Trump Gets His Karma

0:00Ben Meiselas:This is what Donald Trump feared. Let's take a look at these numbers. Look at these devastating polls from him. This by Fox, state regime media's poll. In a generic ballot, Democrats lead Republicans 54 % to 43%. Among independents, Democrats lead 53 % to 31 % in terms of the GOP. Now, trust on issues, cost of living, Democrats plus 15. Large AI data center regulation, Democrats plus 14. On the issue of fighting corruption, Democrats plus 11. On foreign policy, Democrats plus 10. Only on the issue of immigration, Republicans still only plus one. What about this question in the state regime media poll?

0:52Ben Meiselas:Is the Trump regime more or less as corrupt as previous administrations? Overall, 53 % of voters say more corrupt. Only 26 % of voters say less corrupt. 19 % say about the same. When you look at independents, 57 % say more corrupt. 12 % say less corrupt. And 28 % say about the same. What about in certain states like Ohio? What's the latest polling show there? The Democratic candidate for governor, Amy Acton, taking a pretty significant lead based on prior polling over MAGA Republican extremist Vivek Ramaswamy. Amy Acton, 48 percent. Ramaswamy, 45 percent. What about in that Senate race right there?

1:45Ben Meiselas:Same thing right now. Now, the MAGA Republican extremist incumbent, though he tries to act moderate, but he isn't. John Husted, 45 percent. Democratic former Senator Sherrod Brown at 48 percent, a three point lead over there. Why don't we zoom in on Texas? Some of the latest polling out of Texas, the Mason Dixon Telemundo poll over there has James Tallarico at 46 percent. Ken Paxton at 43 percent. How about in South Dakota? Don't sleep on South Dakota. The Democratic candidate dropped out in that race and independent Brian Bengs, a Navy veteran and retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel can make this a real race now when it's a one on one race.

2:38Ben Meiselas:Mike Rounds, a MAGA Republican extremist in South Dakota is 10 points underwater and 32 % of Trump voters rate him unfavorably as well. He's detested by Democrats, despised by independents and abhorred by Trump voters. Very notable. And he's someone who said, well, I like when Donald Trump is nasty with Canada. Don't be too nasty, but be nasty with him. Really weird stuff that he would say. And the people of South Dakota are absolutely suffering as a result of Donald Trump's reckless trade wars against the world and Canada and Donald Trump's catastrophic war in Iran. Look at the latest polling there.

3:20Ben Meiselas:Brian bangs 44%, Mike Rounds 44 % right there. I mean, that race is very, very close. Tied race right there. And I'm going to keep on zooming in on that race. Other races show, other polls show bangs ahead right there. Folks, and we're seeing some interesting things happen. You don't get much more MAGA extremist propaganda than Tommy Lahren, right? Here's what Tommy Lahren just said. Everything that is going to shit is going to shit due to the Iran conflict. I think most of us are looking back and wondering if Iran was really on the brink of a nuclear weapon or if it was perhaps perhaps overstated.

4:03Ben Meiselas:You think, Tommy? If they were, President Trump had no choice to act. But if the neocons pushed him into it, oof, what a betrayal of him and all of his non-neocon voters. Oh, what a betrayal. You're just realizing that now, Tommy Lerner. Why don't you look at Donald Trump's statements from last year when he said, I totally obliterated Iran's nuclear program. Obliteration. Nope. It was Donald Trump and Netanyahu to cover up the child sex trafficking ring that is the Epstein files engaged in this catastrophic and heinous war in Iran. And now we have interest rate hikes. We have mass slaughter of innocent people abroad.

4:45Ben Meiselas:We have our own service members being killed. We have our economy absolutely in shambles. We are running out of diesel. Yeah, there are places in Texas and California that are out of diesel. The price of diesel in San Diego is like$9.99. I mean, absolutely horrific. And the American people are paying more money everywhere. People can't afford homes and people are psychologically tortured by this regime. That's what we're seeing reflected in the data when we see consumer confidence at historic lows. That's not just some hypothetical thing. People are suffering while Donald Trump's like, this is the golden age.

