Trump Reverses Course on Global Threats as Conflicts Escalate

0:00Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump just caved to the Houthis and threw MBS, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, under the bus. Donald Trump also did a hat trick of caving. Not only did he cave to the Houthis as they stared him down, Donald Trump caved to Iran, Donald Trump caved to China, and then Donald Trump tried to threaten President Zelensky of Ukraine and told him, do not strike any more refineries in Russia. And Zelensky said, as long as Putin keeps striking infrastructure in Ukraine, I'm going to strike inside Russia. And so Zelensky struck the main refinery in Moscow, completely disabling it. Donald Trump showing the entire world how weak he is.

0:43Ben Meiselas:So according to exclusive New York Times reporting that dropped last night, Donald Trump promised MBS, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, that the United States would join with Saudi Arabia and strike the Houthis in Sana 'a and other Houthi, or Ansarala as they're called in the region, strongholds in Yemen. As you know, Ansarala, the Houthis, have taken control of all of western Yemen. They took control of MOCA. They took control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. They're now moving east towards Aden, moving east towards other areas where Saudi Arabia's PLC-backed proxies have limited control, but they're on the retreat.

1:20Ben Meiselas:As you also know, Ansarala, the Houthis responded to Saudi strikes on the air base in Sana 'a and other strikes inside Houthi areas. And the Houthis hit the Saudi Arabian East-West pipeline really hard. They hit refineries and storage facilities in Saudi Arabia really hard. And so apparently MBS once again was basically begging Trump, hey, we did all these quid pro quo deals. Look what we did for you. You got to join us. And so Trump gave MBS his word at the end of last week that the U.S. would be joining Saudi Arabia and doing these strikes against the Houthis. And then the U.S. military was preparing to do these strikes.

2:01Ben Meiselas:And then at the last minute, Donald Trump said, nope, we are not doing the strikes. Donald Trump backed out. MBS was left all alone. The strikes did not take place. A lot of the military activity we saw in the region, some of those embassy evacuations that we saw were apparently tied to Donald Trump's promise to MBS. And then Donald Trump told MBS at the end, I'm not going to do it. Trump returned from Camp David on Saturday, cutting his trip to Camp David short. Trump then went to his golf course in Virginia and started playing golf there. And he had like a club tournament over there. Let's take a look at what the New York Times is reporting here.

2:44Ben Meiselas:Then I want to talk about Iran. Then I want to talk about China. Then I want to talk about Ukraine. But let's talk about this New York Times reporting. So Donald Trump wavered for weeks over Saudi appeals to help in fighting the Houthis. Things came to a head on Thursday, end of last week, where the crown prince, MBS, the kingdom's de facto leader, a major ally in the Iran war, right? He allowed Trump to use those bases in Saudi Arabia, which were subsequently hit very hard by Iran. Remember the E3 AWAC that was destroyed? The Trump regime tried to cover that. Remember those photos that recently came out and actually came out a few months back when the strikes took place.

3:24Ben Meiselas:But in any event, MBS called Donald Trump up, implored him again, step up. We need your help. The Houthis are striking our oil facilities. They struck the East-West pipeline. The power stations are down. We need your help. Donald Trump met with advisors just the day before and told them he did not favor strikes. But after speaking with MBS, he reversed himself. He told the Pentagon, prepare for strikes. We're going after the Houthis. But by midday Sunday, Donald Trump appeared to reverse himself again. It actually took place on Saturday from what I'm hearing from sources, but officially on Sunday, he reversed himself again.

4:03Ben Meiselas:There would be no U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis, at least not for the time being, according to administration officials. The White House press office declined to discuss Trump's deliberations for the record. A senior administration official would say only that the U.S. has a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and will always defend our allies. Most of Donald Trump's inner circle was deeply skeptical or outright opposed to joining Saudi Arabia's fight against the Houthis, particularly because the United States has run out of weapons when the U.S. lost the catastrophic war to Iran. The U.S.

