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Narrator
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Jordy
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Ben
to tell you that Mint's offer of
Jordy
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Brett
So I thought it would be fun
Jordy
if we made $15 bills, but it
Ben
turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial.
Jordy
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Brett
of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for a 12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is busy.
Ben
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Ben
We've got a lot to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch Podcast. The rot runs deep in the Trump regime. Algae infested reflecting pools. A collapsing state fair. A liter collapsing state fair. Symbols of the rot that has infected this country and the entire world. By Donald Trump and his despicable regime. This past week, Donald Trump produced a partial financial disclosure, which I still believe there's a lot missing there. But it shows that he's made over $2 billion in 2025 alone from crypto schemes, over 21,000 stock trades with foreign countries and other licensing deals. We'll get into that because while Trump was doing that, we got one of the worst jobs reports in recent history. Today it fell far below expectations. Other than the health care sector. Right now America is losing a massive amount of jobs. We are in a jobs recession. We'll cover what went down there. Internationally, the world is on. In Ukraine, Kiev is burning right now. They don't have the Patriot Interceptors to respond to the Russian ballistic missiles because Donald Trump is withholding the Patriot Interceptors. And Donald Trump's catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran has also reduced America's supplies of the Interceptors. And Donald Trump is also of course being malicious to Ukraine. People in Venezuela right now facing unthinkable tragedy after those back to back earthquakes. But the Delsey Rodriguez regime, which is basically just a puppet regime of Donald Trump at this point, unable to really respond to the search and rescue demands that are needed, unable to provide the supplies necessary to the people. Compounding matters there and making it much worse. We're also hearing rumblings that Donald Trump is potentially working on a deal with with Maduro for Maduro to lie about the 2020 election and to perhaps return Maduro to Venezuela with Delsey under Donald Trump's control. And Donald Trump is preventing Maria Machado from going back to Venezuela. And Trump has called her behavior grotesque and says that she's just looking to do a publicity stunt in Venezuela by going there to help the people with supplies. Also, because of this catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran, America's strategic oil reserves continue to diminish, the lowest in American history. In Cushing, Oklahoma, gas prices have not gone down the way Donald Trump has promised. Although last night Donald Trump was making social media posts of AI gas stations that he's referring to as Freedom Centers, which are apparently miraculously reducing gas prices. He says it's taking place in the Greater Philadelphia area, although he posted a weird AI image. He's posting weird AI videos of himself as a doctor. And of course he's spending his evenings attacking former President Obama and Biden while the American people are suffering. Got a lot to discuss. Special Counsel Jack Smith is breaking his silence. He spoke to our friend Nicole Wallace on Ms. Now we'll talk about about that. Trump gave an interview with Jordy's friend. I'm being facetious, of course. Joe Kieran, who, who Jordy criticizes all the time, did an interview with Donald Trump where Trump goes, of course my kids have inside information. Of course I did these trades. What do you expect me to do? But I waived my salary. I didn't. Every other president took a salary. I didn't take a salary at all. We've got a lot to discuss, Brett.
Jordy
Jordy.
Brett
We do indeed get to see Ben. Good to see you, Jordy. Good to see you, Midas mighty man. The corruption, the level of depravity that is on display has just never been seen in American history. It is so far beyond, I think, even most people's comprehension. But I do have to say, you know, we've been predicting this stuff since day one, or probably even since before day one. I almost want to dig through some of the Midas touch podcast archives because listeners know from the very beginning, especially of this Trump administration, what have we been referring to as the rug pull presidency? We've been saying that since day one. I don't think we realized how literal the rug pull presidency would be, that Donald Trump would have these meme coins that he would pump up, pump up a pump, pump, and then dump and just totally screw over all of his supporters while he makes money to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. And I remember Ben Jordi, us talking about this whole Maduro scheme early on, like right after that whole situation went down where we said, what if goes? And he tries to cut a deal with Maduro to try to spread his election crap, like that's something that he would do. Now we're starting to see all this stuff kind of come to fruition. And what a metaphor this great American state fair is right now for the Trump regime, for the whole country as a whole. We're going to get into it all. You know, I got to first toss it over to Jordi. Jordi, what's the latest?
Jordy
Well, look, the grift at the expense of the American people from this Trump regime. It's just so obvious and unsettling and infuriating, right? Like, first off, just some stats from the last month. The economy added 57,000 jobs in June, which was way fewer than most people expected. Investors thought there would be roughly 114,000 new jobs. So that's way down. But don't worry everyone, because Trump and his family, they're making billions. In fact, Trump brought in, what was it, 1.4, roughly 1.4 billion in crypto earnings last year alone, guys. Affordability crisis. What are you talking about? This is the golden age. Can't you see it? I mean, that's what he meant, right? The golden age for Trump and his family and just pulling the Griffs of all Griffs here, the Republican Party, it's become a cult of these grifters and these frauds and these cowards. And the thing is, like, I'm not overreacting here. I think I'm actually underreacting. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. Donald Trump made 1.4 billion off of crypto. You can't afford groceries or gas. He's making 1.4 billion off of crypto.
Ben
It is impossible.
Jordy
Infuriating, Benji.
Ben
You know, it absolutely is infuriating, Jordan. You know, when I was a litigator, I would do civil prosecution, civil cases against big Ponzi schemers. I handled the case against some of the biggest Ponzi schemers in California. I was appointed by an SEC receiver and I went through terabytes of documents and, you know, as part of this case, and I did a lot of cases like that. And so when I see these Trump regime characters like the Lutnicks and the Chris Wright, the Energy secretaries, the Treasury Secretary Bessens, the Kevin Hassets, the National Economic Adviser, it gives me flashbacks to the depositions that I would take in these Ponzi scheme cases of people who looked and talked and walked and behaved just like that. And they would always tell their investors that it was right around the corner and you was going to be great, and don't worry, you're going to get rich. And frequently in the cases that I handled, what the Ponzi schemers would do is they would create these SPVs, these special purpose vehicles. So they would have Special Purpose Vehicle 1, Special Purpose Vehicle 2, Special Purpose Vehicle 3, Special Purpose Vehicle 4. And so they would create Special Purpose Vehicle 2 to pay out some of the investors, to just kind of keep them going a little bit on SPV1, but then they would take all of the money, and then they would do that with SPV3, pay a little bit to the SPV2 people and then try to pay a little bit to one, but then take more money. They would do this kind of over and over and over again. And I look at our economy right now, or the destruction of our economy, and I go, that's just like that. I mean, this is Bernie Madoff on nuclear steroids at this point. Right now. This is Trump's biggest fantasy, frankly, I think Trump was actually proud of what that financial disclosure looked like. I think for the first time in his life, I think he wanted to release it. I think he's still hiding a lot, but I think he wanted all of those people out there who he thought never respected him to see I do the schemes. Look how I did it. Look how I did it. And meanwhile, at the higher level, they're out there destroying the economy of the United States. Now together, they're partners. We're doing this. We're doing this together. So when I watched this super cut that Ms. Now did of Lutnick, of Besant, of Hassett, of these guys who were out there saying, don't worry, it's right around the corner. Quarter one, quarter two, quarter three, and it'll be right there in 2026. I'm thinking to myself, that's what they would do. Special Purpose Vehicle 1. Don't worry, we're going to get our money in Special purpose.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Don't worry.
Ben
We've got number three going. Don't worry, we've got number four. I want you to watch for yourself. Let's play this clip.
