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@mintmobile.com this is Ben on breaking news. I'm Ben Meiselas and this is your breaking news. Moments ago, Donald Trump just posted the following after there was a lot of intelligence suggesting that a US ground invasion of the Kharg island was imminent. Trump posted as per Iranian government request. Please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of energy plant destruction by 10 days to Monday, April 6, 2026 at 8:00pm Eastern Time. Talks are ongoing and despite erroneous statements to the contrary by fake news media and others, they are going very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Donald J. Trump now all the posts from Iranian leadership on Iranian media suggests quite the contrary situation taking place. Iran had stated that they were mobilizing 1 million fighters for a potential ground war with the United States. This was on Iranian state regime media Tas neem and they're saying they're getting ready for a ground battle there. That same Tasnim news agency has been posting memes like this to American soldiers. Come closer, come closer. And whenever Donald Trump makes statements like that or the Iranian regime makes statements like that, I just think it's important that we observe what is actually taking place and we assess the facts and we try to separate the propaganda from the facts. And the last time I checked, Iran still has firm control over the Strait of Hormuz, not allowing US And US Allied ships through. Countries that are allied with Iran are able to traverse through the Strait of Hormuz and countries that are paying Iran are able to do that. The Iranian regime in place right now is a more extreme version of the Iranian regime that had leadership positions at the end of February when there was purportedly a deal in principle between the United States and Iran as negotiated by a mediator, the foreign minister of Oman. And one of the things that we have been working learning about as well. Reuters report that Iran hardliners who are now in control are ramping up calls for a nuclear bomb and to never agree to any form of removing the uranium enrichment process for purposes of bomb making, Reuters writes. The debate among Iranian hardliners over whether Tehran should seek a nuclear bomb in defiance of an escalating US Israeli attack is getting louder, more public and more insistent, sources in the country say. With the Revolutionary Guards now dominant following the killing of Ayatollah Khomeini at the start of the war, hardline views on Iran's nuclear approach are ascendant, two Iranian sources have been telling Reuters in the region and reporter Angus McDow. An important thing to note is that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military apparatus, the military structure has been able to assert a lot more power than the, I guess the spiritual leader this side and people who have been reporting from inside or who know what's happening is that it's more akin to a military dictatorship now asserting more authority than say when there were this decentralized mosaic leadership model where you had kind of a spiritual leader side, a domestic police force side, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps side that were all kind of having this independent but power with this kind of connective tissue with the Ayatollah at the top. The Times of Israel reported just hours before Donald Trump's statement that Donald Trump appeared to be leaning toward ordering a major ground operation against Iran involving the seizure of Iran's Kharg island in the northern Persian Gulf, with Washington convinced Tehran will buckle under such military pressure and officials from one of the countries mediating between the US And Iran was telling the Times of Israel and meanwhile from N12 in Israel media outlet out there in a leaked Cabinet recording, Israel Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir warned that the IDF is nearing a breaking point after prolonged conflict. I am raising 10 red flags, Zamir told ministers, stressing the urgent need for new laws on description, reserves and extended service. The reserves will not be able to hold out under these dramatic circumstances, he added, warning that it won't be long before the IDF is no longer fit for even routine security missions. One of the things that I think we need to focus on too is that earlier this week on Sunday, in order to manipulate the markets, Donald Trump said that in 48 hours, unless Iran left the Strait of Hormuz, the US would commit the war crimes of attacking the energy infrastructure of Iran. Then the next day, Donald Trump it's been referred to as a taco that Trump always chickens out, or whatever you want to call it, donald Trump said. We've had excellent conversations with the Iranian leadership and they're telling us that there's a productive deal that's happening. And then the markets which were crashing and the oil prices that were surging ended up rebounding towards a more manageable direction. And so now as we head into the weekend, Donald Trump is saying there's this 10 day period, but as I said at the outset of this video, what we need to focus on is what's actually happening in the region. So as long as there are still strikes taking place, which there are, as long as Iran is still controlling the Strait of Hormuz, which they are, as long as the Houthis are saying we're ready to take the Red Sea as soon as we get the command from Iran, as long as Iran has made clear that their requirements for any negotiation includes security guarantees that there won't be any Israel US Strikes against them in the future that there won't be any Israel strikes against Hezbollah in the future or any Iranian proxy groups, whether it's in Lebanon, like Hezbollah or Shiite militias in Iraq. Iran wants full reparations for the damages they sustained during the war. They want to be able to maintain their ballistic missile capabilities, and they want full control of the Strait of Hormuz and basically an apology from the United States and also US Leav military bases in the region. That's the Iranian threshold demands, which they've been reiterating publicly. On the other side, Donald Trump's been talking about, oh, we've obliterated them, we've crushed them. They don't exist anymore. You know, there's no leadership. But apparently we're negotiating with them and they don't even exist anymore. And they're, they're, they've lost. We've won the war. We've won. Well, if, if you've won the war, then why don't you control the Strait of Hormuz? You know, we could look at objective criteria. If you won, then apparently the Strait of Hormuz should be open. And so now, though, is the US Goal of all of this to open the Strait of Hormuz? Is that the end game here, which was open before Trump launched the invasion against Iran with Netanyahu back in late February. So that's what the goal is, the Islamic Republic, the regime stays in power. It's a more extreme version of the prior regime. They control the Strait of Hormuz. And what the only win would be this, the status quo of the Straight of Hormuz with the more extreme Iran after. That's the American security umbrella. We also learned something deeply disturbing from a New York Times report. It was kind of reported matter of factly and casually. Casually. But like what? Like, do you know that we have these 13 