MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 9/26/25

26 Sep 2025 · 1 h 15 min · 25 chapters

Ask about this episode

Ask anything about it. ChatGPT or Claude reads this page and answers with the times it was said.

Connect VO and ask about every podcast you hear, including the moments you saved. Add to ChatGPT · Add to Claude

In short

The hosts argue the U.S. is heading toward a government shutdown around Oct. 1, driven by Trump and Republicans refusing to negotiate with Democrats, while Democrats’ main demand is preserving Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. They also discuss Trump’s past shutdown rhetoric (blaming presidents), alleged misinformation in corporate media, Trump’s interactions with foreign leaders (especially Erdogan), and the indictment of ex-FBI director James Comey. They add examples like tariff revenue claims vs deficits, farmers’ economic pain, and a “Club Rose Garden”/90,000-square-foot ballroom story.

Guest backgrounds

No guests are named in the transcript. The show’s co-hosts are Ben, Brett, and Jordy (referred to repeatedly as “Brett and Jordy” and “Ben”).

Key claims

Trump told Republicans not to speak with Democrats; he canceled a planned meeting; shutdown blame should fall on Trump/Republicans (citing a Data for Progress poll: 59% blame Trump/Republicans). The hosts claim Trump uses shutdown threats to gut government and push authoritarian control.

Notable examples

Claims that tariff “$17T”/“$8T” numbers are lies; deficit is about $2T. Erdogan criticizes Trump’s “24 hours” promises. Trump praises Erdogan as “neutral.” Comey is indicted after Trump called for DOJ action.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Trump's Poll Numbers and Government Shutdown

0:30 to 0:58

Discuss the implications of Trump's low poll numbers and the upcoming government shutdown.

“I didn't think the pain from the shingles rash would affect simple everyday tasks like bathing, getting dressed, or even walking around.”

Trump's Poll Numbers and Government Shutdown

1:43 to 2:00

Discuss the implications of Trump's low poll numbers and the upcoming government shutdown.

“Starting a business can seem like a daunting task.”

Trump's Poll Numbers and Government Shutdown

2:30 to 3:20

Discuss the implications of Trump's low poll numbers and the upcoming government shutdown.

“approved on trade, 39 percent approved on National Guard into cities, 42 percent approved on immigration, which Trump and MAGA claim is his best issue.”

Negotiation Breakdown and Trump's Tactics

3:20 to 6:40

Examine Trump's refusal to negotiate with Democrats and the consequences.

“That's what Donald Trump told Republicans to do.”

Impact on Healthcare and Economic Issues

6:40 to 10:00

Discuss healthcare demands and how Trump's policies impact American families.

“I think that's part of the story, not all of it.”

Trump's Strategy and MAGA Response

10:00 to 13:20

Analyze the MAGA strategy and its implications for Republican voters.

“The 90 ,000 square foot ballroom may even be bigger now.”

Concluding Thoughts on Current Events

13:20 to 14:00

Wrap up with a discussion on the current political landscape and media's role.

“I just want to tell everyone here, we do have a lot of folks in the YouTube tonight.”

Facts Over Propaganda in Politics

14:00 to 17:40

Learn how sticking to facts influences political discourse and outcomes.

“And I go back to my days when I was a trial lawyer and the rules of evidence applied and you couldn't bring in extraneous or irrelevant things to the jury or propaganda to the jury, right?”

Trump's Leadership and Government Shutdowns

17:40 to 21:40

Discuss Trump’s contradictory statements about leadership and government operations.

“trump on fox where he said i've told republicans don't talk to democrats have no communication with Just to remind you here, he says, don't speak to them, yet alone negotiate.”

Media Influence and Public Perception

21:40 to 28:01

Explore how corporate media shapes narratives around Trump and government issues.

“I thought he said some really nice things.”
Show all 25 chapters

Analyzing Trump's Leadership Response

28:01 to 31:14

Discussing Trump's failure to offer unifying leadership during crises.

“And now you want to blame other people for the government shutting down.”

Analyzing Trump's Leadership Response

32:58 to 34:19

Discussing Trump's failure to offer unifying leadership during crises.

“Ever feel like managing your business finances is a full-time job on top of your actual full-time job?”

Trump's Oval Office Meeting with Erdogan

34:25 to 42:00

Examining the dynamics of Trump's meeting with Turkey's President Erdogan.

“Did you all see that bizarre presser in the Oval Office earlier with Turkey's President Erdogan and Donald Trump.”

Trump's Global Disgrace and Family Ventures

42:00 to 46:50

Discussion on Trump's embarrassing interactions with global leaders and the Trump family's questionable business ventures.

“versus wrong, and people just refuse to do anything about it.”

The Authoritarian Shift and Comey Indictment

46:50 to 51:12

Exploration of the implications of Eric Trump's comments and the indictment of James Comey in the context of rising authoritarianism.

“Comey has officially been charged with making false statements and obstruction.”

Return to Comey and Political Weaponization

51:57 to 56:00

Continuing the discussion on James Comey's indictment and its implications for political justice in America.

“Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted on two of three counts sought by prosecutors.”

Weaponization of Government

56:00 to 58:20

Discussing the weaponization of government for political ends by Trump and Republicans.

“This is about a brazen weaponization of the government.”

Military Summons and National Security

58:20 to 1:00:40

Analyzing the implications of high-level military gatherings and potential threats to national security.

“You saw this spread today that Defense Secretary Pete Hegs had summoned hundreds of the U.S.”

Impact of Trump's Trade War on Farmers

1:00:40 to 1:03:10

Exploring the detrimental effects of Trump's trade policies on American farmers and agriculture.

“If the stuff you're reporting out every day has to be approved by Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth.”

Bailing Out Argentina: A Contradiction

1:03:10 to 1:06:40

Critiquing the U.S. government's financial support for Argentina amid domestic struggles.

“That alongside, of course, the president's effort to realign America around American products and making all of these new deals.”

The State of American Democracy

1:06:40 to 1:10:02

Highlighting the current challenges facing American democracy and media, and the need for vigilance.

“I mean, as Americans right now here in the United States can't afford groceries, can't afford their rent if they're lucky enough to have a mortgage, can't afford that.”

The Unpopularity of Trump's Regime

1:10:02 to 1:11:29

Explore Trump's unpopularity and the consequences of his regime's actions.

“And so it's important that we, the people, stand up.”

Ways to Support the Midas Touch Network

1:11:30 to 1:12:30

Learn how to support the Midas Touch Network through subscriptions and sharing.

“It's free to subscribe to the YouTube channel.”

Ways to Support the Midas Touch Network

1:12:34 to 1:13:09

Learn how to support the Midas Touch Network through subscriptions and sharing.

“We are going to get through this together.”

Ways to Support the Midas Touch Network

1:14:18 to 1:14:41

Learn how to support the Midas Touch Network through subscriptions and sharing.

“Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot.”
Hear the part that matters, and keep it.Open this episode in VO. Double tap your headphones to save a moment as you listen.
Get VO free

Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Hi, 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. That's it. Happy ending. Zero tears. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes.

0:28May slow when network is busy. See terms. I didn't think the pain from the shingles rash would affect simple everyday tasks like bathing, getting dressed, or even walking around. I was wrong. Though not everyone at risk will develop it, 99 % of people over the age of 50 already have the virus that causes shingles, and it could reactivate at any time. I developed it, and the blistering rash lasted for weeks. Don't learn the hard way, like I did. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today. Sponsored by GSK. Choice Hotels get you more of what you value. Comfort Inn. It's calling your name. Save on the stay.

1:09Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. Book direct at choicehotels.com. At Farmers, our honesty is contagious. Wait, am I going to catch honesty? Well, when you're with Farmers, it's kind of inevitable. Well, how long does it take to... I lied to you when you asked if I knew what a deductible was. I don't know my dad's birthday. I thought umbrella policies were for rainstorms. Actual rainstorms. I have it, don't I? You don't just have honesty. You have farmers. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Learn more at Farmers.com. Underwritten by Farmers Truck or Fire Insurance Exchanges or Affiliate. Products not available in every state.

1:45Starting a business can seem like a daunting task. Unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. Donald Trump is absolutely cratering in a new Quinnipiac poll and all the other big pollsters out there.