Narrator
In the fourth quarter of 2025, this economy is going to be humming. I think we're going to really pick up in the fourth quarter. This is going to be the greatest growth economy, right six months from now, a year from today. The economy, economy that Donald Trump starts at the end of this year. I am very optimistic about the first, second and, you know, accelerating into the third quarter in terms of growth. I am very, very optimistic on 2026. Look for the second quarter of 2026 to be amazing. I think we're going to grow more than 5% GDP this quarter. We expect that the global economy is going to have a big positive shock as soon as this is over. We might have been growing at 4 in February. I think we're going to get back and we can have something with a three in front of it. This year we're cruising at about 3. And again, I expect the second half will cruise about 4, 4% growth in the second half. That's right, yeah.
Brett
Yeah, that's right.
Narrator
Yeah.
Ben
That's what we're going to do. And then they have their regime officials who are instruments of this fraud, they go out there and say, and look, we actually saved you. You don't realize it, but, like, you know, there would have been a nuclear annihilation right now. There would have been mass blackouts. We saved you from hypothetical things that weren't going to happen. And Things would have been much better. But we'll just continue down with the boogeyman story and we'll say we saved you from these things. So you actually should be thankful to us. Watch as Chris Wright, the energy secretary then goes, yeah, and there would have been mass blackouts and you would be suffering right now if it was Kamala Harris. Watch what they do here. Play this clip. Now, if we had President Harris right now, we'd be dealing with blackouts and massive economic disruption because they would have
Narrator
continued to close all the, all the coal plants and they wouldn't have encouraged building anything new unless it was carefully
Ben
blessed by the climate cult gods from above, which means nothing meaningful would be built and expanded.
Narrator
But that's fortunately, we're not in those ages. We're celebrating 250 years of the greatest nation on earth. America became a great nation by bold
Ben
people taking chances and building big things. We're going back to that. I love that secretary. Love it so much. And then on state regime media today, when you got Jordy alluded to it before, those really bad job numbers where they even had to do real big revisions for May and April. May revisions down 43,000 jobs. April revisions down 31,000 jobs. The US added only 57,000 jobs in the latest jobs report, far below the expectation, which was supposed to be soft, like everybody expected it was going to be soft, but it was supposed to be like 115,000 jobs created. So y' all remember during former President Biden, it would be like 275,000 jobs created. And Fox would be like, and Maria Bar would be like, we've underperformed every money. We thought we were going to hit 400,000 jobs.
Narrator
I don't know.
Ben
It's a good. Please, you don't even have to go
Brett
to, you don't even have to go to Fox and look at the New York Times and all the way they do their headlines, it would be like, you know, President Biden posts 250,000 jobs. A sign of a slowing economy, a sign of a weakening economy. And then you look at them post the Trump numbers and they're like, like literally today, I think the headline on New York Times for Trump's underperformance was economy remains steady. That was like actually the headline they ran and it is just absolutely mind blowing. But this I, this way that they use these counterfactuals where in which they invent a false reality to try to compare themselves to. It's such a wild propaganda technique and it's just crazy that this actually works on people to kind of build up this magical what if, what if Kamala Harris was in there? Your life would be the worst ever. So you should be grateful that the worst thing that happened to you is that you lost your job and that you lost all your money in Donald Trump's meme coin. And the contrast right now, you know, at the same time this jobs report coming out and, you know, it being revealed more and more and more about the cracks in the economy as we see the billions and billions of dollars that Trump has made grifting off his presidency. It really is, it defines like the entire economy of the rich, richer and richer and richer, while the rest of us, while the rest of the people in this country are suffering more and more and more while Donald Trump tries to sell you on. This is the golden age. These are the greatest times ever. You should be thankful. Say thank you to me like this. The fraud cannot be more obvious, in my opinion. What we are witnessing, and Donald Trump has said it himself. Speaking of the New York Times, you know, they did speak about this issue and they said, quote, trump returned to the White House with an epiphany about mixing business and politics during his first term in office. Office, quote, I found out that nobody cared, Trump said, revealing a remarkable indifference to potential conflicts of interest then I think that's the way Trump feels about everything right now. You know, basically the Supreme Court made me untouchable. I'm not.
Ben
What do I care?
Brett
I ran for president in the first place to avoid prison time. And while I'm here, I'm just going to use it to make as much money as I possibly can. And when you look at the intricacies and the nuances of Donald Trump's various stock trades and his money making schemes and gets very granular also, you know, like you look at what he did and he must have his team. This is, you know, his team. I'm speculating here, but I'm assuming Donald Trump is not on e trade, you know, making his own trades every day, but his team is clearly following, in my opinion, the information that Trump is putting out that Trump is telling him that the Trump kids are telling him about things that are happening because the trades that happen are always also happening at very, let's say, opportune times. Like, like Donald Trump would buy a whole lot of stocks right after the markets crash, after so called Liberation Day, right? Donald Trump scoops up a whole bunch of stocks and then, you know, Donald Trump buys a bunch of stocks right before he says that he's going to call tariffs off. Then the market surge and he all of a sudden makes millions and millions of dollars. Like all the trades are timed like that. And there's so many. Ben, what are they, like 80 trades a day or it's something obscene.
Ben
The whole thousand total over 80 a day. And to your point, these are very granular trades of individualized companies. And then Trump will say, look, this is a blind trust. I don't look at it. I don't know. All we can say is that what's reflected there does not reflect a structure of a blind trust that I'm aware of.
Brett
I don't want to hear anything. I just want to. I don't want to hear anything ever again from any of these people. Don't bring Hunter Biden into this. Don't you dare talk about Nancy Pelosi stocks. Don't talk about. I don't, I don't want to hear shit from anybody about any of this. If you are okay with this, then I don't even know what to tell you. This fraud is staring you in the face and all the people who go, oh, but he's not taking a salary. I don't think that really matters. The guy is making billions and billions and billions of dollars off the presidency scene. It is immoral, it is legal in my opinion. And it is not what a United States President should be doing. And that is not a partisan thing. It's not a lib, Democrat, progressives, conservative idea. This should just be a, an, just an American idea and anybody idea, right? We should all be able to agree on something this obvious.
Jordy
And Brad, look, I agree with you too. I don't think Trump is sitting behind E Trade, you know, his computer on E Trade, doing these trades or whatnot. But it bodes another question like this becomes a national security risk at a certain point. Because what level of information do the people in Trump's team have and what are their clearances to get that information ahead of these big announcements? I don't think I've heard anyone ask those types of questions. Right, because if the obvious answer to you is, well, Trump's not making the trades, guys, okay, so then he has a team around him making the trades. And I don't think they're allowed to just view classified information like his DOC team. I don't know, I'm not the lawyer there. Our editor in chief, Ron Philipowski made a great point. I just want to reiterate it. Here he goes. Trump's turned the US Government into an organized criminal enterprise to enrich himself, his family members, and his cronies, all to the tune of billions of dollars. He's exactly right. Right. They're doing this openly and brazenly. Brazenly. While the GOP specifically just sits idly by and, like, you just have to ask why? Like, why won't anyone speak out? Are they afraid of the mean tweets that Trump's going to send his way? Are they scared that Trump's going to blackmail them in some sort of capacity? Do they want to just hold their hands out as he does this and hope some of it kind of trickles down to them? For some of them, I'm sure it has already trickled down to the them. But I'll tell you who it's not trickling down to, and that's the American people. Once again, you get screwed off of Donald Trump's grift.
