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- [00:02]
Ben Meiselas
Welcome to Ben on Breaking news. I'm Ben Meiselas, and this is the breaking news. We're going to talk about how it appears the United States is imminently going to invade or attack Iran. Trump and the regime are calling it their big plan. And, you know, it appears that a military strike may be imminent. Whether that means it's in the next 24, 48 hours or in the next week or so, all signs are aligning that there does appear to be a military strike that's going to be taking place. Now, you'll recall that back in last June, when the Trump regime attacked Iran, they said that all of the nuclear facilities were absolutely obliterated. Remember, that was the word they use, obliterated. Well, now they're saying that Iran needs to agree to stop enriching uranium and stop building nuclear facilities. So I guess it wasn't obliterated. And remember at the time the Midas Touch network was saying all the intelligence saying it's not actually obliterated. And, you know, yeah, I mean, we, we struck Iran, we used stealth bombers, but it didn't seem to achieve the military objectives that Trump claimed at that time. And so here we are. We'll talk more about that. Talk about the Trump regime further attacking Canada. Seems that there are secret meetings taking place where the Trump regime is meeting with these fringe separatist groups from Alberta, who may also be working with Danielle Smith, the Maple MAG leader of Alberta, and trying to perhaps hatch a plan for Alberta to secede from Canada as Donald Trump is increasingly jealous and angry at the success of Prime Minister Carney, whose approval rating there is through the roof and who's really become a leader of the free world. People in Canada and the Midas Maple out there are absolutely livid at this latest plan by Donald Trump to try to get Alberta to secede. It seems treasonous and traitorous, and it's very similar to what Putin tries to do in the Donbas region and how Putin tries to annex and take over territory. So we'll cover that in some detail as well. Talk about what's going on here in the United States where we appear to be on the eve of another government shutdown. You know, MAGA Mike sent all of the MAGA Republicans and the whole House of Representatives in general home for another vacation, which was a ridiculous thing to do knowing that we were approaching a government shutdown. It appears that in the Senate there may be a deal being made regarding an appropriations package there where the Department of Homeland Security funding, which funds ICE and Border Patrol, may be kind of carved out and removed from the package that they're seeking to pass to keep the government funded and then deal with what the Senate's going to do with the Democratic demands as it relates to ICE and Border Patrol. You all know my feelings. ICE and Border Patrol should be abolished. Not only that, all these people involved in the terrorizing of our community should be prosecuted. In addition to abolish, I think, you know, the Democrats are talking about, or some Democrats in the Senate are talking about, oh, we'll take off the mask, you know, have some stipulations that they can't wear their masks and body cams and things like that, which to me does not even go anywhere close to what should be done. But. But let's just assume they reach a compromise in the Senate, which would piss us all off, but just assume they do. The House of Representatives is adjourned. Right. They're in recess right now because Maga Mike's been too busy hanging out with Nicki Minaj and talking about Nicki Minaj's coats that she was wearing in Washington, D.C. maga Mike has refused to address the murder of Alex Pretty. When he was asked whether or not there should be an independent investigation regarding the murder of Pretti, MAGA Mike Johnson said, oh, I. I think it's too soon to be talking about that. Like, why would you be against an independent investigation regarding the murder of Pretty? But Maga Mike has basically gone radio silent, sent the House into recess. So let's just assume a deal is made in the Senate that has to go back to the House. Now, if the House of Representatives was working right the way we all are working, then they would show up and then they would be able to deliberate and they could hold hearings or they could give speeches from the floor, and then they could vote on it one way or another. But the House is adjourned. The House is in recess. And so I think the earliest you'll have a vote in the House is Monday. The earliest and maybe later. And now lots of MAGA people in the House are saying, well, if the Senate does a compromise with Schumer and some of the Democrats there, well, then we're going to make sure we put certain things and send it back to the Senate. And so you just look where we're heading. Remember earlier this week when I was doing videos on Monday talking about the government shutdown, and I said, I believe it's going to happen. Everyone's like, nah, you're just being hyperbolic again, Ben. That's like the Story of my life is everybody accuses me in the network of being hyperbolic, but then, you know, it's right on target. You know, the bullseye is there. We're just telling you what's happening. And it was obvious that the Senate was going to make some alterations to the appropriations bill that was coming out of the House. And if there was a alteration, that would mean the House would have to vote on it again, and they weren't there. So it seemed this was obviously where it was going. I don't think it took a rocket scientist to figure it out. Although I'll take credit for being a rocket scientist if you want to give me credit. Credit for such things. Jake Sherman from Punchbowl says right now it sounds like House Republican leadership will send out a notice when the Senate passes something, but no one in the leadership seems confident they are going to return any earlier than Monday. Exactly. That's what you were saying last Friday. Friday. And so. And meanwhile, you have people like Anna Paulina Luna kind of these, these MAGA people saying, well, we're going to put stuff in the bill when it gets sent back to us. So then if that happens, remember how a bill becomes a law. It has to look identical in the House as it looks in the Senate. So if the House makes any alterations, then it goes back to the Senate. So we could be looking at another government shutdown. In fact, we will. The government would shut down Basically Saturday at 12:01am so tomorrow's Friday. So we seem to be heading in that direction. We will be covering that every step of the way as, as. Well, you know, I know this doesn't get a lot of attention, but I think it probably should. You know, I, I do videos on this every morning, you know, and it's not just for me to regurgitate, oh, Donald Trump post this crazy thing. It's to contextualize it all in where we are right now as a country. Because I don't want to normalize Donald Trump's behavior the way corporate news just accepts it. And they say, ah, that's just Donald Trump being Donald Trump. I mean, just think about what happened this week, too, right? You have the Trump regime. They sent FBI agents to go into the Fulton county election office to take the 2020 ballots away. Then they had the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard take part in leading the operation for reasons that are entirely unclear other than Donald Trump. Tulsi Gabbard, Cash Patel, Pam Bondi are people who are not to be trusted.
