MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 2/20/25

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast
Episode: MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 2/20/25
Release Date: February 21, 2025
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas
Guests: Karen Friedman Agnifolo

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1. Introduction and Economic Concerns (00:00 - 05:11)

The episode kicks off with Ben and Brett discussing the declining approval ratings of former President Donald Trump amid rising inflation and a turbulent stock market. Ben attributes the inflation surge to policies enacted during Trump's administration, including an $8 trillion increase in national debt and mismanagement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notable Quote:

• Ben Meiselas (00:43): "Donald Trump was the original cause of the inflation that former President Biden fixed because Donald added $8 trillion of debt."

2. Trump's Foreign Policy and Relations with Russia (05:12 - 07:17)

Ben criticizes Trump's attempts to negotiate directly with Russia, sidelining NATO allies and Ukraine. He underscores the dangers of Trump's approach, labeling it as a betrayal of American values and democracy.

Notable Quote:

• Jordy Meiselas (07:17): "America can no longer be viewed in the world as a good guy. We are now allied with autocracies, we are now allied with dictatorships. We are now allied with Russia."

3. Impact of "Doge" and Government Cuts (07:18 - 18:12)

The discussion shifts to the policies under "Doge," led by Elon Musk, focusing on budget cuts affecting critical services like the 911 Health Program. Ben expresses concern over the reduction in support for first responders and essential government functions.

Notable Quote:

• Ben Meiselas (05:00): "The fund provides health care for thousands of first responders and civilians. Only staff reductions could put lives at risk."

4. Promises vs. Reality in Trump's Administration (18:13 - 31:57)

Ben and his brothers dissect Trump's unmet promises, such as ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours and making housing more affordable. They highlight discrepancies between Trump's announcements and the actual outcomes, emphasizing economic decline and increased national debt.

Notable Quote:

• Ben Meiselas (31:58): "Donald Trump made these promises... that he's a liar, period, full stop."

5. Media Manipulation and Public Perception (31:58 - 37:28)

The hosts discuss how misinformation is propagated through media channels like Fox News and Elon Musk's social platforms, reinforcing Trump's narratives despite evidence to the contrary. They stress the importance of countering these falsehoods with factual information.

Notable Quote:

• Jordy Meiselas (32:22): "They're the ultimate sheep. They are the ultimate NPCs."

6. Government Accountability and Oversight (37:29 - 46:18)

Ben emphasizes the lack of accountability within the current administration, particularly regarding Elon Musk's role in government operations. He calls for transparency and the necessity of holding public officials accountable through congressional oversight.

Notable Quote:

• Ben Meiselas (52:13): "Could you imagine what that testimony of Elon Musk would look like before the DOGE Subcommittee?"

7. Community Mobilization and Protests (46:19 - 53:10)

The brothers highlight the growing movement among their listeners, the "MidasMighty," who are actively participating in protests and advocating for pro-democracy actions. They encourage listeners to engage and contribute to the movement.

Notable Quote:

• Jordy Meiselas (65:20): "We need to be united in pushing back against that."

8. Closing Remarks and Calls to Action (53:11 - End)

In their closing segments, Ben and Jordy reiterate the importance of community involvement and staying informed. They invite listeners to join their Patreon meetings and subscribe to their various podcast offerings, emphasizing the collective effort required to restore democracy and accountability.

Notable Quote:

• Ben Meiselas (74:57): "We stand with you every step of the way, shoulder to shoulder here."

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Key Themes and Insights

• Economic Mismanagement: The podcast repeatedly attributes current economic challenges, including inflation and rising national debt, to policies implemented during Trump's administration.

• Foreign Policy Critique: There's a strong condemnation of Trump's approach to foreign relations, especially regarding Russia and Ukraine, portraying it as detrimental to American alliances and global standing.

• Misinformation and Media Influence: The hosts highlight the role of biased media and influential figures like Elon Musk in spreading misinformation, emphasizing the need for factual reporting and community vigilance.

• Government Accountability: A significant focus is placed on the lack of transparency and accountability within the current administration, urging listeners to demand oversight and responsibility from their leaders.

• Community Empowerment: The episode underscores the power of collective action, encouraging listeners to participate in protests, stay informed, and actively counteract disinformation.

Conclusion

In this episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas deliver a passionate critique of Donald Trump's policies and their implications on the U.S. economy, foreign relations, and democratic institutions. They highlight the dangers of misinformation propagated through media channels and stress the importance of community mobilization to uphold democratic values and ensure government accountability. The hosts call upon their audience, the "MidasMighty," to engage actively in pro-democracy efforts and remain steadfast in seeking the truth amidst political turmoil.

Transcript

[Ben Meiselas]

Have I Got News for you is.

[Brett Meiselas]

Back for another season. Roy Wood Jr. Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black are finding the funny in the week's biggest stories.

[Ben Meiselas]

Have I Got News for you Saturday at 9 on CNN and stream next day on Max. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save Hundreds. Visit progressive. To see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliate potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Donald Trump's approval is sinking as inflation is once again rising. The markets took a battering today as they were spooked over rising inflation. And Walmart put out a pretty bad financial report as well. Trump's approval is specifically tanking as well with black Americans, Hispanic Americans, young voters and voters overall. And as inflation is once again on the rise, Donald Trump is trying to blame it on former President Biden. Donald Trump and his puppet master, or should I say co president or whatever you want to call Elon Musk? I guess they're trying to call him in the White House, the tech guy. Now they went on Hannity and Donald Trump said it was Biden's fault. Why inflation is back right now. And then Fox tried to supplement that with a chiron saying, Donald Trump is bringing us out of the disaster.

[Brett Meiselas]

Here, play this clip we inherited and inflation is back. I'm only here for two and a half weeks.

[Ben Meiselas]

That was inflation there that week.

[Brett Meiselas]

Don't think of it. Inflation's back. And they said, oh, Trump. And I had nothing to do with it.

[Ben Meiselas]

Oh, I had nothing to do with it. Actually, Donald Trump was the original cause of the inflation that former President Biden fixed because Donald added $8 trillion of debt. He completely mishandled, or I should even say not handled at all. Covid. And then Donald Trump said like a miracle, it was all going to go away. In addition to saying that inflation's back, Donald Trump also spent the past few days threatening President Zelensky, threatening our NATO allies, saying that he would not support any statements to go out by the G7, which calls Russia the aggressor of Russia's unlawful invasion of Ukraine. But let's play this clip of what Donald Trump said about Zelensky. Play the clip like a fiddle.

[Brett Meiselas]

He played him like a fiddle. That's an expression we use Yasser to say that he's pretty easy. Pretty easy. A dictator without elections. Zelensky better move fast or he's not going to have a Country left. Got to move, got to move fast.

[Ben Meiselas]

So as Donald Trump destroys our economy, destroy, destroys our alliances, tries to establish, establish alliances with Russia by sending Secretary of State Marco Rubio to have direct negotiations with Russia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, cutting out Ukraine and Europe. What Donald Trump wants to distract everybody with is that he says that he and Elon Musk are going to go searching for gold in Fort Knox. They're going to start investigating if there's gold inside Fort Knox. Everybody, they're going to go into the mountains with their shovels. This is how they want to restrain, distract us. So ridiculous. Play this clip.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Do you know what they're looking at? Specifically at the Department of Defense right now?

