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Brett
Hey, there. It's me, John Stamos, in partnership with Cologuard.
Ben
And a little birdie told me you're over 45.
Brett
Listen, that's not old. It's really not. But it's an important age. If you're at average risk, that's when you start screening for colon cancer. And look, it's okay to be nervous,
Ben
but it's not okay to ignore your own health.
Jordi
It's time to see if the Cologuard
Brett
test can be an option for you to get screened. All right, I'm glad we had this little chat.
Ben
Fox News is now streaming live on Fox 1. When news breaks, we don't just report it. We go beyond the headlines to get the full story. Get live coverage, in depth, analysis and perspectives from the voices you trust all in one place. Whether you're at home or on the go, stay connected to the stories shaping our world. Stream Fox News on Fox one Download Today,
Caroline Levitt
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Ben
Libby.
Caroline Levitt
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Brett
So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help
Caroline Levitt
support them during this crisis, and we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed, we had some really generous
Brett
donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with.
Ben
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Caroline Levitt
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Ben
Donald Trump's disastrous, unlawful and catastrophic war in Iran continues to spiral out of control. It's Monday, so it's market manipulation day. But Donald Trump's ability to manipulate the market by claiming he's been involved in negotiations with Iran just ain't really working anymore. In fact, the Iranian leadership is now saying, don't listen to him, do the opposite of what he says. He's just going to try and manipulate the market. And they in Iran continue to mark down to mock Donald Trump and his regime. Donald Trump again started pretending that he was having all of these negotiations with Iran. He said that they agreed to most of the 15 points in the 15 point negotiation plan. Then Iran quickly countered and said, we, we are not agreeing to any of these terms. We put forward our non negotiables a while ago. We're not even talking to the intermediary that the Trump regime is trying to use. They want to use Pakistan. And yes, Donald Trump rushed to Pakistan to convey a message to Iran which was delivered. But Iran said, we've made our position very clear publicly of what would be required to end this war. There has to be full reparations. We get to control the Strait of Hormuz. We never will talk about ever disarming when it comes to ballistic missiles and Shahid drones. We need to make sure that there are firm security guarantees for Iran, for Hezbollah, for the Shiite militias in Iraq, for the Houthis and other proxy groups of Iran. And we want American and Israeli military bases out of the region. Unless those threshold matters are agreed to, we have no interest in even having a negotiation to begin with. And we're not engaging at with Trump's 15 point framework. It's a fiction. We're not talking about it. And then Iran continued to retaliate from the strikes against it by the United States and Israel by targeting areas in Iraq, in Erbil, by targeting the uae, by hitting a oil depot in Haifa in Israel and other areas in Israel, by hitting Bahrain and Kuwait. A desalination and electrical facility in Kuwait. And so Iran, you know, still has a large portion of its ballistic missiles and Shahid drones intact, and the war continues. So all of Donald Trump's claims a, we're right about to end it. We're about to, you know, things are about to get better. No one believes him anymore. He's a total and utter liar. We're hearing from a lot of world leaders right now, like the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, who says that the effect of the Iran war on Germany and Europe will be as serious as the COVID 19 pandemic if it expands. And obviously it is expanding. Italy's defense minister went on the record to say, I am forced to know things about what could happen in the coming week and the effects it will have on the economy and our daily lives that no longer allow me to sleep. Similarly, South Korea's president said today, the world is in turmoil over the energy crisis. The situation is so serious that it has even kept me up at night. The immediate problem is grave enough, but the outlook ahead seems even more unstable. The situation is worse than expected. We'll talk a lot about what's going on in Trump's disastrous and catastrophic war in Iran. We'll also talk about the fact that in the United States, while people are psychologically tortured, living paycheck to paycheck, if they're lucky enough to get a paycheck in the first place, while inflation right now is surging, by all accounts, we're already in a recession and perhaps a great recession or something even worse. We're definitely in a jobs recession. No jobs are being created. People can't afford things. People can't afford their rent. We have some of the highest credit card delinquencies, delinquency rates, student loan delinquency rates, mortgage foreclosures in, you know, many, many, many years, we have the lowest consumer confidence. While all of that's going on here, Congress has decided to go and take a recess. MAGA Republicans control the Senate and the House. They dipped out, by the way. We see lots of photos of them right now on vacation. I mean, I think we saw Lindsey Graham in Disney World with, like, a bubble wand and, like, partying it up over there. Weird. While the American people are struggling here. And before they left, the Senate was able to, on a bipartisan basis, pass a funding bill that would fund tsa, where, as in the House of Representatives, rather than just pass an identical bill and then put it on the president's desk. Donald Trump told the MAGA members in the House to vote against it unless more money was given to ICE and Border Patrol, even though they already been funded hundreds of billions of dollars. So in the House, they basically blocked what was going in the Senate. But in any event, Donald Trump signed an executive order saying that he would be funding TSA out of other funds that were appropriated for other reasons, which shows that if Donald Trump really wanted to in the first place, he could have funded TSA agents all of this time. But he was using them as pawns to make them suffer as part of some cruel and unusual game for the worst negotiator in history. And that's really what we need to be clear as well, that he's quite literally the worst leader, the worst negotiator, a destroyer and not a builder, a lifelong loser. It's why he's lost his whole life. He's never been a winner. He's just been a con artist his entire life. He's bankrupt to this business, that business, and he's systematically doing it to the United States economy and to our alliances and to all the things that made the United States strong post World War II. One other point that we'll cover in this episode as well, Vladimir Putin sent a ship to Cuba loaded with a massive amount of oil, easily sailing through this so called Trump blockade. You know how Trump has put this blockade and embargo on Cuba and all these other countries that wanted to deliver oil and supplies to Cuba, like Mexico and Colombia, they were interdicted and Donald Trump's ships or the United States ships said get out or else we're gonna like whatever go after you. And Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 30, say anybody who gives oil to Cuba is going to face severe tariffs and severe sanctions. It was executive order 14380, well after Donald Trump removed oil sanctions against Russia, where they're making billions of dollars a day as Russian Duma leaders like the Russian Senate, their top leaders were in Washington D.C. last week taking tours of our Capitol building, meeting with the State Department and meeting with MAGA Republican Congress members. As we've learned more and more details about Russia supplying Iran with milit equipment, weapons and the surveillance and information about where to target, including targeting the United States air bases. Thirteen of them have now been evacuated by the United States military. A United States military base in Saudi Arabia was attacked by Iran using Russian, likely Russian equipment and Russian surveillance. A Boeing E3 Century AWACS, the early warning aircraft, which was like the crown jewel of our air force, was destroyed. A bunch of the other KC135 Strato tankers were destroyed. But we're rewarding Russia for helping Iran kill Americans and target the American equipment. They were brought over to have meetings with the State Department. More concessions were given. And then when Putin sailed his big ship, his big frigate over to Cuba with loaded with all of this oil, Donald Trump's like, all right, you can come through. You could come to Cuba. And look, probably in addition to oil, I mean, just knowing what likely goes down in situations, my guess would be Russia's probably providing weapons and shahed drones and other things to Cuba to protect itself. And I just think back to, like, the Cuban Missile Crisis and all of these things, like in our history, or like America working with allies. Like, right now, Russia has a firm presence in Cuba. We've removed the sanctions against Russia. While Russia is out there helping Iran kill Americans and target American military equipment during the war. The Russian Duma members are meeting with MAGA Republican Congress members in the State Department. We're going to talk about all of this and more. I know it was a long, fricking introduction, but if I didn't get through all of those points, I would regret it. So now I have no regrets.
