MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 2/10/25

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast Summary - Episode: Full Podcast - 2/10/25

Date Released: February 11, 2025
Host: The Meiselas Brothers (Ben, Brett, Jordy Meiselas)
Network: MeidasTouch Network

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Overview

In this episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, the Meiselas brothers delve deep into the tumultuous landscape of the United States under the Trump presidency. Combining sharp political analysis with their characteristic banter, Ben, Brett, and Jordy dissect Trump’s controversial policies, his impact on domestic and international fronts, and the ongoing legal battles that threaten the very fabric of American democracy.

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Domestic Policy Criticism

Funding Cuts and Agency Undermining

Ben initiates the discussion by highlighting Trump’s aggressive approach to dismantling key government agencies. He points out the administration's decision to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), severely impacting research institutions like the University of Alabama. Ben remarks:

“[00:06:34] Ben Meiselas: Now we're seeing the blue state AGs fighting for things that ultimately still reciprocally help the Red State AG. So the Red State AGs don't even go out and fight for it because they're so spineless...”

Impact on Red vs. Blue States

Brett expands on this by condemning Trump’s strategies that ultimately harm red states more than blue ones, arguing that the administration’s policies are designed to benefit oligarchs and billionaires at the expense of ordinary Americans:

“[04:37] Brett Meiselas: He's doing everything possible to destroy all the institutions, everything that kind of holds the country together... a government of the oligarchs, by the oligarchs, and for the oligarchs screwing the American people in the process.”

Trivial Executive Orders as Distractions

Ben criticizes Trump’s focus on inconsequential executive orders, such as the reintroduction of plastic straws and the removal of the penny, which he views as maneuvers to distract the public from more harmful policies:

“[06:34] Ben Meiselas: You have Donald Trump... holding up inconsequential things like the straws, like the penny... Those have no impact on people's lives but serve to make a statement while pushing dangerous policies.”

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to Trump’s imposition of 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from all countries, including traditional allies like Canada. Ben explains the potential fallout:

“[14:58] Donald Trump: Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff...”

Brett adds that these tariffs will not only damage the U.S. economy but also strain relationships with allies, leading to retaliatory measures and boycotts:

“[15:55] Brett Meiselas: ...Donald Trump just tariffed the world and he's doing it... massive catastrophic damage to our economy and our allies' economies.”

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Foreign Policy and International Relations

Super Bowl Incident and Territorial Ambitions

During the Super Bowl, Trump attempted to overshadow the event by announcing intentions to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and threatening territorial claims over regions like Gaza and Canada. Jordy criticizes this behavior:

“[20:31] Jordy Meiselas: ...he is benefiting the oligarchs and the billionaires... chaos for the oligarchs.”

Threats Leading to International Tensions

Brett underscores the seriousness of Trump’s threats by highlighting reactions from international leaders. He mentions a leaked moment where Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed concerns over potential invasions:

“[15:55] Brett Meiselas: ...Justin Trudeau over the weekend of him basically saying to his people, Donald Trump is serious about wanting to invade us and we need to take precautions.”

Economic Backlash and Boycotts

The brothers discuss the economic repercussions of Trump’s policies, including boycotts of American goods and a decline in tourism from Canada, potentially costing the U.S. billions and leading to massive job losses:

“[22:43] Brett Meiselas: ...it's America, the United States, are the Russia of the world... massive hits to tourism and job markets.”

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Judiciary and Legal Battles

Lawsuit Against CBS

Ben details Trump’s escalating lawsuit against CBS, initially filed for $10 billion and recently amended to $20 billion, citing perceived injuries from the network’s portrayal of Vice President Kamala Harris:

“[40:31] Brett Meiselas: ...he was too afraid to do another debate...”

Defiance of Court Orders

The Meiselas brothers highlight Trump’s blatant disregard for court orders, even those from judges he appointed. They cite instances where Trump is ignoring rulings to defund agencies like USAID and the FBI:

“[43:41] Brett Meiselas: ...they say the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau isn't a Wall Street regulator...”

Impact on Legal and Judicial Systems

Jordy emphasizes the erosion of democratic checks and balances, noting that without cooperation from the executive branch, the judiciary’s authority is being undermined:

“[57:45] Ben Meiselas: ...they are criminal. And again, the idea that someone like an Elon Musk would be emboldened to call a federal judge...”

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Media and Information Warfare

Criticism of Mainstream Media

The brothers express frustration with mainstream media outlets like CNN and the Daily Beast for their perceived biased coverage of Trump’s actions. Ben criticizes CNN’s portrayal of Trump’s tariffs as methodical negotiation rather than reckless economic policies:

“[68:36] Ben Meiselas: ...The method behind Trump's tariff madness... is destroying our country. Objectively, you speak to economists, this is going to cause a depression.”

Propaganda Comparisons

Brett draws parallels between Trump’s tactics and those of authoritarian regimes, accusing the media of propagandizing to mask the administration’s destructive policies:

“[68:36] Brett Meiselas: ...Russia, North Korea style scams and propaganda...”

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Conclusion and Calls to Action

Support for Democracy

Ben wraps up the episode by urging listeners to support The MeidasTouch Network through platforms like Patreon and Midas Plus, emphasizing their commitment to fighting against authoritarianism and supporting democracy:

“[72:24] Ben Meiselas: We're people powered. We're gonna fight with you... support the network by going to patreon.com Midas Touch or midasplus.com.”

Encouraging Community Engagement

The brothers encourage their audience to subscribe, share the podcast, and engage with the community to amplify their message and combat the spread of misinformation:

“[73:58] Ben Meiselas: ...the best way you can help... just text the show to anybody and say, hey, can you subscribe to this channel?”

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Notable Quotes

• Ben Meiselas:
  “[04:37]...a government of the oligarchs, by the oligarchs, and for the oligarchs screwing the American people in the process.”

• Brett Meiselas:
  “[15:55]...Donald Trump just tariffed the world... massive catastrophic damage to our economy and our allies' economies.”

• Jordy Meiselas:
  “[20:31]...he is benefiting the oligarchs and the billionaires... chaos for the oligarchs.”

• Donald Trump (via transcript excerpts):
  “[14:58]...Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff.”

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Key Takeaways

1. Trump’s Policies Harm the Economy and Democracy: The episode underscores how Trump’s decisions to cut funding for essential agencies and impose steep tariffs are detrimental to both the U.S. economy and democratic institutions.

2. Erosion of International Alliances: Trump’s aggressive foreign policies and threats have strained relationships with traditional allies, leading to economic retaliation and diminished global standing.

3. Judicial Undermining: The administration’s refusal to comply with court orders, even those from Trump-appointed judges, poses a severe threat to the rule of law and democratic checks and balances.

4. Media Complicity: Mainstream media outlets are criticized for their biased coverage, which the brothers argue masks the true impact of Trump’s actions through propaganda-like reporting.

5. Call to Action: The MeidasTouch brothers advocate for community support and active engagement to counteract the spread of misinformation and support democratic values.

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Note: This summary omits advertisement segments and focuses solely on the substantive political discussions within the episode, adhering to the user’s request to skip non-content sections.

