Monday Update: Trump Finally Surfaces as Middle East Crisis Intensifies – 6/8/26

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0:30Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump has broken his silence and he immediately is having a catastrophic day. He went utterly silent after Benjamin Netanyahu attacked Iran when Donald Trump had previously said, I hold the cards. Netanyahu is not going to attack Iran. Well, Israel struck Iran and hit a petrochemical facility site there. Iran responded, struck Israel, believed to strike a petrochemical facility in Haifa. We're awaiting more details of that, but that seems to be covering up the extent to which that may or may not have been hit. And then a few hours ago, Donald Trump rushed on social media, and here's what he posted.

1:13Ben Meiselas:Israel and Iran must immediately stop shooting President Donald J. Trump. That's what we've been reduced to, a social media post, or this is what he then posts right after. Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate ceasefire. Final negotiations on peace are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in the way. The blockade will remain in place, and in full force in effect, until a final deal, and he puts that in quotes, is reached. Things should move quickly. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Donald J. Trump, the only thing perhaps accurate in this post is putting quotes around final deal?

1:55Ben Meiselas:Because there is no deal. You've been saying this now for 90 days. It's right around the corner Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I mean, yesterday he had the audacity after Israel struck in Beirut when everybody knew that was a red line that would lead to Iran striking back in Israel. Trump said, we were about to do the deal on Monday and then Netanyahu did this and now we can't do the deal, but it was going to happen on Monday. That's always the thing about Donald Trump. Even when you look at his first term, he was going to do all this. I was going to get you the healthcare plan. I was going to do this, that, but then the election was stolen from me.

2:36Ben Meiselas:It was rigged. And here he is, 2026, in that ridiculous interview with Kristen Welker over the weekend that was released, where his face was literally different shades of orange and red, saying it was rigged in 2020 and the FBI was involved in January 6th and just all these deranged conspiracies. And this morning also, he's posting about the Los Angeles, the city of Los Angeles elections. He's like, it was rigged. It was rigged against Spencer Pratt, the reality guy. Okay, if it was rigged, why is the Republican up in, I don't even have to justify why it's not rigged, but why is it that the Republican is up in the governor's race?

3:17Ben Meiselas:It was selectively rigged. It's just called counting, Donald. This is how the votes get counted. Even the United States Attorney's Office in Los Angeles had to come up with a statement and say, no, it's not rigged. Even your own United States Attorney's Office. But this is what he is doing. As Senator Patty Murray says, he went from an orange to like a red shade right there. Now, one of the things to note as well is Donald Trump is also destroying New York right now, and the people in New York City are absolutely pissed at what he's doing. The NYPD just had to release the following bulletin. Tonight is game three of the NBA finals, an exciting time for New York City, and we want everyone to be able to enjoy the game safely.

4:02Ben Meiselas:With tonight's presidential visit, there will be extra security measures in and around Madison Square Garden that the NYPD and Secret Service have planned together. Starting at 4 p.m. today, vehicular and pedestrian traffic will be closed from West 30th Street to West 35th Street between 6th Avenue and 8th Avenue. No one will be allowed inside the secure area unless you have a ticket to the game, a train ticket, or going to business inside the area, have credentials, or have some other authorized reason to be there. It was also announced that Donald Trump will not be sitting with the people, of course he won't, or courtside.

4:43Ben Meiselas:He's going to be in the luxury boxes with the owner, another billionaire, while he shuts down these five blocks and two avenues right around the garden where so many fans were there for watch parties and experiencing the joy of the city together. Since 1973, the Knicks have not won a final since, what was it, 1999 or so. They hadn't been to a finals. And so the city wanted to be there in front of the Madison Square Garden. And Donald Trump ruins that. The guy literally ruins everything. Oh, and get this, this is what we're just hearing. The IDF is issuing an urgent evacuation warning to residents of Lebanon, saying they're basically going to blow up this area near Beirut.

5:28Ben Meiselas:No, not a big shocker. And we're seeing more strikes as well take place right now in Lebanon, so Israel and in Beirut. And so Donald Trump is just being utterly ignored right there. Mayor Mamdani just put out the following statement as well, though. He said, the New York Knicks are our home and our city is ready to show out. We're hosting a free watch party for 5 ,000 New Yorkers tonight in Bryant Park. You can register at the link below starting at noon today. So there you have it. He's going to offer another location for these watch parties right here after Madison Square Garden canceled all of the next watch parties because Donald Trump wanted to show up where Trump is undoubtedly going to get booed.

6:15Ben Meiselas:Just bringing some B-roll right here, guys, of what's happening in Albania right now where the Trump family there is continuing to be protested by the people of Albania as a result of Ivanka and Jared wanting to take over that Albanian island and turn it into a Trump and Steen weirdo island. They want to put 10 ,000 rooms for oligarchs to live on this Albanian island. What they're calling what's happening in Albania right now is a flamingo revolution against trump's family business dirty dealings in albania and as i reported earlier the european union now is also saying to albania i know you wanted to have this ascension to the european union but by waiving your environmental protocols to allow jared and ivanka to build this island that could violate critical issues regarding you joining the eu so again everything the Trump's touch goes to absolute crap right now and always.