2:20His overall approval right now is at 38%. That disapproval number at 54%.

2:26Brothers Meidas:When you go through the various cross tabs like Trump on the economy, only 39 percent approved on trade, 39 percent approved on National Guard into cities, 42 percent approved on immigration, which Trump and MAGA claim is his best issue. Forty one percent, as Greg Sargent says, Trump is weak, unpopular and failing. Treat him that way. And now Donald Trump is bringing the United States government to the verge of a shutdown. A shutdown will take place on October 1st, unless an agreement is reached between Republicans and Democrats. But the key word there is agree. And Donald Trump has previously ordered Republicans do not speak to Democrats, yet alone negotiate.

3:16Brothers Meidas:Have no contact. You know how a petulant child, no offense to petulant child, puts their hands on their ears and goes, I can't hear you. I can't hear you. That's what Donald Trump told Republicans to do. And Maga Mike Johnson carried out the order. And they need Democratic votes in the Senate in order to pass a funding bill. So what is Donald Trump out there now saying? Trans, migrants, crime. That's what Democrats want. Democrats want the only thing that Democrats have asked for. And frankly, the real debate should be if Democrats should have asked for more is Democrats said, look, the Affordable Care Act tax credits are set to expire very soon.

4:02Brothers Meidas:So we already know Medicaid has been gutted by the disastrous budget bill. Medicare is in jeopardy based on the disastrous budget bill. But the Affordable Care Act tax credits for your premiums are set to expire very soon, meaning your monthly premiums are about to skyrocket. So it's a pretty limited demand that the Democrats have made. Again, one may debate, should the Democrats be asking for a lot more? But they're not. And Trump's saying, I don't even want to meet with you, right? There was supposed to be a meeting to take place today between the Democratic leader Jeffries in the House, Chuck Schumer in the Senate, Donald Trump and Senator Thume, the majority leader in the Senate for Republicans, as well as MAGA Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House.

4:50Brothers Meidas:And Trump just canceled it. Then Trump posted this long, rambling message and says, on further reflection, why would I ever even want to meet with Democrats? Their demands are outrageous. I'm not meeting with them at all. So he canceled the meeting. So I just want to get the facts out there. It's undisputed. Trump told the MAGA Republicans, do not speak with Democrats. They did not speak with Democrats. Donald Trump posted, I'm putting up the post here. So if you don't believe me, you could read it for yourself, cancel the meeting with the Democrats. We should not be meeting at the White House.

5:23Brothers Meidas:Well, if you do that, this is the result. But you see, I think that Donald Trump wants the shutdown to take place. I actually think, and I'm not trying to be conspiratorial here, a lot of it's actually rooted in the Epstein file discharge petition. Democrats now have their 218th signature on this. Frankly, it's a relatively bipartisan discharge petition in that it comes from Democratic Congress member Ro Khanna and Republican from Kentucky, Thomas Massey. But Adelitra Gavalha, she is the Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, congresswoman elect. She won this past week. By the way, she outperformed her late great father and outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris by like 25 points.

6:11Brothers Meidas:Again, we're seeing Democratic overperformance. She should be sworn in right away. Now, Maggie Mike Johnson is saying, well, we may have to wait until we get the official results. She beat her opponent in Arizona, the Republican, by like 45 points. And now Maga Mike wants to change the rules about swearing her in because she signs the discharge petition. And then there would be a vote on the Epstein files to take place forthwith. So one of the reasons I think as well is I think there is a connection there. I think that's part of the story, not all of it. I think the broader story is Donald Trump realizes he's destroying the economy right now.

6:50Brothers Meidas:He sees the indicators. He sees how unpopular he is. And he wants to go back to the playbook. You go back to the MAGA well, right? You go, you roll out your greatest hits, attacking marginalized communities. The Democrats shut it down because of trans, because of trans, transgender for everybody, transgender for everybody. What does it even mean transgender for everyone? What the hell are you talking about? It's bullying a marginalized community. community. The migrants, they want to give health care to the migrant. No, Democrat, frankly, the people who are suffering the most right now are like a lot of Trump voters, like farmers right now who are going bankrupt and Trump wants to do a bailouts for them.

7:30Brothers Meidas:The affordable Medicaid, rather, in a lot of these red states is going to be impacting a lot of Republicans and Democrats as well. And the Affordable Care Act is something that lots of millions and millions of Americans rely on. That's the Democratic-esque. But then Donald Trump and his MAGA sycophants are also out there saying, well, if there's a shutdown, we're going to fire lots of government employees. If you thought what Doge did in its first wave was bad, if you force a shutdown, we're going to fire more government employees. So they're also using it as a pretext to gut the government even more.

8:09Brothers Meidas:And Donald, let's face it, Donald Trump wants to shut down because he just wants to operate as a full dictator without the government even existing, just in Donald Trump. And he wants a convenient person or entity to blame. So he's going to say Democrats are the reason the economy is suffering. I was getting us a golden age, but Democrats are the reason. So let me bring in Brett and Jordy. I want to bring out the receipts as well right here about what Trump is saying. I want to talk about what Trump has said in the past that the president, he was saying Obama's to blame if Obama didn't negotiate with the Republicans back in 2013 and 2011.

8:46Brothers Meidas:So I'll bring out those receipts. And we should talk about a bunch of other stuff, too. Trump bailing out Argentina right now. The MAGA libertarian president, Javier Malay, who Trump said and MAGA said was going to be so great for the Argentina economy. So America is now bailing out farmers because Trump destroyed the livelihoods of farmers with this trade war against the world and the retaliation America has. And then Trump has the audacity like the Ponzi schemer that he is to now say, we're going to pay the farmers a bailout package based on the money coming in from the tariff, which is the cause of the suffering for the farmers.

9:26Brothers Meidas:Then he misstates the amount of money, of course, coming in from the tariffs, like almost a parody of a Ponzi schemer while we're bailing out Argentina, while Trump is talking about building UFC stadiums in front of the White House, while Donald Trump last week was gallivanting in the UK in golden carriages. The Trump family announcing a new Trump vodka is going to be reintroduced. They destroyed the Rose Garden. They turned it into a private club for rich Republicans called Club Rose Garden. And they rolled out additional photograph markups of what the ballroom is going to look like. The 90 ,000 square foot ballroom may even be bigger now.

10:06Brothers Meidas:It's like three times the site of the White House. The scale of it just looks ridiculous next to the White House. And I said, someone needs to file a lawsuit to stop this ballroom. But I hope I'm a broken record on that. But I'm going to keep repeating it over and over again. Brett and Jordy, a lot to discuss, brothers. Clearly a lot to discuss. A lot is going on. That is for sure. Well, it's great to be here, Ben. Great to be here, Jordy. Great to be here, Midas Mighty. Everybody watching and listening. By the way, we've got a lot of people watching live on YouTube right now. I want every single one of you to go and add the Midas Touch podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify if you haven't yet.

10:40And if you already did, leave a five-star review. You know, Ben, we've seen the same strategy play out literally every time. First off, it feels like Groundhog's Day. I got to say that. Every time we go through these shutdowns and the back and forth, it's just like the same things over and over and over. And Republicans always go back to the well. They always go back to the same strategy that they use every single time, where they convince their own supporters to screw themselves, to gut their own health care, to remove benefits that they rely upon by saying this is only going to hurt the illegals if you do this the democrats want to support the illegals and if you let them pass this uh if you let if you make them make us do these tax credits for the affordable care act which are going to help you well actually illegal immigrants are going to benefit it doesn't matter that that's not true at all the trump voters the maga voters the republican voters they hear that and go oh we can't let that happen and then they They end up getting involved basically in this con.

11:38They get conned by the Republican Party in order to support things that are fundamentally horrific for their lives, for their families. It's the ultimate con that the Republicans have played for decades and decades and decades. But now they're just so much more brazen about it. Like they used to like at least kind of try to couch it and stuff. But now they're just like straight out with it. You see J.D. Vance, Stephen Miller. They all go straight to the messaging. J.D. Vance, Democrats are about to shut down the government because they demand we fund healthcare for illegal aliens. Stephen Miller replies to that.

