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Ron Filipkowski
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Mira Potassan
Hi, my name is Mira Potassan. I'm an author and I'm an activist and GoFundMe is my go to platform for fundraising. The first GoFundMe I did was to raise money for a chat book or a collection of poetry and essays and short stories. So we started a GoFundMe and our goal was 7,000. What I've learned is so special about GoFundMe is that it's a whole collection of people offering anything from like $4 to $400. And each time you get a ping that someone donated. Even if it is just $4, it's so if you have a goal and you get there, you can keep making it bigger and bigger and bigger. We did go past our goal. It was amazing.
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Ron Filipkowski
Donald Trump just had a full on meltdown in the Oval Office. During a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Taka Ishii, Donald Trump was asked why he did not tell his allies about the war before attacking Iran. And Donald Trump's like, you know a thing or two about surprises. Japan, why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Now Donald Trump is just ripping to shreds our alliances in real time. Watch how uncomfortable Prime Minister Taka Ishi is here. Let's play this clip.
Donald Trump
Of course, no, Japan and us are very good friends. But one question, why didn't you tell us allies in Europe and Asia, like Japan, about the war before attacking Iran? So we are very confused about, well, one thing you don't want to signal too much. You know, when we go in, we went in very hard and we didn't tell anybody about it. Because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay, why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Okay, right. He's asking me, don't you believe in surprise? I think much more so than us. And we had a surprise and we did. And because of that surprise, we knocked out the first two days. We probably knocked out 50% of what we. And much more than we anticipated doing. So if I go and tell everybody about it, there's no longer a surprise. Right. Okay, one, one.
Ron Filipkowski
Next, Donald Trump talks about how Naito doesn't want to help us defend the Strait of Hormuz. He goes, but now they think I'm being nicer to them. So now they want to help, but I don't want their help anymore. We don't need the help of them. Here, play this clip.
Donald Trump
But we think of it, we don't use the straight. We're defending the straight for everybody else. And then in the case of NATO, they don't want to help us defend the Strait, and they're the ones that need it. But now they're getting much nicer because they're seeing my attitude. They're getting much nicer, but it's. As far as I'm concerned, it's too late. You know, UK wants to send aircraft carriers now. And I said, I want the aircraft carriers before the war. I don't want them after the war is won. They want to send me aircraft carriers after the wars. There's practically nobody to shoot at them. You know, their missile count is down. Pete, maybe you could discuss it. By about 90 something percent, the drones are way down and the factories are being demolished.
Pete Hegseth
Maybe, sir, our missile missiles being shot are down over 90% since the beginning. One way attack drones down 90% since the beginning, which is a reflection of overwhelming firepower. But you mentioned the Most important part, Mr. President. Their defense industrial base. If you can't make more of it in the future, then you have a limited supply. And so we're going after all of their defense contractors that make all of their exquisite weapons, ensuring that even if they wanted to rebuild more launchers or more missiles, they couldn't in the future. And that's a level of devastation for their military that they've never seen before.
Donald Trump
So we have literally more from Donald Trump here.
Ron Filipkowski
He says, we expect Japan that you must step up immediately right now because we have that kind of relationship. What are you doing? Japan? As our editor in chief Ron Philipkowski says, this moron continues to incinerate alliances that were built by far better people. Than him over the past 80 years. Let's play it.
Donald Trump
This looks like one of your people.
Ron Filipkowski
Thank you.
Donald Trump
Is he good or bad? Is he a good reporter or bad? You know, so sorry. All right. Looks like a nice guy. Go ahead. Mr. President, you just mentioned Japan itself. Step stepping up. What kind of this happens do you expect from Japan in the future? Look, I expect Japan to step up because, you know, we have that kind of relationship, and we step up in Japan. We have 45,000 soldiers in Japan. We have. We spend a lot of money on Japan, so. And we've had that kind of relationship. So I expect. I'm not surprised that they would step up. We don't need much. We don't need anything. I mean, honestly, we don't need anything from Japan or from anyone else. But I think it's appropriate that people step up. In the case of Japan, I hear they get more than 90% of their oil through the Strait. So that's a big reason to step up. I mean, we've. We've demolished. That country is close to demolished. The only thing is the Strait, it's very hard. You could take two people and they could drop little bombs in the water, and they're holding things up. We don't want that to happen. But honestly, Japan, China, Europe, parts of Europe get a lot of their oil through the Strait. We get none. Practically, we're less than 1%. We don't have to be any percent. We don't even. I think we do it just to be nice, but we think of it. We don't use the strain. We're defending the strait for everybody else. And then in the case of NATO, they don't want to help us defend the strait, and they're the ones that need it. But now they're getting much nicer because they're seeing my attitude. They're getting much nicer, but it's. As far as I'm concerned, it's too late.
