Trump Collapse Accelerates as Plan Goes Utterly Wrong

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The MeidasTouch Podcast

Episode Title: Trump Collapse Accelerates as Plan Goes Utterly Wrong
Date: October 5, 2025
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas

Overview

In this episode, the Meiselas brothers tackle the political chaos surrounding Donald Trump’s controversial government shutdown, military actions in American cities, and the broader implications for democracy in the U.S. They combine sharp analysis, brotherly banter, and irreverent humor as they break down how Trump’s plan is unraveling, delving into the shocking use of military force on domestic soil, economic fallout, and public reaction. The episode features insights from public officials, direct commentary on social media outbursts from Trump allies, and an exclusive interview with Oregon’s Attorney General.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Trump and MAGA Leadership Exploit the Government Shutdown

[00:00–04:30]

• Trump is spotted golfing at his Virginia club while Americans endure a government shutdown.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson joins Trump in celebrating, seen dining lavishly in D.C.
• All MAGA Republicans are ordered by Trump and Johnson to skip work and treat the shutdown as a paid vacation, part of the larger "Project 2025" strategy aimed at dismantling the federal government.
• The shutdown threatens ACA subsidies, Medicaid, and Medicare, potentially raising Americans’ healthcare premiums drastically.
• Ben remarks on the indifference of MAGA leadership:

  “Donald Trump and MAGA Mike are having a grand old time. They're really enjoying themselves right now… because they don't understand what the American people are going through.” —Ben Meiselas [03:30]

2. Escalation: Military Deployment in U.S. Cities

[00:50–06:45]

• Trump’s military invasions of Portland and Chicago are covered, with reports of chemical agents used against civilians, even children.
• District Court Judge (a Trump appointee) rules Trump’s actions are unconstitutional and risk martial law:

  “A Trump judge stating that basically Trump is turning the United States into a perpetual state of martial law.” —Ben Meiselas [01:50]

• Governor Pritzker of Illinois vows not to call the National Guard and condemns Trump’s aggression.

3. Republicans’ Shrinking Support & Public Opinion

[02:30–03:50]

• Only 22% of Republicans accept Trump’s narrative blaming Democrats for the shutdown, showing waning confidence even within the GOP.
• Ben empathizes with Americans affected by the loss of healthcare:

  “People are gonna go medically bankrupt, lose their healthcare, and die. But Donald Trump and MAGA Mike are having fun.” —Ben Meiselas [03:10]

4. Democrats at Work While GOP is Absent

[04:30–04:45]

• Rep. Ted Lieu summarizes Democratic commitment during the shutdown:

  “Democrats came back to work. Where are the Republicans?...And House Republicans are on vacation.” —Rep. Ted Lieu [04:33]

5. Stephen Miller’s Authoritarian Rhetoric on Social Media

[04:45–07:15]

• Stephen Miller attacks Trump-appointed judges and amplifies calls to “use legitimate state power” against what he describes as “left-wing terrorism.”
• Governor Newsom rebukes Miller:

  “Sorry the Constitution hurt your feelings. You’ll be fine, cupcake.” —Gov. Gavin Newsom [06:30]

• Newsom warns that labeling a federal judge as an “insurrectionist” is “authoritarian propaganda, plain and simple.”

6. Revelations: Plans for Escalation, Leaked Signal Messages

[08:35–10:25]

• Minnesota Star Tribune uncovers signal messages from Anthony Salisbury (Stephen Miller’s deputy) revealing plans to deploy elite military units (86th Airborne Division) into Portland.

7. Interview: Oregon Attorney General Rayfield

[11:34–12:15]

• The Midas Touch Network hosts AG Rayfield’s first interview post-court ruling:

  “This is a president that is normalizing the use of the United States military in our country… the rule of law still stands…Congress put some standards out and you better follow them.” —AG Rayfield [11:36]

8. Bipartisan Judicial Rebuke of Trump’s Military Actions

[12:15–13:00]

• Judges from both parties (including Reagan, Trump, Obama, and Biden appointees) consistently deem Trump’s actions unlawful.

