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- [02:39]
Benji
Vanta to prove trust. Go to vanta.com calm. Donald Trump's disastrous and unlawful war in Iran continues to spiral out of control. In terms of the conditions taking place on, on the ground, on the battlefield, essentially nothing has changed. And if anything has changed, things have escalated and only devolved into more utter chaos. Yet earlier in the morning, Donald Trump released a message lying, manipulating the markets and saying that in essence, a deal in principle was reached with Iran in order to create peace in the region. Donald Trump's post was made right before the markets were set to open. What we saw with the markets were that the markets were about to crash, the stock markets about to crash, the oil markets about to surge to levels that had never been seen before. The bond market, 10, 20 year treasury yields started surging. So Donald Trump, in typical Trumpian fashion, lies, makes up that a deal has essentially been entered with key decision makers in Iran and our markets get manipulated and react to that. And all of a sudden, you see right before the markets are about to open, all of the futures turn in positive directions. Now, about 20 or 30 minutes later, Iranian officials respond at various levels within the Iranian Islamic Republic. And they say, we've had no such communications at all. There hasn't been direct nor indirect communications. We're not talking to Witkoff, we're not talking to Kushner, we're not talking to anybody. Then Donald Trump said, well, I guess they don't have good public relations people or I actually think the deal we're working out is that Trump, he goes that me and the Ayatollah will control the Strait of Hormuz together. That makes zero sense. Donald Trump also said that he believes the discussions are going very powerfully in the right direction. But if they don't, we'll see what happens in five days. Maybe then there'll be annihilation of Iran, not the Islamic Republic, but of Iran. So what happens in five days? That's when the markets close again. So Donald Trump comes up with this five day, obvious, in my opinion, market manipulation scheme. The leader of the Iranian Parliament coming out and saying, no such discussions have taken place at all. You have other leaders of the Iranian within the Iranian government saying, we're not having any communications at all. And while all of this is taking place, sources familiar with details have been telling the Jerusalem Post and others that US Force deployments are starting to arrive. As Amiki Stein explains, Currently planned 2500 Marines, approximately 2000 sailors, three amphibious ships, 3000 paratroopers from the 86th Airborne Division. The staging is taking place right now for a full fledged ground invasion, paratrooper invasion to basically take over Kharg Island. Now, the top generals, admirals and others familiar with the region have all predicted that if the United States does that, it will be a total and utter death trap. But that actually seems to be where things are moving towards. Then, before we went live, what we heard is that through Turkish intermediaries or perhaps Pakistani intermediaries, the Trump regime has tried to reach out to have JD Vance speak with either possession, the President of Iran or the head of Iran's parliament, GB Gallobaoff, or potentially others, since Iran refuses to talk to Witkoff and Kushner. So after Donald Trump manipulates the market, claims there's discussions, then afterwards, Donald Trump then tries to say, okay, well, why don't we do conversations between J.D. vance and Iran? But at least based on the most recent reporting before this recording took place, Iran hasn't even responded to this request. Instead, Iranian embassies across the world are posting memes mocking Donald Trump and the United States. In one such meme, it features a baby steering wheel next to the main steering wheel of a car in the Iranian Embassy of South Africa. Writes the straight of her moves will be controlled by me and the Ayatollah with an emoji, with sunglasses and an emoji with a smiley face, again mocking Donald Trump. We're going to cover all of that, of course, on this episode. And from the outset, we should talk about big news for the Midas Touch Network. As many of you may know by now, the Midas Touch Network was proud to welcome today Scott McFarland, who has joined the Midas Touch Network as Our Chief Washington D.C. correspondent. In addition, the Midas Touch Network will be Working with Scott McFarlane on his own media company, Scott McFarland Reports, which will feature his YouTube in his substack. And so part of the Midas Touch Network growth strategy and the way we intend to work with lots of the top reporters who, as you know, are leaving corporate news by the droves, is to say, on the one hand, let's work with the Midas Touch Network. We have such an incredible community here of the Midas Mighty. Then let us help you build your independent media platforms where the Midas Mighty can watch you, where you own everything, everything belongs to you. And we're here to help as a partner to fuel that growth. And it was an incredible launch today. And it was also interesting to see state regime media, which calls itself Fox, was attacking us. Stephen Chung, Donald Trump's communication director, was attacking us. And then we got great compliments by the right people, attacked by the right people. So it was quite the interesting day to observe. But, boy, are we lucky to have Scott McFarland join our network. We're going to continue to grow this thing day by day. Brett and Jordi, it's so great to see you both on this historic day for the Midas Touch Network. And as we talk about this country, a day that I think will go down in history as a very pathetic moment for this country.
- [10:13]
Brett
I could not agree more. And it's great to be with you, Ben. It's great to be with you, Jordi. Great to be with you. Midas Mighty. And thank you for the incredible reception today after we made this massive, massive announcement. This is a historic day for the Midas Touch Network. A historic day for all of you. I think this really shows right now what what we are building this pro democracy media platform that extends far beyond even just the three of us, elevating all these personalities who are the best of the best. And Scott is the best of the best. He is so incredible. He is a legend, a true legendary reporter. Previously was at CBS News. Now he is with us here at Midas Touch. He does great enterprise reporting, investigative reporting, and it's such an honor to have him. I want to make sure everybody goes and subscribes to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel. Go there right now. Just search Scott McFarland on the YouTube and you'll be able to subscribe. I'll also put a link in the podcast description below. And thank you again. And also, Ben, like you said, like having the when certain people attack you, I view it as a badge of honor. So when you have the Trump White House attacking us over this, when you have Fox attacking us over this, I think that shows that we're right on target. And this continues the expansion of our D.C. bureau, previously bringing on Pablo Manriquez, who's been doing great reporting inside the US Capitol. Of course, we have the Katie Fang Channel and Katie is crushed it. And Katie's got a podcast coming out this week and we'll have more on that soon. But let's get to the news. You know, we woke up today on the west coast quite early to the news of Donald Trump's taco. As, as it's come to be known, Trump always chickens out. And Trump was reversing his threat against the Iranian regime. He had given them 48 hours to basically open the Strait of Hormuz for us and stop the fighting, stop everything and or, you know, Iran will face Annihilation, you know, that was his, his big threat. And then today, as be right before the markets opened, he tacoed on that. And it just the lying though, makes the United States of America look so weak. And what I cannot understand, brothers and Midas mighty, is how people keep falling for this BS every single time. But at this point, Donald Trump knows if he says, I had a conversation with the Iranian regime and we got a deal, and this deal's about to happen by now, after Donald Trump has made up all of these fake trade deals over and over again, all only to be refuted either minutes later or hours later or whatever it is by the very countries that he claims to have a deal with, why are we still giving this guy the headlines that he wants? Why are markets listening to this bs? Nothing has changed. Things have only gotten worse. And Donald Trump is making the United States look deranged because he's basically is the representative of the country and he is deranged and he is being mocked ruthlessly by Iran and by countries all over the world. It's just absolutely insane. And we're going to dive into all of it. But first, you know, I got to toss it over to Jordy. Got to check in, make sure all is well. Jordy, what's the latest?
