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Furious world leaders have joined forces and they forced Donald Trump to surrender. When Donald Trump announced yesterday that his operation called Project Freedom was suddenly terminating 24 hours after Donald Trump said it is the single greatest American military operation in all of history, what actually went down behind the scenes were two separate meetings by conflicting world leaders. But it applied the pressure on Donald Trump to submit and surrender. America first means America alone. You had the European Political Community meeting taking place in Yerevan, Armenia, where Prime Minister Carney represented Canada. It was the first time a non European country attended a European Political Community meeting. And it was a big symbolic thing that this was happening in Yerevan. The world leaders joined forces together. Zelensky was there as well, who made a very powerful speech. And the world leaders who were there talked about moving away from the United States, forming a very strong and powerful bond of Europe with Canada, transatlantic with Europe joining forces and this alliance. And you had them applying pressure. And when Donald Trump was saying, hey, we need you, step up, step up, they were saying, get out of here. Europe is going to stand firm together, and we will have our own negotiations directly with Iran. We don't need the United States. And just, you know, we'll be able to handle this on our own. Separately, you had Iran's Foreign Minister Aragchi meeting in Beijing with his counterpart, the Foreign Minister of China, and potentially Xi Jinping. This is a very big deal because at the exact moment where Donald Trump announced he was surrendering that he was going to stop the Operation Freedom or Project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz, at that exact moment, Foreign minister Iraqi was meeting with China's foreign minister. And we know that Donald Trump so desperately wants his trip to China that's coming up with Xi Jinping to have the photo op. I mean, Donald Trump's done so much for that damn photo op. He wants to be standing there with Xi Jinping with all of the Chinese soldiers standing at attention. And Trump, like, really wants that photo And Xi Jinping realize how desperate Donald Trump wants to be in a photo with him and have this trip and feel very strong in China with Ji Jinping. And so one of the things that I think went down is Xi Jinping as foreign minister Iraqi basically threatened not to allow Donald Trump to even show up in China or that the trip would be delayed unless Donald Trump agreed to surrender and stop the operation or project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz. And I think that's one of the main factors. I think there was another thing going on behind the scenes as well. That's why we got to pay attention to a lot of geopolitical developments happening. This went under the radar, but I think it's vital that we cover what's taking place that you're not hearing anywhere else. So you had Sergey Lavrov, Russians foreign minister, basically Putin's number two basically held a, I wouldn't call it a secret phone call because once again, Russia's Tass announced that their state regime media announced that there was this call between Lavrov and Marco Rubio where they were talking about developments throughout the world. And you don't really hear about that from US Media. At the same time, Russia launched a major attack on Ukraine and killed a ton of innocent people yesterday in Ukraine. And then Russia had the audacity to say, well, now that we've killed all these additional innocent civilians, they specifically targeted innocent civilians. They're like, why don't we do a ceasefire leading up to what Russia calls their victory parade, the celebrating the victory at World War II in about three or four days. I think it's May 9th that's happening in Russia. And Russia talked about the ceasefire allegedly with the United States, with Rubio and Trump through secret back channel calls, but never told Zelinsky. And Zelinsky learned about it because Russia was saying, we hereby declare a cease fire on May 9th on Victory Day, and if Ukraine dare attack us, we will unleash hell on Ukraine. And Zelinsky is like, wait a minute. So you have the United States and Russia talking about a ceasefire so Russia can have its parade in Moscow because they're now afraid of Ukrainian drones and nobody told Ukraine about this. I also think what was going on is you have Russia and China, who are allied with Iran, applying pressure on Rubio and Trump, also saying, you know, we're going to try to work out a deal that benefits China, Russia and Iran, and they put the pressure on Trump, pull out. We'll work with Foreign Minister Aragchi and ultimately it is a deal to strengthen. Here's the, here's the thing. Strengthen Russia, strengthen China, strengthen Iran so Donald Trump can have a meeting with Xi Jinping. That makes Donald Trump feel tough, but ultimately screws over the long term interests of the United States. Do you see what's going on here? But separately, you had Europe realizing that. That's why they countered, what with their meeting in Yerevan. You see all these different dimensions. Armenia used to be viewed as like, okay, is this a satellite country of the Soviet Union at this point? But Europe flexing these 40 countries at the Europe political community meeting over there with Zelensky, then they invite Carney and you see how the world, the world is shaping up. I mean, you have this European, Carney kind of alliance, then you have Xi Jinping, Putin, Iran, and they want to bring Trump into their fold. Trump wants to be part of that. Do you see what's happening? Trump wants to be part of that group. But Trump was all alone. He had the pressure applied by Europe. He had the pressure applied by China and Russia, Iran in China. And so Trump, like, gave up and he surrendered with the entire world. So I started off by saying, from conflicting sides, you had the, this pressure being applied. And Donald Trump was crunched. I mean, he was basically squeezed, if you will, and had nowhere to go. And he's like, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right. Let's just pretend that we won Project Freedom, that it was the greatest American military victory in