Trump Kicks Out Press as War Utterly Backfires!!

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1:54Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is panicking as his catastrophic war in Iran continues to spiral out of control. He has not made any public appearances since his disastrous address to the nation, if you want to call it that, on Wednesday night. No public appearances, no press conferences. As we've been reporting, he's been doing what's called calling a lid where he basically kicks all of the press out, doesn't let them near him. And he's basically been ducking any public appearances as this war spirals out of control. I mean, we know at the end of last week, you had the F-15E and the A-10, and you had the two helicopters.

2:39Ben Meiselas:The two airplanes were shot down. The two helicopters were severely damaged. And remember, Donald Trump was saying, we decimated Iran. They don't have any capabilities to shoot at us. It's like a BB gun at this point. What are they doing? Well, Donald Trump's MIA, he is making social media posts that are utterly deranged. I mean, he's still making those posts like the post he made in the morning when he goes, remember when I gave Iran 10 days to make a deal or open up the Hormuz straight, time is running out 48 hours before all hell will rain down on them. And of course he spells rain incorrectly.

3:22Ben Meiselas:Glory be to God, Donald J. Trump. Glory be to God as you threaten to commit more war crimes. Also, yesterday evening, again, Donald Trump's not made any public appearances, but he posted the following. Many of Iran's military leaders who have led them poorly and unwisely are terminated, along with much else, with the massive strike in Tehran, Donald J. Trump. Then he posts a video, I guess, American and Israeli aircraft bombing Tehran. And like a lot of people are unclear, like what he's specifically talking about and who he's taken out. But that's what Donald Trump does. He just rushes to make social media posts.

4:10Ben Meiselas:He's also posting that he got 96 % approval at CPAC, at the far right-wing extremist convention. So maybe that's soothing his lack of a soul right now. And then he goes, if you import the third world, you become the third world. And that's not going to happen to the United States of America as long as I am president. Donald J. Trump, I mean, for real, who talks like that? And yesterday, Selena Wang talked about how as of 5.04 p.m. Eastern time in the afternoon, and this was through the entire night, you'll see you see the Marine sentry right there standing guard outside the West Wing. That means Donald Trump's been in the Oval Office from what we hear.

4:55Ben Meiselas:He's been with his national security team kind of locked up there as Donald Trump and Netanyahu are saying that they're going to blow up all of Iran's electrical grids and more of its bridges and take out more of its civilian infrastructure. sure. And one of the things that Donald Trump's putting on his official schedule, because the White House has to publish like official schedules, they say that throughout the entire day that he's engaged in, quote, executive time, executive time. Now, while Donald Trump's involved in his executive time and he's making these threats and he's blowing up Iranian bridges and hitting Iranian universities and he's hitting Iranian army and military as well, let's be clear.

5:40Ben Meiselas:But Iran firmly controls the Strait of Hormuz with an iron fist. And of course, Iranian leaders are saying that they're getting ready to tell the Houthis to basically shut down the Red Sea and give them the command there, shut down the Strait there, which would send oil prices up to, what,$175,$200 a barrel. But Iran's been targeting its Arab nation neighbors with American interests in it, countries that support the U.S., where the U.S. is launching military strikes against Iran from like Kuwait. And what we learned last night is you can see right here, Kuwait's Ministry of Oil building was hit in an Iranian attack.

6:24Ben Meiselas:I mean, you can see it on fire. You could also see other Kuwaiti energy infrastructure. The Ministry of Electricity and water and renewable energy in Kuwait confirmed that two Kuwaiti power and water desalination plants were attacked by Iranian drones, causing significant damage, according to Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity. Two power generation units are also all out of service. And in addition to the Kuwaiti infrastructure being targeted and hit by Iran, it should also be noted that in the past 12 hours bahrain's babco energies refinery complex was hit in an iranian strike you can see the smoke and fire reported at the site multiple reports are showing this and you can see in the video right here witnesses and initial reports say a drone or missile struck this industrial area with visible flames and thick smoke near the refinery early information indicates damage and possible injuries, though information is currently evolving, as drop site reports right there.