4:41Ben Meiselas:is out of Patriot interceptors. The U.S. is out of FADs. The U.S. is out of SM3s and SM4s on the Navy destroyers. The U.S. is out of a lot of offensive capabilities as well, which we've been reporting about extensively here on the Midas Touch Network. I want to remind you though, back on November 18, 2025, when MBS came over to the United States and met Trump in the White House, remember Donald Trump just like grabbing and pulling MBS's hand and bragging about all the money MBS was giving him? I just want to remind you over here so you can see for yourself. Let's play this clip. Son of a lead, Mr.

5:19Ben Meiselas:President.

5:23And Trump doesn't give a fist pump. I grab that hand. I don't give a hell where that hand's been. I grab that hand. When, when, remember Biden? He travels for 20 hours. He gets out and he gives a fist pump. Now, when you get out of the plane and you get the future king and the man who's one of the most respected people in the world, you shake his hand. You don't give him a fist.

5:48Ben Meiselas:And then at that same meeting on November 18th, 2025, Donald Trump told MBS, I want to thank you because you've agreed to invest$600 billion into the United States. Donald Trump just like makes up fake numbers. But in any event, this is what Donald Trump said. Let's play this clip. The biggest plants anywhere in the world. And I want to thank you because you've agreed to invest $600 billion into the United States. And because he's my friend, he might make it a trillion, but I'm going to have to work on him. But it's 600. We can count on 600 billion, but that number could go up a little bit higher.

6:25Yes, sir.

6:26Ben Meiselas:I don't know. We'll see. And then Donald Trump proceeded to throw MBS under the bus and Donald Trump backed down and was afraid of what the Houthis would do in response. The Houthis controlled the Bob El Mondaw Strait, which means they could basically shut down access through the Red Sea. Currently, the Houthis have shut down access and have a blockade against only Saudi ships right now. And I think Donald Trump realized with those diesel prices surging, he could try to blame Zelensky all he wants or try to blame Biden or heck, who knows, maybe he's going to blame Dr. the Fauci, but the American people are not buying it at all.

7:07Ben Meiselas:I'm going to show you in a moment what one of the Houthis top reporters in Sanaa told me, but I want to pivot now quickly, adjacent pivot. Let's talk about Trump on Iran, right? Donald Trump said, once again, Sunday morning, he called state regime media Fox. I'm in deciding mode. Big things are going to happen, he said. Here are my choices. Am I going to wipe the country out, i.e. genocide, just wipe out the civilization? Am I going to let them rot economically or am I going to make a deal? They better behave. Donald Trump, the ranting and ravings of a lunatic genocidal maniac, but here's how it was reported on state regime media, who just reports like they're stenographers, what this psychotic lunatic genocidal individual has to say.

7:59Ben Meiselas:Here play this clip. Energy and update from the president. Hey, Trey. Yeah. Hey, guys. Good morning. I just spoke with President Trump about the situation with Iran. He tells Fox News he's in a deciding mode and that very big things are going to be happening in the not so distant future. The president described the current choices on the table as wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal. He added, my question is, if and when do I blow the entire nation up, they better behave. Now I asked the president about - And was Iran worried for a moment? No, because in the real world, not in the propagandized Fox regime media world, the U.S.

8:39Ben Meiselas:lost the war to Iran. And not just like lost, like an insy bit, the U.S. got pummeled. The U.S. bases in the region are destroyed. The U.S. is basically out of weapons, as I noted before. The U.S. security umbrella in the region has fallen, and then the dominoes fell as well. The U.S. security umbrella in Asia and Europe has also fallen as well. It's been an unmitigated disaster. So what's Iran's response? Well, Iran's top civilian leader, their parliament leader, M.B. Galabaf, posts the following. It's Schrodinger. The empire is in the but fully exposed, trying to suffocate Iran without blowback.

