← The MeidasTouch Podcast
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 5/26/26 (Feat. Zohran Mamdani)
01:10:02
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Ben Meisellis
Monday AI agents took over my work and I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders. Agents handle the daily grind. Now they live inside Monday.com, so they see the full my work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe. Which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff. Knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com when it's time to scale
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Ben Meisellis
Premier hosts on VRBO deliver quality vacation rental stays with fast responses and clear instructions.
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Commercial Announcer
Oh, I had a question. Our host replied.
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Ben Meisellis
Super quick Premier move.
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Commercial Announcer
Wish I had a Premier group chat. They won't even write me back.
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Ben Meisellis
Book a top rated stay with a Premier host. If you know, give herbo Donald Trump is trapped. This is Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Meiselis and this is your Breaking news. Donald Trump trapped in hell. All of his fraud, all of his tricks, all of his lies have led to his demise. Record low approvals right now for Donald Trump heading into the midterms. Congress is on recess. Donald Trump spent this weekend losing all control. His behavior on Memorial Day was nothing short of the deplorable, but that's what we expect from this deplorable human being. Let's talk about what's happened in the past 24 hours or so. Donald Trump tried to launch strikes against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz as there was news that we were very close to reaching a real peace agreement with Iran. Pakistan hunter who has been mediating this, announced that there was major progress made that the United States agreed to a series of terms which I believe is the best deal at this point that the Trump regime needs to take. Sure it's far weaker than Obama's jcpoa, but we should never have been in this unlawful and catastrophic war in the first place. And so we learned that Donald Trump was going to give Iran like $26 billion, that the first half of which was going to be paid immediately. Iran would open up the Strait of Hormuz. The issue over nuclear material would be deferred to a later time, and that there could finally be some progress that was made. Then we learned Benjamin Netanyahu picked up the phone, called Donald Trump. The warmonger neocons called up Donald Trump. They all started posting and they said, you can't do this. This is a betrayal. We need to invade Iran. What are you doing? Do it. Invade. And then Donald Trump's like, well, I haven't done a deal yet. I haven't done a deal. Don't know what anybody's talking about. Dude, you spoke with Arab nations on the phone with Pakistan. They were all there. Everybody heard what you said about the contours of a deal. And all of the Arab nations were like, dude, just enter into this deal. You're pathetic. The United States security umbrella you promised is pathetic. All these quid pro quos are pathetic. You're a loser. This is all we've got at this point. Just enter into the damn deal. Take the L, you loser, and get the hell out of here. We need a new security arrangement, by the way, which is why Pakistan's President Sharif was in China with Xi Jinping, where he got a hero's welcome there. Because what they're discussing right now is a new security architecture in the Middle east and the world without the United States. Why do you think Foreign Minister Aragi visited China before Trump's trip, and then Putin visited right after, and then Pakistan visited right after that? What do you think they're discussing? Holistically new security architecture, America out, China in. That's the narrative of what's really going on behind the scenes right here. And so Donald Trump's like, oh, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Okay, I'm gonna send some MQ9 reapers. I'm gonna send some F35s, and we'll just see what happens. And according to Iran, they were able to hit the MQ9 reaper and down it. The F35. Iran demonstrated. We detect your M. We detect your F35s right now. For those who are just listening on audio, I'm showing you the Iranian video of their radar systems showing that they are locked on an F35. And if they wanted to, they're showing that we could destroy your F35 on any given notice right now. And then they released the video showing, and we destroyed your MQ9 reaper. Iran obviously knows if they hit the F35 and that results in the death of an American pilot or pilots, that would probably result in the war re engaging and open hostility. So Iran didn't want to do that. But, folks, do you realize what a big effing deal it is that Iran is taunting the United States and taunting Trump? These F35s are supposed to be undetectable. Just think about it right now. If you're Canada, where you're doing your F35 review and, and you're wondering, should I get that Swedish gripen or do I get the F35? Well, the United States is promising the F35, while far more expensive. You can't detect it. It's perfect. No one can even find it on their radar systems. So what Iran realizes is, you know, how you can also destroy the American military industrial complex without even firing a shot? Just show what it looks like when we lock your F35 on the radar. And then let's knock down the MQ9 Reaper. So we actually, we know that it's an unmanned drone. So no one's going to die if we shoot that down. They're releasing footage there in Iran. And folks, this entire damn thing is being covered up by centcom. It's being covered up by our corporate media. Nobody is talking about it. And look, I get, today is Donald Trump goes to the hospital day, and he's unhealthy and, and he's cognitively and physically declining. I understand. That's why we report on that months ago, years ago. That's why we're focused on this, so that all of a sudden when the day happens, I don't get distracted by the day and go, oh, today I'm just going to talk about hospital, and then I'm going to move on to the next shiny object. No, what we're talking about on the Midas Touch network is what I believe the most important news of the day actually is, which is the F35 can be easily detected by Iran right now and Iran showing. Okay, you want to restart this war, we'll knock down your F35s. We'll knock down all your MQ9 reapers. We know you're out of munitions. United States. And so the Trump regime, Donald Trump, you know, he tried to, you know, do like a tactical strike in Hormuz, and he knocked out a boat. They love knocking out, like, little boats. That's Donald Trump. Little boat guy, little everything guy, little boat. You know, Venezuela. What do you do? Killing fishermen on little boats. And so, so Donald Trump uses our military might to strike a little boat. And then he says that they also hit like a, a missile site near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's ministry responds and Says, okay, well you've just violated the ceasefire which Iran goes back to Pakistan, he's ac, we can't trust these idiots. We can trust. And then Iran issues an ultimatum as well and says look, are you serious? We're prepared to go back to war right here with you. We're not going to back down, we're not changing our terms. Your social media posts, they don't scare us. Your memes don't scare us. The Iranian foreign minister spokesperson in his press conference said, look, we don't even follow us corporate news. We know it's all lies and propaganda. We, we negotiate within our Iranian framework which we've been talking about since early March. We don't move or waver from these points. Long term security guarantees for us, Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Iraqi militia groups, we