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Ben Meiselas (4:14)

to Ben on breaking news. I'm Ben Meiselas and this is your breaking news. We've got a lot to discuss as we are focused on what's happening with this purported ceasefire negotiations. It seems to be a ceasefire at this point in name only. As you'll recall, Donald Trump and his regime here in the United States agreed to all of the 10 negotiating positions of Iran and agreed to negotiate within the Iranian 10.4 framework, which was a complete surrender by Donald Trump not just in this war, but a surrender of the United States position globally when you go and you look through what these 10 points actually say. So then after Donald Trump agreed to the 10 points, kind of typical Trump JD Vance Trump regime fashion saying, ah, we never agreed to those 10 points, it's a misunderstanding. Iran agreed to our 15 points and there must have been, I don't know, maybe Iran's parliament leader doesn't speak good English and that's really what happened. But no, no, no, Those aren't the 10 points that we agreed to when Donald Trump posted we agreed to Iran's 10 points. And so what's been happening is Donald Trump and Netanyahu who committed to certain things in this ten point plan, they've been violating it. I Mean, yesterday you had the most violent and extreme attacks on Lebanon since the war has begun by Israel. 250 plus individuals were killed, mostly civilians dying in Beirut. Over a thousand casualties throughout Lebanon during the day. I mean, the suburbs of Beirut absolutely blown up. I mean, at the same time, we've seen some Iranian drones and strikes nearby Arab nation neighbors where the US And Israel have interests. You know, and you focus on the Strait of Hormuz and what's going on there. And Iran really hasn't let any tankers through. They let a few cargo ships through that are Iranian flagged, but oil ain't getting through the Strait of Hormuz. And Iran said at most, at most, we're going to allow maybe 12 ships a day through, whereas before the war started, 150 ships were able to traverse through the Strait of Hormuz. And Iran has given a, you know, a guidance of how ships can access the Strait of Hormuz. They have to be given permission by Iran. They have to pay Iran about $2 million or more to be able to have the permission to leave. That payment is made in usually a cryptocurrency payment. Iran decides and prioritizes which ships can go. But Iran said until it becomes clear that the US And Israel are negotiating within the framework that they said they were going to negotiate within, we're not going to open up the Strait of Hormuz to the US And Israel and allies of the US we'll keep letting China and Russia and countries that negotiate with us on a bilateral basis. We'll let them traverse the Strait of Moose, but we're not going to let anyone else through the Strait of Hormuz. And so oil prices continue to rise again. They're over $100 a barrel. They're now up 11% in 24 hours. We're seeing again, this really setting into the marketplace that Donald Trump yet again announcing this deal that he says is great, but it's a total surrender. And Iran, with their control of the Strait of Hormuz, they're just saying, okay, do what you want to do. But like, you know, we're going to control the Strait of Hormuz and we, we're prepared to, you know, we're, we're prepared for war again if, if you're going to continue to attack Lebanon. And, you know, one of the terms was no attacking Lebanon. That's just what it said. It's what it said in the deal. Right? And then Trump and J.D. van like, oh, that's not what it said in the Deal. That's not what it said. I mean, just these are the 10 points. And if you're like, well, what's this list? This literally comes from the Iran national security council's list. 10 points. They've been talking about this for many weeks. Donald Trump said that he agrees to the 10 point plan. And there's only one 10 point plan. It says commitment to non aggression, continuation of Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of uranium enrichment by Iran, lifting of all primary sanctions, lifting of all secondary sanctions, termination of all UN Security Council resolutions, termination of all Board of Governors resolutions, payment of compensation, reparations to Iran, withdrawal of US combat forces from the region, cessation of war on all fronts, including against Hezbollah and Lebanon. The US again picked the mediator here, Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan. And Prime Minister Sharif, when he announced this deal, he specifically said this includes Lebanon. And you know, and that's, that's, that's where we're at. I mean, you have MB Galabouf, Iran's leader of their parliament. He just posted time is running out with an hourglass. And he previously posted earlier in the day, Lebanon and the entire resistance access as Iran's all from an inseparable part form an inseparable part of the ceasefire point one of the ten point proposal. Two, Prime Minister Sharif publicly and clearly stressed that Lebanon issue. There is no room for denial in backtracking. And three, ceasefire violations carry explicit costs and strong responses. Extinguish the fire immediately. I mean, did you ever think that the US would be in a position where you have Iran basically wagging its figure, lecturing the US saying extinguish the fire immediately. I mean, the whole power dynamic has shifted as Donald Trump has accepted this entire 10 point plan and now you have JD Vance out there. You know, I mean, what was JD Vance after visiting Hungary to try to prop up Viktor Orban, Putin's puppet, in the elections that are coming up in just a few days over there in, in Hungary, where his Fides party is expected to lose to the pro democracy, pro European Union coalition? I mean, what's J.D. vance saying now? Oh, you know, MB Galaboff. I just don't think he knows English that well. I think that's why there was a misunderstanding. I mean, the ten point plan was a written ten point plan. Everybody knew what it was. That's what Trump agreed to. That's just the facts. That's the undisputed facts of what's happening. Here's J.D. vance saying that Golubov doesn't understand English. And that's, that's probably why all there, there's all this confusion now. Here, play this clip.

