Trump Panics by Sudden Escalation of War!!

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1:09Ben Meiselas:The United States and Israel's war in Iran rages on and things are going from uglier to catastrophic for the United States right now. What you just saw there at the beginning of this video are some big U.S. and Israeli strikes in Tehran. And no doubt the U.S. and Israel is striking Tehran and Iran significantly. Lots of targets of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Also, lots of civilians in Iran dying as well. But Iran is striking back, hitting U.S. interests in neighboring countries and hitting the interest of neighboring countries that support the United States as well. We have some updates to report right now.

1:53Ben Meiselas:We are learning that there was a United States F-15E Strike Eagle that was shot down over Iran. Fortunately, the U.S. pilots were safe and they managed to make it out, but a direct hit on an F-15E Strike Eagle over Iran. In addition, one of the things that we're learning about is that CENTCOM is asking the Pentagon right now to send more military intelligence officers to its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to support the operations against Iran for at least 100 days, but likely through September. And so what that means, what we're able to glean is that the Trump regime sees this war against Iran and this war that's now engulfing the entire Middle East and perhaps even reaching beyond, lasting at least 100 days or through September, probably longer, probably into 2027.

2:58Ben Meiselas:One of the internal fights that we're learning about within the Trump regime is between Hegseth and Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State. Sean Matthews broke the story. Here was his scoop. Hegseth and Rubio are feuding over the U.S. approach to war in Iran. Rubio and Hegseth are at each other's throats whether the U.S. should send troops to Iran. Gulf official says is U.S. weighing special ops deployment. Hegseth wants U.S. boots on the ground. Rubio does not. And one of the things that the Trump regime falsely leaked yesterday was that the Kurds from Iraq and I guess northern Iran as well were doing an invasion of Iran.

3:46Ben Meiselas:And the U.S. was just lying about this. Some of the Kurdish leaders had to immediately respond because they were also being targeted by Iran. And these Kurdish leaders were saying, that's just false. We haven't sent a single Kurdish soldier into Iran at this point, just an entirely false statement by the United States. And what appears to have happened is that the Kurds rejected the United States' demand and coercion to be the boots on the ground and invade Iran. The U.S., and specifically Donald Trump, has betrayed the Kurds consistently. Trump betrayed the Kurds to Turkey during Trump's first term, and Trump betrayed the Kurds again to Syria, extinguishing the Kurds' autonomous territory area in Syria when Donald Trump supported al-Jelani, the al-Qaeda leader, who now runs Syria.

4:42Ben Meiselas:That's the guy who went into the Oval Office, who he used to have a$25 million bounty on because he led al-Qaeda, and Trump was spraying perfume on him and sniffing him. So what seems to have happened is that the Kurds rejected the Trump coercion to invade Iran. So the United States just made it up in typical Trump fashion. Lied, said the Kurds are invading in order to try to provoke an attack by Iran against the Kurds, maybe hoping that that will then get the Kurds to respond. That's just one of these Trump gimmicks and lies that he thinks like works in the movies, but doesn't work in real life and actually has led to the conflagration, the burning inferno that is this Middle East getting much worse.

5:25Ben Meiselas:I mean, for all of the strikes taking place on Tehran right now, I mean, Iran still has its Revolutionary Guard spokesman, Abrahim Dhul-Fakari out there holding press briefings. He says the Iranian sacred multilayer defense will continue with full force. They're out there still striking Israel, still striking Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and still striking Bahrain and the neighboring areas. The U.S. claims that the Iranian strikes are down about 83%, but the U.S. lies about everything. The Strait of Hermes is essentially closed still. Maybe one or two ships get through, but overall, the Strait of Hermes is closed.

6:09Ben Meiselas:Iran has successfully targeted Qatari oil interests and nearby oil interest as well. So, for example, Qatar announced yesterday that it's set to fully shut natural gas liquefaction. Restarting natural gas liquefaction after a complete shutdown would take about two weeks. Once restarted, Qatar would need at least another two weeks to reach full capacity. And Qatar is the second largest liquefied natural gas LNG exporter in the world. And they are shutting it all down. Think about the implications there. And as we learn those implications, you can see it in the data. The Midas Touch Network, we show you charts.

