MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 5/15/26

Summary

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MeidasTouch Podcast – May 15, 2026 Episode Summary

Main Theme
This episode is a deep-dive breakdown by Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas of Donald Trump’s recent trip to China, the shifting global order, and the U.S. administration’s performance on the world stage. The brothers analyze Trump’s behavior next to Xi Jinping, discuss consequences for U.S. foreign policy (including Iran and NATO), and highlight moments of Congressional oversight that reveal deeper problems in the Trump regime. Sharp criticism, brotherly banter, and a zealous defense of democracy characterize their analysis.

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1. Trump’s Beijing Visit: Public Groveling & Global Weakness

Key Discussion:
The show opens with a sharp critique of Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing. Through selected audio clips, the brothers highlight Trump’s lack of strategic acuity and his public deference to Xi Jinping.

• Trump is depicted as sycophantic and obsessed with superficialities, in stark contrast to Xi’s calculated messaging about the new global order:
  • Trump: “You’re a great leader. I say it to everybody... It’s true. I only say the truth.” (Ben impersonating/quoting Trump, 03:23)
  • Xi Jinping: Discusses the Thucydides Trap and a shifting global power structure, subtly signaling U.S. decline. (05:27)
• Trump focuses on things like “Chinese food” as symbols of U.S.–China relations, missing the gravity of geopolitical dialogue (02:28).

Memorable Quote:

“It was certainly a sight to behold to see Donald Trump throughout this public meeting with Xi Jinping say how powerful you are, what a great leader you are, how strong you are.” — Ben, 03:01

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2. Analysis: Trump "Played" by Authoritarians

Key Insights:
The brothers reflect on how global strongmen—from Xi to Putin—have a playbook for manipulating Trump’s ego, which undermines America’s position:

• Trump responds to flattery and spectacle, while adversaries leverage these moments to gain strategic ground.
• Xi Jinping’s “pageantry” is designed to distract Trump, leaving substantive gains for China (08:14–11:58).
• Trump fails to confront China on key issues, including Taiwan and the imprisonment of pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, having already “folded” on these promises before arriving (16:37, 21:29).
• China, meanwhile, solidifies new alliances (BRICS, cooperation with Iran) and signals the end of U.S. hegemony.

Memorable Quote:

“Donald Trump got played like a fid, right? He doesn’t have any cards. He is out of his depth, out of his element, and everyone is out for blood. They know how to work this guy.” — Jordy, 11:58

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3. The U.S. Geopolitical Blunder: Iran, BRICS, & America Alone

Key Discussion Points:
The podcast draws connections between Trump’s foreign policy and the coordinated moves by U.S. adversaries:

• As Trump tries to make headlines in China, Iran and China openly coordinate on energy trade (very large container ships), bypassing U.S. blockades (14:23).
• BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) hold a significant meeting in New Delhi parallel to Trump’s China visit, underlining America’s diplomatic isolation (16:12).
• Israel signals the Iran war will resume immediately after Trump’s return—suggesting global players are timing their moves around his travel (07:06).

Memorable Quote:

“There’s a symmetry between the language there and what Xi Jinping was saying about the Thucydides trap, because they’re coordinating, they’re working as a bloc, as an alliance. Whereas Donald Trump’s America first means America alone.” — Ben, 36:12

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4. Domestic Fallout: The “War Department” & Congressional Oversight

Senate Hearings on War Crimes:

• Senator Gillibrand cross-examines CENTCOM Commander Cooper over civilian casualties in Iran:
  • Cooper claims ignorance of U.S. air strikes on schools/hospitals due to a lack of “corroboration”—then admits CENTCOM has not investigated the public reports (56:23–58:23).
• The brothers denounce this as deliberate language manipulation to cover up potential war crimes.

Memorable Exchange:

Gillibrand: “Have you investigated those claims?”
Cooper: “We have not.”
Gillibrand: “So you haven’t corroborated it because you’ve intentionally not done the investigations …?” (57:26–58:01)

Patterns of Dodge and Blame:

• Trump officials routinely evade accountability when questioned on results (e.g., HUD Secretary Scott Turner on housing/homelessness, 66:50–69:30).
• ATF Director Robert Sakata struggles to answer direct questions from Rep. Maxwell Frost, exemplifying evasive bureaucratic language (70:47–72:23).

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5. Economic Performance & Propaganda Spin

Inflation & Deficit:

• The hosts detail how Trump’s policies (tariffs, endless wars) are accelerating inflation, with the Producer Price Index up 6% annually and Consumer Price Index expected to exceed 4% by year’s end (42:52–45:10).
• Despite branding themselves as “deficit hawks,” Trump’s administration dramatically increases deficit spending—without media scrutiny.

Propaganda Videos:

• Trump’s Defense Department releases videos insisting “America is not in decline,” which the brothers mock as hollow, Zoolander-esque propaganda (38:48, 39:29).

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6. Media Critique: The Whitewashing of Rubio (and "Little Trumps")

Key Point:

• The mainstream (legacy) media is accused of whitening the MAGA movement—pivoting from Trump to figures like Rubio, who mirror Trump’s rhetoric and positions (41:06).
• Rubio is held up as an example: once a bulwark for NATO, now attacking alliances and parroting Trump’s worldview (32:36–41:06).

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7. The Broader Problem: Authoritarianism, Evading Truth, and Abuse

Key Theme:

• The episode closes with a rallying cry for competent, honest, and compassionate governance—regardless of party.
• The brothers frame the Trump regime’s behavior (evading responsibility, lying, gaslighting) as “abuser behavior” and stress the importance of civic engagement and media literacy.

Memorable Quote:

“I don’t care if it’s Democrat, Republican, independent, some new heretofore name… Just be good, be competent, help people, uplift, get results, tell the truth, behave respectfully, with dignity.” — Ben, 74:24

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8. Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• “Trump acts like the beta in all of these situations. When you see him at those tables… he seemed like his own staff, how they act around him.” — Brett, 08:14
• “He likes the military there, he likes that kind of big welcome. But Donald Trump likes the imagery, right? That’s all he cares about.” — Brett, 09:26
• “Every time Donald Trump goes into these things, he… is not well researched. He doesn’t study up on any of it. He just kind of wants all the fluff and the pampering.” — Jordy, 12:08
• “Don’t investigate the war crimes. There are no war crimes. Don’t test for Covid. There is no Covid.” — Brett, 59:21
• “Stop the drama, stop the me, me, me, me, me. Be a good person, help yourself, help your family, help your community, help the country, help the world.” — Ben, 74:24

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9. Important Timestamps

| Segment | Topic | Start | |---|---|---| | Trump’s Beijing performance | 02:04 | | Xi Jinping’s Thucydides Trap speech | 05:27 | | Trump on Taiwan | 06:56 | | Brothers’ roundtable – Trump “got nothing” | 07:06 | | Trump played by strongmen | 08:14 | | BRICS coordination, Iran, and missed opportunities | 14:23 | | Trump folds on Jimmy Lai | 21:29 | | NATO, BRICS, and U.S. isolation | 32:36 | | U.S. propaganda video on military power | 38:48 | | Senate hearing: CENTCOM and war crimes | 56:23 | | Scott Turner grilled on homelessness | 66:50 | | Maxwell Frost vs. ATF Director Sakata | 70:47 | | Closing call to action | 74:24 |

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Conclusion

The MeidasTouch brothers use this episode to sharply contrast the U.S. administration’s superficial, self-congratulatory posturing with the assertive, coordinated actions and messaging of authoritarian adversaries. Domestic and international policy failures, lack of accountability, and media complicity form a major throughline. The show ends with a powerful plea for a return to honest civic leadership and truth-telling.

Listen if you want:

• Strong analysis of the 2026 Trump-Xi summit;
• Skeptical takes on U.S. foreign policy blunders and “performative” leadership;
• Robust, comedic but urgent brotherly banter; and
• An unapologetic call for governmental decency and accountability.

