Trump Blindsided as Top Iran Negotiator Resigns

0:00Ben Meiselas:Top military officials, generals, admirals, national security advisors, they're all issuing dire warnings about Donald Trump's handling of this catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran. Donald Trump, during a bizarre and deranged speech in Nassau County, New York, said that the United States not only controls the Strait of Hormuz, but we intend to make it a territory of the United States. That led to a senior White House official saying, we have no clue what the hell he's talking about. Donald Trump has not met with his advisors about declaring the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory. They don't know what the hell Donald Trump is even saying anymore.

0:41Ben Meiselas:At the same time, one of Donald Trump's top national security advisors has announced that he will be resigning. The rats are fleeing the sinking ship. And we've been talking about all of these leaks from generals and admirals, from the CIA, from national security advisors, from people within the national security apparatus. And now we're seeing in this week alone, not only Caroline Levitt resigning, by the way, after Donald Trump was discovered to have gone on a military plane with Natalie Harp after hiding in a cafeteria catering truck and leaving Caroline Levitt on old Air Force One. She left, and now you have a top national security advisor leaving as well.

1:30Ben Meiselas:Not just anyone, someone who was involved as one of the lead U.S. negotiators with Iran. That's right, a top White House security advisor, national security advisor, is quitting his role as negotiations are being made up by Donald Trump, and there was no negotiations taking place. The guy's name is Andy Baker. He served as national security advisor to Vice President J.D. Vance, and he served as a deputy national security advisor at the White House. Bye-bye. He is gone as well. And as the Daily Beast puts it, Donald Trump lost his second top aide in a week. And the leaks are coming fast and furious from the Trump regime right now.

2:15Ben Meiselas:One of the things that Donald Trump announced at the end of last week that he intends to do, which there was immediate backlash, not just among our top admirals and generals and military officials, but even the military industrial complex and private defense firms are calling Donald Trump out for waste, fraud, and abuse. So as our service members are suffering aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the George W. Bush, they're not being provided with the bare basic nutrition and necessities to even live. And this has been called out, and that's now caused the Trump regime to bring in the USS George Washington from the Pacific, which is the only aircraft carrier in the Pacific right now, leaving our allies in that region very vulnerable.

3:08Ben Meiselas:It's a good thing, by the way, that we are bringing home the USS Abraham Lincoln. It's just this Trump regime doesn't plan anything at all. But we're having all these issues with supercarriers. So what does Donald Trump announce? As we know, the Trump regime is torturing our service members, bringing back steam catapults on carriers. Multiple generals, admirals, military officials, people who are familiar with this stuff are saying this is a huge risk. So Donald Trump, just because he's an idiot, has long railed against electromagnetic catapults and elevators. And this was something that he just didn't like.

3:48Ben Meiselas:So now he's issued an executive order demanding that billions of dollars worth of equipment that's already been installed in these electromagnetic catapults above the carriers, which is the kind of launching mechanism for our aircraft aboard these supercarriers. Donald Trump wants to go to steam catapults. He's like steam catapults. He likes the way battleships look. He likes catapults. and our generals and admirals are calling this out and saying this guy is reckless and dangerous. So Donald Trump has given the U.S. Navy and Pentagon 60 days to draw up a plan for installing steam-powered catapults and hydraulic elevators on the future Ford-class aircraft carrier, USS Doris Miller.

4:37Ben Meiselas:And Trump has talked about ordering the Navy to abandon electromagnetic aircraft launch systems, emails, catapults, and advanced weapon elevators that are currently at the core of the Ford class design because Trump just doesn't like it. He just says, I don't like it. It's not something that I like at all. And he issued this order and says it's got to be done in 60 days. So General Atomics, the company that builds electromagnetic aircraft launch systems and the advanced arresting gear for the Ford class, said the decision to revert to steam warrants careful reconsideration. The company was awarded a contract to build the catapults and arresting gear for the Doris Miller in 2023.

5:21Ben Meiselas:Its work is nearly 50 % complete and changing course now would introduce significant costs, schedule, and integration risks, the company said in a statement. Navy officials have fought for years to keep the current system. They like the current system. This will cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and they're out there telling the Wall Street Journal and others that this is reckless and dangerous, and it will have broader implications for the readiness of our carriers. So why is Donald Trump announcing this now? Well, because Donald Trump wants to make us angry. He doesn't care about anything.