- [13:17]
Jordi
What's up, brothers? What's up? Midas mighty. Scott McFarlane.
- [13:20]
Commercial Announcer
Let's go.
- [13:21]
Jordi
Let's go. Man. I thought that Fox News headline was particularly funny. You know, just the idea of framing us Midas Touch, this far left media company. Far left, man. Because we believe in like human decency. Yeah. Because we believe people should have healthcare. That's what makes you super far left. Because we think that everyone should have equal rights, that such a far lefty principle, people should be able to afford homes. It's just so funny to me, the Murdoch framing and the right wing framing of the Midas Touch network.
- [13:50]
Brett
But hey, Jordi, read the. Read the lower third or the subheader from the Fox News article to the folks because I think it's funny.
- [13:58]
Jordi
Scott McFarlane joins Media Group Midas Touch that is openly hostile to Trump. That's the Fox News lower third there. Their little subtitle to what I'm for our audio listeners. Brett, pull that up one more time really quickly. The Fox News headline was veteran CBS reporter joins far left media company Midas Touch as anger says they share same North Star again. That's just such funny framing from Murdoch and. And Fox and right wing entities. But hey, look, I'm stoked what we're Building here at the Midas Touch Network have never been prouder of what we're building here at the Midas Touch Network. It's all thanks to you guys, the Midas Mighty, and this incredible community. Let's keep this thing going, y'. All. This is awesome. Brett, really quickly to your point about the people falling for Donald Trump's, you know, when he. When he says something and puts it out there, and then the media, you know, they just regurgitate the headline. They just eat the talking points and spit it out. Yeah, no, they're active participants, in my opinion. They're not falling for it. There's nothing to fall for. They're active and willing participants in Trump's Ponzi scheme, market, in his market manipulation and what he's trying to do. They're going along with him for the ride. I was watching CNBC's coverage, Fox Business. I checked out their coverage. That's what I was expecting from a Fox Business coverage. But CNBC and listeners of the show have known that I've been very critical of CNBC for quite some time. And just their coverage on all of this is just so damning. And when you actually watch them regurgitate the Trump propaganda, like bar for bar, it is embarrassing to watch, and it is deeply disturbing. And for me, Brett, Ben, and Midas Mighty, that's why I've never been prouder of what we're building here in this community that we have the voices that we show, receipts that we show, the videos, the data and what's actually happening and whole and hold truth to power every step of the way. Benji, excited for today's show? Where do you want to start off? Big Brother?
- [15:46]
Benji
Let me just show you what the editor at large of the Wall Street Journal, Gerard Baker, wrote. The unsettling reality is that with this president, Americans in wartime are in the unprecedented position of having to suspect that the enemy's version of events is more likely to be true than our own. We have become Baghdad Bob. And I think it is deeply unsettling that that is the case. And I don't think it makes us unpatriotic to try to distill what's really happening in the region based on the videos, the photos, the respective statements, trying to balance the fact that obviously Iran is running a propaganda campaign. Right? That's what goes down in war and peace with regimes like that. Obviously, Donald Trump and Netanyahu and others are running their own propaganda campaign, but it's for us not just to regurgitate propaganda campaigns, but to evaluate to see what's happening, to observe these massive movements of military into the region. American troops being sent there. I was recently in San Diego this weekend. San Diego saw lots of its troops leaving for the Middle East. The USSS Tripoli saw its Marine Expeditionary Units heading to the Middle east to arrive there this week. Out in Fort Bragg, the 82nd Airborne Division saw its elite power paratrooper unit and others now being deployed to the Middle East. So we can observe there's actually a ramp up taking place. We can evaluate what was taking place today in Iran. Israeli strikes in Tehran and the surrounding areas, big strikes by Israel there, retaliatory strikes by Iran. We could evaluate what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz, what's happening there. It's still under the firm grip of the Islamic Republic, so much so that they are now charging toll prices to China and others that are allied with it, making sure that the currency is the yuan over there, so that that's what's being used. Iran is now selling its oil since the United States removed sanctions on Iranian oil during the war, at record profits right now. Right. They are making billions and billions of dollars which then goes into its war machine to build more shahed drones and ballistic missiles. They're also getting parts and resources and intel from Russia. Russia had sanctions removed against it as well for its oil. So Russia is making huge amounts of money right now. We see that happening. You have Treasury Secretary Scott Besant over the weekend saying, this is jiu jitsu. We're jiu jitsuing Iran. Why would we be jiu jitsuing them? It seems that they're making record profits right now and they're on social media mocking the United States for removing these sanctions. I mean, if you just think about it, this is one of the biggest benefits to Iran imaginable. Right. And if Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says removing the sanctions hurts Iran more than keeping these sanctions on, I think you have to think about the logic of that. Well, then why would you have the sanctions in the first place if removing them actually hurts them more? I mean, that's a non sequitur and makes literally zero.
- [19:54]
Brett
It's a good point right there.
- [19:57]
Benji
And so you evaluate these things for yourself and you say, wait a minute, are the statements lining up? And how do we distill, how do we cut through this propaganda? Jordy, to the point that you make at the beginning of the show? I don't think that makes us leftist. I don't think that makes us anything but. But curious truth seekers who are trying to determine what's really going on here, what is really up. So I was curious first that after Donald Trump makes the social media post lying and saying, we've reached a deal with Iran in principle and he's very proud to announce it, and that there'll be five days where we won't be engaged in any strikes on Iran because the negotiations are going so great. Who does Donald Trump call first? CNBC and Fox Business. Why? Because it's a market manipulation plan. So where's he going with this information then? What is he saying on the tarmac? I want to evaluate what he's saying and say, does this make sense at all? So let's evaluate it together. Let's all pretend that we're on a jury and Trump is the witness and he's being cross examined by the lawyer about the statements that he made today, that he's created this great deal with Iran and they're basically essentially done with the deal and things are going in the right direction. So despite the fact that Iran is saying no direct or indirect communications at all, if anything, the United States is cowering and being humiliated after Iran threatened to hit the Arab nation. Civilian energy infrastructure, after Trump threatened to do that first. So let's just evaluate it on the tarmac. Donald Trump, before heading to Tennessee, where he had this weird, weird appearance in Tennessee, where he talked about his relationship with Tennessee and he almost implied comparisons to sexual relationships. I'll get there. I'll get there, even if you don't want me to get there later in the episode. But here's the question. Iran's Foreign Ministry says you're not telling the truth when it comes to productive conversations to end the war. What say you, Donald?
- [22:23]
Brett
Let's play it.
- [22:24]
Benji
Mr. President, Iran's foreign Ministry says you're not telling the truth when it comes to productive conversations to end the world.
- [22:30]
Donald Trump
Well, they're going to have to get themselves better public relations people. We have had very, very strong talks. We'll see where they lead. We have points, major points of agreement. I would say almost all points of agreement. Perhaps that hasn't been conveyed. The communication, as you know, has been blown to pieces. They're unable to talk to each other, but we've had very strong talks. Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner had them. They went, I would say, perfectly. I would say that if they carry through with that, it'll end that problem.
