MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 9/12/2025

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29:19Let's go. Shout out Soul. Shout out Wild Alaskan. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes if there's an exit survey. Let them know we sent you. Benji, real quick, Kash Patel and the FBI. I mean, this is a colossal failure. You mentioned this earlier. I just wanted to comment on it because two suspects, not the people. And they were sort of boasting, especially about the second suspect who they picked up that they got their guy. And now we're nearly going on two days now without the person in custody. This is what happens when you don't put serious people, when you put podcasters slash influencers in these high cabinet positions to lead these high offices without any real experience.

30:10This is what you should expect. And we know that he had fired the previous head, Ben, of that force prior to this all going down about six weeks or so, Ben, before. I know you know more information on that as well. And that's the scary part when you start putting influencers in these positions. Like this is the stuff that we've been warning about. This is why you need people who are actually experienced in these fields leading the charge, Ben.

30:44Ben Meiselas:So the head of the field office in Utah was a lady by the name of Metab Saeed, Pakistani lady. After September 11th, she decided that she wanted to work in the FBI. She actually worked as an attache in the Pakistan FBI field office. she was so well regarded. She ran counterterrorism out of Washington, D.C., and then she led the Utah FBI office. Over the past few weeks, as the purge of other FBI officials accelerated by the Trump regime, they've been disproportionately getting rid of women and minorities. So Pakistani woman, see you later, despite her having a wealth of knowledge. They fired her.

31:33Ben Meiselas:I think they started forcing her out in August and she officially left, I think within the past few weeks, but she would be leading that Utah field office. So she's gone. Yesterday morning, there was a massive lawsuit that was filed by at least three of the top FBI officials in Maine Justice FBI in Washington, DC, in the Maine FBI DC office, including Driscoll, the former acting director, basically, of the FBI, a guy named Evans, who was basically one of the top people, and a guy named Spencer, three of the top positions. And one of the main things that they warned about was that Kash Patel and Dan Bongino were so focused on their social media retweets and likes that they were prioritizing that over institutional awareness and over the integrity of the underlying investigations and cases and the work that the FBI was going to do.

32:40Ben Meiselas:Also, we all know who is leading the domestic terrorist threat task force right now. It's a guy named Thomas Fugate III, a 22-year-old former Trump intern with no law enforcement background, no FBI background. I think the guy was like a summer gardener before interning for Trump. And then Trump appointed this again, 22 year old guy to lead domestic threat assessments. So Jordy, not only on the backend, does it seem like there were colossal failures just based on this idea of social media posting? We got them before you got them. You don't do that. But what about the threat assessments before When it comes to that recent Minnesota shooting at the school that took place, the individual who engaged in the shooting was posting all over social media.

33:41Ben Meiselas:He said, I'm intending to shoot over and over and over again. That would normally be a function of FBI going through and identify. You can't say that they're going to be perfect, but even if they're batting 300 or 400, they're able to stop a lot of these events from happening. Well, right now it's being led by Thomas Fugate III. And so to me, even though the world has turned its collective attention, not us here at the Midas Touch Network, from what went down with the flash floods in Texas and the hundreds of deaths of children when local, state, and federal were all unprepared for the flash floods and totally mishandled it.

34:25Ben Meiselas:What if you had a competent FEMA that didn't fire all the necessary people that were in Texas that worked for the various weather departments and needed to be there that were fired or let go or resigned or pushed out? Local and state officials did not have the right preparation. They stole the money that Biden gave for warning systems so that they could give themselves bonuses versus invest in the warning systems because they didn't want to return the money. And then the feds weren't there. It took, what, days before Kristi Noem signed off on Urban Search and Rescue, even though they were ready to go.

35:04Ben Meiselas:God knows where she was during that Fourth of July weekend. But at some point, as these things start to mount, you're like, okay, we've seen far more deaths from natural disasters. We've seen far more inabilities to respond to these types of terroristic events. And we know that Trump's firing the people who are responsible for these positions. And so I think it bears mentioning that again as well. And you go from domestic, you look at foreign policy right now. The same way you have Donald Trump, again, we'll talk about the economy here. Oh, no inflation. We're in a golden age. Everything is great.

