Sickly Trump Runs Away from DC as His Term Collapses

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast: "Sickly Trump Runs Away from DC as His Term Collapses"

Release Date: June 21, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas delve into the tumultuous final days of Donald Trump's presidency. The episode, titled "Sickly Trump Runs Away from DC as His Term Collapses," offers a critical examination of Trump's actions, behavior, and the broader implications for American democracy. Combining sharp political analysis with their signature brotherly banter, the Meiselas brothers provide listeners with a comprehensive overview of the current political landscape.

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Trump's Actions and White House Changes

Destruction of the Rose Garden

The episode opens with a vivid description of the White House undergoing significant alterations. The hosts highlight the demolition of the historic Rose Garden, which has been replaced with concrete structures intended to mimic Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. This move has sparked controversy, with critics suggesting it's a blatant attempt to transform the White House into a Trump-centric emblem.

• Quote: "They destroyed the entire rose garden and put concrete all over it because they want to build a courtyard now at the White House to make it look like Mar a Lago." ([02:34])

Potential Trump Merchandise Shop

Furthering their critique, the hosts speculate that the new courtyard may serve as a venue for selling Trump-branded merchandise, such as "Trump Bibles," "Trump guitars," and "Trump phones." This commercialization is portrayed as a symbol of Trump's ongoing influence and his efforts to maintain relevance post-presidency.

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Breakdown of Administrative Communications

Isolation of Key Officials

A significant portion of the episode focuses on the deterioration of communication within Trump's administration. Notably, Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, and Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary, find themselves sidelined.

• Quote: "The Trump regime is not having any communications at all with Tulsi Gabbard... Donald Trump doesn't want to talk to Tulsi Gabbard at all. She's been sidelined." ([05:21])

Defense Secretary's Inactivity

The hosts express concern over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's lack of engagement in critical defense matters, especially as tensions with Iran escalate. Instead of addressing military strategies, Hegseth is depicted as being distracted by trivial activities, such as "smashing watermelons."

• Quote: "We got to kill the Ayatollah... What would he be doing? Well, The Coca Cola 600 champion, Ross Chasten visited the Pentagon, and he and Pete Hegseth were smashing watermelons all day." ([05:21])

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Trump's Erratic Behavior and Its Implications

Focus on Golf Over Crises

Trump's preoccupation with golf amidst international tensions is a focal point of the discussion. The hosts criticize his prioritization of leisure activities over pressing global issues, suggesting a lack of urgency in addressing potential nuclear threats.

• Quote: "You were told Iran's gonna have a nuclear weapon in a day or two... Trump goes, I need two weeks. Two weeks. I'm gonna go golfing." ([14:05])

Erratic Social Media Conduct

Trump's social media activity is described as erratic and unprofessional. His posts range from QAnon memes to personal attacks against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he derogatorily refers to as a "numbskull" and a "moron."

• Quote: "Your Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard... She doesn't know what she's talking about." ([05:20])

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Economic Critique Under Trump's Leadership

Rising Inflation and Unemployment

The hosts delve into the economic challenges facing the nation, highlighting increasing inflation rates and rising unemployment. They argue that the Trump administration's policies have exacerbated these issues, leading to higher costs of living and economic instability.

• Quote: "The average cost of a pound of ground beef is climbing towards $6... Inflation is surging." ([14:05])

Criticism of Federal Reserve Management

Trump's outspoken criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is examined in detail. The hosts argue that Trump's attacks undermine economic confidence and hinder effective policy-making aimed at controlling inflation.

• Quote: "He calls the chairman of the Federal Reserve stupid. He calls him a numbskull. He calls him a moron." ([14:05])

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False Claims About Diplomatic Efforts

Fabricated Peace Deals

A significant portion of the episode addresses Trump's false claims regarding his diplomatic achievements. He asserts that he brokered peace deals between India and Pakistan, nations with longstanding conflicts, despite official statements from both countries denying any such negotiations.

• Quote: "I think the deal I'm most proud of is the fact that we're dealing with India, we're dealing with Pakistan, and we were able to stop potentially a nuclear war through trade." ([15:29])

Contradictions from World Leaders

The hosts present contradictions from international leaders, such as Indian Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who refute Trump's claims of successful mediation. This discrepancy underscores the dubious nature of Trump's assertions.

• Quote: "Prime Minister Modi clearly told President Trump... there was never any discussion at any level about an India US Trade deal or US Mediation between India and Pakistan." ([15:47])

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Impact on American Democracy and Society

Degradation of Presidential Conduct

The episode paints a grim picture of Trump's impact on American democracy, emphasizing his unorthodox and destabilizing behavior. The hosts argue that his actions erode trust in governmental institutions and undermine democratic norms.