- [08:41]
Interviewer/Co-host
Right.
- [08:41]
Ben Meiselas
I mean, the doj, the FBI, and Trump, they're covering up a child sex trafficking ring right now. They're covering up the Epstein files. And here we are, approaching February. Only 1% of the Epstein files have been released. But what they just did is they raided the Fulton County, Georgia election offices, took the 2020 ballot. Just to remind you, in Fulton county in Georgia, there was three separate recounts and a hand recount of every ballot, in addition to an additional computerized recount in addition to another computerized recount. There were many courts that heard this. Trump appointed judge, Republican Secretary of State, Republican governors. But here we are in 2026, where the American people are struggling, the dollar is crashing. Americans are psychologically tortured, living paycheck to paycheck. They're lucky enough to get a paycheck. Health care is being ripped away from people by this cruel Trump regime. Congress is on another vacation caused by MAGA Mike Johnson. And Donald Trump is talking about golden ballrooms and arches that he wants to build. And he's having the FBI raid the Fulton county election offices to take the 2020 ballots with the Director of National Intelligence. Then you have people like Sidney Powell, one of the biggest election conspiracy theorists out there posing for photos, laughing in the American people's faces. Her and Ed Martin work together, and Ed Martin's a top DOJ person who's obviously part of the team coordinating this. You have all of that going on, and then you have Donald Trump making posts like this, accusing former President Obama of treason. This is a post for Donald Trump. Treason. Trump stuns reporters after declaring Barack Obama will face justice. Or how about this post? This is a post right here from the President of the United States. Though it pains me to say this, this was a post last night. Maybe it's time to shut the fuck up and let him cook. Shut the fuck up and let him cook. That's a post from Donald Trump. A repost. Then you had Donald Trump posting videos from Dr. Oz. Dr. Oz has been in LA recently. And the same way the Trump regime's been attacking the Somalian community in Minnesota. You have Dr. Oz of Turkish background in LA attacking the Armenian community. And he stands in front of the Lavash Bakery in Los Angeles and says, this right here is the center of where the fraud is committed. The Armenians, with their own dialect, look at what they're involved in. Look at what they're doing out there. Doing. They're doing the health care fraud and the hospice fraud. That's just the same playbook that they did against Somalians. They're Doing it in la. And they're saying, look what we did to Governor Walls. We attacked Governor Walls. Let's attack Governor Newsom the same way by going after the Armenian community. He's like, look what happened over there. A $16 million fraud was committed by this Armenian group with this fake hospice. And they were Prosecuted by the DOJ. They were prosecuted. Unfortunately, Dr. Oz, there is crime, and you don't have the individual who commits the crime as a proxy for an entire nationality. So, yes, there have been crimes committed by lots of different people from lots of different ethics, ethnic and national and religious groups, and people get prosecuted. That's what law and order is. But in 2026, to see Dr. Oz standing in front of a bakery and pointing around and saying, look what we're going after. We're going after the Armenians now, the Armenian community is absolutely livid and pissed. And as a former litigator in Los Angeles, I work closely with, with a lot of Armenian lawyers, I've worked closely with a lot of Armenian doctors. And these people are pissed right now at what Oz and Trump are, are doing. And while, while all of this is going on, too, there was also a post from Donald Trump last night on social media where he again called Alex Pretty a domestic terrorist. And that's, you know, that's the new tone. Remember, people like, oh, there's a new tone. Taking the new tone. Like, what do you mean, new tone? What are you talking. You think Tom Homan is a new tone? Kava bag. Kava bag guy, right? 50,000 in a Cava bag, which he denies, but refuses to talk about it, refuses to produce the. There's allegedly video of it. That's the guy who you say is new tone, by the way, Homan has been in Minnesota now, and in his first press conference, I think we've got this clip of Tom Homan saying, I warned you, Minnesota, that there would be bloodshed if you didn't stop the anti ice and anti Border Patrol rhetoric. I warned you and you got the bloodshed you deserved, basically, is what he says. And he says it in, like, he's not yelling, you know, but he's saying those words. It's just he's putting on an act where he says it in a more calm way. But, I mean, it's horrible, the things that. Listen to what he said today. Let's play it.