35:44Ben Meiselas:Things are amazing. What are you talking about? Things couldn't be better. When it comes to foreign policy, you've got Donald Trump saying, I've stopped 10 wars and everything is great. And look, we've renamed unlawfully the Department of Defense to the Department of War. So we're strong. Look, everybody, we've moved four of our biggest ships and a nuclear submarine off the coast of Venezuela. And we shot a fishing boat, allegedly with 11 people on it. And then Trump post ISIS style murder videos, killing purportedly 11 people. He goes, they're Trendeiragua. And they were headed for the United States with cocaine, even though Marco Rubio said they were headed for Trinidad.

36:27Ben Meiselas:Then they changed the story and said the United States, it looked like a 16 footer, maybe a 24 footer max, didn't have the fuel to get to the United States. Well, Trendy Aragua also is known for human trafficking. So how do you know they didn't have innocent human beings on that fishing boat? How do you know they weren't just fishermen? Why don't we have additional information from our government about a freaking death video that Donald Trump posted? We don't get to know the identities. There's no press conferences about it. We're done talking about it. Trump posts an ISIS style death video of a fishing boat, and then we're supposed to just move on.

37:05Ben Meiselas:By the way, even if it was cocaine, even if it was heading to the United States, we don't have the death penalty for that in the United States. We don't kill people for that. You don't get to be judge, jury, and executioner of people's life. Why wouldn't you just stop the boat then if it was cocaine and say, we know there's cocaine on the boat. Turn around. You're just going to blow it up with military equipment? How ridiculous does that look? And to me, that doesn't show strength. It shows weakness. You know what showing strength would be? To me, showing strength would be when Poland was invaded, invaded.

37:40Ben Meiselas:There was an invasion with all of the things happening. Let's not forget, Poland was invaded by Russia with drones, Eastern Poland, and not just one, dozens and dozens, could have been up to 350 Russian drones went into Polish airspace. Poland had to activate its air force to shoot down the drones. Poland has invoked Article 4 of NATO, which is the precursor to Article 5. Article 4 is consultation, saying we should talk NATO, because we may need to have a military response to Russia. Things are getting absolutely serious here as can be. And so what's Donald Trump's response to that? Does Donald Trump make any posts?

38:27Ben Meiselas:He made one short post and he was like, what's going on? It's like, he's like Jerry Seinfeld. What's the deal with the Russia? What's the deal, everybody? You go in it, you go, here we go. He goes, here we go. What's the deal? And then he was asked today, what is your view? What is your view about Russia sending drones into Poland? And so after Donald Trump's first appearance earlier today, when he was at the Pentagon for the 9-11 ceremony, this was Trump on Russian drones in Poland. He goes, yeah, it could have been a mistake. Could have been a mistake. Here, playing this clip. What's your reaction to Russian drone incursion into Poland?

39:12Ben Meiselas:Could have been a mistake. Could have been a mistake. But regardless, I'm not happy about anything having to do with that whole situation. But hopefully it's going to come to an end. Hopefully it's going to come to an end. And, Jordi, Poland's foreign minister, Sikorsky posted, no, that wasn't a mistake. This just makes us look totally weak, Jordy. What do you think? Absolutely. Donald Trump makes us look weaker and weaker with every passing day that goes by. And it goes back to my theory when Putin met with Donald Trump a few weeks ago in Alaska, it was to size the guy up. It was to be like, oh yeah, this Trump guy is as weak and pathetic as everyone's telling me.

39:53You know what? It's even worse than 2016. This is beyond repair at this point. And so to see Donald Trump get in front of the cameras and once again, take Putin's side, it's appalling. And it should hurt everybody seeing a United States president act like that, because that is not leadership. That is not leadership. I don't know what that is, other than that's just a pathetic response to what's been happening. and yet I just get frustrated, Ben, with corporate media and how they handle it and how they just let the guy skate by. That's why I'm glad we here at the Midas Touch Network will show these clips and hold his feet to the fire on this stuff because this isn't normal.

40:38None of this that's been happening is normal. It's okay for you personally, I'm talking to you, the viewer right now, to feel like, hey, this is all kind of crazy stuff, right? Like this is all insane. It is. And yet when you turn on the TV or cable or wherever and corporate media just tries to normalize all of this behavior, Ben, each and every day, like it's exhausting. And that's why I'm so glad we have this community, the mightest mighty and everybody here to just kind of just see this for what it is as utter and an incredible weakness from Donald Trump at the highest level of government. And leadership, man, it's top down.