JD Vance (11:13)

Lot of agreement. That's point number one, point number two, to respond to each of those issues. And I read it very closely. Let me just say this. I actually wonder how good he is at understanding English, because there are things that he said that frankly didn't make sense in some of the, in the context of the negotiations that we've had. But to address the three points, first of all, he talked about an attack that had allegedly happened on Iran and how that was a violation of the state ceasefire. Ceasefires are always messy. An hour after the president announced the ceasefire, the Iranians launch a bunch of missiles. Then the Israelis responded.

Ben Meiselas (11:48)

I mean, if that doesn't give you utter humiliation that that's the position of the United States right now, that maybe they don't understand English. I mean, you work through the mediator. You picked again, the Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif, who you've elevated to this position. I think the US Drafted the social media posts from Prime Minister Sharif. That's what New York Times was posting today before they posted it on social media. Right. The social war is being fought on X and social media. And Prime Minister Sharif in his post said that Lebanon is included in the deal. I mean, that's. That, that's where I. We're going to talk more about what's going on with this, you know, this ceasefire in name only. We'll get to that. But I, you know, there was breaking news before we started here, and some of the breaking news was that Melania Trump. Did y' all see this? Melania Trump, out of nowhere holds a press conference to talk about Epstein and to deny that she had any connections with Epstein and said that we need to have congressional hearings on Epstein. And then reporter Jacqueline Alemani called Donald Trump while he was in a meeting. And this is what reporter Alemany writes. Just got off a quick call with President Trump who said he didn't know anything about Melania's statements prior to her going on camera, but that he was in a meeting about the war and couldn't speak further. She didn't know him, he added before hanging up, referring to Epstein, that he had no knowledge. She just held a press conference in front of the entire nation on the Epstein files. And Melania Trump says, I mean, there are multiple. Just show the photos of Melania with Epstein. Just, you can go through them, you know, one by one. There they are. I mean, there's emails in the Epstein Files of Ghislaine calling Melania Sweet pea. Hey, Sweet Pea, how are you? Thanks for your message. Actually, plans changed again. I'm not going to be able to see you. Melania says to Ghislaine back on in 2002. How are you? Nice story about Jeffrey Epstein in New York Magazine. You look great on the picture. I know you're very busy flying all over the world. How is Palm Beach? I cannot wait to go down. Give me a call when you are back to New York. Have a great time. Love, Melania. That New York magazine piece is the piece where Donald Trump said that Epstein's a great guy, loves women on the younger side, but great guy to be around with. And here's what Melania said during her presser. Numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me have been percolating. What she says here. Play this clip.

Melania Trump (14:29)

The first time I crossed paths with Epstein was in the year 2000 at an event Donald and I attended together. At the time, I had never met Epstein and had no knowledge of his criminal undertakings. Numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me have been calculating on social media for years now. Be cautious about what you believe. These images and stories are completely false. I'm not a witness or a name witness in connection with any of Epstein's crimes. My name has never appeared in court documents, depositions, victim statements or FBI in interviews surrounding the Epstein matter. I have never had any knowledge of Epstein abuse of his victims. I was never involved in any.

Ben Meiselas (15:47)

Want to bring in California Attorney General Rob Bonta making news today as well. Let's bring in Attorney General Bonta if he's here. Great to see you. I don't know what timeline, you know, we're, we're living in right now. I mean, you and I were going to talk about another topic, which we still will. And then you have this, you know, this, this purported ceasefire where there were certain terms that were publicly discussed that Trump saying maybe the other side didn't understand English, when, you know, they said they agreed to the ten point plan. I mean, it was a complete surrender. You have that. I mean, and then that's how I start the report. Then right before I go live, Melania Trump on her own apparently holds this press conference and talks about the Epstein files. And then later on she asks that there be a congressional investigation while Donald Trump saying it's a complete hoax. I guess before going into any of the legal stuff, Attorney General, about when do we get out of this mad? I mean, this is, this is madness. This is this is, this is not normal. This is not the way, it's not the way a country should be behaving, eh? Agree.

Rob Bonta (16:56)

When do we get out of this madness? As soon as possible, please. You know, it's, you know, midterms around the corner maybe, and hopefully that'll, that'll have the outcome that I hope for and bring some sanity and, you know, reasonableness and thoughtfulness and compassion back to American leadership. It's, you know, and it's, it's interesting what's happening in, with Trump's mishandling of Iran. He seems to be, you know, treading water and scrambling and backpedaling and, you know, toggling back and forth just like he did with his, with his tariffs and, you know, meanwhile gas prices are surging and people are not happy. And he's the guy who promised no endless wars, and he's in one. He's also the one who wanted the Nobel Peace pr demanded it. He got the FIFA Peace Prize instead. And so, and then, you know, for, for the first lady to have her own press conference thing that many people thought that the Iran conflict was supposed to distract folks and distract detention attention from, to have her own press conference on. It makes me think what's, what else is coming here? And, you know, and why is she holding this press conference on her own? Maybe, maybe there's another, you know, shoe about to drop. But, but, but, but who knows? And it's, you know, her, her comments ring hollow, unfortunately, given the, you know, the facts and the evidence and the history here.

