Trump Panics as Iran Sets Its Own War Deadline Now

0:00Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is panicking as Iran has flipped the script and set its own war deadline. Iran is now saying we're not going to sit around and wait as Donald Trump manipulates the market and says a deal is imminent. While he continues the blockade on the Persian Gulf, while Iran actually controls the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is saying, if you don't meet our deadline, we are going to go on the offense because we view your blockade, United States, Donald Trump, as an act of war. And we're putting our Arab nation neighbors on notice that they better rein you in. And if we are unable to do a deal in the next few weeks, is what Iran is saying, that looks exactly like the MOU, which you previously signed, then we are going to go on the offense.

0:54Ben Meiselas:And Iran has told Reuters what that means. That means it could be cutting some of the internet infrastructure, which resides below the Strait of Hormuz. People forget that. A lot of the critical internet infrastructure connecting the rest of the world with the Middle East is right there under the Strait of Hormuz, and there are very vulnerable cables that you can just cut. And so that's one of the things Iran is saying that their escalation would look like. Iran is also saying that they're not going to rule out occupying American military bases, which have since been abandoned, in places like Kuwait.

1:34Ben Meiselas:And they're saying, look, these bases were used against us. We will now escalate by potentially going into Kuwait. And we know the United States has run out of weapons. We know that the U.S. doesn't have its interceptors anymore, that it doesn't even have its offensive capabilities with the attackums. And that Donald Trump is now rushing to do this$25,$30,$40,$50 billion deal with Raytheon for more tomahawks because the U.S. ran out of offensive capabilities as well. And the U.S. has abandoned its bases in the Middle East. So this is what Reuters was reporting this morning. The headline is that Iran threatens to go on the offense.

2:17Ben Meiselas:If Strait of Hormuz diplomacy fails with the United States, the Iranian official told Reuters. Iran will send its own deadline to the U.S. in mediating countries, meet our demands which were laid out in the MOU or else. We're not playing around. Also, we know the Ayatollah has promoted a new group of leadership, most of the same cast of characters we've talked about before, but to additional military leadership positions with the goal of the IRGC having more robust offensive capabilities. This comes at the same time as the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday night. Iran's secret plan to escalate the war.

3:02Ben Meiselas:Iran's IRGC has finished planning a massive preemptive strike against certain U.S. and Israeli targets in the Middle East in the event the U.S. does not stop its blockade or in the event Donald Trump escalates. Now, Iran kind of preemptively put this message out knowing that Donald Trump would manipulate the market yet again. And that's exactly what Donald Trump did. It's Monday, the market opens. Donald Trump usually goes to either Barack Ravid or Trey Yingst. And both of these individuals are located in Tel Aviv. And they're his main propagandists. So Yengst reports from Tel Aviv, Barack Ravid from Axios also reports from Israel.

3:49Ben Meiselas:And they usually pump out a Donald Trump message right on Monday morning before the markets open. Either that or when things get very dire, the Trump regime sends out Treasury Secretary Besant to go on CNBC, which is a network about the stock market basically and business. And then they manipulate the market that way. So Iran predicted correctly. That's why they got out their stories first and they put out their warning and their deadline first. So you had yinxed over on state regime media, which calls itself Fox. And here the Fox host says, and Donald Trump has said after Donald Trump has said every word thereafter is going to be a lie.

4:32Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump has said he has opened up a back channel with the IRGC and they are working closely on doing a deal. And then the IRGC responded and said, nope, that ain't happening. This just reflects how utterly desperate he is. Here is the IRGC statement. This reflects Donald Trump's delusions and nightmares resulting from defeat and desperation in the war. The IRGC says there are no talks between IRGC officials and Americans. This lie from Trump is simple fantasies that he is experiencing due to delusions and nightmares resulting from defeat and desperation in the war. The IRGC communicated this to Tasnim News, which is the Iranian state news network.

