Trump Stunned Into Silence as US Rejects His Ploy

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2:31Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump has gone silent as Americans have rejected his ploy to try to use the White House Correspondents' Dinner Incident to pursue his political goals of dividing the country and for him to build a golden ballroom and try to ban No King's Protest. The American people are finally standing up to all of this gaslighting and pushing back as Donald Trump and his corporate news sycophants try to say, oh, now this is a moment where we need unity around Donald Trump. No, there's a reason why Donald Trump's approval is at 33 percent and his approval on the economy is at 30 percent, which is worse than Nixon's at the time that Nixon resigned.

3:21Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump's last post was from yesterday. That's how silent he's going when he said that he wants to change the name of ICE to nice and call it National Immigration and Custom Enforcement. So the media has to say nice agents all day, every day. And when a random social media account named Alyssa Marie 11 posted that, Donald Trump says, great idea. Do it as though at Alyssa Marie 11 was a member of Congress or the United States Senate. This is how pathetic Donald Trump is. But that's been his last post. He did that bizarre 60 minutes interview where he was like, I'm not a pedo. I'm not a pedo.

4:04Ben Meiselas:It was very, very strange. And in Donald Trump's silence, you see all of the MAGA sycophants trying to say, OK, we need a ballroom boss. We need a ballroom boss. And Melania is speaking out in Donald Trump's silence. And she's posting attacks this morning at Jimmy Kimmel. Melania Trump just posted. Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn't comedy. His words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. By the way, it looks like AI wrote this for her, but in any event, people like Kimmel shouldn't have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.

4:47Ben Meiselas:A coward Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC's leadership enable Kimmel's atrocious behavior at the expense of our community? Folks, I kid you not, that is not parody. That is a real message posted by the first lady. I can't even believe I'm calling her that this morning. Yesterday was her birthday. Should also be noted, Donald Trump refused to wish her a happy birthday, or at least didn't wish her a happy birthday publicly. But who did wish her a happy birthday is a guy who wanted to start a modeling agency with Jeffrey Epstein, the man who introduced Melania to Donald Trump in 1998, Paulo Zampoli, whose former girlfriend, Amanda Angara, who they share a child with, is out there saying she has all the dirt on Zampoli and all the dirt on Melania.

5:49Ben Meiselas:And she's been out there giving interviews, drip by drip, releasing info on Zampoli and Melania. But Zampoli wished Melania a happy birthday with this weird Mount Rushmore tribute of Melania's face on all of the areas of Mount Rushmore, replacing all of the president's faces. And then an AI video as well of Melania with the child, I believe, of Zampoli and Angaro, who's the subject of the child custody dispute. And as you know, Zampoli is a United States ambassador for cultural affairs. This is the Trump regime for you. So as noted in Donald Trump's silence, these MAGA sycophants, these members of Congress and senators one by one are like, we need a ballroom.

6:33Ben Meiselas:We need a ballroom. I mean, these idiots think that they can hijack the news cycle and that the American people like, you know what we need to focus on right now with all of the issues, the ballroom. Yeah, let's make this news cycle about the ballroom. Like you do realize that when you pursue this transparent gaslighting strategy, you just make us all more pissed off. Democrats, independents, Republicans, people who aren't from any political party at all doesn't even matter. This behavior right here is why people just utterly despise you because we know inflation is surging. People can't afford things.

7:10Ben Meiselas:People can't afford rent. People are psychologically tortured. We know we're in a jobs recession right now. We know that you all are looting from everybody else for your right wing billionaire friends. But this is what they're doing on state regime media. This is how the MAGA Republicans are spending their day today. MAGA Republican Congress member Pat Fallon says, certainly we need a ballroom. Play this clip. Certainly the White House ballroom is a great argument. It's something that they can completely control. They can have events there and you don't have hotel guests checking in with weapons.

7:43And apparently, from what I've been told and heard, that they weren't even checking baggage for folks that were checking the hotel that day, Dana. And that is very problematic.

7:54Ben Meiselas:Then you have MAGA Republican Congress member Warren Davidson. Here's what he had to say. Here, play this clip. We have essentially our whole chain of command in one place. So people say, well, that's a lot of vulnerability. Well, in a way, it's also a flex. It's saying, you know, Iran, there's really nothing you can do about it. Here's shed tears, whatever. But you can't influence things in the United States. To the extent someone could, you had a guy, a lone gunman come running through a security perimeter. And the way to think about this, I think, is at the airport when you first go in, well, you don't have security right there.

8:29You have to go to the counter, drop your luggage off, all that. once you reach the magnetometers and the security people, you run past that, how far can you get into the airport? This is obviously a much more secure place than the airport.