Transcript

[Ben Meiselas]

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[Brett Meiselas]

Yeah. He's doing everything possible to destroy all the institutions, everything that kind of holds the country together. And under the guise of finding fraud, under the guise of trying to streamline the government is destroying the exact programs that exist to streamline government and find the fraud. It's a very kind of Soviet esque, Russian esque, Putin esque style of governance where you kind of dangle fake information for your people to latch onto. You use that as a predicate to then punish the people who are actually doing the hard work in our federal government, the people who are actually making things run, the people who are actually protecting consumers, protecting Americans with medical debt, protecting Americans from banks exploiting them and all sorts of things and using these fake attacks against these agencies to destroy them and do these massive giveaways to billionaires, to oligarchs, to big banks, to all of these kind of predatory structures. That is what we're seeing with Donald Trump right now, a government of the oligarchs, by the oligarchs, and for the oligarchs screwing the American people in the process. And we will break it all down on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. But first we got to check in with Jordy, Jordy, what's new?

[Jordy Meiselas]

Nothing much over here, but you're exactly right. I think what we've established at this maga, you know, this Republican Party does at this point, because it's the entire party here now, is that they're just beholden to oligarchs. They don't lead for the country. They're not, they're not leading for all Americans. They're leading for the oligarchs and the billionaires. And, you know, I'd say it's chaos for chaos sake, but it's not. It's chaos for the oligarchs. They love what's happening at the expense of, of the American people. Doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or, you know, or you, if you voted for Trump as, as just a Republican or a MAGA Republican or whatever, it doesn't matter. He's, he's, he's benefiting the oligarchs and the billionaires. That plain and simple.

[Ben Meiselas]

You know, one of the things is that actually some of these policies hurt red states even more than blue states, yet we're seeing none of the red state attorney generals even fighting for their own state. I, I'll give you a case in point. You have Donald Trump and his regime, that's what we should call it, cutting off all of this funding for the nih, which gives critical grant money to American Research University. So if you take a state like Alabama, where the University of Alabama is the biggest employer in the state, right, that NIH discontinuation of funds or stopping the funds that were appropriated to it, the University of Alabama gets a ton of its funding from the NIH to do its research and thereby employ people in Alabama. But now we're seeing the blue state ags because it impacts the blue states, fighting for things that ultimately still reciprocally help the Red State AG. So the Red State AGs don't even go out and fight for it because they're so spineless, even though their state and their workers are going to be screwed the most. And, you know, we saw a, a Democratic AG who we've had on the show before, for example, Jeff Jackson, who used to be a Congress member in North Carolina, he successfully prosecuted a lawsuit Democrat to stop this Donald Trump attempt to cut off NIH funding. And we've seen these Democratic AGs across country doing that, while Republican AGs have done absolutely nothing there. Let's just take a look at, you know, look, as Donald Trump tries to distract, what are the things that Donald Trump has been talking about what are the shiny objects that he wants to basically declare as wins. An executive order where he talked about we're bringing plastic straws back, an executive order saying that he's destroying the penny and getting rid of the penny. You know, executive orders like that, that, that don't have any impact at all on, on people's lives. Then he holds it up. Look what I did. Isn't this what you wanted? The Gulf of America, We've made Google change the name. And meanwhile, prices are still going up more than ever. Gas prices are going up, up, up, up. Housing is not more affordable and we are so much weaker abroad. Let's go through everything that's going on here. And again, Donald Trump ran on no more, you know, no wars, even though former President Biden actually was the one who removed American troops from Afghanistan and kept America out of wars through our alliances. But basically, Donald Trump has threatened wars with basically every one of our allies at this point. I mean, is there a country that Donald Trump has not threatened a military conflict with? I just want you to think about that, right? I mean, Canada, Mexico, the European Union, through the territorial attacks on Greenland. Donald Trump again, you know, threatening also to take over Gaza. Donald Trump threatening all these things. And let's just go through a little bit of these lowlights of this interview with Brett Baer. Some of these clips are now being released, of course. So the first thing I just want to show you though is like someone like J.D. v. Vance who, you know, has sacri. Not sacrifice, but, but his dignity. I suppose he sacrificed his dignity and any form of self respect to the extent he had any before, you know, to be the vp as I've always said, what's the point of being in a position of power if you're actually powerless? And so here Donald Trump just showing how neutered J.D. vance is when he's asked, do you view J.D. vance as your successor? Here, play this clip. Do you View Vice President J.D. vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?

[Donald Trump]

No, but he's very capable. I mean, I don't think that it, you know, I think you have a lot of very capable people. So far, I think he's doing a fantastic job. It's too early. We're just starting, but by the time you get to the midterms, he's.

[Ben Meiselas]

Yeah, I mean, he said, he said no. I mean, that's your, the purpose of picking your VP in many ways is to try to pick your successor, but that's how selfish he is. And you should also Listen to what he's saying there as well. Because if you add that to the other statements that Donald Trump made, like, let's be clear, Donald Trump is not going to pass the power. Right? Donald Trump isn't. Donald Trump is going to try to stay a dictator. I don't think he's contemplating by saying no there even anybody in his family. I mean, I think in his mind, you know, I don't think it's so much as a Freudian slip as him just saying who he is. I think he views that he's going to have no successor and that he's going to serve for life. That's what I think he implies there or means there. Then he's asked here, would the Palestinians have the right to return to Gaza? Because you keep on talking about occupying it permanently, treating it like a real estate deal. So do the Palestinians get to go back to their land? Here, play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

Build beautiful communities for the 1.9 million people will build beautiful communities. Safe communities. Could be five, six, could be two. But we'll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land with the Palestinians. No business, right. Money spent. No, they wouldn't, because they're going to have much better housing. Much better. In other words, I'm talking about building a permanent place for them. Because if they have to return now, it will be years before you could ever. It's not habitable. It will be years before it could happen. I'm talking about starting to build. And I think I could make a deal with Jordan. I think I could make a deal with Egypt. You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year.

[Ben Meiselas]

I mean, do we realize how demented and deranged that statement is? First off, Egypt and Jordan are not doing a deal that they agree to ethnically cleanse Palestine. Okay? Like, the man is psychotic like that is. They've said that if that were to happen, that would be an immediate declaration of war. And if Jordan and Egypt entered into a deal like that, the revolutions that they would have at home would lead to their leaders being executed in public squares probably within 24 hours of them cutting a deal like that. And you notice the language that Donald Trump said, I would own it. He goes, I would own it and I would treat it like a real estate deal. I mean, again, if I'm not going to go and say, oh, well, could you Imagine if Biden. There's just no one who talks like that. He. He talks like idiotic Putin. As I've said before, Putin makes these threats and then follows up with the military invasion thereafter. Which is why you need NATO to check and counter it. Right. Trump makes these threats, attacks sovereignty, and then goes, plastic straws. I got you. Plastic Gulf of America Fentanyl czar along the border. Isn't this what we wanted? I'm gonna pass it over to you, Brett and Jordi. I just wanna show you one more clip and then get your reaction. Here's the video footage of Trump announcing the 25% tariff on steel and aluminum coming into the US blanket any country anywhere. He just tariffed the world and he did it heading to the super bowl in front of a stupid map that says Gulf of America. Like the scene here is idiotic, but it's going to cause massive catastrophic damage to our economy and our allies economies. Here, play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

Monday.

[Ben Meiselas]

Tomorrow. Monday.

[Donald Trump]

Yeah, tomorrow.

[Ben Meiselas]

What countries will those go on? Everybody.

[Donald Trump]

Steel.

[Ben Meiselas]

Including Canada. Yeah.

[Donald Trump]

Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff.

[Ben Meiselas]

What about aluminum, sir?