5:17Ben Meiselas:Trump is trying to temporarily control the price of oil and energy in the world with these statements, but he only has one real path ahead of him, and that is to accept defeat and implement the conditions that Iran has set. The IRGC concluded to Tazanim, the sooner the Americans accept their failure and make decisions based on that, the more they will save their country from greater and more significant losses. So here's Donald Trump talking to a Fox host. And here the Fox host says that Donald Trump told him, we have a back channel with the IRGC. Here play this clip. The president about the communication with the Iranians.

5:56And interestingly, President Trump confirmed to Fox News that there is a back channel with the IRGC. These are the hardline officials inside of Iran and that the United States and officials in Washington are speaking directly with IRGC officials in Iran. This is another indication that the Trump administration is not just dealing with the political echelon in Tehran, but also some of these hardliners that have launched attacks against U.S. forces. And then as we're used to

6:23Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump's erratic and despicable behavior. He then says that if Oman gets in the way of a deal with Iran, Donald Trump says, I will blow the shit out of Oman. And again, this is why Donald Trump does not have the temperament. He does not have the emotional maturity, would be saying it so nicely, because it's far worse than that, to be in a position of leadership that impacts the lives of people, yet alone our service members, yet alone the country, yet alone the world. I'm going to blow the shit out of Oman. Oman, really? Because Oman is currently negotiating with Iran right now, not with the United States involvement, regarding the route that will be used in the Strait of Hormuz, not for the United States, but based on Iran's future control of the Strait of Hormuz.

7:16Ben Meiselas:And Oman is kind of a neutral party before all of this. They were the mediator selected by the United States back in February to do a deal between Iran and the United States. And the Omani foreign minister did a deal that would have been stronger than even Obama's JCPOA. And then late February, Donald Trump and Netanyahu invade Iran after the Omani foreign minister announces that a deal was done that was stronger than the JCPOA. So Donald Trump just alienating everyone and now threatening to bomb the shit out of Oman, which plays right into Iran's messaging as well, which is, this is why we need alliances of Arab nations that then work more closely with China and repel the United States from this region.

8:04Ben Meiselas:I mean, Trump proves the thesis when he does things like this. Here, play this clip of him saying, we're going to bomb the shit out of them. Here, play this clip. Now, I asked the president about these parallel talks that are taking place between Iran and Oman about control of the Strait of Hormuz. And the president told Fox News, if Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the S out of them. We went on to talk about. And then Donald Trump says, and if and if Iran doesn't do a deal with us, they need to wave the white flag of surrender. Again, you see how desperate he is. He's been saying this now, raise the white flag of surrender and they shall be saying, Donald and Allah, we love you.

8:44Ben Meiselas:He says the weirdest stuff, Donald Trump, two of the most deranged stuff. Here, listen to what he has to say. Play this clip. The president told Fox News, Iran should raise the white flag of surrender. He went on to say, I have no time schedule. I'm not in a hurry. The president indicating that the US naval blockade is continuing to put new economic pressure on the Iranian regime, despite what the Iranians have said publicly. He said they're good poker players, but they're dying. And that the midterms And then Donald Trump says, and we have so much munitions, the depletion, it's like peanuts. Then he goes on to say, but if we did lose our munitions, well, that's Biden's fault.

9:27Ben Meiselas:Biden did it. Really? Biden was the one who brought you into this catastrophic and unlawful war around. That was Biden's fault. It's Biden's fault that two years in, you've gone into wars all over the place. That's Biden's fault. Listen to what Trump has to say here. Play this clip. That are currently stationed in the Middle East. The president says what we've used so far is peanuts. He went on to say the United States has a lot of mid-level weapons and that many of the more advanced systems the president says were given away by President Biden to Ukraine, for example, when we're talking about air defense that is needed right now in the Middle East.

10:04So I'm 33 and suddenly everything that used to be easy wasn't. I barely ever talk about this, but it has to be said. Nobody tells you about this stuff. One day you're crushing it and the next day you're wondering why everything feels twice as hard. Because here's the thing, most men start losing testosterone around age 30, about 1 % every year after that. That's why I started taking Mars Men. Here's what I learned. Your body makes testosterone, but a lot of it gets locked up and can't be used. There's this protein called SHBG that basically handcuffs your testosterone. Even if your body's making testosterone, SHBG locks it up so you can't access it.

