MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 9/16/25

Summary

MeidasTouch Podcast Full Episode Summary – September 16, 2025

Episode Overview

The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosted by brothers Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas, delivers sharp political commentary with a combination of family banter and advocacy for democracy. In this episode, Brett returns from paternity leave, and the brothers discuss major current events: the assassination of conservative figure Charlie Kirk, Trump regime authoritarianism, escalating right-wing rhetoric, dangerous developments at the DOJ and FBI, Trump’s foreign policy actions, and the threat to democracy in America. Through moments of humor, honesty, and incisive critique, they underscore the urgency of political engagement and the defense of empathy and truth.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Brett Returns—Reflections on Fatherhood and America ([05:15])

• Brett describes his experience becoming a father, the joy of welcoming his son Milo, and grapples with the grim national mood following the Charlie Kirk shooting.
• He notes the right-wing media’s immediate scapegoating of trans people, despite facts showing the shooter was a young white man from a “pro Trump, gun-obsessed household.” ([06:09])
• Brett laments the weaponization of tragedy for political gain and the lack of empathy from current leadership.
• He calls for fighting “every single day for a kinder America” and leadership that prizes empathy over division.

“As I sat in the hospital … I tried to take a step back from the world and the news. But as you all know, sometimes the news follows you.”
— Brett, [05:22]

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2. The Assassination of Charlie Kirk: Right-Wing Propaganda & Moral Clarity ([08:00–22:00])

Condemnation and Media Manipulation ([10:54])

• The brothers quickly condemned the violence, expressing sympathy to Kirk’s family, but insist on moral clarity: Kirk spread divisive, hateful rhetoric.
• The right-wing response “rewrote” Kirk’s legacy, with national tributes glossing over his bigotry.

Notable Quotes

“Charlie Kirk was not a good guy when he was alive. Okay? He said very divisive and hateful things. I’m not afraid to say that publicly because it’s true.”
— Ben, [10:54]

Right-Wing “Both Sides” Disinformation ([16:40])

• Brett dissects how major Republicans and right-wing media conflate random anonymous left-leaning comments on social media with official statements, while ignoring dangerous rhetoric from top right-wing leaders.

“…they conflate random comments with all those people and then they ignore the actual dangerous comments coming from hugely influential figures in the Republican Party.”
— Brett, [18:50]

Direct Evidence of Kirk's Rhetoric ([15:40])

• The brothers play audio of Kirk calling for the death penalty for President Biden and demeaning women and minorities ([15:40],[19:53]).
• J.D. Vance, temporarily hosting Kirk’s show, denies these statements, but evidence is presented immediately after.

“He calls for the death penalty against former President Biden. At the time when Biden was in office … But one of the things with complacency and when corporate news doesn’t call that out is they allow that type of hate speech to be normalized.”
— Ben, [16:17]

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3. Trump's Authoritarian Moves & Institutional Decay ([22:27–41:55])

Weaponization and Incompetence at DOJ/FBI ([31:17–41:55])

• The Trump regime purges seasoned FBI and DOJ officials, installing unqualified loyalists such as “Thomas Fugate III, a 22-year-old former intern” and podcast personalities like Cash Patel and Dan Bongino.
• The brothers warn the focus of leadership is now “narrative building,” not actual law enforcement, turning agencies into vehicles for propaganda.

“But you don’t put people in the FBI like Cash Patel or Dan Bongino, who are just straight up propagandist podcasters, essentially MAGA influencers, who are there not to find the truth … but are there to set a narrative.”
— Brett, [38:24]

Spreading Disinformation and Scapegoating ([42:42])

• Cash Patel claims the shooter left a “destroyed” manifesto that the FBI will “forensically recreate,” leading the brothers to mock the absurdity.
• Patel previously insisted the FBI was sitting on Epstein evidence; now under Trump, such claims are ignored.

Scandals Hidden in Plain Sight

• New York Times exposes Trump family/UAE crypto deals and secret tech transfers.
• Recent lawsuits brought by fired officials: top FBI officials and Maureen Comey (prosecutor in the Epstein/Maxwell cases).

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4. Foreign Policy: Trump’s Lawless Military Actions & Weakness Abroad ([56:56–76:11])

Extra-Judicial Killings: Fishing Boats in Venezuela ([56:56–65:26])

• Trump orders U.S. military to destroy small fishing boats in the Caribbean, claiming—without evidence—they are “narco terrorists” carrying cocaine.
• Trump posts “ISIS-style” execution videos online, providing only a vague “visual proof” (white blobs allegedly representing cocaine) instead of real evidence ([62:15]).

“So you take a look at what Donald Trump said earlier today, where he was asked, like, are you going to give proof that this is narco terrorism? [...] He’s like, you’ve got the proof. It’s white. You see the white.”
— Ben, [62:15]

• Brett points out these actions mirror past lies (e.g., photo-shopped gang tattoos, fabricating criminal ties), and criticizes the military's complicity.

International Weakness—Russia’s Aggression ([68:41–76:11])

• Trump shows no meaningful response to Russian drone attacks on Poland (a NATO ally), denies attacks even took place, and refuses to condemn Russia.

“Here you have the Prime Minister of Poland … posting a statement saying, yes, this is happening ... And that was Trump’s response. He goes, I'm not going to defend anyone.” — Ben, [74:05]

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5. Economic Chaos, Lies, & Grift ([65:26–69:47])

• Trump’s regime presents inconsistent economic messaging: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says “Trump’s economy starts in 2026,” contradicting himself from July, when he took credit for a strong GDP.
• The brothers mock the shifting narrative and call out the “Game Genie” effect—where MAGA figures play by entirely different rules.

“It's like when I grew up … there was a thing that you could attach to your Nintendo, it was called Game Genie … It’s like the way the current media dynamic is set up … it's almost like Game Genie of debating.”
— Ben, [69:47]

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6. Threats to Democracy, Free Speech & Empathy ([77:31–End])

• Discussion of Rubio’s bill: would permit revoking U.S. citizens’ passports for “regime-disapproved political speech”—direct attack on civil liberties ([77:31]).
• Growing comparisons to authoritarian states—Brett warns “Russia has invaded the U.S., not by weapons, but information.”
• Throughout, the brothers return to the need for leadership grounded in empathy, facts, and real democratic values.

“We need to elevate leaders who don't see empathy as weakness. We need to find leaders who don't pit us against each other ... We owe this to the next generation.”
— Brett, [09:54]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Club Rose Garden … a elite club for the cabal, the Republican cabal. Our taxpayer dollars are paying for steak and wine for rich people at the White House as they ripped apart our Rose Garden.”
  — Ben, [03:20]

• “They don't care about the facts. They care about setting a narrative. They care about riling people up. They thrive in the chaos. They thrive in the division.”
  — Brett, [38:24]

• “While we have free speech, while we have the right to speak out, we are going to speak out and we're not going to villainize our fellow Americans here.”
  — Brett, [48:43]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [05:15] — Brett’s return, fatherhood, and America’s state
• [10:54] — Condemnation of violence, Kirk’s divisive rhetoric, and right-wing myth-making
• [15:40] — Audio clips of Charlie Kirk’s hate speech
• [19:53] — J.D. Vance’s denial, followed by direct evidence
• [22:27–23:29] — Republican leadership’s dangerous rhetoric on violence
• [31:17–41:55] — Institutional collapse at DOJ/FBI; the propaganda regime
• [42:42] — FBI’s unsubstantiated claims about shooter’s “destroyed” manifesto
• [56:56] — Trump’s orders to destroy Venezuelan fishing boats; lawless military policy
• [62:15] — Trump’s “proof” of cocaine, executing suspects at sea
• [68:41] — Shifting economic narratives, “Game Genie” analogy
• [72:27] — Trump’s non-response to Russian aggression in Poland
• [77:31] — Rubio’s passport revocation bill and threats to civil liberties

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Tone & Style

The MeidasTouch brothers maintain their trademark blend of passionate, informed critique, and brotherly camaraderie. There’s frequent use of humor and sarcasm, especially in confronting the hypocrisy and absurdity of MAGA propaganda. The language is frank, sharper when describing the regime’s abuses, and heartfelt when discussing values and vision for America’s future.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a robust, fast-paced dissection of U.S. political crisis points as of September 2025. The Meiselas brothers emphasize the stakes for democracy, the normalization of fascistic rhetoric, and the need for moral, empathetic leadership. It’s essential listening for those wanting a reality check amid a flood of misinformation, and a rallying cry for defending democratic values—now more vital than ever.