control the straight of Horu. We've asserted our sovereignty over it, which we have along with Oman. We keep all of our ballistic missiles. And Iran has always said we don't want nuclear. This is what Iran said. We don't want our nuclear material for weapons grade purposes. We want it for civilian purposes. Whether you believe it or not, that's been their position. But we're not going to give you our uranium, we're not going to give you our nuclear dust. We're not going to do that. It's ours. We're going to use it for civilian. We're open to mechanisms about how to prove that we're not making nuclear grades. So we'll do a deal with you along the lines of the Obama deal. Weaker than the Obama deal. We're not going to have all these countries involved. Maybe we pick for example, who's involved, like China and Russia as opposed to before it was all of these countries that were really part of the original coalition of the willing when the US used to lead multinational alliances instead of America first means America alone. So we'll give you a weaker version of the Obama deal is what Iran has said. And that's where basically we are right now. And Donald Trump's thinking that he's going to strike Iran and that's going to make a difference. That hasn't done that at all. And you know, and, and basically here we are, Donald Trump completely and utterly and utterly trapped. At the same time you have Donald Trump kind of trapped in what am I going to do over here? Is there going to be a deal? Is there going to be no deal? What do I do? Donald Trump was at Walter Reed today. He did immediately respond thereafter and say, well, I'VE never been healthier. I'm great. He did make the identical post today that he did on. I think it was like May 16th to May 26th. When was the post? Yeah, May 18th, 2026. And now May 26th, 2026. Literally. Look at this. It's the exact same post it was. If Iran surrenders, admits their navy is gone and resting at the bottom of the sea and their air force is no longer with us, and if their entire military walks out of Tehran, weapons dropped and hands held high, each shouting I surrender, I surrender, I surrender. While wildly waving the representative white flag. And if their entire remaining leadership signs all the necessary documents of surrender and admits their defeat to the great power and force of magnificent usa, the failing New York Times, the China Street Journal, Corrupt and now relevancy and all their members of the fake news media will headline that Iran had a masterful and brilliant victory over the United States. He's literally recycling the identical posts, not, not really convincing people that what went down at Walter Reed was, was, was, was, was successful. I do want to mention this as well, because yesterday this failed as well. Donald Trump tried to inject into the discussions with Iran a new term. And Donald Trump's new term is if the US Is going to make peace with Iran. That will only take place if this mandatory condition is met by all other Arab nations. All other Arab nations, you must enter into alliances with Israel under the Abraham Accords. And if you do that, we will enter peace with. We will. We condition peace between the United States and Iran on Arab nations forging formal alliances with Israel. And we know that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Qatar and other Arab nations have made it clear we are not entering into direct alliances with Israel. We're not even going to have a discussion or entertain it until Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital is recognized in a two state solution. The genocide needs to stop. Israel needs to stop demolishing Beirut and Lebanon and committing massacres there. They need to stop the genocide in Gaza. There needs to be a two state solution. And Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Pakistan has said that. Then we'll do it. Then we'll do it. But you're not going to force us into the Abraham Accords which has about a 1% approval in the Arab nations like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. And then you have like American media commentators and Trump cabinet officials who go on different regime media. You know even in Lindsey Graham's post that they made brilliant maneuver by Donald Trump. Now he's going to get the Arab nations to join the Abraham Accords Was stroke of genius by Donald Trump. Look, he's now tied the Iran deal into a broader deal in the Middle East. Dude, let me be very clear. The chance of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Qatar entering into the Abraham Accords is zero. It's negative. Negative 800%. They are not doing it. Why do we even go down these paths of utter folly? And what it ultimately does is it kind of cannibalizes and destroys and destroys the deal. Americans are suffering right now. They were suffering before Donald Trump's unlawful and catastrophic war in Iran as this big disastrous bill. As Donald Trump's tariffs against the world have made things far more expensive. I mean, for those who are listening, we'll share with you memorial day expenses, 2026 versus even 2025. Gas is up 28%. Flights are up 20.7%. Beef up 16%. Tomatoes up 40%. Coffee up 18%. Hot dogs up 11%. Year hotels up 4.3%. Lettuce, 7.9%. Up. Charcoal up 20%. Beer, 10%. Up soda up 5.1%. But you didn't need to hear this from me. You know this because when you go to the grocery store. Yes. That word, Donald, Groceries, that new fangled word, groceries that you just discovered, we all know what we're paying. When you get your electric bill, which Trump said he would slash in half, that it would be 50% less, you know that you're paying probably 50% more or at least 25 to 30% more. We know that things are far more expensive, not less expensive. You know, when you go to the pump, what you are paying. And that shows no signs of subsiding. And meanwhile, you have Donald Trump spending every waking moment, which is not a lot, because dude sleeps for most of the day, which we'll talk about in a bit, when it comes to Donald Trump at the hospital today also, Netanyahu was at the hospital last night. Kind of interesting. We know that Donald Trump's focus, though, is the UFC stadium that they're building outside of. Have you seen some of the photos of this disgusting, grotesque UFC stadium turning the White House into this freaking carnival? Have you seen just what this. Have you seen what this looks like right now? And then he's not done there. Yesterday, he was expecting the pillars because he wants to tear down the pillars right now of the White House and replace them with Corinthian pillars. He's talking about the Golden Ballroom over and over and over again. Triumphal arches, reflecting pools, Club Rose Garden, taking over golf courses. That's where his. He makes this Post like, did you know that if you stood up the reflecting pool, it's 20, 30ft and that's bigger than One World Trade center and it's bigger than the Empire State Building. Did you know everybody that a mountain is bigger than the Burj Dubai? Did. Did everybody, did you know that if you go from the top of the ocean to the deepest part of the ocean, that it's taller than the tallest mountain by 2? Why are you posting these? What are you even posting right now? What are you even doing? It's the most bizarre behavior. It's the most bizarre behavior ever. Turning the White House into this grotesque thing. But when we talk about this, to me, the story isn't just here's what he's doing, Golden Ballroom. Corruption. Corruption, yes, corruption, but corruption while you at your expense too. I mean, corruption is never good. But they're out there looting from you and stealing from you, in my opinion, and grifting and quid pro quoing while they're screwing you. And then they engage in these never ending wars where Donald Trump is trapped. And it just looks so utterly weak. It looks so utterly pathetic right now in, in my opinion, you know, also not sure if you saw this video, I showed it earlier today. You know, you have to pay attention to lots of dynamic