Thursday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben 7/30/26

30:18Just another way, Rho is working to increase access to this life-changing medication. Join the over 1.5 million people who've trusted Roe on their weight loss journey. I use this and you should too. Go to roe.co slash Midas to see if you qualify. That's roe.co slash Midas to get started on Roe. Go to roe.co slash safety. That's roe.co slash safety for box warning and full safety information about GLP-1 medications. Let's face it. After a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. I have to make a choice. I can either have a great night or a great next day. That is until I found pre-alcohol.

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31:38Even after a night out, I can confidently plan on having a great next day without worrying. Look, I won't lie, I was a bit on the fence about pre-alcohol initially. but after giving it a chance, believe me, it's the real deal. July is packed with barbecues, fireworks, late weekends, and late nights with friends. Keep the good times rolling into the next day. Drink pre-alcohol before you go out and wake up ready for whatever Sunday brings. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash Midas and use the code Midas at checkout for 15 % off. If you've ever actually looked at the ingredient list on your dog's food, it gets pretty wild after the first ingredient.

32:17Half of it sounds like something from a chemistry textbook, and it got me thinking, if I wouldn't want to eat food packed with ingredients I can't even pronounce, why would I want that for my dog? That's one of the reasons that we switched to Sundays for dogs. Sundays is different. They start with 80 % plus all-natural meats, then add superfoods like kale, ginger, and blueberries, and gently air-drying everything instead of blasting it with high heat. It doesn't even look or smell like typical dog food. It looks like high-quality, human-grade jerky. No fillers, no nutritional blends, no chemicals, just simple, complete nutrition.

32:50It was founded by Dr. Tori Waxman, who created Sundays to meet her standards as both a veterinarian and a dog parent. And Mochi, my dog, absolutely loves it. Mealtime has become something she actually gets excited about, and I've noticed that she has more energy, her coat looks great, and I just feel better knowing that I'm feeding her real quality food. The other thing I love is, well, how easy it is. There's no fridge, no freezer, no prep, and no mess. You get the quality of a home-cooked meal with the scoop and serve convenience of kibble. It's really what dog food should have been all along.

33:22Over 100 ,000 dogs are already eating Sundays, and it's easy to see why. Make the switch to Sundays. Go right now to sundaysfordogs.com slash Midas50 and get 50 % off your first order, or you can use code Midas50 at checkout. That's 50 % off your first order at sundaysfordogs.com slash Midas50. sundaysfordogs.com slash Midas50 or use code Midas50 at checkout. That's M-E-I-D-A-S-5-0. Welcome back. Thanks, everybody. Thanks to those sponsors. They help support the show, support our sponsors, Brett and Jordy. thumbs up on the, uh, on those ad reads. Have you been noticing I use props now? And so when I called out a Trump bootlicker, I pull out the sandal to do bootlicking.

34:23I'm not sure if I'm going to add that into the repertoire or, or not, but something I've been doing over the past, um, past few days, um, new background here. I know someone said carrot top, Carrot Top Ben. Carrot Top Ben over here. Remember when I started with this new background? I was like that. I'll stop. I'll stop wasting everybody's time. Donald Trump's polling right now, record lows. According to all the polling data right now, I mean, it's not just one. And the group that he's getting crushed on right now, non-college voter white people. That's his base. white non-college voters, net negative eight.

35:12He was plus 24 February 2025. That's what he said. He loved the uneducated. But I think that everybody's feeling it in their pocket right now. Like on the issue of gas prices, he's net negative 58, inflation net negative 50 on Iran, net negative 42, economy net negative 40, immigration.

35:31Ben Meiselas:That was his thing. Immigration, net negative 22. They want to really focus right now on Dr. Fauci. That's their big one right now. Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci. They want to bring more attention to Trump's mishandling of the COVID pandemic and attack Fauci to distract from the catastrophic war, to distract from the Epstein files. It's like the most perverse game of seven degrees of bacon, right? It was the game, seven degrees of Kevin Bacon, seven degrees of distracting from Donald Trump and his regime covering up child sex trafficking rings. First, the coverup of the child sex trafficking ring. Then they go to war with Netanyahu against Iran.

