Trump Loses it as Russia Enters War

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: The MeidasTouch Podcast
Episode: Trump Loses it as Russia Enters War
Date: March 7, 2026
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas

Episode Overview

In this high-stakes episode, the Meiselas brothers deliver urgent coverage of a rapidly escalating international crisis: Russia’s direct involvement in Middle East hostilities, providing intelligence to Iran to target U.S. assets, and the Trump administration’s chaotic response. The brothers dissect Donald Trump’s dismissive attitude toward the crisis, the administration’s controversial domestic maneuvers—including sanction relief for Russia—and the alarming rollback of climate and public health protections in the U.S. With their signature mix of sharp analysis, irreverent banter, and pointed criticism, the MeidasTouch team questions the administration’s priorities and competence amid mounting global and domestic turmoil.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Russia Aiding Iran Against U.S. Interests

[03:06–06:21]

• Ben details breaking reports: Russia is supplying Iran with sensitive U.S. military coordinates and targeting data, enabling Iran to launch drone and missile strikes on American and allied targets in the Middle East.

• China is also reportedly supporting Iran.

• Trump’s response at a press conference is to attack reporter Peter Doocy for asking about Russian involvement, calling it a “stupid question” and refusing to answer.

  Quote:

  "What a stupid question that is to be asking at this time. We're talking about something else." —Donald Trump ([05:01])

2. Trump Administration's Nonchalant Attitude & Propaganda

[06:21–09:40]

• Trump’s press secretary Caroline Levitt and GOP figures downplay Russia’s role, claiming "it doesn’t really matter" if Russia is assisting Iran militarily.

• Trump officials tout U.S. and Israeli advances against Iran, but facts on the ground—including ongoing Iranian attacks, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and surging oil prices—contradict this claim.

  Quote:

  "Whether or not this happened, frankly, it does not really matter because President Trump and the United States military are absolutely decimating the rogue Iranian terrorist regime." —Caroline Levitt ([09:22])

3. U.S. Sanctions Relief for Russia and Consequences

[09:40–11:36]

• Treasury Secretary Scott Besant is criticized for easing sanctions on Russian oil, allowing India to buy more from Russia despite Russian aid to Iran in attacking U.S. troops.

• The Meidas brothers question the administration’s loyalties and logic, worrying about inadvertent support for adversaries.

  Quote:

  "So, do you work for Russia? I mean, seriously, does this Trump regime work for—The answer is yes, apparently. Right? That's how they behave." —Ben ([10:19])

4. Trump’s Focus on Domestic Distractions Over War

[15:36–16:50]

• Trump holds a press conference focused on preventing college athletes from being paid, refusing to address the war or the Russian/Iranian alliance.

• When pressed about the war, mass casualties, and his leadership decisions, Trump repeatedly sidesteps or rebuffs reporters.

  Quote:

  "I'd like to sign an executive order that I'll write myself based on common sense...some will be sort of happy, others will be sort of happy. And maybe that's a good thing." —Donald Trump ([16:08])

• The hosts highlight the surreal disconnect between the administration’s priorities and the urgent global crisis.

5. Reports of U.S. Attacks Killing Civilians and Government Response

[14:25–15:36]

• Press secretary Caroline Levitt gives vague, noncommittal responses when asked about the investigation into a U.S. strike on an Iranian elementary school that killed over 150 children and staff.

  Quote:

  "I don't have any updates with respect to the investigation. I would expect those to come from the Pentagon, sir." —Caroline Levitt ([15:25])

6. “Unconditional Surrender” and the War’s Endgame

[18:37–19:55]

• Trump demands Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” but the White House defines this as Trump unilaterally deciding when Iran has surrendered—regardless of reality on the ground.

• Editor-in-chief Ron Philipkowski and the hosts mock this as a propaganda stunt designed to declare premature victory, especially as public opinion sours with rising gas prices.

