In short
The MeidasTouch Podcast: Episode Summary
Episode Title
Rep. Moulton Responds to Trump’s Attacks on United States
Hosts
- Ben Meiselas - Top lawyer and business partner of Colin Kaepernick
- Brett Meiselas - Emmy award-winning video editor
- Jordy Meiselas - Former award-winning advertising executive
Episode Overview In this episode, Ben Meiselas discusses Donald Trump's recent controversial social media post and the backlash it received, particularly from members of Trump's own party. The episode features an interview with Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton, who responds to Trump's actions and the implications for American democracy.
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Key Highlights
- Trump's Controversial Post
- Trump posted a meme that depicted the Obamas in a racially insensitive manner, which drew condemnation even from Republican figures.
- The post was labeled "disgusting," "vile," and "racist" by various senators and representatives, including:
- Susan Collins: Called it "appalling."
- Tim Scott: Found it to be the "most racist thing" from the White House.
- Mike Turner: Called for an apology from Trump regarding the post.
- Republican Party's Frustration
- The Republican response highlighted an internal conflict within the party regarding Trump's behavior.
- Many Republicans expressed their disappointment and demanded that he apologize for the post.
- Moulton's Insights on Trump's Behavior
- Congressman Moulton emphasized that Trump’s actions should not surprise anyone as they are consistent with his past behavior.
- He discussed the broader patterns of Trump’s racism and how it reflects on his presidency.
- Comparison to Other Political Scandals
- Moulton compared Trump's behavior to political standards in other nations, particularly in regards to accountability and moral conduct from leaders.
- He argued that Trump's allies and supporters need to recognize the moral implications of their support for him, given his history of predatory behavior.
- Commentary on Domestic and Foreign Policy
- Moulton criticized Trump's chaotic domestic and foreign policy decisions, including sending militarized forces into American cities.
- He linked Trump’s actions to a history of violence and oppression, echoing sentiments from historical events such as the Boston Massacre.
- Calls for Democratic Leadership
- Moulton's campaign for the Senate was discussed, emphasizing the need for a new generation of Democratic leaders who can effectively combat Trump and his ideologies.
- The episode concluded with a call for listeners to engage with Moulton’s campaign and support progressive leadership.
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Key Takeaways
- Trump's divisive rhetoric continues to fracture the Republican Party.
- Accountability and moral leadership are critical in maintaining democratic values.
- A new generation of leadership is necessary within the Democratic Party to effectively challenge Trump's influence.
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Additional Resources
- For more episodes and political discussions, subscribe to the MeidasTouch Network podcasts and visit [MeidasTouch.com](https://www.meidastouch.com).
Social Media Links
- Follow Congressman Seth Moulton on Instagram: [@sethmoulton](https://instagram.com/sethmoulton).
- Subscribe to the MeidasTouch YouTube channel for live discussions.
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This structured markdown file summarizes the main aspects of the podcast episode, providing insights into the discussions around Trump's actions and their implications for American politics.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOTrump's Disgusting Post and Reactions
2:00 to 6:36
Discussion on Trump's vile social media post and Republican responses.
“Chaos in the White House and chaos on Capitol Hill as Donald Trump was now forced to delete one of the most disgusting and vile posts I could even fathom where he made a post around midnight last night.”
Moulton on Trump's Predatory Behavior
6:36 to 11:00
Congressman Moulton discusses Trump's history of predatory behavior and its implications.
“But I'll tell you, when you look through these files, 38 ,000 references to Donald Trump, that's more than the name Harry in the Harry Potter books, more than Jesus appears in the Bible.”
Comparisons to Historical Events
11:00 to 14:04
Analogy of Trump's actions to historical military occupations and moral standards.
“But those things are not really debatable.”
The Impact of Trump's Actions on Civilian Lives
14:04 to 16:44
Discussion on the consequences of Trump's militarized responses and the resulting civilian casualties.
“But in Minneapolis, a blue city that Donald Trump just wants to terrorize with federal agents, the violence is the point.”
Historical Context of Trump's Foreign Policy
16:45 to 18:36
Exploration of Trump's inconsistent support for protests and the resulting international consequences.
“Now he wants to do the war after the protesters have been killed and the Ayatollah suppressed the protest where those protesters actually had a chance, they thought, to have democracy prevail.”
The Broader Consequences of Trump's Presidency
18:37 to 22:06
Analysis of the death toll and negative impacts tied to Trump's administration decisions.
