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Ben Meiselas
Premier hosts on VRBO deliver quality vacation rental stays with fast responses and clear instructions. Oh, I had a question.
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Interviewer/Host Assistant
Our host replied super quick premier move.
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Ben Meiselas
Wish I had a premier group chat. They won't even write me back. Book a top rated stay with a premier host if you know you vrbo. Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Meiselas. This is your breaking news. The fake ceasefire between the United States and Iran once again exposed. The United States military hit the Bandar Abbas port city, striking various targets there. The airport there in violation of the ceasefire. Iran responds a few hours later striking the United States air base in Kuwait. While all of this is going on, where is Donald Trump? We're showing people right here on the video screen. Iran showing what its missiles looked like as the missiles were en route to Kuwait. Where is Donald Trump today? His official schedule says his entire day will be filled with executive time. He has nothing scheduled. His last post was like 15 hours ago. He may have made one post recently which was just a repost, but it was of the an AI image of this reflecting pool that he's obsessed about and he keeps talking about over and over again. Meanwhile, Axios, Barack Ravid, who's basically Donald Trump's chief stenographer at this point, in my opinion, posted this morning that the US And Iran reached an agreement on a memorandum of understanding for a 60 day ceasefire extension and the launch of negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. But Trump has not yet given his final approval, says two senior US Officials and a regional source involved in the mediation told me, what the hell does that statement even make? I mean, we are literally seeing the war still raging on in the Middle East. And when you have that data, when you have PCE inflation today rose to 3.8%, it was obviously going to be a disastrous day on the market because it's a disastrous day for American consumers. But the market bears no relationship to what consumers are experiencing. Consumers experiencing the worst sentiment in the history of the consumer sentiment survey because the American people are suffering right now. The market got manipulated today. The NASDAQ soared, the S and P up. Even the Dow was up today on this news that there was a peace deal in the works. But when you actually read the statement of Barack Ravid and I'll show you Scott Jennings as well, who's a Trump sycophant puppet who was destroyed by Adam Mockler of the Midas Touch Network on CNN. Abdul Ravid goes U.S. and Iran reach deal but need Trump's final approval to U.S. officials and a regional source involved in the mediation efforts told me. And then Scott Jennings, I mean, doesn't this just expose this guy as a clown? This is why I love when Mockler debates this guy. I really do. And Mockler is incredible, an incredible debater. But like, I, I, personally, for me, I don't see the utility of even having conversations with these psychopaths because here's what Jennings said here, pull that back up, Jeremy. Scott Jennings. It looks like a huge win for President Trump and the US Hearing from a senior administration official. This report is true. And the US Appears to be getting everything we want. What's it, what's everything we want? The ability to commence negotiations about nuclear material in Iran in a 60 day period. And perhaps the Strait of Hormuz is open, but it's under Iranian and Oman control. That's everything. That's, that's everything that, that you sold us. Everything we want, as y' all stated it, not what we wanted. We the people didn't want to be in a war in Iran. We the people do not support Donald Trump in the United. Aiding and abetting genocide in Gaza, demolishing city blocks in Beirut and in Lebanon. We don't want, we don't. The killing of innocent schoolgirls in Manob. We don't want any of, we don't want this. The vast majority of Americans. But what you all said, what you wanted, which we didn't want, regime change. You pick your puppet like your Delsey Rodriguez of Venezuela, but you get that in Iran, you, you control the Iranian oil. Iran's ballistic missile capabilities are fully destroyed. That's your objectives. And 0 was achieved and Iran took control over the Strait of Hormuz. I don't know. What do you mean this is what you want. And I know that with all of the chaos that's taking place, whether it's the COVID up of child sex trafficking rings by this Trump regime or the demolishing of the White House and turning it into this grotesque circusy looking thing. You know, with the Trump story today about he wants to put his face on a $250 bill and Don Jr. Helping this defense, small defense company in North Carolina get a 650 million dollar government loan which increased the value of this company by $2 billion that Don Jr. Invested in. And Don Jr. Now has this private equity firm that's making billions of dollars. And you know, you know that $67 million from park fees has gone to these grotesque things that Donald Trump is doing around Washington D.C. and you know the, the arch that's going to be blocking the, the Ark, the arch that's going to be blocking Arlington Cemetery. I, I, I, I know all of these things, like, can get overwhelming, and there's just so much, you know, so much to cover. But we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, cover all of this stuff, be able to call it out, and then connect it ultimately with the suffering of the American people. And they rely on us to just be so overwhelmed by all of this that we just kind of go, ah, whatever. We don't want to deal with this. This is politics is annoying. This isn't like a political thing. This is like, this is like a particularly fascist thing that they're doing politics. I understand why people don't like politics. I don't like politics. I like people. I think politics is important for its consequences on people. But we need to come together to call out all of this despicable behavior each and every day and not lose sight of that. And that's what we're going to keep on doing here at the Midas Touch Network. And so you have the Trump regime saying that this was a great result. Then Iran claims there is no such deal. And then the Ayatollah Mojtaba puts out a statement and says, you know, basically that, you know, the sovereignty that we've obtained over the Strait of Hormuz is not going to ever be, you know, impacted by any, by any type of deal. You know, it was interesting. I saw a statement from the, the Sultan of Oman about their strengthening ties with Iran right now. And it was fascinating because, you know, they were the mediators back in February between the United States and Iran. They entered into an agreement in principle. They, they negotiated between the United States and Iran that the US And Netanyahu violated when they invaded Iran. And so now Oman has moved closer to Iran. I think we're seeing a lot of other Arab nations move closer to Iran. I think the real thing holding Donald Trump back from further invading Iran, more than just the attacks that we're seeing, is I think a lot of the Arab nations are