Brett
The whole thing, though, it's a. It's a propaganda operation. Right. And you have to remember that first and center. It's a propaganda operation, and it has relied on radicalizing a small group of people, but a large enough group of people who could dictate what happens in a Republican primary, especially in red states. So you have all of these members of Congress who are not necessarily even terrified of Donald Trump, but they are terrified what he is going to do to their livelihood, to their jobs that they worked for. Right. And I don't know why you even want to be a member of Congress if you don't actually get to exercise any power. But think about all the people who have decided to go against Donald Trump. Essentially all of them right now, essentially none of them are going to be returning to Congress in the next session because Donald Trump found people, he recruited people, he ran people against them in primaries, and he got MAGA to show up. While MAGA may be a small and dwindling movement, it's enough in those Republican primaries, especially in red states, to oust people that Donald Trump does not like. That strategy doesn't quite work in the general elections, but it's definitely working very well for him there. And so they are kind of running on, I think, and this is not defending them at all. I'm just trying to get in their head. This is their survival instinct. Right. And they are also scared of the kind of stochastic terrorism that Donald Trump instills in people. When Donald Trump starts directing people to attack somebody that he doesn't like, those people start getting death threats. They get phone calls, they get people coming to their homes. Their families get threatened. This is a pattern that we've seen throughout the years. And so at a certain point, some of these people, they just don't want to go through it, they don't have a spine. So they go, oh, I'm just going to be in survival mode. You know, I'll, I'll go with the flow. This will be done eventually and I'll be praised for doing this. Right. It comes down to incentive instruction, incentive structures for me. And that is the incentives that the Republicans have right now.
Ben
Yeah, look, when you look at the distribution of profits for the Trump meme coins or his crypto scams or World Liberty Financial, it looks just like the K shaped graph that people describe the United States of America where you have the kind of core group of insiders, the people at the top, the wit coughs, the Trumps, the Bens, you know, that whole class, the right wing oligarch class, they're crushing it. They're making a lot of money. And then you have the biggest distribution of losses, right? So Trump's meme coin stuff, $2 billion or so in profits for him and the insiders and like that crew, $2 billion in losses for most of the investors. World Liberty Financial, Donald Trump and the Witkoffs and everybody, they made most of the profits. 78%, 79 losses distributed to a lot of the people who in my opinion are the marks, right. The kind of pump and dumps in our economy. The dump is basically really the 99% of everybody else and the 1% are doing good and they are manipulating this and they control these right wing propaganda machines. It's why they want to own and consolidate all the right wing media. It's why we're a threat to them here on independent media, on the Midas Touch network, because we can actually call that out and be the voice of a pro democracy movement movement. So how do you though run a Trump meme coin scheme and then convince all of those people who are suffering the losses that it's not your fault? Well, you create an enemy. In fact, when you take a look at this Reuters article that was just released, a lot of these Trumpers who gave their life savings to the Trump meme coin, they blame the Democrats, Democrats for shorting Trump's meme. They've come up in their mind that the Democrats shorted Trump's meme coin and that's why they've lost a lot. People have put $40,000 because they assumed if I'm giving, you know, I want to think about how Rich Donald Trump will make me. I got an opportunity to buy the meme coin of the President. I'm going to make all this money. And you read some of these comments and people are saying, well, I don't think it's Donald Trump's fault. And so then when it comes to the economy, what is, what do they do? It's the same exact tactic. You just have to create the other. And that right now it's, oh, we were gonna do great, but it's the democratic socialists. And, oh, we were gonna do amazing. But they screwed me over, Mom. Donnie screwed me over. This person screwed me over. I don't want your communist thermostats, Mom. Donnie, like New York City Mayor Mamdani, posted the exact, exact same kind of suggestions that were on the Department of Energy's website. Set your AC to 78 degrees. Turn off lights and electronics you're not using. It's hot out there. Let's work together to make sure the power grid keeps on working, because it's working overtime right now to keep us cool. There's no difference in what he said than what the Department of Energy website said. But the Fox machine kicked into high gear. They attacked Mamdani. The one thing they forgot is, whoa. The Department of Energy website says the same thing. So the Department of Energy just deletes it. They delete their own suggestions. And their own suggestions are the right, helpful, scientifically proven suggestions for how people can get through heat waves collectively and avoid these massive power outages that can result in the types of deaths that we saw happen in places like Texas and other places where they screwed up their grid in the past.
Brett
By the way, the same recommendations that we've seen for decades, I think, and I think this story, as stupid as it is, is the perfect microcosm for how this media works on the right. This right wing MAGA ecosystem. It's like they wake up every day and the past doesn't exist. Like there's. There's no history at all. It's just they wake up anew and they have something to complain about. And it doesn't matter if they're being hypocritical or not, because. And it's all coordinated, like all at once. You saw everybody from Spencer Pratt to the Fox host like Harris Harri Faulkner to people in Trump's orbit to Nikki Haley to even Marjorie Taylor Greene, and all these people, they're all saying the same thing. Ron DeSantis, socialists. Oh, is this the warmth of collectivism? Communist. Okay, come, Donnie. Okay, show us your Thermostat, Mom Donnie when this was literally the same guidance that was given not only by the Department of Energy then, but also by Mayor Giuliani when he was mayor of New York City. Also the same guidance given by the people who are complaining about mom Donnie doing it. Nikki Haley had a very, very similar post from when she was governor urging people to do the same exact thing. The Florida Power Department recommends the same thing. The Georgia Power Department recommends the same thing. You go through all the states, they all recommended the same thing. But mom Donnie does it. A Democrat does it. It's a front page New York Post story. They got to do the full spread it. This, this is the perfect example. And if you're one of those people or if you know somebody who is like a New York Post reader and they're like, ah, fuck it, Bob. Donnie, 78 degrees. Show me your thermostat. I'm gonna, I'm gonna put mine at 65 just to, you know, just to prove something to you. Okay, but like let's be, let's do what you want at the end of the day, but let's be intellectually honest here and consistent here. You're okay when Donald Trump does it, you're okay when all these other people do it it. Or are you just using this as a way to try to get angry at somebody that you don't like? And are you being used as a tool by this right wing propaganda media? Are you being rage baited so that you can give these same billionaires who are making billions and billions of dollars like Donald Trump is while you're suffering? So you could continue to give them the distractions they want while they rage bait you and make money off your back because that's what you're doing when you're the mark here. And there are a who lot of marks out there also.
Jordy
They've run this playbook before. Do you guys remember Biden and the gas stoves? This is a continuation of this stupidness. It's not the gas stoves anymore, y'.
Brett
All.
Jordy
It is the thermostats, dude. And this is the brilliance. And I mean that like, like, not, not like a good brilliance, but this is the evil brilliance of the trillion dollar propaganda operation. The Fox News of all this right wing media is that on the, on the next day, when Trump's financials come out of the $1.4 billion crypto that coming to light and everyone losing their ass on the other side of it, all the MAGA people who invested on the crypto dollars they lost their, their ass or their life savings or whatever. Don't be mad at Trump, y'.
Brett
All.
Jordy
Have you seen your thermostat lately? Mamdani's coming to change that. He's going to put that at 78. You can't let him do that.
Ben
That's.
Jordy
That's communism. That's crazy. Don't be mad at Donald Trump.
Brett
Trump.
Jordy
Now you're broke now because you put all of your life savings in the meme coin. That's so yesterday. Mamdani's coming after your thermostat and you better watch out.
