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Host
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Ron Filipkowski
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Ron Filipkowski
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Political Analyst
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Ron Filipkowski
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Host
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Ron Filipkowski
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Guest Commentator
This podcast is sponsored by Made in Cookware Made in partners with multi generational artisans and some of the world's best chefs to create professional quality cookware knives and kitchen tools. Their products are trusted in Michelin starred restaurants worldwide and designed to perform just as well in your kitchen. From five ply stainless clad to carbon steel, every piece is built to last and made to actually make you a better cook. Discover award winning cookware@madeincookware.com Donald Trump couldn't handle the heat.
Ron Filipkowski
He just walked away from the press during an impromptu presser on the rainy tarmac in Pennsylvania where he is set to speak in just a little bit. Let me show you as he walks away from the press he's holding this umbrella. He he doesn't know how to close the umbrella. Let me show you what goes down then I want to really go through what went down during this disaster. Presser and how Donald Trump just got the worst poll yet of his term here. Let's play this clip. Donald Trump was asked before he walked away from the press that, that you just saw right there. So when will the iaea, the Atomic Energy Agency, when do those inspectors get to go in? You promised that they're going into Iran and Iran says they're not going in at all. So when does that happen? That's not in the Memorandum of Understanding. Donald, watch what he says. Let's play this clip.
Donald Trump (quoted clips)
When will those inspectors actually be on the ground? At the appropriate time. At the appropriate time. There's no rush, but they'll be on the ground at the appropriate time.
Ron Filipkowski
And Donald Trump says that anybody who doesn't like this Iran deal needs to be educated, even if they're friends of mine. Let's play this clip.
Donald Trump (quoted clips)
Well, I think anybody that's been critical of it has to be educated, even if they're friends of mine, because we have Iran in a position that nobody's ever had. This should have been done for 47 years by other presidents. And we have Iran in a position where their military has been totally wiped out.
Ron Filipkowski
I think that the Senate and the House is just also asking for a briefing of the memorandum of Understanding because it also provides sanctions relief that requires congressional authorization under the law. Donald Trump then says that the reflecting pool looks amazing. We're going to put the water back in. We've never been better as a country. Let's play this clip, including the thing
Donald Trump (quoted clips)
that, you know, where the vandals hit the, the reflecting pool. But we'll get that back very quickly. In fact, I will say this morning I sent people over, they say it looks absolutely beautiful, but we're going to have to let a little water out and fix it and then we'll put the water back, just so you understand. So our country is doing really well and we're going to keep it that way.
Ron Filipkowski
And should be noted, at the same time, Donald Trump has installed an AI surveillance detection system at the Reflecting Pool right now. There is an AI surveillance detection with dozens of plainclothes officers arresting people by the Reflecting Pool right now. Next, Donald Trump says that in Iran they have a hunger problem. They will be buying all of the corn and agricultural produce from American farmers. American farmers will get rich. And Iran has a major inflation problem. I think Donald Trump yet again is projecting. Let's play this clip to Iran because
Donald Trump (quoted clips)
they have a hunger problem. They have a food problem. They have a medicine problem. They got a Lot of problems. And they have an inflation, their inflation now just at 300%. So they have a lot of problems.
Ron Filipkowski
A reporter asked Donald Trump to respond to the fact that truckers are suffering right now and that they're also worried about losing their jobs to AI and other technology. And truckers have had a really rough in this economy as well with Trump's tariffs against the world. And Trump's like, that's not true. They're doing amazing. They're rich. Truckers have never been richer.
Host
No.
Ron Filipkowski
It is the hardest job to get because people are so excited about it. Here, play this clip.
Guest Commentator
You're about to speak to truckers. Truckers are at high risk of losing their jobs to AI because of.
Donald Trump (quoted clips)
Well, now they're not. You can't get a job right now. We have the highest job numbers we've ever had in the country, in the history of the country. And I'm just with a couple of the great senators and congressmen we're talking. It's actually hard to fill the job. You know, nobody's ever seen a time like this. We have right now so many jobs that are going to be available and the biggest problem we have is getting the people.
