Trump Shuts Down White House as War Escalation Backfires

0:00This is summer at its peak. Whole Foods Market Summer Fruit Fest is your invitation to eat the season. Fresh, organic, and bursting with flavor. Start your day with peaches and organic blueberries and yogurt. Build a grazing board with fresh fruit, prosciutto, and artisanal cheese. Then fire up the grill with no antibiotics ever proteins and fresh produce. Savor the season. Shop Summer Fruit Fest at Whole Foods Market. Donald Trump has shut down the White House. He has kicked out all of the press for the day as his escalation of this catastrophic war in Iran has backfired in his face in the most predictable way.

0:41And it's in a way that's not getting nearly enough attention. The biggest way it's backfiring right now is that the strategic petroleum reserves in the United States have basically hit functional tank bottom. That actual tank bottom marker will be hit in the next five to 10 days, which means we are on the brink of global economic catastrophe while Donald Trump is out there playing war games, killing people in Iran and saying, oh, they called. They want to make a deal. I want to go through this with you with receipts to give you the analysis you need to hear that you may not be hearing anywhere else.

1:24And I want to remind you, make sure you subscribe to the Midas Touch YouTube channel. We're on our way to 7 million subscribers, and we really need to hit that 7 million mark soon to get out the truth, to get out the word. Just take a look right here of the satellite image of the Strait of Hormuz right now. You have very little to any inbound traffic, and the only ships that are basically leaving are tied to Iran. Iran has been able to get out 10 million barrels of oil in the past 24 hours. They know what is coming. Since the Trump regime removed the blockade with the Memorandum of Understanding, Iran had a strategy.

2:07While Donald Trump was ranting and raving like a lunatic, Iran was able to get out between 50 and 70 million barrels of its oil to the market, which will allow Iran to now survive for at least another 12 to 18 months if a blockade was put on it immediately and the blockade was actually enforced to perfection. So Iran now has bought itself a significant period of time. The United States hasn't, and this was all very, very predictable. As Donald Trump has shut down the White House, it should also be noted the escalation in the war continues. Iran launched phase two of its retaliatory strikes after the United States announced through CENTCOM that 90 targets were hit by the United States, including areas near nuclear facilities in Iran, air bases, and coastal cities.

3:09Iran struck earlier this morning in Jordan and was able to target a base there. The IRGC says it struck a U.S.-linked command and control center in West Asia at the Mouhawk al-Saiti U.S. airbase in Jordan with 10 ballistic missiles. According to Iran, significant damage was done to that U.S. airbase in Jordan. Iran also targeted U.S. military assets in Bahrain and Kuwait. You can see right here, play some B-roll for you, at least five Iranian ballistic missiles were launched from northwestern Iran towards that air base in Jordan a short time ago. So let's just take a look right here at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Cushing, Oklahoma, here in the United States, as Eric Natal explains, the US strategic petroleum reserve is now 19 million barrels away from estimated minimum operating levels.

4:12There very soon will no longer be a safety buffer to protect the world from further losses out of the strait. Now, when the US depletes those strategic reserves, it gets sold on the world crude market. And that's one of the reasons that the price of crude is going down despite the instability because massive amounts of the strategic reserve get unloaded into the global market. It's not like that crude or that capacity rather all of a sudden goes to just American gas stations. It's why the price at the pump for you is not going down really at all or at any significant amount. In fact, you're probably paying just about the same.

4:58Some of you are paying more, perhaps slightly less. That's called a crack price, which is the delta or the difference between the price of crude, which you may see, ah,$75 a barrel. We know that's now gone above $80 a barrel. But when the MOU was entered, that was like$69 per barrel. But the crack price is the difference between that and what the refineries charge. I won't get overly complicated, but they call it a 3-2-1 crack price because out of three barrels, two are used for gasoline and one is used for jet fuel or other types of distillate or distillation. But basically, that now the crack price is$65 a barrel, which is incredibly high, like historically high.