  Quote:

  "When he, as commander-in-chief...determines that Iran no longer poses a threat...then Iran will essentially be in a place of unconditional surrender, whether they say it themselves or not." —Caroline Levitt ([19:17])

7. Prospect of U.S. Ground Troops and Spiraling Conflict

[19:55–end]

• NBC News reports Trump has privately expressed interest in sending U.S. ground troops into Iran for “specific strategic missions.”
• The Meidas brothers warn of further escalation and criticize the administration’s lack of transparency and planning.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Russia’s targeting support to Iran:

  “Russia's providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces, the first indication that another major US adversary is participating, even indirectly, in the war.” —Ben ([06:21])

• Fox News pressed Trump, he insulted the reporter:

  "What a stupid question that is to be asking at this time." —Donald Trump ([05:01])

• Trump press sec. on unconditional surrender:

  “...when [Trump] as commander in chief...determines that Iran no longer poses a threat...then Iran will essentially be in a place of unconditional surrender, whether they say it themselves or not.” —Caroline Levitt ([19:17])

• Banter about Trump’s shifting priorities:

  “So a reporter says, okay, if you're not answering questions about the war against Iran, will you answer a question about, I don't know, what was ultimately behind your decision to replace Kristi Noem?” —Ben ([16:50])

---

Critical Timeline & Timestamps

• [03:06] – Ben breaks the news: Russia aiding Iran’s targeting of U.S. assets
• [05:01] – Trump lashes out at Fox’s Peter Doocy over the Russia question
• [06:21] – Washington Post report cited: details of Russian targeting aid
• [09:22] – Caroline Levitt: “Whether or not this happened, frankly, it does not matter…”
• [10:19] – Ben: “So, do you work for Russia?”
• [14:25] – News of U.S. strikes on Iranian elementary school
• [16:08] – Trump focuses on his executive order about college athlete pay
• [19:17] – Press asked to define “unconditional surrender”
• [19:55] – NBC reports Trump considering deployment of ground troops

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Tone & Style

The MeidasTouch Podcast retains its blend of critical analysis, disbelief at government spin, and moments of comedic brotherly jabs. The tone is deeply skeptical of the Trump administration, frustrated by its perceived dereliction of duty, and animated by a sense of civic alarm at escalating conflict and loss of safeguards for democracy and public health.

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For Further Discussion

• How should the U.S. respond when adversaries collude against national interests?
• Are there effective checks on an administration that dismisses intelligence and criticism?
• What are the domestic implications of prioritizing distractions over crisis management?
• How can the public demand transparency during wartime decision-making?

---

This episode is essential listening for anyone concerned about American democratic institutions, accountability in high office, and the consequences of global conflict mismanagement.

Transcript

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with promo code space80 when you go to talkspace.com match with a licensed therapist today at talkspace.com save $80 with code [e-mail] Donald Trump is losing it as Russia is now helping Iran attack the United States interests in the Middle East. As Donald Trump' against Iran is spiraling out of control, multiple reports suggest that Russia is providing critical logistical support to Iran, providing the coordinates where American military bases, personnel and assets are located for Iran to target with its Shahid drones and ballistic missiles. And Russia providing other defense support to Iran. In addition, we are learning that China is also helping Iran, according to multiple reports. Now, Donald Trump and his chief propagandists were confronted about this moments ago. Donald Trump was confronted about it by a reporter from state regime media, which calls itself Fox. You all know him. Peter Doocy asked Donald Trump about all of the reports that Russia is now helping Iran attack the United States in the region. Donald Trump then attacks Peter Doocy for asking the question and says, you know, I had a lot of respect for you, but what a stupid question you're asking me about Russia. Why would you ask me this, that question? Watch this interaction as Donald Trump held a press conference moments ago. And if you're wondering, so is the press conference addressing the war? Well, he was asked that question, but no, the press conference was involved in Donald Trump trying to stop college athletes from getting paid for their name, image and likeness. Watch this interaction here. Let's play this clip.