not letting him use the airspace, not letting them use their air bases. Behind the scenes, I think that's what's going on. You see Trump's desperation, right, when it comes to these Arab nations. And I don't believe we're being told the full picture. And I believe the full picture is that these Arab nations have basically drawn a red line and said, absolutely not. And I think, you know, Donald Trump's lashing out and feels desperate. And that's why, you know, I mean, we know what, what a sicko he is. But also the idea that he continues to say over and over again that Arab nations need to join the Abraham Accords, they need to become allies with Israel. In other words, if the United States is going to make peace with Iran, that Arab nations, you owe it to us, the United States to become allies with Israel. To me, it just reeks of this utter desperation. And as we see more leaking to the press that a deal has been done with Iran that we know isn't to manipulate the markets, as we see, where is Donald Trump today? Like where you know, and this also suspiciously comes after that visit to Walter Reed or he said he was getting dental work and he said he had a perfect visit, a perfect checkup. And of course, they don't release any of the tests, they don't release any of the exams, they don't release anything. I think that there's real desperation taking place and there's a real sense of being trapped. And for Trump and for Treasury Secretary Besant, who oddly filled in and did the press conference today at the White House. And Besant also said he didn't know where Trump was, which I found odd. I mean, the tool that they have, I guess, is to keep on sanctioning Iran. But when you remove sanctions from Russia and allow Russia to sell its oil, Russia is also supporting Iran. And when you show that kind of weakness to China, China's also helping Iran and China's becoming kind of the organizing principle right now in the Middle East. And so I want our audience to pay attention to the broader trends of what's happening, which may not show up in 24 hours or 48 hours, but it will show up in 5, 10 years or perhaps even sooner than that, which is a new security architecture in the Middle east is actually being created. I mean, while Donald Trump is posting AI images of reflecting pools and, and, and arches and, and golden ballrooms and East Wing stuff and Club Rose Garden and what's the new one today he wants to coat the horses in Washington D.C. with another of gold. This is what notice the notice does a great job reporting. Shout out to notice. Trump administration is paying millions of dollars to quickly cover four enormous bronze horses with extra thick 23.75 carat gold leaf. It's like the American people, like, what, what can we just get health care? Can we just get housing affordable? Like, can we just, we, we don't want UFC stadiums in front of the White House. I mean, Just look at that. Look at that. It's a grotesque. It's a grotesque thing that we see. But as Donald Trump's doing all of that stuff, you realize that a whole new security architecture in the Middle east and the world is being built. And it's why corporate news doesn't cover it. Or if they do, maybe it's like a quick headline. But every morning I talk about what's going on in the world and I have the series, whether it's furious world leaders, I call it. And so you all see, I usually do that 5:30 Pacific Time where I talk about these major developments and I focus on it from all angles. Like this morning I talked about North Korea announcing that it's never going to denuclearize. And it continues to launch these ballistic missile tests and it continues to show these photos of Kim Jong Un and nuclear weapons. And we're a nuclear power. We're never going to denuclearize. We're going to keep building our nuclear arsenal. And I just reflect back when former President Obama was in office and all of the news stories would try to focus on like, oh, Obama's weak because he's allowing Kim Jong Un to do these nuclear tests and. Or do these ballistic missile tests, not nuclear tests, do these ballistic missile tests. And. And that was like a narrative like that it's Obama's fault that Kim Jong Un was doing ballistic missile and cruise missile. That's like, dude, Kim Jong Un does cruise missile and ballistic missile tests every damn day. Remember the biggest. And now he's like, yeah, I got nuclear weapons. I ain't leaving my nuclear weapons. That used to be in normal political, normal human, normal America times, that would be a big story. Have any other than on the Midas Touch network, have you heard about it on any TV that he just keeps doing these tests and saying we're not denuclearizing. Yesterday he talked about autonomous nuclear weapons. Kim Jong Un did a nuclear weapons. And no response from our Defense Department. No response from, from the State Department. No, no response at all. And it gets very little coverage. Remember under former President Biden, the big story was, wow, these weather balloons were over these white weather balloons. And look how weak Biden is because of the weather balloons. That was like the biggest story. Remember Marjorie Taylor Greene when she was still like ultra maga, she dressed up to Biden's State of the Union as a weather balloon. And she like, I remember that photo of her, you know, where they look how weak he is, weather balloons. And then it turned out that under, under Trump's first term, there was all these weather balloons. They just covered it all up. They covered up everything. And I think more attention needed to be paid back then. Midas Touch really wasn't around that. We were just starting back then. But all of the COVID ups in the Trump regime, number one, many of them remain covered up. You know, and, and I'm just, I reflect on them a lot as, as well. Like, remember when Trump killed Soleimani, the Iranian IRGC general, back in January of 2020. Remember that? That was like the first instance of the, of that New Year. And then we started to learn about COVID which we should have learned about months before, but that was being covered up by the Trump regime as well. But we started hearing about it, you know, finally right after Soleimani was. Remember, Iran retaliated in 2020 by striking a U.S. base in Iraq. And then there were dozens of U.S. soldiers who suffered traumatic injuries, traumatic brain injuries. But the Trump regime claimed that it was just headaches. And then they refused to acknowledge that anybody was injured. They literally covered up the whole thing and said, yeah, there was never serious. These were real serious injuries that took place back then. And to me, I just reflect on Trump's behavior right now. When Trump says, ah, we control the Strait of Hormuz, everything's fine, you know, and, you know, they claim there's only 406, not only, but they claim 469 of our troops have been injured or so, or 470 of our troops were injured in Donald Trump's catastrophic war in Iran. But my general rule of thumb with Donald Trump is you either kind of, you know, multiply by 20 to 50 or you divide by 20 to 50, depending on if he wants to downplay something or if he wants to increase something. So if Donald Trump says that he brought in $18 trillion, I think that's 18 times more than what he really brought in. And maybe the US Brought in a trillion