Ben Meiselas (18:18)

You know, look, you've litigated, which in kind of our world as lawyers is kind of, you know, I don't want to say war, but it's a battle, you know, litigation. You've also negotiated, mediated, made deals, you know, either before litigation is initiated, during litigation is initiated, or at various phases. And so, you know, I, you know, you were generous enough to speak to my USC undergrad class. As you know, I teach law, I teach negotiation. And you, on a day to day basis, engage in some of the most high profile and sensitive negotiations in the legal area. And maybe reflect and explain to our audience, though, like, when you see the way negotiations are handled at even a whole other level, I mean, some of the life and death stuff of war and peace, where things need to be clear and detailed and all of these things, and then to see this, how foreign that actually is from what real negotiations, not this cartoonish comic book art of the deal crap, that's all bullshit, excuse my language, but in the real World, like the stuff that you're seeing here, this isn't real. This is like some C level crazy movie. This shouldn't be the way real life, serious humans handle things.

Rob Bonta (19:45)

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's depressing and it's underwhelming, but it's also dangerous. You know, the stakes are high. There's a lot at stake. There's American lives at stake and you know, with big consequences here. So, you know, this idea that they're engaged in some sensitive deal making and they don't even understand that, you know, the major points of the deal and someone's claiming that someone else doesn't speak the language or understand it is insane and it's irresponsible and it's, you know, putting Americans in harm's way. And it is not the way it should happen. It should be in good faith, it should be thoughtful. It should be, you know, joining on issue and meeting of the minds and solving problems, and solving problems in a way that's, that's responsible and, you know, good for our country. And I'm unfortunately not seeing any of that.

Ben Meiselas (20:43)

Talk to us about the announcement that you made earlier. Dismantling fraud ring responsible for $267 million. At least, you know, in fraud, one of the things that I think we should all agree is on a bike, it's not a political thing. Wherever fraud is found, got to go after it, expose it, prosecute it. I mean, that's what you do. That's what AGs do across the country. You know, I think that when it is politicized in a way that, you know, Trump and his regime try to say, oh, it's this group of people, it's Somalians, or it's this or that. I mean, not only is it, is it racist, but it fundamentally doesn't recognize that, you know, state and federal cooperation in the past had been the norm to work together to find and, and stop the, and stop fraud. And with this Trump regime, it's kind of moved away from that into this finger pointing gamesmanship by the Trump regime. And it's like, I just want to point out on a day to day basis, like this is what you do, this is why there are ags. This is your job. You do these things. And that's happening on a day to day basis. Talk to us about that. Yeah.

Rob Bonta (22:06)

Tackling fraud is a core component of what we do every day. We've done it for years, for decades. We've been tackling healthcare fraud since 1979. And it's our bread and butter. We do it with no fanfare. And you know, we're not looking for bright lights on this. We just head down, sleeves rolled up, doing the work, engaging in the investigations, rooting out the fraud, identifying the suspects, arresting them, holding them accountable, prosecuting them, sending them to prison, securing the taxpayer dollars for Californians and getting them back into the California coffers. You know, we do all those things. We've done it for years and for decades. And you know, Trump is late to the party here. This is his shiny new object, his flavor of the month. And not because he is in good faith and with sincerity engaged in the issue. It's because he sees it as a bludgeon. It's a political weapon, it's a cudgel to bash California over the head and other blue states. Meanwhile, and mind you, there's fraud in every state. It's across the country. No state is immune. Wherever there is federal funding flowing and bad actors seeking ill gotten gains, there's gonna be fraud. And there has been. It exists in Texas, it exists in Georgia, it exists in Florida, and yes, it exists in California. That's why we're tackling it. That's why we're doing this work. That's why we've been doing this work. And that's why we had a major bust today, $267 million of attempted fraud in the hospice care space. A very sophisticated organized criminal group that stole identities off the black, excuse me, the dark web. Registered those people who live in other states as California residents through covered California, got them on Medi Cal, acquired hospice licenses and businesses and then started billing Medi Cal without providing actual services, and then receiving those millions of dollars and going through a very complex web of money laundering to hide the ill gotten gains. And we got a tip just under a year ago, we started investigating, we stopped making in California, stop making any more payments to those under investigation. And yesterday we did a takedown where of the 21 suspects here that were engaged in this criminal operation, we made arrests, executed search and arrest warrants at 10 locations and made arrests of the highest level individuals involved. So this is what we're supposed to do, investigate, do the important police work, arrest and hold accountable. And it's my team, this is a California case from the first day to the last day, from the beginning of the investigation to the end of the prosecution. We will now go into the prosecution phase and hold these folks accountable. And they're facing 10 to 16 years in prison.

Ben Meiselas (24:54)

Attorney General before You have to go. Anything else you want to tell our viewers either about that or just in general this historical moment?