5:27Ben Meiselas:We did the golden age, everybody. Absolutely heinous. Even Karl Rove is saying, I'm a voting Democrat for the first time. GOP has increased the number of its bigots. Karl Rove, you're just learning that you may have had a little bit of something to do with that, Karl Rove. And he's pointing to Beau French, the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner over there in Texas, who posted racist image of Indian students who went to University of Texas. And Beau French made heinous comments about them attending the school. And then lots of other MAGA people supported those comments. And so now Karl Rove was like, I'm beginning to think the Republican Party under Donald Trump may have become a little bit racist.

6:17Ben Meiselas:We may have. Meanwhile, on state regime media, not only are they putting out polling data like that, even the host on state regime media are mocking Donald Trump's fraudulent scheme of giving $5 ,000 out. If you vote Republican, they're mocking him on state regime media that Donald Trump is a liar. Here, play this clip. Okay. We mentioned this earlier. Treasury Secretary Besant says, yeah, there is a way to deliver Trump's$5 ,000 dividend checks to all adult Americans without going into the deficit. He didn't explain how we do that. Can you give$5 ,000 to every adult and not raise the deficit?

6:58Ben Meiselas:I also heard Trump is hinting at the fact that they developed an anti-gravity machine in Washington. This is nonsense. There's no way in the world that you can give five thousand dollars to each family in the United States. That's about one point two trillion dollars of additional spending and not go ahead and increase the budget deficit. I don't know how you find it. Where'd you get the money? That's the thing. Maybe you have to increase taxes. What do you have to put in a wealth tax into effect? Are you going to have value added tax? No, it's just nonsense. It's not going to happen. You know, all the while, Donald Trump was in where North Carolina is like, we're in the golden age.

7:38Ben Meiselas:The Democrats prevented you from being in the golden age. But this is it. This is the golden age. People like, nah, this ain't the golden age. What are you talking about? Listen to what he had to say. Play this clip. You're going to win, Michael. So the Democrats gave us the dark age of America and we turned it into the golden age. We're right now in the golden age of America and that war, that war is going to end very soon. Watch, you just watch. All right. I want to bring in now, got a special guest for you. This is the Midas Touch Network after all. Let me bring in Brian Banks, the independent candidate who's now neck and neck in this poll with the MAGA Republican from South Dakota, Mike Rounds.

8:23Ben Meiselas:As I said earlier, There is no Democratic candidate in this race. The Democratic candidate dropped out, leaving Brian Bangs, this Navy veteran and retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, to go head to head against a despised lunatic named Mike Rounds, who's hated by the people of the state because he's hurt the people in South Dakota and he hates the people. He's done such damage to the people in South Dakota. So let me bring on independent candidate Brian Banks. Here's the interview I just did with him. Now I want to bring in Brian Beggs, the independent candidate running in that Senate race in South Dakota against the MAGA Republican Mike Rounds, who occasionally says he's MAGA, occasionally.

9:08Ben Meiselas:That depends what day it is and what his message is to the people. You know, South Dakota is in play. And you are in some of the polls ahead and some of the polls that's close. I think objectively, it's fair to say this is a neck and neck race right now. And I think as people are saying, you know what, Washington has failed us. You take a look at South Dakota and you go, yeah, they failed us big time. And people like Mike Rounds, you had the opportunity to prove yourself. You and the establishment could have showed you did it, but they didn't. Like we have the receipts. The receipts are in. It's been an utter failure.

9:50Ben Meiselas:And they are now going around, Brian, saying, this wasn't a failure. This is the golden age. Aren't you happy? And people are like, nah. So that's where you come in right here because you're saying, what are you talking about? There's a better way. Talk to us about South Dakota right now and what we're seeing. Yeah, well, the polling has been very favorable. I am on the initial ballot. I'm either tied or down three on the most current one. And post bios, I'm up ahead for several polls right now. But South Dakota is in play because people, it's not necessarily that they love Republicans. It's that they just despise Democrats.

