MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/6/26

Summary

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The MeidasTouch Podcast – March 6, 2026: "War, Regime Change, and the Permanent Stench"

Hosts: Ben, Brett, & Jordy Meiselas
Theme: Breakdown of Trump regime’s ongoing war in Iran, catastrophic domestic/foreign policy fallout, government instability, and the weaponization of propaganda and U.S. institutions.

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Episode Overview

The Meiselas brothers dive into an urgent analysis of Donald Trump’s spiraling war in Iran, the chaos at home and abroad created by his regime, and the fallout from the firing of Kristi Noem as DHS Secretary. With their signature mix of comedic banter and sharp critique, they draw parallels to the mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis, highlight media complicity, and warn about the long-term damage being done to U.S. credibility and democracy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Escalation and Backfire: Trump’s War with Iran

• Complete Loss of Control: Trump’s “unlawful war” with Iran has spread regionally, destabilized the Middle East, and forced even former allies to unite against the U.S. ([02:43]).
• No Coherent Exit Strategy: Multiple segments call out the regime’s lack of an exit plan, echoing comparisons to the endless war in Vietnam and the Iraq quagmire.
• Use of Allies and Sports Figures as Props: Trump’s penchant for press events with sports teams (specifically the Miami soccer team) is slammed as fascist propaganda ([05:23]).

"He wants the image of strong athletes standing behind him while he spews this utter propaganda, this utter nonsense." – Ben ([05:23])

• Diplomatic Implosion: Trump is simultaneously begging Volodymyr Zelensky for anti-drone expertise while mocking him publicly—a paradox that underscores the self-inflicted loss of international respect ([03:20], [04:54]).

2. Propaganda, Lies, and Media Spin

• Changing the Narrative: The regime keeps shifting language—war vs. conflict, claiming “special military operations” instead of outright war ([03:20], [32:23]), evoking Kremlin/Russian-style propaganda.
• Lie, Deny, Edit: Real-time examples of Trump officials and state media lying about events (downed aircraft, strikes, casualties), and then quietly editing statements to cover tracks ([27:01]).
• Orwellian Echoes: The hosts note the regime’s use of “we’ve always been at war” doublespeak, drawing direct lines to 1984 ([32:23]).

“It’s also incredibly Orwellian. Isn’t there the line in 1984: ‘We’ve always been at war with East Asia’?” – Brett ([32:23])

3. Consequences at Home: Economic and Institutional Collapse

• Soaring Gas and Jet Fuel Prices: The panel discusses the “perfect storm” of inflation, gas/diesel doubling, cratering stock market, and the cost-of-living shock reverberating across the U.S. ([00:34], [15:50], [32:23]).
• Weaponized Law Enforcement: ICE and Border Patrol are militarized and turned against U.S. civilians. The firing of Noem is dissected in this context ([00:34], [04:54]).
• Permanent Stench Analogy: Brett delivers a memorable Seinfeld-inspired analogy, warning that Trump’s disgrace has tainted both the White House and the nation itself ([10:04], [11:25]).

“Donald Trump is the valet driver and the White House is the car. And them going in there—they can't get the stink of Donald Trump off of them.” – Brett ([10:04])

4. Internal Dysfunction and Government Infighting

• Instability in the Administration:

  • DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is fired over a self-promotional ad campaign, not for human rights atrocities ([00:34], [41:06]).
  • Senators and appointees swap roles; comments about Markwayne Mullen’s ascension are scathingly critical ([41:06]).
  • Congressional hearings spotlight a cast of “sycophants,” sexual misconduct accusations, and zero accountability ([44:22]).

• Dysfunction at the Top: Staff, Congress, and even military brass operate by ‘interpreting’ Trump rather than receiving real leadership or directives, worsening chaos ([62:24]).

"Elbridge Colby is trying to say the Trump administration... because he doesn't know what the hell Trump's plan is. Nobody knows what Trump’s plan is." – Ben ([63:52])

5. Backlash from Abroad: Allies, Kurds, and The Arab World

• Allies Turn Against U.S.: Arab nations complain about being dragged into a war without consent or respect for regional stability ([15:50]).
• Kurds Betrayed Again: The regime leaks fake news about the Kurds “invading Iran” to ignite a larger regional war. Kurdish/Iraqi leaders issue scathing denouncements ([21:03], [25:03]).
• China’s Growing International Role: Arab states now turn to China for diplomatic mediation—a tectonic shift in global alliances ([15:50]).

6. Authoritarian Moves and Cover-Ups

• Weaponizing Personnel: Trump’s administration is packed with loyalists and grifters; cover-ups and personal profiteering abound ([47:08]).

"He’s just replaced one sycophant with another sycophant." – Jordy ([50:43])

• Pam Bondi/Epstein Files: Trump keeps scandal-plagued officials like AG Pam Bondi to keep secrets hidden, especially around the Epstein scandal ([69:36]).

"He needs to praise her and he needs to keep her in that position and make sure everything’s okay with her because she’s seen everything in those files..." – Brett ([70:35])

7. Parallel to COVID-19 Response

• Trump’s self-grading bravado (“I give myself a 15 out of 10!”) for the war is directly compared to his COVID-19 failures ([53:53]).

“I would say somebody said, on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15...” – Donald Trump ([53:53])

• Hosts warn of the same patterns: denial, delay, misinformation—now with far more dangerous and far-reaching results.

8. Media, Accountability, and Democracy

• Importance of Independent Media: The hosts stress the role of independent journalists and channels like MeidasTouch to counter government propaganda ([50:43], [74:12]).
• Call to Action: Listeners are urged to stay vigilant, support credible reporting, and “hold their feet to the fire” with truth and receipts ([50:43], [53:00]).

“Don’t be gaslit by Donald Trump… because it’s absolutely not [normal].” – Jordy ([52:50])

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Notable Quotes & Moments (With Timestamps)

• “[Trump] has quickly, almost immediately lost complete and total control of this war with Iran.” – Brett ([02:43])
• “He wants the image of strong athletes standing behind him while he spews this utter propaganda, this utter nonsense.” – Ben ([05:23])
• “Donald Trump is the valet driver and the White House is the car… they can't get the stink of Donald Trump off of them.” – Brett, Seinfeld analogy ([10:04])
• “We have a credibility issue here in the United States and with our president. And that's as nicely as I could put it.” – Jordy ([28:50])
• “Trump is living in this sort of 2016 era that he could just lie and gaslight… but it’s a different landscape.” – Jordy ([50:43])
• “He needs to praise her and he needs to keep her in that position… because she's seen everything in those files.” – Brett, on Bondi ([70:35])
• “Elbridge Colby is trying to say the Trump administration… because he doesn't know what the hell Trump's plan is. Nobody knows what Trump’s plan is.” – Ben ([63:52])
• “I would say somebody said, on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15…” – Donald Trump ([53:53])
• “These are good looking people… I don’t like good looking men. You don’t feel so good about yourself standing up here.” – Donald Trump at the soccer team event ([65:15])
• “We want to fight more than they do… What are you even talking about? We do. That’s news.” – Ben ([65:53])
• “Brett, you pointed out, it’s like right out of the same script… Like a miracle, it’s all going to go away. From a scale of 1 to 10, what would you rate it? I think Donald Trump said with COVID and 11. Right. Or how would you rate yourself? A plus. And I mean, when it comes to the Iran war, Donald Trump on his own said, I've been asked to rank it on a scale from 1 to 10. I rank it a 15.” – Ben ([53:34])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:34 – Ben opens with the current regime “war against Iran”, economic chaos, firing of Kristi Noem.
• 02:43 – Brett’s overview of how the Iran war spiraled out of Trump’s control.
• 05:23 – Trump uses the Miami soccer team as propaganda props.
• 10:04 – The Seinfeld “stench” analogy and the broader reputational damage.
• 15:50 – Middle Eastern backlash and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz; oil and gas price surge.
• 25:03 – Kurds’ angry response to U.S. attempts to drag them into war.
• 27:01 – Trump regime’s real-time lies and walkbacks.
• 32:23 – Language games: “It’s not a war, it’s a special military operation.”
• 41:06 – Kristi Noem fired as DHS Secretary and “shield of the Americas” appointment.
• 44:22 – Congressional grilling about misconduct within the Trump administration, specifically Lewandowski and Bondi.
• 50:00 – The “adults in the room” theme: replacing one “sycophant” with another.
• 53:00–54:09 – Trump’s “rate it a 15” brag; linking war response to COVID-19 handling.
• 62:24–63:52 – Congressional hearing confusion: Officials don’t know/pretend to interpret Trump’s intentions.
• 65:15–65:53 – Trump’s awkward, self-serving banter with the sports team; claims Iranians are “begging” to make a deal.
• 67:46 – Treasury Secretary’s gaslighting: “the region is not on fire—it’s just people with iPhones.”
• 70:35–72:21 – Why Pam Bondi is kept on despite bipartisan outrage—cover-up protection.
• 74:12 – Closing calls for accountability, independent media, and pro-democracy vigilance.

