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- [00:01]
Ben Meiselas
This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. Not everyone is careful with your personal information, which might explain why there's a victim of identity theft every five seconds in the U.S. fortunately, there's LifeLock. LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity. If your identity is stolen, a US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year by visiting lifelock.com podcast terms apply. Ten years from today, Lisa Schneider will trade in her office job to become the leader of a pack of dogs as the owner of her own dog rescue. That is a second act made possible by the reskilling courses Lisa's taking now with AARP to help make sure her income lives as long as she does. And she can finally run with the big dogs and the small dogs who just think they're big dogs. That's why the younger you are, the more you need AARP. Learn more at aarp.org skills It's Memorial Day, where we honor our troops who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. But Memorial Day for Donald Trump means to make demented social media posts attacking judges and spreading his conspiracies and overall just embarrassing and humiliating the United States of America and not mentioning our troops at all. This says we've now learned that federal judges, because of Donald Trump's attacks, don't even trust the US Marshals anymore, who are supposed to protect them from the threats since they technically work for the executive branch and they want their own special protection or they're just going to go out of pocket. Folks, we're not in a constitutional crisis. We're well beyond that. We're in an authoritarian regime where we need to resist and oppose and call it out. And clarity is needed. Where Donald Trump gives a deranged speech at a West Point army graduation and starts talking about trophy wives and starts comparing himself to Al Capone, says that he doesn't like stealth technology because he doesn't like the shapes. And he thinks he gave a speech at the Ohio State University where he gave a speech in Alabama. We here at the Midas Touch Network call it out and make it a big deal. Because it is. And it's having real world ramifications on our lives as this maniac destroys our country, destroys our alliances, destroys our economy. Also today it's gone underreported, so we should highlight it here. Donald Trump pardoned a corrupt Virginia sheriff who was found guilty of taking bribes to hand out badges to people in the business community in Virginia. This was someone who was sentenced to 10 years. And the Trump DOJ even bragged about the sentencing back in March of 2025. But Donald Trump said that this was a Biden witch hunt and Donald Trump putting more criminals on the street. I think it's also important we talk about the Trump budget disaster as well, in the sense that the MAGA Republican senators who were making weekend news appearances said that they're not going to be supporting it. We'll see ultimately if that takes place, but that's at least what they said. We'll talk about that and more on this episode of the Midas Touch Podcast. Brett and Jordi, how are you guys doing?
- [03:28]
Brett Meiselas
I'm doing great. It's great to be here with everybody. And welcome everybody, to the special Memorial Day edition of the Midas Touch podcast. I hope everybody's having a, a powerful day, a reflective day filled with gratitude for all the brave young men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. And it's a reminder of the reason why we are always, you know, doing this, why we get up every day and we all work so hard in order to get these messages out here, because we want to live up to that. Right? We want to be able to defend those same values. So today we honor them. Thank you for making us part of your day here. It's not just a day off. It is a day to reflect and a day to continue the fight. So we appreciate you being with us. Jordy, how are you doing?
- [04:10]
Jordy Meiselas
I'm doing well, Brothers Midas, mighty great to be here. I'm excited to get into the show today. And so with that, Benji, where do you want us? Lead us off.
- [04:17]
Ben Meiselas
Well, let me reflect on the Memorial Day parade in my town just at the outset of this episode. You know, it was an overall great parade, but there was one part of the parade where the town Republican club had their own kind of crew, and they made it so Trumpy. And they had the Trump flag and they had all of the Trump stuff and all of this language. You know, DEI is bad. We hate dei. And it was a little bit wild, too, because as I was watching, some of the people in the group, it wasn't just all kind of white people, and it was like a small group. And it was just, you know, coming into my town where we have a Democratic assemblyman, a Democratic senator in a, in a blue state, and just to see them making Memorial Day about Donald Trump with the Trump flag and they were playing the YMCA song, it just, it left a certain feeling with me which is why I'm talking about it. But it's also important why I want to reflect on that, that we continue to build this pro democracy community and we talk about things like that and we share it with others in our community, in real world settings to let people know that that's not okay. I'm not okay with people coming into my community and saying that they don't support diversity and inclus community that actually is about diversity and inclusion. So I always say it's important that we not normalize that behavior and we just speak about it and say, I'm not okay with that. I'm not cool with that. I support diversity and not be afraid of all the narratives out there that try to convince you otherwise. And when I think about these narratives that try to convince you otherwise, you know, it's this corporate news reflex to just try to watch a Trump speech to and then report on it as though it's a completely different speech. And maybe they're doing it for access. Maybe they're doing it because they're Trumpers and Trump cheerleaders. Maybe they're doing it because they're lazy. But I think it's important to be like, what the hell are you doing? And you know, I like some of the business reporting by Bloomberg. I like their podcast reporting at Bloomberg. So when I saw a Bloomberg reporter take a look at that West Point graduation where Trump gave a commencement speech and said some of President Trump's advice to West Point graduates today. Do what you love, Think big, work hard, and never give up. Don't lose your momentum. Have the courage to take the risks and do things differently. Never lose faith in America. I watch these speeches. He didn't say any of that ever. He showed up disrespectfully wearing a red political campaign hat. He railed about trophy wives being not good, but then good, but then not good. He talked about how he didn't like stealth. He compared himself to Al Capone. He attacked former President Biden and former President Obama. He made these deranged comments that there was nobody joining the army until him. All of those grads who were there joined the army under former President Biden because they were there for four years and they were graduating now. So when I watch that, it's the exact opposite. Setting aside politics, it's the exact opposite of what this Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Dooley wrote about. And it's just the exact opposite opposite of what we should be teaching, in my view, future leaders in the military, future leaders in general. And forget leaders just People being decent, good human beings. And so how on her list does she not mention the things that were happening? I mean, where a United States president says he doesn't like stealth because the shapes and he thinks the shapes get outdated. I don't even know what the hell he's. Does he think stealth literally means that the planes are actually invisible versus that they can't get detected on radar? Here's what Trump says about stealth. Play this clip.
- [08:10]
Donald Trump
And I've approved a $1 trillion investment and that will be again the largest ever in the history of our country. And we are buying you new airplanes. Brand new, beautiful planes, redesigned planes, brand new planes, totally stealth planes. I hope they're stealth. I don't know, that whole self thing, I'm sort of wondering, you mean if we shape a wing this way they don't see it, but the other way they see it, I'm not so sure. But that's what they tell me.
- [08:42]
Ben Meiselas
That's what they tell me. And by the way, Donald Trump, they are talking about the trillion dollar budget because he likes the word trillion, which is part of what the Trump regime is doing. That's going to add trillions of dollars to the deficit. I mean, just look at the disastrous budget. It increases the debt ceiling by $4 trillion over the next two years, meaning we're at a very minim. Be running a $2 trillion annual deficit. The next thing that Donald Trump talks about.
- [09:11]
Brett Meiselas
Can I answer your question for a second? Not to interrupt your flow. Yes. He absolutely thinks that stealth planes mean they're supposed to be invisible. And he doesn't understand why they're not invisible. And I wouldn't even, I'm not sure I would have even said that a few weeks ago. But going back to that incident with ABC and the Kilmar Brego Garcia, the Ms. 13 tattoo where Trump literally thought that that was the actual tattoo. I now realize, I think he actually thinks this stuff. Like I think he is actually that stupid when it comes to this sort of thing. He's that he's that stupid. And his people, his followers and stuff end up just parodying these ridiculous comments that he makes. 100%. He thinks stealth planes are actually invisible.