history. We're just gonna run with that. Let's just take a look at some of the receipts that we have here. I mean, you have President Zelensky talking about how today is truly an important day, day. There were many productive meetings on the sidelines of the 8th European Political Community Summit. I am grateful to everyone who is ready to work for our shared security and strengthen capabilities to protect life. I thank Armenian Prime Minister Pashnian for the organization. Many countries were represented, and that means a lot. It demonstrates the scale of our unity of all those who value life. And today this unity has real strength. Now, you contrast that over to what was going on in China. You can see right here, Iranian Foreign Minister Aragchi arrives in Beijing. You see him over here with his counterpart, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, of course. Wang Yi, Iranian Foreign Minister, Iraqi, was in Beijing on Wednesday morning for talks with China. They're going to discuss their bilateral relations and regional and international developments. And we know that was something that Rubio was thinking, as Rubio's like, China, you want to Speak to them. And you want to, you know, kind of help us out. So you have that taking place separately. You have this phone call right here between Lavrov and Rubio. I just find it interesting that we never get the readouts from the White House. We have to get the readouts from Russian media. And it says May 5th. The telephone conversation took place between Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Rubio. The heads of foreign agencies compared notes on the current situation and international affairs and Russian American relations and discussed the scheduled meetings coming up. The conversations were constructive and businesslike. Okay, did you hear about that from American press? Did you hear about that from Rubio bragging about it? No, you didn't? Did you hear about this as well? The US is set to remove sanctions against Eritrea, which is, you know, an African country honor around May 4th. Eritrea is closely aligned with Russia politically and diplomatically, militarily, strategically. And you have Eritrea voting with Russia a lot in the United nations and the US removing sanctions there. That's just one of the things that go under the radar.
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Then you have Zelensky saying what like Americans discussed a May 9th ceasefire with Russians. No one contacted us officially. Nothing has been officially proposed. This is Russia's war against Ukraine. America and Russia are not at war with each other. We what ceasefire are they even discussing? It's not serious. What are they doing? Isn't it interesting too that like Russia declares when it wants its unilateral ceasefires and then the other side's like, we Never heard of. What are you doing? Isn't this the exact same tactic that Trump would do when it comes to his unlawful and catastrophic war in Iran? Donald Trump's like, because of the productive discussions that we've been having with Pakistan, I hereby declare a ceasefire. I mean, right? You think about what Donald Trump did. Was it three weeks ago, at this point where Trump declared unilaterally that there was going to be a cease fire after Trump set a deadline that if Iran didn't immediately surrender, the United States was going to, like, destroy its bridges and wipe away the civilization. Then the deadline was about to hit. And Donald Trump's like, because we're in such successful conversations, there was like, no conversations. We hereby declare a cease fire. And Iran's like, okay, but we didn't. We're not. We're. That's not our request. You're just kind of doing that on your own. And then you kind of fast forward, Donald Trump launches Project Freedom and says, well, the ceasefire is a separate thing. The ceasefire, that's Operation Epic Fury. That's done. There's a ceasefire there. This is a separate operation called Project Freedom. And this is about helping ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Very different. This is about opening the Strait of Hormuz. And so that's what Project Freedom is. And now we're going to declare we're not doing Project Freedom, so we're doing a cease fire on the cease fire. And it was like, what are you. What are you even talking about right now? But when you see these international events that are happening behind the scenes, I think it makes sense what's happening. I mean, Zelinsky. Here's how Zelinsky frames it, too. And I find this so fascinating that they're calling this the Washington format on the sidelines of the summit of the European political community. I think it's a little bit throwing shade at the United States that in the Washington format, they're talking about decoupling from Washington. Usually the Washington format is aligning priorities with Washington. That's why they call it a Washington format. And, you know, sometimes the US May send a representative on the sidelines of these international meetings, but the Washington format was all about decoupling and moving away from Washington. So Zelinsky goes a good meeting in the Washington format on the sidelines of the summit of the European Political Community. Participants included Macron of France, Starmer of the UK Giorgio Maloney of Italy, Jonas Gar Storr, Donald Tusk, Poland, Peter Orpo Carney, the Universe European Union President Antonio Costa von der Leyen. Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rut. I thank each of them. We held a detailed discussion on strengthening air defense, the production of necessary European systems, support of the Pearl Initiative and ways to equip Europe with its own anti ballistic capabilities. In other words, Europe getting weapons from Ukraine, not just Ukraine getting weapons from Europe. I thank Canada for a new contribution to the Imperial initiative. Prior to the meeting, Mark Carney announced an additional $200 million. Mark Rudd assured that the provision of anti ballistic missiles to Ukraine remains consistent with earlier arrangements. Diplomacy was addressed in a very substantive manner. Due to the war in Iran, there is currently an obvious pause in negotiations. We discussed how to reinvigorate this process, contacts with the United States and Europe's role in it. We also spoke about the situation on the front line. Importantly, all partners noted that Ukraine's position is now significantly stronger. I am grateful to our warriors. We also cover the need to protect energy. We're grateful for European supports package of $90 billion. It is important that the funds begin to arrive as soon as possible and that Ukraine is able to implement its resilience plans in preparation for winter. Thank you for supporting Ukraine. So you got that happening. You have Macron saying Europe is at a moment of truth that demands more unity and more ambition. We need a strong Europe that reduces excessive dependencies, builds its own peace and security solutions and acts as a truly united continent bound by a shared destiny. And then the Europe meeting, Iraqi meeting with Beijing, Russia's meeting, our phone call with Rubio, all of that. And then what's the product? One plus one plus one equals three. And then Donald Trump posts based on the request to Pakistan and other countries, the tremendous military success that we've had during the campaign against the country of Iran, and additionally the fact that great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran. We have mutually agreed that while the blockade will remain in full force, in effect, Project Freedom, the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not an agreement can be finalized and signed. Donald J. Trump, by the way, very similar to what Russia did with Ukraine. Russia's like, okay, we're doing a cease fire, right? And Ukraine's like, what? What? Donald Trump with Iran, we're doing a cease fire, right? And when you now understand all of the different international meetings taking place, I think you also understand the pressure that was applied to Donald Trump not just from one side, but three sides. The Europe meeting with Zelensky and Carney saying, Trump, get away. We don't, we don't want you around here, you know, and we're not going to agree to anything that you're trying to force upon us. Iraqi and Beijing and then Putin coordinating with Beijing and Iraqi and then making that phone call to Rubio that was being concealed from the American people. So I think it's important to give you all of that perspective. And then you see, boom. All of that equals Donald Trump weak, Donald Trump surrendering. Trump's not equipped to handle this stuff. He's too weak. He's too pathetic. He's a loser. And you see right there for yourself. Anyway, let me know what you think. Hit subscribe let's get to 7 million. Appreciate you watching.
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Episode: Furious World Leaders Checkmate Trump and Force Surrender!!!
Date: May 6, 2026
In this episode, the Meiselas brothers dissect the dramatic global diplomatic maneuvers that led to Donald Trump’s abrupt surrender in his much-touted Operation "Project Freedom" in the Strait of Hormuz. The brothers combine their familiar wit and deep analysis to explore how a rare confluence of European unity, Russian and Chinese pressure, and Middle Eastern strategy forced Trump into a corner on the world stage. The episode spotlights how America’s "America First" approach left Trump isolated, and how world leaders forced him to capitulate for their own interests. Along the way, the brothers deliver sharp commentary on the broader implications for U.S. credibility and democracy.
“Europe is going to stand firm together, and we will have our own negotiations directly with Iran. We don’t need the United States.” — Ben [04:30]
“Xi Jinping realized how desperate Donald Trump wants to be in a photo with him ... Xi Jinping basically threatened not to allow Donald Trump to even show up in China unless he agreed to surrender.” — Ben [05:40]
“Isn’t this the exact same tactic that Trump would do...unilaterally [declaring] ‘Because of productive discussions... I hereby declare a ceasefire.’...There was like no conversations.” — Ben [13:43]
“Strengthen Russia, strengthen China, strengthen Iran so Donald Trump can have a meeting with Xi Jinping. That makes Donald Trump feel tough, but ultimately screws over the long-term interests of the United States.” — Ben [09:30]
“I find this so fascinating that they’re calling this the Washington format … but the Washington format was all about decoupling and moving away from Washington.” — Ben [14:40]
“Europe is at a moment of truth that demands more unity and more ambition … We need a strong Europe that reduces excessive dependencies, builds its own peace and security solutions and acts as a truly united continent...”— Macron (as read by Ben) [15:33]
“Boom. All of that equals Donald Trump weak, Donald Trump surrendering. Trump’s not equipped to handle this stuff. He’s too weak. He’s too pathetic. He’s a loser.” — Ben [18:45]
Desperation for the Photo Op:
“Donald Trump’s done so much for that damn photo op.” — Ben [05:30]
On Backchannel Calls Kept from the Public:
“I just find it interesting that we never get the readouts from the White House. We have to get the readouts from Russian media.” — Ben [09:15]
On Trump’s Isolation:
“Trump was all alone. He had the pressure applied by Europe. He had the pressure applied by China and Russia, Iran in China. And so Trump, like, gave up and he surrendered with the entire world.” — Ben [10:00]
On the Cycle of Declared Victories:
“Let’s just pretend that we won Project Freedom, that it was the greatest American military victory in history. We’re just gonna run with that.” — Ben [10:30]
The episode carries the MeidasTouch signature: sharp, irreverent, and deeply critical of Trump’s foreign policy while staunchly supportive of democratic alliances. The brothers blend humor, sarcasm, and clarity, ensuring larger geopolitical stakes are explained in layman’s terms but with an urgent warning for the future of American democracy.
This episode vividly captures a turning point in global diplomacy with Trump’s “America Alone” approach exposed. The Meiselas brothers reveal how, in their view, world leaders checked Trump’s ambitions, ultimately forcing him to surrender through concerted pressure, all while the U.S. public remained largely unaware. The brothers urge listeners to see these moments as fundamental tests for democracy and U.S. relevance on the world stage.
For further insights and real-time updates, listeners are encouraged to subscribe and join the "MeidasMighty" movement.