The MeidasTouch Podcast - Fatigued Trump Caves in Disaster Press Conference

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s disastrous press conference where he caves again to Russia and looks utterly pathetic on the world stage. For 20% off your entire order, head to https://LaundrySauce.com/MEIDAS20 and use code MEIDAS20. #laundrysaucepod 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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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. We are seeing in real time what a disaster Donald Trump's call with Vladimir Putin was yesterday. Donald Trump held a disastrous press conference today in the Oval Office. He said it was about building this golden dome, as he's calling it, over the United States of America, this missile system that's going to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. But Donald Trump was asked about the breaking news that it looks like Russia is further amassing troops along the borders towards Finland and Norway and whether that concerns

Donald Trump. Here's his response. People actually love it. Mr. President, we can literally see where they are amassing their troops. So Vladimir Putin gave Donald Trump a big middle finger yesterday and Donald Trump there saying he has no concerns. He says it doesn't concern him at all that our NATO allies are being threatened by Vladimir Putin like that. Now, what Donald Trump did want to talk about, though, was not that he wanted to talk about this fake declaration of independence that's in the Oval Office, which he claims was the original one. And he just goes on this bizarre rant and says, I took it from a vault. I got the declaration from a vault here. Play this clip. The USA, by the way, very important.

So it's something that I've been looking forward to for a long time. And I just noticed you, too, Jim, you're standing there behind you is a very important document, Declaration of Independence. And that was in the vault for many decades under right under this area. And vaults with pictures on top of Abraham Lincoln, you see that was the original Abraham Lincoln, the original Washington. Does everybody know who the middle was? General Grant. And so it's very exciting. You look over here and above Ronald Reagan, you have Thomas Jefferson. That's Monroe from the Monroe document. And you know who that is, right? Andrew Jackson. So we have a lot of very exciting pictures. And on the other side, likewise, just some great, great presidents and great people. And these, many of these, because people were asking about them, many of them, almost all of them were in the vaults or nearby, but generally in the vaults downstairs.

I mean, it's pretty pathetic that what concerns Donald Trump is finding a fake declaration of independence from a fake vault versus actually talking about the issues that matter to the American people. And here he is talking about what he calls this golden dome. He goes, it's going to be $175 billion in total. He says that there's $25 billion going to go to the Golden Dome. Here's what he says. Play this clip.

It's incredible when you think of it, you're shooting bullets out of the air. I'm also pleased to report that the one big beautiful bill will include $25 billion for the Golden Dome to help construction get underway. That's the initial sort of a down posit. And we have probably you're talking about general, we're talking about $175 billion total cost of this

when it's completed. So then he's asked like, so are you listening to military commanders or are you just winging this yourself? And Trump says, it's my idea to do this golden dome. He just likes the word gold and dome. And so now he's putting this golden dome over the United States when we have systems in place that deal with this already. Here, play this clip. You had mentioned at the beginning of your remarks that this was a campaign promise of yours. Have military commanders asked for this system specifically? Because NORAD had said previously that the current system was adequate. So what does this get the United States? Somebody said the current system is adequate. There really is no current system. We have certain areas of missiles and certain missile defense, but there's no system.

We just have some very capable weapons that hopefully we never have to use but we have some very capable weapons now this is a different league there's never been anything like this this is something that's going to be very protective i think you can rest assured there'll be nothing like this nobody else is capable of building it either. Was it something that military commanders asked you for? Did they ask you to do this? Well, let me put it differently. I suggested it and they all said, we love the idea, sir. To where it's got to be, right? But they want it and they wanted it badly once it was suggested. I don't know if they ever thought they would be lucky enough to have it. So Donald Trump is asked about the cost of his budget bill and programs like this. Donald Trump wants to increase the military budget to $1 trillion while gutting Medicaid,

gutting supplemental nutrition assistance programs, gutting rental assistance programs. You know, he's taking away these key programs, but giving these tax cuts for the billionaires that many estimate will cost at least $51 or at least 4 to 5 trillion dollars. So then Donald Trump continues this lie where he says, look, we just brought in 5 trillion dollars from the Middle East. I've just collected 5 trillion. So we're cool. We're good. Here, play this clip. When you first announced this idea, critics said it would be prohibitively expensive, potentially ineffective, and could trigger an arms race in space. What do you say to those critics about that? Well, they're wrong.