Ron Filipkowski
By the way, just take a look at Prime Minister Taka Ishii's face right here. As Donald Trump is saying these things, she is utterly bewildered. I would say it mildly. Then Donald Trump says, of course, we're gonna need to spend another $200 billion on this war. He says it's a small price to pay so that we're tippy, tippy top. We want to be tippy, tippy top. Here, play this clip.
Donald Trump
Sophisticated rockets. Every single one of them was shot down with our equipment, all our equipment. It's amazing, actually, how good it is. So we want to be sure. And it's a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top, Mr. President.
Ron Filipkowski
So then naturally the questions are, well, if you're asking for another $200 billion, then clearly this war isn't going to end anytime soon. And by the way, didn't the Republicans say we didn't have $30 billion to ensure that people can continue on with their Obamacare plans and that we don't have any of this money and we had to take away $200 billion from rural hospitals and now it' to this disastrous and unlawful war. But Trump's like, everything was going great. The economy was going great because things were so amazing. Trump says, I decided to take an excursion. We all want this excursion in Iran. An excursion? You mean a disastrous war which is now resulting in the death of many of our troops and crushing our economy. Here, play this clip right here.
Donald Trump
Well done. Everything was going great. The economy is great. Oil prices were very low. Gasoline was dropping to. I mean, we had A$99,85. We had great everything. And I saw what was happening in Iran and I said, I hate to make this excursion, but we're going to have to do it. And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. I thought that it would go up more than it did. But we're doing this excursion and when it's completed, we're going to have a much safer world. And the prime minister agrees with me on this. She considers it to be terrible what Iran did. I think every country does. Just about every country does. Iran is a serious threat to the world, to the Middle east and to the world. And everybody agrees with me. I think virtually every country agrees with me on that. So I wanted to put out that fire. And I said, you know, if I do that, oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit. I thought it would be worse. Much worse, actually. I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It's not bad, and it's going to be over with pretty soon. We've been.
Ron Filipkowski
Donald Trump says we've demolished Iran. The only thing left is the Strait of Hormuz, which we know is false. We know that even today, Iran hit an American F35. We know that Iran just struck the Haifa energy plant. We know that Iran struck the liquefied natural gas plant in Qatar the other day and Riyadh. I mean, Iran's capabilities have actually been improving and their ability to strike targets has actually been improving. But here's Donald Trump lying. You could hear him Lie for yourself. Here, play this clip.
Donald Trump
The straight. So that's a big reason to step up. I mean, we've, we've demolished. That country is close to demolished. The only thing is the strait. It's very hard. You could take two people and they could drop little bombs in the water and they're holding things up. We don't want that to happen.
Ron Filipkowski
Then Donald Trump passes. When asked another question on the Strait of Hormuz.
Donald Trump
Let's play this clip to $4 billion. Thank you, Mr. President.
Ron Filipkowski
You just mentioned Japan. What about you coordinating all of these attacks with Netanyahu? Donald, have you talked to Netanyahu about attacking the oil and gas fields and Donald Trump's. I did, and we won't do that. We all know that Donald Trump coordinated the South Pars attack in Iran with Netanyahu. We can play this clip right here.
Donald Trump
I don't blame him.
Pete Hegseth
Thank you, Mr. President. You talked to Prime Minister Netanyahu about attacking the oil and gas fields?
Donald Trump
Yeah, I did. I did. I told him, don't do that. And he won't do that. We didn't discuss, you know, we do. We're independent, we get along great. It's coordinated. But on occasion he'll do something, and if I don't like it, and so we're not doing that anymore.
Pete Hegseth
And the last one, if I could.
Ron Filipkowski
Next, Donald Trump is asked about Jerome Powell. And Donald Trump starts saying that Jerome Powell is under investigation because he's building the Federal Reserve building and it's too expensive for Donald Trump. It's too wasteful, he says. Here, play this clip and the last
Donald Trump
one, if I could.
