Trump Panics as Damage Control Backfires

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3:17Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is panicking this morning as his administration goes into damage control. And as allies that Donald Trump believed he was counting on in the Middle East and elsewhere, turn out not to actually be wanting to help Donald Trump as he's threatening to invade Iran. Also, you have Secretary of State Marco Rubio talking about possibly another invasion of Venezuela as he says that Delcy Rodriguez and the regime in Venezuela is not doing everything that Rubio and Trump want them to do, and they're not able to control it the way they thought. Let's talk about what's going down this morning as you have Kristi Noem, who most people on Capitol Hill right now are calling for her impeachment and her ouster.

4:05Ben Meiselas:She is blaming Donald Trump and Stephen Miller and the Border Patrol for calling Alex Preti a domestic terrorist and saying that Preti was there to massacre the Border Patrol, Gestapo. Everyone saw how awful Kristi Noem has been every single day of this regime and frankly, her entire life. And now she's trying to throw Donald Trump and Stephen Miller under the bus, essentially invoking the Nuremberg defense already. And as Shannon Watts says, a reminder to all that acting under superior orders does not relieve you of international responsibility if a moral choice was possible. Yeah, the Nuremberg defense right there.

4:52Ben Meiselas:Christine Ohm says, everything I've done, I've done at the direction of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. They're the ones who told me what to say. In addition, you had Homeland Security top official Tricia McLaughlin go on state regime media this morning and do the various shows. And she was asked about referring to Alex Pretti as a domestic terrorist and how all of the things that Kristi Noem was saying turns out to be false. And obviously America is livid at how the Trump regime has defamed Alex Preti in his death and how they defamed Renee Nicole Good. Watch what Tricia McLaughlin says right here.

5:36Ben Meiselas:Play this clip. Secretary Noam accused Alex Preti of being a domestic terrorist. Is the administration standing by that language? So initial statements were made after reports from CBP on the ground. That was a very chaotic scene. We know that our ICE law enforcement are facing rampant violence against them, a highly coordinated campaign. So that is why this investigation is so important so that we can get accurate facts to the American people. Would you use that expression again, domestic terrorist? I think that we have to really have the investigation be leading the way on this, Stewart. And again, the early statements that were released was based on a chaotic scene on the ground.

6:20And we really need to have true, accurate information to come to light. And so again, Homeland Security investigators are leading that with the FBI supporting.

6:29Ben Meiselas:All right. Tricia McLaughlin, thank you very much for being with us this morning. Always appreciate it. And we're seeing on Capitol Hill, you know, Republicans absolutely livid at this administration and this regime. And one of the things they're saying is like, you know, on the Republican side, you know, our constituents who are supporters of the Second Amendment, who, you know, show up to protest, not with concealed carry, but show up with their weapons, you know, or show up with their guns in general, you know, are saying, wait a minute. Now the regime says if you show up to a protest and you have a lawful permit and you are videotaping ICE or Border Patrol and you have a concealed carry or if you have a gun, you die and the government is going to execute you.

7:14Ben Meiselas:Watch Republican Senator Rand Paul say also, we all saw the video of the murder of Alex Preti. We know what we saw. Any objective observer knows that Preti was not attacking the Border Patrol. We see the video. And this is what we're seeing on Capitol Hill, by the way. I did a video earlier this morning where I talked about how Tom Tillis, Senator of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski and others saying the same thing here, play this clip. And so when people watch that video and the government tells them, well, he was assaulting the police officers. Nobody with any objectivity watches that video and believes that's what's happening as the man retreats with each altercation, he retreats.

7:55And then the woman is thrown violently to the ground. He's thrown to the ground. No American believes that he was assaulting the officers. In fact, the opposite appears to be true. So we have to get some rules of the game and we can't have the government justifying this type of behavior because the vast majority of Americans think this was unfair what happened. Also the intimation or actually the explicit call to say you don't have a Second Amendment right to carry arms in a protest really flies in the face of most of our Second Amendment community. I can tell you I've been to dozens and dozens of rallies and or protests where people are visibly armed or have concealed carry.

8:39So the people are saying this. We need to get this straight so we can have some kind of awareness. If people go to a protest, they know what the rules of the game are. If videoing somebody is an assault, which most people don't believe it is, but that is assault, then people need to know that, that if you video someone, you could be shot. And so we need a clarification on all of this. And I'm going to reserve judgment on the secretary for now. But we need to hear from all of the people involved with this. Your credit score may have taken a big hit over the holidays and you may not even know it.

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10:24Ben Meiselas:now Donald Trump is getting desperate as he panics this morning and he is begging his supporters for money and here's how he's doing it this is a real email that Donald Trump sent at 3 56 a.m in the morning I subscribe to these emails so you don't have to but I just want you to think about At 3.56 a.m., the subject line is, well, it's from Donald J. Trump, and it says, are you an illegal alien? That's the subject. So you open the email and it says, I reached out last week about my citizens only survey. Your file says you're a top bag of patriot, but my records to my survey still say response pending.