9. Chemical Warfare and Escalating Aggression in Chicago

[13:00–14:24]

• Kristi Noem, Trump’s DHS Secretary, spotted on rooftops allegedly overseeing sniper nests targeting protesters.
• Chemical agents deployed near Chicago elementary schools.
• Ben bluntly summarizes:

  “Do you understand what I'm saying? There's chemical warfare against Americans right now by the United States government.” —Ben Meiselas [13:45]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Judicial Rebuke:

  “This is a Trump appointed judge who's like, this is freaking embarrassing and it's dangerous.” —Ben Meiselas [10:44]

• On the State of Democracy:

  “Judges…have all ruled against Donald Trump because the behavior of this regime objectively and legally is abhorrent. They violate the law every single day.” —Ben Meiselas [12:20]

• On Public Outrage:

  “The American people despise this…American people are saying, what the hell is going on right here?” —Ben Meiselas [07:00]

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Segment Timestamps & Highlights

| Timestamp | Segment | Notes | | ---------- | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | 00:00–04:30 | Trump/MAGA leaders' shutdown antics | Golfing, dining, and Project 2025 explained | | 01:00–02:40 | Military invasions of Portland & Chicago | Chemical agents, authoritarianism, ACA fallout | | 02:30–03:50 | Public opinion and healthcare consequences | Only a small GOP base accepts Trump’s shutdown narrative | | 04:30–04:45 | Rep. Ted Lieu—Democrats working, GOP absent | Quick clip; Dems at work during crisis | | 04:45–07:15 | Stephen Miller’s far-right rhetoric | Miller’s posts, Newsom’s sharp responses | | 08:35–10:25 | Signal leaks reveal plans for escalation | Plans for 86th Airborne deployment exposed | | 11:34–12:15 | AG Rayfield Interview | Historic temporary restraining order against Trump actions | | 13:00–14:24 | Chemical warfare in Chicago | DHS snipers, use of chemical agents near schools |

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains a blend of urgent fact-based reporting and the brothers’ signature irreverent, comedic banter. Despite the alarming subject matter, they frequently break the tension with dry humor, sharp turns of phrase, and a strong advocacy for democratic norms.

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Summary

This episode reveals the unraveling of Donald Trump’s crisis manipulation strategy, documenting the widespread legal, political, and public pushback to his authoritarian moves during the government shutdown. Through vivid details, direct quotes, and exclusive interviews, the MeidasTouch Podcast provides listeners with a comprehensive picture of the rising resistance to Trump’s martial law ambitions, the ongoing threat to healthcare and civil liberties, and the continued fight to preserve American democracy.

Transcript

[A]

Here's Donald Trump at his Virginia golf club yesterday on the taxpayer dime, while the government is in a shutdown and while Donald Trump is sending the military to invade more American cities. Donald Trump is caught playing golf pretty much for the entire day. Here's MAGA Mike Johnson, also very much enjoying this government shutdown. You see him right there at a fancy Washington D.C. restaurant, also enjoying the government shutdown. Donald Trump and MAGA Mike Johnson have ordered all MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives not to show up for work next week. They've all been ordered to take paid vacation and to stay away from the Capitol building. Why? Because Donald Trump and MAGA Mike Johnson want this government shutdown. It's part of their plan for Project 2025 to destroy the United States government. And while they're doing that, they are ordering the military to invade more American cities. You will also recall that yesterday in Portland, a federal District court judge who was appointed by don Trump in 2019 ruled that Donald Trump's military invasion at Portland, Oregon is based on Donald Trump's truth social posts, which are entirely untethered to the facts. The judge said it was wholly unconstitutional what Donald Trump was doing and that it risk sending the United States into a complete and utter state of martial law. That's a Trump judge stating that basically Trump is turning the United States into a perpetual state of martial law. Yesterday, Donald Trump ordered the United States military to also invade Chicago. We heard from Governor Pritzker of Illinois talking about Donald Trump saying that he has ordered the troops into Chicago. And then Donald Trump has been terrorizing the people there to try to create some pretext for a military invasion, releasing chemical agents into the street, severely harming children and innocent people who are inhaling the chemical agents being sprayed at them, amongst other real travesties and frankly, crimes against humanity being inflicted by the United States military against the people in a full fledged authoritarian regime here in the United States. So you obviously see there Donald Trump, MAGA Mike Johnson, they are absolutely giddy about this government shutdown. They're enjoying it. They don't care that the Affordable Care act subsidies that tens of millions of Americans rely on are about to expire, which will raise raise your healthcare premiums each month by two, three, four times the amount. I've given you examples before. If you were paying $8,000 a year in your healthcare premiums, you'll likely now be paying 24 to $30,000 a year, potentially even more. This is in addition to the fact that the Trump regime and the disastrous budget bill destroyed Medicaid and severely harmed Medicare as well. And the American people aren't fooled by this. In fact, only 22% of Republicans believe that Democrats are to blame for the shutdown because of illegal immigrants or transgender people. That's 22% of Republicans buy the lies that Donald Trump is selling. So a very small group of Trump's own base, because Americans throughout the country either have Medicare, Medicaid, or Affordable Care Act. And those tax subsidies, these subsidies for the ACA keeps the price of your monthly premiums, at least at a level that's affordable. My own personal view is there should be universal healthcare. I think healthcare is a human right. All Americans should have it. But the subsidies, at least for now, help keep the price, you know, somewhat manageable. And without the subsidies, people are gonna go medically bankrupt, lose their healthcare, and die. But Donald Trump and MAGA Mike are having a grand old time. They're really enjoying themselves right now. They're having fun. They're doing memes, they're laughing, they're posting jokes. They think this is all one big joke because they don't understand what the American people are going through. They don't understand what you're going through. And again, I don't care what political party you're from. It seems that Trump and MAGA Mike and all the Republicans enjoy this government shutdown. It seems, again, like they're having fun. Here's what Democratic Congressmember Ted Lieu had to say is the Democrats are there working. Democrats aren't going on vacation. Democrats are there to work. Here, play this clip.