bases in the Middle east that have basically been abandoned by American soldiers? We have evacuated all of these bases because Iran's Shahid drones and other FPV first person viewing drones have been able to strike these military bases with it with impunity. And America can't guard these bases anymore. So if you can't guard your own bases, how are you able to provide a security umbrella for other countries in the region? And now apparently our soldiers who were at those bases have now been staying in hotel rooms and have been working out of hotel rooms. And Iran is working with their network of spies and other insiders to try to identify which hotels are housing these American troops. Right now you have Iran posting memes like this, as I said from the outset, two American soldiers. Come closer, come closer. Iranian cartoonist with memes like this, Trump. Iran sent me a very valuable gift, and it's a cartoon of an Iranian soldier kicking Donald Trump in the face. We've heard from Iranian leadership like Motion Razi, a senior military advisor to the new Ayatollah, saying about the United States, if their air power, which is their main force, has not yielded results, what are they expecting from a ground operation? Are American soldiers really ready to die for Israel? I guess we'll see. Yesterday, Foreign Minister of Iran Aragi said no nation in history has stood for nearly a month against the greatest nuclear armed power on earth and stopped them from achieving a single goal. This is a point of pride for all of humanity in Iraq. She said the following over and over again. There are no negotiations taking place. This was yesterday. So is it possible that there are negotiations taking place today? Is it possible Iraqi was lying? Sure, all possible. I'm just letting you know what's being said publicly, because I don't think that's being reported a lot in American media. There are no negotiations. Iran's foreign minister says the fact that they are now talking about negotiations with us is an admission of defeat, is it not? Because they're saying unconditional surrender is the only option. So why are they mobilizing all of their highest officials to negotiate with us if we've been defeated? Does that make any sense to you? For countries we have identified as friends, we're allowing them to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. China, Russia, India, Iraq and Pakistan. Right? This war spread to Iraq, where the Iraqi government has authorized Shiite militias to attack American bases there. There is no reason to allow our enemy to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The enemy must learn a lesson. Never to dare attack again. And the damage to the Iranian people must be compensated. International guarantees are not 100% guarantees. The intrinsic guarantee, the intrinsic guarantee we have created ourselves means no one dares to go to war with the Iranian people anymore. And repeatedly saying, so far, no negotiations have taken place. And a ceasefire without guarantees is a vicious cycle that repeats the war right there. Earlier this morning, Donald Trump was attacking NATO, saying NATO nations have done absolutely nothing to help with the lunatic nation now militarily decimated of Iran. The US Needs nothing from NATO. But never forget, this is a very important point in time. And this is a very important point in time. Never forget, never forget this. As the Trump regime lifts sanctions on Putin and Putin's puppets like Belarus as Donald Trump sends J.D. vance to meet with Viktor Orban next week at the same time, it's a few days before Hungary's election is set to take place. And as we learn more details about it, the extent to which Russia is helping Iran target the United States, providing supplies to Iran and working very carefully with Iran to destroy those American military bases. I want to talk right now about the no Kings protest because it's coming up this weekend, right. If there wasn't this unlawful war taking place which is crippling our country here in the United States, this no Kings would still be the highest stakes peaceful protest in the history of our nation. Now, with this unlawful war raging, with Donald Trump's unpopularity at a all time low right now, as Donald Trump has the worst popularity rating on the economy of any president, worst approval rating in history, Americans are livid. From all political parties and people who are in political. The last no Kings was huge. But this no Kings is going to be even bigger. I want to bring in Ezra Levin. Ezra, it's great to see you again. As always, indivisible. Everybody knows Ezra. Double check Ezra's. There may be a little echo right there.
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E
Turn it down a little bit.
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C
But I want to chat with Ezra about no Kings. Obviously everybody knows individual. It's a leadership movement. It's a leaderless movement though with people who are working together, you and 5051 and move on and so many great unions. We could spend the whole time talking about everybody who's involved and the local chapters. And the local local chapters.
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E
That's right.
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Deserve all the credit in the world. But Ezra got a big audience here. Talk to us about no Kings coming up.
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E
Look, this is, as you said, going to be the largest protest in American history. To put it in some context, the first no Kings had 2100 protests last June. The second no Kings had 2700 protests last October. Right now, as I speak to you, Ben, there are 3267 protests on the worldwide map this Saturday. 3267. 95% of the US population lives within an hour or so of their local no Kings. Pray, as many people are minutes away, that's how big this is going to be. But there's something interesting happening this time, Ben. You saw it last time what Republicans were doing in the lead up to no Kings too. They couldn't shut up about it. Mike Johnson and all the other ones, they were telling us terrorists, they were calling us antifa. They were saying it was going to be violent. They call it the National Guard in some states. And then what was it? It was enormous. It was powerful. It was joyful. It was nonviolent. And look, the Republicans learned their lesson. They've adjusted. I challenge you to find one single national Republican who has said the words no kings in the last month. You won't find them because they're hoping to deprive us of oxygen. They want less coverage of this because if there's less coverage, fewer people hear about it. If fewer people hear about it, they're not going to come. If they don't come, the protests are smaller. If they're smaller, then maybe this regime can hold on to power for a bit longer. So I think we've got to adjust our tactics, too. I know everybody watching this is going to go to their local protests. I challenge everybody, though, to think of somebody in their life, two or three people who agree with you that the state of the country is not good. But they're not protest types, they're not organizer types, they're not political types. You should give them the gift. And the gift is an invitation to hang with you this Saturday at the protest. That's how we build these to be enormous and historic.