[Donald Trump]

Aluminum too. 10%. No, 25%. 25 for both.

[Ben Meiselas]

And on steel, sir, are you ruling out then Nippon steel having a 51% stake or higher? They won't have a majority stake.

[Donald Trump]

Nobody can have a majority stake for U.S. steel. They can for other companies, but not for us. I think you agree with that. U.S. steel was one of our great companies and through a lot of stupidity and bad government and also bad management of the company, it lost that luster. But it's going to gain it back. And tariffs are going to help. Tariffs are going to make it very successful again. And I think it is good management. Yeah.

[Ben Meiselas]

Brett. Jordyn.

[Brett Meiselas]

Yeah. Oh, boy. A lot of chaos. A lot of things that he's throwing out, you know, you see with the other things that he's doing, the penny, the straw, all that stuff, by the way, even like the straw thing, I. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be going into, like various coffee shops and stores and stuff and complaining to the people because they're going to think that Donald Trump's executive order extends to, like, everywhere, but it doesn't. He doesn't have the power for that to extend ever. Just like federal buildings. So I guarantee you're gonna have a lot of obnoxious people, like, yelling at employees in stores over. Over paper straws, first of all. But he throw. You're right, he throws out all of these Very inconsequential things like the straws, like the penny. Just easily done sort of things to make a statement while he kind of hides the dangerous stuff or pushes through this other dangerous stuff that's really going to screw people over. So he gets people to, probably not super bright people to be like, yeah, America, Gulf of America, we're doing great. Meanwhile, they're paying dramatically more for everything that they buy. Our allies now hate us. Our allies are living in fear of the United States over invasions. You have Canada. There was a leaked mic moment with Justin Trudeau over the weekend of him basically saying to his people, like, donald Trump is serious about wanting to invade us and we need to take precautions. And we've heard this now from a lot of our allies. We heard this in Panama, we heard this in Greenland, that these leaders are taking it seriously. I know Ben's done reports here at the Midas Touch Network about weaponry being put into place in these countries in case they need to fight back against the United States of America. I mean, let's just take a moment to reflect on this concept that our allies now are arming themselves, preparing for imminent invasion from the United States. And let's view now that we, America, the United States, are the Russia of the world, in addition to Russia. But, but now we used to these countries had to worry about, is Russia going to try to invade us? Now they have to worry, is this madman, Donald Trump, is he going to try to invade us? And that's why I see comments all day from our fans who live in the European Union, who live in Canada, who say that they are furious, not, you know, everyday Americans, but furious at the people who voted for Donald Trump, furious at Donald Trump are boycotting American goods. And we see this all over the place, this just resentment that is building against the US and we're going to see just so much more danger come to the US As a result of Trump's actions. Because when he is speaking about ethnic cleansing in Gaza, when he is talking about forcibly removing the people of Palestine and not allowing them to come back to their land, I mean, that right there is something that would have been the biggest headline on the planet if it happened just a month or two ago. And it was said by President Biden. I know, Ben, you said before, I know. We're not going to go into this. What if President Biden did it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But just think about that. And I want also to think about the protests that happened during the Kamala Harris campaign about these issues. When Kamala Harris was fighting for a two state solution and she was trying to do the best by both parties in a very complicated situation. Could she have handled the situation better? Sure. I mean, you could say that about anybody, but she was also working for it administration that was actively handling high pressure negotiations and situations where one wrong word could set off, you know, could, could totally derail a deal that is going for a ceasefire. Now you have Donald Trump out there actively campaigning every single day saying, I am going to ethnically cleanse this land, I'm going to remove all the Palestinians. And why he's being brazen about it. I'm going to build my real estate development there and it's going to be large and it's going to be beautiful and everybody's going to love it. Oh, the Palestinians, they're not going to be allowed. Going to get some really good people in there and they could find other countries to live in. Just think about the depravity right now of that. That's just, and that's just our foreign policy. We've even gotten into Donald Trump completely gutting all of our government and using Elon Musk. We'll get there soon. But like, that's just one aspect. But you see just a systematic or a systemic destruction of everything the United States stands for in such a short period of time. And we have to take Trump seriously when he says all these things. I know sometimes people want to say, oh, he's not serious about Canada, he's not serious about Gaza. I'm telling you he is. And, and you know how you know he is? Because all the other countries that have to deal with this stuff are taking him seriously and they are preparing for the worst case scenario which speaks so badly about the United States and where we are at.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Exactly.

[Ben Meiselas]

Brad.

[Jordy Meiselas]

He's serious enough about Canada to bring it up. During the super bowl interview with Brett Baer when he said, yeah, no, I want Canada to be the 51st day. Absolutely. I want to go back to that Brett Bear interview where we started with JD Vance not being his successor. Trump, Trump saying, no, I don't view him as my successor. I mean, in what world are we living in that. That's actually a step up from what he said about his previous vice president who he wanted to have murdered, if we all remember. So I can't believe JD actually that that's a bonus for jv that he doesn't want him to be the successor. But in all seriousness, what we're looking at here is it's what dictators do, right? Trump is laying in the groundwork to install who? Don Jr or Eric? Install his kids next right, keep the lineage going. That's what Trump wants. He just envisions America being run by Trumps for the next 100 plus years. It's absolutely insane to continue to play out. And now moving on to his Gaza comments. He wants to treat Gaza like a real estate deal. Well, we all know his track records with real estate deals and they're not too great, so it's an interesting turn of phrase that he used there. And then lastly, tariffs. When the reporter's asking him, is aluminum going to be included with that, doesn't it just sound like he's shooting from the hips? He's like, oh, yeah, aluminum too. And 25%. It just feels like he's coming up with these ridiculous things on the spot. And I know they're ridiculous and I say they're ridiculous, but they have real world consequences. And as we continue to see play.

[Ben Meiselas]

Out, yeah, he says it and then his team tries to figure out, okay, well, what do you want us to do? And then no one has the spine to actually stand up to him anymore and say no. So then they figure out a way to do it. And now he's imposed tariffs on the world, I guess, you know, and while he does that, like, let me just explain to you what's happening in Canada right now, okay? Even before the tariffs now were just imposed, even when Trump paused the other tariffs and then said that there would be 30 days, but then, I mean, this was what, seven days later after saying there would be a 30 day pause. You can't trust anything.

[Brett Meiselas]

He lies.

[Ben Meiselas]

