Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben — 3/3/26

Summary

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The MeidasTouch Podcast: Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben — 3/3/26

Episode Overview

Theme:
Ben Meiselas delivers an urgent, information-packed breaking news update as the Middle East is plunged into escalating violence and potential war. The episode focuses on Iranian drone strikes on U.S. and CIA installations, the U.S. and Israel's role in the current conflict with Iran, implications for American allies and global security, and the chaotic, personality-driven foreign policy of the Trump administration. Interwoven throughout is Ben’s critical, direct style, sharp mix of legal and historical context, and signature Meiselas brother banter, with a running critique of media gaslighting and government obfuscation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Major Attacks and Regional Escalation

• [02:00] Ben breaks the news of Iranian drone attacks:
  • “It looks like there was a direct hit on the US Consulate in Dubai by Iranian drones...severely damaged, if not almost completely destroyed.”
  • CIA station in Saudi Arabia also struck. “A significant symbolic victory by the Islamic Republic.”
• No injuries among CIA personnel yet reported.
• “The full extent of the damage remains unclear.”

2. The Kurds, Betrayal, and Looming Ground War

• [04:00] Reports of plans for U.S.-supported Kurdish ground invasion of Iran.
  • “We've armed thousands of Kurdish volunteers...expected to begin ground operations within days.”
  • Ben emphasizes U.S. history of betraying Kurdish allies, casting doubt on the wisdom and honor of this strategy.
• “I find it interesting that we are now begging the Kurds for help after betraying the Kurds.”

3. Evacuation Orders and U.S. Preparedness

• [05:45] U.S. State Department issues urgent evacuation for Americans in the Middle East.
  • “Depart now via commercial means due to serious safety risks...every country in the Middle East.”
  • Ben notes the absurdity: “How are you supposed to depart when the airports are under attack?”
• U.S. embassies unequipped: “It's like me saying while doing the podcast that I'm not in a position at this time to do a podcast.”

4. Geopolitical Fallout and U.S. Alliances

• [08:00] Ben traces blame to the Trump administration's dismantling of alliances and gutting of the State Department.
  • “Donald Trump has attacked Zelensky and Ukraine…America’s munitions crisis...the patriots and Thaad systems are running low.”
  • U.S. pulls missile systems from Asia, betraying promises to Taiwan and allies under Chinese pressure.
• “If Xi Jinping wanted to invade Taiwan, the US would be incapable of defending Taiwan.”

5. Iranian Leadership Succession

• [11:00] New, more extreme Ayatollah installed: Mojtaba Khamenei, “the son of the old Ayatollah.”
  • “A younger, more extreme version of the ayatollahs…he was responsible for cracking down and massacring the protesters.”

6. The U.S. and Israel—Who’s Pulling the Strings?

• [14:00] Ben reviews public admissions that the U.S. attacked Iran preemptively because Israel was set to strike first.
  • “That's what we've been reduced to...that if Netanyahu is going to invade Iran, America says it has no choice.”
  • Quotes Marco Rubio’s explicit statements—then Rubio backtracks and obfuscates the next day (see quotes below).

7. Gaslighting and Government Narratives

• [17:10]–[23:57]
  • Several clips played of Marco Rubio and other officials contradicting themselves or denying public statements.
  • Ben sharply critiques the lack of transparency and the propagandistic response:
    • “Every word that comes out of this Trump regime, it's meaningless.”
    • Rubio: “So the President made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces...”
• Ben calls this “definition of treason and traitorousness when you make your own foreign policy second to the foreign policy of any other country.”

8. Schisms on the Right

• [34:12]
  • Clips from Megyn Kelly, Trump allies, and even far-right figures denouncing the administration:
    • “No one should have to die for a foreign country. Our government's job is to look out for us. It feels very much to me like it is clearly Israel's war.” (Megyn Kelly)
    • “Donald Trump is weak and he’s stupid. He doesn’t know anything. He goes into this shit blind.” (Dave Smith)

9. Chaos, Martyrdom, and Regional Violence

• [48:15] Ben predicts regional disintegration:
  • “The outcome is so obvious…a nuclear version of what happened in Iraq or Afghanistan…massive sectarian violence.”
  • “The attack on Iran, the way it was carried out, allowed the extreme factions to use his [the Ayatollah's] death as martyrdom…driving more support for the regime.”

10. Demands for Clarity and Accountability

• [55:29] Senator Blumenthal after classified briefing:
  • “I am more fearful than ever...but I also am no more clear on what the priorities are going to be...the administration owes it to the American people to have briefings not just for members of Congress, but for the American public.”
• Ben: “The American people need to hear this...what’s the mission, what’s the objective?”

11. The Decision-Making Catastrophe

• [60:00+] Ben critiques Trump’s pattern of “compounding catastrophe”:
  • “He makes a mistake...then he compounds it and compounds it and makes it worse and worse until it’s a catastrophe.”
  • “When you stand up to Trump, you win. When you try to negotiate...he takes and takes and takes.”

12. Failures of Leadership and Corruption

• Trump’s personal business interests in Dubai and the Gulf called into question as conflicts of interest.
• “How much of his decision making is based on his own money and his own investments?”

13. Ben’s Closing Pledge

• [74:38] “At the Midas Touch Network, we take our responsibility in reporting on this war deeply, seriously. We’re going to continue to work hard every single day to get you the information. It’s not fluff...I try to cut through the propaganda. I try to just give it to you real about what’s happening. This isn’t anything more than here are the facts.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Iran striking U.S. interests ([03:46]):
  “Just so everybody could see what it looked like when this Iranian drone attacked that U.S. consulate in Dubai. A direct hit right there and that consulate seems to be severely damaged, if not almost completely destroyed.”
• On arming the Kurds ([05:25]):
  “I’m not fully sure or in fact, I would say I don't believe at all the Trump regime is even thinking through any of the geopolitical aspects of what's really taking place right here.”
• On U.S. evacuation orders ([06:17]):
  “I think it's going to be difficult to leave via commercial means when the airports are under attack.”
• On Trump’s rationale for war ([14:08]):
  “The imminent threat was we had to be on the offense to be defensive because Israel was going to strike Iran. So we had to hit first before Israel struck Iran.”
• On government propaganda ([21:18]):
  “Every word that comes out of this Trump regime. It's literally, it's meaningless.”
• On foreign policy subservience ([31:49]):
  “We went proactively in a defensive way because Israel was going to strike first. Your words. You said that. You can try to walk it back, but you said it.”
• On schisms in conservative media ([34:12]):
  “No one should have to die for a foreign country...our government’s job is not to look out for Iran or for Israel, it’s to look out for us.” (Megyn Kelly)
• On potential U.S. ground involvement ([55:29]):
  “I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground...” (Senator Blumenthal)
• On the consequences of regime change ([62:00]):
  “You turn the guy into a martyr. The people who were starting to support him less are now rallying. And you think, what, arming the Kurds—what are they going to do? Block to block in Tehran? That's the game plan?”
• On secretive government ([56:25]):
  “The Trump regime is making all of that information classified or declaring it classified, so we don't know...why is this information [secret]? The American people need to hear this.”
• On Trump's cognitive decline ([65:00]):
  “Donald Trump is just deteriorating before our eyes. He's got this wild rash...he's not making any sense.”
• On reporting mission ([74:39]):
  “I try to cut through the propaganda. I try to just give it to you real about what’s happening. This isn’t anything more than here are the facts.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:00]—[05:45]: Breaking news – Iranian drone attacks, U.S. consulate and CIA station hit
• [05:45]—[07:30]: Evacuation orders for Americans, U.S. unpreparedness
• [08:00]—[11:00]: Allied betrayal, U.S. munitions and military resource shortfalls
• [11:00]—[13:00]: Iranian succession, new Ayatollah
• [14:00]—[24:00]: U.S./Israel war rationale, Rubio statements, government spin
• [34:12]: Dissent among right-wing media and Trump allies
• [48:15]: Reality of spiraling conflict, martyrdom, and failed strategies
• [55:29]: Senator Blumenthal on lack of clarity after classified briefing
• [60:00]—[74:00]: Trump’s decision-making flaws, failures, personal interest
• [74:38]—end: Ben’s signing off, mission statement, credits

