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Maria Bartiromo
What would you do if your online store converted 36% more shoppers? You could take 36% more vacation.
Ro Khanna
Another pina colada.
Jessica Tarlov
Yes, please.
Maria Bartiromo
Open a new retail location with 36% more square feet. Fantastic. Hire 36% more help.
Jesse Watters
You're hired and you're hired.
Maria Bartiromo
Shopify has the world's best converting checkout up to 36% better than other e commerce platforms. What you do with those extra sales
Narrator/Host
is up to you.
Maria Bartiromo
Switch to Shopify today@shopify.com setup and get a $1 trial.
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Narrator/Host
which calls itself Fox, has been in complete collapse mode as Donald Trump's trip to China has been an utter failure. So state regime media has been running segments like this one right here on the Laura Ingraham Show. She brings on this guy Arroyo as a guest, and they both say, wow, do you see how dominant Donald Trump was in his handshake with Xi? Watch as Donald Trump gives Xi's hand a little swat. Such dominance. What are you talking about? Here, play this clip.
Guest Commentator
You know, I did see it, Laura, and people online were saying Xi dominated Trump in that closing moment of their summit because of the handshake. But look at what Trump does. He gives the hand Xi's hand a little swat to diminish whatever that dominant move was at the top. Trump is very aware in these settings of how the. Here he goes in for the swat. He always is very aware of these images and how those images define these historic moments. And you could see him, look, the pat on the shoulder, all the dominant moves to counter Xi. I think the online commentary was a little off on this moment.
Narrator/Host
Yeah.
Maria Bartiromo
Well, also, Trump just looked really relax. He didn't seem at all tight. And I mean, did you notice if Xi ever moved his face? I mean, his face does not move. It's like immovable. It's like Trump on tariffs. It's like Trump on tariffs.
Narrator/Host
So Donald Trump basically gave away our semiconductor chips, gave away any negotiating leverage regarding Taiwan, gave away any negotiating leverage around prisoners who America wants released from China, gave away all economic leverage, but he swatted Xi Jinping. What are you talking about? And then, fortunately, you had Jessica Tarlov on Fox, who's like one of their only good hosts on the show. She points out that Donald Trump is making, what, at least $220 million last quarter alone selling stocks to which Jesse Waters, the Fox propagandist, goes, so did I. Didn't we all make that amount of money? No. The American people are suffering. People can't afford things. We have the highest credit card delinquency rates in history, the highest student loan delinquency in history. All time low consumer confidence right now. What are you talking about? This is what they're saying on Fox as Donald Trump's trip was an utter failure. Here, play this clip.
Jessica Tarlov
But we're just. I mean, we just saw that Donald Trump in Q1 made at least $220 million of purchases in stocks. Paramount, Netflix, Warner Brothers, Palant. I.
Maria Bartiromo
Everyone but you're talking should not be
Panelist
able to do that.
Jessica Tarlov
You want to talk about Nancy Pelosi's talenti gelato drawer?
Panelist
Okay.
Jessica Tarlov
But you don't care what's going on.
Panelist
I think it's important to point out also that they cannot get this stuff passed on. Capitol Hill.
Maria Bartiromo
People, people, show Shannon it's on.
Jessica Tarlov
He just said, oh, that's a good point.
Ro Khanna
No, that's not what I said. I said, I like your glasses.
Jessica Tarlov
You did not. They are great.
Ro Khanna
Beautiful glasses.
Panelist
But also, can we talk about the fact that Capitol Hill cannot get it together on insider stock trading and all that kind of stuff? All these, so many of them sold.
Jessica Tarlov
He's the first president to do this.
Panelist
And they're thousandaires and they leave as millionaires in a way on a salary that doesn't make a lot of sense.
Jessica Tarlov
So I'm a billion dollars in a year.
Jesse Watters
You don't even have to ask me a question.
Narrator/Host
Then one of the things they do at Fox is just they assume if you speak loud and you behave obnoxiously, you can then drown out logic. No, because people know you are con artists. No one's buying this shtick. But I want you to watch as Greg Gutfeld, one of Fox's host, he starts saying, you know, look, you libs, you libs are so delusional. You libs love ballrooms. You just want. You just want taxpayers to pay for the ballrooms. When taxpayers aren't paying for it.
Ro Khanna
You love.
Narrator/Host
I don't even know what you're saying here. Play this clip.
Jesse Watters
First things first. A Democrat gets into power and then gets rich. Trump was rich before he got there and he's actually making less money. So your obsession over his profiting is a delusion. It's what you here. First you say here's how they're profiting. Then you switch to his foreign policy priority where he's saying Iran is more important right now than the gas prices. That was your justification. Then you move back. It was so convoluted. Look, libs have obsessions over things like ballrooms when taxpayers aren't paying for it. Meanwhile, as Jesse points out, and I gotta make this clear because this is gonna come back. There is a pattern of abuse.