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C
Ezra, it's a great point. I was thinking about that as you were saying it, and I was like, you're right. I've never recently, I haven't heard a single Republican talk about. And they clearly got their message. Don't bring it up. Pretend it doesn't exist. Let's not make it a bigger story. And then maybe it'll go away. But, Ezra, I ultimately think that. They may think that, but I believe that the. The people have been waiting for this since it was announced, and people are prepared to go out there. And this is an event that's now happens, you know, two or three times a year. People look forward to it because we can get out there and share our joy, our love of this country.
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E
That's right.
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Love for each other. Spread positivity and show in huge numbers to this country, to this regime and to the world that Americans do not want this regime in power and that this regime does not represent the val. The true values of America.
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E
Look, that is exactly right. A massive protest like this can send that message and can make people feel like they're not alone. They're part of a pro democracy movement that is going to force democracy to reassert itself. That this guy who wants to seem all powerful and inevitable and invincible, that he's actually a puny, weak president who's on the way out and democracy itself will be here when he is gone. You mentioned that this is a massive coalition effort, and you're right. This is not Ezra Levin protests or an indivisible Protestant. There are tons of national organizations doing outreach like Black Voters Matter and NAACP and Movement for Black Lives. Vota, Latino, Gosh, ACLU and Sunrise are doing incredible work with campuses to get feeder marches in coming from the campuses to the no Kings protest. But as important as all these big national organizations, it's the actual people on the ground. These aren't professional politicos. These are teachers and nurses and IT technicians. They're people who care about their community, who are looking at the conditions in this country and the world right now and saying, I got to do something about this. And one thing you can do is recruit your community out this Saturday. That does send this message you're talking about. I think that's really important for Saturday. But wild success from no Kings is not just having the biggest protest in American history on Saturday. It's also then funneling all of these new people in to on the ground organizing work that we're going to need because we see what Trump is planning to do. He's planning to sabotage the midterm elections. And when that happens, we need people engaged on the ground to push back against. That's how we're not only going to win the midterms, we're going to protect the results.
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I'll ask everybody who's watching this live right now. Throw a blue heart emoji if you will be attending and recommending to at least five people, you know, that they attend as well. So throw that blue emoji, if not just you, but you're committed to bringing five people or at least telling five people that they need to show up. Ezra, before you go, tell people where they could learn more about the closest protest to them and anything else you think that they should know before heading into no Kings over this weekend.
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Look, you can go to nokings.org and look at that big old map and you will find a protest that's right near you. If you're not the protest type, if you've never done it before, you, it's okay. There are trainings there. There are resources there. I want you to know you are welcome. This is not just a protest for Democrats or Kamala Harris voters or people who are political obsessives. This is a welcoming protest for everybody who agrees on one basic thing, that 250 years ago, this country was founded on rejecting monarchical rule on Rejecting authoritarians. And we believe that if we don't exercise our First Amendment rights when there's an authoritarian out there menacing them, we don't have those rights. So now's the time to show up, meet your community, have some fun, feel your power, and let's build for the future together.
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C
Ezra Levin, co founder of Indivisible, thank you so much. You would think that after doing this every day, 15 times a day, I would know the mute button, but, you know, it's muscle memory, I guess. Ezra, thank you so much. And we're grateful for the work that you at Indivisible does. Shout out to all the local chapters of Indivisible and the hard work that they put in. Thanks, Ezra. Thank you, Ben.
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E
And thanks to Midas actually covering what's happening on the ground.
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C
We'll be there, of course, during the peaceful protests over the weekend. As always, we'll be streaming it. And always great to have Ezra on and always great to be able to amplify all the work of Indivisible and move on and all 5,051 and to highlight the work of their local chapters. And it's, it's a, it's always a true group effort. And you know, the people who are out there passing water and the passing, you know, all those things are always, always involved. Ezra's back. Ezra, let's start the interview. What if we just kept on bringing Ezra back and just continue, continue to do the interview? I'm always grateful to have Ezra on. I want to share as well, you know, Jeremy, with everybody, just a few, few, few points before taking our first quick break. I want to share at least what went down during the cabinet meeting. It was a completely deranged and unhinged cabinet meeting where Donald Trump's now saying, we don't need the straight of Hormuz. We don't need it. We don't need it at all. We're not affected by any of this. We're not affected by any of this clip.
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And you know, they're affected. The amazing thing is we don't need the hormone strain. We don't need it. We don't need it at all. We have so much oil. Our country is not affected by this. We have more. We have twice the amount of oil as Saudi Arabia or Russia, and soon it'll be three times the amount. Chris, do you want to speak to that?
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C
Okay, that's a ridiculous thing to say when you say we don't need the Strait of Hormuz. Okay, then what are we even doing there, if we don't need the Strait of Hormuz, if our goal is no longer regime change, if you claim you obliterated the nuclear weapons last June, why would we even be talking about it if it didn't matter? And of course, I mean, so why are the oil, if we have all of the oil, then why are the prices going up? Because it's all connected, you idiot. That's why. Because the global. Because we live in something called planet Earth, the world and oil prices fluctuate based on supply and demand internationally. So sure, if US is producing certain amounts of oil, yes, we have a certain supply here. But our ability to sell that oil is based on something called markets. And market forces are impacted by what happens in these trade different moves. I mean, the fact that the leader of the United States says that, and I know he's not really the. I mean, he has that position, but he ain't leading. Then why is our, why is our gas prices, if we controlled everything, why isn't gas free here? Right? Because it obviously is impacting everything. Then Donald Trump says that all of this, all of his requests for NATO to help and allies, it was all part of a plan where Donald Trump was going to test NATO. This was a test because that's what we do. We start wars with Netanyahu that are not authorized by Congress to test NATO. Here, play this clip.