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Tone & Style

Ben maintains a rapid-fire, sarcastic, and often exasperated tone, bracingly direct, mixing detailed legal/political analysis with sharp asides ("That's like me saying while doing the podcast that I'm not in a position at this time to do a podcast"). He is unapologetically anti-Trump and committed to fact-based, transparent journalism, pulling no punches on the administration's motives, competence, or honesty.

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Conclusion

This breaking news episode delivers an intense, unfiltered window into cascading geopolitical crisis in the Middle East. It is a bracing warning about war, American leadership failure, and the entangled consequences of shortsighted, self-interested, or reckless foreign policy—told with Ben Meiselas’ signature clarity, urgency, and critical perspective.

Transcript

[Ben Meiselas]

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[Ben Meiselas]

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[Ben Meiselas]

Talkspace works with most major insurers and most insured members have a $0 copay. No insurance, no problem. Now get $80 off your first month 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] from Unsolved Mysteries to unexplained phenomena, from comedy goal to relationship fails. Amazon Music's got the most ad free top podcasts included with prime because the only thing that should interrupt your listening is, well, nothing. Download the Amazon Music app. This has been on Breaking news. I'm Ben Meiselas and this is your Breaking news. It looks like there was a direct hit on the US Consulate in Dubai by Iranian drones. We can see the footage right here of the US Consulate in Dubai currently on fire. Right now you're seeing it right there. We'll show you what the direct impact looked like as well. We're getting some of that footage as well. Should also be noted that we are learning. Here it is right here. Just so everybody could see what it looked like when this Iranian drone attacked that U.S. consulate in Dubai. A direct hit right there and that consulate seems to be severely damaged, if not almost completely destroyed. You're seeing it right there on fire. Also moments ago we learned that an Iranian one way attack drone has struck the CIA station in Saudi Arabia. It's being described by the Washington Post and others as a significant symbolic victory by the Islamic Republic that they were able to directly hit this CIA station there. An Internal State Department alert says that part of the embassy's roof collapse and smoke filled sections of the building. The full extent of the damage remains unclear. No injuries among CIA personnel have been reported there. We're learning also about a potential plan for the United States to support Kurdish volunteers and ground troops as part of a ground invasion of Iran. We are learning from ITV that weapons have been smuggled into western Iran since last year to arm 3 thousands of Kurdish volunteers. They are expected to begin ground operations within days. ITV News is stating. We've been told by Kurdish sources that American and Israeli forces have been asked to provide air cover when any such ground operation begins. Our sources do not know if that request has been approved. We also should just remember the United States betrayed the Kurds very recently in Syria and basically allowed Al Jelani, the former Al Qaeda leader who now runs Syria, to basically seize control of the autonomous areas in Syria. And so, you know, I find it interesting that we are now begging the Kurds for help and after betraying the Kurds, and I'm not fully sure or in fact, I would say I don't believe at all the Trump regime is even thinking through any of this geopolitical, any of the geopolitical aspects of what's really taking place right here. We know as well that there was a call for all American citizens in the Middle east to evacuate. This was put out by the State Department's UN Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Maura Namdar posted on X the formerly Twitter this message. Security updates for Americans in the Middle East. And the Post says depart now via commercial means to due to serious safety risks. And it lists basically every country in the Middle East. I think it's going to be difficult to leave via commercial means when the airports are under attack. I mean, the military airports, the commercial airports, the Strait of Hormuze, it's all under attack by Iran in retaliation for the United States and Israel striking Iran. It's just all of Donald Trump's destruction and devastation over the past 12 to 14 years becomes extra pronounced in this ill fated war against Iran that I've referred to as Operation Epstein Fury or the Jeffrey Epstein War. I mean, they gutted the State Department. They put in all of these Trump lackeys. We don't really even have ambassadors in the Middle east region. We don't have the resources to even do an evacuation right now. We've attacked all of our former allies. Donald Trump has attacked Zelensky and Ukraine and made it much more difficult for Zelensky to fight the War. And Zelensky was basically fighting against Shahid drones from Iran that were being provided to Russia. So Zelensky actually has the knowledge of how you fight back against these ballistic missiles and Shahid drones. The Trump regime attacks Zelensky while all of this is taking place as well. You have the United States having a serious munitions crisis, although Donald Trump claims that's not the case. But he lies about everything we know from top admirals and generals and leaks from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs that America's munition systems and the munition systems we've given to our allies in the region, like the Thaad system or the Patriot system, the air system, the air defense systems are running low. They've been. A significant amount of them have been expended. It takes like six in a month at most. Currently, the United States can produce about six to seven interceptors. And at that same time, Iran can produce several hundred of its drones and missiles. So I just want you to think about that takes us a month, six to seven max interceptors, they can do about 500 or so, you know, at least like missiles and drones, you know, in that, perhaps even more in that time period. And they've stockpiled a lot of it cheaper to make, you know, hard, you know, hard to defend against unless you use these billion dollar weapon systems. And so already we're hearing that the US Is going to have to, you know, take away certain missile systems from Asia and bring them into the Middle East. The US is betraying Taiwan, not making good on the 12 to 13 billion dollars in military aid and weapons promise there because Xi Jinping told Donald Trump, I won't meet with you in April if you provide any military support to Taiwan. I mean, if Xi Jinping wanted to invade Taiwan, the US Would be incapable of defending Taiwan. And also, I don't think Trump has showed any desire or interest to even help out Taiwan. You've got Kim Jong Un in North Korea just saying every day, we're a nuclear power. Accept it, we're going to be increasing our nuclear arsenal. That's not even really getting reported. You have Pakistan and Afghanistan in a war right now as well, where Pakistan is calling Afghanistan a colony of India. And so you have this world at war, whether you call that a world war or not. But the war, the entire world now has been, you know, has been put into this war footing. And now the plan is we've armed the Kurds, who we've betrayed and frequently betray. I think that's just objective facts for all of the courage that they've shown against fighting ISIS and fighting Al Qaeda. We always call on the Kurds, then betray them, like, so I'm just wondering what they're even thinking right now or what, what the plan is there. And also, how bloody and devastating is that going to be where you have the Kurds but invading Iran in a ground invasion? And you have the Iranians and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps fighting the Kurds. How. I mean, you could have hundreds of thousands and potentially millions of deaths that could take place in Iran if. If this is what's. If this is what's happening. And then obviously spreading to the broader region. At the same time, Israel struck in the area of Qom, the A building where the 90 top clerics were electing the new ayatollah. And I guess Israel and the United States believe if you keep killing people, that that's gonna stop the succession of the next ayatollah that's proven to be ineffective. There is a new ayatollah right now. It's the son of the old Ayatollah. So a younger, more extreme version of the ayatollahs. Now, the Ayatollah Majtaba Husseini Khamenei, an Iranian politician cleric, the eldest son of Ayatollah Khomeini. He's been elected as the next supreme leader of Iran under pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, according