteed us peace i remember i remember the one michigan he guarantees us peace in gaza he's given us his word then there was the other one where uh they i think trump handed him like a peace stone i have a fight what'd you say i said i actually have the clip if you want to play it yeah play it he promises peace not war.

38:55We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine.

39:04Ben Meiselas:All right. Well, here's what Donald Trump said when he was asked if he would support Israel reoccupying Gaza. Play it. Next. Thank you, Mr. President. Would you support Israel reoccupying all of Gaza has been has been suggested by some Israeli officials? Well, I don't know what the suggestion is. I know that we are there now trying to get people fed. As you know,$60 million was given by the United States fairly recently to supply food and a lot of food, frankly, for the people of Gaza that are obviously not doing too well with the food. and I know Israel is going to help us with that in terms of distribution and also money.

39:43We also have the Arab states are going to help us with that in terms of the money and possibly distribution. So that's what I'm focused on as far as the rest of it. I really I really can say that's going to be pretty much up to Israel. Yeah, please.

39:57Ben Meiselas:OK, Israel, what do you have to say?

39:59Brett Meiselas:Netanyahu, you will go immediately into a meeting with your security cabinet. Will Israel take control of all of Gaza? We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and to pass it to civilian governance. That is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel. That's what we want to do. We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas.

40:33Ben Meiselas:You know, people aren't buying when Netanyahu is selling right now. It's actually good to see some Jewish Congress members. We're Jewish. And I just want to be very clear that criticizing Netanyahu and Netanyahu's regime does not make you anti-Semitic. You should be able to criticize the atrocities that Netanyahu is committing for his own personal power grab while he's under criminal prosecution, doing the Trump tactics, firing the attorney general who's prosecuting him and engaging in the exact types of dictatorial tactics we see from Donald Trump. And to see people like Congress member Dan Goldman, for example, came out with a statement that said that called out Netanyahu.

41:18Ben Meiselas:I was glad to see statements like that. You know, and I think we can't be silent in the face of what's taking place in the atrocities in Gaza. But what Donald Trump is enabling are those atrocities. And in other clips, Donald Trump's out there saying, but no one's thanking me. I've given them millions of dollars. You gave$3 million, I think, maybe, which is not addressing systemically the issue. And again, he makes it about himself. No one's thanking me. Why aren't I being thanked? Yeah, let me actually, I could elaborate on that. So, you know, he says 60 million, only 3 million has actually been dispersed.

41:56And remember, this is after the blocking of other aid groups that were bringing aid into Gaza. And so there was a system that was already underway. And what happened now is like, it's like a US contractor who now has the gig, who's getting money in order to do these aid drops. So it's also, once again, done in like a very selfish way that's enriching somebody. You know, probably I got to dive into it deeper. Like I would, I'm going to assume this person is a person with a connection to Trump who got this contract to do this. But we're just seeing time and time again, just the most heinous actions.

42:30And then the defense of them, which is just total gaslighting, whether it's from people like Netanyahu or whether it's from people like Trump. And you see, you see the game they're playing. To me, it's a pretty obvious game. And we've seen from the reporting about what top officials of both governments are saying that the United States has given Netanyahu and that government a total green light to completely decimate Gaza and take it over and turn it into a resort strip. Like that's – they've given them the green light. So you'll have Trump say things like, yeah, we're just going to let them do whatever they want to do.

43:04Israel will do whatever Israel wants to do. And what are we going to – what can we do about it? We can't do it. That's whatever they want to do. And you see Netanyahu, you know, responded the way he does. I think their agreement is very clear, even when they don't say it directly. But we know it from even what they are saying and from the reporting that we're seeing, what their intent is. I, you know, wish I could go back in time and scream louder and louder the way we were screaming back then that this is not the guy who is going to solve this issue. issue. But we're obviously, you know, past that point, and I'm not sure it would have, you know, done much anyway.

43:39But, you know, it's an important issue that we have to talk about, and we have to keep speaking about here. And we have talked about it for a while here, and we'll continue to talk about it, you know, just unapologetically.