Rob Bonta (25:03)

Yeah. You know, it's unfortunate what you were saying about this politicization by the Trump administration. You know, Trump or Oz or there's a first assistant here who's not actually a US attorney first assistant, a Sailie who like to, Dr. Oz likes to do drive bys and he comes to California, stops in, does a direct to camera video, then leaves. And before he arrived and while he was here and after he leaves, we're doing the hard work of tackling hospice fraud. They're politicizing hospice fraud. We're tackling hospice fraud. And so this is another sort of distraction and political weapon that Trump is trying to wield. No real interest in actually tackling fraud, but we have interest in it. Interest that we've demonstrated for decades. And we'll continue to tackle the fraud, hold the bad guys accountable, bring them to justice. And we will also continue our important work upholding the law. We have 66 lawsuits against the Trump administration which is blatantly breaking the law, violating the Constitution. He gets no passes. Each and every time he breaks the law, hurts our states, we're going to sue him. We've won 80% of the time, protected $200 billion in funding that California is owed. Protected rights and freedoms like voting rights and birthright citizenship. Trump's about to get another big L in the US Supreme Court, in my humble opinion, having sat in court for the US Supreme Court argument on birthright citizenship after already losing on tariffs and on Prop 50 and on National Guard. So we're going to keep at it, keep pushing, keep doing what we do and not be distracted by the over politicization by the Trump administration.

Ben Meiselas (26:35)

Attorney General Banda, thanks for joining us. We appreciate you.

Rob Bonta (26:38)

Great to see you, Ben. Thanks for having me.

Ben Meiselas (26:40)

Absolutely. You know, one of the things that Donald Trump's been doing all day, ranting and raving like a lunatic. What else is new? But he's been making social media posts like attacking NATO. None of these people, including our own, very disappointing NATO understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them. He's posting weird photos of himself and Dana White with lightning in front of the White House, I guess, to promote a UFC fight. I mean, so you have Donald Trump doing that, while you have Iran calling Donald Trump and Netanyahu out for violating the 10 point negotiating framework. You have MB Galloba saying what I just reported earlier about how. And he's citing the 10 points, you know, as Donald Trump's like, oh, there are all these different lists floating around and nobody knows about the realist. And we know what the new list we, we know what the 10 point list is that you agreed to. If you didn't want to agree to it, don't agree to it. You said you were going to obliterate an entire civilization. That's what you said. And then by all reporting, you then begged Pakistan to jump in and say that you wanted to accept Iran's ten point plan. And then Iran was like, well, they want to accept this 10 point plan. I mean, it'll be the biggest humiliation in the history of the United States if they agree to these 10 points points and you agree to him. And so now you have Golubov making posts citing the 10 points that you agreed to and saying, you violated this point, you violated that point. Which is true. I mean, I hate to admit it, but it is that. That is, you agreed to those points. You have MB Galloba's top advisor, his strategic advisor in the parliament saying the following. Only a limited number of hours remain without the complete restraint of America's dogs in Lebanon. There will be no ceasefire or negotiations and the missiles are ready to fly. He said the equation of shared destiny among components of the resistance access are part of what he called a new regional order following Iran's victory. And it must be solidified, if possible, with kind words, otherwise with war. You have the President of Iran, Pezeshkian, saying Israel's renewed incursion into Lebanon is a blatant violation of the initial ceasefire agreement. The this is a dangerous sign of deception and lack of commitment to potential agreements. The continuation of these actions will render negotiations meaningless. Our fingers remain on the trigger. Iran will never abandon its Lebanese sisters and brothers. And before that, he wrote, the repeated aggression by the Zionist entities against Lebanon is a flagrant violation of the initial ceasefire agreement and a dangerous indicator of deceit and lack of commitment to potential accords. The continuation of these aggressions will render negotiations meaningless. And you got photos of these traded Hormuz where? Ain't no tankers going through the Strait of Hormuz right now. And so I know that you have J.D. vance and Trump saying the tanks are going through. They're not. The tanks are not going through right now. Okay? And even when they do go through, Iran has said maximum 15 tankers a day as opposed to 150 if they pay us $2 million per tanker. And the oil industry and shipping industry says we can't, we can't do that. Like we don't have the money. Or we do have the money, but if we do, we have to pass it on to consumers and that's going to raise the gas prices. If we really have to pay $2 million per ship, that becomes kind of, it's not cost prohibitive if that gets passed on to the consumer. But, you know, think tariffs are raising prices. I mean, just think about what, what, what adding $2 million per ship is going to do every, every single time. I mean, but like while you have Iran's president citing written agreements that was agreed to by Trump and provisions, I mean, the fact that Donald Trump's response is he's posting photos of himself and Dana White AI, weird photos with cartoons like, like that's where we are as a country right now. You know, but before, like in the past five minutes or so, Donald, in the past 15 minutes. So Donald Trump unleashed a deranged tirade, personally attacking Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens, Megan Kelly and Alex Jones. This is what Trump writes. I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years. Especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful Iran, the number one state sponsor of terror, to have a nuclear weapon. Because they have one thing in common, low IQs. They're stupid people. They know it, Their families know it, everyone else knows it too. Look at their past, look at their record. They don't have what it takes and they never did their shows and aren't even invited on TV because nobody cares about them. They're nutjobs, troublemakers and will say anything necessary for some free and cheap publicity. Now they think they get some clicks because they have third rate podcasts, but nobody's talking about them. And their views are the opposite of maga or I wouldn't have won the presidential election in a landslide. Then he goes on to say that Tucker Carlson's a broken man. He couldn't even finish college. He says Megyn Kelly asks him nasty questions. He then goes and says, these people are losers. They will always be. He says, Marjorie Taylor Greene, they're nasty, just like Marjorie Trader Brown. I mean, what the hell is this behavior? I mean, just take a step back for a second, okay? Just think about where we are right now. What we're on the precipice of. This is life and death, war and peace stuff. As I was talking about with Attorney General Bonta right now, you have Trump agreeing on behalf of the United states to a 10 point negotiating framework, saying, I'm negotiating within these parameters. That's what he said. We now have obvious violations of those parameters. You had, by the way. I mean, you have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying, you know, we're not, not, we're not following any of this stuff. He goes, we still have objectives to complete and we will achieve them either through agreement or by renewing the fighting. He said that. And then before he also, he also was basically saying that, you know, we're not going to stop bombing Lebanon. I mean, and so that was one of the provisions. And so how that gets resolved is, you know, is unclear. And while all of that's taking place, I mean, you've got Donald Trump out there posting attacks on Megyn Kelly and Alex Jones. Like, that's what's occupying. That's what's occupying his mind right now. I mean, it's, again, it's utterly deranged. We got more economic data this morning as well. We got fourth quarter GDP revisions from 2025. It was initially 1.4% GDP growth, which was anemic. Then it was reduced to 0.7%. Now it's 0.5%. And this is fourth quarter GDP. I mean, now with this war, with the supply shock that we are facing of oil, liquefied natural gas, helium, fertilizers, everything else, and there's really no sign of it getting better. Doesn't this perfectly kind of mirror and mimic like the COVID timeline, like a miracle. It's all going to go away. We fixed it. We solved this. Inject yourself with bleach. I mean, Donald Trump's last effort, again, our latest effort to manipulate the market was agreeing to all of Iran's terms. And then Trump was going to do what he always does. I never agreed to those terms. Ah, there was a misunderstanding and Iran's like, okay, but we still control the Strait of Hormuz. Let me share with you over here what JD Vance said on Lebanon. He goes, I think it's just a reasonable misunderstanding. Just a, we just had a reasonable misunderstanding with them in the 10 point plan. Here's what JD Vance said. Let's play.