Pete Hegseth
The Fed chairman told me yesterday that he plans to stay until a new Fed chairman is confirmed. And he also plans to stay on the board until the investigation is done.
Donald Trump
Well, he's under investigation because he's building a building for hundreds of billions of dollars more than it's supposed to cost. The building you see over there is under budget and ahead of schedule. That's the ballroom. The ballroom is a much bigger building. It's a much more complex building than what he's doing, and it's at a fraction of the cost. Something is going on, whether it's contractors. That's what I do best in the world. I build. I build great buildings. I've always done it. And I build them under budget, ahead of schedule. They could have 4 billion. This is a renovation job.
Ron Filipkowski
Another question is asked, which is, if the war is almost over, so then why are you spending $200 billion? A reporter asked A similar question. And Trump's like, we want to have vast amounts of ammunition which we have right now, but it's being taken down by Ukraine. So he finds a way to attack Ukraine here. How despicable is that? Let's play this clip.
Donald Trump
The war is almost over. Why is the Pentagon going to ask
Pete Hegseth
Congress for an additional $200 billion?
Donald Trump
Well, we're asking for a lot of reasons beyond even what we're talking about in Iran when this is a very volatile world and the military equipment of some of this weaponry is unthinkable. You don't even want to know about it. Oh, you could end this thing in two seconds if you wanted to. But we are being very judicious. But we want to do. Don't forget Biden gave away. I rebuilt the military my first time. Biden gave away so stupidly to Afghanistan a lot. He didn't want to move it. He was too lazy, too stupid to move it. But it was a very small amount. It was a lot, but it was very small relative to what I purchased and what I built. We want to have a good. We want to have vast amounts of ammunition which we have right now. We have a lot of ammunition. But it was taken down by giving so much to Ukraine.
Ron Filipkowski
Then Donald Trump says we can take out the island anytime we want. I call it the island that sits there totally unprotected. What the hell are you saying? Play this clip.
Donald Trump
We can take out the island if anytime we want. I call it the little island that sits there so totally unprotected. We've taken out everything but the pipes. We left the pipes because to rebuild the pipes would take years for, you know, for them to do. But we are, I would say we are substantially ahead of schedule.
Ron Filipkowski
Now, earlier today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen was talking about removing sanctions, not just on Russian oil, but apparently rewarding Iran and removing sanctions from Iran. Let's play this clip right here.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen
Effort. We had a break the glass plan across the administration and at Treasury. We unsanctioned Russian oil. We knew that There were about 130 million barrels on the water and we created supply that is beyond the Straits of Her Moose. So we anticipated this. We knew that there could be a temporary, and I want to emphasize temporary choke point there. And there was 130 million barrels of floating storage. In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that's on the water. It's about 140 million barrels. So depending on how you count it, that's 10 days to two weeks of supply that the Iranians had been pushing out that would have all gone to China. In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days as we continue this campaign.
Ron Filipkowski
We then heard from Pete Hegseth earlier in the day as well, where Hegseth talked about, we need $200 billion to kill the bad guys. Yeah, to kill the bad guys. How despicable is this gu. Here, play this clip of what happened
Pete Hegseth
with Midnight Hammer and what happened with that as well. As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move. Obviously, it takes money to kill bad guys. So we're going back to Congress and folks there to ensure that we're properly funded for what's been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition is. Everything's refilled. And not just refilled, but above and beyond. I mean, President Trump, as he said, rebuilt the military in his first term, didn't think he'd use it as dynamically in his second, but he had, so thank goodness he did that. And an investment like this is meant to say, hey, we'll replace anything that was spent. And now that we're reviving our defense industrial base and rebuilding the arsenal of freedom and cutting deals like our great deputy secretaries here is doing, and then,
Ron Filipkowski
you know, as the Tennessee Holler says, so which country is the extremist theocracy again? Because throughout Pete Hegseth's entire press conference, that was right before Donald Trump's press conference, Hegseth was like, may the almighty God continue to bless us in this war. May Jesus Christ and the churches support. I mean, it's like, just like, listen to this guy do the. What are you doing? Stop invoking religion right now as you engage in this disastrous war. Frankly, whether you're religious or not, this administration is. Is the most hateful and despicable regime which any religion, it would violate its basic precepts. And regardless of religion, it violates basic humanity and dignity with these despicable clowns in Washington right now who have ripped away our healthcare, whipped, ripped away your futures, ripped away basic life, sent people to die in Iran, and then they go up there and they do this. Seriously, these are the worst pieces of trash imaginable Here. Play this clip.