- [14:50]
Interviewer/Co-host
I begged for the last two months on TV for the rhetoric to stop. I said in March, if the rhetoric didn't stop, there's going to be bloodshed, and there has been. I wish I wasn't right. I don't want to see anybody die. Not officers, not members of the community, and not the targets of our operations.
- [15:22]
Ben Meiselas
I warned you there would be bloodshed. I warned you there would be bloodshed. Well, if you're sending in ICE and Border Patrol, Gestapo, 3,000 of them, and you're causing the bloodshed and people are upset and peacefully protesting, what do you think is going to happen when you're the cause of the bloodshed? While all of this is taking place, I'll show you this video right here. I mean, the Magda Republicans are not even just having a let them eat cake moment. I mean, they have another one of these Eyes Wide Shut parties at Mar A Lago. Did you see this? These showgirls in these, like, balls that they have, like, on the pool with their legs, like, legs spread open inside. Latest Mar a Lago bash with showgirls and champagne hours after ice killing. Like, that's what they're doing in Mar A Lago right now. That's what you have. Nicki Minaj being given Trump gold cards because she's, I guess she was undocumented. And her boyfriend and her family have all these heinous things in their backgrounds. And so she's been saying, I'm the number one Trump person. And she gets a gold card because I think she was undocumented. And then she meets with Maga Mike Johnson, Maga Mike partying with Nicki Minaj while our government's about to shut down. Like, again, I could say, can you imagine if Hakeem Jeffries. Could you imagine if Biden. Can you imagine if Obama. You can't. Because what we're discussing here is it's such vile and weird, disgusting conduct by these Magas. Here, let me just show you here. This is Nicki Minaj hugging Maga Mike Johnson while Congress is in recess, while our government is about to be shut down, while America is apparently about to go to war with Iran after going to war with Venezuela, after bombing Nigeria. Here, let's play this clip. I almost wore this coat today. I'm so glad I didn't. He said, I almost wore that coat today. I'm so glad I didn't. Nicki Minaj hugging Maga Mike. The height of just weird. And I'm not just pointing this out to be like, look, weird people. Although clearly weird people. The American people are struggling right now. The American people are suffering right now. And you know, Donald Trump held this bizarre cabinet meeting today where he says, I don't Want to drive housing prices down. That's not my goal. I'm not trying to drive the housing price. One of the biggest issues we face right now is, is a housing crisis, an affordability crisis, that people can't afford homes, they can't afford their rent, and they sure as heck can't afford to buy a home. And here's what Trump says during his Cabinet meeting today. Let's play it.
- [18:46]
Donald Trump
I think Scott said, though, is again, existing housing people that own their homes, we're going to keep them wealthy. We're going to keep those prices up. We're not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn't work very hard can buy a home. We're going to get, we're going to make it easier to buy. We're going to get interest rates down. But I want to protect the people that for the first time in their lives feel good about themselves. They feel like they've, you know, that they're wealthy people. And I want them to understand that, you know, there's so much talk about, oh, we're going to drive housing prices down. I don't want to drive housing, housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes and they can be assured that's what's going to happen.
