In short
The episode is a political rant arguing that Trump’s administration is worsening economic conditions for most Americans while media and officials spin positive “data,” plus it criticizes foreign policy and immigration rhetoric.
Guest backgrounds
No podcast guests are identified in the transcript. The episode instead quotes or clips public figures.
Key claims
University of Michigan consumer sentiment hit a record low (48.2 in May); deficits are projected to reach about $2.1T (2026) and $2.1T again (2027); “technical” recession metrics don’t match lived experience due to wealth inequality; officials dismiss costs (fertilizer, gas) and claim energy price success.
Notable examples
Heinz/Kraft Heinz “consumers running out of money”; Whirlpool demand “lowest since 2008”; average one-week getaway nearly $2,000; Brooke Rollins on fertilizer pricing; Energy Secretary Chris Wright on gas prices; Tom Homan claiming 60% arrests are criminals, 40% not.
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 Economic Impact Analysis
3:02 to 4:00
Examine how Trump's policies are affecting the economy negatively.
“Welcome to Reality TV with Hulu on Disney Plus.”
Consumer Sentiment and Economic Struggles
4:00 to 6:40
Understand the current consumer sentiment and economic challenges.
“With the new Milo's Pro Rewards American Express card, earn three points per dollar spent on Lowe's qualifying purchases for the first six months after card account opening.”
Debt and Deficit Under Trump
6:40 to 8:30
A look at the growing national debt and its implications.
“and black granite in the White House and whatever the heck he's talking about next, reflecting pools, driving the motorcade in the reflecting pools.”
Whirlpool's Demand Decline Insights
8:30 to 10:00
Insights into Whirlpool's low demand and economic ramifications.
“Whenever the Democrats are in, oh, the debt, the deficit is growing.”
The Illusion of Economic Stability
12:20 to 14:00
Discuss the disparity between economic perception and reality.
“That's joindeleteme.com slash Midas, code Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S.”
Economic Distress Amidst Wealth Disparity
14:00 to 14:45
Discusses the perception of economic hardship despite claims of recovery.
“you have everybody else basically famished in a massive famine and they're suffering.”
Concerns About Fertilizer Prices
14:45 to 15:12
Examines the impact of fertilizer costs on farmers and the government's response.
“We've got enough fertilizer in our country.”
Gas Prices and Energy Independence
15:12 to 16:18
Analyzes the administration's claims on energy prices amidst public concern.
“So I wanted to lean into America's 250th birthday.”
Iran's Nuclear Threat and U.S. Policy
16:18 to 17:25
Discusses Iran's uranium enrichment and its implications for U.S. foreign policy.
“So when President Trump looked at the trade-offs of going into Iran right now, he knew his sort of beautiful record of just constantly pushing down energy prices, gasoline headline prices as well.”
Critique of UFC Events at the White House
17:25 to 18:22
Questions the relevance of UFC events at the White House amidst national issues.
“And then you've got Lara Trump with Dana White talking about the UFC fight that's going to be at the White House and Larry Trump saw like, Dana, I hear this is going to be the hottest ticket in town.”
Show all 12 chapters
Media Narratives and Historical Context
18:22 to 19:39
Critiques media narratives about the Strait of Hormuz and historical conflicts.
“Anyway, here's what they were talking about with the UFC fights.”
Immigration and Criminalization Debate
19:39 to 20:38
Discusses the Trump administration's stance on immigration and criminalization.
“And then finally, you had the end of the week, you had Tom Homan, the so-called border czar, and he's saying, look, the end of the day, 60 % of the people we got are criminals, 40 % totally innocent.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Drama, romance, competition, chaos. Welcome to Reality TV with Hulu on Disney +, featuring the hottest reality TV every day. Turn on larger-than-life docu-soaps, like Season 4 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and the hit new series Love Thy Nader, featuring superstar model Brooks Nader and her sisters. Obsess over the seasons of iconic dating shows like Love Island UK and Farmer Wants a Wife. Get hooked on irresistible food competitions like MasterChef, dive into hit game shows like Celebrity Family Feud, and revel in show-stopping fashion competitions, including the one and only Project Runway.
0:40It's the very best of reality TV. Every single day, all in one place. Every tear, every triumph, every jaw-dropping twist. This is where reality lives. This is where Hulu gets real. Stream now on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.