Brett
All good. It's. There's a lot going on, so you got to get it all out. It's good to be. Good to be here. Jordan. I'm glad you have no regrets. That's always good. You got to start off the show with a clean slate. No regrets whatsoever. Donald Trump should have a lot of regrets because every decision that he has made has been a complete and utter disaster. And I'm sick of people pretending like it's anything other than that. You know, I saw a tweet earlier from Richard Stengel, the former undersecretary of State in the Obama administration, and what he said really resonated with me. He said, Trump, he. Trump is repeating every foreign and domestic policy mistake the United States has made over the last five decades, but he is doing it with a gracelessness, cluelessness, and corruption that has no precedent. And I think that sums it up perfectly right now. And it's one of those situations where Donald Trump's lies are just not working the same way that they used to work. And I've talked about this, too, months and months ago, before this was even a thing, before this war with Iran was even a thing. Why? Because Donald Trump continuously falls into the same patterns, whether he's scamming people in his businesses or whether he's doing anything in the government. He does the same thing every single time. And so it wasn't exactly different. Difficult to predict that he would spiral out like this. But eventually, as always, the truth catches up to you. Just like any Ponzi schemer out there, eventually you run out of money and you get caught. Donald Trump right now is at that moment in his presidency, and that's why he is losing even his own MAGA base right now. Even people who are supporters of Trump are furious about the situation. Certainly not saying all of them, but a sizable enough portion of them that he should be very worried about his political prospects, the entire Republican Party, and his future. As we head into the midterms now, as we see all of this, you're seeing Donald Trump just be, like, the world's worst negotiator imaginable, almost, like, negotiating with himself. One thing that I've noticed and seeing kind of Marco Rubio out there and Besant on the talk shows and things like that is their objectives of the war and their goals of the war continuously decrease. Remember, like, the first week, guys, their first week, they were like, iran needs to unconditionally surrender. Give up everything. Give up your nukes. You're done. Unconditional surrender. We will accept nothing less. And Iran, like, just hasn't even been, like, responding to these people. They've just been, like, trolling them. And, you know, Donald Trump says, we won, we won, we won. Which is the weakest negotiating position you could ever come from. Just, like, making up negotiations then. So they go from that, and then they go to, like, like, okay, well, you keep. Keep that stuff. But, like, we won't leave until you get rid of your missiles. Okay, all right. Everyone's like, no, we're like, we're not
Ben
going to do that.
Brett
We actually need them more than ever now because we know that you're, like, invading us. And now we've come to a point where I. I forget if it was the Washington Post or the New York Times, but what major publication it might have been. Even Wall Street Journal described the main objective of the war as opening the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war started.
Ben
That was a problem caused by Donald Trump.
Brett
And even if it were to be fully opened tomorrow, the damage caused by its closure and the oil shortage across the world right now is already damaging enough to be absolutely devastating on the global economy and wreak havoc on the global economy. I know I went long there as well, so I'm going to pass it off to Jordi, but we certainly have a whole lot to talk about. Jordi, what's the latest?
Jordi
It's the perfect case of the arsonist lighting the fire and then trying to put the fire out and then trying to demand praise for putting the fire out that they start. I mean, it's. It's awful. What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas? This isn't a show about any of us here saying, like I told you so, right? Like, that would be pointless and just a stupid show. It's a show about arming the viewers and listeners with the facts, the data, the receipts, you know, make the informed decisions on your own. We, of course, have opinions, and we very clearly state those opinions. So when we're seeing the complete mishandling of the ongoing war in Iran and just seeing just the endless chaos, right, it's very easy for me to sit here and just constantly say, it's going to get worse. And that's not me shooting from the hip or making some bold prediction. And I genuinely wish that, like, it just. This wasn't the case. It's just the decision that I've come to by listening, watching, reading the statements from. From Trump, the Trump regime, our former allies, and everyone in between. From seeing the chaos with my own eyes and the disturbing reports about us escalating our ground efforts in the coming days and sending our troops there to get injured and die even more. And the claims that are coming out of Trump is that we've already won. If we've already won, why are we escalating the war? Why are we sending more troops? Why aren't our troops coming home? So as I sit here today, I can again, very clearly say, like, it's going to get worse. Maga's America first movement. America First. It's a complete sham, a complete farce. And our troops and our economy, they're the first ones paying the price here. The war in Iran is going to be hitting home so much harder than we could even really fully imagine. And it already is, right? Like, have you guys been to the gas pump recently? And I just. I refuse to sit here and not speak out against it. Brothers, I know you guys are actively speaking out against, and I just. I implore our entire audience to continue to take the information that we share in tonight's episode, share it with anyone and everyone that you can, and just expose the complete and utter buffoonery that the Trump regime is. Is putting before us right now.
Brett
This is not an analogy that we made on the show weeks ago, if not months ago at this point. I think it's held up incredibly well because this, right now, the moment we are in, reminds me of that early Covid moment when we were trying to tell people, like, this thing is going to get bad. I know Trump saying, 15 cases down to zero. I know that all these news agencies like, running with those headlines, well, Donald Trump says it's going to be gone by Easter, folks. And we were like, why the hell are they doing that? And I remember this vividly because this was how we started. Midas touch in this level of fear over the media saying one thing and us going, that's just not true. Okay, someone needs to speak out about this crap. And now we're seeing history repeat. And we're seeing history repeat in the same way in the fat. In the. In terms that Donald Trump cannot lie his way around a global pandemic, and he cannot lie his way around the realities of war.
Ben
And that's why, though, I think we're very well equipped to report on this, having now accumulated six years of experience and doing certain things good, doing certain things that required improvement, doing certain things that required lots of improvement, but working on this every day to bring you the truth, to bring you the evidence. And so when a crisis of this scale and magnitude hits, it's like muscle memory in our ability to kind of know, okay, here's how we need to present what's going on. And what you need to do to present the whole side of the story is, sure, I'm going to show the clips of what Donald Trump is saying, what Caroline Levitt saying, and what the Trump regime is saying. But I'm also going to show you what they're saying in Europe. I'm also going to show you what the leaders are saying in Asia. I'm going to show you what they're saying in Mexico and Central America and South America. I'm going to show you what leaders are saying in Africa. I'm going to show you what they're saying in Ukraine, Europe, I'm going to show you what Putin is saying and what the statements are coming out of Russia. And I'm gonna show you the statements that are being made in Iran and what their leadership is saying. Because, you know, the whole way that Trump and his regime and MAGA basically portray Iran is that they have no leaders. They've been decimated and obliterated. It's also portrayed through, like, a very racist lens that, like, we're not dealing with smart people and we're dealing with. I think Marco Rubio said, these are lunatic, these are crazy people. These are maniacs. And so it almost elicits an image of these like irrational. And I think the way they want to try to portray it, because it's portrayed in like a racist way, almost kind of animalistic, not thinking through strategy when the reality is that couldn't be further from the truth. And when you see the statements being made by Iran, they have a clear plan, clear goals, they have a parliament that's functioning, that's debating issues and discussing things. They have this decentralized mosaic model of leadership where they had the kind of spiritual guidance and ultimately their supreme leader at the ayatollah level who's ultimately responsible for making all of the main decisions. Then they've got their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, then they've got their kind of state police force and kind of local domestic enforcers. And then they're decentralized in ways where the whole command structure has all of its orders and all of its succession plans already in place. So when certain things happen, the reactions in a very systematized way are already pre planned. Whereas the Trump regime is reacting to Donald Trump's kind of caveman like emotions and malignant narcissism. And that's one of the things we're playing out. Clearly the American weaponry was the best in the world and is stronger. And we have bigger bombs and bigger missiles and all of these things. But these Iranian shahid drones, these FPV drone swarms, the ballistic missiles, their cluster munitions, their ability to use cluster munitions in deceptive ways, both using actual kind of cluster munitions, but then also using kind of dummy fireworks style bombs to draw out the very expensive Thaad Patriot interceptor missiles which cost millions of dollars to launch. It's a very actually detailed strategy that's being portrayed by Iran. I mean, you have this guy MB Golubov, who Donald Trump claims he's directly negotiating with. Goliboff is the basically the speaker of their parliament, the leader of their parliament. He's denied over and over again. Again, we're not speaking with Trump, we're not Speaking with the U.S. all of this is a lie. And he's out there saying, let me show you how America's manipulating their markets right now. He goes, heads up. Pre market, so called news or truth is often just a setup for profit taking. Basically it's a reverse indicator, do the opposite. If they pump it, short it, if they dump it, go long, see something tomorrow, you know the drill. And this was before Donald Trump tried to do just that and manipulate the market. Today, this guy, MB Golubov, also posted 6D chess in response to somebody posting. So right now, Donald Trump's objective is to take control of the Strait of Hormuz or have Iran give up control, which Iran was not controlling before the war started. Well played, Donald. Well played. And MB Golubov and all of the leadership in Iran understand that this is a war of attrition. And they're acutely aware of the American markets and the world global markets right now and the chokehold that they've created. Now, they've got to balance certain interests because they're allied with China, they're allied with Russia, they're allied now with India and Pakistan and some other countries as well. So they need to balance, of course, this global chokehold that they had and also making sure the energy crisis doesn't hurt their allies. So they're working with China. Two ships, for example, from China got through the Strait of Hormuz today, to which Iran mocked Donald Trump in the regime as well. And they said, this is like an official bulletin from Iran's press department. Like, you know how Donald Trump has. Caroline Levitt, this irib said the following. Iran has responded positively to Donald Trump's threats, and we have reopened the Strait of Hormuz, though only for two Chinese oil tankers. Like, they're mocking him at such a. You know, at such a stinging level. Right. Um, you know, then Donald Trump tries to take credit and say, they've released 20 additional ships because I've asked them to. And it's like, the ships that are being sent to Pakistan, that has nothing to do with the United States at all. And when you take credit for things that are not yours, Iran also recognizes how weak you look and how kind of pathetic it is. And they go, wow, we've got them. Like, these people don't know what the hell they're doing. They're panicking. And Iran says, okay, we can keep the pressure up. And we know that the longer we continue this, the more it hurts the United States economy and the more pain the US Will feel. I mean, if you look at the treasury note yields, whether it's the 2, the 10, the 20, or the 30, they're all surging to levels that are unsustainable. The price of oil right Now, Brent crude, $114 per barrel, by the way, I want to live in a world where I don't have to know the distinction between Brent crude and wti. In the Trump regime, you have to learn things that you just took for granted, that there were experts who would just handle these things. But if you look at the price of oil Generally, it's like $114 per barrel, which could be headed to $200 per barrel in no time, especially as the Houthis have now entered the war and they've said, look, if things escalate, we're gonna shut down the strait in the Red Sea, which would lead to basically both major kind of points where oil is shipped being shut down, which would be absolutely devastating. And then Caroline Levitt held a press conference today. Like a dueling press conference. Right? She held the press conference at the White House while the version of her for Iran, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, he held a press conference and he responded to questions about, you know, Donald Trump saying that we've been involved in these conversations and that we're involved with a much more kind of reasonable regime. This is Donald Trump's post in the morning. The United States of America is in serious discussion with a new and more reasonable regime to end our military operations in Iran.