Transcript

[Ben]

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[Brett]

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[Ben]

Welcome to the Midas Touch Podcast. Brett is back everybody. Brett, a new father. I want to hear about all of. I want to hear that from you Brett, firsthand. And I'm sure our audience wants to hear from you as well. We've got a lot to discuss as well, obviously. Additional details have emerged now about the killer of Charlie Kirk Tyler Robinson, 22 year old White from a religious family, gun toting family in the words of his mom from Utah, with you know, familiarity and connections there with the kind of religious institutions there. I want to talk about all of that. Kind of fitting the profile of what we've seen of these shooters in school shootings. Talk about that. We'll talk about Donald Trump attacking through the United States military, a new fishing boat off the coast of Venezuela and posting an ISIS stock assassination video right there or killing video. We'll play that for everybody. And then we should talk about just some of the other current events taking place. A story about how Donald Trump was tipped off by Benjamin Netanyahu before the attack on Doha, Qatar. Donald Trump has denied that's the case, but this scoop from Axios points out that three military officials had confirmed in Israel that Donald Trump knew. Donald Trump lies about everything. There were bad economic numbers that came out at the end of last week. Donald Trump tries to say that we're in this golden age. And then, though you have. Well, we're not. While it's some of the worst economic numbers imaginable, we're seeing a lot of Trump supporters being very vocal about it as well. I mean, a lot of farmers we've been seeing now as it's becoming real because, like, you know, the soybean farmers were in September, they're like, so you're telling me that China is not buying any of our soybeans anymore? Like, there's no cargo ships going out? Nope. There's zero. And so the farmers in the United States are absolutely freaking out right now. But then I think there's the symbolism as Donald Trump hoists up the oligarchy. Right? I mean, and you see it visually, the ballroom that Trump's building in the White House. I don't know why nobody's challenged that with a lawsuit. That should be instantly challenged, but it's, it's going to be even bigger. 40% bigger or bigger guest capacity than previously advertised. Who's paying for this? Why do we want a gold ballroom right now? As most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and really can't afford their groceries right now and can't afford their rent or can't afford their mortgages. You have Donald Trump ripping to shreds the Rose Garden, turning it into Club Rose Garden, which is a elite club for the cabal, the Republican cabal. Our taxpayer dollars are paying for steak and wine for rich people at the White House as they ripped apart our Rose Garden. Donald Trump also posted over the weekend, people waving from the top of an exclusive New York City club. It was called like Club Cipriani's or something, which is like a club, restaurant and hotel, like a membership club that caused that costs thousands of dollars a month. And then like, if you want to get a hotel room, it's like $9,000 for three days. Like, hello, everybody from Club Cipriani. I'm sure that appeals to the American people at this particular moment right now. So, Brett, great to see you. Let's get. We have a lot of issues to get into, but I know we gotta. We gotta talk about Brett being Papa Brett right now.

[Brett]

Yeah, it's. It's great to be back, everybody. I picked quite the week to. To go away, huh? First, I want to thank Ben and Jordi and the incredible team for holding it all. And of course, I gotta thank you all for your kind messages. For those who don't know, my wife and I welcomed our first child into the world. Not this past Friday, but the Friday before. It's a boy. His name is Milo. He's the most amazing thing to ever come into my life. My heart is full in ways that words will not be able to capture. And as I sat in the hospital and I spent those first few days at home with this incredible little guy, I tried to take a step back from the world and the news. But as you all know, sometimes the news follows you. And I watched that heinous shooting of Charlie Kirk and the reaction that's followed. I saw the finger pointing and the propaganda and the right wing media machine rushing to blame trans people. A tiny, already marginalized and vilified community that just wants to live with dignity. They just want to exist. And then we find out, like Ben said, it was a young white man raised in a pro Trump gun obsessed household, and we still don't have a full understanding of his own beliefs. And still they twisted themselves into knots to try to pin this all on trans people. And even when the facts in their own story that they are now pushing would mean that a trans person actually helped authorities in the aftermath, they continue to scapegoat trans people. This wasn't the act of trans people. It doesn't represent Democrats or leftists or conservatives or Trump supporters. It's not because he went to one semester of college in 2021. This was the act of one killer. It's something we've been seeing over and over and over again. These lost young men whose beliefs do not necessarily fit into a left versus right dynamic. Oftentimes, these are just black pilled kids. I don't know if you ever heard the term black pill. Essentially nihilists. And in a moment like this, you'd expect to have a president who would lower the temperature, remind us that we're all Americans, as every president has done in the past when we've been met with crisis. But instead, we have a president who lit the powder keg in the first place, and a regime eager to weaponize this tragedy, using this death to suppress free speech, to tell you what the approved opinions of the state are to try to further their political agenda. And while the killing was horrific beyond words, I know we've talked about this and condemned it in the strongest possible terms here at Midas, the rush to celebrate such a divisive person I think has been a complete betrayal to so many. As we see flags being forced to fly at half staff, sports teams rushing to sanctify the guy glossing over the real harm that he caused with his toxic rhetoric, comments he's made about black Americans, the hatred he's directed towards Martin Luther King Jr. And the Civil rights movement, his comments about LGBTQ people, the way he wrote off kids being killed in schools as a welcome trade off to block gun control, his own calls for executing political leaders like Joe Biden. Everyone seemed to brush aside 911 remembrances. They ignored schools being shot up on an almost daily basis to honor somebody who caused really great harm. And meanwhile, you see Trump now and his propagandists working overtime to downplay political violence directed at Democrats. They're trying to rewrite recent tragedies like the killing of the Hortmans, calling it, saying that it was done by a liberal, a secret liberal. That's like their new line that they're using or pretending like they don't even know these people existed. You see Trump and Stephen Miller calling for purges of democrats from society. J.D. vance calling the left lunatics who are behind all the violence in our country. Elon Musk says he's changing his AI Grok because it's giving the facts that most acts of violence are committed by right wingers. And he says that's cringe and woke up. Yeah, I don't think it's the facts that are the problem here. And just today, the last black Washington Post editorial columnist was fired for simply posting a Charlie Kirk quote. What does it say? That when you quote the guy verbatim, his followers get angry and corporations fire you. I think these teams that are honoring this individual should be forced to play a montage of clips of him in his own words so that people could see exactly what they are celebrating. Yes, the shooting was sickening, as we've said, but this response has been really ominous. And we're seeing all this as the world and the country burns. As I mentioned, we have kids being massacred in schools. For those who had the misfortune of watching that gruesome video of him being shot, that's what's happening to kids all the time. But it's not on camera. And people on the right sweep it under the rug. There are deadly bombings in Ukraine, by Russia. Every day. Children in Gaza starving. Entire cities are reduced to rubble. You see hostages being tortured by Hamas. And if you speak up for the kids being killed in schools and demand action and not just prayer. They say you hate Christianity. And if you speak out for the innocent people in Gaza, they call you anti Semitic. And if you demand the hostages be freed, you're accused of supporting genocide. So my question to everybody is, how could we live like this? You know, I think it's unsustainable and I don't know how this ends. But I do know we have to fight every single day for a kinder America. We need to elevate leaders who don't see empathy as weakness. We need to find leaders who don't pit us against each other, who don't lie and exploit chaos for power. And Ben, I think that fight is really our responsibility here at Midas Touch. If not for us, for our sons and our daughters, I think we owe this to the next generation. No matter how much kind of backlash we get along the way of doing this, I think it's important that we stick to those values and that we continue to fight for our shared humanity as Americans, as a community.