[Brett Meiselas]

They're looking at everything.

[Jordy Meiselas]

And are they going to cut more national looking?

[Brett Meiselas]

We're going to go into Fort Knox to make sure the gold is there. Are they going to, you know that we're going to go into Fort Knox. You know about that. That was that bad bump.

[Ben Meiselas]

Are they going to eliminate more national.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Security positions, civilians there?

[Brett Meiselas]

We'll see what happens. But one of the things we do want to look, I mean, we hope everything's fine with Fort Knox, but we're going to go to Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Kno, to make sure the gold is there. Where would the gold have gone? If the gold isn't there, we're going to be very upset.

[Ben Meiselas]

See, Donald Trump was asked, hey, what is Doge doing? Because we hear they're cutting critical FAA jobs. We hear that Doge is cutting critical jobs that are protecting against the bird flu. They are cutting funds that are going to 911 first responders. They accidentally keep firing people, like people who oversee our nuclear arsenal, and they are just firing, what, 4,500 people in the forest services that work in our national parks and just gutting our government and people who work hard every day to keep us safe and to keep things running. But Donald Trump goes, I'm going to find some gold. Did you hear about Fort Knox? Did you hear about Fort Knox? Because he thinks people are stupid. He thinks that he can distract you with that crap right there. When in fact, the things that Trump and Doge are doing is taking away money from people like 911 first responders. Let's play this clip.

[John Mueller]

The 911 health program taking a heavy hit from the Department of Government Efficiency.

[Ben Meiselas]

The fund provides health care for thousands of first responders and civilians. Only staff reductions could put lives at risk.

[Jordy Meiselas]

John Mueller has a closer look.

[Ben Meiselas]

More than 137,000 people are enrolled in the 911 Health Program, first responders and everyday New Yorkers exposed to the toxic.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Dust, battling health ailments and cancers. The program created to keep them alive.

[Ben Meiselas]

Is now the latest target of budget cuts under Elon Musk, Musk and Doge. It's repulsive. It's, it's, it's reckless and it lacks empathy. That was John Feel, a 911 survivor and advocate talking about how reckless and lacking in empathy it is. But before I bring Brett and Jordan, let me just tell you all what the, what the plan is, though, if you want to even call it that. So part of the meeting between the United States and Russia was about trying to form an alliance between the US and Russia instead of the US's traditional role, NATO and leading the free world. And then Marco Rubio says the quiet part out loud about how he's looking forward to prosperous economic relationships between the United States and Putin. That's what Marco Rubio announced from Saudi Arabia. Play this clip.

[Marco Rubio]

The diplomatic one is one we think we hope to move pretty quickly on because this involves the treatment of our respective missions. The second one will be difficult, which is the question of Ukraine and the end of that conflict. But I think that's essential in order for the third piece to even be possible, which is our ability to work together on other geopolitical matters of common interest and of course, some pretty unique, potentially historic economic partnerships as well. The key that unlocks the door for those opportunities, however, is the end to this conflict.

[Ben Meiselas]

Bring in my brothers Brett and Jordi. Did you ever think that you would see the day in your lifetime where a United States president would become a Russian bootlicker, send your Secretary of State to Saudi Arabia to kiss Russia's ass and to capitulate to Russia and threaten our NATO allies and engage in that reckless and dangerous and malicious behavior? No.

[Jordy Meiselas]

The answer is no. It's great to be here with you guys. First of all, what's going on, brothers? What's going on? Everybody watching, listening? No. I mean, it's complete betrayal of American values and everything that we have ever seen stood for. I want to be clear, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it to folks out there right now. America is no longer the good guy. Right? And I'm not saying America was always the good guy at every point in history, but I'm saying right now that the United States can no longer be viewed in the world as a good guy. Our guiding star right now is no longer towards the good of the free world. We are now allied. And this is Horrifying. But we are now allied with autocracies, we are now allied with dictatorships. We are now allied with Russia. And our own government right now, including, including the way they are treating the press, including the various policies, if you want to call them that, that they are implementing, are all straight out of Russia or even Nazi Germany. I always wondered growing up, you know, how could somebody like a Hitler come to power in a democratic country? I always wondered how the hell is that possible? How could the people alongside him let that happen? And then you see videos like that of Marco Rubio and you see all these cowards who are subservient to Donald Trump and do everything that he ask and treat this like it is a game. When there are people's lives on the line, when there are people's livelihoods on the line, people's health on the line, all the above. It is an absolute disgrace and an utter betrayal. And that's not even. That's before we even get to Doge, which I gotta say is probably the biggest scam in United States history right now. What they are doing, and we're going to get into all the details, but it is all smoke and mirrors under the guise of cutting waste, fraud and abuse. And it is just fake. Like the whole thing is fake. It's all BS that's wrapped in these Russian talking points to act like, look, we're making things more efficient as they ruin people's lives, as they don't even cut a lot of money. You know Doge's website, Get this, Doge has this new website up, right? It says that they've cut over, I think $50 billion or something. NPR looked into it. They've actually cut under $2 billion total. They just make up the numbers and they inflate the numbers. That's three point. That's point.003% of the federal budget last year that they've actually cut. And that's not even getting into what is Doge actually costing? What's the cost benefit analysis? How much do lawsuits that go against what Doge is doing cost the United States and things like that. I'm willing to bet that Doge is costing the United States far more money than it's actually saving, because it's not really saving money. And what it's going to do is it's going to cause devastation in this country. We're already seeing shaky markets, instability in the markets every single day. Dows up, dows down. 600. Dow's up a little. Dows down. We're Seeing our allies freak out over these endless tariff wars that just make zero sense. And then we see Doge mass firing federal workers, people who have worked, in some cases their whole lives in the federal government, acting as civil services, treating them like they're trash, treating them like they're garbage. I'm talking veterans, I'm talking longtime civil servants. And what we're going to see in these economic reports as we these next few months develop is a mass loss of jobs, possibly a massive recession, if not a depression as the result of what they are doing. To put it simply, we're going to see exactly what Elon Musk promised we would be seeing right before the election when he said that we would be experiencing pain. We're going to break it all down in much more detail. First, I got to check in with Jordy. Jordy, what's up, man? How you doing?

[Karen Friedman Agnifolo]

Excited. Excited for the show. A lot of ground to cover. But Brett's your point exactly. When Elon says that, you know, Americans are just going to feel a little bit of pain at first, just. He's not talking about Elon and the oligarchs and the billionaires. He's not. He's talking about the Americans at large who aren't the top 1%, who quite frankly, make up more than way more than the majority of the country. It's absolutely disgusting to see Elon Musk continue to do these just bizarro interviews with Donald Trump on Fox News acting as a de facto president. Make no mistake, Elon Musk is, is just as much the president as Donald Trump. And don't be gaslit by those around you or corporate media into thinking that anything that you're seeing right now is normal. None of this is normal. And it's okay to feel that this isn't normal because quite frankly and very directly, it's not. So we're not going to let anything slide here. We have a lot of ground to cover. Benji, where do you want to start.