• Quote: "Donald Trump's way more unstable than Kim Jong Un at Kim Jong Un's craziest." ([16:56])

Public Protests and Declining Popularity

Despite initial support, Trump's popularity has waned significantly. The hosts cite low approval ratings and large-scale protests as indicators of widespread public discontent with his leadership.

• Quote: "Q1, AP, Nork, YouGov have your approval somewhere between 38 to 42%. You're the least liked president at this point in a term, basically ever." ([14:05])

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Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The episode concludes with a stark assessment of Donald Trump's legacy and the state of the nation as his presidency concludes. The Meiselas brothers argue that Trump's tenure has been marked by instability, misinformation, and detrimental policies that have strained both domestic and international relations. They warn of the long-term consequences of his leadership style on American democracy and global standing.

• Quote: "This is the most humiliating. This is truly a humiliation ritual that this vile piece of trash Donald Trump is putting us through here." ([16:56])

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Key Takeaways

1. Administration Breakdown: Trump's isolation of key officials like Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Hegseth has led to inefficiencies and a lack of coordination during critical times.
2. Erratic Priorities: The focus on personal leisure activities, such as golfing, over addressing international crises demonstrates a lack of leadership.
3. Economic Mismanagement: Rising inflation and unemployment rates are attributed to Trump's policies and his antagonistic stance towards the Federal Reserve.
4. Misrepresentation of Achievements: False claims about diplomatic successes with countries like India and Pakistan undermine credibility and trust.
5. Democratic Erosion: Trump's destabilizing behavior and misinformation campaigns pose a threat to the integrity of American democratic institutions.

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Disclaimer: This summary is based on the transcript provided and reflects the viewpoints expressed therein. It aims to present an unbiased account of the podcast episode's content for informational purposes.

Transcript

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[Political Commentator]

The guy literally destroys everything. The photo I'm showing you right now is what the rose garden looks like. They destroyed the entire rose garden and put concrete all over it because they want to build a courtyard now at the White House to make it look like Mar a Lago. Or as one person online posted, maybe they're going to make a big, gigantic Trump shop where he can sell his Trump Bibles and his Trump guitars and his Trump sneakers and his Trump phones as he and his family grift away. You know, one of the things that we're hearing from today is from the Juventus football club, the Italian soccer team, or football team, if you're anywhere but the United States, that Donald Trump used as props in the background when he held that bizarre press conference a few days ago where he was talking about going to war with Iran and how it seemed like it was going to be imminent and we got to kill the Ayatollah. And then he ended up saying, no, I need two weeks. Two weeks later. Two weeks later. But some of the Juventus players, they're saying, we really didn't want to be there. FIFA forced us to be there as part of the promotion of FIFA events in the United States. And they were like, we were standing there and it was just super weird. I was really weird. We didn't want to be there. We didn't know what the hell was even going on. From the weird to the perverse to the dangerous, it's the Trump regime in effect. So right now, the Trump regime is not having any communications at all with Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi Gabbard is the Director of National Intelligence. She should be the person with the foremost information regarding things like the nuclear capabilities of Iran. But because she recently testified before Congress under oath that Iran was not capable of making nuclear weapons anytime soon, Donald Trump doesn't want to talk to Tulsi Gabbard at all. She's been sidelined. I'll show you right here. This is Donald Trump when he was asked about his own intelligence community saying that Iran was not capable of building nuclear weapons. He was just like, I don't trust her. She's wrong. She doesn't know what she's talking about. Dude, you picked her, dude. She's the head of National Intelligence. She's your DNA. Play this clip. What intelligence do you have that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Your intelligence community has said they have no evidence that they are at this point.

[Donald Trump]

Well, then my intelligence community is wrong. Who in the intelligence community said that?

[Political Commentator]

Your Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

[Donald Trump]

She's wrong.

[Political Commentator]

But it's not just Tulsi Gabbard. Donald Trump also doesn't want to talk to Pete Hegseth, his defense Secretary. Nobody is talking to Hexif at all right now. There is no interface operationally between Hegseth runs the Defense Department and the White House while the war between Israel and Iran is escalating. And the potential for US Involvement in this war based on Donald Trump's reckless recklessness seems to increase every day. But what is Pete Hegseth doing? What is the defense secretary spending his time doing as Donald Trump and Fox and others are threatening potential nuclear war in Iran? What would he be doing? Well, The Coca Cola 600 champion, Ross Chasten visited the Pentagon, and he and Pete Hegseth were smashing watermelons all day. Day watch Pete Hegseth working hard, preparing for war in the Middle east or just smashing watermelons. Play this clip.