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(All ads and non-content segments excluded in this summary.)

Transcript

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[A]

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[D]

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[A]

As expected, Donald Trump be clowned the United States during his trip to Beijing. Xi Jinping was talking about reordering the global architecture. Donald Trump was talking about Chinese food. Play the clip of Donald Trump saying there's lots of Chinese food restaurant G in the United States that shows our bond through Chinese food.

[E]

Let's play the clip Just as many Chinese now love basketball and blue blue jeans. Chinese restaurants in America today outnumber the five largest fast food chains in the United States all combined. That's a pretty big step.

[A]

Xi Jinping had a clear goal and objective to make China stronger in the world and assert China's leadership as the major hegemon. Donald Trump's goal, to the extent there was any, to look cool next to Xi Jinping in the propaganda videos the White House was going to put out. Donald Trump, who creates these cabinet meetings where he makes everybody glaze him, became the person who glazed Xi Jinping like he makes his cabinet members due to him. It was certainly a sight to behold to see Donald Trump throughout this public meeting with Xi Jinping say how powerful you are, what a great leader you are, how strong you are. Here, play the clip.

[E]

You're a great leader. I say it to everybody. You're a great leader. Sometimes people don't like me saying it, but I say it anyway because it's true. I only say the truth.

[A]

Okay. Do you think Xi Jinping reciprocated at all? No. I'll show you what he said in just a moment. But Xi Jinping also had a bunch of little school children jump up and down for Donald Trump in some weird Pyongyang style propaganda thing. Knowing that Donald Trump would like that Kim Jong Un treatment. Although I think we should probably keep all children away from Donald Trump. And Donald Trump, though, said, I really loved the children. Those children were really, really great. I love to see them next to me.

[D]

Gross.

[A]

Play the clip.

[E]

And I think I was particularly impressed by those children. They were happy. They were beautiful. The military is obvious. It couldn't be better. But those children were amazing and they represent so much. And I know they represent so much

[A]

to you, by the way. What do you mean the military was great and couldn't be better? I don't know, maybe the United States military. Just a bunch of bizarre things that he was saying. So what was Xi saying? What was Xi Jinping saying? He was talking about the Thucydides trap and that we've reached a point unprecedented in recent history where the very foundation of the global order is shifting. What he's saying very clearly is the United States is getting much weaker. Its position as the dominant global hegemon has fallen. That China is rising. And like the Thucydides trap refers to the rise of Athens surpassing the power of Sparta and causing the Peloponnesian War. To avoid the Thucydides trap, the message from Xi Jinping Is essentially, stand down, get out of my way so we can avoid the trap as a new dominant power, in this case, China emerges. So while Donald Trump was, like, acting like a Xi Jinping fanboy, you had Xi Jinping saying this about the Thucydides trap. Let's play it.

[C]

Currently, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent. The world has come to a new crossroads. Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap?

[A]

Did the Trump regime put out any statements on Taiwan?

[D]

No.

[A]

Did China put out any statements on Taiwan? Yes. They said, if you dare mention Taiwan, there will be conflicts and clashes. China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson put out a statement saying how she stressed to Donald Trump that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China US Relations. If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy. That's the statement of a hegemon. Do you believe that? The Trump regime responded, no, they did not. Instead, Donald Trump was outside after those meetings with Xi Jinping, and he was asked, so did you talk about Taiwan? What'd you talk about? And Donald Trump with this blank stare, like he just saw a ghost. I like China. I like China. China good. I like it. China, beautiful. I love China. Here, play this clip, sir.

[E]

It's great place. Incredible. China's beautiful.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Neither wanted to say anything about.

[A]

No, no, no, no, no. No one did want to say a lot about it. Put out statements, a lot of statements about it. The other did not want to say anything about it. Let's bring in Brett and Jordy. Hey, Bret, you brothers. Donald Trump showed up groveling. Appears that the United States got absolutely nothing. China got our H200 chips that they always wanted, those highly coveted semiconductor chips. China got the recognition, essentially by the United States that we were not going to interfere with China making statements about its one China unification policy. Nothing happened with these trader for moves. In fact, Israeli intelligence is leaking to their local press that the war resumes next week when Donald Trump gets back. Because Trump always wanted war with Netanyahu again. Just didn't wanna ruin the China trip. So it seems that if we were keeping score, China got everything. Trump got nothing. Just like in the war in Iran, Iran got everything. Trump got nothing. But like the loser Donald Trump is, he'll say, I'm the master negotiator. Look what I got. What did you get? Brett and Jordi, great to see you. Midas. Mighty Great to see you.

[D]

Great to see you, Ben. Great to see you, Jordy. Great to see you, Midas Mighty. And I just want to remind everybody at the top of the show to make sure that you go ahead and add the Midas Touch podcast and all your favorite audio platforms. And as you know, like a month or two back there was that glitch on Apple and a lot of people actually got unsubscribed from the show. So make sure you go check it out. Make sure that you are still subscribed to the Midas Touch podcast on Apple, Podcast, Spotify, whatever you use. I mean, what a contrast. I just want to say at the start here that I completely understand when you are invited to a country for talks like this, that you should be respectful of the people who invite you. And so I'm not about to knock Donald Trump for necessarily being respectful to Xi Jinping. You should be right. That's part of the diplomatic process. But that doesn't mean that you have to completely roll over and give the guy every single thing that he wants. And what played out here is just, it's so typical with Donald Trump and how kind of dictators throughout the world have been able to play Donald Trump. People who Donald Trump view as strong men. Donald Trump acts like the beta in all of these situations. And when you see him at those tables, Ben, your comparison, I think was absolutely apt. He seemed like his own staff, how they act around him. Oh, yes, sir, you're amazing, sir. You're such a great leader, sir. Oh my gosh, you're incredible. You're incredible. And what Xi Jinping was able to do here, I think was actually like a brilliant move because he impressed Donald Trump with the pageantry, the surface level shit. That's what he knows that Donald Trump likes. Donald Trump likes the pomp and circumstance. He likes the little children dancing for him. We don't have to explore that right now. He likes the military there, he likes that kind of big welcome even though Xi was not there. And a lot of the high ranking officials who would ordinarily be there, we're not there. But Donald Trump likes the imagery, right? That's all he cares about. He wants to look important, he wants to feel important. And while Trump was embracing all of that imagery, Xi Jinping was basically knife in the guy. Like Xi Jinping was there doing some saying some of the most ruthless things that I have heard China say to United States President and to the United States in general that I have seen any foreign leader say, that I have seen China say maybe in my entire life. I mean, for him to make that comparison, Ben, he is saying to Donald Trump's face that the United States is a declining empire under his watch and that China is the ascending empire. And he was essentially telling Donald Trump, get the hell out of my way. This is destiny. And as we cross paths, as the United States is on the decline because of you, and as China is on the rise, there could either be war, there could be clashes, or you could just sit there and let it happen. Oh, and by the way, don't you dare interfere with our relationship with Taiwan. That was a statement that he was making. And I think. I think the whole thing went completely over Donald Trump's head. You think he knows what the Thucydides trap is like? Absolutely not. When he is hearing this stuff, he didn't even know that he was being dissed by Xi Jinping throughout this process. But it was just one thing after the next, after the next. We'll get into what Iran was doing at the same exact time that all of this was going on. But you kind of see this coordinated effort by all of these countries, by the United States adversaries, to kind of corner us here and at the same time, like, make Donald Trump feel good about it, because he got his photo ops, he got the dancing, he got the pump, he got the circumstances. He got played is what he got.