[B]

Democrats came back to work. Where are the Republicans? I don't see any House Republicans. Inflation continues to increase. Job growth is anemic with the highest unemployment rate in nearly four years. And House Republicans are on vacation.

[A]

Let me show you what Stephen Miller is posting. Donald Trump's henchmen. Uh, he posts the following. He goes. Let me post the. Get you the full clip of here of. Of what he said. Um, he goes, Legal insurrection. Stephen Miller. Legal insurrection. The President is the commander in chief of the armed forces, not an Oregon judge. Portland and Oregon law enforcement, at the direction of local leaders, have refused to aid ICE officers facing relentless terrorist assault and threats to life. There are more local law enforcement officers in Oregon than there are guns and badges in the FBI nationwide. This is an organized terrorist attack on the federal government and its officers. And the deployment of troops is an absolute necessity to defend our personnel, our laws, our government, public order, and the Republic itself. That's his response to the Trump appointed Judge granting a temporary restraining order blocking Donald Trump from sending troops into Portland, Oregon last night. As our editor in chief, Ron Philip Koski writes, Miller has fascist hissy number three today after another court ruling, this one from a judge appointed by radical left Marxist Donald J. Trump. You had Stephen Miller also post the following. The issue before is now very simple and clear. There is a large and growing movement of left wing terrorism in this country. It is well organized and funded and it is shielded by far left Democrat judges, prosecutors and Attorney General. The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks. The Democrat Party has filled our legal and judicial system with radicals who protect left wing terrorists. This is a very real and dire crisis for our republic. And again, this is Stephen Miller, the fascist in a fascist regime. He's as close to Donald Trump as anybody right there. And as Democratic Senator Chris Murphy goes, understand what they are doing using the massive power of the state, including the military power and the power to imprison, to carry out a campaign to eliminate their political opposition. It's growing in seriousness by the hour and it's growing during the government shutdown as Donald Trump is out there golfing. Stephen Miller is out there ordering troops to accelerate their crimes against humanity against Americans in American cities. Governor Newsom responded to Stephen Miller's post attacking a Trump appointed judge and says, Governor Newsom writes, sorry the Constitution hurt your feelings. You'll be fine, cupcake. Also, Governor Newsom posted the following as well. Um, he wrote a senior White House official, Stephen Miller, accusing a federal judge appointed by his own boss of insurrection for ruling on a case isn't just reckless, it's authoritarian propaganda, plain and simple. Stephen Miller should be fired. He absolutely should be fired. Referring to a Trump appointed judge as an insurrectionist for ruling against Donald Trump sending the military into Portland, Oregon. Yeah, that's a horrific thing. And the American people despise this. American people are saying, what the hell is going on right here? Um, this is what Governor Pritzker wrote. I showed you what Governor Newsom wrote. Governor Pritzker wrote yesterday, Christy Gnomes and Greg Bevino's masked agents through chemical agents near at elementary school arrested elected officials exercising their First Amendment rights and raided a Walmart. None of this is in pursuit of justice, but all of it is in pursuit of social media videos. I want to be clear. There is no need for military troops on the ground in the state of Illinois. State, county and local law enforcement have been working together and coordinating to ensure public safety around the Broadview ICE facility and to protect the people's ability to peacefully exercise their constitutional rights. I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump's acts of aggression against our people in Illinois. We will do everything within our power to look out for our neighbors, uphold the Constitution and defend the rule of law. And that was posted also at the same time that Governor Pritzker learned that the Trump regime was sending military troops into Illinois in order to further torture and terrorize the people there. In addition to what the Trump regime has already done. All this is taking place while Donald Trump is golfing and while Maga Mike is partying, enjoying the great meals of Washington D.C. one of the things that we also learned from a report by the Minnesota Star Tribune, they obtained images of signal messages. Yep. More signal messages between a guy by the name of Anthony Salisbury, a top deputy to Stephen Miller. Um, and what these show White House official inadvertently reveals plans to send the 86th Airborne Division into Portland. The 86th Airborne Division. When I basically want to spend the equip, you know, like almost like special forces to go and attack people in Portland, Oregon. And you saw what the Trump appointed judge from 2019 ruled that Donald Trump is so untethered from reality that what Trump. And by the way, the judge is like, wait a minute, like you're citing Truth Social instead of the law. You're citing truth social instead of the facts that exist on the ground. Again, this is a Trump appointed judge who's like, this is freaking embarrassing and it's dangerous. And the judge said this is putting our country in a perpetual state of martial law. Perpetual state of martial law. This coming from a Trump appointed judge. We here at the Midas Touch Network got the exclusive, the very first interview by Oregon's Attorney General Rayfield. Here's what he had to say. Play this clip. Attorney General Rayfield, a big order. We talked about how this federal judge granted the temporary restraining order that your office had filed. We were following that hearing very closely on Friday. Judge Immigrant was asking the right types of questions. We separately talked about, you know, who Judge Immerse was. But I want to talk more about your response to this ruling today. What's your reaction?