12:09Defunding soldiers to demand free healthcare to illegals, just completely false. This is just complete bullshit, total lie. And it's unfortunate that we are dealing right now with a government full of liars, people that will just look you in the eye and lie to your face about literally everything, even matters of life or death. I'm sorry, Republicans, Donald Trump, MAGA, all you people, guess who actually controls the government right now. You don't just control one branch or two branches. You control every branch of the government. You also control the House and the Senate. You control everything right now.

12:43So you could try to put this on the Democrats, but the reality is the way our system works is you have to work with the Democrats. It's what a bipartisan system is. There's a minority party. There's a majority party. At this point, you need votes to pass this thing. And as you said, Ben, Democrats certainly could have asked for a lot more. They're taking a targeted approach here. focusing on the healthcare issue because it's obviously a very important one. And one that I think most Americans would agree with is that they want their healthcare to be cheaper. And now, you know, Republicans right now are looking to like punish the American people all for political gain.

13:16We see it time and time again. It's playing out again here. Jordy, what's the latest? I know we got a lot to talk about. So let me toss it to you first. That was, that was great, Brett. Nothing to add there. I just want to tell everyone here, we do have a lot of folks in the YouTube tonight. So what's up everybody? Please remember, subscribe to the Midas Touch YouTube channel if you haven't yet. We're at 5.4 million subscribers. We're going to get by 6 by 26. That's the motto. Get to 6 by 26. That'll be 6 million subscribers on the YouTube channel. So hit subscribe if you haven't. It's totally free.

13:45Benji, where are we starting off tonight? You see, I just want a healthy information environment out there. That's within my realm of control, right? Running a media network like the Midas touch is a healthy media information environment of what I can control. And I go back to my days when I was a trial lawyer and the rules of evidence applied and you couldn't bring in

14:11Brothers Meidas:extraneous or irrelevant things to the jury or propaganda to the jury, right? You had to stick with facts. And this is why when Donald Trump is brought into a court, why he very frequently loses his cases because where you have a healthy information silo or environment that courts are often there to facilitate by not allowing all this other irrelevant, false hearsay stuff to come in, Trump loses when you have people who are able to just hear the facts. So all I want to do when we talk about the shutdown, when we talk about other topics, bailing out Argentina, bailing out farmers, talking about Donald Trump's tariffs against the world.

14:54Brothers Meidas:I just want to stick to the facts. It's not a debate whether or not we've brought in$17 trillion from tariffs. We have not. That is a lie. And it's not true that we brought in$8 trillion from tariffs. What is true is that for this fiscal year, we've run a deficit in the United States of$2 trillion, which is more than under former President Biden. What's also true is that last month's deficit had$345 billion increase in the deficit in one month, which is more than the same. And then a year ago when Biden was in office on$650 billion or so in expenditures. So I just want to stick to the data because if we brought in$17 trillion, we would have a surplus right now of$15 trillion.

15:43Brothers Meidas:And then if Donald Trump wanted to start talking about UFC fights and 90 ,000 square foot ballrooms, you know, maybe you start to, well, everyone's being taken care of. Farmers are thriving. Groceries are actually down. Everyone's able to afford homes. All right, why don't we move up on kind of the hierarchy of Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Maybe we can start talking about other stuff. Not that I would ever support 90 ,000 square foot ballrooms or UFC fights in front of the White House. But, you know, Donald Trump says I've eliminated inflation. We're good. We're totally fine here. Energy costs in your home are way down.

16:20Brothers Meidas:Everybody's living golden age. No, it's Trump's living a golden age with his family. They're announcing Trump vodka. Even his granddaughter is getting in on it. Don Jr.'s kid, Kai Trump. She's posting photos of her new clothing line using the White House as a background to sell one hundred and thirty dollar sweatshirts. The White House is the background for a clothing line of a presidential granddaughter influencer online. I mean, every aspect of this family and I could go into which I've done on hot takes the Trump family's world liberty financial getting what, like two billion dollars from the United Arab Emirates at or around.

16:58Brothers Meidas:the same time that Trump gave classified semiconductor technology to the United Arab Emirates, which they can then share with China, which hurts our national security interests. Just so happened we gave that to the UAE. The UAE gave the Trump family business significant amounts of money. So Trump's net worth is going up. The people around him may be having a golden age and they may be thinking, oh, where should we celebrate all of our money? let's rip up the people's rose garden and make call it the club rose garden let's create a a massive ballroom 90 000 square feet no but people are suffering while all of this is taking place so in a healthy information environment let's just go through it together this was donald trump on fox where he said i've told republicans don't talk to democrats have no communication with Just to remind you here, he says, don't speak to them, yet alone negotiate.

17:52Brothers Meidas:Play this clip. What is how does President Trump deal with the government? We have to get Republican votes. So if we do, we have the majority. So we have to get. But don't you have to get 60, don't you? No, we're going to do a probably continuing resolution or we're going to do something. So we're going to do something that here's the problem. The Democrats have they're sick. There's something wrong with them. Schumer is, you know, at the end of the rope, he's going to be defeated. in the next election. If you gave them every dream right now, every dream that they've, you know, they want to give away money to this and that and that destroy the country.

18:29If you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it. That's how I told don't even bother. Don't even bother dealing with them. We will get it through because the Republicans are sticking together for the first time in a long time. Look, we got the big I caught the big, the great. Well, he has no clue the way continuing resolutions work. You need 60 votes in the Senate. You have to work with Democrats.

18:53Brothers Meidas:And then you notice he doesn't even actually give any examples or facts or stats. When I speak to all of you on this show, I'm letting you know the true facts that you could objectively fact check me. And it's important that I get it right. He just makes up a bunch of things. These are sick people. This is supposed to be the president of the United States. And I I think the American people would like to see the parties try to work together in order to keep the government funded so there's not serious repercussions. And you know who was saying that back in 2013? Donald Trump about Obama. So what Donald Trump said in 2011 and 2013, when Trump was not in office, when he was failed business leader Trump or failed business person Trump.

19:39Here's what he said. Let's play. First question, Donald, we're having a hell of a time trying to negotiate here in Washington. So tell me, if you were president, what would you do? Well, very simply, you have to get everybody in a room. You have to be a leader. The president has to lead. I hear the Democrats are going to be blamed and the Republicans are going to be blamed. I actually think the president would be blamed. If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. He's the one that has to get people together. They're not going to be talking who the head of the House was, the head of the Senate, who's running things in Washington.

20:13So I really think the pressure is on the president. There you have that. And then here's what I'll show you a longer clip of where Trump says, you know, 100 years ago, people are just going to care who is the president.

20:24Brothers Meidas:How did he not bring people together? Let's play. You know, the interesting thing is in 25 years and 50 years and 100 years from now, when the government is, you know, they talk about the government shutdown, they're going to be talking about the president of the United States. Who was the president at that time? They're not going to be talking who the head of the House was, the head of the Senate, who's running things in Washington. They're going to be talking about during the Obama administration disaster. So guys like Boehner, who is in there working hard and he's got one of the truly hard jobs of the world, they're not going to be really discussing him.

20:58They're going to be discussing one person. So I really think the pressure is on the president personally in terms of his own. And you have all the Fox hosts there nodding, right, Brett and Jordy? Yeah, yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, it's Obama's fault. Yeah, you have the most – I mean you really realize every single day more and more and more just how evil these right-wing propaganda networks are. When you see some of the headlines that are put out by the New York Post or Fox or – I'm naming all these Burdock properties and beyond. They're just so deceptive and they are all designed to kind of appeal to people's lizard brains and to make people as angry as possible.

21:38And I noticed this, especially in the past few days with the whole Jimmy Kimmel saga, where Jimmy Kimmel, in my opinion, gave a in his first monologue back, I thought was really heartwarming. I thought he said some really nice things. It was funny. He didn't hold back. And then the headlines immediately from the New York Post, they were ready with their script of what they were going to say. And it was just to divide people and make it so that all the people who don't actually watch him or, you know, we're never going to watch him. All they see is that headline from The New York Post that's trying to make it sound like Jimmy Kimmel somehow went after Republicans or went after Trump supporters or something.