world events because everything is connected. And I think too frequently our corporate news, they just report on, okay, today Donald Trump's going to the hospital. So today's hospital day. Let's get on Dr. Reiner, let's get on Dr. Gupta, let's get on all these people and let's just talk about health, health, health. And every network talks about it. Then what are we talking about today? Okay, today we're talking about this. Then what are we talking about this day? And you're not focusing on the broader geopolitical dynamics that are impacting all of this right now. Right. And so as noted, you have Pakistan's Prime Minister Sharif, their Field Marshal as well as C. Munir. You know, they're out there talking with Xi Jinping right now and they're talking about changing the global architecture, frankly, with China leading. If you were Iran, you would certainly welcome Pakistan as your mediator because you also know that Pakistan supports a ultimately systemically a world order that weakens the United States position. I know that Donald Trump's like, well, you know, we get along with Pakistan. Look, I think Pakistan honestly has surprised a lot of people by doing a good job. I think a Muir, who's their field marshal, who's basically their day to day, you know, you know, leader. And then they have their prime minister, who's. Who's more of a figurehead. But I actually think they've done a good job, you know, with the negotiation. And I think lots of people have been pleasantly surprised how they've handled it. But also I think that they also curried favor with Donald Trump by putting a lot of money into Trump's crypto ventures early on and saying that Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize. It's what's endeared themselves to Trump. But also, if you know, dynamically and historically, where Pakistan's kind of vision for the future is, it ultimately is with a weaker United States in the region and a stronger China, and a China being more of a guarantor than the United States. So if you follow the dynamics, you have Pakistan's leadership meets with Xi Jinping. So then Trump sends Marco Rubio to guess if Pakistan goes to China. Trump's trying to play catch up. So where do you think they go? India. Right. So they send Marco Rubio to India, to New Delhi. For those on audio, I'm showing you Marco Rubio arrive in New Delhi in India. This follows the big bricks block meeting in India where Foreign Minister Aragji of Iran was greeted like a hero when he came down on the tarmac. And watch right over here, Marco Rubio looks around and he goes, where's everybody? You know, there's. There's one member of the military, literally one member of American military. He looks around, he looks left, he looks right. You have someone from the Indian military videotaping the whole thing as well. There's not a single person greeting Marco Rubio when he arrives on the tarmac. I just want you to think about the message that that sends America first means America alone. So they're out there attacking NATO allies, separately attacking India, taking Pakistan's side over India. But then Pakistan is in China. India held the bricks block meeting two weeks ago, where Foreign Minister Aragchi was viewed as kind of the conquering hero, almost like the keynote speaker. Rubio runs to India to try to repair relations with Modi. Donald Trump makes some social media posts. We love Modi. Tell Modi we love him.
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Zoran Mamdani
We love him.
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Ben Meisellis
Yeah, but you really harmed India's economy. Your tariffs against India, your constant attacks against India, and frankly, your blatant racism against India has been a major turnoff. And so America keeps repelling, repelling and repelling. And that's why we see this new geopolitical structure forming. And with all of this taking place with the US Looking internationally, never this week. I mean, as weak as could possibly be. I mean, then you have Russia issuing a warning to Rubio through Kirill Dmitriev. You need to evacuate from Kiev immediately. We are launching all of these attacks on Kiev. We are escalating Arishnik missiles, other ballistic missiles. We are throwing our full force at Kiev because Ukraine has taken the initiative right now. Ukraine has taken the initiative and has been able to advance on the, has been able to advance on the front lines, pushing Russia, pushing Russia back. Ukraine's been able to strike within Moscow, hitting oil depots there, hitting key infrastructure in Moscow. And so now Russia getting pretty desperate. And so Russia striking at the heart of Kiev in civilian centers, mind you, you have all of these, you know, former allies of the United States, I guess, you know, on paper, still allies. They're all saying, well, we stand with Ukraine, we stand with Ukraine. You got Carney. We've got, you know, either European Union countries, you know, all these countries saying, we stand with Ukraine. Also you have Carney and all of these European countries and other, I guess, allies and paper only firmly and strongly condemning Israel's treatment of the flotillas that it went to approach Gaza with all of the horrific treatment of the flotillas that, that arrived there when, you know, Israel captured these flotillas. And then you had some of Israel's, know, top ministers filming videos like mocking the flotilla people and just treating them, you know, just absolutely horrific. Like Israel's National Security Minister, Ben G. Is one of, you know, one of those people. And, and again, us Just finds itself. America first, America alone. I mean, I guess America's only ally right now in the world is Netanyahu and, and Trump, which ain't a good thing, let's be very clear. Two authoritarians, two authoritarians, by the way, who were both in the hospital. You had Netanyahu recently with a serious malignant cancer diagnosis that he's been covering up. And he said that he had to do a emergency dental visit. They're not even trying with their cover ups anymore. He had an emergency dental visit at 11pm at night. TRUMP was at Walter Reed saying he was there for a dental visit and a Walter Reed visit. Then Donald Trump posted, my health has never been better. I've never been better. They said this was the best six month checkup they ever had. I have no negative conditions. Things couldn't, couldn't be better for me. And we know that he just had advanced imaging and MRIs done, but then they said, oh, it was a CT scan done. So we know there's a massive cover up taking place right there. And you know, let me pull, let me pull this up as well. And then you get, you know, post after post of Donald Trump. He's making QAnon posts while he, while at the hospital or on the way to the hospital, he's posting photos like this game, no rhinos with himself in a shotgun, shooting rhinoceroses. And he's, you know, saying that about, you know, Republicans in name only, which seems to be more of a threat, in my opinion, than 8,647. And then he posts this game over deep state. So for those who are watching, again, corporate news won't cover this at all. Like, why would we cover this? Donald Trump always says crazy things. So why would we even do a story on this? I don't know. I mean, we shouldn't normalize the fact that the President of the United States made a post of himself inside of a queue for QAnon, a literal death cult. And then if you zoom in or you look at his collar, it says Q+ again, another reference to QAnon, a death, like a literal psychotic death cult. And, you know, and that will get very, that'll get very little. I mean, we'll cover it here on the Midas Touch network and then I'll share with it. We'll share with you this right here, though. But I, even of all places, Newsmax calling out some of these Trump spokespeople. Even, even that. Let me show you right over here what this Newsmax person had to say. This is Tommy Piggott. When you're losing Newsmax a little bit. Let me show you what this guy said here. Play this clip, Tommy.