- [09:46]
Ben Meiselas
Here he is on Trophy Wives.
- [09:47]
Donald Trump
Play this clip company and he had nothing to do. He ended up getting a divorce, found a new wife. Could you say a trophy wife? I guess we can say a trophy wife. It didn't work out too well, but it doesn't. That doesn't work out too well. I must tell you, a lot of trophy Wives doesn't work out, but it made him happy for a little while at least. But he found a new wife, he sold his little boat, he got a big yacht. He had one of the biggest yachts anywhere in the world.
- [10:19]
Ben Meiselas
Compares himself to Al Capone and the.
- [10:21]
Donald Trump
American people because they're always going to be there for you. I went through a very tough time with some very radicalized sick people. And I say I was investigated more than the great late Alphonse Capone. Alphonse Capone was a monster. He was a very hardened criminal. I went through more investigations than Alphonse Capone. And now I'm talking to you as president. Can you believe this?
- [10:47]
Ben Meiselas
I mean, how humiliating. And then he believes that he spoke at the Ohio State University as his last commencement speech when he spoke at Alabama University. Here, play this clip.
- [10:59]
Donald Trump
Army careers. And I thought I'd do this and I can make this to a civilian audience or to a military audience. It's pretty much the same. And I did this recently at Ohio State and they really liked it. I gave them a little advice as to what I see for what you want to do and some tips.
- [11:22]
Jordy Meiselas
I mean, just, can I just get in here real quick? Brett, can you please bring up what the Bloomberg reporter wrote about what Donald Trump said during this? So again, for our audio listeners, this is what this Bloomberg reporter wrote about this. And look, I, I don't like attacking or going after reporters for the sake of doing it. But something I say often on the show is don't be gaslit by corporate media. And this is exactly what I'm talking about. So this is, again, this is what the Bloomberg reporter said that Donald Trump said during his speech.
- [11:50]
Brett Meiselas
This.
- [11:50]
Jordy Meiselas
Do what you love, think big, work hard and never give up. Don't lose your momentum. Have the courage to take risks and do things differently. Never lose your faith in America.
- [12:00]
Brett Meiselas
Insane.
- [12:01]
Jordy Meiselas
Here's all I want to say about this, is, look, I don't want corporate media out there to lie and make things up about what Donald Trump is saying. But you don't have to cover for the guy in this bizarro way. I'm just simply asking, please, just report on what he's actually saying because it is absolute lunacy. Trophy wives, Al Capone, Ohio State, like stealth. He doesn't know what stealth is. This person has the nuclear codes. And what are we going to, how, how is corporate media going to cover this? They're going to ignore it and try and gaslight you listeners and viewers and say, no, no, no, this is what he Said it was actually. And I just honestly, I have to ask why? Is it because corporate media, you're scared that Donald Trump's going to see your tweet about him, like just you reporting on his actual words, and then he's going to get mad at you and call you a mean nickname, say nasty Bloomberg reporter. If that's the case, this isn't the profession for you. And I don't mean it to be rude, but I'm just honestly saying, please, for our country, just report on what he's saying because it's bizarro land and people need to actually see this stuff. That's why I'm so happy we play these clips.
- [13:26]
Brett Meiselas
I think they're just so lost in like this corporate media brain that I've noticed like some people have corporate media brain and they can't escape it. Like, and they just have to think a certain way. And I think it's because when you come up in these structures, you're, you're taught to kind of report a certain way. Right. I'm going to, I need to give this side some certain credence. Then I get me to give this side a voice as well. And then we let the audience. The truth is going to be somewhere in the mix of those two things. So we say this side did this, this side did that, you dec audience. Because we can't seem biased. A reporter's biggest fear throughout their kind of careers is to appear biased. The issue is we're not in normal times right now. And when you're not in normal times and you have somebody who has so thrown off everything about what it means to be an American, all you're doing is you're allowing this individual to move the Overton window so far to the right, so far to the right. Because you're normalizing that behavior. Because this is not just about Bloomberg. This is an infection that has spread throughout so much of the corporate media. And I'll pull up this example as well. Not to harp on this for too long, but let me show you a tale of two headlines right here. Here is how the New York Times reported on this speech yesterday. You know, here's their headline, Trump gives commencement address at West Point stressing a new era. The President said the graduating cadets would enter a service no longer subject to absurd ideological experiments or nation building crusades. Now let me compare that to how they did this overseas at the Independent and shout out to the Independent for their headline which told the truth. Here the Independent said Trump gives rambling speech about trophy Wives golf and the great late Al Capone in politically charged West Point address. That's now, that is an accurate description of what we all saw. And so just the fact that so many of these outlets are going with that first New York Times sort of style to try to just placate people and say, hey, listen, we're not biased. We're just telling you what happened here. You're not, though, because you're actually withholding the dangerous things that people need to know about. And that's how you soften these rough edges, which is to say the least, and you make somebody like Donald Trump palatable. I rarely watch local news, but every time I do watch local news, I'm, you know, a lot of great local news reporting. When they cover these events, though, in many of these cities and towns throughout America, what you end up seeing is the way they frame it. You know, Donald Trump came to, you know, whatever, Idaho today and, and he spoke about he wanted to make America great. Then they'll play like three seconds of Donald Trump saying, we gotta be great. And the crowd cheered. And then he did his signature dance moves and walked off the stage. And everybody. And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That is not exactly what happened there. Like, let's tell people what went down. But that's just not, that's just not what we're getting. And I think it's part of the reason why we're in the place that we're in right now.