[B]

Brett, you are absolutely right. What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas Mighty? It's going to be a big show tonight, y', all, so everybody lock in. You're so right, Brett. Donald Trump got played like a fid, right? He didn't just, you know, does. It doesn't have the cards. He doesn't have any cards. Right. He is out of his depth, out of his element, and everyone is out for blood. They know how to work this guy. All of these world leaders do. And it's just pathetic that on this world stage that Donald Trump just continues to embarrass us. The ways that. That he is. He is embarrassing himself. He is embarrassing this nation every time he steps onto the floor, every time he shakes another world leader's hand and tries to have a conversation with them. This guy does not know where he is. He is not cognitive there to have these conversations, in my opinion. And it is deeply, deeply troubling to me that no one within Donald Trump's inner circle can stand up to the guy and let him know, hey, you know, maybe let's help you out this time. Maybe. Maybe let's prepare you a little bit more. Every time Donald Trump goes into these things, he, he, he is not well researched. He doesn't study up on any of it. And he just kind of wants all the, the fluff and the pampering, Brett, because that's all he cares about. How can this play to my ego?

[A]

Me, me, me, me, me.

[B]

Not. How can this relationship look to help, you know, the citizens at large? And Donald Trump continues to be a world class embarrassment.

[D]

I mean, Trump is up there and he's like speaking about the dumbest stuff. Right. And, and if you, if we, I always found it effective to like write Donald Trump's words on paper because when you actually read them and separate them, like, it takes on an added effect because it's just a bunch of nonsense. But he's up there talking about China. You're amazing. This is amazing. What a great event. How incredible. This the best they've ever seen. Oh, I love Chinese food. We all love Chinese food. He's like essentially going on a rant, you know, how great is Panda Express, folks? We love our orange chicken, don't we, folks? I was surprised that the guy didn't ask where General Sal was kicking with the stuff that he was saying, but you have him saying that stuff. Then you have President Xi speaking and actually like, about very serious strategic issues, speaking about these major diplomatic issues, these major hurdles. And that contrast to me was just like a stunning contrast to see that you could really only pick up if you're watching these two side by side and just are actually listening to the actual substance of their words. Yeah.

[A]

Unfortunately, when I was watching what was happening in Trump and Netanyahu's invasion of Iran, I'm watching Iran's Foreign Minister Aragchi. I'm watching Iran's President Possesskin, who is a cardiologist, surgeon. You know, I'm watching their words, and I understand it's propaganda. I'm not naive to what happens both in war and peace, and I'm not naive to a history of violence and repression in the Iranian regime. I'm not naive to it, but I'm also observing how they are handling international diplomacy, how they're handling their propaganda, how they are using leverage points and how they're messaging things. Then I'm watching Hegseth, and I'm watching Trump, and I'm watching Rubio, and I'm watching Beset, and I'm watching all of these people who are out there just overtly sounding like the biggest damn war criminals, which they are. But they're just repeating it we're going to loiter over you and destroy you and we're going to rain down hell upon you. And our Tomahawks always hit the right target. It's like, Donald, you're saying the Tomahawks always hit the right target. Like, you are aware that a Tomahawk hit Manob elementary school and killed 160 little girls. Ah, we don't know about that. Yeah, we do. We do know about it. By wow. We're still investigating that. And what about the 22 to 30 other elementary schools and gyms and hospitals that may also have been hit by Tomahawks and American missiles as well? We don't want to talk about that. I'll show you later. In this episode, when the commander of CENTCOM was cross examined by Senator Gillibrand about the other incidents other than Manob. This, this commander of centcom, he first tried to say there are no other incidents that have occurred. And then she goes, well, did you investigate any?

[D]

No.

[A]

You haven't even looked into any of the other incidents. Why would we do that? Because they're on the front page of the New York Times and we know that happened and we're the United States, dammit. I'll show you that a little later in the episode. But if you may be asking, well, so what should a president have done? Like, what would Obama have done there? What would have Biden done there? Well, you don't show up if it's going to go down like that. And you spend months, sometimes years preparing for that meeting to ensure what happened between Trump and Xi doesn't go down. And if it does go down that way, you need to reinforce to the other side. There's going to be major ramifications. What you may also do is coordinate with your allies on the sideline of a meeting like that. Like do a big meeting in Asia led by NATO to send a message as well, because guess what? Xi Jinping did. They held a big meeting of brics nearby in India, making a very powerful statement as Donald Trump threw in the garbage America's relationship with India. You had the BRICs, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, having a meeting there in India, in New Delhi, where one of the main speakers was Foreign Minister Aragchi, who had visited China the week before to specifically choreograph what was going to go down both at brics and upon Donald Trump's visit to China. Mind you, Aragchi and Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, announced while they were in Beijing, where allies were working together in terms of military, economically, politically. You don't even have to wonder, like, are they secretly helping each other militarily? Wang Yi and Iran said it like actually publicly. So we know they are because our intelligence community says they are, but they also are. And as soon as Donald Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping took place, Iran immediately started letting out 30 of the VLCCs, those very large container cargo container ships, the VLCCs, and a bunch of tankers as well, belonging to China. So if Donald Trump was going to try to bring up, oh well, we need to work together in the Strait of Hormuz, it allowed Xi Jinping to say, yeah, we really don't need you. Did you notice that Iran has been letting all of our ships through? We've got our deal with Iran, so, so we're good. And also to show the ineffectiveness of the Trump regime's blockade. And then meanwhile, you had China utilizing its soft power across the world in Europe and Australia and other areas, utilizing its development of green energy, clean energy, as a replacement to all of the, you know, oil dependent kind of old energy models. And so China on the forefront of clean energy, which is good for business and good for the world. Donald Trump threw that under the bus. Another major issue that was supposed to come up at this, at this meeting was an issue regarding someone named Jimmy Lai. Jimmy Lai is Catholic, he's from Hong Kong. He's been imprisoned in China now with a sentence for 20 years. He ran so called pro democracy media entities in Hong Kong. China viewed him as someone who was fermenting social unrest, but he was a anti Beijing, pro democracy kind of media mogul there and back when Republicans pretended to be China hawks to try to attack Biden and Obama and say that they were so weak, they're so weak on China. Look how weak they are with Jimmy Lai. Look how weak they are with Jimmy Lai. You know, meanwhile, you had Biden and Obama actually developing big multilateral relationships with South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, other areas as a checkmate against China's power, and of course Taiwan. Donald Trump promised in 2024, just as he promised to reduce inflation on day one and just as he promised to end the war in Ukraine on day one, and just as he promised to bring down electricity by 50% on day one and all of that, he said that he was going to go get Jimmy Lai out. It'd be easy, honestly, as she let's bring Jimmy Lai out and I'll get it done, don't worry. And this was one of these MAGA issues that they pretend to care about, which they don't, don't, as a way to attack Biden. And so before Donald Trump even arrived in China, he folded on the Jimmy Lai issue. He was asked in the Oval Office, so what do you think about Jimmy Lai? And then Donald Trump's like, yeah, you know, he's someone who's really created bedlam in China. You know, it'd be like if someone asked me to release James Comey. He's a dirty cop. He's comparing Jimmy Lai, who's actually in prison, by Trump's idol, Xi Jinping, to James Comey, who Trump wants to do what Xi Jinping did to Jimmy Lai. He wants to do to James Comey in the United States and through Lie under the Bus and all of these, you know, MAGA talking points, just total bs. Let me show you the split screen we did of Donald Trump going on this right wing radio show you, you would show in 2020. And then I'll show you Donald Trump right before he left to China, just folding on the issue of Jimmy Lai before even going to China in the first place. Let's play it.

[D]

There's a guy named Jimmy Lai who's very important to America's Catholics, to the world's Catholic. He's a Catholic in Hong Kong, and he's a great publisher billionaire like you. Xi has him in jail. Do you think you could speak to Xi when you're back in the presidency about getting Jimmy Lai out and out of the country?