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Overall Tone & Style

The hosts shift seamlessly from comedic analogies to grave warnings. The tone is one of mounting frustration and incredulity—using humor and pop culture as a coping mechanism, but never losing sight of the deadly seriousness of the moment.

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Conclusion & Call to Action

The episode closes with a rallying cry for truth, accountability, and continued resistance to authoritarianism. The brothers champion the power of independent journalism, call on their listeners (the “Meidas Mighty”) to counter disinformation, and give a pointed warning: the permanent “stench” of this era will only be overcome by relentless exposure of the facts and steadfast defense of democracy.

“We need people who actually love this country… not for a maniac, not for one person, but for all of the people.” – Jordy ([74:12])

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For the full context and continued updates, subscribe to the MeidasTouch Podcast and check Midasplus.com.

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Note: Ads, promos, and non-content sections have been omitted for clarity. This summary preserves the sharp, critical, and brotherly tone of the original discussion.

Transcript

[Brett]

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[Benji]

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[Benji]

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[Ben]

regime's war against Iran continues with no end in sight. Middle east neighbors of Iran continue to get bombarded with shahid drones and ballistic missiles. Donald Trump is asking Zelensky for help since Ukraine has a history of shooting down these shahed drones and ballistic missiles. But at the same time, the Trump regime is also mocking and attacking Zelensky and Ukraine. We also learned earlier today that crime Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security secretary was fired. Apparently her sending ICE and border Patrol Gestapo to kill people on the streets was not enough for her to get fired. Her cover ups, including what went down in Texas where there were over 100 children who were killed by the disastrous floods there last year, which nobody talked about, apparently all that wasn't enough right there. But when she talked about how Donald Trump was the one who authorized her to do a 200 million ad campaign featuring herself, that's what led to Donald Trump firing her. Trump appointed to her, appointed her to a made up position that nobody even knows what it is. And so now they're going to play make believe and what are they calling it? She's the tip of the spear, ambassador to some ridiculous name. Also, the markets here in the United States are doing absolutely horrible. The price of jet fuel has doubled. The gas prices are going up like crazy right now. Inflation is going to be surging. And the Dow, the Dow was around 47, a little over 47,000 today while Donald Trump was bragging today that it was 50,000. And then Donald Trump staged a press conference with the Miami Football Club in the White House where Donald Trump started saying, I don't like you because you're all so good looking. You're too good looking for me. I don't like that. And then started using them as props to talk about how great the war is in Iran and that we're going after Cuba next. Talk about that and more on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Let's bring in Brett and Jordy. So we've got a, a lot to discuss, brothers.

[Brett]

A whole lot to discuss. Great to see you, Ben. Great to see you, Jordy. Great to See you, Midas Mighty. Everybody watching us live and everybody listening on the Midas Touch podcast audio feed. By the way, make sure you're listening to the Midas Touch podcast audio feed if you have a second. If you're not doing that already. Matt, things are escal. I mean, Trump has quickly, almost immediately lost complete and total control of this war with Iran. You see now these officials, whether they're inside the Trump administration, inside the Trump regime, or if we're speaking about even members of Congress, they don't even know what to call this thing because Trump and Trump officials keep referring to it as a war. And then when they get pressed on it, they go, oh wait, it's not a war. I said war.

[Ben]

Oops.

[Brett]

It's not a war, it's a conflict. And they're now in this kind of just back and forth about that as this just totally gets out of hand. This has spread throughout the entire region. You have all of these other countries now in the middle of this and they did not ask for this. And a lot of them are now firing back at the United States going, what the hell did you get us involved with? It's also showing why it's so important for us to actually have allies when situations like this happen. And we have certainly pushed our allies away. Oh, how the tables have turned. Who has the cards now as we see Volodymyr Zelensky being asked by the Trump regime to provide expertise and personnel to assist with those shot head drones. I mean, are you freaking kidding me? After the way that Donald Trump has treated Zelensky? Even just this week, the comments that Trump and his officials have made about Zelensky, what an absolute disgrace. We are just seeing the whole thing collapse. And I think the war right now is kind of the, the big straw that is breaking the camel's back. But it's just everything right now, right? It's the economy, it's gas prices, it's war, it's discord at home. It's this insane ICE and border patrol that's attack our citizens and weaponizing law enforcement like a militarized force against our citizens. Everywhere you look it's just a complete and utter disaster. And I don't know how you look at this regime and don't see anything else but a complete failure. We're going to dig into the latest news. Jordy, what's the latest on your end?

[Jordy]

What's up brothers? What's up Midas Mighty? Brett, Great reminder for the folks on the audio feed to also leave a comment. We are 50 comments away from hitting that 50,000 comment number that I arbitrarily have made a big deal. So please leave a comment. Say hi if you can. I love reading them. Five stars, five star review. That's super helpful. Wherever you get your audio podcast, leave a five star review. Leave a comment. I'm really excited to get into today's show. We have so much to get into. Benji, where are we starting off?

[Ben]

Yeah, so Donald Trump had the Miami soccer team at the Oval Office today. And he frequently does this with sports teams. He uses them as the props, especially like who he considers to be, like, big, strong, like, men, handsome men behind him. And so, you know, this is how he believes. He projects strength to have them. So he sets this up on purpose. So when all these sports teams are like, what do you want us to do? We're not being political, we just show up to the White House. That's not a political thing. Well, he's going to use you as a political prop. He's going to use you as a political prop to justify his unlawful invasion of Iran. He's going to use you as a political prop to cover up a child sex trafficking ring. He's going to use you as a political prop to rip away people's health care. He's going to use you as a political prop to pursue his fascist agenda. So he wants the image of strong athletes standing behind him while he spews this utter propaganda, this utter nonsense. So, you know, he then, he then uses these images. He'll put AI words in your mouth. This is all part of, you know, his fascist propaganda. So here's what happened slightly earlier today, where Donald Trump, with the Miami soccer team behind him started saying, hey, Marco Rubio, you're doing a hell of a job. Rubio, some people say you're doing so good right now. I know that's the worst Trump impression, but I'm not really sure what that impression even was. Doing good in Iran, Cuba's next time, time to time to invade Cuba. So while his unlawful war in Iran is another an utter disaster with no way out. And as Donald Trump lies and says they want to make a deal, they really do, I promise. And they're saying, no, we don't want to make a deal with you. Where Trump's like, the Kurds are going to invade. The Kurds are going to help us out. And the Kurds are like, yeah, we're not doing that. You betrayed us over and over again. We're not doing that. Here he is saying, it's Time for Cuba next. Here's what Trump says. Let's play.