- [16:18]
Ben Meiselas
This journalistic negligence or outright maliciousness, depending on how you view it, it has real world implications here because it doesn't erase what is taking place. You're just hiding it from a subset of Americans. Fortunately, the Midas Touch network is growing bigger than a lot of these corporate news networks and we're the most viewed now out there. But there's still a lot of people who get their news from disinformation centers or from centers that do what we just shared with you with that Bloomberg Report reporter. But why I make an emphasis of covering international news and why on the Midas Touch network I share with you. Here's what the reporter from India is actually saying. Here is how the Canadians, the people actually feel about this. Here's what the meaning behind King Charles giving a speech from the throne, the first since 1977 on, on Tuesday, what that really means and how it is a show that Canada is aligning with the Commonwealth of the UK of Australia and saying that it is now looking towards them and Commonwealth nations and looking away from the United States and how it is basically a see you later message to the United States and that King Charles is sending that message as well. You know, when Donald Trump says, oh, we've got a deal with India, that's right around the corner. Or Donald Trump takes credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. When Donald Trump attacks the American corporation Apple, causing it to lose $80 billion of market cap in a day by saying that he's going to tariff a company, he's going to tariff Apple. Okay, and says, you can't build in India. How that makes people in India feel. I also want to give you the international perspective of when Donald Trump is attacking universities in the United States, the international perspective to that as well. When I speak to a lot of our India followers, they have a huge amount of foreign students that go to Harvard and that go to American universities who are worried that their family members are all, and, and it's not unique to India. It's across the world with people, you know, who study in our universities who are worried that their family members are going to be sent to concentration camps in El Salvador or South Sudan or Libya, or they're going to be detained and treated like criminals when they were here to study. And you could just imagine the perspective of a student, you know, who's preparing for finals or who spent three years, you know, as a productive member of a, of an academic community, now being told, you know, you know, you're, you're a criminal and here's what's going to, here's what's going to happen to you and that's going to result in brain drain away from the United States as China, Canada, Europe, Australia, others are starting to recruit from the United States of America. You know, we're letting you know when Xi Jinping is not meeting or talking with Donald Trump, Xi Jinping's putting forward a made in China policy to actually double down on manufacturing in China because of how weak and feckless he believes Donald Trump to be. And he's right about that because he saw Donald Trump cave and how he's been hosting Latin American and Caribbean nations and African nations in Beijing to strengthen alliances there. You know, we're covering. Right after South African President Ramaphosa leaves the Oval Office, French President Emmanuel Macron meets with the vice president of South Africa, projecting France, France and the European Union as a stabilizing force. And when Donald Trump, what was it four days ago, he said that he was going to put 50% tariffs on Europe on June 1st. Then you have the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen gives him a phone call. Donald Trump moves the date back to July. And you see the kind of just overall instability in his policies, which, by the way, isn't really hurting Europe as much as it's hurting the United States. Of course, the instability hurts all, everybody, but it's hurting our companies way more than them. And again, it's not a shock when you see French President Emmanuel Macron having a phone call recently with Xi Jinping and announcing that they had a phone call together. French European Union, China, representing kind of stability, and then a tour to Southeast Asia, while Vietnam is talking about building Trump towers in Ho Chi Minh City to try to avoid the Trump tariffs, basically saying, oh, I guess we just got to bribe the guy if we want to avoid the tariff regime by the authoritarian Trump regime. You have French President Emmanuel Macron going to Vietnam, going to Indonesia, going to other countries and projecting, what can we do to help build your countries and make you more prosperous and better? Now, you may say, well, I think that's BS in part propaganda. I think what Xi Jinping's doing is bs, sure. But they're actually playing the game intelligently in a geopolitical way. And Donald Trump's there speaking to our army grads wearing a stupid red hat, talking about trophy wives. And again, that also gives the green light to Putin on Kyiv day and other days, you know, especially recently, too, to start sending more Shahid drones, sending more ballistic missiles to kill innocent Ukrainians. Like, what I just gave to you are the facts. I'm not giving that to you from a Democratic perspective or a Republican perspective or an independent. Like, what I just told you is, that's the reality. Now, you can choose to accept that that's the reality, or you can deny the reality and say, what I just said is a crazy leftist thing. But everything I said there was just pure objective reporting on the facts.
- [22:23]
Brett Meiselas
Brett and Jordy, one of the interesting things recently, Ben, is you interviewed Dave Weigel of Semaphore recently, and you can listen to that, you know, on the Midas Touch podcast. Make sure you subscribe on Apple podcasts and Spotify and all the things. And he said something that, you know, caught my attention, which was basically like, if we saw this happening in any other country around the world, the media would not hesitate to call this authoritarian. It wouldn't even be a question like, this is blatant authoritarianism that we are witnessing. If we saw what Donald Trump is doing with the universities, with Harvard, Harvard with these corporations, we would call that out. Everybody would call that out. Marco Rubio would call that out. It wouldn't even be like a question for our government, for whoever it would. It would just be what we discuss. But because it's in the United States of America, everybody needs to show some sort of odd restraint and deference. And no, maybe this isn't. Maybe this, this is just strategy and this and that. And it's like, no, it's like, stop it. Let's not normalize this thing. Now. I just want you to think, like, say you are, you know, one of the, the best and brightest, right? You are an international, you know, student. You're foreigner, right? You're, you're, you're super bright, you know, incredible future. You have a choice of whatever college you want to go to. And you could get into Harvard University, or you could go to Oxford, or you could go to a top university in China or wherever. What are you going to choose right now? Honestly, if you're looking at the country, if you're looking at the geopolitical climate right now, are you going to come to the United States, States of America, where you could be there, invest all this money into the school, pay for these schools, start trying to move your entire life over to this new country, bring your talents to this new country, all because one guy, one day could send out some dumbass post on his social media platform and then make you illegal and get you arrested and deported or sent into a concentration camp or whatever, when you could have been the next scientist who discovered whatever sort of, you know, form of energy or, or life curing disease, you know, life curing antibiotic or whatever it is. Like we're going to be pushing all of these people away. It's just basic, you know, just basic, you know, to, to look at what's going on and realize we're going to be driving the best and brightest minds away right now all for Donald Trump's ego. I mean, the whole thing is just so insane the way he is attacking these corporations. You can't tariff a corporation. You can't tariff Apple, okay? You can't do that. That's, that's not the, that's not what you do. And the fact that, you know, it's. The one disheartening thing is seeing that, you know, these kind of smaller countries that are being bullied by Donald Trump, that they're looking and they go, oh, so if we want to, you know, get rid of this, we just need to say we'll build a Trump tower here. Let's say we'll do this and do all these giveaways. And so Donald Trump continues to profit, continues to exploit the office for his own game. It's just the most blanket corruption that we have seen ever. Like, ever. And this is not even. This is not my subjective opinion. This is not me coming from a political perspective. This is objectively the most corrupt administration imaginable happening in plain sight every single day. And because he, I don't know, speaks loudly and the media normalizes, I just, I just don't get, like, what's going on with, with the coverage right now.
- [25:33]
Jordy Meiselas
And let me just add to that too, because I want to speak specifically about the student visas. That Trump is just. That is like, honestly the most anti American thing to me. Because, look, we went to high school and when we went, it wasn't that long ago, right? Like, I'm 32, Brett, you're three years older. Ben just turned 40. And what were we taught? It's not like we went to some hippie, dippy, you know, private school. We went to public school on Long Island. And like, of central value that was instilled in us is like, what makes this country so great is that it's a melting pot. It's people from all different cultures and backgrounds coming together with their different life experiences and languages and art, and it's just. That is what makes this country so amazing because it's everyone here working together with all these differences. And how awesome is that? Also what we learned is that when you try and tout that your culture is the best and stand on top of the mountain and say, oh, we don't need anyone else. It's just us guys. It's xenophobia. That's xenophobic right there.
- [26:28]
Ben Meiselas
That's a bad thing.
- [26:30]
Jordy Meiselas
That's an anti American thing. And so now to see this script reversed and Donald Trump, you know, holding the, the highest position, you know, in, in the States right now and like, proudly, like, like hitting his chest and saying, we don't, we don't. All these other culture, we don't, we.
- [26:47]
Ben Meiselas
Don'T want y' all.
- [26:49]
Jordy Meiselas
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it this way.
- [26:52]
Ben Meiselas
You gotta.
- [26:53]
Jordy Meiselas
Don't, don't come here. It's so upsetting to me just from, like, a human standpoint and from someone who actually, like, truly does love America and loves this country and, and I know it could be the, like, like the greatest country in, in the world, so long as we'll allow it to be we haven't lived up to those values as of recently, that's for damn sure. But I'm hoping we could get to a place where we, where we can once again. But I'll tell you how that's never going to happen is by telling other folks from different countries and different backgrounds that they're not wanted. I can't tell you how much that, like, truly infuriates me at my core. And it's just like, I have nothing more to say about it other than it's just so infuriating.