9:26Ben Meiselas:Impossible. This endgame cannot be modeled. It will be opened. And Iran's hand is already on the lever. And he creates this meme, this Schrodinger's empire meme. I mean, he's doing a reference to the 1935 Schrodinger's quantum physics experiment. I mean, you've got like Pete Hegseth, right, the failed Fox host talking about, send me. That's what our service members have said. Send me to wars without explaining why I'm even going in the, send me to die. And meanwhile, in Iran, you've got their parliament leader talking about Schrodinger's experiment regarding quantum physics, which was this thought experiment about the cat, whether this cat was alive or dead.

10:15Ben Meiselas:And I mean, essentially over here, what he's mocking is that at any moment, if Iran wants to prove that the U.S. is dead, all you got to do is just pull open the cabinet right here. And then all of the plates will immediately fall out from the Strait of Hormuz cabinet that the U.S. is trapped in. And then if you look at this photo he posts, missile magnet bases, meaning the U.S. bases in the regions, are just exposed. They're not underground. Iran built their bases under mountains. They have underground cities where they keep their weapons. The U.S. bases are all exposed, floating carrier targets, while Iran has state-of-the-art drones like the Shahids and state-of-the-art balistles and the Sheikh ballistics and the anti-ship ballistics.

11:04Ben Meiselas:The U.S. has these gigantic aircraft carriers which can't maneuver, which are floating carrier targets, the petrodollar Ponzi scheme that the U.S. uses, which was based on the security umbrella in the region with the petrodollar, the U.S. dollar, using its protection racket to basically supply funds to the U.S. for our treasury markets and our equity markets. And Trump screwed that up. The global IOU casino, regime change charities, green screen hegemony, full based order, genocidal proxy, rentier shakedoms, ATM states. In other words, M.B. Goluboff is mocking and he's doing it in this kind of uber intellectual way.

11:51Ben Meiselas:I think showing the distinction between how they're evaluating things and Pete Hegstead's like, let me read from the scripture, Isaiah says, send me to die in war. Like, okay, the book of Isaiah doesn't say send me to die in war. Then we heard from Iran's security council secretary, Moshe Rezai. He is the top advisor to Ayatollah Mojtabakomeini. And here's what he says. If war begins again, U.S. ships, unless they leave the Indian Ocean, will be attacked wherever they are inside the Indian Ocean. We have developed these capabilities. We increase the speed of our hypersonic missiles. From Mach 6 to Mach 10, we have also developed our electronic warfare systems, improved our air defenses, and we have other measures that we will use at the appropriate time.

12:39Ben Meiselas:Therefore, we are fully prepared. If America starts the war, we will confront America with greater force and with more numerous and more painful strikes. He went on to say, Trump greatly underestimated Iran. Today, nobody considers America's war with Iran to be rational or a logical war. Everyone describes it as a stupid war. And I want to add another word to that. Ignorant America's military, economic, and political actions were not based on any precise assessment or accurate calculations. They were carried out entirely at the instigation of Israel and Netanyahu personally. If the Americans are serious, let their soldiers come in and enter on.

13:20Ben Meiselas:Why do they not come in? Ground forces are always the ones that have the final word in wars. Why do the airborne divisions not come? Why do the U.S. ground forces not enter Iran? Why do they only bomb from the sky and then leave, he goes on to say.

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14:36Ben Meiselas:Most protein bars, they hurt my stomach. It's so nice to finally have one that's actually clean and includes fiber. And right now, IQ bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20 % off all IQ Bar products, plus free shipping. To get your 20 % off, text TRUTH to 64000. Text TRUTH to 64000. That's TRUTH to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Now, as I said, I'll go back to the Houthis for a second. Now, the top Houthi reporter in Sanaa, who I spoke with, let me show you a clip you probably haven't seen before. Hussein Al-Bukhati, His brother, Mohammed al-Bukhahati, is a top governor for Ansar Allah, and he's a part of the political bureau there.