10:43It's like having money in the bank, but your debit card doesn't work. Mars Men is designed to help free locked testosterone so your body can actually use it. No synthetics, no needles, just real ingredients that help optimize energy, focus, and strength. Since using Mars Men, I feel the difference every day. From my lifts to recovery, I feel like my old self again. Mars Men supports healthy tea levels, energy, and stamina, and has eight natural, clinically dosed ingredients. It's also made in the USA and third party tested. There's a 90 day money back guarantee. So there's no risk. Worst case, you don't absolutely love it and you get your money back.

11:20But over 91 % of users report higher energy levels. For a limited time, our listeners get 50 % off for life plus free shipping and three free gifts at men go to mars.com. That's men go to mars.com for 50 % off and three free gifts when you check out. After your purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know that Midas Touch sent you.

11:46Ben Meiselas:Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson also is responding to this idea that today was some meaningful date under the Memorandum of Understanding. Because under the MOU, today was the 60-day period where there would be a final deal between Iran and the United States. but the irani foreign ministry spokespersons like what are they even talking about the u.s breached this they attacked us again during the mou period we don't view the mou as being currently even in effect such that the 60-day deadline is a thing but if the united states will agree to the mou terms which should previously agree to which by the way includes israel leaving lebanon that's Article one of it, article five is Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz and manages the Strait of Hormuz in consultation with the other Arab nations.

12:40Ben Meiselas:Also, the other points are a$300 billion fund to Iran, right, which Marco Rubio immediately said, oh, we're not going to do that. It's in the MOU. If you're not going to do it, don't put it in the MOU. Unfreezing the funds to Iran, in addition to the$300 billion, there was$12 billion that Qatar was supposed to unfreeze, which it didn't. And Iran says, those are the terms. That's it. The strait of Bermuda remains closed until those terms are met. And now we've set a deadline for a few weeks where we'll go on the offense. We're not afraid of you. We know you're out of weapons. We know you're out of weapons.

13:13Ben Meiselas:State regime media then sends, or Trump regime then sends its MAGA congressmember bootlickers to state regime media. Here you have MAGA Republican congressmember Pat Fallon, who dismisses the dire conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Here's what he has to say. Play this clip. And these reports are just that. I haven't heard anything personally from our office, and I trust the Navy to do this as well. So I don't make much of it, to be honest. OK, so you're not concerned about these reports. Two to 60 days is a long time for deployment. Yeah. Oh, no, there's no doubt about it. I mean, look at our armed services, you know, our folks, our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen do a fantastic job.

13:59Of course, we all, when I served, I went, you know, you always prefer to be stateside if possible, but that's part of the job is to deploy. And they did that. I think they did an outstanding job. I'm glad they're coming back.

14:10Ben Meiselas:Yeah, well, MAGA Republican Congress member Brian Mast says, I understand that we've depleted our oil stockpiles, But just think about it. We've been at war with Iran for 40 years. So clearly we had to deplete ours. What do you mean we've been at war for 40 years? I don't even know what these people are talking about. Donald Trump started a war in February with Netanyahu against Iran. Stop with these stupid talking points right now, please. Just the American people are suffering. The world is suffering right now. The Trump regime has engaged in so many war crimes and the United States now to the rest of the world just looks so utterly weak and pathetic.

14:50Ben Meiselas:But look at the mental gymnastics. I didn't want to call it the mental non-gymnastics that these MAGAs go through in order to justify why they were so angry at Biden, but Donald Trump, this is exactly the plan that everybody had in mind. What are they even talking about? Here, play this clip. This has gone on and it does deplete U.S. stockpiles, but those stockpiles, they exist for us to use for defense, for deterrence, and for eliminating enemies that have been attacking us. And he laid that out as well. Iran has been attacking us for the last 30 years. But even if I gave you a number of the last 30 months, in the last 30 months before Epic Fury, they attacked us over 350 times, killed three U.S.