[Ben]

You know, it's why instantly after the shooting took place, we didn't hesitate for a moment. And we condemned violence in all of its forms. We talked about how horrible it is. We sent our thoughts and prayers and sympathy and genuine feelings of sadness to Charlie Kirk's wife and to their children, to that family. But then we also were very clear, because we have to exercise moral clarity during these moments that Charlie Kirk was not a good guy when he was alive. Okay? He said very divisive and hateful things. I'm not afraid to say that publicly because it's true. Brett, as you pointed out, most of the stuff that he would say would be anti black, anti gay, anti trans. He said that the Civil Rights act was a mistake. He said that basically he doesn't trust black pilots. He would talk about some of the great black jurists and leaders and say that basically they're just DEI hires and the only reason they got their jobs is because they're black. I mean, he would say horrible things over and over again. He would pick these debates with kids in college who were there to try to understand the world better. And he would show up as a 30 year old guy and what do they call that, like rage bait, where he would pick the people. Then he would, you know, frame the Thumbnails of like, look, here's a crazy liberal. And Charlie Kirk destroys this crazy liberal, you know, in these, in these types of debate formats as he would, as he would travel the country. And so I was shocked and frankly horrified to see, you know, all of this rewriting about who the. About who the guy was. And again, I think we have to act with moral clarity in these times and in these situations, like we do here on the Midas Touch Network. And there was a moment today from Donald Trump's disastrous press conference that he held in the Oval Office. I think the purported purpose of this press conference conference was Donald Trump announcing that the United States military would be invading another city. They picked Memphis to be the next city that they were going to invade. But then Donald Trump talked about a bunch of other topics. He took questions, and one of the reporters asked him, so what about Melissa Hortman, former Speaker of the House in Minnesota, who was assassinated? It was a political assassination by a Trump supporter, a Republican. She and her husband were killed over the summer. Donald Trump and MAGA then spread, and they still to this day claim that the shooter, the person who engaged in the assassination, was like a liberal and that Governor Walz was responsible for it. Never expressed. There was no expression of sympathy by Donald Trump or really any acknowledgement other than Donald Trump blaming Democrats for something that was clearly Republican in Minnesota. And Donald Trump was asked about it in the Oval Office and. Well, should Melissa Hortman have the flag lowered as well and watch Donald Trump's response. Let's play it.

[Brett]

In retrospect.

[Ben]

Given all of the moving ways that this White House has paid tribute to Charlie Kirk, do you think it would have been fitting to lower the flags, to have staff when Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota House speaker, was gunned down by an assassin as well?

[Donald Trump]

I'm not familiar the.

[Ben]

The Minnesota House Speaker, a Democrat, was assassinated this summer.

[Donald Trump]

Well, if the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that. But the governor of Minnesota didn't ask me. I didn't. I wouldn't have thought of that, but I would have if somebody had asked me. People make requests for the lowering of flag, and oftentimes you have to say no, because it would be a lot of lowering. The flag would never be up. Had the governor of Minnesota asked me to do that, I would have done that.

[Ben]

Donald Trump refused to talk to the governor of Minnesota after the event, refused to have any communications at all. I do want to show this, though, so again, we could have the moral clarity here. I want to show you, just to remind you the types of things that Charlie Kirk would say. This was what Charlie Kirk said about former President Biden. And Kamala Harris is just his own words, just a clip of a clip of what he said. Here, play this clip.

[Charlie Kirk]

She, she gives these speeches and it just has this aura of totalitarianism. My team says she's Indian and Caribbean. I'll tell you what, she would be a lot easier to beat than Joe Biden.

[Ben]

A lot.

[Charlie Kirk]

I mean, Joe Biden is a bumbling, dementia filled, Alzheimer's corrupt tyrant who should honestly be put in prison and, or given the death penalty for his crimes against America. But Kamala Harris, my goodness, there's something that just kind of is tribal where people are like, I don't know if I want this crazy person running the country is tribal.

[Ben]

He calls for the death penalty against former President Biden. At the time when Biden was in office, I remember in real time we would always call that stuff out. But one of the things with complacency and when corporate news doesn't call that out is they allow that type of insightful hate speech to be normalized.

[Brett]

And by the way, with something I want to bring up, and I know you've talked about this on previous episodes, and I was gone is the conflation by the media of random person on the Internet with major leader in the Republican Party. So what I'm, what I'm trying to say here is that, you know, after they, they ran with this narrative, they look at all these Democrats who are celebrating what happened to Charlie Kirk and they would pass around all of these various kind of montages online of random people on social Media, people with 0 likes that Elon Musk would do this all. He would boost an account that had zero likes. Retweet, retweets. You don't even know if it's an American. You don't even know if it's a real person. You know nothing about this individual who said something horrible about the shooting. And they say, look at the Democrats celebrating this. When all the actual Democrats, all the actual thought leaders on the left, if you want to call it that, anybody of a position of influence, I don't think I saw a single person say anything, but express how horrified they were and send their condolences. And when you looked at what was happening on the Republican side of things, you saw the people at the highest levels. I'm talking Donald Trump himself, who's continuing with this rhetoric. J.D. vance, Stephen Miller, senators, congresspeople. Did I say Elon Musk. Elon Musk, if I haven't said Elon Musk yet. All these major accounts like the Libs of TikTok and the Gunther Eagleman and you name it, all these top MAGA influencers, their immediate thing, this is war. We're going to show them they're next. We're coming for them. They don't even know a thing about what the hell just happened. They don't know you even did it. Especially at that time. They started running with these narratives that it was a trans person and all this bullshit. And I really just think it shows how both sides are graded in very different ways. The media conflates random people with the actions of an entire massive group of people, an entire political party. People who are just fighting for affordable health care and housing and people who just want to live without fascism. They conflate random comments with all those people and then they ignore the actual dangerous comments coming from hugely influential figures in the Republican Party.

[Ben]

J.D. vance then was hosting the spot that Charlie Kirk used to host, and he was kind of filling in. And J.D. vance was saying some of the most heinous things as well. The left did this. This was the leftists and. But then J.D. vance says Charlie Kirk never said black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. He never uttered those words. Well, let's take a look at this side by side right here. Let's play it. The writer accuses Charlie of saying, and I quote, black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously. But if you go and watch the clip, the very clip she links to, you realize he never said anything like that. He never uttered those words.

[Charlie Kirk]

If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been called the racist. But now they're coming out and they're saying it for us. They're coming out and they're saying, I'm only here because affirmative action. Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.

[Ben]

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's heinous, heinous stuff. And that's what he would go around and he would tour colleges and he would say things like that. You know, J.D. vance also during this show that he hosted, he's like, while our side of the aisle has its crazies, it's a statistical fact that the lunatics in America come from the far left. And I'll play that in a moment. But I just want to be very clear that that's actually not the statistical effect. It's actually the exact opposite right there. And you know, from a study that was done over the course of a 10 year period of about 5,500 or so school shootings and shootings that took place in general, the left wing extremists was a very small portion. And overwhelmingly like more than 65, 70% were right wing extremism. Like by far was coming from right wing extremism. And Brett, to your point, we're seeing the statements resonate from, from different areas. There's a difference between random people on TikTok out there doing certain things who are being identified as left, whether they're even left or not. But it's like random people who nobody ever heard of and Donald Trump and the leaders of the Republican Party doing it top down and, and making the calls and making the order. Here's what JD Van said on that show. Let's play that. Then I want to show you what Donald Trump's been saying during the whole campaign. He would say this over and over again about Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul, who was targeted in an attempted murder by like a MAGA extremist. But here's, here's what JD Van says. Let's play it. And while our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left. I'm just completely false and irresponsible. Really.

[Brett]

Evil.