22:16I mean, the whole thing is just it's really they are merchants of hate. And unfortunately, they are such a major component of why our country is where it is today. But here's the facts. Donald Trump is like as his popularity is as low as ever. People do not support his policies. People know fundamentally that he is the president. I mean, everybody knows that everyone understands that the Republicans are in charge of everything. I don't think they're going to be able to get away, just like Donald Trump said in those old clips of blaming the minority party here and saying that it's going to be their fault.

22:50It just doesn't kind of match up with reality, in my opinion. And then you see all these threats from OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, like you said, Ben, where they're saying, OK, well, we're going to play hardball, basically. If you're going to shut down the government, those employees ain't never coming back. And so do you want to be responsible for the firing of all these workers? So now you're using American workers as pawns in your sick political game. But I think it would be more impactful if they said that maybe the last time this happened. But the fact is they've been firing all these employees anyway.

23:22So what's the difference? You're going to fire more employees like this is what you did. And guess what? You know what we're seeing now? Also, big headline that came out in the past 24 hours or so. The Trump administration had to rehire hundreds of federal employees laid off by Doge because they realize that these federal employees are actually serving an important function. You can't just go in with a chainsaw like Elon Musk and Donald Trump did and get rid of all these jobs. These people are hardworking civil servants. They're not there to play politics. They are there to put their heads down and do the work of making our government work.

23:55And so I think it's disgraceful that they're making people pawns in this entire game. I think it's disgraceful that we're once again dealing with these continuing resolutions when they could just make a budget in the first place and pass this thing just the whole situation is just all it's all because of the republicans and they just continue to make things worse and then try to make all these excuses by blaming other groups for it exactly exactly exactly b here's the one thing i slightly disagree with you and i agree with you that the onus should one thousand percent and will one thousand percent be on trump and the trump regime and the republicans if the government shutdown indeed does happen.

Read the full transcript

24:35Where I'm worried is the fact that Trump and MAGA have all the control over corporate media, seemingly at this point, that once it does happen, that their talking points, just from a pure corporate media standpoint and the nightly news of the world and those programs are just going to, because we've seen it time and time again, take Donald Trump's truths or Stephen Miller's tweets and post it as if that's the headline to run with and not the actual facts beyond it, that they're not going to take the time and do what you in bed did so great here and break down those Trump Fox News clips, that that is really the reason with Trump urging his own party not to come to the table, not to talk to Democrats.

25:16That's what I worry about is, yes, the onus 1000 % should be on Trump and will be on Trump and the regime, should there be a government shutdown. My fear more largely is that corporate media spin on this, that I worry that the American people at large might not necessarily realize that. Then one more point, playing those clips side by side of Donald Trump, for audio listeners, those clips were 2011, 2012, when we were playing those back to back saying how it's on the president if there's government shutdown versus the original clip that we played of Trump earlier, which was from a couple of days ago when he was on Fox.

25:50That's striking. When you listen to Donald Trump speaking, there's no other determination that you could come away with other than the fact that this guy right now is cognitively addled beyond repair. He can't speak in full sentences. I'm not saying he was some font with the words back in 2011 and 2012, but when you play those clips side by side, I mean, it is actually jaw-dropping to see how far he has fallen in just that short of a time period, Ben. And wait, Jordy, let me respond because because you disagreed with me. I get a response in this debate. And I want to say, I totally agree with you because I think our information environment right now, as Ben was alluding to earlier, is so toxic, especially social media, especially if you're on a platform like X, where these algorithms that are controlled by Elon Musk are promoting the most insane conspiracy theories, right-wing nonsense.

26:41It is really not an accurate representation of anything. And then you're right, Jordi, you have this corporate media that continues to capitulate to Trump, that both sides, all the issues that makes that sanitizes everything that Donald Trump and the Republicans do. But I do want to bring up this poll. And now granted, this is a couple of weeks old at this point, I would love to see some new data on this. But you see that a majority of Americans overwhelmingly in this poll from data for progress, blame Trump or Republicans for any sort of shutdown that may come. This is from September 5th to the 7th.

27:11So like I said, it's a few weeks old, I'd like to get some new data. But you could see here that among all likely voters, 59 % would blame Trump and Republicans. 34 % would blame Democrats for a shutdown. Importantly, when you look at the independent or third party voters, 54 % blame Trump and Republicans and 31 % blame Democrats. So I think that just gives you a little bit of a window into voters' mindsets there, that they're able to see through the bullshit because I think so much of it, people worry about data and specifics and all this stuff. I think a lot of it sometimes comes down to vibes.

27:48And who are people seeing when they turn on the TV every day? Donald Trump. Who are they seeing when they go on social media? Donald Trump. So it's really something that's very difficult for him to separate himself from when people know that he is acting like a dictator, controlling everything. And now you want to blame other people for the government shutting down. It's like, okay, buddy. Well, you know how during the campaign when Donald Trump would do bigger events, whether it was the Madison Square Garden event, those would tend to backfire. And when people would see him and the media couldn't be that filter for him.

28:20I think there was one of those moments again with Charlie Kirk where America actually wanted a unifier and a leader during something that was observed collectively was very visual and very traumatic to watch, you know, what went down. And we condemn the violence immediately. And so many, responsible outlets and all Democratic leaders across the board condemning the violence, but then seeing what was happening on the right wing demanding a civil war, lying and saying there was transgender on the bullet, like whatever the hell that means, and then trying to come up with something that was transgender related to blame on the shooter, and then to tie the shooter to Democratic leftist groups when there was no connection at all.

29:09It was out there, gun-toting family. I think Americans were saying, look, is this going to be a moment

29:16Brothers Meidas:where a leader could step up? If he was a unifying figure, despite how horrible he's been on everything, he would have undeservedly got a bump just for saying the right thing, even though all the other stuff that he's been doing is so horrible. That's kind of a strange reflection to make, but I think it's a reality. Had he given a unifying speech, he would have actually seen an undeserved surge by just faking it. But he did it. He doubled and tripled down and gave one of the most hateful speeches imaginable. And I think there was a lot of people who watch that, who may not follow politics, or if they do follow it, they turn it on.

29:59And to your point, Jordi and Brett, they watch it through a corporate news filter if they're not

30:03Brothers Meidas:getting their news from Midas Touch. And they promote, like, if you watched corporate news after the UN speech, you would have thought he gave a great speech. It was the worst for American media. International media was like, oh my God, this is like a mentally deranged, psychotic individual, but American media, not so much. So when people, that's why, that's why my catchphrase is let's show the clip. Let me show it to you. Let me show you the video. Let me show you the words. Let me show you the post because I have a great deal of faith that if you see it, if you observe it, I believe in you. Like I believe that most Americans actually care and they want the truth.

30:44Brothers Meidas:But I also believe that there's so much out there and life in 2025 is so complex and complicated that it's hard to get an accurate information environment. So Tuesday's episode, moral clarity, that was my theme. Thursday's episode is this healthy information environment. that's going to be my two main themes of this week. So when we come back, I want to promote this healthy information environment here. We're going to take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, next week, we are doing the Midas Touch Patreon. So if you wanted to ever meet me, Brett and Jordy, we're going to be doing that next week.

31:23Brothers Meidas:We'll post the secret link on our Patreon, patreon.com slash Midas Touch. While you're at it, become a member of our YouTube page as well. It makes a big difference. Well, we'll take our first quick break. We'll be right back after these quick messages.

32:03right, you could cash in. PrizePix is also the best way to get action on sports in more than 40 states, including California, Texas, and Georgia. PrizePix invented the flex play, which means you can still cash out if your lineup isn't perfect. You can double your money even if one of your picks doesn't hit. PrizePix is the best way to win cash this football season. Which players are going off, which ones aren't. Make your picks in less than 60 seconds and turn your takes into cash all season long on PrizePix. PrizePix is the best place to win cash while watching sports. Join millions of users and sign up today.

32:42Download the app today and use code MIDAS to get$50 in lineups after you play your first$5 lineup. That's code MIDAS to get$50 in lineups after you play your first$5 lineup. Price picks. It's good to be right. Ever feel like managing your business finances is a full-time job on top of your actual full-time job? Yeah, me too. That is until I started using Found. Found is a business banking platform that lets you effortlessly track expenses, manage invoices, and prepare for taxes. You can even set aside money for different business goals and control spending with different virtual cards. I've saved so much money because Found helps me identify tax write-offs and I've saved so much time that I can now devote to chasing new opportunities and doing the work I enjoy.