JD Vance (35:02)

I think the third thing that he said was, was Lebanon.

Shopify Sponsor (35:07)

Okay?

JD Vance (35:07)

And again, I actually think that is a reasonable misunderstanding. But neither us nor the Israelis said that that was going to be part of the ceasefire. Again, we're working with people to try to get through some of these things, but it's really fundamental. Finally, we're on the right track.

Ryan Reynolds (35:25)

Okay?

Ben Meiselas (35:26)

It's literally in the ten Point Plan. Not only that, but just, let's just do it. This way. Ready? The United States picked Pakistan for whatever reason. Prime Minister Sharif also they gave a lot of crypto money to Donald Trump's World Liberty Financial. They picked Pakistan to be the mediator, the neutral. Right. When this deal was announced, Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif said, Lebanon is included in the ceasefire. That's what the guy wrote. I mean, he wrote that Lebanon is included in the ceasefire. That's what he said. There's not, there's not a reasonable misunderstanding. There really isn't. I mean, that was the deal that you agreed to. And now Iran points to this document and says, you see, you see, what they agreed to here was the ten point plan. This is what America said they were going to do. By the way, the 10 point plan says Iran can continue to enrich uranium. And now here's what JD Vance said. He goes, he said, we refuse to give up the right to enrich uranium. And I thought to myself, my wife skydives. My wife wants to jump out of airplanes. Watch. What are you talking about? Your wife wants to jump out of airplane? Here, play this club.

JD Vance (36:43)

The second thing Golly Bob said, which again I found fascinating, is he said, we refuse to give up the right to enrichment. And I thought to myself, you know what? My wife has the right to skydive, but she doesn't jump out of an airplane because she and I have an agreement that she's not going to do that because I don't want my wife jumping out of an airplane. We don't really concern ourselves with what they claim they have the right. Right to do. We concern ourselves with what they actually do. And I think the President's been very clear on the enrichment question.

Ben Meiselas (37:18)

He actually hasn't been very clear because he agreed to Iran's ten point plan. So if you were all watching the Ben on Breaking news show on Tuesday, where we were approaching the deadline, right, the deadline was approaching 8pm Eastern time. That's when Trump said he would obliterate the entire civilization of Iran. Where I left that show, I was saying, Trump put forward a 15 point plan before. That was basically Iran's surrender. Iran rejected it. Iran had their 10 point framework. And I said, how are they going to be able to reach an agreement unless Trump agrees to all of Iran's points? And that's what happened. But Trump's plan, like he's done his whole life with businesses, is to say where he's bankrupted things and he's defrauded people would be to say, I never actually agree to those things. I never agreed to those. And you did. The world knows that you did. Who are you fooling? I mean, at this point you're just. Who's the audience? A smaller and smaller group of Fox News. And I put news in quotes viewers. That's. Is. Is that who this is? Like who. Who are you selling this to? People know what's going on here. We'll talk more about this when we come back from our first quick break of the show and our only quick break of the show. A reminder hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. Subscribe to Midas Touch on Audio. We'll take our first quick break and we'll be right back after this quick message.