- [19:30]
Ben Meiselas
Let's be clear. The housing crisis right now is a supply crisis. I know Donald Trump is no economist, but supply and demand, okay, the demand is through the roof, but the supply has been eaten up by private equity, by super wealthy people, and by the fact that the government rather spend $1.5 trillion a year on defense spending to prop up a military industrial complex or spend 300, $400 billion for ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo to terrorize the people of this country versus spending that type of money to help people get health care. Simple proposition to help people afford housing. Could you imagine if instead of Trump and Elon Musk rolling out Doge to destroy the government while, by the way, increasing federal government spending, instead of Donald Trump spending hundreds of billions of dollars on ICE and Border Patrol to terrorize the people of this country, instead of Donald Trump giving trillions of dollars in tax cuts for Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos so Bezos can help fund the Melania movie and give Melania $40 million to license a story nobody gives a crap about and it's all BS anyway that she's spewing with her shady past and dark past and then tried to put her movie in 1500 theaters. It's banned by the way, in South Africa right now, no one wants to see this thing, you know, anywhere. Imagine if all the effort was spent, though. Instead of doing socialism for billionaires and welfare for billionaires, these efforts were put to build homes. And imagine a world where instead of masked agents, ice, Border Patrol, Gestapo, roaming the streets, terrorizing people in these military vehicles, instead of looking around and seeing people tortured and suffering in our streets, when we would be driving to work or walking in our communities, we would see an incredible housing project being developed of homes that people could afford and seeing community centers built and health centers being built, and the effort was spent there. And rather than attack governors and attack mayors that the President of the United States was saying, I'm going to go to your state. What can I do to help? How do we use the federal government to help build rather than destroy? Imagine if we had all of that. Well, then certainly we wouldn't be in a situation where you have Trump's approval ratings at 37, 38%, where the Americans absolutely despise everything about this regime. And then there's the gaslighting where Trump. We went to Iowa, where Republicans are very vulnerable in a lot of those seats in Iowa. We've been covering those special elections in Iowa where Democrats have flipped plus 21 Trump districts and plus 10 Trump districts. Remember those races? Mark Zimmer, Caitlin Dray and others. So that's one of the reasons Trump went to Iowa. And the people weren't buying what he was selling in Iowa. But here he says, you're not hearing about the word affordability anymore because I fixed it. Listen to him say that. Let's play this.
- [23:16]
Donald Trump
And they come up with this word affordability. And I saw it even although you're not hearing it so much anymore. You know why? Because the prices are coming down so much. They don't want it to be an election based on lower prices. But we're bringing down the lower. I like that term better. It's a lower prices. We're bringing them down.
- [23:33]
Ben Meiselas
But you're not. But you're objectively not. Especially when it comes to people's healthcare costs, home energy costs. You're not. Beef is at an all time high. You go into the grocery store, if you all have the same reaction I do, you go and you buy the normal groceries you would buy. You're checking out and maybe you bought 15 things, 15 things because you realize this is going to be expensive. And then show up on the line and it goes beep, beep, beep, which starts to sound like a like a heart monitor. And then at some point for you, it just flat lines. It goes beep when you see what it is. And it's like $295 or 300. It's always 312. It's like $312. I'm like $312. It's a, there's a milk, there's some cereal, you know, there's, you know, maybe some chicken. I go, where, how did this add up to 312? And like you literally go to the person in the cash register, you go, go over with this one more time, you know, and it's, it's not getting better. And Trump said that he would fix it, then everything would be better. And it's not. And it's not at all. We come back, we have a lot more to discuss. I want to remind you, make sure you hit subscribe here. You may think you're subscribed to this YouTube channel, but you may not actually be subscribed. So double check that you're subscribed. If you want to get Midas merch, Midas gear, go to store.midas touch.com if you're in Canada, we have Midas Canada gear that's 100% made in Canada. So you could keep the boycott going there. Then there's the Midas stuff that we make here. 100% union made in the U.S. check that out and go to Midasplus.com that's our substack. Subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast on audio. A reminder, I do the live show tonight with my brothers at 8 Eastern 5 Pacific. So tune in for that. Don't go anywhere though. We still have a lot more show. Let's just take a quick break from our sponsors. We'll be right back.
- [25:43]
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- [29:15]
Ben Meiselas
Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. Great to see everybody. So as part of Donald Trump's ranting and raving like a lunatic, he's continued to attack California. One of the things that he's claimed over and over again is that Walmart shut down 250 of its 303 California stores. Just totally false. And if you're like, but is there any, has there been rumors, is there any aspect of this that's true? Like, like, no, he just makes up numbers. But that's what he's done his entire life. I mean, he's a fraud, he's a criminal and he behaves like a criminal does. He's a, he's a liar, he's a criminal, he's a fraud. In a civil case, he's been found liable of sexual abuse. So he's a sexual abuser. He's a predator. He's on audio saying that he grabs women by their vaginas without consent because you're rich and you get away with it. He's on audio saying that he inspect girls naked at beauty pageants because when you run the pageants as an adult man, you should be able to look at them naked without their consent or, and you get away with it. I mean, he's, he's a bad human. So people like, how is he doing this? He's a criminal, he's a bad guy. So he's doing these things and he's lying. And so he said Walmart shutting down 250 stores. False. Just. And the human who hears this is usually like, okay, so did they shut down 30? No, no, just every aspect of this is entirely false. Then one of the other things that he was ranting and raving about California about is, you know, which, which it's actually not true, but if it was true, it'd be interesting. He's like, and now Newsom has the audacity to try to build low income housing in the Pacific Palisades there. You can do low income housing there, by the way. That's not what the plan is. And sometimes when people talk about low income housing in California, like, well, what do you consider to be low income housing? Like, you know, like a house that's like 1.85 million or $2 million. That's like low income. That's not low income housing. We need housing that is affordable. So even if it were true, why would we not be for figuring out ways to help people find homes? That's one of the biggest issues confronting the nation right now. People aren't asking for border patrol in ice Gestapo to terrorize their communities. They're asking for homes in their commun so people can live vibrant and productive lives. And people are asking for health care. That's what people want right now, not none of this other crap. So I want you to watch as Donald Trump's speech, where Donald Trump talks about how, you know, he goes, everyone's talking about low income housing. He wants low income housing. Why would we want low income housing at all? I think we've got this clip. Let's play this one.