Narrator/Host
More from Tarlov pointing out Donald Trump's grift right here. And I you to watch as Gutfeld basically admits. Yeah. So what's wrong about using your presidency to profit and make billions of dollars? Watch this. Let's play this clip.
Jessica Tarlov
But we're just, I mean we just saw that Donald Trump in Q1 made at least a $220 million of purchases in stocks. Paramount, Netflix, Warner Brothers, Palantir.
Ro Khanna
So did I.
Jessica Tarlov
He is in.
Ro Khanna
Everyone's buying that control.
Jessica Tarlov
But you're talking should not be able to do that. You want to talk about Nancy Pelosi's talenti gelato drawer.
Panelist
Okay.
Jessica Tarlov
And you don't care what's going on either.
Panelist
It's important to put point out also that they cannot get this stuff passed on Capitol Hill. People, people show.
Jessica Tarlov
He just said, oh, that's a good point.
Ro Khanna
No, that's not what I said. I like glasses.
Jessica Tarlov
You did not. They are beautiful glasses.
Panelist
But also, can we talk about the fact that Capitol Hill cannot get it together on insider stock trading and all that kind of stuff. All these, so many of them.
Jessica Tarlov
He's the first president to do this
Panelist
and they're thousand dares and they leave as millionaires in a way on a salary that doesn't make a lot of sense.
Jessica Tarlov
So $3 billion in a year.
Jesse Watters
You don't even have to ask me a question.
Narrator/Host
And then as Fox was in full collapse mode, you had Democratic Congress member Ro Khanna going on Fox and bringing the fight directly to Fox host. So you had Maria Bartiroma who tried to. She thought that she was going to act all tough and she was going to get Ro Khanna. But Ro Khanna cool, calm, confident, pushed back. And you know, Donald Trump told Maria Bartiroma to do this interview. Right. Because remember, Donald Trump said that Jackie Heinrich, who did the interview last Sunday, was too weak. So Trump called Bartiroma and arranged this and had Bartiroma invite Ro Khanna on. And Bartiroma got destroyed by Khanna. Let's watch what goes down story.
Maria Bartiromo
We just did the story in New York how Kathy Hochul is moving the threshold down. You're gonna pay a pied a terre tax if you have a second home in New York. Not if your house is worth $5 million. No, no, no. Your house is valued at $1 million. Then you're going to pay a pied a tear tax if you have a second home in New York. Do you agree with that?
Ro Khanna
Yes. Because you know what I believe, Maria? That the economy in this country is unfair and lopsided. Too few people. Too few people, including in my district. Let me just finish.
Maria Bartiromo
In New York, the top 1% pay the majority of taxes in this country. You know it and I do.
Ro Khanna
Maria, let me say this, and you may agree with me. Look, you can't have a country where a few people in a few places control the majority of the nation's wealth. That's not a democracy, and it's not sustainable. In world history, you've seen revolution when that happens in Silicon Valley, you have 19 billionaires who have 12% of the economy. So what I'm saying is, if America's been good to you, if America has been good to you, you can do good for America. You could pay a little bit of tax. So people have health care, childcare, a living wage, and they do. I know they can pay a little
Maria Bartiromo
bit of money, spend money. Hey, I know plenty of billionaires. All they do is spend money.
Ro Khanna
Do you not believe that we have a wealth.
Maria Bartiromo
They send money to education. They spend money on the arts. They send all their money. And they said they send all their money to all of these nonprofits. I know plenty of billionaires that do
Ro Khanna
some things, but they have an obligation to pay some tax so that we can have public goods of health care, child care and education.
Maria Bartiromo
Majority of it.
Ro Khanna
But they're not. Even Warren Buffett has said they don't. Warren Buffett?
Maria Bartiromo
No.
Ro Khanna
You're saying Warren Buffett has said Warren Buffett.
Maria Bartiromo
He was talking about.
Ro Khanna
Let me just finish.
Maria Bartiromo
I know exactly what Warren Buffett.
Ro Khanna
Yeah. Why is.
Maria Bartiromo
Why is capital gain about capital gains taxes? He was not talking about income taxes.
Ro Khanna
But he's saying he pays less tax. No, he pays less tax than his teachers.
Maria Bartiromo
He's not getting a salary he's not getting.
Ro Khanna
And that's most of the billionaires. And that's most of the billionaires in this country. It's not fair.