He's just a liar. Everything's a lie. There's no stability. You just have to assume the worst. He's disrespected the sovereignty of Canada, by the way, the rest of the world as well. But let me just explain to you what's happened in Canada. I think we're going to see this in the rest of the world. They are boycotting still all American products. They go to the supermarket. They do not buy American. In addition to their retaliatory tariffs. This is organic. This is what Canadian people are doing. And unless they are forced to travel to the United States and have no choice, they are boycotting traveling to the United States. If you look at the Canadian, American border on the coming into America at night, I saw a photo and it was like completely empty. Canadians are not coming into America. Canada contributes about $22 billion to American tourism every single year. If Canada boycotts which they're doing now. And it impacts the tourism from Canada to the US by 10%. Just 10%. That would cause America's tourism industry to take a $2 billion hit and force 144,000Americans out of their jobs. Just a 10% boycott by Canada, I think the number is going to be closer to 50. Between 50 and 100%. That's going to cause literally potentially millions of jobs and tens of billions of dollars just in tourism. Then you get to the goods. When Canada's not buying America, then the rest of the world is going to do that. Because let's be clear, America to the rest of the world right now under Trump is just a bigger version of North Korea. It's like we have our Kim Jong Un. They go, what the heck did you do? We're not messing with you. Like it's pure isolationism. Not will it happen. It is, it happened. It's there. We are in America is authoritarian and we are isolated. That's the state of it. And the question is, is the fight back the fight back? And as I've said, until they rip this microphone from my hand, we're going to fight back. Me, my brothers, this network and others every single day. Want to remind everybody to check out patreon.com Midas Touch P A T R E O N.com Midas Touch we're going to be announcing soon our next live chat. So if you want to meet Brett, Jordy and myself, join it. We don't have outside investors, so by you becoming a patron, it helps. P A T r e o n.com me I-t o u c h also check out midasplus.com m e I d a s p l u s.com our editor in chief, Ron Philipowski has the best daily summaries there. Make sure you subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast on all audio podcast devices as well. That goes a long way to help us in the algorithm. Stay at the top of the charts there. We've got a lot to discuss. We focused a little bit on foreign policy. We'll bring it to domestic, then we'll talk about the courts. We'll be right back after our first quick break.

[Brett Meiselas]

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[Jordy Meiselas]

Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors links in description of YouTube and audio. Use the links, use the codes. Let them know we sent you if there's any exit surveys. Brett, you are getting scarily good at. Ad reads like, like, Like a pro. Like the pro you are. A pro. Like the pro you are, big bro.

[Brett Meiselas]

I think I got another profession on my hands if this doesn't work out. You know, I am.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Marley. Huge, huge, huge fans of those guys. To check them out.

[Brett Meiselas]

They're all. They're all great.

[Ben Meiselas]

I mean, that is kind of your profession, but yeah, that's what you do.

[Jordy Meiselas]

And. Come on.

[Ben Meiselas]

Okay. Anyway, so Don, I think I could.

[Brett Meiselas]

Do commercials, though, like on TV, you know?

[Ben Meiselas]

Yeah.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Do them on YouTube.

[Brett Meiselas]

It helps that they're all really good products and services and that Jordy vets them and that they're amazing. So check them out. All the links in the descriptions of these videos and audio podcasts.

[Ben Meiselas]

One of the things that Donald Trump announced earlier today is that if all hostages in Gaza are not released by 12pm on Saturday, the ceasefire should be canceled. And then, quote, let all hell break loose. Let all hell break loose and break the ceasefire. You know, normally it's pretty difficult thing to broker a ceasefire, and these issues tend to be pretty delicate and scripted. But isn't it just obvious as we go through all of these data points that he's just craving international conflict and wars after isolating America from our allies? I'm just in Trump's mind, I guess he thinks it's going to be what America and Benjamin Netanyahu versus everybody else in the world. Is that his kind of world perspective? What's his alliance? Who are the ally? Because it's not the European Union who are arming themselves against America. Right. It's not Canada. He just tariffed Australia. So we, we don't really have any allies. Is. Is he gonna. Is North Korea going to be part of that crew? Is it going to be North Korea? Well, North Korea is allied with Russia. Russia is playing Donald Trump like a fiddle right now. Russia and China have formed a lot, have formed alliances with Iran against the United States of America, and they've built out the bricks. Block in the process of the main. The main countries there are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which Donald Trump has now imposed all of these sanctions on South Africa. And then Trump's executive order is to make. Promote immigration of white. Literally says the white South Africans should come to America. Promoting immigration of white South Africans. While Donald Trump has revoked the TPS Temporary protected status of, like, his own supporters, Right? Like Venezuelans in Miami and Venezuelans in Doral, they've lost their TPS status. Many of them were supporters of Trump and have family members who voted for Trump who fled the Maduro regime. So Trump's had Rich Grinnell, one of his special envoys, negotiate directly with Maduro to send people back who were Venezuelan who fled Maduro back to Venezuela. I'm just like, what's the.

[Brett Meiselas]

Let me just. Let me just say that one more time, because this isn't getting enough attention. Trump has signed an executive order deeming the white people in South Africa to be a persecuted class and saying that they could take refuge, they could be refugees to the United States because of the way that South Africa is treating them and welcoming white South Africans into the US as he pushes out legal immigrants who are already here in the U.S. i mean, completely appalling. Also, Elon Musk is all over that executive order. Like. Like that is Elon Musk steering the ship 100% right there and again.

[Ben Meiselas]

So. So what's the. Like, what's the plan? Who. Who are the allies? And how does he anticipate doing, you know, doing this? And meanwhile, he's crippling the United States from within, right? Gutting the CIA, gutting the FBI. I saw Kristi Noemi, the Homeland Security secretary. She attacked her own FBI over the weekend, and she blamed the FBI for leaking a memo about where the next ICE raids are going to be in Los Angeles that are coming up. And she's like, the FBI is corrupt as hell. I'm like. And she literally posted, the FBI's corrupt as hell. And I'm like, they're your. You're the government now. And she was also asked on one of the weekend shows about letting Elon Musk, you know, get access to everybody's information. And she's like, because the government can't be trusted. And Dana Bash doesn't do a lot of good interviews, but on this one, I thought she did good pushback. It's like, but you're the government.

[Brett Meiselas]

What do you mean?

[Ben Meiselas]

And so now you're giving Elon Musk everybody's private information. And now if you watch what's being posted to on social media, whether it's by Trump or the main MAGA influencers and then reposted by Elon Musk, he's like, yeah, I've got your data. Yeah, I've got it. But. But I'm more trustworthy than the deep state fraudsters. Like, look at this. I mean, Ashley St. Clair, she's a major MAGA influencer. This is how they talk now. She goes, what the f. Do you think Elon Musk is going to do with your Social Security number? Tweet it, open a line of credit you don't have? And then Elon Musk responds, seriously, and for Damn sure, I'm 100% more trustworthy than the old, than the untold numbers of state bureaucrats and fraudsters who may be misusing your Social Security number right now. Like, that's where we are as. Like that's where we are as a country.

[Brett Meiselas]

Just the moving of the goalposts here right now by the Maggie influencers is so wild. And, and, you know, we've known this for a while, but it's never been more apparent that these people don't believe in, they don't believe in anything. When you see this Ashley St. Clair and all these MAGA comments like, oh.

[Ben Meiselas]

What do you think that Elon Musk is going to do with your data?

[Brett Meiselas]

You're really afraid of this guy going through your data?

[Ben Meiselas]

Really? You're.

[Brett Meiselas]

Oh, that's what you're scared of. Could you imagine? CLAIRE voice yeah, that's my Sinclair. That's my maga. Dingus voice. Can you imagine for one. Or imagine one moment and replace Elon Musk with Bill Gates or George Soros. Don't worry, Bill Gates just got to go through your Social Security.

[Ben Meiselas]

What do you, what do you think.

[Brett Meiselas]

He'S gonna do with it? He's got to go through all your information and see everything about you. He needs to look through what the treasury is paying you. He needs to look through your Social Security number. He needs to look through everything the government has on you. But you could trust him. He's a billionaire. I mean, you could, you could trust this guy.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Same thing that they do with the egg prices. Brad Trump said he was going to get into office and bring prices down. Now eggs are more expensive than ever. 10 to $15. And what do these MAGA influencers do? They go, I'd happily pay more. I'm happy to pay more. If that means keeping the immigrants out. It's your patriotic duty.