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[Political Commentator]

Well, Donald Trump is now in Bedminster, New Jersey. He's playing golf. Uh, he's in his safe space. He's in his little bunker. Earlier in the week, he was whining, I haven't got to play golf. Did you know that I won 34 national championship 44, 34. Titled I'm the greatest golfer ever at Bedminster, Donald Trump is posting qanon memes. Trust the plan. I was the hunted. Now I'm the hunter. Nothing can stop what is coming. The golden age meme by Donald Trump. 45. 47, 48. That's right. I'm going to be the 48th president. Also very normal behavior. I'm being sarcastic. For Donald Trump to be posting, we need this winning to continue. Yeah, inflation rising, going to be 3%. Unemployment rising, all of the bad mortgage rates rising. Just, you know, if you go look at things like what's the price of ground beef, for example? Right now, the average cost of a pound of ground beef is climbing towards $6. Over the past few years. The average price was $5.98 in May, the highest ever. So the price of ground beef continues to go up. Also, because of the instability in the Middle east, gas prices are going to go back up. Inflation is surging. Inflation is surging. What's Donald Trump doing? What's he posting? Post after post after post. I want you just to visually look at these three posts that I'm about to share with you. This is what this guy is doing. He writes these screeds that look like the freaking Unabomber. Like, it looks like a 51, 50 person, you know, wrote these things. But I'm not going to read the whole thing to you. But in this one, in this post, he calls the chairman of the Federal Reserve stupid. He calls him a numbskull. He calls him a moron. He goes, too late. Powell, that's his name for the chairman of the Federal Reserve complains about costs, much of which were produced by the Biden fake government. But he could do the biggest and best job for our country by helping to lower interest rates. And if he reduce them to the number they should be 1% to 2%. That numbskull would be saving the United States of America up to $1 trillion per year. I fully understand that my strong criticism of him makes it more difficult for him to do what he should be doing, lowering rates. But I've tried it all, different waves. I've been nice, I've been neutral and, and I've been nasty and nice and neutral didn't work. He's a dumb guy and an obvious Trump hater who should never have been there. I listened to someone that I shouldn't have listened to, and Biden shouldn't have reappointed him. We have virtually no inflation. Our economy is doing well, well, and will soon be doing with the tremendous tariff income coming in and factories being built all over, uh, the country. He then goes, I'll have to change my mind about firing him. Question mark. So you have the President of the United States calling the chairman of the Federal Reserve Reserve numbskull, saying the prior administration was a fake government, calling Powell a moron, saying, I've been nasty to you. I mean, can you imagine if another world leader behave this way, what we Americans would think about him? Donald Trump's way more unstable than Kim Jong Un at Kim Jong Un's craziest. Remember, we were like rocket man. Rock. Donald Trump is crazy, man. I mean, this, this shouldn't be a political thing. What I read for you is not normal behavior. Oh, and then Donald Trump spends his time whining about Fox. Why does Fox News allow failed TV personality Jessica Tarlov to, quote, soil the 5? So what? You're putting soil in quotes? Like telling you Trump's a perverted, disgusting human being. Her voice, her manner, and above all else, what she says are a disgrace to television broadcasting. Donald Trump misogynism. Her voice. I've had the best poll numbers I've ever had. Fact check. Lowest poll numbers in presidential history. Quinnipiac, AP, Nork, YouGov have your approval somewhere between 38 to 42%. You're the least liked president at this point in a term, basically ever. You've had somewhere between on the low end, 6 million on the high end. 12 to 13 million Americans show up on their weekend to protest you because we all hate you. Donald Trump then goes on to whine about Biden and whine about this and why I'm not going to read you the rest of it. It's annoying. Then Donald Trump posts the following. I am very happy to report that I have arranged, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a wonderful treaty between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda in their war, which was known for violent bloodshed and death. Pause right there. You don't know where the Congo is? I have receipts. Play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

Many, many people come from the Congo. I don't know what that is, but they came from the Congo.

[Political Commentator]

So then Donald Trump goes on to say, I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize for this. I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the war between India and Pakistan. I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the war between Serbia and Kosovo. I won't get a Peace Prize for keeping peace between Egypt and Egyp. Ethiopia. No, I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do. Including Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, whatever those outcomes may be. But the people know that's all that matters to me. That's what you're posting. That's what you're posting as an American. This is the most humiliating. This is truly a humiliation ritual that this vile piece of trash Donald Trump is putting us is putting us through here. And anybody who looks at this and is like, yeah, Donald, yeah, Trump, man. Trump. Trump. Really? You. You want to see what the Trump supporters look like? Here, let me show you this video of Forgatio Blow. And this other person, her name is like, whoa. Something. I don't even know. Whoa. Whoa. Karen or something. I don't know what her name is, but this is. You know, there's tens of millions of Americans, I guess, like this. And. And this is why Donald Trump says he likes the poorly educated. Here, play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

48Th President Trump. Show him your hat. Show them your new hat.