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Commercial Announcer
Then why do we continue kind of the farce of calling it a ceasefire? Let's just say we've still got this conflict ongoing. I don't think the American people, you know, are going to be upset about that. You know, either you support it or you don't. But we clearly don't have a ceasefire.
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Tommy Piggott
Well, I think two things here. First are the objectives laid out by Operation Epic Fury, which was the decimation of their military, their air force, their navy capacity, the ballistic missile capacity. We saw those objectives largely be fulfilled. So that's Operation Epic Fury already making the world safer. I think then in the second context is that in this context, when these conversations are happening is that President Trump holds all of the cards. We see that blockade of Iranian ships and ports. We see economic fury, we see the decisive outcomes from Operation Epic Fury. And that is the context in which this is happening. So fundamentally, President Trump got to see this objective be fulfilled. We're going to take actions necessary to defend U.S. troops, U.S. interests. And then fundamentally, President Trump holds all of the cards in this circumstance to make a good deal for the American people and see that objective be fulfilled.
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Ben Meisellis
Tommy to that point. And folks, do you hear that knock on the door? I feel like, I feel like, you know, I watch Sesame street with, with, with, with, with, with my little baby. He's not a little baby anymore. She's 19 months. You hear that knock on the door? Who do we, who do we got at the Midas Touch Network right now? Who's here? Is it, Is it Zoron? Mom Donnie. Surprise guest, Zoran Momdani, everybody. I just interviewed Zoron a moment ago. Let's bring in Zoron. And now, live from Madison Square Garden, New York City Mayor Zor Mom Donnie. Mayor Mom Donnie, great to see you. We'll get to, we'll get to our Knicks in just a moment. But let's talk about what everyone's talking about in New York City today, which is the housing plan that you announced. And I think it's important to note that, you know, saying the word affordability, it's not a gimmick. It is actual implementation of plans, policies, doing the work, rolling up your sleeves. You're doing that. Talk to our audience about this housing plan and how it's different and not just more of the same.
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Zoran Mamdani
Absolutely. Well, first of all, it's a real pleasure to be back on. And I think at the core of it is what you said, which is that we've heard politicians come and go speak about grand promises and plans. What makes this different is the amount of money we're actually putting behind it. We're talking about a housing plan, we've called it block by block, that is going to invest more than $22 billion in affordable housing in the city. That means we're going to build 200,000 affordable homes that are going to be permanently rent stabilized, preserve 200,000 affordable homes across the same period of time, and do all of this while investing more than $5 billion into public housing and investing in the tenants of today so that we make it easier for them to report any violation of housing code across the city and for the city to actually then enforce and hold those bad landlords accountable. That's what it looks like for us to tackle with what is a multifaceted housing crisis. And the reason we do so is it's the number one Driver of the cost of living crisis in the city.
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Ben Meisellis
You know, there's big arguments when it comes to housing politics. Some people say build more. Some say protect tenants and workers first. This seems like an all of the above approach right here. Talk to us about that, how you can balance these interests.
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Zoran Mamdani
I think it's exactly as you said. We've been told time and again when it comes to housing that we have to make a choice.
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Ben Meisellis
We.
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Zoran Mamdani
When in reality, the choice really is between a city government that debates this and a city government that delivers this. And we want to be the one that delivers this. And the reason we do is we know that New Yorkers, they are more than just one thing. When a construction worker goes in the morning to help to construct affordable housing, oftentimes they go home, and then they're a tenant in that same city. We want to make this a city where we're building more affordable housing than we've ever done before. We're doing it with stronger wage protections and labor protections than we've ever seen before. And then we're also encouraging tenants to utilize their rights and actually organize in a manner where they'll have city support when they do so. All of these things together are what help us start to build the kind of housing we used to build until 1961, and a series of choices that were made to make it harder and harder to not just build in the city, but frankly, for New Yorkers to live in the city.
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Ben Meisellis
You know, I see how excited people are in New York City about this today and how they've been excited about it leading up to it. But you know what they're gonna say on what I call state regime media, which is Fox and Daily Wire, they're already out with their talking points. Momdani wants to decide who deserves to keep their property. Now it begins. Mayor Mamdani unveils shift property ownership from landlords to quote the community, end quote. And so this is what they're rolling. You know, they're gonna. They're gonna clip you tonight. So what do you say when you have Jesse Waters out there, you know, doing his deranged shtick that he does in Hannity? And they say this. What's. What's your message to that audience there?