7:35Ben Meiselas:You can see the image right there of the BAPCO Energy Refinery Complex just being damaged significantly by this strike. Things are intensifying, folks. As another open source intelligence account has been showing the Air Force activity above Europe right now, take a look at the U.S. Air Force mobilization over the past 48 hours. We'll play the B-roll of it right here. You see the massive crowd over the EU skies. This is, as it's referred to, the big birds are resupplying, right? Those big strato tankers and other fuel ships are up there. They're refueling some of the other jets that are being used to strike in Iran.

8:22Ben Meiselas:As Brandon Weickhard explains, they're readying for a major shaping operation, it seems. They're doing massive air campaigns. And when you do that, that seems to signal that there will be ground troops as well. But we'll see. We got to follow the data. But one of the things that is happening as well, Planet Labs. Have you heard of Planet Labs? I'm sure you have. If you haven't, it's one of the most important U.S.-based commercial satellite imagery providers. That's who most media outlets rely on to get those images. They're saying that the Trump regime has asked all imagery providers to indefinitely withhold satellite images from the Iran war.

9:11Ben Meiselas:As Ben Rhodes explains, the Trump regime is going to great lengths to hide the damage of this war. to U.S. bases, facilities, and the wider region, but they will expect you to pay for it. Arik Tolar explains that this access change also includes Gaza and Lebanon, not just Iran and the Gulf states with U.S. bases. And Planet Labs, they've been very good in their imagery. And it's led to a lot of scoops. You're able to see where Iran is striking a lot of these U.S. military bases when the Trump regime has been trying to cover it up. And now the Trump regime is basically banning them from publishing their satellite imagery without certain types of permission.

9:58Ben Meiselas:One of the things that's also being reported in Reuters just now, and we've been talking about this here on the Midas Touch Network, but new US intelligence reports suggest that Iran will likely increase its regional sway as a result of the Iran war or Trump's unlawful war with Netanyahu against Iran through their control of the Strait of Hormuz. Intelligence suggests Iran is unlikely to open the Strait of Hormuz anytime soon, although I think that's a misnomer. It's open to Iranian allies. Like they just said, Iraq, you could use the Strait of Hormuz. They let a French vessel go through recently.

10:36Ben Meiselas:They let a Japanese vessel go through recently. They let Indian vessels go through recently. They let Chinese vessels go through recently. They accept money. right now, Iran, in certain types of crypto, certain types of Bitcoin that they use, and yuan, the Chinese currency, because one of the things that Iran's looking to do is also hurt the dollar. You know, and Iran's built this toll system and they go, this is ours. We ain't leaving. We have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon. And it just goes to show you again, you know, what's going on there. And while you have that taking place, you have MAGA Republican senators like Rick Scott of Florida, who was involved when he was the head of this company, Columbia company was called the largest Medicare Medicaid criminal fraud scheme in US history at the time.

11:26Ben Meiselas:He goes, Hey, TMZ, I'm at Disney with my grandkids. Should we be in DC? Yes, but I don't make that decision. I mean, these are such a bunch of like weird human beings. What are you talking about, dude? There's so much going on right now, and this is what you're posting while Americans are suffering right now. Point this out as well, the JSSMERs, these stealth kind of cruise missiles that are very effective. We've learned with the Bloomberg scoop that the US is sending nearly all of its JSSMER cruise missiles to CENTCOM, leaving only about 425 JSSMs. out of a pre-war inventory of 2300 for other contingencies.

12:12Ben Meiselas:As Kelly Greico explains, when does the U.S. lose conventional deterrence against China? We're edging dangerously close. The next steps in the U.S. military campaign against Iran will commit nearly its entire inventory of stealthy JASMER cruise missiles, drawing them from stockpiles devoted to other regions. The order to pull the$1.5 million weapon from Pacific stockpiles was issued at the end of March, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Missiles at U.S. facilities elsewhere, including continental U.S., will be moved to the U.S. Central Command bases, or Fairford in the U.K., said a person who was granted anonymity to discuss the details.

13:00Ben Meiselas:After the moves, only about 425 JASSMERs out of pre-war inventory of 2300 will remain viable for the rest of the globe. So Iran is is forcing the U.S. to draw down a lot of its inventory there. I'll also share this with you, too. I think this is an important, an important note. What they're saying, of course, in Iran, you have their minister of their. One of their foreign ministry spokespersons, Esmail Bakay, he says, throughout history, Iranians have been the guardians of Verdansi and the Cyprus. Today as well, every Iranian drawing from the deep rooted wisdom embedded in their culture and a meaningful practice suited to the error plants a tree.

