Trump Goes Mute On Sunday as War Cripples Us

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3:04Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump has gone mute on Sunday as his unlawful and catastrophic war in Iran rages on, engulfing the entire Middle East and the rest of the world. Donald Trump is silent. Donald Trump hasn't made any social media posts since yesterday. He's golfing all day. He's wandering around his Palm Beach golf club or he's in Mar-a-Lago. He's taking photographs with people, making them clap for him. He's taking so-called executive time. He's doing a fundraiser for his pro-Trump super PAC called MAGA Inc. As the war has reached newer heights of catastrophic levels. You have the leaders in Iran like Ali Larajani who runs their National Security Council.

3:54Ben Meiselas:He's their main advisor in their National Security Council. He's making posts like this this morning as Donald Trump is silent and vacationing. Lara Johnny writes, I've heard that the remaining members of Epstein's network have devised a conspiracy to create an incident similar to 9-11 and blame Iran for it. Iran fundamentally opposes such terrorist schemes and has no war with the American people. That's what the Iranian propaganda looks like as Donald Trump is silent and in hiding and at Mar-a-Lago, which was the site that Epstein used in some instances to engage in child sex trafficking. For example, Virginia Giuffre, an underage girl who was sex trafficked by Epstein, she was working at Mar-a-Lago.

4:46Ben Meiselas:Then Donald Trump's like, Epstein took my property. He took her from me. That's what happens when you have a morally compromised, literally and figuratively bankrupt individual in the Oval Office. This is the result when you have a criminal, a predator, and a lifelong loser in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, you look at what's happening in the Middle East where they're basically saying we can't rely on the United States ever again. Iran is more reliable than the United States. I mean, don't believe me. Just take a look at what the big buyers of oil from the Middle East are saying. So as Reuters reports, when Saudi Aramco told its oil buyers in a letter this week that it had no clear idea which port it would use for April exports, it laid bare a new reality.

5:39Ben Meiselas:Iran, not the United States, holds the key to reopening the global energy market. The letter sent to Saudi oil buyers around the world said they might receive oil from the Red Sea, but they might still get it from the Gulf. Quote, I might as well call Iran to find out when this war ends so I can get my oil. One regular Saudi oil buyer said upon receiving the letter, as war raged across the Gulf and Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz. And that's how a lot of people feel at this point, that Iran's the one dictating when this war ends, not Donald Trump ranting and raving like a lunatic and then taking his executive time weekends where he golfs and goes silent and then make social media posts that are utterly deranged and frankly are war crimes.

6:29Ben Meiselas:Like when Donald Trump said, we have lots of fun bombing the Karg Islands. That's what Donald Trump called in or told NBC. We're having fun with this. I mean, what a horrific and despicable thing to say. Meanwhile, Iran continues to target the Arab nations with American interests. Overnight, you had combined Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks against Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, of course, into Israel as well. Just take a look as well. You have the Lebanese-based Hezbollah firing into central Israel and northern Israel. They're getting bombarded more than ever. To be clear, the United States and Israel are hitting Iran very hard, hitting military installations, also hitting civilian installations as well.

7:21Ben Meiselas:We've previously talked about hitting the elementary school, killing 150 little girls at desalination plants, and killing lots of civilians. But the U.S. and Israel are taking out a lot of military targets in Iran, but they've not been able to eliminate the ballistic missile arsenal and the Shahi drones by Iran, which take about, which cost about$20 ,000 to make, and Iran could mass produce those very, very quickly. You take a look what's happening throughout the world as well as Donald Trump remains silent and I don't think even can possibly grasp the gravity of the hell he's unleashed around the world based on his not being prepared, just based upon his horrible decision making and his maliciousness.

8:07Ben Meiselas:Take a look at aluminum Bahrain, runs the largest single site smelter of the metal, started a phase production shutdown to conserve raw material supply. So now this is going to be impacting the aluminum market. It's impacting the fertilizer market. Of course, you know, it's impacting the oil market right now and the price per barrel of oil is surging. We expect this to be a catastrophic week for the markets. Donald Trump has sent our country and sent the world essentially into a great recession, if not a depression. That seems to be where things are headed. And you go, Ben, you're being hyperbolic.