6:55Ben Meiselas:We show you graphs. We show you facts. We don't give you spin. We don't give you propaganda. Just the facts. So Brent oil prices, as of last night, surged above$82.50 a barrel with gas prices up nearly 20 % since January. And, you know, it seems that those prices are going up to$100 a barrel, which could be absolutely crippling for the world. And in terms of your gas prices, you may see$4 or more a gallon very soon. and Iran knows that. That's why they continue to target oil interest oil tankers. This is what Trump was warned about from his generals and admirals, top military leaders, and Trump just had a feeling he felt it wouldn't happen.

7:46Ben Meiselas:An oil tanker has been hit by a large explosion in the waters off of Kuwait yesterday, resulting in a massive oil spill. and this is in addition to the news I gave you about Qatar. China's government ordered their largest oil refineries to suspend diesel and gasoline exports amid the Strait of Hormuz closures. So that's what's going on right there in the Middle East. But if you said, hey, can it get any worse than that? The answer is that it can. And if you look at what's actually happening on the streets of Iran. It is not looking good. Donald Trump and his regime turned a very unpopular Ayatollah Khomeini, who was 85 years old, who the people were turning against, even his Shiite supporters.

8:39Ben Meiselas:He's a Shiite spiritual leader. We may not like that because he's a terrorist and he was an authoritarian, but he was a religious leader, not just for Iranians, but for the Shiite community in the region. And again, bad person, terroristic, hateful, all true, but was becoming unpopular. Now, all we did was empower a more far right wing extremist version of that Ayatollah. The new Ayatollah, Machaba, it's his son, was the one responsible for the protest massacres. So you just got a worse Ayatollah, basically, than a very, very bad Ayatollah. And I'll just show you what's going on in the streets right now in Iran.

9:21Ben Meiselas:It's not the protesters who are out there saying, throw out the regime because they're terrified. The last time they did that, the last time they went out there, Trump said, I got your back and didn't have their backs and allowed them to be massacred. Also, if you were a pro-democracy protester right now, and Donald Trump and his regime is out there saying that they don't support democratic leaders in Iran and they support someone else from the Islamic Republic who would be friendly with the Trump regime. Why would you go out and protest? If you did, you would say, well, I'm going to do this and the Trump regime is going to throw me under the bus and they are going to, and I'm going to get killed by the new Islamic Republic leader because Trump's going to just hoist up an Islamic Republic leader.

10:07Ben Meiselas:So Trump's plan is so awful for all of those reasons and more. So now the demonstrations that you see are not people asking for democracy, even though we know they're there. They're terrified. We know they're there and our heart goes out to them. Let me be very clear. That's where my solidarity and heart goes out to. Most importantly, my heart goes out to Americans. I mean, but I'm a citizen of the world, so I hope everybody in the world is okay. But I want to make sure that American people here get health care and that American people are taken care of and American people are having health care ripped away.

10:40Ben Meiselas:So let me be clear about that first, as Donald Trump's out there engaging in this war, apparently because he said Israel was going to strike first, but large demonstrations in support of the Iranian government continued night after night. Last night, for example, in Iran, you have crowds gathering to mourn the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, who is now viewed as a martyr. It's the point I wanted to make. He was getting unpopular. The economic problems of Iran were catching up to him. And now he's viewed as this martyr amongst the Shiite community, despite how awful he was. Trump did that.

11:17Ben Meiselas:And now he's further radicalized people in the region against the United States. So what's your game plan now, Donald? Take a look at some of these protests right here that you can see. I'll just show you what it looks like in the Larestan province in Western Iran. I mean, DropSite's done a good job aggregating this. A mountainous region of the Zagros range, home to about 1.7 million people. I mean, they're out there chanting death to America. I mean, just watch what they're doing here. Play this clip.

