Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben — 1/27/26

28:51By the way, who the hell is a grown man owns beauty pageants and then you go in and you inspect the girls. Shouldn't that be disqualifying? But anyway, I could go a whole thing about Trump's coverup of the Epstein files, but the whole system is based on no absolute immunity. So if you give that to a criminal, to a predator, to a fraud, what do you think they're going to do? What do you think they're going to do? They're going to, that's what criminals do. That's why we have prisons. And just think about it. In Brazil, the Brazil Supreme Court threw Bolsonaro in prison for 20 plus years. Their highest court said, you're done.

29:35And then when Bolsonaro was speaking to Trump and trying to escape from Brazil, the Supreme Court called the cops, arrested him, threw him in prison. The moment the Supreme Court learned that Bolsonaro was colluding with Trump to try to get out of Brazil. That's what happened in Brazil. That's what their Supreme Court did. But in the United States, our Supreme Court says, you get absolute immunity. It's like, if you go there, then what's the point of the Constitution if there's an out? If the Constitution has an exception, unless you're the president, then what's the point of the document? Donald Trump is someone who's ripped to shreds contracts his entire life.

30:21That's what he's done. He's broken contracts, broken deals. He's not a man of his word. He is a man of fraud. That's what he's done his entire life. So now you give that person a provision that says, but if you just say, I'm the president, it. You don't have to follow any of these things. Then what's the point of all of these things to begin with? Imagine if you entered into a contract with someone, would you agree to a provision that says here are the terms, except if the other party doesn't want to listen to the terms? Of course you wouldn't. So to me, it's the most simple stuff sometimes. And why am I talking about this on a breaking news show?

31:07Because I want to talk about this stuff, but sometimes we need to just pull back and we need to look at a 30 ,000 view, not the day-to-day breaking news sometimes, but like, why are we talking about this? Why? Like, why does this matter? What is happening here? Right? And I know sometimes it's like the blocking and tackling of day-to-day, you know, news reporting and it's ballroom this, and now he wants a golden arts and he's threatening Greenland and now he's building hotels in Saudi Arabia. Now Trump, ICE Gestapo killed people. And now what else is he threatening Canada again? What else is he doing?

31:44You know, the, the, Oh, the house of representatives, they they're on vacation again. And now there's going to be another government shutdown and healthcare is being ripped away. Where do I look? Where do I look? Sometimes we just gotta, we gotta step back and we gotta look at it from 30 ,000 feet up. and we got to say, what are we doing here? What's the point of this? Is this what government is supposed to be? Is the point of government to bully and to steal and to take and to torture and to inflict pain and to aggrandize a wannabe authoritarian who admires Vladimir Putin? Is that the purpose of a government or is the purpose of a government to protect us, not to cause harm, to protect our health care, to give health care.

32:41That should be a human fundamental right. This regime takes away our health care. They take away Medicaid. They take away the Affordable Care Act subsidies. They take and they take when they should protect our right to live. Healthcare, education. If people are out there working a job, you shouldn't have to work two jobs. If you work one job, you should be able to, one, work that job with dignity, be able to have vacations, be able to have a life outside of work, not be a slave to a corporation, and for your work, you should be compensated and be able to afford a home and not worry, am I gonna be able to pay my rent?

33:28Do I have to choose between rent and food? And then childcare, what happens with my kids? The psychological torture should not exist. And by the way, no matter what you think of Mayor Mom Donnie in New York City, who I happen to like a lot, but notice what he's doing, he's shoveling snow. with the people. He's out there every day communicating. Here's what I want to do to help. The first act was working with Governor Hochul to expand child care services to people of New York and to make it free for certain people in New York. Hundreds of thousands of people get free child care. That's what the government should be doing.

34:12They shouldn't be beating down on marginalized communities or persons with disability. They should be lending a hand and helping people. That's my point. The government should be fighting with us, for us, not against us. And every day, this cruel and unusual regime wakes up with plans to cause us pain. And then they're sociopaths. So they try to justify it by this covers up this and covers up that and covers up that. And we've all kind of discussed that, well, they're covering up a child sex trafficking ring. And now they're talking about invading Greenland in order to cover up the fact that they're covering up a child sex trafficking.

