In short
The host recaps “lowlights” from a four-hour Trump cabinet meeting broadcast on live TV, focusing on Trump’s remarks and the cabinet’s praise.
Key claims
Trump says “black women” want him to invade Chicago with the National Guard; mocks Gavin Newsom’s “hand action”; says he likes being called a dictator and claims he can do anything because he’s president; dismisses Russia/Ukraine ceasefire talk as “bullshit”; claims groceries, energy, wages, and gas prices are down (and inflation is absent); repeatedly boasts about crime and D.C. restaurant reopenings; attacks Zelensky as “not innocent”; claims foreign nations pay “trillions” into U.S. treasury; brags about moving water for Southern California fires “by force”; and asserts extreme drug-price cuts and other economic wins.
Notable examples
“MS-NBC” compared to MS-13; “grandkids building furniture” in North Carolina via tariffs; cabinet members praising Trump in an “anti-American” tone.
Guests
The transcript names Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard, Kelly Loeffler, Lori Chavez-Daremer, Steve Witkoff, Howard Lutnick, Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio, and also references Pam Bondi, Chuck Schumer, and President Zelensky (not as guests).
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 Cabinet Meeting Summary
0:29 to 1:30
An overview of Donald Trump's recent cabinet meeting highlights and lowlights.
“Donald Trump just wrapped up a disastrous cabinet meeting.”
Trump's Controversial Statements
1:30 to 2:53
Analysis of Trump's comments about black women, crime, and being a dictator.
“I don't know what the hell is his problem.”
Trump on Zelensky and Ukraine
2:53 to 4:13
Discussion of Trump's remarks on Zelensky's innocence and Russia's stance.
“I don't love, not that I don't have the right to do anything I want to do.”
Trump's Inaccuracies on Crime and Economy
4:13 to 6:39
Exploring Trump's assertions about crime rates and economic conditions in the U.S.
“This past weekend, Sergei Lavrov was saying that Putin will not sign a peace deal with Zelensky because Russia views him as illegitimate.”
Trump's Claims on Manufacturing Jobs
6:39 to 7:40
Trump discusses manufacturing jobs and economic recovery in North Carolina.
“President Trump, I'd say, President Trump, we need your help.”
Trump on D.C. Restaurant Recovery
7:40 to 12:48
Trump's claims about the recovery of restaurants in D.C. versus reality.
“Then Donald Trump says, actually, Democrats love crime, which is not true.”
Trump Attacks Media and Claims on Drug Prices
13:04 to 14:00
Trump's comparison of media outlets and his false claims on drug pricing.
“And Donald Trump says that MSNBC is worse than Trendy Aragua because Trump's just starting to say words like he goes, MS, MS-13, MS, MS-DNC.”
Trump's Misleading Claims on Trade
14:00 to 15:14
Explore Trump's exaggerated statements on trade deals and foreign payments.
“And we're not talking about a 25 % cut or 50.”
Water Management Controversies
15:15 to 16:01
Discuss the false claims about water management during California fires.
“And in a short period of time, they have to buy$750 billion worth of our energy product.”
Cabinet Meeting Praise Fest
16:02 to 16:42
A look at the unusual praise from Trump's cabinet members during a meeting.
“and I'm using force to drain water into areas where it shouldn't go.”
Show all 12 chapters
Sycophantic Comments from Officials
16:46 to 19:19
Detailed remarks from various officials showcasing their flattery toward Trump.
“President, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to work for you.”
Law Enforcement and Labor Day Remarks
19:20 to 20:28
Reflections on law enforcement's role and the significance of Labor Day.
“just wanted everybody to know that when we control the modes of production, that that's not socialism at all.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00This episode is brought to you by Claude by Anthropic. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter and finds connections you might have missed. For problems worth solving, get started at claude.ai slash Spotify.
0:30Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump just wrapped up a disastrous cabinet meeting. It lasted four hours. I watched it all. I'm going to bring you the lowlights in a very abbreviated form. Here, Donald Trump talks about there's an army of black women who say they love him so much and they want him to invade their cities with the National Guard. Play this clip. You have a force of black women, black women. they're like only Trump. They want Trump to come in. And you see him, they're all over the place in Chicago. Then Donald Trump talks about California Governor Gavin Newsom and says he's really good looking, very handsome, but he has something going on with the hand, some hand action going on there.
1:16Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. Can't handle it. You have an incompetent governor there. You have an incompetent governor in California, Gavin. I know him very well. He's incompetent. He's a nice guy, looks good. Hi, everybody. How you doing? He's got some strange hand action going. I don't know what the hell is his problem. It's a little weird, to be honest. A little something shaky going on there. But, you know. This was Donald Trump's hand during this disastrous cabinet meeting. Okay. Then Donald Trump says that he actually likes being called a dictator. He says that most people say, if you stop crime, become our dictator, Donald.