Brett
Iran.
Ben
Great progress has been made. But if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormu Strait is not immediately, quote, open for business, we will conclude our lovely stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electronic generating plants, oil wells and Carg island and possibly all desalinization plants which we have purposefully not yet, quote, touched. This will be in retribution for our many soldiers and others the Iran has butchered and killed over the regime's 47 year reign of terror. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So Iran's embassy responds. Let me correct you. The brave soldiers of Iran are hitting seriously the idiot, unreasonable regime of the usa. And then Iran spokesperson held a press conference and let's play what he said moments ago.
Brett
We have had no direct negotiations with
Ben
America so far since the last round of negotiations until now. The US Demands have been very excessive, unrealistic and illogical. The meetings that Pakistan has with neighboring countries are, well, a framework they themselves have established. We have not participated in this framework. Can it be allowed that Iran and
Brett
Iranians be in a position of confronting
Ben
the illegal aggression of America and the Zionist regime to use the available capabilities on the soil of regional countries while our armed forces remain silent?
Brett
The duty of every authority demands that
Ben
it respond to such cases. Now, Brett and Jordi, I want to get your take on that. But for those listening on audio, he's speaking inside a room that frankly looks more advanced and more comfortable than the press room. That's at the White House. So.
Brett
And that was a translator speaking? It was. He doesn't have a British accent.
Ben
Yeah, Chris. It was a translator. However, though, to paint a picture for audio listeners. He's in a big, nice looking kind of room. There are people, reporters who are taking notes. He's not like, hiding in a cave or like, running away from anything. Like they're there in a room like that. And as he was there, Iran's parliament was deliberating a bill to impose fees on the Strait of Hormuz. And they took a vote that was a foregone conclusion what the outcome was going to be. But they took a vote to approve a bill to levy fees on the Strait of Hormuz transit for about $2 million for any ship that passes and imposes a toll system in rals. It bans the passage of US And Israeli vessels through the strait, asserts Iran's sovereignty over the strategic waterway, bans any countries that imposes unilateral sanctions against Iran. And guess who's working with them? Oman. Oman is slated to help shape the legal framework. Remember Oman, the foreign minister who Trump picked as the mediator between the discussions between Trump and Iran. Trump picked this guy in Oman who said that they reached a deal in principle. And then that night, Donald Trump and Netanyahu bombed Iran after they said there was a deal. That's who's working with Iran to build a legal framework for a lawn for Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz. So I just want, like to me that knowledge is important. You may not like that knowledge. That may bug it. That's the truth about what's happening right now, though, for sure.
Brett
And that's why anytime I see, like these news headlines out there are just parroting what Donald Trump says. Like when he said yesterday that, you know, they gave me a tribute to beautiful gift. You know, he keeps saying this, like every week now it's like we're on repeat. It's Groundhog Day, right? Donald Trump, they gave me a tribute, a beautiful tribute. They gave me a tribute. It's, you know, 20 ships passing immediately. We were like, is he Talking about the 20 Pakistani flagged ships that have nothing to do with the United States? And he was, but that didn't stop some publications. And by the way, I don't want to trash all their report. They do, they've done a lot of incredible reporting. But I saw the New York Times run a headline on this that said something like, you know, Trump says, you know, he got 20 ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
Ben
I'm like, why?
Brett
Why? You know, don't be a stenographer. Like, is that true or is it not true as of now? That's certainly not true. You can't look at the situation right now and not see that obviously the United States of America, Trump has gotten rid of the ayatollah and some high up people in the Iranian regime. But it's tough to look at the situation right now and not see that Iran has actually kind of become more essential to the region and has kind of of expanded as a world power as a result of Donald Trump's actions here, which is the complete opposite reaction you want when you're trying to destroy a regime. I mean, you can even look at
Ben
just like the data like this.
Brett
Iran is now earning. This from the economist. Iran is now earning nearly twice as much from oil sales each day as it did before American and Israeli bombs started falling on February 28. It may be pummeled on the battlefield, but the regime is winning the energy war. And they understand that this energy war and the war of this economic battle that's playing right now is perhaps the single most important war that they could wage. You know, it's, it's asymmetrical warfare in that way, because they have control over all these resources and all of these pathways for the resources to go through that affect not just the United States, but affect countries all over the world.
Caroline Levitt
World.
Brett
And we're seeing now countries overseas are limiting the amount of gas and oil that people could use. Prices are skyrocketing everywhere. And all of this flows through the supply chain, goes through the wholesalers, through the supply chain, and it ends up in everyday goods that we all pay. It's frankly probably the top driver in general of inflation. And we already saw inflation ticking up in the last inflation report, which was before the war began. Now we're going to see in the future this number just begin to go up and skyrocket. People are seeing it in their mortgage rates, which are now like nearing like 7%. Everything goes up when energy prices go up. And Donald Trump has caused this entirely by himself. One of the things that I think I noticed in the things that he's saying, you know, reading kind of between the lines of these deranged posts. For example, I'll pull up the post that Ben read this morning. I think when Donald Trump is bullshitting about, you know, he's, there's a new regime, a more reasonable regime. First off, him and the people in the administration, they keep saying opposite things. So while Donald Trump was saying there's a new, more reasonable regime in charge. You had Marco Rubio on TV going, these people are psychopathic. These people are insane. You can't. You can't deal with these people. And even getting pressed by the reporters on that. Wait, but did you know that Donald Trump just tweeted that these people are reasonable and that things are going great? They're not on the same page because Trump's just lying. They're all just lying about everything. But I think in Trump's lies, reading between the lines, this is my opinion. I think that Donald Trump is hedging the entire thing, because I think he understands, even if he doesn't want to admit it, that this is not going well. And so Trump wants to try to figure out any way that he could kind of claim of victory throughout all of this. And so that's why you see regime change. Oh, we already did regime change. Mission accomplished, right? Oh, we blew their up. We destroyed them. They're completely obliterated. You did it. But it almost seems like he wants to kind of plant all these little seeds. So at some point when things are getting really bad, he could be like, oh, we did it.
Ben
Done.
Brett
Mission accomplished. You know, have another George Bush moment, which he's had, like, you know, basically every single day.
Jordi
At this point, we've set out to do everything that we've already planned on doing. What are you talking about? This is a massive success. I mean, our leaders couldn't be more ill equipped to guide us through this. Like, name me one person in the regime, in the Trump regime, that you actually take seriously enough who hasn't totally and utterly debased themselves that you'd be like, okay, I'm confident that they'll guide us through this. When your ego meets reality, you get catastrophe, right? That's what we're seeing, especially with Trump. These oil pipe, these oil prices are skyrocketing. Our troops are dying. I mean, it's pure chaos. And now, to our earlier point, what are they saying that the goal of this entire war is, is to reopen the Strait of Hormuze? I mean, what do we even do, Ben? What are we even doing here? And my question to you is, do you see any light here at the end of this tunnel? Because for me, again, I just keep seeing this getting worse.