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Zoran Mamdani
You know, my message to that audience is the same as I would say to anyone. I want them to be able to afford to live in the city as well. And yes, if there is a bad landlord that is violating housing codes, the city will hold them accountable. We have held bad landlords accountable to the tune of $65 million in these past six months. And that's not something we're embarrassed of because we're proud to actually stand up for our laws that ensure that New Yorkers don't just have a place they call their home, but one that's also habitable enough to be considered a home. And when it comes to this program, we're talking about actually delivering, block by block, a kind of housing vision that ensures the long term stewardship of homes across the city. And if there is a bad landlord whose entire business model is harassment, violation and displacement, then, yes, we will take every single course of action we can. And that includes, at times, to ensure that we're changing the ownership of that home to a nonprofit, to a community land trust, sometimes even, yes, to tenants themselves.
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Ben Meisellis
You know, I see the Trump regime now also bragging about kicking people off of snap, kicking people off of Medicaid. Their big announcement also, the Housing and Urban Development will be stopping emotional support dogs. Yeah, no, emotional support. That's what they're considering, their dubs. That's their wins right there. And so it's using government to harm people, to take away. Whereas I think you're showing a model that works in New York City and nationwide. Can you talk to New York City being a model for government working?
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Zoran Mamdani
You know, wherever you live in this country, people come with an anxiety about the first of the month because they don't know if they're going to be able to afford their rent. That is not just a New York City specific problem. It is one that people feel coast to coast and everywhere in between. And this is a vision for a city where we make it easier for people to actually afford to live here. We make it easier for people to afford not only an apartment that they may rent, but even dreaming of becoming a homeowner. And so much of what you're speaking about when it comes to federal policy, it's completely divorced from what any New Yorker is actually worried about. What people are worried about is what we're actually acting on, which is how to make this city affordable and how to actually ensure that housing isn't some imaginary dream or fantasy that people have that they could one day afford. But it's a reality. And the way we do that is by putting the full financial muscle of the city behind that kind of a vision. And we're incredibly excited to be doing that today.
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Ben Meisellis
Look, and as a longtime New York Knicks fan, I was there at all those Knicks Bulls games. We got to talk about the Knicks getting into the finals right now, it's a, it's important to the city. I mean, it creates an energy and an electricity in the city. And also, you know, you've, you've attended games, but not kind of front row, not courtside. You've been, you've been with the people. And even, you know, I see New York Post and Fox hit you, hit you on that also for watching games with the people. Just talk to us, though, about what, what the New York, what this means to the city and what that's going to look like with this finals.
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Zoran Mamdani
I'll never apologize for sitting in the nosebleeds. I will tell you, it was, it was, it was a great time to be there. And frankly, as you said, it's an incredible time to be a New Yorker right now. The energy across the city, it's in line with the fact that we haven't been here since 1999. And that is something that means so much to so many who have suffered through so many seasons in the hopes of this moment finally living, to actually be able to see it with their own eyes. And it's incredible what this team has done. We cannot wait for the start of the finals. And we're just going to hope that, you know, the spurs and OKC just battle it out, double ot, you know, take it to a series of game seven, because we want to make sure everything's going our way.
- [37:09]
Ben Meisellis
Before we go, Mayor Mumdani, let's just talk about this moment and any kind of final message to our, you know, our audience. I mean, they see Donald Trump. He's now inspecting the pillars at the White House. He wants to replace it with Corinthian pillars. They're building a UFC stadium right now around the White House. He's talking about reflecting pools, golden ballrooms, triumphal arches, the Club Rose Garden, onyx on the floor. And people are like, never ending wars that he like, oh, there's a deal. There's not a deal. There's a deal. There's not a deal. The anxiety's through the roof. Just what's your overall message right now to our audience of nearly 7 million subscribers?
- [37:49]
Zoran Mamdani
My message would be that this is not what government has to be. This is not what the only vision there is for what it looks like to have a politics in this country that is so divorced from the needs and the wants of everyday people. And what we are looking to show in New York City is an alternative to what has led so many to become disenchanted with the political process. We want to show that not only can government work, but it must, and that it's at its core. Our responsibility is to working people to ensure that we're doing everything to make their lives easier. That has to be what drives our actions. And for too long, government has felt more like a distraction than actually a fulfillment of the needs of the people who've been left behind by the politics of today.
- [38:35]
Ben Meisellis
Well, New York City Mayor Zoram Mamdani, great to have you here. I remember when you were on when you were running and you were polling at 1%. Now you're the mayor making sure the 1% are held accountable, fighting for workers. We're so grateful to see the work that you're doing.