8:47Ben Meiselas:Stop with the hyperbolic headlines. Well, don't you find it fascinating that the New York Times headlines are starting to look a lot like what the Midas Touch headlines have always been trying to warn everybody about? This is page one from the New York Times. War sends more tremors through a shaken world economy. Now, here's the subheadline. Fallout from prolonged conflict with Iran could bring catastrophic consequences. Catastrophic consequences. So let's take a look at while Donald Trump is remaining mute and silent. He has sent his sycophants to go on the various TV networks, whether it's state regime media, which calls itself Fox or others.

9:32Ben Meiselas:Let me show you what went down. You have Dave McCormick, a MAGA Republican senator from Pennsylvania, who says this has been a smashing success. Things have been incredible. If you told us on day one things would be this good, I would tell you no way things could be this good. This is what they're trying to sell the American people. Watch this MAGA Republican senator for yourself here. Play this clip that in that building, a number of American banks have offices there and they are watching massive destruction from this in their offices. So American companies are getting impacted in the Middle East.

10:11Your reaction? Well, first, I think stepping back on day one of this operation, if you would imagine where we where we are on day 15, it's been a remarkable military focus and success in destroying missiles, drones, missile launchers, manufacturing capability and really accomplishing the president's military projects. We're not done yet, but we've made enormous progress on that. And the American people should take great pride in their military. It's been remarkable.

10:42Ben Meiselas:Or how about Donald Trump's national economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, who says Iran's not impacting our economy. They don't have the power to do this. How offensive for them to say that they think that they can negatively impact our economy. We're doing great. No, we're not, Hassett. We're not doing great. Things are bad. They're impacting our economy. Just say something truthful just for once. Here, play this clip. here, but the president is calling on other countries now to send ships to help protect the Strait of Hormuz. You just heard Iran's foreign minister saying Tehran has been approached by other countries about negotiating their way through the strait.

11:23If that kind of negotiation happens, are Americans just going to get cut out here? Well, first of all, you have to understand that America is not going to have its economy harmed by what the Iranians are doing. The bottom line is that in the 70s we didn't produce much oil but now we do and so america's in a very strong position they think that they're going to harm the u.s economy and get president trump to back down there couldn't be anything that was a stupider thing to say because the bottom line is that our economy has got all this momentum in the world and we've got lots and lots of oil we have lots of trading partners that are more on the hook from imported oil from these guys and as we can see it's completely unacceptable that a government that would, you know, murder 40 ,000 of their people just a few months ago would be blackmailing countries to let stuff through.

12:13President Trump thinks that is unacceptable. And for the global economy, we need to fix it and we're going to fix it fast. Okay.

12:20Ben Meiselas:What about Chris Wright, the energy secretary? He was on Meet the Press. And here's what he had to say. Play this clip. Very quickly, Mr. Secretary, there's a big debate over whether you all were prepared for what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz. If you were prepared. Why is the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed right now?

12:40Because it's right near the Iranian shoreline. The world is abundantly supplied with oil and energy. We knew there would be a short-term disruption in energy flows. And to hear Chuck Schumer say that we didn't, it's just so he knows how foolish that is. And to say stuff to try to undermine the United States in the midst of a world-changing conflict just boggles my mind. But this mission was carefully planned out. It's been superbly executed. On the other side, we'll be in a much better place. The greatest driver of terrorism in the world, the greatest threat to global energy supplies will be defanged.

13:20Yes, we have disruption to get there, but we're going to be in a much, much better place in the not too distant future. Mr. Secretary, let's talk about Russia, the Treasury Department temporarily lifting sanctions on Russia.