41:20And so his whole weakness, Ben, has just manifested itself into the modern day Republican Party, where these aren't Republicans, the Nancy Maces of the world. They're not the Republicans that your grandparents knew. They just aren't. I don't know what this is, but they can never, ever have a differing opinion from their dear leader, Donald Trump, because otherwise they're going to get a mean X post or mean truth social post about them. And they'll be scared and they'll be upset that their dear leader made fun of them. So they don't even work for their constituents anymore, this modern day Republican party.

41:58All they report to is their dear leader, Donald Trump. And when you see weakness like that, then play out every single day? I mean, that's utter cowardice. I don't even know what to say about that.

42:09Ben Meiselas:You know, Jordy, it's not just even a Republican thing. There is a more, but it's mostly embodied by, as a political party, it's embodied in the Republican party. But overall, there is this moral rot, like a brain rot that has overcome, like a tsunami, has overcome our country where everybody's, not everybody, but like corporate leaders have lost all semblance of a moral compass in these various moments. On a day like today, where we have the Naval Academy on lockdown after a shooting, you had, again, Charlie Kirk's assassin was on the You have Russia launching drones into Poland. You have devastating economic numbers where Americans are worried right now if they're going to go bankrupt, if they're going to be able to afford food for their family tomorrow.

43:09Ben Meiselas:Most Americans are suffering, suffering right now. And that's not an exaggeration of the word suffering, are psychologically tortured. Then you have Donald Trump go to Yankee Stadium and he takes a photo in the locker room with the Yankees, with the Yankees. Everybody there in the locker room smiling, Donald Trump's thumbs are up. I'm just thinking to myself, how many players on that team are Latino? How many players on that team come from backgrounds where their people are under attack from Donald Trump right now? I mean, there was once in our nation's history a tradition, though, of people standing up against authority, standing up against this crap, and standing up for your people.

44:08Ben Meiselas:You know, I remember, I mean, I represented Colin Kaepernick when he took a knee. and I was very suspicious that a lot of the support for him at the time was performative when players came together and athletes and lots of people and people stood up against Trump back in 2017 he said get the son of a bee off the field get the son of a bee off the field would be the nicest thing Donald Trump said today get the son of a bee off the field feels like preschool compared to what Donald Trump does before 10 a.m. in the morning in terms of what Trump's rhetoric is. And I see corporate leaders of all from leaders of banks.

44:55Ben Meiselas:Well, what do you think? I saw they interviewed the head of Wells Fargo the other day on one of these financial channels. Well, what do you make of Donald Trump attacking the chairman of the Federal Reserve and going after other governors of the Federal Reserve. And what do you think the Wells Fargo said? Well, you know, I think that we've always had a history of presidents expressing their own independent views towards the Fed. No, we haven't. We've never had anything like this. What are you talking about? We've never had a situation in recent history where you have masked ICE agents being given in the green light by the Supreme Court to racially profile Latinos, a lot of them in the community where my wife's family lives in communities like that and kidnap them because they're Latino, regardless of whether they're citizens or not, and throw them into concentration camps.

45:52Ben Meiselas:And then I see the freaking Yankees thumbs up with him. F you to the Yankees. F you to the Boston you to anybody at this position of time who has, if you have money and you have privilege and you, I mean, I'm looking at that, looking at that photo, all of those people are probably set for life already. And you're too cowardly to do anything but stand in that photo and give the thumbs up. Like y 'all are a bunch of real pathetic human beings as, as how I feel about all. You You don't need to be in the picture. You don't need to be in the photo. Maybe have some empathy for what Americans are going through right now in this moment when they are suffering.

46:36Ben Meiselas:When your own people are being freaking kidnapped. Again, I'll go through and I'll find out how many Latinos are on that team. When your own people are suffering, is it moral rot? Are you so delusional? Are you hateful people? Do you just care about your money? Are you so devoid of what the hell is happening? in our country. And that's one of the things, Jordy, as more information is become available to the public, rather than creating a more informed citizenry, it's actually taken us back to the middle ages, to the dark ages where there was no information at all. And you just had aristocrats and poor people and no one knew the information, but the Kings and Queens.

