MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 9/22/26

15:55Jordy Meiselas:If you could drop$60 on a bottle of wine,$7 on a latte,$16 on a cocktail, and$14 on a stadium beer and a plastic cup, then you could pay$4.50 for a gallon of gas. People, this is Bill Mitchell, people complain about being broke as they watch one of their three flat screen TVs. By the way, does anybody have anything else other than a flat screen TV in 2026? Flat screen TVs are actually like quite cheap these days. Or type on their$1 ,200 smartphones or decide which of their two cars they want to drive to buy their overpriced Starbucks coffee. This one's from Hunter Eagleman. Jeez, these people.

16:28Jordy Meiselas:People walking around with$2 ,000 foldable iPhones. Those aren't even out yet. $800 shoes and a$14 pumpkin spice latte. Where are you going, buddy? Then they say that they can't or won't vote for Trump because of gas prices. Yeah. Okay. And by the way, you're just calling attention to the fact that everything else in the economy due to Donald Trump is very expensive. And who's your average, who is this human being who you've created in your mind? This is the average Trump voter with$2 ,000 phones and$800 shoes and getting$20 coffees. you just make somebody up this it's the it's the worst argument and this is how you know that this party's in for just a absolute reckoning in November the argument's absolutely insane because

17:10Brett Meiselas:again all they're doing they're saying everything else in this country in this world is so damn expensive because of Donald Trump's failed leadership you could afford to pay a little bit more here at the pump what's the what's the issue there it's like if you're trying to sell someone like like like hey you should really date my buddy he he's really ugly but also he has a really shitty personality. For even MAGA influencers to be toting like this ridiculous of a line, it shocks me actually just how stupid the trajectory of this argument that they're taking is.

17:43Jordy Meiselas:You know, one of the things brothers, and let me tell you brothers, I've had a little secret operation I've been doing. I've created a Truth Social account and I lurk Truth Social and I see what's going on on Truth Social. I'll occasionally reply to Donald Trump's posts and see if I can I can't get a reaction out of people. However, when I was looking through Truth Social the other day, Donald Trump last night posted something that was defending his high gas prices. And when this is your messaging, once again, you know that things are really, really bad. And Donald Trump wrote, gas prices were much higher under Biden than under Trump.

18:17Jordy Meiselas:So were almost all other prices, President DJT. First of all, diesel's actually at a record high right now, higher than it ever was under Biden. I guess it was a little higher under Biden during one period, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But generally, the average was far lower than it is right now under Donald Trump. And I was curious, are like the Trump people like this when you're on Truth Social, you're on the page with all the closest, you know, the biggest Trump cultists in the world, right? What are they saying about this? And so I checked and here were some of the comments. Gaslighting.

18:56Jordy Meiselas:No, they weren't. They really weren't. Pardon me? Gas prices are through the roof. Yeah, but you promised to lower gas prices. Sure. Crying, laughing face. Somebody posted a graphic that says Trump still owes every American$8 ,700. And they went through the list of promises that Trump made about giving them money. Another person says, no, they were not. This person says, voted for you three times and I could finally say that you are not the same person that we put in office. Somebody said, Diesel is at record highs. Another said, end the war, please. Somebody says, change your diaper. You're full of shit again.

19:29Jordy Meiselas:These are the kind of comments that Donald Trump was getting on his own cult truth social social media platform.

19:36Ben Meiselas:Well, this is reflected also though, in the polling data. I mean, one can say that's anecdotal and are those bots or what are we really seeing there? Well, to be clear, it is rare to see on truth social where usually every post is followed by just deranged religious memes of like donald trump as jesus it's like the weirdest platform imaginable so you can go well is this anecdotal what are we seeing here but then you actually look at the polling data and you see what's going on from state to state and what's even happening in red states and how are republican candidates running races there i mean like you have in iowa the mega republican extremist congresswoman who's running for the senate seat there ashley Hinson she's running on you know basically we need to work with the Democrats and now we should bring people together it's like you supported Donald Trump's disastrous budget bill you supported his tariffs against the world you were there with his catastrophic war in Iran you supported every one of his policies that hurt the state I mean we're seeing this literally in every red state repeat itself over and over and you looked at the latest polling data whether it was America research group where trump's approval is now in the 20s 29 whether you look at the polling from reuters ipsos their lowest lowest polling ever in trump's two terms where his approval there is 32 percent and then you go and pull up the last graph one more time that you did brett so you can see how it's fallen back from february 2025 in the same reuters ipsos paul trump was plus six by october 2025, he was net negative 14.

21:09Ben Meiselas:By June 2026, it was negative 20. And by September 2026, the latest polling has him net negative 34. That's a net negative 40 point swing right there. His approval on the cost of living is 17 % right now. Approval on the issue of cost of living, which is probably the biggest issue because for people who are living, the cost of that is something that is pretty much on their minds right now as an existential issue. This isn't like a joke. It's not like a talking point, right? Lots of people, when you approach the midterms, they view this as political messaging. How are you going to message for the midterm?

21:49Ben Meiselas:What's the right message? And it's like, are you alive right now? because if you truly think what Donald Trump's done is good for you, I need to really know about your background. I need to really understand this because unless you're just a core group of billionaires or deca millionaires, he's screwed you. And I guess he can paint a hypothetical of wouldn't it be worse if, wouldn't it be worse? It wouldn't, it really wouldn't. This is almost the worst case scenario. I mean, it pretty much is based on how the Trump regime has behaved this this far but let's take a look Kelly Loeffler she's a billionaire like the exact worst person to run the small business Association she married a billionaire um what is she saying right now about the situation with the surging price and record high prices of diesel and gas and surging price of just about everything I mean one of the initiatives that she's doing I say that you know initiatives in quote um she's doing a reality show that's kind of a theme with them where like you could win a prize if you like win the small business association challenge and she's doing it with Nicki Minaj and I did a video on this earlier today about the reality show challenge that she's doing it's like the transportation secretary Duffy he did like a reality show it's like all these people are like loser reality show people you know who made us non-consensual extras in their like dystopian weird malicious evil world but here's what Kelly Loeffler says about small businesses that she's speaking to right now.

23:18Ben Meiselas:Okay, Kelly Leffler here playing this clip.