10:29So when you're running as an independent and you're saying the message that appeals to people, I've called myself a Teddy Roosevelt Republican because I'm a proponent of getting money out of politics. Absolutely. The single biggest sin that this country has is too much money in politics. I'm a proponent of having billionaires pay a higher tax rate than people who work for a living than their secretaries. And I'm a proponent of busting up corporate monopolies. And South Dakota is really suffering from this meatpacker monopoly that the Department of justice just does not care about. So when you talk about those things with people, they say, yeah, sign me up, sign me up, let's do this.

11:02And the Mike Rounds attack ads on me are, you know him, he's a Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat. So when the attack ads are not issue based, but rather, he's just on the other team, then you know, you're doing something right. Right. And I think that's the boom.

11:21Ben Meiselas:That's the issue. The issue is politics has become gamified. And it's, are you a Mets fan or are you a Yankees fan? Are you a Lakers fan or are you a Celtics fan? And we've been taught, we don't like the Celtics. So we'll always like the Lakers no matter what, or vice versa or whatever. And it's like, stop. And you see, as we're approaching this election, they go right back in. The political pundit class comes in and they said, you got to look like this and you got to say this and you got to say this and you got to say this. And I'm like, hello, just listen to what the people are saying right now, because the people are telling you, here's what we like.

11:59Ben Meiselas:Here's what we don't. We don't like them ripping away our healthcare. We don't like them building data centers in our backyards. We don't like them telling us, you just have nothing to worry about with AI. They'll regulate themselves. Like just, you know, just let them run crazy with it. They don't like Trump talking about golden ballrooms while they're paying record amounts for diesel. So it's like, okay, we can go back this team, that team up, down, whatever. It's just like, hey, people, we're America. We're team America. And to me, someone like a Mike Rounds, his policies have hurt America.

12:34Ben Meiselas:They've hurt South Dakota. That's it. That's it. That's the pitch. It seems like that's the pitch. Talk to us about that because i'm sure i'm sure you're hearing this in south dakota from people who say yeah i'm republican but i don't like this shit so absolutely i'm running in many ways just against the establishment the dysfunctional broken gridlock of the the two-party system that they just look to stab each other and mike rounds is the gatekeeper of the the money that pay to play and uh he's raised the vast majority over 90 of his fundraising has come from corporate and special interest packs and big money donors uh the vast majority of mine has come from small dollar donors.

13:11So that is what people want. They want money out of politics. They want this legalized corruption gone and the system to just work and address issues of like, hey, diesel is super expensive. That's going to impact farmers. Hey, gas is super expensive. I can't afford my groceries. They just want these practical solutions that the system isn't delivering. And Mike Rounds is standing guard for the money that stands in the way of delivering anything for the people.

13:37Ben Meiselas:Talk to me about the issues in South Dakota right now so people know. Because, you know, obviously, when we talk about the price of diesel surging, when we talk about this, they call the big, beautiful bill and they try to act like this thing was great when it really hurt people. I think it hurt lots of people in South Dakota. I think it removed a lot of access to health care as well. You know, talk to us when you're traveling. I mean, what are the issues? I mean, I know Mike Rounds probably wants to talk about, you know, bathrooms or I don't know what he wants to talk about. He does. He loves bathrooms.

14:08Ben Meiselas:He wants to inspect your underwear and whatever. Like, okay, okay, Mike Rounds, got it. Like, understand your 2024 playbook. But I kind of think that when people in South Dakota wake up, they're thinking, how am I going to make it through the day? Not whether Mike Rounds wants to take, you know, magnifying glass to inspect somebody's underwear to check if there's this or that part or whatever. That's my hunch about South Dakota. Yeah, well, it is obviously the consequences that are intruding into people's lives. It's the same across the country with the affordability crisis. You can't afford to fill up your car's gas tank and buy all the groceries you need at the same time now because both are significantly more expensive.