13:33Ben Meiselas:And then you had Mike Walls, the United Nations ambassador from the United States. And he said, no one's seen such a dominant victory like this before. This is the most dominant victory in modern American military history. This is the thing with these people. They're so utterly delusional that when faced with such an obvious problem that we all see right now, they're saying this is amazing. They're saying that this is great. This is the opposite of great. This is horrible. But anyway, just so you can say, I want to show you what they're saying. Here, play this clip. The US military has decimated Iran's air force, their air defenses, their missile capability, their missile production capability.

14:18this has been a dominant victory the likes of which we haven't seen in in modern american

14:24Ben Meiselas:military history by the way it's why it's so important right now that we get the right kind of media diet that we understand where our news is coming from and that we utilize reliable sources it's why i use this feature you know i use it it's called ground news and they have this blind spot feature that shows you what's being reported on the right wing, what's being reported on the left. How is this so-called center reporting on things? Like, look at this article right here. Gulf Arab states intercept new missiles and drones as Iran threatens to widen the war. Iran widening the war, escalating the war.

15:04Ben Meiselas:Things are getting worse, right? If you look right here, Right-wing media is barely covering this at all. Why? Because they're hiding the reality from their MAGA cult base. They're hiding it from the people. And I think it's why you need to understand the accurate version of the events, not a different version of the events. You need to understand the truth. That's why I partner with Ground News for this episode and all my other episodes, because they're the best tool for me to stay objective with my reporting. It's how I do my research. Ground News is an app and a website that pulls in thousands of articles from around the world and organizes them by story to show you how the left, how the center, and how the right are framing the story differently.

15:48Ben Meiselas:For every story, the color-coded layout makes it easy to see the political bias of each source. I can filter for high-factuality sources and see which sources are independently owned or owned by a large media conglomerate with corporate interests. This lets you compare reporting on the same issue in one place, so you can come to your own conclusions based on all of the facts. On the article I showed you, for example, you'll see that this is being covered on the right by a small group of right-wing media. So if you're reading right-leaning news, you're missing the story completely. So that's why Ground News even has a dedicated blind spot feed, a personal favorite of mine, which highlights stories being disproportionately covered in either side of the political aisle to help you burst through echo chambers.

16:37Ben Meiselas:Because I believe in Ground News so much, we're offering you 40 % off the same vantage plan that I used on my research for this video and that I use on my videos in general. Just go click the link in the description or go to ground.news slash MTN or scan the QR code up here. It's one of the biggest discounts they've ever offered. If you want to support the channel and get a clearer understanding of the world, try out Ground News right now. Now, I'll show you what the foreign minister of Iran, Aragchi, is saying. This is Iran's foreign minister. And now he's also responding to that interview that Donald Trump previously gave with NBC, where we called in and Donald Trump said, you know, we may have to hit the Karg Islands a few more times just for fun.

17:27Ben Meiselas:Even though we obliterate it, we want to do it for fun. And when Donald Trump says stuff like that, it gives Iranians a tool to use as well to say, look, they're out there saying this is fun, saying it's fun to kill people as a war crime. Now, watch what the Iranian foreign minister says here about the fact that, look, we've never asked for a ceasefire negotiation. If Donald Trump claims we want one, we don't. We're not looking for a ceasefire negotiation. He's out there saying it's fun to kill us. And the last time we negotiated, he launched a war against us. So why would we even speak with him right now?

18:04Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. Trump said this weekend he is not ready to make a deal with Iran because the terms aren't good enough yet. His administration is saying this war could last another three and a half weeks or so. Has Iran asked for a ceasefire? No, we never asked for a ceasefire. and we have never asked even for negotiation. We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes and this is what we have done so far and we continue to do that until President Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war with no victory and, you know, there are, you know, people individuals being killed only because President Trump wants to have fun.

19:03This is what he has said. Have fun? Yes, this is what he said, that they are sinking ships and targeting different places because it is fun. and the secretary of war has said that there is no no mercy and this is actually a war crime even even saying that is a war crime so this is a war this is a war of choice by president trump uh and the united states and we are going to continue our self-defense.

