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Ryan Reynolds
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Pete Hegseth
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Ryan Reynolds
McDonald's hot crispy fries right as they're being scooped into the carton and time just stands still?
Pete Hegseth
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Ryan Reynolds
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Dan Bongino
It should come to the table because this economic partnership is an important thing for the future of his country and we hope that he will very soon.
Pete Hegseth
But fair to say Russia attacked unprovoked into Ukraine three years ago tomorrow.
Dan Bongino
Fair to say it's a very complicated situation.
Pete Hegseth
Okay, we'll leave it there.
Ryan Reynolds
Over the weekend, folks, there were elections that were held in Germany. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, JD Vance and the Magaz supported Germany's Neo Nazi AfD party. The AfD party came in second. They did not win. The CSUCDU party led by Frederick Mares, who will become the next chancellor. They prevailed in the election. Mayors will become the next chancellor. In his acceptance speech after becoming the next chancellor, the presumptive chancellor, Frederick Mayor, said that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Washington were now, quote, no less radical and outrageous than that of Moscow. Germany now views America basically no different than they view Putin. That's what Donald Trump has done to the United States and how Donald Trump has turned Europe and NATO and Canada and all of our traditional allies against the United States. Furthermore, over the weekend, Donald Trump appointed the podcast host and conspiracy theorist who never worked a day in the FBI as the deputy director of the FBI. I'm talking about Dan Bon Gino. FBI agents are absolutely furious at this appointment. Donald Trump posted the following great news for law enforcement and American justice. Dan Bongino, a man of incredible love and passion for our country, has been named the next Deputy Director of the FBI by the man who will be the best ever, Director, Cash Patel. As Ken Delano of NBC writes, traditionally the deputy FBI director has been a career FBI agent. That is particularly important when the director has no experience at the FBI. Donald Trump tonight announced he is appointing as Deputy Director Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and prolific conspiracy theorist. He has never spent a day working at the FBI. But he has spent many hours spouting baseless falsehoods about the bureau such as that the FBI lied when they said they don't have a suspect and the pipe bombs as outside the RNC and DNC on January 15, 2021, current and former FBI officials are appalled and extremely concerned for the national security of the country. And I would say the biggest reason though that Americans are even though those ones are hugely, hugely a reason why as well is that Donald Trump has gutted the federal government, attack people's Medicaid, try to remove people's health care and is doing everything he can to try to destroy our economy. We saw the markets crash at the end of last week. When you take a look at Trump's approvals from the latest Ipsos poll and the approvals of magazine it is so underwater on just about every issue. Let's go through it. Here was a question in the latest Ipsos poll from February 18th. I imagine the next Ipsos poll is going to be even worse. Would you rather see the next Congress controlled by Democrats or Republicans? Voters by a 54 to 41% margin say Democrats. Next voters were asked Americans were asked about various policies that Donald Trump is pursuing, like ending DEI or banning trans people from the military or making it easier for Trump to fire longtime federal workers on basically every single issue. Americans are against and strongly against everything that Trump and his authoritarian regime are doing. And people are livid and pissed, especially at Elon Musk. Net support for ending DEI in government negative 3% meaning people don't like Trump's DEI policies, whatever they whatever that even means other than they're clearly it's clearly racist pretext banning trans people from the military negative 11% making it easier for presidents to follow hire longtime Federal workers negative 21% shutting down USAID negative 21% blocking health agencies from communicating without approval From Trump appointee negative 43% describe the nation's economy these days 52% of Americans say not so good 21% of Americans say poor. Almost 80% of Americans believe we have a bad economy. Contrast that to the conclusion of former President Biden. Where consumer rise Biden's term where consumer confidence was growing, where inflation was supposed to shrink to about 2% former President Biden created about 16.4 million new jobs. There was never a month where jobs were lost. Unemployment was at record lows. Employment was at all time highs. Wages were rising, interest rates were being cut. The stock market was up 55 60%. Your 401k was doing great under former President Biden. And I'm sure if you've even had the courage to look at it recently, it is in the tank once again thanks to Trump. The same way it was in the tank in the first Trump administration. But it's getting even worse right now. Other polling questions from this Ipsos poll. Support for pardoning those convicted of violent crimes related to January 6, as Trump did. 83% of Americans oppose approval of Elon Musk shutting down federal programs. He genocides are unnecessary. Only 26% of Americans approve. It has a net negative 26% rating. 