23:20Brett Meiselas:Look, I think small businesses are looking through this right now. They obviously, prices are elevated. There's nothing more important to the president than getting these prices down. That's what he's working on every single day. But we cannot have the largest state sponsor of terrorism having their thumb on oil prices indefinitely. He's taking care of that. Small businesses are in growth mode. That's the bottom line. You see it in small business optimism that during the vast majority of President Trump's second term, where small business optimism continues above its 52-year average. We saw that last month.

23:52Brett Meiselas:We saw it the prior month. And we see small business in investment mode because of the tax cuts, because we're deregulating, taking the weight of trillions of dollars of regulation that the Biden administration...

24:03Ben Meiselas:Oh, the Biden administration. Everything's amazing. Everything's great. Everything. It'd be so much worse if we didn't do this catastrophic work. What are you talking about? By the way, Donald Trump claimed in 2025 total obliteration of Iran's nuclear facilities. That's what Donald Trump said. And also Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the JCPOA that former President Obama worked with with many other nations to have Iran sign where Iran was not developing nuclear weapons. And so this is the constant theme with Donald Trump. Always. He destroys something. He is the arsonist. I'm the only person who can solve the problem that I created.

24:42Ben Meiselas:Then he makes the situation significantly worse. And then he tries to take credit for the worst situation. He creates a situation where trying to buy 13 million metric tons of soybeans versus 26. And he spikes the football like it's a like it's a big deal. You know, he brings in foreign frozen mystery meat into the United States and then tries to take credit as though that's a great thing by destroying the ranchers. And then it's a constant Ponzi scheme of cover-up of the cover-up of the cover-up. And he's hit a point right now where it's just fully exposed. And the American people, I think, by and large, see it for what it is.

25:18Ben Meiselas:And Americans are fed up. I want to talk more about this when we come back from our first break of the show. A quick reminder, We're out with our new book, WTF America, for pre-orders right now. The book officially comes out October 20th, but pre-order a copy now. The pre-orders are really helpful. Let's keep the momentum going there. You can scan the QR code or you can click the link in the description below or just search WTF America. Hit subscribe to our YouTube channel. Let's keep growing. YouTube viewers, subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio, audio listeners, subscribe to the Midas Touch on YouTube.

25:53Ben Meiselas:Let's take our first quick break of the show. We'll be back. We've got a lot more show.

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28:23Brett Meiselas:Shout out to our sponsors, y 'all. 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. Brothers, great, great glasses today. We don't have a glasses sponsor, so this isn't a plug. I'm just saying you guys both look really snazzy.

28:40Jordy Meiselas:I felt like I'd give my eyes a break. I'm staring at computers a lot and I felt like I could use Ben swapping the glasses mid-episode. Wow, that's a hardcore move right there. Also, my son recently got glasses. My son's one and he just He's got glasses and he looks super cute in them. And I really wanted to match him also. And so I'm having fun and he gets to look at me and we both have the glasses on together and it's super cute. These were cool too, by the way, before we get back into the news, but the photos of us that we got from in the studio doing the audio book, which was pretty fun. Very, very excited.

29:16Jordy Meiselas:We were in the studio each day, like a few days in the studio recording the audio book. We divided the book WTF America into parts. And, you know, I got to say, audio. I have a lot of respect for folks who are, you know, who do VO work and voiceover work and things like that. It's a really hard job, but we had a lot of fun with it. And I can't wait for you to listen or read it or however you get the book.

29:39Brett Meiselas:Can you bring up those photos real quick? They let you guys sit down?

29:43Jordy Meiselas:Yeah, they let me sit down. I stood. I got to say, I would have preferred to stand if I'm being honest.

29:50Brett Meiselas:I did. I did. I did actually.

29:51Jordy Meiselas:I feel like your voice is better when you stand, but I was sitting, which was good because it was a long day.

30:00Ben Meiselas:Well, we are thrilled to share the audio with you, whether you get the audio or the book. We dedicated it to the Midas Mighty, the WTF America book, so we hope you'll get a copy of the book or the audio or both. Let's get back into it, brothers, and Midas Mighty. So we shared with you what Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has been saying. we shared with you what small business association and minister kelly leffler has been saying and the deranged messages coming out of the pentagon from pete hegsup it's like just um some of the most like religious extremist crusade war language imaginable like everything that the trump regime accuses these you know arab nations of doing and saying oh well they're islamic extreme this that And the other, you know, I mean, this right here is Hegseth saying that the book of Isaiah basically tells people that they need to be sent into war and that the slogan of the Pentagon now that they push out their big campaign is send me.

31:06Ben Meiselas:And that the book of Isaiah says that you need to be sent into war, whatever, whatever the demand is from your government. The people have been saying this for generations in America. Send me, send me, send me. And so he does this weird propaganda event at Texas A &M. He uses the stadium there as part of the propaganda event. And on their jumbotron, their big screen, it says, send me. And he's like in a t-shirt. I'm not even sure he understands what the job of the secretary of defense is supposed to do. I mean, it's like cosplaying as like a drill sergeant. So, all right. All right. Here's what we got to do.

31:44Ben Meiselas:For generations, the book of Isaiah has said, send me. I mean, if you think about it, what was MAGA 2024? They're like, we don't want to be sent into war. And former President Biden, he just wants to send me. And now the Trump regime's entire message is just like, no matter what we're asked to do, send me so I can die for whatever the Trump regime wants. And do it for God is basically what they're saying. Because the book of Isaiah told me to do it. Look at what he says here. Play this clip.

32:16Brett Meiselas:This is actually our first stop in what you see up on the screen right there, which we're calling the Send Me Tour. You know your book of Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 8. The Lord said, who will I send? And Isaiah says, Lord, I'm here. Send me. Send me. and if you think about it across the 250 years of our country, I know you've got 150 years of this great core here. Over 150 years of this core and 250 years of the country, there have been men and women who raised their right hand

32:47Ben Meiselas:and they said, send me. Send me to go fight the Redcoats.