Ben
Look, look. You just have to give them something, and that's all the Trump support, something to validate the cult. And they're like, okay, got it, got it, got it. Like the reflecting pool. It's vandals and criminal algae. Donald Trump said it. Okay, got it. It's vandals and criminal algae. Meanwhile, you take a look what's going on in the Democratic Party right now as you head to the election and you see all of these fight taking place. Oh, my God. The New Democrats who are out there trying to help people and deliver. Oh my gosh. Can you, can you imagine it? And I'm like thinking to myself, I'm like trying to think like, how, how is it that every election you forget sometimes then the election starts to happen and you start watching it go down and you're like, hey, do we all realize that we're in an existential moment right now? And do we realize that there could be be different approaches to how we help people? But ultimately, on the one hand, we have this fascist rot oligarchy that is destroying the world. On the other hand, we have honest debates about what's happening. Could we please just get it? You know, that's why I watch and that's why I often say on this show that even though the Midas touch obviously is, is we cover politics, what matters most to me are the human values and principles behind it all. Because the most important skill is are we listening to the people and are we fighting for and delivering to what the people say? And stop forcing certain candidates and certain people who are not responsive to what the people are actually saying. We need fighters out there like the mom Dan, who are standing there with the people. We need fighters like the Bernie Sanders who are standing there with the people every day. And you can see it in the crowds. It's like, Bernie Sanders AOC draw 30,000, 40,000 people, you know, in, in Salt Lake City, you know, or they go to like West Virginia off years. And people like, yeah, but I just don't. I'm like, are you watching with them? Just look, it's clear. Hear what people are saying, listen to what people are feeling and they're psychologically tortured under this Trump regime. Deliver for the people and stop imposing whatever you think is the framework. Listen and deliver and fight for people.
Brett
Right? You know what I gotta say? I just, I just want to say while we're on this note, very quickly, you know, I like that we're political outsiders, right? I like that we are never consultants, that we were never. Because we don't play the same games that these people play, play. But I think one of the most eye opening revelations to me being in this world of covering this world of politics is how there are so many factional intraparty fights amongst people, not based on necessarily ideas, but based on consultant versus consultant. This consultant represents this person and they don't like that this person represents another person. And there are these factional wars just based on people, people wanting power and wanting jobs rather than thinking, what do the people want? Okay, what do the people want? And, oh, that person's candidate one.
Ben
Well, why?
Brett
What was it about them that they liked? Maybe there are some ideas that we can learn or some strategies that we could learn, but instead it just becomes attack. Okay, that candidate one. Now we need to burn them to the ground because that consultant is stealing my jobs and my platform and, and my ability to earn money in politics.
Jordy
And I.
Brett
And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That should not be why you're in this. It's again why I am thankful that that is not what we do here. And that's not our experience going into Midas. Instead, we're just people who are concerned about things, not people who are these consultants who just want to manipulate everything, apparently.
Ben
Let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder. Please subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast wherever you get your audio podcast. That's really helpful to the growth of this network. So even if you're not an audio listener, help us out. Go look at whatever app you have on your phone or computer where you can get audio podcasts. Subscribe to Midas Touch. It's free. It helps. Please, if you can. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. We'll be right back.
Brett
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Jordy
Shout out to our sponsors, y'. All Links in description about the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. There is a non zero chance that I, I'm gonna have to take my shirt off during this episode. I am, I am melting. I, I see the comments. I'm. I, I'm not drinking. I'm not doing any. Like, they're like, I'm totally fine. I, I'm just melting.
Brett
You're listening.
Jordy
So hot.
Ben
I Following mom, my father, the advice of the Department of Energy or mom dying.
Brett
Are you at 78? It's 78 degrees, dude.
Jordy
It's at least, it's at least 90 degrees in this room right now. I don't know if I'm gonna make it to the episode.
Ben
In, in, in, in all seriousness, though, I. It is important for best safety practices and it is important to follow science and guidance. And so, you know, I like to be, you know, told, hey, Ben, what a great prediction you made. I mean, how'd you predict this, that or the other? And I'm just like, well, wasn't it kind of obvious that if they use the same water source for the reflecting pool and there's algae in it, that it's going to grow algae? Because that's like, I don't know the way that algae works unless they figured out some new, advanced technology. And painting the bottom blue isn't going to change that. Like, when I look at this event that is shaping up for July 4th, where it's going to be 107 degrees in Washington, D.C. which is hotter than the room that Jordy is in right now. Although there is a heat wave. Jordy's on the east coast, where he is as well. But 107 degrees. Jordy, if you're actually not feeling good, you could take a break.
Narrator
No, we're Good.
Ben
I got 107 degrees Washington, D.C. and Donald Trump was bragging and boasting during that weird speech he gave in North Dakota that he was going to give a very long speech to show how strong he is during the 107 degree heat. And he wants to do it late at night based on the security regulations. They need to have everybody kind of wait For Donald Trump's speech for hours and hours and hours, hours. Fireworks won't begin until 11pm While this heat wave is taking place. The heat wave is so bad that there have had to actually been, you know, you know, lots of, you know, in whatever has been opened at this fake state fair, whatever you want to call it, they've had to shut down certain things because it's been so hot right there. But Trump's gonna, whoever's gonna show up. And I think the Trump regime is terrified that no one's even gonna be at this event because so late and it's hot and it's Trump and he's unp, you know, all of those things. But you're going to be bringing people into a death trap. Like you truly don't care that you're bringing people into a death trap. I mean, you think about when Donald Trump ruined the one nick game where they lost, like he literally did kill the vibe. There's a, other presidents can go to the super bowl and can go to these games. They don't because they have respect for the people in the cities and the communities and the places because they know that their presence creates inconvenience for everybody else else. Not only does Donald Trump not care about that, Trump doesn't care when he creates these death traps. And because, I mean, I want people to pay attention to this because I know this will be a big story in, in 5, 10, 15 years from now. Because also my background as a litigator, although I did not handle asbestos litigation, I worked with lots of lawyers who did handle cases where people got mesothelioma from asbestos contact. And I know the way Donald Trump ripped down that east wing of the White House that contained a lot of asbestos. I did a report on it. And so when I'm proven to be right, how'd you know that it had asbestos? I don't take joy in the fact that there are a lot of people in that area and neighborhood who could potentially be getting serious, serious health issues down the road because these micro particles that they've ingested. But, but what you would need to do to go through a process, if you were doing a construction site like that and you had union workers and you did it the right way, they would guard against asbestos. But Trump didn't do that. So as you look to this July 4th event, 170, 107 degrees, Trump is creating a literal death trap there. And if you look at how they even dealt with this so called great American State Fair as well, hell fortunately, there's, like, very little people attending because it's straight up dangerous. And there was an incident today that Aaron Parnas was the one who broke the exclusive. Aaron. From the Midas Touch Network of these young girls who were rehearsing for the July 4 event. And the stage literally collapsed on them and almost killed the young girls. And of all they know.
Jordy
Almost.
Ben
Yes, it did. I'm gonna show the video. Fortunately, nobody was injured or hurt hurt. But you'll see that the stage almost fell down on the young girls. And there's a broader point to connect this to as well. I mean, if you think about the way Donald Trump even got involved in this catastrophic and unlawful war against Iran in the first place, who are the first people that he killed? A group of young girls in Manob Elementary School and didn't even care about, updated their logistics about what was happening in Manob when it was known that was in elementary school by all of our intelligence officials, and they slaughtered at least 168 little girls. And then they cover it up. Look at the Trumpenstein regime covering up the Epstein files and the horrors and atrocities inflicted on little girls. You know, I understand that they inflict this pain on the American people, people writ large. But when I look at what's happening here, too, I don't think it is not right to compare, you know, what you see here to how Donald Trump's has such a dim. He doesn't care about anybody's life other than himself, a little bit his family, but mostly himself. And just watch what happens as this stage literally fell apart. Let's play it.
Narrator
Understand.
Brett
For the audio listeners, some large piece of equipment from the kind of, you know, ceiling from the top of the stage came down, and it looked like a big, heavy piece of equipment, and it fell right. Like, just right behind. It looks like one of the girls who is dancing, a young girl dancing during this rehearsal. That video is actually horrible. You know, there are a lot of things to kind of laugh about about this Freedom 250 event, but when I saw this video, I was actually horrified because that was honestly mere feet or inches away from. From killing a little girl or multiple young girls. The negligence there. Like, if this was any other kind of company and not Donald Trump in the White House, the amount of lawsuits that could stem from even what we just saw. But. But thankfully, you know, we avoided the worst of what could have happened there.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
But.