76% of Americans say gas prices are too high and not good. The income of average American. 72% of Americans say not good or poor. 92% of Americans say food prices are too high and not good. Only 35% of Americans say that Donald Trump can be trusted at all. While all of this is going on, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are making posts like this. Trigger warning. Elon Musk frequently uses the R word over and over again. He posts memes like this. They always say okay. They never say are you okay? This is the type of person who is somehow controlling our government, who's gained access to your medical records, your Social Security information, your tax records. Him and a bunch of 19 to 24 year olds who refer to themselves as Mr. Big Balls. They're getting your records, others from these 19 to 24 year old cohorts saying all this like racist and horrific stuff. Why do they have access to your stuff? Why are they firing all of these hardworking government officials, dehumanizing them, lying and saying they're fire, they're firing them for cause, to prevent them from even getting unemployment. And some of the most despicable stuff imaginable taking place right now. Um, one thing to mention too is that Donald Trump's dangerousness is also matched by his incompetence and idiocracy. Donald Trump celebrated the fact that the Conservative Party, the CSUC du, won in Germany, even though Friedrich Mears, the new Chancellor, hates Donald Trump and gave his acceptance speech saying that Europe is gonna break away from Trump, that Trump can't be trusted, that Trump to him is no different than Putin. Cuz Trump's an idiot and he's like the Conservative Party. Donald Trump's preferred party was the AfD, which is the neo Nazi party and they were the ones that lost the election. But Donald Trump pretended that he was the big victor in this, that Donald Trump got the Conservative Party party that literally ran against him to win. It's how stupid it is. Also, you also had Donald Trump's special envoy showing up on CNN and other networks again spouting pro Russian propaganda. Here's Trump's special envoy to the Middle east, who for some reason now has become the special envoy to Ukraine, apparently because Donald Trump doesn't like Keith Kellogg, the original special envoy here.
Unnamed Political Commentator
Play this clip that the war, irrespective of who started it, needs to end. Too many people's lives have been expunged as a result of it. And it just doesn't make sense to the president. He wants to be the peacemaking president, peace through strength. And I don't blame him. I actually concur right down the line with his thought process around this. That's 1, 2. That the war didn't need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn't necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians. There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. The President has spoken about this. That didn't need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians. And so we have to deal with that fact. And those are real facts on the ground here. But be that as it may, the Russians have indicated that they are responsive to an end into this.
Ryan Reynolds
By the way, as Rachel Maddow posted this from the New York Times, one of Mr. Trump's claims about Ukraine offers a case study in his myth making. He said that the United states has provided $350 billion in aid to Ukraine, three times as much as Europe, but that much of money is missing and that Mr. Zelinsky admits that half of the money we sent him is missing. In fact, the United States has allocated about a third of what Trump claims, even less than Europe. And none of it is known to be missing. Literally everything Donald Trump says is a lie. Donald Trump also posting memes like this, terrorizing the federal workers, who he is firing and who he is treating like absolute crap. He may. And he mocks them. He mocks our federal workers like they're not hardworking people, like they're crappy people. These are hardworking Americans that Donald Trump and Musk and these billionaires just treat like trash, dehumanize. It is despicable. Trump. This is a real post from Donald Trump. I mean, could you ever imagine that the President of the United States would make posts like this? It's a spongebob meme. And then it says got done last week and he's mocking the federal workers, cried about Trump, cried about Elon, made it into the office for Once read some emails, cried about Trump and Elon some more. I mean, it's just, it's just nasty and despicable stuff right there as well. Also, Donald Trump sending emails like this. Buddy, have you seen the only official Doge shirt? Here it is. It's the Doge shirt right here. Let me show you this one other clip from Pete Hegseth here. He says the reason that he's firing all of the top military lawyers in addition to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CQ Brown, is because he wants to make sure they there won't be roadblocks to anything that happens. Let's play this clip.
Pete Hegseth
Branches for people who may not know. I mean, they, they give advice to the military about what is lawful and what isn't. Not surprisingly, there's been some backlash to those who are worried about their removal. One Georgetown law professor says this Trump also firing the Army, Navy and Air Force jags. In some ways, that's even more chilling than firing the four stars in. It's what you do when you're planning to break the law. You get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down. Your response to her.