33:35Oh, and by the way, other small businesses are loving Found too. This Found user said, Found is going to save me so much headache. It makes everything so much easier. Expenses, income, profits, taxes, invoices even. And Found has 30 ,000 five-star reviews just like this. I use this and you should too. Open a Found account for free at F-O-U-N-D dot com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Lead Bank, member FDIC. Don't put this one off. Join thousands of small business owners who have streamlined their finances with found. Let's go shout to our sponsors links in description about the YouTube and the audio use the links use the codes if there's an exit survey let them know we sent you Benji where to next.

34:29Did you all see that bizarre presser in the Oval Office earlier with Turkey's President Erdogan and Donald Trump. So you had, you know, Turkey's strong man, authoritarian leader there. You had Donald Trump looking like he was trying to impress Erdogan. And it was very a strange sight. So leading up to this Oval Office meeting, you had Erdogan give a interview with Fox, our state regime media here. And he basically like bodied Donald Trump. Like he went after Trump and basically all but called Trump a clown for promising that he was going to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours and promised that he would end the atrocities in Gaza in 24 hours.

35:12So this is what led up to today's Oval Office visit. He was basically just showing Donald Trump like, I don't give a crap. I'm going to, I know you're a wannabe authoritarian. I'm a real authoritarian. So here, take this. Here, play this clip. But he seems to take a shot at President Trump. Listen. I can only say this. Mr. Trump, you might remember he used a term. He said, I will finish the Russia-Ukraine war. Did it end? It still goes on.

35:51Similarly, he said, I will finish the war in Gaza. Did it end? No. So that means once we start analyzing the issue, there are prices to pay. And when we look at the hostage exchange, that was done. It goes on. Once you start analyzing the issues, there are prices to pay. There's deeper meaning than just those words right there, what he's saying. Once you stop talking like an idiot and you actually drill down on what's taking place, you'll find that these are complicated and complex issues. And Trump is not a smart guy, is basically what he said there without saying that. But then Trump brings this guy, Erdogan, president of Turkey, into the Oval Office.

36:37And they're asked about, well, what do you think about Erdogan perhaps brokering peace between Zelensky and Putin? They're still on that there's going to be a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, which we know is not taking place. But notice what Donald Trump says about Erdogan. He's like, you know, one of the things about Erdogan is he's

36:57Brothers Meidas:neutral. I'm neutral. Like we're both alike, right? Like he's neutral. I'm neutral. And a broader point I want to make after showing you this clip is Trump just flatters or says who's ever in the room, what he thinks is the right thing to get that headline. So yes, at the UN later on in the day and in a social media post, Donald Trump's like, yeah, I'm going to be more supportive of Ukraine basically. But that's what he said that day when he was in the room there, he's going to change next week. And Trump's words are meaningless. It's his conduct and it's his behavior. And he promised he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.

37:33Brothers Meidas:He did. And he promised he would end the atrocities in Gaza in 24 hours. He didn't. But watch what happens here. Trump on Erdogan possibly bringing Zelensky and Putin to the table. Let's play. How do you see a joint initiative with President Erdogan to bring the president of Russia, Putin, and President Zelensky to the United States? Well, I can tell you that President Erdogan is very respected by both of them. Everybody respects Erdogan. They really respect Erdogan. I do. And I think he could have a big influence if he wants to. Right now, he's very neutral. He likes being neutral. So do I like being neutral.

38:14but he's somebody that if he got involved, the best thing he could do is not buy oil and gas from Russia. If he didn't, if he did that, that would be probably the best thing. He knows Putin like I know Putin. I thought Putin, I settled, as you know, seven wars, and it's probably more than that if you really want to know the real facts, but seven wars, and I thought this would be among the easier ones to settle, but I'm very disappointed in Putin. Seven wars,$17 trillion, inflation is defeated. He just makes up things. And he goes back to, you know, you have to understand his pathology as a liar too.

38:54He goes back to the lie to cover up the fact that he's not doing what he's saying he was going to do, which is end the war in 24 hours. So now he goes, maybe I didn't end the war, but I ended seven wars, which he did not. He takes credit for ending a war in Congo. There's still ongoing war in Congo. He claims like a number of other things like Kosovo and Egypt and things that like he has nothing to do with, which weren't even like wars in this term right now. And he claims India and Pakistan. He had nothing to do with India, but he just makes, just makes this stuff up. And then Trump looks at, by the way, just watch Erdogan's body language while this is taking place in this bizarro oval office, golden bordello.

39:34I must stink in there. I was like, the whole environment just looks gross. Like it looks gross in there. And then Erdogan just like sitting there, like, what am I even watching right now? And he's being quiet the whole time and just kind of letting Donald Trump just say crazy stuff where Trump's like, this is a tough man. This is a guy who's highly opinionated. Here, play this clip. So this is a tough man. This is a guy who's highly opinionated. Usually I don't like opinionated people, but I always like this one, but he's a tough one. And, uh, he does an amazing job. And then he points to Erdogan and says, this guy knows about rigged elections, right?

40:16That's what Donald, this guy knows about how to rig an election. You're playing. Unfairly, as it turns out, rigged election, you know, he knows about rigged elections better than anybody. Uh, but, uh, when I was in exile, we were still friends. That's always a good way to find out test of friendship toss it over to brett and jordy you see that he wants to be accepted by the authoritarian sitting next to him and erdogan is looking at him like i'm more powerful than the united states like that's not a look of respect like that is a look of turkey u.s like that's what that looked like like it's just objectively very weak It's just bizarre to constantly see Donald Trump suck up to these sorts of countries and then go and attack, you know, some of our strongest allies and some of the most prosperous countries and free countries out there.

41:15And I guess that's the point because we know Donald Trump is a strong man wannabe. We see what he's doing with James Comey with this ridiculous indictment. We see how he's threatening to indict all these other people. I mean, this is a five alarm fire happening for our democracy. and Donald Trump is looking to these authoritarians overseas and he is saying, that's what I want here. That's the kind of control over the media I want. That's the kind of control over the justice system I want. And right now he's kind of changed our system here because the Republicans have been so weak on Donald Trump the same way Trump is weak on these leaders.

41:48And they've let him just do this. They've let him just rip apart our system. The Supreme Court has let him rip apart the system. And the whole thing is just a disgrace to watch play out before our eyes when you could see that it is so black and white. It is so clearly a case of right versus wrong, and people just refuse to do anything about it. It's just so embarrassing seeing Donald Trump in these positions time and time again. I know it's a frequent theme I hit on, but it's a frequent thing that freaking happens when he's around these world leaders and he just embarrasses the US on a world stage.

42:16You look at Erdogan, looking at Donald Trump and Ben, to your point exactly, that's not a look of, this is my buddy, this is my partner, and like we're in this together. It's a look of like utter disdain. Like this mother, like how are we the same position in our two respective countries? Like this man's an idiot. Donald Trump is a blabbering buffoon. And I don't say that to get clicks because I like saying names and things. Like this is the damn leader of the United States of America. This is the best we got. It's crazy to me every time we see this, Ben. Well, then his son, Eric Trump, announces that the family was launching a new vodka company.

42:54I mean, just think about that. I mean, imagine if Biden's family announced the Biden vodka company and that it wasn't, and that it didn't even register as like a news story because that's just what you expect of them to do. I mean, how many cryptocurrencies and stable token things has this Trump family launched already? It seems that every week you either have Eric or Don Jr. standing there and the New York Stock Exchange at the NASDAQ or the Dow, ringing the bell with some company that wants to align with them in order to get whatever benefits perceived or whatever are out there. And then you have as well the news that Eric Trump was saying that his dad should get multiple Nobel Peace Prizes.

43:43Let me show you this clip right here. Let's play it. What about your father on Mount Rushmore. I know patriots will want me to ask that because they love that idea. Nobel Peace Prize notwithstanding, but Mount Rushmore, it just seems like after everything you all have been through, everything that he's endured, it just seems to follow. He deserves it. Yeah, he deserves it. And he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize so many times over. I've literally been in that office. I was in that office for one conversation where he literally stopped a war. In fact, I was in the office recently for another one where he stopped another one.