- [38:49]
Zoran Mamdani
Thank you my friend. Real pleasure to be back on
- [38:54]
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- [42:00]
Ben Meisellis
Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Meisellis and this is your Breaking News. We began this episode by talking about how Donald Trump continues to remain trapped in the Strait of Hormuz with no way to exit or a path to exit. The only path to exit right now would be to make concessions to Iran. Agree about the objective reality, which is something that Donald Trump never likes to do, that the United States lost the war to Iran. Objectively, the reality the US Lost the war was an unlawful and catastrophic war the US should never have been involved in in the first place. There was a really good and strong deal on the table that Donald Trump could have took that was brokered by Oman back in late February of this year. Donald Trump rejected that and or said he was going to accept it. But then in the evening when there was a deal in principle reached, Donald Trump and Netanyahu invaded Iran, launching epic fury, which has been an epic disaster. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. The US had no plan to deal with that. They could have started the blockade, I suppose back at the beginning if they wanted to, although I'm not sure that would have really made a material difference or they certainly didn't include in the calculus when they should have what was going to happen in the straight of Hormuz by the way, Iran has not even pulled out its ultimate trump card yet, which is the Red Sea. The Bob El Mand straight could be shut down with the Houthis, which the Houthis demonstrated they were able to do many years ago, not that many years ago, five years ago, four years ago. So they could actually escalate up the ladder, and they haven't. And so now the only option right now is to make a deal with Iran that was, that is weaker than Obama's deal and have some version of the jcpoa. You give Iran sanctions relief, you give Iran money. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz symbolically. I mean, they, they control it, but they allow the Strait of Hormuz to be open, the ships leave. That would allow oil prices to drop. And the discussion about the nuclear file, Iran's nuclear material, that gets deferred, that gets pushed out to a later period of time. You know, maybe Iran works with China and China is a guarantor. Whether you, as I said, it'll be a weaker deal than the jcpoa. Like, well, is China going to be honest about it? You know, are they going to be an honest broker? Not the way the JCPOA dealt with the International Atomic Energy Agency and with American allies who are involved with China and Russia as well. So you had American allies on one side, iaea, and then you had China, Russia. So it'll be a weaker deal, but we can move beyond this. That's what happens when you, that's what happens when you lose the war, a war that you should never have been in in the first place. You know, and so what are we seeing happen now? You have Netanyahu saying, well, we're gonna escalate in Lebanon, realizing that if you do that, well, that will clearly make any deal fall apart. Donald Trump's trying to act like, well, I'm not weak, I'm not pathetic. Look what I'm gonna do. Everybody, you know, so Donald Trump strikes a few sites in the Strait of Hormuz. A missile, a missile launching site. He hits, he hits a few boats. Iran then says, actually, we got the MQ9 Reaper and we locked onto an F35. And then Donald Trump's, you know, making social media posts and saying, you know, oh, Obama's bad, Biden's bad. Here's a photo of Obama with, with some cash. Look, look at that. Everybody, you know, and people just like, all right, man, what are you going to do? You're in charge. Obama's not in charge. Obama kept us out of that war. Obama Did a deal that you pulled us out of. What are you going to do? Are you going to do a deal, you're not going to do a deal? Or are you just going to be weird and just keep on talking about a deal? You know, he's like, so thirsty for a deal. It's just weird. Deal, deal, deal, deal, Deal. Just do it. Just do it. Shut up and do it or don't do it, man. I'm going to do a deal. And he's the best deal maker. I'm a deal maker. I'm gonna. I do deals, dude. Just. Who do. I don't know what deal maker constantly says that I'm a good deal maker. It's like, strong people don't go, I'm strong. Healthy people don't go, I'm healthy. I'm healthy, you guys. I mean, imagine if I was just doing this show and I was just like, hey, everybody, I just want to let you know I did another cognitive exam yesterday. Hey, everybody. And. And it was great. Did a great cognitive exam. They asked me to identify, you know, certain things, and I said, you know, horse, snake, elephant. And it was really, you know, I. I aced it. I aced. Imagine if I did that every day. You'd be like, all right, man, that's getting. If I did it once, you'd probably be like, I don't think he's all right. Why was the President of the United States constantly talking about cognitive exams? Previously, when he was asked about that last visit to the doctor when he was. When he had advanced imaging done, and he said it was an mri, they said, what part of your body was the MRI done? What part was it done? I don't know. You don't know what part? Everybody, I've got an mri. If you've gotten an MRI before, you know that, you know what an MRI is. Okay? I don't know if you reacted the way I reacted to an mri. The first time I got an mri, they put me into the MRI machine, and my heart just started, like, uncontrollably racing. And I. I remember the experience very vividly. And they gave me a. They gave me a thing to hold in case, and I was like, why are you giving me this thing to hold and go, why would I panic?
- [48:20]
Dr. Reiner
I'm just.
- [48:20]
Ben Meisellis
You're just putting me through a tunnel. They put you through this thing, and then it starts to be. And you're in this tunnel, and you're looking up, and claustrophobia sets in. If you're me, and I think lots of people, that's why they give you a pat, you know why they're doing an MRI of your body? Okay. I was having very, it was a very bad back issues where I couldn't walk after I was on an airplane and I had a disc that was displayed. Use very specifically, know the purpose. And there was a ct, there was an mri, there was a, I, I'm aware of what was going down. So when the President of the United States says, I don't know the body part or then they say, why were you getting an mri? As a preventative measure. There's not, any doctor says there's no preventative MRIs. Then when you keep on disappearing for dental visits. Dental visit, dental visit, dental visit. Then you start raising a lot of red flags. Why are you constantly going to this dental visit? So in January, when he was in Florida, dental visit. You know, in May, when he was back in Florida, dental visit. I mean there's dental operatories in the White House. And then this Walter Reed visit, they said dental visit and annual checkup. I don't know if dental visit is code word for advanced imaging or. Because at the dentist office they have certain advanced imaging machines. That's, that's their, that's their pretext. But then, you know, our state regime media, Fox, they then post, you know, Donald Trump. Pull that back up, Jeremy. And they say everything's great, everything checked out perfectly. This is Justin Trump shares results from his 6 month physical at Walter Reed. Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed. Everything checked out perfectly. Thank you to the great doctors and staff heading back to the White House. Come on. I mean, everything checked out. Everything checked out perfectly. We, we literally can see you, we see you, we see you. Your hands. We saw you at Memorial Day where you couldn't stand and you were going back and forth. We see you falling asleep during most of your appearances throughout the day. You can't stay awake. And then you have your, it's, you know, the same way I said, healthy people don't go around saying, I'm healthy, I'm healthy, I'm healthy, healthy. Real deal makers don't go around. I'm a deal maker. Deal. Look at me, deal. I make great deals. You know, I'm the greatest deal maker. I'm the, I'm the greatest deal maker. You know, people who stay awake don't go around bragging that they stay. It's not something that you need to say all the. No, I, I don't sleep. I don't sleep. I'm always awake. I don't. Okay. I wasn't really asking that. I, I, he gets no sleep at all. Did you know that? He gets no sleep. That's not a brag. He should get sleep. I want a President of the United States. Shocking, perhaps, who gets sleep. I'd like to see him get the necessary rest. I'd like to see him engage in physical activity. I'd like to see him go bike riding and be healthy and have hobbies and, and, and be well rounded and read books and, and be intelligent. I'd like to. I don't know about you, but I, I personally would like to, Would like to see that. So Trump Hospital day means that we hear from Dr. Reiner. Dr. Reiner is a cardiologist at George Washington University Medical Center. He was someone who treated Dick Cheney during all of Dick Cheney's, you know, issues. This guy's a renowned doctor. And what he said that he was interested to see is he said, you know, the President has severe daytime somnolence. He falls asleep very often, and it just, it's not normal that he keeps on falling asleep. Here's what Dr. Reiner had to say. Let's play.