- [23:07]
Benji
Witkoff and Kushner had conversations. You think Iran would have conversations with Witkoff and Kushner? Then why are you floating J.D. vance, you're saying the conversations went perfectly. If they went perfectly, then why wouldn't that be acknowledged by them? If it actually went perfectly?
- [23:26]
Brett
Ben, it was like we always said during these trade deals, right? Normally, when these conversations are had, when people are making trade deals, when they come to agreements, particularly in principle or a final agreement is made, what happens? Typically, there's a plan statement between both parties that are negotiated, that's negotiated by both parties so that the public is getting the information and people know that one side is not bullshitting. But that's not what we've seen through those trade deals, because Those were all B.S. and right now, it's not what we're seeing here. In fact, the contrary, we're seeing Iran mock Donald Trump every time he says these things. And I think, you know, the thing that kind of isn't talked about enough throughout all of this is the poison pill that's involved in any of these negotiations. And the problem that Donald Trump's going to have as he actually goes to make a deal. And that's the last time he had Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner speaking to the Iranians in the middle of those talks. As things looked like they were going well and as it looked like they were reaching a deal, Donald Trump went to war with Iran and invaded Iran and bombed Iran. So this is all. This whole entire process almost feels, again, kind of like this Trojan horse where he kind of delays time, protects the markets, and then, boom, launches an attack. And we're kind of seeing the kind of troops right now. We're seeing the groundwork be laid for that exact thing at this moment. Like, I. I want to show you this, because this is a report that says the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, the amphibious landing dock, USS New Orleans, and roughly 2200 marines from the 30me you will arrive in the Middle east on Friday. Now, why do I think that's interesting? Because Friday is the day where Donald Trump said that this offer expires, and that's when the markets close. And so all of our troops are getting to the Middle east on Friday. When Donald Trump says, you know, this deal is up. And so to me, if I'm the Iranians looking at this or anybody who's studying geopolitics on, like, a basic level, I'm like, you're trying to delay time because you're getting your troops here so that you can invade my country. Like, it seems kind of pretty obvious what's happening. And then Donald Trump, of course, also gets the benefit of these massive Market swings where people in the know are always either shorting the market or betting on the market before Donald Trump makes the announcement. Because people in insiders know what's coming. And it just there's so many schemes going on right now by Trump, but he's like the least trustworthy person on the planet. And with an issue this serious, it just leads to such danger.
- [25:51]
Jordi
That's why it's just so pathetic when you have all these institutions that are literally carrying water for the regime, for the Trump regime, just regurgitating the points. That's why it's so frustrating. That's why I harp on it again. I don't attack media just for the sake of attacking media. I always say this. We need a strong fourth estate in this country. We, we need it. We absolute, it is vital for the survival of this country. But we need people that are going to roll up their sleeves and actually ask the questions and really report on what's going on and not just hide behind a statement that Donald Trump makes on True Social, then air it on the evening coverage.
- [26:20]
Brett
Ban.
- [26:21]
Benji
Right. Being a true patriot, in my opinion, means wanting to ensure that our troops are safe and are protected and that there are clearly defined objectives and missions and that when our troops are being put in harm's way, they and we understand what the hell is going on.
- [26:45]
Brett
Just.
- [26:45]
Benji
I'll show you these clips in a moment. But just think about if the outcome of all of this is what Donald Trump lied about and said the outcome would be that Donald Trump and the Ayatollah form a joint venture agreement. Trump and the Ayatollah, shoulder to shoulder,
- [27:07]
Brett
just like an LLC and S Corp,
- [27:10]
Benji
they form a joint venture and they control the Strait of Hormuz together. So we're sending our troops to die for a Trump Ayatollah entity. And what about all of the pro democracy protesters in Iran back in January who Donald Trump said, we're coming to save you, we're coming to protect you. When you're sending the signal that the best case scenario is a joint venture between yourself and the Ayatollah, what are you signaling to people who may want democracy in the region because they know they do anything, they're going to get slaughtered and killed and you're going to throw them under the bus Also, what are you signaling to the Arab nations and the Arab nations in the region that were involved in all of these pay for play schemes with Donald Trump that personally enriched Donald Trump and his family and Israel are basically saying you can't just leave right now, like, unless you remove Iranian control from the Strait of Hormuz, we won't support anything that you do. So when Arab nations are out there and you may hear them saying, we support more US Involvement against Iran, the alternative for them at this stage now is existential because they've thrown their entire security umbrella with Donald Trump, both in terms of their pay for play and their alliance structure vis a vis Iran and the United States. So the only outcome, and this is why emolument clause violations, personal attachments, personal enrichment is prohibited by our constitution and by other laws because from the Arab nation's perspective, we bought you, you can't leave. We bought you, and if we can buy you, we can sell you. And if you don't think either directly or indirectly those messages are being sent, well, I've got something to sell you. Look at what the head of Iran's parliament's been posting today. Iranian people demand complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors. All Iranian officials stand firmly behind their supreme leader and people. Until this goal is achieved, no negotiations have been held with the US and fake news is used to manipulate financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US And Israel are trapped. This is the guy who the United States is leaking that they're having negotiations with. And then before we went live, he posted the following. Iran is fighting for humanity. The world is either with Gaza and against this colonial terror regime or it stands with the Epstein class and child torturers. There is no middle ground. Gaza, genocide. And this individual keeps making posts like this throughout the day. Then other officials in Iran are saying there's no direct or indirect communications that have been taking place.
- [30:30]
Brett
So doesn't sound like someone is about to close a deal with Trump.
- [30:35]
Benji
Let's go back to the trial dynamic that I was talking about before Trump being cross exam examined. Okay, Donald, you mentioned that there are lots of points of agreement that you have with Iran and you've reached these points of agreement even though everyone in Iran says there hasn't even been any discussions at all. You've said there are discussions and points of agreement. Can you tell us any points of agreement? Let's play this clip of what Donald says.
- [31:03]
Commercial Announcer
You said there's many points of agreement with Iran right now. What can you give us a many?
- [31:07]
Donald Trump
Like 15 points. 15 points, they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. That's number one. That's number one. Two and three, they will never have a nuclear weapon. They've agreed to that.
- [31:20]
Benji
What does that even mean they've agreed. Agreed to that? With what mechanisms have they agreed to that? With what oversight? 15 points. He's not even a good liar. Like it is a very bad liar who's like, like, like that's like how a. No offense to like lying kindergarteners, but like lying kindergarteners would do a better job than that. And it just is very striking that just even what we're watching there is even discussed through a lens of normalcy in the United States. Like what the hell was that? And we're going to show you more of this when we come back from our first quick break. A reminder hit subscribe on our YouTube channel. Let's help grow the Midas Touch YouTube channel to 7 million subscribers. You see today that with our growth, we are certainly under attack by the right wing media, which tells us we're doing the right thing. It's an honor to have Scott McFarlane join our network as our chief Washington D.C. correspondent and for us to work with Scott McFarland on his YouTube channel. So also make sure you all subscribe to @Scott McFarland reports on his YouTube channel. And Scott's got a substack as well. He's got some of the best sourcing in Washington D.C. award winning reporter, a legend. And now with the Midas Touch Network, let's take our first quick break of the show. We will be right back. We have a lot more to cover. Let's take our first quick break.
