Trump Loses It in AM as Admin Falls Into Perjury Trap

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0:19Scott Bessent:Your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels?

0:21Donald Trump:It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton. For this day.

0:30Scott Bessent:Rated T for team.

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1:39Scott Bessent:Trying to get someone back to prison today?

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2:21Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is having a terrible morning, some devastating headlines. So he sent his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Capitol Hill to lie about the economy, to lie about tariffs. And moments ago, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was caught committing perjury. He was asked a question about whether he, when he was running a private equity company, if he said tariffs were inflationary. He said, oh, I never sent a letter like that. Well, we actually have the letter where he literally says that tariffs are inflationary. So he was just caught lying to Congress, which I think should carry with it serious implications.

3:01Ben Meiselas:We'll go over that in just a moment as well. But look at some of these grim headlines from various media outlets, and it should be noted as well. The Washington Post today announced massive layoffs. It's going to be cutting about one third of its staff, sports department, Middle East department, is all being absolutely gutted by Jeff Bezos, who gave$70 million to the failing Melania movie and has destroyed the Washington Post. So just we can add that to the Kennedy Center and all the other things that Donald Trump is destroying. Great job, Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump. But take a look at some of these dark headlines from the New York Times.

3:40Ben Meiselas:Former farming leaders warned that U.S. agriculture could face widespread collapse. A group of past government officials and former heads of farming associations on a bipartisan basis issued a dire warning to members of Congress. Or how about this from the Financial Times? Food and drink companies suffer as U.S. shopper sentiment sinks. Groups report soft sales and plans to cut prices as consumer confidence falls to its weakest level in more than a decade. Actually, the University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Reports show the worst consumer confidence in many, many decades. Really, it's never been this bad since the Great Recession or the Great Depression.

4:26Ben Meiselas:I mean, it's that bad. U.S. Manufacturing in Retreat. This is from the Wall Street Journal. I'm giving you a variety of headlines from different media outlets with different ideological bends, just so you can see that I want to give you a holistic view right here. From the Wall Street Journal, U.S. manufacturing is in retreat and Trump's tariffs aren't helping. Levies on imports were supposed to bring back a golden age of U.S. manufacturing. They haven't worked so far. We all knew tariffs weren't going to do that. Tariffs are inflationary. They are a tax on American companies that are passed on to consumers.

5:04Ben Meiselas:Or how about this from the Cato at Liberty organization? This totally imaginary$18 trillion political talking point of Donald Trump continues to be repeated endlessly in the hope that nobody in the public or press would ever be brave enough to rudely ask for some explanation or shred of evidence. And you know, here at the Midas Touch Network, the moment Donald Trump started saying, I did this trillion dollar deal and that trillion dollar deal, we said, OK, well, then show us the documents. Because what I do every morning here on the Midas Touch Network and throughout the day is I go through the documents.

5:40Ben Meiselas:I go through the footnotes. I go through the charts. I go through the graphs. And people say, well, Ben, doesn't your audience find that boring? No, that's what we want. We don't need to see a split screen of people who don't know what they're talking about, shouting and yelling at each other. We want the data and information so we could be informed citizens and understand what the hell is happening. That's also why the Epstein files is absolutely so devastating for this regime since they're in the center of the cabal. And Donald Trump is at the center of this cabal with Epstein. And again, I'm not saying that to be hyperbolic.

6:18Ben Meiselas:I've done deep dive emails where I go through the 38 ,000 references to Donald Trump on 5 ,000 documents, and it's only been a partial release of the Epstein files. There's still 3 million more files that have not been produced, which could be 25 to 50 million pages. We've showed you the references and the communications that were taking place between Bannon and Epstein and their communications about Trump and toppling governments. We showed you the communications with Epstein and Prime Minister Ehud, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, talking about influencing foreign governments and influence operations, the communications about meetings with Vladimir Putin, meetings with former Prime Minister of Norway, meetings with the royal family in the United Arab Emirates.

7:06Ben Meiselas:And all these connections and links are here right now. I mean, this right-wing oligarchy that's behind the scenes, pulling the strings while engaging in child sex trafficking in the Epstein files. And these people, many of them are still around and they're screwing your lives and they're making things very difficult and psychologically torturing people. That's what's actually going on right now. So when Donald Trump says, it's time to turn the piece, what he keeps on repeating, he said it again, it's time we turn the page on the Epstein scandal. No, as Governor Hochul says of New York, It won't matter.

7:43Ben Meiselas:His name is on the next page, too. So let me show you this because Bannon's name was all over the Epstein files. He was in like daily text message communications with Epstein about Trump, about everything going on. And then even knowing that Donald Trump's been posting photos of Bannon on his social media platform. Well, Bannon said this morning that Donald Trump will use ice in order to surround the polls and I guess block people from voting. This is what Bannon posted this morning. This is not getting attention really anywhere else. This is what he said on his own podcast this morning. I think this should be front page news.

8:24Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip right here.

8:26Scott Bessent:You're damn right. We're going to have ice surround the polls come November. We're not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.