35:01And now they're invading Minnesota with 3000 ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo to cover up that they're covering up in Greenland invasion to cover up the cover up over the child sex trafficking ring, cover up over the Epstein files. And they're also covering up the war crimes that are being committed off the coast of Venezuela, which is a coverup. And you may go, well, what's the coverup of the coverup of the coverup of the coverup? Isn't this like a Russian nesting doll situation? Well, when your whole regime is not built on principle, when it is built on lies and all you do is lie, everything's a coverup of a coverup because all you care about is stealing the wealth of the American people and taking and taking and exploiting.

35:49And words don't matter. They're meaningless to an authoritarian regime. They are tools of deception. They are smokescreen and subterfuge in order to steal from you and take from you to suck it up for themselves because it's never enough for them. 10 private jets, 10 mansions, 10 Lamborghinis, whatever. It's not enough for them. They're only happy to see that you don't have a shred of happiness. That's what brings these sociopaths, not joy, but get them off. Masochistic. The pain they see in you is the only thing that makes them feel because it's never enough for them otherwise. So we, the people, have to recognize what it is that they are doing right now.

36:49We have to recognize their plan. And we have to recognize that they want to divide us and we can't let them divide us and we have to be united together. Okay. And it's Democrats, independents, Republicans. You hear what Trump's saying? He's saying there is no second amendment. He said it. You heard what Kristi Noem said and Stephen Miller said and all these sycophants in this, they say there's no second amendment. Is that enough for you? What about the fact that they say there's no first amendment? Is that enough for you? What about the 10th Amendment? States' rights. Remember when they cared about that?

37:27Don't tread on me. Don't tread on me. Look at our snake logo. Snake flag. Don't tread on me. All they do is tread every day because they're predators. They want to tread on you. They want to tread on the rest of the world. They want to tread on Canada and Greenland and India and Europe and Africa and Mexico and Central America and South America and the Caribbean and Asia. These people just want to tread on you. They want to take and tread on you because they are predators. They are bad people. They are evil. That's it. Good versus evil. And what this regime is doing, the pain that they're inflicting is evil.

38:19Evil. Speaking of which, I want to talk about Kristi Noem for a moment, because even though now the Trump regime says we've got rid of Greg Bovino, but then some people deny that they got rid of Bovino, but the reporting is they shut down his email. Bovino was the worst. He would literally himself throw the green carcinogenic gas into people's faces. What a sicko that guy was. He's the guy who wore that trench coat that looked like the SS outfit. And he would march in and he would be like, rock, paper, scissors, shoot, rock. He would mock the people that he would terrorize and torture. He'd laugh in the faces of the five

39:00Ben Meiselas:year olds and the two year olds that are being kidnapped. But it's not like an upgrade that you've got Christine. Christine Ohm is still in charge. Tom Homan, Mr. Kava Bag is now in Minnesota. It's not like Tom Homan is the voice of reason right now. Here's what Governor Wall said to me moments ago when I interviewed him before the show. Let's play it. And now all of a sudden we get this. So yeah, it's the weirdest damn thing. I don't know what to tell you, but I think she probably should go back to South Dakota, not have any dogs and just kind of things out. You know, yeah. Let's take a look more from Donald Trump in Iowa right here.

39:44Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump says that he thinks that he had the best polling numbers we've ever had when we know his polling and approval is at an all time low. Delusional, demented, cognitively impaired, a stain on our history, a stain on the world. Let's play Trump. Let's play this clip.

40:33So we have the best poll numbers we've ever had. Thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. President. By the way, you take a look at that diner right there. Like, those are human beings in there who are clapping for the guy.

40:48Ben Meiselas:You know, it's a hard realization. Even when you look at these numbers, that Trump's approval overall is at 38 % right now. His approval on immigration is 39%. But if you think about it, I live in California, right, where his approval's 30 % or something, 32%. That still means that 32 % of the people in California see what you and I are seeing. And they're like, yeah, I like that. It's helpful. It's great stuff. You know, I like the torture. I like the concentration camps. I'm into this stuff. 32 % of, you know, a country of over 300 million. I mean, that's a lot. It's still a lot of people. When you go to a restaurant and you look around and you're like, how many people in here support this stuff?