32:53Brett Meiselas:Send me to go fight the communists. Send me to go fight the Islamists. And you are saying, send me to go fight whatever threats

33:00Ben Meiselas:threaten our nation for the next 250 years. I can't even define what it is. he just says and you are all saying send me whatever to do whatever the hell we're doing whatever the hell it is over the next 250 years you know what donald trump said don't send me i

33:14Jordy Meiselas:have bone spurs please don't send me send baron send me send baron hashtag send baron that should

33:20Brett Meiselas:be the campaign yeah where's also whatever like separation between church and state just like not something we learned in school just not a thing though clearly not a thing and like ben

33:29Jordy Meiselas:who's getting it. This is like a parody of what they constantly accuse all these Arab nations of being. It's a holy war. They want to do this for Allah. They send their soldiers in to die for Allah. And then you have Pete Hegseth go and basically go send me to war to die for God, for this holy war crusade for the United States. And it's very obviously deliberate that the United States is taking this messaging right now under Hegseth. But you see it really spread throughout all of their messaging and all their social channels, all their communication with the troops. It's incredibly inappropriate.

34:02Jordy Meiselas:And I've even seen backlash amongst religious communities who would normally be supportive of Donald Trump and of this administration speak out and say, that's kind of a blasphemous use of a Bible verse. That's not what the Bible verse was getting at in any way. And to use it to send our soldiers to war, to use it for a government action to bomb people, that's kind of effed up. That's screwed up. I've actually seen that a lot in these religious

34:26Ben Meiselas:communities online lately yeah well i mean send me for this trey yinx one of donald trump's propagandists over at state regime media over the weekend he said i just got off he's still in tel aviv by the way this guy like is always reporting from tel aviv right so trump's two main propagandist reporters you got barack ravito over at axios he's reporting from israel and then you have trey yinx reporting from tel aviv is never leaving tel aviv his hotel points though got to be great going crazy right now he's constantly in the background where we see the city of tel aviv it's like okay got it got understood he's racking up those marriott bond understood um and then he's like i just got off the phone and he acts like you know okay i just got off the phone with donald trump president trump and here's what president trump just told me here play the clip of what trey said this week an update from the president hey trey

35:18Brett Meiselas:yeah hey guys good morning i just spoke with president trump about the situation with iran He tells Fox News he's in a deciding mode and that very big things are going to be happening in the not so distant future. The president described the current choices on the table as wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal. He added, my question is, if and when do I blow the entire nation up, they better behave.

35:43Ben Meiselas:That's genocide. And we know Donald Trump aids in and bets genocide. But we shouldn't normalize what we just heard right there, right? I mean, Donald Trump called up state regime media and said, should I have them economically rot or should I blow up the entire nation? I am in deciding mode. And then you have Pete Hegsip misquoting the book of Isaiah, saying that book of Isaiah means you need to be sent into what a catastrophic and unlawful war perpetrating genocide that Donald Trump just articulated out loud on state regime media. who's saying send me to do that. And just the very concept of send me, send me, send me.

36:25Ben Meiselas:That's not what our nation actually, it's the exact opposite. We believed, or we were told that there was a set of values and principles worth defending, defending. That's why it was called the defense department, right? And the Trump regime, which ran on no more never ending wars, changed the name of the defense, defending values and principles to a war department, and then got involved in all of these catastrophic wars, and then lost, lost miserably, wars we should not have been involved in, but we got destroyed in these wars. And by the way, you go back to May of 2025, or even shortly before that, that March to May 2025 period, where the Trump regime lost to Ansarala, the Houthis.

37:11Ben Meiselas:And then Donald Trump did a press conference in the Oval Office. I think it was around April, May or 2025. And he said, they're brave and noble and courageous people. And we did a deal with them. And they've assured me that everything's going to be great. And so you had, and that was, remember all the signal gate stuff about how you had Hegseth and you had Mike Waltz, who's now the UN ambassador from the United States. And they were having all these conversations. Also, do you remember back in 2025 when the US launched those attacks against Ansarala that like airplanes and helicopters were like mysteriously falling off the aircraft carriers?

37:49Ben Meiselas:Do you remember that? They were like another helicopter fell off the air, another airplane fell off the aircraft carrier. And I think maybe even at that time, people wouldn't want to believe that when it came to issues of like war, that the Trump regime, like that was an area that they wouldn't be just totally lying to us. I mean, we all, I mean, we were saying they were lying to us, but it seems increasingly clear then. But like every war this Trump regime starts, they lose. And the catastrophic war in Iran has been just an unmitigated disaster. I mean, we've been sharing with you what the US bases in the region looks like.

38:24Ben Meiselas:There has been a report from the Pentagon inspector general, the congressional budget office. Um, even there was a report from CENTCOM. I mean, depending on which report, I mean, at a low end, when you don't include the military bases that were destroyed, because all of these reports don't include the military bases for whatever reason, because they're covering up, I think the true extent of the damage you're talking about 45 to$50 billion have already been spent on this catastrophic war. And I believe that that's not even 20 to 30 % of what the actual costs are, and I'm not even talking about the consequential costs, which could get into the trillions of dollars.

39:04Ben Meiselas:We learned from additional reporting from the Washington Post, what we've been saying all along here, that the Trump regime has been covering up the killed in action total because the Trump regime claims we're not in combat operations and that the war is done. So they say that certain debts that have taken place are not combat debts, not killed in action debts. So just covering up the numbers, according to this Washington Post article, the number is more like 22 or perhaps 23 killed in action. But who even knows? I believe the numbers more than that. I believe the seriously injured number is far more than the 800 or so of people who are claimed to have been injured because I believe the Trump regime covers up traumatic brain injuries and they claim that they're not really injuries.

39:48Ben Meiselas:And there are, I think we're talking about thousands of injuries there, which will ultimately be reported. And so we're involved in this catastrophic war. You've got Hegsett saying, send me. You've got the US losing all of its weapons. We're out of weapons. We're out of interceptors. And then you have the CENTCOM propaganda. You have Admiral Brad Cooper. He releases a video this weekend. And his video, he's like, everybody, things are going amazing right now. Things are going great. We've gotten out huge amounts of oil from the Strait of Hormuz. I am pleased to announce it. Watch this like ridiculous propaganda over here.

40:27Ben Meiselas:Let's play this clip. Hi, I'm Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command,

40:31Brett Meiselas:and I want to update you on the Strait of Hormuz and the incredible milestones that America's men and women in uniform continue to achieve. CENTCOM forces have supported more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil leaving the Gulf.

