The MeidasTouch Podcast - Acosta Reacts to Trump’s Disastrous Dictator Parade

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas interviews top reporter Jim Acosta who buries Donald Trump over his disastrous military dictator parade. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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how I think independent media stepped up in covering the disastrous dictator parade accurately, how I think corporate news failed to meet the moment, and then even with the no-kings coverage as well, how I think independent media really flexed its muscle covering the millions and millions of people who showed up while corporate news didn't. But first, let me show you this video first. Jim, your reaction. I mean, you know, it was it was as if somebody showed the the the gif or the meme of Donald

Trump as a toddler riding the toy tank down Pennsylvania Avenue. I mean, that's what it looked like. I mean, this was I mean, this was obviously an embarrassment for Donald Trump. He wanted a Kim Jong-un style dictator parade for his birthday. And it was more snoozelini than mooselini. There were times where he could barely stay awake. And I think that video just showed a few moments ago,

which I think was captured by Scripps journalist, Liz Landers. I mean, the squeaking tank wheels, I mean, that was all you could hear in that one moment there. There were other crowd shots that showed that it was lightly attended. And of course, true to form, Steve Chung, the communications director over at the White House,

in very Sean Spicer-esque fashion, puts out a tweet saying 250,000 people showed up for Trump's birthday party down on the mall. And it's just so sad. I mean they they just cannot help But continue to lie to sue this president's very fragile, you know psyche and ego But the fact of the matter is I mean Ben what you were saying just few moments goes is just hitting the nail right on The head. I mean obviously You know, this was a moment for independent media

Not only did independent media accurately cover the sprawling protests that were taking place across the country as far as part of the No Kings movement over the weekend, I think they accurately described, you know, what an epic fail Donald Trump's dictator, you know, birthday parade, you know, how it went down. And, and so I mean, I think it's a very healthy moment for the country when that sort of thing happens. Because if you just watch the corporate press and what they were doing, and how they were reporting it on Saturday, I was looking at some of the coverage and the

chyrons, you know, that are on screen, you can just tell the lot of these outlets are running scared right now. They're just afraid to take on this president. And that's where independent independent media fills the void. Look, you've got this was the headline that you know, the Washington Post ran it. And look, I there's some Washington Post writers who still there who I respect, they, you know, they

do some great work. But I mean, when we all saw with our eyes what a disaster that dictator parade was, and this is what their post was on blue sky nonetheless, planes roared over DC on Saturday, tanks rolled along the National Mall, brass bands resounded and thousands of soldiers marched past cheering crowds as the army put on the largest show of military might in the capital in more than three decades. And then on the left for those audio listeners, you've got this, I guess the one photo they could show, which is like kind of a kind of a contracted photo to make it look like there's more people there. You have tanks in DC and on the right they have a guy who I guess they're using

as their Trump supporter wearing a J six hat as though like the day six memorabilia. And when I, when I look at that, I go like y'all are doing that on purpose. And, and is it that you think that we're stupid? I mean, what what what? Yeah. Yeah, it's strange. I mean, I was down in D.C. on Saturday and I covered some of this stuff. I mean, I saw some of the January 6 type folks who are down there and they were they were out there in force. So, I mean, so in in some respects, it was a dictator birthday bash because the people who would like to have a dictator in this country did show up to support Donald Trump. But at the same time, yeah, I mean,

when you see things like that, it almost feels as though what they're trying to do is they're trying to cover the presidency as if Ronald Reagan were in the Oval Office or George H.W. Bush were in the Oval Office. And we're back in that safe space of the 80s and the early 90s, when the press could cover this stuff. But if Catherine Graham, the legendary publisher of the Washington Post, were to see that tweet,

she would be rolling her grave right now. That's an embarrassment to the Washington Post. Obviously, this is all, I think, I think being driven by the hand of Jeff Bezos to some extent inside that news organization. And I was, you know, Ben, I don't know about you, but I was surfing around trying to figure out if anybody had any independent crowd estimates of what went down on the National Mall. And it was very hard to find besides anecdotal reports. I saw a local news reporter in Washington, a guy named Mark

Segraves, who works for the local NBC station, very reputable journalist in the local market here. And he said that the crowd size was nowhere near what they were predicting in terms of the 200,000 to 250,000 people range. And so in the old days, I mean, I covered the beginning of the first Trump administration, when Donald Trump and Sean Spicer tried to say this was the

largest inauguration crowd in the history of the world, full stop. And then you could use we all went to, you know, the Google and found the crowd estimates. We found the, you know, the bird's eye view photographs of the National Mall, put them side by side with Barack Obama's. And that's the kind of stuff that just sends Donald Trump into orbit. I mean, but the other thing is just look at the footage of when he was watching the tanks and the soldiers go by. He could barely stay awake.