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And nobody's a match for the United States. But they're not a match for the United States. And small potatoes. That's why I'm so disappointed in NATO, because this was a test for data. This was a test. You can help us. You don't have to. But if you don't have, you know, if you don't do that, we're going to remember, just remember, remember this in a number of months from now. Remember my statements. They have an expression, a great expression. Never forget. Can never forget.
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C
That's a great expression. What in the world are you talking about? It's a great expression. Then Donald Trump again, he keeps on talking about this war as a detour. Everything was good. So we did a detour. Everybody here, let's play.
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It has been put into our country in the last year. And again we had to take a little detour. Won't be long, going to end soon. We had to take a little detour, go to Iran and we had to put out a fire.
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C
Why? What are you talking about? What the hell is that we had to put out? Who talks like that? Just even the speech pattern. We had to Take a detour to Iran to put out a fire. And what the outcome is now they control these straight up removes. That's a more extreme version of the Islamic Republic now rules the country. By the way, while Donald Trump's out there posting about 10 day extension right after making a 48 hour ultimatum. Dude, in Iran, they're just doing, they're doing mocking memes. Like when Hegset said earlier today on Iran, for years they told the world their missiles could only range 2km. Surprise. Yet again, Iran lied. You've got the head of the Iranian parliament, MB Golibouf doing like images, like mocking images of like children looking at Hegseth like he's stupid. Like, that's what they're, they are mocking all of this right now. I mean, you got don l like, you know, I guess this is what it would be like maybe a screwed up example. And so I haven't, I haven't thought through this analogy. So excuse me if it's a really bad one because it just popped into my head and do I go with the analogy? No, I'll go with it. We'll see what happens. Imagine if Covid could talk and meme and mock Donald Trump. So while Donald Trump was out there saying, like a miracle, it's all going to go away. Everything is great. Inject yourself with bleach. But Covid was like a nation and they were posting means to mock Donald Trump for saying that as the death toll continued to rise as things were getting worse. Basically, Iran is the nation that I'm creating right now. And Trump has manufactured his own version of COVID in the form of ceding American authority internationally and making America look utterly weak and destroying our economy and frankly, world economies as well. While Iran is out there like mocking the US Every day with memes and photos. And every day Donald Trump posts something else. Okay, ten days. And by the way, Easter is coming up. I forgot. Remember Trump's whole thing with COVID The whole thing aligns up. Crazy. I didn't even just realize that we're right by eat. Remember Trump's whole thing with Easter? We're gonna bend the curve right by Easter. I think by Easter there's gonna be no, like it lined up perfectly in his own demented mind with east. He's doing the Easter thing again. We're in the Easter phase, right? That. That's what this is. So I actually think it was a good analogy. Is an analogy or is it a metaphor? Just a comparison. I don't know. Let me know which one. What is that? So I'll re, I'll refine and I won't call it an analogy. If I call it a metaphor, if it's a metaphor or whatever, or just an example. But isn't that what he. Isn't that what he's, Isn't that what he's doing right now? It's the same thing. You know, it's gonna go away by. You're gonna go by. It seems that what's going to really happen is Iran's gonna forever control these strait of her moves. It's a whole different game there, right? At some point Donald Trump's gonna what, he's gonna declare a victory. What was the demented thing he said today? He was like, can I tell you what the gift was? Can I tell you the gift that they gave me? I'll tell. Can I tell him? Scott? Scott, can I tell him the gift? Okay, the gift was they let. We don't need the clip. I'm doing the clip. I'm acting it out.
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E
Scott.
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C
I removed the clip from the stack, so connected out eight ships, eight ships moved through the Strait of Hormuz, eight of them. And I saw it on Fox. I saw Fox do it. They played it for me. And meanwhile, there aren't eight ships. What are you talking about? The only ships that went through are Iranian back ships with Iranian escort. That's, that's all it was. It's making things up. It's just, it's, again, it's just deranged. Like, why are you making this ridiculous stuff up? That's not happening right now. One of the things that I keep checking for is Iran's response to Donald Trump claiming this 10 day thing. But often when Trump does 10 days, five days, he uses any type of period of time in order to then do the invasion. So if you're Iran, why would you agree to any time period with Trump when Trump uses those time periods to do invasion to, to escalate and he never, he never operates in good faith. So what do you, you know, so, so also I saw a report this morning talking about how it's expected a conservative estimate of. Not like the conservative part, like a, like a, like a safe estimate, I should say, of where American inflation is going to be by the end of this year, but probably sooner. I think it's going to be way higher than this, by the way, personally, like 4.2% inflation is going to head up in the 4. So you're going to have to do interest rate hikes, not decreases. But I Think my own prediction, I'll just throw it out there. I think inflation will hit closer to 5%, maybe more by the end. Maybe 5, 5 and a half percent. I don't know how it doesn't. Because I think that estimate factors in that. What, that, that things are going to magically get better and Trump will taco and things will become good again. I don't know what you're. I don't know what we're basing that on. Like, especially when food supply has been crushed, helium supply has been crushed, liquefied natural gas supply has been crushed. Right. Obviously. Obviously crude is, you know, supply has been crushed. So even if the war were to. Let's just say the war ended tomorrow. What does that even look like? What does it even mean? The Islamic Republic has not been decimated. That's not what's happened. So what happens there? Do you think the Arab nations are going to be happy now to live with an emboldened Iran? What do you think happens? Right. You know, especially when the Iranian hardliners. One, you know, why would they negotiate. Why would they negotiate right now for any thing other than get out, take your bases out, you know, and, and give us. And give us reparation. I mean, unless there's a security guarantee, what's going to. Why would you do it? Just setting aside, it's Iran. Just if you're thinking logically, and I know Donald Trump and his regime probably think the Iranians aren't logical, like they're probably have these biases and stereotype that the Iranians are illogical, they're not things. But if you're Iran, you're probably thinking, well, any type of ceasefire, any type of anything to give the US and Israel more time to build up where Israel's troops and morale and weapons are running very low. The US what depleted its stockpile of interceptors for a period of about maybe three to five years. Interceptor, three to eight years. I understated it. US Interceptor stockpiles depleted by, by this war could take three to eight years to replenish.