[Jordy Meiselas]

By the way, before Ben comes in? Can I just say, do you remember the shit that, that MAGA Trump, all these people gave to Tim Walls and Kamala Harris when they did their first joint interview together after like they selected. And by the way, Trump had done one with J.D. vance. Where the hell is J.D. vance, by the way? Just talking to. He just tweets and goes to CPAC and stuff. What was that guy doing? But anyway, they gave them so much crap for doing that one sit down interview, which is a tradition that all presidents have done in, like modern History on tv. Meanwhile, Donald Trump as president is showing up on TV with Elon Musk. And when you watch these interviews, you're right, Jordy. Elon's the one who's in control. And Hannity almost doesn't even take Trump seriously. He, like, kind of shoo shoes, you know, Trump, while he's trying to speak, lets Elon ramble right over him. At the end of the day, I think their hubris will be their downfall. And I think we're starting to see that. Actually, very quickly, when you look at the polling, when you look at people taking to the streets that they are viewing, that they have this mandate and no such mandate actually ex exists. And the people, then, they are fed up.

[Ben Meiselas]

They treat people like they're stupid. I mean, the question was, what is Doge doing? And can you explain it? Donald, like, let us know. And he's like, do you know about Fort Knox? We're searching for the gold. We're gonna find the gold for all of you.

[Jordy Meiselas]

I see, like, Nicholas Cage and National Treasure is happening, and they're just trying.

[Ben Meiselas]

To distract and dangle. Maybe you'll get rich. I've got some snake oil. Maybe we'll find some gold. Then you all get rich. One of the other scams that I see them talking about right now is with all the money we're going to find from Doge, we're going to give you rebates. You want money, we're trying to find you your money right now. Which, Brett, to your point is they're using all of these fake numbers and fake data, and then they're dangling over to people. You may get rich quick if we just let us do what we're going to do. And then they, like, publish things like. Like, this is one of the things that Doge published where they're like, we just saved you $8 billion from DNG Support Services LLC. Me and my brothers actually reached out to DNG Support Services LLC. Their government contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. But then it looked like someone in the government systems then changed the number also from 8 million to 8 billion after they were caught. And they tried to change it, and then they said, oh, there was just a mist made in the system and it was everybody else's fault. And they keep repeating that over and over again. They say tens of millions of deceased people are getting Social Security. The lie spreads, it gets debunked, but it doesn't matter. Donald Trump just repeats the lie over and over again, the same way he repeats that Hamas is getting condoms to make bombs from usaid, which is false. Even when you debunk it. They keep on doing it over and over again because they know that they've got their supporters trapped. And this kind of right wing disinformation echo chamber. But I want to bring it back, though, to the facts. I want to have the receipts. I'll use Donald Trump's own words here for what I'm about to show you. The first clip I want to show you is Donald Trump saying, as it relates to Russia's unlawful invasion in Ukraine, although Trump never used those words, that Trump would end the war in 24 hours. I'll just show you two quick clips right here. It's back to back here.

[John Mueller]

Play end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.

[Ben Meiselas]

Yes.

[John Mueller]

How would you do that?

[Brett Meiselas]

I know Zelinsky very well. I'll end that war between those two countries in 24 hours. It won't even take that long.

[Ben Meiselas]

It won't even take that long. Well, here we are. And your plan is to what, extort Zelensky? That's kind of what he was doing right in the first Trump administration. Now definitely more overtly as he threatened Zelensky and said, you better act quick, you better watch out. You he's a dictator. And Donald Trump was posting all on social media referring to Zelensky as a dictator, saying that he's just some has been comic who stole from the United States and he's parroting Putin's talking points, how Zelensky needs to hold elections right away. Trump's lying and saying zelinsky has a 4% approval rating. Zelensky's approval rating is above 50%. And I think the approval rating is going to rise as I think Zelinsky's been standing up to Donald Trump and to Marco Rubio and the bullying and the intimidation. Ukraine is rallying as well. Let me show you this other clip as well. And here Donald Trump says that immediately prices are going to go down. This is what Trump said during the campaign. Let's play this clip as well.

[Brett Meiselas]

So when I went, I immediately bring prices down. Starting on day one, we will end Kamala's war on American energy. And we will drill, baby, drill. We're going to drill.

[Ben Meiselas]

Well, the prices were going down. Under former President Biden, it was anticipated that we would have hit 2% inflation. We were actually leading the world in inflation reduction. We were also leading the world in energy production. We were drill, baby, drilling. But also we were focused on climate change and our environment. And we were Energy independent at the same time, you don't want to believe me, why don't I show you a Rupert Murdoch property right here. The Wall Street Journal said that the U.S. economy was the envy of the world. U.S. economy expected to keep powering higher. Economists lift their growth forecast in the latest Wall Street Journal survey. That was April 14, 2020. Economy finished stronger, referred to as a Goldilocks economy during the handoff from Biden to Donald Trump. And Trump immediately then started to gut and destroy the economy with tariff threats, reckless and malicious behavior. But Bretton Jordy, who could have warned us of this? Who, who could have told us about this? Perhaps in 2016? Was it it? Hillary Clinton? Let's play that clip from everything I see.

[Brett Meiselas]

Has no respect for this person.

[John Mueller]

Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of United States. It's pretty clear. It's pretty clear you won't admit that the Russians have engaged in cyber attacks against the United States of America, that you encouraged espionage against, against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him because he has a very clear favorite in this race.

[Ben Meiselas]

Or how about former Vice President Kamala Harrison? When you watch the split screens of these debates, it is eerie how both of these powerful women who were so much more qualified and would have been incredible leaders and we would never be in this mess, were speaking to the American people in logic, in full sentences. They were warning us and they were telling us what was going down. But of course, America was not going to go there in both cases because, well, I'm sure you know what, I played this clip.

[John Mueller]

Putin would be sitting in Kiev with his eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland. And why don't you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?

[Ben Meiselas]

He is eating Donald Trump for lunch right now. During that, that event that whatever you want to call it, in Saudi Arabia, where they cut out Ukraine and Europe, Russian propaganda was through the roof with Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. You had Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former leader, saying, if you would have told me that a United States president would be saying these things about Ukraine, I would have been laughing in your face. But, Brett, we see right here just complete, utter weakness. Putin's Eating Trump's. You know what. And what do you make of it? Yeah.

[Jordy Meiselas]

And you know what? I think Zelinsky's Eden is, you know what? As well right now. I think he's, you know, kind of getting it from both sides. I think Donald Trump is really working from a place of extreme weakness right now. I think he's incredibly cowardly. You know, there was a meeting that was scheduled this morning between Kellogg or the US Envoy to Ukraine and President Zelensky, and so that happened without a hitch. We've seen clips of them meeting each other. Friendly. And by the way, Kellogg is, like, probably the most pro Ukraine guy on this entire. In this entire Trump administration. Like, he's actually a good person for that job, but because he is actually a good person for that job, Donald Trump despises him. And we've been speaking about this for weeks now. Before Donald Trump was even, like, after he was elected, but before he even was inaugurated, we were speaking about Kellogg and we were saying he's gonna be the first to go. Like, this guy is gonna be early out because this is not gonna work with Donald Trump. And we're already seeing tension right now because as Donald Trump sends his people to Saudi Arabia to suck up to Vladimir Putin, he's. He basically sidelined Kellogg and Zelensky this morning after their meeting. He actually canceled the planned joint press conference because he did not want them to speak to the press about what they were talking about. Why? Well, I think, first off, he's a little nervous about what Kellogg is going to say, probably good things about Zelensky. The press would definitely ask him if he agrees with Donald Trump's comments about if Zelensky is a dictator. And he would certainly say no would be what I would. I would think or make clear that he does not believe that. And I'm sure he's also afraid of what Zelensky is going to say. Cowardly. Cowardly. This administration is the most cowardly administration imaginable, and we need to continue to call them out and expose all these moves and how scared they actually are of the American people, of the press, of you.