47:21Ben Meiselas:And it seems that with all this new information, we've just been brought back to the dark ages and all of that's been able to emerge again. Well, as long as I have this microphone, I'm not going to stop what I'm doing and you're not going to stop what you're doing. And this community is good because I when history is written, when history is written, I want it to be very clear where I stand, no matter what the hell happens to me. And that's on the side of empathy and love and bringing people together and calling out this crap. It should be very easy for you to say, I do not support somebody who's kidnapping human beings by sending mass agents to freaking go after them.

47:58Ben Meiselas:What are we talking about here? Anyway, let's take our last quick break of the show. Join, become a member, support what we're doing. We obviously need you more than ever to help our growth. That should be pretty obvious based on what's happening in our freaking country right now. So please become a member, buy memberships for others, go to MidasPlus.com. Home stretch when we return on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. We'll be right back.

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52:40Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, just commenting real quick on that Yankees photo, man. My blood boils looking at that because you're so right. All of those guys in those photos, yeah, they're set for life. You know what? Their kids are set for life. And you know what? For some of them, their kids' kids are set for life. Generations of their kids are set for lives. And you just see them there smiling with the guy that's calling the Epstein files, the, the, the hoax, the Epstein hoax, ladies and gentlemen.

53:09And just like, like y 'all are such clowns, man. Like that guy is just a despicable human being. If you could even call him a human being and, and to let him skate by with that. Like again, Ben, to your point, the data is out there. The facts are out there. Wake up everybody. Like how, how insulated can you really be that, that you just don't, you just don't see this or, Or are the algorithms that strong where you only see what you want to see? And that's a scary thought too. We get later on this episode, Benji, and this is a good episode. I miss Brett. I'm excited to have him back. But you and I don't get to do this too often.

53:42So I like the one-on-ones with you and me. I think we're doing a pretty good job. Where do you want to go next?

53:48Ben Meiselas:Well, you know, also, as I look at that Yankees photo. Never been proud of you, Mets fan. Didn't think I'd ever say that. They didn't have the God-given or whatever you want to call it, given talent of being a professional baseball player, they would be ending up rounded up by Donald Trump with ICE agents and masks and thrown into camps like Alligator Alcatraz. And I have to imagine that they have people in their family or extended family who are experiencing terror and torture at the hands of this regime. And they're taking photographs with the guy. As I told you, You know, it's deeply personal to me, but obviously I'm fighting for all of the people here on this network because when the Supreme Court blesses the Trump's ability to do what they call the roving patrols of the Latino communities, the ICE agents on a daily basis are going through the neighborhood where my wife lives.

54:46Ben Meiselas:and they're going to the gym where my wife's, where my mother-in-law would work out. And they're hanging out in front of the churches where they would go to pray. And the people are terrified to leave. And they're hanging out in front of the schools where my nieces and nephews go to school. And I don't know. They're not going after the criminals. They're not going after the bad guys. They're going after the hard workers. They're going after street vendors. They're going after people who are showing up for court appearances, who are just going through the process. They're going through people, going after people who were here for 30 years, 40 years, who don't even know where their homeland, and they don't even have a connection to where they're, to the original country that they're from.

55:38Ben Meiselas:Mass agents rounding people off the street. They're calling their Chicago invasion operation Midway Blitz. Midway Blitz, as though this is like a major invasion of a country. They're doing it to states in the United States as we speak. Again, it is utterly, utterly beyond me. I want to talk about the economy, though as well, because we got those inflation numbers showing inflation came in hot. You don't want inflation to come in hot. You want it to come in cool. Headline inflation, 2.9 % year over year, core inflation, 3.1 % year over year. Just so what that means, 3.1 % more this year than last year.

56:28Ben Meiselas:So if you are concerned, you're like, whoa, inflation's bad last year. Well, it's 3.1 % higher this year than it was last year. And inflation was heading down. Now it's heading up. When I had the opportunity to interview Democratic Congress member Brendan Boyle, the ranking member on the budget committee, he goes, the big concern also about these inflation numbers is that now what we're seeing are the tariffs really kicking in. Because before Trump would do the taco thing, he always chickens out. I don't know if some people don't like the taco expression, but in any event - Tacos on the outs. He would, there's some people who are like, God, taco's not cool.