[Donald Trump]

And anymore, I don't see he's doing some job. And your next one is going to be, we want to do that special Cuba. He's waiting, but he says, let's get this one finished first. We could do them all at the same time, but bad things happen. If you watch countries over the years, you do them all too fast. Bad things happen. We're not going to let anything bad happen to this country.

[Ben]

It should also be noted that Marco Rubio is not the Defense Secretary. Right. Marco Rubio, as the Secretary of State, his job is to, like, not have the wars happen. I'm not sure Donald Trump even realizes, like, what the role of the State Department is supposed to be, by the way. State Department, Defense Department, all of them are doing just the worst job, like F minus. You know, if there are worse grades, they would get that. But, like, the main role a State Department has when there's a war like this, with the Defense Department working with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, working with the different branches of the military.

[Brett]

Right.

[Ben]

The State Department, they're supposed to now work with the ambassadors and all of the diplomats abroad and all of our staff to ensure that Americans are safe, to have an evacuation plan, to ensure that America's interests are protected, and to engage in a process of diplomacy. Now, the main negotiators, by the way, with Iran were Jared Kushner, who's got personal business interests in the Middle east, and Witkoff, who Donald Trump has appointed to basically be the envoy to everything. So really wasn't even Rubio. Apparently, Rubio was even kind of caught off guard that this war was taking place. And as it relates to our State Department, what was it yesterday, for the first time, they were like, evacuate now. We can't help you, but evacuate now. Find a commercial flight, is what they said. And when you call the phone number that Rubio said to call, it said, we're sorry, at this time, the United States State Department can help you. Good luck. Goodbye. That's like almost literally, literally word for word what the message was when you called the actual State Department. And Rubio is the one who also admitted that the reason why the United States invaded Iran first was because Israel was going to invade Iran, then Iran would attack the United States. So Rubio said the United States had to invade first because Israel told us to, and Israel was going to do it. And then Ruby goes, that's not what I. That's not what I asked. I was asked a Different question. It's like, okay, we, we heard the question, we heard the answer. And so again, do you see those football players, soccer players here in the States being used as props right there?

[Brett]

Here's the thing about that, Ben. Like I was watching the other day, there's an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry gets in a car and there is a valet who drives his car, takes his car and Jerry gets out of the car and he realizes he stinks and he can't get the smell off of him because the valet driver smelled so bad that he stunk up the entire car. And then Elaine gets in the car and she also, she goes on a date and she's wondering why this guy who she likes suddenly isn't into her anymore. And she realizes it's because the stink from the car, from the valet has gotten on her and she cannot escape it. That's what happens with these players when they go to the White House. Donald Trump is the valet driver and the White House is the car. And them going in there, they can't get the stick of Donald Trump off of them. This isn't a normal administration, and I'd say it any other time in history, probably go to the president. No matter who it is, is it a Republican, is it a Democrat? But when we have somebody in the White House right now who's covering up a child sex trafficking ring, when we have someone in the White House who's indiscriminately bombing countries across the world, when you have someone in the White House who is attacking American citizens in killing American citizens with a militarized. I don't even wanna call him a police force, but just this rogue agency that's out there, maybe don't get that stink on you. That's gonna be my recommendation to all these people who think that it's apolitical to go to the White House.

[Jordy]

It's why I also worry about just. That was such a good analogy, that the White House is the car, but also the United States is the car too. And in this analogy here, Trump, or metaphor, this is still. Trump is still the driver that made us stink. Right? We're going to have this stench on us as a country too for quite some time. Doesn't matter how many showers we take, how many other presidents come along, Right? This stench is now on us from our lack of leadership here and the chaos that the United States has caused. Ben, what do you think?

[Ben]

Well, I agree. I want to share with you, though, what he said about Iran. So, like, literally, as you Have Iran's foreign minister and Iran's chief of their National Security Council saying, we don't want to negotiate with the United States. And they're saying, we can't make a deal. Even if we wanted to, we can't make a deal because every time we try to negotiate, you don't negotiate. You, you, you bomb. And so we can't do it. And look, I think the Iranian regime lies all the time as well. The Trump regime lies all the time as well. The Netanyahu regime lies all the time as well. So all these regimes, you know. You know, lie. But I'll tell you, the Foreign Minister of Oman, who's the person the United States picked to be the mediator between the United States and Iran. This was not a random person. It wasn't a pro Iran person. It was the US Pick last Friday, went on tv, said, we had a deal in principle that Iran would give up its uranium enrichment program. We had to deal with some technical aspects from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday. And then once that was dealt with, we should be in a good place to have the situation fully resolved. The foreign Minister of Oman, who is the mediator who said that, went on U.S. television to say that message. We didn't hear any rebuttals from the Trump regime. They didn't say, oh, my God, why would you lie, Foreign Minister of Oman? Nothing. Instead, what happened was that night, there was the United States and Israeli invasion, and then we, we heard the justification, or lack thereof, from Rubio. So, like, it's, it's, you know, we have to search for. Okay, well, where are the facts are here? And I think we're able to, to glean the facts that Israel was going to strike first. You know, Israel saw that this negotiation was not going in a direction that Israel liked. And Israel called up Trump and said, we're going in. Do what you got to do, but we're going in. And then Trump blinked and said, I guess we're going into with you. Or Trump wanted to puff his chest and say, well, we're in, too. We're definitely in. And then we invaded Iran, and we didn't think about our own citizens in the Middle East. We didn't think about our allies in the Middle east, if you want to call them that. The other Arab nations in the Middle east, some of them, many of them join Donald Trump's corrupt board of Peace thing. Right. I read something by a Emirati billionaire today by the name of Calif Ahmad Al Habtur, who basically said the ink isn't even dry yet on the Board of Peace. And you've asked all this money be funneled your way from these Arab nations. And you start a war with Iran that has now engulfed all of the Middle east and many nations who joined your border peace in a war that now impacts them. Who gave you the authority to drag our region into a war with Iran? And on what basis did you make this dangerous decision? Was it Benjamin Netanyahu who told you to do this? This is what the Arab nations are saying. And they've called in the foreign minister from China in order to now try to mediate and negotiate between Iran and. And the Arab nations. Not between Iran and the United States, but they want China's help, the Arab nations to work with Iran and figure out how to get Iran to stop attacking these Arab nations. Because this is existential for the Arab nations, right? The United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi and Dubai built an image of stability, a safe place for vacations, a place you can put your money, a place you could do business with.

[Scott Bessant]

You.

[Ben]