to Iran International. Go back a few days. That's exactly who we told you they were. Just go back to our coverage. I mean, that's literally the guy I said three days ago, we study the region. I mean, at the Midas Touch Network. So that's the guy they're going to elect. He's a younger version of the Ayatollah. Remember, the ayatollah was what, like 84, 85 years old? And getting very unpopular with the population, especially among the poor population. Even traditional Shiite support of the Ayatollah was starting to fade, given the economic conditions and the poverty that the communities were being placed in in Iran. So not even just from the pro democracy communities that have to hide in Iran, but even from some of the Shiite communities that supported the Ayatollah. And one of the issues about Trump and Netanyahu killing the Ayatollah in the way they did is they've allowed that to now be used as a martyrdom within the Shiite community where the Ayatollah was already old. He didn't have that many more years left, and now it's become a Rallying call for people who were even against the regime in Iran. And Trump and Netanyahu think by beaming their image and their name, image and likeness and videos of themselves in Iran telling the people, rise up, Donald. Like videos of Donald Trump are being. Trump and Netanyahu hacked into Iranian TV and they're showing videos of Donald Trump and Netanyahu. Okay? As unpopular as the Ayatollah may have been with some groups, I can assure you that Netanyahu and Donald Trump are far less liked than the Ayatollah in actual, in many areas of Iran. Let's just be very clear about that. And it also makes it difficult to rally support around by other Middle east countries who are even under attack from Iran. When you have, you know, becoming very clear that the reason the US Invaded Iran is because Israel told it to. And now the Trump regime is trying to like, deny that, that, that the United States invaded Iran because of Israel. But like, you know, the, the gaslighting and the COVID ups just make it worse. We all heard what Marco Rubio said yesterday. He's the Secretary of State. There was no confusion in his words. He was very clear. In fact, he reiterated it multiple times yesterday where he said, the imminent threat. Let me tell you what the imminent threat was. We believe that Israel was going to attack Iran first. And if Israel did that, then Iran would strike the United States. So our imminent threat was we had to be on the offense to be defensive because Israel was going to strike Iran. So we had to hit first before Israel struck Iran. And everybody watched that and we were like, did you just admit it publicly what people thought? Did you just admit that the reason the United States is now in a war where multiple of our service members have been killed and even more seriously wounded and that number is expected to rise because Israel was going to attack Iran and the United States of America wasn't able to tell Israel, hey, don't do that. Right now we're in a mediation with the Omani foreign minister that we selected. And the Omani foreign minister has been on TV talking about how there was a deal in principle reached last Friday between the United States and Iran. And so if you pull back for a moment, also, that to me is the most obvious piece of information. If you know that the Trump regime is lying, which we all do, but you have people in your life who are gaslighting you and say, no, no, no, that's not how it is. Iran didn't want to negotiate on Friday, so that's why we had to do it. And you have friends who are like, parroting now the Trump talking points. I mean, to me, I just say, well, let me just give you the undisputed facts. The mediator who was picked by Trump to mediate this went on TV and said, actually, there was good faith by both parties on Friday and there was believed to be a deal in principle with some technical details that needed to be sorted on Monday from the International Atomic Energy Administration or agency. And other than that, we had a deal. The guy went on TV and said it. And then while all of the people involved claim there was a deal, that's when the US And Israel struck that evening, when there was supposed to be resumed discussions yesterday on Monday. So now what our regime in the United States is trying to do is, I guess they realized, holy crap, Rubio, you were supposed to keep this a secret. You weren't supposed to say the quiet part out loud that we invaded Iran because Israel was going to invade Iran first. You weren't supposed to say that. Rubio that was supposed to be our secret. I mean, you have Caroline Levitt, Donald Trump's chief propagandist, saying, no, Marco Rubio didn't claim that Israel dragged Trump into war with Iran. And you have Hegset saying, yeah, that's not what happened at all. And like, the rapid response White House account is showing a Trump response from this bizarre press conference he held earlier today. Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran? DONALD TRUMP no. Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think Iran was going to attack first, and I didn't want that to happen. So if anything, I might have forced it. But your own mediator, your person said that you're lying, went on TV on CBS on Friday and said that that's not true and that there was a deal in principle. You know, and we know that, you know, we know that Donald Trump lies about deals all of the time. And it's such a terrible thing that we in the United States have to believe that the president of the United States is a liar about everything and we can't trust any anything. Sure. In the past, we knew that politicians lie. We know they spin, we know they exaggerate, we know they cover up. At this point, every word that comes out of this Trump regime. It's literally, it's meaningless. I mean, when, when you even look at the answers that Donald Trump gives to questions, I think, Jeremy, we have one of the answers that Donald Trump gave to a question about why, you know, let me just read you, here's his Full answer all 835 words. Why we didn't have the resources. I'm just going to read it for you. Not all of it, but just look at it as this one reporter says, here's the full answer, all 835 words. Double dare you to read it all without needing many medication. And the question was, why weren't we prepared to do evacuations in the Middle east and Israel? If you were going to do that, why were you not prepared for evacuations? Answer. Well, because it all happened very quickly. We thought, and I thought maybe more than so than most, I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked. They were getting ready to attack Israel, they were getting ready to attack others. You're seeing that right now. And a lot of those missiles that are hitting in those are stationary. Those were aimed there for a long period of time at these other countries. So I think I was right about that. We attacked first and if we didn't, it couldn't have been, you know, look, we're really decimating them. They're being decimated. And if we didn't, if we didn't. And by the way, we have massive amounts of ammunition. We have high end. We have high end. A lot of it was given away stupidly by Biden, very stupidly, for free. And, and I'm all for Ukraine, but they gave away a lot, as you know, when I gave away ammunition, everybody pays for it. The European Union is paying for it. Then they can do what they want with it, but they are giving it, let's say, to Ukraine and it's okay. But we gave away a lot of high end. But we have plenty. We have unlimited middle and upper ammunition. It goes on and on and on and on. What the hell? What are you even talking about? I mean, I just remember when the media would say President Biden stuttered. President Biden's old. I mean, we're now talking about life and death, war and peace. And Donald Trump is just deteriorating before our eyes. He's got this, this wild rash that, on his neck. He's got the, the discoloration on his hands while his doctors just lie about it. And he's not making any sense. You know, he's like, you know, I don't feel, I don't, I'm not scared to put boots on the ground. Other presidents are scared. I'm not going to tell you, I'm not going to tell you what's going on. It's just a bunch of Absolute nonsense. Let me show you earlier today what Marco Rubio said when a reporter asked very basic question, right. You told us, Marco, that Israel was going to strike Iran and that's why we need to get involved. That's an undisputed fact that Marco Rubio said that in his answer yesterday. So look what happens when Rubio was asked before, you told us Israel was going to strike Iran and that's why we needed to get involved. And then Ruby's like, that's false. I never said that. Here, play this clip. All right, Yesterday, Yesterday you said. Yesterday you talked about Israel.

[Marco Rubio]

Mr. Secretary, please, guys, I can't hear him.