7:20Ben Meiselas:And you also think about the World Cup. There's like chaos in the World Cup. And so first and foremost, how the United States is treating Iran's soccer or football team. Iran's national soccer team, they arrived in Mexico yesterday, where it will stay during the World Cup. It will play all of its matches in the US, but Trump's denying them lodging and forcing them to leave the country as soon as each game ends. And FIFA, right, is Gabe Donald Trump, the Peace Prize, is allowing this to take place. Even when you're at war, this is very unprecedented. Also, the Trump regime denied visas to Iran's managers and the staff that works with the team, that works with the football or soccer team.

8:05Ben Meiselas:So they've been denied to show up. Like the coaching staff, a lot of the coaching staff has been denied their visas. Also, Marco Rubio was announcing more denial of visas this morning. And also, it's just an utter mess right here. As Colin Zucchino explains, the visa dynamics for the World Cup are really confusing. So, for example, African journalists who are given single-entry visas to the U.S. So if their team travels to play in Canada, they now can't come back to the United States. Like maybe having Giuliani's kid, Andrew, run this is not the best idea. Maybe, you know, there should have been planning to think about, well, if the games are taking place in Canada and Mexico and the United States, maybe there's some way to coordinate the visa process to streamline journalists going back and forth.

9:00Ben Meiselas:I don't know, maybe just exercise a modicum of competence. And this is why I think people are so pissed, I mean, at this regime. I mean, they're cruel, ripping away health care. They are just bad, right? I mean, people are suffering in this economy right now. People are losing their jobs. They've lost their health care. People can't afford rent. They can't afford anything here in the United States. And there's just a level of incompetence. And then they're cruel where they'll do things like Trump will be like, I want to go watch the NBA finals game. So I'm going to shut down five blocks, two avenues, and I'm going to stop the people of New York City from enjoying outside and the parties that they're throwing.

9:44Ben Meiselas:I mean, dude, just Donald, just watch it at the White House or watch it in one of your golf clubs. Watch it there. You don't need to be in the stadium and ruin the experience. I mean, he can't even do a modicum of sacrificing, not even a modicum of sacrificing. And then there's just everything is blaming Biden and ducking accountability. I mean, look this morning, you have MAGA Republican Senator Roger Marshall blaming the screw worm outbreak right now on Joe Biden. It was Biden's fault. Really? As our editor in chief says, of course, screw worm now showing up in the United States in June, 2026 is the fault of Joe Biden.

10:25Ben Meiselas:Oh yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I'm being sarcastic here. Play this clip. I want to switch over because I know you're on the Senate agriculture committee and beef prices are at an all-time high. There's new concern about the beef supply now with the discovery of that flesh-eating screwworm among cattle there in Texas. But what's being done to try to contain this new threat and really overall to keep these prices down? Yes, Charlotte, we got this. We've been through this before. We eradicated the screwworm in 1966, and we'll talk about this. But this is another thing we can thank Joe Biden for, that when millions of people came out of Central America, they brought this screw worm with them.

11:06It was on their pets, maybe on their flesh as well.

11:09Ben Meiselas:That's what they're going with this morning as well. Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary for Trump, same thing. She says, yeah, it was Biden's fault. Biden did it. Biden's to blame right now for the screw worms. Here, let's play this clip. He's eradicated it, pushed it all the way back past the Darien Gap into South America, where it was contained for decades, I guess almost 50, 60 years. I do think it's important to note that under the last administration with a massive movement under the open borders policy, the cartels, et cetera, border security, that's when it began to make its way back up toward America, hitting Mexico in early 2023, moving its way up through Mexico in 2024.

11:53And when we walked in the door last year, I was sworn in on February 13th of 2025. They laid this all out for me. And I said, well, where are the sterile flies, right? I mean, this is we've beaten it before. We've got to beat it again. And obviously not much had been done to push back. So we.

12:11Ben Meiselas:And then the other thing that they have is blaming is just talking about elections are rigged and the California election is rigged. No, it's not. It's not. Just stop it. You got to deal with this idiot MAGA guy, Randy Fine, this MAGA Republican congressman who then parrots with Donald Trump says, they go through the dumpsters to find the fraudulent ballots. You can't just, you just make up things. You just wake up and you lie about every damn thing. Here, let's play this clip. So people can just dig through garbage cans, find ballots and send them in apparently forever after an election is over.

12:47It's not okay. It's got to come to an end and people need to go to jail.

12:52Ben Meiselas:You know what, I'll just leave you with what this French presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélencon, just said this morning. He goes, I propose that we discuss and organize with the Chinese because they are reasonable people. They are not gringos ready to pull out their cult every five minutes to exterminate whoever displeases them. They are reasonable people. Let's talk to reasonable people. That's what the world thinks about us generally. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks everybody for watching.

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