Doha, Qatar, the same thing. And most of those nations in the region. And now that's being shattered. And even if Iran is decreasing its ballistic missile strikes and Shahid drones, which I believe it is decreasing, I think that the American aerial strikes are having that. That impact. It's not totally obliterating it. There are still lots of strikes that are occurring. We saw strikes in Bahrain recently. We saw strikes in Azerbaijan by the airport there. We saw strikes in Jordan again recently. And these strikes continue to happen. But as long as you can create kind of strategic uncertainty and instability in the region, that's enough to close the Strait of Hormuz, which is what's happening right now. Right? The oil, the liquefied natural gas, the crude is not getting out. I mean, the Brent crude price per barrel, around $85 a barrel, going up, that could be $100 a barrel. The price of gas right now approaching what, $3.50 or more. The largest increase kind of day over day that we've seen in recent history as well there, as I mentioned earlier, jet fuel prices going up double in the past day or two. This is going to lead to inflation surging. And Iran has selected a new Ayatollah Manjaba, the son of the old ayatollah, the old ayatollah who was becoming increasingly unpopular, but who was still a spiritual leader to 300 million Shiites. And they were kind of turn against him, naturally. And if you probably just let him, you know, die naturally, you know, it's possible that the younger population would have rejected the new ayatollah or new extremist government. But when they tried to have an uprising last month, Trump said, go out and do it. And now he. And then he said, I'm going to protect you if Iran does anything to you. Trump did nothing. Iran massacred 30,000 to maybe even more 40,000 protesters. Now, Donald Trump says he wants to use the Venezuela model of Delsey Rodriguez in Iran, meaning find somebody from the Islamic Republic who will give him money. Right. Dely just did $150 million gold deal with Donald Trump the other day. Right. In Ecuador. You have a MAGA stooge there as well who's allowing Trump to launch a ground invasion of Ecuador. I don't know if you know this. We're in war in Ecuador right now. I know with all the news that hasn't been reported. But Trump and the MAGA stooge in Ecuador are doing, quote, unquote, narco trafficking missions with our troops on the ground there. And of course, you know, Donald Trump created a Qatari bank account with Delsey Rodriguez so that Trump makes the oil money for himself. Remember that story about the DOJ potentially indicting Delsey Rodriguez? And then the DOJ denied it. What seems like what actually took place is we held an. Or Trump held an indictment over Delsey Rodriguez, had two get $150 million Gold Bricks is what he wanted, and then praised her and said, she's great, she's an amazing person, after he got the $150 million gold brick. So that's Trump's plan in Iran. And there's a lot of suppression of democracy voices and free speech voices and freedom voices in Venezuela right now, these Chavistas are in control. The same brutality by Maduro still taking place right now inside Venezuela. So even if you are a democracy protester in Iran, when Trump is signaling he's not going to support you and he's going to support someone from the Islamic Republic, you know that even if you protest, Trump is going to make you die again. He's going to allow another massacre to happen. And then, meanwhile, you know, Trump betrayed the Kurds last year in Syria. He allowed Al Jelani, the leader of Syria, who is the former Al Qaeda leader, to basically conquer or take over the autonomous regions that the Kurds control. Controlled in Syria should be noted. We talk about Kurds. There's lots of different Kurdish groups. It's not like the Kurds are like one specific group, different factions over different areas of land in the Middle East. But one thing they want is this kind of democracy leaning, autonomous state. But Trump allowed Jelani to destroy that in Syria. In Trump's first administration, he allowed Turkey to basically go after the Kurds. Trump has consistently, personally betrayed the Kurds. And by the way, he betrayed him again in the past 48 hours. Trump and Netanyahu, who leaked that the Kurds were engaged in a ground invasion against Iran, because it was Trump and Netanyahu's plan to announce that, then have Iran attack the Kurds and then have the Kurds go, oh, man, we're under attack by Iran. Now we, our sovereignty is being threatened. Now we're drawn into the war. So that was the plan by Trump and the CIA, which, you know, looks like it was concocted from some, you know, B list movie, right? Here's what we're going to do. We're going to say, the Kurds are invading. Who are you going to leak it to? Leak it to state, regime, media, and Barack Ravid over at Axios. Netanyahu, who you gonna do it? Let's. Let's do it. News 12.

[Brett]

Everything that they do seems like it's from like a B action movie, though, or. Or even worse. But you know what I was thinking when I was watching Pete Hegseth deliver? Like, he's been doing these press conferences, and each of these press conferences is more deranged than the next. And by the way, when I watched this whole thing unfold, I can't help but in my head make a comparison to the situation that we're seeing with this war, to the way Trump handled Covid, just the way it's such a disaster and the increasing timeline. It's going to be done in two weeks and four weeks and eight weeks in September. These press conferences every day that are more deranged than the next. Like, I know it's a completely different situation, but in so many ways, in my mind, I don't know about you, it feels that way. But the other thing I was thinking, Ben, aside from a B movie, is, do you remember those video games we used to play? Command and Conquer, Red Alert. There were these video games and they were like war video games where you would attack. They would be like World War II kind of things. And they had these interstitials in the middle of them where they'd have, like, generals and people giving you your mission, and the acting would be not so good and it would be kind of corny. And they'd be, here's your mission. And they'd speak like, in that, you know, machismo, weird way, I can't help but think of that when I see Pete Hegseth. It's just so embarrassing. It's so cringy. And he's just so in over his head with all this. And let's face it, like, at this point, the guy's like a total mass murderer. He's responsible for so much blood. We're seeing now new reporting confirming that the United States was responsible for bombing that girl school in Iran, which a lot of people tried to deny. A lot of people tried to spread this other fake story that it was Iran that actually blew up their own school. That was a tactic also that we saw throughout Gaza a lot. You know, when an atrocity would be committed, they would say, oh, they did that to themselves, and that would be the propaganda that would be spread. Well, we're seeing that again with this war. And now it's been confirmed that it was a US Missile that killed those children in Iran. And we're going to see a lot more of that. We have, you know, we already see U.S. troops dead, at least six U.S. troops dead. We're seeing over a thousand Iranian civilians dead in these strikes. We're seeing now a more hardline leader about to ascend to power in Iran. And what all these analysts are saying is that if Donald Trump and this regime, the Trump regime, hoped to overthrow the Iranian regime and weaken them and hope that they would get an uprising of the people against their government by killing Khamenei, all they've done is the complete opposite. They've actually fired up a lot of the people to view the late Ayatollah now as a martyr. And instead of rejecting the regime, they are going to the regime's side. So this right now appears to be a complete and utter backfire by the Trump regime. And it's something we have seen historically in the region. Donald Trump thinks that he could do what he did in Venezuela here, and Venezuela is a mess, mind you, but Donald Trump thinks the Middle east is the same. It's not the same. Ben was speaking about the Kurds before, how he was hoping to get the Kurds involved and basically stoke the civil war. I want to show you this statement right here, because this came after yesterday, after we heard these reports, which were false, about the Kurds invading Iran from Iraq. Well, the Iraqi first later, who is Kurdish, released this statement today, and she said the following. And this, to me, was a absolutely scathing statement to see if it. It does. It doesn't seem like it wants to load. But she basically said, leave us out of this. We are not mercenaries. We are not guns for hire. And did this just incredibly scathing message, basically saying, leave us the hell alone. And we're seeing that Ben mentioned the Emirati businessman before, but we're seeing all these voices in the region speak out because they don't want anything to do with the United States war.

[Ben]

I'm going to toss it.

[Jordy]

Exactly.

[Ben]

The one thing I wanted to bring up, though, right, Is that what, what she says, she's the first lady, and she's occurred first lady in Iraq. And what she's saying is we finally in Iraq have some semblance of peace and autonomy in this. In this one area in Iraq, basically, right? And in Syria. The US Already screwed them in Syria. The Kurds were one of the most helpful in eradicating ISIS and Al Qaeda, you know, in the region. So we just screwed over the Kurds, essentially allowed the previous leader of Al Qaeda to take over, to take over the area there and to take over the Kurds autonomous area now, the one, like, little area where the Kurds are living their. Their best life, right? Then Trump's like, you're either going with us or you're going with Iran. They're like, what are you talking? Like, just let us live, man. Like, like, okay, that's how you want to do it. Boom. Leak and say the Kurds are invading. And then the Kurds had to be like, we're not invading. That's.

[Jordy]

That's.

[Ben]

That's not. That's not happening. That's not true. And Trump did that. And Trump's regime did that with Fox and Axios, and Netanyahu did it with his version of that in Israel. And so it's like, how do you trust anything this regime's saying? I mean, like, we learned before that there was an airplane that was struck over Iraq. And then in. In Basra, they were saying, in Iraq, they were saying there's a mission to try to find the pilot, but there's definitely a plane that crashed. And then the Trump regime posted. It is absolutely false. Fact check. It's absolutely false that a jet was shot down. And then they, you know.