8:43Ben Meiselas:Next up, you had MAGA Republican Congress member Michael Rulli. Here's what he had to say. Let's play it. What needs to be done now? I think we got to build that ballroom as soon as possible. We can't have functions like this on things that aren't secure. You know, anybody that's been to the White House in the last several years, you're about four or five blocks away from the public. You go through a series of checkpoints to make sure that only the proper people inside the White House. And now we're seeing that we're having functions and look at all the things that are coming up with 250. And you had MAGA Republican Congress member from New York, Mike Lawler.

9:17Ben Meiselas:Here's what he had to say. When you go to the White House, you need ID. You need to be on a pre-approved list. You cannot just walk in. Obviously, everybody goes through magnetometers before you even get on site. And, you know, that protocol needs to be applied, especially when you have the president at a major event like this, and especially after now three assassination attempts. So, yes, a ballroom is imperative for a lot of reasons. I mean, look at tomorrow night. We're going to have a state dinner in a tent on the South Lawn. It's absurd. Next, you had MAGA Republican Congress member, Mike Johnson.

9:55Ben Meiselas:Are you getting, getting the trend here? Earplay this clip. On the opposite, they've incited violence in my view. I mean, you have some of the most prominent figures in the House and the Senate on the Democrat side effectively, you know, calling for, for, for war. I mean, they use that, those kinds of metaphors and it incites violence because there are crazy people in society and they get radicalized online. And so we've got to recognize that. It's time to turn down the rhetoric. We've been saying this over and over and not use that kind of language. I hope that this will be a sobering reminder for everybody about that very important cause.

10:30I'm grateful to Fetterman. He's right. The ballroom will be a solution for this because it'll be on the most secure compound in the world. It won't have hotel rooms above it. And it'll have seven-inch thick glass, for example, on the windows. So it'll be a very safe environment to do events like this. We need a place. We have needed a place like that. And the president keeps pointing it out.

10:49Ben Meiselas:And you've got MAGA Republican Congress member Rick Scott. Here's what he had to say. Play this clip. Democrats are going to have to decide we want a safe country. Look, I might completely disagree with the presidency of Obama and Biden. I didn't want them murdered. Democrats won't even call out these people for who they are. They want President Trump. They want people, Republicans murdered all across this country, capitalists murdered. This has got to change. Democrats are going to have to start acting like individuals that want safety for all Americans. Fund homeland security. We have people dying because of illegal aliens.

11:24They don't care. I mean, I've got a picture. These are four young women killed by illegal aliens.

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12:45This is all born out of rhetoric from the left, the Democrat Party in particular, that calls President Trump a threat to democracy. They call him and the people around him things like Nazis. People react to those kind of things. There's a consequence to that kind of rhetoric. And you see one side using it. You see one side essentially in a hot war. And when they don't get their way, when they don't like things, they unfortunately, as they have done in the past, resort to violence.

13:15Ben Meiselas:MAGA Republican Congress member Tom Emmer, here's what he had to say. You saw how calm the president was throughout. He came out after, said he wanted to come back and finish the speech because he doesn't want these lunatics, these anti-American freedom of speech people literally trying to disrupt our lives he he's not going to let them win which is why he wanted to come right back and finish his speech and then on the uh the tone of the speech look joe this president has had more assassination attempts i think than any other that we know of one he knows that it was divine intervention is the reach patel here's what he had to say i mean just remind everyone this was almost the entirety of the president's cabinet the president and vice president himself and 2000 members of the media.

14:05This is something the movies don't even write about, something like this, this kind of scenario, this kind of tragedy. And thankfully, the quick

14:12Ben Meiselas:reaction of law enforcement, we're not going to be we're going to be able to present to the world in less than 36 hours almost exactly what happened. This individual's entire background, entire background, who he knew, where he lived, who he was talking to, everything about the the firearms, everything about the ballistics. And folks, Tom Emmer wants you to know, he wants you to know that even though all of the polling shows that the American people do not support Donald Trump's unlawful and catastrophic war in Iran, and even though Donald Trump's approval is worse than Nixon's, Tom Emmer is hearing from certain people who say they like everything, and he wants you to know that.

14:50Ben Meiselas:Play this clip. The situation in Iran, we keep waiting for some kind of deal to be had. Obviously, Wyckoff and Kushner did not go over there. Now there's essentially some plan, Axios has reported, has been put out by the Iranians about something around how the strait will be managed. What do you think is sort of an answer that is acceptable to the American people? Well, the American people, contrary to the polling that I see, I'm getting all kinds of positive feedback about what our president has done. Finally, someone has addressed the organization, Iran, that has killed more Americans than any terrorist group on the face of the planet.

15:34And all previous presidents have done is kick this can down the road. This president is dealing with it.