57:16Ben Meiselas:Don't do taco anymore. but in any event he would delay delay delay now the tariffs are set and they're harmful and lots of businesses that have done as much as possible to eat the tariffs here in the United States not the country of origin because it's paid by the importing company here in the United States, they've either gone bankrupt. That's why we see more bankruptcies than in any recent period of time, double the bankruptcies already than were in the past two years before. And we're not anywhere in the years not over. And we are now seeing a very significant surge in prices. We're all seeing it now.

58:06Jordy, might is mighty.

58:08Ben Meiselas:Who would have warned us about this? Who would have known that this could have been true. How about 16 Nobel laureates and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who during the debate with Donald Trump just was spitting the data out there and saying, here's what the Nobel laureate economists say. Let's play the clip of Kamala Harris during the debate. Let's play it. What Goldman Sachs has said is that Donald Trump's plan would make the economy worst, mine would strengthen the economy. What the Wharton School has said is Donald Trump's plan would actually explode the deficit. 16 Nobel laureates have described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation and by the middle of next year would invite a recession.

59:00Ben Meiselas:You just have to look at where we are and where we stand on the issues. And I'd invite you to know that Donald Trump actually has no plan for you because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you. I mean, it's just an excellent point and it's backed up with data. And then the point at the end, especially with Donald Trump, his only interest is in himself. And could that not be more clear, Ben? Could that not be more clear with every passing day? I mean, who would have known that if you follow the data or if you just accept the most basic concept that a tariff is a tax, a tax on the American consumer.

59:48Ben Meiselas:You literally, when you are paying the tariff, the importing company pays the levy to get the product. Oh, the product cost this? All right. You fill out a form. and then you pay the government whatever the tariff rate is. If it's 15%, if it's 50%, you name it. Now, if you lie about the goods that you imported, you're prosecuted for a felony. So if you try to hide it, which people try to do, you could be prosecuted for that. But you have to report as the company, here's what I imported from this country, it's from that country. So then to the government, I'm paying you this. That's what it is.

1:00:35So then if I'm the company, I've now had to pay, if it's from India, 50 % more, unless you're Apple and you give Donald Trump a golden block and you

1:00:45Ben Meiselas:get an exemption. But if you're another company, it's 50%. If it's Brazil, because Donald Trump was pissed that the Brazilian courts did what our courts should have done here, and Jair Bolsonaro, the insurrectionist former president of Brazil, was prosecuted and today found guilty and will probably go to jail for the rest of his life. Good. The way Donald Trump should. If the Brazil Supreme Court works, our Supreme Court gives Donald Trump absolute immunity and then says that you can racially profile in the United States. So that's our Supreme Court. Great work, American right-wing fascist Supreme Court.

1:01:24Ben Meiselas:The Brazil Supreme Court holds its insurrectionists, former leaders accountable, but tariffs in Brazil, 50%. So if you're bringing in Brazilian coffee, Brazil exports the coffee. You as the American company say, I got Brazilian coffee and I spent$50 ,000, whatever it is, on the coffee that came in, then I'm going to pay an extra 50 % on it. So now I'm going to pay$75 ,000 for it. So now the company says, well, my profit margins already were 5%. So how am I going to make a profit? If my margins were 5 % when I brought it in for 50 ,000 and now it's 75 ,000, meaning I would now be losing a significant amount of money, I've got to now raise my prices on the consumer.

1:02:26Ben Meiselas:And the consumer may stop buying my products altogether, or they may pay a higher price. That's what it is. This isn't a complicated, it's not a complicated concept. Yet you have Treasury Secretary Scott Besant go up there and Howard Lutnick and they just go, nah, it's fine. Yeah, we're good. It's like golden age. We're in a golden age. Everything's amazing. We're great. We've never been better. And now they're like, well, we think that maybe in 2026, things will be good. What's Donald Trump saying? We're really going to start to see the effects of our plan in 2027. You know, the definition of a Ponzi schemer, the way I like to describe it is you rob Peter to pay Paul, and then you keep it going while then you're profiting from it all along the way.