15:27Ben Meiselas:So Hussein is as deeply connected as you get. And he says, shouldn't Donald Trump have known that Iran was going to retaliate? And Hussein goes, we get it. Trump's a fool. He's an idiot. I've showed you that clip before. And he goes, and Hegseth is an idiot. And he's, you know, but don't you have other generals and admirals who would like tell you these things? Like Hussein, who is a top Houthi reporter, he's like, don't you guys like have like generals and admirals who like give advice? Like who's running this? He's like genuinely shocked at this point. Here, let's play this clip right here. What they think here, I mean, he done it really miserably.

16:09I mean, he targeted Iran. He didn't thought of the strength of Iran, which is was the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has never ever used it. I mean, if I was him when I targeted Iran, but he thought Israel targeted Iran for 12 days. Iran hasn't done that. It's the opposite because United States have all the all the bases. So he should have thought as well, where Iran going to retaliate. They do have missile to the United States. I mean, a child will know that they will retaliate against your bases. They will target your bases there. They will destroy the economy and this will affect your economy as well in the United States.

16:45And you promised for peace and for for for for all of that. So to go and launch that huge war and that huge attack that could actually cripple Iran, killing their supreme leader. So you should expect all type of retaliation. But the thing that's actually make me think, I mean, does Trump, of course, you have military advisors, you have people. I'm not talking about the minister of defense because he's just another copy of Trump. I'm talking about the commander of the aircraft carrier, the commander of the districts of the United States Army. wasn't there anyone who's wise who will tell him this is actually will make us fail this will damage our reputation you can see now that the united states reputation as one of the strongest power it was even damaged by yemenis in in in the red sea it shows that this now let's talk about

17:47Ben Meiselas:the cave to china remember when treasury secretary besant was like we are going to clamp down with secondary sanctions against any nation that does business with Iran. If you do business with Iran, we're coming after you, right? So then China, through their foreign minister Wang Yi, and through Xi Jinping, and others, we do business with Iran, right? There was the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting where there were meetings between China and Iran, but more prominently and more publicly in New Delhi at the BRICS meeting, We saw a very prominent role of Iran's President Pozeski and Iran's Foreign Minister Aragji, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and China's President Xi Jinping.

18:32Ben Meiselas:They all met. They said, we're working together. We are working together. And also China made numerous public statements through their Foreign Ministry spokesperson saying China rejects the U.S. unilateral sanctions. China rejects U.S. economic D-Day. We stand against it, right? And so what's the response by Treasury Secretary Bessett? Well, it's to invite over Chinese Vice Premier Hila Feng ahead of the Trump-Xi summit. And all Donald Trump talks about is how excited he is to meet with Xi, in essence, rewarding China, right? I mean, China gets a big state welcome. That's what Trump's obsessed with.

19:10Ben Meiselas:You have Treasury Secretary Besant meeting with the person who, based on his own threats, you would be secondary. Look, I think that this secondary sanctions is ridiculous, but this is what Besant threatened. And this photo right here, I mean, it's almost as if China's vice premier is like laughing at Besson. I mean, take a look right there for yourself. Also, going back to Hussein Albuquerque on Donald Trump, he said, we look at him like he's an absolute fool here. Here, let's play this clip. We look at him here in Sana 'a and maybe in all Yemen as like someone who is a fool, who doesn't want, who doesn't know what to say.

19:48he doesn't know what not to say he just like his what comes to his mouth he will just say it and is actually making the reputation of the united state as one of the country that's considered the free world making it bad and even here i mean if somebody will will will will break an agreement or a word with someone we call we call him trump and then i should point out what

20:16Ben Meiselas:prime minister of Qatar, Prime Minister Al Thani had to say in New York yesterday at the Qatar Economic Forum. Here's what he had to say about how now Middle East nations need to rethink the security umbrella, how Arab nations, how Gulf states should become allies with Iran. He says it out loud. And we need to learn lessons from the war. What he's saying is the lessons are that the U.S. and Netanyahu are the problem. That's clearly what he's implying, if not expressly stating. Here, play this clip. Iran is our neighbor. We need to understand that without having a security framework that brings us all together as Gulf countries with Iran, ensuring that none of us is posing a threat on the other, this region will not just be continuing in the same way as it used to be.