- [27:35]
Ben Meiselas
Well, as you say, Jordy, as a human being, it infuriates you, but just being very selfish about it. Also, the question is, is, don't you want the smartest people here to create the jobs here that's gonna pay people more money here? Don't you want to detect the diseases here so people don't die? Don't you want the scientists, don't you want weather forecasting so, so we know what's going to happen as we approach hurricane season? Don't you want the people to clean up after the disaster? Like, like, like, doesn't that actually help out? Like, what, what are we, what are we doing here? And what we're doing is living in Trump's dystopian reality show vision of the United States. A criminal, a felon, a sexual abuser, a bankrupter, someone who's been a loser his entire life, someone who thinks it's a good idea in Atlantic City to build three casinos right next to each other, overlap, leverage yourself. Everybody warns you're going to go bankrupt. Just threaten the people. It goes bankrupt, take the money, have everybody lose their jobs. You move on to your next scam, Scam, scam, scam, scam, scam. That's been the guy's entire life. He's doing it with America. It's so freaking obvious right now. It's like, right before our eyes, you know? And what we can do here with our platform is call it out and to let other people know what's actually happening so that they can use the language, share this with other people, and we can all come to some understanding that this is a perfect path towards the complete obliteration of the United States of America. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. I want to remind everybody to go to Midasplus.com. that's our sub stack. It's where editor in chief Ron Philipkowski cooks. He goes to work. Midasplus.com. check it out. We're heading to 1 million Substack subscribers, which is pretty cool. So help us out there. Patreon.com Midas Touch Join the conversation there. We're going to to be hosting a live Brett, Jordy and myself exclusive to Patreon. It's a meeting on Zoom. So if you want to meet me, Brett and Jordy will be announcing when that's going to be taking place pretty soon. And then also you've got store.midas touch.com get that pro democracy Midas Touch gear. And for all our Canadians out there, 100% made in Canada gear as well. For all of you especially, you know, I did that great interview with Charlie Angus again where he's like, yeah, we're, we're still furious, Benton. Nothing has absolutely changed, which is, you know, if you're actually following what's going on there, that should be obvious where Donald Trump still threatens the sovereignty of that the great country of Canada every single day. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with more after these quick messages from our sponsors.
- [30:02]
Jordy Meiselas
Let's face it, after a night of drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I said used to. Now I thought I had to make a choice. I can either have a great night or a great next day. Now that was until I found pre alcohol zebiotics. Pre alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Now, here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. Now, it's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration, hydration that's to blame for rough days after drinking. Pre alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Now, every time I have pre alcohol before drinks, I notice a difference the next day. Even after a night out, I can confidently plan on having a great next day without worrying. Look, I won't lie. I was a bit on the fence about pre alcohol initially. But then while hanging out with some friends in D.C. i gave it a shot and, well, believe me, it's the real deal. So I first gave pre alcohol a try when I was at a wedding. I drank it before my first espresso martini. And you wouldn't believe how on top of my game, I felt the very next morning. Spring is here, which means more opportunities to celebrate warmer weather before drinks on the patio, that tropical vacation or your best friend's wedding. Don't forget your Zebiotics pre alcohol. Drink one before drinking and wake up feeling great the next day. Go to ZBiotics.com Midas to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use Midas at checkout. Zebiotics is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No question questions asked. Remember to head to ZBiotics.com Midas and use the code MIDAS at checkout for 15 off.
- [31:58]
Ben Meiselas
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- [33:44]
Jordy Meiselas
Let'S go. Shout out to our sponsors links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. Let them know we sent you one more plug here. Ben mentioned the merch at store midas touch.com just before break. We still have our Memorial Day sale going on which we're going to extend through Tuesday. For the audio listeners, I was thinking about that since they get the audio in the morning, I want to make sure that they get the full scope of it. So Brett, let's make sure we do that. Code Truth T R U T h at checkout. 10% off everything in the store. Store.midas touch.com check it out. Benji, where to next?
- [34:15]
Ben Meiselas
You know, there's no doubt that Donald Trump's approval is plummeting. It's the worst ever for a president who's been in office at this time period. Full stop, objective data, the worst ever based on all of the polling, not just like one specific polar. But, you know, it's interesting when you still look at it, you're like, there's still 37 to 40% of the people who like support this guy, you know, and it's, and it's, it's an intriguing analysis for me to, to truly try to understand like, what the hell is going on here. So one of the things that I've been looking at a lot recently is Little Havana in Miami, where Donald Trump's support among the Cuban community is strong. Very, very strong. It's changed the whole dynamics of kind of Florida politics, which was once a purplish state, then became a ruby, ruby red state. And a lot of it was the Cuban and Venezuelan population in Florida and some other Latino populations that are there as well, been very supportive of kind of Trump and maga. And what's so wild to me about it is that every single Donald Trump does more and more things to let that population know how much he hates them. Like, like the most brutal type of stuff. So under former President Biden, the Cubans, the Venezuelans and others had temporary protected status, was a major priority to protect these communities from Castro in Cuba, from Maduro in Venezuela. And without any hesitation, Biden would make sure that these communities were protected. And then you would have a lot of MAGA Republican senators like Mar Rubio, when he was a senator of Florida, make that kind of his big priority. I mean, in fact, when it came to this rapper named El Funky, I think was the guy's name, you know, Marco Rubio used this Cuban rappers, you know, lyrics to basically be the name of this bill to put more sanctions on, on Cuba, I think was Patria Evita was the name of the bill and was also the name of this kind of protest rally song that was really inspirational to Cuban dissidents, you know, but Donald Trump's like targeting these people like, like, like this guy Al Funky is part of the Cuban community that's going to be sent Back to the Castro regime. Their immigration status has been revoked by Donald Trump under the initial kind of Cuban protection, the various kind of Cuban protection acts. That's not even including the next wave where the same way the Venezuelan temporary protected status has been revoked, it's going to be, you know, you know it's going to be revoked with Cubans as well. And, and frankly, all groups across, all of these Latino groups across the country. And so like, let me just share with you, this was some recent reporting in Little Havana in Cuba. Just, just watch this. It's, it's mind boggling to me. Here, play this clip. On a recent visit to Miami's Little.
- [37:20]
Brett Meiselas
Havana neighborhood, we found conversation about temporary.
- [37:23]
Ben Meiselas
Protected status heating up. You think it's bad for them to remove the status. You still approve President Trump, so you.
- [37:33]
Brett Meiselas
Continue to support the President. This is iconic Domino park, where many Cuban Americans come to enjoy their favorite pastime playing dominoes.
- [37:43]
Ben Meiselas
And in between games, some have told.
- [37:45]
Brett Meiselas
Us that they agree with President Trump.
- [37:47]
Ben Meiselas
On most things except this. Cubans, Venezuelans should have a right to be protected, clearly.
- [37:56]
Brett Meiselas
Yes, she said.
- [37:57]
Ben Meiselas
So we support him on everything other than the thing where he wants us basically dead. Other than the thing where he wants us killed. And you start to think about that, and you don't just think about that from the perspective of Cubans or, or Venezuelans or you just think about it, you know, with how he's treated red states when it comes to fema, not sending FEMA into red states, gutting the National Weather Service and National oceanic and Atmospheric Agencies. When you see how he's taking away SNAP benefits, we'll talk about the budget in a little bit. You know, I saw when MAGA Mike Johnson was being interviewed on the Sunday shows and he was railing against how bad SNAP is. Louisiana gets more SNAP than any state other than one. So, so you're, you're literally kind of killing your people. But going back to where we started this episode, Jordy and Brett, there's been this overwhelming amount of propaganda out there that make people feel that there are these other issues to focus on. But when it comes down to like, I don't know, to me, the issues that would be most impactful to me first would be my, my wife and my kid, my family, then probably me living and then the community and, and, and then I probably branch out a little bit. But where they're directly attacking your literal existence, your, your ability to live, it's, it's just, it's a, it's a wild concept and, and it's a segue into talking about this budget because the factions, when we talk about the senators who don't support this bill, it's not like they're great people. They don't support it because they want more cuts to Medicaid. They want more people suffering. Brett and Jordi, that, that's why they want the cuts.