[Ben Meiselas]

All yes, yesterday you told me was that Israel was going to strike Iran and that that's why we needed to get involved. Today the President said that Iran was going to get.

[Marco Rubio]

Yeah, your statement is false. So that's not what I was asked. Very specifically, were you there yesterday?

[Ben Meiselas]

Yes, I asked question.

[Marco Rubio]

No. Did you. Were you the one that. Because somebody asked me a question, did we go in because of Israel? And I said, you were asking me that you that follow up. And I said, no, I told you this had to happen anyway. The president made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to. To hide behind its ballistic missile program, that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ability to conduct these attacks. That decision had been made. The President made a decision to systematically destroy this terroristic capability that they had. And we carried that out. I was very clear in that answer. This was a question of timing, of why this had to happen as a joint operation, not the question of the intent. Once the President made a decision that negotiations were not going to work, that they were playing us on the negotiations and that this was a threat that was untenable, the decision was made to strike them. That's what I said yesterday. And you guys need to play it. If you're going to play these statements, you need to play the whole statement, not flip it to reach a narrative that you want to do.

[Mark Wayne Mullin]

All right.

[Ben Meiselas]

What do you mean reach the narrative that you want to. We heard what you said yesterday. We know what you said yesterday. And then Manu Raju from CNN just quotes it back to him one more time and watch what Rubio says. Let's play it. I want to just clarify what you said. I want to clarify what you said. Because you said clarify, but you said, I would give that.

[Marco Rubio]

If you're going to read the whole.

[Ben Meiselas]

But your quote is about. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action we knew that would precipitate an attack.

[Marco Rubio]

Yeah, no, I understand, but listen. All right, but God, let me understand. But I had a very specific question from that gentleman.

[Ben Meiselas]

Right? The President said what? The President said.

[Marco Rubio]

Hold on one second. I asked Israelis, okay, but let me answer because this is my press conference. Okay, the you asked me, I was asked a very specific question. So you guys can misrepresent it, but I was asked a very specific question yesterday. The bottom line is this. We, the President determined we were not going to get hit first. It's that simple, guys. We are not going to put Americans troops in harm's way. If you tell the President of the United States that if we don't go first, we're going to have more people killed and more people injured, the President's going to go first. That's what he did. That's what the President will always do. He will always put the safety and security. Security are men and women in uniform and of all Americans before anything else. He's always going to do that. And that's what he did here. In addition to that, I would argue that this threat from Iran, they are hiding behind these missiles and hiding behind these drones. They wanted to reach a point where you couldn't touch them and then they could do whatever the hell they wanted with their nuclear program. And there was no way in the world that this terroristic regime was going to get nuclear weapons. Not under Donald Trump's watch.

[Ben Meiselas]

Nothing to do with Israel. Well, now the US Consulate in Dubai is on fire. A CIA headquarters in Saudi Arabia is on fire. Both were attacked by drones. We're showing you the footage right here of what it looked like when the console in Dubai was struck. To take a look at that right there. You can see the smoke in the background right there. A direct hit on the US Consul there. We have our State Department here. Here's another view of what it looks like in Dubai. In Saudi Arabia, a consulate there also struck. CIA headquarters struck American interests throughout the region being hit. At least six. At least six American service members killed. We expect that number to go up. Iran is now saying that it struck. What we'll have to see here. It's claiming that it struck down an F15 moments ago. Iran's Tasnim claims a US F15 Eagle Jet was shot down by the air defense system of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. Iran has now we have the Al Udid Air Base in Doha, Qatar on fire, burning down. Right now while all of this is taking place. You have the Islamic Republic pick their new Ayatollah. The son more extreme than his dad, the son who was just selected as the Ayatollah Moj Taba Husseini Khamenei. He was the guy who was responsible also for cracking down and massacring the protesters. So he's the guy who's in charge right now. He's the guy who's in charge right now in Iran. That's. That's what's going on. And while that's all taking place, you have the United States Secretary to Secretary of State or State Department urging Americans via an ex social media post, as though what Americans are all supposed to be on Elon Musk's social media platform. Secretary Rubio urges Americans depart now from the countries below. Leave now by commercial means. Leave now. You didn't have an evacuation plan? No evacuation plan at all, really? You didn't think that that was an important one? Or when it comes to the. How about the embassy in Jerusalem? The embassy in Jerusalem. For all of the billions of dollars we give Israel, and frankly, the billions of dollars we put into an embassy in Jerusalem, that was intentionally done to inflame the tensions there with Palestinians as well. The US Embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans. This is a real message from the US Embassy in Jerusalem, basically saying, sorry, nothing we can do. The US Embassy is not in a position at this time to. To evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel. That's like me saying while doing the podcast that I'm not in a position at this time to do a podcast. That's like literally what I do. I do a podcast. Like I'm doing it right now. What the hell is the purpose of the embassy if not to be there? To specifically evacuate or directly assist Americans? That you don't think that's your role. And by the way, who is the Assistant Secretary of State who's sending these messages out? Well, I want you to meet Maura Namder right there, who's posting this on the social media site X. You can see her right now. She is a beauty salon, a MAGA beauty salon owner. She also has a law degree. And she is someone who decided she was someone who Donald Trump picked right now to run this. Remember when I did the report on her, she was like a MAGA beauty salon person. So these are the people who Donald Trump has picked. Do we have the photo? When she was doing the beauty salon, I think it was like, you know, she would promote the beauty salon and then you know, she's got the, you know, the Mar A Lago makeover, and she's ultra Maga, and she's now the one running the State Department, I guess, and saying, we can't help you. That's why all of these moves from Doge to, you know, Donald Trump attacking her out. If you're going to go to war, you're supposed to have a plan. And don't you think the American people, like, deserve to know what the hell is going on? So, in any event, I showed you right there what Marco Rubio said today. But I believe. Let me just show you what happened yesterday. First, let me show you what Maga Mike had to say yesterday when Maga Mike was asked, well, you're the speaker of the House. What's your view about why there was something imminent that the US had to attack Iran and start this war that's engulfed the entire region where now the world is in a war. You call it whatever you want to call it. The world is at war right now. Almost every country has been dragged into this by the, by the Trump regime. Here's what Mag and Mike said. Let's play this clip. They had to evaluate the threats to the US to our troops, to our installations, to our assets in the region and beyond. And they determined because of the exquisite intelligence that we had, that if Israel fired upon Iran and took action against Iran to take out the missiles, then they would have immediately retaliated against US Personnel and assets. We have troops in harm's way, and we have many Americans in the region. And that was of great concern. Okay, Maga Mike, stop gaslighting us. Stop lying to us. We, we just heard what Maga Mike said, that you believed the imminent threat to the United States was that Israel was going to strike Iran and then Iran would strike the U.S. that's what the United States has been reduced to. That's what we've been reduced to right now, that if Netanyahu is going to invade Iran, America says it has no choice. Again, I don't care what political party you're from. I don't if you're okay with that. That's one of the most pathetic things I've heard. And by the way, just so there's no doubt about it, let's hear what Rubio said yesterday. And he said it twice. I'll show you the first clip where Rubio said it. I won't paraphrase. Let's just watch what Rubio said. Let's play it.