5:53And that means that what you're paying for gas is still expensive. And why is this all happening? Because everybody recognizes the strategic petroleum reserve crisis within the industry itself. And also what seems to be taking place when it comes to the market for the crude is that that is being heavily shorted and heavily manipulated by the United States government through both ways of releases in the reserves, but also through shorting. And when you see some of the trading behavior happening, you see aggressive whale-like short positioning taken as the price is naturally trying to go up because of the dynamic in the Strait of Hormuz, which it is effectively shut down.

6:42Ben Meiselas:So you have this massive market manipulation underway there, while you have these strategic reserves being depleted. And then the reality of what the oil price is, is reflected in the crack price, which is basically the delta or the increased amount that the refineries are selling at, which is why there's this massive, massive crisis right now. I think a good analysis of what's going down when people say, well, Iran is striking back, but it's notable Iran's hitting back at the United States, but it's not like an overwhelming response as the United States continues to escalate and escalate and escalate.

7:20Ben Meiselas:So I've been asked a lot, Ben, why do you think Iran is responding kind of, you know, not as aggressive as one might expect as Trump keeps on escalating? Well, Trump's escalation reflects the dynamic that I just talked about, which is desperation. And it's based on a fundamentally flawed assumption, which is if you bomb Iran consistently, they're going to beg for mercy and give up when they're not. Iran is playing actual three to five dimensional chess. They see what's going on. I think this description here is apt. So people say, well, is Iran not responding with the firepower necessary to deter Trump?

7:58Ben Meiselas:That's because the so-called four weeks until global economic crisis that Trump talked about a few weeks back. Remember, I had to do the MOU because we're in a global economic crisis. What he was talking about is what I just mentioned. And it gets a little bit more complicated in terms of how the refineries actually operate, but just that is referring to the strategic reserve drawdown and depletion, basically. So 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.

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10:04Ben Meiselas:So now we're closer to 10 days away from that actually taking place. So Trump must escalate to break free from this trap that he announced. Iran realizes that. For Iran's goals, however, the situation must continue as is. The Omani route must be made sufficiently insecure to take it off the table long term. That's the southern route and the Strait of Hormuz that the Trump regime has tried to open using the MOU to open their own lane, which they couldn't accomplish when Trump and Netanyahu launched the war in Iran. So Iran's basically saying, we got to just make sure we control the strait, deter tankers, VLCCs and other ships from using the US lane, make sure they all use the IRGC lane and then wait, then wait for the US to hit tank bottom.

10:55Ben Meiselas:Then they will suffer massive economic catastrophe. And then they will be in a very precarious situation. And Trump has trapped himself. That's what they realize. So it goes on to say, worse yet for Trump, oil reserves on his side are steadily decreasing while Iran is exporting with the blockade lifting. That's what I described at the outset. If Trump reactivates the blockade, markets and the memorandum of understanding enabling states will be adversely affected. But it's one of his last remaining escalation options, option he knows won't affect Iran's behavior because time oil is fully on Iran's side.

11:36Ben Meiselas:Those MOU enabling nations, I mean, we're talking about Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Pakistan, and others. And so if Trump puts the blockade, he then screws all of those. So those nations are saying, don't you dare do that. Trump is also financially entangled through all of the quid pro quo deals, right, with all of those nations. So Trump is stuck in traps. So is Iran incentivized to escalate by a massive missile strike or Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz at this moment? No, because Iran wants to get out as much as its oil as possible while the strategic reserves are being deployed in.

12:17Ben Meiselas:Not escalating just builds clarity with the MOU enabling nations, Qatar, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and others on who is the escalating side and makes clear Trump and Netanyahu are the bad guys. That's what they're trying to show, at least. A restraint credit that can be used for escalation at a future point in time. And look what Qatar has just announced. Qatar is pausing efforts to rapidly revive production at the world's largest LNG facility after an attack on one of its tankers in the Strait of Hormuz raised fears that the transit it through the crucial waterway is still too risky.