[E]

100%, yes. Now, Jimmy Lai caused a lot of bedlam. I don't know. It's like saying to me, if Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out? It might be a hard one for me. Does that make sense? It might be a hard one, you know, because he's a dirty cop, but Jimmy Lai is in that way. But Jimmy Lai, he caused lots of turmoil for China. He tried to do the right thing. He wasn't successful, went to jail. Jail. And people would like him out. And I'd like to see him get out too, so I'll bring him up again.

[A]

Didn't bring him up. And comparing Jimmy Lai to James Comey, just think about this, think about that. There's a lot more I want to discuss about Donald Trump's disastrous trip to China. A lot more I want to discuss about what went down in the Senate in the House of Representatives today. Shout out to Senator Gillibrand. I mean, she did some incredible cross examination of CENTCOM's Commander Cooper, and she did great cross examination of Scott Turner, Donald Trump's HUD Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Secretary. There were some other important moments I want to point out there as well. And there's a lot of other topics we have to cover on this episode, so don't go anywhere. A reminder, hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. Also become a member of our YouTube channel. If you can, click the join button. We're trying to get as many members as we can. It helps build this network and I'm sure you've seen our coverage on Capitol Hill and we've built that thanks to you. So if you're able to afford a membership, click Join. And if you're able to gift memberships. We know that times are tough economically right now, but if you're fortunate enough to be able to gift people memberships, gift people memberships. If you can subscribe to the Midas Touch on Audio also. So if you watch on video, search Midas Touch on Audio. Even if you think you're not going to, you may be wrong. You may want to listen to an audio. It also helps our show grow on audio, which is helpful to the network. So just join on Audio. If you can also hit subscribe. Also leave a five star review there and go to store.midas touch.com as well and check out the Midas merch. All right, first quick break of the show. We will be right back.

[B]

My cat hears the news with me every morning and honestly she handles it way better than I do. Probably because she starts her day with Smalls. This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. Is the news making you want to cuddle up with your cat? Smalls Fresh cat food is protein packed recipes made with preservative free 100% human grade ingredients you'd find in your fridge and it's delivered right to your door. That's why cats.com names Smalls their best overall cat food for a limited time. Get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com midas starting with smalls is easy. Just share info about your cat's diet, health and food preferences. Then Smalls puts together a personalized meal plan for your cat. No more picking between random brands at the store. Smalls has the right food to satisfy any cat's cravings. Last time I fed my cat Smalls, she loved it legitimately. We did a taste test, put two food bowls side by side and she immediately went to Smalls. My cat actually follows me around every morning until I give her Smalls. Still not a believer in Smalls. Forbes ranked Smalls the best overall cat food, while Buzzfeed said my cats went completely ballistic for this stuff. Smalls is possibly my favorite sponsor ever because my cat's breath is so much better and her fur is so much softer. Ever since I switched to Smalls, this year's winter coat has been so soft and healthy. After switching to smalls, 88% of cat owners reported overall health improvements. That's a big deal and the team at Smalls is so confident that your cat will love their product that you can try it risk free. That means they will refund you if your cat won't eat their food, so stop guessing which meals will upset their stomach for a limited time because you are a Midas Touch podcast listener get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com Midas one last time that's 60% off your first order plus Free shipping when you head to smalls dot com Midas you

[D]

probably know by now that I've been obsessed with Ridge. I use the Ridge Wallet, which has been such a game changer for me. And now their new 5 in 1 travel power bank is one of those products where you immediately wonder why nobody thought of this sooner. Every device has a different charger these days. Your phone, your headphones, your Apple Watch, your Kindle, you name it. It's ridiculous. Somehow we have all these AI robots and all these tools, but we still have to travel with five tangled cords in our bags. Ridge solve that problem. Their 5 in 1 travel power bank has built in cables plus MagSafe wireless charging, an Apple Watch charger, Lightning and USB C so you can charge everything with one sleek device. It's got 20 watts of power, a 10000mAh battery and gives you up to three full phone charges. And with Father's Day coming up, this is the perfect gift. Every dad has a drawer full of random chargers. I know I do too. And none of them are ever the right one. This is the one device that works for everything. Like everything Ridge makes, it's durable, guaranteed for life, and comes with free shipping, a 99 day risk free trial and a lifetime warranty. One thing to pack five ways to power for a limited time and get up to 40% off during Ridge's huge Father's Day [e-mail] Midas don't miss one of their biggest discounts all year. Just head to ridge.com midas and you're all set. After you purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please Support our show and tell them we sent you.

[B]

Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors, man. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Can you use the codes? If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. I like that we're just starting that Father's Day sale a little bit early. That's pretty cool. Definitely check that out. And while we're on the theme of family, it was Midas's mom's birthday yesterday, y'.

[C]

All.

[B]

Happy birthday, mom.

[D]

Happy birthday to you.

[B]

Speaking of mom, she real quick, quick brother thing. She was cracking up about the knock hockey puck that we were talking about in the previous episode. Because she's like, you guys made it sound like you slept with the puck when you guys won, that you, like, had it in bed with you, like, curled up, sleeping with. I was racking up when she was telling me this, because when we were talking about on the podcast, I'm like, it did kind of sound like that, but no one else had called us.

[D]

We did sleep with that. I don't even know.

[B]

Well, no, we put it on our bedside. We didn't, like, cuddle up with it the way we were talking about. No, I didn't.

[A]

No, you cuddled with it. I mean, I didn't cuddle with it, but it would definitely go under the pillow.

[B]

Under the pillow. No, it was. Why? I wouldn't want you to steal it.

[A]

Yeah, I wouldn't want anybody to steal it.

[F]

Yeah.

[D]

Maybe if it's on the shelf, Jordy could come on in and then just rat.

[B]

I guess the brothers literally slept with the puck, and I put mine on my nightstand like a normal person. So.

[D]

Big mistake.

[B]

Benji, where to next?

[A]

I'll tell you. Probably, I was going to say, I'll tell you. Probably still sleeps with a puck, but I'm not sure if that's a transition. Lindsey Graham, everybody. What did.

[D]

Don't even know what that means.

[B]

Should we press them, Brett? Should we press Ben?

[D]

I'm sure it means something.

[A]

Lindsey. Lindsey Graham. You know, one of these people who claims to be, you know, I'm a China hawk. This, that, and the other, you know, you know, he pretends that Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz was just a brilliant strategy by, you know, by Trump. So he was asked on state regime media afterwards. So, like, what do you think about Trump's meeting with China? Like, how do you. How do you feel about it, Lindsey? Watch what Lindsey had to say. Let's play it. Keeping their war machine going. Same thing with Russia. If China stopped buying Iranian oil or threatened to do it, the war in Iran would be over. All I'm asking China to do is help us open up the Strait of Hormuz, help us stop Iran from getting a nuclear war weapon, because I think they would use it. Help us end the bloodbath in Russia, Ukraine. Help us. By the way, for those on audio, such a ridiculous scene that was on the television right there. So you had state regime media showing what looks like North Korean regime media with these little kids who were trained to basically jump and celebrate Donald Trump and G. I mean, it's straight out of, what, south park, once upon a time, you know, maybe still with like mock Xi Jinping for. And you have a United States president there with G. Like, again, if you wonder, like, dude, if, if they did that with like Obama, you know, or Biden, like before, they'd be like, no, we're not doing like, you would focus on every detail because most American presidents would view that as humiliating. But also humiliating is you have this so called China hawk, right? Lindsey Graham out there. Like, all we're asking for is help us. China can just, just, can you help us a little bit? So, Lindsay, was that your plan? That's like, just think about it. Warmonger Lindsey Graham with Trump and Netanyahu, you know, who literally foams at the mouth. I mean, there are those photos, like,

[E]

here goes to it.