36:25Ben Meiselas:Then they start bringing in Dr. Fauci And then they start attacking Mom Donnie and saying, you know what would be the worst? Could you imagine if government takes equity stakes in private companies and controls the methods of operation? That would be communism and the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks are coming to get you. They're all over. You don't even know. They're just, you look, you look to the person. That could be a freaking Bolshevik. And he or she or they, a Bolshevik, they could be coming to get you. Could you imagine? Don't actually think about the people who are actually getting you right now, who are ripping away your health care, who are taking over the methods of production, who are taking over countries like Venezuela and stealing their money.

37:35Ben Meiselas:No one knows where it went,$13 billion, who are doing social welfare for the oligarchs, who make it so you can't afford anything. Rent. Can't buy a home right now. We're talking about it. You certainly can't afford rent. Um, people jobs recession right now. That's the, that's, oh, this was the announcement commerce department quietly announces seven new equity stakes in private companies. So here's the Trump giving, they're doing this now like they did with Intel. There's going to different companies that are supposed to get incentive money from the chips act, the semiconductor companies that were supposed to get money based on Biden's CHIPS Act, which was done on a bipartisan basis.

38:26Ben Meiselas:And it was incentives. If they do certain things and hit benchmarks, then they can get funding. Now, you may like that or not like that. We needed to spur the semiconductor industry here, given that when Donald Trump handled COVID in such a disastrous way and the supply chains were crushed, what did we find? We have no semiconductor industry here. And so with supply chains crushed, that became a problem. And that was one of the reasons that inflation surged so much because we weren't able to make the things that go in the things, the semiconductors. And that was caused by Trump's mishandling of COVID.

39:07Ben Meiselas:So Biden had to fix it. so biden gave an incentive program and what's trump doing you want that biden incentive money i'll make you a deal have you ever heard about the bolsheviks have you ever heard about the bolsheviks he goes have you ever heard about lenine let me tell you i've got a solution for you right now we're going to give you that biden money not for the incentives but if you give us an opaque 10 % stake in your company. And who knows what the hell we're going to do with it. I don't know. We'll probably give it to the Kushners. The Kushners will end up getting everything at some point anyway, like FIFA.

39:49Ben Meiselas:I'll give it away to the Kushners. Give it away to the Kushners. But we're going to take over the methods of your protection. I don't know. It's like, you know, Donald Trump says, I would make the best communist like Lenin because I would just promise everybody everything. And then I wouldn't deliver. Okay. Meet the mirror. Meet the mirror. Okay. So you look at the various polling, CNN, Trump 34%, AP North Trump 33%, Quinnipiac Trump 32%. Well done, Donald. That's not what the graphic is, but it's the very, there it is. Well done. Well done. Encore. Bravo. Bravo, Donald. Fantastic. You deserve more money.

40:35Ben Meiselas:Jeremy, can you do me clapping? Just so that people see me. Well done. Well done. And I'm more interactive with Jeremy now on that. Like we have a thing going. You don't, you don't see him more interactive. So with all of this happening, what was, what was GDP growth this morning? State regime media, Fox, take it away. In line with estimates. Let's get to GDP. This is the first look we're getting at second quarter GDP, Maria, the first read is 1.5%, 1.5%. The estimate was a gain of 2.1%. So we're coming in a little bit light on this first look at second quarter GDP. The market loved it, though.

41:16Ben Meiselas:I mean, the funniest part, but that's horrible numbers. If you looked at the right, I mean, you want to talk about the market manipulation. I mean, could you imagine if Biden did, you know, like horrific, I mean, Biden's numbers, Biden's first year, granted it was after COVID, It was like 6 % GDP. That was right after COVID. And then he was somewhere in that 2.8 % kind of range, 2.8 % range. He never said, I'm going to do like 5 % or 6 % like Trump said. But could you imagine if you get a readout of like 1.5 % GDP or less in the market? Yeah. Donald, again, it's like the market manipulation participation trophy is crazy.