- [52:28]
Dr. Reiner
I do want to see this. You know, during this examination, a credible explanation for his visible health concerns. His bruising, which initially was described as due to handshaking, which is not credible. His severe edema in his ankles, which was described as, you know, chronic venous insufficiency, when just three months before, one year ago, he was. His examination disclosed that he had no edema, which would then make it acute, chronic, acute venous insufficiency, which is an entirely different thing. And finally, the President has severe daytime somnolence. He falls asleep very often. He's fallen asleep in the Oval Office on multiple occasions with people talking to him in the Cabinet Room, and was concerned yesterday that he might have fallen asleep at Arlington National Cemetery during Memorial Day observances. And chronic insomnia is a severe illness. It can result in an increase in risk of dementia, decrease in cognitive effects. In older people, it's equivalent to about increasing your age by about three and a half years. It increases your cardiac risk of having a heart attack or developing congestive heart failure, and it can produce a decline in your sort of mental functions. Like it could increase depression, anxiety. So it's a real problem. And the President appears to struggle to stay awake during the day. And I'd like to hear what the White House has done to evaluate why the President has this increased daytime somnolence. And what they're doing to improve that.
- [54:13]
Ben Meisellis
For those who are listening on audio to the right hand side of Dr. Reiner was a visual of the White House. And it looks like they're almost building like a, like a roller coaster behind it because they're setting up the UFC stage. And I can't help but reflect on just the utter derangement right here. I remember when Obama gave that speech at the White House correspondence dinner, and he showed as a, as a joke to kind of mock what a Trump White House could look like. He said, this is what he'll turn the White House into. It was like golden pillars and like, you know, like pink writing the White House. It's frankly not that far off from what Trump's actually doing to the White House. And you're supposed to be but a temporary steward of the White House, a public servant. Yet Donald Trump is, you know, turning this White House into a grotesque thing. And I also note that one of the things he wants to build underneath the east wing in this bunker is this hospital. He wants to build a full fledged hospital facility. And my read is, number one, he's not planning on leaving. And number two, as he's preparing this bunker, what do you think he's digging in for? Right? And yeah, I've seen some people say, is it like, is he turning it into his own Neverland Ranch? Like, what's, like, what is he, what does he build? What is he building, you know, out there? So his bunker, his hospital, his data centers. This is supposed to be a humble abode, the people's House. And, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a complete and utter outrage. And I also note that we should get more than a social media post of, they told me my health is great, everything's amazing. Then we have our state, regime media say, look, everything's great, everything's good. It's. By the way, it's exactly what Netanyahu does. Netanyahu says it's dental. Netanyahu has his own state media who then kind of regurgitate what's going on. There's some critical media in Israel, but there's a lot of state kind of regime media, you know, as, as well. And he goes, it's a dental visit, 11pm and they kind of, it's the same playbook, like, and I could just imagine, you know, Netanyahu and Trump, like, talking, you know, and, and, you know, and Netanyahu, like, all you do is you, you tell them that it is dental work. You just Tell them people are stupid. You just say dental work and then you just end it. And Donald Trump goes to like Calamit, just tell him it's dental work. What do you mean? It's not Just say I'm going to the dentist. That's what, that's what, that's what B.B. does. B.B. just says he's going to the dentist. Element to dentist. I mean, you know, no one's buying, no one's buying any of the, this right now. And when we see the COVID ups, when we see that the focus is anything but we the people, when we see what is going on here, we see the suffering. And that's just again going back to Memorial Day, just speaking with so many people. I went to the local park and hearing from people about the price of everything, everything and, and the struggles that people are experiencing right now in this, in this Trump economy while the rich seem to be getting richer and everybody else just seems to be being absolutely crushed right now, you know, by this, by this Trump economy. I, I want to address one more thing while, while we're all together, I dish this event, this shooting that was alleged to have occurred at the White House. I mean we, we heard the sounds of it. A lot of those rounds were coming from the Secret Service shooting and killing the schizophrenic guy. And it was, you know, a 21 year old guy who suffered from schizophrenia and serious, serious mental health issues who was released by the Trump regime back in July of 2025. He was someone who was arrested for threatening the White House. Back then he had a failure to appear on his record, meaning he didn't show up to his court appearance. So there was a warrant out for his arrest. And as soon as this incident happened, he never arrested. He was in the area, easy to find. They never re arrest the guy and so they allow somebody to kind of roam around the White House knowing the schizophrenic delusions. The guy called himself Jesus Christ and God told him to get into the White House. They knew he was a threat and they just kind of leave this guy around the White House and then when he has an episode they shoot and kill him and they say, well he shot at us, so we shot and killed him. And I'm not, I'm not suggesting there wasn't a shot. You know, I, I, we need, I don't know all the facts. I, but at, at least this was a massive security breach, wasn't it, that they would let this guy be around. It reminds me of the report we did this morning about what's happening in Delaney hall, which is owned by Geo, the private prison company. Right. And that makes billions of dollars right now off of taxpayer money. And I think about all of the immigrants who have been put in these detention centers whose due process rights have been violated. These people suffering in these concentration camp like environments. There's illnesses, they're not eat, they're not getting food, they're, they're being