- [32:14]
Donald Trump
Jeremy And I don't want a big section of the area built into low income housing. They want to put low income housing right smack in the middle of it. And that's not the American dream. You know, you didn't do that. And low income housing is great. I built a lot of low income housing. But you don't put it there. This is one of the richest neighborhoods in the world and we're going to let those people.
- [32:38]
Ben Meiselas
You don't put it there. What other data points do you want me to show you that this guy doesn't give a crap about you? You don't put it there. That's not the American dream. He says owning a home is not the American isn't at the core of the American dream that people can afford homes. What's Donald Trump saying there? No, the rich people are the ones who should be able. That's the dream is you're either a billionaire or you are working in service of a billionaire for a corporation. And you put your head down and you shut up and you do what the billionaires want. I think this is interesting. This pollster, Lakshya Jane explains Trump's underrated political weakness right now is actually low income people. In the latest polling, whites basically making what would be considered low income, who backed Donald Trump by 26 points in 2024, Trump's approval with them now is break even. So lower income white people now have just a break even approval of Donald Trump. And it should be negative because he's literally mocking you to your face. You hear him mocking you to your face. The latest Pew poll just came out. They're great pollsters. Pew has Trump at 37% approval rating right now. 61% disapprove, 26% support from Hispanics, 30% support from adults 18 to 29. And those were two groups that powered his 2024 win. And only 56% of Republicans support all or most of his policies, down from 67% last February. Only 56% of his own party support all of his policies with a 37% approval rating. You know, one of the things he's focused on right now, addition to his tariffs against the world, is attacking Canada over and over again. He called Prime Minister Carney the governor. He says he's going to impose 100% tariffs. And as Prime Minister Carney has stood up to Donald Trump, has stood up to the bully, and especially that Davos moment where everyone viewed Prime Minister Carney's speech as the best speech and Trump's as the worst speech. But a real contrast in where the world is moving. Prime Minister Carney about cooperation, respective sovereignty, collaboration, cooperation, multilateralism, free trade. Donald Trump ranting and raving like a lunatic with his fake peace board thing and alliances with Putin and Belarus and Hungary's Orban. By the way, in the Oval Office right now, have you seen the photos that above the photo of Trump and his grandchildren is the photo of Donald Trump and Putin. That's the main photo in the Oval Office. The grandkids go below the photo of Donald Trump and Putin. You know, and the Putin tactic is to find fringe groups in countries that he wants to annex and pour a lot of money into them and to use them to try to sow disunity and then annex the territory or use the fringe group as pretext for annexation invasions. And the US Is following that playbook under Donald Trump in Alberta. It's now being, there's the photo everybody of Trump and Putin in the Oval Office. This is a real, real photo. Terrible. So the Trump administration has been holding covert meetings with fringe separatists from the oil rich Canadian province of Alberta. As a rift deepen, deepens between Washington and Ottawa, it should be noted Alberta is run by a maple maga. Danielle Smith. She's a Trump bootlicker. She was one of the people who rushed to mar a lago and she's been working with Pierre pov, who's also Maple Maga at the federal level. When people thought that Maple Maga was going to take over, they were plotting basically an annexation plan with the US which in my opinion is pretty traitorous and treasonous stuff right there. I remember Daniel Smith was caught at Mar a Lago and she was basically trashing Canada right there. You may be saying, well, why would she do that? Why would they do that? Well, the corporate oil interests are very powerful in Alberta and Edmonton in the whole area. And so she's basically a proxy of the oligarchs of the right wing oil companies, all working in concert together. And Trump's working with them as well. And Delsey Rodriguez in Venezuela, though Delsey recently said or put out public statements like, you know, the Trump regime needs to stop, you know, continuing to, you know, go after us here. We need to be respected. But she maybe just be saying that for the local population to kind of keep control there. But they've all opened up Qatari bank accounts. Donald Trump runs a Qatari bank account where he now has. He sells the oil to right wing oligarchs that he knows he uses as an intermediary, a group that's been investigated for fraud and bribery before. They're the ones who are involved in the actual sales between as they play the intermediary, they're like the agents. And they donated like millions of dollars to Trump's pack. The money's then funneled to Qatar, not to the US Treasury. And Qatar holds the money and who knows? There's no oversight of it. It's like Trump's account in Qatar. But anyway, all of this is, is related with the oil interests in Alberta and all the maple Midas out there know, know what I'm talking about when it comes to Danielle Smith. So you have David E. Who's the premier of British Columbia, ndp, new Democratic Party guy, progressive, very popular premiere. Here's what he had to say. Let's play the clip of David Eby.