11:57Ben Meiselas:I mean, you take a look at the Khuzestan region, southwestern Iran bordering Iraq. I mean, look right here, oil rich province. I mean, they're out there, tens of thousands, if not more, pro-Ayatollah protesters screaming Magbar Pahlavi, screaming death to Pahlavi. And Trump doesn't have Pahlavi's back. Think about that. Trump's repeatedly said, I don't have Pahlavi's back. Trump says he wants another Islamic Republic leader. So what's the hell's Trump doing here? And just so you see who's out there, who's emboldened by all of this, this is what Trump has caused. Here, play this clip.

12:43Ben Meiselas:Then Donald Trump held that bizarre press conference yesterday where he couldn't even, like he struggled to speak and he was trying to say electric your electric bills are actually coming down he was like i didn't even understand what he's saying here play this clip electric

13:00Donald Trump:so your electric bills will actually come down it'll take a little while but not long then

13:05Ben Meiselas:donald trump once again admitted yesterday that if the united states didn't attack iran first then israel was going to attack and then iran would have attacked the united states so that's why we have to do it. Trump said it again. Here, play this clip.

13:18Donald Trump:Years have been killing our people and killing people from all over the world. And I think we have great support. And I think if we didn't do it first, they would have done it to Israel and give us a shot if that was possible.

13:31Ben Meiselas:And for all of Donald Trump and his regime now trying to claim they don't need war authorization from Congress because it's not a war, it's a special operation, the same language that Putin uses? Well, here's Donald Trump yesterday at that press conference saying it's a war. It's a war. And on a scale from one to 10, the success of this war, Donald Trump says, is a 15. It's a 15. Don't you understand? It's the same demented playbook he used with COVID. Like a miracle, it's all going to go away. There's only going to be one case. How would you rate your handling of COVID. An A-plus on a scale from 1 to 10.

14:12Ben Meiselas:I give it an 11. This is what he does. I think in COVID, he gave it an 11. Now he's giving the war against Iran a 15. And we're now preparing for September. This is going to be a never-ending war. That seems pretty damn obvious. Even if it stops a little bit, you're going to have Islamic Republic leaders in there who are going to be out there more emboldened and more entrenched and declaring victory. Do we get what's happening here? Here's Donald Trump saying that. Play this clip. And we're doing very well on the war front,

14:44Donald Trump:to put it mildly, I would say. Somebody said on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15. And we're going to continue to do what we have the greatest military in the world by far.

14:57Ben Meiselas:You know, and meanwhile, Donald Trump, who was bashing Zelensky and, you know, and withholding weapons from Zelensky. Now the tables have turned. The US needs Zelensky's help because in Ukraine, they've been dealing with the Shahid drones from Iran and the ballistic missiles from Iran and Russia that are now being used by Iran in the Middle East region against the United States and against other interests in the Middle East where the United States has its own bases and interests in as well. So now the Trump regime and all of these Middle East countries are saying, Ukraine, we need your help. How have you dealt with the Shahid drones?

15:35Ben Meiselas:How have you dealt with the ballistic missiles? And Zelensky's like, okay, I showed the video. I don't need to show the video again. But Zelensky's like, we're happy to help you. America wants our help, but you got to help us against Russia. You got to help us in the war that Russia has inflicted against Ukraine. So you have him saying that. And I just want you to think about this, right? Right now, in terms of wars, you have a war against Afghanistan and Pakistan. The entire Middle East is now engulfed in war with Trump invading Iran. You have Trump doing a military operation in Ecuador right now.

16:10Ben Meiselas:We have boots on the ground in Ecuador as the MAGA president of Ecuador and Trump are doing whatever the hell they're doing there, which is probably just out to enrich them. You had Donald Trump's invasion of Venezuela. You have Taiwan, which has never been more vulnerable than it is right now. And you saw what happened in Venezuela yesterday. I was trying to make sense of the story, and now it totally made sense. So remember the reporting that was out there? Reuters broke the story that the Trump regime was preparing an indictment against Delcy Rodriguez, the leader of Venezuela from the Maduro regime, who Trump is basically a Trump stooge there.