[Brett Meiselas]

To pay more for eggs or not be able to afford eggs. That, and that's what they do. And you know, Mark Cuban made a good point on this, because Mark Cuban has been, I think, very good, very effective. He's a billionaire who could actually hold his weight in the space. And he pushing back against Elon Musk and this whole Doge process saying, hey, listen, I'm all for a smaller, more efficient government as well, but if you want to do this right and have the trust of the American people, then you have to be transparent. So instead of leaking BS information that nobody can even find anywhere to try to smear hard working people who work in the federal government to smear agencies, show us your work, show us the information. Stop hiding all of it. And you also think you have the right that the American people actually aren't allowed to know who's even working in your weirdo doge operation. You have all these weirdo 19 to 25 year old young dudes who come from who a lot of them have these weird checkered past. Like one of them literally got fired. The guy they call Big Balls. Not making this up. They call him, that's his nickname, Big Balls. That's what he went by on social media. He got fired from his previous company, he worked for a cybersecurity firm. For what? For leaking data from the company to competitors. So he's not very good with data apparently. But this is the guy now who Elon Musk has entrusted to go through all of your personal data. Somebody who is literally fired from one of their previous jobs for leaking sensitive data to other people. This is who they put in charge. And Mark Cuban says, dear Doge, if there is nothing to hide, hide nothing. And I think that is something that should be obvious. It should be something that the Ashley Sinclair's of the world that everybody should accept. Yes, of course we want transparency because they try to act like they want transparency, but the second you demand it, they go, oh, you just have terrible tds. Oh, you just hate Elon. No, you don't want to know what the heck these people are doing with our government. We want to know the people who are even being put in charge. Elon Musk. Anytime somebody even says the names of these 19 year olds who are rummaging through all of our stuff, he goes, you have just committed a crime. You have committed a crime. And then he has this US Attorney guy who goes out there and he goes, oh, I'm investigating everybody who Elon Musk refers to me criminally. So if you want to criticize Doge? If you want to criticize Elon Musk and he tells me about it, he reports you to me, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to open a criminal investigation into you. That's transparency, that's honest government. And the fact that they are acting like this is honest government is once again one of the biggest kind of brainwashing, Russia, North Korea style scams and propaganda that we have ever seen in this country.

[Ben Meiselas]

Brett, you mentioned, you know, George Soros, Bill Gates. Could you imagine if they were doing this? Well, in literally the fake imaginary world created by the Russian propaganda and by Fox and the way they use George Soros and the term deep state and all of this, you that's what the, you know, 60% of Americans have below a fifth grade education, right. And they get their news from rage algorithms and not from fact based news sources. Right. So a lot of Americans believe that over the past four years that literally what Elon Musk is actually doing now, that that's what George Soros and Bill Gates and all of these people already were doing with their information. And now this is like retaliation for what had happened when that's not what happened at all. Because their rage algorithms were pushing these lies and conspiracies relentlessly over and over again. And now let me just share with you again how it's kind of, you know, like what happens when Donald Trump is asked, you know, so why not have Elon, he's apparently as everybody's data, so if he's in the government, shouldn't he do disclosures? Like doesn't that make sense? Like watch Trump's response to this question.

[Brett Meiselas]

Why does Elon's financial disclosure remain secret?

[Donald Trump]

Because nobody's looking at that. We're looking at all the corruption that stepped his financial disclosure is largely the number of shares that he's got in very public companies. And that's not secret at all. If you read that, you'll see a lot. I mean he talks about his whole thing. I read one where I really gave a very good history of him. But basically it's a number of shares times a certain stock price.

[Brett Meiselas]

So why is that not public?

[Donald Trump]

It is public. All you have to do is read it.

[Ben Meiselas]

It's not public. And when Donald Trump says all you have to do is read it, it's just make it available. I mean, why if Eli, to Brett, to your point about Mark Cuban, if Elon Musk is going to run this, then he should have to go in front of Congress. And Congress should get to ask him questions about what the hell he's doing with Americans data. Like, it's a very simple thing. And Americans are not interested in transparency. America. I mean, what the Trump supporters rather aren't interested in transparency. What the Trump supporters are interested in is dictatorship. We should want transparency. The Trump supporters want dictatorship. Let me share this with you right here. This is Mag. I could show you dozens of clips, but you'll get the point. This is the maga. Republican Congress member Pete Sessions, when he's asked about what Elon Musk is doing, I want you to listen. This is how maga's saying it. MAGA saying, well, because the data wasn't handed over to Musk, Musk had to listen to the language. Break into it. He had to break into it. Here, play this clip. What are these people, many of them young staffers without government experience, doing with my private information? I mean, as we know that they've.

[Brett Meiselas]

Accessed private information about, for example, those who have received disaster relief and the DHS system.

[Ben Meiselas]

What can you tell us about that data? What they're doing with it, what they're accessing? Yeah, well, first of all, they're not interested in anybody's particular private data because within these systems, they are payment systems of where money was going out, and they're gaining visibility and access to that. I will tell you that I believe Strong, strongly believe that the request that they had, they were not receiving positive viewpoints on. People did not want to comply.

[Donald Trump]

So when they chose not to comply.

[Ben Meiselas]

They brought their own people in who broke into, so to speak, these databases and provided the information we needed. And the government people, computer programmers, were shocked that it could happen. They broke into the databases. This is what they're. They're saying it. They broke into. Yeah, they broke into the. They had to break into the databases. And again, if this is what we want, right? We live in a democracy. If this is what we want. If the American people want to.

[Brett Meiselas]

Torture.

[Ben Meiselas]

People internationally and defund usaid. Right. If that's what they want to do. Or defund the nih, defund critical medical research that helps stop cancers and pandemics and that leads to innovation. If America wants to shut down the CDC or the Department of Labor or get rid of the CIA or, you know, if America wants to get rid of the Department of Education. Like, if these are things, there's a. There's a process for it, right? The process for it is Congress and the Senate. They pass laws. Congress, we have two chambers, we have the House and The Senate, they've got to pass it. They then have to reconcile their bill and then it gets voted on and then it gets signed into law by the president. That's the process that exists in a democracy. That's why I say America doesn't have a democracy anymore, because the process apparently is Donald Trump has Elon Musk go into various agencies with this thing called doge, whatever the hell it is. And they just do things. They shut down usa, they shut down the Department of Education or they shut down the Department of Labor, and they gut these agencies and then they go online and they. It's not, it's worse than McCarthyism. I don't even know what you give elonism or whatever you want to say it is. And they then they kind of slander people and they put it out there and they move on to the next one and they dismantle everything. And if this is what the American people want, then. And Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency, so they can go and pass these things and then have it be signed and let the American have hearings on it. That's the way it works in our country. It's the way it's always worked until now. So that now it is not that now it is by fiat, by decree, by order, by whatever Elon Musk wakes up and wants to do. And that's not a democracy. That's the problem right now. It's a big problem. So the next question we have to ask is, well, what are the courts doing about it? That's what we'll analyze in the next segment. What's happening with the courts. Now you have Trump defying the court orders, including court orders from Trump appointed judges. So I want to talk about that. Talk about it after the break. And I want you to hit subscribe because we're close to that 4 million subscriber mark. As I said before. Patreon.com Midas Touch It's a big way you can help us out. Meet us on a zoom chat. We'll be announcing it soon. We're excited to meet you there. And then go to midasplus.com m e I-a s p l u s.com check that out as well. We'll be right back. We'll talk about what's going on in the courts.