- [39:07]
David Eby
I'd like to just take and pause a moment. I read an article last night in the Financial Times about a group of people from Alberta. I won't describe them as Albertans who went to the White House seeking the assistance of the United States to break up our country. Now, I understand the desire to hold a referendum to talk about the issues you want to talk about in Canada. We got free speech, speech, that's important. But to go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there's an old fashioned word for that, and that word is treason. It is completely inappropriate to seek to weaken Canada, to seek to go and ask for assistance to break up this country from a foreign power. And with respect to President Trump, who has not been particularly respectful of Canada's sovereignty, I'm going to be raising that issue at this table. I think that while we can respect the right of any Canadian to express themselves to vote in a referendum, I think we need to draw the line at people seeking the assistance of foreign countries to break up this beautiful land of ours that our forefathers, our foremothers, our parents, our grandparents fought for. You know, there is a line, and especially at this time when all Canadians have to pull together, I think we can speak as one voice about conduct like that.
- [40:31]
Ben Meiselas
By now, I'm sure you all know that we've launched Midas Canada under the complete editorial control and direction of Charlie Angus. By the way, that's very important to me. And the growth of Midas touch that when we build out Midas extensions in other countries, it is to completely put a wall and avoid any kind of American centric editorial controls. If you were ever wondering, I want you to know that that's always what I emphasize because I want to be able to learn. And as an American, I shouldn't be imposing what my perspectives are on Canada, on Canadians. I'm a supporter of Canadians. And so, you know, when I was able to do this partnership with Charlie Angus, he's someone who I deeply respected, and so he runs with it on his own. I think that's important that you know that. And as we think about building out in Australia, as we think about building out in Europe, and I'm in talks in all these places, Africa, South America, Mexico, Asia, it's all about finding the right person because I give them full editorial control of, of running with it. But here's what Charlie Angus told me about what's going on with this separatist movement and Trump's support of the separatist, the movement to try to peel off portions of Canada the way Putin tries to do with Donbas. Let's play it.
- [42:03]
Charlie Angus
Well, it's pretty clear, and we've been saying this, Ben, that Donald Trump is furious that he was made to look like an absolute buffoon in Davos and that the revenge was coming fast and quick. And like, what do you do the next day? You start raising the issue of breaking Canada apart. This is. This is the Donbass playbook. Exactly. This has been in the works for some time. The Alberta separatists, these are not credible people. One of them is an ex Marine. I mean, can you say Astroturf? But what they've been doing, they've been meeting in Washington. You know, Pete Hoekstra, the ambassador to Canada, accused us of foreign interference by showing a commercial of Ronald Reagan. Well, the Alberta separatists claim that there's a $500 million slush fund on the table for them to help break up Canada. This is the play that they're going to be using against us. We have an extremist, Premier, Daniel Smith, who's been undermining Canada again and again. I just come back from Alberta in huge rallies in Calgary and Edmonton. People do not want this. But what they understand is it doesn't matter what the majority thinks right now. What matters is the ability of Donald Trump to create this impression so that he has an excuse, a provocation to act. That's the Vladimir Putin playbook. These are really, really dangerous times, Ben. We have to start calling this out. We have to shine a light. And unfortunately, our national media are being led by the nose on this. This is not a credible rallying of independence. This is about subservience to the MAGA agenda. And Canadians need to really recognize the threat that's coming at us right now.
