Trump Panics as He Goes Silent After SOTU

0:00Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump has gone completely silent after that disastrous State of the Union he gave last night. Low energy, low ratings. Most people were watching the People State of the Union by the Midas Touch Network. Over 2 million views the Midas Touch Network received for the People State of the Union. Towards the end of Donald Trump's State of the Union speech, he looked lethargic, tired, unwell. He was clinging onto that podium for dear life, it looked like. His hand was discolored. He was physically and mentally rotting before our eyes was incoherent. He couldn't string together sentences. So no statements from Donald Trump since the State of the Union.

0:41Ben Meiselas:The one thing he posted before the State of the Union, because he takes zero accountability for anything, was the Democrat shutdown is killing the blue states. That was his message heading into the State of the Union. No social media posts since then. Now, he did send his cabinet sycophants to make their rounds on state regime media and to go on other corporate news. So, for example, you had Pam Bondi, his attorney general, once again bragging about the Dow. She's doubling down on that. And she goes, the economy is booming because of Donald Trump. Now, this morning, we also learned that on January 4th of this past year, Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's deputy attorney general sent a memo to FBI agents telling them to flag and not produce those FBI 302 reports, the interviews with Epstein victims and survivors.

1:41Ben Meiselas:And we know that there are some interviews with survivors who have made accusations that Donald Trump sexually assaulted them when they were minors. And those documents are being, those accusations, those 302s are being withheld. And now we know that there was a memo sent specifically to withhold 302s. So Pam Bondi, she goes on state regime media and she's like, this was a great state of the union. Everything is amazing. And she said, that's why the economy is just crushing it right now. Everybody's thriving, she says. Here, play this clip. These are the kinds of things they want to say he's racist.

2:19He really just loves Americans and is trying to protect families. Ainsley, as you know, he loves America. President Trump has made America safe again, and that's what he's doing. And in turn, that makes Americans feel safe to go to work, to have jobs, to be able to go to church, to be able to function in our country and be safe. And that's what's driving our economy. Donald Trump making America safe. And that's why our economy is at a record high. We all know that and it's safe. And, you know, we also had last night there, Andy Wolf, and I've gotten to be very close with his mom, Melody. And, you know, something else, Ainsley, you'll appreciate this, what President Trump said, what's very different.

3:07We are a praying administration. I love that. We all are. Our cabinet prayed before we went out there last night. We prayed for the president. We prayed for Congress. We prayed for the country. And that's because of Donald Trump. And that's what's making America safe.

3:21Ben Meiselas:But here is what Lisa Rubin, who's an attorney, here's what she just told MS Now about that January 4th memo that I just referenced. Here, play this clip. Berger, Lisa, you are all over this. What are you learning now? Well, this morning I was looking to see whether the Department of Justice posted any new documents this morning regarding the alleged victim that we reported on yesterday. We thought maybe our reporting and that of NPR and an independent journalist named Roger Sullenberger might have changed what they were willing to post. I didn't find any new documents about the woman who accused both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 or 14 years old back in the 1980s.

4:03But what I did find absolutely stunned me. And that's a January 4th, 2026 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. I just want to situate the date for you and our viewers. December 19th was the congressionally mandated date for compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. And yet on January 4th, Deputy Attorney General Blanche is writing a nine page memo to people at the department who were charged with doing the first level review of documents for production. And one of the things that the Deputy Attorney General instructs them to do in this memo is once they determine that something is responsive to one of the nine categories that Congress mandates may need files for.

4:40He says there are some types of documents that we want you to particularly flag or tag while you're going through them in the electronic database. And one of them is something called a 302. Barrett knows this well as a former federal prosecutor, but a 302 is the form that the FBI uses to memorialize interviews. That's the exact kind of document that we reported yesterday was missing with respect to this particular.

5:03Ben Meiselas:So then you had other Trump sycophants making their rounds on state regime media as Donald Trump went silent. You have, for example, Jim Jordan. Jim Jordan chairs the House Judiciary Committee. It's interesting. In a little bit this morning, I'm going to do a video on this Senate confirmation hearing of this Casey Means, who Donald Trump wants to be the next Surgeon General. and she has an inactive medical license since her residency. She hasn't actually had a license to practice medicine and she's kind of been selling people all of these like quack and kind of scammy stuff. And that's who he wants to have as the Surgeon General.

5:44Ben Meiselas:I mentioned that here as it relates to Jim Jordan, just because he chairs the Judiciary Committee and he's not a licensed lawyer, never took the bar exam to begin with. To me, this just kind of is very typical of MAGA. It's like, just find the licensed lawyer to be on the Judiciary Committee. Find someone who actually has a medical license to be the surgeon at a bare minimum, right? Can we talk about? Anyway, so here's what Jim Jordan had to say. And they have like Kevin McCarthy on this panel as well. And they're like, oh, that speech was just the greatest. That State of the Union could not be any better.