Ron Filipkowski
So then the reporter said, yeah, you mentioned yesterday that the Interior Department has videos and photos of the vandalism.
Political Analyst
So we called.
Ron Filipkowski
The reporter says this is when Donald Trump just basically walks away. We've called and we don't see any, no one showing us those photos. So you're hiding it now. It's super secret. Here, play this clip.
Guest Commentator
You mentioned yesterday that the Interior Department
Host
has video and photos.
Guest Commentator
We reached out to them and they haven't shared it with us. Are you going to.
Donald Trump (quoted clips)
They've arrested, I think six people on the reflecting pool. So the reflecting pool looks fantastic. I just got pictures of it. It's beautiful. But somebody went in with a knife and cut it. They cut it up good. And then they cut a 200, 350 foot slip in the form of lots of little slips. A real horrible stuff. And they destroyed the grass. We put a brand new big load of grass out there and they destroyed it. So it's all being fixed. But it's a shame. So I understand five or six people are arrested. The Interior Department can refer to you on that. And I hear, I hear that, I hear they have six people under investigation.
Ron Filipkowski
As I noted at the outset, Donald Trump's approval right now is 30% according to a new ARG Paul, very credible pollster over here. Trump's approval at 30% even on state regime media. Fox, they're saying how horrible Trump is. They're also saying the Maris poll shows Trump's approval deeply underwater. Not exactly firing on all cylinders is how state regime media refers to it. Let's play this clip.
Political Analyst
Yeah, I mean, if you look back to where obviously the election year is not a presidential year, it's a midterm year. But if you look back to 1992, for example, George H.W. bush had a 90 something percent approval rating after the Gulf War. He lost the presidency that year because people made up their minds about the economy very early in that year. We've only got a few months now until the midterms. This Marist poll shows that the President's not exactly firing on all cylinders when it comes to approval of his handling of the economy. 33% disapproving. 66. 60% rather. His 33% approval rating is 3 points lower than Biden at his worst. How does the President improve on that number before people make up their minds about the midterms?
Guest Commentator
John, you know as well as I do that if the American people trusted these polls, you know, President Trump wouldn't be in office right now. But time and time again he has defended, defied the polls because he is in touch with what the American people care about. That's why he's going to Pennsylvania today to talk to those folks who contributed to his landslide victory. And I would say it's a little personal for me. I actually grew up right outside of the Lehigh Valley where the President is visiting today. And so I know firsthand what those folks care about. They care about the issues that the President is delivering on.
Ron Filipkowski
Then Donald Trump had to trot out his MagasCopants. This is MAGA Republican Congressmember Pete Sessions. Let's play it.
Host
Do you believe there's evidence of a
Ron Filipkowski
300 foot cut at the bottom of the reflecting pool?
Host
You know, I don't know.
Political Analyst
I would say that the President evidently has got it. I assume law enforcement has that. I assume this is against the law and I assume somebody will follow up from the, from the Park Service.
Ron Filipkowski
You've got MAGA Republican senators like Roger Marshall saying you all like selling the art of the deal. Everybody needs to go read the of the deal because the negotiations taking place here and abroad, this is how you're supposed to negotiate. This is how you do it.
Host
Here, play this clip.
MAGA Republican Congressman
Everyone should go read his Art of the Deal book if you haven't yet. I made my entire staff read it. As a freshman member of Congress and I refer Back to it all the time. It shows who Trump was in his raw state. And I think he's just negotiating. And I just got to tell you, he keeps throwing things on the wall. Some of them stick. But we have never moved so fast. And I'm just excited about that. I mean, gasoline dropped four and a half dollars a gallon to three and a half dollars a gallon last week alone. We are, our economy is just sitting there ready to just break wide open. Back in Kansas, manufacturing is just bursting at the seams. Our cattle industry is great. So the, you know, the banquet's been set.
Ron Filipkowski
I want to bring in Maryland Governor West. Moore. Governor Moore, great to see. I don't know where they're living or what in the world is going on there.