- [33:01]
Brett
Let me tell you, when I thought my dog was kind of low energy and slowing down a little, I thought maybe it was just aging. But after just a few weeks on rough greens, I started to see a real difference. This stuff is amazing. Now my dog is a Ruff greens dog for life. What I love about ruffgreens is it's not just another dog product. It's packed with live bioavailable nutrients. We're talking essential vitamins, minerals, probiotics, digestive enzymes, omega oils, all working together to improve nutrient absorption, support joints and muscles and just boost overall vitality. But here's the thing. Most dog food is basically dead food. It's shelf stable for years because there's nothing alive in it. Ruff greens brings that nutrition back. And the best part, you don't have to change your dog's food. Just add a scoop of rough greens to whatever they're already eating.
- [33:47]
Scott McFarland
That's it.
- [33:47]
Brett
I've seen the difference firsthand. More energy, better mood, just a healthier dog overall. I don't just recommend rough greens. I depend on it. To keep my dog happy and healthy. Don't change your dog's food. Just add ruffgreens. Ruffgreens is offering a free Jumpstart trial bag. You just cover shipping. Use discount code Midas to claim your free Jumpstart trial bag@ruffgreens.com that's R U F B fgreens.com promo code MIDAS M E I D A S so don't change your dog's food. Just add rough greens and watch the health benefits come Alive.
- [34:21]
Jordi
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- [36:09]
Brett
Wait. Hold on I just want to say I was been watching the subs on Scott McFarlane's YouTube channel over the break and it is skyrocketing right now. And I want to thank everybody for subscribing. Let's keep this energy going. You know, there's just there, you know, there's a hunger for reporting that tells it how it is and doesn't both sides. It doesn't wade into that bullshit. Not about the screaming between people but just getting people the facts. Not buying the bs, not buying the propaganda, just telling it to you straigh. So I think that's why we're seeing such energy and Scott is truly the best of the best. So thank you. Remember, link is in the description of this podcast. Be sure to go and subscribe. And I also want to shout out Katie Fang. As I said, tomorrow night Katie Fang is going to be going live on her YouTube channel for the first time. Katie Fang News. And she's doing her show which we call Sidebar with Katie Fang. And I'm so excited to have Katie Fang back doing a live show. She is also the best of the best. Sidebar with Katie Fang. You could check it out anywhere podcasts are available. It's up right now. If you search Apple Podcasts for Sidebar with Katie Fang, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all those various apps. And the first official episode is going to be tomorrow night on the on the Katie Fang News YouTube channel at 5:30 Eastern, 2:30pm Pacific Time. Be sure make sure you're subscribed to her channel as well. Make sure that you're you are subscribed to her podcast anywhere podcasts are found and let's make it a huge first live show for her.
- [37:34]
Benji
Ben, before the break, we painted a picture for you to try to build a framework of assessing credibility. So I said let's situate ourselves in a courtroom with representations that are being made by the Trump regime about negotiations with Iran that Iran is denying strongly and mocking the Trump regime regime and saying none of this is taking place. And I said imagine that you're on the jury and that Trump is a witness. And we know that Trump likes to invoke the Fifth Amendment a lot when he's a witness. But assume for the sake of argument, assume arguendo here that Donald Trump actually is testifying. A question that then gets asked to him is so if you claim that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are speaking with people in Iran, who are they speaking with? Let's see what Donald Trump says. Let's play It. Steve witkoff speaking with Mr. President.
- [38:36]
Donald Trump
A top. A top person. Don't forget, we've wiped out the leadership Phase one, phase two, and largely phase three. But we're dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader. You know, it's a little tough. They've wiped out. We've wiped out everybody. No, not the Supreme Leader. We don't. Well, nobody's ever. Nobody heard of the second Supreme Leader, the sun. Nobody. We have not heard from the Sun. Every once in a while, you'll see a statement made, but we haven't. We don't know if he's living.
- [39:11]
Benji
So we know that the leadership of Iran is not just out there speaking, but they're speaking quite frequently. They're appearing on Iranian media, they're giving interviews with American, British, Australian media, and they are out there describing what's happening. We actually know the leadership structure. I think it is true that the whereabouts of Mojtaba, the new ayatollah, the son of the old ayatollah, who's viewed as more extreme, is unclear. Is he in Russia? Where is he? What's his health status? That's. That's fair. I think that's what the intelligence suggests. But all the other intelligence suggests that the Iranian leadership right now in the Islamic Republic, who have replaced people who have been killed, are far more extreme and less willing to negotiate. And, you know, Iran had someone who used to be their National Security Council advisor, a guy by the name of Ali Larajani, for example, who was viewed as obviously an extreme individual who was involved in very serious crimes against humanity, massacres of protesters and others, a bad guy. But with institutional knowledge that people in the intelligence community viewed that he was at least a rational actor potentially to negotiate with, he got killed. And the people who have been replacing individuals like that are far more extreme than even those extreme people. And so when Trump says there is no leadership, it doesn't exist. They're all obliterated. That's just. That isn't consistent with what's happening. We're hearing from, like, the Oil Ministry giving very specific statements about the amount of crude being exported. Right. We're hearing at very nuanced regional levels from leadership as. As well. Okay, so the next question is, Donald, who will be in control of the Strait of Hormuz? Are you discussing that plan? And this is where Trump says, me. It's going to be me, me in the Ayatollah, who in the clip before, he just said, no one knows if the Ayatollah is alive. Okay. But it's going to be him and the ayatollah in a jv, A joint venture agreement. Let's play that clip.
- [41:46]
Donald Trump
Thank you.
- [41:47]
Commercial Announcer
What about the state of Hormuz? Who's going to be in control of that?
- [41:49]
Donald Trump
That'll be opened very soon. If this works.
- [41:52]
Commercial Announcer
How soon and who's in control of it? Will Iran still be able to control
- [41:55]
Benji
the flow of oil?
- [41:57]
Donald Trump
Be jointly controlled by whom? Maybe me. Maybe me. Me and the ayatollah. Whoever the ayatollah is, whoever the next ayatollah. Look. And they'll also be a form of a. A very serious form of a regime change. Now, in all fairness, everybody's been killed from the regime. They're really starting off. There's automatically a regime change. But we're dealing with some people that I find to be very reasonable, very solid. The people within know who they are, they're very respected. And maybe one of them will be exactly what we're looking for. Look at Venezuela, how well that's working out. We are doing so well in Venezuela with oil.
