In short
The episode argues that Donald Trump’s return to Washington follows failed Middle East plans, ongoing Israel-Hamas ceasefire violations, and broader U.S. political dysfunction during a government shutdown.
Guest backgrounds
No guests are interviewed in the transcript; the host is Ryan Reynolds (ad read) and the rest is commentary by the episode’s main speaker.
Key claims
Israel plans to limit Gaza aid and keep Rafah closed until Hamas returns dead Israeli captives; Hamas has only returned 4 of 28 deceased hostages and is executing opposition groups. The IDF says it killed five Palestinians after alleged ceasefire violations; a Palestinian civil defense spokesperson disputes this. The host claims Trump and Republicans spread “fraud,” lack negotiation strategy, and use misleading narratives about protests.
Notable examples
Trump’s Netanyahu comments about supplying weapons; Mike Johnson saying Republicans won’t “figure out a way out of the shutdown” and instead plan to nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize; Fox/Mar-a-Lago backroom imagery; claims about “$18 trillion” tariff money and exaggerated healthcare savings.
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 Disastrous Return to D.C.
0:30 to 2:45
Analyzing Trump's failed plans in the Middle East and its consequences.
“His plans in the Middle East are already falling apart, as I had previously predicted.”
MAGA Strategy and Health Care Crisis
2:45 to 8:13
Discussion on Republican strategies and the looming health care crisis.
“And I was saying, does anybody understand the history of the region and what's taking place?”
MAGA Media and Corruption
8:21 to 10:52
Exploring MAGA Republicans' narratives and connections to corruption.
“And meanwhile, you have the MAGA Republican Congress members going on state regime media known as Fox.”
Trump's Nobel Peace Prize Nomination
10:52 to 14:01
Discussion on Trump's nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize and fact-checking his claims.
“And speaking of terrific, what a fantastic view across the street.”
Exposing Lies and Fraud from the White House
14:01 to 14:38
Learn about the allegations of dishonesty and financial schemes related to the current administration.
“Everything out of this White House is a lie.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.
0:29Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is having a disastrous landing back to Washington, D.C. His plans in the Middle East are already falling apart, as I had previously predicted. Here's what we're learning. Israel's already planning to have the amount of aid into Gaza. Israel has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire already with slow releases of dead hostages. Israeli media outlets report that Israel has decided to also keep the Rafah crossing closed to Gazans and then to scale back the humanitarian aid deliveries until Hamas returns the bodies of Israeli captives who had died. Joe Trusman writes, Hamas has returned only four of the deceased hostages out of 28.
1:18Ben Meiselas:Meanwhile, Hamas has been storming through Gaza, executing opposition groups in an attempt to reassert its power. There have been some horrific videos, execution videos. I'm not going to play here. The Israeli Defense Force said its troops opened fire on Palestinians in Gaza City, killing five, five dead in Gaza City. And the IDF says that they allegedly violated the terms of the ceasefire agreement right there. A Palestinian civil defense spokesperson denied the IDF's claims, said that these were innocent Palestinians who were shot and killed. This is why I said where you have Donald Trump not addressing the issue of a two-state solution, Hamas saying that it was not going to disarm Israel saying it was going to continue to engage in military operations against Hamas.
2:16Ben Meiselas:Israel and Hamas never signed the peace agreement, which is really a ceasefire. It's not a peace agreement. It's a ceasefire. I just want to be clear. The signatories to the agreement did not include Israel and Hamas. So how do you have a deal without the people signing the thing. It's what I've been saying over and over again. And our corporate news fell for it again. And they were spiking the football and Donald Trump was throwing mission accomplished parties for himself. And I was saying, does anybody understand the history of the region and what's taking place? I made it very clear. I thought the return of the hostages was a great thing.
2:56I think the prospect of a ceasefire is a great thing. but I also spoke about the atrocities that have already been committed in Gaza. I spoke about the fact that Hamas is refusing to disarm. And I said, look at the facts, people. It's staring us in the face. They haven't even signed the agreement Israel and Hamas. So what are we talking about here? It's just more fraud from Donald Trump than on Donald Trump's heading back to DC on his landing. He's just very odd person. He talks again about Caroline Levin's lips and how her lips, Caroline Levin's lips, that they're like machine guns. Have you seen her lips?