[Brett]

No, their first one. No, it's the reverse. They at first said that it's absolutely false that a jet crashed, and then they edited the tweet to say that it's absolutely false that a jet was shot down. And I think that difference is no. Is notable because I think the implication there is that it did in some way crash now they're denying it was specifically shot down. They've removed that specific detail, but they're leaving. They did not deny now in the edit of their tweet that it crashed. And so it's the issue with everything, frankly, going back to my Covid analogy, it was the issue with COVID They frickin lied about everything and millions of people died. Now they're lying about everything here. They're lying with Donald Trump today. When he was around, those players was like, and they wanna make a deal, they wanna come to me, they wanna deal right away, they wanna be here. They, they're begging me, they're begging me. And we know from reporting that that's just not the case. On the contrary, what we've heard is that the Trump administration, the day after the initial strikes, they were the ones who, via mediators, tried to get to Iran and say, all right, we good now, Game over, ceasefire, we good. That wasn't the case. You know, they, the Trump, Trump was actually, they were the ones who were actually trying to get a ceasefire and get a deal, not Iran. Now they offer Iran, they've overthrown their leader, they've fired them up, they've made the guy a martyr. And they want nothing to do with negotiations because the last negotiations proved to be complete bullshit. The last negotiations proved to be nothing more than, in my opinion, a decoy and a delay tactic so that the United States and Israel could get all of their military in place to attack the place. It was like a Trojan horse plan that they carried out. So why the hell would you go into negotiation with the United States after that?

[Jordy]

We have a credibility issue here in the United States and with our president. And that's as nicely as I could put it, when we have these types of leaders here in this country and you can't even call them a leader. But, but for the sake of this, when you have these types of leaders here in this country, our word means nothing. And our word will forever be damaged because of what's happening right now. Brett, to your point exactly. Look, there is no plan, there is no exit strategy. This is pure chaos.

[Ben]

It is.

[Jordy]

And people are dying, soldiers are dying, troops are dying. And it's scary to see that there is actually no plan to wrap this thing up. And that's all falling on Donald Trump and his entire regime. They are clueless, absolutely clueless. For all these people out there that like to say, and like to pretend that Donald Trump is this, this great businessman, this great negotiator. I mean, just like, shame on you like, what are you talking about? This guy's out of his damn mind, out of his every step of the way. We look like clowns because of the guy in the office. That, that's just that that's the reality of it. As we look down, I don't know, 12 months a year, five years, that stench going back, going back to that, that's not going to come off of us ever. We are stuck with this permanent stench now. And I don't know, I collectively, I just don't know what we can do other than just, you know, continuing to fight in the metaphorical sense for pro democracy ideals and have those values and ethos win the day, have truth actually matter. That's the only thing that is really the only way. And hold people accountable when they lie, when they spread conspiracies, when they are so disingenuous at the highest levels of government that are leading to people dying in this country.

[Ben]

It's terrible.

[Jordy]

Ben, what do you think? It's terrifying to me.

[Ben]

I mean, just think about this. So during an interview Thursday with ABC News, Trump marvel the south being reported by ABC marveled at the success of the military operation so far this year against Venezuela and Iran, telling Jonathan Karl, I hope you are impressed. How do you like the performance? I mean Venezuela is obvious. This might be even better. How do you like the performance?

[Jordy]

The performance.

[Ben]

Then Carl said, nobody questions the success of the military operation against Iran. The concern is what happens next. To which Trump responded, forget about next. They decimated. They are decimated for a 10 year period before they could build it back. Okay, so first off, Trump is lying, utterly deranged. Also Jonathan Karl saying, nobody questions that it was a success, this is not a success. But by the way, if we just had corporate news and not independent media like the Midas Touch network, that's what would be prevailing out there. That this was such a success, nobody's questioning it. No, no, no, it's actually not a success. What's a success? While we were recording this video shows a large fire at the joint US Kuwaiti Al Assim Air Base being struck by Iranian ordinances to two hotels and a residential building in Bahrain's capital Manama were damaged in an Iranian drone and missile attack within the last few minutes. That. What, what's a, what's a success about all of this? Iran still is shooting ballistic missiles and drones while and attacking targets and US air bases are getting hit. And this idiot in the Oval Office is like, do you love our performance? And then ABC is like, nobody's questioning, this is a, I'm questioning it.

[Brett]

I'm questioning a lot of it is eerily, you know, feeling to me. And I'm by no means whatsoever comparing the country of Iran and their leadership to Ukraine. But a lot of this, the way a lot of the media speaks about this and the way the Trump administration and the Republicans speak about what's happening reminds me of the way Russia speaks about Ukraine. The way you even hear like the same exact phrases coming from certain people in the GOP and in the Trump administration when they say things like, this isn't a war, this is a special military operation. Oh, in fact, we didn't start this war, they started this war. In fact, we've always been at war. It's also incredibly Orwellian. Isn't there the line in 1984, like, We've always been at war with East Asia. Like they are ripping pages right out of 1984 with their propaganda. And the propaganda is utterly horrifying to witness. But you see right now, Donald Trump's polls completely decimated. You see right now his administration falling apart with Kristi Noem. Now, I know they moved her to some new bullshit made up position, but she was fired from the Department of Homeland Security. Let's let, let's be clear about that. But you see this administration in shambles right now. And you see a lot of the kind of die hard people who have previously supported this administration now breaking away because the lies have just become too much. They're affecting people now personally. And going back to the gas thing, just one of many examples, gas is now mortgage expensive in the United States than it was during either Trump term. And it's more expensive right now than it was when Trump took office. All of this is going to have a ripple effect on the economy. As Ben said earlier, we are now bracing for massive inflation. Not only from these tariffs that Trump keeps going, it's 10%, it's going to be 15% even though the Supreme Court struck it down. But now these high fuel prices, the gas prices, it's the perfect storm of kind of every horrific thing that you could imagine might happen during a Trump administration. It's happening right now. And we're witnessing that Covid esque catastrophe that happened under Trump's first administration happening right now with this war. This is his COVID 19 now in 2026. And he's handling it the same way, which is horribly. And people are going to die, the economy is going to crash over it. Nobody's going to be better off and it's just going to continue to build this distrust against the government as they keep lying to the American. These are worse liars than the Bush administration was who lied our way into Iraq.

[Ben]

It's not. I mean, the Bush Bush is conventional neocon liars, right? This is stratospheric. I mean this is a group of people who once again just sided with Russia in a United nations vote. While we are begging Zelensky, begging Zelensky for help with the Shahid drones, the United States joined Russia, China, Niger and several, several other adversary countries in opposing a resolution adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors denouncing Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including off site power supply plants for the Zaprisian nuclear power plant as a threat to nuclear safety. Just think about how deranged that is begging Zelensky for help. And then we joined Russia, China, Niger and other pro Russia countries against Ukraine while asking Ukraine to help us now. But this is what Trump is. He's a nightmare. He's a loser. He's a bankrupter, a destroyer. He was never a deal maker. He's the opposite. Like with all of these authoritarian frauds, they say they're a deal maker. It's the opposite. They are destructive. They are first quick break of the show. Reminder hit subscribe here.

[Brett]

Go.

[Ben]

Let's go to midasplus.com as well. That's our sub stack. First quick, first quick break of the show. Subscribe to our audio podcast as well. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.

[Brett]

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[Jordy]

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[Ben]

Kristi Noem has been canned. She got a new fake position. Mark Wayne Mullen, maga, Republican senator from Oklahoma, will now be the Department of Homeland Security secretary. I saw one commentator say that's like finding out you took a shit in your pants and then going home and changing your shirt.

[Jordy]

That's gross. It's really graphic.

[Ben]

It's really graphic. I want to make sure I captured the vividness of such a quote. But yeah, I mean, Mark Wayne Mullen, sycophant, he's the one who goes on state regime media fox every day and just spews a bunch of nonsense and how great Donald Trump is Dear leader this, dear leader that.