dollars in investment consistent with past years. Trillion. Five. It's still good. We're not, you know, not quite as good as what Biden did, but 18 trillion. So you always at a fraud multiple of everything Trump did, Right? Just like those. New York, the fraud case where Trump was found civilly liable for fraud. There was a criminal case against Trump. The guy, the guy cooks his books like that's what he's known for doing. So to me personally, I'm giving you my opinion. If I hear 469 people were injured, I believe the number. And I'm giving I'm not trying to get conspiratorial. I don't know the number. I'll be very clear. But knowing my rule of thumb when it comes to Trump fraud, I think that number is probably closer to 3 to 5,000, because he lies about everything. He picks an odd number, 469472 or whatever it is, and then it's like, oh, maybe that number is accurate. Now he lies about everything. But I was notable because there was the reporting in the past 24 hours that when Donald Trump was at Walter Reed for that very suspicious medical checkup that he claimed he got where he said it was perfect, there were 14 U.S. troops who were injured in the Iran war who were there, who said that Donald Trump snubbed him, that specifically, Donald Trump didn't want to be near them because it would bring attention to the consequences of the war, is what CBS reported and others were reporting as well. So he refused to meet with the troops who were injured in this catastrophic. In this catastrophic war in Iran. And to me, again, there's just so many things that this guy does that's absolutely disqualifying. And that was. That's right at the top of it. Which, you know, I apologize, I went on a tangent there. But it brings me back to, as I was saying, this, you know, security architecture, because other countries are observing, how does Donald Trump even treat his own troops yet alone, how does he treat allies? Right? Donald Trump has done everything he can to alienate allies. He's attacked Canada, 51st state. He constantly attacks NATO. He says he's withdrawn resources, massive amounts of resources for NATO. He says that the Article 5 guarantees aren't something that he thinks that America really needs to follow, or he's not sure if he would follow Article 5. The moment the President of the United States waivers on Article 5, Article 5 is rendered meaningless. Right? Because what's the point of Article 5? It's supposed to create a certainty of mutual defense. And where the entity, the United States, that's supposed to be the leader of NATO, equivocates even a little bit on Article 5. There is no Article 5. It doesn't have. It doesn't have the meaning because it doesn't have a deterrent effect anymore. You say, of course, you know, like if you look at Xi Jinping statements, he draws, there are red lines that they draw. If you look at the Iranian negotiators, they draw certain red lines, and they don't budge from that. And if they do budge from it, they don't ever mention Publicly that they budge from it. Because if you mention publicly that a red line isn't really a red line, then nobody takes you seriously. You look clownish. So even if you're actually going to veer off of the red line, there's a way you have to conduct yourself publicly in diplomacy. And one of the most important things is Article 5 of NATO. And so when Donald Trump says publicly, I don't, you know, NATO is not reliable. Should we even be a part of it? I don't know if Article 5 will, is something I'll abide by. Sure. You know, you could have our military, you know, people, you know, say, ah, well, Article 5 is still sacrosanct. You can still have, you know, NATO supreme commanders and other top people say, yeah, Article five. They may say the right things, but the moment Trump demeans it, it's like a, you know, going into the, the finals, like, could you imagine if the coach of the New York Knicks says, yeah, I don't think the Knicks are, I'm not, I'm not sure my team's going to do, you know, is going to do that. Great. You know, I mean, could you. Yeah, I'm not really, you know, I don't really know if they're going to be okay, you know, or, or, or a leader of an organization. I mean, you know, Jensen Huang, could you imagine if he said, regarding Nvidia. Yeah, not really sure what's going to happen with these, some semiconductor chips. Next car, boom, it would crash, right? I mean, you know, it would crash right away. And so Donald Trump saying that NATO is not something that he thinks is. Or calling NATO a paper tiger is the biggest cell phone. Because you're calling yourself a paper tiger because you're supposed to be the leader of NATO. America's supposed to lead. This is your team. So you're telling your team that you know, that your team is a paper tiger and the rest of the world sees that you're just, you're, you're telling on yourself as a paper tiger and that you can't be relied on for anything. And the thing with Trump too, it's like, okay, man, honestly, it's like, to me, you leaving NATO would be treasonous and traitorous and disgusting. But just stop the shit talking, man. Do it. If that's what you want to do, then just do it. Shut up. Like, stop the freaking whining. I'm going to leave. I'm going to try to get me. No, just get out, man. Then get out. Shut up. You know, it's the whole thing with all these MAGA beaches. Just if that's how you truly feel, if your worldview is that you think NATO was a paper tiger and then it's meaningless. Stop. Like, you're not supposed to be a troll. You're supposed to be the leader of the United States. And if you honestly think that this is not in the interest, then you're the leader. Unfortunately, unfortunately, you're the leader. And hopefully there's an election that holds him accountable, not because of politics, but because we need to hold fascists accountable. In my opinion, that's what we need to do. But it's like, what are you going to do? Make. Make a decision. Stop. You look so weak. Okay, you don't like NATO, then, then, then, then don't do it. You don't, you don't want to help Ukraine, don't do it. Stop teasing it. Oh, I'll give you missile. But you got to say, please. You got to say, you like me. You want to see my perfume that I've got in the Oval Office? It's like, if you want to see the disastrous consequences of your action, take accountability and do it. And. But it's this constant in them, should I do it? Should I not do it? Should I do it? Should I not do it? Should I do a deal? Should I do a deal? I'm not going to do a deal. I'm not going to do a deal. And to me, let's forget about the politics here. Let's just talk about. Let's just talk about the leadership aspect of it. It's just. It's just weak. It's just really, really, really weak behavior. So as I noted, you have the security architecture change, and you've got Canada holding a meeting with Sweden at the main cansec, which is the big Canadian security conference. Canada announcing that it's going to be purchasing the Global Eye on, which is like that awacs, the, the big kind of crown jewel military plane detection. Right? The US had the E7, which was the successor to the E3 AWAC, and Canada said, no, we're gonna, we have Bombardier. That works very well with Saab, which does the Global Eye. We're gonna go, we're gonna go with Sweden. We're seeing France assert its