- [43:54]
Ben Meiselas
Charlie Angus there mentions Pete Hoekstra, the United States Ambassador to Canada, who once again threatened Canada this week, saying that if Canada did not buy or does not buy America's F35s, you know, Canada's currently reviewing its acquisition of American military planes and other equipment. Hoekstra says then the US is going to get rid of NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command, NORAD, and that the US will start doing F35 operations itself over Canada without permission, that the US will start doing fighter jet patrols and circle around Canada to intimidate the population. If Canada does not buy the F35s, Canada is looking to buy the Gripens over in Sweden, made by Saab, which at a technical level, you know, may not exactly be at the level of the F35s. But in many ways, lots of countries are viewing Sweden, Saab, Gripens as better because once you get an F35. And Denmark has warned about this because they bought the F35s before Trump threatened their sovereignty, you're stuck with American maintenance. You have to rely on the Defense Department and American companies to fix everything. And if those F35s break down, which they do a lot, you have to always go beg America for help. So it's actually harmful the F35s, especially as Trump and the US threatens the sovereignty of these countries. So Canada's looking to buy these Swedish Gripens. Sweden Gripens. So we'll keep you posted there. But Denmark's warning, don't do the, don't do the F35s. And we're seeing a lot of countries not do purchases of American military products were precisely this reason. And just take a look at this other thing that just developed in Denmark. Right, right in Copenhagen City. So the people of Denmark put 44 Danish flags bearing the names of each of the 44 fallen Danish warriors who fought on the front lines with the US In Afghanistan. And by the way, if you know Danes, they love their flags. It's a big deal. And especially they love flags for everything. They'll tell you they're a flag waving people when it comes to lots of, lots of different topics, but especially when it comes to remembering and honoring fallen soldiers who fought in Afghanistan when Article 5 was invoked by the US but then the US embassy in Copenhagen very disrespectfully removed the 44 flags that were in honor of the Danish soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan. And then the embassy lied about it and said we had to do it because we weren't aware. And obviously if things are put up around the embassy, we have to remove it. Like you can't just put up things around the embassy. But then it became very clear that the flags were put up in concert between the United States and the embassy. They put it up together. And so the US Knew that this was going up, the US Embassy knew it was going up and then removed it. And then a Denmark soldier, a veteran, then just put up 500 flags. But the US tried to claim, oh, you know, this was just a normal thing, that we removed it, but everyone knows that's BS there. And just think about that. Like the people of denmark Just put 44 flags to remember the fallen souls. And the Americans got rid of it, threw away the flags, threw the flags in the garbage. Again, there is no bottom to this. By the way, Donald Trump's buddy Al Jelani, the former leader of Al Qaeda, who now is the leader of Syria, who basically destroyed the semi autonomous zone where the Kurds were in northern Syria, the Kurds who were allies of the United States, who fought isis. Ultimate betrayal by Donald Trump to the Kurdish community right there. Well, the Syrian president has arrived in Moscow this week. He met with Putin to strengthen their ties together. You know, when you can say, ah, this is so disrespectful, you know, to Trump in the United States. But actually this is Trump's alliance, right? Trump likes the bad guys, Trump likes the authoritarians. Trump, Putin. Trump sprayed perfume on Al Jelani, sniffed him and said that he was so handsome. Remember that in the Oval Office, how weird that was. And so we'll end the episode where we started, which is the United States is on the eve of yet another war. The Abraham Lincoln shipping ship group, tanker group, aircraft carrier group. That's the word I was. Aircraft carrier group. Third time's a charm. Is in the Persian Gulf region. They are, they are ready to strike. There's something being referred to as a big. The big plan is what they're getting ready for. The big plan. And let me try to describe to you what they say the big plan is. The big plan. Trump has received briefings on possible attack options developed in tandem by the White house and Pentagon, U.S. officials said. Among them is the so called big plan, which would see the US strike regime and Islamic Revolutionary Guard facilities in a large scale bombing campaign. Less involved options include strikes on symbolic regime targets, allowing space for bombings to ramp up if Iran doesn't agree to end its nuclear work, or options such as cyber attacks on Iranian banks and tougher sanctions. The officials said. Now, don't you all remember this press conference? Donald Trump, J.D. vance, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth. They went out June 21, 2025, and they said mission accomplished. That Iran's nuclear facilities were obliterated. And all the media ran with it. Obliterated. That was the headline on the newspapers. Obliterated. We won. We did it. It's another lie. Just to remind you, this is from June of last year.
- [50:42]
Donald Trump
Let's play that the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime, Fordeau, Natanz and Esfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
- [51:32]
Ben Meiselas
Except they were not completely and totally obliterated. And also, Trump said that he was going to take immediate action if Iran killed any of the protesters. And Iran killed thousands of protesters. And then Donald Trump took no action. And instead he said that it was very respectful that the Ayatollah agreed not to hang an additional 700 protesters.
- [52:01]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Very respectful.