14:47And agriculture is a big industry in South Dakota, of course. So what we've got now with the price of diesel literally at a record high, it is harvest season. So the tractors and everything that go out to pull in the crops, they're paying extra. And the tariffs have already hit the profitability of those crops because the reciprocal tariffs from China have cut down on the markets for the farmers to sell the beans and the corn already. So the profit margin is taking a big dive. And then you've got the cattle industry in South Dakota, where you've got these hundreds of thousands of tons of mystery meat coming in, further undercutting, already a tough cattle production market.

15:27And they're unhappy about that. So it is a universal problem for the ag industry. Farmers don't want a government bailout. They want to farm for a market, not for a check to say, hey, sorry about that. We destroyed your business. Here's some socialism for you. They don't want that. And then the data centers, that's become an issue nationally. It's an issue here as well. The senior advisor for the Mike Rounds campaign is also, while on a Senate payroll, is a paid lobbyist for Meta in this state to advance the AI data center industry in this state. So Mike Rounds takes a huge amount of money for AI.

16:07It is a big rah-rah cheerleader for data centers in South Dakota when the people themselves don't get to have a voice. And they can't say no because the amount of money behind it is crazy. So that is a huge one. I've taken the stand against new data center construction whatsoever until we get some federal guardrails built in place around this entire AI industry to prevent. It sounds like it's overblown, but the extinction of the human race to try to minimize that possibility that we now have to talk about in addition to the other environmental and community-based problems that data centers cause.

16:42So all these issues are kind of meld up together. And as you point out, Mike Rounds is very concerned about boys and girls sports as the big deciding issue. So when we talk about things, we talk about things that actually have consequence to people's lives. And he doesn't want to talk about those things. he has dodged the debates. He's declined both because he does not want to talk.

17:04Ben Meiselas:That's why, I mean, you know, and then you'll have, you know, Trump come in and, you know, he'll say, the farmers, I love you. You love me. I love you. You know, and by the way, I mean, the power of the presidency, regardless of, you know, who's there is, is something that was built over generations, you know, the post-World War II architecture that I believe people like Mike Rounds and Trump are destroying is a very powerful tool, though. It's very powerful. It's potent. So to hear somebody, I love you, I love you, I love you. I understand why to certain groups that has, you know, in general across the country, like that has, oh, really probably loves me.

17:49Ben Meiselas:And it's like, okay, well, here we are, mid to late September, 2026. And you say these things, but what it actually turns out is you're just a sociopath. Because if this is your love, I would hate to know what your hate is, because this has been awful. This has been absolute, stop telling me that tariffs have been great for South Dakota. They haven't. And everybody warned you, quit telling me you're going to make a deal. I'm speaking to the Houthis. I'm speaking to Iran. I'm about to do a deal tomorrow. It's like, don't treat us like we're stupid. Why are you behaving this way? It's gross. It's like loser behavior.

18:29Ben Meiselas:You're not doing deals. Stop saying you're doing deals with people you're not. Just enough. I just think that enough, enough. And I think that's the experience. It's just people in South Dakota see this, right? And they're like, this is loser behavior and you tell me Mike Rounds is too afraid to debate you, then don't be in politics. Do something. It's okay. Do another job. The job is like debate. Go and debate. You don't want to do it because you're scared. Okay, look, it's scary. I get it. You have to go in front of cameras. There's people. You have to answer questions. Okay. Not everybody's cut out for that line of work.

19:06Ben Meiselas:Not everybody's cut out for this. Don't do this line of work if you don't want to do it. It's crazy. To me, that's not a political position. Why I'm interested in your campaign is that's how you've approached it. You're like, I'm not a political guy. I'm a Navy vet. I'm running with common sense. That's what, to me, your campaign's about more than anything. Yeah, that's it. Particularly running as an independent, I'm not going to be a loyal foot soldier for either Team Red or Team Blue. I'm running with an open mind of like, here's what I want to do. I want to help regular people. I want you to be able to afford your groceries and your health care.