44:15I mean, the amount of children, and I say children, young kids right now that are running around the world who are alive based on the fact that he stopped conflicts that otherwise would have spiraled out of control. There are moms and dads out there who have their kids based on calls that he's made and conflicts that he's ended kind of before they really got out of control. And they have probably zero appreciation that many of their children and many of the people they knew would not be there had it not been for him. I mean, it's ridiculous. How embarrassing. I just want to emphasize that this is the kind – I just want to let people know Jordi had to run to deal with some daddy-duty sort of things, so he'll be back on the next show.

44:58He's doing great. This is what happens in authoritarian countries, and I think people are kind of watching this happen before their eyes, and they're like, oh, Eric Trump, what a goof, what an idiot. This is what they do in countries like Russia and countries like North Korea and countries like Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Like you get all your family members out there. They become like the people who are on the TV. You get your propaganda networks. Remember, they've like ousted a lot of the real media from like the Pentagon, from all these various aspects of government right now so that they can't be watched, so they can't be reported on.

45:32They're having all these new rules at the Pentagon, which maybe we'll get into in a little bit, where they're like forcing the press to sign these agreements that they're only allowed to report on authorized information, the information the government authorizes the public to get. Even if it's unclassified information, you need to run all your stories by the government. I mean, talk about authoritarianism. Are we going there? Are we close? I mean, you're staring it in the face. It's happening right before our eyes. And I don't know how you could watch that clip of Eric Trump and whatever station he was on, Real America's Voice, which is like Steve Bannon's station, and think anything otherwise when those are the people now asking the questions in the press briefing rooms.

46:10When you turn on Fox News and who's the person giving a glowing review of how great Donald Trump is doing? You have people like Lara Trump on there, and she's like, oh, he's the best president ever. It's amazing. Then you have people like Maria Bartiromo and Trump like bailed out her husband for crimes back in the day with a pardon. Like it's all this kind of criminal syndicate that we see connected of oligarchs bailing each other out, giving each other favors, doing each other's bidding. And it's a really sick place to be as a country. When we come back, we got to talk about ex-FBI director James Comey being indicted right after Donald Trump called for his DOJ to indict Comey.

46:50Comey has officially been charged with making false statements and obstruction. I want to make sure we get all the information out there. And then we'll, of course, do more follow up videos on that as well here on the Midas Touch Network. But a very dark day as well. Full fledged authoritarianism here in the United States where Donald Trump makes a social media post indict someone I don't like, James Comey. And James Comey gets indicted after Trump replaces the top federal prosecutor in Virginia with his own personal criminal defense lawyer and personal lawyer, Lindsay Halligan. and then they bring the indictment against Comey, it's going to be important to watch what the federal judiciary does there.

47:41We know based on Trump's statements, I mean, Trump will most likely become a major witness in that case as well, based on his statements. It'll be interesting to see how Comey responds as well, how if there will be mass resignations in that Virginia prosecutorial office where the former Republican head of the office, a Trump pick, said there's no evidence to support this, but they brought it anyway. A dark, dark, dark day in American history. We'll come back and we'll discuss that. We'll discuss Pete Hegseth summoning 800 of the top generals and admirals as well. We'll cover that all when we come right back.

48:25Here's the thing. Traditional phone systems weren't built for how businesses work today. And when you miss a call, you're not just missing a conversation, you're losing business. Quo, formerly Open Phone, is the modern alternative designed to help you work smarter, build stronger relationships, and never miss an opportunity. Quo is the number one business phone system that streamlines customer communications. No more juggling two phones or being tied to a landline. Quo works through an app on your phone or computer so you can run your business from anywhere. Your team can share one number and collaborate on calls and text like a shared inbox, keeping response times fast and customers happy.

49:05Quo makes your phone system smarter with built-in AI, logging calls, creating summaries, and automating next steps. Its AI agent can even answer calls, qualify leads, and route customers to the right teammate so no customer is ever left hanging, even after hours. Whether you're a solo operator or leading a growing team, Quo keeps you connected and helps you deliver standout customer experiences. Join over 90 ,000 businesses using Quo, formerly OpenPhone. Get started free, plus get 20 % off your first six months at Quo.com slash Midas. That's Q-U-O dot com slash Midas. and if you have existing numbers with another service, Quo will port them over at no extra charge.

49:53Quo, no missed calls, no missed customers. Time for some life talk, life insurance talk that is. You probably have it, but do you know how much you're paying for it and how much are you being covered? Odds are you pay too much for too little. And did you know if you receive life insurance through your job and you're unexpectedly laid off, you could suddenly be covered for nothing? Scary to think about, but simple to get right. thanks to SelectQuote, where I'm headed to sort out my life insurance policy today. For over 40 years, SelectQuote has been one of the most trusted brokers in insurance, helping more than 2 million Americans secure over$700 billion in coverage.

50:29Their mission is simple, to find you the right insurance policy for your unique needs. They shop, you save. Unlike the other one-size-fits-all life insurance companies, SelectQuote's licensed agents work for you. In as little as 15 minutes, they'll compare policies from top-rated carriers to find you the best fit for your health and your budget. And they work for you for free. No medical exam, no problem. They partner with providers offering same-day coverage up to$2 million without needing to visit your doctor. Have high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease? SelectQuote has partners with policies designed for many pre-existing health conditions.

51:09So you get the protection you deserve. Head to selectquote.com and a licensed insurance agent will call you right away with the right policy for your life and your budget. Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today. Select quote, they shop, you save. Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50 % at selectquote.com slash Midas. Save more than 50 % on term life insurance at selectquote.com slash Midas today to get started. That's selectquote.com slash Midas. We are back. Shout out to our sponsors right there. Discount codes are in the description below. Support our sponsors.

51:56I want to talk about the knowledge that we know right now about the Comey indictment, of course. Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted on two of three counts sought by prosecutors. That means one count, it appears the grand jury did not approve of. One count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice. Now, this follows Donald Trump forcing out the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, Republican that Trump previously picked, someone named Eric Siebert, who wrote a memo saying that he did not have sufficient evidence to put this in front of a grand jury.

52:32Prosecutors have a lot of power before bringing charges before a grand jury to get an indictment against somebody because the other side doesn't show up. So you can't rebut it with any evidence or defenses. You just say, hey, this is the statement. This is false. Please indict. So it's pretty easy to indict somebody on something like this. Now they have to actually prove the case. But Eric Siebert, a career prosecutor, said they don't have enough evidence. So Trump forced him out. Siebert resigned. Trump puts in place Lindsay Halligan, his personal attorney, who he had previously put in charge of dismantling the museums.

53:10She was one of the people who said they talk too much about slavery at the African-American Museum. We played clips of her before. So she now was in charge of that office. Earlier when Donald Trump held a press conference in the Oval Office, when he was asked about James Comey, he kind of looked at Pam Bondi and he was like, Pam, what do you say, Pam? And she's like, I can't comment. They knew they were bringing that case before the grand jury, obviously. And that was kind of their sixth sadistic enjoyment in going after his political opponent, James Comey. It should be noted as well, too. James, perhaps nobody contributed more to Donald Trump becoming president than James Comey, breaching all of that protocol and announcing things about Hillary Clinton right before the election as well.

54:00That was against all FBI procedures. Like in many ways, if you wanted to say what was some of the key factors that let Donald Trump win, it was Comey talking about investigations into Hillary Clinton that were frivolous that, again, the rules say you're not supposed to mention, especially if they're frivolous. But that was a major factor. But, you know, Comey was an FBI guy who was there out of the FBI under Trump. Trump has despised Comey's FBI, you know, and Trump said that they were going after him for Russia, Russia, Russia and this, that and the other. And now Comey, after the office in the Eastern District of Virginia found no evidence whatsoever, James Comey finds himself being criminally indicted after Donald Trump sends a social media post.

54:48Pam, I want you to indict him. So I think that we could assume New York Attorney General Letitia James will be indicted next. I think we could assume Senator Adam Schiff will be indicted next. You could assume that we're going to see one by one by one Trump's political opponents now being criminally indicted and brought into that Eastern District of Virginia court, right? I mean, when do you think Letitia James gets indicted? I would say in the next few weeks, we'll probably see that. Same thing with Senator Schiff. I think all these cases are going to be thrown out, but this is what he's doing.

