Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben — 3/3/26

25:19At least six American service members killed. We expect that number to go up. Iran is now saying that it struck down, what we'll have to see here, it's claiming that it struck down an F-15 moments ago. Iran's Tasnim claims a US F-15 Eagle jet was shot down by the air defense system of the Islamic Republic of Iran army. Iran has now, we have the Al-Udeed air base in Doha, Qatar on fire, burning down right now. While all of this is taking place, you have the Islamic Republic picked their new Ayatollah, the son, more extreme than his dad, the son, who was just selected as the Ayatollah, Mojtaba Husseini Khamenei.

26:13He was the guy who was responsible also for cracking down and massacring the protesters. So he's the guy who's in charge right now. He's the guy who's in charge right now in Iran. That's what's going on. And while that's all taking place, you have the United States Secretary of State, State Department, urging Americans via an ex-social media post as though what Americans are all supposed to be on Elon Musk's social media platform.

26:48Ben Meiselas:Secretary Rubio urges Americans, depart now from the countries below. Leave now by commercial means. leave now. You didn't have an evacuation plan? No evacuation plan at all, really? You didn't think that that was an important one? Or when it comes to the, how about the embassy in Jerusalem? The embassy in Jerusalem, for all of the billions of dollars we give Israel, and frankly, the billions of dollars we put into an embassy in Jerusalem, that was intentionally done to inflame the tensions there with Palestinians as well. The U.S. embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans.

27:29Ben Meiselas:This is a real message from the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, basically saying, sorry, nothing we can do. The U.S. embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel. That's like me saying while doing a podcast that I'm not in a position at this time to do a podcast. That's literally what I do. I do a podcast. I'm doing it right now. What the hell is the purpose of the embassy if not to be there to specifically evacuate or directly assist Americans? You don't think that's your role? And by the way, who is the assistant secretary of state who's sending these messages out?

28:17Ben Meiselas:Well, I want you to meet Maura Namder right there, who's posting this on the social media site X. You can see her right now. She is a beauty salon, a MAGA beauty salon owner. She also has a law degree. And she is someone who decided, she was someone who Donald Trump picked right now to run this. Remember when I did the report on her. She was like a MAGA beauty salon person. So these are the people who Donald Trump has picked. Do we have the photo when she was doing the beauty salon? I think it was like, you know, she would promote the beauty salon and then, you know, she's got the, you know, the Mar-a-Lago makeover and she's ultra MAGA and she's now the one running the state department, I guess, and saying, we can't help you.

29:04That's why all of these moves from Doge to, you know, Donald Trump,

29:11Ben Meiselas:attacking her out. If you're going to go to war, you're supposed to have a plan. And don't you think the American people like deserve to know what the hell is going on? So in any event, I showed you right there what Marco Rubio said today, but I believe, let me just show you what happened yesterday. First, let me show you what MAGA Mike had to say yesterday. When MAGA Mike was asked, well, you're the Speaker of the House. What's your view about why there was something imminent that the U.S. had to attack Iran and start this war that's engulfed the entire region where now the world is in a war.

29:51You call it whatever you want to call it. The world is at war right now. Almost every country has been dragged into this by the Trump regime. Here's what Mag and Mike said. Let's play this clip. They had to evaluate the threats to the U.S., to our troops, to our installations, to our assets in the region and beyond. And they determined, because of the exquisite intelligence that we had, that if Israel fired upon Iran and took action against Iran to take out the missiles, then they would have immediately retaliated against U.S. personnel and assets. We have troops in harm's way, and we have many Americans in the region, and that was of great concern.

30:36Okay.

30:36Ben Meiselas:Okay, MAGA Mike, stop gaslighting us. Stop lying to us. We just heard what MAGA Mike said, that you believed the imminent threat to the United States was that Israel was going to strike Iran and then Iran would strike the US. That's what the United States has been reduced to? That's what we've been reduced to right now? that if Netanyahu's going to invade Iran, America says it has no choice? Again, I don't care what political party you're from. I don't care. If you're okay with that, that's one of the most pathetic things I've heard. And by the way, just so there's no doubt about it, let's hear what Rubio said yesterday.