40:45Ben Meiselas:That's 1 billion barrels of crude oil out through the Strait of Hormuz in the last couple of months. We've reached this significant milestone while assisting over 2 ,000 commercial ship transits through the Strait. What milestone? You created the problem. The Strait of Hormuz was open before this catastrophic war. The fact that you are taking out a fraction of the oil from the Strait of Hormuz, that's not a boast. That's not a brag. But do you see the pattern here of the Trump regime. They're the arsonists. They create the problem. They break it. As I've said before, it's like they take away your loaf of bread.

41:23Ben Meiselas:They dangle breadcrumbs and they want you to just be thrilled that they're offering you breadcrumbs, which they're never going to even give you. What are you talking about? You're acting like things are great. The American people are going to the pump. We know what the price of gas is. We know what the price of diesel is i mean we may you may have been able to fool people at the beginning of the war and even you know a month or so afterwards because i think it was hard for people to get their minds around the fact that even cencom could lie like this but this is what they're boasting about this weekend to try to manipulate the markets well it's unbelievable to see before i toss it to you

42:00Brett Meiselas:the disturbing part about that video for me too is like that video that video right there who is it even for, right? Ben, to your point, everyone's going to the gas station. We know what we're paying at the pump. We're seeing the price increase. And then the obvious answer is, oh, that video is not even for the American people. That video is to appease Twitter fingers, Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago as he tweets away to make it seem like, I don't know, give Trump another talking point. It's so pathetic, Brett.

42:26Jordy Meiselas:Let's do the math on what Admiral Cooper, once respected guy, by the way, now just like a joke. Like I've even seen, you know, a lot of, I've heard from a lot of folks in the military community who say like they knew Admiral Cooper, like he had a lot of respect to people. And they were like, I can't believe that he's just debased himself like this. It's just such a, so atrocious, but let's, let's do the math. He said what he said, a bill, they just reached about a billion barrels since the beginning of the war. What was it before? 20 million barrels a day before Trump started the war, we're going through the straight 20 million a day would make it 600 million barrels a month.

43:01Jordy Meiselas:meaning he's bragging about the U.S. getting out a month and a half's worth of oil through the Shred of Hormuz in the past seven plus months. Greg, great job.

43:12Ben Meiselas:A billion, a billion sounds like a big number. And then he uses the Adobe stock footage of like ships and like sailors and Marines. You know, it's not even the real footage of what's actually happening. They use Adobe stock footage. That's so funny. But then you contrast it to the footage that Iran is releasing and like Iran released actual footage of them shooting down yet another MQ1 drone. I mean, they shot another MQ1 drone down. It seems like every day they shoot another MQ1 drone down. Two tankers were struck by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz today. There was a liquefied LPG tanker, and then there was an oil tanker that was hit by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.

43:53Ben Meiselas:You have the Houthis on Sarala. They control the Bab el-Mandab Strait and all the Red Sea. They're moving east right now. And as I said at the outset, Donald Trump promised MBS apparently on Thursday or Friday that he was going to do joint strikes against Ansar Allah in Yemen, in Sanaa, the capital of the Houthis area where they control. And Trump's top advisor were like, how are you going to do this? We're out of weapons. This isn't like a fake news thing. We're out of weapons right now. So how are you going to do it? But Trump promised MBS that he was going to do these joint strikes. And then there was all this military activity.

44:35Ben Meiselas:There was like a B-1 that flew out of the Royal Air Force Base in the UK. There was an alert that went out to all of our embassies in the Middle East from every country because there were about to be these strikes against Ansar Allah in Yemen. And apparently, all of the weapons were being loaded on all of the aircraft and the aircraft were like about to take off. Like it was very close for this operation to start against Ansarala. And you should also note that remember I talked about the US basically surrendering and losing the war to Ansarala in April and May of 2025. And so there's a ceasefire there because in large part, the US said that they obliterated Ansarala.

45:17Ben Meiselas:But of course, we know that's not actually what happened. And so US ships have been able to leave, but the Saudi ships have not been able to leave. There's a blockade that Ansarallah has against the Saudi ships. But then right before the mission was about to take place that Trump ordered, Trump then backed out of that mission. And then also it seems that Trump was thinking about escalating against Iran. You heard Trey Yinks there talk about it. And then Trump backed out of that again. And so you see just also this kind of utter chaos and incompetence taking place. You know, I was able to interview a top Houthi reporter, Al-Bukhati, Hussein Al-Bukhati.

45:57Ben Meiselas:His brother, Muhammad Al-Bukhati, was actually one of the main Houthi governors, and he's on the political bureau. So in addition to being a top pro-Houthi reporter, Hussein, who I interviewed, is like deeply connected, you know, with his brother. And Brett, do we have, I think there's two clips I want to share with you from that interview. The first one I want to share is where he says that we here view Donald Trump as a fool. And we believe that, you know, when we talk about people who lie all the time in Yemen, we call the liar a Trump. That's our name for someone who's a congenital liar. Here, let's play this clip.

46:36Brett Meiselas:We look at him here in Sana 'a and maybe in all Yemen as like someone who is a fool, who doesn't want who doesn't know what to say. He doesn't know what not to say. He just like what comes to his mouth. He will just say it and is actually making the reputation of the United States as one of the country that's considered the free world, making it bad. And even here I I mean, if somebody will break an agreement or a word with someone, we call him Trump.

47:12Ben Meiselas:And so I always wanted to know, like, what do they actually think about this? And yet, what do the Houthis think about Trump and what the United States has become? And are they watching what's happened with the U.S. catastrophic war in Iran? And has that informed their behavior? Have they been emboldened by that because Saudi Arabia gets its weapons and gets its military protection from the United States? The U.S. lost to Iran. I know Trump and Hegseth and the regime here pretends that we won, but we didn't. The whole world knows that we lost and we lost bad. So I was curious. I wanted to go to this, you know, how do you think about this?

47:51Ben Meiselas:And so I also asked him, hey, so are you following, you know, the war in Iran and what Trump is saying? and just from like a military tactical aspect? Like, what do you think about it? Let me show you what Al-Bukhati told me about his shock. And he's like, I know Trump and Hegseth, you know, are dumb, but like, we're surprised, like, are any of your generals or admirals like saying that this is like a bad idea? Like, that's what surprises us here, you know, in Ansar Allah in Yemen. Let's play it.