[A]

You know, it's like, it's like the guy gets like turned on by, you know, the, by the war. It's freaking weird to see what happens

[D]

when you don't have the cards, though. And it's what happens when you're cornered. I mean, think about how this meeting came to be, right? Let's just rewind, what, a little over a month when this meeting was supposed to happen the first time and it got canceled. Well, it got postponed to right now. And why did it get postponed? Because of the Iran war. And so now we're deep in this war many, many weeks in far longer than Donald Trump ever promised the American people that this would last. We are completely stuck. The Strait of Hormuz is now fully controlled by Iran. They are working out deals with China and other nations. And now the United States is as far away from a position of power in this entire scenario as possible. And so rather than actually being able to ask China for help with things, you have people like Lindsey Graham basically getting on his knees and groveling and begging China to help the United States. I mean, that plays into exactly what Xi Jinping was saying. At this entire summit, which is that China is the ascendant power right now and the United States under Donald Trump is on the decline. It's a very sad thing to be witnessing. And the fact that a leader of China could say that to a United States president and then just have the United States president praise him for it, I think speaks volumes about where we are right now.

[B]

And excuse me if I'm misremembering, but didn't Maga specifically, like, used to attack Biden for, for being perceived to be close with China? They, they would call him Beijing Biden. Right. Am I misremembering that? But that was like one of their attacks on former President Biden.

[A]

Well, all of their things about being deficit hawks and debt hawks and China hawks, they always get the nickname hawks. And then our corporate news, like, repeats it like we're a hawk and you're weak on. There's nothing weaker than what we've just observed Donald Trump do in China, Donald Trump do in Iran, Donald Trump do throughout the entire world. And you think about the Trump regime, what else they're doing. I mean, so think about the contrast here. You have the BRICS nations meeting in India as Trump has alienated India and Trump pick sides when India went to war. India and Pakistan went to war with each other and Trump picked Pakistan because Pakistan said Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize. And then they invested crypto in World Liberty Financial. And India didn't say that Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize because India says you didn't stop the war. So you have this BRICS meeting and then in contrast, you have Rubio attacking NATO aboard Air Force One. So here's Rubio on NATO. Here's what Rubio has to say. Play this clip.

[D]

The number one state sponsor terror. That's troubling to me.

[G]

Yeah. The problem with NATO and for, I mean, and I've been a supporter of NATO throughout my career in the Senate. And one of the reasons why I supported NATO was because it gave us basing rights. It allow us to have bases in Europe that we could use in a contingency, like something in the Middle east, you know, where you could have planes flying from some country in Europe and actually protecting our national interests in the Middle east as an example, or in Africa. And so when you have NATO partners denying you the use of those bases, when the primary reason why NATO is good for America is now being denied to us by Spain as an example, then what's the purpose of the alliance?

[A]

I'll tell you, it's a defensive alliance, not an offensive alliance alliance. It's not an invasion alliance. It's an alliance founded on the principle essentially of Article 5 and Article 4, which gets into Article 5, which is mutual defense. If one nation gets attacked, all nations get attacked. And the air bases that are across the NATO countries are not intended for the United States to be predatory and to use it to launch invasions with Netanyahu against countries and kill little schoolgirls. It is. Is for defensive posture. It is a deterrent. That's what NATO was created for. But the fact that you're there attacking NATO while heading to China to bend a knee to Xi Jinping, while you have the BRICS meeting, which featured as one of their keynotes Foreign Minister Aragchi of Iran talking about solidarity amongst BRICS members who have been bullied by the United States. The contrast cannot be clearer. This was Foreign Minister Iraqi from Iran having a key speaking position, being greeted as a conquering hero at India's BRICS nation conference. Let's play it.

[H]

Surely everyone in this room, our resistance against US Bullying is not an unfamiliar battle. So many of us encounter slight variations of the same repugnant coercion. It is high time for us to jointly step up and work towards making clear that those practices belong in the dustbin of history. Today, our nations are closer to one another than ever before. And we cannot ignore the common and dangerous challenge we all face. History has shown that empires in decline will stop at nothing to arrest their inevitable fates. A wounded animal will desperately claw and roar on its way down.

[A]

Falling empires a desperate animal will claw on its way down. There's a symmetry between the language there and what Xi Jinping was saying about the Thucydides trap, because they're coordinating, they're working as a bloc, as an alliance. Whereas Donald Trump's America first means America alone. You also had a Bucharest 9 conference that was taking place where Ukraine was involved in that, involving in a lot of Eastern European countries, part of NATO, adjacent to NATO. But the commonality in a lot of these major conferences that are taking place is that the US Is not involved. For example, this past week, we also had the UK and France set up a conference with about 40 to 50 other countries, not the US to talk about. How are you gonna deal? How are they all gonna deal with Iran? Separately, you have Saudi Arabia talking about creating a peace process with Iran within the Middle east. That looked like a 1970s version of a Helsinki kind of peace process, detente, if you will, with Iran. And so I think Trump's America first means America alone. Plan is, here's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to keep this blockade for show. I'm not going to do anything. Let's let other nations figure it out. And then if things get really bad, I will blame. And if things get good, I will take credit, but I'm not going to exert or exhibit leadership. That's Trump's, but that's been Trump's whole life, basically. Let things blow up, blame people, and if a good thing happens, take credit for it. Steal credit. And if a bad thing happens, which it usually does blame, but make sure you personally benefit yourself on its way down. And when things are going bad, people are struggling, people are suffering. And Donald Trump as a predator, Donald Trump as a con artist, artist, knows that's when you take advantage of people on their way down. When people are in natural disasters, elderly people, when people are experiencing economic suffering, he knows that's when people are most vulnerable to be manipulated. That's what authoritarians have known throughout history. That's what Donald Trump does. So while you have these very coherent, cohesive, united messages coming from the BRICS block, from China and its alliances, well planned out, well thought out, all about reducing American power, you have Hegseth, on the other hand, and Trump's Defense Department, which unlawfully calls itself the War Department, releasing videos like this. Let's play.

[D]

Despite what you might hear in the media, America is not in decline. We remain the strongest military power on earth. But that power requires renewal. And with global threats that are constantly evolving, it's time to make a 1.5 trillion dollar investment, a generational down payment.

[A]

It's not like the Biggest Loser thing, despite what people tell you.

[D]

Yeah, I feel like if you have to say that, it's a bad sign. If you have to say despite. Listen, I promise we're not in decline, folks. And here's what we're going to do. Drop one and a half trillion dollars on our already bloated military budget. That's outrageous. And also, just like that, as a video editor, it pains me to, to watch that.

[B]

Before I lose my thought, Brent, I'm just going to toss it right back to you that, that reminded me of, of Zoolander, like the brainwashing video that he's like in or, or watches like that, like for the audio listeners that edit for whatever video was just like the most bizarro propaganda that you could ever witness. It was so weird.

[A]

Relax.

[D]

Don't do it.

[E]

Yes.

[B]

Yes.

[D]

Kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

[B]

Malaysia.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Now it's, it's, it's so, you know, and it's just like, offensive to the American people. Right? And, and Ben was saying before, too, you know, these people claim to be deficit hawks and all this stuff. Now they're demanding all of this money for the military. One and a half trillion dollars. I mean, what an outrageous number. And that's on top of all the other money that Donald Trump is spending. This administration right now is set to just bloat the deficit and the national debt here in the United States by record numbers. And it's something that nobody is really speaking about. Like, they, the media tends to like, ignore that when a Republican's in power for some reason. But when, like a Democrat gets into, actually cuts the deficit, even though the debt is still raised, they get zero credit for actually cutting the deficit at all. It's, it's always, oh, look at these deficit hawks. They just give them these names. And I'm sick of, like, the press kind of fawning over these figures. I think we've seen this. And I want to just kind of make sure that everybody's in tune with what the media is doing right now. The legacy media, with someone like Marco Rubio, they are trying to now sanitize this guy, right? They are trying to hold up Rubio as this is the future of the Republican Party. He did that press conference a couple weeks back, and did you see the press? And they were like, laughing and they were smiling.