15:34service members, countless contractors, driving small boats into our big ships, firing ballistic missiles and drones at us. This has been sustained. And Epic Fury is simply the first time that the United States of America has said, you know what, we're not going to take

15:48Ben Meiselas:this. I find it notable as well that, so Jared Kushner met with Hamas and first met with Hamas and said, Hamas, you need to reaffirm your obligations that the Board of Peace is requiring of you to disarm. And then Hamas put out a statement with Kushner. We agree. We'll do it. Tell us what you want us to do. Then on the other hand, he said, he met with Netanyahu. He says, with Netanyahu, you now need to start getting out of Gaza and you need to agree to the 15-point plan that we negotiated between Israel and Hamas. Remember three weeks ago, Trump posted, we did another deal. I thought you did the deal last October.

16:29Ben Meiselas:You claimed that there was a cease fire, which wasn't a cease fire at all, which the Midas Touch Network called out right away as not being a real thing. And then Netanyahu tells Kushner that we're not doing it. This was they're reporting. Kushner spent over four hours pressing Netanyahu to advance Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan. Netanyahu resisted, citing October elections and assisting Hamas fully disarmed before any Israeli withdrawal. And so Netanyahu looked at Kushner and said, get the F out of here. And then we have statements, of course, from Israel's defense minister, Israeli Katz. We have statements from Smutrich.

17:07Ben Meiselas:We have statements from Ben Gavir and others, top leadership of the Netanyahu, which you meant Netanyahu, saying we're never leaving Gaza. There will never be a Palestinian state. We will never be doing any deal with Hamas or with the Palestinians at all ever, period, full stop. As Donald Trump claims, border peace, border peace, it's working. I mean, again, just so completely pathetic. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping spoke this morning, issuing the following statement on Taiwan. China's development will bring about prosperity for all through the common progress of all of its regions and the Chinese nation on the basis of completing the reunification of the motherland.

17:46Ben Meiselas:It should be noted that China's long-term plan had reunification scheduled for 2027 between Taiwan and the United States. And this comes at the time when the United States removed its last aircraft carrier from the Pacific, which was the last kind of major U.S. kind of the big military Navy aircraft carrier over there in the Pacific, that's now being moved to the Middle East as Trump has totally screwed up all of the logistics regarding our service members aboard these US aircraft carriers who weren't even getting food and weren't getting treated, who are being treated horribly by the Trump regime.

18:32Ben Meiselas:We heard from numerous senators this morning. We'll share with you over here some of the statements coming from Senator Mark Kelly. Here's what he had to say. Play this clip. Yeah, before I get to that, let me just say, the president's comments are just uncalled for. I mean, he's a guy that has spent a good portion of his adult life sitting on gold toilets and doesn't know what hardship is and doesn't understand our service members. In fact, it's insulting what he said, that the deployment wasn't long enough. He doesn't know sacrifice. I spoke to a grandmother of a sailor who, you know, she said when he went into the Navy, he was already skinny.

19:14Looks like he's lost 20 to 25 pounds. And the situation they're in is depressing at this point. It's a long deployment. They haven't had a port call in an extended period of time. But the worst thing about this is right from the top, from the president to the secretary of defense, and even from Admiral Cooper, is a lack of interest in any kind of accountability here and trying to fix this. They literally have sailors jumping overboard from that ship because of how challenging this is.

19:47Ben Meiselas:And then more from Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Here's what he had to say. Let's play it. It's like, what is what was the goal here? The president took us to war against Iran without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline and without a way out. And now he's stuck because of his incompetence. And because of that, you have 5000 sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln, who are living under challenging conditions. You also have the other sailors in the rest of the battle group. It's it's not just a ship. and we have a president that still has no plan on a way out of this. So there you have it, everybody.

20:27Ben Meiselas:We'll keep you posted throughout the day. What Donald Trump just posted, how it's supposed to be. The number one goal is and always will be that Iran cannot have in any way, shape or form a nuclear weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter, Donald J. Trump. So pathetic. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks for watching, everybody. Before you go, our book, WTF America, is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.