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2:12Turn on larger-than-life docu-soaps, like Season 4 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and the hit new series Love Thy Nader, featuring superstar model Brooks Nader and her sisters. Obsess over the seasons of iconic dating shows like Love Island UK and Farmer Wants a Wife. Get hooked on irresistible food competitions like MasterChef. Dive into hit game shows like Celebrity Family Feud. And revel in show-stopping fashion competitions, including the one and only Project Runway. It's the very best of reality TV, Every single day, all in one place. Every tear. Every triumph. Every jaw-dropping twist.
2:53This is where reality lives. This is where Hulu gets real. Stream now on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Drama. Romance. Competition. Chaos. Welcome to Reality TV with Hulu on Disney Plus. Featuring the hottest reality TV. every day. Turn on larger-than-life docu-soaps, like Season 4 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and the hit new series Love Thy Nader, featuring superstar model Brooks Nader and her sisters. Obsess over the seasons of iconic dating shows like Love Island UK and Farmer Wants a Wife. Get hooked on irresistible food competitions like MasterChef.
3:34Dive into hit game shows like Celebrity Family Feud. And revel in show-stopping fashion competitions, including the one and only Project Runway. It's the very best of reality TV. Every single day, all in one place. Every tear, every triumph, every jaw-dropping twist. This is where reality lives. This is where Hulu gets real. Stream now on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. With the new Milo's Pro Rewards American Express card, earn three points per dollar spent on Lowe's qualifying purchases for the first six months after card account opening. Plus, save 5 % every day on eligible purchases at Lowe's and earn points on eligible purchases everywhere else MX is accepted.
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4:34Ben Meiselas:What's the matter, Donald? Are you losing state regime media, which calls itself Fox, is that making you absolutely livid that they have no choice but to report the data right now as much as they don't want to. And Donald, the data ain't good at all. The consumer sentiment report for University of Michigan has the worst consumer sentiment in the entire history of the poll. The deficit continues to soar. Our debt continues to mount For most Americans right now, this economy is in a great recession or a depression. I know that your billionaire buds don't feel that way because when they talk about the K-shape, their economy is great.
5:21Ben Meiselas:But for 99 % of Americans, things cannot be worse right now. And that's reflected in the data. And Fox, state regime media, has been calling it out. That's what's going down. I'll give you an example right here. One of the Fox hosts yesterday said, you know, people voted for Trump to bring down the cost of living, to make things more affordable. It's much worse. People are struggling out there to survive. Here, play this clip. People voted for President Trump in part to make the cost of living lower and make making ends meet easier. And it's gone the wrong way in the last couple of months. And then Fox continued.
6:07Ben Meiselas:A host goes on to say, I don't really think we could be ignoring how people feel right now. That seems to be what Trump and Vance and Rubio and they're all doing. We all remember what the CEO of Heinz said this past week, that consumers are running out of money. They're tapping into their life savings and they're running out of their life savings. while Donald Trump's out there talking about triumphal arches and golden ballrooms and demolishing the public golf courses in D.C. and black granite in the White House and whatever the heck he's talking about next, reflecting pools, driving the motorcade in the reflecting pools.
6:50Ben Meiselas:Let's play this clip. But to ignore the way that people feel right now about gasoline prices and mortgage rates, they're pissed off and they have every right to be upset. And it's that quote from the CEO of Heinz yesterday, Kraft Heinz, consumers are literally running out of money. And then state regime media, which calls itself Fox, read the consumer sentiment report that I talked about. Ain't no denying what the consumer sentiment The Mint Report says, let's play this clip. The latest read from the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment. What do we have, Madison? A bad number. The number is 48.2 for May.
7:38That is a record low. It was expected to slip down to 49.5, but 48.2. We also have some news on inflation, 4.5 % increase over the year in inflation. You know, when you look at this number, 48.2, this is the third straight decline and the second record low in a row.
8:00Ben Meiselas:And then it kept on going. Talked about how the regime is expecting a$2.1 trillion deficit for the 2026 fiscal year. That's up from$1.8 trillion the last fiscal year. Now, folks, I was a political science major in undergrad. I went to law school because, you know, I knew enough math to be dangerous. But as I look at these numbers, where are my deficit hawks? Hawks! Remember all these MAGAs? We're deficit hawks. Whenever the Democrats are in, oh, the debt, the deficit is growing. Then they get in power, and they're the ones who make it worse. Like during Donald Trump's first term, he added more debt than any other president.
