Trump Locks Down White House as Midterm Fears Grow

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2:23Ben Meiselas:Tick-tock, Donald. Midterms are right around the corner. You ready for impeachment number three? You ready for investigations? Buckle up. Donald Trump closing the White House to the press all day yesterday. No public events on schedule. Donald Trump closing the White House to the press all day today. Today, he's heading to Houston for a closed press event as well. Donald Trump did give an interview to Sean Hannity where he said, I want to make the midterms all about me. I want to take out all of these ads that just feature me. And I've told all the magas, make this about Trump, Trump, Trump. Okay, this interview is going to be airing in a few days, but sounds good, Donald, because guess what?

3:09Ben Meiselas:your approval rating in the United States right now is only 13 % of Americans strongly approve of you. And those 13 % people are pretty deranged. Here, play this clip. There's a theory that I get the vote. I see it all the time that when Trump's on the ballot, they win. When he's out of the ballot, the people don't go to vote. And I'm asking the people through your brilliant show, number one show, I'm asking the people to get out and vote, pretend I'm on the ballot. If they go out and vote, we're going to win. And if we don't, our country's going to be in sad shape because we're going to go through a lot of things.

3:42Ben Meiselas:And just to review what happened in the past 24 hours while Donald Trump shut down the White House to the press, let's recap. Our editor-in-chief, Ron Filipkowski, explained, just to review today, the Department of Education made a post saying that they were just like Hitler. Ted Cruz had a retweet of an account named Ted Cruz's tiny penis. The White House posted a screenshot of an eagle on top of a Canadian goose. But in the video, the goose wins. Trump made a mission accomplished post on Iran that included George W. Bush and Iraq. A GOP representative banned Jelly Roll from his district because he made a fat joke about Donald Trump not being able to see his penis because Trump is too fat.

4:36Ben Meiselas:I kid you not, the MAGA Republicans are lashing out at the musician Jelly Roll for guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel and making that joke. Just so you see here, I come with receipts. You can see what the U.S. Department of Education posted yesterday. It says, no one like us with a tiger emoji. And then it was pretty apparent that this is the clip from the darkest hour. And the tiger in this clip refers to Adolf Hitler, who the Department of Education was comparing to Donald Trump. What about this right here? The White House, in trying to attack Canada, posted a photo of an eagle attacking a Canada goose.

5:21Ben Meiselas:But as Carl Shimota explains, someone just pointed out that almost unbelievably, this is real footage from a fight in which the Canada goose ultimately prevails over the eagle. If this isn't a metaphor for U.S. trade policy, I don't know what is. This is the weird AI image that Donald Trump kept on posting yesterday. It's a photo of him next to the Ayatollah and George W. Bush with an AI sign that says, mission accomplished. And here is the post by Congress member Jimmy Patronus, a MAGA Republican Congress member from Florida. Florida congressman who used to be a big Jelly Roll fan now says he's not welcome in Florida after the joke Jelly Roll did about Donald Trump.

6:09Ben Meiselas:And this MAGA Republican says Jelly Roll is 100 % not welcome to Florida's panhandle. I don't even want to see his bus on I-10. He's always been the token country star the libs in California are allowed to enjoy. He ain't country, never was. Take the TDS somewhere else, loser. just so you know what Jelly Roll's joke is that got the MAGA cult all mad. He said, well, Mr. Trump, from one fat pig to another, take it from me that physical fitness is very important. And trust me, you'll be happy to see your penis again. That was the joke. MAGA was very angry about that. Another MAGA influencer said, buy Jelly Roll.

6:52Ben Meiselas:You could have built a real legacy here, one that outlasted the hype and the applause. Instead, you put on a suit for Jimmy Kimmel and you spent the night roasting the president like a desperate late night hack. Fat pig, weight jokes, crude shots, all to kiss the ring of the woke Hollywood machine. These people are so damn embarrassing. But I'll show you what the other MAGA Republican Congress member were saying. Donald Trump sent his sycophants like MAGA Republican Congress member Pete Sessions, he went on CNN and he said, when Donald Trump took office a year ago, inflation is lower now. We brought it down.

7:30Ben Meiselas:And the CNN host is like, yeah, that's not true. When Biden left office, inflation was significantly lower than it is now. And it was heading to 2%. And then Donald Trump did a trade war against the world. And then Donald Trump launched a catastrophic war against Iran. And that increased inflation. It's very basic. It's very basic. and yesterday's inflation reading of PCE was way hotter than expected and not in a good way, in a bad way, bad hot. Here play this clip. John, the president was in reference to where it was when we took office, when he took office a year and a half ago. It is lower.