6:18Ben Meiselas:Here, play this clip. First, give us your sense of the president's speech last night. It was apple pie. I mean, you would congressional medals of freedom, congressional medals of honor, Olympic gold medals, purple hearts. It was as apple pie and patriotic as I've ever seen. The only one that compares and Kevin, I've been to a lot of these last night, I think, was the best one I've ever been to. But when you go back a few years ago, when the first lady gave Rush the Medal of Freedom, that was a special night as well. But last night I thought was even better. I mean, hockey team, it was just it was as apple pie as you get.

6:50Ben Meiselas:And then you had people who have for years tried to pretend that they're like moderates. You have Senator Thune, who's the Senate majority leader from South Dakota. And he's asked a question by state regime media. And they're like, so we go in a war with Iran? And he's like, well, we're going to have to defend our interests here because a nuclear Iran is something that is going to be horrible for the United States. didn't you all say last June that you totally obliterated everything? Isn't that what you sold us? Everything was obliterated. We don't have to worry ever again about Iran getting nuclear weapons.

7:30Ben Meiselas:It just seems like every six months they go back to Iran's about to annihilate us with nuclear weapons and we need to go to war again when the American people like just give me health care. I just want health care. I want to be able to live here. Right. I mean, I want a good education. I want to be able to afford a home. I want to be able to afford things. Stop pretending that everything's affordable and things are great and inflation's been solved and the economy's booming. It isn't. Just stop it and then you're gonna go to war to do a wag the dog moment and try to distract from your coverup of the Epstein files and how horrible the economy is.

8:05Ben Meiselas:That's what the regime's doing here. Play this clip of Thune. The ominous leader Thune. And folks are wondering after this briefing, are we going to war? I don't know the answer to that, Aisha. I think that the president is preparing us to defend America's vital national security interests, both in that region and here at home. I mean, we cannot abide, we cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran. He made that clear in his speech last night. I think that's something I hope at least that a big majority of Americans agree with. But we have vital interests in that region. And obviously the capabilities that the Iranians have to hit a lot of our allies in the region is something that we have to be well attuned to as well.

8:48I think the president is pursuing peace through strength by ensuring that America has the right assets in the right places at the right time if necessary. Hopefully it won't be necessary. If the Iranians come to the table, I think there's potentially a deal that could be made there. Let's face it. After a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. I have to make a choice. I can either have a great night or a great next day. That is until I found pre-alcohol. Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking.

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10:15Ben Meiselas:And they bring in people like Byron Donald. He's running for governor of Florida, MAGA Republican Congress member from Florida. Even when you present him with the actual data, like, are you aware the GDP is significantly less under Trump than under former President Biden? Like, are you aware of that? No, no, that's not true. That's not true. That's true. We can look at the numbers. I mean, Biden's GDP growth was higher. Oh, that's not true. Let's talk about inflation. OK, well, Biden was bringing down inflation that was caused by Trump's first term. And then even if you say that wasn't, by the time Biden left office, inflation was heading down to 2 % and now it's heading up past 3%.

10:57Ben Meiselas:That's just the facts. That's just what the numbers are. But they live in this alternative fantasy where their dear leader can't do anything wrong and the numbers aren't actually the numbers. Here's what Byron Donald says. Let's play this clip. The previous economy under Joe Biden, we all know that was a terrible economy for everybody. Everybody was suffering in America. You brought up GDP growth. Inflation was higher, but GDP growth was also higher during the Biden administration than certainly it was last quarter in the average of year to year. But Congressman, I do want to ask you about GDP growth.

11:30You can go check GDP growth. I mean, you can say what you want about inflation, but the GDP is what the GDP was. GDP growth last quarter was 1.4%. John, here's what I will tell you. Under Joe Biden's economy, wages adjusted for inflation were down in America. I mean, families were falling behind left and right. 13 months with Donald Trump back on the job. Wages of just like more inflation.

11:50Ben Meiselas:And then to their credit, I guess here at least, state regime pressed J.D. Vance this morning on the fact that Donald Trump's polls were all horrible. All because the American people, you know, absolutely despised this train wreck, this wrecking ball, this mess of a regime. And then J.D. Vance, you know, wearing his makeup, You know, he's just like, well, you know, it's Biden's fault. This we had this is all Biden right now. OK, dude, just stop it. Act like leaders. Act like adults. Let's play this clip to the issue that might clip this administration. And that's the economy on screen. Now we can show you three of the most recent polls about the economy.

12:32How about Americans are feeling about it? Everything in red. Our Fox polling disapproves at 59 percent. Washington Post, ABC News, 57. Wall Street Journal at 54. It seems like you're pushing a car uphill and you've got nine months to turn it around. You know, Democrats are juiced. They are ready to vote tomorrow. Do you have enough runway to get this economy where it needs to be before November? Well, Bill, in some ways we are pushing a car uphill because the Biden administration left us such a disaster of an economy. The highest peacetime debt in American history, skyrocketing inflation. a lot of Americans who had lost$3 ,000 was how much the average American had lost in take-home pay.

13:13Now, in a year, we've actually seen the average American gain about$1 ,200 in take-home pay. But if you're sitting at home from the perspective of the Biden administration, you are still worse off than you were when Joe Biden took over.