Maria Bartiromo
You're mixing up taxes. Taxes. Don't try it. No, but Marie, taxes.
Ro Khanna
You got Maria, would you agree? And you got Mariah. Yeah. So would you agree that we shouldn't have in this kind of wealth inequality in an AI world, which is capital bias, that we shouldn't have millionaires, plus having less rates on capital gains than someone who's a teacher or a farmer or a machine crushing on their W2s?
Maria Bartiromo
I don't want to crush investment. I want people to encourage. I want people to feel and invest into. They're going to start putting 401k. The way to create wealth overall long term is to invest in the stock market. That's 100%. I believe that the way to long term.
Ro Khanna
But 50% of people don't do that.
Maria Bartiromo
They do join more people than you know, are invested in equities.
Narrator/Host
And then Ro Khanna posted his own clip from his appearance. I went on Mornings with Maria Bartiroma on Fox to make the case for ending the war in Iran that is devastating our economy. It's why food, gas, credit card rates and more mortgages are all up. Let's put American workers over foreign entanglements. Ro Khanna is a superstar here. Play this clip.
Maria Bartiromo
But I mean, how much pressure can you put on this president at this point? I mean, you are just voting on everything against the president. The Democrats can't stand President Trump. When do you see a time to start working together?
Ro Khanna
Absolutely. But you know, one of the things the president should do is end this war. I mean, three Republicans voted with us to end the war. Here's why the war is really hurting us. You talked about the Fed not cutting rates. Part of the reason they can't cut rates is because of the war and prices. And what does that mean? Higher mortgages, higher credit card interest rates, higher student loans. And then you see the cost of food and the cost of gas and the cost of farmers of urea, ammonia and nitrogen and their fertilizers. Let's end this war to bring down prices.
Narrator/Host
Then you had Ro Khanna fact checking Maria Bartiroma to her face. Let's watch this right here.
Maria Bartiromo
But of course, we did litigate this and we already went through this before that President Obama actually sent Iran money as opposed to actually President Trump trying to stop them from having a nuclear weapon. But I want to get your take on what China said because the president is making news right now. He just spoke on Air Force One to reporters, and he said that China agreed to buy 200 Boeing planes with the potential commitment of buying 750 jets. He also said that China agreed to buy soybeans. And he said that he would consider lifting sanctions on Chinese companies purchasing oil, but no decision has been made yet. Now, the president said that he did get a commitment from Xi Jinping that China would buy oil from America. We don't know if that' sthey're gonna keep that promise, but he said they're gonna send Chinese ships to Louisiana and Texas to buy American oil. And then on Taiwan, there were other things said. But let me get your take on those deals right now. What is your assessment of this trip?
Guest Commentator
Sure.
Ro Khanna
I just have to say for the record, my view is that President Obama didn't give money to Iran. He unfroze Iranian assets. But we can have that conversation some other time. Let me say on Boeing, I'm glad that China is buying or Boeing planes, but they're only buying.
Maria Bartiromo
But, Congressman, wait, why on freeze assets, why give Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorists, $2 billion so that they could go give that money to the proxies that they, that they support, like Hezbollah and Hamas? Why unfreeze money?
Ro Khanna
It was Iranian money that was unfrozen for 97% of enriched uranium to get out of the country. President Trump tore that deal up. Now there's, now there's tons of enriched uranium.
Maria Bartiromo
They never made a commitment to stop building a weapon. So why send them $1.7 billion when you didn't even have a commitment to stop building a weapon? You yourself said you don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
Ro Khanna
Well, just so we're factual, he didn't send them money. It was their money that was unfrozen. I acknowledge it was unfrozen. What we got out of it is
Maria Bartiromo
you say it was their money, it was their money. It was stolen money. But that's fine. Let's say it is their money. Why unfreeze the money that you didn't. You never got a commitment that they would stop building a nuclear weapon. Why are you sending them $1.7 billion so that they could go give it to Hamas?
Ro Khanna
He got a commitment for 15 years, 97% of rich uranium out. Instead, what did we get? We had them having 60% enriched uranium. When Trump tore up the deal, we had 13American service members dead. We have Americans paying four bucks a day. We have food prices. Let me just Sit it for you. Let me finish, please.
Maria Bartiromo
Are you talking about the botched exit from Afghanistan?
Ro Khanna
Nothing to do with Iran. The botch exit. But look at the facts here. Because Trump tore up the deal, Americans are dead. Americans are paying more for food, Americans are paying more for gas.
Narrator/Host
And then Ro Khanna laid out more of Iran's cost. And again, this is just pitch perfect right here. Let's play this clip.