ZipRecruiter Sponsor (38:49)

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Ben Meiselas (43:13)

Welcome back. Great to see you all. Thanks for our sponsors right there. We're grateful for all of them to keep the show going. I want to talk right now about what Donald Trump posted during the break. Here's what he wrote moments ago. There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait. They better not be. And if they are, they better stop now. President DONALD J. Trump, you, mean they better not be. That was again, part of the plan that you agreed to. They've always said they were going to be charging fees in the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, it's beyond the 25th Amendment issue. It really is. I mean, the 25th Amendment at this point would be like, it's like a generous way of looking at it. It's not incorrect to say that there's, I mean, this is, this is a lunatic. This is a lunatic and demented human being who's saying things like this. Of course they're charging a feast. That's what they said they were going to do. They've always said they were going to do that. They've never, this isn't a surprise. This isn't a shocker. This is what they've always said. It, you know, part of the, the difficulty, I don't want to say frustration. I just a interesting part about doing this coverage is I understand that in the fog of war or in general, governments lie, right? Government, that's what governments do a lot, not all the time, but a lot. And especially in war, governments lie. And so you have to look at propaganda, then you have to look at what's happening, right, with your own reporting, with videos on the ground, with, you know, other reporting. And you try to understand, like paint a picture of what is really happening here. And one of the things I pride the Midas Touch network on is really digging into it and saying, look, here are the images of what's happening in Lebanon right now in Beirut after a ceasefire was announced. Do I understand that in Kuwait, in the United Arab Emirates, in, in other areas that there are, there have been sightings of Iranian drones and these governments are saying that they've shot down Iranian drones. And if there are Iranian drones, or would that be violations of the ceasefire as well? Yeah, but like what happened in Lebanon yesterday was an absolute massacre of human beings, of mothers and children, of fathers, of brothers, of sisters, of grandfathers. You know, to see ceasefire announced and the mass casualty event that took place yesterday. Put aside your politics and just be a damn human being for a moment as you see that. Pull that up again. The headline Israeli strikes led to the highest single day death toll in the war in Lebanon. The highest single death toll day was after a ceasefire was announced. So I don't know how you don't draw the conclusion logically that the goal of that was to have Netanyahu break the ceasefire, that that was the goal. It says, according to Axio, citing an Israeli official, Israel will not consider Lebanon as part of the currently in place ceasefire framework during negotiations with Lebanon. Israel, Lebanon negotiations on the disarmament of Lebanese Hezbollah are set to commence in the coming days. That's their position. That's the position that they may have had before. Okay, but Donald Trump agreed to something else. Same way he agreed to have Iran control the Strait of Hormuz. The same way he agreed to all of these other terms. That's again, just the facts. And put aside politics. I mean, these are human beings who were murdered and massacred in Lebanon yesterday. When I looked at the photos and you see the families, little girls and boys and just people, if you don't shed a tear for life, then I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on. Talk about some other facts as Donald Trump's posting that. Here's what Donald Trump wrote as well. This is how he's framing the issue. Numerous agreements, lists and letters are being sent out by people that have absolutely nothing to do with the US Iran negotiations. In many case, they are total fraudsters, charlatans, and worse. Charlatans and worse. They will be rapidly exposed after our federal investigation is completed. There is only one group of meaningful points that are acceptable to the United States and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these negotiations. These are the points that are in the basis on which we agreed to a ceasefire. It is something that is reasonable and can easily be dispensed with. It's very much like fake news. CNN last night headlining a source that had no power or Authority to write a letter claiming authority. I mean, we're just reporting on what the 10 point plan always was. And it's not just random people, it's Iran saying, yeah, that was the ten point plan. You agreed to it. Reminder, here's what the ten point plan is. And you see Trump saying, we're going to do a federal investigation into anybody who reports. Okay. Do a federal investigation into anybody who reports on it. What is that going to do for the fact that there should be a way to address this war, this unlawful, catastrophic war that you started and Netanyahu started with an invasion of Iran? Okay, you're going to investigate people. I mean, let's grow up. Okay, I got it. We need to focus on what the hell is happening here because the Strait of Hormuz is closed. And right now we're on the precipice

Ryan Reynolds (49:53)

of

Ben Meiselas (49:56)