16:50Ben Meiselas:So Trump could take the oil money from Venezuela, sell it to his rightman oligarch friends, put it into Qatari bank accounts. And then the Venezuelan community in South Florida and elsewhere in the United States are like, dude, she's Delce Rodriguez is worse than Maduro. So you just kept the Maduro regime. You kept the Chavistas in there worse than Maduro. What the hell are you doing, Donald? And so there was this interesting story where Reuters said that the Trump DOJ prepared a draft indictment against Delcy, which then the Trump DOJ denied right away. And Todd Blanche is like completely false from Reuters.

17:25Ben Meiselas:Not sure how such fake news makes its way to publication, which, of course, I don't believe the Trump regime. The fact that Todd Blanche said that made me believe even more that Reuters had good sourcing on this. But then yesterday, here's what we learned about Venezuela. Trump has brokered a gold deal between the U.S. and Venezuela per Axios. Venezuela's state-owned mining company, Manervan, agrees to sell 1 ,000 kilograms of gold destined for U.S. markets. Trafugera will shepherd the gold to U.S. refineries under separate arrangements with the U.S. government. The contract calls for 98 % final gold content sources say the deal could be worth more than$150 million.

18:11Ben Meiselas:The U.S. is eyeing Venezuela's gold. So not only are we taking their oil and shipping it to Qatari bank accounts that Trump controls, apparently now we're doing the same thing with gold. So I believe you put these stories together that now what Trump does is he holds this indictment over Delcy's head. I want your gold. You know how Donald Trump loves like gold nuggets and gold bricks. I want your gold or I'm going to indict you. She gives him the gold. And then Donald Trump posts on social media yesterday. Ah, Delcy's great. Delcy's a hero. Things are fantastic with Delcy. That's what he posted.

18:47Ben Meiselas:This is all what he, and he's making the whole world less safe with this crap to enrich himself. Do we all see what the hell is happening here? It's happening in plain view. I want to touch upon one or two more things just before we go. So you're fully informed of all the developments, by the way, that's why make sure you subscribe, right? We're almost at 7 million subscribers. We flew past 6 million, almost at 7 million subscribers. So you may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. Here's what I wanted to mention before I went. Pam Bondi subpoenaed by Congress on a bipartisan basis, House Oversight Committee.

19:24Ben Meiselas:She's going to have to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Epstein. The whole hearing will be on Epstein. The House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Bondi 24 to 19. Five Republicans join with Democrats, Burchett, Boebert, Cloud, Mace, and Perry. She will be subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee right now. And that is going to be a big deposition. One other fact about Pam Bondi that I want to mention, and this didn't really get a lot of attention yesterday at all. The DOJ has tried to put forward a rule that any DOJ attorney who is under state bar investigations in any state can invoke the DOJ's help so that the DOJ blocks state bar ethics investigations into their DOJ prosecutors because they're all getting sanctioned now and may lose their licenses for engaging in all this unlawful conduct before federal judges.

20:30Ben Meiselas:So what Bondi's scheme is under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution is she's saying the DOJ gets to review any state ethic complaints against DOJ lawyers for an indefinite period of time before the state bar gets to look at it. So what the plan is, is to use this review process of the state bar claims in any of the states to delay and stall and stop state bar license removal proceedings against DOJ lawyers who behave unethically. Again, I don't care what political party you're from. If you are okay with that, look in the mirror. You've got some problems right there. So there you have it. We covered a lot this morning, a lot this morning.

21:18Ben Meiselas:There was a lot to cover. Now hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers and thanks for watching. New Midas merch. Head to store.midastouch.com today and get yourself the best pro-democracy gear and show your support. That's store.midastouch.com.

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