5:59Ben Meiselas:He doesn't care about the people. He thinks our service members are suckers and losers. And so while we're all bringing attention, and rightfully so, to the horrific treatment of our sailors and our Marines aboard these U.S. carriers, this is what he's focused on. I will remind you that back in, I think it was 2019, April 2nd, 2019, this was what Donald Trump said at the time about his love of steam. This is what he said about steam. Here, play this clip. The great aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford, I go to see it. And the catapult system, you know, the catapult, that's where it throws the planes off.

6:44So the aircraft carrier is a slight problem. It was supposed to cost three billion. It ended up costing about 16 billion right now. It wasn't on my watch, but it's getting close. The president, Gerald Ford, big, the largest ship ever built, they say. It's a massive ship. So I get on there, but they're having trouble with the catapult system because it used to be steam. You've seen it where the planes go off. Steam, old fashioned, right? Old fashioned. So they've decided to go magnetic. Never been done before. And electronic. So it's very, very complex. They have these brilliant guys from MIT where my uncle was a professor, by the way, for 40 years, brilliant guy, Dr.

7:32John Trump. A lot of people find it hard to believe that I had a professor, one of the smartest people in the history of MIT, in my blood. You'd be surprised. A lot of things are surprising in life. But you have to go to MIT to figure out how this damn thing works. I get to the boat. How does it go? Well, it's okay, sir, but we have a little problem with the catapult system. You know, that's not like so good. When we have an aircraft carrier, you can't send planes off the damn thing. Historically, that has not proven to be a good thing for aircraft carrier. So, so I said, let me see. I didn't want to see the admirals.

8:14You get tired of the admirals because this was a problem. I said, let me see the catapult people. They said, sure. You don't really want to do that. I said, yeah, those are the people that know what the hell they're doing. If you're looking to unwind after a long day without waking up hungover and bloated, check out Willie's THC infused social tonic. Willie's is a premium THC infused social tonic crafted by the legendary Willie Nelson. This is Willie Nelson's own social tonic. And if there's anyone I trust to have the best cannabis, let's face it, it's Willie. Inspired by Willie's way of living where peace flows freely and hangovers are a thing of the past.

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9:58Ben Meiselas:We also learned through a Bloomberg report, and this leaked out from top military officials, and Bloomberg got its hands on a copy of this survey that's being sent out. This U.S. is asking NATO allies for public alignment with Trump's policies as part of a review of U.S. troop deployments in Europe. A document seen by Bloomberg, which received this from top military officials, included questions on whether allies have publicly supported U.S. foreign policy, restricted U.S. military base access, purchased from U.S. defense firms, and supported made in Europe initiatives. So if you supported a made in Europe initiative, if you limited the US basis for committing war crimes, this is all part of Donald Trump's threats to say, we will not be helping out our allies.

10:58Ben Meiselas:And this is part of Trump's attack on NATO. US asks allies, have you been publicly supportive of the US foreign policy, including in the Middle East? It is an ideological test that Donald Trump wants to determine loyalty to Donald Trump. Reminding you, Donald Trump, when he was speaking in Nassau County on Friday, said that we will declare the Hormuz territory, territory of the United States. What the heck is he even talking about here? Let's play it. We're bringing the prices way down. Look at what's happening. Coming way down.

11:37And after we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.

12:01Essentially, that's what we have the blockade.

12:04Ben Meiselas:Now, as I noted as well, the top national security advisor was a deputy national security advisor. He was J.D. Vance's top advisor as well previously. Now, this video surfacing of J.D. Vance from the past seven to 10 days or so, where he gave a speech where he talked about how he wants to end the U.S. dollar's position as a global reserve currency because he thinks it allows Americans to consume too much and to do so too cheaply. He doesn't like the dollar being the world's reserve currency because he says it builds a dependency of American people on, I don't know, Vance's entire political viewpoint is promoting America's decline, as Tyler Bolivar puts it.