Host
I have no idea what I just heard right there, because that is
Ron Filipkowski
when I do these openings, I kind of know what I'm going to say. But then as I'm saying it, I am sometimes, like, what are they saying? What are they doing? I mean, you know, as people are going to the polls today in the primaries in Maryland, as people are thinking about the midterms, I mean, these MAGA Republicans are thinking about how to help Donald. More weird Trump conspiracies. To talk about this moment, though, that we're, that we're in right now. And just what are people in Maryland feeling?
Host
I think people are feeling that there's pain, and it's coming from the president. You know, people look to the president to try to ease their pain, not look to the president and ask him to stop causing them pain. You know, where, whether I'm talking to folks in Lanham or folks in lona coning in Maryland, I can tell you what they're talking about is the fact that gas prices have skyrocketed.
Guest Commentator
It.
Host
What they're talking about is the fact that their energy prices have gone up over 15% in a year. And what they're talking about is that groceries, because inflation is the highest that it's been now in three years, that they're going to the supermarket and they're actually literally putting things back because they cannot afford what they normally buy. That's what they are seeing. And so when we are hearing the president talking about things like, you know, ballrooms and reflecting pools and fighting wars, that no one understands what we're doing that's costing the American people $200 billion and losing over a dozen service members, I think it's very clear to the people of this country that their priority and their lives is not the priority of this administration, you think the American
Ron Filipkowski
people get that this guy's not a deal maker. Like the whole deal maker thing with him has always been the biggest fraud. He never makes deals, he rips them to shreds. He's at spreading conspiracies to derail bringing people together. And I just see, you know, he goes around this deal, that deal, this deal. I'm like, you haven't done anything other than cause pain and suffering. And you look at this memorandum of understanding. Now, look, I hope it succeeds because I don't want to go into war, you know. But when you look at it and you look at what Obama did with the jcpoa and you have, you know, Donald Trump saying, yeah, the MOU may say this, and the reality may be that we're giving Iran all of these things, but there's a super secret deal that nobody actually knows about. And Iran has to say the things are happening to please their domestic audience in Iran. But we know what's really happening. I go, actually, you're projecting, you're lying to your domestic audience here and everything that we're seeing you giving the money to Iran. Iran controlling the strait was visibly right there. It's a strange thing when I'm saying my government may be less credible than them at this point. How do we get here?
Host
Well, I think what he's showing is he is a great deal maker for himself. He cuts great deals for him and his family. It's the reason why he has made billions of dollars since he's become the president in the United States again. It's the reason that he has now done over 3, 700 trades where he's literally trading on companies that are actually benefiting from his policies while the rest of us get, get hosed. But if you're looking at actual who's thinking about it from a holistic perspective, frankly, I think it was the Iranians who actually wrote the art of the deal and not Donald Trump, because they have actually gotten everything that they have hoped for out of this deal. And you know who is not? It's the American people. Where the American people continue to pay more in gas, continue to pay more in energy, continue to wonder why hundreds of billions of dollars are getting sent overseas. And the President has not given us any understanding as to what we're doing, what the engagement is, or what the goals of this entire operation are. And so this is deeply frustrating because what we now have is there has not been a change of regime. The Iranians still control the Strait of Hormuz and we are seeing how Americans continue paying the, paying the toll for something that the Iranians are clearly winning at right now.
Ron Filipkowski
Talk about primary day right now in Maryland. Big deal. I know you've got a whole slate right there that you've been endorsing and pushing of people who are gonna make an impact. Talk about why it's such an important day, you know, and people shouldn't be sleeping on the fact that it is primary day in Maryland.