[C]

Huge win at this moment in our democracy right now. We talked about this last time, right? I mean this is a president that is normalizing the use of the United States military in our country. Just this morning, again, we're talking about Illinois. So to get this strong of a ruling out today for the public to see it. Right. And I think it's also incredibly important as people think that we're judge shopping. This is a judge, you know, one of those typical lefty liberal judges appointed by President Donald Trump. Right? So hopefully this will kind of serve as a message to folks, hey, the rule of law still stands in this country. And when you want to use the military and you want to put them on our streets, Congress put some standards out and you better follow them.

[A]

And as our editor in chief, Ron Philip Koski writes, which judges have ruled against the Trump administration? Reagan judges, Clinton judges, Bush judges, Obama judges, Biden judges, and Trump appointed judges have all ruled against Donald Trump because the behavior of this regime objectively and legally is abhorrent. They violate the law every single day. And you see their fascist leaders and elk weirdos like Stephen Miller out there just sounding as authoritarian as you can be, just that simple. Meanwhile, here you had Kristi Gnome, Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security secretary. You'll see her on a roof with that guy Bavino, because they're trying to torture the people of Chicago. And you'll see that they have a sniper's nest aimed at the peaceful protesters in Chicago. Sniper's nest aimed at the peaceful protesters while they use chemical agents on the people in Chicago. They do. There's. Do you understand what I'm saying? There's chemical warfare against Americans right now by the United States government. Chemical warfare by the United States and military against American citizens taking place right now. How do people normalize this? Play this clip of the sniper here. Play this clip. And just so you see the chemical agents, we'll throw the B roll over this so you can see the chemical agents, but they're dispersing chemical agents right next to elementary schools in the United States of America. You see that right there? We'll keep you posted every step of the way. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our [e-mail] you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only [e-mail].

[D]

Morning, Zoe. Got donuts.

[E]

Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?

[D]

Well, I dig the mattress, and I want to be in a T Mobile commercial like you teach me. So, Dana.

[E]

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[D]

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[A]

Nice.

[E]

Jeffrey, you heard them.

[D]

T Mobile is the best place to.

[A]

Get the new new iPhone 17 Pro.

[D]

On us with eligible traded in any condition. So what are we having for launch?

[E]

Dude, my work here is done.

[F]

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