[Karen Friedman Agnifolo]

And they're absolutely humiliating. Like, it is gross to me that I have to be adjacent to a Donald Trump as a fellow American, that this is the person that's supposed to be representing, you know, my interest and my, you know, well being and the health of all Americans, because it couldn't be further from the truth. Trump is a fool. And this plays out time and time and time again. He takes the bait every Single time and looks like a complete lunatic on the global stage. Not just here in America, but, but globally, the world. I mean, it is utter buffoonery what we're seeing play out right now, quite frankly, it's embarrassing and disappointing. But what did we expect, you know, other, other than this chaos?

[Ben Meiselas]

Look, you've got the White House posting things like this, congestion pricing is dead Manhattan and all of New York is saved. Long live the king. President Donald J. Trump. And it's a fake Time magazine cover with Donald Trump wearing a crown. And it Long live the King Trump. Then Donald Trump was repeatedly posting Long live the King because he tried to interfere with New York's congestion pricing plan, which New York just said, okay, we're going to keep our own plan that's actually helping New York City. You can't interfere with this. You can't retract a deal that's already taken place. But Donald Trump posting that he is a king. Also, Donald Trump further attacking Canada all day as well, saying that he invited Prime Minister Trudeau. Trudeau to the Governor's meeting because he views Trudeau as a governor of an American territory. But as Donald Trump does all of this, I mean, again, Brett, to your point and Jordy, the level of weakness that this shows, he is positioning himself not from any power of strength. I mean, he looks weak, he looks desperate. And everything he's done so far has only been causing, causing harm and damage to the United States of America. But he wants to distract you with all of these different stunts. Got a lot to discuss on this episode. For all of our new viewers and listeners here, welcome to the Midas Touch Podcast. And it is, I should just acknowledge the news you probably all heard, which is that yes, the Midas Touch podcast is beating the Joe Rogan Experience in downloads for the month. But to me, what that means, while it's great to beat Rogan, yes, it's important that we get the facts out, that we get the truth out and that this pro democracy, pro love, pro empathy, pro truth and facts movement is growing. And to me, that's what that data most reflect and this is a shared accomplishment. And give a shout out to all the OG Midas mighty's who were with us from day one. A shout out with the mod to the mods who keep things here civil and a shout out to all of you, the Midas Mighty. We know all of the hard work that you put in as well. Again, we have a lot of show after this show ends. We're going to be holding our patreon Zoom [e-mail] Midas Touch if you wanted to meet me, Brett and jordy, go to patreon.com Midas Touch and we have the secret link there. Again, we have a lot to discuss on this show. Go. Let's take our first quick break.

[Jordy Meiselas]

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[Karen Friedman Agnifolo]

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[Ben Meiselas]

I just think it's important that we try to keep things simple. You've ever heard of kiss? Keep it simple stupid, right? Sometimes you just got to remind people, people. Donald Trump made these promises, right? He promised prices were going to go down on day one. He promised housing was going to be more affordable on day one. He promised there were going to be so many jobs on day one you weren't going to even know what to do with all of these jobs. He promised that there would be peace in Ukraine in 24 hours. Even before he took office, he said there would be a deal because he's that good of a deal maker. That wasn't hyperbole. We shouldn't try to extrapolate. Oh, he really meant this. No, he's a liar, period, full stop. So you just can't get distracted by the whack a mole. Of all of the things that they try to say and do. They use USAID the way QAnon uses Q drops, right? Where they try to distract you and get you focused on all of these things that are almost all false to get you to chase them. That so that you're distracted from the fact that they're breaking their promises, that they're hurting the economy, that they're hurting our alliances. And then like the abusive mentality that they are, the abusive mentality they have, they then try to make you more promises and lies on top of it. Oh, we're going to search Fort Knox and we're going to find all of this great gold for you. Or, oh, maybe we're going to give you these rebates when Doge finds all of this money. It's all part of of the Ponzi scheme scam. And a Ponzi scheme is you keep on lying and you stack lies on lies until basically you run out of time, Brett. And then the lies catch up and then boom, it implodes. And that's the direction we're heading in. I just want everybody to reflect on these lies. Can I just give one example, Brett? Then jump in. Which is they go back and they'll say, even though it's been debunked, Hamas is not getting condoms. It's false. False by usaid. That didn't happen. It doesn't matter though. They'll just go and say it again, like 100% false. But Trump will say 100 million, 50 million, 50 million, 100 million. And the numbers don't even matter. They just make up numbers. 3 trillion, 5 trillion, 8 trillion, 100 billion, a quadrillion. But also because they're so rich that the numbers don't matter. All that matters is that they're manipulating their shield people. Here, play this clip. Money.

[Brett Meiselas]

And in another program, $50 million plus another $50 million for condoms for Hamas. You know about that. A hundred million dollars for condoms. Condoms. Does everybody know what a condom is for Hamas? Hundred million dollars. And these are just. I could read this list all day long. I just don't want to bore you, Brett.

[Jordy Meiselas]

There's a concept that's frequently talked about on the right that comes from gaming culture and you see a lot of MAGA people speaking about NPCs. Right? Non player characters is what that stands for. An NPC is basically, you know, like, you're. You're not. You're not the main character, right? You're just like a sheep. Ultimately, they try to use that to describe anybody who doesn't like Donald Trump when they themselves are the NPCs. Like, they are the ultimate sheep. They are the ultimate NPCs. And I'm not going to sugarcoat, but every time that Donald Trump speaks and shovels this bullshit, they open their mouth and they eat it all the time and regurgitate it. And it's frankly embarrassing. It's horrible for the country. But you see, Trump could say anything, 50 million condoms, whatever, and they will repeat. And you just said 50 million condoms in Gaza. And this is about everything. It's the same thing with everything. One of the things that I've noticed that people will often say, because you, you know, we've been putting out a lot of content all over the place, shout out to everyone who's following us on Instagram and TikTok and all and all the other, you know, places as well. But I notice whenever I do stories there about Doge, people are like, oh, another person who doesn't want the government to find waste, fraud and abuse. What are you afraid of, huh? You're afraid, you're upset that they're finding all this fraud and abuse. Give me one example. Give me one ex. One example of fraud and not things that you don't like that the government spends money on. But give me one example of actual fraud. Because so far, literally every single thing that Elon Musk has spread on his propaganda platform has been fake, has been 100% fake. But the NPCs in Maga just repeated ad nauseam every single time. And they say the same lines to me. It's like. It's like they're reading from a script. And maybe a lot of them are Russian bots, I don't know. But I think a lot of them are just sheep. I think a lot of them are just MAGA NPCs who just regurgitate whatever Elon Musk and Donald Trump say, and they just spout it back to you, and it's. It's frankly embarrassing.

[Ben Meiselas]

We.

