Economist (5:00)

There's a lot of talk about reciprocal tariffs. That's broad based tariffs coming into effect in a couple weeks I think early up April if that actually happens. And those are those tariffs stay in place for any length of time, couple, three, four, five months. I think that's enough to push the economy into recession given everything else that's going on. So this would be a really weird recession, right? I mean it's recession by design. The economy came into the year rip roaring, exceptionally strong and we're pushing it in because of policy. It just doesn't feel like that's the direction we need to go. So I suspect the president and the administration at some point will say, okay, enough already. But, you know, I don't see that with confidence.

Ben Meiselas (5:43)

And while this Trump regime sends our country into an economic spiral, they're doing like the weirdest stuff. Like this cosplay dress up shtick that Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Secretary, keeps on doing. This is real what I'm about to show you. It's not AI So while XI and ICE are picking up migrants and because of the way they look or their tattoos, giving them no due process and shipping them to concentration camps in El Salvador, she's doing dress up. This was the cosplay outfit. She did a firefighter outfit. Firefighter gnome reporting for duty. And then over the past weekend, she did this photo gnome patrol. She did this one on the boat. She did this one where she acted like she was on like a mission and she was holding the guns. And then this was from a few weeks back where she was dressed up in the bulletproof vest. Then she had the cowboy hat and then she had the ranger outfit. Those are an AI she dresses up every other day as Americans are suffering as they're violating the Constitution and not giving people due process. That's what they are doing. Then Donald Trump goes on Laura Ingraham. And as Aaron Rupert says, this is the Trump University of getting America's fiscal house in order. He goes, we're going to be so rich you don't even know it. We're going to sell these trump cards, the gold cards, to the Russian oligarchs and to the Chinese oligarchs. We're going to make $5 trillion. You sell 10 million for 5 million and then 5 trillion. Here, play this clip.

Donald Trump (7:22)

Let's say we sell a million of them. That's $5 trillion. We are now a unbelievably successful country paying down tremendous amounts of debt. It's all going to pay down debt. We're going to have very little debt, separate funds. But if you did think of it, if you did $5 million now.

Ben Meiselas (7:43)

And here he is again on Laura Ingraham last night, where he goes, I don't know, should we call it the gold card? There's lots of gold cards. Or do we call it the trump card?

Donald Trump (7:51)

Here, play it to graduation. They'll buy these. Why should any American kid become a competitor? And by the way, they're going to call it either the gold card. The problem is as many gold cards. Well, I will tell you what my people want to call it. It'll drive you crazy. It'll drive the left crazy. They want to call it the trump card because the trump card sells much better than the gold card. Everybody has a. So you're not worried about any unsavory people coming in and I'm worried about unsavory, in which case we're going to. They're going to be vetted. Give them the money back and they get out. They'll be properly vetted. Are they going to be properly vetted? But you know, we were talking about a lot of people. I think it's going to be very successful. If somebody's wrong, we get, we actually are very, very nice because it makes it a lot easier legally. We give them their money back and we send them out.

Ben Meiselas (8:37)

I don't give a what you call it. I mean, at the end of the day, why are you focused on these things? Maybe you can, I don't know, like lower the price of things. Now we're in inflationary periods where recessions seem increasingly likely. You know, how about you lower the price of things? How about you bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours? How about you do the things you said you were going to do? Oh no, you're too busy talking about what? Annexing Canada, annexing the Panama Canal, annexing Greenland, attacking our allies in Europe, but praising Putin. Right. The big powerful negotiation you did with Putin, right. Ended in maybe we'll play hockey together. We'll play hockey together. Or Putin says we're going to do a ceasefire and don't worry, Donald, we won't do. We won't, we won't hit energy infrastructure in Ukraine. Thirty minutes later, they attack the energy infrastructure in Ukraine. That was after Putin made Donald Trump wait about an hour, an hour and a half, while Putin laughed at making Donald Trump wait. Oh, by the way, in that Laura Ingraham interview with Donald Trump, Donald Trump's like, people think that this button is the nuclear button, but it's like the Coca Cola button.

Laura Ingraham (9:49)

Hahaha.

Ben Meiselas (9:50)

Here, play this clip.

Laura Ingraham (9:51)

The Coke button.

Donald Trump (9:53)

It's right here. Everyone thinks that's the nuclear. Everyone thinks that's the nuclear weapon.

Ben Meiselas (9:58)

I mean, it's deranged, Deranged. As Ilya Pomeranko explains, this is one of these cities in Ukraine right now, over 30 strikes in residential areas reported the city is burning. How many more times does this need to happen until Donald Trump finally understands that Putin is openly making an idiot of him and demonstrably spitting in his fantastic diplomatic effort. Ilya, the answer is never, because Donald Trump, in my opinion, is Putin's puppet. Let's turn to Canada for a second, where Canadian Airlines are canceling flights into the United States and Tennessee and elsewhere because Canadians are not traveling to the United States. As I reported yesterday, leisure travel by Canadians to the United States in some places down 85%. Remember when the U.S. tourism Bureau predicted if it's 10%, it will cause $2 billion damages? I said, I know the Maple Mighty, the Midas mighty in Canada, and I know that it's probably closer to 100% in terms of the tourism boycott because Donald Trump ain't just using trade war words, which would be seriously damaging. Trump is using actual words of war against Canada. By the way. This is so pathetic. Did picked this up. I know our Canadian watchers did. Pierre Poliev, the leader of the Conservative Party in this next upcoming election, he put out a statement that was obviously, in my opinion, boosted by Elon Musk on X, formerly Twitter. And he goes, last night, President Donald Trump endorsed Mark Carney, who's the new prime minister from the Liberal Party. Why? Because Trump said it's easier to deal with. I mean, does Pierre Poliev think that Canadians have the MAGA mush brains? I think he does. I think he's so entrenched in MAGA and in his Jordan Peterson podcast and all the kind of Putin tricks that he thinks, yeah, if I told the Canadians that Donald Trump says that he wants the Liberals, then maybe they won't believe that I'm Maple Maga and that I've been supporting Donald Trump and MAGA and Elon Musk has been boosting me. Maybe they'll just think, oh, ho, ho, Pierre Poliev is the tough guy. I mean, it's so transparent that Poliev and the Conservative Party and Trump were like, all right, Trump, go out on Laura Ingraham and say that you prefer the Liberal Party. And then I'll say, you see, he doesn't want me here. So utterly dumb. We did this graphic right here on the Midas Touch account from Trump to Pierre Poliev. This is how we imagine him. So like, Pierre, can you say like you hate my guts or something? Pierre sang to him, so say like you hate my guts or something, man. Earlier in the day yesterday, by the way, you had the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell saying, you know, we were, we had a strong fourth quarter. He didn't say under former President Biden, but that's when the fourth quarter was, and now all of a sudden, things are getting weaker. Here, play this clip.