55:23Yeah, it's I mean, he has his hatchet man or rather woman in this case, Lindsay Halligan there running this office. And he's getting to do what he has always wanted to do and what he said during the campaign that he was going to do, which is take revenge upon his political opponents. Donald Trump tries to act like people coming after him for his actual crimes that he committed for trying to overthrow the government and everything else. He always pretends that that's lawfare, and he thinks that all is fair in love and war and that he has a right to now go after his political opponents because it's no different.

55:55Obviously, that's not the case. Hey, I'm not a person who has exactly warm and fuzzy feelings towards James Comey, and I'm sure a lot of our viewers and listeners feel the same way about James Comey. But this isn't about James Comey. This is about a brazen weaponization of the government. Everything that Republicans pretended to care about, once again, we learned once again that it was all bullshit. They are weaponizing the government for their political ends. There was a whole – they did an investigation on this. We learned as like this earlier today that there was a two month investigation. Federal prosecutors in Virginia were unable to gather sufficient evidence to support bringing any sort of criminal charges against James Comey.

56:36So what did Trump do? Trump swapped out the prosecutor, brought in his personal hatchet woman. And here we are. And Ben, I agree there's going to be a lot more of these going forward. We're going to see probably Letitia James and all the other people that Donald Trump mentions. As of now, our Justice Department is run by tweet or truth social post at this point. It's a really disturbing and dark day for the United States of America. And I hearken back, Ben, to the end of the Biden administration when Biden did all those pardons at the last minute and all the media and all these people were so outraged.

57:11How dare he? How could he possibly do something like this? And here's the thing. President Biden knew exactly who Donald Trump is. He knew exactly what he was going to do. Donald Trump was saying it the entire time. So the fact that the whole media complex gave President Biden shit for doing those pardons, for issuing those pardons the last minute, which are without a doubt, indisputably the right thing to do. I mean, shame on the media. It just goes to show you once again, that time and time again, they try to treat Donald Trump like he's a normal politician, like these are normal times, like we're still in the same democracy, the same United States of America, and we're not.

57:51And until the media accepts that, we're going to have a lot of issues because they're going to continue to lie to the American people. They're going to continue to hold the parties to far different standards. You have to treat this like the threat it is, like the danger it is. Trump is showing us. He's screaming it in our faces every single day. So stop the damn both sides. You know, Brett, as we Well, I'm going to do another hot take, another whole video on that. So after this video ends, you'll see another after the show ends, you'll see a video that I'm going to do on the indictment. You saw this spread today that Defense Secretary Pete Hegs had summoned hundreds of the U.S.

58:31military's generals and admirals to gather on short notice at Quantico, the Marine Corps base over in Virginia on Tuesday. No one knows what they're there for, but he's about 800 admirals, generals, other top leaders are summoned that they have to show up. This was reported first by Washington Post, Dan Lamothe. Lamothe refers to it as a highly unusual directive sent to virtually all of the military's top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. But Lamothe then says this, the Pentagon voiced no objections to the Washington Post reporting about this story or reporting about this meeting.

59:16That, to me, deserves a lot more attention as well. Like you have to know. Frankly, Ben, it might even be a bigger story than like the story, which is weird and creepy enough and is sounding all these alarms. And people are like, well, why are you why would you gather all of our top generals and commanders in one location? Let it be known where everybody is going to be. isn't that a threat to our national security but i agree ben that's a chilling line and is this what we have for now on for any national security stories for any stories of public import we're going to have to have a disclaimer from reporters that said the government approved of their reporting because if that's the case we're not doing reporting anymore you're doing government propaganda and that's why this whole idea of the pentagon pete hegseth requiring journalists to sign this, what is it, sign this contract essentially saying that they are going to run their stories by Donald Trump, by the Trump administration.

1:00:13That right there is one of the most appalling things to happen to our country in a very, very long time in a list of other appalling things. And the fact that the press does this instead of going, absolutely not, we are not signing that crap. We're the free press. We have a First Amendment right. We're going to report, do what you may, but we're going to stick to our principles. But instead, I understand they want to do their reporting. They want to get in the rooms, but you got to figure out like, is it worth doing that kind of reporting? If the stuff you're reporting out every day has to be approved by Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth.

1:00:46To me, I don't think that's a trade-off that I'd be willing to keep. I don't think you could have the integrity in your reporting if you are bending the knee in that sort of way. I want to talk about some domestic foreign policy issues as well that are all interrelated. Farmers right now on the verge of bankruptcy, many have gone bankrupt. Donald Trump's trade war against the world has resulted in retaliation. Just by way of example, China has not purchased any soybeans at all from the United States, and they represent one of the biggest markets. The accounting for what is a close to like half of soybean exports go to China.

1:01:25So without China as a marketplace for soybeans, our farmers suffer. And it's not just unique to soybeans. It is corn, wheat, cotton, a number of, I could keep going on and on and on. Countries like China, Europe, Canada, elsewhere, they're looking to Brazil. They're looking to Argentina, more on that in a moment. They're looking to other countries to replace the United States and they could find replacements. So they're working on fair trade deals and reducing the barriers of trade. As the United States is putting barriers of trade on, Donald Trump is more focused on trying to extract a TikTok deal from China to have his right-wing oligarch buds in the United States run a subsidiary of TikTok with very kind of unclear and undefined terms.

1:02:16And we've sat, so our Senate banned TikTok and it was signed into law. One of the things that are bipartisan, you could say what you want, but it was a bipartisan bill. And then Trump has sacrificed all negotiating leverage with China to fight to then have tick tock controlled by his right wing oligarchs. But what would they control versus what would China control in the algorithm?

1:02:42Brothers Meidas:Meanwhile, at the expense of American farmers, the trade deal that should be focused on with China is helping the farmers, helping Americans and figuring out how to balance fair trade while also focusing on anti-dumping provisions. You know, we still need to make sure that China isn't exploiting the U.S. markets, but helping Americans because Americans, farmers are suffering. But you have Brooke Rollins over here talking about now admitting, you know, but she's like, this is all part of the plan. This is going how we thought. Soybeans, corn, wheat, cotton. This is what we would expect. It's part of the transition.

1:03:22Brothers Meidas:Here she is. Play this clip. That alongside, of course, the president's effort to realign America around American products and making all of these new deals. We are at a point where we're looking at the harvest, where we're looking at our soybean, corn, wheat, sorghum, cotton farmers who are facing very, very difficult times. We are currently in conversations here at the White House, across the government on a farmer aid package. in our current programming right now, we've got about$13 billion moving out under ECAP, which is our old farmer payment system based on losses from last year and the year before.

1:04:01So this would be in addition to that in partnership with our colleagues on the Hill. We should have an announcement very soon, perhaps in the next couple of weeks. You notice when they lie, they do like weird things with their hands also. And why are farmers facing very difficult times, Brooke? Why are farmers facing very difficult times? I made this meme. You like this meme? I made it myself. I like that meme. But then the counterintuitive things like one of the places that China is going and other places are going to buy soybeans and other produce is Argentina. Argentina's suffering, but they're also undercutting the American farmer market, right?

1:04:40But America is now going to be bailing out Argentina, even though Trump and MAGA said their libertarian president, Javier Malay, was this economic genius who was restoring Argentina's economy to excellence and that everybody should invest in Argentina. A lot of MAGA people did invest in Argentina, which is why they're bailing out Argentina also. There's also lithium mines in Argentina, which Elon Musk needs for Teslas and satellites and things like that. but America first now means bailing out Argentina. Like what? And, and, and they'll go. And for our audio listeners, we're showing photos right here of all the MAGA people saying, I recommend investing in Argentina and all these accounts, right?

1:05:25With like NWokeness, one of these right wing MAGA influencer accounts with all these followers. Holy shit.

1:05:30Brothers Meidas:Argentina just elected Javier Malay as their next president. History has been made. Elon Musk. Prosperity is ahead for Argentina. And then here you have Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's national economic advisor. I'm with Maria Bartiroma. Just watch this. Let's play. President has done very careful math about that. So anybody who thinks that they can cause a panic in Argentine markets, it has to understand that the U.S. is going to be a firm backstop to that. It's not that we're trying to put our finger on the scales of an election. We're trying to just make sure that market manipulators don't influence the election.