nuclear umbrella throughout Europe and offering protection to Poland, Norway and Lithuania and lots of other countries. UK And France saying, okay, you know, we're not going to, we're not going to forbear on increasing our nuclear deterrent. As I mentioned, you have Kim Jong Un on the other side of things, bragging about the nukes that, the nukes that they have. Last week you had Russia, Putin speaking in Belarus about their nuclear, about their nuclear weapons, you know, and so you have in totality a much more chaotic world right now where a new security architecture is being designed, where I think ultimately China replaces the United States in the Middle east and other areas. Sure, the US Is still large economy, it's still big. It's certainly, I don't think going to fade and not become a major power in terms of multi power worlds. But we see the formation, right? On the one hand you have kind of US, America first, America alone. Separately you have the bricks which you have Russia, you have China, you have North Korea, you have Iran, you have, you have that. Separately you have this kind of mid power alliance that's now forming which, that's how they refer to themselves as kind of these mid powers, you know, which is like, you know, Canada and France and Germany, I mean Poland right now we're seeing lots of economic growth out of Poland, the Nordic countries, you know, the EU coming together. And then if you're Japan or South Korea, I should mention Australia kind of joining this kind of mid power structure. Then if you're Japan and you're South Korea and you're, you know, you know, the Southeast Asian countries, you have to think, I need a deterrent against China. The US Is not reliable. We see what they're doing. We can't totally get out right now because we have so much invested with the United States in terms of this relationship. Unfortunately we trusted them, but they're going to move more towards the mid powers where they're able to, they'll try to coexist more with China. And to me that's your kind of multipolar world that we have. In the acceleration of that, it's possible that may have happened in 20 years no matter what. But, but that's where, that's where we are right now. And you know, it doesn't help the United States when Donald Trump is holding these cabinet meetings and he's, you know, doing things like again, telling the Arab nations you have to join with Israel, you have to become an, if you want America to do peace with Iran, you need to become an ally with Israel, to which, you know, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and Turkey and all these countries. Why would we do that? What does it have to do with anything? And also that's not the way you talk to allies. You don't dictate terms that we have to enter into Security alliances with anyone yet alone, Israel. And they've made clear, once there's a two state solution, when there's Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital and Israel recognizes that we. Whereas now Netanyahu's bragging, oh, I got 70% of Gaza and we're going to escalate in Lebanon. And Tyre, this ancient city of tyre, about 170,000, 200,000 people in, in, in Arabic they called sir, but it's tyre. T Y R E or sir is how they say it in Arabic, evacuated and demolished. I mean, we're seeing to, you know, we. One of Iran's critical points in the deal is that security guarantees apply to Lebanon and Israel saying, well, look, our national security interest means we have to go after Hezbollah. But in doing that, they're demolishing again Lebanon. And you see all of the innocent people being killed and you see that in Beirut, you see that in Ty, you see that going on. You see medics being killed, of course, the genocide. In Gaza, you see all, you see all of this taking place and you know, and going back to before the kind of fraud and the lies of the Trump regime and you know, is, is saying, ah, there's a ceasefire in Gaza. What are you talking about? I solved 10 wars. Ceasefire in Gaza. Everything's good. No, it's not. No, it's not. And I, I guess that works on Fox, I guess that works on state regime, media, you know, but the rest of the world sees what's going on. Smart people see what's going. You all who watch, smart people like you all see what's going on. So here's Trump at this cabinet meeting. This is the last time we heard him speak. And here he is talking about how these Arab nations owe us. We would like to have countries join the Abraham Accords. In fact, I'm going to make it mandatory. Here's what he said, let's play it.
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Donald Trump
And we'd like to have the countries we were talking about with Saudi Arabia, uae, Qatar and the others, we'd like to have them immediately join the. And Steve Witkoff is working on that with Jared and some others, but would like to have them join the Abraham Accords. It'll be historic if they do it.
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Joe Gruters
And we would.
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Donald Trump
I think they, I think they owe that to us, to be honest, I think. Because that really would be a tremendous sign and I think those countries owe it to us.
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Ben Meiselas
Why would they owe it to you? You went to war in Iran with Netanyahu, you screwed those countries badly. They did. Quid pro Quos with you personally did all of these business deals with you, what do they owe you? They owe you an alliance with Israel. And by you saying that also, which is obviously your intention, how is that furthering anything? I mean, most people believe, and I believe rightfully so, that the US Was dragged into a war in Iran because of Israel. And I don't think that helps Israel either, frankly. I mean, I don't think that helps any public sentiment or interest or anything regarding Israel. But you know, and I think, I think Netanyahu is a curse and cancer on Israel as well like he is on the rest of the world. But now claiming that the only way out is now the Arab nations have to become allied with Israel. So you go in because of it and then the way out is because of it. And then Arab nations are like, okay, got it. We're done with you, we're done with you. It's hard for us to fully extract ourselves right now. But we know that this is over. We know that the breakup has officially occurred and now we will, you know, ease out of it because so much of our security apparatus is entangled now with your bases here. But we're moving on. That's what you're seeing. And then the way he so cavalierly talks about bombing Oman. Here's what he says about Oman. Let's play this clip.
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Donald Trump
Interesting reading from paper, Miles.
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Interviewer/Host Assistant
Mr. President, Iran wants control of the Strait of Hormuz. Would you accept a short term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the Strait and would they have to open it immediately or would you be open to that happening over a period of time?
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Donald Trump
No, the strait's going to be open to everybody.
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Interviewer/Host Assistant
And who would control it?