1:54Ben Meiselas:No one is saying that, but Trump talking about becoming a dictator and being a dictator at this cabinet meeting, play this clip. And will be the big subject of the next election. Think of it. They are, instead of saying Trump's right about crime, it's really bad in Chicago. You have a guy in Illinois, the governor of Illinois, saying that crime has been much better in Chicago recently, and Trump is a dictator. And most people say, if you call him a dictator, if he stops crying, he can be whatever he wants. I'm not a dictator, by the way, but he can be whatever he wants. Then on the topic of being a dictator, Donald Trump says, I have the right to do anything that I want.
2:40Ben Meiselas:I don't have to follow laws. I am the president and that gives me the right to do anything. Here he is saying it. Play this clip. So I would have much more respect for Pritzker if he'd call me up and say, I have a problem. Can you help me fix it? I would be so happy to do it. I don't love, not that I don't have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the president of the United States. If I think our country's in danger, and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it. No problem going in and solving his difficulties, but it would be nice if they'd call and say, would you do it? Then Donald Trump attacks President Zelensky of Ukraine saying he's not innocent.
3:20Ben Meiselas:Play this clip. But it could be an economic war and an economic war is going to be bad and it's going to be bad for Russia. And I don't want that. Now, I have to also see because not everybody, you know, Zelensky is not exactly innocent either. OK, you know, it takes two people to tango. And I say it all the time. You got to get them together. I get along with Zelensky now, but we have a much different relationship because now we're not paying any money to Ukraine. Then when Donald Trump is confronted with the fact that Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, says that Putin will never meet with Zelensky, will never sign a deal with Zelensky, and won't even entertain anything related to Zelensky because Russia says Zelensky is not legitimate.
4:05Ben Meiselas:What's your response, Donald? Because you've been talking about ceasefire deals, trilateral meetings, security guarantees. Russia is saying the opposite. What's your response? Here, play this clip. A question for Steve Wyckoff, if I may. This past weekend, Sergei Lavrov was saying that Putin will not sign a peace deal with Zelensky because Russia views him as illegitimate. Just wondering if the Russians have been relaying this to your team, if they view Zelensky as a leader worth signing a peace deal with, if they will. It doesn't matter what they say. Steve can answer, but I can answer too. It doesn't matter what they say.
4:44Everybody's posturing. It's all bullshit, okay? Everybody's posturing. Steve, do you have a different answer? I agree with you, sir.
4:53Ben Meiselas:Oh, so Donald Trump just starts cursing. Very adult-like. It doesn't matter what they say. It's all bullshit. Come on. Act like an adult. Act like a grownup. Just try to pretend that you have a position of power rather than behaving in this way. Oops, you can't. Oh, then Donald Trump says that all prices are down. Groceries way down. Energy's way down. Gas. It's$2. All a lie. every aspect. None of this is true. None of anything that he says is true. But play this clip. The wages for blue collar workers are now rising at the fastest rate in 60 years, which is so important to all of us around this table.
5:32The average American worker has already seen a$500 wage increase this year, and there's no inflation because there's been decreases, tremendous decreases with thanks to Doug and Chris, some of the people, the great job they've done with energy. thank you very much and Chris thank you very much I see you down close to$60 a barrel and you'll be you'll be breaking that pretty soon and that has a huge impact and so we have groceries are down energy is way down energy is way down it was four and five dollars for a gallon of gas think of that for gasoline and now it's probably 225 there are some places it's two dollars it's even it broke$2 at a couple of locations in the South.
6:20Ben Meiselas:Then Donald Trump says, I don't understand why democratic governors are not calling me up, begging to be invaded. Please Donald invade my state. He said, if I was a democratic governor, I'd call me up and say, invade me here. Let's play it. And if I were a governor, a Democrat governor or mayor or anybody having to do, I'd call up President Trump, I'd say, President Trump, we need your help. We saw what you've done in D.C. in a period of 12 days. This is 12 days. We haven't even started. This is going to be so safe. It's going to be the safest place on Earth. Then Donald Trump attacks Ukraine further and says that, I'm sure Ukraine thought they were going to win this thing, but Russia's 15 times your size, so you're going to lose.