[Jordy Meiselas]

We see this now across every lever of government, and there are issues there. There are literally organ agencies in the government that are designed to identify waste, fraud and abuse. Inspectors general are also there to identify waste, fraud and abuse. Guess what? Doge's first move was to try to get rid of them or to get rid of them. That's not what you do if you're actually targeting waste, fraud and abuse. The entire thing is a scam. The people are getting scammed on this and people need wake up and stop buying the bullshit that billionaires are shoveling their way. By the way, you think you're going to see any of that money telling you you're not? You know what you're gonna see? You're gonna see they right now are trying to. This whole Doge concept right now is just so they could try to justify when they give their four and a half trillion dollars in tax cuts to billionaires, they're gonna say, but look, we saved all this money, so now we're giving these big tax cuts when the numbers that they're saying they saved are fake and the actual addition to the deficit to the national debt is going to be astronomical. They say they care about the national debt, the economy, inflation, they're making it all worse. And we are right now on a very terrifying trajectory for our economy and for the country as a whole with these people in charge.

[Karen Friedman Agnifolo]

1,000%, Brett. 1,000%. And I would, I just want to go back to your point about these, these, these MAGA NPCs, right? How you're talking about how they're all must be reading from the same script. Well, in many cases they are. Right, because where are they getting their news from? All of the same sources, right. They live on Elon's X, formerly Twitter, they eat that stuff up daily. Everything that that algorithm continues to push, the algorithm controlled by the owner, Elon Musk. Right. And then if they're not on say, say, say you're not on X or social media outlet, then where are you? Well, if you're a right wing maga, you're probably on Fox News digesting those same talking points which lend themselves as a, you know, we're doing concentric circles here, a magnificent overlap of what you see on Fox to what you see on the talking points being pushed out on social media. And that's why it feels like a regurgitation of a script that we see from these NPC magas. It's because day in and day out, they are getting hammered with these talking points and they only know that to be true because they don't care to do any other, you know, sort of thinking outside of that. I don't blame them necessarily, because you have to understand this is a billions, trillions of dollar operation to just propagandize these people. It's hard to pull them out of the bubble. I understand. Once you're sucked into it. How quickly you could go down a rabbit hole and truly understand, or at least think you understand, that what you're watching is the truth. It's a scary thing. But here's the thing. This, this Republican Party, this MAGA Republican Party that we see in 2025, they're not the party for the average American. No, they're not. No siree. They are the party, party of oligarchs and billionaires and, and the ultra 1%. They are not the party. This MAGA Republican Party in 2025. They are not the party for the working class. And we have to continue to hammer that point home, day in and day out.

[Jordy Meiselas]

They're losers. Let me just say. Sorry, you go, Ben.

[Ben Meiselas]

I was just going to say that many of the inspectors general were actually people who were brought in by Trump, that former President Biden, and kept on because that's what the rules and norms usually call for. And again, Brett, as you said, those were the people who detected the tens of billions or hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud. There's a transparent process. They prepare reports. They actually show up in front of Congress and they work with members of Congress. They don't try to hide behind executive privilege. Privilege, and they're transparent. The thing about Elon Musk, I want you to all know, and you may be confused, like why is it a big deal, guys, that Elon Musk is saying that he has all of these different positions and on the one hand they say that he's the administrator of Doge or a special advisor. Why are they doing that? Well, what they want to try to do is make him immune from oversight. They don't want him to be called into Congress. They don't want him to have to respond to FOIA requests, Freedom of Information act requests. So when they call him, and you see right here, for those who are listening on audio, our viewers can see it, it was him, Elon Musk, running around at CPAC today with a chainsaw. They don't want this guy in front of Congress. So why they say he's a special advisor to Donald Trump and not the administrator of Doge, even though they said he's the administrator of Doge. Doge is to claim that all of his information is protected by the Presidential Records act, executive privilege and other immunities. So he doesn't have to testify. He doesn't have to actually make his numbers public. He doesn't have to justify his numbers. So he can just post different things on his social media platform. You Know, like one of the things that he posted on his social media platform. I'll just give you an example of today where the commander of the International Space Station called out Musk for lying about the plans to bring those astronauts who have been in space home. So Andreas Mogensen, who's the ISS commander, International Space Station, by the way, responding to one of the people at Midas Touch, who was playing a clip where Elon Musk said that Biden left these astronauts in space for political reasons. The commander of ISS says that's a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty publicity from the mainstream media. So I want to just give you a trigger warning because Elon Musk uses the R word. But then Elon Musk and I want to say it because I want to educate you on what's being said. Elon Musk then goes to the commander of the International Space Station, you are fully retarded. And then he goes on to attack him more and then he says return was for political reasons, idiot. To which the commander of ISS says, elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at Spade, at SpaceX and Texas Tesla, you know as well as I do that. But that Butch and Sonny are returning with Crew 9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on the International Space Station since last September. And then Elon Musk makes a post about him wanting to abolish the International Space Station after that, after getting into a fight simply because the commander was being respectful and said what you're saying is not the truth. One other point I'll say as well, that press conference I was showing you with Donald Trump where a lot of those clips were coming from. And this is Brett, to your point, like I call them the sheeple or NPCs, whatever. Like Trump is giving this press conference from a Saudi Arabian financial institution event that he's hosting at like his resorts. So Saudi first, he's got the negotiations in Riyadh with Russia first, cutting out our NATO allies. And at this event, again, while inflation is rising, while our economy is now struggling once again after former President Biden got it back on track after the damage caused in the first Trump administration. Objectively, Donald Trump is at a Saudi event event at a resort, bragging about how rich he is and how great his properties are with the United States presidential seal behind him. Here, let's play this clip.

[Brett Meiselas]

I've Actually built a lot of great buildings with the Desert family and some others. We've had tremendous success in Miami. We have Trump Towers and Sunny Isles Beach. It's four beautiful buildings right on the ocean. The Trump Grande put the little E in the end for a little class it up a little bit. Trump Grande and the 700 acre Doral. It's a tremendous country club. And it's actually the most successful country club in the US where I was just given approval to build 1,500 units. And I couldn't care less about building units. When you're president, who the hell wants to build units? I've been building units all my life. I don't want to build units, but they gave us permission to do it.

[Ben Meiselas]

Well, you're talking about building units there. That's how you're using your time. And you are screwing over Americans. By the way, Brett, you showed that clip before of the video that you played of Elon Musk just running around with the chainsaw. And I believe it was the leader of Argentina, Javier Milei. Yeah, that's Javier Milei right there. There. Who's embroiled in his own crypto scam in Argentina. Now people are calling for him to be impeached. There's formal charges that are like, being brought against him in Argentina for telling people to buy the Libra crypto, which turned out to be a massive rug pull, causing people to lose lots of money. And it was actually the same person who was involved in the Melania dollar sign Melania coin as well. And so for Donald Trump to say, I don't really care about these things. Well, you're selling like your own meme coins and you're doing deals. This. This whole event you were doing in Riyadh was a business event with the presidential seal behind you.