1:03:16Ben Meiselas:Well, that's basically what the tariff scheme is. And Donald Trump says, two weeks, two weeks, I need two more weeks. I need, give me two more weeks. That's just what a Ponzi schemer does, hoping that in two weeks, they'll be able to figure out a way to get out of the fraud. It's just what they do. It's what we see over and over again. So we saw jobless claim numbers as well, not just an issue of inflation. The jobless claim numbers were horrible. They were very high today. I think we have that as well. Where's that graphic? 263 ,000 jobless claims last week. That's the highest in almost four years.

1:04:00Ben Meiselas:We see that a lot. The highest in almost four years, four years, four years. Yeah, when Donald Trump was in office before, during COVID, or you hear since the Great Recession. So we're getting all these indicators where things look like the height of COVID, the Great Recession, or stagflation, which means decreasing GDP, rising unemployment, rising inflation. That went back to the 1970s, and it's very hard to solve for stagflation. that's where we're at right now. Now, I do want to touch briefly upon Donald Trump's cover-up of the Epstein files. I think that Democrats are doing a good job pushing back in the House of Representatives.

1:04:48I guess the plan of Trump and MAGA right now is we're done producing all of the

1:04:53Ben Meiselas:DOJ docs. We're done. We're not turning over anything anymore. And Trump's not going to meet with the victims. We've done everything we're supposed to do. Presented with the birthday card that literally has Donald Trump's signature on it. It's so obvious. Each MAGA Republican beclowns himself or herself worse than the next. Oh, I don't think that's a signature. Okay. It's a signature. I don't need a forensic expert or a handrail. It's obviously a signature. It looks just like it. And then what's the working theory that someone went back to the future and they uncovered and they planted this, what they planted this 22 years ago as a way to frame Donald Trump when he was a Democrat.

1:05:35Ben Meiselas:And then they figured out how to frame him 22 years later. And then they planted it with all these other cards that existed. I mean, it's just the stupidest thing. I've done Congress member Moskowitz and Swalwell and Ro Khan and others. I've been doing a really good job pointing it out. I've shown those video clips in other episodes, so I don't think I need to show that one here. But let me show you. Actually, should I show him the Moskowitz clip, Jordy? Do Moskowitz, Ben. Moskowitz was particularly good. Let's show that. Let's play the Moskowitz. We'll play one of them. We'll play both of them.

1:06:10Ben Meiselas:Play the first one first. I am here to defend him as by far the best investigator of all time in the Capitol, which is exactly why all of his investigations, which have used, you know, Chinese informants that were prosecuted and Russian disinformation, people from prison. I mean, he the main thing he was tasked with last year, right, which was the Biden impeachment that that we had a vote. Oh, no, we never had a vote on that because, of course, he didn't find any evidence. So this morning, our close personal friend, Mr. Comer, said that he was not going to look into the letter or the doodle, the president's doodle.

1:06:55Ben Meiselas:He's a decent doodler, by the way. So he wasn't going to look into whether the signature was a forgery, and I'm concerned about that because this is the president of the United States. If there are forgeries or forgers out there, I think we should investigate it. And in fact, this document is 22 years old. So you're telling me someone 22 years ago went back to the future and forged his signature when he was a Democrat. And somehow this person was Nostradamus, knew he would become a Republican, become president 22 years later. So listen, I submit to you that we can solve this problem for the American people.

1:07:36Ben Meiselas:You don't have to take my word for it. You don't have to take our dear personal friend, Mr. Comer's word for it. Let's bring in a signature expert. You guys pick the witnesses. Bring in your signature expert, swear them under oath, and let's have the signature examined. Is it his or it is not his? We don't have to play games or, you know, the president says it's not his. We say it's him. No, no. Let's bring in a signature expert, a referee, because we can't agree on anything, even when it's right in our face. of whether that is indeed the president's signature, or if it's a forgery, we should immediately open up an investigation into this forgery.

1:08:19Ben Meiselas:I think that's - Well, the gentleman - Jordy. He's spot on. He's spot on. And to that, exactly. Someone went back into the past. They knew Trump was going to be president. He said, hey, let's forge his signature so we can blackmail him about 20 years down the line here. I mean, it's all so ridiculous. But I'll say this. the reaction by Donald Trump and his team. And it's certainly not. Sometimes people like to say the cover-up's worse than the crime. And this is the crime is the crime and it's awful and there's nothing worse than what happened on Epstein's Island. But their reaction, Ben, to Donald Trump and this signature and how they're trying to cover it up.