[Ben]

Evil, irresponsible. You're the Vice President of the United States. You're not. No. By the way, that rhetoric, you know, even if it would be protected by free speech, I, I would certainly want to call it out, but you're not some rando TikTok troll. Like, you're the, you're the vp, you're the Vice President, you work in the White House. Like that should mean something. And we all know Donald Trump's divisive Oval Office speech where he's blamed the left and Donald Trump's continues that. But just a reminder, this is the type of stuff that Donald Trump would say over and over again on the campaign trail. Here he is talking about Nancy Pelosi's husband, who at that time was recently the target of an attempted murder. Someone broke into the House, the Republican mag extremist guy. Based on all the anti Pelosi rhetoric that Trump and Magas spewed, went in there with the hammer and tried to kill Paul Pelosi. Here, play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

We had no terror during my administration. The only terror we had was Nancy Pelosi, who's a crazed lunatic. She's a lunatic. She is a crazed lunatic. What the hell was going on with her husband? Let's not ask. Let's not ask. I'll withdraw that statement, by the way. She's got a wall around her house. Obviously in that case it didn't work very well, did it? It didn't work.

[Ben]

He's making jokes about it. He's making jokes about the attempted murder, thereby encouraging more of it. He was also spreading a right wing deranged conspiracy that Paul Pelosi was having a homosexual relationship with the guy who showed up to try to kill him. And that's why he was in his underwear at the time of it. And then Don Jr. Would post photos of that, like I think it was Halloween of October, 2024, 2023 of like, here's the underwear. I'm going as Paul Pelosi with a hammer in the underwear. And they would spread this over and over again during them, during Donald Trump would repost videos of then President Biden being bound, gagged and shackled as though he was being kidnapped in the back of a pickup truck. And Donald Trump would repost the videos of that. I mean, actively encouraging these acts of domestic terrorism and violence. And then Donald Trump got rid of the domestic terrorism and violence people at the FBI and he brought in a 22 year old intern named Thomas Fugate III who was previously a gardener and then intern for Trump with zero experience about national security, FBI, counterterrorism. That's the guy in charge. That's the guy in charge right now. I want to talk about that. I want to talk about, you know, the recent military strike on the, on another fishing boat off the coast of Venezuela. Donald Trump reposting the video. Like an ISIS style execution video. He's reposting and bragging about it. I want to talk about some economic data. You have Howard Lutnick at the end of last week saying, you know, Donald Trump's entire economy, it really starts 2026. This isn't his economy. It's still Biden 2026. Let's talk about that and more. Let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, please hit join on our YouTube right now. Become a member. The memberships have been really helpful in helping our overall network grow. So join, become a member and gift memberships to as many people as you can. We'll be right back after our first quick break of the show.

[Brett]

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[Ben]

Welcome back. Welcome back. Jordy is on papa duty. I was. I paused there briefly because that's usually where Jordy says thank you to our sponsors and give them a support by clicking on the links in the description with the discount codes in the description below. Don't you worry. Jordy will be joining us on Thursday.

[Brett]

We're all dads now. Ben, that's great. What a crazy development, huh?

[Ben]

I know, I know. So it is. It is. It. But it is a beautiful, lovely development. Amidst all of this chaos, it's something that brings me joy. And the fact that this Midas Touch community is growing brings me a lot of joy as well. Knowing that this is a community ultimately that spreads empathy and spreads joy. And you just think about other things that Charlie Kirk had previously said, and it mimics what Elon Musk said, that empathy is bad. We shouldn't. Empathy is weakness. I don't feel any empathy. Like, they would say things like that over and over again, like it was an attack on things that were just. To me, at the end of the day, who says, I hate empathy? It's one of the most important things that you can show as, as a human being. Empathy, love, joy, trying to bring human connections, you know, with each other.

[Brett]

I just, it is unfathomable to watch somebody like an Elon Musk who, the second this happens, he's like one of the first people to tweet. Remember, he was one of the first people to spread the, the bullshit about Pelosi, also spreading the. The gay rumor that they did to deflect from the actual heinous act time. Again, Elon Musk was like the first person to tweet out, the left hates us. We need to attack or we will be killed. Like, how irresponsible. When you are the biggest account on a platform that you own, as powerful as Twitter or X or whatever we're calling it. And that's your first instinct. So you have real power and real influence, and you could use it to do literally anything at that moment in time. You could use it to calm people down. You could use it to encourage people to look for the best in each other. And instead you use it to inflame. You use it to Try to start a civil war essentially. It's just, it's just such a disgrace. It's just such a disgrace from everybody in the top right now.

[Ben]

You know, part of the American experiment and really emerging from the enlightenment and the enlightened thinkers of the 17th and 18th century was this creation of order, creation of compromise, creation of democracy and fostering it because there was a history of chaos and a history of kings and arbitrary, capricious and reckless authoritarians. And it's just interesting, right, that 17th, 18th century, the revolutionaries, if you will, were trying to create a stabilized order, you know, and now we're here in 2025, where there is a, with all of this access to potential information, how there is this return to chaos and disorder back from like the dark ages in a way, as information can be manipulated so easily and quickly by bad faith actors who, in the fog of all the disinformation and pitting Americans against Americans and people against the world, against each other. Right. It's not a unique American experience. If you followed what happened over the weekend in the UK with the Unite the Kingdom far right wing extremist event that they had there, which is very reminiscent of far right wing things here. It's international in scope. You go through various countries and you see far right wing movements using similar playbooks, similar types of language, anti migrant to, you know, to divide, but to create this disorder. And who's getting, who's, who's benefiting from this while all this is taking place? The richest people, the oligarchs are crushing it. They're making so much money right now basically pickpocketing everybody who's fighting, while everybody's fighting, cash has basically fallen out of their pockets while the rich people suck it up basically and then are engaged in all of this, either unlawful or unethical or shameful type of behavior where no one's even paying attention to this. I mean, you see, you know, New York Times, who I haven't been happy with on a lot of stuff, they did a great expose about what was going down in the White House, the anatomy of two giant deals, how the UAE got these like top secret, top of the line chip technology, semiconductor technology from the Trump regime authorizing it. And in response, Donald Trump's family, and as the article suggests, Steve Witkoff's family, who are involved in this venture together called World Liberty Financial, where this crypto went public, recently brought in what like 1 to 2 billion dollars to help fund this entity that they were creating together. Then UAE would get access to, to These semiconductor technologies that they can then give to China and others which could be harmful to the United States national security interest. But the Trump family, and according to this article, the Witkoff family could have been benefiting and then the Witcoff family and the Trump family because it wasn't a direct quid pro quo. It was just two deals happening around the same time. They weren't connected to each other. But over and over again we are seeing this take place in full and, and, and in plain view. I wanted to call that out. One of the things though, Brett and Midas mighty, that was very clear as well. And I touched upon this before we went on the break. Like as you got Thomas Fugate III, this 22 year old former intern leading counterterrorism, or you've got these right wing podcasters like Cash Patel and Dan Bongito leading the FBI, how utterly incompetent they are, how inexperienced and I just think about the demonstrative microcosm in Utah of what we don't even know is taking place, of how less safe we are right now because the FBI has been gutted. Last week you had the top FBI officials, former top FBI officials sue the FBI basically saying we got unlawfully terminated. The former acting director of the FBI, like literally all the top, the top, top, top people got fired with a little email, you're hereby being terminated. And they said because Donald Trump wanted retaliation and retribution against the FBI for investigating him, he's basically gutted the FBI of competent and qualified people, at least lots of them. And now he has these Thomas Fugates and Cash Patel's and Dan Bonginos and people like that who are not equipped and don't have the experience or nowhere near it to be able to, to be able to do it. And so we saw Cash Patel, he was at Rao's Italian Restaurant while the investigation into Charlie Kirk's killer was taking place. He posted it was the wrong person at first, then he went there and then he like claimed credit for it even though we know the FBI had nothing to do with it. It then he gave this weird speech like Charlie Kirk, brother, I'll see you.

[Brett]

In Valhalla, brother, I'll see you in Valhalla, brother.

[Ben]

People like what that, like what in the hell is this? And then though Trump's kind, but Trump likes having an inexperienced stooge at the FBI, Brett. And also Charlie Kirk knows where the bodies are are buried as it relates to the Epstein file at this point because Patel as the keshe, Patel as a Result of. As a result of it all.