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Donald Trump
International waters? Nobody's going to control it. We're going to watch over it. We'll watch over it, but nobody's going to control it. That's part of the negotiation that we have. They would like to control it. Nobody's going to control it's international waters. And Oman will behave just like everybody else who will have to blow them up. They understand that. They'll be fine
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Ben Meiselas
or else we'll have to blow them up. And again, those two clips are devastating for the United States, absolutely devastating. It won't be talked about like that in corporate news. And maybe it's just Donald Trump saying Donald Trump stuff. But no, what he did to the Arab nations there and what he said and what he's demanding that they do with Israel when, if you know about the histories of these nations, they, they're not Doing that. It's not like, is it a chance. No, it's a zero percent chance. It's a negative percent chance of this happening. It will not happen, period, full stop. If it does happen, these Arab nations will have their monarchies toppled the very next day. It ain't. It ain't. It ain't happening. And then to basically say to a country that largely plays the role of mediator and neutral, we're gonna blow you up. And Amman, their foreign minister, has a lot of strong relations in the region. Everybody sees what's going on and they see that and they go. So that brings us to where the episode started. So what does Donald Trump do? He does kind of the weak move, you know, which, rather than do the deal, which he should do, he should do a deal with Iran. And you're going to have to make concessions to Iran because you lost the war. What are you going to have to do? You lost the war, you didn't win the war. You shouldn't have been in the war in the first place. Make your concessions, get out and try to save face as best as possible. That's what you do when you, when you lose sometimes, you know, but, but he doesn't do that. He doesn't want to escalate further, which let me be very clear, he should not escalate. But, you know, while he looks up to authoritarian strong men like Putin, Trump doesn't have that. He's, he's, he's, he's actually scared. Like, he's actually scared of doing it. And by the way, he should be, but he talks tough and then the actions don't back it up. So what does he do? What does he do? I've said this before, he's a sucker puncher, right? What's it, what's up? Like, what are scumbag things to do? Like, people who break promises, right, Lie. And like, the biggest scumbag move is like a sucker puncher, right? Like you're walking and then, boom, you get sucker punched in the back like that. You just sucker punch me. Trump uses negotiations to be a sucker puncher. And so the move is, all right, I'm too afraid to escalate further. I'm also too afraid to make the deal, which you should do. So here we're going to do, let's kill a fishing boat. Let's just kill two people and go, aha, look, let's kill this person and let's kill this boat. Let's kill two fast boats and then let's see how they respond. Ooh, right. And so that's what he does in Bandar Abbas. That's what that was. That. That move was desperation is what it was, in my opinion. And then what else is he doing? Southcom announces. We got another fishing boat in the Pacific, one of more fishing boats that work, you know, that were destroyed. And then Trump's moved on to what? We've killed. We've slaughtered like 300 people in fishing boats without due process. War crimes. War crimes. Sickening again. And when he. When they. It doesn't even get attention either. Another one happened yesterday. Another one happened the day before. About 300 people slaughtered by the United States without due process on fishing boats. And from a lot of the stories we know, a lot of them are just fishing boats. They were not drug dealers. And even if they were drug dealers, they get due pro. You don't just kill people. We don't go around killing. We don't go around murdering and killing people. And we don't even hear any of these stories. What'd you find on the boat? What did you recover? Did you recover fentanyl? Did you recover bombs? I know you call people narco terrorists, but what'd you do? And so, as the Trump regime's weaker than ever also, what else are they doing? Trump entered into a secret deal with Guatemala to do strikes in Guatemala. They're doing strikes in Ecuador. What they want to do is they want to increase their presence to do strikes all in Latin America, because eventually they want to ramp up their strikes in Mexico. That's Trump's golden prize, is to start bombing Mexico. Trust me, he wants to bomb the hell out of Mexico. And Claudia Sheinbaum, who started off strong and then started appeasing him, to me, she's fallen while Prime Minister Carney has risen. It was interesting, the dynamic there, how I've seen, you know, her doing her whole sovereignty, yes, diplomacy, no. And it's like, all right, you know, he's walking all over Mexico right now. It's so. It's. It's. It's. It's so obvious. And then he. And then he blockades Cuba, and now they threaten. Now they go to Axios also. Like, they went to Axios with the other story. And then they say, the Trump admin. This Axios reports the Trump administration is bracing for potential collapse of Cuba's totalitarian government as early as this summer. And they war game, new military response plans in case the island descends into chaos. You know, by the way, I mean, this is part of the Trump regime's war plan, in my opinion, which is to utilize Axios and outlets like that to sow chaos and disorder and hope that the sheer force of the propaganda is enough to bring down regimes. In Iran, it wasn't able to. In Venezuela, you know, there was, there's really no fighting back in Venezuela, you know, and Trump just hoisted up another authoritarian there with, with, with Delsey. But they're hoping to use this propaganda to get the Cuban people to rise up against the regime. That's their goal. And they, but doing that, they want to commit again, crimes against humanity on the Cuban people, starve them to death. And the thinking is if we starve the Cubans to death, they're going to blame the Cuban regime versus the United States for starving them to death. And I believe we shouldn't starve. If we dislike a regime, we shouldn't starve the people of the regime to death, number one. And I think tactically and strategically, it backfires as well and it brings people closer in solidarity with each other and says, you're starving us to death. We know that. We're not stupid. We know what you're doing to us. We know what you're trying to do. And you know, and, and that's what, that's what I think is going on there. Right. We got a lot to discuss still. I know we covered a lot of material there. A reminder hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers. Subscribe to the Midas touch on audio as well and if you can, subscribe to our sub stack. All right, let's take our first and only quick break of the show. We'll be right back.