48:21Brett Meiselas:What do you think here? I mean, he done it really miserably. I mean, he targeted Iran. He didn't thought of the strength of Iran, which is was the straight of Hormuz. Iran has never ever used it. I mean, if I was him, when I targeted Iran, but he thought Israel targeted Iran for 12 days, Iran hasn't done that. It's the opposite because United States have all the all all the bases. So he should have thought as well, where Iran gonna retaliate. They do have missile to the United States. I mean, a child will know that They will retaliate against your your basis. They will target your basis there.

48:58Brett Meiselas:They will destroy the economy and this will affect your economy as well in the United States and you promised for peace and for for for for for all of that. So to to go and launch that huge war and that huge attack that could actually cripple Iran, killing their supreme leader. So you should expect all type of retaliation. But the thing that's actually make me think, I mean, does Trump, of course, you have military advisors, you have people not talking about the Minister of Defense because he's just another copy of Trump. I'm talking about the commander of the aircraft carrier, the commander of the districts of the United States Army wasn't there anyone who's wise who will tell him this is actually will make us fail.

49:52Brett Meiselas:This will damage our reputation. You can see now that the United States reputation as one of the strongest power, it was even damaged by Yemenis in the Red Sea.

50:01Ben Meiselas:Yeah. And the conversation I had with al-Bukhahiti right there was about just military tactics. And they were shocked about the fact that it seemed that there was no planning. And, you know, their view was always before this, that the United States was still a strong, powerful country. And now they're like, this shocked us that you couldn't even effectively operate the war. It was a war we shouldn't have been involved in, but the fact that you had no logistics. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, our book is called WTF America, pre-order now. The book comes out October 20th, but the pre-orders are really helpful.

50:42Ben Meiselas:Yes, we did do an audio book and each brother read different chapters of the audio book. And so if you want to get the audio book as well, I think you'll enjoy hearing the audio. Hit subscribe to our YouTube channel. Let's get to 7 million subscribers here. Let's take our last break of the show. We will be right back after this quick break.

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53:29Brett Meiselas:You'll save over 40 % and when you use promo code Midas, you'll get an extra 20 % off plus a free three-piece towel set. They make an amazing gift and with a 30-day money-back guarantee, there's no risk. That's TryMiracle.com slash Midas, code Midas at checkout. Thanks to Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode. Shout out to our sponsors, y 'all. 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. Benji, you brought up a really good point. You bring up good points all the time, just so you know, but you brought up a really good one because who could have believed that the guy that renamed the Department of Defense, the Department of War, is getting us into these endless wars?

54:12Brett Meiselas:I mean, who would have thought that that would be the natural progression of things there, Benji? Maybe a lot of people.

54:20Ben Meiselas:Maybe a lot. So much what we talk about here overwhelmingly actually has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with competence and leadership and values and principles. And we all want politicians to align with these values and principles that I know you care about. And at a basic level, we want kind of serious adult behavior, right? And people to behave like grownups, like a baseline. And as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said, like, we're not behaving as a serious country. We're behaving as a very dangerous predatorial one right now that's just out there kind of causing and creating harm.

55:04Ben Meiselas:And, you know, a lot of the stuff is just logistics, right? Logistics, logistics. And so massive logistics failures when it comes to this catastrophic war in Iran. massive logistics failures uh when it comes to you know even basic things today like when the faa canceled all of these flights in the east coast from new jersey to philadelphia new york boston all of these areas had flights canceled and then we learned that well according to transportation secretary duffy amtrak workers cut into cable lines and that basically brought down systems. There weren't backups available apparently. And then Amtrak said, no, it wasn't us.

55:49Ben Meiselas:It was New Jersey transit, but it's just kind of very basic logistics. I mean, you can even go back to how horrifically, I know this often gets overlooked. That's why I want to bring it up here. You know, the awful handling of the flooding by the Rio Grande and some of the areas in Texas, Remember, it doesn't even get talked about, but like hundreds of little girls were killed at a camp because the logistics by the Trump regime and by other kind of Republican administrations there were ineffective and were not working. And there was major issues about alerting the camp and making sure the little girls could get to the top of the mountain there.

56:39Ben Meiselas:And then remember, Kristi Noem made people sign a – she had to approve every purchase over$100 ,000. And then we learned a lot of that may have been because Corey Lewandowski, who she was running around with while her husband was doing like the gigantic boobs thing on T – you know, with all of the people and, you know, and I don't know what they were. I don't even know what was going on there, but like they wanted to control it so they could be in charge of all of the contracts and that they didn't approve the search and rescue. I mean, it's like a maliciousness and a logistics thing. You know, when we talk about the Trump regime's war crimes in Iran, right, striking the elementary school, killing little girls is kind of a theme here, right?

57:22Ben Meiselas:Killing little girls in Manab and slaughtering the children there. It was an over a Pentagon report has says that it's an over reliance on certain AI tools. And then Pete Hegseth wanting to basically just target everything. And it was so obvious if you just opened up Google Maps that that was an elementary school. And it's been an elementary school for over a decade. And, yeah, it was in the vicinity of an IRGC facility. But everybody knew that was the elementary school. And it's not uncommon for elementary schools anywhere in any country to be somewhat remotely near schools. I mean, when we talk about Trump's recent escalation in Iran, where he slaughtered people at a wedding, right?

58:05Ben Meiselas:That was in the vicinity of some telecommunications tower. But it's just everything they do is just also like awfully logistical. Like they don't plan things. And it results in awful consequences. And it also begins with the fact that they are also very malicious and evil and have ill intent to begin with. And so, you know, even Donald Trump banning all of these reporters from MS Now and CNN and Politico from the White House because Natalie Harp showed Donald Trump some articles that were written about him by these outlets. So as a result of Natalie Harp showing him these articles, Trump then bans these outlets.

58:49Ben Meiselas:And what happens next? Then the press pool, which is made up of ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, they say, well, we're not going to cover events until you remove that ban. Then Donald Trump holds a press conference anyway. It's like the 10th press conference he's held on the helipad. I can't even, I'm not even exaggerating, right? He's done like a helipad press conference, it seems like every three days over the past two months, he's on a helipad where he brings the workers behind him. And then he says, okay, we're opening up the helipad. He's done this like over and over again. He's got to get that approval rating up somehow, Ben.