[Brett Meiselas]

All right, let's talk about something very serious, my obsession with hexclad. Listen, I've gone through my fair share of cookware disasters, warped nonstick pans, cast irons that require a master's degree in seasoning and stainless steel that turns every meal into a scraping session. But Hexclad? Oh, Hexclad is different. It's like if a cast iron skillet, a nonstick pan and a spaceship had a baby. You get perfect Sears food doesn't stick and clean up ridiculously easy. You could even use metal utensils. Yeah, I said it. No more babying your pans like they are delicate antiques. And if you think that's cool, wait till you see their knives. These Japanese Damascus steel knives are so sharp they could probably slice time itself. And they look stunning. Like if James Bond had a kitchen, these would be in it. It's time to ditch the scratched up pan you've been clinging to since college and upgrade your kitchen like a pro. And for a limited time only, our listeners get 10% off their order with our exclusive link. Just head to hexclad.com midas that's H E X C L-A-D.com midas M E I DAS support the show, get the best cookware of your life and level up your cookie game. Bon appetit. Let's eat with Hexclad.

[Ben Meiselas]

Your nighttime bedroom temperature has a huge impact on your sleep quality. If you wake up too hot or too cold, I highly recommend you check out Miracle Maid's bed sheets. Miracle Maid sheets are inspired by NASA and use silver infused fabrics that are temperature regulating so you can sleep at the perfect temperature all night long. I get so many emails from the Midas Mighty saying how great miracle made sheets are and how it's changed their lives for the better. Here's why it uses silver infused fabrics inspired by NASA. So therefore miracle made sheets are thermo regulating and designed to keep you at the perfect temperature all night long no matter the weather so you get better sleep every night. Now these sheets are also infused with silver as I said and that prevents up to 99.7% of bacterial growth leaving them to stay cleaner and fresh three times longer than other sheets so no more gross odors. Also, miracle sheets are luxuriously comfortable without that high price tag of other luxury brands and it feels as nice to me, if not nicer than the sheets used by some five star hotels. So upgrade your sleep this year. Go to try Miracle.com Midas that's T R Y M I R a c l e.com Mei Das to try miracle made sheets today and whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one, if you order today you can save over 40% and if you use our promo code Midas at checkout, you'll get a free three piece towel set and save an extra 20%. Miracle is so confident in their product, it's backed with a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you aren't 100 satisfied, you'll get a full refund. So upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made. Go to try Miracle.com Midas and use the code Midas to claim your free three piece towel set and save over 40% off. Again, that's try Miracle.com Midas to treat yourself. Thank you Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Let's go. Let's go. Shout out to hexclad. Shout out to Miracle Made. Do me a favor. If you've gotten those products, put it in the chat right now. Let everyone know how much you love them because I know they're fan favorites of the Midas Mighty. Use the links, descriptions, links in the description of YouTube and audio. Check them out and then please, we are on our way to 4 million subscribers. I'm going to call our shot now. Midas Touch the Midas Mighty. We're going to hit 4 million by Wednesday night. But let's see if we could do it even sooner because I know this community, once we get closer and closer, the subscribes just go way up and we're right there. So please, if you're not subscribed yet, please subscribe to the My Stitch YouTube channel.

[Ben Meiselas]

Look, the fact that we are investor free, we're 100% people powered. It's why I say we got to figure out ways to, to creatively keep growing this thing. So that's why I say you go to Midas Plus.com that helps out support our pro democracy sponsors, patreon.com Midas Touch but look, I, I get it. And so the best way you can help though if you can't do any of those things though, the best way is just when the show ends, send this network to everybody that you know who could be receptive to it. Even people in your life who aren't interested in politics. So if the show ends, just text, text the show you know to anybody and say, hey, can you subscribe to this channel? I'm sure you're going to love it. Do me a favor, subscribe and if you get five people, 10 people, 30 people, 50 people, we can make it competitive. Put in the comments how many people you sent it to after the show ends. I'll read them all in the comments and we can have a little competition that helps us A lot. And it helps us grow in America and abroad, internationally. Let's talk about some of these lawsuits now. So you saw what we were doing there first. We talked about what's going on and the disruption and havoc Trump's creating internationally, domestically, as Elon Musk goes into all of these government entities and destroys them. Now, what's the fight back? Let's be clear. Democrats don't control the House, they don't control the Senate, they don't control the White House. That means Democrats don't have subpoena power. Democrats don't have the ability to set hearings. Democrats requested, for example, that Elon Musk be subpoenaed and Republicans cut off debate. So I just want to let you know, like the process. So every time Democrats request it, because they do, Republicans say, we're not even going to let you debate it. Musk gets to do whatever he wants to do. So that brings us to the courts, federal judges, state court judges, you know, and then what happens if they make rulings that are against Donald Trump, which most have been against Donald Trump, even from Trump appointed judges and Reagan appointed judges, because the, it's so egregious and so egregious what's going on. And so what do you do, though, when Trump says, even to a Trump appointed judge, I'm not following your order. What's the step when the Department of Justice, FBI is gutted, DOJ's gutted or controlled by Trump, when you don't have, when you don't have people to enforce it anymore because the executive refuses to do its function? Well, let's talk about that. What I want to share with you, though, is, you know, one, since our last show, I think it's important just to talk about this, that Donald Trump amended his lawsuit against cbs. So the original lawsuit against CBS was for, it was for $10 billion and now it's for $20 billion. So Trump just arbitrarily added another $10 billion in damages. And Trump says that he was damaged. When 60 Minutes aired an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris where some of her ums and ahs, there was a moment where Vice President Kamala Harris, like, she was kind of like not completing the sentence. And it wasn't like, it wasn't like a bad gaffe, but objectively, she just kind of got a little bit tongue tied, I guess. And it was like literally 30 seconds when you watch it. So as part of their editing on what they showed on one, on one version versus another, they just kind of made it A little bit cleaner. Which, by the way, it didn't just. It wasn't like she said yes and then the answer was no. It was literally just her answering the questions.

[Jordy Meiselas]

We want to talk about editing. Ben, too. I was saying we want to talk about networks editing that Fox interview with Trump with all those hard cuts. Now, that is something that should be looked into and actually investigated because that's just straight up propaganda. What we saw the. The night of the super bowl with that interview of how they were making him sound like he, you know, could complete any sentence whatsoever. But to a skilled eye, and honestly, you don't even need to be a skilled editor to know these tricks that Fox was doing. The hard cuts were just so apparent in that interview with Trump and Brett Breyer.

[Ben Meiselas]

It was.

[Jordy Meiselas]

It was disgusting.

[Ben Meiselas]

I'm going out of my way, too, to try to give you what the best argument, and maybe I even shouldn't. I'm just trying to give you. If you accept every.

