Trump Panics as Top Official Quits Over War

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0:53Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is panicking as one of his top officials has quit over Trump's disastrous war in Iran. Joe Kent, who serves as the director of national intelligence, the National Counterterrorism Center. He's the number two under Tulsi Gabbard. He just posted that after much reflection, he will be resigning his position as the director of National Counterterrorism Center, effective today because in good conscience, he can no longer support the ongoing war in Iran. He writes that Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.

1:38Ben Meiselas:He says it was an honor to serve under Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard. He says, may God bless America. He is a combat veteran. He is a gold star husband in the MAGA world. He is beloved in the MAGA world. And so this is sending massive shockwaves throughout MAGA right now as one of the top MAGA people, one of Donald Trump's top officials, has officially resigned over Donald Trump's disastrous war in Iran. This, of course, comes at a time when things are getting worse there as the United States is stuck in a quagmire there of Donald Trump's making. And we're now learning that one of the main aircraft carriers that is outside of Iran, the Gerald Ford, the USS Gerald Ford, they've just received a notice after basically being on duty for close to a year that they will remain in the Middle East until May.

2:38Ben Meiselas:And that USS Gerald Ford, as you may recall, back on March 12th, suffered a very serious fire aboard that started in the laundry room. They said it wasn't because of any foreign attacks or anything like that. But the ship's just been out there for a very long time. It has resulted in 600 sailors and crew members sleeping on the floor right now. And this USS Gerald Ford, which has now been informed that it will now be deployed at least through May. That tells you how long this war at a minimum is likely going to last. It has to go to Greece to get serviced right now as the Gerald Ford and even the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.

3:23Ben Meiselas:They're suffering a lot of issues just from the wear and tear of the deployments that Trump is putting them through. Let me just go back for a moment and read you Joseph Kent's resignation letter, because there's more to it that I think is important to read to kind of sum up what's going on in the MAGA world. Because again, this guy, top Trump official, top MAGA guy, here's what he writes. He goes, President Trump, after much reflection, I've decided to resign from my position as director of National Counterterrorism Center, effective today. I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war, the ongoing war in Iran.

3:55Ben Meiselas:Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started the war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. I support the values in foreign policy that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020, 2024, which you enacted in your first term. Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation. In your first administration, you understood better than any modern president how to decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars.

4:32Ben Meiselas:You demonstrated this by killing Soleimani and by defeating ISIS. By the way, I don't agree that he defeated ISIS or I don't agree that he was good in his first term. I'm just reading you what this resignation letter states. Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory.

5:09Ben Meiselas:This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again as a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a gold star husband who lost my beloved wife, Shannon, in a war manufactured by Israel. I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives. I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran and who we are doing it for. The time for bold action is now.

5:46Ben Meiselas:You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards. It was an honor to serve in your administration and to serve our great nation, signed Joseph Kent, Director, National Counterterrorism Center. Now, one of the things we're hearing from a lot of America's allies, former allies, and generals and admirals and other top military officials in the United States is they hold the cards now, referring to Iran. And Trump's allies fear Iran has been slipping beyond the president's control. Trump supporters who backed his promise to avoid new Middle East wars, worry Iran's attacks on shipping, are a push toward U.S.

6:31Ben Meiselas:escalation and maybe even boots on the ground political rights. Politico writes, to a large extent, they hold the cards now, said one person close to the White House. They decide how long we're involved, and they decide if we put boots on the ground. Meanwhile, in Europe, the vice president of the European Union Commission, their foreign minister, Kaha Kailas, says, we just really don't understand what the United States is doing. We, at a logical level, don't understand the moves it's making. And then she also said, it's pretty clear now when you deal with the United States, you just have to take unpredictability of the U.S.

7:12Ben Meiselas:into account. The U.S. is no longer a rational actor, and we just have to proceed as such. Meanwhile, you had the UAE airspace temporarily closed all of it for a significant period of time. You had a major hotel in Baghdad in Iraq that was hit by these Iranian drones. You had the Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq with those FPVs, those first-person-viewed drones, flying it around the green zone and posting videos showing that they could strike any target at will. You had additional strikes in northern Israel, central Israel, in Bahrain. And then you have the United States and Israel striking Iran hard.