41:59Ben Meiselas:while the American people are the ones who are suffering. I mean, there's a reason why in America, consumer confidence is the lowest in the history of the University of Michigan, Poland. All right. But it wasn't like the Trump regime told us. It wasn't like they promised, look, look, look, look. It would be one thing if they actually promised us 4 % to 6 % growth. But fortunately, they tempered our expectations, right? They were very honest about we're going to go through difficult times, tariffs, not the greatest. So just buckle up. They told us that, right? Let's see. Treasury Secretary Besant, what did he have to say, Jeremy?

42:44Ben Meiselas:Let's play Besant.

42:48Ben Meiselas:Jeremy, that was such a good lead up. Do we mean we don't have the Besant clip? I did the whole lead up. So I think we could be at 4 % inflation, excuse me, 4 % real growth, and then inflation trending back towards targeted, too, so 6 % nominal growth. He was right about inflation. He was right about the inflation. He was wrong about the GDP growth. Okay. But, okay, that's Besant. Bootlicking Besant. What about Kevin Hassett? Come on. National Economic Advisor. What are we doing? How are we doing? Where are we going to hit, Hassett? Let's play Hassett. So you're cruising at about three. And again, I expect the second half will cruise about four.

43:34Four percent growth in the second half. That's right, yeah.

43:40Ben Meiselas:We were cruising. What the hell happened there, Hassett? I thought we were cruising. We'll pause there. Reminder. order WTF America right now. If you watch these clips and you go WTF, order it. Okay. Look, there are some people who are like, Ben, you promote the book too much. It is truly a passion project inspired by all of you. It's enduring beyond the election. And it's one of the things I want, I'm not going to get all morbid and weird right now, but like, you know, we live in very

44:19turbulent times. And I want this book, if anything happens to me or if anything, I want it to be all of the thoughts and philosophies. I'm not trying to get like, okay, Ben, I'm sorry. But I want it to be out there about how we can harness the power of movements like this to make generational change because we need generational change right now.

44:45Ben Meiselas:And that's one of the main theses of the book that we can't be trapped in a cycle where all of a sudden it's like you get Obama and then you get Trump and then we get a new Obama and then we get a new Trump. That's broken. That's not going to work. So how do we get out of this loop? And you have to think generationally. So pre-order it now. Let's take our last quick break of the show.

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47:41Right now, Sol is offering my audience 30 % off your entire order. go to getsoul.com and use the code MIDAS. That's getsoul.com promo code MIDAS for 30 % off. Welcome back, everybody. Great to have everybody here. I saw somebody ask during the break, so how the hell do we get out of this loop? What I hate about when people promote books is sometimes like, well, now you got to buy the book. So I'm going to tell you how we get out of loop, just very briefly. I'm like, I can't read the whole book, but I'll give you one of the main theses that I write just so I don't like when people promote things and they withhold, well, you have to buy the book if you want to get out of the loop.

48:24It's a little bit cruel and unusual, especially given the moment that we're in. One of the things I posit is the following. The right-wing fascists have had a plan that they've been executing since the 1970s. And the Roger Ailes' manifesto with Nixon, how to create a right-wing propaganda network that was built out into right-wing radio, which was built out into state regime media Fox, which its tentacles then expanded with the internet, with innovation, with AI. And suddenly you had this paradoxical situation with more information and access to information, but that it created a futile dynamic of Lord v.

49:09Cerf, where you had an educational disparity because there was polluted information, despite there being more information. And I argue we have to recognize that there are broader forces at play than just the day-to-day gamified elections, which are important. But there are enduring principles that we have to deal with and contend with. And so it is important that we focus, look, there's 100 days to the midterms, yes, but what we have to make sure we focus on is not the cult of personalities because we're always going to be let down by personalities. What we have to understand are the values and principles and qualities that we want in leadership beyond political tribal identity.

50:02And what we need to do as people who want to build a generational change is we have to approach it from different areas. The area that we approach it in is from media.

50:16Ben Meiselas:And the way Fox built its thing from 1970s, they're 60 years ahead of us. So we need to start now. We're six years in. Imagine where we could be in 60 years with fighting the tainted, polluted information environment with accurate information. And whether people are associated with the Midas Touch Network, like a Katie Fang or a Scott McFarlane or a Legal AF or a Justin Wolfers or all of these people, or if they're not affiliated with Midas Touch Network, but they're inspired by independent media, that provides a way to counter the disinformation that's out there. and it is important that we recognize that this isn't going to be solved next election cycle.