31:30Ben Meiselas:And he said it twice. I'll show you the first clip where Rubio said it. I won't paraphrase. Let's just watch what Rubio said. Let's play. There absolutely was an imminent threat. And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us. And we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded. Because the Department of War assessed that if we did that, if we waited for them to hit us first after they were attacked and by someone else, Israel attacked them, they hit us first and we waited for them to hit us, we would suffer more casualties and more deaths.

32:03We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage. Had we not done so, there would have been hearings on Capitol Hill about how we knew that this was going to happen and we didn't act preemptively to prevent more casualties and more loss of life.

32:22Ben Meiselas:We went proactively in a defensive way because Israel was going to strike first. Your words, you said that. You said it out. You can try to walk it back, but you said it. Everything with this regime, if that's how you feel, then own it. Make that case to the American people. It's absolute trash. I think it's the definition of treason and traitorousness when you basically make your own foreign policy second to the foreign policy of any other country. But make that case. If you think the case is regime change, make the case. explain to people why having the Ayatollah's more extreme sun running things, why that's a great move.

33:17Ben Meiselas:Make the case. That's what our country's built on. You make the case to us. Convince me, convince the American people. Let us know why you think that this is an issue, why you think this is imminent. And then that's why we elect people to Congress. Make the freaking case. What's the case? And then, by the way, I mean, he repeats it over. Do we have the other clip where Rubio says it? Like, he brings it up on his own. He goes, I've been asked, why now? He brings it up. It's not like a trick question. He brings it up. Watch what he says. Let's play it. It is the assessment that was made that if we stood and waited for that attack to come first before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties.

34:02And so the president made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed. And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn't.

34:24Ben Meiselas:Now, I'll show you, like, on the right wing, Megyn Kelly, clearly a Trump sycophant. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who Donald Trump refers to as Marjorie Trader now. Let me show you the conversation that they had yesterday on Megyn Kelly's podcast. And both of them were big Trumpers. Here's what they had to say. Here, play this clip. Look, there are massive divisions over what we've done here. And people are going to change their minds over the coming days and weeks, one way or the other. but my own feeling is no one should have to die for a foreign country. I don't think those four service members died for the United States.

35:05I think they died for Iran or for Israel. I think I understand how this helps Iran perfectly well. I get it. I mean, I hope. Long term, we'll see. But they seem rather jubilant. 80 % of the country does not support the Ayatollah. He was a terrible, terrible man. No one's crying that he's dead. no normal person. But our government's job is not to look out for Iran or for Israel. It's to look out for us. And this feels very much to me like it is clearly Israel's war. Mark Levin wanted it. It's his war. Ben Shapiro, Lindsey Graham, Miriam Maddelson. That's obvious. They're the ones who've been pushing us.

35:49I mean, you hear it right there. I'll just show you just so you see that this is what is going on on right wing media in general. Dave Smith, who I voted for Trump. Here's what he had to say here. Play this clip. one of the problems here is that Donald Trump has now created an incentive structure. And I got to say, this is just simply, this is, this was the Israelis plan. And they're just much smarter than Donald Trump. And so they were able to con him into this. Donald Trump, one of the major problems with Donald Trump is that he's weak and he's stupid. These are real issues. He doesn't know anything.

36:30He goes into this shit blind, convinced that he's a genius who knows more than everyone else. And I hate playing clips of the next guy, but I want you to see what's happening on the far right, on the far, far right. That's why I'll only show a small clip of it. You literally have Nick Fuente saying, vote Democrats. Don't vote Republicans. Do not vote Republicans. Watch here. Let's play it. What does this administration do other than cover up the Epstein files, embezzle money through government contracts and bring us to war for Israel. This administration needs to be shut down immediately. Do not vote in the midterms.

37:10And if you do vote for Democrats, fuck this. Or how about Caroline Sunshine, Donald Trump's biggest supporter on Fox, who always appeared to be auditioning for Caroline Levitt's role. Here's what she said last night on Fox. Let's play it. But again, if I can just read this quote from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today at his press conference, he said this is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives we've been tasked with will take some time to achieve and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work. We expect to take additional losses. We will work to minimize U.S.