[Jordy Meiselas]

It's a entire movement. And I'm speaking even beyond maga, I'm speaking. There's an entire international movement of grifters and con artists who are taking over these. These countries. Malay is just another example of that with his coin, which was a total rug pool. And now he may actually be charged over it. And you see what they do is they take advantage of the most needy people. They take advantage of the most desperate people who ironically are often their followers. And so we see that play out in all of these areas that they promise these desperate people these things. These people just taken the information and they regurgitated, as we've been saying through these episodes. And we just have to understand the war is far greater than even Politics, it crosses borders. And what we're facing right now is it's truly an information war. Right now what we are facing and we are up against a ton of money, we're up against a ton of garbage billionaires who control algorithms on various social media apps, basically state run TV in many respects. And so that's why it's really genuinely more important than ever that we continue to band together, push back with the truth, push back with pro democracy media and call out the BS every step of the way. Because what they've learned and, and this is why they say the condom thing and why the numbers change and always go up, is not only is lying an effective strategy for them, but the bigger and the crazier and the more absurd the lie, the more likely their NPC people are going to repeat that lie. They've learned that it's a loyalty test and the people are happy to do their bidding. And so what do we got to do? Well, we got to counter it. We need to call it out and we need a full on opposition every single day to inform the American people. And I want to let you know also, because I'm sure a lot of you folks spend a lot of time on social media and I'm sure plenty of you spend time on Twitter. I know a lot of you don't know, a lot of you quit. But to the people that do, you get a very skewed sense of the world on those apps because they're. The algorithms are controlled by people who want to feed you a certain message that's not necessarily the message of the public. Which is why I actually like seeing what these polls say about what people are feeling because it reveals a simple fact that there is far more of apparent us than there are of them. That was true before the election, it is true now. They are trying to pretend like they have this mandate, this massive majority bs. It is garbage. We have the energy, we have the momentum. We need to be hammering these messages home every single minute, every single hour, every single day.

[Ben Meiselas]

I think that's why the story broke through about the Midas Touch podcast beating Rogan in the ratings. Because. Because it shows that people want to hear the truth and it shows that there's hope out there to get out this information. When I speak to people, when I see people in the chat, when I see people out and about, they say, ben, just tell me where I got to show up. I'm ready to take to the streets and peacefully protest. You just tell me where and when. And we're seeing the protests start to grow organically. We cover them here on the Midas Touch network. Unlike corporate media which tends to suppress these you're seeing a huge rally, tens of thousands of people over this past week in New York and people took to the streets across the country. And one of the things that we're going to do here as we build this network and we get to 5 million and 10 million people subscribed and then we keep connecting our subscribers tribers internationally standing in solidarity with peace loving pro democracy people in Canada and Mexico and Europe and Australia and New Zealand and South America and Africa and across the globe. We're going to have to band together to stop these forces of disinformation. That is one of our priorities and we're going to be helpful in that process, especially as I think and I expect there to be a democracy spread Spring, a democracy Summer where our voices will be heard in a massively historic way as people are mobilized and activated. We still have a lot to discuss. I want to remind everybody if you want to meet Brett, jordy and myself, patreon.com Midas Touch There's a secret link there where we will have our Zoom meeting as soon as this episode ends. Give us a few minutes to sign on because sometimes it takes a little a few minutes, but then we'll start. Ask us any questions that you want. You could ask particularly tough questions to Jordy if you want as well. Let's do it. Remind everybody. Subscribe on both the audio podcast and the YouTube. So audio listeners, YouTube, YouTube YouTube watchers subscribe on Audio we'll be right back after our last quick break.

[Jordy Meiselas]

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[Karen Friedman Agnifolo]

Let's go Qualia and Manicora, two of my favorite sponsors on the network. If you guys got any of those products, Manicora or Qualia, put it in the chat. Comments Right now I'm real curious. Let everyone know what you think. Honest opinions because I frankly love them. Links in description of audio and YouTube use the links. Use the codes. Excited for the rest of the show. For any new Listeners just want to say thank you for tuning in. Excited about that. This is an egoless movement, know what I mean? Like we at the Midas Touch Network, it's not about us, the brothers, Ben, Brett or Jordy, who, you know, may have founded it. We're the vehicle to get out the, the pro democracy voice and the ideals. We always say it's this community, the Midas mighty community, that that makes us, you know, want to get up every single day and get the truth out there. And it's up to y'all to continue to run with the receipts that we bring to these podcasts to show your circles. So I just wanted to thank you for tuning in. We're going to keep this thing going. Benji, where to?

[Ben Meiselas]

And look, we have a lot of other voices on the network as well. You know, we have people like renowned former prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifolo, who's on the front lines of handling some of the biggest cases in the country as we speak. We've got great hosts like Michael Popak and I can go on and list all of our hosts, but you should check out the list also, you know, on our website. I mean, these are experts who have got the facts. They're former federal prosecutors, you know, former politicians, people in the weeds who deliver the information with a level of expertise. So we try to give you that perspective as well.

[Jordy Meiselas]

I should say, also, if people want to get really into the weeds. On the legal, we got a great legal show where Ben likes to nerd out on the legal with our incredible legal experts like Karen and Michael Popak and Dina Dahl. You can check out the Legal AF podcast as well on Apple and Spotify and goes live on YouTube. Check it out. I'm sure you guys will really love that show as well.

[Ben Meiselas]

Well, you know, could you imagine what that testimony of Elon Musk would look like before the DOGE Subcommittee? I just want everybody to think about this concept, though, that every time the Democrats try to subpoena Elon Musk, it gets blocked by the Republicans in the House of Representatives. They won't even allow debate to take place. To subpoena Elon Musk, to have him show up at his own quote, unquote subcommittee that's being led by Marjorie Taylor Greene called the Doge Subcommittee. How do you not appear before your own subcommittee? Right, like the FBI director has to show up. Right? Like the Attorney General has to show up. Right. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has to show up and testify before Congress. You're. It's called a Public servant. Servant. And you're doing public service because you have to be accountable. Being accountable doesn't mean spreading disinformation on social media and then saying, oh, there and then calling people the R word and picking fights with people and having baby mamas appear and then attack you on social media and then you block your baby mamas with 13 babies. Like Musk or whatever. Like, like, that's not what being a public servant is about. It's about serving the people. So you should want to testify and justify it and let the Congress or the congressional members ask you questions. This is Elon Musk a little bit earlier today at cpac. I truly can't understand what he's even really. It's kind of just gibberish. Here, play this clip. If you got to protect the First Amendment, it's not much more important than that. Yeah, I mean, I got a lot of criticism, and people said, well, that.

[Brett Meiselas]

Proves he's a huge idiot from a.

[Ben Meiselas]

You know, like, look, you know, he bought it for whatever, $44 billion, and now it's worth like 8 cents. And it's not worth 8 cents. But, you know, but the. Yeah, it was essentially to, you know, buy freedom of expression. So I just want you to remember, you can go back earlier to the episode where I showed you the clip of Donald Trump when he was asked about Doge and he was like, ooh, did you feel that bump? Ooh, oh, do you want to search for some gold in the mountains in Fort Knox? And the people were asking him questions like, but are you firing FAA officials? Because there's been nine plane crashes already while you've been golfing in Mar a Lago seemingly every single day? Like, what are you doing with FAA officials? What are you doing with the people who work at our natural or national parks? Where do you doing with Department of Labor? What are you doing with the crisis hotline? You know, that is so necessary for our veterans? What are you doing with nine, 11 responders? And they're just there giving a bunch of gibberish because they know what they're doing is wrong. Otherwise, they would go in front of Congress and they would talk about it, and they would do actual transparent reports and not this crap that we're seeing. And one of the things I've noticed that they've been doing as well, the same way Maga Republic Republicans have tried to normalize school shootings. And they, they, you know, they're like, it's just part of going. It's just part of living. You have to have school shootings. No. It's uniquely an American thing based on the warped interpretation of the second amendment by our far right wing supreme court and Republicans. 70% of Americans, 75% of Americans want common sense gun reform. It's because these MAGA Republicans are in the pocket of gun companies. And also, also I think just death, I think they're in the pocket of. It seems that everything they want to do is somehow, you know, they could have all the money in the world. It just seems like sometimes they just want people to suffer too. In addition to being in the pocket of the gun line, they just want to see suffering. Because I think a lot of these people are just sick people. But anyway, the point I'm making is the same way they've normalized, you know, weapons of war proliferating and school shootings, they're trying to now normalize plane crime crashes. And they're like, yeah, the airplanes crash. That is what happens. More happened under Biden, which is false. Also, Donald Trump's been in office now for just about 30 days too. And there was never a commercial plane crash while former President Biden was running the country here. But play this clip of Duffy.