Laura Ingraham (12:57)

Economic activity continued to expand at a solid pace in the fourth quarter of last year, with GDP rising at 2.3%. Recent indications, however, point to a moderation in consumer spending following the rapid growth seen over the second half of 2024. Surveys of households and businesses point to heightened uncertainty about the economic outlook. It remains to be seen how these developments might affect future spending and investment.

Ben Meiselas (13:26)

And here was the moment where Jerome Powell said, you know, seems that we're heading in a more inflationary direction right now. Here, play this clip.

Laura Ingraham (13:34)

Do think with the arrival of the tariff inflation, further progress may be delayed. The SEP doesn't really show further downward progress on inflation this year, and that that's really due to the tariffs coming in.

Ben Meiselas (13:47)

But what are the MAGA Republicans doing? Well, they're posting images like this. Egg prices on the decline. The price of a dozen eggs has now decreased. Now it's $3.10 a dozen. Nearly 50% decrease. It's my brother Brett wrote. Okay, so they're just making up stuff now. They're just, they just make stuff up. I don't believe any of the data from the US Department of Agriculture. Now, by the way, they're using wholesale data, not retail data. But also, we know, we go in, we see the price of eggs. I could barely get eggs out here in California. And I know from speaking to all of you what the prices are. I'm sure maybe somewhere there's eggs that are low. Maybe they're in a Trader Joe's here And there it's $3.50. But overall, it's like $8, $9, $7, 6 50, $10, $12. That's what I'm seeing. But, you know, what would you expect from the party that does this? Free Trump 2024 gold bars. There it is. Grab yours Today you can get a Trump 2024 gold bar, everybody. Then you have MAGA Republican Congressmember Tom Emmer. He takes another turn in the Trump kiss my ass club, as Aaron Rupert says. Here, play this clip.

Political Analyst (15:01)

Critics have argued that Putin is playing Trump. That we know from history. This is right out of his playbook, that sometimes he uses negotiations as a stall tactic and that so far he hasn't really given up anything. And he said after the discussion with Trump that he will agree to the ceasefire if the US Stops all foreign military aid and intelligence to Ukraine. Would you ever support that.

Congressman Brandon Gill (15:26)

Again? I do say Donald Trump is a master negotiator. I mean, there is no other leader on the world stage that has his experience and has shown what he has shown in his first term he's willing to do and what he can get accomplished. If anybody can help these people get together and bring peace back to the region, it's Donald J. Trump.

Ben Meiselas (15:47)

By the way, shout out to Rupert, shout out to Asin. They use Snapstream. You should use Snapstream as well. That's where we get these clips from. Snapstream lets you put the clips from the cable networks on the video and you can clip it really good. It's called Snapshot. I'll put it in the description. If you're interested, reach out to them and tell them Midas sent you. That's how we get some of these clips like this. Then let me show you this one right here. Brandon Gill. This is what he talks about when it comes to just picking people off the street, not giving them due process. He goes, this is what executive power is all about. MAGA Republican Brandon Gill, play this clip. I have to ask you this. For impeachment, obviously you have to have the high crimes, misdemeanors. What crime did the judge commit? This is for usurping the executive's authority, for demeaning the impartiality of the court.

Congressman Brandon Gill (16:37)

By making a politicized ruling enforcing a constitutional crisis.

Ben Meiselas (16:42)

That is a high crime and misdemeanor. Congressman Brandon Gill sharing that with us today. We do appreciate the time, Congressman. Thank you so much. But here are the facts, folks, because facts matter. Putin is rejecting Trump's ceasefire. Putin is playing Trump. Trump looks so utterly weak when it comes to Putin. Trump said, you know, Tom Emmer, you think he's a master negotia. And why hasn't he made peace in 24 hours in Ukraine? Why aren't prices lower? Why are we heading into a recession or perhaps even worse than a recession right now, which, as you heard the chief economist for Moody say, it seems like a recession by design. Why do 71% of Americans believe a recession is very likely right now? That's part of the art of the deal, part of the master negotiating that we just so smart that we just don't know the plan, man. And just like all the master negotiations where he bankrupted his other businesses, or were those not real? Or is that a smart businessman bankrupts most of your businesses, man, you don't know business. They always go bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt all throughout the 90s and 2000s. Anyway, I'm Ben Meiselas. This is the Mice Touch network. Stay strong let's keep fighting together. Hit subscribe let's get to 5 million subscribers. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas substack for ad free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, and more. Sign up for free now@midasplus.com.

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