37:44losses, but this is a major combat operation. I voted for President Trump and I worked for President Trump because I didn't want to hear statements like that from my government again regarding American involvement in the Middle East. And I just think that's important to be clear about. Yeah. So we've got a lot more to discuss. For those just joining, we right now have a U.S. consulate in Dubai that has been attacked by Iranian drones, and that's on fire. We have the CIA building in Saudi Arabia. That's been hit by Iranian drones over the past hour or so. We can report on that. You have Iran saying, and we need to verify it, of course, that they hit an F-15, although unclear.

38:27Iran also lies. One of the hard part is the Trump regime lies, the Iranian regime lies, the Netanyahu regime lies. So sorting through the truth is always an issue here. It's why I always like to make sure I flag for you what the hell is actually being said versus what the reality is before I tell you, you know, here's something that's happened. You have the State Department putting out evacuation orders. Everybody leave in the Middle East. Everybody, everybody get out, find a commercial flight while commercial airports are under attack in all of these locations. You now have the Trump regime saying what Rubio said yesterday about the United States struck Iran because Israel was going to strike Iran first that Iran might retaliate against the US.

39:13That didn't happen, according to the Trump regime. That's the propaganda that they want to tell us. We have the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 % of oil, liquefied natural gas goes through. It's being severely impaired right now, we'll just say that. You have Trump's plan of potentially putting the Kurds in a ground invasion in Iran right now and arming the Kurds and doing a ground invasion, even though the U.S. betrayed the Kurds last month in Syria. I guess we think that, I don't know, I wonder what the Kurd community is thinking, you know, about that or what's really going to happen after Donald Trump sides with al-Jelani, the former al-Qaeda leader in Syria, and throws the Kurds in the autonomous region under the bus and basically gives their autonomous region to the former al-Qaeda leader who Trump invited to the Oval Office and sprayed perfume on and sniffed his neck.

40:18You have Israel striking within Iran and Tehran, and Israel hit, for example, a building in Qam where there was the election of the new Ayatollah. And I guess the thought was if you killed everybody in the building, they couldn't elect an Ayatollah. I don't know. They ended up electing an Ayatollah anyway. Mujtaba Khomeini, the son of Ayatollah Khomeini, a more extreme version of the Ayatollah. This guy's not working with Donald Trump. Oh, and then we learned before, and this is what I'll talk about shortly, Reuters is reporting that the Trump regime drafted an indictment against Delcy Rodriguez, who Donald Trump propped up in Venezuela, who Trump said he liked.

41:05And it's believed that they did this to strong arm Delcy Rodriguez to give more oil money to Donald Trump so that Trump could put that oil money in his Qatari bank account. And we know Qatar is under attack as well. You see how these things are all linked. But then, by the way, I would actually agree with an indictment of Delcy Rodriguez. She's a thug. She's part of the Maduro regime. She's just an extension of Maduro. There's been no change in Venezuela other than Donald Trump taking oil money for himself, not the United States, and putting in a Qatari bank account, basically, where Trump keeps this money that he sells oil for himself.

41:48And Donald Trump's sycophants in Congress, like Maga Mike, are apparently okay with that. But by the way, I would be okay. She should be indicted. She is a criminal. That's accurate. There should be democracy there.

42:00Ben Meiselas:Wasn't that supposed to be the plan? Isn't that what all the individuals of Venezuela said that was the plan and that they wanted and Machado and all of that? So what's going on there? But then our Justice Department, which has those big, gigantic Donald Trump posters on it right now. Trump's former criminal defense attorney, who's also covering up the child sex trafficking ring with Donald Trump, Todd Blanche, right? Let's not forget that this is Operation Epstein Fury, right? Or the Jeffrey Epstein war. So while they're covering up the Epstein files, Todd Blanche goes, no, Reuters is wrong. Completely false.

42:41Ben Meiselas:Not sure how such fake news makes its way to publication. I don't know. I mean, should we trust the Trump regime? Or should we trust Reuters? Should we trust what Rubio says today about what he said yesterday? Or should we listen to his words yesterday, the words of MAGA Mike yesterday? And all the MAGA sycophants were parroting this message. We invaded Iran because Israel was going to do it first. That's what they said. And by the way, if that's what you think should happen, which let me be very clear. I don't. Okay. I think that is dangerous. I told you, I think it's treasonous if the United States puts its interests below other, doesn't look after our own interests, right?