- [37:31]
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- [41:04]
Ben Meiselas
Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. Shout out to my brothers. Right? They are great ad reads. You know, those sponsors help support this show. And Jordy and Brett work with those sponsors to get you some of the best discounts out there. So the discount codes are in the description below. Check them out. All right, I want to chat about what's going on here in the United States. And I had the opportunity to interview recently James Talarico, Zoran Mamdani on the same day. And it was a very enlightening interview to speak with people who are actually talking about issues that matter to the American people. I mean, they're talking about housing affordability, they're talking about consequences for slum landlords, they're talking about helping people with their health care, they're talking about better education, talking about jobs, talking about concrete plans. You know, and so it's just, it's just fascinating. You know, you take a look at this Texas Senate race, for example, example, and on the one hand, you have this Democratic candidate, James talarico, empathetic, nice, 8th generation Texan. You know, seems like a great candidate. I think he's a great candidate. He's out there talking about issues that matter. You know, on the other hand, you have Ken Paxton, who's been impeached by his own party. Whistleblowers who worked for him, who are Republicans, called him out for engaging in this horrific behavior with a guy who then went to prison where, where they were doing quid pro quos to get a job for Paxton's mistress so that they could hide it together. And then, you know, Paxton was under indictment for securities fraud and mortgage fraud and, and, and all of these, like, I mean, like, objectively, some of the most, you know, horrific things. You couldn't have a bigger contrast between Talarico and Paxton. Donald Trump endorsed Paxton. Paxton beats John Cornyn, the Republican senator from Texas who did a lot for Republicans. I mean, you know, he may not like corn and I don't like corn, and he's better than Paxton and he's done a lot objectively for Texas and Republicans in Texas. Whether, you know, I'm not suggesting he's a good guy by Any stretch of the imagination. But here's a guy who's been a loyal Republican kind of foot soldier, you know, and, you know, in this current MAGA world, you know, he doesn't have the. He's not mar a lago sycophant enough for Donald Trump. So it's just here. It's like, here we go, here's here. This sums up the country for. For me right now, right? On the one hand, you've got people like Talarico, Mamdani, and others who are proposing solutions, rolling up their sleeves, talking about issues. Do you have to agree with everything they say? No. Are they striving to look at what's worked and what's not worked and how do we improve it? Certainly what's happening now ain't working. We all agree with that. And so they're out there talking about issues. On the other hand, you have this Republican MAGA party that's doing, like, name calling. He's Talifrico. He's Tofu. Talarico, He's Tofu. He's a transgender. What do you mean, he's a transgender. What is. What are you talking about? You just want to bully the transgender community. He's not a vegan. Nothing wrong if he was a vegan. He's not. He's not a vegan. A tofu. You're calling him. You're calling him tofu. He's six genders. He's six genders, everybody. He's the most radical guy around. Talo is the most radical. I don't know. I. I think radical. Maybe the people who are covering up child sex trafficking rings who are out there building Golden Ballrooms, sending $1.8 billion slush funds to insurrectionists. I mean, that's pretty freaking radical to me. The guy who's like, hey, let's help Americans get health care. Let's help Americans get better jobs. Let's, you know, make sure we deal with these. These data centers that are ruining communities and AI, which is taking people. What's radical? So this is, you know, this is the dynamic that we deal with, I think, in our country. This. It's perfectly laid out here. Can't, you know, can Americans elect people who actually align with their interests, or is the pull of propaganda and name calling and divisiveness and whatever, is it so strong? Trillion dollars of media pumped into these stuff that, you know, Americans go, oh, I guess he's tofu. I guess he's a vegan. I guess he's transgender. I guess so, you know, I'm Texas. I can't vote for that. I can't vote for that. I mean, just is. Is that, you know, and just think about the power of propaganda right here. It's being used as the main tool in wars right now, right in Iran. Trump's main tool is the propaganda, is the manipulation of the media. Trump harnesses that MAGA media machine of lies and then just pushes it on a country non stop. California Governor Gavin Newsom saw it in January 2025 with the wildfires. Newsom like smelt fish. He wanted to do the smelt. The most outrageous thing you say over and over and over again, that starts becoming the. You bend reality and you pick a thing that's so far out there that's such a lie that people believe it when you keep on saying it over and over again. Because who would lie about these things? He's not turning on the faucet. It's a faucet. You got to turn it on. You drained all of the reservoirs. You gotta. It's all Newsom's fault. And, you know, most humans who go into governance, for governing are like, well, I don't. I'm not going to respond to that. I got to do my job. I can't deal. I gotta, I gotta focus. I have to respond to Smelt and calling me Tofu Talarico. And I gotta respond to, you know, that, that I'm being attacked in a way that's also horribly, you know, insensitive to the transgender community. But I gotta say, no, that that's not true. I mean, like, I have to d. I have to live in this world. And I think one of the things you see is that in 2026, with the level of propaganda's reach, with social media, all this, you have to have a plan to push back forcefully and immediately and rapidly every single damn day against. Against this relentless propaganda machine. So this right here is the RNC chair, Joe Grutters, when he's asked about Talarico. So here's what he says. Here, play this clip.
- [48:24]
Joe Gruters
Because Talafrico is a creep and he thinks he's a vegan. He thinks God is non binary. He wants to mutilate children. He wants to put boys and girls locker rooms. People are done with that. If you looked at the autopsy the Democrats put out, it's simple. All those things and the fact that they are openly supporting communists and socialists. People don't want the United States Senate, certainly the voters in Texas. Texas don't want that. We think Paxton will win. We'll think it's, we think it's a red seat. Hands down, we're not going to have any issues heading into November. We're happy with Paxton and we're going to do everything we can to make sure he's successful.
- [49:00]
Ben Meiselas
Well, you, well, you don't talk about any issues. You don't talk about housing affordability, health care, anything that's actually impacting the American people. But you just went through your whole list. That's, that's their entire campaign saying frico, transgender, socialism, communism, multiple genders, you know, and, and that's what they do. And then they just spew that over. He's a creep. I mean, you have you, that dude looked in the mirror. That dude looks like a pretty creepy dude right there. That, that guy. I mean, like, you have guys like that and Stephen Chung out there. They're the ones calling other people, like creeps. I mean, you may want to look in the mirror and take a look at yourself and you like, whatever, we'll leave it there. So you have that. And then on the other hand, you have James Talarico. And James Talarico said the following to me about Ken Paxton. Let's play this clip.