[E]

Thank you, President Trump. It sounds like the Russians are helping Iran target and attack Americans.

[F]

Now, that's an easy problem compared to what we're doing here. But can I be honest? It's just, I have a lot of respect for you. You've always been very nice to me. What a stupid question that is to be asking at this time. We're talking about something else. Can we keep this maybe a little bit? Go ahead, please.

[B]

Next, I'll share with you what, what Peter Doocy said after Donald Trump's press conference was over. Here's Doocy on Fox saying that I tried to ask the question about whether Russia, whether he's aware and what's his response to the fact that Russia is helping Iran attack the United States and attack Israel as interests and Attack other interests in the region. What's your response to that? Donald? Watch what Doocy says here. Play this clip.

[E]

And he took a couple questions. I asked him about this report that the Russians are, and you'll excuse me, I just ran out here. I asked him about this report that the Russians are helping the Iranians target Americans. And the president, who wanted to stay on topic, said he thought that was a stupid question. Brett, nice job jogging to the camera. I know how that goes. It was more of a spring in the North Lawn. It was a sprint.

[B]

Here's the Washington Post report. Russia providing Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces. Officials say the targeting information has included the locations of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East. Russia's providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces, the first indication that another major US Adversary is participating, even indirectly, in the war, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence. The assistance, which has not been previously reported, signals the rapidly expanding conflict now features one of America's chief nuclear armed competitors with exquisite intelligence capabilities. Since the war began last Saturday, Russia has passed around the locations of US Military assets, including, but by the way, not limited to warships and aircraft, said the three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity. Reached by the Washington Post on Friday, Dimitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, declined to comment. Uh, this is what the White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. The Iranian regime is being absolutely crushed. Their ballistic missile retaliation is decreasing every day. Their navy is being wiped out. Their production capacity is being demolished, and the proxies are hardly putting up a fight. That's Trump regime propaganda right there. Because we know, and we've been reporting on the fact, that Iran is still sending its Shahid drones and ballistic missiles to attack neighboring countries, neighboring Arab nations, where the United States has its interests. We still know the Strait of Hermos has been closed, essentially. We still know that the price of a barrel of oil is going up, increase is going up significantly right now, and gas prices have spiked, you know, in a short period of time, significantly. We know that this is a rapidly expanding war that's spiraling out of control. Enough of this Trump regime propaganda. Well, Caroline Levitt, Donald Trump's chief propagandist, was asked about it. This is what she said about the reports that Russia is sharing intelligence with Iran to help them target the U.S. she goes, whether or not this happened, it doesn't really matter. And as Republican Congressmember Don Bacon says, it doesn't matter, I, and most Americans raise the bs flag on this. It doesn't matter if Russia is providing intelligence to Iran to kill Americans and to attack. Really, that doesn't matter to this regime? Here, play this clip.

[F]

I wanted to start you off this afternoon because we have confronted confirmed reports

[B]

from U.S. officials that Russia is providing

[E]

intelligence to Iran to help it target US Assets in the region.

[B]

Sure.

[F]

This is something that does not please the president whatsoever. Has he spoken to Putin about.

[C]

Well, look, I'll leave that to the president to answer himself. But what I will tell you, John, we don't comment on intelligence reports that are leaked to the press. Whether or not this happened, frankly, it does not really matter because President Trump and the United States military are absolutely decimating the rogue Iranian terrorist regime.

[B]

Folks, not only does it not matter to this regime, but you had Treasury Secretary Scott Besant yesterday removing Russian sanctions or removing United States sanctions against Russia and United States requirements with India to allow Russia to sell its oil to India, which was a massive windfall for Russia, especially as the price of oil skyrockets. That's going to make Russia huge amounts of money. And then Treasury Secretary Scott Besant moments ago said, you know what we're thinking about doing? Not only removing sanctions and allowing India to get Russian oil, we're also going to maybe do some more unsanctioned. He goes, we're going to unset. We may unsanction other Russian oil as well. You know, you may unsanction other Russian oil as well now that we know Russia is a. Do you work for Russia? I mean, seriously, does this Trump regime works for. The answer is yes, apparently. Right. That's how they behave. At least watch this clip.