[Brett]

Yeah. And one of the things we also learned from that lawsuit that you reference of those former FBI agents, it confirmed one of our biggest suspicions that we've been speaking about on this show about the. This regime. It's that they are so hyper obsessed with what people are saying on social media, specifically Twitter. What people say on Twitter, what people on Twitter are craving, that's what they want to feed. That's what they want to push. And so when you get into scenarios like this, especially investigations that are politically charged in this nature, one of the things now that I think we all have to worry about is what fake information is coming from the FBI, what are they trying to leak out there, what are they trying to push to satiate their followers, who cannot get enough of the conspiracy theories, who just want to find individuals to blame, groups to blame. And we are seeing the results of that. That, you know, of course, every person in history has their political leanings. Anybody who works at the FBI is going to have opinions because they are human beings. But you don't put people in the FBI like Cash Patel or Dan Bongino, who are just straight up propagandist podcasters, essentially maga influencers, who are there not to find the truth. Truth, but are there to set a narrative. They are all about narrative building. So once the narrative started to get away from them, once we started learning the truth about who this individual is, was, who his family is, what his background is, that he acted, you know, solo, it seems in doing this, they had to try to redirect the attention because they were getting a lot of heat. And so now you have all these other stories which were not getting really substantiated by any hard data. And we see Cash Patel continuing to use social media, not as if he's the director of the FBI, spreading tangible facts, making actual announcements from the government backed up with documentation, but instead, you see them working their web of propaganda media to push these other narratives, like Cash Patel screenshotting a Fox News article, essentially blaming transgender people. Screenshotting that and posting a screenshot of the headline that says, sources are telling FOX this. Okay, I want to hear what are the actual facts in these scenarios? We need to know what the actual truth is. I'm afraid we are simply not going to get that from this regime because they don't care about the facts. They care about setting a narrative. They care about riling people up. They thrive in the chaos. They thrive in the division. They want to see people go at each other and hate each other. Because as Ben just broke down before, as they're getting their people, people to focus on that and focus on Cracker Barrel and focus on whatever bullshit du jour they're focused on, they are stealing from the American people. They are engaged in the biggest grift, in the biggest swindle we have ever seen in American history. I mean Jimmy Carter had to sell his frickin peanut farm, put it in a blind trust.

[Ben]

Think about that as he should have.

[Brett]

As he should have. Think about how absurd that looks next to this multi billion dollar grift that we are seeing reported right now by the New York Times and what they're alleging that happened between these deals, this crypto scheme, the World Liberty Financial and the uae, it is unfathomable in any normal time this would be the biggest front page scandal like ever. Everything Donald Trump has said since the shooting, that Vance has said, that Stephen Miller has said to an inflamed tensions to say, okay, we're going to purge the left now, we're going to go after Democrats, we are going to arrest this person and that person who had nothing to do with this. I mean the fascism is staring you in the face. I know they get mad when you say, well you don't call us fascist even though they say it all the time too. But maybe stop acting like fascists. You're kind of proven the point right now that everybody's been saying so don't think you're going to silence us. Don't think you're going to silence people into complacency while you ramp up your efforts to try to suppress any sort of dissent. It's not gonna work on us. It's not gonna work on the Midas Mighty, it's not gonna work on people who are simply fighting to live, to exist, to coexist with others, to fight for democracy, diversity, equality, justice, you name it.

[Ben]

Remember what Charlie Kirk. I think we have this clip of what Charlie Kirk said, what Kash Patel said about Charlie Kirk this morning and about Charlie Kirk's killer, that there was a manifesto that was found that can. That, that it was found but it was destroyed. But that the FBI is going to recreate a manifesto about the killer saying he doesn't like Charlie, doesn't like Charlie Kirk. It will be forensically recreated. But it was destroyed. What is it? What does this even mean? I think we have the clip of him saying that. Let's play it. If we've got written note was there. Did he write a written note before, before the assassination attempt. That's what the governor said yesterday. And what did that say, if you could.

[Cash Patel]

What I'm able to say, I'm sorry. So what I was. What I'm able to say is I addressed it partially earlier, is that the written note we believe did exist and we have evidence to show what was in that note, which is. And I'm going to summarize, basically saying I, the suspect wrote a note saying, I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I'm going to take it. That note was written before the shooting. Evidence of existence, we now have learned, existed before the shooting was in the location in the suspect and partner's home. But we have since learned that the note, even though it has been destroyed, we have found forensic evidence of the note and we have confirmed. Confirmed what that note says because of our aggressive interview posture at the FBI.

[Ben]

Is he saying that they're going to recreate a note that was destroyed? They're going to write the note that is destroyed with what they say is. Should be on the note. Is that like, where he's going with that?

[Brett]

It seems like it, right? It's. I mean, that's. They're going to write it from their memory.

[Ben]

They're going to. They're going to write it from their memory. What the note, I mean, isn't a white left, liberal Democrat. Did you know. And here's the thing, too, right? You had Charlie Kirk. You had Charlie Kirk spreading all of this hate and spreading all of these things like that. And Charlie Kirk was also someone who had said, release the Epstein files, too. Right. And you had Cash Patel as somebody who was out there saying, you know, saying also before that, his very position in the FBI was hiding the Epstein files, but if he were to ever be appointed it, he was going to show it. Like, do you remember what Cash Patel was saying before he was there? I think we've got one of these clips. Let's play one of them.

[Cash Patel]

You know, it's the same thing with Epstein's list. It's like, what the hell are these Republicans doing?

[Brett]

Oh, I saw you give out. I saw you make news this morning about that. I gotta get to that.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Brett]

You say that the FBI has Epstein's list. They're sitting on it. That doesn't seem like something you should do. You're protecting the world's foremost predator. That seems like an evil, evil thing to do, regardless of who may be embarrassed in the release of that list. Why is the FBI protecting the greatest pederast, the largest scale Pederast in human.

[Cash Patel]

History, simple, because of who's on that list.

[Ben]

And then they just move on. Right now, now that you have Cash Patel, who's the head of the FBI, then they're just like, yeah, nothing, nothing to see here. Even though we know Donald Trump's name was on it over and over again. And now they want to what, use this purge of leftist lists to use the killing of Charlie Kirk by a 22 year old white kid from a Trump family to now try to what, move the discussion away like for them? Like, oh, we don't talk about the Epstein list anymore. We're just going to talk about the purge right now of leftists out there who didn't say what the regime wants to say about, about Charlie Kirk. Here's another clip. December 2023, Cash Patel said that Epstein's black book was under the direct control of the FBI at the. I think we've got this clip. Who has Jeffrey Epstein's black book, Black book, FBI. But who that is that, I mean.

[Cash Patel]

There'S, that's under direct control of the director of the FBI. Just like the manifesto from the Nashville school shooting of the Catholic school, we still haven't seen that. Right? It's not the Nashville police or PD saying we don't want this out. The FBI air mailed into that operation and said that this is not getting out because they do that, because they, this is another government gangster operation. All these local law enforcement communities get funding from the DOJ and FBI for local programs. And if you don't cooperate, you're not getting your million dollars for this and you're not getting your, and that's a lot of money to these local districts.

[Ben]

Should be noted as well that Maureen Comey, the lead prosecutor of Jeffrey Epstein and the prosecutor who successfully got the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, where she was supposed to serve a 20 year prison sentence in Tallahassee, although she was recently given immunity by the Trump regime and moved into a minimum security camp at Camp Bryan, Texas, despite the fact that women or people who are engaged in child sex trafficking are not allowed to go to minimum security facilities. Anyway, Maureen Comey just sued the Trump regime saying that she was unlawfully fired, either based on her beliefs, her ideology, her dad. It's unclear, but for improper purposes. So last week you had the top FBI people sue Donald Trump. Today you had the top federal prosecutor in New York who's prosecuting Epstein and who prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell sue Donald Trump. This isn't a left or right thing. It's about competent, qualified people. Yeah.