- [52:02]
Ben Meiselas
That was the words trimmed, abuse, very respectful. You see, Trump had moved the aircraft carrier group out in order to do the invasion of Venezuela. So America didn't have the capacity to strike then. While Donald Trump told the protesters, go out there. I just want you to think about that. Trump told the protesters, go protest the ayatollah. We've got your back. While we quite literally didn't even have the capabilities to have the back of the protesters. Trump's armada, as he calls it, was in the Caribbean and had to go all the way closer to Iran, which is where it's at now. And so here we are approaching February. And at any moment's notice tonight, tomorrow morning, we will likely find out that there's another war taking place. And it will likely follow the same cycle. There will be strikes, there'll be an announcement that there was a victory that was achieved, that this was a great victory. Don't believe your eyes when you see everything else. And day by day, this regime destabilizes the world world. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the day after. Although we're in a far less stable place, the global world order right now has been ripped apart. And if you all go back and there was a book about World War I that was written by an author by the name of Barbara, Barbara Tuckman or Barbara Tuchman, about, I think it's called the Guns of August, about what led up to World War I. And I remember reading that book in college. And there was. The global world order was so chaotic that, you know, finally when there was one final spark, it created this world war situation. And then post World War II structures were created, and they were imperfect, but structures were created with America as the leader of the first free world. And we had various world organizations precisely because we saw what happened in World War I and World War II. That's why we had the United Nations. It's why we have, you know, certain world trade organizations and why we had world health organizations and lots of other institutions and G7S and NATO's and all of these things were created as ways to. In a very dark, uncertain and unstable world throughout mankind or person kind. That's just the reality was trying to create these checks and balances in a global world order. And the same way the checks and balances in our Constitution, in the United States have been gutted, absolutely gutted and destroyed. We're not in a Constitution crisis. We're well beyond it in the international world order. And it's why I focus on this, because this is deeply important. It impacts US here. When you wonder why is the price, price of beef up or why is the price of this up or why is this that it's also often connected to a broader international milieu right now. And that's why I talk about international stuff all of the time. Because everything is connected, everything is related. The right wing authoritarian movements that we see in Russia and Hungary and the alliances with the Al Jilanis of Syria and the Bukele's of El Salvador, you know, the people, this is all, all very connected. But right now, the global order and the checks and balances put in place have been disrupted, been destroyed. And everybody's trying to figure out how to rebuild. And America's like the weakest now in this world order. And it's chest thumping and it's doing, it's, it's, you know, and Trump's doing all this stuff. But look at what's forming. I mean, just look right, you had the European Union Commissioner von der Leyen meeting in India with Prime Minister Modi. You have Keir Starmer in UK meeting with Xi Jinping in China following Prime Minister Carney meeting with Xi Jinping in China. You have deals between the EU and South America, EU and Canada. You have deals that are being, you know, that are being built, generally that. And the United States is out of this. United States is. And all Trump does is wake up. I'm 100% tariffs on you. 100% tariffs on you. I'm going to invade you. I'm sending my armada. I'm sending my armada. In conclusion, don't normalize this stuff. We should calmly, rationally talk about objective facts, the objective reality that exists. I truly don't believe that anything I said on this show constitutes a democratic position, Republican position, independent position. I hope I just delivered the facts, backed it up by detail. Explain the concerns here. You could form your own opinions if you agree with me on things or if you don't agree with me on things. But we shouldn't disagree with what the facts are before us. And authoritarian regimes want to distort the facts. And we'll keep pushing forward every day on this network to do our best to tell the truth and to make these connections and to be helpful in this process and to forge this international pro democracy community that we're doing with Midas Canada, Midas across the world. And it's an honor that we have such an incredible audience from the US and internationally, you know as well, united in our desire for the truth. A reminder, the show I do with my brothers on tonight, eight Eastern, five Pacific. I love doing the show with my brothers, so make sure you catch that. Certainly a different perspective we give there on things, so make sure you check that out. A different perspective meaning same things on the facts but from the brother's point of view and letting you inside the brother banter that we grew up with and how we think about these things together with you as a community. So check that out. Store.midas touch.com get your midas gear store.midas touch.com check out midasplus.com that's our substack join right now, the YouTube channel. That's one of the ways we've grown this channel. Click join and you can gift memberships to others. Make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. And turn those notifications on so you get notified when a new video drops here. And other than that, thank you for watching. I hope you like this new format. Been on Breaking News we're calling it because I do Breaking News. That's what's happening. And keep checking back. Tell others about this network. Share this network with others. Let's keep on growing day by day. We'll keep growing this thing together. So thank you all so much. Shout out to the Midas Mighty. See you next time. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll.
- [59:35]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
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