8:47Ben Meiselas:And most of the other presidents combined, 30, 35 % of all of our debt came from Trump's term before former President Biden. He was recklessly printing out money. That PPP program also was basically flushing a lot of money down the toilet to rich people who didn't need the money in the first place. And you want to know what was causing inflation? What was causing it? What do you think caused it? It was Donald Trump's calamitous term the first time. And he's doing it worse this time. play this clip. The administration is expecting a$2.1 trillion deficit for the 2026 fiscal year, 2.1 trillion. Edward Lawrence at the White House.
9:28Okay, Edward, what does that mean for the national debt? Yeah, federal debt is going up is exactly what that means. And the government watchdog group warns that this is just unsustainable. If you look at Treasury data out yesterday, as well as the president's proposed budget, the fiscal year projection for 2027 is 2.1 trillion for the deficit. Now, most of the increases in defense spending, but that's up for$1.8 trillion the last fiscal year.
9:52Ben Meiselas:But folks, it continues on from there. Another Fox host said, okay, the average one week getaway for an American right now costs$2 ,000. Who can afford that? I don't know, maybe the people at Club Mar-a-Lago or the people in the Golden Ballrooms or the Club Rose Garden. Maybe they can, but not most Americans. Not pretty much everybody. Here, play this clip. The average one-week getaway for an American costs nearly two grand a person. Wow. The math behind it, relentless. Airfares, gas, restaurants, theme park tickets. The costs are exploding. And for working families, it's, well, maybe not going to happen this year.
10:35Ben Meiselas:So then next, we have this host talk about how comments from Whirlpool executives are coming out saying they haven't seen this demand so low since 2008. Play this clip. Look at Whirlpool. Turn up. Good morning. Good morning. Why the dive for Whirlpool down 60? Yeah. So comments from executives are coming out and they're saying that they haven't seen demand this low since 2008, that this feels like recession levels to them. They're citing a number of factors, record low consumer sentiment, the economic impact of the Iran conflict, severe weather. All of that drove what they're saying is 7 % contraction in industry demand during the first quarter.
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12:25Ben Meiselas:That's joindeleteme.com slash Midas, code Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S. Now, as I'm just showing you the receipts of what they're saying on Fox, and to their credit, they're just saying what the data shows. It's fascinating, right? Because why is it that we're not technically in a recession, although most Americans feel like they're in a great recession or a depression? and it's because the distribution of wealth is so uneven and so unfair that the wealthiest Americans are so damn wealthy and those corporations are making a lot of money and they're just shuffling money to and from each other while the American people suffer, that what's happening is the technical definition of a recession is to basically have back-to-back consecutive quarters where you have a negative GDP.
13:30Ben Meiselas:Most Americans feel we're in serious negative GDP territory because Americans aren't getting jobs and they can't afford rent and they're struggling because the CEO pays 3 ,000 or 5 ,000 or in some cases 10 ,000 times their own salary and their healthcare is being ripped away. So it's being artificially propped up, basically the economy on like economic steroids, if you will, when the rich get richer. But the thing is, while you have the rich getting richer on economic steroids, probably a good example, you have everybody else basically famished in a massive famine and they're suffering. But all the weight of that wealth at the top is pulling it up.
14:11Ben Meiselas:So technically it's not a recession, but it is because the American people feel we're in a depression because that's the average experience right now. And no one talks about it like that. You know, in these Trump regime, people go on Fox and they try to, you know, spin this. You have Brooke Rollins, agriculture secretary, dismissing the farmers concerns about fertilizer costs. Play this clip. But I get 30 seconds also on that another issue. And that is a concern about the fertilizer that has held up in the Strait of Hormuz. What's your level of concern? One to 10. Well, on a scale of one to 10, Dana, my level of concern, listen, America, because of energy independence.
14:47We've got enough fertilizer in our country. We have fertilizer. The concern is the price. And we've implemented basically a 20 point action plan to start bringing those prices down. But for the long run, this is the president's vision. We have to re-shore fertilizer.
15:03Ben Meiselas:You've got Sean Duffy bragging on state regime media about taking a seven minute. He said for the past seven months, he's been doing reality shows. Play this clip. So I wanted to lean into America's 250th birthday. Rachel and I actually met on a road trip on a reality TV show. And so over the course of seven months, we just kind of found these moments where I might be able to do some work. I could take the kids with me, do a road trip. Oh, yeah. And our motto is to love America is to see America. And there's so much to see in this beautiful country. We did that with our family. The president kicked us off, as you're seeing right now.