Brett
But this is how Donald Trump runs everything, right? He's always cutting corners. And we actually did this whole, you know, a Great report. Scott McFarland on Midas News.com we were one of the first to break this this morning. The way, and we've talked about this before on this, on this podcast, the way that Donald Trump ultimately funneled the money that was going to the nonpartisan America250 organization that was set up to host events like this, that was going a great big event with incredible acts and entertainment and a really solid plan. And how Donald Trump funneled that money to his own private organization called Freedom250 of Trump allies and misled donors who thought they were giving their money to a nonpartisan event who then that money came through, went right into the pockets of Donald Trump's allies who then distributed it to other Donald Trump allies. And this goes back to that kind of no bid contract situation. I don't know what the deal is with that, you know, stage in particular. So here's the article for those watching right now. Democrats alleged Trump allies misled donors to bankroll Freedom250. You could read this@midasnews.com but it goes back to this no bid situation. I don't know what happened here, but I assume it was just, you know, a Trump friend or, you know, a Trump ally friend who is setting up the stage. But something bad happens, it could have been catastrophic and they will either just completely ignore it or they'll try to blame somebody else. And you can also see the level of derangement. Even if you look at the comments and the videos, like, you know that, that you see that video, you know, Aaron Parnas posted the video. One of the comments is from a Trumper like, oh, you sick libs again, you sick libs, you, one of you probably did. This goes back to the whole vandal thing, right? They're constantly looking for someone else to blame. When the most obvious answer is the answer here, Donald Trump is to blame. He's the connective tissue throughout of this stuff. And just like it was risking the life of those young girls who were dancing on that stage, it's risking all of our lives.
Jordy
Absolutely. That video brought to us again by Aaron Parnas, that's going to be on our Instagram. So definitely check it out. Midas Touch if you want to see what we're talking about here. It is absolutely horrific. It's at Midas Touch on Instagram. Go check it out. You might have to scroll down a couple posts to see it. You know, our producer Salty, that many of y' all know he worked live events and he is just appalled by the Shoddiness of how all this has been coming together. Look, someone is going to get hurt at Trump's D.C. rally over this weekend because Donald Trump hates you. Like, not you watching. But yeah, he hates you too. But like he hates you maga. Like he hates his own base, the people that are going to like, watch him speak, like, someone's going to get hurt inevitably. He doesn't care about your life. He's using you as a prop. And like, I just want to shake someone. Like, don't you see this? Right, like, as Ben mentioned, DC has like these immersive emergency warnings region wide. Right now it's supposed to top 104 degrees or something like that the next 48 hours, but with the DC swamp like conditions, it's going to be much higher than that. Scott McFarlane here at the Myast Network, he reported on all of this. He said given the security of the event, that there are also limitations of like what could be carried in. So like, no, like thermoses. Like you can't bring your own thermos. That feels like a really dumb idea. Just from start to finish. This event's supposed to last around 10 hours. Like when you check in to like finally when the fireworks go off at 11pm that night. A sane leader would maybe relocate the event, maybe hold it indoors, maybe not even hold the event at all. But what does Trump tell his lemmings? I want you to risk your life to watch me speak. You don't love me if you're not willing to die to watch me speak. I know it sounds like I'm being hyperbolic.
Brett
I'm really not this wonder if he wants something to happen so he could go, I told you we should have had a ballroom.
Jordy
This is a loyalty test. And you are exact as a great point. This is a loyalty test that's literally life and death camouflage as like a celebration of our country. And Brett, I have not heard that perspective 1000%. I just want to reiterate that here. Brett said this is going to be another excuse force almost Trump to hope something goes.
Brett
Listen, if you want to call me a genius, you can call me a genius.
Ben
Well, it doesn't even have to make sense because it's a fireworks show too. So it's like we were going to do the ball room, but now we
Jordy
need like, when does it have to make sense?
Brett
When do the Trump like record fireworks? Also, the whole thing is a threat. It's a threat to public safety. It could start fires there. There have been reports. The Washington Post earlier today reported that the, the way they're doing the fireworks is going to cause the air to become very toxic and could make people very sick who are in the area. Like, they don't do anything by the book. They don't care. Jordy, you're 100% right. It's, it's, it's insane.
Ben
And look, it's about that. But then this is the same driving force. When they go, tariffs are going to make us rich because it is a tax on the countries and not on the importers that are passed on to the American consumers. And then if inflation didn't rise, like right after April, when Trump had the Liberation Day, which was like, actually liquidation day, look, we told you it was. But, like, it's hitting now because that's the way the economy works. Like, Donald Trump's disastrous first term bled into former President Biden's term, and then Biden had to fix it, and then Donald Trump screwed it up again. So now all these tariffs against the world, compounded by the catastrophic war in Iran. And then Donald Trump just lies and says, you know, look, we were going to bring in all of this money, but then we got screwed over by all of these jokes, judges, it's the judge's fault. And then Trump's like, we brought in $21 trillion. I mean, he makes up a fake number. I mean, the same type of thing that's like, okay, there's criminal algae. And the people, the criminals and vandals, they didn't just take a box cutter to shred it. By the way, did you notice that Donald Trump was running around with scissors yesterday? I'll just point that out. North. When he was in north coast running around with scissors and wanted to put it in his pocket, it was like, very, very, very, very, very odd thing.
Brett
But on the vandal, there's the vandal.
Ben
Found him. Handle with the scissors with the box cutter.
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Got him.
Ben
He literally tried to put it in his. He tried to put it in his jacket pocket. And then people like, dude, what are you doing? Like, like, like, like, chill. But he says the criminals threw the algae in the reflecting pool. And it's the same people who are like, yeah, the tariffs against the world are going to work and we were going to be so rich. But then, but then the Democrats screwed us, or then this one screwed us.
Brett
And it's not just the lies, though, too. It's. It's how they then take the lies and then they implement them in the most authenticity, authoritarian ways imaginable. Like today we saw Judge Box of Wine. Jeanine Pirro. Trot on out there. And she announced her indictment of that two time Olympian. He was a canoeist, I believe, back in the day. And they indicted him for touching the water in the, in the pool because they need somebody to blame. They always need somebody to blame. So they're trying to say that because he touched the water and touched the sealant that was peeling off in the pool due to their shoddy work, he's to blame. So he's one of the vandals. I mean, mean, that thing's going to be laughed out when they go in front of a jury in D.C. and we've seen the way that they've handled themselves in front of grand juries in the most deceptive ways imaginable in all their past cases. That's all been coming to light to get these indictments in the first place. But like, but that level of authoritarianism, they take this thing that is just so stupid that you almost want to laugh at, right? Oh, these things, they say they put algae in the pool. This is so freaking stupid. But then they go the step further and they start indicting people all to try to help their dear leader, all to try to say, see these insane, ridiculous, pathological lies are true. Because look, we caught one. What a, what a scam. Just what a stain on the United States of America and the entire legal profession, everyone in this Department of Justice should be absolutely ashamed.