this fake ceasefire formally becoming non existent. And when Donald Trump makes posts, they better not be charging in the straight up from moose, just clown behavior, social media posts. What are you doing? What are you doing? You know, one of the things that we talked about this morning, and I think the Free Press, one of the first people to report it, Christopher Hale, who writes a substack called Letters from Leo, Letters from Pope Leo xiv. I mean, you heard the reporting that the Trump regime essentially threatened Pope Leo's life by summoning Pope Leo XIV's top ambassador to the United States in front of Elbridge Colby, who is like the undersecretary of the Department of Defense. They unlawfully call themselves the Department of War. So they summon Pope Leo XIV to the pentagon, Pope Leo XIV's top ambassador, and they say to him, basically, do you remember this is the reporting, do you remember the Avignon papacy from the 14th century century where the French back then basically killed the Pope and moved the Holy See, moved the Vatican to Avignon. And the way Pope Leo XIV took this threat and the Vatican took this threat was that the Trump regime was threatening basically a military invasion of the Vatican that happened in January. And that followed Pope Leo XIV delivering a state of the world speech where he talked about how basically bloodthirsty war mongering people out there, and it's obviously referencing Trump were out there disrupting the world order. The parallels to me, you know, are very similar. If you go back and you look at your World War II history and you look at the way Hitler was so intimidated by the Pope and the threats that were made to bishops and it's often one of the things you see with authoritarians historically this attack on, you know, the Vatican or the attack on religious leaders, and I don't care what religion or no religion. You know, we have people who watch, who are religious, who are non religious, all different types of religions. At its core. The most important thing here that I stress with the community is empathy, love, togetherness, the values that regardless of religion, we should all feel these values. But the fact that Donald Trump is out there threatening Greenland and threatening NATO and threatening the Pope and threatening all these things, destroying a global world order, propping up Russia and China and North Korea and now Iran, Iran becoming a major global power, and how anybody can think that that represents strength or that this is good for the United States, I mean, it's absolutely beyond me. And this Pope Leo XIV story is just absolutely wild, you know? And then you have Donald Trump right now threatening Europe, and he's out there again. This is where he goes back again. Europe. You need to go to the Strait of NATO. You need to go to the Strait of Hormuz. That's what really needs to happen. Happened. And I don't want to hear you say things. Send your ships there now. Der Spiegel. A big fan of Der Spiegel. In Germany, they write the US Is increasing pressure on its European partners to commit military forces in the Strait of Hormuz. According to information obtained by Spiegel, NATO Secretary General Mark Ruddy has informed European capitals that Donald Trump. By the way, this Mark Ruddy guy, oh, my God, it's like the most humiliating thing I've ever seen. Like the worst guy for this moment right now. And maybe in the future he'll be like, I had to do that to keep NATO alive. So I, you know, I. I swallowed my pride. No, what you're doing is making things so much worse. Because the only thing that Donald Trump recognizes his strength or, you know, or his perception of someone standing up to him. So you. You. What you're doing is showing utter weakness on behalf of NATO, and you're actually harming NATO by sucking up to Donald Trump. Oh, Donald Trump is right about this. No, no, just stop it. Stop. Stop it. You've humiliated yourself. I mean, you. It's pathetic seeing Mark. Mark Ruti, you know, and Mark Ruti saying has informed European capitals that Donald Trump expects concrete commitments within the next few days for the deployment of warships or other military capabilities from Europe. Political pledges such as those in the days since the start of the war are no longer sufficient. Why would it even be needed right now? You said there's a ceasefire. The War is done. You're. So this is your plan. Your plan was to enter into a fake ceasefire with Iran, agree to their terms, then claim you didn't agree to their terms, and then say to Europe that you need to go and go to war with Iran. Like, you think people are that stupid? And, oh, like, okay, Donald, he's, he did a social media post. I guess we're going to have to agree. Oh, gosh. Oh, golly. I guess Donald Trump is. We're gonna have to do it now. No, what's happening now is whether it's France or other European countries or other countries across the world, they're picking up the phone. They ain't calling you. They're calling Iran. They're calling foreign minister Iraqi. And they're saying, what can we do to get our ships through the Strait of Remain? What can we do? How do we develop stronger bilateral relationship with Iran? You've made Iran basically a global power, one of the most powerful nations in the world right now. That's what you did. Do we have that clip of Rudy to show that clip of Mark Rudy,

Mark Rutte (55:45)

before I forget, let's play the NATO summit in Washington. When NATO was celebrating the 75 years there was an agreement on the irreversible path of Ukraine into NATO. But also the fact of the matter is that a couple of countries are holding back, including Germany and Slovakia. Hardware, Hungary, the United States. So I don't think it is on the table right now.

Ben Meiselas (56:07)