Host
That's right. And knowing that these elections matter, that sometimes people say, well, it's not a presidential year, but here's the thing, the people who are your state elected officials, your mayors, your delegates and your state senators, they are gonna have just as much impact on your life as who is sitting inside of the Oval Office, because that's our ability not just to push back, but our ability to push forward. And we're really proud about the work that we've been able to do and why, you know, we know there's still more work to be done, but if you look at what's happened just in our, in our first session, in our, in our first term, that we've been able to now have record drops within violent crime. In fact, the fastest drop in violent crime anywhere in the United States of America is happening in Maryland that we've been able to get that we've been able to really focus on getting our economy going again. We've added 55,000 new businesses inside of our state and also gotten our GDP actually growing for the first time in a long time. And also we've now been able to see how public education, we've gone from 40th in the country in public education when I first took over to now watching how math and reading have jumped in every single grade, that we're now seeing how. How fourth grade reading scores has jumped 20 states. And we got the best superintendent in the country, the author of the Mississippi Miracle. We got her now to come to Maryland, and she's leading on the Maryland miracle when it comes to public education. And so I'm really thankful for the work we've done so far. But. But we've got more work to do and, and our mission is not accomplished yet. So we need people to get out there and make sure also that I am supported by the kind of leaders in these other local races that are going to help us to advance our agenda of leaving no one behind.
Ron Filipkowski
What's the latest going on with the redistricting to stand up to Trump's scheme in Maryland? You know, I've been hearing different things. You know, obviously I know that you've wanted to push forward. And then I had heard that it was stalled in the Senate. Where are we with that now?
Host
Yes, and I'm thankful that we are going to be having a special session and coming back and doing this. You know, the House is already there. The House has already voted for this. It was just the Senate. And I'm pleased by the Senate President's decision that, that he's now saying that, you know, we're going to come back for, for this special. I look forward to working alongside of, you know, of, of him and all the other senators to make sure that no Marylander's voice is silent. I wish they would have made, come to this decision sooner, but I'm, I'm very grateful that now Maryland is not going to sit on our hands while we are being punched in the face that we are watching this all out assault that is taking place on our democracy and our democratic values by the President of the United States. Every tactic that they are now trying is now being put and targeted on our communities. And so there is no way that we are going to sit silent when we know how hard people had to work to give us the right to vote. And now all they're asking is now what are you all willing to do to keep it? And so Maryland will be moving on this and I'm excited to work with both the House and the Senate inside the state of Maryland as we come back for a special session.
Ron Filipkowski
Governor Moore, before we go, you know, lots of people are feeling existential angst right now and the pain being inflicted by this Trump regime's policies, along with kind of the psychological torture of the detachment of this Trump regime to the just the sheer emotions that people are feeling, the belittling of Americans. I know when I just speak to so many people, they just say, I'm feeling pain right now. I'm sad, I'm upset. There's glimmers of hope. But what do you say to those people as we headed? Do you see signs of hope? What do you want to say to those people who just feel, what can I do? How do I navigate this? We have two and a half more years of this.
Host
I see signs of hope every day in Maryland because despite what we're seeing on the federal side, if you look at what we've been able to do, we've been able to give a tax cut to the middle class and give a tax cut to military veterans, that we've been able to raise the minimum wage that we have been able to put, you know, put money back in people's pockets. $300 million in utility relief. Because we're watching how the federal government's policies continue to try to hose us. That we pass housing legislation to build more housing and build it faster, despite the fact that the federal government seems to, you know, seems to want to make the cost of materials more expensive. That when they said they were going to ban books, that we passed legislation banning the banning of books in the state of Maryland. You know, I'm really proud that in this time that people are looking for leaders, and in Maryland, I think the state is showing what right is supposed to look like. And we've seen hard times before. You know, I come from the state of Harriet Tubman. I come from the state of Frederick Douglass and Thurgood Marshall. We've seen hard times before, and there's been two things that has gotten us through. It's been God's grace and moral leadership. And I think that's exactly what we are hoping for. And what we need in this moment is God's grace. And also, let's show them what moral leadership looks like and leadership that actually focuses on leaving no one behind.
Ron Filipkowski
Governor Westmore, we appreciate you as always. Everybody, remember, it's primary day. So as Governor Moore said in one of his videos, if you're in Maryland and you're seeing this, you were meant, you were meant to see this today.
Host
The universe.