- [42:42]
Benji
And by the way, what's not talked about a lot is actually what's happening in Cuba because Russia gave a shipment of oil and supplies recently to Cuba that Trump apparently allowed in. Cuba's foreign minister has been giving interviews over the weekend with American media and otherwise, saying that our military in Cuba is getting prepared to fight if there is an invasion by the United States. Cuba has shown no signs of allowing another leader, another proxy of the Castro regime from the current leader to step into Cuba and lead. They're indicating that they're ready to fight. I am curious. I'm curious. And again, I'm just asking questions here. I'll let you know when I am giving an opinion, when I'm asking or when it's factual. I'm curious, as Russia is bringing ships into Cuba, are they bringing weapons? Are they bringing Shahi drones made by Iran? Are they bringing in the underwater vessel drones that Iran has as well? So what is happening there, I think is something to pay attention to. Also pay attention to what's happening in Hungary, where there is a CPAC Hungary right now, which is the conservative Political Action Committee, the main, kind of one of the main MAGA groups that throws these events not just in the United States, but to prop up authoritarian regimes because it is the professed goal of the Trump regime to destroy the European Union and to prop up the far right wing, pro Putin authoritarian parties within Europe. So Trump has backed Orban Netanyahu has backed Orban, and this was like a big Orban fest. And meanwhile, again, pay very close attention to Hungary because Orban is now claiming that Ukraine is trying to invade Hungary. And as the elections approach in Hungary coming up, pay very close attention to whether or not Orban and Putin will try to provoke a regional war between Hungary and Ukraine and Zelensky in order to try to interfere with the elections there. We already learned from reporting that Russia was working with Orban to try to fake an assassination attempt at Orban in Hungary. Hmm. And that was uncovered in order to try to build sympathy for Orban, who's trailing the pro democracy, pro EU coalition. Focus there. Also focus our attention on not just the Persian Gulf, but focus on what's happening in the Red Sea. Focus on the strait there, because that is the other way that oil is being diverted from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, which we know the Houthis have demonstrated from Yemen an ability to shut down the strait there at command. And they've just been waiting on the orders from Iran in order to be able to do that. Final point I'll make before throwing it back to Brett and Jordi, because I. I really think it's important that we understand internationally all these puzzle pieces that are coming together so we understand the world dynamic of this war, of this conflagration. I mentioned this as well before showing this other clip. We're about 10 days, I think nine days from liquefied natural gas running out in the Persian Gulf Middle east region. And they're one of the biggest suppliers of liquefied natural gas. So when that runs out for export, the only really other place where you have LNG is the United States. So what is the US Doing? They're holding it over the head of Europe right now. And what we're learning right now is the following. Trump is threatening to revoke EU's favorable access to US LNG shipments if they do not implement their trade deal with the U.S. the U.S. eU trade deal reached in 2025 had these 15% tariffs on most EU exports. And the EU is set to vote on that pact on Thursday, which includes an agreement for the EU to buy $750 billion worth of U.S. energy by 2028. Energy purchases include LNG oil and civil nuclear technologies. The threat comes at a time when EU LNG prices have surged amid the Strait of Hormuza's closure. So going back to these Mafia tactics right here as well, Brett and Jordi, let me throw it to you. There's a lot more I can talk about. But I think we gotta put these puzzle pieces together.
- [48:04]
Brett
We have a president in this country who's running everything. Like you said, Ben, like. Like it's the Mafia, like he's some sort of mob boss and that he could kind of coerce people into doing things for him. And along the way, he sends all these mixed messages. We don't need you. We need you. We won. We didn't win. Help, please. Please help. If you don't help, we're going to threaten you with this. And it's unhelpful. First off, unhelpful way to talk to your allies. If you tell them you don't need them, then get mad. But then when you start threatening them and when you're looking at just at this global landscape, because I think, Ben, you're right. It's important we put all of this in the global context of what is going on. To see somebody like a Netanyahu go out there and support somebody like a Viktor Orban and do it in such a public way. It's also such an f you to Ukraine, and you see how all of these various wars and conflicts now are starting to merge together, which is also just obviously incredibly dangerous, a hugely dangerous situation. But when you have Orban, the guy who's actively helping Russia, meanwhile you have Ukraine, who's actually been a very strong ally of Israel and has helped Israel a lot. It's such an fu to Zielinski, and it's showing that there's this crew right now around the world that's this authoritarian crew, this global authoritarian movement, and they're all in cahoots, and they're all trying to take down the small l liberal world order that has existed since World War II. These alliances, NATO and the like. And that's why Donald Trump, when he goes and he speaks about, you know, the Ayatollah in Iran, when he speaks about Venezuela, you notice he does not give a damn about the people. And this is the thing that we warned about from the very beginning of this war when everybody was like, but the Iranian people, people, they're so happy. They're so happy. Well, I think it's. It's our duty to tell the truth and to tell you what is actually going on here and what Donald Trump's intentions are, based on the evidence that we have, because we've seen this play out in Venezuela and we've warned about it in Venezuela, that Donald Trump simply wants somebody in power who will do his bidding, who will help him, grift off the resources of the land, who will basically be a puppet of Donald Trump so that he could funnel money to a secret Qatari bank account that has zero guardrails whatsoever. And we saw that play out in Venezuela where everybody celebrated that Maduro was gone. And we said, it's great that Maduro was gone, but he left the regime in power. So people are just as repressed, things are just as bad there. They just changed the leader at the top because this leader is willing to play ball with Donald Trump and is willing to give Donald Trump money from oil. And so Donald Trump is now openly admitting in this situation that he's happy to work side by side with the Ayatollah in some sort of joint venture in order to extract the resources from Iran so that he gets paid off it. I mean, how insane is that concept, just in general? And when you just look at it, the grift is so, so, so incredibly obvious. And Trump also, he says, like, these dumb things, right? He gives away the game when he makes comments like, well, we already did a regime change. We already did a regime change in Iran. Mission accomplished. He's trying to kind of latch onto any little quote, unquote, win that he can, that he could eventually use as justification for getting out, because he knows that the objectives of this war right now are not going to be met. So when he says regime change, let's just be clear about what actually has happened in Iran right now. Donald Trump took out the leadership. He took out Khomeini, he took out the main ayatollah, and he replaced him with a younger, more hardline Khomeini. Khomeini. Khomeini. Younger, more hardline. And now the people are in charge, are even more hardline than the people who were in charge before. And a lot of the people who were previously sympathetic to the United States of America coming in in order to help them achieve freedom, now feel utterly betrayed. Not only that, but Donald Trump's comments and Pete Hegseth's comments where they target Iran in general and not just the Islamic Republic, not just the regime, they putting a target on the backs of all the Iranian people, all the innocent Iranian people. And they've quite literally done that when they bombed schools and killed thousands of other people by leveling buildings and shooting at streets and all the other things that they are doing. So if you, if your goal is to actually foment revolution in a country and have democracy take over, whatever the hell we're doing right now is the complete opposite, opposite of what you would want. If your goal is to entrench an authoritarian at the helm that does your bidding and allows you to grift off resources. That seems to be more in line with what Donald Trump is trying to do right now more than anything.