[A]

Marco, you're so funny.

[D]

You're so. It was embarrassing to watch, but when you hear Rubio talk, he's saying the same things that Donald Trump says. But I guess they think he's saying it in a more palatable way or he's not yelling it and he's not calling people names. But the stuff that he's saying about NATO is extremely dangerous. He is willfully torturing the language, the way Republicans torture the language of about everything to try to get to their thing. The way these Supreme Court justices act like they are strict constitutionalists. And then all of a sudden, they have this bizarre interpretation that nobody has ever thought about a phrase in the Constitution. That's what Rubio is doing with NATO. I mean, Rubio is the guy, remember, Rubio is the guy who co sponsored a bill, what, a year ago, a couple of years ago, that said that the United States cannot, a president cannot unilaterally take the country out of NATO without a congressional vote to prevent somebody like a Donald Trump doing it. And now he's holding this BS view that, that they should go along with any sort of war of aggression from the United States when the United States completely boxed out all of our partners, didn't even tell them that we were doing any of this stuff. Then once we got in a bind, we're like, please help me. Please help me. It's just, it's all a fraud. And Rubio is a continuation of the fraud. And that's why I say for the people who are like, well, you know, once, once Trump is gone, you know, this all, this all goes away. No, Donald Trump has created a bunch of little Trumps. He's radicalized his base in such a way that you are going to see this fight to try to be the next Trump, to try to be the most extreme. And they might try to temper their language a little bit and not call reporters names or whatever, but you already see somebody like a Rubio who's trying to position himself that way, call for the exact same things that Trump is calling, falling for.

[A]

Well, here's the thing. When a Democratic president takes over, this is the cycle that we see. And then they have to fix it. The firefighter is blamed for being the arsonist, and the arsonist blames the firefighter. And then corporate media is complicit in putting all of the blame on the person who needs to actually fix the problem. And to fix the problem. It's bloody, it's difficult, it's challenging, and Donald Trump just leaves the mess to somebody else. Whereas you should hand off something positive the way Obama handed off something positive to Donald Trump during Trump's first term. And then Donald Trump was able to ride that out and then crash it and then claim basically a mulligan. We shouldn't count the COVID part. Let's just count the Obama glow part and not count the bad. That was Covid. That's not my fault. You're the president. Of course it's your fault. What are you talking about? You said like a miracle it was going to go away. You said that. Don't worry about it. By Easter, by summer, the curve will be bent. It's absolutely your fault. And then he was handed by Biden. Inflation decreasing, all of the metrics, going in the right direction. If Trump just kept it on auto drive or autopilot, it would have been fine. Things would have been really, really good. But Trump did tariffs against the world. He went to wars everywhere. We saw ppi, the Producer Price Index, which is the wholesaler price, that rose to 6% year over year. That means it's 6% more this year than it was under Donald Trump's last year. And that's continuing to rise. Then you have the Consumer Price Index now up to 3.8% year over year, and that's continuing to rise. When your PPI is showing 6%, it was supposed to come in at 4.8%. That's what 48 economists or so at Bloomberg thought it was going to be at 4.8%. At 6%, that tells you that the CPI Consumer Price Price Index will keep going up because directionally, if wholesalers are paying more, that gets passed on to consumers. So as PPI is likely to hit 6, 5, 7, that means that CPI, what you pay, the Consumer Price Index will likely be 4, 4, 2. We will pass 4%. CPI consumer price index, the inflation that you are paying by the end of this year, in my opinion, at least 4%, I think that will continue to go up, up. Donald Trump promised on day one, your gas prices, your electricity bills, your grocery bills were going to be cut in half. He's a fraud, he's a liar. And then they pass on the problems to the next president and they just say, hey, like a miracle, it's all going to go away.

[D]

It's all going to go away.

[A]

Then they're not held accountable for their actions. Hopefully, with the Midas Touch network, what we're building here, we're stopping that. We're stopping that not because of a Democrat or Republican or Independent. It's because I just want the truth. I want our country to survive. I want balanced budgets. I don't want there to be this much debt. I don't want to be in endless wars. I don't want to see people not able to afford their groceries and not able to afford homes and not getting paid fair wages for the jobs that they work. I want to change that. That's not being a Democrat, Independent or Republican. That's just called fighting for the truth. All right, we're going to take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, I want to take you into the halls of the Capitol building now. I want to go into the Senate hearings, I want to go into the House hearings. I want to show you what was going down there. I want to talk briefly about what's happening in Ukraine because I don't want that to fall off the radar. Trump promised that in 24 hours he was going to end that war. And of course, he couldn't even get a ceasefire for 12 hours. Just let that sink in. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder. Hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. In addition to helping us get 7 million subscribers, hit join Help us grow this network. You can help us by clicking Join and gift memberships to others. If you're able to afford it. Spread the gift of memberships. Let's take our last quick break of the show.

[D]

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[B]

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[A]

Yeah. You know, one of the things I think, though, that's even perhaps more deeply troubling because Rubio is a political animal who is drawn to power the way a mosquito is drawn to one of those neon buzzers or whatever, though, is centcom. Right. Central Command, the military, which I would always think, look, as bad as Donald Trump is, as bad as the sycophants around him are, centcom will give it to me straight. And I would always hear top military people, and they would say, but, Ben, look, we've got the top people at centcom. We have the top people in the military. The generals, the admirals. They're not political people. Okay? And they're not gonna go out there and say certain things, but they're not political people. That's at least good to know. Well, I have to disagree with you all now because as Donald Trump has purged the military, as he's pushed out the Army Chief of staff, the former Chairman of The joint chief, C.Q. brown, some of the other top commanders were forced to resign or quit if they didn't want to commit the war crimes. Lots of people forced into retirement. I mean, we're talking about dozens of top generals, admirals and other officers at different levels who have basically been pushed out. I think a message has been sent. You have to be a MAGA general if you want to stay in power. You have to be a MAGA general. And, you know, I've seen this guy, I believe, be clown himself, Admiral Brad Cooper. You know, this guy, to me, started out as someone who I look to as, okay, this guy's calling balls and strikes. But I've just noticed over many, many months and over a period of time, he's just become kind of like a Rubio, Jordy and Brett and Midas mighty. He's become a sycophant. And I think what he did today, frankly, is unforgivable. And I think in normal times, he should immediately tender his resignation. I don't just say that, you know, resign, resign, resign. It's not about that. It's that he was exposed covering up other war crimes that the United States has committed. And he was called out during this kind of perfect, textbook cross examination by Senator Gillibrand. I remember my days as a trial lawyer. I don't think anyone that I've ever seen, some of the top trial lawyers did it better than what I just observed what she did because she was listening. And she caught on to the fact that he was covering up these war crimes in real time. And then she said, so let me ask you, have you done any investigation? She assumed they did investigations. And then it became clear to her that he was hiding something and she caught her it and he was trying to be kind of cool with it. And then she figured out what was going on. Let me show you what went down. Let's play this clip.

[C]

Have you been implementing all the laws that are required under current law to minimize civilian death?

[I]

Senator, we have executed every operation consistent with the law of armed conflict. The subject of civilian casualties is a particular passion of mine. We pay attention to. We follow all the procedures and have gone above and beyond to, in my case, personally warn the Iranian people of several instances during conflict where they were being.

[C]

If they've been warned, how did we then bomb 22 schools?

[I]

There's no indication that we have that that has been corroborated.

[C]

How many schools have we bombed?

[I]

There is one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13,629 munitions.

[C]

So how do you explain the publicly available information that 22 schools have been hit and multiple hospitals?

[I]

There's no way that we can corroborate that. No indication of that whatsoever, Senator.

[C]

There's no way you can corroborate or no indication of it? Which one?

[I]

No indication?

[C]

Well, the indication is what's publicly available. There is indication. Have you investigated those claims?