1:08:56I mean, no one has ever looked more guilty. Let me just put it that way. Then how Donald Trump, MAGA, Caroline Levitt, they're all reacting to the signature, it's unbelievable to me to see. You know what? It's not unbelievable because we see it time and time again with Donald Trump and this regime, how they try to lie their way through everything. And the issue with them on Epstein, Ben, and the Epstein files is there are so many people who are truly hyper-focused, who truly understand just how vile and despicable and disgusting and heinous and every other adjective in the world that went down on Epstein's island and that people really want answers to this, that he can't lie his way out of this.

1:09:47He'll continue to try. But this right here, the Epstein files, Jeffrey Epstein, whatever happened on that island, as more and more information continues to come out, people are not going to lose interest in this topic because it's not just something for political posturing. These were girls who were raped by Jeffrey Epstein, the pedophile that he was, and everyone in his pedophile cabal, right? These are folks that want answers. And if there are names out there, and if there are answers out there, you could sure as hell bet that those answers will come to light, Ben. They 1 ,000 % will because people are, again, are hyper, hyper focused on this.

1:10:28Ben Meiselas:You know, see corporate news and a lot on CNN where obviously Fox doesn't even talk about it anymore. But on other corporate news like CNN, they'll be like, but there's really nothing that ties Donald Trump to any wrongdoing. Oh, and they want to like say that because what they're worried about getting sued. Let me look in the camera right now and show you how you do it, CNN or other corporate news. yes, there is a lot that ties Donald Trump to wrongdoing. I can say that without fear of getting sued, or if I do get sued, I will win. I will sit Donald Trump's ass right in front of me, and I will be glad to take his deposition about Epstein and anything else that Donald Trump was involved in.

1:11:16Ben Meiselas:But you want me to prove it to you very quickly? I don't know. How about the fact that Donald Trump during this period of time from the 1990s has been found liable for sexual assault during that period of time. Donald Trump was found liable for a federal jury. Donald Trump's on audio bragging about grabbing women by their genitals. And he says, when you're rich, they let you do it. And for millions of years, fortunately or unfortunately, that's just the way it is. Or you have Donald Trump who led beauty pageants, who owned beauty pageants that had girls between the ages of 14 to 28. You have Donald Trump going on and doing interviews where he said one of the perks about owning beauty pageants was that you get to inspect them naked.

1:12:10Ben Meiselas:You get to look at them naked because you're like the inspector because you own the pageant. You You just walk right in on them. You also have the fact that Mar-a-Lago was used as the grounds for sex trafficking. Now, Donald Trump can say, I didn't know about it. But if your home was used as the grounds for sex trafficking, probably would not be a good look for you. What if in Biden's home or Obama's home? You can say, well, Donald Trump's got a big home. And might say, well, okay, fine. What's your argument? your argument is that he didn't know about well what did he say he said that epstein would steal the girls from his spa like virginia juffre the underage child who was sex trafficked by epstein in the year 2000 but then two years later donald trump says epstein's a great guy who likes beautiful women many are on the younger side okay well i gave you those facts right there liable for sexual assault, bragging about sexually assaulting women, talking about inspecting them naked at beauty pageants.

1:13:22Ben Meiselas:Mar-a-Lago was the grounds where at least some of the girls were sex trafficked, like Virginia Jew for undisputed facts. The fact that we can't look at the fact that we don't have the moral clarity in the United States to process what I just said and go, So yeah, that guy shouldn't be leading the country. You could apply that to everything, Jordy. And I'll just apply that to the economy. 17 trillion, what's CNBC doing? You have Joe Kiernan, a MAGA guy on CNBC. Like you can't even watch CNBC. Is that even a finance? You can't watch CNBC. It's unwatchable. That's one of the biggest cons out there right now is CNBC, Ben.

1:14:05You talk about this all the time. Sorry, go ahead.

1:14:07Ben Meiselas:you know what i mean it's like it's supposed to be the financial network they've got the maga host who's frankly worse than oan or any of these like real voices of america like this guy is worse than that and it's like trump's making up 17 trillion could you imagine if biden or obama or george w bush or clinton you know i got 17 trillion dollars he'd be the stock market would absolutely tank and there'd be an impeachment for making up 17 trillion. Just look at the monthly deficit again. I led with this, but let me close the show with this. The monthly deficit in August was$345 billion. Revenues,$344 billion, spending$689 billion.