3:35Here, play this clip.
3:56like a machine gun, right? Do you want to elaborate on the...
3:59Ben Meiselas:Then he says that Governor Pritzker of Illinois needs to beg. He needs to beg me, Donald Trump says. The reporter says, what's your message for Illinois Governor Pritzker? And Trump's like, he should beg to play this clip. I'll just speak to Governor Jamie Pritzker tomorrow. Do you have a few messages or questions for him? I think he should beg for help because he's running a bad operation. Then while Donald Trump was heading back to the United States, you had MAGA Mike Johnson and being asked by Manu Raju and others in the press during this awful press conference that MAGA Mike held. So what's your strategy here?
4:36Like, what are you doing? Like, so Republicans in Congress and the Senate are refusing to speak with Democrats, yet alone negotiate with Democrats. So like, what's the end game here? If you refuse to even talk like Democrats are trying to work and negotiate, come up with a strategy to save the health care of tens of millions of Americans who are going to lose their health care. There was a study out of Pennsylvania, for example. In Pennsylvania, the average health care costs there will go up 103 % if you're on the Obamacare Affordable Care Act plan there. And we're seeing that in every state. So what are you going to be doing?
5:13What's your strategy? Mag and Mike literally says, I have no strategy. Play this clip. Yeah, Manu, go ahead. You've been doing this every single day, coming up here, trying to pressure Senate Democrats. They've been not budging. They've blocked this bill time and time again. So at what point, for the good of the country, do you need to change your strategy to try to negotiate a deal with that? It's a great question, Manu asks. Why don't I change my strategy? I don't have any strategy, Manu. I'm doing the right thing, the clearly obvious thing, the traditional thing. That's exactly what Chuck Schumer voted for in March of this year and gave impassioned speeches was the right and only thing.
5:52I don't have anything to negotiate.
5:54Ben Meiselas:So then MAGA Republican Congresswoman Lisa McClain steps up because she thinks that MAGA Mike there just kind of blew it. And so she's like, all right, here's the strategy. Democrats just sign the damn agreement. She's like, it's like loses it. Like just sign the damn agreement. I'm not, I'm not making it up. Watch as she just becomes completely, she unravels before our eyes. Here, play this clip. But the way to end this shutdown is really, really simple. Pass the bipartisan clean funding bill that the House approved weeks ago. The Republicans voted to keep the government open. Call your Democratic senators.
6:33They're voting to keep it shut, not us.
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7:54If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. So turn your big business idea into boom, boom, boom with Shopify on your side. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com slash Midas. Go to Shopify.com slash Midas. One more time, that's Shopify.com slash Midas. And meanwhile, you have the MAGA Republican Congress members going on state regime media known as Fox. And their talking points that they're repeating over and over again is that the No Kings protest on October 18th, they go, this is the pro-Antifa hate America rally. And this government shutdown is all about the hate America rally.
8:43First off, it's not a hate America rally. It's not a pro-Antifa rally, whatever the hell that even means. It is a peaceful protest, which is a core American value against the idea of a tyrant and a king doing the things that we're seeing happen right now, destroying our constitution. But this is their talking point. They repeat over and over again. Let's play this clip. So you agree that that's what this is about, that they want to be there and sort of, you know, punch their chest there, that they're fighting Trump in this No Kings rally. That's what this is about. Yeah, we call it the Hate America rally because you'll see the hate for America all over this thing when they show up.
9:25Yeah, I mean, that's the rumor, Maria. The rumor is that they can't end this shutdown beforehand because this small but very violent and vocal group is the only one that's happy about this. If they shut it down beforehand, then they've got to deal with that group beforehand. If they make it through that, then at least they've made it through their Hate America rally, and then they can get this thing done. And you want exhibit A, Congress member Emmer, MAGA Republican Congress member Emmer. I mean, just look at this as you have state regime media Fox going to Mar-a-Lago to talk with Eric Trump.