15:39Ben Meiselas:Folks, the reason I showed you clip by clip, because the Republicans get their talking points. Right now, Donald Trump doesn't know what to do because he's running around flailing in the Oval Office right now, panicking, maybe throwing ketchup against the wall, who the hell even knows, right? They get their talking points. The right-wing influencers get the talking points. And then they use their billion-dollar, many cases, if you probably add it all, trillion-dollar media networks and arms, if you add up all the social media entities they control as well, to ram this down your throat and say, I want a ballroom, give a ballroom, give dear leader a ballroom.

16:18Ben Meiselas:It's basically the identical script that they're all using. Turn to a second, though, as Donald Trump has gone silent, what's going on in the international arena, which is critical to the coverage that we do here on the Midas Touch Network in Germany. Friedrich Merz, the chancellor of Germany, was speaking at, I believe, an elementary school today. And he said the United States has been utterly humiliated under Donald Trump by Iran. Iran is humiliating Donald Trump. He says this whole affair is ill-considered. Trump has no strategy. The Iranians are negotiating skillfully while Trump is winging it.

17:00Ben Meiselas:and it's a humiliation to the United States with no way out. Here's what Merit says. Listen, here's what Frederick Merit says. Listen to it for yourself. Here, play this clip. It is quite obvious that the Americans have absolutely no coherent strategy whatsoever. And the fundamental problem with these kinds of conflicts is always the same. It is not enough to simply get yourself in. You must also figure out how to get yourself out again. We witnessed that reality quite painfully in Afghanistan over the course of 20 long years. We saw the exact same thing happen in Iraq. So this entire situation is, as I have mentioned previously, at the very least, it was ill-considered.

17:39And I really do not see at this present moment, which one you mean, what strategic exit the Americans are choosing now, especially since the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully or for that matter very skillfully not negotiating and making the Americans travel to Islamabad and then letting them leave again empty-handed. A whole nation is being humiliated there by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called revolutionary guards. As Europeans, we have also extended an offer stating that we are prepared to assist in ensuring that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened. just as soon as these hostilities have finally come to an end.

18:24Furthermore, we have offered to dispatch specialized minesweepers from Germany to clear that vital strait of all its mines. After all, it has quite obviously been mined, at least in some significant part. Well, we could certainly do something about that. But first of all, the fighting has to come to a complete and total stop. And right now, I honestly do not see how that is even remotely achievable in the short term, because the Iranians are proving to be much stronger than we had initially thought. And the Americans clearly do not have a truly convincing or coherent strategy for these negotiations either.

18:59I truly hate to have to say this, but I'm afraid it is a rather complicated and difficult situation at this moment.

19:06Ben Meiselas:Next up, you never know what's going to happen with the glasses on the show. Next up, you have Foreign Minister Aragchi, who's over there in Russia right now, meeting with Sergei Lavrov, meeting with Putin, meeting with all of the Russian dignitaries. Here he is right now. You see the photos over here with Lavrov, with Putin. You see over there. It's important to note that this was part of his pre-planned three-country visit. He visited Oman. He visited Pakistan and he's visiting Russia. And here's what he had to say about Russia right now. So while Donald Trump has invited Russia to the G20 as Trump is sucking up to Russia, here's what Araqchi is saying while in Russia meeting with Putin.

19:53Ben Meiselas:Iran and Russia are strategic partners. Russia has always supported us and we have always supported Russia. Our cooperation will continue. Iran has great friends and allies such as Russia. The entire world has observed Iran's true power in confronting America, and it has become clear that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a stable, steadfast, and powerful system. Putin then responded and said the people of Iran are fighting with courage and valor to preserve their sovereignty. He expressed hope that the Iranian nation would overcome this difficult period and peace would be established. The president of Russia emphasized Putin said that Moscow will do everything in its power to help Iran out.

20:42Ben Meiselas:And this is who Donald Trump invites to Alaska, who invites to the G20. So while Donald Trump's out there saying all these things about Iran, Iran's right there with Russia saying not the quiet part out loud, the out loud part out louder. They're saying it louder. Finally, I'm going to do a whole other video on this today. is probably the next video I'm going to do. Maybe my glasses won't fall off. Midas Touch host and legal analyst Katie Fang filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump regime today, against Donald Trump and the U.S. Department of Justice, accusing it of brazen violations of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

21:19Ben Meiselas:The suit says how the Department of Justice missed deadlines, over-redacted documents with held key records tied to Epstein, including references to Donald Trump. And Fang is asking the court to order full disclosure to remove the unlawful redactions and appoint a special master to oversee compliance, arguing the DOJ's actions undermine transparency and the public's right to know. An honor to have Katie Fang as a member of the Midas Touch Network. Subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel as well. This is what it means, I think, to be an independent journalist in 2026. You not just talk the talk.

21:56Ben Meiselas:Talk's important. You walk the walk and you fight for the records that journalists should be entitled to. Great work, Katie Fang. Let me all know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.