Trump Retreats as White House Shuts Down Amid Iran Fallout

0:00Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is closing down the White House all day today to the press as Iran is refusing to even allow him to surrender. Donald Trump is saying, Iran, you can control the Strait of Hormuz. Can you please just open it up? And Iran's like, nope, you owe us reparations. You need to make sure that Israel leaves Lebanon and you need to get the United States military out of the region. then maybe we'll consider opening up the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump's like, please, can I try to save face? And Iran's like, no, we're not going to let you do it. And Iran hit another tanker yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz.

0:38Ben Meiselas:The Houthis hit hard in eastern Saudi Arabia in Jubal, another Aramco facility was hit very hard there. The Houthis struck hard in northern Yemen and in other areas of Yemen against the Saudi back groups there. And so Iran saying? Absolutely not. Just look at Donald Trump's press schedule for today. Closed 8 a.m., 9.30, 12.30, 2, 2.45, 6.30 p.m. The American people are demanding answers. What the hell is happening? Donald Trump gave that, I didn't want to call it an interview. He called up his personal stenographer at Axios, Barack Ravid, and said, we're just going to play it low key with Iran right now.

1:23Ben Meiselas:We're not really even negotiating. We're going to do semi-negotiation, and we're just going to let it be, because if we do nothing, then Iran is definitely going to just fall. That's the new line from the Trump regime. We're going to go low-key with this right now and just let things evolve naturally, and we'll just see what happens. I mean, by the way, Donald Trump's just been looking awful these last couple of weeks. I mean, he's always looked awful, But remember how he looked a few weeks back? And then yesterday, he was at Bedminster in New Jersey. He was doing this weird stuff with some like a gold coin thing that he hands out or some fake gold coin.

2:04Ben Meiselas:You see Natalie Harp in the background right there. That's Donald Trump's human printer. Other people call her his other thing. Some people say caretaker. Some people say other thing. But that's Donald Trump. You see him there with Eric. He's doing what the hell is Donald Trump even doing there? And then because he looked so awful, he was posting all of these AI images of himself. Because if you look at how he really looked, folks, it's bad. So here's an AI image he posted of himself and Gary Player at Bedminster. He's like, with the great Gary Player today at Bedminster, that's not what you look like.

2:42Ben Meiselas:Here's what he looked like. And folks, those bruises that are on both of his hands and on his neck, they're spreading all up his arm right now. Zoom in right there. He is physically and cognitively declining quickly. And I know corporate news doesn't want to talk about it. Oh, we can't talk about it. No, we'll talk about it here that this dude is cognitively and physically declining quickly. But he posts the following as well. 51 years of bad behavior. Iran has no money, he posts on social media. And then he very quickly starts to post a photo of the 10th hole at the golf course, the 10th hole at Trump International Golf Club, Palm Beach County, Florida.

3:31Ben Meiselas:The hell are you posting? The American people can't afford homes. They can't afford groceries. They can't afford gas. You're talking about low-keying the negotiations with Iran, or you're not even negotiating, you're doing a, quote, semi-negotiation is what you told Barack Ravid while we see the Houthis control the Red Sea. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. You look utterly lost and confused and scared, but you're showing what the 10th hole of the International Golf Club looks like while you grift in the Oval Office. And we're just learning even more disturbing details about the extent to which he's grifting.

4:13Ben Meiselas:Like we know he's made billions of dollars. That's an undisputed fact, grifting from the Oval Office and all of these quid pro quo deals with foreign countries and with companies and 21 ,000 stock trades. He has all the insider information. He manipulates the markets during the war and then he engages in all of these trades. But when you zoom in a little bit too on the crypto money, He brought in like$1.4 billion on crypto. Take a look at this investigative piece from the Times. So from that$1.4 billion, most of it's anonymous. So we don't know who gave Trump that money. And that's what we know about that$1.4 billion.