And that was about whether Ukraine should join NATO. A couple of countries are holding out. The United States want to give you all another update as well. I'll look in the chat room right now to see how many people throw those Canadian flags up for the maple Midas out there. How many maple Midas do we have right now? Throw, throw the flag if you are a maple Midas right now. Let's see. I know we've got, you know, the Midas Touch Network is the biggest podcast actually in Canada. And we have the Midas Canada Channel that's led by Charlie Angus. We've got a, a, so many Midas mighty out there in Canada. And so for all of the Canadians, you all know this news, but I'll try to tell it from the perspective of, for those who may not know what a big deal this is. And so in the past 24 hours, Pierre Poliev, who's the main opposition leader, his communications director, Katie Merrifeld, resigned. And, you know, that was this, we knew that was the start of something. And then you had an individual changing parties right now. And not just any individual. Marilyn Gladue and for those, and she was in the Conservative Party with Pierre Poliev. So just those know, Conservative Party, Pierre Poliev really has kind of turned that into the kind of maple maga. Right? You have maple Midas, maple Maga at this point. That's what's kind of going on. And so Poliev was maple maga and all of the MAGA talking points, you know, he would push and he was supposed to win the election. And then Prime Minister Carney entered the race and surged ahead and Canada saw what was happening in the United States. And Carney went elbows up and stood up and Carney won, didn't get a majority government. He had to have find a coalition government, but won a pretty significant election. But there was still a few seats that made this election such that it was a minority government. You still had to rely on a coalition, which made it difficult to get an agenda through. But Prime Minister Carney has been standing up to Donald Trump, did not agree to any of Donald Trump's BS deals when Trump was trying to threaten Canada. He shows Prime Minister Carney has exemplified what you can do when you stand up to Donald Trump and his despicable regime. So, Marilyn Gladue, the best way to describe it is like Nancy Mace for our American viewers or like a, like a Lauren Bobert or a Marjorie Taylor Greene. So it's not just that a Conservative switched to the Liberal Party and joined Prime Minister Carney in this incredible press conference that took place, but it was also which Conservative Party member did it? Someone who was viewed as very much a maple maga type of person. I mean, that was like her back, you know, if you go through some of her history, that's what a lot of Canadians were telling me. Ben it's not just that Marilyn Gladuz switched and crossed the aisle and joined the Liberal government, but it's also her background as well. And she was proud to be the newest member of our new Liberal government because what the Conservative Party was doing under Pierre Poliev was so MAGA and so kind of antithetical to Canadian values that even Marilyn Gladue. So what this may even be the start of. I mean, there's a few things to even think about right now. Number one, are we going to see more of that happening? The reality is that Prime Minister Carney doesn't even need it to because there are elections happening in the next week or so that the Liberal Party is expected to win. And Prime Minister Carney will almost certainly now be able to get his majority government. So there's about to be a Prime Minister Carney majority government that's about to form, which means Carney is going to be Safe basically through 2029 as a result of this. I mean, unless you had people shifting back to the other. But that's not going to happen. So Carney's going to solidify his government until a new election needs to be called. Sometimes 2029, that's a really big deal. But one of the strategic things, and I wonder what our Canadian supporters think as well, you know, do you, given the unpopularity even right now of the Conservatives, do you call a snap election right now just to, just to wipe out all the Conservatives from their writings? And do you, do you call one right now? I don't think you have to or why would. But people believe that at this particular moment, the Conservative Party is so unpopular that if you called a snap, you'd pick up even more seats than you had before and make it even a bigger statement. I wonder what our Canadian viewers think about that. Possibly. But in any event, he's going to form his majority government. But why am I bringing this up right now, especially in contrast to Mark Rute and especially with all of the events that are transpiring right now? Because we are in a moment where you can't show weakness, you can't bow down, you can't, there's nothing. You can't negotiate with Trump. It's all bad faith.

Ryan Reynolds (61:31)

Faith.

Ben Meiselas (61:32)

It's all. He uses negotiations as a way to sucker punch you, as a way to hit you when you're down. There's no way of dealing with the guy. So Mark Rute, you can't appease him in NATO. That's not going to happen. If Trump wants to leave, just tell him to leave, say, okay, bye, the NATO's over. Form your own regional alliance. And then, you know, if there's a new president in the future, maybe it's reformed. But call his bluff. Call his bluff on what it is. I mean, the one thing that Iran has demonstrated and this is the message that's been sent to the rest of the world, you stand up to this guy, you don't back down, you don't give an inch at all. And he folds every time. Set aside Iran. Think about Abrego Garcia, right? Think about E. Jean Carroll, right? Think about Letitia James. Think about Alvin Bragg, right? Think about all of these times when Donald Trump has used all of his tactics and the threats and the that and that. And you just stand up and you go do it. I'm drowning out the noise. Eye on the prize, standing up. I'm not going to agree to any of this. No, no, no, no, no. Okay. Huff and puff and threaten, okay? Find your leverage points against him and utilize them. Iran clearly does not have the military might of the United States. It does not have the global alliances of far from it. Sure, Iran was seriously hit hard by the United States and it set back the economy for decades. And although they'll be able to raise lots of funds from the Strait of Hormuz money. But one of the things that is a message. This is why Iran was like, okay, Donald Trump begged us to accept the 10 point plan. Think about the message that sends to the rest of the world that Trump embraced that, that plan, that the United States of America, right, the country that defeated the Nazis In World War II, the country that led the post World War II world, agreed to all 10 of Iran's points as a negotiating framework. And each point for the United States perhaps more humiliating than the next. And so Iran's like, we know he's going to violate it. I'm sure they were like, I'm sure he'll violate it, but, but we've got our document. We'll just keep calling them out in the vi. The world knows what's going on. And sure, Trump will appeal to his Fox, his Fox and his CBS audiences, but the rest of the world saw what happened. That's what I have to report on because that's the truth. That's the objective facts of what went down. And that's what we're going to continue to do here on the Midas Touch Network. As always, I want to give a shout out to Attorney General Bonta for joining us. I want to give a shout out to our incredible audience here. What's up, Maple? Midas. So great to see all of you as well. The show I do with my brothers will be on 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific here as well. We'll see on that show. I can't wait to do that show with my brothers. Thank you everybody for watching. We're grateful for you. Shout out Midas Mighty. We'll see you next time.

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