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The outlook on Monday for Donald Trump is absolutely catastrophic. The outlook on the war is catastrophic. The outlook on the economy is catastrophic. The outlook on the midterms is catastrophic. The outlook on the remainder of Donald Trump's term, it's falling apart. It is catastrophic. And Donald Trump is panicking this morning. He's sending out his various proxy stooges to do state regime TV and make other media appearances where they're out there just spewing vile nonsense, trying to scare the American people. For example, he had Tom Homan literally for two minutes straight, just like use the word like rape and murder, and just started repeating it over and over and over again to try to scare the American people. Let me show you what Homan did moments ago. And then let me show you what Donald Trump is saying that he's going to be doing as he's continuing to panic as gas price, for example, as gas prices are spiraling out of control. Donald Trump's making calls to different media outlets saying that he wants to pause the federal gas tax for a period of time, folks, which tells us things are going to get more, far worse this summer. But first, let me show you what Tom Homan said here. Play this clip.
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Homicide, sexual assault, sexual assault, sexual assault, rape, sexual assault, rape, rape, rape, sexual assault, homicide, rape, homicide, sexual assault, homicide, rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, sexual assault, rape, homicide, homicide.
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I mean, right, that's where they're going before the midterms to try to scare us that an authoritarian is needed to deal with all of that. That's right out of the playbook of authoritarians. Now Donald Trump's revealing how scared he actually, through his actions, he's calling all these media outlets. This morning, for example, he called cbs and in a phone interview, Donald Trump told Nancy Cordes that he wants to pause the 18 cent federal gas tax quote for a period of time. I think it's a great idea. He said, yup, we're going to take off the gas tax for a period of time and then when gas goes down, well, then we'll let it phase back in. The fact that he's saying that tells you that we know that gas is about to get much more higher. We know the national average now is about $4 and 60 cents a gallon. That's going to surpass $5 a gallon in no time. It's very clear from what's taking place as the Strait of Hormuz continues to remain close. And after Iran very publicly rejected Donald Trump's demand that they surrender. And they said, we are not doing any of these things go Back to the 10 point framework. Donald Trump's like, it was a really bad counteroffer and I'm really upset. You won't be laughing soon.
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I.
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All right, well, what are you gonna do about it other than be frozen and look so utterly pathetic? Either make a deal or do something else, but stop with this failed policy of doing nothing. I mean, folks, even in the Atlantic, you have Robert Kagan, who's known as being kind of like a neocon. I mean, he's out there saying that we've been checkmated by Iran. Even Donald Trump's basically his own team, who was pushing for the war is like, Iran has just checkmated Donald Trump. But the catastrophic outlook gets worse than that. Donald Trump then calls state regime media, which calls itself Fox. Then Donald Trump's tells John Roberts at Fox that, okay, here's how we're going to deal with the economic crisis right now. We're going to make Venezuela the 51st state because they have $40 trillion of oil. So if, by the way, don't you notice that the number equates to the national debt that Donald Trump is now spiking even more? So here's how we're gonna fix it, right? First it was gonna be Doge. Doge was gonna get it all done. And then we were going to figure it out with the gold cards. The gold cards would bring in $5 trillion. They've sold one gold card, I think, and they haven't even processed over like 160 other claims through the initial screening process. And Lutnick was out there, $5 trillion. You saw the video I did this morning about it. And then Donald Trump said the foreign countries are bringing in 18 to 21 trillion dollars. And Venezuela, it's gonna become the 51st state. So we're gonna bring in 40 trillion dollars. Now, what's going on in America right now? Americans are spending down their savings. You know that earlier last week we talked about how the Kraft Heinz CEO Steve Callahan said that the American people are literally running out of money at the end of the month and they're dipping into their savings. We see negative cash flows in the lower income brackets where they're dipping into savings. Frankly, everybody's in the lower. There's no middle class states anymore. There's ultra crazy uber wealthy. And then there's lots of people who are struggling and suffering right now. And there's varying degrees of that suffering. But the American people, by and large are suffering. Unless it's the 1% or the 1% of 1%. You also had McDonald's CEO Christopher Kaminsky, who talked about rising gas prices disproportionately hitting low income consumers. The pressures are going to continue, he said. And last week, Whirlpool CEO Mark Blitzer said the appliance industry is seeing an industry decline on par with the financial crisis. That was also echoed by the CFO of Costco who said that Americans are moving away from beef to chicken to canned tuna at this point. But what are they doing on the Trump regime? You have people like Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's economic adviser. He's calling in to cnbc and as Tara Hoop said, so now here's what the Trump regime is trying to sell. Trump is doing such a great job right now. Things are so good. That's why people are freaking out because Trump is doing such a good job at fixing things. Here, play this clip.
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I think that one of the things that's happening is that the world is changing so fast right now that President Trump has sort of taken every problem on earth and got 100% at fixing it. And I think that that can be stressful for people to see so much change going on. But the bottom line is that in the end, when we look at what happens for elections, that people look at their wallets, they see how they're doing. You know, the economy is growing very strong, incomes are growing. Ray Fair, you and I have talked about Ray Fair for 20 years. Ray Fair of Yale says GDP in the second quarter is the thing that tells you what's going to happen in the election. And so I think that right now Republicans should feel very, very good about the trajectory of the economy.
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I D A S and then you had to make matters even worse, you had James Comer, House Oversight Committee chair who covers up the Epstein files with Donald Trump. He's the GU who made sure that Howard Lutnick wouldn't sit for an under oath deposition. But just give a transcribed interview and this guy's like the number one cover up artist you know, in the world for Donald Trump and literally put there in the House Oversight Committee to not do oversight. And now he's out there this morning, you want to talk about catastrophic outlooks, talking about the Hunter virus and saying, well, I'm all not worried because we saw how good Donald Trump handled Covid and he learned a lot of lessons from COVID So therefore he's going to be good with the hantavirus because he's good with COVID everybody. This is what they're going with here. Play this clip.