51:02It just isn't.

51:03Ben Meiselas:It's going to be solved though if we keep at this for the next 50 and 60 years. Parallel to what we do, there was the right-wing Federalist Society. They got all these law students to speak in a fascist way. And they use the unitary executive as cover for dictatorship. And really what they wanted was dictatorship. So they used all of these frameworks, you know, states' rights, this, that, you know, you know, big government, small government. They say, I'm a hawk, I'm a this, I'm a that. But that was a way heads I win, tails you lose for them to ultimately get what they wanted was they wanted a monarch with absolute immunity.

52:01Ben Meiselas:That's, they thought the way to deal with complex times, empower the oligarchs, crush everybody. And so we have to recognize that. And also that the issues here are international in scope, global in scope. And so we need to address it global in scope as well. Because if you're trying to fight international forces of fascism, you're like bringing a toothpick if you think that one election cycle is going to deal with these forces internationally. Now, I get into lots of specifics. I get into the background. We get into all of this. But I saw people saying, okay, Ben, you can't just leave me hanging.

52:46Ben Meiselas:So I think that there, it is a mindset. It is a broader philosophical approach and pursuit. And when I show you this Howard Lutnick clip right now, and Jeremy, I want to show the one on the All In podcast, not the other one, because it's just even more absurd. But it's Howard Lutnick talking about 6 % GDP. And Jeremy, watch my signal because I don't want to play the whole thing here. But let me show you again what we're contending with. You have Lutnick, Epstein class, oligarch, who is there? again, like if you told me this was Bernie Madoff saying this, I would tell you, I mean, this is Bernie, this is watching like Bernie Madoff on steroids to see Lutnickle.

53:32Ben Meiselas:And it's the same creepy voice that he does that when he was like, I wasn't on Epstein Island. I wasn't there. Never. He's disgusting. He's a blackmailing, disgusting. I would never be, why would I be in his presence. And it's like, well, you were there. Yeah, but I was with my kids. Yeah, but that makes it worse. Well, I said I wasn't there. I never mentioned I wasn't there with my little kids. Yeah, but that's worse. That's even worse than being there with your kids is worse than you. Okay. And so he's on this podcast and they're asking, they're like, yo, what do you think the GDP is going to be?

54:17Ben Meiselas:What's your plan? What's your growth plan? Podbros, all in. We're finance. We tech. We tech. We're finance, dudes. We know our stuff, okay? I do SPACs. This is the guy who does the SPACs, the special purpose acquisition companies, whatever. And then Lutnick in that same voice. Six, 6 % growth. And then when they cut the interest rates, oh, it's going to be special. Here, watch what he says. Let's play it. Fives. You're going to see fives in the greatest economy in the world. You're going to see fives. And people think you can't, you can't. 5 % GDP on a base this big is just, it's enormous. We have a$30 trillion, so 5 % is 1.5 trillion in growth.

55:10And if we cut rates, you'll see six. And people do not, would never, before Donald Trump walked into that office, they would, don't think that's possible. And what six mean? Let's just put six in context. Six was China at its peak under central planning with. I was saying, go back to me. That's why I'm making the hand signals. Yeah. I'll put six in context. You're a fraud. Okay. I'll put it in context for you. You are a liar. That's the context. Okay. There's no six. Okay. You're making it up. And this stuff has real world impact on people who are suffering.

55:53Ben Meiselas:While you promised six, you last year basically did negative in many ways. And we see a shrinking GDP right now. A few other things I want to point out. Blanche, Epstein, tie them together. We'll keep you posted on what the latest developments are with Blanche's nomination. Confirmation hearing was canceled and it was moved to sometime in the future. Cornyn and Tillis, both who Donald Trump destroyed their careers, Republican senators, they've told Blanche, look, just put in writing that you're not going to have this January 6th fund settlement that Trump did with his federal government and that Trump wants to waive all tax evasion liability and criminal investigations for not paying taxes and all of this.

56:50And Blanche isn't signing a written document. So it seems pretty clear that Trump's plan is to not pay his taxes. That's what my opinion is in my opinion. Let me be clear. You could have different opinions to not pay those taxes and then claim, well, the settlement agreement can only be undone in writing. It needs a writing to be undone.