[Marco Rubio]

There absolutely was an imminent threat. And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believe they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us. And we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded because the Department of War assessed that if we did that, if we waited for them to hit us first after they were attacked by someone else, Israel attacked them, they hit us first, and we waited for them to hit us, we would suffer more casualties and more deaths. We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage. Have we not done so? There would have been hearings on Q Capitol Hill about how we knew that this was going to happen and we didn't act preemptively to prevent more casualties and more loss of life.

[Ben Meiselas]

We went proactively in a defensive way because Israel was going to strike first. Your words. You said that. You said it out. You can try to walk it back, but you said it. Everything with this regime. If that's how you feel, then own it. Make that case to the American people. It's absolute trash. I think it's the definition of treason and traitorousness when you basically make your own foreign policy second to the foreign policy of any other country. But make that case. If you think the case is regime change, make the case. Tell. Explain to people why having the ayatollah's more extreme sun running things, why that's a great move. Make the case that that's what our country's built on. You make the case to us. Convince me. Convince the American people. Let us know why you think that this is a issue, why you think this is imminent. And then that's why we elect people to Congress, like, make. Make the freaking case. What's the case? And then, by the way, I mean, he repeats it over. Do we have the other clip where Rubio says it? Like he brings it up on his own? He goes, I've been asked why. Now he brings it up like a trick question. He brings it up. Watch what he says. Let's play it.

[Marco Rubio]

It is the assessment that was made that if we stood and waited for that attack to come first before we hit them, suffer much higher casualties. And so the President made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher, those killed. And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that

[Ben Meiselas]

and didn't act, going, now I'll show you like on the right wing, Megyn Kelly, clearly a Trump sycophant. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who Donald Trump refers to as Marjorie Trader. Now let me show you the conversation that they had yesterday on Megyn Kelly's podcast. And both of them were big Trumpers. Here's what they had to say. Here, play this clip.

[Various Guests/Commentators]

Look, there are massive divisions over what we've done here. And people are going to change their minds over the coming days and weeks one way or the other. But my own, my own feeling is no one should have to die for a foreign country. I don't think those four service members died for the United States. I think they died for Iran or for Israel. I think I understand how this helps Iran perfectly. Well, I get it. I mean, I hope long term we'll see. But they seem rather jubilant. 80% of the country does not support the Ayatollah. He was a terrible, terrible man. No one's crying that he's dead. No normal person. But our government's job is not to look out for Iran or for Israel. It's to look out for us. And this feels very much to me like it is clearly Israel's war. Mark Levin wanted it. It's his war. Ben Shapiro, Lindsey Graham, Miriam Adelson, that's obvious. They're the ones who've been pushing us

[Ben Meiselas]

into, I mean, you hear it right there. I'll just show you. Just so you see that this is what is going on on right wing media in general. Dave Smith, who I voted for Trump, here's what he had to say. Here, play this clip.

[Mark Wayne Mullin]

One of the problems here is that Donald Trump has now created an incentive structure.

[Ben Meiselas]

And I gotta say, this is just simply, this is, this was the Israelis

[Mark Wayne Mullin]

plan and they're just much smarter than Donald Trump and so they were able

[Ben Meiselas]

to con him into this. Donald Trump, the, one of the major problems with Donald Trump is that he's weak and he's stupid. You know, these are real issues. He doesn't know anything. He goes into this shit blind, convinced that he's a genius who knows more than everyone else. And I hate playing clips of the next guy, but I want you to see what's happening on the far right. On the far, far right. That's why I'll only show a small clip of it. You literally have Nick Fuente saying, vote Democrats, don't vote Republicans, do not vote Republicans. Watch here, let's play it. What does this administration do? Other than cover up the Epstein files, embezzle money through government contracts and bring

[Various Guests/Commentators]

us to war for Israel, this administration

[Ben Meiselas]

needs to be shut down immediately. Do not vote in the midterms. And if you do vote for Democrats, Fuck this. Or how about Caroline Sunshine, Donald Trump's biggest supporter on Fox. While he's appeared to be auditioning for Caroline Levitt's role, here's what she said last night on Fox. Let's play it.

[Various Guests/Commentators]

But again, if I can just read this quote from the chairman of the

[Ben Meiselas]

Joint Chiefs of Staff today at his

[Various Guests/Commentators]

press conference, he said, this is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives we've been tasked with will take some time to achieve and in some cases will be difficult and gritty.

[Ben Meiselas]

Will work.

[Various Guests/Commentators]

We expect to take additional losses. We will work to minimize U.S. losses. But this is a major combat operation. I voted for President Trump and I worked for President Trump because I didn't want to hear statements like that from my government again regarding American involvement in the Middle East. And I just think that's important to be clear about.

[Ben Meiselas]