Ben
No, there's no light at the end of the tunnel. And in fact, there's no comparison. Brett, you mentioned, you know, like, George W. Bush or like the neocons. Like, I hear that, but, like, this is not even like, there's no comp to it. Like, those people were still following, like, a plan, a bad plan, a dastardly plan, but they were following a plan, not the whims of a psychotic, malignant, narcissistic maniac who's on Air Force One showing photos of, of Corinthian columns and talking about building underground bunkers and then giving a speech at a Miami financial conference and telling the people in the audience they could ask him about sex because he's open to be answering any questions. Or, like, telling reporters from state regime media, like, Dana Perino, remember when we had lunch together? Are you just as beautiful as the day I met. Like, we're dealing with an actual maniac. Like, like we're not dealing with a neocon. That's like, you know, on the scale of, like, acidic to basic, you know, and let's just say neocons are the most. I don't know, is that a good example? But on a scale of 1 to 10, if, like, you know, like, a neocon is like a 10, we're on a different scale. Okay? Donald Trump is a nuclear con. It's a con artist. It's a con job, right? The whole thing is one fugazi, all of it. And what Iran is saying is they recognize that this guy's all bluff, all bark, you know, he's now tapping into, you know, basically the way he had Daddy bail him out his entire life when his casinos were going bankrupt, but then Daddy couldn't even bankrupt him, right? The taxpayers and the American people. Donald Trump goes to destroy our lives. I need $200 billion. Let's take the special forces behind the scenes and in front of the scenes means there is massive panic taking place. And my headlines highlighting that are not hyperbolic. We can see it in the actual behavior and the franticness that is all over the place right here. And when we come back from our first break, one of the things I want to talk about, though, is, you know, all of Donald Trump's emolument clause violations, these quid pro quos, these pay for play that has made him kind of personally indebted to these Middle east nations because they've invested in him personally and his businesses. You know, we're learning more and more that basically his benefactors, right, like the people who pay him and his family, because that's what the Middle east thought they were. But they're, you know, they're coming back and they're saying, you. You ain't effing leaving. You ain't effing. Leaving until you put your troops on the ground. What the F do you think you're doing? You think you're just sorry we will bankrupt the F out of you? You better believe behind the scenes that whether it's MbS, whether it's the leader of UAE, whether it's the Emir of Qatar, the Alphania, they're behind the scenes. You think we gave you that plane for the hell of it? No. No. You are putting your American troops on the effing ground. You ain't leaving. We will expose it all. And so because he's compromised, that now has real ramifications on our troops and on our country. We'll talk about that and more when we come back from our first quick break. That was a long segment, but an important long segment. Hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. And if you can, subscribe to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel, already on its way to 150,000 subscribers in a very short period of time. So subscribe to McFarlane McFarland. Go to Scott McFarland News on YouTube. Tell him Ben sent you. Say Ben says hi. Not creepy at all. He likes when you say Ben says hi from all that I hear. And make sure you subscribe there. Help it get to 150,000 subs. Subscribe to the Midas Touch on Audio. We will be right back after our first quick break.
Brett
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Jordi
Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors links in description, both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you birth. That was some really good reads there, Bretzer. Real quick, going back to the beginning of the show, Ben, no regrets. It always reminds me of the the scene from where the Millers where the kid goes no regerts. And it also reminds me about every time I hear the word apparently, I think of the word like the apparently kid.
Brett
It's like apparently apparently. That brings me back. Talk shows.
Jordi
We were talking about comps and there's no comp to this. But. But you guys brought up the actual the comp. The comp is what we're seeing now. This entire situation, it's just like Covid, right? This is a slow motion of a train wreck with the same conductor at the helm crashing it once again. I mean, that is in itself the perfect comp of what we're seeing now. Because it's just crazy. You can't trust any of the information coming out of the Trump regime right now. It is beyond anything in the realm of normalcy, what we're witnessing.
Ben
That's a great point. I mean, the comp is Trump. What I should have said, Jordy, thanks for the correction. Is there's no other comp outside of Donald Trump. And so it's a comp. And in many ways even worse than I think the past Trump comp. But that's one of the reasons that I would always focus my reporting on Donald Trump's loser past, not his successful past, because he never had a successful past. He ran most of his companies into the ground and bankrupted them and screwed the contractors and screwed his creditors and screwed everybody. And he would basically kind of take their money. He would do well and everybody else would get screwed and he would go bankrupt. Then he would do it again. He'd go bankrupt, then he would do it again and he had this miraculous ability, and I don't mean that in a positive way, to continue to find new marks and con people and then develop the con and grow the con while his businesses and his all the other things that he touches failed. Even the things that he's tried to build while in office. Right. Which by all accounts should do well just based on your proximity to the office, like his social media platform and his meme coins and his Bitcoin, like, all that stuff has not been successful. In fact, in most cases, they've been like utter, utter, utter grotesque failures. And so we're seeing that Jordy as the common happen again right here. And again, when you look at his past and his comp, right, the fact that he was Epstein's close friend and that he covers up the Epstein files and that Mar A Lago was used as one of the grounds where Epstein recruited underage girls like Virginia Giuffre and, you know, Donald Trump being found liable for sexual assault and the Epstein class being predators on little girls. And if you think about all of that and then you go, okay, well, who is being targeted a lot by some of the initial strikes and continuing strikes by the United States in the war? Right. A little girl school. Right. So as they're covering up the Epstein files where little girls were the victims, they're in Iran killing little girls in elementary schools. We learned about another event on the first day of the war at a gymnasium in another area of Iran where dozens were killed, dozens of children were killed, which again, by all accounts, seems to also be United States weapons. Who killed them there? BBC did a whole report on that, you know, which, which I covered. So the comp is you look at these people's past. I mean, you look at someone like a Hegseth, right? Hegseth wasn't able to run a nonprofit group successfully. He was pushed out because of his behavior and his failing and all of his personal disgusting things. He was pushed out of that. He's the guy who's leading the Defense Department. Like, he's the guy who's, you know, and everything they talk about, we're going to loiter over Iran and rain down death. And even Donald Trump's post, you know, they're war crimes. Like what he's saying he's going to do, I might quote, what does he say in that post? He's like, you know, after our nice little trip, you know, we may just blow up the desalination facilities and the electrical grids and all of that, and then say, bye, bye, you're a sicko. Like, those are actual war crimes. You're going to blow up the desalination facilities, what, and just kill the people who won't be able to access water. You're going to kill 90 million people. I mean, you're saying that that's what it means. And Iran goes to its people. You see? You see what they're saying, right? I mean, when Donald Trump says I'm going to blow up your electrical grids and all these things you want. The US And Israel target Tehran University, they blow up the schools. So then Iran responds and says to all of the American schools in Qatar, all right, we're bombing you next. And then the American schools get evacuated. Right. The American military bases in the Middle east are evacuated. Did you know that that 13American military bases in the Middle east have been totally abandoned? Could you imagine if that happened under Biden? 13 abandoned. All Donald Trump had to do was look at the way warfare was being fought in Ukraine and in Russia as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Right. It was clear that in 2025 and 2026, the war of the future was drones, interceptor drones, FPV drone swarms, Iran Shaheeds strategic ballistic missiles. That's how these things were being fought. And so the US Was focused on its interceptors, like it's Thaad and Patriot systems. Just think about this. This Iran shoots fireworks into the sky, draws out 100 UAE interceptors, each one costing 2 to $5 million. Just say each interceptor is around $5 million, right? $500 million being spent shooting Iranian fireworks. While then Iran works with one of its Shiite militia groups in Iraq, whether it's in the city of Erbil, or they work with Hezbollah, you know, into Israel or they work with. Yeah, and other, other Shiite groups, other militia groups, you know, in other locations, give them the FPV drones and then do drone swarms and start blowing up other assets. And just think about it. If you've compelled the UAE to spend $500 million of interceptors and you drew out that weaponry, that's a win for you as well. If you're Iran, the US has depleted three to seven years or maybe nine years of its interceptor reserves. The US has also went through a huge portion of its Tomahawk missiles. At this point, the Israel's chief of staff of the IDF is saying, we're on the verge of total collapse right now. Said it public. The IDF chief of staff said, we're on the, Our military is on the verge of collapse.
Brett
Right.