- [39:59]
Brett Meiselas
Yeah. And I did a deep dive on the Al Funky story over the weekend and I was reading about the guy and like, this is how extreme it is. He says that if he is sent back to Cuba, he will be imprisoned and would likely could likely end up dead because he did this major protest anthem which led to a lot of protests in the country. And so his life is literally at risk because of Donald Trump's administration, yet he still supports Trump and, and has supported Trump. And the whole thing is just so mind blowing to me. The thing that always just really confuses me and I think this is going to your point, Ben, of the propaganda is that Trump resembles all of these autocrats who they are fleeing. That's who Trump, like, idolizes. That's who he tries to be in the, in the mold of. When Donald Trump does everything that he does, he's following the same playbook as these communist dictators. He's, as I said on a previous episode, and I'm not being facetious about it, I think Donald Trump is most similar to a communist leader in one of these countries than we have seen in American history leading the United States of America. And so the irony of the people railing against this, being attracted to this individual is just like so shocking to me. But, you know, I guess there's, there's some psychological thing happening where, which also happens in communist countries, which is you beat down on the people, you make them suffer, you blame other people, and then you throw them scraps and you tell them, in the words of J.D. vance, say thank you. Did you say thank you? Say thank you. You should be thankful for the little scraps you're getting. Oh, we took away your health care, but you should be thankful for what we're doing for you. And we see it with, I mean, the FEMA thing alone is just absolutely crazy right now, especially after we saw months of propaganda from Trump, from all these MAGA people. Remember the 750 number that they would throw out? The United States government is only giving $750 to help clean up this mess. That wasn't true. That was an immediate payment to help people with their immediate expenses, which was something passed by Congress that FEMA was allowed as the maximum amount they were able to actually pay for that. And then there was a whole, a whole lot of other money that was paid out to these communities and people who applied for assistance, assistance that that Donald Trump and those MAGA people tried to prevent people from applying for. And now not only they're not getting the $750, people in harm's way in many of these red states, they're not getting anything. They're not getting any money. And they're being forced to beg for help right now. And this government is not doing anything. And they don't even acknowledge it, which is part of their strategy as well. Just pretend like nothing happens, right? Pretend that there are no issues, pretend that there is no storm, pretend that there no measles, pretend that the cbo, that there is no deficit that's going to spike because of this crazy bill. And when we look at this bill, it's clearly like the biggest debt deficit bomb that we have ever seen in the country. And Ben, I remember you making these predictions before Trump even entered office and you're like, he's going to increase the debt. What was your prediction? Like 20 trillion. 30.
- [42:55]
Ben Meiselas
20, 30 trillion, easy.
- [42:58]
Brett Meiselas
And, and a lot of people I think at the time were like, come on. Like, that's. That sounds a little crazy. It seems like we're heading. I have to maybe even pass there at this point with, with what's going on. And for these people to position themselves as fiscal hawks and fiscal conservatives and then just be so reckless with the money. I mean, Doge has to be. If you take doge face value, and I don't, by the way, if you take Doge, though, face value on what its intended goals were to make the government more efficient, to save the government money. It's the biggest failure maybe in any government's history ever. I mean, adding $4 trillion to the deficit. I'm adding like $20 trillion in debt. This was supposed to save us money and this is just a total, complete disaster. Then you see Mike Johnson, you see all these people go on tv. They have to try to defend it. Mike Johnson always pretends that he like doesn't see the numbers or doesn't see Donald Trump's corruption. And, and they just play this constant game of don't look up, up when reality is staring us in the face like this. This stuff could not be clearer as to what's going on. Could not be clearer as to what's happening with this bill. The amount of people who are going to lose their health insurance with this bill, the amount of people are going to lose their Medicare, their Medicaid, and they could pretend like it's just the illegals or whatever. They want to say all they want, that they're cleaning up waste, fraud and abuse. But people are actually going to lose their lives if this bill passes as is. And so I think it's important that we constantly are, are grounding this in the reality of what's going on and cut right past all the propaganda that they're spouting every single day.
- [44:28]
Jordy Meiselas
Can I just touch on the Al Funky situation really quickly? And I'm still going back and forth in my head whether that's the best rap name of all time or the worst rap name of all time, but that's neither here nor there. I'm just going to use this as an example. People are inherently smart. I genuinely actually believe that everyone has a brain and at a certain point it's up to you to really cut through the. Yeah, yeah, it's up to you to just know right from wrong and know when you're being lied to. But in these instances, the propaganda, there's just so much money poured into it. Where I start to genuinely feel for some of these communities that are really just being preyed upon, that are being deceived. Now again, they have brains, right? Figure it out. Like, you have to see through this. You have to know that you're being lied to. But at the same time, I mean, this is a trillion dollar operation of propaganda that's being flashed into people's brains. Literally flash from their phones, into their eyes, on all the, the crevices of the Internet, TikTok, Facebook, you know, Twitter, you name it. Once you get hooked into that algorithmic loop, at a certain point you stop saying, oh no, this is actually impacting my life and you start caring about the conspiracies about the South African white farmer genocide. That's not happening because Donald Trump and the trillion dollar propaganda machine told you to care about that versus your life and your community. So for me it's such a give or take when we talk about these situations. It's why I don't love the F around and find out motto. Like as much as I think I used to enjoy back because I actually see how it's impacting people on a day to day and like I said, trillions of dollars of propaganda and money are being poured into this entire operation to deceit and, and to fool people every single second of the day or they start caring more about the trans athlete, which again makes up 0.0002% of, of the NCAA who actually, actually trans athletes in the NCAA. And, and stop caring about yourself, your life, your community and your loved ones. And just so you know, here's the thing journey, that's for me what it is.
- [46:29]
Ben Meiselas
They think though, that they're caring about themselves. They think that the transgender volleyball player is going to prevent their family from having opportunities. That's how it's framed. Or they think that what is the. The South Africa is a dog whistle for why you need to deport everybody and have mass migration and have the largest deportation. That's what it is. Because the, the explanation and how it's framed when they're eating your dogs and your cats is that these people are going to come and kill you and your family. And that's who you should be afraid about. But the real killers are the ones who are selling the people the lies. The people who are actually stealing from you, the people who are actually attacking your family. The people who are taking your valleys, the people who are literally going to send you back to Cuba and Venezuela and elsewhere and then welcome the white Africaners. The people who are doing that are the people who are selling you the lies. And we shouldn't have to, we shouldn't, in our messaging and our discussions over complicate their, you know, what's, what's really happening. It's why I think it's so important. What we try to do here is, is listen to people and understand what is it that is appealing to individuals about this authoritarian messaging and also not to center it from an American perspective only and to recognize this right wing authoritarian fascism is creeping across the world. And there's a real kind of, whether you want to call it a cold or hot war taking place between the idea of liberal democracies and the idea of right wing fascism. We saw that play out in the Canadian elections with their Trump candidate, Pierre Poliev, who would have won but for the fact that people actually saw. Whoa, whoa, whoa, oh my God, this is actually going to kill us. Same thing in Australia they had.
- [48:34]
Brett Meiselas
I thought you were going to say it's because, because he went on Jero Rogan or something. That's.