43:52Ben Meiselas:Look, let's take our last quick break of the show. We've got a lot to discuss when we return. I do want to address, I'm going to do a deep dive into this in the morning as well, but I want to talk about the expose I'm going to be working on for the morning. Ghislaine Maxwell, we all know she's been moved to this minimum security facility, but more needs to be talked about that. The level of cooperation between the facility and Texas A &M, they work very close together. They have lots of prisoners working in programs with Texas A &M, a lot of clinics. So you've literally put a sex trafficker whose MO was preying on young girls who are working in spas to be on a college campus right next to college students.

44:37Ben Meiselas:The same way you had Donald Trump have Lawrence Taylor, a convicted sex offender who sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl, leading children initiatives, children fitness initiatives, putting a guy who sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl to do those types of initiatives, normalizing sexual predation, normalizing this pedo behavior, covering up a pedo sex trafficking ring. Let's take our last quick break. Oh, reminder, become a member. Become a member of our YouTube channel. Gift memberships to others. It is such a big help to the network. You click join and you can gift unlimited memberships to people who may not be able to afford them and it helps the network so much.

45:19Ben Meiselas:All right, last quick break of the show. Home stretch, folks.

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49:25Brett Meiselas:Man, shout out Home Chef. That is an incredible offer. Links in description of YouTube and audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, please let them know we sent you. Benji, where to next, big bro?

49:38Ben Meiselas:Let's talk about what Donald Trump said when he was asked about a meeting that took place last night at the White House. The meeting took place regarding a number of topics, but also how Donald Trump was going to further cover up the Epstein files, further cover up his dark past and deal with what his next steps are with Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump refers to everything Epstein related as a hoax. Just think about if you were one of the hundreds or thousands of victims of Epstein and Donald Trump's there saying it's a hoax. This is all one hoax. And Donald Trump bringing Ghislaine Maxwell to this minimum security facility in Bryan, Texas, rewarding Ghislaine Maxwell.

50:23Ben Meiselas:We went from release the Epstein files to Trump releasing the convicted sex trafficker co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell. And nobody wanted that, obviously, other than Donald Trump. So first, here's Donald Trump at the press conference calling everything a hoax. Here, play the split. Mr. President, is Vice President Pence hosting a gathering this evening to talk about how to respond to the Epstein situation? Is he working on what? Is he hosting some kind of gathering of top advisors this evening to talk about how to respond to the Epstein situation? I don't know. I could ask you that question.

50:58I don't know of it, but I think here's the man, right? I saw a recording today and it's completely fake news. We're not meeting to talk about the Epstein situation. And I think the reporter who reported it needs to get better sources. The whole thing is a hoax. It's put out by the Democrats because we've had the most successful six months in the history of our country. And that's just a way of trying to divert attention

51:24Ben Meiselas:to something that's total bullshit. And the cursing right there and then calling it a hoax, which, by the way, even if he doesn't pardon or commute the sentence of Ghislaine, which I'm pretty confident he's going to do. He's already handed her the retrial and he's given her the facility where she's basically living in the most sought after federal prison that's out there, where they had to give her a waiver because she is convicted of sex trafficking. When people speak about the Epstein case as a cover up in the past, and they speak about the prison and everything that happened, even going back to what Acosta did, who ended up in the Trump administration, the sweetheart deal.

52:07I'm like, you don't even have to look at the past. The cover-up is happening right now. The scandal, the biggest part of the whole scandal, honestly, may be happening before our eyes right now. What Donald Trump is saying every day, what Trump and his team are doing every day. And by the way, they did in fact have a meeting last night. It wasn't at J.D. Vance's residence. It ended up being at the White House. So J.D. Vance acting all smarmy. Oh, you need to get better sources with that reporting. Well, just so happened to be in the White House. They changed venues so that they could call it fake news.

52:38That was what happened. So I guess it was a meeting that didn't exist about files that never existed. But they felt it was important to have that meeting. But this cover-up that we're witnessing, what we're dealing with with Ghislaine, moving her to this cushy facility, club fed over in Bryan, Texas, this is the scandal. This is probably the biggest part of the scandal. And I think, you know, I know we're all looking at it right now as like, holy shit, do we see what's going on? I think years from now, we're all going to look at this moment and go, holy crap. That was like the most horrifying thing that's maybe ever happened, like in a very long time.