[Brett Meiselas]

Honestly, there's. There's no good argument. There's no good argument. I work in tv. It's fucking stupid if there's no good argument. Listen, every show you've ever seen is edited. There's editors for everything. You see why There are time constraints. There are different. Sometimes different versions are delivered to different channels or different shows because they're just showing a portion of it for this show or they're showing a portion of it for that show. Editors have to make game time decisions in order to do cut things for time. They don't have the conversation that the people have before the interview that doesn't get aired. They just air it from the interview on. They don't air the people sitting down and adjusting their makeup and making sure the lights are okay. That stuff isn't in things. So the f was the FCC decided to weaponize this whole lawsuit, acting like Donald Trump's personal henchmen. The FCC released the full video of the interview of CBS, the raw, unedited footage. They released it on their YouTube channel just to try to humiliate Kamala Harris. You know why you haven't seen a clip from this interview, folks? You know why none of you have probably even heard that the FCC did this? Because there was nothing on it. There was nothing on it. It was just the raw interview that started with her talking about that she has an allergy to mold and that she had had to sneeze a little bit before they got started. They went into the interview. The interview is normal as presented in the thing. And then Donald Trump is trying to sue specifically to silence the media, to try to try to crush all sort of dissent, to try to scare any opponents from even taking interviews that could benefit their campaigns. I mean, remember Donald Trump was offered the same interview. He refused to even participate. He was too afraid of it. And the last time that he did, remember the footage that came out from that interview, it was him walking off the set like a baby because he couldn't handle Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes Minutes Ask very basic questions about why at his rallies, he said, suburban woman.

[Ben Meiselas]

Will you please love me? Suburban woman, please love me, please.

[Brett Meiselas]

And he got so upset that he asked like, so why? She asked, why do you, why do you say that?

[Ben Meiselas]

And he goes, no, I don't, I don't say that.

[Brett Meiselas]

And then she played the clip and then he got really upset and left. And I think she maybe asked about his health care plan he didn't have when he left. So the whole thing, it's just using the government to try to strong arm people, to try to threaten people, to try to silence the media. And no matter how much Paramount or cbs, no matter how much they want to do this merger that they're currently involved in, no matter how many billions of dollars that Redstone, the lead stakeholder in Paramount, seeks to gain from this, they need to make sure that they hold their ground here. Because if they buckle on this completely frivolous lawsuit to Donald Trump, it puts all media, including the Midas Touch Network, puts everybody at risk, because that is exactly what Donald Trump wants.

[Ben Meiselas]

Yeah. So Trump was saying that injured him $20 billion that was caused him that what happened in the campaign? Well, he was too afraid to do another debate. He was too afraid to do that interview somehow that injured him 20 billion. I mean, just a made up number. So then he has Ronnie Jackson join him in the lawsuit. Why Ronnie Jackson? Because Ronnie Jackson is the congress member from the Amarillo area in Texas. The federal judge who's overseeing this case is a guy named Matthew Kaczmarek, who is a MAGA judge who rule MAGA always tries to get the case in front of him. So Donald Trump's having what's his name join the case. Ronnie Jackson joined the case to claim that a consumer has been injured and it needs to be protected under Texas's. It's not a defamation case, it's a consumer injury. But Donald Trump couldn't do it alone. So they found Ronny Jackson to pretend that he was a consumer who was injured to bring the case with Donald Trump in the amended complaint to try to keep it before a MAGA judge. And again, if that doesn't reek of weakness and just utter pathetic ness, I don't know, I don't know what else does. So while, by the way, they have completely gutted and again shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which again, they don't have the right to do. If you want to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as I said, you know what you do? You pass a law because it was brought into existence a certain way. So if you want to say that the money that goes to it shouldn't go to it anymore that's already appropriated for it, then pass a law banning it. And let's see what happens when MAGA Congress members and senators have to go and explain to their constituents why it is now that they are going to get screwed and why, for example, why they're going to reverse reforms on overdraft fees and blocking medical debt from being listed on credit reports, among other things that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was kind of focused on. So explain that to your constituents. Say your medical debt gets to screw your credit again. And by the way, overdraft fees back on. We're going to help the big banks. That's what Republicans are doing right now. Also, it should be noted that USAID employees have filed paperwork earlier saying that the administration is not complying with Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee in Washington D.C. 's order to prevent the immediate dismantling of the agency. They say employees he ordered reinstated have not been and other actions that cut against his order. This was a Trump appointed judge that said, hey, I'm just temporarily blocking Donald Trump's attempt to gut usa. Some horrific stories of like people who are, who are literally now trapped internationally, who can't make it back, how the cuts are literally going to cause thousands of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people to potentially die. So the judge said, hold off, let me understand if this is legal. And what all of these USAID employees are saying is that Trump's just disregarding your order. Trump appointed Judge and Judge McConnell, a Rhode island federal judge had already made a ruling today saying that the Trump administration violated his prior order to block a funding freeze. And McConnell, this Rhode island judge ordered the administration to resume payments for federal programs, including NIH funding. And when you go through the actual filing there, you'll see there's like multiple examples. They quote the Trump administration and Donald Trump saying, I'm defunding this, I'm not funding that. Ha ha. And Elon Musk's posts that indicate that they're not following the court's orders in any material respect. Also, we got the judge in Boston, Judge O'Toole. He's extending the deadline for federal workers to accept Trump administration's unlawful buyout order. We're getting the full order there, but that's been extended as well from the emergency relief that was previously, that's been previously been given. And that's not to mention that you had the federal judges in New York and elsewhere as well block Elon Musk's access to the Treasury Department and Elon Musk's team. And then what do we see happening? Elon Musk, Donald Trump, J.D. vance, relentlessly attacking the federal judges. This federal judge, all federal judges, this is unlawful, this is deep state. And then they make this is fraud. These people are criminal. And again, the idea that someone like an Elon Musk would be emboldened to call a federal judge a fraud and a criminal and say all of these things, this is the lawlessness that exists right now in the Trump administration. Speaking of which, Fox News reported as well that the Justice Department dropped the case against Mayor Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, where there was all of this evidence about how Mayor Adams engaged in all of these deals and took bribes from Turkey and all these other places. I mean, he had detailed messages. And so any type of foreign corruption type of case, Donald, you know, with high profile people, as long as they kiss Trump's ring, he's pardoning them and basically saying, we're all open for business. You know, you just gotta toe the MAGA line. And then you have Mayor Adams out there basically speaking as a MAGA person in New York right now. So those are mostly your court updates right there.

[Brett Meiselas]