Ben
Right now. And you know, and you're see. And Iran's listening to this, no offense to me, okay? And I mean this with, with, with respect as I'm about to insult myself if I know these things. They know these things, okay? If we're aware of these things, they're aware of these things as well. And it's clearly happening also in plain view. And anybody can see it, you know, as I mentioned before the break, as I was saying, you know, these emolument clause violations, and in case you're just confused, our Constitution has something called the emolument clause, which, and there's also a bunch of bribery laws as well, which basically says you can't take gifts from foreign entities as quid pro quos. It's against the law. But Donald Trump, using the Supreme Court's ruling of absolute immunity, says all of these things are for national security and in our interests. The plane to Donald Trump, national security, the Golden Ballroom, national security. Because Trump says, I'm building a bunker underneath and it's a national security ballroom. Right. So that's what he invokes for everything. Because he goes, well, I'll just get immunity if I say it's all under my Article 2 Nationals, you know, I'm here to defend national security. But in any event, we have an emolument clause violation. We have a clause because, you know, we don't want people to take gifts from foreign nations.
Brett
Why?
Ben
Because you can then be compromised. So Donald Trump's taken personal gifts, I mean, in the form of investments.
Jordi
Right.
Ben
The UAE invested in World Liberty Financial and Saudi Arabia's built Trump properties and Qatar's given Donald Trump jets. And, you know, all these countries have done those things.
Brett
Why?
Ben
Because they knew that they were doing pay for play, quid pro quo. That was their goal and objective. So when you pay, the other side's gotta play. When you do a quid pro quo, when you use that, you're supposed to give us a security umbrella. So why would Qatar give a 500 million dollar plane? Well, if you're gonna give us Patriot and Thaad interceptors and protect us and do all of these things to the tune of billions and billions of dollars, that seems like a good investment. For 500, we'll give this guy a stupid plane. He wants a stupid plane, we give him a stupid plane, he's supposed to protect us. But then when you don't protect them, who becomes the victims? America? American troops? So one of the things that we're learning right now, and we probably knew this before even having to read about it, the Associated Press reports the United Arab Emirates, supported by Bahrain and Kuwait, is pushing hard for the US President to order a ground invasion of Iran. As officials from any Gulf allies of the United States, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE, have conveyed in private conversations, they don't want the ongoing military operations to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or there's a dramatic shift in Iran's behavior. Diplomatic officials told the Associated Press. And trust me, that diplomatic official is saying it very diplomatically. You better believe behind the scenes shit is going down. Right. There's no doubt that they are saying, you mother, you effort. We gave you all of these things. We can crush you. We'll break your businesses, you know, your children. We will. Just like I'm telling you, they are obviously saying, you can't leave us after all of this. You're going to leave us. We'll go join Iran then. How about that? You want to do that? We'll join Iran and we'll join Russia. That'll be the alliance. And so they're doing that in response right now. And we'll talk a little bit about Russia soon and what they're doing. But by the way, during a press conference today, and we'll show maybe these clips in a little bit too. Caroline Levitt's like, I think that actually the Arab nations are going to have to pay for this war. You're unless the objective, and it may be this, to really help Russia develop the strongest alliance ever to really build the Russia China alliance into the strongest power by. If that's the objective, okay, you're, that's what you're doing because that's the result of all of this, right? Occam's razor. That's, that's the outcome to all of this stuff. But I'll, I'll leave it to you to decide ultimately if that's, if, if that's the. Because if that's the intent they're executing on that plan, for sure.
Brett
Yeah, they'd be executing on that perfectly if, if that's the intent. And, and hey, it may be. But, you know, I think ultimately this is one of the issues with having not even zero credibility, but negative credibility. Nobody takes you seriously. It's the issue with, like Ben said, you know, violating the emoluments clause. It's the reason we have all of these rules, because you get leveraged very quickly, you're able to be pitted against basically your own country's interests. And the issue that we're running into right now is that truly Trump's only two moves right now are basically to cut bait and try to claim some BS victory and get out. Or alternatively, his other move is to escalate. And it seems like a lot of these forces right now are pushing him to escalate. It seems like his instincts are to continue to escalate and obviously that continues to put our troops in harm's way. It continues to risk lives abroad, at home, it continues to roil markets, keep the volatility going. And it's just his total inability to have any credibility has just been so damaging in the propaganda aspect of this war as well. Because Donald Trump's just been getting hammered day in and day out by the Iranian regime's propaganda. And the truth is, you know, you want to be able to say, oh, you know, it's like Baghdad Bob or something and that it's bullshit and that they're obviously lying and they're making things up to smear the United States and the president. But, but a lot of these things are just undeniable, the things that they're saying because Donald Trump is the Baghdad Bob in this situation. Caroline Levitt is the Baghdad Bob in this situation. And you don't have to rely on Midas touch on us to say that. There was even one of the senior ed the Wall Street Journal making that exact point last week. I believe we read that to you. But that's why you get responses from Iran that look like this Caroline Levitt today. And we may play these clips shortly. We'll see, we'll see how Ben's feeling. But Caroline Levitt said earlier, you know that we're on this four to six week estimated timeline. We've always been on that timeline. Remember in the beginning Donald Trump was like, it's going to take a few days, you know, and then it gradually got longer and longer and longer, longer. Carol Levitt said we're on day 30 today. So you do the math on how much longer the Pentagon needs to fully achieve the its objectives. We first off, we still don't really know the objectives. The objectives are a constantly shifting space. You are constantly moving the goalposts here on a whim with. And, and you're not even telling Rubio says something different than Besson says something different than Trump. And here you have that Iranian propaganda, the Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting, they said, mocking Caroline Levitt saying, so the war will probably last another 10 years. Sorry, not war, operation. They're mocking Trump because he has no credibility here. Because Trump goes like the other day, right, we're at a war. Oh, I shouldn't say war. They don't like when I say war.
Ben
It's an operation.
Brett
If I said war. If I say war, I got to get approval for it because that, that would be unconstitutional. They say this stuff out loud. We see this comment from Muhammad Galloba, the Speaker of Parliament, who recently posted this. This is about Trumps the Threats that we're seeing from the Trump administration. And Golubov said Iran's enemies pass off their wishes as, quote, news while simultaneously threatening our nation. They are dead wrong. If they strike once, they'll get hit several times back. The people of Iran, God willing, under the guidance of the supreme leader of the revolution, will make the enemy regret its actions and attain their rightful rights. So you could see here how Trump's statements, how Trump's escalations, how Trump's threats that were gonna commit war crimes against you, this is only emboldening them, and it's also allowing these people, who are by no means good people, the people, the speaker of Iranian parliament, to have kind of a moral upper hand here in the war as they speak to their people and they say, you think we're bad. Donald Trump wants to starve you. Donald Trump wants you to not have water. Donald Trump want is blowing up your buildings and blowing up your schools. It continues to make these threats. It's making. It's. It's putting us on a really bad path right now, and it's making the United States really just seem completely rudderless, looking like we have no idea what the hell we're doing. And I think it's kind of because we are right now, and we don't know what the hell we're doing.
Jordi
It really feels like Trump's only move is escalation like that. I don't want it to be.
Caroline Levitt
Be.
Jordi
I'm not hoping that's the case. In fact, I hope this resolves itself in the best way that it can. But it really seems like he has backed himself into a corner, and the only way for him to, I don't know, come out of this quote, unquote, a winner in his mind is to escalate, is to escalate, and in his terms, annihilate like that. That's the framework of these magas, especially Trump and the Trump regime. That's how he thinks he could win. And it's just. It shouldn't even be viewed in those terms. For me, it's the smugness of everyone in the Trump regime, Vance Trump himself, Caroline Levitt, in giving their responses to the press, like, Brett, can you please bring up that. Caroline Levitt, the image that we showed before. I just want to read it one more time for our audio listeners. And basically the gist of that, as Brett pulls that up, is the reporters ask her, they said, hey, how much longer? Right? How much longer? And she responds with something to the effect of. Of we're on day 30. You know, we said four to six weeks. You could describe it.
Brett
I got rid of it at this point.
Jordi
No, it's fine. It's fine. But that. But that was essentially the gist of that. We're on day 34 to six weeks. You do the math. Like, that's. That was her response to the reporter. I think it's a pretty legitimate question, right, Considering the fact that Donald Trump and folks in his cabinet have claimed that we've already won the war. So, okay, how much longer? Sounds like she gave a definitive declaration of a timeframe. In my opinion, four to six weeks. We're on day 30. You do the math, reporter. Okay, seven times six. 42. We have 12 more days then. And every single reporter should be holding her feet to the fire when we're not out of there in 12 days. I know it sounds arbitrary or whatnot, but to me, it's that serious. It's this constant smugness from everyone involved in Trump's circle when the American people want answers, especially answers to a serious as, how long, how much longer is this war going to go on? How many more troops are going to have to die? Her response, day 34 to six weeks. You do the math. It just. It makes me want to scream.