“Because luckily, Venezuela didn't actually turn into a war.”
Campaign for Senate and Future of the Democratic Party
22:07 to 23:15
Discussion with Congressman Moulton about his Senate campaign and the direction of the Democratic Party.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Ben Meiselas:I'm R.J. Decker, a private investigator uncovering the sunshine state's darkest secrets. Tuesdays, it's the premiere of ABC's hottest new crime show. R.J. freaking Decker as I live and breathe. He's a private eye. It's not a standard murder. It's someone bigger. And a public mess.
0:18Seth Moulton:Trying to get someone back to prison today?
0:19Ben Meiselas:You go to prison one time and suddenly it's all the jokes. R.J. Decker, series premiere, Tuesdays on ABC and stream on Hulu. Class! This class again?
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2:00Ben Meiselas:Chaos in the White House and chaos on Capitol Hill as Donald Trump was now forced to delete one of the most disgusting and vile posts I could even fathom where he made a post around midnight last night. You know, the story of former President Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama with their faces photoshopped on apes. And then Donald Trump's chief propagandist, Caroline Levitt said, stop being a snowflake, basically. She goes, this is an internet meme, okay? And it's depicting Trump as the king of the jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. So stop the fake outrage, okay? And report on something today that actually matters to the American public.
2:44Ben Meiselas:Well, you got responses like this. A Republican Senator, Susan Collins, Tim is right. This is appalling. Senator Tim Scott, MAGA as you get, says, praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The president should remove it. It's interesting language there because there's a lot of other racist things out of this White House. It's the most racist thing. There should be no racist things coming out of the White House. A Republican Congress member, Mike Turner, I do not feel the need to respond to every inflammatory statement made by the White House. However, the release of racist images of former President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama is offensive, heartbreaking, and unacceptable.
3:25Ben Meiselas:President Trump should apologize. Just say you're sorry. Just say you're sorry. I mean, what are we even talking? It is all of the things that are being described, but just say you're sorry and we'll be cool. You've got Senator Roger Wicker says this is totally unacceptable. The president should take it down and apologize. Just say you're sorry for posting the most vile racist thing ever. Then we're cool. Then we're cool again. Senator Britt says this content was rightfully removed, should have never been posted to begin with, and is not who we are as a nation. That's your furor. That's your guy.
4:03Ben Meiselas:That's your cult leader right there. Senator John Curtis goes this post was blatantly racist and inexcusable. Blatantly. He posts other racist, but this one was blatantly racist and inexcusable. It should never have been posted or left unpublished for so long. So then Trump deletes it. And now the White House is blaming a staffer and saying, ah, it was a staffer who did it. We took it down after we identified it. And now there are stories like this. There's frustration inside the administration and among some Republicans over the now deleted Truth Social post about the Obamas. multiple people now saying Trump did not post the video.
4:43Ben Meiselas:He was with a staffer at midnight who did it and hadn't seen it before it was posted. One person says aides are pretty pissed off. You can't attempt to clean up the mess by continuing to make it easier. Another person says, I want to bring in Democratic Congress member Seth Moulton, who's running for Senate in Massachusetts as well. Congress member, I read Caroline Levitt's post. That's Donald Trump's main PR communications person who said, stop being a snowflake. We were doing Lion King memes. And that's why we posted the Obamas like that. And then they come up with this, it's a staffer. And then you have all these Republicans.
5:22Ben Meiselas:It's inexcusable. It's disqualified. But say you're sorry. We're okay. I mean, it's so embarrassing. This is vile stuff, Congressman.
5:33Seth Moulton:the guy's a racist like we just shouldn't be surprised i mean it's vile it's inexcusable it's it's horrific i mean it would get president clinton impeached i mean all these things are true but it's also like this is just what trump does so no one should be surprised when he actually posts something this racist because he is a racist and what's remarkable is actually the fact that he just successfully deleted it when his own you know private justice department has been quite unsuccessful at deleting all the Epstein files that he's been trying to delete because he's guilty as charged there as well.
6:07Ben Meiselas:And lots of people were saying he posted that last night in order to distract from the Epstein files, which he was trying to distract from by invading Minnesota, which he was trying to distract from, from invading Venezuela, which he was trying to distract from, from threatening to invade Greenland, which he was to distract. It's all of the above because they're a lying regime filled with liars and fascists. But I'll tell you, when you look through these files, 38 ,000 references to Donald Trump, that's more than the name Harry in the Harry Potter books, more than Jesus appears in the Bible. In other words, Donald Trump is a main character in terms of the sheer amount of references, But he goes, I'm vindicated.
