The MeidasTouch Podcast - GOP Reps Lose Control as Trump’s Term Crashes!!!

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Republicans in full collapse mode as Trump’s term continues its rapid crash and Meiselas speaks with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear about his views on the Trump and Republican betrayal of America. 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 Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After one of the most grim economic reports in recent history showing that inflation is surging at 3.8% and on some of the key inflation metrics, like when it comes to groceries and energy, the inflation surging in the teens year over year and even in fact month over month, how are Maga Republicans dealing with this? How are they addressing the harsh reality that Americans are facing. Well, their plan on the one hand is just to ignore it and claim that everything is great. Or on the other hand, as Donald Trump said, I don't even care how the American people, not one bit. I don't care how they're feeling a direct quote from Donald Trump before leaving to China with his oligarchy crew hanging out with him. So here's, for example, what Maga Republican

Congress member Stutzman said. He goes, we're thriving right now. What are you talking about? People have never been better in Indiana than they are right now is what he says. Seriously, here play this clip. What do you say to your constituents who are just saying, I can't afford the gas and the food. I've got kids to feed. I've got bills to pay. And frankly, they're worried. No, you know what? I mean, in Northeast Indiana, we're very fortunate. You know, we have a strong, steady economy. We're actually seeing tremendous growth. And a lot of that's due to manufacturing, you know, from the work that President Trump has done, whether it's related to tariffs or trade policy. It does create challenges. You know, I think it's a lot of us, we all look at

the prices at the gas station and that affects our pocketbook immediately. But most of my constituents saying we just had our primary last week and I, you know, one with 67% of the vote saying, finish the job. Then you have Doug Bergam, Interior Secretary. Here's what he had to say. Let's play it. The fact that the U.S. right now is the most energy secure and most energy affordable nation in the world. And President Trump playing a geopolitical game, which includes Venezuela stopping China from buying cheap Venezuelan Iranian oil, the work that he's doing to build a coalition around the world, whether it's opening the strait or on critical minerals. You know, heading into the summit this week, President Trump's in the strongest position of any U.S. leader

ever going into a discussion with China. Whether it's opening up the strait, it was open before of the catastrophic war in Iran. And now it's closed. What are you, you're bragging about that? Rare Earths. China controls the rare earths. So when Donald Trump tried to tariff China, 140% China cut off the rare earths and Donald Trump

removed the tariffs, seriously? Or you have what Jim Jordan is saying. And Jim Jordan says, thank goodness we don't have Kamala. Could you imagine how bad it would be now? Thank God we have Trump. We watching what's happening? what's happening right now? Your play this clip. Trump makes decisions that are in the best interests of our country.

He's going to do things that benefit the United States of America, and that is his focus. And thank goodness we have him on the world stage. Thank goodness he's our president doing these negotiations, and frankly not Kamala Harris, because, you know, Lord knows what she'd be up to if she was there. Well, what's Donald Trump up to? Here's what he said. Let's play this clip. With Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are American financial situation motivating you to make a deal?

Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about American's financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We could not let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And we're joined by Governor Andy Bashir. So I just showed you, you know, what Trump was saying, with these Magu Republicans saying,

What's your reaction to all of that, Governor? My reaction is the president finally said something that was true. He said he does not care about the financial situation of the American people. And you know what? The way he governs shows it. The Trump economy is a failure. The only failure that rivals the Trump economy is the Trump foreign policy. You look at the imposition of tariffs.

Americans have paid 90% of them. It's been a taxed by the president that has made, everything cost more. His war with Iran, which he and he alone chose to go into, has skyrocketed the price of not just gasoline, but diesel, making everything more expensive. Every good we ship across the country now costs more. Going to see your family if you've got to take a plane trip costs a lot more. He won't help to reduce the price of housing through so many different levers he could pull. Why? Because he says we're not working hard enough. And now he's telling us that our kids have too many toys. But hey, at least he said something true. He doesn't care about the American people. You know, we're seeing the surge in gas prices, which is part of why we see inflation surging.