[I]

We have not.

[C]

Why have you not? If this is a passion of yours, if you believe that the civilian casualties are not consistent with the law of war and not consistent with human rights obligations that our military regularly follows with great pride and great diligence? Why have you not investigated those allegations when they're publicly being made on the COVID of the New York Times?

[I]

I'll be happy to take a look at the each instance.

[D]

I would like a report to do that.

[C]

I would like a report from you, from your team about whether there have

[E]

been

[C]

attacks that have resulted in the destruction of schools and hospitals and if so, why. And how then last have you managed the 90% cut to the personnel who are supposed to avoid civilian targets.

[I]

Happy to provide any report. And I would invite you and every staff member here to come to Tampa to look at the process, to see exactly how it works.

[C]

Thank you. Thank you, Admiral.

[A]

Yeah, actually, no, thank you, Admiral. You tried to cover up war crimes. She wanted to say that, but she kind of held back. And he starts off by saying, civilian casualties, stopping civilian casualties is a passion of mine. And then he goes, there's no indication that these other things happen. It hasn't been corroborated. And she picks up onto that. She goes, no indication or hasn't been corroborated? And he goes, hasn't been corroborated. And she's like, well, have you investigated it? No. So you haven't corroborated it because you've intentionally not done the investigations of the war crimes so that you can say that there's no indication of it because you never even tried to corroborate it. And meanwhile, we know that all of these war crimes are being committed in the name of the United States under the red, white, and blue. And they're not even investigating it, and they're covering it up. It's truly horrifying.

[B]

It's Trump's plan with everything. That's that. That's that whole strategy, though. Don't investigate the war crimes. There are no war crimes. Don't test for Covid. There is no Covid. I mean, this is what he does. They close their eyes, they put their hands over their eyes, and they pretend that there is nothing bad happening in order, again, to appease one person in one regime. It's crazy to me, but again, it's happening again.

[D]

That was a truly wild clip. And I've seen Admiral Cooper, like, I've seen his presentations that they post on the CENTCOM account. And the first time I saw him give a briefing on the Iran war, I actually found myself impressed by him. Like, you know, because it was we. We had seen Hex Seth, you know, all these days, go out there and just be clown himself at those insane press conferences. And then here you have a guy who is serious, who's articulate, who, you know, doesn't appear to be lying necessarily about what's going on and presenting himself well in these videos. And I was like, okay, you know, I think all this information is horrible for the United States, but I at least, like, understand what he's saying. And he's not being some, like, mega douche like Hex Seth about everything. Like, he seems like a normal dude, but that right there was truly horrifying. And it goes back to what I was saying before, how they always torture the language, right? They always try to parse words in order to try to hide things. And that's Exactly. Or to try to get their. What they want to say across or pass their, you know, make their Supreme Court decisions, or you name it. And that's exactly what he was doing in that moment. And there's a broader issue with that, of course, which is that it results in you not being able to believe anything that this administration is saying. And, you know, this is something that I talked about at length on one of the previous episodes, so I don't need to belabor the point here. But if you're willing to lie about something as horrific as that and are willing to just dance around it, unless you're absolutely cornered by somebody who's skillfully interrogating you, then what else are you willing to lie about? I'm going to guess a whole lot of stuff. And the lack of trust that that then instills in the American people who are wondering, was there actually a pilot rescue? Did that actually happen?

[A]

Did it not happen?

[D]

They said it happened, but where is he? All of a sudden, you start asking all of these questions for everything that happens. And I think at that point, you can't blame people when their minds start getting a little conspiratorial and they are asking all these questions because it's clear that the Trump regime is not telling it straight on any of this.

[A]

Right? No indication versus no corroboration. You didn't corroborate, therefore you didn't find an indication. And you're parsing language where the fact is you're covering up war crimes. That's what the American people know you're doing. And you're dancing around it by using words like corroboration. No indication. It was like when I read the transcript of Howard Lutnick regarding the Epstein files, where, by the way, he didn't sit under oath, he refused to be videotaped, and he refused. This was a new data point that I didn't realize. Last week, he refused to answer any questions about his communications with Donald Trump about covering up the Epstein files. He said that's entitled to executive privilege. That Donald Trump and Lutnick's conversations about covering up Epstein is subject to an objection. Executive privilege. They made the objection and when it was shocking. And so if that was also on videotape, I think people would have been like, whoa, you're not answering whether you covered up with Trump based on executive privilege. But Lutnick said, I was being truthful when I went on that podcast and said that I never had any dealings with Epstein professionally, personally, or in any philanthropic capacity. I was Being honest.

[C]

Honest.

[A]

To which the person questioning says, what do you mean you were being honest? You did hang out with him on the island and you did do a business deal with him. You've done all these other things with him. So you did. So you still think your characterization on the show about not having any further dealings with him in any capacity was true? Yes. What do you mean, yes? Well, I said I, I brought my children. That's we. So I didn't go, but it was I plus my children and my wife. So we went to the island. I brought other children as well. We were there. I wasn't personally alone, but we all went. So that's what I was saying. People like, what do you mean, I.

[D]

We.

[A]

You were there. You went to the island. You're a liar. You're all liars. Stop lying. Stop being lying liar years and just level with us. You promised that you would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours and you didn't do it. So stop saying, ooh, I meant 24 hours in the future. No, you didn't. You meant 24 hours from when you were taking office. That's what you said. And you. Or even before that, after the election, you weren't even able to get a ceasefire for 12 hours because Putin refused to return prisoners after Zelensky agreed that he would not attack these parade that Putin did over the weekend in Red Square. Zelinsky kept his part of the deal. Zelinsky wants a long term cease fire. And Putin unleashed the biggest ballistic missile attack and drone attack on Ukraine since the war began yesterday while Donald Trump was in Beijing. That's when Putin did it. Why? Because all of this is being coordinated, damn it. And Donald Trump's out through, oh, Chinese food. Oh, you're so powerful, G. I love you, G. And you've got China playing a multi dimensional game of reorganizing global security architecture. And Donald Trump's out there just behaving like a, like an idiot, you know, and, and a dangerous one. He's bringing Eric along with him. What, to scoop up more quid pro quo deals? I don't know. I mean, you've got, you know, you've got Elon Musk, like doing selfie photos. I'm like, what are we even watching there? And you have, you know, meanwhile in the background you've got the BRICS meeting, you've got Russia launching its biggest attack yet on Ukraine. You know, Ukraine was able to shoot down 93% of the drones and missiles. That's how good they've gotten but that still meant 7% got through. And that caused massive devastation. An entire apartment complex in Kiev was destroyed. You had many, many, many people who were, who were killed there. Wanted to point that out as well. And Trump said I'd end the war in 24 hours. I want to go back to Senator Gillibrand though for a second because she then cross examined Donald Trump's HUD secretary Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turn Turner. And all Gillibrand wanted to know was okay, I understand you don't like Biden's policies regarding housing, but you've made major billion dollar cuts to housing. So if you have done that, do you have a better plan? Can you submit a report to us about what your plan is for housing? Your department is called Housing Housing Urban Development. Housing is the first thing. So what? Here we are May 2026. We know you hate Biden. Got it? Understood. You don't like Biden. What's your housing plan? Do you have one? Here, play this.

[J]

And what I will say and I offer this is number one. The point in time report in the Biden administration HUD said we had 770,000. 770,000 people in America that were homeless at one given time. And this is with record funding. So we have record funding but yet we have an increase in.

[C]

Right. So what is your, what is your record? You had this job for well over a year. I just want to know did you get the number down? Do we have 700,000 homeless still or is it a million or a million point five? So I get you want to do things differently and this committee will support you as long as the goals are good. But where's the results? You. The report is delayed over a year. Over a year.

[J]

Can I offer this to you?

[C]

Yes, but we have.

[J]

No.