43:26Ben Meiselas:You can give me all the mantras, America first, but America has our own national security interests. And also you have to follow the law and get authorization of wars. And that didn't happen, but make your case. If your case is regime change, make the case to the American people. If your case is Israel's going to be threatened, make that case. See how the American people feel about that. If your plan is to install the son of the Ayatollah, who's more extreme, make the case. Explain why when Americans can't pay for things right now, can't afford things, as we're living paycheck, as Americans are living paycheck to paycheck right now, psychologically tortured by this regime as oil prices and your gas prices are now going to go up because of this, as food prices and everything's going up right now because of Donald Trump's mismanagement and the tariffs, as people can't afford homes and people are having their healthcare ripped away.

44:26Ben Meiselas:Make the case. Explain to us. Explain to us why with all of this happening, another endless war is something that you want to explain it. That's what our system is. If you don't like our system here in the United States, then just admit it. Just admit that you like Kim Jong-un and Russia and you like those systems better, that you prefer your own little Kim Jong-un here in the United States, a weak, pathetic, blowhard, a felon, a sexual abuser, sounds civilly liable for sexual abuse, a regime that covers up child sex trafficking. If you like that, just say you like it. I'll at least be like, okay, weird, strange, dangerous, but at least you're telling me, but don't act like you don't say the things that you don't believe the things we see it.

45:22All right.

45:23Ben Meiselas:My producers are saying quick ad break, Ben, you've spoken for 42 minutes in a row. We had a big audience though. That's why everybody make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not be actually subscribed. So double check that you're actually subscribed. Turn your notifications on. Tell a few friends or people you know about this network as well and this YouTube channel. We're on our way to 7 million subscribers. Go to store.midustouch.com for merch. Go to midasplus.com for our sub stack. All right, let's take one quick break, super quick, and then we'll be right back.

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48:24Go to zbiotics.com slash Midas to learn more and get 15 % off your first order when you use Midas at checkout. Zbiotics is backed with 100 % money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember, head to zbiotics.com slash Midas and use the code Midas at checkout for 15 % off. Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Mycelis. This is your breaking news in the first half of this episode. We were covering all of the developments in this war initiated by Donald Trump against Iran that's spiraling out of control in the region. There was actually just a briefing that was held as well on Capitol Hill.

49:14Lawmakers attended with the Defense Department, State Department. I'm going to get you some of those clips as they're coming in. But the result is, is that a lot of lawmakers are saying that they are far more fearful than ever that we, the United States, may be putting boots on the ground soon. And it appears that there may be U.S. ground forces that will be needed. We talked about in the first half of this episode, the United States arming the CIA's plan to arm the Kurds, who we betrayed last month in Syria by getting rid of their autonomous region and transferring it to the leader of al-Qaeda, al-Julani, who now runs Syria, who visits the United States.

49:54And in the White House, Donald Trump sprays perfume on him and sniffs him. We showed you those clips. But now we're begging the Kurds for help because there's no one in the region who wants to help. So I guess the plan is to arm the Kurds and have a ground war against Iran. I mean, as I'm saying these words, we know where this is going to go. You know, I was reflecting on this the other day, and I forget who I was talking to about it. I said, you know, I used to wonder with all of the complexities that take place in history and geopolitical affairs. I mean, you think about the nuances of what we cover on a day-to-day basis, how in a history class, you could reduce these monumental historic events down to a multiple choice answer, right?

50:50A, B, C, D, or true or false, when there's so much complexity. And And regardless of all of this complexity, it's kind of obvious, though, where you have someone behaving in a way like Donald Trump is right now and Netanyahu is right now. Like the outcome is so obvious. It doesn't take brilliance in prognosticating what's going to happen with a Kurdish force in Iran, with the massive size of Iran, with 90 million people, what that's going to look like. It's going to look like what we saw in Iraq on steroids, a nuclear version of what happened in Iraq or Afghanistan. It will make that look tiny in comparison.