19:43Ben Meiselas:More from the Iranian foreign minister right here, Aragji. I want you to see what he has to say here as well. Let's play this clip. This is a war of survival for your government. Minister, don't you have to negotiate and reach out either directly or through a third party? No, it's not a war of survival. We are stable and strong enough. We are only defending our people from this act of aggression. And we don't see any reason why we should talk with Americans because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us. And that was for the second time. There is no good experience talking with Americans.

20:32We were talking. So why they decided to attack us? So what is good if we go back to talk once again?

20:40Ben Meiselas:And more from Foreign Minister Aragchi right here, where he basically admits that France and Italy and lots of other countries are now directly negotiating with Iran. Here's what he has to say. The Financial Times is reporting that European diplomats from France and Italy are talking to your government about trying to get safe passage for their ships. Are you open to restarting oil and gas vessels going through there? Well, we are open to countries who want to talk to us about the safe passage of their vessels. You are negotiating with France and Italy? Well, I cannot mention any country in particular, but we have been approached by a number of countries who want to have a safe passage for their vessels.

21:30And this is up to our military to decide. And they have already decided to let, you know, a group of, you know, vessels belongs to different countries to pass in a safe and secure. So we provide them security to pass because we have not closed this strait. They are not coming themselves because of the insecurity which is there because of the aggression by the U.S.

21:54Ben Meiselas:Now, in contrast, President Zelensky of Ukraine is trying to help the United States. He's trying to give the United States interceptor technology for the drones that the U.S. doesn't have that was created in Ukraine because Ukraine had to adapt to the Iranian-based Shahid drones that were being given to the Russians. So here you'll see President Zelensky, you know, one talking about, well, this is in response to a question, you know, Donald Trump continues to attack you. He calls you P.T. Barnum. He mocks you. He says that Putin is better to negotiate with you. So what do you make of this, President Zelensky, that Donald Trump continues to go after you like this?

22:35Ben Meiselas:Watch what Zelensky says right here. Play this clip. You worry, though, that you still have not been able to persuade President Trump, it seems to me, because he tweeted out saying, if America does not have enough weapons, it's because Joe Biden gave them all to Zelensky. and he compared you to P.T. Barnum, it does seem that President Trump still has some anger or resentment toward Ukraine and even toward you personally. I don't know, Farid. To be honest, I'm looking just to the facts. So what Middle East countries and American bases, what they need now just to be in more strong security. So they need interceptors.

23:28It's drones and interceptors. It's new technologies. It's our technologies. So President Biden, we are thankful to America and bipartisan support and to President Trump. But we never got drones and interceptors from the United States. So we never asked. It's just new technologies. But we've got Patriot missiles. And we are thankful to America that we could get some missiles. But also, at the same moment, I want to underline that Middle East partners had more missiles for Patriots than we've got from the United States and Europeans during all the war. They used more missiles. They used more than 800 Patriot missiles during first attack, during first 24, 36 hours.

24:17So more than we had during all the months. But when we speak how to close the sky, I mean, we gave what we had and what our American friends, they don't have, or European friends, they don't have, I mean, such a big system of these experts. they have more other things very strong things but not these and Middle East countries asked us

24:42Ben Meiselas:exactly about finally another development I want everybody to be focused on right now is what's going on in the Red Sea and the strait over there in the Red Sea as well because you know in the Persian Gulf you have the Strait of Hormuz right that was where a lot of the oil was sent through the Strait of Hormuz. But we're not talking about the Red Sea. That's an alternative path for some of this oil to be shipped through, especially Saudi oil. Well, one of the tools that Iran has is to further activate the Houthis in Yemen. And if they close the Bab al-Mandab Strait completely to support Iran, and you have both areas closed, The Persian Gulf and the Red Sea closed.

25:30Ben Meiselas:Bolt Straits, the Bab el-Mandab Strait and the Strait of Hormuz, that's a big problem. And that will further cause, I think, oil to clearly go above$200 per barrel, maybe even$300 per barrel. That's where things seem to be headed, unfortunately, as Donald Trump continues to make bad move after bad move and then just go silent over the weekend. Anyway, tell me what you think about this all. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. And thanks for watching.