8:10No, no, no, it's not. Inflation was lower when he took office than it is now. It just is. prices are you know inflation is higher now than when he first took office has gone up it it it was it was coming down it was so let's go right to your point has the president done things economically that would lower the cost of of doing business and the answer was we were until the war started. And once the war started, as you know, the gasoline prices have increased, and the increase in gasoline prices have had a large effect off not only travel, but upon doing business. And that would be correct. I will only note that the core PCE, which strips out food and energy, is also elevated at 3.3%.

9:07So prices are high even without the fuel prices high, Congressman.

9:11Ben Meiselas:And then could we just have a video cleanser together for a moment as the MAGA Republicans attack New York City Mayor Momdani over and over again, whose approval rating is basically like 70 % in New York City. Let me just show you what Mayor Momdani was doing yesterday. While the MAGA Republicans were railing about, I don't know, the WNBA and the socialists are coming to get you and whatever the hell they were talking about. Here was Mayor Mom Donnie playing tennis with kids after announcing 10 resurfaced courts in the Bronx made possible through the New York Parks Adopt-a-Park program, which completed the refurbishment within three weeks.

9:54Ben Meiselas:I know this is what the MAGA Republicans are terrified. Joy, empathy, love, getting stuff done. Here, play this clip. Okay, you got any tips for me? Be, go swiftly. Go swiftly, all right. Ready? Here we go. Here we go. One, two, three. Here we go. All right, all right. Thank you for taking it easy on me.

10:26That's you.

10:30Ben Meiselas:Now, we also saw yesterday Hegseth meeting with the Joint Chief of Staff, General Cain, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. They showed up at the White House while Donald Trump closed the White House to the press. Following a meeting you see right here in this photo taken by Andrew laid in right there. Ratcliffe returned from Russia late last night. And according to the Wall Street Journal, they said the surprise visit by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, to Moscow was to deliver a warning to Russia, not to attack NATO countries, according to people briefed on the visit. I'm not really buying that.

11:14Ben Meiselas:And if that was the message, it's perhaps even more humiliating because immediately Russia launched a massive hack against Norway. China launched a massive hack against the United States. You know, China hacked the Justice Department. They hacked the Senate. They hacked the Federal Reserve. The Trump regime claims they stopped the hack, but the Trump regime lies about everything. So you can pretty much be sure that Canada has all of the information right now would be my best guess. And also yesterday after the meeting with Ratcliffe, Russia hit hard in Kiev and the surrounding cities and other areas in Ukraine.

11:55Ben Meiselas:So obviously the visit by Ratcliffe didn't have any impact on Putin. And also all the intelligence coming out is that Russia's planning a massive attack on Ukraine in the winter. People close to Putin are also saying that they're not ruling out tactical nuclear missiles. There's some indication based on the Belarus army's readiness posture that there could be an invasion from the north right by Belarus into Ukraine and open up a northern front. And Russia's not worried about Trump. The US is out of weapons. The US is in an economic catastrophe. The US has destroyed its military. The whole world knows that the U.S.

12:41Ben Meiselas:can't fight a war right now. Iran beat the United States in a war and the U.S. depleted its weapons. Trump could say, oh, we control the Strait of Hormuz. Allies told Bloomberg the Strait of Hormuz is controlled by Iran. It's not demined. Donald Trump's lying when he claims it's demined. There's at least 80 to 150 mines in the Strait of Hormuz, according to our allies. And it's really sad and tragic to them how weak the United States has become, but they've moved on. Also, in the past 24 hours, Iran struck another tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. We did not get any formal post from UKMTO about it.

13:21Ben Meiselas:Martin Kelly, who is of EOS Risk Group, explained that a Kuwaiti oil tanker was struck by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. And then after that was announced, remember we reported about another tanker being hit earlier this week and that wasn't reported anywhere else. Remember my report on that? And you may have said, I didn't hear that. It's not anywhere. Well, finally, yesterday, UKMTO gave a report 36 hours after the incident saying a tanker was struck. That's separate from the one from yesterday. They announced one from two days ago yesterday, and then there was separately one yesterday. So two strikes in 48 hours.

14:03Ben Meiselas:And now it just is pretty clear that that UK MTO is no longer making any timely reports. And kind of just like CENTCOM, they used to provide reliable data. They just don't provide reliable data anymore, which is a sad sight to see. And then you just have the Iranian leadership mocking the United States. You have Iran's parliament leader thanking China for rejecting Treasury Secretary Besant's economic D-Day. Right. That sure ended quickly. Economic D-Day. OK, that's gone. You have Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson mocking the U.S. sanctions and saying that mission project power, current mission project vacation.

14:47Ben Meiselas:I'm tired, boss. and they're mocking the U.S. for not being able to take care of troops on the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has now left the Arabian Sea and is now heading to Thailand. So there you have it. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks for watching, everybody.

15:18Ben Meiselas:Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.