Yeah, all lower your prices, right, guys? I, I like how, you know, these Maggie influencer types, all these folks online will always be like, it's the Democrats that are corrupt. The Democrats are full of corruption. And, and we go, you know, there are corrupt people on both sides. Certainly I think there's far more corrupt people right now in MAGA and on the Republican side. But there certainly are corrupt people like, you know, like Menendez, like, great that he was prosecuted. You know, I think that's great. I think what he was doing was the epitome of corruption. Eric Adams. Yeah, you're so right. Eric Adams corrupt. Like, you know, the law needs to handle him. But then the second these people say a word nice about Donald Trump, they're like, the Democrats are just trying to attack this guy because he's trying to tell the truth. Truth. Because they, they won't, they don't want the truth to get out there. And it's like, jeez, God, it's, it's such, you know, to bring it back to what I said in the beginning. It, they, they take like the cues from North Korean and Russia propaganda and run with them. And run with them. And they have the benefit of having these billionaire oligarchs control all these algorithms who push their stuff out and help it get into everybody's feed and basically use it to try to brainwash people into thinking that this is the truth. Truth couldn't be any further from the truth. Even when you look at some of these documents, like when you look at the document that the Trump administration just released on overdraft fees, you know who likes overdraft fees? Find me a Republican, a Democrat or Independent who's like, yes, I'm so happy. The bank charged me a ton of money for not having money. Find me a single person, find me a single person who said, oh, I was buried in medical debt, but thank God, thank God that, that also worked against my credit and I couldn't buy anything because of my medical debt. Thank, thank you, Donald Trump, for, for giving me back that burden on my life. I can no longer buy things because my credit's destroyed and I have all this medical debt. But thank you, that's, that's exactly what I wanted. Nobody wants this stuff. And so as like Tim Walls would I say, who wants this stuff? This is weird stuff. No one wants this stuff. So the framing that they always put around all these things is just the opposite of reality. So I'll just go to the men. The, the memo for released about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, by the way, Elizabeth Warren project implemented to try to ensure that there was never another 2008 style crash ever again. This is an agency that has delivered for the American people. If you want to talk about Department of Government Efficiency, there is no agency, I think, that even comes close to this department in providing efficiency and providing effective and efficient government and actually being used to get money back into the hands of Americans from being scammed by corporations. So the corporate, the corrupt corporations don't like that. And so this is the Elon Musk White House Trump memo about cfpb. They say the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau isn't a Wall street regulator, it's a Main street regulator. They always say exactly the opposite of what it is. And here's their message about the Biden reforms, which were the ones we Were just speaking about, they said, described as cl. Classic overreach and passed or granted itself in the waning hours of the lame duck Biden administration. The agency gave itself the authority to regulate Americans checking accounts. Makes it sound like, oh, oh my God, they're putting their fingers in our checking accounts. Who wants that? No, they were preventing banks from doing these crazy overdraft fees on people for overdrafting their accounts by small amounts. Then they add over here that the government then dictated price controls and unilaterally buried $50 billion in medical debt. Yeah, no, they were preventing medical debt from being used against people in other aspects of their life by completely ruining their credit for their entire life. Those are good things that if you pulled them, and I know they haven't pulled, probably pull at 75, 80, 90%, like very popular things that actually help the American people. And Elon Musk, quite frankly, gives away the game that this is not anything to do with government efficiency or trying to people's lives. When he pulls away an agency like that when he tries illegally, by the way, because these are agencies that are, that are created by legislation signed into law by the president that he is trying to just defund and destroy from within. But these are agencies that help people. And you give away the game that this has never been about government efficiency. This has never been about making America great again. This is just about enriching the people at the top and screwing over Americans and then distracting them with enough little toys to hope they don't notice.

[Ben Meiselas]

Perfectly.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Stephanie and I just want to react really quickly to the CBS lawsuit because I think it's important here as we close out the show, something we say here quite often about Trump in this regime, if you give the guy an inch, he'll take your life. So it was widely reported a few weeks back now that CBS's parent company, Paramount Global was, they were talking about settling the $10 billion lawsuit, gaming out options to reduce friction with the incoming administration at the time. And this was reported in the Wall Street Journal. Trump gets wind of this. What does he do? He takes your life. He says, oh, they're going to settle at 10 billion, huh? I wonder if they'll settle at 20 billion. And we'll see what, we'll see what we can get from them there. Like I like we say, this guy is just an awful human being at its core, just terrible person. And you cannot appease him. You cannot work with, oh, no, let me just do this because then maybe he'll just, he'll leave me alone. And he'll go on to the next thing. No, that's not how he thinks. That's not what goes on in his mind. He's going to continue to press and continue to be the bully that he is. He's going to take and take and take until there's just nothing left. It's just wild to see it continue to play out. And CBS just fell right into the trap of this one. Ben.

[Ben Meiselas]

Well, I mean, I mean, I'll leave people with a few things. First, let me leave you with just this image so you can see what's going on at Mar A Lago and how disconnected they are from everybody. So at Mar A Lago, they've got this bizarre golden hoofed goat idol on display. The idol is wrapped in Trump $100 bills that say, in Trump we trust, replacing God with Trump. The idol's base says, quote, I love you, along with Trump's signature on it. I mean, that's what they have there. And it's like, this is what they're doing. This is what they're focused on. This is the type of symbolism that they're projecting at Mar a Lago. So I'll show you that data point. Another data point I'm going to show you is just look at some of the headlines today from our broken media, right? Cnn, this was a push alert that I got. They thought this was so important, that this was a push alert analysis, the method behind Trump's tariff madness. And they tried to say, look, he's, this is part of like being a good negotiator. And by the way, whether you open this or not, if you get that, you think, okay, there must be some method to it. Like, they're like, they're, this is one of the most destructive things that's like literally destroying our country. Objectively, you speak to economists, this is going to cause a depression. And that's what cnn, right? How about you say, how about your push alert be Trump's reckless tariffs will cause a depression? That would be, that's an accurate push alert. How about this one from the Daily Beast? So, you know, look, you, sometimes you think, all right, the Daily Beast, they've got, maybe they got a good writer. Are they writing good stuff? The Daily Beast then does this. The real MVP of the super bowl was President Donald J. Trump. It says the Eagles won the Super Bowl. But historic Trump, whatever, this is a great day for Donald Trump at the Super Bowl. And it's like, what are you talking about? Did you watch what at the Super Bowl? This freaking maniac talked about conquering Canada, conquering Gaza. He threatened tariffs, which he then imposed. What are you doing? Like, what are you doing? I mean, seriously, who puts that out there? And it's, you know, look, and I'm showing you those sources because that's CNN and Daily Beast. I mean, Fox is pumping out propaganda every day, you know, in that state regime media. But like, that's Daily Beast, that's cnn. So it's broken. It's broken. So we're here.

[Donald Trump]

We're.

[Ben Meiselas]

We're people powered. We're gonna fight. We're gonna fight with you. As I said, we don't have. There's no oligarch I report to. There's no investor telling me, you do this or don't do nothing. We got you our stakeholders. So we're true to you and we're gonna report every day. So if you can, it's helpful if you support the network. One way you can do that is by going to patreon.com Midas Touch. Check that out. Another way is you go to midasplus.com we'd love for you to become a subscriber, a paid subscriber on Midas plus account. But you could become a free subscriber and test it out, see if you like it. But that ultimately goes a long way to help our pro democracy sponsors. The discount codes are in the description. Jordi spends a long time vetting those sponsors, negotiating discounts with them for you. And there's some great. We love our sponsors, so check them out as well. Those are all ways that you can help. And the best way, also add the.

[Brett Meiselas]

Midas Touch podcast on audio, Apple podcasts and Spotify. And also we're doing something new on Spotify now, which is super exciting as we're starting to put some of our video podcasts on Spotify. So you could get the video there, you get the audio there. So that really helps. Like you may think, oh, it's free. You know what, is adding this thing help? It helps a ton, believe me. So if you go and add the Midas Touch podcast on Apple and on Spotify, leave us a five star review, help us continue to beat. Because we are like the top news podcast right now. Help us continue to beat all these MAGA podcasts. I'm sick of seeing them in the algorithm and you adding the show, playing the episodes, giving a five star review all helps in that. And it's free and it's. And it's super easy.

[Ben Meiselas]

Well, everybody, thank you so much for watching we're grateful for you. Thank you to our mods for all the effort they put in. We know they spend a lot of time trying to make these chats go seamless. We want to thank all of you. The Midas mighty out there. Thank you so much for all that you do. We're grateful for you and we're appreciative so so much. And we'll keep fighting for you each and every day. Jordy Take us out.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Shout out to the Midas my day.

[Brett Meiselas]

The mighty standing strong against the fascists we sing our song.

[Ben Meiselas]

We will get it right whenever.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Love this video. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram. It's touch and Help US blow past 750,000 followers.

[Ben Meiselas]

Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to Libsyn ads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today.