6:56Ben Meiselas:And what's interesting, Congressman, I want to get your take on it. We see what's happening in other countries right now where they're having reckonings with their world leaders who were involved or knew and should have known. Yet Trump and MAGA saying, ah, you know, vindicated, totally vindicated. Ridiculous.
7:14Seth Moulton:It's totally absurd. Imagine if it wasn't the president of the United States, but just one of his many ambassadors, just like the ambassador to France that Trump appointed, who turns out was in the Epstein files. Okay. Would we think of impeaching Trump? Because that's what they're doing in the UK right now. I talked to someone this morning who said that the prime minister could very well lose his job just because he appointed someone who turned up in the Epstein files and turned up a lot fewer times than Donald Trump.
7:47Ben Meiselas:and that's because there's a sense of shame right there's a standard there's a proximity
7:54Seth Moulton:there are rules there's morality like like maybe the guy at the top should follow the same laws that all the rest of us are supposed to follow and maybe the guy at the top should even have a little bit higher standards than everyone else if he or she is supposed to lead the nation like That's actually what they apparently think in Britain. I mean, we left there as a country several hundred years ago because we said we don't want to be ruled by a king who doesn't share our values and our standards and tries to put laws on us that don't apply to him. Well, now it seems that this is reversed, that we live in a place in America where a wannabe king gets to get away with, I mean, we don't even know what exactly.
8:44Seth Moulton:I was going to say rape and murder, but I mean, you know, we don't know exactly, but you're right. There's no one who's in the Epstein files more than Trump other than Epstein, I think. And yet people are just brushing it off. They're just getting distracted by other things, all the distractions he puts in front of us while back in the UK, they're actually talking about firing the prime minister just because one of his people was in the files.
9:13Ben Meiselas:Look, and I think that one of the things we can unequivocally say is that Donald Trump is a predator. He was found civilly liable for sexual abuse by a federal jury. He is on audio tape saying that he grabs women by their vaginas because he's rich and he can molest them and get away with it because you're rich. He's on audio saying he would inspect girls naked without their consent in beauty pageants because as the leader, he claims that he gets to do those things. He said that Epstein's a great guy who likes girls or women on the younger side in a New York Magazine article that Melania then read and wrote an email to Ghislaine, dear G, Jeffrey looked great in that article.
9:55Ben Meiselas:Can't wait to hang out with you soon. So all of those are undisputed facts, but he is a predator and his predatorial behavior though, we see writ large, not just in the Epstein files, how he treats our neighbors, invading States with military. He, in every aspect of his life, this guy is a predator who just wants to inflict pain on people. And that's one of the things we saw in the Epstein files to the victimization of these underage girls and the sex trafficking. So here's the thing. And then the men using sex trafficking as their currency to inflict other pain on the world.
10:35Seth Moulton:Yeah. So, I mean, here's the thing. If you're a Republican, there's lots of things you can debate about Donald Trump. You know, maybe you're a tariff guy. All right. Like terrorists didn't work out so well in the past, but maybe you think they'll suddenly be brilliant for us now. You can have a debate about that. But just understand that anyone out there who's supporting Donald Trump is supporting a pedophile, a predator, and a racist. Full stop. Just period. Okay? So we can debate your other policies. But those things are not really debatable. And every Republican who just blindly continues supporting this guy, who's going to be thrilled to stand right next to him after he does or does not apologize over this latest blatantly immoral thing.
11:22Seth Moulton:That's what they that's what they support. That's what they support. And that's how low the standard has gotten in America today. Yeah.
11:29Ben Meiselas:And let's just talk about DHS for a moment. Let's talk about the invasions of American towns and cities by people who are basically cosplaying what you actually did as a Marine, as a veteran, when you were serving overseas in war zones, they trained for 47 days because Donald Trump's the 47th president. So they picked 47. It's not even training. They do something for 47 days. Then they go with their more military gear than frankly, you probably even had to wear in some of these areas because they're wearing superfluous things that don't, you know, actually aren't, but whatever. They go into these areas and they start like spraying people in the face, throwing chemical agents, shooting people, killing people.
12:15And then we're told we should negotiate.
12:19Ben Meiselas:Negotiate what? Get rid of them. Abolish these. What are you talking about? Prosecute these terrorists. What are we even talking about here?