53:15Brett Meiselas:Yes, 1000%. I always think to myself, like during this time period too, again, I'm reading on my child who's turning two pretty soon, which is crazy. Like he's going to be an adult one day and he's going to be like, hey dad, you know, where'd you side on this whole thing. And I'm just glad that it's all very well documented where we planted our flag during this insane point of history. I mean, you look at that clip that we just played, my blood boils looking at that. Again, he calls it the Epstein hoax, which is just a slap in the face to every single victim, every single child that was raped by Jeffrey Epstein and that whole gang of lunatics and pedophiles.

53:50Brett Meiselas:I mean, really pathetic and gross stuff calls it a hoax. And how about the chuckle heads in the back, Vance, the whole team behind them just laughing it up at that reporter's question. I mean, the fact that they don't treat this with the level of severity that it desperately needs and that the American people want, people want answers to the Epstein files. We should be calling it the Epstein Trump files at this point because of the cover-up. And exactly to your point, Brett, we will and generations will be looking back at this moment of history and being like the cover-up was right in front of everybody's faces and no one was able to hold his feet to the fire.

54:24Brett Meiselas:And again, that's why I'm glad that we've planted the flag, the collective we, the Midas Mighty, the Midas Touch Network, and are bringing facts, data, and receipts to the table every single day. That clip makes my blood boil.

54:35Ben Meiselas:Well, Donald Trump was asked if he had anything to do with the transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell to the Camp Bryan prison facility. Watch his answer here. Play this clip. I just have very highly thought of person, and respected by everybody. And I didn't talk to him about it, but I will tell you that whatever he asked would be totally appropriate, and it's not an uncommon thing to do that. And I think he probably wants to make sure that people that should not be involved or aren't involved are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people. Two questions for you.

55:15One, were you aware of, and did you personally approve the prison transfer for Ghislaine Maxwell well that your Justice Department. I didn't know about it at all. No, I read about it just like you did. And do you believe that she is not a very uncommon thing? Do you believe that she's credible to be listening to your deputy attorney general sat down with her recently? Well, he's

55:33Ben Meiselas:let me tell you, he's a very talented man. His name is Todd Blanche. When he goes, it's not a very uncommon thing, which tells you he knows about it was also a confession before that as well. We're trying to avoid things coming out about people like he's like clearly, in my opinion, referring to himself. This is the most unprecedented thing. This has never happened before where you move a convicted sex trafficker to a minimum security facility. And there's, I'm going to have a Texas official on in the morning. So everybody make sure you check the videos that I have in the morning. But this Camp Bryan facility, it's right next to Texas A &M.

56:15Ben Meiselas:It's a college town. So because it's a minimum security facility, the prisoners do programs with the college kids. That's part of it. So for audio listeners, you can't see it, but this is an announcement. Texas A &M supports the prison puppy raising program where you have the females in the detention because it's supposed to be minimum risk, not sex traffickers. They go into the college and there's not police around them. They just, they walk there. They take a bus because there's no like fencing or gates. You can just walk right out. There's no security guards at the prison. You could potentially even potentially walk to the campus.

56:54Ben Meiselas:You show up and you work with the students. Like Ghislaine Maxwell is someone who walked to Mar-a-Lago, found underage girls, and then sex trafficked them. So if you just think about in the last two weeks, Donald Trump brings in Lawrence Taylor, convicted sex offender. He's on the registration list of sex offenders for having sexually assaulted an underage girl. He gets appointed to be the head of the fitness initiative for children, for young girls. So he's going to be supervising potentially young girls in a fitness program. Think about that. I I mean, just think about the things. Donald Trump getting handed gold bars by the Apple CEO.

57:37Ben Meiselas:Trump on the roof talking about nuclear weapons that he's building on the roof and saying, I've bought everything here. Trump having an individual who's on the sex registration list for sexually assaulting an underage girl leading the children's program. Donald Trump putting Ghislaine Maxwell into a minimum security facility on a college town. Just think about the things that I just said. And I'm not like hyperbolic. I'm just literally giving you the objective data of what's occurred. And that should be deeply along. Just think about those things. Those things should be 25th Amendment, impeachable offenses, criminal.