15:38We went to the Oval with the kids. By the way, who gets to do that? The kids were wildly excited. and he was so generous with his time. The president was.
15:44Ben Meiselas:You've got Energy Secretary Chris Wright talking over a Fox News graphic showing the national average gas price is$4.55. He's like, we're all about lowering prices. Here, play this clip. And what about people's concern about gas prices? They're seeing numbers that give them some heartburn and some heartache, and it's hard for a lot of people to figure out how they're going to stomach this for much longer. It is. And of course, it's been tough for our administration as well. This is an administration, the first Trump term and the second Trump term, all about lowering energy prices and an incredibly successful record in doing that.
16:21So when President Trump looked at the trade-offs of going into Iran right now, he knew his sort of beautiful record of just constantly pushing down energy prices, gasoline headline prices as well. But Iran has roughly a thousand pounds of uranium enriched to 60%, massively higher than you ever need for any commercial power production. It's actually quite close to weapons grade uranium. So they just get to this threshold where they're not far away from nuclear bombs. President Trump is absolutely unwilling to hand the next administration a nuclear armed.
16:57Ben Meiselas:You've got Hassett saying that we're in a the golden age is upon us. Let's play it. Yeah, these are two months in a row of absolutely blockbuster numbers. And to put it in perspective, Bill, not that I'm counting, they have 65 economists that were polled at Bloomberg on what the number should be. 62 came in way below. 62 out of 65. The fact is that people still don't have faith that the golden age is upon us, that Trump policies are working, but it keeps showing up in the data. And then you've got Lara Trump with Dana White talking about the UFC fight that's going to be at the White House and Larry Trump saw like, Dana, I hear this is going to be the hottest ticket in town.
17:39Ben Meiselas:How many people are going? This is a sold out. And Dana's like, well, actually, it's an event that we're just going to comp 4 ,300 seats for the military. Oh, it's such a hot ticket. Such a hot ticket. Well, yeah, I mean, there's going to be 4 ,300 comps. So it's going to be the minute. How is this a hot ticket? What do we even talk? Why is there UFC fights? Why are we talking about UFC fights at the White House and golden frickin domes and arches and black granite and reflecting pools and getting rid of the parks? Can we just talk about the American people? Please, can we just listen to the suffering that the American people are experiencing and deliver for them?
18:19Ben Meiselas:That's what we need to be doing right now. Anyway, here's what they were talking about with the UFC fights. Let's play it.
18:32All right. Well, Dana White, we're so excited to have you back on the show. Thank you so much. What a great venue as well. But the thing everyone is talking about is this incredible UFC Freedom 250 fight at the White House. Dana, I don't even know how you go about putting on a production like this.
18:50Ben Meiselas:And also when you listen to state regime media, you hear people like this This guy Webb, they're like, we all know that the Strait of Hormuz has always been closed. Iran always controlled it. That's why we went to war. What are you talking about? What do you mean Iran always controlled? They got it in the war, in Trump's catastrophe. They didn't control it before the unlawful war by Trump and Netanyahu. What are you talking about? This is what they stay on. Regime media. play reality for the entire world. That is true, but that wasn't, that wasn't the situation when the strait was open prior to this.
19:31Fact, you are not allowed to mine international waterways, and Iran's been doing that for decades. It was not open. It was constantly under their influence. We're at number in just a moment. Stay with me. Mic drop.
19:45Ben Meiselas:And then finally, you had the end of the week, you had Tom Homan, the so-called border czar, and he's saying, look, the end of the day, 60 % of the people we got are criminals, 40 % totally innocent. I would say that's a good ratio. First off, it's a lot more innocent than that. But even if I accepted your arguments arguendo as true, you're bragging that 40 % of the people you've detained are completely innocent. And by the way, their definition, the Trump regime's definition of criminal is like traffic ticket. or like like traffic ticket or like marijuana offense from 1981 that's they include that in the criminal but you're bragging that 40 percent of the people that you've thrown into concentration camps are innocent well done you sickos what a sicko regime here play this clip but look we're going to arrest non-criminals even though president trump is is prioritizing public state threats, national security threats.
20:48If you look at the numbers right now, about 60 % of everybody we're arrested is a criminal. The other 40 % are not. I think that's a good percentage.
20:55Ben Meiselas:Anyway, there you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thank you for watching.
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From the publisher
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump getting torched by his own team on Fox and it got ugly real quickly.
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