4:55Ben Meiselas:I'm willing to guess and go out and lend here. And again, I'm just giving you my opinion that it's actually a lot more money than$1.4 billion. But that$1.4 billion is mostly anonymous. But when we find out, like the New York Times did, where some of that money came from, here's where$100 million came from. So the president's recent financial disclosure shows that he collected$1.4 billion for his crypto business last year, the majority from anonymous sources. But here's$100 million from someone who refers to himself as a businessman. But there are lots of red flags here. The curious case of Gurren Bobby Zhao shows the ease with which investors with shady backgrounds and unknown motivations can funnel money to the president.

5:43Ben Meiselas:The word investor is also a businessman doing a lot of work there in New York Times. During the World Cup soccer final in New Jersey last month, Zach Witkoff, co-founder of Trump's crypto company, the son of Steve Witkoff, who is not appointed to be a diplomat but is negotiating with Iran or not doing anything. But he's the guy who goes to Russia when he sees Putin. He puts his hand on his heart. He's like the scummy landlord dude from New York City real estate who had, in my opinion, not the greatest reputation out there. He would talk about he'd show up with guns to collect rent at Harlem. I think there were stories about him like, OK.

6:29Ben Meiselas:So he's Trump's real estate guy from New York. And he's now like the main negotiator with no foreign policy background. Anyway, his son, Zach, was chilling with this guy, Bobby Zhao, at the luxury box at the World Cup in New Jersey. Two years earlier, that man, Gurren Bobby Zhao, was a failed hardwood flooring retailer in Britain who had come under investigation there for money laundering and presided over the collapse of a small crypto startup. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he became one of the biggest buyers of tokens from Mr. Trump's company, World Liberty Financial, dropping a total of$100 million through a new firm called Aqua One.

7:13Ben Meiselas:Wow. Do the Republicans care? Where's all those oversight Republicans, right? All those who are talking about Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden this, Hunter Biden that. You want to actually look at real stuff? You want to talk about real stuff? By the way, too, I don't want to lose sight There's so much that floods the zone with this despicable creature in the Oval Office. But you got to talk about what's going on in Big Bend also, the National Park in Texas, West Texas, right by the Rio Grande. So the Trump regime is basically using eminent domain to seize massive amounts of territory right by Big Bend National Park to build kind of like a performative wall and to put all of this electronic surveillance there saying that this is going to stop immigrants coming into the United States.

8:08Ben Meiselas:Like there's very little immigration at all that comes through that area, almost none. And they're using eminent domain to seize all of this land from West Texas. They're destroying this beautiful landscape so that Donald Trump could give billions of dollars to his contract buddies to just demolish this national park. It's actually horrific what's going on. And it removes access to the Rio Grande. It removes access to water. And it's just taken away people's land over there. You've got James Tallarico, who's running for Senate, calling it out, saying, what the hell are you doing? Speaking about what the hell are you doing?

8:46Ben Meiselas:This is real. This is not parody. This is what Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, announced last night. I kid you not, this is real. So you know how all the air traffic controllers have left and Doge got rid of all of these highly qualified and competent people who were working in air traffic control, working with airplanes, critical functions, right, for safety? Well, we ran out of the qualified people because they got fired or pushed out or the working conditions were so bad that they retired. So what Duffy says is in April, we launched a new campaign to recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers and supercharged the entire hiring process to get the best and brightest faster.

9:32Ben Meiselas:The results are historic. 94 % of hiring goal met, fastest time ever to reach target. 2 ,000 hired, the most in a single year. 2 ,000, quote, best and brightest, end quote, candidates in the pipeline, reaching the academy quicker than any class before them. We're building the strongest, sharpest workforce in aviation history. I'll just play you 24 seconds of this video that he dropped. This is real. This isn't an SNL skit. And let me be clear also, I think it is possible that gamers could perhaps, like, I mean, I don't have anything. I like gamers. I don't, you know, I'm not a gamer. When I was growing up, I played games.