I mean, he was obviously underwhelmed by what took place. And I have to assume behind the scenes, he's not happy with the way it turned out but he has only himself to blame as he typically does in almost every you know situation he gets himself into you know at the core of this though also to me is basic competence because yeah I don't think that we should have military parades period full stop but there's probably a competent way to organize it and pull it off at a high level with the pomp and circumstance and pageantry to put our military in a positive light and make everybody at least look good. I mean, when I saw members of the army holding like a drone above your head. It was

that I mean, it reminded me of, you know, when you go to like a four or five year old kid's birthday party, and it's like a Ninja Turtle party. But instead of the Ninja Turtles, they show up in the this is I guess my own trauma growing up I'm revealing, they show up in like the cardboard box Ninja Turtles. And it's like, these aren't into what what are you even giving me? Right like it just looked so lowbrow and yes, and his beard could barely hang on his face kind of situation You know, yeah and and and you go across the board. They can't

Fundamentally execute tasks and there shouldn't be a Democrat and a Republican thing, just as people who like competent, responsible adult leadership, they can't execute tasks. Like, no. And I totally get what you're saying. And I should say, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the US Army, I'm down for that. That's totally fine. My grandfather on my mom's side was in the US Army.

He served in World War II. He's buried in Arlington National Cemetery. We all love and support our troops. There's just no question about that. But if the purpose, if Donald Trump's purpose was to flex America's muscles and to put on this show of force down on the National Mall and the video that we have is the squeaking tank,

wheels going down the street and the guy holding the drone over people's heads. I mean, come on, like that, what are you doing here? Get out of here with this stuff. The United States military does not need Donald Trump to put on display, you know, what America's military might is all about. You know, the United States can do that on its own.

And so to some extent, it was sort of, you know, it ran counter to that purpose. It was, it was not, you know, it did not show off America's strength. In many ways, it showed America's divide on Saturday, because here you had, you know, this weak ass display of foe strength down on the National Mall. There were Republican members of Congress who were nervous about showing up. There were members of the military and military veterans who were nervous about showing up, because they didn't like the idea of what you were just saying, Ben, which is, why are we having military parades in this democracy

unless, like, we've won a war or something, you know? I mean, you know, if you want to have a ticker tape parade because we've won a war, that's a totally different situation. But, and then on the other side of things, you have these massive, huge protests. I mean, from New York City to Missoula, Montana, where people just took to the streets and showed out in force. And it was really, to me, if you want to know

about what America's strength is all about, I looked at the no-kings rallies that took place over the weekend, because what it showed was that America's democracy has not been defeated by this dictator wannabe. I mean, he can try to roll his tanks down Pennsylvania Avenue and flex his muscles and all of that stuff. Pete Hegseth can show up in a camouflage tie that he got at the Gap. But at the end of the day, the real American strength,

the real America might that was on display over the weekend, I think was in those no-kings protests across the country. Because what it shows to me is that accountability is on its way. Accountability is coming. We may have to wait until 2026. We may see some glimmers of hope here and there in the gubernatorial races, congressional races that are coming up. But it showed to me that people are hopping mad. They're taking to the streets and they're not going to take this shit lying down. They're just not going to do it.

And, you know, I think what Trump did over the weekend just clearly backfired, like an Abrams tank. Jim Acosta, the sub stack you're doing is boom and tell people about it. Yeah, I mean, we're having a great time over there. Over the weekend, I got together with Don Lemon and Joy Reid, we did some of our own coverage and had some great people on there like Mike Fanon and Olivia Troy and J you know, Jolly.

He was out there in the field talking to folks. And to me, it's sort of in the same vein of what you guys are doing over at Midas Touch. And I think a lot of people have been inspired by what you guys are doing. Independent media is where it's at right now. I mean, it's just, you know, where would we be as a country if right now all we could do is rely upon corporate media and social media that is controlled by sycophants of Donald Trump, like Elon Musk. For 24 hours he criticizes Donald Trump and then after he's threatened he goes back into his shell.

Where would we be as a country if we didn't have independent media right now? And this was a huge independent media moment, Ben, over the weekend. Everybody, you know, people were tuning in. I mean, we had, I'm sure you had tons of people. We had hundreds of thousands of people tune in to the joint effort that I did with Don and Joy. And it just goes to show you people are craving this kind of outlet. They are just sick and tired of these corporate media outlets with their cheesy coverage, both sidesy, let's have the Trump guy on and lie and lie and lie. They don't want that anymore. That people want the truth and they want it to be unvarnished and they want to take on

this, this dictator wannabe. They don't want to, they're not going to fall for the tweets that say the tanks rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue and the jets roared overhead as Donald Trump saluted the mill. I mean, people just don't buy that shit anymore. It's just, it's over. It's over.

You know, if folks want to hear the truth, they're going to have to go to places like you and me and we're going to give it to them the way they want it, which is to give it to them straight. Check out Jim Acosta's sub stack everybody. Jim, appreciate the work you're doing and honor to be shoulder to shoulder with you in this fight for our democracy. Thanks for everything you do. You got it Ben. Thanks a lot. Thanks for what you do. Really appreciate it. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. The truth is more Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to five million subscribers.