59:24Ben Meiselas:That's it. The triumphal arch with snipers everywhere and turning it into a drone port. And then the helipad is what he's, you know, constantly doing.

59:33Jordy Meiselas:Have you not heard of an October surprise?

59:36Ben Meiselas:But then he doesn't realize that, wait a minute, I need audio and I need a press pool to cover these events. So even as he tried to like do this on the White House, White House YouTube, or have Newsmax cover it, what turned out is there wasn't any audio hooked in. So you couldn't even hear what he was saying. And so it just became this like deranged propaganda fest without any sound or audio. And again, this is also shows you the incompetence, but also shows you just the most basic facts. Like you probably need to double check that there's audio. If you want your propaganda to even get out. So let me show you what went down here.

1:00:14Ben Meiselas:Play this clip.

1:00:22Yeah.

1:00:22Jordy Meiselas:But you can't hear it. Because there's no mics.

1:00:29Brett Meiselas:Okay. So there is no microphone because there's no microphone because the pool cameras aren't there. So maybe, Tim, this is one example of it backfiring just a little bit. Pick up on some of things Michael was saying. And obviously the ramifications are right here. Can't hear what the president's saying. All right. So you had that. Then he said before everything, I'm so sorry, before everything, though, like when you just watch those movements without sound, it's so weird when you watch them when he's actually speaking. But when you were just watching him without sound, The movements are so alien-like.

1:01:05Brett Meiselas:It doesn't look human the way Donald Trump is moving his body. And I know he's suffering through a lot of ailments that we all know about. It is truly bizarre seeing him even just turn his head. And when he starts to speak, the shapes he makes with his mouth, it's bizarre.

1:01:21Jordy Meiselas:He is like an alien. I mean, he kind of is. But like the broader point to him not realizing that he's not going to have audio when he does these press conferences is that this is how the guy makes his decisions in every aspect of his entire life. This is how he's making decisions in war right now. It's why he didn't foresee the Strait of Hormuz being closed and the Iran war becoming the debacle that it is because he's never thinking ahead. He's always just making a decision and it could be the most reckless decision imaginable, but he never thinks it through. And the people who are the smart people who are supposed to be in the room with him who say, hey, buddy, that's going to be a disaster if you do that right now.

1:02:01Jordy Meiselas:He's not listening to them or they don't exist at this point. And so that's one of the big actually issues that we see, you know, in this whole kind of a second Trump administration in a microcosm right there. Yeah.

1:02:12Ben Meiselas:So then you have J.D. Vance giving a speech in North Carolina. So you had Melania in North Carolina, Trump in North Carolina, and then J.D. Vance was in Greensboro, North Carolina today. And by the way, in North Carolina, let's not forget the Trump regime did not provide the necessary FEMA aid that the North Carolina governor requested. They did not, the Trump regime did not provide matching funds after you had the awful Helene storm over there, which is just, I mean, how cruel and unusual is that for the federal government to deny disaster relief? the same disaster relief that former President Biden was giving.

1:02:52Ben Meiselas:The Trump regime attacked Biden with all this propaganda that Biden wasn't giving the FEMA relief and Biden was attacking FEMA. Then Trump gets into power. And what does he do? He gets rid of half of the FEMA employees, like 11 ,000, 12 ,000 FEMA employees were fired unlawfully. A federal judge recently held those terminations were unlawful and then didn't approve the FEMA aid that North Carolina demanded and needed um so jd vance then heads to north carolina gives a speech in greensboro where he's like uh you know the the democrats are the fart left you're the fart left uh and oh the fake news is gonna say i called him fart but uh but i i guess that was a slip of my tongue i mean this is what they're doing i mean again these are the most lunatic people imaginable here play this clip

1:03:41Brett Meiselas:now you may not have even heard that but i actually i usually don't misspeak but i just called them the fart left not the fart left that i promise that was an accident so the fake news who will accuse me of bad language i promise i did not mean to call them the fart left i meant to call them the far left but in another case i mean so much so much serious jd just out there crushing it he's got he's got where the kids say riz jd too too much riz jd too much riz bro yeah

1:04:14Ben Meiselas:say some for the rest of us, man. I do want to correct what I said. I said Rio Grande River, I meant Guadalupe River. It's an important distinction. But nonetheless, the Trump regime did, you know, far left, far left. I want to share with you though. And so tomorrow, if you're watching this or listening on Tuesday, if you're watching this on Monday, it's tomorrow, the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly will begin. And it's the general debate. That's when all of the world leaders give their speeches. So we're all paying attention to what's going to be happening there. The entire theme of the United Nations General Assembly opening is restoring trust and multilateralism.

1:05:00Ben Meiselas:Like it's clearly geared towards basically the end of the United States kind of leading the free world or at least the pretext of that happening. And so it is a restoring trust in a multilateral world. It's built on these six pillars of the Bangladeshi foreign minister, who's now the president of the UN General Assembly. In advance of the speeches that are going to be taking place there, Qatar held their Qatar Economic Forum in New York. There's a lot of events that take place before the UN General Assembly meets. It has the general debate. And I found this very fascinating that Prime Minister Al-Fani was talking about how the Arab nations and all the Gulf nations need to start being focused on embracing Iran more and being more and recognizing that you can't have a situation there where you just fully alienate Iran.

1:05:55Ben Meiselas:And he's saying it out loud. And so this Qatari prime minister, he's one of the kind of main mediators between the U.S. and Iran. And I thought it was kind of an interesting perspective to hear this articulated out loud. And this is obviously a major shift from where things were before the catastrophic war started. Let's play this clip.

1:06:14Brett Meiselas:Iran is our neighbor. We need to understand that without having a security framework that brings us all together as Gulf countries with Iran, ensuring that none of us is posing a threat on the other, this region will not just be continuing in the same way as it used to be. We have to act together responsibly as a region and to make sure that we are having a good relation with Iran and Iran has a good relation with the Gulf countries. And we are working toward that. Our regional partners believe in this. And we are hoping that this war is a wake up call for everyone that it's time.