[Brett]

And it's like, just like, wake up, everybody. Like, I don't understand how you can't see the con that's happening right in front of you. And I can't understand how you're seeing how much you are swindled. Like, you get caught up in the same propaganda network every single time. The people that are constantly pushing all this divisive stuff saying, oh, look, liberals are angry about Sydney Sweeney. No one gives a. Okay, I'm telling you, nobody cares. Cared about that. Oh, look at everybody. They're so angry. Look at the Cracker Barrel. Look at what they're doing to you. Some corporation made a decision and you decide now to direct your hate at liberals and Democrats. Stop falling for the calm as these billionaires are bleeding you dry every single day as they distract you, they are picking your pockets and you are thanking them for it every single day. And we should have at least, at minimum, minimum, leaders who are able to get up there and are able to lower the temperature, leaders who are able to call out actual bad things that are happening and not villainize a large chunk of Americans, not try to use the action of one individual who you know nothing about, to try to smear and silence and crush an entire other group of people who are just trying to exist in this country. What we're seeing right now, it's so obvious. They're following the Nazi playbook. They really are. Every day right now, it's like they're looking at what happened then and how can we consolidate power? What did they do after the Reichstag fire? How could we make this that moment? They even referred to that themselves. People online were referring to that themselves on the right. I don't know what that means about what they're calling themselves, but I'll let them figure that out. But that's the moment we're in right now. And while we have free speech, while we have the right to speak out, we are going to speak out and we're not going to villainize our fellow Americans here. We're not going to blame the acts of one on an entire group of people. But we're going to call out this bad behavior coming from those in power, coming from people like J.D. vance, coming from people like Stephen Miller and Donald Trump and Elon Musk, because it is incredibly dangerous, dangerous, dangerous rhetoric that's happening.

[Ben]

Let's take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, we're going to talk about Donald Trump's announcement that another small fishing boat was eviscerated by the United States military off the coast of Venezuela, more than, what, 1500 to 2000 miles away from, from Florida, from the United States. Then Donald Trump said, said, look, there was, there was white all over the ground. So clearly that was the cocaine. Like, what, what? And then what? Yesterday he said, look, 300 million people, he was referring to America because 300 million people died last year from drugs. Even if he wasn't referring to America and he was referring to the world, 300 million people didn't die of drugs last year, I think, or even if.

[Brett]

He wasn't referring to 300 million, but 300,000, he's still overshooting it by a whole lot. Like, no matter which way you slice it, it's just the lie. And we'll talk about all this in more detail. But that's the issue that we, I've been saying non stop in the show that we've been saying. It's when, when you lie about those things, when it comes to actually issues that are incredibly important. Right? When you're lying about, they eat dogs, they eat the cats, right? When you lie about Biden's response and say he didn't do anything and FEMA's not doing for you, and then Donald Trump, Trump, of course ends up like shutting down FEMA and doing all the things that he's doing. But when you tell these lies day in and day out and then there is a crisis that happens, you need to have that trust with the federal government. You need to be able to trust what's coming out, the information that they're telling you. And they've made it impossible. I'm sorry, they've made it impossible to trust anything that's coming from any of these branches of government that have all been compromised. They made it impossible to trust official stories relating to military attacks as Donald Trump uses the military as his execution squad. If anything he doesn't like, he just bombs in the open sea like this is, this is okay now? As long as he says, oh yeah, there was drugs on that boat. We're supposed to just trust this guy. We're going to get into this. We got a lot more to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Once again, it's great being back with everybody here. We're going to take this quick break. Remember, you could support our sponsors at the link in the links in the description. Remember to follow us on substack midas plus.com Ron Filipkowski write some of the best and when I say some of the best. I mean the single best daily political bulletins so you can catch up on all the news. If we miss a story here, I know Ron always catches it. Check it out our substack Midas+.com join us on Patreon. We're going to be doing a video chat with you all very soon. Patreon.com Midas Touch Join as a member of this YouTube channel. These are all ways to support our independent reporting. We will be right back after this quick break. Don't you go anywhere. I'll be Honest, when I first tried OneSkin, I wasn't sure what to expect. But now it's become one of those products I can't live without. What I like most is how easy it is to use. Just cleanse, pat dry and apply twice a day. I've been using it twice on my face and neck and the difference in how smooth and firm my skin feels has really surprised me. I thought it might be just another moisturizer, but the results speak for themselves. Oneskin is the world's first skin longevity company targeting cellular aging to keep your skin and scalp looking and acting younger for longer. Their products like OS1 face and OS1 body use their patented OS1 peptide, the first ingredient proven to target the root cause of wrinkles and loss of elasticity. And customers rave about how their skin just keeps getting better and better over time. For a limited time you can try one skin with 15% off off using code MIDAS@OnSkinCo. That's 15% off OnSkinCo with Code Midas M E I D A s. After you purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Try one skin today. Your future self will thank you.

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[Ben]

Welcome back, sponsors. We appreciate it. Discount codes are in the description below. Support our sponsors. They help support our show. I want to talk about three things right now. I want to talk about foreign policy and I want to focus on foreign Venezuela. The United States military continuing to blow up fishing boats and say that they're narco terrorists and that that's why they're blowing up the fishing boats. Even if you assume they were narco terrorists with cocaine heading to the United States from the location where they're at, over 1500 to 2000 miles away, kind of very close to like, like Venezuela and Trinidad, as opposed to really being anywhere close to like Florida. Even if you assume that just take those facts, those the orders to kill would not be a lawful order in my opinion. But more importantly, in the opinion of military authorities, just calling people terrorists and then saying, I'm going to kill you and be judged during executioner. And you can imagine why. I mean, if you say Trende Aragua, which it is, is engaged in human trafficking, trafficking, how do you know there's not someone on the boat that they were trafficking? How do you know that one of the drug traffickers didn't bring their son on the boat or didn't bring their wife on the boat or bring somebody else? And now the United States military is just killing a bunch of, you know, just, just innocent people. And the Donald Trump is posting ISIS style videos. And I say ISIS style videos because Trump's posting execution videos, he's posting death videos. I'm not going to play it, but for those on audio, I'm showing just a still image of this small shipping boat. I mean, this small fishing boat. I don't know if it's a 24 footer, 16 foot or 30 footer. It's not a big shipping boat, a big fishing boat. I doubt it even has the fuel to even get to the United States based on its size too. It's not like it could even hold a lot of cocaine. And Trump usually keeps on saying cocaine. Today he added it, fentanyl into the mix. But the last boat he said it was carrying cocaine. We're showing an image right now that Aaron Reichland Melnick posted that just shows the distance of how far away this tiny fishing boat or the two tiny fishing boats are away from Florida at this point. Meaning there'd be a lot of other steps that can be taken just before you kill human beings. But you know, it was, I think it was Tom Nichols who said what he write today. He goes, hard to see how these are legal orders. But I guess we're past all the stuff now about legal and whatnot, whether something's legal or not legal. And. And all of this also stems from, and originates from the United States Supreme Court giving Donald Trump absolute immunity. Because if he didn't have absolute immunity and he didn't say, I'm going after, you know, terrorists, and this is what I'm doing based on. On, by Article 2 powers in the Constitution, you know, you can get arrested for this stuff, like, like a former president. If they weren't feeling bound by their own ethics and morality and right and wrong, they could be worried, oh, my gosh, am I going to be criminally prosecuted for killing people? And now the Supreme Court said, nope, you're good. You could do basically whatever you want. By the way, a judge who Donald Trump, or a law professor, rather, who Trump wants to appoint as a judge who had their Senate confirmation hearings take place in the past week and a half. Her name is Professor Mascot. She's a junior professor at Catholic University, someone who's not qualified at all to become a 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal judge. She's not even from the area that's, I think, within the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. As a lot of the Democratic senators demonstrated during their cross examination, she was asked by Senator Schiff, like, so, so you think Trump can send SEAL Team Six tomorrow to kill his political opponents, yes or no? And she refused to say no. You said, well, you know, I think the Supreme Court has analyzed senatorship said yes or no? You think he can send his SEAL Team Six to kill me to kill a political. Are you okay with that as a judge? Well, you know, I think we have to look through this security. That was her answer. It was not, no. That's where we are as a, as a country right now. So you take a look at what Donald Trump said earlier today, where he was asked, like, are you going to give proof that this is narco terrorism? And by the way, this is a new label that Trump is getting. Narco terrorism so he can go and kill people. And then the media kind of adopts that framing. Okay, so if it is a narco terrorist, then. Then you could kill whoever you want, want. And we don't need what to investigate whether there's other people on the boat or whether there's actually drugs on the boat. That's it. Narco terrorists die. Death penalty. That's. And America posts the videos now. I mean, what are. Seriously, are we in the medieval age? Like, what are, what are we Doing here? Here's what Trump said, though. He goes, when a reporter asks him, like, do you intend to provide proof? He's like, you've got the proof. It's white. You see the white. Is he talking about the infrared? I mean, is he talking about the way the overhead image looks like? What do you mean, you see the white here? Play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

Thank you very much.