13:26Ben Meiselas:So we are absolutely pushing that car uphill. I'm going to do an entire video on this as well. But something that's not getting, I think enough attention was on the sidelines of the State of the Union, where they were doing interviews with some Trump cabinet officials. By the way, I didn't really see a lot of Howard Lutnick interviews on the sidelines. U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer was talking about not just how to implement these 15 % tariffs against the world, because they're only 10 % now after Donald Trump had the other tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court, then Trump said, I'm doing 15%, but he only signed the proclamation that said 10%.

14:04Ben Meiselas:So they're trying to figure that out, I guess. But one of the things that Jameson Greer also said is as it relates to KUSMA, the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement, or in the US sometimes it's referred to as USMCA, which is the successor to NAFTA. It's a free trade agreement. That's the purpose of it. Free trade between Mexico, Canada, and the United States. So there is now a KUSMA or USMCA review and a renegotiation taking place of it because it has a certain term to it. And now Jameson Greer is saying, we're going to figure out what the right tariffs are under KUSMA and under USMCA. And it's like, what do you mean the right tariffs under KUSMA?

14:51Ben Meiselas:The purpose of Kuzma, it's a free trade agreement, okay? Which, by the way, Trump had renegotiated during his first term in 2018, 2019. Free trade, it's not a tariff thing. And as Andrew Coyne says, what an exciting, he's being sarcastic, he goes, what an exciting opportunity for Canada. We can participate in the reshoring of production to the United States from, say, Canada. It's very simple. As the trade representative explains, we agree to open our markets to the United States. And in return, they agree to close their markets to us. Where do we sign? Like the Trump regime, people think that everybody else is an idiot and everybody else knows what they're doing.

15:32Ben Meiselas:Anyway, here, play this clip of Jameson Greer. Let's play it. Ambassador Greer, I'm sorry, can we just ask you, what's the status of talks with Canada right now? So right now with Canada, they have a new chief negotiator that will meet our chief negotiator. I'm in contact with Dominic LeBlanc, who's Minister of Commerce in Canada. We keep in contact. They express an interest in having some kind of alternative deal. Right now, again, as I mentioned earlier, we're quite focused on reshoring supply chains related to automotive, steel, aluminum. We've shipped 300 ,000 metric tons of steel more last year than we did the year before.

16:12We made more steel than Japan did last year for the first time in a decade. That's what we're focused on. If Canada wants to come in and participate in this type of reshoring we're trying to do, we're happy to have those discussions. What do you mean by that, participate in the reshore? What do you mean? Well, what I will say is when we go to other countries and we make a deal with them, the other countries, they agree that we can have a tariff on them, that we can have a protective tariff to protect our industries as we try to reshore, and they open their markets to us. If Canada wants to agree that we can have some level of higher tariff on them while they open up their markets to us and things like dairy and other things, then that's a helpful conversation.

16:51We have very open lines of communication. We'll keep talking. I tend to try not to negotiate in the press or anything like that, and we have discussions ongoing. So if something happens, I'll let you know. But isn't the point of USMCA, so there aren't tariffs, isn't that the point of USMCA? The concern about USMCA is that when we put it into effect, The hope was that there would be more critical supply chains reshore to the United States. There'd be more U.S. content. We actually ended up seeing cars increase from Mexico and that kind of thing. There's a lot of good in the deal, but there are a lot of things where reshoring didn't happen fast enough.

17:29U.S. content didn't happen fast enough. We think that if we want to have that deal, you need to have better rules, stricter rules to make sure there's more U.S. content in what we have. We don't want a situation where countries like Vietnam or China can send a bunch of stuff to Canada, do a screwdriver operation and send it across the border to the United States duty free. Right. And we know that Canada has talked about having closer ties, economic ties with China. I don't want a situation where Canada is being used as a backdoor for China. There are a lot of issues like that that would have to be.

17:57Mr. Beard, can I ask you about these two sides?

17:59Ben Meiselas:And then one more clip from Jamison Greer right here, where he says, actually, Trump may raise the tariffs to 50 % now globally. He may do 50%. Let's play with their deals. One analyst was saying that Section 338 could be used, that you could actually go all the way up to 50 percent in terms of tariffs there based on that legal authority. Is that on the table? So that that legal authority is about 100 years old. It's still good law. We've looked at that. We think that could be helpful in specific circumstances. That law focuses on when countries discriminate against the U.S. relative to other countries.

18:34And a lot of countries have the same tariffs toward other countries. They have the same policy across countries. So you have to look at a really specific instance where the U.S. is discriminated against relative to a third country. And I think there are probably going to be instances where that matter. But I think the Section 301 investigations and then the Section 232 investigations that the Commerce Department has, these are areas where we can have very durable investigations, very durable tariffs where necessary, and they've stood up to legal scrutiny in the past, and they will again. Now, if you're talking about excess...

19:06Ben Meiselas:So Donald Trump going silent post-State of the Union, what a horrible State of the Union that was. He looked physically and mentally unwell. But he is ranting and raving like a lunatic. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to six million. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to 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.

19:38I'll see you next time.

20:06test.