[Marco Rubio]

But again, air crashes happen, but there were more under Biden than, than Donald Trump. But the point here is we want to get to a place where we have zero crashes. We don't want to people to die in aircraft. Which is why what I've done is focus on how do you upgrade the system. But will you look at what's happened? The airspace around DCA that was allowed to stay open under the last administration, the inspections that were done of the aircraft that have crashed, that was done under the last administration. So it is rich that they would come at this administration for the mistakes that they've made and blame us for the crashes. We're going to fix what they refuse to fix over the course of their four years. And, and that's the mission of this, this department.

[Ben Meiselas]

Do you sense the pattern here? Because when they were not in power at the executive branch level, every day they blamed everything on Biden as Biden tried to fix the dumpster fire caused by Trump being the arsonist who imploded our economy. Now, if you just want to know the facts and the data, Donald Trump objectively added $8 trillion dollars in debt. Donald Trump printed money recklessly, surprise, surprise, ran up the debt and then screwed up our supply chains. He was not prepared for coven. He said like a miracle, it was all going to go away. And then Biden had to fix it, it took time to fix. And every time Biden tried to fix it, despite all of the media saying that there was a. Remember The Bloomberg headline, 100% chance of receiving recession? Biden got a soft landing. And then America's GDP surge. We led the world in GDP growth. We were beating China in GDP growth. 16.4 million jobs created 40,000 infrastructures. The Chips act brought the semiconductor industry here to the United States, bringing more jobs. The Inflation Reduction act, the American Recovery Act. President Biden was not attacking veterans the way Trump is. Instead, President Biden had the PACT act, which increased services to veterans. Former President Biden did not try to gut Medicaid and Medicare. Quite the contrary. He tried to make, and he did make prescription drug prices more affordable. He capped prescription drug prices. Every day was just fighting for how you help people and use the government to give people things, not use the government to bludgeon and hurt people. But now that the Trump administration's in power and they made all of these promises and right away they're causing devastation with our economy. They blame everything on Biden, Biden, Biden. There was not crashes every day taking place under Biden. We were headed for 2% inflation. Under Biden, which is right around where you want him, interest rates would have dropped even lower. And now interest rates are not dropping because inflation is back up. And now the American people believe that inflation's going to rise three and a half, four, 4.2% or even higher. Americans have a very dim view of the economy. Americans are now spending less because they're hoarding money, believing, I think rightfully so, that America's economy is now on a crash course with Donald Trump's reckless behavior. And one of the patterns here we see over and over again is Trump is firing the smart, qualified people and he's bringing in the worst of the worst, corrupt and stupid people. Case in point, Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, is a former Fox News host. He's not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense. Former President Biden. We had a guy named Lloyd Austin, four star general who was our Secretary of defense, who respected our military. Now we have Pete Hegseth out there who talks about conquering Gaza, sending the United States military into Gaza and all of these countries. And now what we learn today, today, courtesy of NBC. Breaking this story, is that Pete Hegseth, again, a Fox News host with the history of alcohol and sexual assault allegations and never ran something, is considering firing a slate of military generals as early as this week, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff who got overwhelming support from the Senate. CQ Brown and I'll show you this video right here just so you can see see it. Just take a look. You'll see CQ Brown sitting behind chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Pete Hegseth. And this was from about a few weeks back or two weeks ago. It seems like an eternity ago though. This is when they were talking about occupying Gaza which followed them occupying Canada and Panama and Colombia and other countries. This was the the Gaza occupation day. But watch behind Pete Hegseth here. Play this clip.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Mr. Secretary, are you working plan to.

[Ben Meiselas]

Send troops to Gaza?

[Jordy Meiselas]

Are you working on options for the.

[Ben Meiselas]

President right now that would involve US Troops in Gaza?

[Jordy Meiselas]

The President is involved in very complex and high level negotiations of great consequence to both the United States and the state of Israel. And we look forward to working with our allies, our counterparts, both diplomatically and militarily.

[Ben Meiselas]

Do you see the chairman of the Joint Chiefs staff behind him kind of like like wince like when he was saying that like oh my God. So they're trying to get rid of that guy. Cash Patel got confirmed today. So that's the new FBI director sector by a vote of 51 to 49% you have this United States attorney, this guy Ed Martin who's now sending letters to Congress that he's using the United States attorney's office in D.C. to criminally investigate like Democratic Congressmember Robert Garcia because he didn't like how Robert Garcia told that people should protest. So he told Garcia he wants clarification because Garcia's words may be criminal. I mean that is it's corruption stupid sandwich is this Trump administration writ large with the dumbest people. Sean Duffy's who got famous on Real World Road Rules Challenge. Give me one point Brett, then I'll throw it over to you because I got this train of thought right now. Even the person who they said was the pro labor moderate person, right like Chavez Darimo, a Republican congresswoman from Oregon. And her whole thing was that she, she claimed she supported the pro act which would be help union workers. And so she branded herself as pro worker but now that she's in the Trump administration, when she testified as to be the labor secretary. Well let me just show you the questioning by Bernie Sanders. You support the proactive.

[John Mueller]

Thank you ranking member Sanders and I appreciate the conversation. I support the American worker President Trump.

[Ben Meiselas]

Okay, I don't mean to be rude. We don't have a lot of time. I am gathering that you no longer support the pro act is what I Hear that? You support the American worker. That's what everybody here will say. What do you feel about the Butch Lewis Act?

[John Mueller]

I support the Butch Lewis act in protecting their retirements.

[Ben Meiselas]

You will go to the wall to go to the mat supporting it.

[John Mueller]

I do support protecting people's retirements.

[Ben Meiselas]

Do you support raising the minimum wage to a living wage ranking member?

[John Mueller]

Sanders, you know that that is an issue for Congress to determine. And raising the minimum wage, as Secretary of Labor, I cannot weigh in on that. That's determined by Congress. If they want to negotiate that, I will fully and fairly enforce the law. As a labor secretary, are you concerned.

[Ben Meiselas]

That we do not have a functioning LRB now?

[John Mueller]

Well, again, I have not been read in with President Trump, but he has a right to exercise his executive power. And I do believe the NLRB has an important role independent of the Department of Labor. And I respect their position as an independent agency.