You know, in a state like Kentucky, it's not just that we should be focusing on the gas prices. We've got to also be focusing on the diesel. And also, I think too much attention is paid to the futures market. And I think a lot of Americans know more about the futures market than they care to actually know about before. We all have to become experts in WTI and Brent. but the futures market is not the spot price because currently the actual purchase is significantly higher than what the futures are even saying, which is often manipulated by Trump. But right, and the diesel prices through the roof, which means all the other input costs get

more expensive, diesel being one of them. And then that hurts, you know, people there. Talk to us about that. Yeah, it's absolutely right. You know, gas prices have skyrocketed, but diesel is even more expensive in Kentucky, it is more than $2 more expensive than it was a year ago. That's the $2 Trump tax on every single gallon of diesel. And you think that that's what our farm machinery runs on. That's what so many of our trucks run on. It's part of what powers the economy. And it was all foreseeable. We've read reports that Donald Trump's own advisors, which I don't think are all that experience, but even they were experienced enough to say, Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, they could disrupt the flow of oil around the country.

It could cause skyrocketing prices for Americans, and Donald Trump just dismissed it because he thinks his gut is so incredible that he doesn't have to listen to anyone else. He didn't even spend the time to learn how Iran is different than Venezuela and thought somehow the same thing would happen. This is what happens when you have a president who is not fit for office, doesn't take foreign policy seriously, and as he says, doesn't care about the financial situation of Americans. You know, with so much of the ridiculous things that he says, it's easy sometimes to just dismiss it as crazy or go, look what he's doing today. I mean, when he talks about the golden ballrooms or turning the reflecting pool into an actual pool and using his pool guy to paint it. you know, some weird kind of bright blue color, or when he talks about the arches or the golf courses or club Rose Garden or, you know, all of this stuff.

But, you know, it kind of, with all of that, it's also like rubbing it in the face, people in Kentucky and people across the country that like you really, as you say, don't care one bit. And then to see these Republicans rally around ballroom, a billion dollars in East Wing modernization, They're talking about reflecting pools. It's crazy that we've even got, like, as you actually look at it, it's crazy that even

gotten here. Amen. When the average American is struggling to pay their mortgage to stay in their house, he's spending a billion dollars on a ballroom that nobody asked for and nobody needs. He's spending more than a billion dollars a day in a war with Iran that he never explained to the American people, nor has he gone to Congress to get the. the appropriate approvals. He refuses to spend federal dollars in ways that help Americans. He's cut SNAP. He's cutting Medicaid. He's going to decimate rural health care. He refused

to extend the tax credits on the ACA so people could afford health care. But man, will he spend money on himself or his projects or his war? It is rubbing it in the face of Americans. He's saying he's better than us. And guess what? He is absolutely not. I have a question for him. I mean, as a governor with national notoriety, you know, what do you think it is about, though, Trump, where like last night, he posted right around 1 a.m. in the morning, 50, 60 posts, you know, some of the most heinous things, arrest Obama for treason. He posted Q&ONN stuff, you know, which is an actual death cult. You know, he posted weird memes, about very serious issues like the war,

Bada, bing, boom, bang, you know, and look, Governor, you know just as well as I do. If you made one of those posts, just one, you'd be done. Your legislature would see you out of the, you know, no matter how good of a job you did, no matter how high your approval, you'd be gone and you'd probably be like,

yeah, I probably deserved that. I was acting pretty freaking crazy. Like, why would I post that? So what is it, though, about this? How, you know, to me, it's not even a, political thing. To me, it's like adult behavior, leadership, competence. Like, why? Why does no one report on? We report it all the time here, but like, why is it to just let him do it? Why? We're grownups. We're adults, damn it. What that's what I keep on reflecting on. Like, why are we here?

Let me add a worry to that too, is that, you know, my kids are teenagers. They've only seen a couple of presidents. And there's a lot of kids out there that this may be the only president that they've really watched. There is a concern that this is the normal to them, that they could believe they're supposed to get their entertainment, their drama from the federal government, which I think is the exact opposite of what we should all want. But I do think that Donald Trump and his group intentionally flood that zone.