41:35How many people support ICE arresting refugees in Minnesota who are in the country legally, flying them to Texas, reinterviewing them, releasing them without any way to get home, with no cell phone, with

41:50Ben Meiselas:no money, and just throwing them out on the streets? like who who who roots for that who roots for that you know behavior right here um look when donald trump was asked by an abc reporter about some of your own officials have labeled alex prette a domestic terrorist what's your response to that donald watch this he just attacks the reporter let's play president some of your own administration officials have labeled alice by This is ABC fake news. This one. She hasn't asked me. She hasn't asked me a good question in years. I think a nice woman, but I don't really like her too much. Go ahead. What did you say?

42:32I'd say ABC is about as bad as they get.

42:35Ben Meiselas:And by the way, if you saw some of the people there, like laughing at that, like they find that funny. And, you know, I think what we all have to do right now, we just have to ask, why is that funny? Do we want our children and grandchildren to behave that way? You know, if they're called on in class, do you want them to tell the teacher, I think you're a bad person. You're bad. I don't like your question. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. I mean, this behavior is objectively the behavior of a loser, of a loser. You know, and the fact that they were, you know, out there trying to be like, well, this is alpha.

43:23Ben Meiselas:This is how alpha men be. I'm like, this is the behavior of losers. And there have been so many leaders who have done such systemic harm to our country in normalizing this, using their position of leadership to remain silence, where silence is complicity, and using their positions to enable this. because they don't like capitalism. They don't like competing. They like socialism for billionaires, not actually helping the American people. Another name for socialism for billionaires is called an oligarchy, a right-wing oligarchy, and that is what exists right now. Now, that's what exists in Russia, where Putin picks his oligarchs.

44:19Ben Meiselas:If you want to know why Russia's economy, frankly, is only about a$2.5 trillion GDP and why their economy struggles, is that unlike America, where we used to foster diversity, entrepreneurial spirit, where we used to have free trade and innovation and all of that. In Russia, it's a demented person. Putin picks who his oligarchs are. The oligarchs have to say, yes, sir. Yes, sir. You're great, sir. You're doing great, sir. And usually the only people who are willing to do that are stupid, are weak, or no longer feel that they can compete. And so they need to cement their authority and power by becoming part of an oligarchy.

45:17Ben Meiselas:And that's not a system that we should want right here at all. Not at all. Take a look right here. Elizabeth Landers posted the following. I mean, just look at this. She writes, also something I noticed in the vestibule area that connects the West Wing to the residents that I hadn't seen before. A framed photo of Presidents Trump and Putin at their summer summit in Alaska. The lower photo is President Trump with one of his grandchildren. So the main photos that Donald Trump has in the West Wing area is a photo of himself standing side by side with America's biggest enemy who's working to destroy America.

46:08And he has that above the photo of his grandkid right now. And I often ask, how is that not disqualifying? How is that not enough? Just every little gesture. Vladimir Putin's photo above Trump and his grandchild in the West Wing of the Oval Office, as Putin is the biggest threat to our allies, frankly, to our country.

46:42Ben Meiselas:and Donald Trump creates a fake board of peace, which is just a way that he can create alliances with authoritarians and undermine NATO and undermine the United Nations. He could take some of that money that he gets, put it in a Qatari bank account for himself the same way the money from Venezuela oil sales that Donald Trump sends to, he has right-wing oligarchs buy oil from him in Venezuela. And then Donald Trump takes the money and puts it in a Qatari bank account for himself. A Qatari bank account for himself. And there's so much other stuff I could talk about too. I mean, Donald Trump told the protesters in Iran, go out there, protest.

47:30Ben Meiselas:If one of you gets killed, we're going in guns a-blazing. We're going to help you, Iranian protesters were going to help you. Well, at this point, thousands of Iranian protesters were massacred. We didn't have the military resources in the Middle East area at all because they were in the Caribbean area. They were by Venezuela. And Donald Trump did not go in guns a-blazing. He may attack the Ayatollah right now, but Donald Trump, in my view, likes the Ayatollah. He likes authoritarians. As long as he can control the authoritarians, he likes authoritarians more than pro-democracy people. And what would Donald Trump say two weeks ago?