Yeah. So we've got a lot more to discuss. For those just joining, we right now have a US Consulate in Dubai that has been attacked by Iranian drones and that's on fire. We have the CIA building in Saudi Arabia that's been hit by Iranian drones over the past hour or so. We can report on that. You have Iran saying, and we need to verify it, of course, that they hit an F15, although unclear, Iran also lies. One of the hard part is the Trump regime lies. The Iranian regime lies, The Netanyahu regime lies. So sorting through the truth is always an issue here. It's why I always like to make sure I flag for you what the hell is actually being said versus what the reality is. Before I tell you, here's something that's happened. You have the State Department putting out evacuation orders. Everybody leave in the Middle east, everybody get out, find a commercial flight while commercial airports are under attack. And all of these locations, you now have the Trump regime saying what Rubio said yesterday about the United States struck Iran because Israel was going to strike Iran first and Iran might retaliate against the US that didn't happen according to the Trump regime. That's the propaganda that they want to tell us. We have the strait of her muse where 20% of oil liquefied natural gas goes through its being severely impaired. Right now, we'll just say that you have Trump's plan of potentially putting the Kurds in a ground invasion in Iran right now and Arming the Kurds and doing a ground invasion, even though the US Betrayed the Kurds last month in Syria. I guess we think that. I don't, I, if, if. I wonder what the Kurd community is thinking, you know, about that or what's really going to happen after Donald Trump sides with Al Jelani, the former Al Qaeda leader in Syria, and throws the Kurds in the autonomous region under the bus and basically gives their autonomous region to the former Al Qaeda leader who Trump invited to the Oval Office and sprayed perfume on and sniffed his. And sniffed his neck. You have Israel striking within Iran and Tehran. And Israel hit, for example, a building in Qom where there was the election of the new Ayatollah. And I guess the thought was if you killed everybody in the building, they couldn't elect an ayatollah. I don't know. They ended up electing an ayatollah anyway. Mujtaba Khomeini, the son of Ayatollah Khomeini, a more extreme version of the Ayatollah. This guy's not working with Donald Trump. Oh, and then we learned before. And this is what I'll talk about shortly. Reuters is reporting that the Trump regime drafted an indictment against Delsey Rodriguez, who Donald Trump propped up in Venezuela, who Trump said he liked. And it's believed that they did this to strong arm Delsey Rodriguez to give more oil money to Donald Trump so that Trump could put that oil money in his Qatari bank account. And we know Qatar is under attack as well. You see how these things are all linked to. But then, by the way, I would actually agree with an indictment of Delsey Rodriguez. She's a thug. She's part of the Maduro regime. She's just an extension of Maduro. There's been no change in Venezuela other than Donald Trump taking oil money for himself, not the United States, and putting in a Qatari bank account, basically where Trump keeps this money that he sells oil for himself. And Donald Trump's sycophants in Congress, like MAGA Mike, are apparently okay with that. But by the way, I would be okay, hey, like that, like she should be indicted like she is a criminal. Like, like that's accurate. There should be democracy there. Wasn't that supposed to be the plan? Isn't that what all the individuals of, of Venezuela said that, you know, was, was, was the plan that they wanted? And Machado and all of that, you know, you know, so what's going on there? But then our Justice Department, which has those big, gigantic Donald Trump Posters on it right now. Trump's former criminal defense attorney who's also covering up the child sex trafficking ring with Donald Trump, Todd Blanch. Right. Let's not forget that this is Operation Epstein Fury, right? Or the Jeffrey Epstein War. So while they're covering up the Epstein files, Todd Blanche goes, no, Reuters is wrong, completely false. Not sure how such fake news makes its way to publication. I don't know. I mean, should we trust the Trump regime or. Or should we trust Reuters? Should we trust what Rubio says today about what he said yesterday? Or should we listen to his words yesterday? The words of MAGA Mike yesterday. And all the MAGA sycophants were parroting this message. We invaded Iran because Israel was going to do it first. That's what they said. And by the way, if that's what you think should happen, which let me be very clear, I don't. Okay. I think that is dangerous. I told you, I think it's treasonous if the United States puts its interests below other. Doesn't look after our own interests. Right. You can give me all the mantras. America first, America has our own national security interests. And also you have to follow the law and get authorization of wars. And that didn't happen. But make your case. If your case is regime change, make the case to the American people. If your case is Israel is going to be threatened, make you make that case. You will see how the America, you know, see how the American people feel about that. If your plan is to install the son of the ayatollah, who's more extreme, make, make that. Make the case. Do say, explain why when Americans can't pay for things right now, can't afford things, as we're living paycheck, as Americans are living paycheck to paycheck right now, psychologically tortured by this regime, as oil prices and your gas prices are now going to go up because of this, as food prices and everything's going up right now because of, you know, because of Donald Trump's mismanagement and the tariffs as people can't afford homes and people are having their health care ripped away. Make the case. Explain to us, explain to us why with all of this happening, another endless war is something that you want to explain it? That's, that's what our system is. If you don't like our system here in the United States, you know, then just admit it. Just admit that you like Kim Jong Un and Russia and you like those systems better, that you prefer your own little Kim Jong Un here in the United states a weak, pathetic blow. Hard A felon, a sexual abuser, is found civilly liable for sexual abuse. A regime that covers up child sex trafficking. If you like that, just say you like it. I'll at least be like, okay, weird, strange, dangerous, but at least you're telling me. But don't act like you don't say the things and you don't believe the things. We see it. All right, my producers are saying quick ad break. Ben, you've spoken for 42 minutes in a row. We had a big audience though. That's why everybody make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not be actually subscribed. So double check that you're actually subscribed. Turn your notifications on. Tell a few friends or people you know about this network as well and this YouTube channel. We're on our way to 7 million subscribers. Go to store.midas touch.com for merchandise. Go to midas plus.com for our substack. All right, let's take one quick break, super quick and then we'll be right back.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Ben Meiselas]

Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Meisellis. This is your Breaking News. In the first half of this episode, we were covering all of the developments in this war initiated by Donald Trump against Iran that's spiraling out of control in the region. There was actually just a briefing that was held as well on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers attended with the Defense Department, State Department I'm going to get you some of those clips as they're coming in, but the result is is that a lot of lawmakers are saying that they are far more fearful than ever that we, the United States, may be putting boots on the ground soon and it appears that there may be U.S. ground forces that will be needed. We talked about in the first half of this episode the United states arming the CIA's plan to arm the Kurds, who we betrayed last month in Syria by getting rid of their autonomous region and transferring it to the leader of Al Qaeda, Al Jelani, who now runs Syria, who visits the United States. And in the White House, Donald Trump sprays perfume on him and sniffs him. We showed you those clips, but now we begging the Kurds for help because there's no one in the region who wants to, who wants to help. So I guess the plan is to arm the Kurds and have a ground war against Iran. And I mean, do, do. As I'm saying these words, we know where this is going to go. You know, I was reflecting on this the other day and I forget who I was talking. I said, you know, I used to wonder with all of the complexities that take place in history and geopolitical affairs. I mean, you think about the nuances of what we cover on a day to day basis, how in a history class you could reduce these monumental historic events down to a multiple choice answer, right? A, B, C, D or true or false when there's so much complexity. And regardless of all of this complexity, it's kind of obvious though, where you have someone behaving in a way like Donald Trump is right now and Netanyahu is right now. Like the outcome is so obvious. It doesn't take brilliance in prognosticating what's going to happen with a Kurdish force in Iran, with the massive size of Iran, with 90 million people, what that's going to look like? It's going to look like what we saw in Iraq on steroids, a nuclear version of what is in of, of what happened in Iraq or Afghanistan. It will make that look tiny in comparison. Like, do we all realize what's gonna, what's happening here? Why, why are we trying to be so naive to the realities of the region? And the reality of the region is, is relatively simple whether, whether you like it or not, okay? And for me, I don't like that this is the reality, but it's the reality which is the Ayatollah, terrible tyrant, authoritarian, terroristic regime. I also want to be clear, I think that the Trump regime is authoritarian in nature. And I want to be clear too. I think the Netanyahu is a regime that is tyrannical in nature and that has caused it. We are dealing with regimes against you and regimes on regime where the information and getting to the truth is very difficult. And ultimately these regimes are preventing people who want to get along with each other, I think, who want to live in peace with each other, who want to share this world in a positive and productive way. These regimes and authoritarians globally There's a lot more authoritarians out there as well

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

as

[Ben Meiselas]

have made it very difficult place to live in this world, especially in, in, in 2026. But the Ayatollah was a, it's an undisputed fact that he was a spiritual leader for 300 million Shiites in the region. A lot in Iran, but in the region as well. And while the Ayatollah was losing some popularity because people were suffering economically as well, you know, in the region, the attack on Iran, the way it was carried out by the, by Trump and Netanyahu, allowed the extreme factions to use his death as a martyrdom. That's just an objective fact of how they're using it to now inspire the population to become entrenched against Trump. You, you, it did not conjure sympathy of the people. And when Trump had an opportunity to conjure sympathy of the people, when the people of Iran were protesting and Trump said, I got your back, I'm here for you. If a single Iranian protester gets killed, we're coming in and we're helping you. And we didn't even have, we didn't even have our military resources in the region when Trump told people, go out right now, do it. And they did. And 30,000, maybe 40,000 Iranians got massacred by the ayatollah, by the regime. So now you want them to come out again after you told them to do it before, and also after you're saying that you don't want any democratic leader in Iran, that you are okay with kind of what you did in Venezuela as the template. Although thinking about Venezuela and Iran, it's like thinking about two complete. Like, it's, it's, it's, it's. The fact that he tries to even make that comparison is fatal. Like, that's sick, deranged thinking to say Venezuela and Iran. But if what you're trying to say is somebody else from the Islamic Republic is going to be the leader, then how are you going to encourage people to protest against them when they know that you don't have their back? You've just stated you don't have their back. So what do you think the outcome is going to be? As I mentioned moments ago, there was a briefing by the Department of Defense and the State Department. I'm going to show you what it looked like when Senator Blumenthal, a Democrat, came out. And then I'll show you what it looked like with Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, Republican MAGA from Oklahoma. First, let me show you the clip of Blumenthal. Let's Play it.