19:40And I want you to have the American dream. And I want you to have confidence that your children will have a better life than you if they work hard and they do what we're all conditioned to. Like, oh, went to school, got a good job, got married, had kids. So this traditional path to what we consider a good life as an American, it has been put in jeopardy by the stupidity of people like Mike Rounds voting for policies that don't produce it and actually are contrary to that. And the cuts to Medicaid and the big, beautiful bill, they've created healthcare deserts. For example, in winter South Dakota, it's a relatively poor area near a tribal reservation.

20:18and the hospital down there, the rural healthcare hospital down there had to cut and just stop. It does not have a labor and delivery unit anymore because it cannot afford to operate it. It just can't. So women in that area that need to give birth are looking for a long car ride to the nearest medical facility that they can do that if they make it there in time. It's problems like that that need a practical solution as opposed to just a party line. We're cutting everything. it'll all be fine.

20:47Ben Meiselas:And here's the thing, you're happy to debate it, right? I mean, we could do this interview for a half hour. You and I can go back and forth. And I'm sure what will determine is that there's a lot more in common than there's a lot more different. And we would find solutions and we would go, I like this. I don't like that. I disagree. But we'd speak like adults. We wouldn't be like, tariffs are the greatest thing and I'm the greatest and I beat everybody. We'd be like, no, okay, like, let's be smart. Okay, well, let's make a solution. Let's do this. I think you're pushing too far. I think you're pushing too far.

21:17Ben Meiselas:Let's roll up our sleeves and get the job done for national interest for America. Let's stop talking about golden ballrooms and hiding in catering containers with Natalie Harp. Stop making this a reality show. Let's talk about it. Let's solve it. It's okay to disagree, but let's be grownups, adults. That's what I think is most important, I think, for us to get out of this hell generally that we're in is let's be grown up. Stop with this gamified crap. All right. Before we go, where can people learn more about your campaign, Brian? We've got about 7 million subscribers here at this channel. And what's your kind of closing message, if you will, to the 7 million subscribers here on this channel?

21:59The closing message is that our government is corrupted by money. When I go up and I talk to people in South Dakota, the single biggest issue that I talk to them about is that I ask them whether they think that our politicians are representing them or are they representing the individuals to write large campaign checks. And basically to a person of the thousands of people that I've talked to across this state, they say, well, no, they're representing money. And that's a fight that we need to have, this legalized corruption of money in politics. It is not going to be an easy fight, but it is a fight we need to have.

22:29And we've had it before. Last century, Teddy Roosevelt led the charge on the same thing. And I'm part of a movement here out in the independent frontier where there's multiple folks like that that want to have this fight for the very reason that Teddy Roosevelt wanted to have it back in the day. And I invite everybody to come check out my website. It is bangs4southdakota.com, and that is spelled with my last name, B-E-N-G-S, 4southdakota.com. And you can find more than you ever wanted to know about my background and my policy positions. And if you have a question about any of that, there's an email address you can ask me.

23:01I live for questions and discussion of these issues. So reach out and let's talk.

23:08Ben Meiselas:Speak softly and carry a big stick. You will go far. Teddy Roosevelt, big stick. There was once upon a time where whether you agreed or disagreed with the presidency, he would speak softly and carry a big stick. People knew how powerful we were. We're the United States, damn it. We never had to be this way of what we're seeing right now. Like, that's just not, you know, what we should be. I think no matter what, we can all agree on some basic core values and principles. That's what we've got to return to, Brian. We're going to keep following your campaign. You know, we're seeing your pulling ahead of this, you know, Trump bootlicking guy.

23:46Ben Meiselas:And so that's something that we are, we need to, I think, get rid of this spell of whatever the hell this moment is because it's hurting people. And however we get there, we got to do it, Brian. I appreciate you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Brian Bangs, independent candidate in South Dakota. Appreciate you all. Hit subscribe. Have a great one. Before you go, our book, WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this. you