8:43Ben Meiselas:Now, as I said, I want to bring you into that hearing where Treasury Secretary Scott Besant committed perjury moments ago. Watch as Congresswoman Waters was cross-examining Besant, and he said that he never said in a letter that tariffs are inflationary. I'm going to play this clip in a moment, but here's the letter that he sent from his private equity company, Key Square Capital Management, LLC, when he was running it, January 31st, 2024. Dear partners, we begin 2024 with a set of three high conviction ideas that are based on what the Key Square investment team perceives as anomalies, erroneous conventional wisdom, or various perceptions on our part.

9:26Ben Meiselas:Go on. Another differentiated view that we have is that Trump will pursue a weak dollar policy rather than implementing tariffs. Tariffs are inflationary and would strengthen the dollar. Hardly a good starting point for a U.S. industrial renaissance. Weakening the dollar early in a second administration would make U.S. manufacturing competitive. A weak dollar, plentiful cheap energy could power a boom. The current Wall Street consensus is for a strong dollar based on the tariffs. We strongly disagree. A strong dollar should emerge by the end of his term if the U.S. reshoring efforts is successful.

10:08Ben Meiselas:Well, I showed you all the headlines that manufacturing is in a recession right now. That letter is signed. Scott Besant and the key square team. Okay, that's what I mean. I show you the data. Here's what Besant said at the hearing. Play this clip.

10:24Donald Trump:...tales about this, but did you write a letter to investors raising concerns about the impact of tariffs writing that, quote, tariffs are inflationary? Did you say that at that time, yes or no? No. Okay, thank you. Okay, we have a New York Times article that, you know, agrees that you said that. New York Times. Then last summer, when you testified before a Senate committee, you said in our quote, there is no inflation. Tariffs are not being passed on to consumers. You were quite definitive and even claimed that critics had quote, tariff derangement syndrome. Well, those comments are at odds with the statement you made to investors that tariffs are inflationary.

11:12Donald Trump:Again, I want to be clear, so just let me ask you, are tariffs inflationary? Yes or no? According to the San Francisco Federal Reserve, with 150 years of data, tariffs do not cause inflation. Well, last November, as the Trump administration finally began to realize that affordability issues in a—

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13:25Ben Meiselas:Speaking of which, you have Congressmember Green, Democratic Congressmember Green, cross-examining Besant about, do you think that it's okay? Do you have any concerns that Donald Trump tells people to buy his DJT stock to inflate it and manipulate the market? Like, you're the Treasury Secretary. Does that bother you? Here, play this clip. I ask you kindly and as one professional to another, Mr.

13:53Donald Trump:Treasury Secretary, do you think that this should be investigated? The president's stock being linked to his truth social message and that stock having gone up by some$415 million in a single day, in a single day. and this is a stock that was doing very poorly prior to that, hadn't had a lot of success. Do you think that this should be investigated? No, sir. Kindly explain to me why we would not investigate the president making such an announcement as it relates to his stock and then reaping some$415 million as a potential capital. Well, all Americans benefited from the rebound in the markets that day.

14:46Donald Trump:And in fact, the rebound in the market after that was the fastest in market history. Yes.

14:52Ben Meiselas:And then instead of answering questions from Democratic House members, Besant has like a list of notes from the White House, as Aaron Rupert writes, and he just starts attacking, attacking, attacking. Whoever's asking the question, play this clip.

15:34All I need to know is will you halt it and do a complete investigation and scrutiny of this license application?

15:47Scott Bessent:All you have to ask is yes or no? No, Congressman. All you have to ask is yes or no. The OCC is an independent entity, and I would note, Congressman, in 2006, you traveled to Venezuela to lobby Hugo Chavez. I take that as a no. I take that as a no. You do not want to answer that question. I take that as a no. I'm asking you to do your responsibility as secretary of the treasury. You do not.

16:19Ben Meiselas:Should also be noted that Republican Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina had the following to say on CNBC this morning. Play this clip.

16:28Scott Bessent:I just wanted to ask you what your reaction is to the reaction of the president by your comments. Not, I don't think, necessarily just in this particular case, but he called you a loser recently because of some of the comments that you made about Kristi Noem and also Stephen Miller. Yeah, I said that obviously qualifies me to be the Homeland Security Secretary and senior advisor to the president. Look, these are the people who are losing. Stephen Miller is the one who went down the rabbit hole of Greenland before he went down the rabbit hole of plussing up resources in Minneapolis and creating a horrible situation there.

17:06Scott Bessent:Kristi Noem has failed both in terms of her ICE role and in terms of her response to Helene in North Carolina. I mean, they're behind by about a year and a half. There's no comparison between Kristi Noem in this administration and President Trump's first administration, which was extraordinary. So you want to use that kind of language? You know, I'm fine. If that qualifies me for at least two senior positions for the president, because I consider them losers, then we'll move on. Otherwise, we could act like adults, use adult language and get things done.

17:36Ben Meiselas:And then Donald Trump is posting away about ballrooms and golden arches or whatever the hell he's talking about. But that's what's happening this morning. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. Hit subscribe. And thanks for watching.

17:51Scott Bessent:subscribers for our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

18:06Scott Bessent:LifeLock, how can I help?

18:08Donald Trump:The IRS said I filed my return, but I haven't.

18:10Scott Bessent:One in four taxpaying Americans has paid the price of identity fraud. What do I do? My refund, though. I'm freaking out. Don't worry, I can fix this.