[Mark Wayne Mullin]

I just want to say I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have. But I also am no more clear on what the priorities are going to be of the administration going forward, whether it is destroying the nuclear capacity of Iran or simply the missiles or regime change or stopping terrorist attack activities. And I think the administration owes it to the American people to have briefings not just for members of Congress, but for the American public. Nothing here should have been classified. It should be available to the American people.

[Ben Meiselas]

Do they describe. So the Trump regime is making all of that information classified or declaring it classified, so we don't know. So the most the senators can share. Otherwise, Trump's DOJ will try to arrest them. And as you know, they will try to arrest them. We've seen it before. That's all they can share. And he's like, why is this information. The American people need to hear this. We do need to hear this. I don't care, again, what political party you're from. This is, this is some, this is supposed to be some secret, like, what's, what's the mission? What's the objective? What are we doing in the region? While you have a consulate CIA building in Saudi Arabia on fire right now, while you have the consulate in Dubai on fire, while you have the El UD airport base on fire, while you have other areas in Dubai on fire and Bahrain on fire, While you have the US Embassy or the US Consulate in Karachi and Pakistan on fire. You all realize that the United States Marines who were guarding the Karachi embassy had to open fire, and they killed, like a dozen Pakistani people. Our Marines killed people to, to shut down that protest in front of the U.S. embassy here in Erbil, U.S. air Force base on fire. That's in, it's, it's an arms facility in Iraq. The US Embassy in, in Iraq under attack because of the ayatollah's position in the community, being, you know, the spiritual leader of 300 million Shiites, there's, as I mentioned, there's a lot of Shiites in all these other countries. And again, they view it now, the way Trump handled this, for a guy who is likely going to die anyway soon. I mean, the guy was super old and not healthy. You've now turned the guy into a martyr. You turn the guy into a martyr. The people who were starting to support him less are now rallying. And you think, what, arming the Kurds what are they going to do? They're going to go block to block in Tehran. That's. That's the game plan. You realize when they do that, then there's going to. What do you think then happens in Syria to the Kurds? Like, isn't it obvious what'll happen? Okay, so the Kurds do that. Then what's going to happen? Remember last year into early this year in Syria, you had the factions loyal to Al Jilani who were massacring the Kurds and others in Syria and northern Syria in that area. What do you think's going to happen? So the Kurds come into Iran, right, representing now the interests of Trump and Netanyahu. The Kurds are going to be vulnerable in Syria. The Shiites in Iraq and who represent the majority there. Remember the dynamic there, that Saddam was a Sunni but controlled a largely Shiite population. And then all of the sectarian issues afterwards of trying to put that back together in Iraq, Remember, that was. So the Shiite population. The Shiite population in Iraq rises up, right? And there's Kurdish communities in Iraq. So now what you end up triggering is what we saw happened in Iraq for a very long period of time. That starts to happen once again. The sectarian issues in Iraq, then the sectarian issues in Bahrain. The sectarian issues spread to the entire region. You draw in, you know, Saudi Arabia. Well, they get drawn into the war now. And if Saudi Arabia is viewed as being, you know, helping out Netanyahu and helping out Trump in such an overt way, what happens with the population there and how do people respond to, you know, MBS doing that? What happens in these other regions if it appears that you're out there helping Netanyahu versus defending your own sovereignty? You know, and I saw, you know, some analysis where people were like, this is backfiring for Iran because now Qatar and the UAE are getting involved against Iran. And Iran probably didn't see this coming. Of course Iran saw this coming. Iran realized, if it's going to strike inside, even if it's US Military interests, if Iran's going to strike inside any country, right? If they're going to strike inside the UAE and Abu Dhabi or Dubai, if they're going to strike inside Saudi Arabia, of course they calculated, let's not be naive, that there would be retaliation. But the plan from Iran is obvious. Create a massive. Because they see their survival on the line. They control all these Shiite militias in the area also in all these regions, Right. It's in addition to the Shahid drones and the Ballistics, they control all the Shiite militias around. So turn the entire Middle east into a massive sectarian war, massive sectarian violence there. Do that and make it as painful as possible economically in lost lives for the United States as possible. Draw, draw in a massive world war into the Middle East. That's the plan. And so rather than de escalate, we're going to keep furthering this and it's going right into the plan that, that's so freaking obvious of what, of what Iran actually wants. Take a step back and look at it the way I'm describing this situation. Would it now be the time or, you know, to try to figure out, okay, this is getting out of control. Let's go to the united, let's go to the United nations and let's try to get, let's try to get the U.N. you know, to, you know, let's go back to the mediator in Oman or let's try to figure this out or, you know, come up with some, you know, statement to try to save face at this point and just try to tone that. No, Trump's decision making tree. I've said this years on this network. I said the problem with his decision making tree, if you even want to call it that, is there is a reason why he's bankrupted so many things despite having all of the resources of being born basically with hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars, you know, from his daddy, which is he keeps on making. He makes a mistake or an error or an intentional situation bad, and then he compounds it and compounds it and makes it worse and worse and worse and worse until it's a catastrophe. And then rather than tapping out or trying to admit fault or fire, you know, or change the dynamic or do whatever, he doesn't, and then he goes bankrupt. Eventually. When people stand up to him in any aspect of life, if you truly stand up to him, he loses. Look at his litigations, right? When you back down, frankly, the way we saw a lot of countries and companies back down to Donald Trump, when you back down, he takes, he takes more. He takes more. He takes more, right? When you stand up, he loses. He loses bigger. He loses as big as he can. I mean, look at Abrego Garcia. Abrego, just think about this. Abrego Garcia was able to take on. This isn't even enough credit to take on the Trump regime and win and keep on winning despite all the resources. You think if Abrego Garcia can beat the Trump regime, you think that in Ayatollah, do You think that Iran and the Islamic Republic doesn't know the guy's weak spots? You think they're, they're not able to figure out, by the way, hat tip to Abrego and Abrego's legal team. But you get the point. You get the point. I mean, look, Eugene Carroll, because she didn't quit, she beat Donald Trump and because the facts were on her side, but he threw everything against Eugene Carroll and she won and she won and she won despite him throwing a fit and doing everything. She won. If E. Jean Carroll and Abrego Garcia can beat this guy, don't you think that other interests know how to play him? And the problem is Netanyahu knows how to play him, knows his weaknesses, knows how to put pressure on him, knows how to manipulate him. And I'm not trying to take away responsibility from Don. He's a weak, pathetic, you know, he's a weak, pathetic individual, but people know how to play him. You don't think that the Islamic Republic has a psychological profile and Putin has a psychological profile. And heck, look at Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping got Donald Trump not to give billions of mandated military aid to Taiwan over this past week when Taiwan arguably needs it more than ever because Donald Trump is so thirsty for a state visit to Beijing. So Donald Trump can see all the Chinese soldiers standing at attention and walking en masse. So Trump feels tough, literally. The state visit is what Trump wants for a photo in this dystopian reality show that he lives in. While we're all non consensual extras whose lives are being ruined by this sick and disturbed and physically and cognitively deteriorating individual. That's just the reality. He's. We're not doing aid to Taiwan. We're taking away thaad missiles from, from South Korea where, where Trump's attacking Zelensky again today when Zelensky actually has the blueprint of how you stop these Shahi drones and ballistic missiles. It is an idiocracy compounded by maliciousness. By maliciousness as well. Did I show the clip? I don't know if I showed the clip yet of Mark Wayne Mullen. If not, let me show you the clip of Mark Wayne Mullen. I forget if I played it. Let's play it.