1:07:02Ben Meiselas:That this war is a wake up call for everybody. And so that was happening in New York. Donald Trump left D.C. to head to New York. He arrived there with Natalie Harp and Margo Martin and Susie Wiles. So he shows up in New York and one of his first places that he visits is visits with Mayor Mamdani. And so I want to share with you what went down at his meeting with Mayor Mamdani. While Donald Trump doesn't have a press pool, New York City Mayor Mamdani does with sound. And so Mayor Mamdani showed what went down in the press conference. And so Donald Trump just diffusively praising Mayor Mamdani over and over again at this press conference.

1:07:45Ben Meiselas:Let me show you one such scene. Let's play it.

1:07:47Jordy Meiselas:No, I certainly hope he will be a great mayor. You have to understand, I want what's good for New York. I want what's good for the country. So if I had a choice of having him be a bad mayor or horrible mayor, I don't want that. I want him to be a great mayor. And he certainly got potential, Got great potential.

1:08:04Ben Meiselas:And I'll show you one other clip from that meeting. Let's play the other clip.

1:08:07Jordy Meiselas:Do you want to add any remarks? Well, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. I've been at Gracie Mansion. We were discussing quite a few times over the years, a lot. And it sort of feels like a home. And it's a special place, a very special, a beautiful place when you go inside. And I've seen it with numerous different mayors. And I said some great ones and some not so great ones.

1:08:29Brett Meiselas:So hopefully you're going to be a great one. I'll be able to say you're going to be a great one and you're off to a start. So I just want to thank the mayor for the invitation. I'm in New York to do the United Nations tomorrow. I have a lot of meetings right now, today, very important meetings.

1:08:45Ben Meiselas:Pass it over to you, Brett and Jordy.

1:08:48Jordy Meiselas:What happens in these meetings with New York City Mayor Mom Donnie? It just so, it really just shows you, though, Trump's whole scam, right? Trump will say the most vicious things about you when he's hiding behind a keyboard. He'll say the most vicious things behind you when he's calling into Fox news. But the second you get face to face with him, if you stand up for your principles and stand up for your values, he backs down like every single time. And there were even other indications of this where Trump was speaking about Mayor Momdani's thoughts on immigration. Obviously, there's a huge delta between what New York City Mayor Momdani believes about immigration and the rights for immigrants and what Donald Trump believes.

1:09:29Jordy Meiselas:And Trump acknowledged without doing his normal bluster during this press conference, he acknowledged, he was like, yeah, you know, the mayor, he has his opinions on immigration and he didn't back down. He told them to me and I see what he's saying. And it's like, what? This is the guy you were calling a communist who was letting in the illegals who were going to kill everybody, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And now this is how you're talking to the press. It is just honestly just a very fascinating thing. And I kind of wonder how the MAGA people, like the remaining folks, are even able to process things like this after they're built up, after someone like Imamdani is built up as this evil communist villain who wants to kill them.

1:10:12Jordy Meiselas:And all of a sudden you have this bromance plane where Trump is just effusively praising the guy. It's just got to be a weird dynamic.

1:10:19Brett Meiselas:Yeah, I think they let it slide because they're waiting on those$2 ,000 tariff dividend checks that are still in the mail and maybe those five thousand dollar doge dividend checks and also the five thousand dollar elect the republican checks that are you know going to be sent out so they're just waiting on some money before they really critique the guy it's all coming in by the way you just have to wait a little bit longer just just just give them another chance wait a little bit longer and all that money will just be in your pockets per donald trump you know i actually think trump is the definition but i'm just gonna say he's the definition of a keyboard warrior you actually confront the guy head on and he folds like a lawn chair.

1:10:54Brett Meiselas:And that's what we see time and time again.

1:10:55Ben Meiselas:You know, we talked about how Donald Trump's approval and one major poll, 29%, the Reuters Ipsos has in the 32%. And you think about what were some of the major events that probably just caused him to lose this massive amount of Republican support recently. And there's so many, there's so many. And it's like, why did this not happen sooner? But I do think, Jordi, you point out the$5 ,000 fraud, right? I think that there are some things that sometimes transcend just the usual kind of political coverage. And to me, that was actually one of them. And it reminded people, wait a minute, you promised me$5 ,000 here.

1:11:38Ben Meiselas:You promised me$2 ,000 here. I see the price of gas surging. I see the price of of diesel surging, I'm being screwed, and you just think I'm stupid. I think that was actually, I mean, there should be so many other moments, like seriously, that's the moment. But I do think that that may have penetrated into certain red areas.

1:11:59Brett Meiselas:Ben, what's the famous George Bush line? Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, you can't be fooled again. It truly is because all this time, Donald Trump continues to promise people money. This is the third time this regime has done this. And it's just a constant rug pull. And people are looking around saying, I thought you promised me money over here. Wait, what about this money? Wait, what about this money? And the only money they see is the money leaving their bank accounts, Ben. It's really an interesting lesson in human psychology, I guess you could say it.

1:12:32Jordy Meiselas:But the way that a lot of these Trump voters process the world is, it just is factually, a very selfish way of processing the world. It doesn't matter what's going on with everybody else in the world. It doesn't matter the chaos happening overseas. It doesn't matter the chaos happening to your neighbors or loved ones. It doesn't matter. It matters what's affecting me and how much pain can I take until the propaganda finally collapses. And some of the statements that we're seeing from these former or these recent Trump voters who are now considering or saying that they're going to vote for Democrats, the midterms really give away the game.

1:13:11Jordy Meiselas:There was this 60 Minutes report recently. And this guy, there was this guy in Texas who, lifelong conservative Republican, he lives near a proposed data center. And he said the following, this is the first time in my adult life where there's been an issue that's come up that I feel like is going to directly impact me, going to directly impact me. I mean, I think he kind of said the quiet part, you know, out loud here. It was all fun when they were doing this stuff to other people. But now that there's going to be a data center in my backyard and it's going to be using our resources and it's going to be making all these noise and it's going to be affecting my vegetation and my animals now, now I have a problem.