[Ben Meiselas]

The question was, are you okay with the fact that Trump, you're the labor Secretary? Are you. You okay with the fact that he gutted the National Labor Relations Board that recognizes unions and hears grievances? What's your view on a living wage? You're the labor secretary. What's your view that labor should be able to live? What's your view of the pro act, the right to union? I guys can't answer those questions, but I got to tell you, you know, you got Sean O'Brien over at the Teamsters, you know, who's went to Mar a Lago, thumbs up, he thought that was great. The leader of the teams. I don't know how the rank and file, you know, can deal with this guy, but there's a whole nother topic in a whole nother video. But, Brett, sorry, I just wanted to show you even Darima Chavez, who people like, oh, she's. When she goes there, these people are all spineless clowns.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Yeah. And I got to admit, you know, my own fault here because for a while I was told that she was like the pro labor one, and I was like, oh, well, at least Trump put somebody pro labor, you know, for this position. It turns out she's reversed everything that she ever said she believed in for Donald Trump. And the, and the head of the Teamsters apparently loves her for. And shame on that guy, right? Sean O'Brien, honestly, what a traitor to his, to his union to back these people who are destroying unions who are destroying workers who are going to lead these people to slaughter. It's quite frankly, disgusting. But when I watch all of this, when I see people like Bernie Sanders out there bringing the heat during those hearings. When I see people like, not sure if you said JB Pritzker's speech yesterday in Illinois. Phenomenal, fantastic. Exactly the kind of fight fighter that we need right now. And when you see these voices out there, whether it's, you know, Jasmine Crockett, an aoc, an auchincloss, you know, whoever may be the people who are out there who are throwing punches and are doing a good job, I think that's great. And I think we need to continue to push members of Congress to do as much as possible every single day. I think there are some people doing a fantastic job. A lot of them are not meeting the moment. Say that happily. Not happily. I'll say that honestly, definitely not. But some of them really are doing a great job. But at the end of the day, I've been thinking about the famous words of JFK a lot in the past few days. The most famous thing he's ever said, probably ask not what your country could do for. For you, ask what you can do for your country. And I think right now, those words are resonating with me more than ever, because we could look to all these institutions, right? You could look to the courts, you could look to politicians, you could look to whoever. But I don't think that's where we need to be looking right now. I think we need to be looking at ourselves and what we could all be doing, the ways we could be organizing, protesting, speaking out, demanding that members of Congress do what they promised they do, that they actually put up a fight. And I think if we're able to coalesce and build this coalition and continue to knock down Donald Trump's approval ratings by exposing him the way we are, I think the power that we are going to see of the people is going to be the thing that saves this country ultimately. And that's why I love when I look out, not on the news, but when I see on social media and on the Midas Touch network, when I see these protests forming, when I see the people speaking up, speaking loud, loudly, loudly and demanding action. And I want to see more of that. And we all need to be thinking every single day, what could we be doing? Do we have a skill? Maybe you're an artist, maybe you write songs, maybe you want to make phone calls. I don't care what it is. But every day we should be thinking, is there something I could do today to try to save my country? Because we need to take the responsibility and ownership of this as much as it sucks as much as none of us asked for this, but I don't, I don't even think this is not a partisan thing at all. This is about democracy. This is about our country. This is about normalcy. And what we're seeing right now with Trump and Doge, this operation, which I think is a whole kind of foreign influence operation, all kind of both from within and from overseas, it's horrifying. And we should all be united in pushing back against that. Regardless of whether you consider yourself the leftiest of lefties, the most conservative person on the planet, moderate, I don't care where you. You are right. This is an existential crisis that we're all facing. So it's time to come together.

[Karen Friedman Agnifolo]

And it's very clear people are angry. I mean, they are taking to the streets. We cover the protests here, just like we showed right there. Brett, in that shot. What's happening here is this entire administration just gaslighting the entire American people, gaslighting the world, right? Donald Trump, no tax on tips. Where is that? Oh, no, look at, look at, look at this shiny object over here. Look at this over here. Everything that he essentially campaigned on, that, that got people excited. Excited. I mean, the no tax on tips one is like the most infuriating one to me because that was such a staple of his campaign, but yet he dodges every question when asked about it. It's an unbelievable thing. You look at fee on Fox News. I mean, gaslighting 101, there's, there's more plane crashes under the Biden administration than the Trump administration. Y'all been in, in office now for three weeks. I'm hearing about a plane incident every other day at this point. What are we talking about? And then the stats that Duffy threw out. I'm not going to go point by point, but just completely made up like, like, just completely falsified. And this goes back to our conversation earlier about the NPC scripts, right? Because now that's the Fox News touch point that are getting the, the MAGA talking points and the scripts out there. Actually, did you know there was more plane crashes under Biden administration, the Trump administration, And that's what they roll out. And it's just an unbelievably gaslit administration administration that is infuriating the American people. And that's why we are seeing such an energized community here at the Midas Touch Network and taking to the streets all across the country.

[Ben Meiselas]

Well, what they're telling their people is on Fox and they're saying, why Wouldn't you trust the billionaires? Look, billionaire, this is what they say. Billionaires are so rich that they don't need your money. They don't need. They're doing this out of the goodness of their heart. Let the billionaire errors go through your. Let them, let them have your Social Security. What are they going to do with it? You think they're going to do something bad with it? Let them have your medical records. What are you afraid to show the billionaires? Just give it to them. What? Your Social Security data. Just what do you think they're going to do? Give the billionaires. Give, give the billionaires that data, that access to your tax records and, and the payment processing systems of the irs. What do you think they're going to do? Try to avoid paying taxes and then go after their enemies with the IRS says, come on, these are billionaires. These are the best of the best. That's what they're trying to sell to their audience. And Brett, to your point, that's why you say this shouldn't be a Democrat thing to say. That's crazy. It should be a human being thing. If you're not a billionaire, you should, even if you are kind of a billionaire and you're not the must type, whatever even you're just a, a worker and you're, and you're trying to support your family. Family, you should not want these billionaires doing this crap and hurting you and hurting your family. That's what they are doing and that shouldn't be a partisan issue. So I think, Brett, to your point, power to the people is the mantra and this is a people powered network. You know, it's, I think that's one of the reasons or the main reason this network grew is that it is people powered and it's fueled by you, the Midas mighty. And again, I'm humbled and honored, honored that me and my brothers can host this program and speak to millions of people. I think it was close to 59 million downloads for the month or what the number was. That's incredible. But what really matters to me is the reach of growing people and having an impact and making a difference and getting this information out to more people and then having all of you share this information with people that you know, because I want an America that's caring and empathetic and loving and that cares about democracy and supports our allies, that cares about future generations and that where we have respect and, and we have our democracy back. That's what I want. And we're going to be in this with you every step of the way, shoulder to shoulder here. We will keep growing this network with you. For all of our new listeners and viewers, it's so great to have you here. I, I hope you like this programming and it's different than what you've kind of heard anywhere else. We're trying to re envision, deconstruct and reconstruct what we think the media should be. Fact based, unapologetic, pro democracy, fearless. That's what we're going to stand for here each and every day. Make sure you're subscribed. We're on our way to 5 million subscribers. Let's try to hit that 5 million mark soon. And I can't wait to speak to you now at patreon.com Midas Touch P A T R O N.com Midas Touch we'll see you there. Thank you everybody for watching. Thank you mods. Thank you Midas Mighty. Thank you everyone. We're so appreciative and grateful for you. Jordy.

[Karen Friedman Agnifolo]

Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

[Ben Meiselas]

Standing strong.

[Jordy Meiselas]

Against the fascist.

[Ben Meiselas]

We sing our song.

[Karen Friedman Agnifolo]

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