- [53:03]
Jordi
Brilliantly said. B. Can I just state it plainly here, too? Like, Trump, answering those questions is so painfully embarrassing to me as someone who loves this country. Like, he's. He's not making any sense. He's barely speaking incoherent sentences. And then beyond that, when you actually try to analyze what he's actually saying, it's just gibberish. And he's constantly contradicting himself. Like, you walk away way less informed than when the reporters actually ask that question. And that is frustrating to me because we just have to get back to a place in this country where truth matters, where words actually have meaning and where that is valued and championed. And we just can't. I'm not saying we, but like the collective, like country, like, we. We just can't let him get away with all of this nonsense because people's lives are on the line. Our American troops lives are on the line. Civilians, lives are on the line, and he just doesn't give a damn. He does not care. None of this makes sense because he doesn't even understand the plan. There is no plan other than him and him and his continued grift, Ben. It's insane to me and wildly frustrating, especially all of us here as the brothers. Like, we have young children.
- [54:11]
Brett
Children.
- [54:12]
Jordi
I want this country to be better off for them than when we got here and for better for their children. Not just for our kids, but for all the kids for forever. That's what we should aspire to do. And when we look at that, we're like, that's our leader. Like, that's the guy in charge. I use leader, like, incredibly loosely there, but he is the president that's the guy in charge, the guy that doesn't care about the citizens, the guy that doesn't care about the troops or the civilians. That's who it is. And we just let him get away with this, like, nonsense, this gibberish, this garbage. And it's just so frustrating.
- [54:42]
Benji
Let me give us three quick points, and then I want to show you what Trump has been saying in Tennessee and also what's happening right now since we're in a partial government shutdown. I know lots of people aren't talking about that, but despite the Democrats continuously trying to fund the tsa, the maga, Republicans are saying we don't want to do that unless you basically give ICE unlimited money because they already received hundreds of billions of dollars. And as a result, you have major issues in the airports today and over the past week because Donald Trump and MAGA is manufacturing a crisis. Just get TSA funded. The Democrats want to fund tsa and a plan was reached, Democrats and Republicans, by the way, a plan that I don't agree with because I believe we should abolish ICE and abolish Border Patrol. I don't think they do what they were supposed to do. I wanted to see abolished. In any event, Democrats were basically like, all right, take off their masks. No being around polling stations. They have to identify themselves and they have to use due process and have search warrants before they enter a premises. Like, that's the Democrats demands. And then Donald Trump's like, you know what? Genital mutilation? Like what? What the hell are you talking about? General mutilization. It's like, okay, okay, one of you, you want to address those for? No, we need to do the SAVE act and voter ID and then randomly, no transgender athletes in sports. And we're going to attach. That's what you need to do. Otherwise we won't make a deal with you at all. By the way, Republicans and Democrats did something sneaky that I didn't like that would have had a deal. And the deal basically is you fund TSA and then a few months from now in a reconciliation bill, the Republicans sneak in funding where they don't need the Democrat votes for ice, and then ICE gets paid.
- [57:00]
Brett
Sneaky.
- [57:01]
Benji
I wouldn't have liked it, but the Democrats and Republicans worked that out, which got Republicans their funding for ice, which we don't want, but it got the TSA agents paid right now, which they should be paid right now.
- [57:17]
Brett
Sneaky.
- [57:17]
Benji
It's why people don't like politics. But Trump. Trump then tells the Republicans, nope, until Democrats agree to the SAVE act, which is a voter suppression act disguised as voter integrity and randomly includes something about transgender athletes in sports, then we're not doing a deal. And then Trump creates the pain. And then on the Department of Homeland Security website, it's like, this is the Democrat shutdown. The Democrats are screwing you at the airport. And I just think Americans like enough of this crap. Like what? Like what? What are we doing there? I know I said that I was going to discuss that when we got back from the break, but I discussed it now. So that's your update there. We're still in a partial government shutdown. Those other points I'LL discuss when we come back from our last quick break of the show. A reminder, Brett, as you said before, during the last break I saw all of those subscriptions to Scott McFarland's YouTube just soar. Is there any chance to get close to a hundred thousand subscribers in 24 hours? There's so many people watching this. What a collective mission we can do right now. So if you're watching this, do me a favor, go search Scott McFarland reports at Scott McFarland Reports on YouTube.
- [58:33]
Brett
It's actually YouTube.comcfarlane news and that is where you will get to the channel or look up Scott Mc McFarlane on, on YouTube.
- [58:42]
Benji
Yeah, just never listen to what I say. Listen to what Brett says when it comes to technical stuff. But his network is called Scott McFarland.
- [58:50]
Jordi
Totally free to subscribe. It's totally free to.
- [58:52]
Benji
Totally free. It's totally free. And then remember, yeah, just, just, just click subscribe.
- [58:57]
Brett
All right.
- [58:58]
Benji
And subscribe here. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. Last quick break of the show. Oh, become a member too. Support the growth of the Midas Touch network. Let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back.
- [59:11]
Jordi
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- [63:35]
Jordi
Brothers it's come to my attention that we say the word because differently than most people. And I've gotten a lot of comments because of the way I say this word. And quite frankly, it's never been brought to my attention prior to doing the podcast, I bet. Well, because us, most people didn't used to hear me speak as much as we do now, but apparently all three of us do it. Ben, so this concerns you. If you want to look up.
- [63:57]
Brett
We've come a long way though. If you heard some of the footage of Jordy in high school, you wouldn't understand a lot of words he said. Thick, thick New York accent.
- [64:04]
Jordi
Thick New York accent. We don't have that on hand, do we though?
- [64:07]
Brett
Brett we don't, we don't, we don't. But you know, we do our best here. It adds character, you know.
- [64:12]
Jordi
Ben, what do you think?