- [48:39]
Ben Meiselas
They had their Peter. They had their Peter Dutton, who's their Teemu Trump. Same thing. What we saw in Romania with their Trump MAGA candidate losing. This is the tension. Do you want to be more like Hungary, you know, Victor, you know, with a Viktor Orban, or do you want to be more like, you know, like what the United States was not, is anymore, you know, what a Canada, you know, what a, a, what a Canada, you know, could be, you know, and, and, you know, or do you want to be a Western liberal democracy or do you want to be, you know, under Putin's spell? And I think that, you know, Putin and these right wing authoritarians, they've recognized the history of mankind has actually been defined by authoritarianism and not democracy. Democracy is very hard. It's hard. And that's why people looked at the American democracy experiment with kind of shock and disbelief, but also hope. Like, how were you able to do this? Your constitution's not all that long. Your amendments are like one sentence as long, some of them. Yet you have all of these good faith beliefs and that kind of hold it together. And yes, it's very, very messy that, you know, it's, it's, it's certainly nowhere near perfect or close to it. But how'd you hold this together? But then a lot of our states, and I give David Pepper credit for coining this name, became these laboratories for autocracy and you started to see how you can get Trump, like people at the state level to gerrymander the crap out of things and then to actually change the dynamics of a state and crush, and literally kind of crush the people, but then stay in power. And that was a learning lesson of autocracies across the world. That's what's, that's the dynamic here that we have to confront and address. All right, we'll take our last quick break. When we come back, I do want to talk about what's going on in Ukraine. I want to talk about maga, Mike's bill and Trump's bill, this disastrous budget bill seeming to run into some big obstacles in the Senate, although we'll see what happens there. And we should talk about Donald Trump.
- [50:52]
Brett Meiselas
Then we also have, you know, Ken Harbaugh, Midas Touch contributor, contributor, currently in Kiev right now, going across Ukraine. He's going to be getting some exclusive footage for us there. Ken, please stay safe. We got a team there who is going to be getting you, you know, footage and interviews and all sorts of things that you will literally not see or hear anywhere else. But we're getting people on the ground there. I also want to give a huge shout out to Katie Fang on her new YouTube channel, joining Independent Media following her departure from MSNBC. And her YouTube channel is absolutely in an absolute rocket ship right now. Last time I checked, I can't, I can't even keep up with it. But over 140,000 subscribers in just a few days. Just absolutely unbelievable. Her reporting is, is so good and she speaks with that fearlessness that we need, that clarity that we are speaking about. So I hope Everybody goes to YouTube.com the@Symbol Katie Fang News so YouTube.com Katie Fang News that's P H A N G. Check it out. Subscribe. I know you're all going to love it. And we'll welcome Katie Fang to the Midas Touch Network, our newest contributor. It's incredible.
- [51:58]
Ben Meiselas
Let's take our last quick break of the show.
- [52:03]
Jordy Meiselas
You know what's really getting under my skin these days? The price of everything. I mean, seriously. Gas prices are high. Food shopping. Feels like I'm emptying my bank account with every trip. And don't even get me started on how expensive hearing aids can be now. I've looked into them before for my family members and the price tag, it's just insane pain. It's like they think that we all have money growing from money trees or something in our backyards. But I have some good news. Did you know MD Hearing has actually cut their prices in half despite everything getting more expensive? I'm not kidding. This podcast is sponsored by MDHearing. And they are changing the game when it comes to hearing aids. They make high quality, easy to use, rechargeable hearing aids with exceptional sound quality, all personalized to your hearing profile. And Guess what?
- [52:45]
Brett Meiselas
What?
- [52:45]
Jordy Meiselas
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- [54:25]
Brett Meiselas
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- [55:47]
Jordy Meiselas
Foreign let's go Shout out to our sponsors. Shout out Qualia. They've been a sponsor for a while. Fabulous, fabulous stuff. Check that out. If you're in the market for it, shout Out MD hearing. So my uncle on this side of the family, like Lex's, like loves. Loves MD hearing. Loves MD Hearing. Her dad also loves MD hearing. If you're in the market, links in description of the YouTube and the audio, click the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you. Benji. Where to next?
- [56:13]
Ben Meiselas
MAGA Republican Rand Paul from Kentucky saying that Trump and MAGA Mike Johnson are the emperor with no clothes. If they think that this bill, this disastrous budget bill isn't going to raise the deficit by trillions. Play the clip. Somebody has to stand up and yell, the emperor has no clothes and everybody's falling in lockstep on this. Pass the big beautiful bill. Don't question anything. Well, commission conservatives do need to stand up and have their voice heard. This is a problem we've been facing for decades now. And if we don't stand up on it, I really fear the direction the country is going. So I saw also Ron Johnson from Wisconsin had a similar message as well. But I don't want to like try to give them props. Like what they're trying to do is cut Medicaid and to cut more services that people actually need while giving the tax cuts to, to, to the billionaires. And let me be very clear. You want to know how you solve this? You tax rich people more, okay? Rich people should pay more taxes. It's a very simple solution. If very rich people paid more taxes, they would still be very, very rich and they would have wealth for generations and generations and generations and more generations, okay? And they would be able to actually be patriotic by supporting our country. Country. It's a very basic solution. We should be loud about that idea, unflinching in that idea, and we shouldn't be worried. Oh my God, are we going to sound like no. That's where the American people are. Stop doubting yourself. American people aren't billionaires or DECA millionaires, okay? Most Americans are psychologically tortured, living paycheck to paycheck, and they support the idea of taxing rich people more. First off, we can start by taxing rich people fairly, which they're not even being fairly taxed. They pay less actual taxes and definitely less percentage wise of taxes than most Americans pay in general. Heck, when we saw Trump's federal taxes, there were years where he paid $0 or he paid 750, which is basically the filing fee. Also in this big budget bill disaster, they're cutting the ability for free tax filing as well. So like they're even cutting your ability to, to go through the IRS Free tax filing system, which was very popular. So just say it loud and proud. Rich people need to be taxed more. You don't have to overcomplicate it with slogans. It's not like, oh my God, we need to find our next Joe Rogan. No, just be a normal human being and speak to where people are. If you listen to people, you know where they are. And it's just doing the right thing. Like here's MAGA Mike Johnson talking about how he wants to cut SNAP from his own people. But Louisiana gets more SNAP than every state other than one. Play this clip.
- [58:57]
Brett Meiselas
We don't want to slash benefits. And again I make this very clear. We are not cutting Medicaid. We are not cutting snap. We're working in the elements of fraud, waste and abuse. SNAP. For example, listen to the statistics. In 2024, over $11 billion in SNAP payments were erroneous. I mean that's a number that everyone acknowledges is real.
- [59:16]
Jordy Meiselas
It may be much higher than as.
- [59:18]
Ben Meiselas
Like the second largest recipient of state.
- [59:19]
Jordy Meiselas
Stamps in the country.
- [59:20]
Brett Meiselas
Sir, let me explain it. Margaret, let me explain it. The states, the states are not properly administering this because they don't have enough.
- [59:28]
Ben Meiselas
Skin in the game.
- [59:29]
Brett Meiselas
So what we've done in the bill is add some, just a modest state sharing component so that they'll pay attention to that, so that we can reduce fraud. Why?
- [59:36]
Ben Meiselas
Again?
- [59:36]
Brett Meiselas
So that it is preserved for the people that need it the most. This is common sense, Margaret. It's good government and everybody on both sides of the all should agree to that.