1:14:50Ben Meiselas:That means we spent$345 billion more than we took in, hence the deficit. So the total deficit for 2025 is 1.973 trillion. Round up and just say 2 trillion. Okay. Math was never my best subject, but if we brought in 17 trillion, the way Donald Trump said, and the deficit is 2 trillion, to me, that means our surplus is 15 trillion. So there's the budget committee. MAGA Republicans on the budget committee, why are we even worried about a shutdown? You have infinite money. Wait a minute. The 17 trillion's not showing up on our books? Huh? Huh? And the fact, Geordi, that that's not even a scandal. That Donald Trump just gets to go there and be in the Yankees locker room with his teeny tiny thumb up while he lies about even something like that.

1:15:51Ben Meiselas:And it doesn't register. It won't be on the front page of anywhere. I mean, it pisses me off. What a lie. It's a Ponzi. And then what happens, Jordy, a year from now, six months from now, a shocker, more bad news, a shocker. Where did this come from? Another shocker. It's like, y 'all are all complicit in this. And I guess one of the hard things to process in all of this is how many cooperators there are, how many complicit human beings there are, how many people you thought were good and decent people who turned out to be pieces of shit. And that's part of, it's a hard thing to process because you're not a good person if you're enabling this bad, you're just as bad.

1:16:43Ben Meiselas:And then don't come running back to me four years from now, oh, I had to do it. I was just following orders or you were so courageous. You did the right thing. Fuck you. Seriously, F you. Don't talk to me in the future. I mean it. I don't want to hear from you. I don't want to know it. I don't want you to crawl your way back into my life. Get the hell out. Get the hell out. Because y 'all are all just as responsible for that. So not sure if I'm ending it on a positive note or a negative note. I ended on a positive note here, though, real quick, before we sign off, I just want to say the one silver lining, Ben, of the internet and of the culture that we're living in right now is that we no longer have to be gay kept by CNN, Fox News of the world, the CNBCs, which is, again, just a ploy.

1:17:29And it's unbelievable. But we have this. We have the Midas Touch Network. We have a lot of other great independent media out there that are doing the work, that are bringing the receipts, are bringing the facts and data to the table. So we no longer as a society have to rely on just standard cable news anymore. In fact, most people, Ben, don't. I mean, the amount of cord cutters we see out there is unbelievable. And what we're doing around 350 million views now on the Midas Touch Network every single month, we're beating Fox News. We're beating all of them on digital, Ben. And so that's a testament not to us, but to you, the Midas Mighty, and you, the listener, for craving the facts, the data, the receipts that we as a collective here at the network get to bring every single day, whether it's here on the Midas Touch YouTube or on our sub stack Midas Plus or wherever on the various social accounts.

1:18:21And if you are consuming other independent media, I'm sure they're doing a great job as well. We're in a time right now, Ben, where people are fed up of the gaslighting. And that's what I love so much about this community here is every single day, everyone motivates me to work harder and they motivate our entire staff to work hard. We have such an incredible team here from Salty and all of our producers and all the editorial staff. I mean, we're hungry. Collectively, we are hungry for the truth, for normalcy, right? To live in a world where we don't have to be scared about what the commander in chief is ex-posting or true socialing.

1:18:59It's just unbelievable times that we're living in. Again, don't allow yourself to be gaslit by corporate media. We're all in this together and it's a crazy time period for sure. We're going to get through this because every single day we're going to wake up, we're going to bring the facts, the data, the receipts. Thank you so much for watching. Please make sure to subscribe to the Myest Touch podcast on audio, wherever you listen to podcasts. Please become a subscriber of the YouTube channel. One of the things we're saying is six by 26, six million subscribers by 2026. It's aggressive, but the might is mighty y 'all have never let me down before.

1:19:34So please hit that subscribe button right now. Six by 26. We're going to get there. Thank you all so much. Another great episode. Benji, you did a fantastic job. Brett can't wait to see you next show. Big bro. Benji, you the man. Shout out to the might is mighty.

1:19:58Ben Meiselas:That's the fascist we say our song. We begin it right whenever... Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com. Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan,$15 a month, even unlimited.

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