21:19We have to act together responsibly as a region and to make sure that we are having a good relation with Iran and Iran has a good relation with the Gulf countries. And we are working toward that. Our regional partners believe in this. And we are hoping that this war is a wake-up call for everyone that it's time for it to happen.

21:41Ben Meiselas:And then we get to Ukraine, right? Donald Trump calling Zelensky up over the weekend to threaten Zelensky. A source familiar with a Trump-Zelensky call on Sunday told Axios, which is a propaganda rag for Donald Trump at this point through Barack Ravid, that Donald Trump repeatedly urged Zelensky to stop the strikes on Russian oil refineries, arguing they were pushing up global diesel prices. Donald, you're going to try to Dr. Fauci, Zelensky? Actually, Trump was Dr. Fauci-ing Zelensky before Dr. Fauci, Fauci, where Trump wants to, in other words, blame somebody for what Trump does. All Trump does is blame, blame, blame.

22:19Ben Meiselas:So now it's like, Zelensky, you're the reason why diesel prices are surging. Really, Donald? Because you promised in the election that you would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours after the election, and then you lied about that as well. And the reason diesel is surging is because of you and Netanyahu's catastrophic war in Iran. I want to be clear, certainly the war that's going on after Russia invaded Ukraine is certainly leading to some issues, significant issues. But the broader issue is you, because you said you would end that war in 2024 and you started the catastrophic war in Iran. And so now all of this is cascading.

22:56Ben Meiselas:All of the dominoes are falling. And apparently in Donald Trump's threats to Zelensky, the word diesel came up many times during the call, the source said. Well, let me all show you what went down. Let me show you the footage over here. You can see for yourself. I'll play you the B-roll. This right here is a strike drone from the Ukrainian Defense Forces, penetrating dense Russian air defense is in Moscow and striking the refinery over there. Look for yourself what this scene looked like right here. More B-roll, more B-roll. I mean, this scene is a credible video over here that was taken. And I'll show you the direct Ukrainian hit in Moscow.

23:38Ben Meiselas:You can see it for yourself. Play this clip.

23:48Ben Meiselas:And what did Donald Trump do? Well, Donald Trump rushed home. Lots of people thought he was rushing home because he was escalating the catastrophic war and that he was going to escalate on the Houthis and escalate in Iran as he was threatening to do. But no, as Donk Media says, breaking Trump National in Sterling, Virginia is holding their club championship on Sunday. Donald returned early from Camp David on Saturday night to go to the golf course bright and early on the taxpayer dime. Trump claims he's won 40 club championships himself. So he wanted to give himself another club championship trophy.

24:24Ben Meiselas:All of his championships are at clubs he owns where he awards himself. But just take a look right over here. This is him golfing as diesel surging to record highs, as gas is surging to record highs. This is what he was doing. And then what's our department of defense doing, which wants to call itself the department of war and their slogan is send me, send me to my death. That literally their slogan is send me. And then Hegsitt says that it comes from the book of Isaiah, send me, send me. But this is what they're doing. Last Thursday, we welcomed Logan and Jake Paul to the Pentagon to meet with our warriors.

25:02Ben Meiselas:And this is the video they dropped. So while they're caving to the Houthis, while they're caving to Iran, while Trump is throwing MBS under the bus, while Trump is caving to China, while Trump is threatening Zelensky and saying, you're the reason for diesel. Stop, stop bombing the refineries in Russia. And then he, then his drones destroy the Moscow refinery. This is what the Defense Department releases, a video of Jake Paul and Logan Paul, which I'll have to say for this lunatic regime is pretty freaking on brand. And here, play this clip. We just got the pleasure and the privilege of getting a tour of the Pentagon.