It's about as close to perfect as you can have in terms of real production. I told you Canada wants to be a part of it, which would be a fairly small expansion. But we'll work with them on pricing. We'll be dealing with them on pricing. They know about it very much. They've asked to be a part of it, actually. They've asked us to be a part of it. I think it's something that is great.

If you can afford to do it, we can afford to do it. You know, we took in $5.1 trillion in the last four days in the Middle East. And when you think about it, this is a tiny fraction of that. But we make it all here. We're going to make it all here. We have, I will tell you, an adversary told me, a very big adversary told me,

the most brilliant people in the world are Silicon Valley. He did not collect $5 trillion. He didn't even collect anywhere near that amount of money at all. Look, Saudi Arabia's entire annual GDP is $1.1 trillion. Qatar's annual GDP is $200 billion, and the United Arab Emirates GDP is $400 billion. You add all of those annual GDPs up combined together, it is under $5 trillion. These countries are not giving their entire annual GDPs up combined together, it is under $5 trillion. These countries are not giving their entire annual GDP to the United States of America. He's just coming up with a fake number, the way he gives fake valuations for his properties to justify the fact that the deficit is going to

increase by at least $5 trillion. And if you listen to MAGA Republican Congress member Thomas Massey, he says that this GOP budget will increase the deficit by $20 trillion, is what he says. Here, Donald Trump's brain misfires as he tries to say the word document. Play this clip. It's Monroe from the Monroe document. And you know who that is, right? Andrew Jackson. Let's be real. Doing laundry kind of sucks, but you know what doesn't? Smelling amazing. That's why I'm obsessed with laundry sauce, the world's best smelling laundry pods. No more clothes that smell stale and gross. Now I step out in Australian sandalwood. Let me tell you, people notice. Compliments on my laundry? Never thought that would happen. And it's not just about

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That's LaundrySauce.com, code MIDAS20, M-E-I-D-A-S-2-0. And after you order, tell them we sent you. Smell good, look good, feel good with Laundry Sauce. Here, Donald Trump tries to describe what the Golden Dome is and he's like, think of it, you're shooting bullets out of the air. Again, he doesn't even know what he's talking about here. He's not saying complete sentences. Let's play this clip. It's incredible when you think of it, you're shooting bullets out of the air. I'm also pleased to report that the one big beautiful bill will include $25 billion for the Golden Dome to help construction get underway. That's the initial sort of a down posit.

And we have probably you're talking about general. We're talking about $175 billion total cost of this when it's completed. Then you have Pete Hegseth sucking up to Donald Trump, showing this weird AI photo of Golden Dome, just the United States looking gold. And Hegseth is like, add this to the long list of promises made, promises kept. Dude, you said you were going to lower housing prices

and make things more affordable. You said you were gonna end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Not this crap here. Play this clip. Go ahead, sir. Well, Mr. President, add this to the long and growing list of promises made and promises kept. Here's Hegseth also sucking up to Donald Trump more and saying, yes, sir. I said, sir, this was a great vision, sir. Here, play this clip right here. Talk about this. How about you closing it out? Yes, sir. I mean, like I said, without your vision, willing to say and do things when other

people wanted to look away and pretend like the threat didn't exist or be focused on foreign adventurism, some other threat that we've been told is affecting us. When you looked at the data, sir, from Russia to the communist Chinese and other, and their capabilities, what they're trying to do to supersede us and threaten us, how do we find the best innovators, the best military leaders, the best companies, tech companies? You mentioned open architecture. That's exactly right. So multiple companies can pour into this, sir. It's a layered defense, so if you miss at one, you catch at the next. And it integrates

existing technologies that can speak to each other, so it moves quickly while also investing in further ranging space-based interceptors. So our enemies, our adversaries, are going to pay a lot of attention to this, just like they have to President Trump from day one. Sir, you're defending the homeland,

defending the American people. It's going to benefit my kids, grandkids, all of ours in this room. So thank you for your leadership. We're going to charge it as fast as we can. Now, just to remind you what Donald Trump had said after his call with Vladimir Putin, this was from a press conference before this one where Donald Trump was asked, you believe that Putin wants peace. So if Putin wants peace, Donald, then why is he continuing to send ballistic missiles to kill innocent Ukrainians and drones every single day? Ukraine's agreed to an unconditional ceasefire. Putin has not.