7:07Right? War's very tricky, very horrible. But with war, you never know. Things change. People go into war, think they're going to win the war, and then they get their asses kicked and they lose their country and they lose millions of lives. Nobody goes into a war thinking they're going to lose. They go in. I'm sure that Ukraine thought they were going to win. It's going to be, you know, we're going to win. You're going to beat somebody that's 15 times your size. Biden shouldn't have let that happen. Biden shouldn't have. I mean, the man was grossly incompetent. He should have never been there. That would have never happened.
7:39But you don't go into a war that's 15 times your size.
7:43Ben Meiselas:Then Donald Trump says, actually, Democrats love crime, which is not true. But this is how infantile these cabinet meetings are. Let's play it. We're against crime. The Democrats like crime. I don't know why. I mean, we're talking. And Donald Trump turns to Pam Bondi and says she's beautiful. But it'll end my political career if I say she's beautiful. Here, play this clip. And then I saw this poor, stupid Chuck Schumer, the guy. He looks like he's aged 100 years. And I don't like getting into looks. You know, looks don't mean anything, right? When you're in politics, looks no matter. I look at Pam, I would never say she's beautiful because that'd be the end of my political career.
8:30Secretary. And but but I will tell you,
8:34Ben Meiselas:Can you just release the Epstein files, please? Rather than creepily saying that your attorney general you think is beautiful, would be nice if your attorney general and you stop covering up the Epstein files. Oh, and then Donald Trump says that North Carolina, which you should look forward to is your grandkids building furniture and factories because we're going to take those jobs back from China. Start training your grandkids now how to build things with wood. Here, play this clip. it's so sad but we're going to rebuild north carolina furniture and other places south carolina too to a lesser extent uh they make furniture but uh furniture we're going to put a very substantial tariff on we've already announced it it'll be done pretty quickly and when that happens everyone's going to start i just tell you north carolina go out and start getting uh the grandchildren and the children start teaching them because some of those incredible artists that I knew as young people.
9:33They're older people now, but they still have the talent and they have time left, but they're going to be teaching their sons and their daughters and their grandchildren. And it's going to be a beautiful thing to see. It's going to happen like magic. It's going to happen without question. It's not like, gee, I hope it happens. It's going to happen.
9:51Ben Meiselas:Really, Donald? Really, that's where you're going. I mean, you realize that China looked at American jobs and said, that's what we want to be, more high-paying service-related jobs. And America looked at China and said, no, no, we want those sweatshops and factories here in the United States. No labor laws. Make your grandkids put widgets together. That's what making America great again. And they're not even doing it. Factories are closing and shutting down right now. So even if you say that, that's not actually what's taking place in this country, which, of course, Donald Trump lies about everything.
10:26Ben Meiselas:Here, Donald Trump says that restaurants are opening again in D.C. They were all shut down, and now D.C. is coming back to life. When the exact opposite is true, I spoke with the shadow senator of Washington, D.C., Senator Jain. I spoke with the council member one, a council member, and both told me restaurants are shutting down and things have actually never been worse. Here, play this clip. badly but uh and i bet you see a big difference in the streets right now and this is only 12 days but uh people are telling me they're going out to dinner now they haven't i told the story of my friend but i have a lot of friends that are going out to dinner all the time now in dc and they weren't they weren't doing it 12 days ago they would never even think one of my friends went out five times it was four times the last time i told now it's five times he said i love going out to dinner and restaurants are starting to open again.
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13:05Ben Meiselas:And Donald Trump says that MSNBC is worse than Trendy Aragua because Trump's just starting to say words like he goes, MS, MS-13, MS, MS-DNC. Here, play this clip. They showed one scene where a bunch of Trendy Aragua guys or whatever, maybe MS-13, maybe MS-DNC, okay? Because to me, they're worse. I think they're worse. MS-NBC maybe is worse than Trendy Aragua. Real scum. Real scum, real dishonest people. But anyway, but they went into this gang, I think. And Donald Trump says that he's reducing prescription drug prices by 1500%. Again, 100%. You can't lower things more than 100%, Donald, but play this clip.
13:56That can be done is favorite nations, Bobby. And we're not talking about a 25 % cut or 50. We're talking about a 1500 % cut. But because people go to Europe to buy drugs and they come back with drugs, prescription drugs, normal, not, I don't mean the bad, bad drugs, I mean prescription drugs.
14:16Ben Meiselas:And then Donald Trump says that foreign nations are paying America trillions of dollars right now, literally trillions of dollars. Here, let's play this clip. Thank you, Brooke. And we have negotiated historic trade deals with the United Kingdom, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, who was here yesterday, and the European Union. Foreign nations are now paying hundreds of billions of dollars straight into our treasury and numbers that nobody's ever seen before. As you know, we made trade deals with a lot of countries and many of those countries, just to be able to sit at the table, are paying us hundreds of billions of dollars.