51:52Do we all realize what's happening here? why are we trying to be so naive to the realities of the region and the reality of the region is is relatively simple whether whether you like it or not okay and for me i don't like that this is the reality but it's the reality which is the ayatollah terrible tyrant authoritarian terroristic regime. I also want to be clear. I think that the Trump regime is authoritarian in nature. And I want to be clear too. I think the Netanyahu is a regime that is tyrannical in nature and that has caused it. We are dealing with regimes and regimes on regime where the information and getting to the truth is very difficult.

52:51And ultimately, these regimes are preventing people who want to get along with each other, I think who want to live in peace with each other, who want to share this world in a positive and productive way. These regimes and authoritarians globally, there's a lot more authoritarians out there as well, have made it a very difficult place to live in this world, especially in 2026. But the Ayatollah was a, it's an undisputed fact that he was a spiritual leader for 300 million Shiites in the region. A lot in Iran, but in the region as well. And while the Ayatollah was losing some popularity because people were suffering economically as well in the region.

53:41Ben Meiselas:The attack on Iran, the way it was carried out by Trump and Netanyahu allowed the extreme factions to use his death as a martyrdom. That's just an objective fact of how they're using it to now inspire the population to become entrenched against Trump. It did not conjure sympathy of the people. And when Trump had an opportunity to conjure sympathy of the people, when the people of Iran were protesting and Trump said, I got your back, I'm here for you. If a single Iranian protester gets killed, we're coming in and we're helping you. And we didn't even have our military resources in the region. When Trump told people, go out right now, do it.

54:36Ben Meiselas:And they did. And 30 ,000, maybe 40 ,000 Iranians got massacred by the Ayatollah, by the regime. So now you want them to come out again after you told him to do it before. And also, after you're saying that you don't want any democratic leader in Iran, that you are okay with kind of what you did in Venezuela as the template. Although thinking about Venezuela and Iran, it's like thinking about two complete, like it's, it's, it's the fact that he tries to even make that comparison is fatal. Like that's sick, deranged thinking to say Venezuela and Iran. But if what you're trying to say is somebody else from the Islamic Republic is going to be the leader, then how are you going to encourage people to protest against them when they know that you don't have their back?

55:32Ben Meiselas:You've just stated you don't have their back. So what do you think the outcome is going to be? As I mentioned moments ago, there was a briefing by the Department of Defense and the State Department. I'm going to show you what it looked like when Senator Blumenthal, a Democrat, came out. And then I'll show you what it looked like with Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, Republican MAGA from Oklahoma. First, let me show you the clip of Blumenthal. Let's play it. I just want to say I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have.

56:23But I also am no more clear on what the priorities are going to be of the administration going forward, whether it is destroying the nuclear capacity of Iran or simply the missiles or regime change or stopping terrorist activities. And I think the administration owes it to the American people to have briefings, not just for members of Congress, but for the American public. Nothing here should have been classified. It should be available to the American people. Do they describe? So the Trump regime is making all of that information classified or declaring it classified. So we don't know. So the most the senators can share.

57:12Otherwise, Trump's DOJ will try to arrest them. And as you know, they will try to arrest them. We've seen it before. That's all they can share.

57:20Ben Meiselas:And he's like, why is this information? The American people need to hear this. We do need to hear this. I don't care again what political party you're from. This is supposed to be some secret. What's the mission? What's the objective? What are we doing in the region? While you have a consulate CIA building in Saudi Arabia on fire right now, while you have the consulate in Dubai on fire, while you have the LUD airport base on fire, while you have other areas in Dubai on fire and Bahrain on fire, while you have the U.S. embassy or the U.S. consulate in Karachi in Pakistan on fire. I mean, y 'all realize that the United States Marines who were guarding the Karachi embassy had to open fire and they killed like a dozen Pakistani people.

58:17Our Marines killed people to shut down that protest in front of the U.S. embassy here in Erbil, U.S. Air Force Base on fire. It's an arms facility in Iraq. The U.S. embassy in Iraq under attack because of the Ayatollah's position in the community

58:42Ben Meiselas:being a spiritual leader of 300 million Shiites. As I mentioned, there's a lot of Shiites in all these other countries. And again, they view it now the way Trump handled this for a guy who is likely gonna die anyway soon. I mean, the guy was super old and not healthy. You've now turned the guy into a martyr. You turn the guy into a martyr. The people who were starting to support him less are now rallying. and you think what, arming the Kurds? What are they going to do? They're going to go block to block in Tehran? That's the game plan? You realize when they do that, then there's going to... What do you think then happens in Syria to the Kurds?