Ben
That's just where I said there's no comp. And, Jordi, you corrected me and said the comp is kind of Donald Trump with those deranged press conferences during COVID By Easter, we'll bend the curve. The cases are going away like a miracle. Inject yourself with this and do that and, you know, and all of those things. But we're used to, in the past, even if we disagreed with the president, you know, a president holding a speech with actual smart people, you know, and conveying the information and the data that even if there was some spin in there, we would generally try to, you know, believe and that it was also usually, and you know, with other presidents filled with compassion and actual patriotism and like, like leveling with the American people. Not always. Let me be very clear, but this is some next level, like, maniac dictator behavior right here. Where the thing that is also very scary about this is that because Trump lies about everything and creates this information, I wouldn't even say decay, but just destruction of information that the American people don't fully know what's coming. And, like, when you see it the way we see it, and you know where this is heading and you know what 2026 looks like, 2027 looks like, and perhaps even most frightening, beyond what this is shaping up to be right. And we'll talk a little bit about Russia planting its flag even firmer in Cuba. And I think about the Cuba missile crisis and what a big deal that was when I, When I grew up, right? And I mean, I didn't grow up during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but as my parents taught me about it, and I would see movies about it, you know, and just the other day, yesterday on Sunday, you know, the Russia ship's like, we're going through your blockade. And Trump's like, come on through after him. And put. And after him and Rubio and everyone were like, nobody gets through. And Putin's like, yeah, I'm gonna get through right there. And we're going to deliver our supplies to Cuba. Cuba. And then Trump's like, okay, okay, you can come in. And then the press is like, so can Mexico come in? And can Colombia and other countries, you know, ones that were actually allied with the United States, can they help Cuba out? No, no, we're not going to let them happen. So just Putin, on a case by case basis, it'll just. So you're going to release the sanctions against Russia, invite the Russian Duma to the capital and the State Department while Russia supplies its, its weapons and information to Iran to help defeat the United States in the war, Then you're going to let their ship just go right through the blockade and then defeat the whole purpose of you doing it, which will, if anything, I mean, if you're saying you want regime change in Cuba or whatever the hell you're going to do, you think that makes sense to then allow Russia to work with Cuba? So is what you actually want in Cuba, Cuba to basically be a, a, all of the things we were worried about, the Cuban Missile crisis, that was viewed as, you know, a positive, that the US Stood up to Russia back then. You're just gonna let them. You're just gonna let them, like, take it over and. Which, don't get me wrong, we already know that Cuba is funded by Russia and all of the support. But, like, you create this humanitarian crisis, which is horrible, you do, you make the people suffer in Cuba, which is. Is a crime against humanity, which I'm not supportive at all about anything in the way this Trump regime has treated Cuba. I think it's disgusting. But then at the end, you talk tough, and then Russia just goes, we're coming in. We're going to be the heroes. We're going to be the one to save them. Okay, come on in. You can do that. What the hell is that. And it just makes you look utterly pathetic. You add all this stuff up. We'll talk about it more after the break. But it's like, can anybody with moral clarity just explain what the hell's going on? We can. We're trying to. We'll be right back after our last quick break of the show. A quick reminder hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. Subscribe to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel at Scott McFarland News. Subscribe there. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio podcast. Search Midas Touch Wherever you get your audio podcast, leave a five star review there. We'll be right back after our last quick break of the show.
Brett
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Jordi
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Ben
Hi from Ben.
Jordi
What was the message?
Ben
Ben says hi.
Jordi
Ben says hi. It's a little. It's a little. It's a little. It's a little freaky maybe. Ben says what's up?
Ben
Yeah. Okay.
Jordi
Okay. So Go subscribe to Scott mc. I don't know if that's an improvement
Brett
but just you know, say say hey from the hey from mine.
Ben
Hey hey hey from Midas Touch. Great.
Brett
Appreciate you guys. Let me give a shout out to Katie Fang also. Katie Thang just passed past 550,000.
Jordi
Damn.
Brett
Hey. Katie Fang is crushing it and she also just came out with her a lot of fun developments Katie Fang world. I'll go through them quick. The the top two her new podcast Sidebar with Katie Fang now available on all podcast platforms. Be sure to check that out. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, you name it, it is there. Go check it out. Sidebar with Katie Fang Sidebar is one word. Check it out it out Also Katie Fang doing a weekly live show now every Tuesday. So you know how Ben does his live Ben Live on Breaking News now every Tuesday. What time do you do that Ben? You do it at 4:30pm Eastern time. So at 5:30pm Eastern Time immediately following that on Katie Fang channel. Katie Fang goes live every Tuesday now. So that's if you're listening to this podcast that's today. If you're watching live on YouTube, it's tomorrow Tuesday. But be sure to check out Katie Fang live. She's such a frickin rock star man.
Ben
Here's what President Zelinsky posted on his social media. Here's what he's saying publicly. He goes look, when I travel outside of Ukraine, I get daily intelligence updates online. This morning I was briefed that US Military facilities in the Middle east and the Gulf region were photographed by Russian satellites in the interest of Iran. On March 24, they Image the US UK Joint Military Facilities on Diego Garcia. They also captured pictures of Kuwait International Airport, the infrastructure at the Greater Bergen oil Airfield. On March 25, they took pictures of the Prince Sultan Air base in Saudi Arabia, the Sheba oil and gas field in Saudi Arabia, an air base in Qatar and Turkey. All imaged on March 26. There are no Ukrainian facilities on this list. But who is helping whom when sanctions are lifted from an aggressor that earns daily revenue and provides intelligence for strikes against American Middle East, UK and US UK bases, and so on. Listen to this line by Zelensky. When surveillance is carried out over facilities in Ukraine, we always understand that they must be protected since plans are in motion to destroy them. Energy and water infrastructure, military facilities and so on. Everyone knows that repeated reconnaissance indicates preparations for strikes. How can sanctions be eased if this is what the Russians are doing? There must be pressure on the Aggressor. And lifting sanctions is certainly not pressure. It looks strange. Sanctions are being lifted while the aggressor is providing intelligence to strike facilities, including those of the country that are discussing or have already lifted sanctions. He uses that word particularly, that looks strange. And what he's saying is, in my opinion, like, that looks like you're working to hurt your own military. It's the only logical explanation. When you lift the sanctions and reward the party that is working with the country you're in war against, you're literally like, could you imagine in World War II if you had FDR or Truman go, you know what? We're gonna lift some sanctions on how could we help Germany make more money in World War II? Right? That's. We're gonna help Hitler and Mussolini. We're gonna really work with them right now because we're doing jiu jitsu on them, right? That's what Treasury Secretary Scott Besit is. That's why Zelinsky says, says it looks strange, like, what the hell are you doing? Zelensky also took a tour. He met in Kuwait. He met in, in, in United Arab Emirates, in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and did deals with all of them to provide Ukrainian interceptor drones, Ukrainian drones, other technologies. And the message being sent, whether it's directly or indirectly, is that, think about it, the American security umbrella ain't working. The Ukrainian security umbrella is needed. Right? That's the message that's being sent. And while all of that's taking place, as I mentioned before the break, you had Russian Duma members, photographs of them with MAGA Republican Congress members during the war in Iran where Russia's helping Iran. You have MAGA Republican Congress members and MAGA State Department officials having the Russian Duma, who sanctioned Russian Duma members over to the United States, greeting them like heroes while Donald Trump still attacks Zelinsky and still attacks Ukraine and still takes Russia's side throughout all of this. Think about that. We've done a, we've done a good job not showing clips on this one, because I don't want to hear Donald Trump's voice, frankly, on this episode. But let's hear just for a second. Bear with me. This is the photo for those on audio. It's of MAGA Republican Congress members with the top Russian Duma members. They taking photos, they posted it, they're bragging about it. And they're like, well, we're doing peace. Russia's trying to kill America. What are you talking about? You're doing peace? Are you the dumbest people ever? What are you doing? You know, if that's truly what you think is happening, that you're doing peace talks, then you're the dumbest people ever. Unless the explanation is that you want to actually help Russia destroy American military bases with Iran and kill Americans. Because that's really batching.
Brett
And Ben, I don't even think this part got enough attention that Anna Paulina Luna who is in there, she's, she's a congresswoman. Not only did they meet, but Anna Paulina Luna gave these sanctioned Russian officials a tour of the United States, United States Capitol the other day.
Ben
Like I personally gave them the tour,
Brett
the VIP tour, a VIP tour that she personally gave him through the United States Capitol. Speaking about like, you know, in the past you had to use a trojan horse to get the enemies in the building. Here you got memory. Republican members of Congress just going walk right in. It's all yours. Sanctioned Russian members, sanctioned Russian officials. It's like, it's like treasonous, honestly. It's, that's, you know, in my opinion. Opinion.