9:59Y 'all recall that the president of Indonesia yesterday in Egypt was telling Donald Trump, we've got a location for you. I'd like to speak to Eric about the location. Like they're literally doing backroom deals, but in front of us, that's how brazen this corruption is and these quid pro quos. So you have Eric Trump here on Fox and they're talking about how, you know, look how beautiful Mar-a-Lago is. Look at our palace and we put these umbrellas in the Rose Garden. It's like, dude, people can't afford their homes right now. People can't afford rent. People are being psychologically tortured, living paycheck to paycheck.
10:39And this is what you're doing. Lifestyles of the rich and famous or lifestyles of destroying the White House and turning it into some weirdo golden bordella on the taxpayer dime here. Play this clip. And speaking of terrific, what a fantastic view across the street. That is the beach club. And in fact, those are the umbrellas from the Rose Garden. Exact same umbrellas as the Rose Garden. And by the way, that beautiful flagpole right there. Yeah. The exact same flagpole that we have at the White House. I got a call from my father. He goes, honey, I need I need two great flagpoles. I want to donate them to the White House.
11:13And we're very happy to have the same Mar-a-Lago flagpole on the South and North grounds now. All right. And so no wonder the latest CBS News YouGov poll shows that nearly 60 percent of Americans say that the Republican Party is too extreme versus 46 percent who say the same thing about Democrats. And that's not a surprising stat to me at all. And I want to leave you with these two clips because I think it is,
11:40Ben Meiselas:it makes the point. Here's what Donald Trump said yesterday, because to me, this clip's not getting enough attention. This is from, this is Al Jazeera English covering it, but take a look at, listen to what Donald Trump says to Netanyahu. Watch this moment, because in terms of actually building long-term peace, I'm not sure how this does that here. play this clip. I mean, Bibi would call me so many times. Can you get me this weapon, that weapon, that weapon? Some of them I never heard of, Bibi, and I made them. But we'd get them here, wouldn't we? And they are the best. They are the best. But you used them well.
12:19It also takes people that know how to use them. And you obviously used them very well. But so many that Israel became strong and powerful, which ultimately led to peace. That's what led to peace.
12:34Ben Meiselas:And then Maga Mike Johnson during his press conference saying that the big initiative that they're focused on right now is he goes, we here, the Republicans, we are going to be working on something. Not to figure out a way out of the shutdown. I kid you not. Not to figure out a way out of the shutdown. But I'm proud to tell you that together with the Speaker of the Knesset, the Knesset is Israel's parliament, we are working to jointly nominate Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Do you get more pathetic than this? Play this clip. I'm going to make an announcement today. It's the announcement in the U.S.
13:14that was made in the Knesset yesterday. I'm proud to tell you that together with my friend Speaker Ohana of the Israeli Knesset, the equivalent of our Congress, we're going to embark upon a project together to rally speakers and presidents of parliaments around the world so that we will jointly nominate President Donald J. Trump for next year's Nobel Peace Prize. No one has ever deserved that prize more, and that is an objective fact. As Speaker Ohana said before the Knesset yesterday, I quote, whoever saves one life, it is though he has saved an entire world. Then at the same time, too, one of the things Donald Trump claims is that he solved all of the war in the Congo and he brought Congo and Rwanda together.
13:56Nope. Another 19 people died there in the war and the war is raging on in the Congo. What are you talking about? Everything out of this White House is a lie. And the thing I always want us to focus on, too, the biggest Ponzi scheme happening in plain view, where this regime says Trump repeated it again over yesterday, that they brought in$18 trillion that's on a tariff shelf. $18 trillion? Where's the money? You promised tariff rebates. You promised Doge dividend checks. You promised all of these things. But apparently there's a secret$18 trillion and you claim you're going to lower healthcare price by 1600%, which isn't a real number.
14:38It's just fraud after fraud after fraud from this fraudulent, fraudulent, fraudulent regime.
14:46Ben Meiselas:Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million. Thanks so much for watching. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Philipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.
From the publisher
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump already seeing his plan in the Middle East falling apart as he gets more bad news as he returns to Washington DC.
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