59:28Ben Meiselas:Like, isn't it obvious what will happen? Okay, so the Kurds do that. Then what's going to happen? Remember last year into early this year in Syria, You had the factions loyal to al-Jolani who were massacring the Kurds and others in Syria, northern Syria, in that area. What do you think is going to happen? So the Kurds come into Iran, right, representing now the interests of Trump and Netanyahu. The Kurds are going to be vulnerable in Syria. The Shiites in Iraq, who represent the majority there. Remember the dynamic there that Saddam was a Sunni, but controlled a largely Shiite population. And then all of the sectarian issues afterwards of trying to put that back together in Iraq.

1:00:18Remember that was the, so the Shiite population, the Shiite population in Iraq rises up, right? And there's Kurdish communities in Iraq. So now what you end up triggering is what we saw happened in Iraq for a very long period of time. That starts to happen once again, the sectarian issues in Iraq, then the sectarian issues in Bahrain, the sectarian issues spread to the entire region. You draw in Saudi Arabia. Well, they get drawn into the war now. And if Saudi Arabia is viewed as being, you know, helping out Netanyahu and helping out Trump in such an overt way, what happens with the population there?

1:01:11And how do people respond to, you know, MBS doing that? What happens in these other regions if it appears that you're out there helping Netanyahu versus defending your own sovereignty?

1:01:24Ben Meiselas:And I saw some analysis where people were like, this is backfiring for Iran because now Qatar and the UAE are getting involved against Iran, and Iran probably didn't see this coming. Of course Iran saw this coming. Iran realized if it's going to strike inside, even if it's U.S. military interests, if Iran's going to strike inside any country, right, if they're going to strike inside the UAE and Abu Dhabi or Dubai, if they're going to strike inside Saudi Arabia, of course they calculated. let's not be naive that there would be retaliation, but the plan from Iran is obvious. Create a massive, because they see their survival on the line.

1:02:14They control all these Shiite militias in the area also, in all these regions, right? In addition to the Shahid drones and the ballistics, They control all the Shiite militias around.

1:02:26Ben Meiselas:So turn the entire Middle East into a massive sectarian war, massive sectarian violence there. Do that and make it as painful as possible economically, in lost lives, for the United States as possible. draw in a massive world war into the Middle East. That's the plan. And so rather than de-escalate, we're going to keep furthering this, and it's going right into the plan that's so freaking obvious of what Iran actually wants. Take a step back and look at it the way I'm describing this situation, would it now be the time to try to figure out, okay, this is getting out of control. Let's go to the United Nations and let's try to get the UN.

1:03:30Ben Meiselas:Let's go back to the mediator in Oman, or let's try to figure this out, or come up with some statement to try to save face at this point and just try to tone that. No, Trump's decision-making tree, and I've said this years on this network, I said the problem with his decision-making tree, if you even want to call it that, is there is a reason why he's bankrupted so many things, despite having all of the resources of being born basically with hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars from his daddy, which is he keeps on making, he makes a mistake or an error or an intentional situation bad.

1:04:15Ben Meiselas:And then he compounds it and compounds it and makes it worse and worse and worse and worse until it's a catastrophe. And then rather than tapping out or trying to admit fault or fire, you know, or change the dynamic or do whatever, he does it. And then he goes bankrupt eventually. When people stand up to him in any aspect of life, if you truly stand up to him, he loses. Look at his litigations, right? When you back down, frankly, the way we saw a lot of countries and companies back down to Donald Trump. When you back down, he takes, he takes more, he takes more, he takes more, right? When you stand up, he loses, he loses bigger, he loses as big as he can.

1:04:58Ben Meiselas:I mean, look at Abrego Garcia. Abrego, just think about this. Abrego Garcia was able to take on, and this isn't enough credit, to take on the Trump regime and win and keep on winning despite all the resources. You think if Abrego Garcia can beat the Trump regime, you think that in Ayatollah, do you think that Iran and the Islamic Republic doesn't know the guy's weak spots? You think they're not able to figure out. By the way, hat tip to Abrego and Abrego's legal team. But you get the point. I mean, look, E. Jean Carroll, because she didn't quit, she beat Donald Trump. And because the facts were on her side, but he threw everything against E.