58:20Ben Meiselas:I'm sure whatever the hell's in these Epstein files is cataclysmic for Trump. But just think about what I just said. Yeah, the things that we've seen with our own eyes right now. And it brings me back to what I said in the beginning of the episode. Imagine if the stuff was just like revealed in reports or leaked emails or leaked audio recordings. It's happening right in front of our face. And so I guess that blunts the effect of it for some odd reason. And I want to also just remind everybody too, Donald Trump, best friends with Jeffrey Epstein, best friends with Ghislaine Maxwell, that was his crew.

58:49That was his crew for a very long time. And not only was his crew Epstein and Ghislaine, he was perhaps better friends with Ghislaine. They were friends for a longer period of time. And Trump was also friends with Ghislaine Maxwell's father. They go way, way, way back. So now think about all of this in the context that Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell have been best family friends for decades and decades and decades. Trump would hang out with her father. Ghislaine was a socialite. Her father was Robert Maxwell, big business guy, Robert Maxwell. Robert Maxwell, he had a boat. The boat was called the Lady Ghislaine, named after Ghislaine Maxwell, his daughter.

59:25Who would go on parties on that boat? The Lady Ghislaine boat. Donald Trump would go on parties with Ghislaine Maxwell's father when Ghislaine Maxwell was a kid. They go way, way, way back. Once you remember that also, So not that you needed that to put two and two together, but it just shows you it's so obvious what he's trying to do here is trying to help out his whole buddy. And as a political system, as a Republican party, as the people in the administration, you have a fork in the road when you get to this point. This is something you've been talking about. This is something that you've said you've cared about.

59:56This has been one of your biggest issues. You go, OK, do I actually go ahead and I move ahead with my values and I denounce child sex trafficking and I say that this is despicable what Donald Trump is doing and his relationship to all of it? Or do I protect the sex traffickers? We've seen what 99.9 % of the people in the Republican Party have decided. Yeah.

1:00:17Ben Meiselas:And look, Jim Jordan, before he became a Congress member, covered up sex abuse. I mean, if you go back and look at these people's backgrounds, their backgrounds are also deeply, deeply problematic as well. Brett, one thing about Robert Maxwell. He died mysteriously on the Lady Ghislaine, apparently naked, peeing off the side of the boat is what the story was at the time. Turns out he was a complete fraud. He was robbing the pension funds relating to his companies. That's where he was getting a lot of his money from. He then bankrupted his children. Does the story sound familiar? And then Lady Ghislaine reinvented herself basically with Epstein and then brought kind of Trump along in the late 80s and 90s.

1:01:04Ben Meiselas:And there are articles from like 1997 in the Sunday Mirror, which was owned by Robert Maxwell about Ghislaine. They called her Madam Maxwell or Madam Ghislaine finding young women to give to Donald Trump. It literally says that in 1997. And we cover all of this on the Midas One thing I want to point out as well, I just want to show you this to me is emblematic of all of the issues with this Trump regime. I talked earlier about the mRNA issue, Trump defunding mRNA vaccines, which Trump, you know, you know, pushed ahead in this first administration. But they're defunding vaccine research right now.

1:01:44So and then separately, though, on the climate front, you have Donald Trump's secretary of energy chain making reports that say climate change is good for the climate and great for the environment.

1:01:59Ben Meiselas:And it's a win for all of us. So let me just show you his secretary of energy promoting climate change as a way to help the climate. And they're doing reports on this. Here, play this. The Department of Energy, meanwhile, released its climate report assessing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. It includes carbon dioxide induced warming, maybe less damaging than previously believed, which many people expected. The DOE is receiving pushback, however, from The New York Times. The Times writes that the Energy Department is attacking climate science in contentious report. Secretary, your reaction.

1:02:34Oh, what a crazy headline. But I guess that's par for the course for The New York Times. In fact, we're doing the exact opposite. We're exposing the American people and the broader scientific community to what actually is in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, not the hyperbolic summaries for policymakers or media headlines that claim all sorts of crazy stuff. This is what we actually know. How often do you hear that the planet's getting greener because there's more carbon dioxide in the air that contributes to increased crop productivity and greater wilderness, greener wilderness.

1:03:11Brett Meiselas:How often you hear that deaths from extreme weather had been falling like a stone for a century and that ensured losses from extreme weather events had been on a multi-decadal decline. Those are just facts. Instead, we're scaring kids in school.