11:08Ben Meiselas:Don't tell me you're an illegal alien. That cannot be true. This is your final moment to prove me wrong, Ben, please. Are you a proud American citizen or does ICE need to come and track you down? Take citizens only survey. You have to click this because you believe that ICE is going to track you down. You confirm you are an American citizen and then that gives Donald Trump money. I mean, is this one of the biggest frauds ever? And then when you go to the site, which is you have to prove you're an American citizen and then give Donald Trump money, it has all these other bells and whistles where it's like, click this if you're really a citizen.

11:51Ben Meiselas:And it like doubles the money or triples the money. And before you know it, you could be paying Donald Trump like$5 ,000 because he says he's going to send ICE to hunt you down if you don't prove that you are an American citizen right there. While all of this is going on, struggles in the economy. While Trump tries to act like everything's going great, I defeated inflation. Remember that ridiculous speech he gave in Iowa yesterday? Here are the facts. Trump says value of the dollar is great, while our currency hits a four-year low. The dollar is tanking right now. It has also left investors bracing for another wave of inflation.

12:34Ben Meiselas:So markets right now are pricing in a renewed rise in U.S. inflation. And also, they don't trust the stats that the government is putting out. Yeah, we're talking 2.7 % inflation year over year. I don't think that's telling the full story where 40 to 50 % of the inputs on CPI, the consumer price index, is all basically guesses and estimates at this point because the Trump regime gutted most of the people at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So it's going on with the economy right now. And everybody knows that things are far less affordable right now, that people can't afford homes right now, that there are massive layoffs taking place right now.

13:13Ben Meiselas:I mean, take a look at this news from this morning. Amazon to cut 16 ,000 jobs in its largest ever corporate layoffs. Nearly 10 % of its corporate workforce is now being fired. At the same time that Jeff Bezos' Amazon gave$70 million to Melania,$40 million as a licensing fee,$34 promotion for her movie that nobody wants to see while cutting the jobs of 16 ,000 people. And that's what these corporate oligarchs do all the time. Find ways to deliver tribute to Donald Trump while screwing over the workers. Take a look at these layoff headlines from this week alone. own. And it's Wednesday when I'm recording this.

13:56Ben Meiselas:Amazon cut 16 ,000. Pinterest laying off 15 % of workforce as part of AI push. Stocks plummet. Citigroup to lay off more employees in March. ASML plans to cut 1 ,700 jobs after feedback. It's too complex. Those are the excuses being given. Turning to our economy to international affairs. As I mentioned earlier in this video, Marco Rubio is now saying that the U.S. is prepared yet again to use military force in Venezuela to ensure its cooperation. We now have armadas that left the coast of Venezuela that are now headed towards Iran because Trump is threatening attacks on Iran as well, which he said he was going to do in early January.

14:43Ben Meiselas:But now he says he's going to do it right now if Iran doesn't make a deal with him. Donald Trump says he posted, they have to make a deal with me. If they don't make a deal, I'm going to strike them harder than I did last year. But now we're threatening Venezuela again, threatening Iran. And when it comes to Iran, what's notable is all of the perceived Gulf allies of Donald Trump, the key Gulf allies say they're not going to aid the United States in an Iran strike, limiting Trump's options. Saudi Arabia and the UAE says that the USA can't use their airspace for a military operation against Tehran.

15:22Ben Meiselas:Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ruled out the use of its air space and territory for potential U.S. attacks in Iran, complicating the Trump regime's options. And I think you're going to see a lot less cooperation now with the Trump regime in that region. We'll keep you apprised there. You have Prime Minister Kier Starmer taking a state visit to China right now. We saw Prime Minister Carney do that about three weeks ago. As Carl Quintanilla says, more pivot to China coverage as Starmer becomes the first British prime minister to visit in eight years. A year into Trump's presidency, pivot to China gathers pace.

16:01Ben Meiselas:And I don't know if you've seen this chart yet, but this is a chart of reputations of countries right here. That's done by Reputation Labs every year. You can see that the United States' reputation in the world has dropped precipitously. The United States' reputation is worse than Kuwait. It's right around Kazakhstan right now, and it's far worse than Egypt, Vietnam, Argentina, Mexico, UAE, Romania, South Africa, Turkey, Qatar, India, Algeria, and Kuwait all have better reputations across the world than the United States. But everybody with all of this going on, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant has a message for parents and kids out there.

16:44Ben Meiselas:This is what he said today. Do not buy your kids toys for the holidays. Don't buy them toys for their birthdays. Instead, he says what you should do is give them money in their Trump accounts. their Trump accounts are better than the lottery, he says, better than the lottery. And so as Melanie D 'Erigio says, so rather than giving a toy for a birthday or holiday, parents can invest in and boost the stocks of companies and oligarchs who donated large sums of money to Donald Trump's campaign. It's all a grift. Here, play this clip of Besson. Go on the IRS website. It's form 4547 and everyone should do it.

17:27And it's a it's a great way because you can also if relatives rather than giving a toy for a birthday for a holiday, they can contribute to these accounts. I think we're going to see a substantial drop in people playing the lottery because you've won the lottery. You've got a thousand dollars and the power of compound interest. Families can add to that. So this is really a new kind of philanthropy. It is direct to children. There you have it, folks.

17:55Ben Meiselas:We'll keep you posted every step of the way. subscribe let's get to 6 million subscribers and thanks for all you do want to stay plugged in become a subscriber to our sub stack at midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from ron philipkowski add free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available at midasplus.com

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