[E]

The Indians had been very good actors. We had asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall. They did. They were going to substitute it with US Oil. But to ease the, the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil. The other thing treasury can do here, Larry, is there are hundreds of millions of sanctioned barrels of sanctioned crude on the water. And in essence, by unsanctioning them, treasury can create supply. And we are looking at that. We're going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during, during this conflict.

[B]

And yeah, as Fred Wellman writes, we had multiple reports that Russia is aiding Iran in targeting our troops and these idiots are easing sanctions. What are we doing here? Who are our service members risking their lives for? And more from Treasury Secretary Scott Besant here talking about the way the military campaign is going to look tonight against Iran. Tonight will be our biggest bombing campaign. Here, play this clip.

[E]

You know, the Iranians are fighting on two fronts. They're fighting a losing military battle where they're being overwhelmed. As Secretary Higgs, General Kaine and the President have all said, tonight, tonight will be our biggest bombing campaign and will do the most damage to the Iranian missile launchers, the factories that build the missiles. And we are substantially degrading them.

[D]

And

[E]

our campaign has been overwhelming.

[D]

So by now you know that we've been reporting a whole lot on the Trump administration scrapping the endangerment finding. This is something that we can't just let drift out of the news cycle. So give me a minute to highlight some important info. So I want to flag a new analysis from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health on why this all matters so much. The endangerment finding was the legal and scientific basis that allowed the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air act. Back in 2009, the government determined that gases like carbon dioxide and methane threatened public health and future generations. That decision gave the EPA both the authority and the responsibility to limit pollution from vehicles and power plants. According to Harvard's climate and health experts, removing that foundation could mean more fine particulate pollution from burning fossils, fossil fuels that's linked to higher risks of asthma in children, chronic heart and lung disease and premature death, especially in communities near highways, power plants and industrial sites. And long term, the health impacts grow hotter days are tied to more hospitalizations and preterm births. Warmer conditions worsen ozone pollution, wildfire smoke increases respiratory illness and mortality. And climate driven storms can disrupt access to medical care. So, yeah, this is a massive, massive deal. Harvard researchers warn that this rolling back puts real health protections at risk. Cleaner air has been tied to longer life expectancy and fewer asthma attacks and kids. So for all those make America Healthy again people, this totally flies in the face of that promise. This is why it's so important that we keep making noise about this and push for future administrations to restore the finding. So I want to hear from you. Leave a comment. Tell us what you think about this decision by the Trump administration. I want to hear your thoughts on these reports that we're doing on climate issues, how Trump's destruction of climate policy has affected your health, your electricity bills, jobs in your communities. I want to hear all of it. So again, make your voice heard in the comments now. Ben, back to you.

[B]

As I'm recording this, you see the footage of extensive US Israeli airstrikes hitting Marabad International Airport in Iran's capital of Tehran. I mean, take a look right here at what that looks like. Caroline Levitt was asked at that press conference also, is Donald Trump satisfied with the pace of the United States investigation into whether the US Military hit the Iranian school, the elementary school? So we know right now this happened. It's a fact. The US Attacked a little girl's elementary school in Manob, Iran, and killed over 150 little girls and boys and like 175 people in the elementary school. So what's the latest on it, Caroline? We're still investigating that. Here, play this clip.

[C]

Satisfied with the pace of the investigation

[A]

into whether the US Military did hit that Iranian school, is the White House

[C]

concerned that this was the United States Again? As I said at the briefing two days ago, I don't have any updates with respect to the investigation. I would expect those to come from the Pentagon, sir. Haley.