1:03:29Ben Meiselas:We're promoting an alarmist view of climate change that's simply contrary to the facts. It's a real physical phenomenon that we want to talk about honestly and openly. But we got to get past the scaremonger campaign that you can't do this because of climate change or the government's going to stop your plans here for to fight climate change. Just nonsense. Well, that is just incredible. You are so right. You are so right. That is just incredible. You know, it reminds me, you know, thinking back before our time when they ran cigarette ads saying that cigarettes were healthy for people. Right. And you had the slogans.

1:04:08Isn't there like a camel slogan? More doctors smoke camels. And it's great for your it's great for your relaxation. I mean, they would have ads like that back in the day. But that's exactly what this guy. This is exactly like the stuff that this guy is saying. And we see just the stripping away of these environmental protections just every single day, these assaults on the climate using shoddy data and lies. And not only are they ruining the climate, they're also taking away good paying American jobs. And they're setting us way back also in the fight against climate compared to other countries.

1:04:42Like whenever we do something like that, or when China sees that, they laugh at us because they are right now in a position to be the world leaders in this industry when the United States actually had a jumpstart on it because of all these projects. And we see like, if you look at the Project 2025 tracker that's online, they've already accomplished something like 47 % of Project 2025. And this is all tied into exactly that. And you see just constantly, like everywhere you look, like the Environmental Protection Agency announced the termination of the$7 billion Solar for All grant program, which aimed to facilitate solar panel installation for low and moderate income households and expand community solar initiatives.

1:05:23That, by the way, a lot of those projects were already underway. Now they have to stop them midway, which is going to screw so many things up as well. And that was going to be so many jobs also for like red states in particular. Like that's where a lot of these projects were going to be. They also just shut down like a satellite, a NASA missions that were monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and plant health. It's like a massive, it's like one of the top sources of data for scientists, for farmers, for policymakers relating to the climate. And you have retired NASA scientists now, they're sounding the alarm.

1:05:55Like this is not okay. This guy, David Crisp, who's a retired NASA scientist, he led the development of this program. He said that these satellites help scientists discover that the Amazon rainforests emit more carbon dioxide that it absorbs, that other forests in Canada, Russia, and places where permafrost is melting absorb more than they emit. They detect the glow of photosynthesis in plants, which helps monitor drought and predict food shortages that could live to civil unrest and famine. So tracking the climate, being on top of these issues, investing in this space, it's important for humanity.

1:06:29It's important for jobs, for cost of living. It's important for, obviously, just the environment in general. and they are throwing this all the way using these lies that resemble these cigarette campaigns that they ran in the 50s trying to act like the destruction is good for you.

1:06:46Ben Meiselas:Absolutely there, Brett. And I want to give people some good news about our friends at the AFL-CIO. We've been embedded in their tours promoting unions. They're in Chicago right now and they've been traveling the country, meeting with union workers, talking about organizing, talking about wages, talking about ensuring that people get fair pay. So a shout out to all of our friends at the AFL-CIO. I want to remind everybody, become a member of our YouTube channel. Memberships go a long way to help us build. There it is right there, Liz Shuler, the president of AFL-CIO and the Better in a Union Bus Tour, building worker power nationwide in Chicago.

1:07:30Ben Meiselas:America's unions came together to train for peaceful mass mobilization. So they have the tools to fight for working people and secure the strong new contracts they've earned and deserve. And Liz Shuler's always been a fighter for workers. She's never wavered at all in her career. And shout out to the great folks at AFL-CAO for doing that great tour. Everybody become members of our YouTube channel. Hit subscribe. Please, if you can click, click join, you can gift memberships to other people as well. Since we've grown with zero outside investors, you being able to become a member helps a lot. Subscribe to our audio podcast.

1:08:08Ben Meiselas:Make sure you subscribe there. Leave five-star reviews, comment. If you like the podcast, share the network with as many people as you can. Keep checking in about every 90 minutes. We have new updates on the Midas Touch YouTube channel. Check out MidasPlus.com. That's our sub stack. And thank you everyone for watching. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Thank you everyone. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:08:52Brett Meiselas:Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas Plus sub stack for ad-free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free now at MidasPlus.com.