57:14Ben Meiselas:There's no writing, so I don't have to pay my taxes. Just sign the freaking document then. Sign a written document. By the way, Blanche is so unqualified. He's so unethical. He's so heinous. He should not even be anywhere near the DOJ. He should not have a law license in my opinion, but I can't give you my opinion. but why are you so afraid to sign the document that says it doesn't exist that just it's a crazy concept but we're not giving why would we give billions of dollars to the january 6 insurrectionist and waive trump's tax liability that's that's psycho that's crazy so just put it in a written document nope we're not going to put that okay well then you're then then you're a bunch of frauds the hell are you doing you think we're stupid you think we're stupid by the way even the non-college educated.

58:04Ben Meiselas:By the way, let me be very clear too. Just because you're non-college educated does not mean that you are less smart than college educated or law educated. Todd Blanche went to law school. I'll put non-college educated over Blanche any day at this point. I'll make that point clear also. But that's Trump's base and non-college educated white, that is non-college educated white people. And even they're like, come on, come on, man. What are you doing? What are you doing here? We're not doing this anymore. But by the way, that's what the people in Atlantic City saw. That's what the people in New York, that's Trump's life, man.

58:49Ben Meiselas:That's Trump's life. Why do you think the guy went bankrupt so many times? Tariffs against the world, he did. Okay, I'm just going to do three casinos right next to each other and run up all the debt. It'll be easy. It'll be great. I'll just have Michael Jackson show up at the opening and things will be great. So anyway, that's Todd Blanche. On the Epstein case, hat tip to Katie Fang. Everybody subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel. If not, make sure you subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel. Midas Touch host, her lawsuit against Todd Blanche and the DOJ, the judge ordered Blanche to turn over a bunch of files for in-camera review.

59:34Apparently, the files were turned over. We don't know. I mean, the DOJ did a notice of compliance in-camera review. It means the judge has it. We can't see it yet. In-camera review, It's what it's called, I-N space camera, C-A-M-E-R-A. It's italicized in law. That just means the judge, Katie Fang doesn't even get to see it. The judge will get to look at it and determine if the judge wants to take further action. Katie said she's good with that because let's have a federal judge see if these representations are true or not. So we're waiting on that. A notice of compliance was filed by Trump's DOJ saying they did it.

1:00:12We'll keep you posted as we learn more there. And Donald Trump is now saying that he may withdraw Todd Blanche's nomination until after the midterms, hoping the Republicans keep control of the Senate and believing that with Tillis and with Korn and Ghosn, then he could push Blanche through without a writing that voids the settlement agreement. That's how important the settlement agreement is to Donald Trump, the written agreement that he refuses to have Blanche sign a written instrument. Now, to me, it's ridiculous after everything. Tillis and Korn are no heroes in this story. I mean, the fact that that's their bright line and not all the other stuff that Blanche has done, but you know that is their bright line apparently um and you know we'll we'll i i don't have the greatest degree of confidence that they will do the right thing um but uh at least that's where we are for now as of this recording so over the next few hours maybe even right now i haven't seen it the u.s i'm sure will strike iran iran will strike back said com will pretend it didn't happen.

1:01:36Donald Trump will say, I'm going to blow the F and F of them. He'll say they want to do a deal. They'll say they don't want to do a deal. We'll have more strikes in Yemen. We'll deplete our strategic reserves. We'll have a terrible day in the market, followed by a better day in the market, followed by a worse day in the market. But meanwhile, the American people are the pawns in all of this who are just getting screwed in whatever the hell this market manipulation, dystopian nightmare is WTF. I can't think of a better title that describes this moment. WTF. Get your pre-order the copy of the book.

1:02:16If you can, it helps us decide where we're going to tour, what we're going to do, how we, you know, all the stuff that you have to think about with books. But we dedicated it to you. The first, the dedication page says to the mightest mighty. So if you ever wanted to write a book, you want to tell your kids or grandkids, you know, I kind of helped write this book. You more than kind of helped write this book. You were the inspiration for this book. All of you are the inspiration behind this. All right. Got a lot, got a lot to report on. I did a video that we dropped at 2 p.m. Watch the other video on our feed right now.