[Brett]

Even better that that was a retired Air Force colonel who made that comment. Mo Davis is the person who said that.

[Jordy]

Oh, wow.

[Ben]

Yeah, Give credit. Give credit where credit is due right there. And so yeah, Donald Trump fires her via social media post. The post says the following. I'm pleased to announce that Mark Wayne Mullen is the United States Secretary of Homeland Security. The current secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well and has had numerous and spectacular results, especially on the border will be moving to be special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, our new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere. We are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. I thank Christy for her service at Homeland, the new special envoy for the Shield of the Americas. I suppose that's going to be part of Donald Trump's conquer the Western Hemisphere, you know, thing or like what he's doing in Ecuador right now where there's a ground invasion and you know, it's Trump's plan to invade, I think everywhere. You know, they talked about invading Cuba earlier today with all of those soccer football players in the background. As you know, where we're, we're currently in Ecuador with the MAGA puppet there. That's Donald Trump's vision, I think, is just to put our ground troops everywhere. I guess the question is, where are we not at war with right now? And then Kristi Noem responds. Thank you, Trump, for appointing me as the special envoy for the Shield of Americas. What incredible leaders. I look forward to working with Rubio and Hegseth to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren. So same pretext that they use in order to blow up those shipping boats or those fishing boats rather off the coast of Venezuela that have resulted likely in hundreds and hundreds of innocent people being killed or people who probably shouldn't have died, at the very least people who shouldn't have been killed, more likely innocent people as well. And we do, we're doing the same in the Pacific. So Donald Trump's going to be doing a lot more ground invasions in the Western Hemisphere. And so it seems that that's going to be what her role is going to be there. I'll just remind you kind of I thought the two, some of the key moments that were kind of like bye bye, Kristi Noemi. There was that great moment when Congresswoman Komliger Dove Cross examined her during the hearings this week and asked her about her relationship with Lewandowski. And I think Lewandowski get basically gets fired also or he's pushed out. But here's what Kamala Gerdove had to say. Here, play this clip.

[Benji]

Trump knows that this guy is shady. Corey has a decades long record of physical batteries, sexual harassment, illegal lobbying for a Venezuelan oil company and bringing a loaded gun into a federal building. Despite being fired or removed from virtually every position he has ever held due to misconduct, he now wields unchecked, unconfirmed, undisclosed power over your department. This person has no experience running anything close to department of Homeland Security or even advising someone in your position. He is unqualified, which again, has left my constituents. And I wondering why he is your top official. So, Secretary Noem, at any time during your tenure as director of Department of Homeland Security, have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski? Mr. Chairman, I am shocked that we're going down and peddling tabloid garments, garbage in this committee today. Reclaiming, ma', am, one thing that I would tell you is that he is a special government employee who works for the White House. There are thousands of them in the federal government. As an advisor, it is okay for you to be no authority, any decision. Okay for you to know. But it is also a real question. So what I would say, and you should be able to answer, what we do at the Department of Homelessness nearly every. Every single day and without any hesitation, every single day, is to protect his family. If someone is asking you or any federal official is sleeping with their subordinate, that should be the easiest. You should be wanting to answer that question as garbage because it is not about yourself that you have brought. It is about your judgment. That kind of garbage is about reclaiming my time so that I can hear myself recognize the long.

[Ben]

You know, that was the same thing that we saw Pam Bondi do during her hearing. And by the way, the House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Pam Bondi on a bipartisan basis. There are five Republicans join with the Democrats in order to subpoena Bondi there. But there was also the moment, too. We don't need to play the clip because we've shown it a ton, where you had Republican Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana basically ask her about the $200 million ad campaign that featured her riding around in horses and all of her kind of images of herself. And he was like, you know, that's a big Hollywood budget right there. Donald Trump approved of this. And she was like, yep, he approved of this. And that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, or I guess in that case, the horse's back.

[Brett]

The thing that gets them fired is always so crazy because they do so much horrific on a daily basis, but they like that stuff. But it's. Once you cross Trump, once you put words in his mouth, or once you accuse him of agreeing with something that ended up being incredibly unpopular, that's when you get yourself into trouble. And so when she said that, that was kind of the thing that stuck out to me when I was watching these congressional hearings where I was like, oh, boy, she's in trouble. And so for all the people who watch these hearings and say, like, what's the point? It's all theater. There's never any, nothing ever comes of these things. I agree with you in a lot of respects. Like, it is a lot of theater. It is a lot of, you know, people getting up on their soapbox and ranting, and a lot of it is very unnecessary. But there are good moments. We're getting people on the record. You're catching them in lies and contradictions that, by the way, can be prosecuted later on as well. And in this case, we're seeing finally, finally, finally, Kristi Noemi, get out of this position. Now. Mark Wayne Mullen isn't exactly a welcome person to be in this position. Markway Mullen is not exactly a bright human being. I will say, being as respectful as I can remember. He's, he's just incredibly unhinged. Remember when he like threatened the president of the Teamsters when there was a hearing a few years ago, like in 2023, he's like, all right, tough guy. He, you want to fight. You want to fight. Like, like these are not the people who you want in charge of anything. Just this week I went over this in my, in my report that I did on the, my YouTube channel earlier. But just this week, Mark Wayne Mullen was like, that's what happens when you're at war. This is what happens when you're at war. And then the reporters were like, so you're admitting we're at war? And he was like, oh, no, no, did I say war? I mean combat operations. I mean, come. It's just the whole thing is so clownish. And the administration, the Trump administration strategy, always right now is to just act like everything's great, everything's amazing. Trump said today oil has stabilized, the economy is great, inflation is down. None of these things are true. Oil's going through the roof right now. Gas prices are going through the roof right now. And when you just lie to people in such a brazen way, especially about the things that they know impacts them, it's one thing when you're lying about a faraway place, right? You could get away. Lying to your red state voters, lying about what's going on in California, it's chaos. It's the riots. It's insane. When you're lying about things that are impacting your voters lives, like in this situation, when you're telling them everything's great, what are you talking about? This is the golden age and they're out there unable to get jobs or getting Laid off or spending tons of money on everything. It's a real slap in the face that. And I think that's why we're seeing so many people right now be like, nah, this is not what I voted

[Jordy]

for, you know, Exactly. It's what we always say. If the Trump regime, if their mouths are moving, they are, they're lying. That's it. Once you start gaslighting your supporters, especially around issues of the economy, something that they feel on a daily basis, you know, but Bondi say, but The Dow's over 50,000. Not anymore. No. Pam. Inflation not going away, in fact, going to keep ticking up. Pam. And so for me, it always comes down to this sort of central theme, is that you need real adults in the room handling these serious issues. And so Mark Wayne Mullen comes in,

[Brett]

right,

[Jordy]

replacing Kristi Noem over here. It's worse to worse, right? He just replaced one sycophant with another sycophant. And ultimately it comes down to just saving face for Donald Trump. Right? The decision, it's so Trumpian in the sense of what he actually, why he made this decision, right? If you think about it, the arguments over the marketing budget or the ad budget that like had these Kristi Noem fluff pieces around ice, and that got tremendous amount of backlash. And so Donald Trump didn't want to be feeling like he was left to hold the bag as this great marketer and businessman that he is. He didn't greenlight that. There's no way. Not his genius. Bye, Christy. Hi, Mark Wayne Mullen. I mean, he's not choosing these leaders, quote, unquote leaders, because they're good at these positions, that they'll actually do the job that they should be doing. No, they're going to be doing the job that Donald Trump wants them to do. And for me, ultimately, it comes down to this. Are we going to sit back and just kind of, you know, allow this to happen and go unaccounted for? It's like when they go and gaslight their, their followers and their supporters that everything is so great, that the economy is so great, that the United States right now, we've never been better, right? I mean, it's all such bs. But what they do know is they have control over the media right now. They have absolute control over the media. So they know that Donald Trump, all he has to do is say those things. And then the MAGA media out there, it will, it will prop that up, it will put that on headlines. It will do everything it can to give cover to Donald Trump. What they weren't expecting in 2026 is Independent Media rising and channels like the Midas Touch network and supporters like this community and other great independent pro democracy outlets out there that are reporting the news with facts, data and receipts and bringing to folks every single day. Trump is living in this sort of 2016 era that he could just lie and gaslight and put out all of this misinformation, knowing that he's got this hold over the media. But it's a different landscape. So my message here to everyone is just like we all have to collectively hold his feet to the fire and continue to put the facts down to truth, receipts, video clips, whatever we need to do to put it out there, because what's happening right now is not normal. And don't be gaslit by Donald Trump or corporate media into thinking that any of it is, because it's absolutely not.