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B
Right.
- [35:57]
C
So if you're Iran, why would you, you know, why. Why would you agree to. That's why. It's just. I'm trying to study what's actually happening versus what's being said. And that's what we're going to continue to report here. Let me just. I'm going to take a look to see if Iran has responded, you know, just to see if there's any. Because I, I'm waiting. I'm waiting for that, no, they haven't got a response there. I mean, you saw the response from the G.B. golubov guy, the head of their parliament there. Let's take a look if there's any responses. You know, I'm just trying to see on the various wires or the Tasman News if, if they've said anything there so far. Eight as of eight minutes ago. Associated Press writes Iran is tightening control over the Strait of Hormuz, forcing ships to share detailed data, reroute into its waters and sometimes pay passage, creating what analysts are calling a toll booth. That's from The Associated Press. M.B. golubov posted that Iranian President Mossad Pezeshkian posted President Putin's message and the support of the Russian people inspire us in this war. The resistance and courage of the Iranian people promises new bonds that will ensure the security of East Asia by countries of the region. On behalf of the people of Iran, I thank the government and people of Russia. Makes me wonder, I don't know this for a fact, but just seeing that post happen, I wonder if it was Putin or a Putin proxy that's been speaking to the, that's speaking to either Donald Trump directly or someone in the Trump regime saying don't do the electric grid. Because you think about it, with all of the knowledge going out there that these 13 military bases have been evacuated, US military bases because Iran's precision FPV first person view drone strikes on these bases and the Shahi drone strikes, knowing the news that Russia's been giving them all of these supplies. Russia's announcing that they're doing it, Iran saying that they're doing it. And we drop sanctions on Belarus and Russia. And Russia's making literally hundreds and billions of dollars to now fund their war efforts and to fund the, to fund Iran against the United States and to fund its war, an invasion against Ukraine. You know, this strategy where Trump is moving everything to is a really establishes Iranian dominance in the region, which really means China dominance and Russia dominance in the region as well. Look like, look what's happening in the Caspian Sea. I know we don't talk about the Caspian Cena, right? Just think about the Middle East. And then you have the, on the one hand you have the Persian Gulf straight of Hormuz. On the other hand you have the Red Sea, right? That's on the kind of opposite side to the west. And then you have their own strait there. Then kind of to the what to the northeast or so ish, you have the Caspian Sea. And then that kind of connects Russia with Iran. That Caspian Sea, that's where the weapons are coming into Iran from Russia. That's why you saw some Israeli strikes in the Caspian Sea on certain ships that were believed to be kind of Russian ships bringing weapons in that area. So the war is kind of spreading in that direction as well. But with Russia supporting Iran, with Iran's President Possesski and now making that post right within the same time frame that Trump is saying this, you know, 10 day, we're not going to commit the war crimes of blowing up your facilities, it makes me wonder, I just have to think logically, right? Who benefits the most from all of this? And to me, every glaring signal is Putin, Putin, Putin, Putin. Putin is the one benefiting this the most. Right. And Iran, frankly, is benefiting and China. That's how I see it. Yeah. Some people are saying Ukraine has also hit in the Caspian.
- [40:15]
E
Yeah.
- [40:15]
C
Ukraine has had successful strikes because Ukraine realizes. And this is what's so ridiculous. Ukraine's basically protecting the United States while Trump is mocking Zelensky. Right. Ukraine's been striking in the Caspian and Ukraine's been trying to knock out Russian oil facilities as well, and energy facilities, which is a help to the US While all Donald Trump does is attack Zelensky. The latest news that just came out also, and Trump admitted to it during the, during that deranged cabinet meeting, is that America is shifting its promised weapons from Ukraine to now go into the Middle East. So there's that other data point as well. Weapons promised to Zelensky are now being moved to the Middle East. We took weapons away from South Korea. We move them into the Middle east and then they're being targeted by Russia because they're open targets there and Russia has the coordinates for. Anyway, I'm, I've been talking a lot. We have to take our first and only quick break of the show. We'll be right. It was great to have Ezra talk about no kings. Oh, a reminder, are all of you subscribed to Scott McFarlane's channel? I just want to double check. Everybody knows that Scott McFarlane. Everybody's like one of the number one trending stories of the day. But Scott McFarland has joined the Midas Touch network. He's got his channel at Scott McFarland News in 48 hours. It got a hundred thousand subscribers on his YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe to Scott's channel as well as we continue to build this Midas universe of, of channels. And Scott's doing. He's crushing it right now. So check out his channel. Scott McFarland News. All right, first and only break of the show. We'll be right back everybody.