treated so despicably. Heck, Democratic Senator Andy Kim was there, he got pepper sprayed. If they're pepper spraying a United States senator in the face, think about how they're treating these migrants. But they hunt these migrants down. You know, as I say, they hunt your abuelo and your abuela and your abuelito. I mean, they're hunting down your family members who are here for decades, paying taxes, working hard, people who are picking up their kids. You know, they're getting hunted down by the Trump regime. But the guy who threatens the White House isn't getting tar, isn't getting arrested and they let the guy roam. And then when he does something that's pretty predictable what he's going to do, they shoot and kill him. And then they go, all right, Golden Ballroom time. And then Trump files and it looks like he's the one who files himself. Looks like he wrote the motion again. This is the second assassination attempt in 30 days. So therefore Golden Ballroom time, everybody. I need my Golden Ballroom. And it's just, the people are just like, really is what you're doing. You're going, you're going, you're going here, Go back to the interview I did with Mayor Mamdani. Go after this episode ends, go and rewind, watch the interview I did with the mayor. That's what politics should be about. Laser focused on helping the people. He does that and as I mentioned to him, all the right wing media is like, oh my God, he's transferring the property to the community and he's not letting landlords be like, that's not what he said. It's not what he said. Whether you're right, left center, non politically affiliated doesn't matter. We need, we need a fix to our housing crisis. And he's coming up with solutions for the housing crisis and taking big bold initiatives. That's what we need to see politicians doing. Not talking about, we've removed emotional support dogs from people. Like, who wakes up and go like, just think the Trump's like, look what we did. We've, we've made the nursing profession not a professional degree anymore. We've removed emotional support dogs as being allowed to be with people who suffer PTSD and who suffer life trauma and can't live with their without their emotions. But look what we've done. We've taken away snap. We've taken away Medicaid.
- [62:29]
Zoran Mamdani
Yeah.
- [62:30]
Ben Meisellis
That's not what, like, that's not what it's supposed to be. Now, what it should be about is what Zoran Mamdani was offering. And whether it's Mamdani or any politician we should be looking to see. What are you doing to focus on we the people? How are you fighting for us? What are you doing to improve the lives and the quality of lives of people? We don't want to hear. Oh, I've reduced health care prices by 800%. No, you didn't. We don't want to hear. I've done a most favored nation. No, you didn't. We don't want to hear. It's coming in two weeks. Just give me two more weeks. No, it isn't. We don't want to hear. Oh, the reason why things are more expensive right now is because of refrigerant and all these wacky liberal rules on refrigerators. That's a, it's the refrigerators, everybody. No, I mean, you go back and watch the interview. I did two big interviews today. You know, I thought one with Mamdani and you may have seen the interview that just dropped before I went live was an interview I did with James Talarico, Democratic candidate for Senate. You know, Democratic update, Democratic candidate for the Senate seat in Texas. And there's the big primary taking place. So, you know, he's one of these individuals who, you know, who's, whose interests are aligning with the people. And I just saw some breaking news. Donald Trump posting. Based on the possible bad weather conditions tomorrow we will be having our cabinet meeting in the White House and we'll be postponing the cabinet trip to Camp David. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Donald J. Trump. Okay, so not going to Camp David. No, no, no red flags to see here, folks. After that doctor, after that doctor visit, the Camp David trip was supposed to happen. You can travel to Camp David because of bad weather. Okay? That's what you want us to believe? Okay. Okay, sure, big guy. And just like you weigh 217 pounds. Okay? You're six three, two. Seventeen for sure. That's makes it the perfect physical specimen. We've never, we've never seen a man so strong with such vigor. Stupid, stupid, stupid stuff. But folks, there's a Lot of momentum on the side of truth. A lot of momentum on the side of democracy. A lot of momentum on the side of creating solutions. Why it was great to share with you the interview I just did with New York City Mayor Mamdani, the interview I just did with Tall Rico. We showed you over the weekend some of the incredible speeches by Ossoff. I thought a really great speech as well by a number of these new generation of Democratic leaders who are out there in the forefront. And again, to me, it's not just, okay, they're a Democrat. I just want people who are fighting when people are coming with solutions. Big, bold initiatives. That's what we're trying to be here on the Midas Touch Network. Big and bold initiatives. And we're trying to just fight for you. Each and every damn day we wake up. How can we fight for the people? How do we get you all this accurate information? How do we talk about what's really important, not what the corporate news is chasing or of course not their propaganda for Dear Leader. How do we make these connections internationally, locally? How do we focus on what's being covered up by Centcom and the Trump regime? How do we focus on that? That's what we're doing here at the Midas Touch Network each and every damn day. So thank you all so much for watching. Do me this favor. You may think that you're subscribed. Double check. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. We're on our way to 7 million subscribers. Help us hit 7 million would be fantastic if we can get there. In addition to helping US hit 7 million subscribers, become a member of our YouTube channel and you can gift memberships to people you know would be great if you want to gift memberships to others. Thanks everybody. So we just click join and you can gift membership. Thanks everybody so much for watching. We appreciate you. We're grateful for you. Shout out to the Midas Mighty. This has been Ben on Breaking News. I love spending Ben on Breaking News time with you. Great audience today. Great interview with mom Donnie. Great to see you all in the chat. We'll see you next time. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.
- [67:14]
Ron Filipkowski
Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available@midasplus.com.