1:06:01So should we have a confidence then that the U.S. will support Argentina? Yes, the U.S. 100 % will support Argentina and, of course, support the will of the voters. But again, there have been times where there are people who do things like they call them naked short attacks and so on, where market turmoil can be created ahead of an election by, you know, people who, like, maybe don't even care so much about the country as much as the short-term profit that they could make from massive panic. All right, thank you. We're not going to let that happen. Thank you for that. It's the naked short sellers before a midterm in Argentina.

1:06:39America's battling the naked short sellers, Brett. I mean, as Americans right now here in the United States can't afford groceries, can't afford their rent if they're lucky enough to have a mortgage, can't afford that. As health care is being ripped away, as we're approaching a government shutdown, as all of these government programs have been dismantled. They rush to bail out Argentina and tell the people that that's American first. The whole thing is, I would say, shocking, but nothing is shocking anymore with this administration. Just to think about those messages we showed you of Elon Musk.

1:07:19You can go, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of messages from Elon Musk alone. You can look at all of these MAGA influencers, big MAGA voices, Republican politicians taking pictures with Javier Malay, basically saying like he's the second coming, that he's about to save Argentina. His austerity policies are going to make everything great. And they held that as an example of what they should do in the United States. And one of my fears right now is that we're seeing what play out in Argentina right now. And our reaction to it is that the United States is sort of in a similar point as well, where Javier Malay came in.

1:07:55He did all this crazy stuff. He wiped out all these departments. He fired a bunch of people. He consolidated the government. And for the first couple months or so, things were looking like, okay, like things were like, oh, maybe things are going to bounce back. Who knows? There's still a lot of poverty there. Things aren't looking totally great, but we were in a bad situation. And they started spiking the football. You started seeing Elon Musk and all these other folks saying how great Argentina is. And then reality hit. Reality struck. And now it is devastating in Argentina. They are in utter turmoil because the chickens have come home to roost.

1:08:31And I think that's something that we're going to see here in the United States, quite frankly, with this kind of house of cards that Trump and these economically illiterate people like Hassett and the other people who Donald Trump has around him. Um, it's, it's a dangerous, uh, cocktail right now, uh, that is going to completely backfire on our country. And I just can't fathom how these so-called America first people are okay with this sort of bailout of a foreign country like Argentina, simply because they fit into your worldview, your worldview that was just shown in real time. They ran, they ran the experiment.

1:09:07Okay. They ran your dream playbook and it collapsed the economy. It crashed everything. And now they're coming to beg the United States. And you have Donald Trump going, oh, yeah, I'll give you some money because all of these billionaires had invested. They bought into their own bullshit as well and put all this money into Argentina. It's just the latest example of corruption in plain sight that we see with this administration and just the total failure of their policies when you see them actually put into action. You know, we have to really be alert about what's going on. We have to have, as this episode's theme has been, a healthy information environment, and that's becoming increasingly more difficult with a very sick democracy that has now officially gone into authoritarianism.

1:09:54authoritarianism. That's what it is. And a very sick media environment, news environment that is either full-fledged state regime media or state regime adjacent at this point with aiders and abettors and capitulators. And so it's important that we, the people, stand up. Donald Trump, going back to where I started this episode, is deeply unpopular. I mean, he is not, these policies are not winning the hearts and minds of Americans. A lot of times in authoritarian regimes early on, when they consolidate power, at least for a short period of time before the house of cards falls, sometimes you do see mass support for the authoritarian because they're making things more efficient temporarily or whatever.

1:10:40That's not what's happening here. What's happening here is that Trump's making things much worse for people's life. More and more people are despising and detesting this regime and all it does, its divisiveness, its chaos, and the harm that it's inflicting on 99 % of the country right now. And we're seeing people who are in leadership positions capitulate during critical moments as well right now. And so it is incumbent upon we, the people, to keep the faith, to keep the power, to know that we hold the power, to get out the word about the truth and to keep on sharing all this information with as many people as we can.

1:11:24The easiest way you can help the Midas Touch Network is by sharing this YouTube channel and sharing the sub stack, which is MidasPlus.com and sharing all of our social media. That's a great way to help. It's free to do that. It's free to subscribe to the YouTube channel. It's free to subscribe to the audio podcast, right? Wherever you get your audio podcast. It's free to give a five-star review.

1:11:48Brothers Meidas:So do that. That's one of the easiest ways to help out and get out healthy information to people. And they can see when we go through the data and I show the clips and I show the receipts. It's not me just ranting and raving for an hour. It's me going through, here's what people are saying. What do you think about this? And understanding the struggles that you're going through and trying to address them to the best of my ability. Another way to help out, of course, is by becoming a member of this YouTube channel. You can gift memberships to others. I'm looking forward to having that Patreon chat.

1:12:22And you get to ask me and my brother's questions at patreon.com slash Midas Touch. Next Monday after the show ends, we'll be doing that. So go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch. and look, just we need, don't give up. We got to stay in the fight together. Don't give up. We are going to get through this together. I promise you we're going to get through this together and we're going to look back at these moments, at these struggles, at these issues, and we're going to know we did it together. So stay in it. We're staying in it with you and share this podcast episode with as many people as you can as well.

1:13:01We appreciate you. We're grateful for you. Hit subscribe right now. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Shout out to the Midas Mighty. Shout out, everybody. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch Podcast. The Midas Mighty is standing strong.

1:13:22Against the fascists, we sing our song. We will get 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, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

1:13:49Evening.

1:13:49Brothers Meidas:Buyers remorse. Buy a new car? I'll be moving in. Let's get started. Sorry, I think there's been a mistake. I bought it from Carvana. Your what? Yeah, great price. I even have seven days to love it or return it. So there's no... No, no buyer's remorse. More like buyer's rejoice. I guess I'll let myself out. Congratulations. I mean it. Buyer's rejoice. Buy your car today on Carvana. Limitations and exclusions may apply. See our seven-day return policy at Carvana.com. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you.

1:14:32Vanta is the platform used by over 16 ,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started at Vanta.com. A burst pipe. A dead water heater. The AC calling it quits. Who do you call? HomeServe is an easy way to handle unexpected home repairs. with plans covering stuff basic homeowners insurance usually won't. Instead of scrambling for a contractor, you make one call to get the repair process started. Join the millions of customers who trust HomeServe right now. Go to homeserve.com slash podcast for 50 % less your first year.

1:15:10That's homeserve.com slash podcast. Savings compared to renewal price void in Florida. The World Cup champion will be crowned this week, and you can trade the tourney through the finals on Kalshi, America's number one prediction market platform. Right now, Spain is trading at 58 % to beat Argentina, meaning 100 trade pays out$166 if they win. On Cauchy, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. For a limited time, download the Cauchy app and use code HOOPS to get$10 when you trade$10. K-A-L-S-H-I. Cauchy. Trade the beautiful game. 18-plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply.

1:15:48Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Kaoshi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see kaoshi.com slash regulatory.

From the publisher

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, the brothers break down Trump’s latest string of failures and scandals: Trump demands an indictment of former FBI director James Comey — and his new hand-picked prosecutor complies, a looming government shutdown as Trump refuses to meet with Democrats, polling numbers that continue to sink to new lows, yet another international embarrassment in his meeting with Erdoğan, and his reckless plans to bail out Argentina after MAGA-style policies wrecked their economy. They also cover Trump’s scheme to hand out a taxpayer-funded bailout to U.S. farmers after his disastrous tariffs crushed the industry—and more stories from Ben, Brett, and Jordy.

Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com

Get Meidas Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com

Deals from our sponsors! 

PrizePicks: Download the PrizePicks app today and use code MEIDAS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! Link: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/MEIDAS

Found: Open your free Found account now at https://found.com

Quo: Get started free, plus get 20% off of your first 6 months at https://Quo.com/meidas

SelectQuote: Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, and save more than fifty percent at https://selectquote.com/meidas

Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts:

MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast

Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af

MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial

The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast

Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan

Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen

The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show

Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats

Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54

Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown

On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman

Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More from The MeidasTouch Podcast

All 2,216 episodes
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 9/26/25The MeidasTouch Podcast · 1 h 15 min
Listen in VO