- [41:54]
D
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- [43:00]
G
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- [45:44]
C
Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. Big shout out to all of our sponsors that make this show possible. I know sometimes those ad reads can be a little long, but you get to listen to Brett and Jordy deliver them. We all love Brett and Jordy and Jordy works out great discounts with our advertisers and I think they're great products. We only put on stuff that we like and that we use ourselves. And so I think you'd like the stuff. So get to watch it. You get to see Brett and Jordy, right? And then you get some discount code. So I think it works out in the long run as well. Just going back to that cabinet meeting from earlier as well. I want to show you some other data points as well. I thought it was fascinating. You've got this clip right here of reporter asking Trump, so are you looking to take control of Iran's oil and Donald Trump's? Like before, it's like I beat the shit out of him. I beat the shit. We could beat the out of him. What are you Talking. I don't. I would play this clip and then let's talk about it.
- [46:49]
F
The reason they want to make a deal is they have been just beat to shit.
- [46:55]
C
Are you thinking of taking control of Iran's oil?
- [46:59]
F
It's an option. I mean, I wouldn't talk about it, but it's an option.
- [47:03]
C
Is that something you thought about?
- [47:04]
F
Well, in Venezuela, we've done very well working with Venezuela. Certainly we've taken in billions and billions of dollars. And by the way, Venezuela is doing better right now than they've ever done in the history of their country.
- [47:18]
C
Venezuela just appointed the chief torturer to be their defense minister. So basically the number two alongside Delsey Rodriguez was the chief torturer individual. But I'm just trying to. I'm trying to just be logical here. And that's, you know, I want to be clear. Iran has its propaganda machine, right? So anything they say, we have to still recognize it's propaganda. It's war. War propaganda. Trump regime propaganda. I think, like, really juvenile and weird propaganda about, like, blowing things up. Blow it up. Like the memes that they do with, like, video games and trying to gamify the war. But we have to try to sift through it and understand, like, strategy and what's happening here. And so when you're using language like that, okay, you know, we beat the shit out of them and they're destroyed and we're gonna take their oil. Okay. When you say those things, even if your intention is to do those things.
- [48:34]
F
Okay.
- [48:35]
C
Which we could have that conversation about. Right? Because in the past, you had a lot of American administrations getting us into never ending wars and pretending that it wasn't about beating the shit and oil, pretending it was about other things as propaganda, but getting us into never ending wars because it was actually about those things. I guess if there's something to say. Well, at least he's saying it out loud. Okay, he's saying it out loud. But also if you're saying those things out loud, if you're on the Iranian side of the equation, number one, don't you just clip what he's saying and then show your people and say, hey, look what they're saying about us in order to kind of rally support of people around the ayatollah and around the regime. And then also, how do you negotiate with people who talk about beating the shit out of you? Like, if you and I, we're in a negotiation, although I don't know what setting it would be where there would be tension between it. But if we were In a negotiation. I've been, you know, when I was a lawyer, I did lots of deals, lots of negotiations. When I was a litigator, these glasses get so foggy. So I clean the glasses too, just so you know. It's not like I show up with dirty, because I'm gonna wake up and I'm. I recognize that my glasses are dirty, by the way. So I don't want you to think like, you know, does Ben just do. Lives with dirty glasses? Knowing it just, it just, it fogs up. I don't know if it's like a foggy room anyway. You have, I've had cases where they're litigation, right? We're in a trial, then we do a mediation on the eve of trial, right? An informal discussion to try to resolve a dispute, right? If I were to go into a mediation, not a litigation, a mediation, and start saying, I'm going to beat the shit out of you, you can never accomplish any deal because the purpose of it is to reach a outcome that may be both sides leave something on the table, but that there's a path forward. That's why it's a settlement. If you want to do regime change and destruction and obliteration, you tried that. Like, that obviously didn't work. You pretending it worked, but it didn't. So why do you care about negotiations if you've obliterated them in the first place? If they're obliterated, there should be no need for negotiations at all. You won. And if you won, we should have the Strait of Hormuz and it's done and the war's over and everybody's happy and Arab nation should be happy and everybody. And, and, and everybody's like, okay, we did it. Look at all that. Oil's down, everything. But that's not what's happening. So you need to speak with them, obviously, because we didn't totally obliterate them and we're in negotiations. So I just, from a practical standpoint, this is just deranged behavior that won't result in an outcome. And if you're anyone. And, and look, I understand that in Iran that the, that the regime are extremist kind of religious zealots who are, who are, who behave a certain way, but so is the Trump regime are religious zealots and who are, you know, who are out there saying horrific things and we're going to loiter over and kill you, and we negotiate with bombs. And, you know, one of the disheartening things to, you know, as I've observed, is to watch an American administration speak and behave the way they've claimed the enemy has behaved. And when I watch the behavior of both, at least their public appearances and what they're saying publicly, to see America behave that way and to talk about loitering over and killing you, you know, and, and again, blowing up elementary schools and killing 165 little girls and Trump talking about war crimes and blowing up desalination. It's, it's disheartening and I don't know other than to describe it. It's painful physically, I think, to, to watch and observe that. But it's counterproductive to the deal. How are we going to get a deal done if that's how you talk? And then, like, throughout this Cabinet thing, even, we call it a Cabinet meeting, a Cabinet, you know, it's. It's a version of the Apprentice, right? He's just. Do you realize that he's just doing the Apprentice shtick? Like, that's what this, that's what these cabinets are. Other than the firing part. He's doing the Apprentice stick and it's deranged. And here he is talking about, like, the, the 25th Amendment. Do we have the clip of the 25th Amendment? Let's play it.