Ben
Yeah. I mean, and that's why with all this, you know how like Iran has their cluster munitions, right? With Trump's cluster munitions of disinformation and distraction and there's so much news everywhere, it's like they invite. What more do you need me to say? Russia, Russia, Russia. Yeah, they in. I know when Trump says that people are like afraid, ooh, we cover that
Jordi
he's going to sue us because Russia,
Ben
they invited the Russians over. They let the Russians through their so called blockade, they removed the sanctions against the Russians. They know that the Russians are giving surveillance to Iran to strike American military bases so successfully they're able to target the crown jewel of our air force and our Strato tankers and all of these, and all of these things. And Donald Trump still takes poop Putin's side over Zelinsky with all of this. And it's like, it's as simple as that. Just that's what's happening. I'm not even, I'm not sharing with you my opinion. I'm just telling you the facts of what's actually happening. Caroline Levitt held a press conference today and one of the members of the press asked her and they said, hey, so the President insists he's negotiating with Iran and that they've agreed to his 15 points. They disagree with it. So what do you say when Iran's people say that this is not happening at all? What's your response? Caroline?
Brett
Here, play this clip just to follow
Caroline Levitt
up because Americans are sort of seeing these conflicting messages between the United States and Iran. I know the President insists that negotiations are underway, as you just mentioned. He's also said that Iran has agreed to Most of the 15 points we
Brett
just heard from Iran.
Caroline Levitt
Again, they're saying no negotiations are taking place. They're calling the proposal accept unrealistic. So how do you square that? How do you explain that discrepancy between the two? I think the American people are smart enough not to take the word of a terrorist regime that has chanted death to America for 47 years at their word. And I hope the journalists in this room are wise enough not to take an Iranian regime that has repeatedly lied about our country, about our values, about everyone in this room, frankly, for nearly five decades. So I think the American public are smart enough to understand that.
Ben
Who controls the Strait of Hormuz right now? Does Iran continue to shoot ballistic missiles, Shahid drones, drone swarms at its Arab nation neighbors where there are American military interests in response to the United States and Israel strikes in Iran and Iran, Iran issues evacuation orders to the areas that it's going to strike, then strikes those areas with a degree of frequency. Is Iran doing that? While you claim their military has been totally obliterated? Is their parliament meeting on a regular basis? Are these pro democracy protesters out on the street demanding regime change in Iran like you promised was going to take place place in the first 48 hours. And that was beginning to happen in January until you betrayed everybody, all the protesters, and threw them under the bus and didn't even have assets in the areas and told them to protest, then got a lot of them killed. I can observe what's happening out there. You know, have our equipment, has our equipment been destroyed in many of these military bases every night? Do I see Iran continuing to rain ballistic missiles, cluster munitions into Iran? Has the, have the Houthis joined the war right now? You know, I can evaluate what's actually happening. And I understand in a war there's propaganda here and there's propaganda there, but I can tell you what's actually happening on the ground.
Brett
And talking about the pot calling the kettle black, right?
Ben
It's like, well, look, I've seen, they've lied so many times. The Trump regime has consistently, their word is zero. And now you have the foreign minister of Oman, who was the handpicked mediator by the US Working with Iran to help them build their toll plan in order to control the Strait of Hormuz. That's one of the things that happening. So then she's also Asked who's paying for the cost of this war? Caroline? Will the Arab countries step up? The Arab countries who have stepped up to pay for America's security umbrella, only for America to go to war with Israel against Iran without consulting the Arab nations, Who's going to pay for this war? Donald, here, play this clip.
Caroline Levitt
Jonathan.
Ben
Thanks a lot.
Caroline Levitt
Caroline.
Brett
Two questions regarding the financial cost of the war. Back during the Persian Gulf War, 1990,
Ben
1991, Arab countries paid for the vast majority of the cost of the war. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the uae.
Brett
Who's paying for the cost of this war?
Ben
Will those Arab countries step up to do just that?
Caroline Levitt
Well, I think it's something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do. I won't get ahead of him on that, but certainly it's an idea that I know that he has and something that I think you'll hear more from him on.
Brett
Right after Mexico pays for the wall, the Arab countries are going to pay for Trump and Israel war. That's what's exactly what's going to happen. Imagine just having the gall to start a war without even consulting anybody, cause damage and terror to countries like they're, let's be real, they're paying the price for this war right now. Their countries are getting bombed for helping the United States and then demanding or asking or hoping that they pay your bills. It's like the whole thing is so perverse.
Jordi
They have no shame.
Ben
That's Trump's past, Jordy.
Jordi
Exactly. They have no shame. They have this and they have no shame. They are kidding themselves and they are incredibly smug every step of the way. It is absolutely pathetic. It is just, that is just the baseline word that, like I, that just they are pathetic individuals, all of them. And it just so happens that these specific pathetic individuals are the top leaders, quote, unquote, leaders in our government at this time, and they are bringing all of us collectively down with them. And I just want to pull my frigging hair out watching all of this. Ah, again, like, I am audibly screaming throughout this episode because that's just the, that's the emotion that's coming out of me right now. And it has been all day.
Ben
One more clip then, Jordy. Why was the administration okay with sending Russia why was the administration okay with Russia sending its oil to Cuba and not other nations? Right. You said that you were embargoing Cuba. There was an executive order that says anybody who dare bring oil into Cuba will face the wrath of the United States. You and Rubio have said over and over again the goal is to basically starve Cuba, which in my view is a crime against humanity as well. But now you let Russia in. What's the end game of this? If you were going to let countries in, why not let's let allies of the United States and deliver it in order to maybe encourage better relations with Cuba, even though I think they realize that you're the one starving them. But why not we give aid or why not allow Mexico to give aid or Colombia like they tried to when you stop them from doing it? Play the clip.
Caroline Levitt
I'll take a few more.
Brett
Thank you. You listed the described humanitarian reasons for allowing that oil tanker to reach Cuba. Just to clarify, why was the administration okay with Russia sending that oil to
Ben
Cuba and not other nations?
Caroline Levitt
Ms. Look, this was a decision. It'll continue to be made on a case by case basis for humanitarian reasons or otherwise. But there's been no firm change in our sanctions policy.
Brett
President Scheinbaum of Mexico also said that Mexico is exploring different ways to restart some of those shipments to Cuba. Is the administration okay with that at this time?
Caroline Levitt
Ms. Again, no change in our sanction policy. We still reserve the right to seize vessels if it's legally applicable that are headed towards Cuba and that violate the United States sanction policy. But of course, the president and the administration also reserve the right to waive those seizures on a case by case basis.
Brett
And to clarify just any more Russian oil tankers going to be allowed to reach Cuba at this time. I know you say case by case,
Ben
but for the case of Russia, is
Brett
it pretty much green light right now?
Caroline Levitt
No, that's not what I said. It's a case by case basis.
Ben
Vicious, a vicious lie. I mean just when you watch that, if you don't cringe, if that doesn't make you angry, go, what the hell is this? Well, then I guess you're in the 33% to support Donald Trump. I mean, his approval dropped in the latest UMass MRI first YouGov poll to 33%. I mean, I think it will be in the 20s soon. Net negative 25 on immigration, net negative 31 on jobs, negative 36 on tariffs, negative 47 on inflation. And this number is going to continue to go lower. It'll be, it'll be in the 20s soon. But how you watch that and go, that makes sense to me. All of the lies, all of the attack on allies, all of the, the trade wars against the world, all of the gutting of the government and the State Department, all of that right created the perfect foundation. If you Will. And it's screwed up to say it this way, that when he instigated this disastrous war in Iran for it just all to break the ticking time, like you couldn't have set in motion a more catastrophic way to approach everything that's been built in America. And the part that is tough for me in the moment when I report on what's happening day to day, even when things are grim and horrible and tragic, it's, you know, I don't want to say it's easy, but like, you know, you're in the, you're in the game. You know, you're, you're, you're, you're focused on, right? You're just doing it. Muscle, muscle memory takes over and you're reporting on what's happening. The, the difficult part is when you study it the way we all do and you see what's coming in the future the way I was warning about this, then in 20, you know, and then when people look, oh, you're being hyperbolic. That's not gonna happen. Look at the headline, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like really, really after, after all of these things happening. And again, not because I'm a great predictor, because I'm just listening and watching and observing what's happening. Not because there's some notre damas. Future predictions.