1:03:00I get into more detail about these Iranian F-35 strikes. What's going on there? I got the brother show. Watch the show with me, Brett, and Jordy tonight, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific, and appreciate you. Really, really appreciate you. Thanks so much for everything. You know, these are, these are not easy times. If we could laugh a little bit, if we can cry a little bit, if we can smile a little bit more laughing and smiling than crying, but it's okay. These are difficult times. There are difficult things that are happening. It's real. This isn't a game. This is, this is real life. And we're, and we're in this together.

1:03:42We're in this journey together that, you know, we didn't really ask to be in this loop, but this is the loop that we're in. And, you know, there's a lot that I, you know, one of the points that I make too in the book, WTF America, pre-order it now, is there are two paths to go down, an A and a B. A, a fake strongman, fascist, authoritarian, I alone can fix it, who brings us into the abyss and disaster. Path B, people-powered, advancing civil rights, advancing better climate, better environment, no war. That's a path. The bad news is that we took path A. Not you and me, but we took the wrong path.

1:04:34that's undeniable and sad. We literally had this path. Did we want to go in this direction or this direction? We chose as a country, the bad direction that we shouldn't sugarcoat it and act like things are great. We took the wrong, the very wrong choice. But I argue, and I'll get into more detail about it in the book, so pre-order it, that we still have the ability to make a U-turn and get out of it right now.

1:05:04Ben Meiselas:We're almost past that point where we can't make the U-turn, but making the U-turn still means it's going to be very bumpy out of it, but we can get out of it. But that's not a window that's open for that much longer. A few more of these, one more of these election cycles, potentially we're not out of it. It's just the reality. But I think the good news is that the country sees this in its rawest, purest form of fascism. And I think this fascist experiment not just failed, but miserably failed. And so I think that opens up a window for progress in a generational way. But we have to think about it in terms of generational and not election cycles.

1:05:57And we can't be so fixated on cults of personalities that we're blinded and are let down by personalities. And we have to understand the stakes.

1:06:08Ben Meiselas:And that's why, you know, if you've been watching, you know, I think I've been covering the day-to-day politics of things, but without being preachy and without being, you know, this person, that person, that person. know and why do you think about this person for me it's like yo we're we're under attack from fascism and international fascism okay and unless we can recognize that there are different ways to fight it but ultimately there's a team that wants to fight it you either fight it or or or or it takes over that's how i see it as existential stakes all right appreciate you all so much We covered a lot.

1:06:58Pre-order the book if you can, wherever it is. Pre-order it now. Do me a favor.

1:07:06Ben Meiselas:We got 9.5 thousand people here. Just so I can see it right now, I'm watching the chat. Can you all put WTF if you've done the pre-order or if you plan on pre-ordering it so I can see?

1:07:24I like that. Someone goes, look at the look on Ben's face when it comes back from the weed gummies young ben's face was like wf are you saying are you saying that i'm doing i don't do weed gummies i don't do the weed gummies that's brenton that's

1:07:38Ben Meiselas:brenton jordy brenton jordy or weed gummies that's why i don't do that's why i don't i don't i don't do the weed gummies you think i could do i'm like permanently on weed gummies but they swear by they like that stuff but i don't do that i mean i'm i'm perpetually my natural state that's why i don't you know i i don't i don't like i don't smoke or or or do any of that like i'm i'm people think that i'm always high because i naturally i naturally look that way so if i've done it in the past like dude it makes me like it because i feel like my state of mind is maybe how people feel sometimes when they get high when i do it it's like the word it's like ultra paranoia i i'm unable to i'm i'm truly not equipped for it like at all and it's like it's a it's a slippery slope personally for me anyway i don't know maybe maybe i'm maybe i'm trying i'm not high ever someone says, I think I've never, never, I've never, I don't, I don't smoke.

1:08:49I don't drink. I go for long walks. That's what I do. I do hot takes all day. That's my drug. I do hot takes all day. All right. Thank you. Appreciate you. Shout out Midas Mighty. I'll see, I'll see you tonight. Have a good one, everybody. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our Substack 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.