- [64:15]
Benji
Because let me give you some additional data points. We should be talking about the fact that Americans can't afford rent right now. They can't afford homes right now, they can't afford groceries right now, they can't afford gas right now. There's more people percentage wise, searching how do I deal with a mortgage default than during the housing crisis and the Great Recession of 2007, 2008, 2009. Right now people are really struggling out there. Also in Hawaii, they're facing the worst flooding in 20 years, 5,500 plus evacuations, a 120-year-old dam at risk, homes and roads destroyed. In Nebraska, historic wildfires have burned over 800,000 acres. Killed one are still threatening ranches. You haven't heard Trump say a word about either. Also, the horrific plane crash that took place at LaGuardia Airport where that big jet hit the fire truck. And it does seem, you see right here, two killed and over a dozen injured in a collision between Jazz Airline Flights 646, a Canada Air regional jet and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. I'm not going to play the footage, but it's a horrific footage of the Crash. It looked obviously preventable. It will be called likely air traffic control error. But so what happens when you've worked these people to a level that we've always known is unsustainable and air traffic control was working on both the emergency vehicles and the landing. And we've seen a number of close calls very recently as well. And so our heart goes out to the victims and their families there. And also, let's not forget that the Trump regime continues to cover up a child sex trafficking ring with the Epstein files. You had the accountant Khan and the lawyer Indike testified last week before the House Oversight Committee. Last week you also saw Pam Bondi in an Impromptu basis on 24 hours notice call a saying that she wanted to show up and voluntarily offer information to the House Oversight Committee. As a status update, which Democrats, Democrats very quickly smoked out was an effort for her to avoid showing up at her subpoenaed appearance before the House Oversight Committee. And she was going to use this carefully choreographed appearance with MAGA Republicans and the Trump regime. Say, I showed up already. Why would I need to show up and be subpoenaed? I've already given you the information. And Democrats walked out the moment they saw what she was trying to do. And it was a very smart move move by Democratic Congressmember Garcia to say we can't be complicit in the COVID up. The setup by Comer and Bondi and Blanche and Trump was have the Democrats sit there and then say we gave you the information, you sat there and you didn't object to it. So I guess we don't need to show up in response to a subpoena. So Garcia, the Democratic leader of the House Oversight, the ranking member, he's like, we got to get out, out. Because it's a setup. And the setup was what I just said it was going to be. So these are the types of games that the Trump regime is playing. Now I want to talk about a few other things that are happening right now. The insider trading and what's going on with smart money. I put that in quotes, which we should just refer to as insider money, right wing oligarch money, inside, whatever you want to call it. So Apollo is one of the biggest private equity firms out there, right? And these private equity firms have different funds where they raise money for their funds and then their funds have certain investors in them and then their funds pay out based on the profits made by the funds or if they lose money, you lose money by putting your money into these funds. So Apollo has now capped redemptions from one of its largest private credit funds after today's withdrawal. The Kobayasi letter reports that the requests for redemptions exceeded 11% of outstanding shares. Cracks in private credit market seem to be spreading. So this means a huge amount of people who have their money with Apollo, this private equity from we need to take our money out right now. 11%. So Apollo then capped it and said, you can't take out your money right now. We're gonna hold onto it. Why? They want to avoid what we would refer to as like a run on a bank, right, where everybody gets panicked and they take their money out so the fund loses all of its money. I think that's an interesting indicator because we've seen other funds do the same thing. So to me that's another kind of glaring red alert signal. The Kobayasi letter also reported that traders placed $580 million worth of oil trades 15 minutes prior to Trump's post about a potential peace deal with Iran this morning that we talked about earlier in this episode. So 6200 Brent and WTI, those are types of crude futures contracts were traded between 6:49am and 6:50am Eastern Time today. 1.5 billion in notional value worth of S&P 500 futures were traded at the exact same time. It is not known whether one entity or several entities were behind these trades, but just these trades alone and there's lots of other bundles like this. This generated over $100 million worth of profit in less than a 20 minute period of time. So this is the type of insider who knew that that announcement was clearly people knew and were making lots of money on it. And then again you have Donald Trump putting this five day deadline. We then get into the weekend. Remember, Trump usually does his invasions when Friday nights into the weekend, on Sunday or Monday morning before the markets open, he declares some sort of deal or something happens, manipulates the market. And at the end of the day, who's getting screwed by all of these moves? Ultimately the American people and ultimately future generations of American people. Cause these gimmicks and schemes may work every now and then, but ultimately what this is doing is severely weakening, fracturing and destroying the, the, the grand bargain that existed Post World War II with the United States and most of the rest of the world as the United States being a stabilizing force, as a rational actor, as having markets that you can trust. And now Trump has turned the United States into the most arbitrary, capricious, oligarchical, anti capitalist cronyism, Allah, Putin, type of system. And so, Jordi, you talked about your child. And if you're watching this, whether you have children or not, or grandchildren or not, we all care about the future of this country. And all this stuff just shatters this country. And even if we didn't have this war, even if we didn't have this war, okay, we would be talking about inflation surges emerging. We would be talking about economic crises taking place. And again, Brett and Jordy and Midas Mighty. I appreciate when people like you've called it, you called it, you called it. But some of this stuff is so obvious, which is in a few days and then weeks, there will be economic reports, there will be the producer price index, the consumer price index, all of the inflation metrics, and it's going to be very bad reports, really bad. And then the markets are going to crater on those reports. And so, you know, you see certain people making their money now, but ultimately, this is destroying the United States of America. Brett and Jordy, I wanted to add this really quickly.
- [73:31]
Jordi
B. It's just, it's going to take so long, Ben. You know, you talk about our kids and future kids and grandparents who have kids or, you know, grandkids or whatnot. It's going to take take so long for us to get to a place where we could be trusted again. Frankly, I don't know how long it will take. You know, I like to use the analogy of like the smelly kid in class. Like, like we're the smelly kid in class right now. And it's not just going to take one shower to no longer be the smelly kid in class. Like, we're going to need to take some consistent showers here to figure this out. And then hopefully, hopefully one day the kids around us. I'm really going far with this analogy. Can. Can think that we don't smell anymore or at least not smell as bad. And. And we're going to have to do some legwork here. Brett, that's why I interrupted you. I really wanted to get that.
- [74:18]
Benji
That's where you really. You wanted to go in that direction. It's great. I mean, after my analysis, that will probably get clipped. Not the very deep, sophisticated after, you know, I went micro level, I went Apollo Redemptions. Listen, I dug into Hungary's elite election.
- [74:36]
Jordi
You gotta put it in terms.
- [74:37]
Benji
Is that right?
- [74:38]
Jordi
You gotta put it in terms that people understand. Okay?
- [74:41]
Benji
So true, Jordy.
- [74:42]
Brett
So true. Thanks for think. Thanks for interrupting with that. That was important.
- [74:46]
Jordi
Just kidding.
- [74:48]
Brett
You know, I want to remind everybody is what I was Saying that the reports that we saw that came out like last week, that were horrific reports showing inflation surging amongst wholesale wholesale prices. That was prior to the war. And so that was from the buildup of everything happening previous. So as Ben said, what's going to happen in the future now is going to be absolutely devastating because those price reports for wholesale end up going through the system, the supply chain and they end up in the ppi. And so we are going to see the impacts of that soon. And Donald Trump has run this economy from the very beginning of this presidency like a house of cards, quite frankly. It's incredible that we didn't see a full on collapse already. But it seems like a war may be the one thing that doesn't let him kind of BS his way through it. The same way during his first term, Covid was the one thing that didn't let him BS his way through it. You can say all you want that the economy's great, everyone loves it, gas prices are down, things are cheap, we're living in the golden age. But in the, in terms of COVID when you see a million plus people dying and you see breadlines and mass unemployment, you, you're feeling it. People are like, oh no, I know this guy is bullshit, bullshitting me. And I think that's a big reason why Donald Trump did not win that second term then. Now he's in a similarly precarious situation. He's using the same exact tactics where he's trying to lie his way through it. But people are suffering and people are seeing they're going gas. Some people are spending $7 a gallon gas, $6 a gallon of gas, $8, $5, whatever it is. People are spending an exorbitant amount. Things are costing a ton of money across the board. There are massive problems with our farms. Fertilizer, like people can't get fertilizer on the farms. They' farmers bailout yet again. Just like Donald Trump's first term. He destroyed the farmers livelihoods and then he had to give him a bailout. We're seeing the same things play out yet again. I just want to bring up, before I toss it back, I want to bring up this tweet that I saw earlier from a guy named Greg Carlstrom and he said, oh yeah, this is from earlier in the day when oil price started tumbling after Donald Trump started lying about this deal. He said oil prices tumbling on the news that Hormuz is still closed. America and Israel are still bombing Iran, Iran is still bombing China, Gulf states, thousands of Marines are still en route to the region. But Witkoff may have texted Arachi and he's obviously being sarcastic there just to show you how, how these people are able to manipulate the markets with the dumbest of things. Just as, oh yeah, we're talking, we have a deal, and all of a sudden you see these massive swings in the market. But what those lies cannot hide is the fact that oil actually is not getting to people right now. Prices are exploding. So, so whether we see these short term spikes or short term drops or whatever, right now we are already seeing locked in major disruptions to the supply chain of LNG of oil. And these are going to have massive ripple effects across the entire global economy. It's already massively more expensive. And you're already seeing people like United Airlines. The CEO came out the other day and the United Airlines CEO said, says, we are preparing right now for $175 a barrel oil. That's what our preparations are as an airline. We need to be prepared. That's what we're expecting. You're seeing a lot of other organizations, companies like Goldman Sachs, predicting, you know, extremely high elevated oil prices. And some people are predicting even higher than that. So Trump can try to wave this magic wand and lie all he wants, but the prices are going to be the prices at the end of the day. And the effects that people, people feel are going to be real, they're going to be tangible, and people are going to understand that they're suffering while Trump keeps lying to them.