1:13:51Jordy Meiselas:And I saw the guy's interview. He was like, I normally vote Republican, but this time I'm not even going to think red or blue or Republican or Democrat. I'm just going to vote for the guy who's against these things. That's why I'm going to vote for James Tallarico. And you're like, that's what it took? out of all the things, everything that we've been talking about over the past few years, it was the data center issue that affected you personally that caused you to change. And I think gas is one of those things for a lot of folks that is that thing that affects them personally. It's like everything that happens in the world, all the chaos, the ice shootings, like whatever, doesn't even, even the war stuff, like doesn't even matter until it affects them, until they go down the block and they have to pay seven bucks for diesel, right?

1:14:33Jordy Meiselas:I mean, it's just, it really truly is, you know, shows you how so much of the electorate takes in politics. You know, all the political messaging you want to throw out, all the millions and billions of dollars spent on political ads, when so often it just comes down to that. Well, look, and you think about the right-wing media trillion-dollar kind of echo chamber or propaganda networks that basically said, look, Biden's going to do World War III.

1:15:05Ben Meiselas:Biden's going to send you into never-ending wars. Biden's going to do this. Biden's going to do that. Quite literally, all of those things Donald Trump is doing. Biden didn't do those things. Now, there was a time during Biden's administration when gas and inflation were high and Biden had to deal with Trump's first term. And by the end of Biden's term, were things great? No. But were they heading and trending statistically in the right direction? And were the moves put in place, complicated moves with actual legislation to try to grapple with comprehensive problems and try to solve problems? He was doing those things and he actually would have passed comprehensive immigration reform had Donald Trump not told the MAGA Republicans, I want you to kill this because a winning issue for me is to run on immigration.

1:15:53Ben Meiselas:We can't solve the problem. We need to make the problem worse so we can terrorize immigrant communities because it's a wedge issue that we want to use. And then that's their playbook, wedge issues to divide. And it's just interesting. I mean, you heard J.D. Vance's speech in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he's out there doing the same playbook from 2024. I don't need to play you all the stuff, but it's just like, if you are telling kindergartners about the pronouns, then you are creepy. And it's like, kindergartners and pronouns? Look, our education system is under attack from these MAGAs. Our public education system has been destroyed.

1:16:32Ben Meiselas:Right. Teachers have been treated so horribly. I put a I made a video this weekend of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed's speech that he gave in Michigan, where he spoke to a lady who just graduated college with a degree being an elementary school educator. And she was terrified that when she becomes an elementary school teacher, she's not going to be able to afford rent and she's not going to be able to be able to basically survive because she chose to pursue a noble profession of being a teacher and rather than talk about oh this or that or dividing you and pronouns and you know dr abdul el-sayed gave a very thoughtful answer very policy driven here's what we can do to make sure that teachers are treated better and teachers get more money and we need to do a minimum wage for teachers so that teachers are paid with dignity and here's how we have to address uh public schools being under attack and ultimately this is beneficial you know to our students and children.

1:17:30Ben Meiselas:We want a better educated country. And so there's such a difference here. And I think to the extent there's anything good that's come out of this real dystopian era, it's that I think people are paying attention to government and people want to make sure that a government works for them. People don't want to go back to the status quo. And I'll end here with talking about New York City Mayor Mamdani. He stands on principles. He stands on values. He's not really wavering. He tells you who he is and he strongly stands behind those issues. And I think that's something that's appreciated. And I think it's one of the ways that Trump doesn't really know what to do with that also.

1:18:11Ben Meiselas:I mean, Trump's a phony guy, as phony as you get. He's the biggest phony fraud in recent human history and probably going back a very, very, very long time. And what he's able to sense as a phony and fraudulent person are where people are able to break and what they're, you know, when they're not actually representing who they are publicly. So if you're authentically yourself and you stand up against him, I mean, you're able to really back him into a corner because, you know, you're not trying to do deals with him. You're not trying to appease him. You know, you're standing up. And I think that that's one of the things we see with New York City Mayor Mamdani always.

1:18:49Jordy Meiselas:You know, I think one of the things you see too is like, Like when I see Mayor Mamdani with Trump in these scenes, it doesn't feel performative to me. It doesn't feel like he's trying to put anything on. It doesn't seem like he's trying to even like act tough or anything. He is tough in his own way. He's tough by standing up for his principles. And I think the most revealing moment that really set the stage for this relationship and, you know, I think why everybody is so impressed, I think, by how New York City Mayor Mamdani has handled this is during that first meeting in the Oval Office, when he was asked by the press, the press made some sort of comment, like, you've been calling Donald Trump a fascist an awful lot.

1:19:27Jordy Meiselas:He's standing right next to you right now. Do you still think Donald Trump is a fascist? And Mamdani was like, yes, you know, and like, I don't think everybody else would say that standing next to the guy. But the fact that he's like, yes, but you know, he's also the president and we're, you know, doing X, Y, and Z. You know, I think that sort of honesty is actually, you know, incredibly refreshing. And I think he brings an authenticity to the job and a real like a realness to the job that Trump doesn't know how to even like combat or handle. And Trump just likes people, let's face it, who are who are charismatic.

1:20:03Jordy Meiselas:And and, you know, and Mamdani is like, you know, like the most popular politician right now, like like as the craziest approval rating. And I think Trump knows that, you know, it's it's it's all there.

1:20:14Ben Meiselas:covered a lot on today's episode got a lot more to cover of course throughout the day as there's breaking news developing make sure you check back on the Midas Touch YouTube channel every 90 minutes or so we get up a new video here make sure you subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio for our listeners subscribe to the Midas Touch on YouTube if you're able to get a copy of WTF America the book that my brothers and I wrote preorder right now. The book comes out October 20th, but you can get a copy of the book or you can purchase the audio and all three brothers contributed different chapters in our own voices, of course, to the audio.

1:20:55Ben Meiselas:So we think that you'll enjoy that.

1:20:57Brett Meiselas:So I know AI, a lot of hard days.

1:21:01Ben Meiselas:We spent a lot of hard days there recording that. And the book is dedicated to you and this channel is dedicated to you. And every day we wake up and we think, how can we fight for you? And it starts with listening to you and then hearing what you're saying and then making sure every damn day we do everything we can so that we're bringing us together and we're fighting for you. And that's what we're going to continue to do here. So thanks everybody so much. We appreciate you listening to this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. We'll see you next time. Jordi, take it away.

1:21:29Brett Meiselas:Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:21:38Jordy Meiselas:Against the fascists, we sing our song. We begin it right when it...

1:22:08you