12:57Ben Meiselas:As Anne-Marie Hordern explains, this pause is one of the most high-profile fallouts of the heightened tensions this week with attacks on a number of ships near Hormuz and the US striking Iran two consecutive days. Meanwhile, Netanyahu is out there saying, the war is not yet over. The war is not yet over. Attacking Iran is like removing a cancer from your body. Israel's defense minister, his name is Israel Katz. His name is Israel. He says, we did not ask anyone for permission to enter Lebanon, and we do not need anyone's permission to remain in Lebanon. And meanwhile, you have Trump regime lackeys and sycophants on all of the morning shows saying the Iranian people are begging Donald Trump for a invasion.

13:45Ben Meiselas:All of those massive crowds you saw at the Ayatollah's funeral, that's all astroturfed. Those are all actors. Yes, that's what the Trump regime is saying. The tens of millions of people out there, while you say that Iran is bankrupt and has no money, tens of millions of people were all coordinated and paid off by Iran to show up in Tehran and Qam, in Najaf, in other areas, in Iran and Iraq to astroturf this on the biggest scale. I mean, come on. This is such a reckless and malicious fabricated view that gets spread on state regime media that leads to economic depression and catastrophe and the loss of American lives and lives around the world.

14:31Ben Meiselas:It's so ignorant. It's so dumb. And I'm grateful that I have this Midas Touch platform that we can talk about the truth because this stuff is what was polluting the minds of the American people for generations with state regime media and corporate regime media. Here, play this clip. You see these astroturf crowds supporting the regime in Tehran, but I don't believe that propaganda. I think the Iranian people are supportive of the United States coming in and helping them to achieve liberty. And I think that's the direction we need to go. Oh, for sure. The Iranian people are thanking President Trump.

15:08Ben Meiselas:It's all over social media. Then state regime media brings on this guy, Scott Fitzgerald. We're in a war in Iraq. Okay. You mean, okay, play this clip. Now we're in a war in Iraq. That's once again, kind of at the forefront. If we don't get that done, we're going to have serious issues down the road. And then they bring on this guy, Roger Williams, who said, nobody wants ground troops on Karg, but maybe, maybe, maybe we take Karg Island and, you know, that'll really hurt Iran. What do you mean take Karg Island? Do you realize that if U.S. invades Karg Island, there will be tens of thousands of U.S.

15:52Ben Meiselas:casualties instantly, instantly? What do you mean just take it? We're just going to hang out. Do you understand that they don't. It is such a fatal ignorance and also and or just malicious recklessness, warmongering to just kill Americans and kill everybody, not just Americans, kill Iran, kill people in the world. Here, play this clip. Now, the president telling reporters on Air Force One coming back from the NATO summit, he may be eyeing Karg Island, a key Iranian oil hub, but most military experts say that would require at least some boots on the ground. Now, so far, the war has only used air assets.

16:31Would ground troops taking Karg Island go too far for you? Well, you know, nobody watched ground troops. We got the greatest air force and air facility in the world. But there again, that's going to have to be made up by the decisions of our leaders. Personally, I would really hesitate to put boots on the ground anyway, American young men and women. Karg Island is something, though, that we can, if we are able to take it, can really hurt Iran and their future as far as energy production and living conditions. So that's always a good question. But right now, I'd like to see that we can do it in other methods before we put this on the ground.

17:10Yeah.

17:10Ben Meiselas:So we'll keep you posted every step of the way, as always, on the Midas Touch Network. What's being discussed behind the scenes in the White House is that the strategic reserves are shot, are depleted, and Iran knows how to outmaneuver it and is now saying, oh, now we're going to do this. Worst decision ever. I mean, unless it's intentional, because there's not a better way to send the United States into a depression than what Trump is doing right now. If you intentionally wanted to do it, then it all makes sense. It makes perfect sense. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Thanks for watching y 'all.