14:56We made a trade deal with the European Union. They were rough on us for a long time. And now we have a very good deal. made that with them. Trillions of dollars is coming into our country, trillions, far beyond billions, trillions of dollars. Wouldn't you say, Scott? Yes, sir. And in a short period of time, they have to buy$750 billion worth of our energy product. Energy is great. We have more than anybody else, and we're using it.
15:25Ben Meiselas:Oh, and finally, Donald Trump says that he brought in hundreds of millions of gallons in water to put out the fires in Southern California back in January, which again is a total lie. Donald Trump released billions of gallons from reservoirs in Central to Northern California, which are in no way connected at all to Southern California. And after the fires were 100 % contained, so you got rid of water that was needed by the farmers in a completely different area of California. But Trump brags, I did it by force. Look how strong I am. I'm invading American states and I'm using force to drain water into areas where it shouldn't go.
16:07Play this clip. But I think that's actually just an excuse. I actually think these people are sick. There's something wrong. So we send hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day into the Pacific Ocean. They turn a valve and the valve heads out and we turn the valve back. I actually had to do it using force. We turn the valve back and now they have water, but not as much as they should have because they should. And I'm telling Gavin Newsom by this conversation right now, turn the rest of the water on. Turn it on.
16:42Ben Meiselas:Then you had this like suck up fest. This this part got really weird in the cabinet meeting where then you had all the cabinet members start praising Donald Trump in the in the weirdest anti-American Kim Jong Unist way. Here's Kristi Noem. Let's play it. Kristi. Well, Mr. President, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to work for you. And you committed when you ran for president to make America safe again. And today, the average family and individual that lives in this country is safer than they've been in years because of what you've done. Here's Tulsi Gabbard. Let's play it. And they could never make America great again, but we are doing that.
17:24Congratulations. You found some interesting things, Tulsi. She's becoming a bigger and bigger star every day. She found a lot of good things. Go ahead. Thank you, sir. As we approach Labor Day weekend here, This is just such a great opportunity really to recognize your leadership as a true champion for working people. And I know we'll hear as we go around the table here how your focus singularly on putting the well-being and interest of the American people first is that common thread that we're seeing in your policies being implemented across your administration.
17:58Ben Meiselas:Here's Kelly Loeffler. Let's play it. Administrator. Thank you, Mr. President. Well, everyone knows there's no stronger advocate for hardworking American families than you. Here's Lori Chavez-Daremer. Let's play it. If you all haven't stopped by the Department of Labor, Mr. President, I invite you to see your big, beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor, because you are really the transformational president of the American worker, along with the American flag and President Roosevelt, because we're bringing business and labor together. And I was so honored to unveil that yesterday.
18:32And everybody is taking note of that.
18:35Ben Meiselas:Here's Steve Witkoff. Let's play it. Mr. President, working for this government, for you, is the greatest honor of my life. I tell it to everybody, and I really do feel that way. And I thank you because it's a privilege to go out there and represent you in your humanitarian effort, in your goals of solving conflicts all over the world. I think there were actually more than seven conflicts that you put to bed in the last eight months. And I hear these, I travel all over the world. In hostage square, they talk about you reverentially. It's really quite amazing. I sometimes wish - Oh, and by the way, here Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump's commerce secretary, just wanted everybody to know that when we control the modes of production, that that's not socialism at all.
19:28Ben Meiselas:That's capitalism. When the government takes over private business, that's capitalism. Here, play this clip. Right? The Biden administration had given$11 billion to Intel, given it to them. Done. Corporate just gift. And you turn that into really, you know, it was like less than five minutes of conversation. And Intel agreed to give us 10 % of their company, which of course was worth$11 billion. So it's not socialism. This is capitalism. Doug Burgum sucking up to Donald Trump. Let's play it. You have breathed life back into the profession of law enforcement. Your respect for law enforcement is so incredible.
20:12Ben Meiselas:It's making a difference. Here's Marco Rubio sucking up to Donald Trump. Let's play it. You've been great. Thank you very much. So Marco, go ahead. Well, Mr. President, first of all, everyone's made this comment already. It needs to be echoed again. and you were elected as the president of Working Americans. And that's why this Labor Day is so meaningful. For me personally, this is the most meaningful Labor Day of my life as someone with four jobs. And so...
20:36It's true. It's true.
20:42Ben Meiselas:All very weird and strange. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Thank you so much for watching.
20:53Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts for new updates every single day.
From the publisher
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s disastrous Cabinet Meeting that lasted over four hours and included some of the most bizarre and dangerous conduct by Trump and his Cabinet yet.
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