48:16Ben Meiselas:He said it was a very respectful move that the Ayatollah agreed not to hang 700 additional protesters in Iran. Who knows if they've been hung now or not? But that's what Donald Trump said he got, that he saved 700 protesters from being hung, saying that he would go in guns a-blazing. What about the Kurds in northern Syria, right? Donald Trump loves al-Jelani, who now goes by the name of al-Shirhar, who's the leader of Syria, former leader of al-Qaeda, goes to the Oval Office. Trump treats the former leader of al-Qaeda better than he treats Zelensky. And like Donald Trump seemed like actually attracted to the leader of Syria, sprayed him with perfume, sniffed him, said how handsome he was.

49:03Ben Meiselas:True story. I'm not making that up. Sniffed him, sprayed perfume. You smell really good. You like my perfume. You're really handsome. You're really handsome there, Al Jelani. And the Syrian forces basically took over the semi-autonomous regions in northern Syria that were being operated by the Kurds in a democratic way, in a pro-democracy way. And the Kurds fought along our side in order to fight against ISIS. And Trump turned his back against the Kurds. And that's why you're looking, though, across the world of these other international alliances that are forming. And it's frankly really, really despicable.

49:46Ben Meiselas:And while all of this is happening too, you have these MAGA influencers out there like this guy, Scott Press. I don't even know what world these people are living in. I swear sometimes I'm like, the hell is going on here? This is a big MAGA influencer. His name is Scott Pressler. He's very high up in the Trump hierarchy. This is who they talk about as being alpha men right here. And this is what he says. When Democrats try to insult me by saying I look like Brooke Shields, I take that as a huge compliment. I think she's gorgeous. Wearing a shirt that says sweet spirit. This is, you know, what are you talking about?

50:20Ben Meiselas:You think this is funny? Like you think this is a game right here? I mean, this is what MAGA views as tough, right? That's what MAGA views as alpha. That's what MAGA views as this is what we want. What's going on? What is going on here? There's people dying in the streets. Are you talking about Brooke Shields? They got Melania. Melania's on Fox promoting her movie and saying it was so wonderful to be with world leaders on Saturday. Well, let's listen to Melania right here. Here, play this clip of Melania. It was wonderful to have so many world leaders with me on Saturday from all different fields.

51:04and we were celebrating it and the reception of the movie, of the film was very warm.

51:13Ben Meiselas:Like, what? What are you talking about? The reception of the film was warm. Dude, no one wants to see your story. No one cares. We know that you're evil. We know that you've lied about your background. You said you've graduated from colleges that you didn't graduate from. You said it's great when Donald Trump says that he grabs women's vaginas without their consent. You said that's locker room talk. I said that's locker room talk. That's how men behave is what you said. No one wants to hear your story. And this is what Fox is pushing out right now. And again, could you imagine if Dr. Jill Biden was like, and I'm promoting my movie right now.

52:00I want you all to watch it. And it's about me and it's called Jill. Come on.

52:07Ben Meiselas:Come on. And I'm sure by now you've all seen this story from New York Magazine. I'm going to be interviewing Ben Terrace. I think I have an interview with him on Thursday. I'm excited for that interview. He wrote a great story about Donald. He focused on Donald Trump's deteriorating health. It was called the superhuman president, a good faith attempt to ascertain the truth about Donald Trump's health. So Ben Terrace gets access to the Oval Office. He's interviewing Donald Trump. And he says, this is what Donald Trump said to him. My father had one problem, Trump said. He started getting, what do they call it?

52:42Ben Meiselas:He pointed to his forehead and looked to his press secretary for the word that escaped him. Alzheimer's, Levitt said. Like an Alzheimer's thing, Trump said, well, I don't have it. And then you had Trump's doctors were in the Oval Office. And one of the things that the reporter says is, he says that one of the doctors, Jones, worked from 2009 to 2018 as a senior medical leader in the White House. At the end of his presidency, Barack Obama, a fitness fanatic, rumored to allow himself precisely seven almonds tonight was 55 years old. Who was healthier, Obama or President Trump, I asked. Trump stared across the desk, making eye contact with Jones.