[B]

Now, as I mentioned earlier in this video, the press conference that Donald Trump had earlier today technically had nothing to do with the war, the disastrous war. He still hasn't addressed the American people formally yet to explain what the hell is going on. But what the press conference was on was again, not paying college athletes for their name, image and likeness. And Donald Trump starts talking about how he wants to sign an executive order himself. He's going to come up with an executive order so that college athletes don't get paid money right now. Here, play this clip.

[F]

All right. So I think he qualifies. Right. But I'd like to sit down with some of the very talented people in this room and we'll pick them out. If you'd like to volunteer, volunteer. And I'd like to sign an executive order that I'll write myself based on common sense. And it'll be something that people will be sort of happy about. Some will be sort of happy, others will be sort of happy. And maybe that's a good thing. There'll be a few people that won't like anything. But I'd like to write an executive order based on some of the very great talent in this room.

[B]

So a reporter says, okay, well, if you're not answering questions about the war against Iran, will you answer a question about, I don't know, what was ultimately behind your decision to replace Kristi Noem with Mark Wayne Mullen? You want to talk about that? Because Americans actually have questions for you about things other than your desire to make sure college athletes don't get paid. Here, play this clue.

[F]

Now you're into a brand new system.

[A]

Yes, ma' am hi, Mr. President. Thank you. Could you tell us what went into your decision to replace Secretary Noem with Senator Mark Wayne Mullen?

[F]

Is it possible to stay on this subject just for once? You know, just for once. Boy, oh, boy.

[B]

So then a report's like, okay, if all you're going to do here is now talk about not paying college athletes, why did you not invite a single college athlete here? Why would you not have one college athlete representative to be here? Did you think about that? Here, play this.

[F]

Clip the judge. Maybe we'll get a wise judge. There were wise judges, too. We got some very brilliant wise judges. Maybe we'll get lucky

[C]

athletes in the room. Why aren't there any student athletes in the room?

[F]

Do you want to answer that question, Randy? We. We've made it clear, and I thought I said it before, that we have agents here. There are a lot of student athlete groups. There's a limited room here.

[E]

And after this meeting, we intend to

[F]

talk to all of the interested student athlete groups to get their input, because this can't be done without them.

[B]

Now, going back to Caroline Levitt right here, she's asked an important question. So earlier today, Donald Trump said Iran must do an unconditional surrender, demands Iran's unconditional surrender. So what does that mean, Caroline? And then she goes, it means when Donald Trump says they surrender, when Donald Trump decides they've surrendered, we say they surrender, regardless of what they actually do. So as our editor in chief, Ron Phillip Kowski writes, so even if they don't surrender, Trump will call it an unconditional surrender and declare victory. And I think as gas prices continue to go up, up, up, up, up, Donald Trump's getting closer to doing that. Here, play this clip.

[A]

What does the president mean when he

[C]

calls for unconditional surrender? Is he saying that the regime has to fully relinquish control? What the president means is that when he, as commander in chief of the US Armed forces, determines that Iran no longer poses a threat to the United States of America and the goals of Operation Epic Fury has been fully realized, then Iran will essentially be in a place of unconditional surrender, whether they say it themselves or not. Frankly, they don't have a lot of people to say that for them because the United States and. And the state of Israel have completely wiped out near more than 50 leaders of the former terrorist regime, including the Supreme Leader himself.

[B]

Now, as we've learned about Russia's involvement in the war, as the Iranian parliament speaker Mohammed Bagar Galloba says, the following Americans will come to understand that the fate of dear Iran, which is more precious than life, will be determined solely by the proud Iranian nation, not by the Epstein gang. Donald Trump is now seriously considering ground troops in Iran, NBC reports. Donald Trump has privately expressed serious interest in deploying a limited number of US Ground troops inside Iran for specific strategic missions, though no decision or orders have been made, according to multiple U.S. officials. So, folks, things are getting absolutely, absolutely spiraling out of control right now in the region. Tell me what you think. Hit subscribe let's get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in?

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