10:15Ben Meiselas:I don't do it anymore. I think that gamers are great people. But just because you're a gamer doesn't mean you automatically become an air traffic control specialist. I think most gamers should realize just because you're good at Grand in the end theft auto, does it mean that you get fast tracked versus the air traffic controllers who spent years and years training? What are we talking about? This is real. Watch the 20, I'm not gonna play the full video. You'll get the gist from this 24 seconds. Here, play this, Clint. You guys are trying to recruit gamers? They problem solve, they're spatially aware.

10:50They do multiple things at the same time. I've been a gamer most of my life. They are looking for people that play video games. Okay, well that definitely fits me. Yeah, you know what, I'm one of them. You can merge gaming with aviation, why not? It's like the best of both worlds. I actually encountered the gamer ad. I grew up playing a lot of flight simulators.

11:08Ben Meiselas:I've always loved airplanes. The similarities making this. And finally, that brings me to Michigan. I gotta give a hat tip to this incredible speech there by California Governor Gavin Newsom. Here's what he said in Michigan, let's play it. Democrats literally have flipped 30 seats from red to blue. We have not lost one place. It's all what happened in Virginia. It's all what happened in New Jersey. They're going to win. You have chosen wisely. But the work is, again, in front of you. So thank you for everything you've done. But more importantly, thank you for what you'll do over the course of the next few days.

11:47Because one thing we don't do, we don't run the 90-yard dash. We can't take anything for granted. And this is the message I want to leave with you. Because what we're up against is ruthlessness. I know a thing or two about it.

12:02Ben Meiselas:More from Governor Newsom there as well. Let's play it. We're polarized, feel traumatized by this moment, this invasive species we have in the White House. Sincerely, he is. Not many Republicans that disagree with that either. But you're here, not just for Alex and Sarah, not just for the speaker and waiting, but you're here for each other. And so I just want to thank you. And I'm here in that spirit as well. We're all bound together. I was just at church, all bound together by a web of mutuality. Many parts, one body. You matter. And we care. All across this country, people are waking up. We're stepping up.

12:47we're meeting the moment. We recognize we have agency. We're not bystanders in the world. We can shape the future. The future is not in front of us. It's inside of us. It's decisions, not conditions that will determine our fate in the future.

13:01Ben Meiselas:Then I'll leave you with this over here. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, he was asked a question on Meet the Press. Watch this incredible, powerful answer. Let's play. Radical, dangerous. How do you respond? We always knew they were going to go here. I mean, notice how they chose to use my full name in echoes to exactly what they did against President Obama. At the end of the day, it's not radical to believe that people should be able to afford their groceries. It's not radical to believe that you should have health care in this country. It's not radical to believe that you don't think the president should be able to deny elections or make$2.2 billion off of his role in office.

13:44It's not radical to believe that all of us should be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water. Those are the things that I've been fighting for. I believe in an America where all of us can come together to build together a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Now, they're going to try and paint me as a certain thing, given my name. But I also think it's important for us to recognize that America has a long history of embracing. America is a lot bigger than very small people like Donald Trump or J.D. Vance or Mike Rogers want to make it out to be. And so I'm grateful for all that America has given me.

14:16And I'm grateful for the opportunity now to put myself out there and ask my fellow Michiganders for their stake in our democracy to be able to build an America that's more just, that's more equitable, that's more sustainable, that's more empowering, that's more American than the vision that Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and Mike Rogers have for it.

14:34Ben Meiselas:Well, there you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers, pre-order WTF America, the book I wrote with my brothers. You can pre-order it now. You can Google WTF America by Ben, Brett, and Jordy Mycelos. Get your copy there. We'll put a link in the description below as well. Tell me in the comments if you've ordered it. Our publisher says we have a lot of momentum for the pre-orders, but pre-order it if you can. It's dedicated to you, and it's all about the Midas Mighty. It's about how we started the Midas Touch and the Midas Mighty philosophy.

15:08Ben Meiselas:Thanks for watching, everybody. We appreciate you so much.