13:00Ben Meiselas:A weakened United States on the world stage, a weak US dollar, men working in factories where the hand assemble things the US government pays for. It's managed decline as far as the eye can see. Here's what he had to say. Let's play this clip right here. Yeah, that's exactly right. And by the way, this is maybe super heterodox. I am not sure that I think the reserve currency is actually good for the United States of America. I think there is a good argument that reserve currency status is akin to coal in Appalachia. it's a resource curse, right? It allows your consumers to consume very cheaply, right?

13:40That's been the story of the American economy for the last 15 or so years, even before that, is we can just borrow basically in an unlimited way because we have the reserve currency.

13:49Ben Meiselas:And as people like Andy Baker and Caroline Leavitt and others are resigning, again, the rats are fleeing the sinking ship. You had Donald Trump at that deranged speech claiming that Iran has no leadership, Their leadership is gone, which is just not true. Their leadership is there. I mean, Iran has a parliament. We know who their leader is. We have a foreign ministry, by the way. Aragchi has been speaking with Pakistan and China and Germany and Italy. I mean, I spoke this past week to a professor at Tehran University. They're on summer break. Like, it's a country. Like I don't under this view that Donald Trump spreads of Iran as like people like dwelling in caves and that like they're begging and they're suffering.

14:41Ben Meiselas:They're suffering, I guess, in the sense that the U.S. has engaged in these war crimes. And, you know, it's ridiculous. But I mean, it's Tehran's a metropolitan city. It's just the level of ignorance of this regime and malicious ignorance about Iran is It's deranged here, but this is what he had to say play this clip. It's totally gone 159 ships had a total of 159 ships 159 ships are right now at the bottom of the sea They are 212 Very nice airplanes some bought from the United States brilliantly through Obama Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him? Barack Hussein Obama. And every one of their airplanes is shot down.

15:28It's gone. They have no leadership. Their leadership is gone. Their first tour is gone. Their second tour is gone. Their third tour is half gone. That's one of my problems. There's nobody to negotiate with. It is a problem. I said, are you sure this guy's okay? It's the only country in the world where nobody wants to be president.

15:45Ben Meiselas:And then he kept on saying, we're winning. We're winning with the Islamic Republic, everybody. We're beating them. here play this clip. Yeah, we won in Venezuela, which is now working with what nobody's ever seen. We're taking millions and millions of barrels of oil out every single week. And we're likewise winning big with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nobody has any idea how successful we are. They don't want to write it, but they know. You know who knows how well we're doing? Iran. Think of it. Meanwhile, you have lots of top military officials now also warning. All right. You just moved a supercarrier from the Pacific, our only supercarrier in the Pacific.

16:33And now you can imagine you're China.

16:36Ben Meiselas:You're just watching this like you're China. You've now strengthened your hand across the world, like massively. Bricks block is on the rise right now. They watched Donald Trump run out of weapons with a trillion dollar budget, ran out of interceptors, ran out of attack comes, ran out of the Navy destroyer anti-ballistics, had to abandon the military bases. You know, Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping's just like sitting there. And now he watches as the U.S. aircraft carrier in the Pacific, the George Washington leaves because Donald Trump also can't manage basic logistical supply lines. and our service members aboard the Abraham Lincoln are suffering.

17:19Ben Meiselas:By the way, it's not unique to the Abraham Lincoln. Adjacent to the Abraham Lincoln is the USS George H.W. Bush, and they're suffering aboard the USS George H.W. Bush as well. And while all of that's going on, you have in Iran, this was on Iranian TV, you know, as Donald Trump's like, they are begging for a deal, they're begging for a deal. This is on Iranian TV. They were showcasing an IRGC underground exhibition displaying the downed aircraft from the 2026 war, including a US F-15E, several MQ-9 Reapers. By the way, Iran destroyed about 30 % of the US MQ-9 Reaper drones and an intact Israeli Hermes 900 drone.

18:07Ben Meiselas:Tehran shows their air defense achievements. Remember Donald Trump's like, the air defense, Iran's air defense system is obliterated. I mean, look at this museum. They got a whole museum of American weapons and American aircraft that they shot down. Look at this. Look at the exhibit. I'll show you just 10 seconds of the B-roll of the exhibit. the usf-15e 171 aircraft drones um they got the f-15e parts um as well like like over there and uh that's that's that's what you got going down what a what a mess this uh what a mess this trump regime is anyway thanks for watching hit subscribe let's get to 7 million thanks thanks Thanks, everybody.

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