53:27Ben Meiselas:Jones didn't hesitate. President Trump, he said. Trump nodded. There was no sign of a smile, as if there could not have been any other answer to that question. How about this from Ben's article? When I arrived at the Oval Office in December to talk to Donald Trump about his health, the president was standing next to a couple of men clutching pieces of paper labeled talking points. These are two doctors, Trump told me before I could ask a question. And by the way, I don't know them. They're not my best friends. They're respected doctors that practice out of Walter Reed. And they happen to be taking care of me for anything, but I don't need any taking care of because I'm in perfect health.

54:07Ben Meiselas:I do purposefully every year or less a physical because I think the American people should know that the president is healthy, that you don't get a guy like the last one who was the worst thing that ever happened to older people. Because I know people in their 90s that are 100%. Gary Player is 90 years old. He shot a 70 with me the other day. Trump gestured at everyone present, me, the doctors, and press secretary Caroline Levitt to follow him into the room. Let's sit for a couple of minutes, he said. I hate to waste a lot of time on this, But if you're going to write a bad story about my health, I'm going to sue the ass off of New York Magazine.

54:47Ben Meiselas:There will be a time when you can write that story, maybe in two years, three years, five years, five years. No one is going to care, I guess. Go ahead and sit down. Then he points to his hand. This is only from shaking hands, he said, rubbing his left thumb over the back of his right hand, a claim he would repeat to other journalists. Can you just verify that? He says to a doctor, Captain Sean Barbarella, his lead physician and Colonel James Jones, a physician assistant, he said that he did this because he would shake lots of people's hands. Then Dr. Barbarella says, absolutely, said Barbarella, a short man with close cropped hair and a nervous smile.

55:26Ben Meiselas:I've seen the president shaking hands for over an hour. Trump held up his non-shaking hand. Look, this one's perfect, he said. People say what beautiful skin you have. The White House said the bruise that appeared on his left hand in Davos was caused by him hitting against a table corner. Trump also blamed women's fingernails and rings for the cuts on his right hand, including one particularly nasty slice that came from a botched high five with Attorney General Pam Bondi. This is utterly deranged stuff, folks. Utterly deranged, deranged stuff. So a few things. Number one, become a member of our YouTube channel if you can.

56:07Ben Meiselas:Hit subscribe right now. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. So double check that you're actually subscribed to our YouTube channel and become a member right now. Click join, become a member of our YouTube channel, and you can give subscriptions to others. This has helped us grow our independent media platform thanks to you. More people watch the Midas Touch Network than Fox, CBS, or any other cable or corporate news network. And we've grown thanks to you. So please, if you can hit subscribe, join, become a member, you can check out our sub stack as well. Midasplus.com, M-E-I-D-A-S-P-L-U-S.com.

56:48Ben Meiselas:And you could subscribe there. Store.midastouch.com. That's where all the Midas Touch merch is. So if you want Midas Touch gear, go to store.midastouch.com. You can wear your Midas Touch gear proudly. We also have products made exclusively in Canada for our Canadian fans, the Midas Maple who are boycotting in the United States. So we have 100 % made in Canada stuff. That's the Midas Maple stuff. And then we have stuff here in the USA that's made 100 % union made in the United States. So check that out. Also, the intersection tonight with Michael Popak is at 5 p.m. Pacific or 5 p.m. Eastern. When is it, Jeremy?

57:33Ben Meiselas:It's at 5 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Pacific, the intersection with Michael Popak at 5 p.m. Pacific. Well, yeah, it wouldn't be Eastern because that would be now, 5 p.m. Pacific. So thanks everybody for for uh for watching we appreciate you i hope you like the new format ben on breaking news shout out to everybody who's watching and shout out to the midas mighty thanks everybody want to stay plugged in become a subscriber to our sub stack at midas plus.com you'll get daily recaps from ron filikowski add free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available at midas plus.com

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