Ben
Well, and then they blame the judges when the case gets thrown out. It was a liberal judge, judge these federal judges, and it's so unfair. And then that reinforces their conspiracy theory kind of deep state, you know, rhetoric. And then even when you debate with them, you know, I watched that CNN fight show from time to time and hat tip to Adam Mockler because he does a good job on the debate show. But one of the things that I've always thought to myself personally is like, I don't know, sometimes just even being there to debate these people, people almost legitimizes their side as a side that is worthy of a debate. On the other hand, if you just let it go, then they'll just keep on saying it louder and louder and louder. So it does create the situation where the Overton window is kind of pulled in a direction where people are like, well, I assume the truth lies in the middle. And when special counsel Jack Smith was on Ms. Now, did an interview with our friend Nicole Wallace, he was making that point. He's like, you know, the hard part for me, he's like, as a lifelong Prosecutor. I'm used to dealing with facts and reliable evidence where hearsay and propaganda and lies don't get into the courtroom because they're filtered out through the pretrial proceedings. So he goes, you know what's interesting is that when I talk to people out there, he goes, even if people disagree, disagree with me, what I find is that by and large, people care about ethics, they care about the truth, they care about facts. But the issue that's hard for me to confront as someone who's used to accurate data and accurate facts is they've been. They're using and harnessing a set of things that really aren't based in reality. And so then I have to get, like, into a debate with them. And once they're already entrenched into views that are not actually true at all, it's truly hard in these interactions to change someone's mind who constantly is being bombarded over and over and over and over again that this reality is a real reality. I mean, I'll show you on state regime media Fox, you know, they have the Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, and she's been a person since saying farmers are in a golden age and everything's amazing. So she's the propaganda piece to say 150,000 people showed up at this event, the state Fair, and it's been, it's met all of our expectations. Right? It's the same exact lies of all. How did this meet your expectation? Like, it should be okay? And Brett, you said to this on the prior episode, like, if it was a failure, you kind of mock it. Hey, man, I screwed up. Like, I was supposed to be big, you know, did you see that, like, Teemu Archer arc? I was screwed. Okay, the real one's gonna look much better. I get it. But no, they go in and they go, not only is it 150,000, but, like, if you criticize it, we're gonna, like, criminally prosecute you for it. So let me show you what Brooke Rollins had to say.
Brett
Let's play it. They are keeping their spirits up and believe the critics that have been pointing to the crowd side will be proved wrong by the, the end of, of the weekend. From my perspective, it is hitting exactly every mark that we had hoped it would hit at this point. I do think this weekend we're going to see massive, massive crowds. But, you know, my goal is that people can come and walk and experience it. And 150,000 people coming to celebrate the great American State Fair over the last five or six days. I call that a huge success.
Ben
But that's the person also who is saying that fall farmers are experiencing huge successes right now. And she's the one who's out there saying that a lot of these like flesh eating bacteria that's killing cattle, that that's not happening. And then Chris Wright, the energy secretary, is out there saying everything's amazing. The Kevin Hassets of the world. This is a regime of con artists and liars. And I know that may be hard for some people to digest and understand that there are truly evil people, people who truly want to hurt you, but they are and they're in control right now. And they are truly the ones hurting you and harming you and they want you to die. Like they don't care about your life. They hate you. They hate America. They hate everything other than enriching themselves. Let's take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, we've got a lot to talk about. Talk a little bit more domestic. We'll talk international, national. Let's take our last quick break. A reminder, help us out by subscribing to the Midas touch on audio. It really goes a long way to help us. It's free and it makes a big difference. And leave a five star review. Let's take our last quick break of the show.
Jordy
We have an important message to share from our friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The Trump administration's excessive Christian nationalist rhetoric is only building as we move toward the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. AU is highlighting a case involving federal workers caught in the crossfire. A multi faith group of federal employees filed a new lawsuit against the U.S. department of Agriculture for violating the separation of church and state and the religious freedoms promised in our Constitution. Americans United received emails from multiple USDA employees saying that the proselytizing Easter email sent by the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke L. Rollins to more than 100,000 USDA employees is an abuse of power that violates the separation of church and state promised in the First Amendment. They are absolutely right. The hits keep on coming from this administration and Americans United is doing their best to keep up the fight against Christian nationalism. If you want to help, head to au.org midas to learn more about their work and how you can get involved. Americans United supporting everyone's right to live as they choose, so long as they don't harm others. That's au.org Midas you know what's easier
Brett
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Jordy
Shout out to our sponsors links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the the codes. There's an exit survey. Let them know we sent you. Sorry, I know I'm kind of chuckling right now. My wife turned on the AC and we're going to get yelled at probably later. But it's okay, it's worth it.
Brett
I'll keep it above 78, buddy. No, it's good for you, Benji.
Jordy
Where to next?
Ben
Let's jump right into it. Donald Trump gave an interview with cnbc. Joe Kiernan, the ultra maga business guy on cnbc. It's very bizarre to see a guy like that just spew, just total propaganda. But he interviewed Donald Trump and he was asking, he's like, so Donald, in the disclosure that you did, the amount of money looks pretty much like an outsized number. That outsized number, what you call $2.2 billion in crypto schemes, 21,000 stock trades in one year. A little bit outsized there. What do you, what, what do you make of it. Watch what Donald Trump had to say in response.
Narrator
Let's play it one in AI in the disclosure this week, the amount of money that, that you and the family made in crypto, it was an, an outsized number. I was just asking did you or you know about the crypto ventures? So, so that was just something, by the way. I could know about it. I didn't. Right. I mean, there's nothing illegal, there's nothing wrong with it. I could know. There's a specific, I think it's, I remember our title 18, section 208 from Congress, you, the vice president and you do not have, you would have to recruit, recuse yourself, even know that you would have to recruit yourself on every decision that could running the country that could have anything to do with you. So it just isn't feasible to do it. I feel.
Ben
What are you giving him the argument? I know he's giving him an argument. I mean, you couldn't possibly. I mean, you're telling me he doesn't know that he made $2.2 billion on crypto. It's certainly not worse than being involved in the crypto scheme. But the very idea that the argument is, I didn't know that I made $2.2 billion in crypto and I just, no clue. Joe Kiernan, who's supposed to be the business guy, right. He's supposed to be the guy who, who the financial community looks to. He isn't for, you know, accurate financial data about how's this company doing? How's that company doing? What do we think about this? What's going on with interest rates? And that's what he does right there. That's what he does right there. Then during the same interview, Donald Trump says that my kids do trade on, of course my kids. Everything's inside information. Everything is inside here. Play this quote.
Narrator
I feel badly in a way for my kids because every time my kids do, if they invest in a stock or if they go and do a bill, anything they do, because the presidency is so powerful, so big, everything, if they buy a cupcake company, well, the energy to make the cupcakes is, is, you know, sort of like how's my energy policy. So therefore you have a conflict. Almost anything they do, if they want to buy a truck, if they want to buy, you know, they buy an energy efficient truck, they have inside information. So it's pretty tough in that sense. I tell my kids, stay away from as much as you can stay away from. But they also have a life, you
Brett
know, they okay, they're buying drone companies. They're buying drone companies before you start a war.
Ben
He.
Jordy
He talks about these kids like they're also like they're setting up a lemonade stand too, right? No, it's drone. Drone companies. It's not a cup. Also, how do you think cupcakes are made? I know it's like his brain's going all over the place here, but cupcakes and the energies, huh?
Ben
Well, look, it's, it's, it's mines in Kazakhstan and, and all of these things are, are backed often by the. Most of them are backed by like the federal government giving loans and cutting government contracts and all of these deals. And so they went from. And the problem, this is what I mean, the problem with the debate is because, and I mean this as someone who studies language, that the problem is language has a limitation and it's hard to fully channel through words.
Jordy
Words.
Ben
The outrage that this is. And what I mean by that is, is that all you have to do is arm a MAGA person with any kind of talking point, right? So you go all of this $2 billion. A billion dollars here, $2 billion here. Inside trading here. They invest. And what do they go? Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden. So once they have their thing and then you have to explain it once they start to shout, which they do. Hunter.
Narrator
Hunter.