[Ben]

The parallels between Covid and this, Brett, you pointed out, it's like right out of the same script, right? Like a miracle. It's all going to go away. From a scale of 1 to 10, what would you rate it? I think Donald Trump said with COVID and 11. Right. Or how would you rate yourself? A plus. And I mean, when it comes to the Iran war, Donald Trump on his own said, I've been asked to rank it on a scale from 1 to 10. I rank it a 15. Do we have the clip where Donald Trump says, I rank it a 15? I think we got it.

[Scott Bessant]

Yeah.

[Brett]

Let me pull it up. Give me one second.

[Ben]

Yeah, pull that clip of him saying, I rank it a 15. And, you know, but that's how he, that's how he approaches everything. Do we have that or.

[Brett]

George, I'm looking for it, I'm looking for it.

[Ben]

No worries. We'll pull it up when we come back from our last quick.

[Brett]

I got it, I got it.

[Ben]

Let's play.

[Donald Trump]

And we're doing very well on, on the war front, to put it mildly. I would say somebody said, on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15. And we're going to continue to do well. We have the greatest military in the world by far.

[Ben]

I mean, a 15. I mean, it's just the stupidest things that come out of the guy's mouth. Then you've got the people who surround him and sit next to him, and you saw the energy Secretary there. You know, just, you know, it's, it's, it's enough of this nonsense, enough of this fraud. It's just American soldiers are dying. The Middle east is on fire. Inflet me ask you this. Do you even think. Brett and Jordy, we'll talk about this when we come back. You know, they're just going to stop doing the inflation reports altogether, right? Like, when it gets really bad, they're just going to say we're, we're, they're going to start doing the. We're in a war so we can't do X, Y and z. Right? They're already doing. They're already, they're the, they're already opposing war powers resolutions and things like that and blocking it in the Senate, demanding $50 billion of supplemental funding that the taxpayers are going to have to pay for more munitions because we're out of fad and Patriot missiles, and that's going to go to defense contractors while Americans lose their health care. That's, that's just the reality of where we're at. Anyway, let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back. Let's hit subscribe. As Jordi mentioned before, become a member of our YouTube channel. Also check out our [e-mail] don't sleep

[Jordy]

on the emojis, man. People like the emojis.

[Brett]

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[Jordy]

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[Brett]

Gotta look right back at you, Benji.

[Jordy]

Where to?

[Ben]

Just look at what's happening at the Mufak Salty Air Base in Jordan. Satellite imagery from Airbus Defense and Space appears to show one of these transportable radars having been damaged and possibly destroyed by an Iranian drone or missile strike. According to an investigation by CNN into satellite imagery and others from the bases in the region, buildings housing similar radar systems were also hit by Iran at two locations in the United Arab Emirates. And this is something that, like the Trump regime is just like hiding. The estimated cost of a single one of these radar things is $500 million to a billion, with the United States only operating a total of 13. The 13th being delivered to the US missile agency Raytheon in 2025. We know. Similarly, at the Al Udad base, there was ballistic radar detection systems there. We've heard so much of this. Not because the Trump regime has mentioned it. Like they're covering up everything. Like centcom is just like a Trump propaganda social media channel now. You're not getting accurate information about, you know, anything that's going on, which, which is just terrible. I usually would think that, okay, CENTCOM is going to publish the actual data. I don't know if we really only lost six service members, that's what they're telling us. But who really knows how many people are seriously wounded? Do we really know the true amount? I don't think we really know the real amount. How much damage has already been done here in the United States and in Israel, you know, how much damage has really been done? What's really going on? A lot of, you know, we have to find this stuff from like open source intelligence, like Telegram, you know, chats, because the Trump regime like literally lies about absolutely everything and it's hard to even know what the hell is going on. So I want to share this moment though with you because I don't think it's getting enough attention and I think it's very alarming and it needs to get more attention. So you have this Republican Congress member, Mike Turner, who tries to pretend that he's like a moderate dude. He's not a moderate dude. And Turner is out there. This hearing that took place today with this guy, Elbridge Colby Elbridge Kobe, neocon, far right wing guy. He's the number two at the Defense Department. Like a lifelong Washington guy. He's always been in those kind of neocon right wing circles. You know, his whole thing was also like the decoupling of China. And, you know, he had all these kind of very. Kind of very strong views about, like, America was going to go after China and all these things that now that he's actually, you know, the number two at the Defense Department, the guy just. Just doesn't do any of that stuff. But regardless. So he was being questioned by Congressmember Turner about why during this entire hearing, Elbridge Colby, again, he's the number two at the Defense Department, why he continued to say things like, we interpret what the Trump administration to mean, or we believe or it is our understanding that the Trump regime or the Trump administration has said this. So Mike Turner's like the Republican congressman, like, why do you keep saying that? Like, why aren't you, the Trump administration? Why are you acting like you're interpreting his words? Watch this. Because I want to talk about why I think it's additionally important.

[Scott Bessant]

And I want to just say I want to agree with the chairman. What's been so difficult and which is really kind of gross sitting here listening to you, is the chairman has said he feels like you're disappointed, dishonest. Right. And you have been so disingenuous. Every time you answer a question, you feel this need to just. Just continue on in this. In. In these. These clarifications that are. Are really very unnecessary. And that this. This clarifications that you give make us all concerned about your commitment to the truth. And I want to give you some of those clarifications that make me uncertain and really very concerned about the policy making within the department. You talk about the Trump administration when people ask you questions about the president's decision making. When we're asking about President Trump, you redefined it as the Trump administration. You say our decisions are aligned with the president, as if you're reinterpreting the president's decision making. I want to know about the president's decision making, not you being. Your interpretation about being aligned. So tell me you're not trying to make decisions where you're just divining an alignment with the president and interpretation that President Trump is the one making decisions. Because up here, we're losing confidence as to whether or not Mr. Colby's going into a room and trying to decide whether or not he's aligned with the president or whether or not President Trump's making decisions.

[Ben]

Let me be very clear, Elbridge. Kobe is not a good guy. He's actually a very bad guy with very dangerous thoughts. But I don't know how Mike Turner says that without realizing what his Words are right. Elbridge Kobe saying that because he doesn't know what the hell Trump's plan is. Nobody knows what Trump's plan is. So what he's doing is he actually is reinterpreting what Trump says when Trump spews word vomit or word salad. And Elbridge Colby is trying to say the Trump administration and they're saying, well, what is Trump saying? Well, the Trump administration's view on this is because, and this is the scary aspect of it, but you heard it right there. Trump has no clue what he's doing. Nobody knows what the guy is saying. So they're all looking at his social media posts, they're looking at his deranged, unhinged statements and they're trying to divine and figure out, okay, well, I guess he means this. I guess he means that this is what he's trying to do. I mean, look at him today where he was out there looking at the Miami soccer team and telling him that they're good looking. I don't like good men. I don't like good men. I mean, this is what he's doing while we're in a war right now. Here, play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

These are good looking people,

[Scott Bessant]

Marco.