- [49:59]
James Talarico
Ken Paxton embodies everything that's wrong with our political system. He was impeached by his own party for using his public office to enrich himself and his donors at our expense. And that kind of corruption is the rot at the core of this broken system. It's why we can't afford anything. It's why we can't get ahead no matter how hard we work, because billionaires buy these politicians like Ken Paxton, and then these puppet politicians turn around and rig the rules of the game in favor of the billionaires at our expense. And so this has been happening for 50 years in this country. Mega donors and their puppet politicians have been stealing from the American people, from the people of Texas, stealing the wealth that we created through their bribes, their bailouts and their billionaire tax breaks. And so I look forward to not only running against Ken Paxton, but running against the broken system that he embodies.
- [51:01]
Ben Meiselas
Then you have Benny Johnson, right wing MAGA influencer. And there's lots of rumors that swirl around this guy. Lots of rumors that swirl around this guy. Just leave it at that. And here's what he had to say. Let's play this clip.
- [51:17]
Benny Johnson
But we're stuck with James Talarico. And I'm no political consultant, Jesse, but here's three things you could ask him to defeat him on a debate stage. He says There are six genders. Well, why don't you name them? You say you have a girlfriend. Why don't you name her? And you say that Jesus is pro abortion. So how do you square that with thou shalt not kill the Ten Commandments? Something I'm pretty sure that Jesus wanted you to uphold. So, once again, the reason why Democrats are failing is because they've given up on masculinity. They've given up on testosterone. They've given up entirely for effeminate and estrogenetic catty and totally embarrassing candidates like Beto and beta here. And most importantly, the American people know what leadership looks like. It looks like President Trump winning.
- [52:05]
Ben Meiselas
Seriously, you're talking about testosterone. You're talking about beta. It's coming from you. Really? Really. Benny Johnson, for real? And again, notice what he says. Here's how. If you want to win the election, here's how you do it in three. Ask him about gender. Ask him who his girlfriend is, okay? And then you can ask him. It's like, what are you even talking? How. And by the way, if you want to go down that line of questioning, and if that's. If those are the issues that are important to you, then don't complain. When your electricity bills go up 30%, when the gas prices go up 70%, when your groceries grow up go up 30%, 40%. When everything in your life becomes utterly unaffordable, when the American dream gets destroyed, know that these individuals like Benny Johnson and Gruders and others, they're the mercenaries for the oligarchy. And they're out there running, blocking and tackle, trying to pit people against each other so that their interests are not being aligned with the politicians, but that they go, oh, my God, he's tofu. I can't vote for tofu. Guy. Okay, well, then you're gonna vote for your life sucks guy. Okay? You're gonna vote for the fact that things are never going to get better for you because you are supporting candidates who hate you, and it's just that simple. And. And, you know, they're. They're the way they go after Mom Donnie, Zoron, Mom, Donnie. You know, he wants to transfer wealth from the landlords to the community. Like, people love Mamdani in New York right now. He's rolling up his sleeves and trying to create solutions to make it a more affordable place. He's actually doing it. He's very popular in New York. And so I show you how the Republicans are communicating. Here's what Mamdani told me. Let's Play the clip. You know, I see the Trump regime now also bragging about kicking people off of Snap, kicking people off of Medicaid. Their big announcement also the Housing and Urban Development will be stopping emotional support dogs. Yeah, no emotional support. That's what they're considering their dubs. That's their wins right there. And so it's using government to harm people to take away. Whereas I think you're showing a model that works in New York City and nationwide. Can you talk to New York City being a model for government working, you
- [55:00]
Zoran Mamdani
know, wherever you live in this country, people come with an anxiety about the first of the month because they don't know if they're going to be able to afford their rent. That is not just a New York City specific problem. It is one that people feel coast to coast and everywhere in between. And this is a vision for a city where we make it easier for people to actually afford to live here, make it easier for people to afford not only an apartment that they may rent, but even dreaming of becoming a homeowner. And so much of what you're speaking about when it comes to federal policy, it's completely divorced from what any New Yorker is actually worried about. What people are worried about is what we're actually acting on, which is how to make this city affordable and how to actually ensure that housing isn't some imaginary dream or a fantasy that people have that they could one day afford. But it's a reality. And the way we do that is by putting the full financial muscle of the city behind that kind of a vision. We're incredibly excited to be doing that today.
- [55:52]
Ben Meiselas
Look, and as a, you got to stay on message like that and you got to deliver. You got to deliver. And I just find it fascinating, too, you know, state regime, media, what do they want to Talk about today? May 28, 2026? What do they want to talk about? Biden. Biden's debate. Biden this, Biden that. So they have Democratic Senator Coons on and they said, so what do you make of Dr. Jill Biden saying that she was very worried about when Biden was doing his debate? Watch. Coons response right here. Let's play.
- [56:26]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
She thought he was having a stroke. It's inexplicable. As a wife, why you wouldn't stop the whole thing right then and go straight to a hospital. What's your, what's your take on what she's saying now?
- [56:41]
Democratic Senator Chris Coons
Frankly, my take is that as I've gone up and down the state of Delaware in the last couple of days. Nobody's asked me about Joe Biden's debate performance in 2024. They've asked me about the rising price of gas. They've asked me about Trump's tariffs. They've asked me about insecurity and instability because of an unresolved war in Iran that is not going well. As someone who cares for President Biden, I too was concerned about what that several second pause meant, what was happening at the moment. But I was with President Biden earlier today. We are at the funeral of a friend of ours, someone who long served as the mayor of Wilmington, and he's fine. I see regular incidents where President Trump falls asleep in meetings in the middle of the day. Makes no sense in answering questions. And frankly, what I think the average Delawarean wants to hear is what are we going to do to lower their costs and what are we going to do to of them all avoid future pointless wars overseas. Two things President Trump ran on when he was successfully elected in 2024.