- [78:34]
Benji
And where this current dynamic would favor increasing interest rates as inflation will start to surge, Donald Trump will pressure his new chairman of the Federal Reserve when that guy gets sworn in and the Federal Reserve Board in general to do dramatic decreases in interest rates, to drop the interest rates, which we know through basic economics, the same way we know that tariffs against the world will cause an increase of inflation, will actually exacerbate the system and make things worse. Now, if the war ended tomorrow, the war ended, which we all know it's not going to happen to tomorrow, but if it ended tomorrow, would there be some initial days of positive sentiment on the markets? Absolutely. But then we would have to grapple with, Brett, to your point, the systemic issues that Qatar's LNG facility in the north has suffered about 20% damage, and that supplies about 20% of the LNG to the entire world. What's going to happen with fertilizer supply chains? What's going to happen with helium supply chains? What's going to happen now that Iran can show that at any moment it has the ability to seize the Strait of Hormuz and control it with an iron fist. Will the Arab nations now continue to invest in private equity companies, in startups, in entertainment companies, in debt? In the United States, will our treasury bond auctions be coveted or be rejected? Will our dollar continue to weaken? Let's just assume that the deal that Trump says, joint control with the ayatollah is the deal.
- [80:37]
Jordi
Deal.
- [80:39]
Benji
How does that even function? Are we going to have our military ensure that the ayatollah follows the deal? Who's involved in this?
- [80:48]
Jordi
Right.
- [80:48]
Benji
You think that's going to be palatable to the Arab nations, knowing that at any time Iran can just do what it did? So of course not. And so these second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh consequence of things are not being discussed, but they are obviously there. That's why we're discussing it here on the Midas Touch Network. Now, I don't need to go into all of the things that Donald Trump said in Tennessee. It was deranged, it was demented. But I'll just show you. Very oddly, Donald Trump kind of seems to be equating Tennessee with, like, sexual relationships. I don't, I don't. You tell me what you think he means.
- [81:29]
Brett
Here, here, play this clip.
- [81:30]
Donald Trump
So I happen to like the state. I love Tennessee. Maybe someday I'll move to Tennessee. I might have to move. No, I love it. You never know what that is. You know, you just have a relationship with the state. It's a lot safer than relationships with other things. I can tell you as a politician,
- [81:50]
Benji
I mean, just very weird things to say. I'm like, I don't need to show you any more of that. I just, I show you that, that purely to say American people are struggling and suffering and don't want to be in this war. And we have this demented individual out there saying things like that. And he was posting weird photos of himself from, like, the late 1980s, 1990s, from Mar a Lago. Look what I looked like back then. Or like third term or Trump's the goat. Just like, weird, weird, weird stuff. I want to leave where we began, which is Scott McFarlane, the new Midas Touch Network, Washington, D.C. chief correspondent. What an honor to have Scott on our network. And we will be Building Scott McFarland reports, which is his network. You could search that on YouTube at Scott McFarland News. When you go search YouTube. Scott McFarland News subscribe there.
- [82:49]
Brett
We have a link in the description.
- [82:51]
Benji
Yeah, link in the description. Let's Take a listen to Scott McFarland's announcement, which has since gone mega viral, about joining the Midas Touch Network and announcing this incredible partnership.
- [83:03]
Brett
Let's play it some news to share.
- [83:05]
Scott McFarland
And it's good news. I have a new platform for my independent, unfiltered reporting. Effective immediately, I'm chief Washington correspondent for the Midas Touch Network.
- [83:15]
Benji
And beginning in about two or three
- [83:17]
Scott McFarland
weeks, I'll begin as anchor of a daily program called Scott McFarland Reports in the Midas Touch. And I share the same north star of communicating that when you have news to break or something important to explain, just get to it, straight to the point. As soon as you open the camera and open the microphone, simply declaratively and conversationally explain what's happening, explain what it means. Put aside the production theater and the useless bells and whistles. Just get to it. I'm not an opinionist, I'm not an editorialist. I'm far from a politician. I'm an enterprise reporter and have been for a quarter of a century. What I'll do is bring this enterprise reporting to all the components of the Midas Touch Network, all the contributors of the Midas Touch Network, and anybody who sees, watches or hears the Midas Touch Network, and you'll still see all of my reporting on my many platforms that you may have been seeing over the past few months or past few years. This is such a critical moment. It's important we underscore how significant this moment is, this moment of unique political toxicity and unique political danger in the Midas Touch. And I have long shared this same philosophy. You don't platform lies, you don't platform conspiracy theories, and you don't allow for the whitewashing of history. We'll do that together. And you and I will do that together. If you're in this with me, you know I'll be here 365 days a year here chasing news, giving you news, trying to give you context and explanation. We can run through walls together to get to the other side of whatever this is. That's how important a moment it is and why I hope this announcement is important,
- [84:54]
Benji
powerful, and it's such an honor to have Scott on our network again. Make sure everybody you subscribe to@Scott McFarland News on YouTube. Search that again. We'll have a link to that in the description below as well. Subscrib to his platforms on Substack also. It's an honor, it's a privilege, and it's part of the growth of the Midas Touch Network. Thank you everybody from the bottom of my heart. This isn't possible without you. You make this possible and we're so grateful for this Midas mighty community. Subscribe, Support. Become a member of our YouTube channel. Spread the word about the Midas Touch Network Work. Let's keep spreading the truth together each and every day. Brett, anything else to say before we go?
- [85:46]
Brett
I think you summed it up well, Jordy.
- [85:48]
Jordi
Shout out to the Midas mighty
- [85:53]
Donald Trump
Standing
- [85:54]
Benji
strong
- [85:57]
Brett
against the fascist we sing our
- [86:01]
Donald Trump
song
- [86:05]
Brett
we will get it right whenever.
- [86:08]
Jordi
Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content Only available@midasplus.com
- [86:23]
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Jordi
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Benji
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Jordi
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