8:01Ben Meiselas:Israel claimed that it was able to kill Iran's security chief, Ali Larajani, and the Basij force commander, Gholmerza Soleimani. We believe that that actually is something that happened. I mean, just because it's claimed doesn't mean it always happened, but we believe that that actually did in fact take place. Now, lots of people, though, who understand the inner workings of Iran, though, feel like killing Ali Larajani makes doing any type of negotiated resolution with Iran more difficult, while Ali Larajani was certainly one of the top figures in Iran that's kind of day-to-day running the Islamic Republic.

8:44Ben Meiselas:He was also somebody viewed as having the institutional knowledge to work with the more extreme elements. I mean, Lara Jani is an extreme guy, but even the more extreme elements within the Islamic Republic military, the Revolutionary Guard, to try to bring about resolution. So lots of people feel like all you're going to do by taking out Lara Jani is show what an existential threat this war is and for Iran to just keep on going. We'll keep you posted, but that's what a lot of the individuals who really study the day-to-day of Iran are saying that this actually makes any resolution with Iran more difficult by taking out Lara Jani.

9:25Ben Meiselas:And perhaps that's what Israel wanted in doing that to try to continue this thing. But, you know, we will keep you posted there. Should be noted that Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammed Bagar Galabaf, he's just recently commented saying that the security landscape in the Strait of Hormuz has fundamentally changed. He's accusing the U.S. of acting under Israeli influence, saying, I don't know what happened in the Epstein affair or in those files or what documents exist on Americans that put them on such a leash in Netanyahu's hands and lead them to act this way. Galiboff also said Trump is lying several times a day out of desperation, claiming the U.S.

10:05Ben Meiselas:failed to achieve quick victory and that all of the U.S. bases have been targeted by us. He added that Iran had long warned neighboring states that the U.S. military presence does not bring security, saying recent events have proven that point. And Ghalibov said that the face and order of the Middle East are changing, adding that regional countries will shape their own security rather than the United States. So those are words of someone who doesn't seem to be interested in a resolution anytime soon. But again, we will continue to follow this day by day. Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C., you have Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's national economic advisor, says, you know, look, this war is not hurting the American economy.

10:48Ben Meiselas:It's just hurting consumers. And consumers are the least thing we care about right now. Now, if you're like, Ben, you're telling me Trump's top economic guy just went on TV and said the least of our concerns right now is the American consumer? Yeah, I'll show you what he said. Here, play this clip. But the fact is that the US economy is fundamentally sound and that if it were to be extended, it wouldn't really disrupt the US economy very much at all. It would hurt consumers and we'd have to think about, you know, if that continued what we would have to do about that. But that's like really the last of our concerns right now because we're very confident that this thing is going ahead of schedule.

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12:51Ben Meiselas:Now we're also hearing from MAGA Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House. And he is now saying, we don't know why Kent, that top official quit. Where's he getting his information from? We all know this is ahead of schedule and things are growing great. Watch mega Mike Johnson panic right here. Play this clip. I'm on the gang of eight. I got all the briefings. We all understood there was clearly an imminent threat that Iran was very close to the enrichment of nuclear capability. And they were building missiles at a pace that no one in the region could keep up with. They were far outpacing our allies and friends and us in our defense capability because we had personnel installations, members of the armed services, and civilians in the region.

13:38Iran was building up ballistic missiles at such a rapid pace, and we knew that their plan was to fire them upon Americans. The commander in chief and his administration had a very difficult decision to make. I don't know where Joe Kent is getting his information, but he wasn't in those briefings, clearly, because the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and everyone, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Cain, they had exquisite intelligence that we understood that this was a serious moment for us. Had the president waited, I am personally convinced that we would have mass casualties of Americans, service members and others, and our installations would have been dramatically damaged.

14:16And so we had to, the president felt that he had to strike first to prevent those mass casualties. That's the summary. I can't tell you the classified part, but that's the summary that's made public and it's accurate. Yes, moderate.

14:28Ben Meiselas:Or let's take a look at some of these other Trump surrogates who are going on the news networks this morning. MAGA Republican Pete Sessions says that if we put 2 ,500 to 5 ,000 boots on the ground in the Karg Island, in the Strait of Hormuz, in the northern Persian Gulf, that's not boots on the ground. That's like virtual boots on the ground. So putting soldiers in Iran is not putting soldiers in Iran. That's what they're trying to sell us. Here, play this clip. Ron, the president is moving about 2 ,500 Marines to the region. Are you okay with putting those two troops on the ground? i i i actually spoke to some media last night and i indicated that i believe that what these 2 500 marines of the marine expeditionary force would be would be this probably secure the island the island is not in my opinion boots on the ground in combat circumstances it is it is a territory.