Ro Khanna
But look at the facts here. Because Trump tore up the deal, Americans are dead. Americans are paying more for food, Americans are paying more for gas. The Strait of Hormuz is less secure, and the war is unpopular. 70% of Americans don't want this war. Even Republicans are defecting.
Maria Bartiromo
But nobody wants nuclear test. Want a nuclear terrorist to have a nuclear weapon. Okay, we don't want a terrorist.
Ro Khanna
Obama was on the road to achieving that.
Maria Bartiromo
No, no, no way. He didn't achieve anything. Obama did squat.
Ro Khanna
We could talk against squat.
Maria Bartiromo
He.
Ro Khanna
That's not true. Come on, come on.
Maria Bartiromo
He unfroze all that money. Look, let's get to Taiwan. He unfroze the money. He gave the money to Iran. What did they do with the money? They gave it to Hamas, Hezbollah, and then they committed atrocities.
Ro Khanna
Trump should have built. He should have built on the JCPLA instead of ripping it up and getting us into war. He promised us no wars and he didn't want to go into this war.
Maria Bartiromo
So in, in other words, you trust your. Who's going to keep their promises?
Ro Khanna
I like the Trump who was running in 16 and 20 and 24 saying, I don't want more wars. I don't want Americans dying in these wars. I don't want Americans paying for Iran. And who cared more about Toledo than Tehran? I mean, how about building our manufacturing, investing in our people instead of getting in these foreign wars?
Narrator/Host
And then as you had lots of of Trump sycophants and MAGA Republicans attacking Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, you had Republican, far right Republican and Coulter posted the following. It's good to post without having any idea why Representative Ro Khanna might respect Thomas Massie. They wrote the law that compelled the release of the Epstein files, AKA a Trump campaign promise, after ignoring the Epstein case. From 2006 to 2018, the New York Times coverage of the file has been Sterling, holding several teen girl diddlers to account, leading to forced resignations, tens of millions of dollars in forfeited compensation, lifetime financial industry bans, lawsuits, not to mention public humiliation and ostracism. That's why Khanna and the New York times respect. Massey, you complete shit for brains, waste of protoplasm, defender of teen sex abuse, and it's one of these right wing accounts that said look at all the PR that mainstream media is giving to Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie. I'll just give a hat tip to Ro Khanna for posting this from Bernie Sanders. Let me just leave you with this because Ro Khanna reposted this. When I talk about oligarchy, I'm not just referencing the extraordinary concentration of ownership in our economy. I'm not just talking about the unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality or the increased billionaire control of our media media. I'm talking about how the very, very rich and their super PACs are now buying our political system and undermining the very foundation of American democracy. In the 2024 election, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, spent at least $290 million to elect Trump. In that campaign, the 100 richest people in the country spent $2.6 billion to elect the candidates of their choice. And now as we enter the 2026 election elections, we're seeing billionaires spend far more money in a midterm election than any time in history. It is estimated that super PACs from the AI industry, crypto, APAC and other special interests could spend billions of dollars to elect senators and members of Congress who represent their interests. You as a citizen get one vote. They as oligarchs get to buy the candidates. That's not democracy. That's the government of the United States becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the billionaire class, the Epstein class. I would say if we're going to create a government that works for all and not just the 1%, we have to end Citizens United, get super PACs out of elections, and move to the public funding of elections. Amen. There you have it. Ro Khanna reposted that, so I wanted to share that with you. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks for watching everybody. Thanks for watching. Be sure to add the Midas Touch podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast for new updates every single day.
Date: May 17, 2026
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas
This episode dives into Fox News’ frantic coverage following Donald Trump’s disastrous diplomatic trip to China, highlighting how the network attempted to spin Trump’s visible failures on the world stage. The Meiselas brothers dissect Fox’s on-air meltdown, their futile defense of Trump’s “dominance” via a handshake, and the internal contradictions that emerged on Fox panels. The show also features a sharp exchange between Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Fox host Maria Bartiromo, exposing Republican talking points on wealth inequality, U.S.-Iran policy, and legislative gridlock over insider trading. Throughout, the brothers maintain their signature banter and unapologetic advocacy for democracy, leveraging pointed clips and notable moments from recent broadcasts.
This episode of MeidasTouch offers a thorough deconstruction of Fox News’ response to Trump’s foreign policy setbacks—even as the network attempts to deflect, distort, and distract. The brothers, with their blend of humor and pointed commentary, expose the collapse of the Fox talking points and elevate voices like Rep. Ro Khanna, who brings facts—and the fight—directly onto right-wing turf. The closing reflections on oligarchic influence in American politics underscore the stakes of the ongoing struggle for democracy.
For more, follow the MeidasTouch Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube for regular updates and breaking news.