- [59:44]
Ben Meiselas
So then what he's saying that everybody in his state basically commits are all committing fraud? Basically? Is, is that what the argument is? No. They're getting rid of Medicaid. Okay. They are getting rid of, they are getting rid of SNAP programs. And what it's going to be, MAGA Mike Johnson and Donald Trump, their central bodies going to be the ones to make determinations of who's able bodied, who's not able bodied. They're, they're the ones who are going to make those determinations. And there are already a lot of requirements like that that exist already. And it's a very dim view about the American people that what the American people are. So what they're, they're they're so hungry for food that they're making up that they have. Isn't there a broader issue there taking place that if you're saying that Americans need to make up lies in order to be handed food so that they could be able to, to live and actually Feed their freaking family in the first place. Or maybe, just maybe, where the fraud is actually coming from is people like these MAGA Republican billionaires who run the biggest Medicaid fraud in history. Oh, wait, MAGA Republican Senator Scott from Florida was involved in the biggest Medicaid fraud in history. So if you want to know where the fraud is actually taking place from, it's usually from a lot of of the big Republican donors who are the ones like actually implementing the system. And they're the ones defrauding the government, not the actual human beings who depend on services literally to live. And then what? They go into the workforce where a lot of employers don't provide health care. And then the big disastrous budget bill also guts the Affordable Care act and guts Medicare. It is a big, nasty, disastrous bill. And again, when we're talking about this to human beings, it's not about, oh, we gotta find our Joe Rogan to be cool, y' all. No, what are you talking about? Just speak to human beings like humans and let them know the stakes and talk to them and let you. Let them know you care about them and hear them. I mean, you heard the story where there's an E. Coli outbreak in Indiana that they tried to like hide and cover up as well because the Trump regime got rid of the people who collect the data and report on them. And these are the people that say, if you don't take test like a miracle, it's going to go away. I promise you that measles E. Coli is not a popular are not popular. And while the Trump regime also banning people under the age of 65 from getting Covid boosters, I mean, these people are idiots. They're maniacs, they're dangerous. Just call it what it is, guys.
- [62:27]
Brett Meiselas
Yeah, these are common sense ideas, okay? And these are things that if you were to put it in front of a poll without a party affiliation, next to these topics that we're discussing on this, they'd probably pull 70, 75%, maybe 80% for a lot of these issues, like taxing the wealthy, things like that. And so, like, stop with all these sideshows. Like, I truthfully do not understand how it has become gospel in this country amongst Democratic circles that the reason why the Democrats did not win the 2024 election is because of Joe Rogan or right wing podcasters. This whole concept to me is just so crazy. So what about the rest of the world? World that also shifted in the exact same direction, by the way, The US Actually shifted less than the rest of the world did. Comparatively.
- [63:09]
Ben Meiselas
But.
- [63:09]
Brett Meiselas
But they all have a Joe Rogan. They all have whatever. And by the way, like it. I. Whatever. I'm gonna. I'm gonna stop there because I'm gonna get lost in, like, a tangent. But the whole thing is so ridiculous. You have popular ideas. Just stop being weird and just say them straight. Just say them clearly. Say them with focus. Say them with passion. Say them with confidence. Confidence. You know, on one of our shows the other day on. On majority 54 on the Midas Touch Network, I'm not sure you folks listen to that with Jason Kander and Ravi Gupta. Kander made a. A really good point, which is like, why do Democrats, oh, they always almost sound, like, afraid to speak the truth. Like, when they have the argument on their side, when they have the facts on their side, they sound timid at hearings. They sound timid sometimes when they're actually confronting people and debating these topics. While the Republicans, while Donald Trump, they may be totally wrong, and they are totally wrong about all these things, but they say things with such bravado and such confidence, and that confidence that they project causes people to think that they are telling the truth, even when they're telling the lie. So I'm just saying. I want to repeat what candor saying. And be confident in yourself. Be confident your beliefs, these are popular ideas. Stand up for them. Be strong. Make your case to the American people. You don't need a Joe Rogan to do that, okay?
- [64:28]
Ben Meiselas
You just need.
- [64:29]
Brett Meiselas
You. You need messaging. You have all the platforms. You got the Midas Touch network. You got all the platforms you could ever want to go on, okay? You got. You got plenty of soapboxes to speak from, but use them. Use them and use them confidently. And stop. Stop blaming whatever you want to blame on your own issue.
- [64:45]
Jordy Meiselas
It's really why, too, you know, it's really why I rock with Bashir. Andy Bashir. Governor Bashir out of Kentucky, right? Kentucky governor of Kentucky. He says it with his whole chest. You know, he. He's saying, no, I'm going to stick up for LGBTQ brothers. I'm going to do that. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. Not just because it's the popular thing to do, but it's the right thing to do because he's got real morals and real values. And so if Andy Beshear can say this as the governor of Kentucky with someone who likely, I don't know, probably has greater even aspirations than that, you know, Democrats, say it with your whole chest, you know, defend your policies. You got good Ideas. The American people are with you on.
- [65:23]
Ben Meiselas
A lot of them.
- [65:23]
Jordy Meiselas
Them. Stand behind it and say it with your chest. In a world of Fettermans, be a Bashir, Benji.
- [65:28]
Ben Meiselas
Where to look at Donald Trump talking about Putin. I mean, this is some crazy stuff. I mean, just look at this message. This is. This is how Donald Trump does diplomacy. And this is not diplomacy. This is just madness. He writes the following on social media. Like, the fact that you're writing a message on social media. Like what? Like, like, what are you in, like, some, like, rap battle? Like, I. What. What is this? Like, like you're in some, like, TikTok battle between people. Like, or. Or some high school drama battle. And. And you. And you talk negatively on each other's, like, Instagram page. Like, what in the world is this? So this was. This is Trump's post about Putin from yesterday. I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He's gone absolutely crazy. And he puts crazy in caps to make Trump seem crazy. He needlessly. He is needlessly killing a lot of people. And I'm not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into cities in Ukraine for no reason whatsoever. I've always said that he wants all of Ukraine, not just a piece of it. And maybe that's proving to be right. But if he does it, it will lead to the downfall of Russia. Likewise, President Zelensky is doing his country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems. I don't like it, and it better stop. This is a war that would never have started if I were president. This is Zelensky's, Putin's and Biden's war, not Trump's. I'm only helping to put out the big and ugly fires that have been started through gross incompetence and hatred. You imagine if former President Biden, when it came to the Afghan withdrawal, that Donald Trump did in a disastrous manner manner by releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners for absolutely nothing in return and then basically gutting all other operational sites except for, like, one base, and then dumped it all on former President Biden and refused to allow the Biden administration to even talk with Trump's State Department or Department of Defense to try to actually harm the Biden administration. Could you imagine if. And I know it's getting tried for.
- [67:33]
Brett Meiselas
Me to say, do you think this goes down like this? Like, Putin, you know, put Putin. One of his advisors comes up and he's like, Vladimir got some bad News.
- [67:41]
Ben Meiselas
He's like, what?
- [67:42]
Brett Meiselas
What is it, sir? A tweet. No, he sent a tweet, end the war.
- [67:50]
Ben Meiselas
He has. He has called you. He has stressed a very good relationship with you in the past. He's equally upset at Zelensky. He's mad that Zelensky is mad. Mad.
- [68:01]
Brett Meiselas
He's like.
- [68:02]
Ben Meiselas
He's mad that Zelensky is mad. Because I need.
- [68:05]
Brett Meiselas
I need to know, did he use all caps for the word crazy? Yes. He got me. He got me. I don't know what to do. It's over. It's over. It's all crumbling. It's like that's how Trump thinks. It actually happens, though. I'm like a confident. That's how he thinks. This goes down.