13:49Ben Meiselas:Let the darkness lost in the delusion of understanding today and planning for tomorrow descend into the ravings of the Stone Age. The nation of love plants a sapling of green that will spread its branches and leaves to tomorrow. He also writes, destroying the great bridges, which stand as a steadfast symbol of the ingenuity, commitment and tireless efforts of Iranian engineers and workers does not elevate the saboteurs. This war crime in the style of ISIS terrorism accompanied by similar attacks on vital infrastructure in Iran makes an undeniable truth more evident. Their ultimate goal is destruction of Iran, a goal they have relentlessly pursued for nearly five decades.

14:34Ben Meiselas:Then it goes on to say Iran today stands firmer, prouder and greater than ever. And folks, we've been talking about all of the force majeure clauses that all of these companies have been invoking in the Middle East. Even if the war were to end today, the oil shock, the supply shock is so severe that it will have catastrophic impacts no matter what on world economies right now. And it ain't going to end in 24 hours. It should be noted that Ghalib Bhaf, the parliament leader of Iran, I mean, he's out there saying, if we don't have signals that the Trump regime is getting ready to surrender or basically get out and allow us to control the Strait of Hormuz, keep our ballistic missiles and our Shahi drones and keep our power here in Iran.

15:26Ben Meiselas:if we believe that the Trump regime and Israel are going to escalate and hit the electrical grids and hit these areas, we're going to hit Saudi Arabia. We're going to hit Qatar. We're going to hit Kuwait. We're going to hit the UAE even harder. And Gala Bob says we've been trying to avoid the way they referred to it was like a Ukraine, Russia style, scorched earth, catastrophic situation in the Middle East. So they said they've been picking their targets. And what's one of the reasons they hit Kuwait last night was to show, look, we could hit this at will. But they said, we'll go scorched earth on the region.

16:04Ben Meiselas:And so we're 12 to 24 hours away of kind of scorched earth, right? You have Donald Trump saying the deadline that he set will end notably right before the markets open on Monday, where he says he's going to blow Iran up to the Stone Ages. You have Iran saying, well, we're not going to wait for that. if it seems that that's what you're going to go, we're going to preemptively attack other areas in the Middle East. Things are escalating very, very, very quickly right now. Top advisors around Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal, are telling him, hit the power plants of Iran, hit the road networks, hit the bridges.

16:43Ben Meiselas:They've been saying Iran's infrastructure is fair game. And Pete Hegseth is saying, we need to do this. That's how we can win this war. Destroy all the civilian infrastructure. That's a war crime, Pete. That's a war crime, Donald. And you've been involved in many, many a war crime thus far. Israel's preparing possible strikes on all of those targets and energy sites, waiting on Donald Trump's green light to do that in the next 12 to 24 hours. I mean, again, they've already been doing it, but to escalate even more. And then Donald Trump's focus while all of this is going on, while he's basically disappeared from public view.

17:22Ben Meiselas:Oh, Donald, I did a whole report on this yesterday about Donald Trump's budget, right? His$2.5 trillion budget is$1.5 trillion in defense spending and cutting all the healthcare and social services and all the things that people need, small business stuff, low-income housing, all the things that people need right now. And I pointed this out yesterday, but the way this status frame is just so staggering. Trump is asking Congress for$377 million for executive residence renovations in 2027's budget. That's an 866 % jump from the prior year. So Donald Trump claims that all the money's coming from private sources to build his ballroom, which a federal judge blocked.

18:09Ben Meiselas:He says that's going to cost$400 million, the ballroom alone, which the judge block. And separately, he needs$377 million of our taxpayer dollars for White House renovations. And that doesn't even include the bunker that's being built under the East Wing, which will likely be hundreds of millions. He's talking about like$2 billion in renovations for the White House. Sicko. Bunch of sickos over here. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. We'll let you know when Donald Trump surfaces, if he surfaces anytime soon. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks for watching, everybody.

18:44Ben Meiselas:Thank you.

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