[Political Commentator]

Show him your new hat.

[Donald Trump]

Trump is the President, baby. Forever. 2028, no cap. How did Trump. How did Trump have you floss? How did Trump. How you floss?

[Political Commentator]

Money.

[Donald Trump]

Money. People was getting money. People was out here, man.

[Political Commentator]

Well, the. The government of Pakistan is saying we're going to recommend you, Donald Trump, for a 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. The government of Pakistan has decided to formally recommend Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention. And pivotal leadership during the recent India Pakistan crisis. Yay, Donald. The. The authoritarian regime in Pakistan who invested in your family's crypto business. Millions of dollars. They want to give you the Nobel Peace Prize. With all of their ties to terrorism and their. And the belief that they were hiding bin Laden, you're going to get the Nobel Peace Prize recommendation from the government of Pakistan. Meanwhile, the government of India says that you had nothing to do at all with any zero negotiations, that India doesn't accept any mediation by the United States. And everybody just says that you're lying. Xi Jinping says you never. I did a deal with Xi Jinping. He always wants to call me. Xi Jinping says, nope, that didn't happen. India says, nope, there was no deal that happened. You just make up conversations in your own fictitious, delusional world. And by the way, here's. So everybody can see, here's what the India foreign minister had to say. Let's play this clip.

[Donald Trump]

I think the deal I'm most proud of is the fact that we're dealing with India, we're dealing with Pakistan, and we were able to stop potentially a nuclear war through trade, as opposed through bullets. You know, normally they do it through bullets, we do it through trade. So I'm very proud of that.

[H]

Prime Minister Modi clearly told President Trump that during this entire episode, there was never any discussion at any level about an India US Trade deal or US Mediation between India and Pakistan. The discussion to halt military action occurred directly between India and Pakistan through existing channels between both armies and was made at Pakistan's request. Prime Minister Modi firmly stated that India has neither accepted mediation nor does it do so and never will do. There is complete political unanimity on this subject in India. President Trump understood the details explained by the prime minister and expressed support for India's fight against terrorism. Prime Minister Modi also said that India now sees terrorism not as a proxy war, but as a war.

[Political Commentator]

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has his Gestapo across America dressed in their face masks and chasing down migrants who are vendors serving food in front of Home Depots. And they're going in factories and restaurants and hiding out outside of courtrooms. Just take a look at what, what, what it looks like on the streets of Mexico right now. And by the way, these are the people who are apparently going to be at the World cup, who are going to be at the Olympics. They're going to be waiting there, I guess, snatching foreign visitors who show up. I guess that one of the things, too. We know inflation's rising. We know Unemployment is rising. We know there's a GDP contraction taking place. American consumers, by the way, believe inflation's gonna rise to 7.3%. I don't think it's gonna get that high, but the Fed believes it's gonna hit 3%. I think it'll be more like four and a half, 5% within the next 18 months. But look, Apollo, private equity firm Apollo. One of the things that they're worried about right now is that the economic data we're even getting about inflation is inaccurate because it's coming from the Trump regime. They've fired most of their data analysts who aggregate this data. Do you believe the Trump regime is giving you accurate data on the economy? And so almost a third of the prices now going into the CPI at the moment, the Consumer Price Index, are just guesses that are being made. And how do you think the regime is guessing? How do you think we're getting this data? That's very problematic. You go, I always say, trust yourself. You go into the grocery store, you go into department stores, you go shopping. When Trump says gas is 1 98, you go, no, it's not. When Trump says everything is cheaper and I look at the prices, I go, nah, it's actually more expensive. When Trump says there's a manufacturing boom, when factories are being shut down and people are cutting jobs, I go, you're a liar. When Donald Trump says all of these things that are verifiably false, I trust the fact that I can observe it and not what Fox propaganda or what Donald Trump saying about it. So you tell me what you think. Anyway, hit subscribe. Donald Trump's vacationing. We go. Go back. A vacation. We were all told Iran's gonna have a nuclear weapon in a day or two. A day or two if we don't do something. But Trump goes, I need two weeks. Two weeks. I'm gonna go golfing. That's how urgent this nuclear crisis is that Trump needs two weeks. Seriously. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 billion subscribers. Thanks for watching. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas plus substack for ad. Free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, hockey and more. Sign up for free [e-mail].

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