- [68:21]
Ben Meiselas
Yeah. When Trump said, on day one, I'm gonna put. I've got a great relationship with Zelensky and Putin, I'm going to put him into a room and it'll be so easy. It'll happen before day one. Okay? That is not just a vicious, venomous, vile lie. It's one that causes the loss of lots of lives as well. And it's one that Donald Trump needs to be held accountable for every day. He also said he was going to bring peace to Gaza in 24 hours, and he has not done that. He's made things worse. He's made things worse in Gaza, he's made things worse in Ukraine. He's made things worse throughout the world. And he makes it worse also when he takes credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan that he had absolutely nothing to do with at all. And the people in India are now pissed, and they're like, you had nothing to do with this at all, so stop taking credit and stop acting like you could dangle, you know, trade with us and that that's somehow going to make us go, oh, my God, yes, please, please, please, we'll do whatever you want. It's like India is a complex economy that has its own other alliances and relationships and has actually been making trade deals over the, you know, for a very long time, but have been speeding up their trade deals recently as well. You know, and this right here, I mean, this message that he's posting is utterly deranged. Everybody's known Vladimir, Vladimir Putin's been crazy forever. And that Vladimir Putin's goal is a complete and total genocide of Ukraine. Wipe it off the face of. Of the earth. And that's why you need to have a strong response. And Donald Trump has threatened sanctions against Russia before, sort of. And then doesn't Implement them. And so it's like, okay, got it. You're just a liar. You're just a liar with everything. And it's all of the things that Trump does, the tariff threats to this, the that he always backs down. He, he's caveman. He's.
- [70:15]
Brett Meiselas
He.
- [70:15]
Ben Meiselas
And this has been his whole life. He gives up. Unless you buy into his crap and unless his taunts make you scared. And then you buy into him, he always backs down. If you could be united and confront him. That's just his whole history, his whole life. He is a weak, pathetic, vile piece of trash as well. Is ultimately, is ultimately who he is. And then, and then Brett and Jordy and Midas mighty. He mixes a post like that and then like the next post he makes is like his friend that he golfs with because he can't be bothered golfing, getting attacked by a swan and getting bitten in the balls by a swan. And then Trump post. I always said golf can be a dangerous sport, my friend being bit at Bedminster. And, and look, look, there's a time and a place where that may be a funny joke, but certainly sandwiched between Putin and sandwiched between posts attacking federal judges, that's not humorous. And that platform of the presidency is not a, Is not to be clown yourself and the nation. Look, there are times where presidents can be funny. The White House Correspondents Dinner, which Donald Trump, Trump doesn't show up to because he can't take jokes about himself. So he gutted and made it like into the weirdest Kim Jong Un kind of propaganda thing for Donald Trump ever. But there are times where you could. But, but this is not funny behavior. And the rest of the world looks at it like what the hell is absolutely happening. And that kind of brings me to this other story that I think needs to get more attention and we'll certainly cover it here, that Donald Trump just parked, pardoned a corrupt sheriff from Virginia who was found guilty of taking bribes in exchange for law endorsement badges. Those who bought the badges used them to drive in emergency lanes, bypass TSA lines, and for other favors. This was an individual by the name of. It was the Culpepper County Sheriff, Scott Jenkins, who's like a full MAGA sheriff tariff. So Donald Trump gives this guy the pardon from Virginia. And if you just look at the DOJ website from two months ago, March 21, 2025, who was in office. Guys, March 21, 2025. This is Trump's DOJ post. I'm reading you Trump's DOJ post. Scott Jenkins received over 75,000 in cash payments in exchange for auxiliary deputy sheriff appointments. The former sheriff of Culpepper County, Virginia, was sentenced today to 10 years in federal prison for accepting 75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing numerous Northern Virginia businessmen as auxiliary sheriffs within his department. In December 2024, a jury convicted Scott Jenkins, 53, of Culpepper, Virginia of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud, and seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. Scott Jenkins violated his oath of office and the faith the citizens of Culpepper county placed in him when he engages in cash for badges scheme. Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee said, we hold our elected law enforcement officials to a higher standard of conduct conduct and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable. I'm grateful to the FBI for their tireless work on this investigation. Now here's Donald Trump's post Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia and their family have been dragged through hell by a corrupt and weaponized Biden doj. And he goes on to whine more and more and more, more. You saw what the Trump DOJ said about him in March. You saw what Trump's own doj. So what, Trump's now going to fire the doj people who put out that statement? Is that what's going to happen next? We'll see. But my prediction is that's what's going to happen. But what else would you expect from Donald Trump, who's now it's been reported he's looking to raise $3 billion off of a new crypto venture under the Trump media entity that has only made a big about $4 million in revenue per year and has lost like hundreds of millions of dollars in its past year filings. Yeah, the, the Donald Trump who held a crypto meeting and even like scammed the crypto people. He gave them like the worst, most disgusting looking, like rubbery, gross steak. There was one person who attended this meeting who said, this is an actual.
- [75:02]
Brett Meiselas
Photo, by the way.
- [75:02]
Ben Meiselas
Actual photo for those listening. It's just like a gro. This was what you were served, served you. And then for drinks, you got either one bottle of Trump wine for your table and you know that's got to be like old and as my guess, old expired wine to begin with. Or they gave you water. They didn't even serve soda, juice, anything. And they only filled your water cup up once, by the way. And then they had the leaderboard of all the top 220 people who held the Trump crypto. And so $148 million worth of crypto holders were at this event, which Donald Trump's propagandist Caroline Levitt said. That's his personal time, everybody. That's just his personal time.
- [75:48]
Brett Meiselas
Let's let the courts remember that. But I just need to go back to this image of the food for one moment. I've had airplane food that looks and probably tasted much more appetite than whatever the heck I'm looking at here. I mean, look at the nastiness of the steak. What even is on? Is that a piece of chicken on the right? I, I don't even know. Like, I can't even quite identify what meat that is. What's the top? Is it, is that potatoes? Is that bread? Is that polenta? I, I'm not even quite sure what I'm looking at here. And this is what $148 million gets you.
- [76:23]
Ben Meiselas
You know, you know, I, I, I have a lot to say, but I'll just leave it at folk. Folks, I want to, I want to end this episode by acknowledging one more time what Memorial Day is always about, what it's really about. And it's about honoring our fallen soldiers, our fallen troops who have made the ultimate sacrifice. You know, our grandfather Murray, who passed away almost 20 years ago at, at this point, was a tail gunner on the B29. And I remember being at his house in Boca after he retired. And I remember he would share with me all of the stories of his fallen brothers in World War II who gave their life and left a very important impression on me. And throughout everything that we do here at the Midas Touch Network, I always think about the work we're putting in and just recognizing that it's nothing in comparison to what people who have fought and died for our country, you know, have done. And I, I just hope in some small way that what we've built out with this network is able to honor the memory of those who fought for our country and fought for our democracy against Nazis, against fascists, against authoritarians. And so, so to everybody on Memorial Day, I just want to always center us in what this is, is, is what this day really is, is about. So thank you everybody for watching. We appreciate you all so, so much. Just a quick reminder. Store midst touch.com patreon.com midas touch midas plus.com Go check out all of those websites when you can. We really appreciate you watching this on Memorial day. Katie Fang's YouTube channel. Go and subscribe to him it. At Katie Fang, go search for the Katie Fang News. At Katie Fang News, go search for the Katie Fang News Show. All right, thanks, everybody, for watching. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Jordy, take it away.
- [78:27]
Jordy Meiselas
Shout out to the Midas. My day.
- [78:31]
Brett Meiselas
Standing strong against the fascist.
- [78:39]
Ben Meiselas
We sing our song we will get it right.
- [78:47]
Jordy Meiselas
Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas plus substack for ad.
- [78:50]
Ben Meiselas
Free.
- [78:50]
Jordy Meiselas
Articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipowski and more. Sign up for free now@midasplus.com.