[Donald Trump]

I don't like good looking men. You don't feel so good about yourself standing up here. Good looking people.

[Ben]

Okay. Then he says, on Iran, they are calling to say, how do we make a deal? And I said, you're a bit too late. You're too late. Iran. Here, play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

I said, what's left? But they're tough and they want to fight and they're calling, they're saying, how do we make a deal? I said, you're being a little bit late and we want to fight now more than they do.

[Ben]

We want to fight more than they do. What are you even talking about? We do. That's news. We want to fight in Iran more than the Iranians want to fight in Iran and they're too late and they're calling. Who are they calling out? They're calling you up. That's news. That's interesting. Remember how Donald Trump makes up fake conversations with Xi Jinping, by the way, while he's doing this hearing or this press conference, he starts whining about the election is rigged. Here, play this clip. What he said about the election.

[Donald Trump]

I didn't know that I'd be the president during this because the election was rigged and stolen and I had to do it all again. And then I said, hey, wait a minute, I just got soccer slash football and I Just got the Olympics and we got. Most important. I took credit for those two. Then I tried to take credit for 250 years and it didn't play well at all with the press.

[Ben]

Or then you have Treasury Secretary Scott Besant going on TV and saying, yeah, you're seeing all these hotels in the Middle east blown up and American military bases blown up and airplanes are crashing and service members are dying. You're seeing oil interest destroyed. As I mentioned before. You have basically the Strait of Hormuz is closed. You have Qatar's liquefied natural gas infrastructure, you know, destroyed. Bahrainian air forces and bases destroyed. United Arabs and uae, Jordan air force bases and stuff being destroyed and hit. But you know, the Trump regime wants you to know the region is not on fire.

[Scott Bessant]

Okay?

[Ben]

Not on fire. You understand what's happening is that someone with an iPhone is taking videos, region not on fire. Someone's got an iPhone camera. That's actually just. Just so you all know, it's not like a war here, listen to what

[Jordy]

he says here, play this clip.

[Scott Bessant]

Becky, I will tell you the region is not on fire. What is happening is that somewhat someone with an iPhone. And look, it's terrible when a hotel gets hit the in Bahrain, when there is a drone that hits the airport in Doha. But those are one offs. The Iranian attack capabilities have been substantially degraded. The US Is getting stronger and stronger every day. And the most fulsome part of our campaign is just starting. So that there are the people in the market willing to look through this. And that's what I think everyone should do. Because President Trump has a vision here. And I think everyone should just step back and think about what does the world look like. You know, if we go back and think the conflict in Syria, there's new leadership there.

[Ben]

Yeah. The reason why you can't get the Kurds to help you out here is because of the new leadership in Syria. You're an idiot. You know, and the thing is that he's actually not. I mean, he's actually a smart guy who's doing this shtick to basically rob and steal from you. For the Epstein class. He just. With the arrogant, there's no real issues. It's fantastical. It's just someone with an iPhone, camera. They're one offs. One off. Hotel, one off. Military base, one off. Aircraft, jet, one off. What does that even mean, they're one offs? Yet usually think one off, one off word. Right. I can't just do words the way Donald Trump does. One off. Everything to some extent is one One, one, one, one. It's, you know, like, what do you mean one off? I mean, what is, what the hell are you even talking about? I mean, the arrogance on these people. And then finally you have Donald Trump praising again at a, at this press conference where he's got the Miami soccer team behind him, talking about the war, using them as props. He uses them as props to cover up child sex trafficking, saying Bondi, she's going to be good for the next three years. Which to me is basically saying, you better cover up those Epstein files for the next three years. Don't release the ones that I want you to release. Here, play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

Not going to let anything bad happen to this country. Also with us are Attorney General Pam Bondi is terrific person and fan. And she's proving how tough she is. And I think the next three years she's going to really prove it, right? Huh? Like these people, huh?

[Ben]

I mean, it's also like so demeaning like, like to the Attorney General Pammy Occam's razor, right?

[Brett]

Like you have all of these MAGA people who have been calling for Pam Bondi to be ousted, right? You would think that with all of that pressure and with the horrific way she's handled everything, I mean, the DOJ has like the worst record of prosecutions in its history. And that's before you get to the Epstein files and the entire cover up. And you'd figure with all the pressure out there, that's really kind of bipartisan, partisan now because the MAG people hate her, that she would be ousted. So Occam's Razor. Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one. The only thing that you could really surmise is that he needs to praise her and he needs to keep her in that position and make sure everything's okay with her because she's seen everything in those files and she knows far too much. She knows where the bodies are buried. She knows everything that Donald Trump has done. She knows everything that's in the Epstein files. And so at this point, Donald Trump can't get rid of her because she's an accomplice in covering this up with him. And so that's my opinion, but I think it's kind of obvious because you would think in any other circumstance she'd be thrown the hell out of that building. She would have nothing to do with this job. But in fact, you have Donald Trump going out of his way to praise her. Reminds me of when, after the files dropped and one of the big revelations was just how close Steve Bannon was with Epstein and how Bannon was almost being used with Epstein as like an intermediary between. Between Epstein and Donald Trump. And what was Trump's thing? Did Trump criticize Steve Bannon for his proximity to Epstein and his very close relationship to Epstein during Donald Trump's first term in office? No, the contrary. Trump went out of his way to praise Steve Bannon in that very moment. And it is those actions by Donald Trump, to me, that speak far louder than anything else.

[Jordy]

Absolutely. There's, like this certain aura of smugness. Not aura in the cool way, the way the kids use it, but this smugness that hangs over everybody in the Trump regime, and especially Scott Bessant. He is like king of smugness aura, in my opinion, right there next to J.D. vance. Obviously, like, those two battle back and forth. Every time I see Besson up there just like, spewing, like, these nonsensical regime talking points all the time. He. He actually, Ben, to your point, because he is smart, he looks uncomfortable now. He's still doing it, but he looks uncomfortable because deep down, you know, he knows, because he is smart that it's all what he's saying, this smugness about them. It's so infuriating to me how you just get up there and spew these lies again for an audience of one. And that's Donald Trump. He, honestly, he reminds me of that creature, too. Like, when you see him just totally uncomfortable speaking. The creature from Men in Black, who, like, wear the first Men in Black movie, who, like, wear the alien that wears the skin of the human. That's him. That's who he is in all of his mannerisms and the way he's speaking. It is. It's disgusting to me. And that's why, again, we just need real leaders. We need people who actually love this country, who want to put their best foot forward for the country. And not for a man, not for a maniac, not for one person, but for all of the people. And I just. I hope we could get there because seeing who Trump has aligned himself with, this regime, all they care about is protecting Donald Trump. They don't care about making this country better for its citizens.

[Ben]

Absolutely. We covered a lot on today's episode. Keep checking back in for continued coverage here on the Midas Touch YouTube channel. We're grateful for you, as always. Thanks for making the Midas Touch podcast that you're watching right now the number one podcast in the United States according to the YouTube charts. For all of February, we were first place, beating Sweep. Yeah, we beat Rogan Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson the entire month and we stayed number one. Let's keep it that way in March. Again, thank you everybody for all that you do and we will see you next time on the Midas Touch Podcast. A reminder. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Become a member if you can. Gift memberships if you can go to our substack [e-mail] check that out. And again, we're just so grateful for you and the support of this community and we will see you next time. Shout out Midas mighty and Jordy you

[Jordy]

can say it as well don't steal my line I don't say much I want that's my line Shout out to the Midas mighty

[Scott Bessant]

Standing strong

[Ben]

against the

[Benji]

fascists we sing our song.

[Jordy]

Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our [e-mail]. you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only [e-mail].