15:33It is Iran. Well, I'm not going to argue that point. As a matter of fact, you're right. But what I would say is the president has chosen not to obliterate the ability to get oil. And I think he wants to go secure that to make sure the Iranians don't do themselves in. So I think it's probably wisdom. Is that boots on the ground? No, not like inside Iran, where they're in the cities, where we go through circumstances that we've had in the past of large areas of population, combatants against us. And it is a mess. I am against the what I call the mess, moving people, Marines, snipers into population areas.

16:21Ben Meiselas:But then back to Kevin Hassett for a moment, he tries to sell us that Donald Trump canceling the meeting with Xi Jinping is a good thing because they're such good buddies and they're looking forward to meeting because all of this is going to be great for Xi Jinping in the long run. And that Donald Trump is really helping Xi Jinping right now by this war, even though we know that China is actually helping Iran right now. Let's play this clip right here. And so I think that in this, this is one case where the objectives of both countries are aligned, that we want a stable world oil market. And I think that President Trump or President Xi are good friends.

17:01And that when this war is over, which will be sometime soon, I'm sure they'll get together and have a lot to talk about. And hopefully the Chinese will express some gratitude for what President Trump has done.

17:12Ben Meiselas:More from Kevin Hassett right here, explaining that even though we're not getting our fertilizer from Qatar anymore as a result of this war. Who really cares? We basically moved on. I'm sure Qatar is very happy about that. Let's play this clip right here. You mentioned that there are so many other things that come through the Strait of Hormuz that we do have concerns about. One would be fertilizer. Another would be helium, which is needed for the manufacturing of semiconductor chips. You said you have a plan. What is that plan to make sure that we are getting fertilizer to the proper places that it's needed because you can't get the fertilizer there late if you need to plant the crops.

17:52Right. Well, the thing about fertilizer is that I know there are some people who live in fertilizer land on CNBC, but probably most people don't know about how fertilizer works in the U.S., but it's almost planting season. And there's a lot of fertilizer that usually goes down during planting season, including fertilizer that's based on ammonia and urea and nitrogen. And then there's potash that goes in as well. The potash usually comes in the fall. And a lot of this stuff is made from liquid natural gas. And there's a facility in Qatar that produces so much fertilizer that it supplies maybe about 20 % of the fertilizer in the U.S.

18:38And so what we've been doing to really as an insurance policy against disruption is we've been finding other sources and doing so really quite successfully. We've put licenses, established licenses for Venezuela to produce more fertilizer. We've had discussions with Baraco, which has the largest reserve of potash anywhere on Earth. And so we've been all over the fertilizer problem.

19:05Ben Meiselas:And then more efforts by Donald Trump and his despicable regime right here in order to further harm our economy. Washington Post reports that about 200 ,000 immigrant truckers will begin to lose their commercial driver's license under a Trump administration rule that takes effect today, straining the industry responsible for moving goods across the U.S. as energy costs surge amid the war in Iran. as Quinn Yirgain explains, I really cannot fathom being so racist and power hungry that someone would rather rule a legally segregated economic backwater as a dictator than participate in a free contest for political power in a wealthy, diverse country.

19:51Ben Meiselas:Yet that's the fascist plan. And talking about that fascist plan right here, U.S. is considering withholding more HIV. They've already withheld lots of HIV aid by dismantling USAID. But U.S. is now considering its main plan withhold HIV aid unless Zambia expands mineral access. A draft State Department memo outlines ways that the Trump regime may ratchet up pressure on the African country by ending health support on a massive scale. That's what you have going on this morning. We'll keep you posted every step of the way here on the Midas Touch Network. Hey, the Midas Touch Network just won the iHeart Award for Best News Podcast of the Year.

20:35Ben Meiselas:We beat Megyn Kelly. And we also in the category was the New York Times, The Daily, a lot of other people in that category. What an honor. Thanks to iHeart for awarding the Midas Touch Podcast, number one news podcast. Now make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and help us get to 7 million subscribers. How close are we to 7 million. So close. Hit subscribe right now. Thanks everybody for watching and have a great day.

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