12:26Seth Moulton:No, that's absolutely right. It's hard to even know where to start. But let's go back for a second to the historical comparison I was using with Britain. right? One of the things that kicked off the revolution right here in Massachusetts was the Boston Massacre. And what was the Boston Massacre? When the king sent a bunch of his troops to occupy Boston and they ended up shooting a bunch of civilians. That's what's happening now today. And of course, this president sent an armada over to Iran to try to stop the massacre of protesters in the streets, shooting, executing protesters in the street.
13:03Seth Moulton:He's willing to send an armada to Iran for that. Although by the way, it didn't get there in time because the armada was in Venezuela, not where it should have been in the, in the Mediterranean, but in Venezuela. So we didn't succeed in that, but he was willing to send an American armada. And yet he's not willing to just tell his own state sponsored terrorists to not do this in Minneapolis. So that's how hypocritical where this president is now on top of that, you're right. Like Like the Marines that I served with, I mean, 18-year-old Lance Corporals and privates in the Marine Corps were held to a far higher standard morally, ethically, professionally, and legally than all of these federal agents in Minneapolis that are sent there to terrorize the city.
13:55Seth Moulton:But let's be clear, there are far more undocumented immigrants in Texas and Florida. So if they actually wanted to round up the most undocumented immigrants, they'd go to these Red States where they're all over the place. But in Minneapolis, a blue city that Donald Trump just wants to terrorize with federal agents, the violence is the point. He sends a bunch of people and they're all dressed up in military gear that's completely unnecessary. You don't need a flak vest and a rifle to arrest an unarmed civilian in America. You see the local police are there. They're not armed like this, which again, back to the main point, the violence is the point.
14:37Seth Moulton:And they do these things. They kill Renee Goode. They execute Alex Preddy and no response. An 18-year-old Marine would be court-martialed for that because it's murder. And yet there's absolute, we had to be, it was extraordinary that they even were willing to start an investigation over Alex Preddy. And that only came after there was tremendous political pressure from both sides of the aisle to do that. There's still, to my knowledge, has not been an investigation for Renee Good. I've been in that situation before dealing with civilian vehicles armed at a checkpoint. That officer should be prosecuted for shooting her and should be disciplined for completely not following proper procedures and dealing with a vehicle.
15:21Ben Meiselas:One other thing you mentioned there, which doesn't get enough attention, and it should, so let's make sure we cover it here, is when you said that Donald Trump said he was sending this armada to go near Iran to help the protesters. Back in January, Trump was using his social media platform, same way you and I started this interview, talking about him using a social media platform to post vile and racist images that he then kept on but then deleted. He would post things like to everybody in Iran, get out there and protest right now. Take to the streets. If Iran and the Ayatollah do a thing to you, I'm going to go in there guns a blazing.
16:05Ben Meiselas:I think he used that exact terms. And we are going to make sure that they get obliterated or whatever. And so the protesters, because the president of the United States put that message, they It grew and they grew and they were the biggest protest in Iranian history. And then the Ayatollah regime starts a mass slaughter, indiscriminately firing in the crowds. I mean, body bags everywhere. And Trump's armada that he said was there was not there. It was off the coast of Venezuela in his other invasion where he's taking the oil money and putting in a Qatari bank account for himself with no oversight at all, which is a whole other interview we can do.
16:45Ben Meiselas:The level of betrayal. Now he wants to do the war after the protesters have been killed and the Ayatollah suppressed the protest where those protesters actually had a chance, they thought, to have democracy prevail.
17:00Seth Moulton:Yeah. I mean, you know what we don't talk about enough is just how many people have literally died because of this president. You know, there are the Republicans out there counting snowflakes. And actually, there are a lot of people who are dying here. We now know the two in Minneapolis. There are a bunch of undocumented immigrants who have died in ICE custody because of the operations in Minneapolis. People in Minneapolis know their names, but the rest of us don't. But we don't talk about the thousands of kids who are dying in places like sub-Saharan Africa right now because he cut off all the funding to USAID.
17:36Seth Moulton:We don't talk about the thousands of protesters who died in Iran because exactly as you said, he encouraged them to go protest and then he didn't back it up. He chickened out, as he so often does. We're not talking about the thousands of American kids who are going to end up dead because they didn't get their vaccine. Something we've been doing since 20s or 30s or 50s, depending on which vaccine you're talking about coming out. And yet all of a sudden we're backtracking in 2025 and 26 because of Donald Trump and his administration with this complete nutcase RFK Jr. as one of his cabinet secretaries.