1:05:49Ben Meiselas:Jean Carroll. And she won and she won and she won despite him throwing the fit and doing everything she won if e gene carol and abrego garcia can beat this guy don't you think that other interests know how to play him and the problem is netanyahu knows how to play him knows his weaknesses knows how to put pressure on him knows how to manipulate him and i'm not trying to take away responsibility from don he's a weak pathetic, you know, he's a weak, pathetic individual, but people know how to play him. You don't think that the Islamic Republic has a psychological profile and Putin has a psychological profile.

1:06:30Ben Meiselas:And heck, look at Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping got Donald Trump not to give billions of mandated military aid to Taiwan over this past week when Taiwan arguably needs it more than ever because Donald Trump is so thirsty for a state visit to Beijing. So Donald Trump can see all the Chinese soldiers standing at attention and walking in mass. So Trump feels tough. Literally the state visit is what Trump wants for a photo in this dystopian reality show that he lives in while we're all non-consensual extras whose lives are being ruined by this sick and disturbed and physically and cognitively deteriorating individual.

1:07:19Ben Meiselas:That's just the reality. We're not doing aid to Taiwan. We're taking away THAAD missiles from South Korea. Trump's attacking Zelensky again today when Zelensky actually has the blueprint of how you stop these Shahid drones and ballistic missiles. It is an idiocracy compounded by maliciousness as well. Did I show the clip? I don't know if I showed the clip yet of Mark Wayne Mullen. If not, let me show you the clip of Mark Wayne Mullen. I forget if I played it. Let's play it. Are there measures being taken not to eliminate other possible alternatives to leadership? This is war, and we're taking out the threat.

1:08:02And if you're part of the threat, then you're a target. What we call not all the arrows, but going after the archers. You can see this is war. You can see this is war. We haven't declared war. They declared war on us, but we haven't. The president called it war on Secretary Hexel. We haven't declared it. Just now you said this is war. They called it war. What I was saying, OK, well, that was a misspoke. But I was saying that they declared war on us. But but war is ugly. It always has been ugly. But we're you know, we're at a we're taking out a regime that's been trying to attack us for quite some time.

1:08:34But you're not conceiving this is war. We have declared war. So if we haven't declared war, then I don't see that. The president asked us to declare war yet, but they have declared war on us. We're just simply fighting the threat that's that's that's been at our door for 47 years. You know, it's interesting. While I've been telling you when you stand up to Trump how you win versus if you try to negotiate with the guy, he takes and he takes. He never can actually do a deal with the guy because his whole life is fraud. He's bad faith. Just the breaking news that just dropped Wall Street Journal with the exclusive that the Justice Department plans to abandon its defense of Trump's executive orders that targeted several high profile law firms.

1:09:25OK, remember the law firms that stood up and didn't bend the knee when Trump issued these executive orders? They all won. the law firms that capitulated and benthany and now are like working within the Trump regime and their legacies will forever be tarnished. Again, just think about that. Think about that dynamic that plays out over and over and over again. I'll just show you this quickly as well, because I just want to show you how utterly deranged this individual is. Donald Trump held day press conference earlier today. And what Trump was bragging about and boasting about at this press conference was that he's never had more compliments on anything than what's happening right now in the Middle East.

1:10:10He goes, I've never had more compliments. Listen to what he says here. Let's play it. I'll tell you what, I have never had more compliments on something I did. People felt it's something that had to be done. So if we have a little high oil prices for a little while. But as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before. Like a miracle, COVID is all going to go away, right? Like a miracle. It's all, remember, I truly don't, the level of brain rot that exists through social media, the proliferation of information, the trillions of dollars in propaganda that spewed.

1:10:54Like, do we all not remember that this was the guy who assured this country back in 2020 that COVID was not going to hit our shores and that he guaranteed us just a few cases and like a miracle, it's all going to go away. You have nothing to worry about. Things are great. And then he graded himself an A.