[Various Guests/Commentators]

Are there measures being taken not to eliminate other possible alternatives to leadership?

[Mark Wayne Mullin]

This is war and we're taking out the threat. And if you're part of the threat, then you have the, then you're a target. You what we'd call, call not all the arrows, but going after The Archers.

[Ben Meiselas]

You'll concede this is war. You'll concede this is war.

[Mark Wayne Mullin]

We haven't declared war. They declared war on us. But we haven't.

[Ben Meiselas]

Secretary Hex.

[Mark Wayne Mullin]

We haven't declared.

[Ben Meiselas]

Now, you said this is war. They called it war.

[Mark Wayne Mullin]

They've called it war. What I was saying. Okay, well, that was misspoke. What I was saying that they've declared war on us. But, but war is ugly. It always has been ugly. But we're, you know, we're at a. We're taking out a regime that's been trying to attack us for quite some time.

[Ben Meiselas]

But you're not conceding this as well.

[Mark Wayne Mullin]

We have declared war. So if we haven't declared war, then I don't see that the president asked us to declare war yet, but they have declared war on us. We're just simply fighting the, the threat that. That's, that's been at our door for 47 years. I already answered your question. That ask could be coming. That an ask from.

[Ben Meiselas]

You know, it's interesting, while I've been telling you, when you stand up to Trump, how you, how you win versus if you try to negotiate with the guy, he takes and he takes. He never can actually do a deal with the guy because his whole life is fraud. He's bad faith. Just the breaking news that just dropped Wall Street Journal with the exclusive that the Justice Department plans to abandon its defense of Trump's executive orders that targeted several high profile law firms. Okay. Remember the law firms that stood up and didn't bend the knee when Trump issued these executive orders? They all won. The law firms that capitulated and bent the knee and now are like, working within the Trump regime, and their legacies will forever be tarnished again. Just think about that. Think about that dynamic that plays out over and over and over again. I'll just show you this quickly as well, because I just want to show you how utterly deranged this individual is. Donald Trump held a press conference earlier today, and what Trump was bragging about and boasting about at this press conference was that he's never had more compliments on anything than what's happening right now in the Middle East. He goes, I've never had more compliments. Listen to what he says here. Let's play it. I'll tell you what, I have never had more compliments on something I did. People felt it's something that had to be done. So if we have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those Prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before. Like a miracle, Covid is all going to go away, right? Like a miracle. It's all. I truly don't. The level of brain rot that exists through social media, the proliferation of information, the trillions of dollars in propaganda that's spewed. Like, do we all not remember that this was the guy who assured this country back in 2020 that Covid was not going to hit our shores and that he guaranteed us just a few cases and like a miracle, it's all going to go away. You have nothing to worry about. Things are great. And then he graded himself in a. This is what he's just. He just does it again. He does it again. And then he'll find some scapegoat or something to blame it on, and he'll say, it's this fault. It's the, you know, it's Biden's fault, or it's Obama's fault, or it's. It's this person's fault. You know, Although right now it does feel that we are at a moment where even Trump's base is like, what the hell are you doing? And look, he had an opportunity with this Iran negotiation to actually take a win. The same way when he threatened these tariffs against the world, he could have actually taken a win, despite how deranged it was. Right. By not actually following through with the thing that's going to harm the country. You know, not the way I think that leaders should approach things, but if you were able to coerce the rest of the world to negotiate real deals, and then, you know, say, hey, I had to do this as a tool, it could have actually been viewed as like, oh, wow, that was actually smart. Like, you know, wow. Or, you know, you got a deal with Iran where they stop their enrichment and it's stronger than Obama's deal, and you've got the foreign minister of Oman blessing it and say, like, he could have actually taken a win. And there's so many of these things where he could. But he's. But he's pathological. And his. There's no strategy. And the goal is actually a lot. The goal is death and destruction. The cruelty is actually the point. There isn't thinking about, okay, well, how am I going to use this to leverage this to help the American people? He only thinks about it in terms of how am I going to. How am I going to help myself? And one of the very concerning issues. And I'll leave everybody with this. As you talk about Saudi Arabia, where the United States CIA headquarters is burning. Or you talk about Dubai, where you have the Lod Air Force Base burning, or you have a consulate in. Or, sorry, in Qatar, rather, where you have the Lod Air Force Base in Qatar. Or you have. In Dubai, where you have an American consulate that was hit in. In Dubai. Trump has all these business interests there. He's got a lot of personal money and investments there now, and so is. He's clearly not thinking in the interest of the United States how much of his decision making is based on his own money and his own investments and his own. And his own personal affairs. So that's something to be considered. So I'll. I'll leave you all. I'll leave you all with this. You know, at the Midas Touch Network, we take our responsibility in reporting on this war deeply. Seriously. We've tried to be as meticulous as we can in our reporting. I'm sure like any reporting, there will be times where we don't get it right, and when we don't, we'll make sure we acknowledge that. But we are doing our best in situations where the information is not always the best that's out there. But we're going to continue to work hard every single day to get you the information. That's why I keep checking back on the breaking news updates. I try to pack as much information in those breaking news updates to keep you fully informed. And it's not fluff. Like, I'm not giving you like, like my opinions or like having people yell at each other and split screens. I try to structure those videos as fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, video, video, video, video, fact, fact, fact, fact, video, video, video, video. So when you leave it, you're like, holy shit. I just learned a lot. I just real. I understand what's happening and I try to cut through the propaganda. I try to just give it to you real about what's happening. This isn't. This isn't any. This isn't anything more than here are the facts.

[Marco Rubio]

That's.

[Ben Meiselas]

That's how I try to conceive of these videos as we, as we make them together. Shout out to our hardworking team at the Midas Touch Network. They're all doing a really good job. There's so many people behind the scenes. You know, whether it's, you know, whether it's Jeremy or Ben P. Or Joe or Sydney or, of course, you all know Salty and so many other editors behind the scenes who you don't. Who you don't get to see as well. We've expanded our team thanks to you. We're grateful for that. We have a Washington D.C. bureau now. We had, I think some of the best on the ground reporting that there was in Minnesota. We're expanding internationally. So you see all of that happening as well. So shout out to our whole team, shout out to our reporting team and also give a shout out to all of the open source aggregators. You know, whether I agree with, disagree with them on some of the political stuff really is irrelevant. Some of them do a great job searching through Telegram and finding all the local videos about what's happening. And there are some that are just really good at gathering all the local videos and that's one of the sources that I use to do it. And so, you know, a site like this, OSINT Defender, they, you know, regardless of politically where they were before this or not, I don't really care. They're gathering and aggregating good data. There's a bunch of other ones that are like this and you know, I'm just where they're providing accurate information. It's helpful, it's a helpful resource. So I always want to give credit where credit is due. I think that's my responsibility as a journalist as well. Big up status coup. Yep, everybody say that. All right. Got a lot, Got a lot to cover. Thanks everybody for watching. Appreciate you big audience. Subscribe here on this YouTube channel. Set your notifications on. Go check out Midas Plus. Thanks everybody. We'll chat soon. Shout out Midas. Mighty.

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[Ben Meiselas]

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[Ben Meiselas]

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