Ron Filipkowski
The universe has told you about it. Thanks, God.
Host
We appreciate you. Appreciate you.
Ron Filipkowski
Thanks, everybody. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available@midasplus.com.
Date: June 24, 2026
Host: MeidasTouch Network (Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas with Ron Filipkowski)
Guest: Maryland Governor Wes Moore
In this episode, the MeidasTouch team discusses the latest developments in U.S. politics under President Donald Trump, highlighting current economic and political issues, and welcomes Maryland Governor Wes Moore for an in-depth conversation. The focus centers on how Maryland is actively resisting what Governor Moore calls Trump’s “assault on democracy,” the importance of local and statewide elections, and signs of hope at the state level even amidst nationwide unrest.
[02:18 – 09:49]
Ron Filipkowski reviews President Trump’s awkward press event in Pennsylvania, highlighting moments including Trump fumbling with an umbrella and evasive answers about Iran nuclear inspections and the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding.
Discussion of Trump’s claims about AI surveillance, infrastructure, and economic inflation, including his insistence that truckers and farmers are “richer than ever”—claims directly contradicted by economic data.
Skepticism about Trump’s transparency and credibility, especially regarding vandalism at the Reflecting Pool and a supposed AI surveillance crackdown.
Polling highlights:
[09:49 – 13:33]
MAGA Republicans, such as Rep. Pete Sessions and Senator Roger Marshall, champion Trump’s business style and reference “The Art of the Deal” as a model for leadership.
The MeidasTouch team and Ron Filipkowski push back, arguing Trump’s deals routinely benefit himself and his family more than the American people.
[10:31 – 20:12]
[11:11 – 12:22]
Gov. Wes Moore explains that Marylanders, like many Americans, are suffering from rising gas and energy prices and persistent inflation.
Moore criticizes the Trump administration’s foreign interventions and economic policies, saying everyday people are left footing the bill without seeing benefits.
[12:22 – 13:33]
[14:47 – 16:42]
[16:42 – 18:06]
[18:06 – 20:12]
Despite national challenges, Governor Moore offers hope and inspiration, citing state policies helping working families, veterans, and students.
Concludes by invoking Maryland’s history of moral leadership and urging resilience:
| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:32 | Trump | “Anybody that's been critical of it has to be educated, even if they're friends of mine, because we have Iran in a position that nobody's ever had.” | | 07:24 | Filipkowski | “Donald Trump’s approval right now is 30% according to a new ARG poll… not exactly firing on all cylinders.” | | 11:11 | Gov. Moore | “People look to the president to try to ease their pain, not… ask him to stop causing them pain.” | | 13:33 | Gov. Moore | “Frankly, I think it was the Iranians who actually wrote The Art of the Deal, not Donald Trump…” | | 15:05 | Gov. Moore | “Our ability not just to push back, but our ability to push forward… the fastest drop in violent crime… 55,000 new businesses… education gains…”| | 16:59 | Gov. Moore | “Maryland is not going to sit on our hands while we are being punched in the face…” | | 18:52 | Gov. Moore | “When they said they were going to ban books, we passed legislation banning the banning of books in the state of Maryland.” | | 19:23 | Gov. Moore | “I come from the state of Harriet Tubman… Frederick Douglass… Thurgood Marshall. We've seen hard times before… What we need in this moment is God’s grace. And also, let's show them what moral leadership looks like and leadership that actually focuses on leaving no one behind.” |
The episode blends the MeidasTouch team’s characteristic satirical, irreverent banter with sharp political analysis and a clear, urgent defense of democracy. Governor Moore’s language is both candid and uplifting, aiming to inspire hope through local action and principled leadership amidst turbulent times.
This episode spotlights the disconnect between Trump's self-promotion and the lived experiences of regular Americans and how states like Maryland, under Governor Wes Moore, are fighting back—legislatively and culturally—against federal policies viewed as damaging to democracy and working families. Moore delivers a powerful case for local engagement, resilience, and moral leadership, emphasizing tangible progress in Maryland as a beacon of hope.