1:11:16Ben Meiselas:this is what he's just he just does it again he does it again and then he'll find some scapegoat or something to blame it on and he'll say it's this fault it's the you know it's biden's fault or it's obama's fault or it's it's this person's fault you know although right now it does feel that we are at a moment where even trump's base is like what the hell are you doing And look, he had an opportunity with this Iran negotiation to actually take a win the same way when he threatened these tariffs against the world. He could have actually taken a win despite how deranged it was, right, by not actually following through with the thing that's going to harm the country.

1:12:04You know, not the way I think that leaders should approach things. But if you were able to coerce the rest of the world to negotiate real deals and then, you know, say, hey, I had to do this as a tool, it could have actually been viewed as like, oh, wow, that was actually smart. like, wow, or you got a deal with Iran where they stopped their enrichment and it's stronger than Obama's deal.

1:12:31Ben Meiselas:And you've got the foreign minister of Oman blessing it and say, like he could have actually taken a win. And there's so many of these things where he could, but he's pathological and there's no strategy. And the goal is actually a lot. The goal is death and destruction. The cruelty is actually the point. There isn't thinking about, okay, well, how am I going to use this to leverage this to help the American people? He only thinks about it in terms of how am I going to help myself? And one of the very concerning issues, and I'll leave everybody with this, as you talk about Saudi Arabia, where the United States CIA headquarters is burning, or you talk about Dubai, where you have the LOD Air Force Base burning, or you have a consulate in, or sorry, in Qatar rather, where you have the LOD Air Force Base in Qatar, or you have in Dubai, where you have an American consulate that was hit in Dubai.

1:13:32Ben Meiselas:Trump has all these business interests there. He's got a lot of personal money and investments there now. And so he's clearly not thinking in the interest of the United States, how much of his decision-making is based on his own money and his own investments and his own personal affairs. So that's something to be considered. So I'll leave you all with this. At the Midas Touch Network, we take our responsibility in reporting on this war deeply seriously.

1:14:07We've tried to be as meticulous as we can in our reporting. I'm sure like any reporting, there will be times where we don't get it right. And when we don't, we'll make sure we acknowledge that. But we are doing our best in situations where the information is not always the best that's out there, but we're going to continue to work hard every single day to get you the information. That's why I keep checking back on the breaking news updates. I try to pack as much information in those breaking news updates to keep you fully informed. And it's not fluff. I'm not giving you my opinions or having people yell at each other and split screens.

1:14:50I try to structure those videos as fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, video, video, video, video, fact, fact, fact, video, video, video, video. video. So when you leave it, you're like, holy shit, I just learned a lot. I understand what's happening. And I try to cut through the propaganda. I try to just give it to you real about what's happening. This isn't anything more than here are the facts. That's how I try to conceive of these videos as we make them together. Shout out to our hardworking team at the Midas Touch Network. They're all doing a really good job. There's so many people behind the scenes, You know, whether it's, you know, whether it's Jeremy or Ben P or Joe or Sydney, or of course, you all know Salty and so many other editors behind the scenes who you don't get to see as well.

1:15:39We've expanded our team thanks to you. We're grateful for that. We have a Washington, D.C. bureau now. We had, I think, some of the best on the ground reporting that there was in Minnesota. we're expanding internationally. So you see all of that happening as well. So shout out to our whole team, shout out to our reporting team, and also give a shout out to all of the open source aggregators. Whether I disagree with them on some of the political stuff really is irrelevant. Some of them do a great job searching through Telegram and finding all the local videos about what's happening. And there are some that are just really good at gathering all the local videos.

1:16:22And that's one of the sources that I use to do it. And so, you know, a site like this, OSINT Defender, they, you know, regardless of politically where they were before this or not, I don't really care. They're gathering and aggregating good data. There's a bunch of other ones that are like this. And, you know, I'm just, where they're providing accurate information, it's helpful. It's a helpful resource. So I always want to give credit where credit is due. I think that's my responsibility as a journalist as well. Big up status quo. Yep. All right. Got a lot to cover. Thanks, everybody, for watching.

1:17:00Appreciate you, big audience. Subscribe here on this YouTube channel. Set your notifications on. Go check out Midas Plus. Thanks, everybody. We'll chat soon. Shout out Midas Mighty. 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.

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