Dan Bongino
I don't know who Rosa is and what her hyperbole is all about. Ultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don't exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything, anything that happens in their spots. What we know about these T jags are called T Jags inside the military. Traditionally, they've been elected by each other or chosen by each other, which is exactly how it works, often with the chairman as well. Small group of. Of. Of insulated officers who perpetuate the status quo. Well, guess what? Status quo hasn't worked very well at the Pentagon. It's time for fresh blood. So we're going to open.
Ryan Reynolds
They're not even hiding anymore. Their fascist designs. Oh, and by the way, this clip resurfaced recently as well. This is Elon Musk ignoring his human shield child prop. You can see it right here. This was from an event that he spoke. I think this was the Madison Square Garden event. But here, play this clip. There you have it, folks. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Can't get enough Midas. Check out the Midas plus substack for ad Free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free now@midasplus.com.
The MeidasTouch Podcast Summary: "Trump Loses Control as Approval Rapidly Crashes"
Release Date: February 24, 2025
In this compelling episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas delve deep into the precipitous decline of former President Donald Trump's influence and approval ratings. Combining incisive political analysis with their signature brotherly banter, the Meiselas brothers explore recent political developments, Trump's controversial actions, and the broader implications for American democracy.
Russian Media Alignment
The episode opens with a discussion on how Russian state media has been amplifying narratives that portray Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as allies against NATO, Ukraine, and Europe. The brothers examine a clip where a Russian official praises Trump's statements for their alignment with Russian perspectives.
Germany’s Election and Trump’s Impact
The brothers analyze the recent German elections, where the AfD party, supported by Trump and other high-profile figures, secured second place but did not win. The victory went to the CSU-CDU party, led by Frederick Mares, who delivered a scathing acceptance speech condemning Trump's influence.
This outcome is used to illustrate how Trump's actions have not only alienated traditional allies but have also emboldened extremist factions within Europe.
Dan Bongino’s Appointment
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to Trump's appointment of Dan Bongino as the Deputy Director of the FBI—a move met with widespread criticism.
The brothers critique the appointment as a blatant disregard for the FBI's integrity and a clear attempt to inject partisan ideology into a traditionally apolitical institution.
FBI’s Reaction and National Security Concerns
The appointment has angered current and former FBI officials, who fear for the bureau's future and national security.
Polling Data and Public Sentiment
The episode presents stark polling data illustrating Trump's plummeting approval ratings.
Key statistics highlighted include:
Contrasting Trump and Biden’s Economic Policies
The brothers juxtapose Trump's current economic missteps with the successes of the Biden administration.
This comparison underscores the public's preference for Biden's economic stewardship over Trump's disruptive policies.
Trump’s Misinformation Campaigns
The podcast scrutinizes Trump's use of social media to propagate falsehoods and undermine federal institutions.
Elon Musk’s Role
Elon Musk's involvement is also critiqued, highlighting his role in spreading harmful memes and misinformation.
Impact on Federal Workers
The brothers express concern over Trump's treatment of federal employees, portraying them as inefficient and untrustworthy.
International Commentary on Ukraine
The podcast features clips from political commentators advocating for an end to the Ukraine conflict, regardless of its origins.
Meiselas Brothers’ Take
The brothers discuss the complexities of the Ukraine situation, emphasizing the need for diplomatic solutions over continued warfare.
In wrapping up the episode, the Meiselas brothers reiterate the critical state of American politics under Trump's diminishing control. They call for vigilance in protecting democratic institutions and resisting the spread of misinformation.
The brothers encourage their listeners, the MeidasMighty, to stay informed and engaged, emphasizing the podcast's role in fostering democratic support and resilience.
Frederick Mares on Germany’s View of America:
Pete Hegseth on Firing Military Lawyers:
Dan Bongino on Constitutional Advice:
Unnamed Political Commentator on Ukraine War:
This episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast provides a thorough and critical examination of Donald Trump's waning influence and the broader repercussions for American politics and international relations. Through detailed analysis, up-to-date polling data, and incisive commentary, the Meiselas brothers offer their listeners a lucid perspective on the current political landscape, emphasizing the urgent need to support democratic institutions and resist authoritarian tendencies.
For more insightful discussions and updates, join the MeidasTouch brothers and their loyal following, the MeidasMighty. New episodes are released every Tuesday and Friday morning, with breaking news updates available daily. Additionally, catch the brothers LIVE on video every Monday and Thursday night at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on the MeidasTouch YouTube channel.