What do you say to that, Donald? Here's what he said. You mentioned that you believe Putin wants peace, but he just attacked Ukraine yesterday. So what makes you think that he wants peace? Well, he's in a war. Nobody said don't, they're fighting, they're attacking, they're attacking each other. And people are dying all the time. He's in a war, he's fighting a war. Nobody said he was gonna stop. I think, is it terrible? Yeah, it's terrible. I do, I think it's terrible.

Can you wait on President Biden? President Biden is dying. But one of the things Donald Trump has claimed is that during his call with Putin, Putin kept on mentioning Melania and saying Melania is very respected. Melania is a very respected person. Okay, she's not. And on Russian propaganda TV, they consistently show Melania nudes over and over again to mock Donald Trump. Here's what he said. Here, play this clip.

And compassionate first lady, I would say she is very dedicated. In fact, if you look at just what I heard, Putin just said they respect your wife a lot. I said, what about me? No, they will. They like they like Melania better. That wasn't good. I don't know if that was good. I'm OK with it. I said, what about me? No, they will. They like Melania better. That wasn't good. I don't know if that was good. I'm okay with it. I'm okay. And then in the other press conference, Donald Trump then talked about raising tariffs on aluminum, steel, cars, and pharmaceutical. He goes 50, 75, 100, maybe. Who knows? We'll just raise it. Play this clip. 25 years, they were taking advantage of us.

We never did anything. But now we're doing it to them and fairly, very, I'll tell you what, modestly. But we'll be taking, and we are taking in right now, 25% in cars, 25% on steel and aluminum, 25% on other things. And that'll be going up to 50, 75, maybe 100 in some cases. We have to get our pharmaceutical industry back. Once we establish that in another couple of weeks, it'll start roaring back. It's already roaring back because they know we're doing it.

And it's really been, he's done a great job. The damage those pathetic statements are doing. It's hard to even quantify the damage being caused right there by Donald Trump because he continues to spread these lies or continues to then wake up and feel this way or that way about tariffs. And it's having a real effect on our economy and making America look like North Korea, frankly. So MAGA Mike Johnson holds a press conference while all of this is going on. And he's asked the question, can you just talk to us about the budget? What the hell is going on here right now? And MAGA Mike, he just goes, I'm not even going to answer questions. I'm just going to give you my state regime talking points at this point here, play this clip. I have to deliver. And that's what you'll see this house do this week. Now,

we're not going to take a lot of questions this morning because we've already done a ton of media with you in the halls. The president gave you a lot. We gave you a lot. What we're leaving to do right now is gather up the small subgroups in the House Republican Conference and tie up the remaining loose ends. I'm very confident that we'll be able to do that. There's a great esprit de corps in the room this morning because everybody knows what's at stake. All the things we've talked about here this morning, we are going to get this done. So I'm going to, this is a rare thing. I'm going to say, hold the questions and let me go get back to work so we can finish this thing up. Okay. Thanks for being here this morning. Thanks for being here. And then finally, you know, Donald Trump lying and saying the reason that he's cutting food assistance programs is he says that's going to get you more food. And then he lies and says gas

prices are down to a buck ninety nine. They're not a buck ninety nine anywhere in the country. He goes on to continue to lie and say that grocery prices are down and that inflation's down and things are going great, which is all a total lie. Play this clip. You campaigned on lowering the price of groceries. How do you justify cutting food assistance in this bill? Let me just tell you, the cut is going to give everybody much more food because prices are coming way down. Groceries are down. Eggs. You told me about eggs. You asked me a question about eggs my first week. You said eggs. I said are down. Eggs. You told me about eggs. You asked me a question about eggs my first week. You said eggs.

I said, I just got here. Tell me about eggs. And it was going through. If you know that eggs now, way down. Everybody's buying eggs. Groceries down. Energy's down. Gasoline is now buying. They're buying gasoline now for $1.99. When I, if you

look back, you'll see $3.50, $4. This country, we're going to lose this country. Our country now is respected all over the world. All over the world, we're respected. We were a laughingstock. A complete disaster right now unfolding in the White House. Weak, pathetic. And that's Donald Trump's statement that he's not concerned about this clear and present threat to our NATO allies. It's showing utter weakness. And let's be clear, the only thing that Donald Trump did yesterday in his call with Putin was basically say the United States is out. Putin, do whatever the hell you want. Ukraine, good luck.

America is out. After Donald Trump promised he was going to bring peace in 24 hours. A weak, pathetic, vile piece of trash. That is Donald Trump, who deserves zero respect whatsoever. A stain on the United States of American history. Thanks for watching. Hit subscribe. Can't get enough Midas?

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