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We're expecting this next briefing from health
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officials at 10am Eastern.
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What are you hoping to hear and
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how worried are you by this story?
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Well, I'm not worried. I have complete confidence in the Trump administration. I think we've learned a lot of lessons, hopefully from the COVID pandemic and I know they're taking this very seriously and hopefully this won't spread. And this will be an isolated incident and we can learn from this and hopefully educate other countries on how to contain this.
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Yeah. Meanwhile, you have Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson issuing the following statement. Our demands are legitimate. Halting the war, lifting the blockade, ending maritime piracy by the United States, and releasing Iran's assets that have been unjustly frozen in banks under American pressure. Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and establishing security in the region and in Lebanon were among Iran's other demands, a generous and legitimate proposal for regional security. Unfortunately, America continues to push its one sided viewpoint. He goes on to say, we did not demand any concessions from America. Rather, we called for an end to the war and a halt to piracy at sea against Iranian ships. Our proposal to America was generous and responsible. Iran has proven to be a responsible power in the region. He goes on to say, and at the same time, we are not the bullies. Rather, we are anti bullies. Just look at our conduct. Were we the ones who launched a military campaign against America thousands of miles away? Were we the ones who killed 170 innocent little girls in a single day? He said, people, are we the ones bullying Cuba, Venezuela and other countries in the Western hemisphere? Were we the ones who, during a diplomatic process, committed such a great crime twice? Is attacking a country, destroying its infrastructure and assassinating the leader and citizens of a country an example of responsible behavior? That's what he says. And meanwhile, you have Donald Trump running to Netanyahu. Last night, Trump said he spoke with Netanyahu. Very nice call. We have a very good relationship. That's my situation, not everybody else's. We've got a very good relationship. European Union's Kahakalas also calling out Donald Trump this morning because Trump claimed he did a ceasefire for what, less than a 24 hour period in a small area so that Putin can have his. They call their victory day parade in Red Square, which Zelensky agreed to. Putin was terrified that Zelensky was going to launch the drones into Moscow. So he had Donald Trump demand that Zelensky. Zelensky agreed not to do that. Zelensky said, I'll do that. I want a prisoner swap. We'll give a thousand Ukrainian prisoner, a thousand Russian prisoners. If they return a thousand Ukrainian prisoners, then Donald Trump's like, I did a deal, everybody. Right? The guy who said that he was gonna end the entire war in 24 hours after the election, I will fix it. Can't even get a ceasefire for less than a day because Ukraine agreed to it. So long as there was a prisoner swap, but Russia hasn't released a thousand Ukrainian prisoners. So as you saw in my morning video, Zelinsky said to Donald Trump, you claimed you did this deal, that we agreed not to bomb Moscow now because Putin's now terrified of Zelensky because Zelensky's drone drones can get into Moscow. We said we wouldn't do it for the parade. We kept our word. Now they're not releasing the prisoners. So Kahakalas is calling all of that out right now and showing how weak and pathetic Donald Trump is. Here, play this clip.
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And then we have Ukraine. Of course, we saw that this cease fire that Putin wanted was only very cynical to protect his parade, whereas they were actually attacking civilians in Ukraine. Ukraine kept to the ceasefire like, you know, previously offered ceasefires unconditionally. What? Russia didn't really stand up to this.
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And more from EU's kahakalas right here. Let's play this clip.
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Rebuild the same influence network in Europe as It was before 2022. Again, coming back to the question about, well, clearly our adversaries are not sleeping, so clearly they want to increase the influence in Europe. We unfortunately already see this in sports organizations where, you know, Russians are led to compete like nothing has happened. And there are discussions there. We also saw this Venice Biennale where, you know, they are there like nothing has happened. So, so clearly they are working all the time and we have to be vigilant as well today.
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There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. We'll keep you posted throughout this morning. I believe we have a press conference coming up soon from Trump in the Oval Office, which I'm hearing just a total disaster. So I'm going to watch that. We'll be right back. Make sure you keep checking in on this channel this morning and throughout the entire day. Rather hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. Just double check that you're subscribed and turn notifications on. Thanks. Want to stay plugged in?
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Episode Date: May 11, 2026
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas
Theme: The brothers examine what they call the “catastrophic” political, economic, and international outlook for Donald Trump and the United States, focusing on Trump’s panicked media push, worsening economic data, foreign policy failures, and desperate attempts by Trump allies to spin or deflect the narrative.
This episode spotlights what the Meiselas brothers describe as a mounting crisis facing Donald Trump on a variety of fronts. With characteristic humor and pointed analysis, they break down Trump’s media appearances and policy responses, the worsening economic and political climate, and how his surrogates and right-wing media are reacting—often with fear-mongering or wild new proposals. The discussion is laced with clips from recent news, expert commentary, and pointed critiques of both Trump’s actions and his administration’s messaging.
The Meiselas brothers blend pointed legal and political analysis with sarcasm and biting humor. Their tone is urgent but not alarmist, aiming to cut through official spin and highlight contradictions in the Trump administration’s messaging and actions. They frequently use direct quotes, play news clips, and openly mock what they consider to be outlandish claims from Trump allies.
This episode is a blistering, detail-packed survey of the Trump administration’s bleak political landscape, from domestic economic struggles to international failures. The brothers argue that Trump's approach—marked by fear-mongering, economic fantasy, and desperate media appearances—reveals a leader and a movement in crisis and on the defensive, while the real-world impacts on ordinary Americans continue to mount. European leaders’ wariness and foreign policy fiascoes further underscore the hosts’ catastrophic outlook.