[C]

I just don't want to hear about what you don't like about the Biden administration. You're in charge. You have a vision. Let's see it. Let's see the results.

[J]

And you know what I do? I thank God that I'm in charge so we can do stuff different because the plays that were ran before I got here, they failed. I've been here. Let me speak if you will. I got here, you said I have been here a little bit over a year. But you all had during the Biden administration four years.

[C]

Stop talking about Biden, talk about your record.

[J]

This is so homelessness went up.

[C]

This is so inaccurate and doesn't let this committee do our job.

[J]

If I may, the point in time report would be out by now. If we did not have an unprecedented government shutdown, it would be out by now. If we weren't in constant litigation, it would be out by now. HUD has a great form, we have a great team, and we move very expeditiously.

[C]

In what way, Mr. Secretary? I think you're obfuscating.

[J]

I'm not way.

[C]

Does litigation slow down your report?

[J]

A government shutdown helps us to not be able to work. It was a government shutdown. But tell me about the point in time. Report would be out right now if we did not have a government shutdown. Irregardless of all of that during the Biden administration. Record funding.

[C]

Oh, my God.

[J]

If you talk about it's like record funding.

[C]

It's like children saying, I didn't do it. My brother did it.

[J]

That's what I have to go off of.

[C]

Excuses.

[J]

That's what I have to offer. Have to go off. Explain Record fund.

[C]

Your record.

[J]

Record homelessness. We have to do something different.

[C]

Switch topic.

[J]

If after I'm gone, If after I'm gone, if it's still record and record home.

[C]

After you're gone, it's too late for the families that are suffering in New York today. Do you know what it's like to be a homeless little girl who has to have a Girl Scout troop just for other homeless little girls? Because that's all they have. That's the only consistency they have in their life. So I get you have a different vision.

[J]

It's happened in my family. Yes, ma', am, I do.

[C]

I need to know.

[J]

I'm not talking about what I've heard. I'm talking to you about what I know and what I do know. The housing first model failed.

[A]

And meanwhile, you have the Trump family putting out Trump Mobile. Now, after not releasing the phone for over a year, they release a $499 device. Device that appears to just be a double of the same T Mobile Wingtech Revel 7 Pro 5G. You know, by the way, made in China, which they said it's like made in America. And lots of people are saying whatever this AI thing that you're showing appears to be just like a T mobile phone and an old one that you're like selling for double. And then the Trump regime, rather than respond if that's true or not, they turned off their comments. So, I mean, you have that going on. I'll just. I mean, just so you see, I mean, this is the Trump regime across kind of all disciplines. Also, I wanted to bring up the phone thing before I went like you have Maxwell Frost trying to ask basic questions of the ATF director, Robert Sakata, and it was like, can you just answer this question? And the guy also wanted to parse the words. Here, just let me show you this. Let's play.

[F]

Did you agree to enact any of these regulations in your discussions?

[E]

Say that again.

[F]

Did you agree to enact any of these regulations in your discussions before you were nominated?

[E]

Well, first off, these are proposals.

[F]

Just yes or no, sir.

[E]

Well, sir, sorry, that doesn't answer the question.

[F]

It does answer the questions. Did you agree to enact any of these regulations or put forth these rules or proposals? I know how the process works, Director.

[E]

Sir, you don't actually.

[F]

Yes, I do.

[E]

No, you don't.

[F]

Yes, I do. Did you agree to put forth these proposals for rule changes while you were having discussions about your possible promotion? Yes or no? That's it.

[E]

The answer is not going to be yes or no. So the answer is their proposals, not enacted rules, and yes, their proposed rules, yes.

[F]

Were they discussed while you were talking about your promotion? Yes or no, sir.

[E]

This has nothing to do with.

[F]

Sir, I, I, I, I. Answer the questions. You answer the question. Sir, I'm just asking.

[E]

I'm not answer yes or no to a question that can't be answered yes or no. Sorry.

[F]

Why can't it be answered yes or no?

[E]

Because you're intentionally trying to argue with me here about something that you're completely wrong on. First of all, the regulations are not finalized.

[F]

I know. I'm saying proposed rules because you keep

[E]

telling me they're enacted and they're not enacted.

[F]

Proposed rules. Keep mixing proposed rules. Were those discussed while you were talking about the possible promotion? Yes or, or not.

[E]

They were discussed with no guarantee of any sort of promotion. As you know, the Senate thus gets to make a decision that I'm not involved in.

[F]

Yeah. So in your discussions with folks in the administration about your possible promotion, the proposed rules were discussed with them, you're saying, yes, of course they were.

[E]

I've told you that thank you times.

[F]

That's all I wanted.

[A]

Okay, so you get the point here. I mean, these are, I think the word is sociopaths, but there may be other words for it. And I, I leave you with this. And I'm not trying to over complicate it, right? These are bad human beings. Like, these are scumbags. Like, these are terrible people, right, who do bad things, who lie, who want to see you suffer. These are not your friends. They don't want to be. These are bad humans who delight in your pain and suffering. And then when they're asked very basic questions, they lie and they behave like, I'm sure you've known people in your life who, you've seen that exact personality trait before. And it reminds you, it may even give you PTSD to see that or hear that and go, oh, my God, I know exactly what that, that's who MAGA is. That's what they do. All I want and I keep on saying on this network, I don't care if it's Democrat, Republican, independent, some new heretofore name that I haven't heard of before. Non political, I don't care. Religion, no religion, this, that. Just be good, be competent, help people, uplift, get results, tell the truth, behave respectfully, with dignity. When you make mistakes, people do own up to them, help others, be a mentor to people. Just stuff like that. Stop the drama, stop the me, me, me, me, me. Be a good person, help yourself, help your family, help your community, help the country, help the world. I leave you with that message. Brett, I don't know if you want

[D]

to say anything before we go. Good message. I, you know, it's just, it's, it's abuser behavior that we see all the time from this Trump regime. It's disgusting. I wonder, like, do they go to some class? Are they taught this? Is there 101? I, I genuinely think they are like media trained in some way to behave in this way, and they're taking instruction from the top because there's really not much more, you know, of an explanation that there could possibly be. Because they're, they're, they're, they always answer all this stuff the same exact way. Just be straight with the American people. You know, I think ultimately we need people who are going to actually fight for the values of this country. People are going to actually show a spine or have a spine. And then that, by the way, that is for the Democratic side also.

[A]

Right?

[D]

We need people to continue to stand up. We need people to continue to push back, understanding that progress is never a straight line. There will be setbacks, as we've seen. There have been many a setback. But you need people really now more than ever to get in this, to really say, I'm going to stand for something in this moment. I'm going to stand up to the Trump regime. I'm going to do what's best for the people. Not for the oligarchs, not for, I don't even, I don't even know, like, some of the stuff Donald Trump is doing. So keep that in mind. I would say I want to thank everybody for watching this episode of the Midas Such podcast. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Wherever you get your podcast, remember to go check out the show on Apple podcasts on Spotify on all the various platforms. Join us on substack Doing a lot of cool stuff on our sub stack [e-mail] we've got Ron's Daily Bulletins, which are honestly the best, best bulletins out there. Incredible daily newsletter that recaps all the day's news. We've been doing this midday recaps as well earlier in the day which are incredible. I think you'll really like those as well. We got this new Midas Defense initiative on there with the biggest, best actual experts in the field of defense speaking about the intricacies of many of the things that we spoke about. On this episode we have Midas Health over there with Dr. Vin Gupta once again. That'[e-mail] oh, and ad free episodes of this podcast, the Midas Touch podcast. We put that up there on the on on Midas plus substack. So thank you so much. We appreciate your support. Let's keep fighting everybody. We got this. Jordy, take it away.

[B]

Shout out to the Midas.

[F]

My day.

[D]

Against the fascists.

[A]

We sing our song.

[B]

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]

[C]

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