Ben
Thunder. And then you start to debate. It's actually very hard to debate someone who has, you know, they have their thing and then they start yelling because then to most outs, not hard to debate, but it's hard to persuade a public who watches because then people. It's all gross. It's all gross. Like when you think about Hunter Biden being on a board of Barisma from 21.
Jordy
What.
Ben
After Biden was not the vice president and before Biden was. So during the years that Biden was not in office, you had a guy like Hunter who was on boards before appointed by George W. Bush, a guy who went to Yale Law School.
Brett
Sure.
Ben
Was it helpful that his last name was a Biden? Absolutely. But he was qualified for. He was actually a qualified board member because he sat on major boards before including administering international aid for the UN and he controlled billion dollar budget. So he would be someone who would be considered for that. But he was making $50,000 a month. $50,000 a month and was not there when Joe Biden was actually in office. So at most, if you wanted to compare, at most it would be the difference between like a traffic ticket, you know, versus is like A mass murder in terms of, like, what was actually going down. And the Trump regime would argue it's all, basically, it's all the same. It's all the same. And now their argument with the Trump kids is actually, of course, they're doing insider work. Everything's. I tell them, try to stay away from it, try to stay away from it. But I bring them with me and then they have these conversations. And also that's why I believe the 2 billion is just the tip of the ice.
Brett
Iceberg.
Ben
I believe the real number, when all is said and done, will likely be $20 billion or perhaps more. Because I think Trump just has to disclose, like, his own, like, direct stuff. And by the way, I think he's probably hiding, in my own opinion. I'm just giving you an opinion. I could be wrong, in my opinion. Hiding and concealing more than what he's showing there. And I believe that doesn't account for other vehicles, other ways to kind of hide security, future interests that don't best that he doesn't have to disclose yet. And so, you know, that's what you know, so, so I also think Donald Trump's big play with the super pardon to waive tax audits and waive tax liability was the big play of why he sued the Treasury Department and why he sued the irs. Because if you read the release and the waiver of the claims, it waives everything that predates the settlement agreement, which to me would include all of these billions of dollars. And whether you're talking about capital gains or regular income tax, that settlement could have saved Donald Trump potentially billions and billions of dollars, not just $100 million that people just, you know, say was at issue. So let me, let me read this
Brett
example for a second because it's so brazen and salty. Our producer reminded me of it. But this is from Yahoo Finance, and I'll just read it for you. It says 14 days. 14 days. That's the gap between President Trump's Trust purchasing between $1 million and $5 million in Axon Enterprise stock on February 10 and ICE posting a notice on February 24 seeking a five year, $220 million Taser contract for roughly 17,800 new devices. That purchase would quadruple ICE's current inventory of about 4,300 units. The ICE documents specifications. A range 10 individually targeted probes match only Axons Taser 10. According to procurement reviewers cited by CNBC. No contract has been awarded. No law was technically broken. I mean, this is like the craziest thing Imaginable Right.
Jordy
Like, this is also what I'm getting at too, is I don't think Donald Trump's the one, you know, physically making the investment himself and going there and putting the cash down. Who in his orbit is he allowing to have this confidential information about these certain companies or these certain dealings prior to the American people, you know, finding out in the way that they should? It's a security issue, too. It's a security issue just as much as it's a grift issue with Donald Trump.
Ben
Well, look, the security issue has unfolded, right? The catastrophic war in Iran. Donald Trump was entangled in a myriad of conflicts of interest, right? I, I mean, he's photographed on the Qatari jet. The Qataris are the mediators. I'm not necessarily saying should they or should they not be the mediator? I don't know. But I will say that they are certainly having a prominent role. It didn't hurt that they gave him a $400 million jet. Then the American people gave a billion dollars to the Pakistanis, who are mediators. They created a crypto for fund that gave money to World Liberty Financial right around the time that there was the India and Pakistan war, where Donald Trump claims he saved 30 million Pakistani lives, which he didn't, or millions and millions of Indian life. Trump takes credit for, you know, for stopping that war, which, which he didn't. But the Pakistanis let Donald Trump take credit for doing it in India. Modi didn't, because Modi said, why would I let you do that? But in any event, that indeed endeared Field Marshal Munir to Donald Trump. And now Pakistan has had a prominent role. But meanwhile, if you actually listen to what Pakistan's prime minister and field marshals say, they are one, they're going to be at the former Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral, and they're going to be there and having a very prominent role right there. And also, you know, they've been giving speeches about how China's the main dominant global superpower right now. And also their interests seemed closer aligned, I'll just say, with China. But they managed to gain a great deal of influence vis a vis India with the United States through Donald Trump's crypto entities. You look at the United Arab Emirates, they gave Donald Trump massive amounts of money through World Liberty Financial. And you think about, did that impact the strategy of war there? You take a look at Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia gave a lot of money to Donald Trump. How did that impact things? And obviously, one of the leverage points that Saudi Arabia had was to start defunding projects to Trump and Trump's buds, like live golf and other things that it was previously funding when it felt that the Trump regime, you know, was basically violating its sovereignty and continuing to bring it into all of the, you know, to bring it into the war in Iran. And so Donald Trump and the Trump regime and American foreign policy would threaten, ok, okay, we're not going to give you Saudi Arabia Patriot interceptors and certain things while basically blackmailing and extorting Saudi Arabia because we have air bases there. So Saudi Arabia has become a target because of our air bases. And then Donald Trump says, then we're not going to give you the interceptor missiles that we need even now that we've made you a target. So Saudi Arabia is now kind of stuck. We have your bases here now. So what do we do? Well, MBS is like, okay, well we're going to not fund this and that and the other thing because we know that these are personally important to you. I can go on and on and on and on. You get the point. But these entanglements, first off, we should never have gone to war in the first place. We should never been involved in this catastrophic, you know, and on law for I can get into Netanyahu in Israel that Donald Trump's second top donor other than Elon Musk is Miriam Adelson, who gave Donald Trump literally hundreds of millions of dollars to move the embassy to Jerusalem. You and she's pursued a very right wing, extremist, Netanyahu style agenda there, in my opinion. And so you have people like her leading the way and pushing Donald Trump to that. Not that he's a horrible person to begin with, but this is the dynamic at play. And obviously when you see him stuck and frozen after making catastrophic decisions, just think about these leverage points that everybody, everybody has on him from every, from every angle right now. You are quite literally compromised. It's not Jordy, to your point. It's not a hypothetical compromise. It's no, this is why we have an emoluments clause in the Constitution, specifically to try to avoid things like this. And one of Donald Trump's reasons why he doesn't like Zelensky is Zelensky. He hasn't offered him these things like Ukraine hasn't given. Trump views Ukraine as just taking and taking and taking. And it's like, what are you going to give me? How do you behave?