18:18Seth Moulton:So the point is, someday historians are going to add up literally the number of humans who have died due to Donald Trump, and it will be a shocking number. But we don't even talk about that enough.
18:32Ben Meiselas:It could be in the millions already. Thus far, it could be in the millions.
18:36Seth Moulton:Well, let's hope it's not like we said, let's hope I'm sorry to interrupt, but let's hope we don't have to add a war to this. Because luckily, Venezuela didn't actually turn into a war. It would have been so easy for one of those helicopters to be shot down and for dozens of Americans to be dead. And I think Republicans might have a different view on that operation now. I mean, he wanted to he literally wanted to start a war in Greenland. He didn't get away with that. He's risking Ukraine erupting into something further because he won't stop Russia. and because Xi Jinping is looking at Trump and his response to Russia, the way he loves to cozy up to dictators and saying, yeah, I can probably get away with invading Taiwan in the next couple of years.
19:18Seth Moulton:I mean, if Xi Jinping starts that, tens of thousands of Americans will almost certainly die because it could well kick off World War III in the Pacific. So it's bad enough now. Let's hope it doesn't get hundreds of thousands or even millions worse.
Read the full transcript
19:33Ben Meiselas:You know, his pathology, Trump's pathology, is this malignant, narcissistic maniac. But I always view him as actually someone who's very weak and who's very scared when it really comes down to it. Of course. You've served in combat. You've seen people like Trump, you know, in the dictators and in other areas. Like, you have a unique insight into that pathology. before we go speak to that, because I think that doesn't get enough attention that he's profoundly a scared individual.
20:12Seth Moulton:He's incredibly weak. That's what bullies are. They're incredibly weak and a total coward. I mean, just a complete, full and through coward. And you can see this throughout his life. He was perfectly happy to let someone go to take his number and go to the nominous place. He was someone who was perfectly happy to, you know, throw people under the bus whenever it, whenever it looks, I mean, look, who's this staffer that he supposedly is blaming for the tweet last night. He's someone who regularly backs down. That's why he's the taco president, right? He's the taquito, they call him, right? Because he makes big threats and he doesn't follow through because he chickens out because he chickens out the problem is that before he chickens out a lot of people often get hurt and there are a lot of americans who just can't afford groceries right now because his tariffs have raised prices across the board there are a lot of americans who can't afford health care right now because his one big beautiful bill as they call it is kicking 15 million americans off health care marjorie taylor green the most conservative Republican on the planet, said her own family can't afford health care.
21:26Seth Moulton:There are a lot of people who will never get a good education because they will die before they get to adulthood because they're not getting vaccines because of this president. So everything in the short term, anything that benefits him and his image is good and everything else is bad. And that exposes a profound weakness. We should want people leading this country who are actually selfless. We should want people leading this country who are principled patriots. We should want people leading this country who are willing to sacrifice, make personal sacrifices themselves for the benefit of others.
22:06Seth Moulton:Donald Trump is the opposite of all of that, in addition to just simply being a criminal.
22:12Ben Meiselas:congressman where can people find out more about your campaign for the senate i know you got a lot of momentum there in massachusetts people are you know people want to someone who speaks plainly someone who's out there calling balls and strikes and calling out fascism for what it is right now
22:28Seth Moulton:where can they learn more so sethmoulton.com or follow me on instagram at sethmoulton s-e-t-h-m-o-u-l-t-o-n uh be proud to have you on the team this race is about the future of the democratic party you know are we going to stick with the same old playbook that's been failing us time and again has gotten us a second term of donald trump or are we going to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders who can show that we not only can fight trump harder but we can lead we need democrats to lead that's what we need right now and there's a new generation of democrats that are ready to do that You see that across the country, places like Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, next generation leaders willing to take on the Democratic establishment.
23:14Seth Moulton:That's what this race is about, too. And so I'd love to have you find out more and be part of the team. Congressman Seth Moulton, thanks as always.
23:23Ben Meiselas:Good to see you. Good. And everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to six million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.
23:44Seth Moulton:Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.
23:49Ben Meiselas:Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just$15 a month.
23:55Seth Moulton:Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at MintMobile.com slash switch.
From the publisher
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump loses his grip on power as his own Republican Party is condemning his posts and Meiselas interviews Democratic Congressman Seth Moutlon on his response to Trump’s madness.
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