Pete Hegseth
And I say the same to every American who wants peace through strength. May almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight. And again, to the American people, please pray for them every day on bended knee with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Ron Filipkowski
There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think about this all hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers and thank you all so much for watching. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content Only available@midasplus.com.
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Episode: Trump Crashes Out in War Presser Conference with Japan PM
Date: March 19, 2026
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas, feat. Ron Filipkowski
In this explosive episode, the MeidasTouch team analyzes a controversial Oval Office press conference where President Donald Trump, alongside Japan’s Prime Minister Taka Ishii, faces tough questions about the ongoing war with Iran and U.S. foreign policy. The brothers dissect Trump’s inflammatory comments comparing the Iran strike’s secrecy to Pearl Harbor, his dismissiveness of long-standing alliances, and the administration’s demands for $200 billion in additional war funding. The episode is packed with sharp critiques, memorable soundbites, and the Meiselas brothers’ signature blend of humor and impassioned defense of democracy.
Pearl Harbor Remark
Trump is asked why allies weren’t informed in advance about the U.S. attack on Iran. He deflects with a pointed (and widely condemned) comment:
“Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay, why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”
— Donald Trump (02:26)
The hosts and Ron Filipkowski note how this moment shocks the room and visibly unsettles Prime Minister Ishii.
Dismissing Allies & NATO
Trump delivers multiple jabs at NATO and U.S. allies:
“They want to send me aircraft carriers after the wars. There’s practically nobody to shoot at them...their missile count is down. Pete, maybe you could discuss it.”
— Donald Trump (03:45)
Ron Filipkowski criticizes:
“…this moron continues to incinerate alliances that were built by far better people than him over the past 80 years.”
— Ron Filipkowski (05:10)
“We don't use the strait…We're defending the strait for everybody else.…But now [allies] are getting much nicer because they're seeing my attitude. As far as I'm concerned, it's too late.”
— Donald Trump (06:24)
“It's a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top, Mr. President.”
— Donald Trump (07:50)
Trump downplays the war’s impact, calling it an “excursion”:
“I saw what was happening in Iran and I said, I hate to make this excursion, but we're going to have to do it. ...It's not bad, and it's going to be over with pretty soon.”
— Donald Trump (08:54)
Filipkowski refutes Trump’s narrative:
“Iran’s capabilities have actually been improving …their ability to strike targets has actually been improving. But here's Donald Trump lying.”
— Ron Filipkowski (09:59)
On the Federal Reserve & Jerome Powell:
Trump claims Powell is under investigation for wasteful spending:
“He's under investigation because he's building a building for hundreds of billions of dollars more than it's supposed to cost. ...That's what I do best in the world. I build great buildings.”
— Donald Trump (12:20)
Ukraine as a Scapegoat:
When questioned on the war budget, Trump blames U.S. ammunition shortfalls on aid to Ukraine:
“We have a lot of ammunition. But it was taken down by giving so much to Ukraine.”
— Donald Trump (13:23)
“May almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight. ...Please pray for them every day on bended knee with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ.”
— Pete Hegseth (18:12)
Trump’s Pearl Harbor Remark
“Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay, why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”
— Donald Trump (02:26)
On Allies Sending Help Too Late
“I want the aircraft carriers before the war. I don't want them after the war is won.”
— Donald Trump (03:45)
On U.S. Spending and ‘Tippy Top’
“It's a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top, Mr. President.”
— Donald Trump (07:50)
Administration Critique
“These are the worst pieces of trash imaginable…who have ripped away our healthcare, ripped away your futures, sent people to die in Iran, and then they go up there and they do this. Seriously, these are the worst pieces of trash imaginable.”
— Ron Filipkowski (17:09)
This episode showcases Trump’s most incendiary war-time rhetoric to date, with the brothers and guest Ron Filipkowski offering a point-by-point breakdown of the press conference’s blunders, dangerous posturing, and erosion of alliances. Listeners are urged to recognize the real stakes behind the PR and bravado: lasting harm to international relationships and to American democracy itself.
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