[Ben]

Israel first on Venezuela. What can you tell us about this Venezuelan boat that was taken out? And do you plan to provide proof that these were narco terrorists who were.

[Donald Trump]

On their way to the U.S. well, we have proof. All you have to do is look at the cargo that was like, it's spattered all over the ocean. Big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place. And it was. Plus, we have recorded evidence that they were leaving. We've recorded them. It was very careful because we know you people would be after us. We're very careful. The military, the military has been amazing. And General Kane showed me a little while ago the clip. But you could actually see it. But you don't have to see it because we have recorded proof and evidence. We know what time they were leaving, when they were leaving, what they had, and all of the other things that, that you'd like to have.

[Ben]

Okay, so why wouldn't you show that, right? If you're going to do something, if you're going to take this step, why not immediately then have your generals show up, show the footage, show the drugs, explain, and then, and then even afterwards, articulate. Even once you prove there was cocaine in there, prove that it was going to the United States, and then justify the death of human beings like, like you killed people. So I, I justify why you murdered it, why you killed it.

[Brett]

We could go through countless examples of Donald Trump claiming one thing and it simply not being true. It's happened hundreds, if not thousands and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of times. I mean, you could look to what he did when he was, you know, sending people to El Salvador, to that horrific concentration camp in El Salvador. He sent that. Remember, he said the gay hairdresser who had zero gang affiliation, nothing. But he said he had gang tattoos, ended up being tattoos that said mom and dad. That was his proof. That was enough for Donald Trump to send somebody to a supermax El Salvadorian concentration camp. Abrego Garcia, remember how much he said that he had MS.13 tattooed on his knuckles and he showed that photoshopped image that wrote ms.13 over his tattoos. And he insisted that, which just baffled me, that he, this was actually the argument that he was making that the letters MS.13 that were clearly written in like Photoshop or Ms. Paint were proof that this guy was some sort of vicious gang member who deserved to be tortured, who deserved to be beaten, who deserved to be sent out of this country. And now we're supposed to trust the same regime, him as they're telling you, just trust us, just trust us. Drugs, the druggies, the drug, they bring in the drugs and we're going to kill them. We're going to kill. We don't know who's on that boat. You know nothing about these people. We don't know if they're tourists. We literally know zero. You're just going off the word of Donald Trump, which is worth zero. It's worth nothing. And honestly, quite frankly, shame on the military for going along with these orders, which to me seem to be illegal orders that Donald Trump continues to, to push. And I think it bodes not great for the future of our country.

[Ben]

Just gonna say, and look, we should of course call out, condemn, figure out the best ways to stop drug dealers and drugs from entering the United States. We should have a multifaceted approach. We should figure out, I mean, if, if boats like that are, are, if literally fishing boats with open tops are coming in to Florida and we're not able to stop those there, there's, there. The drug dealers aren't exactly using sophisticated tactics of moving cocaine at this point because, you know, I, I, I believe the way they're doing it is actually through far more sophisticated means. They're using submarines, they're bringing it in through tunnels and they're bringing it through other means. You think they're taking open fishing, small 16 foot to 25 foot fishing boats, open tops, holding the cocaine and waving it like it's a flat. You know, it's that unless like we're talking about some like cartoon, it just doesn't seem to me that those are the Met. But, but we need to have comprehensive approaches to stop it. But that also doesn't mean that we're engaged in just like killing it. Like that's the plan. We just, we just kill everybody. So that's what I wanted to talk about. Venezuela. Now let's stick with foreign policy. I want to, well, I'll talk, let me show you this clip next. Then we'll talk about Russia. And Russia sending drones into now Poland and into Romania and into, you know, and into Eastern Europe at this point as Donald Trump shows complete and utter weakness. But you had Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary. We got all this horrible economic data with inflation surging with jobs. Jobless claims last week being one of the highest on record. As we see that people, there's far more people searching for jobs than there are jobs that exist. Really, the first time that's happened since COVID and before that since the Great Recession. All of these indicators, it's like, this is as bad as during the height of COVID yet when Donald Trump was in office. Or this was as bad as the height of the Great Recession, like when George W. Bush was in office or right at the start when former President Obama. Obama had to fix the mess that George W. Bush was created. So right now, what is Howard Lutnick saying? Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, he's saying, look. And Trump saying, we have to wait till 2027 for the Trump economy to kick in. But Howard Lutnick says 2026. Let's watch Lutnick in his own words. Here, play this clip. Inflation in August ticking up to 4.3%, the highest since 21. Manufacturing activity shrank in August, six months running. Unemployed workers exceeding job openings. If Biden had numbers like that, you'd be on Fox saying, what's going on? So the economy that Donald Trump owns starts at the end of this year. You can't get starts at the end of this year. I got it.

[Brett]

So right now, let me remind you also, what, Wait, who is this? What's the name on this tweet that.

[Ben]

I'm about to show?

[Brett]

Because I, you know, we always gotta bring the receipts here. What did Howard Lutnick say, Ben, on July 30, 2025, when he was happy with the GDP numbers that came out that month? Here's Howard Lutnick. Just a couple months ago, GDP just surged to 3%. The Trump economy has officially arrived. Biden is behind us. Look at the growth already accelerating historic investments. Congrats, America. We're just getting started. This is what Howard lutnick wrote. Wrote Jul 30, 2025. And like we've said, they think you're stupid. They think that they could just lie, that they could just make stuff up and that they could get away with it. But that's why we continue to build this platform, to grow it, to spread the truth as they spread their propaganda.

[Ben]

You know, I've given this example before, and I'll give it again. It's like when I grew up and I, you, I used to play Nintendo as a kid. There was a thing that you could attach to your Nintendo, it was called Game Genie.

[Brett]

Game Genie.

[Ben]

And when you would put Game Genie on your Nintendo cartridge, I don't even know how the technology worked. It would basically let you cheat in the game and you would have, like, infinite lives and you could fly and you could do all the things in the game that you, like, always wanted to do if you wanted to, like, beat these games. Like, that was what, what Game Genie did. It was like a hack. But, like the way the current media dynamic is set up and the way someone like a Howard Lutnick or Trump or who or whoever, you know, engages in all this bad faith stuff, it's almost like Game Genie of debating. It's like, on the one hand, if you're on the left or whatever, or pro democracy, you have to be so intellectually consistent. You have to have every graph and data and chart. If, God forbid, you're wrong, you could lose your job. If you misspeak once or if you say one thing, if you could be done, it's, you know, and you're, you're judged by this sensor. Well, Governor Newsom, why are you posting these types of things? You're the governor of California. You supposed to be, you know, more dignified than making posts like this, calling Donald Trump names or, or calling Stephen Miller names. Like, why would you do that? And, you know, you see all of that. And then on the MAGA side, their Republican leaders can say anything and then say 20 completely inconsistent things and things that are so heinous that should otherwise be disqualifying. And it's like, yeah, that's just who they are. That's what they do. And Howard Ludnick says, yeah, sure, he said it's a Trump economy, but now it's not the Trump economy. Like, like, okay, whatever. I mean, just think about what I'm about to show you right now. And I'm not going to play the game. Oh, could you imagine if Obama said this or if Biden said this or whatever? Like, Donald Trump's the only president in recent history under which a NATO ally has been attacked. Poland was invaded the other day by Russian drones, clear as can be. No condemnation from Trump about it. Trump denied that it took place. Russia didn't deny that it took place. Trump's denying that it took place. And, and, and then the Poland Polish foreign minister, he's like, it took place, it happened. And then Russia feels even more emboldened and more emboldened. And when Donald Trump was asked about it, like, what are you going to do? Donald Trump's like, yeah, like I'm not really going to even take sides here. Like, watch what Donald Trump says on the Fox morning show here.