- [53:22]
F
Embarrass. I don't want to embarrass you because I think you're of. I think she's a friendly reporter. So I'm sorry, but, you know, I can't say what we're going to do because if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here for long. They probably. What is it called, the 25th Amendment, that institute the 25th, which, which they didn't do with Biden, which is shocking.
- [53:46]
C
And by the way, there you have Howard Lutnick, Mr. Epstein island over there. And again, that's being used as propaganda by Iran as well. Iran saying, look at this, look at this crew of people. They're, like, all friends with Epstein. And that's what they're telling their people. They go, oh, you want, you want Epstein's friends to be the leaders here? You want them to pick the leadership. You want Epstein's team to, to be able to, you know, you know, take our oil. That's what they're saying also over there. Then Donald Trump continues down this path where he starts saying, I don't want a person with a mental disability to be my president. Okay, Mr. Projection here, play it.
- [54:31]
F
I said, I have no problem with it, but I don't want a person with mental disability to be my president. I mean, you don't want to have a person with mental disability being your president.
- [54:43]
C
Okay, what are we even talking about there? Then Donald Trump goes on to say how he read a story about. I'm desperate to make. I'm not desperate. I'm not desperate to make. I read a story about it. Here, play this clip.
- [54:57]
F
It would be nice if, like the fake news New York Times, which are so fake and the Wall Street Journal is terrible, terrible, terrible. I mean, I read a story today that I'm desperate to make a deal. I'm not.
- [55:07]
C
I don't.
- [55:09]
F
If I was desperate, he'd be the first to know me. Let's get the hell out of there. I'm the opposite of desperate. I don't care. I want to know. In fact, we have other targets we want to hit before we leave. We're hitting them on a daily basis. I don't talk about you. I can't talk about specifics. A lot of people, people said that wouldn't matter. Maybe it does matter. Who knows? But I wouldn't talk. It's like the question this young lady asked. Sorry about. I embarrassed. I don't want to embarrass you because I think you're, I think she's a friendly reporter. So I'm sorry, but, you know, I can't say what we're going to do because if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here for long. They'd probably, what is it called? The 25th.
- [55:51]
C
And we just, I've been waiting for this moment just to, you know, to share with. I was like, okay, when's Iran going to respond that what Trump's saying isn't real and it's just market manipulation? Well, now senior Iranian officials are telling drop site news that Donald Trump was not being truthful in his post earlier on Truth Social, announcing an additional five day pause on his threat to bomb Iranian energy infrastructure at the request of Iran. With the officials stating Trump is not being truthful. We have not submitted any requests regarding potential US Attacks. It's just embarrassing. Like, I, I don't. It is truly a humiliation ritual. A humiliation ritual as an American, to observe this behavior. To observe this behavior. And again, you can say, well, Ben, why would you trust what Iran's. Maybe Trump is telling the truth. First off, Trump never tells the truth about anything. We know that he's never told, like, literally, if there's a superpower, and I don't mean this in a complimentary way about superpower. I just mean his, his ability that every word out of his mouth is A lie. And it's an imaginary world that's not the real world. And every syllable, every sound is embedded with a lie. Even when he does that noise, right? It's a lot. Everything's a lie. I don't know how you do that without having some feeling like he does. It's so, not every word. It's a made up. It's like a, it's like a chat GPT dystopian script that just comes out of his mouth. That's just a made up fantasy world that results in Putin always benefiting in America always getting screwed and weaker. Like that's kind of, in my opinion, what, what, what we see. But also if Iran was saying these things, we would seem to have indications whether it was the Strait of Hormuz being opened, whether it was Iran stopping its strikes, whether it was Iranian leadership not engaging in certain behavior that would demonstrate escalation, or an understanding that they're not in any way backing down at all. If anything, things are getting more severe. So I can just evaluate. Wait a minute. Okay, are we in a ceasefire? No, the missiles are still being shot against each other. US and Israel continue to bomb. Iran continues to strike back. Okay, we see all of that happening. Is there any change in the Strait of Hormuz? No, nothing, Nothing there. The Houthis are saying they're ready to join the war in the Red Sea. So, okay, that's an escalation point. US is basically abandoning all its bases in the Middle East. Okay, that seems to be a sign of, you know, things. They're not going well. The Iraqi Shiite militias just got the green light. Go ahead. From the Iraqi government to target Arab nations nearby as well as where there's US Military presence and the US Military base. And we're seeing Camp Victory and Erbil in, in other areas, in Anbar, in other areas. These FPV drones from these Iranian Shiite backed militias in Iraq doing these drone swarms, flying around with impunity, striking Blackhawk helicopters and radar systems. I mean, we're seeing that. I, I can see the letters from, from Islam, from Arab nations. Right? You have ksa, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Bahrain. They, they posted a letter to Iraq and to Iraqi militias saying, can you please stop attacking us, please. I mean, there it is right there. Joint statement from these nations calling for Iraqi government to stop the militias from attacking. So I, I see these data points happening. They're not lining up with anything that Trump is saying. If I'm seeing it, Iran is seeing it, right? It's like I said before. I was like, Donald Trump was saying, well, nobody expected Iran would strike its neighbors. Nobody. Nobody. Not the. Not the ex. No. Experts predicted that. I was like, I've been saying that. That I've been personally saying it. So. And I've been saying it for five, like, four months, right? And I'm like, no offense to me and my dirty glasses, but if I've been saying it for five months, no one's telling Donald Trump this, right? Then we learned yesterday that they're doing a hype reel every day. Trump's not getting, like, real briefings. They put together, like, a music video of the US And Israel blowing things up in Iran. And that's a daily montage that Donald Trump gets, and that's how he's getting news about the war. And that just tells you. It's. It's like. It's like a group of little kids, no offense to little kids, who are, like, playing with fireworks for the first time, right? They're playing with fireworks outside. A pop, pop, pop, Whoa. Then they're playing with bigger fireworks.