Brett
What do you mean all hell breaks loose? Ben, are you watching the news? Are you watching what's going on? Hell is breaking loose.
Ben
Everything. This is hell breaking loose. Then there's no terminology for that in general. Like, like, then there isn't because this is the depths of depravity of, of, of, of anti American. You know, this whole thing is taking America down. And I'm not trying to scare people. It's just what is happening every single day. Two points, Brett and Jordan. Then I'll throw to you. Shout out no Kings protest over 8 million. I think the number was closer to 9 million. Midas Touch. Midas Touch distributed footage again. You know, the whole day we did coverage. It's always been a priority of us to do that. Then at the beginning I talked about Congress abandoning the ship. Right. While all of this is going with everything, I'm talking about happening maga, Republicans gaveled out. They're on a two week vacation right now. It's not some, both sides, you know, oh, everybody left. Okay. Democrats have tried to fund TSA over and over and over again. Nine times. Okay. Finally the Senate agreed and then the House said, nope, we're going to block that.
Brett
That.
Ben
So Donald Trump did An unlawful executive order funding the tsa. No one's really going to challenge that. It's unlawful because we want the TSA to be funded, but it's not a lawful order. You can't do it by executive order. But we all want the TSA to be funded, so it's like, all right, just let the DSA be funded. Which Trump should have done from the outset. But regardless, you know, it's like, the Republicans did it. I'm not saying that because, like, oh, I don't like the middle of the Republicans. So they did it. They want ICE to be able to wear masks and torture people and not do warrants. And Democrats are like, you've got your money, ice. We don't need to give you more. We do want to fund TSA and FEMA and all the other things the Republicans like. Nope. Unless you let us do the ICE torture part, then we're not going to do it. And could we add just bullying transgender people into this? And it's like, what does that have to do with anything? The save just let's bully transgender people. Let's throw that in there. And it's like, okay, y' all are a bunch of morons, and you're evil and you're just. And you're causing this. Like, it's so obvious. I wanted to point it out at the end of the episode.
Brett
Yeah, well said. And I just want to give a shout out to the no Kings folks as well. You know, everybody who, whether you were on the ground, you know, in your city, in your town, whether you're watching our stream at home, whether you were in bed, retweeting content or reposting content and sharing content, whatever your role was, I want to thank you for being out there. I do think those no Kings rallies are so important, and I think they're also crucial because they are a check on this Trump regime's unhinged propaganda, because they rely on their lies and media outlets and their influencers to regurgitate their lies. One of their biggest lies are that, you know, they are this big movement that is unstoppable and that there are no. There's nobody out there who challenges this. Everybody. Body loves it. You had Trump. I won't play the clip, but the other day on the plane, Trump called all Democrats terrorists. Like, how screwed up, how offensive is that? And do you remember the news cycle? I'm sure you do. When Hillary Clinton referred to a small portion of Trump voters as a basket of deplorables? And that was like, every Day every. They still talk about it to this day. Donald Trump. And she was right by the dude.
Jordi
She was so. She.
Brett
Hillary was right, understated it. She could have. She should have and could have went further. Donald Trump calls Democrats terrorists. Doesn't even make like a headline. Just think about that. But when you have people out there, when you have patriotic people, people who love this country, people who love their families getting out, taking the streets peacefully, protesting, delivering rousing, inspiring speeches, speaking to all of the things that a majority of Americans care about, it neutralizes all of that line of attack from the Trump regime. And it also shows that there are more of us than there are of them. And it shows a strength in numbers. And let's be real, we're heading towards a midterm year. And I think it acts to excite people and say, listen, they are going to try to throw whatever they can at us this time. We know that. But we have all of these people behind us who are going to do everything that we can to ensure that that does not happen. I think that's power. Powerful. I think that's powerful. And I love the images. And Jordy, speaking of the images, I have a photo of you here as well. I got a flash for.
Jordi
Let's go, Pittsburgh, man. Shout out Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh had a unbelievable turnout. I mean, I was expecting it, but, like, when you're actually there and in person, you just see everyone and to be.
Ben
Hold on.
Brett
Question, question. Were you trying to look exactly like the guy with a sign meme? You know, you guys know that meme because you look like I, I now I could write anything on your side sign. You've given me. You've given me a tool now, and it's possible.
Jordi
But dude, I'm serious. Like, I'm not just saying this. The energy there was so incredible and to your point. Exactly, Brett. It was like this whole mentality of strength in numbers to its core, to, like, the very essence of it. Because I saw signs about everything. I saw signs around the Epstein files, releasing the Epstein files to affordability, to getting ice the heck out of power. It's. It was really incredible to see and what, what were the motivating fact people to get down there? And it was all again, around this central ethos of pro democracy, bringing people together, bringing the energy that we're going to need every step of the way to take back our country in a. In a peaceful, peaceful, yet energized way. So it was shout out everyone at the no Kings in Pittsburgh. Shout out to everyone at no Kings across the country or across the world, y' all are. Are the greatest. Like, no, no, no ends. If butts about it like it was. It was. It was all awesome.
Ben
Want to thank everybody so much for watching. We covered a lot on this episode. I hope you appreciate the comprehensive nature of these updates. We do spend a lot of time to make sure that you leave this episode knowing everything that's going on. The good, the bad, the ugly. And unfortunately, right now, in this current moment, it's ugly. But we'll persevere. We'll get out of it. Democracy will prevail. We the people, will hold firm. Firm. You saw that at no Kings. You'll see it at the next no Kings. But frankly, you see it every day with all of you and your simple acts of resistance standing up to this regime, working together, helping Midas Touch network grow. We're so damn grateful for you all. Hit. Subscribe here. Subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel. Subscribe to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel. Subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel. Subscribe to Tennessee Brando's YouTube channel.
Brett
Channel.
Ben
Subscribe to Adam Mockler's YouTube.
Brett
I'll say this. I'll make it easy for everybody. If you go to the Midas Touch YouTube channel and go to the bottom of our channel page, there's a section that says more from Midas Touch, and all of the people, all of the channels in our universe are there, and you could just go, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. The boom is you hitting subscribe very quickly.
Jordi
Let me just say it so he doesn't get upset. Subscribe to Aaron Parnas's YouTube channel.
Ben
I was gonna do everything.
Jordi
Yeah, well, I. I didn't want to leave anyone out, hurt anyone's feelings.
Brett
Ben.
Ben
Yeah, definitely subscribe to Aaron Parnas's YouTube
Brett
channel actually,
Jordi
first and then.
Ben
Yeah, there you go.
Brett
Don't get mad at us. I don't need a. I don't need a mean, you know, breaking news. Tik tok.
Jordi
It's a major breaking news.
Brett
I don't need that smoke.
Ben
And congratulations to Parnas. He posted it publicly, so we congratulate
Brett
him and be congratulations to Aaron. We're Aaron had. Aaron had a baby girl for those wondering and. But he hasn't skipped a beat on the reports in the hospital with the hair net. Like, breaking news.
Ben
Like, dude, you could take off, man.
Brett
I promise. Promise.
Ben
I promise. Thanks, everybody, for watching. We appreciate you stay in the fight. We've got this. Jordy, take it away.
Jordi
Shout out to the might as mighty
Ben
Standing strong
Brett
against the fascist we sing our song we will get it right whenever.
Jordi
Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad
Brett
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Jordi
exclusive content only available@midasplus.com
Brett
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Ben
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This episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast (March 31, 2026) centers on President Donald Trump’s escalating and increasingly catastrophic war in Iran, the spiraling domestic economic crisis, and the broader ramifications for U.S. global alliances. Hosted by brothers Ben, Brett, and Jordi Meiselas, the episode is a spirited, in-depth analysis—punctuated by their signature brotherly banter, outspoken pro-democracy views, and sharp comedic asides—addressing Trump’s foreign policy failures, his administration’s mendacity in wartime messaging, and what these crises mean for ordinary Americans and the future of democracy.
[02:58 - 15:00]
[11:30 - 18:10]
[18:11 - 34:00]
[34:00 - 53:36]
[53:36 - 65:00]
[87:55 - 91:38]
The episode exudes the Meiselas brothers’ trademark urgency, dark humor, and righteous frustration. Through data, global perspectives, and biting satire, they lay bare the dangers of Trump’s foreign and domestic policy failures, highlight the futility of his regime’s messaging, and underscore the power of organized democratic resistance.
If you missed the episode:
You’ll understand why the current crisis is both uniquely perilous and depressingly familiar, characterized by gaslighting, grift, shifting targets, and mounting casualties—yet you’ll also hear why informed public resistance and persistent truth-telling remain essential to preserving democracy.