Brett
Like there's a lot of other reasons
Ben
because Trump obviously, in my opinion is a Putin bootlicker. And but Putin will say, I'm gonna give you a trillion dollars. You know, it just plays to Donald Trump's kind of, you know, vanity. And Trump had been to Russia in the 80s and Trump had always had this view of Russia as the kind of peak and pinnacle thing that he viewed and kind of, in my view, his like, racist white utopia. I'm just giving you my opinion of like what his view of Russia was. But you have, you know, Donald Trump viewing Zelensky as someone who's not going to give him all of these things. And so what we've seen recently too is Donald Trump's not giving the Patriot interceptors to Ukraine. He's promised that, he only promised, he said that he would sell the interceptors to nuclear NATO and to European countries, but he hasn't even done that. So the big problem that they have in Ukraine right now is they could shoot down these drones, the Shahid drones from Russia, but they literally need the Patriot interceptors to stop the ballistic missiles they don't have. The only thing that really stops these ballistics are the Patriot interceptors or the Thads, but they don't have these. So what we saw happen in the past 24 hours and Russia realizes that this is they're going to use their drone swarms mostly as decoys. Drone swarm is what Russia does. And then they do their ballistic missiles. And they know that Ukraine has to decide and make these choices, which ballistic missiles do we shoot out? Because every ballistic missile we shoot is one less Patriot interceptor that we have. And also Russia tries to, to use dummy ballistic missiles and they try to draw out the interceptors with other drones and other decoys that look like it to draw out the Patriot interceptors because Ukraine is running low. And that's why we saw Russia was able to really strike hard in Ukraine. They hit the, the one of the major five star hotels in Kiev. They hit a number of residential areas in Kiev and Kharkiv and Zapricia and other areas. But that's what we've got going on there. And then meanwhile, just to round this all out with discussing what's going on internationally, you have that going on. You look at what's happening in Venezuela right now, you know, and Donald Trump wants to be like, oh, this is like some great, you know, great story about how the people of Venezuela love, I mean, Trump's affected effectively the leader of Venezuela. I mean, he's running a puppet government that's run by Delsey Rodriguez. The people are livid that Delsey Rodriguez is really Hoarding the supplies and the emergency response has been horrible. It's just interesting too, because I think about Trump's post this morning where he posted about Micron and saying Micron's giving $250 million to these Trump accounts, which are investment accounts. So Micron's giving $250 million to an investment account to basically invest in the market, to invest in stocks like Micron, when in fact Micron's received billions of dollars from CHIPS act funding, which basically led to the growth of Micron. They've gotten billions of dollars. Trump posted about them, I guess hoping that would manipulate their price. It didn't. The Micron stock has not been doing great of late, although post Biden it did do great because of the CHIPS act investment investments. But you have noted I mentioned that because you have Trump saying, Look, we gave $150 million to Venezuela. It's like, okay, but you took $5 billion of resources. God knows where that money's gone. The same way Micron's got X billions of dollars and they put 250 million into the account and they want applause like they're doing it. And meanwhile the people right now in Venezuela are suffering from this back to back earthquake. And I've raised the red flag as well. And I said I don't want to go down this conspiratorial route because I can't make the direct cause and effect yet. But with the excess fracking and excess drilling that's been known to cause seismic activity. And so I also don't know is there a cause and effect because these back to back earthquake, a 7.24 quake followed by a 7.5 is unheard of, rare to have two back to backs like that. So is any of the drilling activity causing that or enhancing that? But regardless of whether that's happening, clearly Delsey's not doing a great job. That's an understatement. In getting the resources out there. And meanwhile you have Machado who had to give Trump the Nobel Prize. She's like, I want to go there and be with the people. And the Trump regime is putting out there to the Wall Street Journal and others. Ah, she's just doing publicity city stunts. We don't want her out there. And now we're hearing that they're planning on cutting a deal potentially with Maduro so that Maduro can say that he rigged the 2020 election for Biden. And if Maduro says that, then Maduro can get a deal. And again, there's nothing out there that is off limits for the corruption, as I start off. The rot. The rot, the rot. And we're seeing it. So I'll leave us with.
Narrator
With that.
Ben
I did a whole video on special counsel Jack Smith, but I discussed it before. I don't need to show any clips of that because you've seen what he said, and he's just said that it's just been a total breakdown of law and order. And the Justice Department right now under the Trump regime has zero credibility, and they've lost their best lawyers, and it's a big problem. And especially now when you have potentially Justice Department lawyers planning on doing this deal with Maduro. We'll see if that happens. Those are the rumors, you know, that that's the kind of people who are there. I mean, it's. It's no different than North Korea at this point. In fact, one can make an argument that it's more corrupt than North Korea, that our country is more corrupt, that I don't think that's an exaggeration under the Trump regime. Jordy, before we go, anything you want to say, Benji?
Jordy
I really enjoy doing this episode with you. Brett not here anymore. He had to go run, but love this episode. Brothers Midas Mighty, thank you guys so much for tuning in. Please subscribe to the audio. Please subscribe to the audio feed wherever you get your audio. The Midas top podcast, 1000% free. Just do it right now.
Ben
Super helpful.
Jordy
Thank you guys for joining us tonight. Really appreciate y'.
Narrator
All.
Jordy
And as always, shout out to the Midas Mighty. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack at midasplus.
Narrator
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Jordy
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Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas
Episode Theme: Unpacking the “Rot” of Trump’s America: Corruption, Propaganda, and Authoritarianism
This episode dives deep into the ongoing ethical and economic crises under Donald Trump's regime in 2026. The Meiselas brothers examine the alarming levels of corruption, grifting, and authoritarian tendencies that have become hallmarks of Trump's second term. With signature wit, righteous anger, and their trademark banter, they discuss economic decline, flagrant profiteering, foreign entanglements, propaganda, and the human cost of Trump’s policies—while also highlighting moments of resistance and hope on the pro-democracy front.
Trump’s $2 Billion Crypto Haul
Trump’s partial financial disclosures reveal he made over $2 billion in 2025 through crypto schemes, 21,000+ stock trades (over 80 per day), foreign deals, and various licensing schemes.
Conflict of Interest & Insider Trading
The brothers allege Trump’s trading decisions are perfectly timed to political events, raising national security and legal questions.
Trump’s CNBC Interview
Trump claims ignorance about his earnings and admits his family capitalizes on inside information.
Dismal Jobs Report
The economy added only 57,000 jobs in June (half of expectations). Trump posts AI “Freedom Centers” to fake economic successes.
Spin and Counterfactuals
Regime officials repeat empty promises ("it’ll all get better next quarter!"), while blaming everything wrong on Democrats, building a false sense of crisis averted.
Media Complicity
Legacy media headlines downplay Trump’s failures, reinforcing a false sense of normalcy.
Distraction Tactics
The hosts detail how right-wing media whips up outrage over phony “culture war” issues (e.g., thermostats, "criminal algae," gas stoves) to distract from economic pain and corruption.
Creating Enemies & Cult Validation
Anything wrong is blamed on Democrats, immigrants, or invented “vandals.”
State Fair Debacle
Trump’s “Freedom 250” state fair is beset by neglect—collapsing stages, extreme heat, algae in reflecting pools—all symbolic of deeper corruption.
Negligent Leadership
Trump ignores safety warnings (about asbestos, heat, crowding), putting supporters at risk to satisfy his ego.
Propaganda Even in Failure
Regime scrambles to claim the fair is a success, even as it’s nearly empty.
Ukraine & Iran Wars
Trump withholds military aid from Ukraine, making catastrophic decisions through a nexus of personal profit, blackmail, and foreign money.
Foreign Compromise
Trump's business entanglements with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan, and others create severe national security issues, fundamentally undermining policy.
Venezuela — Humanitarian Disaster
Trump’s proxy regime in Venezuela fails catastrophically after back-to-back earthquakes, hoarding aid and contemplating quid-pro-quo deals with Maduro.
Democratic Infighting and the Need for Real Leadership The hosts lament factional fights in the pro-democracy coalition, calling for authentic, people-focused leadership instead of consultant-driven warfare.
Propaganda and Public Perception Even with the overwhelming weight of evidence, the right-wing information ecosystem holds a powerful sway on public attitudes—by design.
On Grift & Corruption
On Propaganda
On the Human Toll
Trump’s Own Words
This episode presents a bleak but vital picture of America under Trump’s rule: a country hollowed out by corruption, where the government is run for private gain, and where truth is buried under mountains of propaganda. The Meidas brothers call listeners to stay active, vigilant, and informed—highlighting both the dangers of unchecked grift and the enduring necessity of defending democracy.
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[End of Summary]