- [61:19]
E
Whoa.
- [61:19]
C
And it's like, that was loud. Yeah, it's a firework. It's loud. What, you're surprised that it's loud? Oh, that's dangerous. Yeah, it's dangerous. It's like kids playing with these toys. Again, no offense to kids playing with toys. So I don't want to drag kids into this, but you get the point. And they're so impressed with the strength of our military. I'll call power and power. We know that. We know we were the strongest military we know. That's not a shocker. It's not because you rebuilt it. It's because Post World War II, America was previously the leader of the free world, and lots of countries bought weapons from America. America was the economy that was the envy of the world, Right? It was where countries put their money and parked it in our treasuries as safe investment and put their real estate here and invested in our companies here. And in response, we had these. These weapons where we were providing security, umbrellas. And we didn't have to brag about how strong we were. We just had to have a readiness model where we would be able to help out in the event that other nations were under attack, working with our allies together. Biden didn't have to say, oh, we're so strong. I'm so strong. So he could have. But it's a deranged way to behave, because strong people don't behave that way, right? Whose strong people do you know run around? Oh, I'm so strong. The only people who do that are really weak people pretending to be strong. Right? And that's been Donald Trump's whole life, pretending to be what he is is he got his daddy's money. If he didn't even put his money where he put it, he would be a very rich person because of his daddy's money. He's failed over and over. His daddy had to bail him out a ton of times. Trump's bankrupted casinos over and over and over again. He's destroyed companies over and over and over again because he's a loser and he surrounds himself with losers. He's a lifelong loser. And all of these entities, whether it's the doj, it behaves the way his loser lawyers always behaved, whether it's the way his Treasury Secretary and Commerce Secretary function, it's the way Trump always functioned with his own personal accountants and the losers he surrounded himself with. And Trump, whereas leaders sometimes recognize a problem, admit a fault, admit a mistake, right? Try to solve it, Trump continues to turn bad into worse, worse into catastrophic, catastrophic into bankruptcy. And then he tries to then blame and deflect and then do it again and find new marks in who he can convince. And as I mentioned, I think the only difference here than Covid is that this is. This is the other side. Unlike Covid, wasn't memeing. What wasn't out there saying, no, Donald, we're not going to go away by Easter. We're Covid, we're still here. While Iran's out there saying, we ain't going away. What are you talking about? Come closer, come closer. Right? This would be like Covid talking, which obviously is a ridiculous example. And again, which I don't even know if it's the right one to be using right now. But in any event, I think the point is made. We're heading into Easter like a miracle. By Easter, it's going to go away, right? By May, by June, whenever. This has no end in sight. Trump has made up all of this stuff. And what he's able to do with his lies is he layers on other lie. Like he creates the fictional universe, and then he has characters doing things in his fictional universe that aren't happening, and then they react to stimuli that isn't real. And there's this whole fantasy world that's contradictory. It makes no sense. But there's this other world that's invented that, you know, people are like, oh, well, that happened. That happened. That happened the whole thing is freaking made up. None of this has happened. Trump goes as per Iranian government request. Please let this statement serve to represent that I'm pausing. The period of energy plant destruction by 10 days to Monday, April 6. What do you think this is? Some freaking movie, some Hollywood thing? It would be the worst movie ever. And Iran's like, no. Iran goes, no, we're not doing any of this. What are you talking about? You're not being truthful. We've not submitted requests. We're not talking to you about these things. Cut it out. And how could you try to broker discussions if this is the behavior? Anyway, watch the Brother show tonight, 5 Pacific, 8 Eastern. Subscribe to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel. I'm looking at the chat right now. Was my Covid. Was it an. Is the COVID Is that an analogy? Is it a metaphor? Or is it something else? Just so I can say it the right way. If I use that again and does that make sense, what I've said? Is that analogy or metaphor or whatever it is? Good. I'll watch the comments to educate me, subscribe to our YouTube channel. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. I'll see people at the no Kings protest. I'll be there on Saturday. It was great to have Ezra on to talk about the no Kings. I had great having him on talking about. Subscribe to Scott McFarlane's YouTube channel. Let people know about the Midas. There it is. Scott. Scott McFarland News. Look at that. That's when it started. That was. That was two days ago. Was at 21.2 thousand. Now it's at like a hundred and ten thousand subscribers. 110,000 subscribers in 48 hours. Amazing analogy. The analogy made sense. All right, thanks everybody. I appreciate spending this time with you. It means a lot. I'm grateful for you. Shout out to the Midas Mighty and thanks for watching. Been on breaking news. Bye everybody.
- [67:23]
D
Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com. you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available@midasplus.com.