- [57:45]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Well, I mean, we can go back and forth, you know, on the cognitive abilities of President Trump versus what was quite obvious from President Biden. President Trump answers like 30 to 100 questions every single day from the press,
- [58:02]
Ben Meiselas
answers 30 bajillion questions, but gwillion questions a day. Yeah, he, he answers them horribly. He's not speaking in sentences. He's not staying awake during the day, any day. And it's impacting critical decision making. We see how it's impacting critical decision making. He's lashing out at reporters, calling him Piggy Piggy and, you know, and screaming at reporters and saying horrible things, you know, to them. As he has this disinhibition. We see him before our eyes with the hands and the neck and this and that and, and, and again, more significantly, how it's impacting the people's lives. You know, you want to talk about 2024? Biden, Joe Biden. Oh, the American people don't want to talk about that. American people don't want. American people say, we're in 2026. What are you doing right now to make my life better? What are you doing? What are your plans? What are your policies? You promised the pro. This was. These were promises. Things would be cheaper on day one. The war in Ukraine would be resolved on day one. Electricity costs would be down 50%. Gas prices would be under $2. These, these were promises. I guarantee you I'll be able to do it. I'll be able to do it. And, and that. And none of it's happened. None of it. Things are worse. PCE inflation, 3.8% today, inflation is back in a major way. I believe that we'll be at 5% inflation PCE by the end of this year. I think it's about a.02 to 0.3 increase every month. So just do the math. If we're at 3.8%, if next month it's another 0.2, that gets us to 4, then we've got about what, four or five more months left. That gets us to 5% pretty quickly by the end of. That's not, I don't have to be a great economist to see where, where, where this is heading. Personal savings rate now at 2.6%, the worst since 2022, right after Covid. Last year it was 5.5%. This is what, this is why consumer sentiment's at an all time low. And you know, you all can brag about the stock market this, the stock market that, but for most Americans, we just look like, oh yeah, Donald Trump stock trading from the Oval Office, 3, 800 trades in quarter one, making all this money. They leak a story, the market goes up, it goes down. They sell, they leak another story, it goes up. That, that ain't helping the American people buy a home. That ain't helping the American people buy groceries or get a job that pays them what they deserve to be paid. That ain't, that ain't doing any of that. And so that's where we are, America. And then of course, I did multiple videos on this as well, though Pam Bondi's deposition is tomorrow. But she's probably not going to do it under oath. She's probably not going to do it under video camera, just like Howard Lutnick. So expect the magas to come out and say, here's what she said. Then the Democrats will say, here's what she said. And then they'll, whatever. And then we'll get a transcript two weeks down the line and we won't get to see what Bondi actually looks like, what her facial expressions are. She just announced that she's got thyroid cancer. Was announced leading into this deposition, which, you know, was interesting. You know, I, I certainly don't wish thyroid cancer upon anybody, even people who I think are not good people like Pam Bondi. So I, I wish her recovery and wish anybody suffers from. But that's what they're announcing. This, there was no announcements of this before, but that's being announced this week. Okay. You had Donald Trump filing an amended complaint against the Wall Street Journal saying that the letter in Epstein's 50th birthday was absolutely not mine. And then citing Ghislaine Maxwell statements to Todd Blanche as evidence to support the amended complaint. So that whole thing with Ghislaine Maxwell, she's being used as evidence by Trump to file an amended complaint. Ghislaine's character witness, D. Lane, is the President of the United States character witness in an amended complaint where he's saying that this card that's in the Epstein estate book of Jeffrey Epstein, not epic. This is an independent source that. We've seen the letter. Now we've seen it. You sue the Wall Street Journal for defamation and say, I didn't write it. That's not my signature. Come on, man. Come on, man. And then you use the Department of Justice to criminally investigate E. Jean Carroll for testimony she gave in a case where you were found liable for sexual assault. You were found liable. It was affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. You were found liable for sexually assaulting her. And you act like you won because you go, oh, well, the jury didn't find it was my genitals. They found it was my finger. So therefore I was vindicated by the jury. What sickening. That's at the President of the United States. Essential, in my opinion. That's essentially what his argument boiled down to when he sued George Stephanopoulos, where he was saying it wasn't rape because it wasn't genitals, it was finger. And New York has a technical definition that's different. What would that of trial look like? The President of the United States having a deposition taken over that or. Or sitting in a trial over that. That's why when it comes to the Wall Street Journal, they need to just take the guy's deposition. Enough of this crap. You know, they file their motions to dismiss, then Donald Trump files an opposition. They delay this thing for years. Just take the guy's deposition. If Trump ever sued me, I would take the guy. I would answer. I wouldn't file a motion to dismiss, even though I know I'd win the motion to dismiss. I would answer, and I would immediately notice his deposit. I would propound a ton of discovery, and I would immediately take his deposition. I would make sure the deposition was public, that the video was open for everybody to see. And then what's he going to do? He's scared. This going back to what I said before. He's scared he's going to sit for a deposit deposition. You ain't gonna sit for a deposit. I'm too busy. Dad can't do it. I can't do it. You filed a lawsuit. Sit for the deposition. I'd want to personally take that deposition. Seven hours. Let's do it. That's what the Wall Street Journal should do. That's what all these people who we sue should do. Honestly, that's what they should do. Take his deposition. Well, we covered a lot of topics. Make sure you watch the Brother show tonight, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. I'll do with Brett and Jordy. Thanks for all. Thanks for hanging in this fight together. I know it's. I know there's a lot going on. I know there's a lot, a lot going on, but you're hanging in the fight. We're almost in the midterms, and I don't care what political affiliation you have. This isn't about politics. I just want accountability. I want accountability. I want there to be real hearings, real accountability. And I want the. And I want the truth. That's what I want. Thanks, everybody, for watching. Have a wonderful rest of your day. I hope I see you on the show with the brothers. Join. Become a member of our YouTube channel. Subscribe to our sub stack. Thanks, everybody. Have a good one. Shout out Midas Mighty. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps, Ron Filipkowski ad free
- [66:13]
Sponsor/Ad Read Voice
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