[Donald Trump]

Play this clip and we're going to fix this system.

[Brett]

What are you going to do about President Putin? Because we just saw these drones in Poland.

[Cash Patel]

Yeah, well, more, more sanctions.

[Donald Trump]

I mean, I'm not going to defend anybody. But the Poland, they were actually knocked down and they fell into an area. But he shouldn't be close to Poland. Anyway. I'm very. So I solved, as you know, seven wars.

[Ben]

Seven.

[Donald Trump]

I did so many, including Pakistan and India.

[Ben]

But, but big ones he didn't do Pakistan and India. One of the other ones he takes credit for is bringing peace to Congo where there are dozens of people who were dying on an almost daily basis in Congo from like an ISIS backed group over there. India said Donald Trump had nothing to do with the, with the peace there. And you promised that there would bring peace in 24 hours to Ukraine, which he didn't, by the way. There was, there's Russia's doing it again today. They're Russia, through Belarus put more, sent more drones into Poland as a provocative action, knowing that Trump's not going to do anything about it. And you have the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, posting a statement saying, yes, this is happening and we're activating our military. And that was Trump's response. He goes, I'm not going to defend anyone. There's quite literally an Article 4, Article 5 defense pact with NATO. Your job is to literally defend NATO in this situation. And Donald Trump doesn't, and Donald Trump doesn't do that. And he promised there would be peace in 24 hours from the election. And not only is there not peace in 24 hours, Russia's invading NATO allies now with drones and Trump's doing nothing. And then you go back three weeks or four weeks, whenever that Alaska meeting was. Trump said, if there's not a ceasefire, I'm going to put sanctions on Russia. Okay, well, there wasn't a ceasefire. But he goes, but that Donald Trump's like, I did great. I negotiated that. There's going to be a bilateral or trilateral talk with Putin and Putin's good with security guarantees. Putin was not good with security guarantees. He was not good with a bilateral or trilateral meeting. And then Putin accelerated the attacks on Ukraine and there were far more attacks on Ukraine than ever before. The biggest drone strikes have taken place recently. Double, triple the amount of attacks on Ukraine and innocent Ukrainians under Donald Trump versus former President Biden. That's just the reality of where things are right now. But like any one of these things, I mean, what Donald Trump say today, Donald Trump posted, he calls Zoran Mamdani his little communist. And Donald Trump attacked Governor Hochul for endorsing Zoran Mandani as the, as mayor of New York City. And then Donald Trump said that the federal government will not give New York City or New York money if they elect Mamdani. That's an impeachable offense, in my opinion. That's criminal right there. Will that even register and be a front page story? No. Will it even be a story in many newspapers or just maybe a passing reference? No, it won't be. But corporate news would write about former President Biden stutter all the time, front page every day, that saying that Biden had, you know, all these serious health issues and that that's why doctors were going into the White house, which was 100 false at the time. But it's just, it's a com, it's, it's a different game. Right. It's a different set of rules. So I'll, I'll leave it at that. But I want there to be, I just want the truth to get out. And there's really nothing that I feel like, I say in these episodes that's like, like you're a leftist. That's so liberal of you. You know, I just think, I'm just saying, like, okay, let's be empathetic, let's be normal. Here are the facts. I don't think America should just be killing people without like a real strong, the strongest of strong justifications. Again, like, I, I, I, I don't think any of this stuff that I'm saying should be controversial.

[Brett]

Yeah. And that's one thing that they've tried to do, you know, is shift the kind of Overton window so much where you wanting normalcy, Were you wanting just people to abide by the Constitution, abide by our laws, our norms, to restore some sort of dignity to our institutions, to be able to trust anything that comes out of these law enforcement agencies, to be able to have call for leaders who are going to turn down the temperature, not inflame divisions? These are all things that I think all of us should be fighting for. And that should not be a radical thing to do. But in the Trump era, I guess that has become a radical thing to do because they have just pushed this horrific rhetoric and this, these horrific actions every day, and they have normalized that and the media has let them out. Ben, to your Point we've seen that media machine that when they want to turn something on and focus on something and make it the story that they talk about out every single day like a Biden health issue, like they would not give up. It was. They were relentless with it. They have the power to do that. And I think that's one of the things that just upsets me so much when we see these just flagrant violations of the law every single day. And it maybe gets a little blurb or maybe gets a little offhanded comment that kind of. Then both sides it with.

[Ben]

But then again this.

[Brett]

But then again, aren't drug dealers bad without even like looking into what's actually going on here. And so, you know, we've got a lot of challenges ahead of us here. And we see that this regime wants to silence anybody who is speaking the way we speak, anybody who is speaking against their actions. We see people like Marco Rubio, who once prided himself as an actual conservative. He viewed Trump back then. Remember, he called Trump a con man can. What's he doing now? He's in on the con. Marco Rubio is now pushing and a bill would allow him that the Republicans are pushing to allow Marco Rubio to strip US Citizens passports over their political speech. So you say something that the regime does not approve of, you say something negative about Charlie Kirk, you post a quote of his that they think makes him look bad, you say something bad about Donald Trump, Trump, bye bye passport, they take it away from you. That's the country that these people are bringing in. And I would just urge all Americans, you do not want to live in a country like that. That's Russia. And in many ways, it feels like Russia has invaded the United States not by weapons, but via information, via disinformation, via the way that they have taken over the federal government via their proxies of people like Donald Trump and J.D. vance and all of their stooges. And so, you know, as I said earlier, I don't know how this ends. I don't know where it goes. But we're going to keep fighting every single day. We're going to keep pushing for the truth. We're going to keep pushing for normalcy. We're going to be keep pushing to bring the temperature down and to push back against leaders who are trying to inflame tensions, who are trying to divide us and because that's all we could do. And so I once again, I want to thank everybody so much for the warm welcome back. I've been reading all your comments throughout this episode and my heart is so full from reading them. And I hope it's a reminder of, you know, the good in the world as well. We've got a whole lot of people watching right now. I hope that you all take a chance if you're watching this on YouTube or Facebook or wherever you may be watching this to go ahead, download the audio podcast on the Midas Touch podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, you name it. If you've already done that, that leave a five star review. I think it's more important than ever that we're combating kind of the algorithms, this disinformation machine that the right has built up and not combating it with lies and inflammatory rhetoric, but combating it with the truth, combating it with a steady voice, combating it with facts first. And I think in this moment in time that is very revolutionary. And it's great to, you know, be doing this with all your you.

[Ben]

Great to have you back, Brett. We love you. Congratulations. Congratulations to your wife, the real hero in this story. Although you're you're the co hero. Congratulations to your wife and of course, welcome to your new baby boy in this world. And we'll do our part every single day to make that world a better place for him to grow up. And thanks everybody for watching. Hit join. Become a member gift memberships now too to as many people as you want to or can. That helps. Go to midasplus.com leave a five star review of the Midas Touch podcast and audio. We're climbing those audio charts again, so it's very helpful. We're number one on YouTube. I want to get to number one on audio. So subscribe. Leave reviews on audio that goes a long way. Just search Midas Touch podcast on wherever you get audio podcasts. Subscribe. Leave comments. That helps. Thanks everybody for watching. We'll see you next time on the Midas Dutch podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

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