They try to hit you with so much information and or false information that you tune out. I think that they are really. relying on Americans just saying, I can't handle this for my mental health and turning it off because that then lets them and their cronies engage in the type of action and corruption that we're seeing right now. They want us to feel powerless and we are not. And that's why these midterms are so important. We control the House as Democrats and hopefully even the Senate. There's that opportunity to really push back to say no more of this. Because sadly, Our Republican congressmen and women, they no longer follow that oath of office.

They are not standing up for the Constitution. They are not doing their job. And that's not just them violating their duty as an American as somebody who took that oath. But a lot of them put their hand on a Bible when they did it. And I hope they go home and put their head on their pillow at night and say, I promise something to both the people of America and their God. And they are not fulfilling either of those promises. Yeah, I mean, it's such a good point about, you know, your kids.

And if they've only seen Trump one, and MAGA go after Biden the way he did, and then Trump, too, they don't remember that actually in the past, you know, a lot of these pieces of legislation that are now being gutted by this right-wing Supreme Court were passed on a bipartisan basis, including campaign finance reform. reform, you know, you would have McCain Feingold, the Civil Rights Act of 1960, of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 65. These were bipartisan pieces of legislation where Democrats and Republicans came together and said, hey, this is what's good for this country. And people don't realize that that even existed. When I teach, I'll let you have the final word before I go. When I teach at USC in my undergrad class, you know, I asked him, I said, who thinks that we

could pass the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act? or Title IX or any of this today. Not a single person raises their hand and I go, doesn't that worry you that your grandparents, was the grandparents at this point, we're able to get that and now you go no chance. We could barely get a funding bill through without MAGA Republicans wanting to cause chaos.

That is such a good point because this administration, Donald Trump is undoing historic achievements that we all believed were good for society. I mean, before Donald Trump, Democrats and Republicans, Republicans would talk about the Voting Rights Act and its importance. I think about a year and a half ago being at Selma for the 60th anniversary, getting to be a Southern governor walking with those foot soldiers instead of waiting on the other side of the bridge, about how so many of those foot soldiers are still alive that put their lives on the line that were beaten, but that awoke the inner goodness of humanity and made incredible and important change. But guess what? Donald Trump is now on the other side. of that bridge and his Supreme Court is undoing legislation that was so important that made sure that everyone felt seen and was represented in America and now creating just the wild west of redistricting. But you know, tough times are going to call for bold solutions. And so I think it's

time to start thinking about a fix the American government constitutional amendment. Let's have nonpartisan redistricting in every state. Let's have term limits, not just on Congress, but on the Supreme Court. Let's overturn citizens united and get dark money out of our campaigns. With everything they've torn down, we are going to have to build up in a different, bold, but effective way that can get the United States back on track. Yeah, such a great point. What I talk a lot on the show about is how, you know, our contract as great and as ahead of its time as it was, it relies on good faith and fair dealing like a lot of contract. So when you have someone like Trump who's torn up contracts his whole life, and you see

where he finds the gaps and the holes on the ultimate contract, the Constitution, and one way is you need to do that like a contract is you got to sometimes maybe add an addendum and say, actually, here are some loopholes that we never thought we'd get to, but we got to fix those. And so it's a great point, Governor. I like your point in that Trump, the businessman, never paid his bills. And you know what? Trump, the president, has us, the American people paying all those bills, tariffs, gas prices. The portion of America that those last group of undecided voters, they elected him because he promised he'd make life easier. I hope a lot of people out there feel betrayed because they have been. Everybody check out Sirius X-Ms. Andy Bashir podcast. So

after you watch the Midas Touch podcast, then go to Sirius X-M's. Andy Beshear. You could watch Andy Beshear's podcast first. I'm pretty sure they're watching you first. Governor Bashir, we appreciate it. you thanks for joining us. Thank you. Everybody, hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in?

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