The MeidasTouch Podcast - MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 5/8/26

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, we break down the rapidly escalating war between the United States and Iran as both sides exchange fire near the Strait of Hormuz, raising fears that full-scale conflict could be back on. We also discuss the bizarre diplomatic scene involving Donald Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after a scheduled public appearance was abruptly canceled following a private meeting that left reporters waiting for hours with no explanation. Plus, we dive into the latest developments surrounding the Epstein files scandal and growing questions about the Trump administration’s cover up, along with all the other major breaking news stories shaping the day. Ben, Brett, and Jordy break it all down. Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Get Meidas Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Deals from our sponsors!  Leaf Filter: Schedule your free inspection with up to 15% off at https://leaffilter.com/MEIDAS Home Chef: Get 50% OFF and free shipping for your first box PLUS free dessert for life at https://homechef.com/meidas Juvenon: Head to https://BloodFlow7.com/MEIDAS and use code MEIDAS for 30% OFF HIMS: To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/meidas 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 Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats 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

Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor,

free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Some gifts say, I thought of you. The best ones help you discover more. This Mother's Day, give her something personal with Ancestry DNA. Now, up to $75 off. Explore her origins and discover the journeys that made her who she is. Save today.

Give her something unforgettable, thoughtful, meaningful, uniquely hers. Give more than a gift for less. Give AncestryDNA. Visit Ancestry.ca. Today offer ends May 10. Terms apply. moments ago Donald Trump had the United States military carryout strikes on Iran's Keshimport and Bandar Abbas and Manab. We will discuss what's going on there. Iran retaliated striking back at three naval destroyers. We'll give you the latest information. In addition, you had the president of Brazil having a visit to the White House today.

This meeting was supposed to take place before the press. It never took place. We'll explain how this press conference went sideways before it even began. Over the past 48 hours, we've seen more cover-up of the Epstein files by the Trump regime. Howard Lutnik refused to sit for an under oath deposition on video. Instead, Donald Trump, Lutnik, James Comer, Magamike, all colluded together to have Howard Lutnik give a transcribed interview not on videotape. And they're like not releasing the transcription right away either. It's a total and utter cover-up. People described Lutnik as being sweaty, that he kind of looked in all over the place and flustered. He said he didn't know how he even got to the island as though he just kind of magically appeared.

We'll explain what happened there. Meanwhile, we've now also learned that the MAGA Republicans are using this time while Congress is in recess to try to sneak in $1 billion from taxpayers in a reconciliation bill to fund Donald Trump's golden ballroom. repeat that $1 billion of taxpayer money going to quote, East Wing modernization project as though they think we don't realize that means ballroom. Meanwhile, you have Donald Trump talking about the UFC fights, the new golf courses he wants to build in Washington, D.C. Triumphal arches while the American people suffer while the U.S. launches new military strikes in Iran and then says, whoa, whoa, whoa, we still want the ceasefire.

We're just doing this because what ebbs. I'll explain to you why they're doing it, though, in one moment. The American people are feeling the effects of Donald Trump's war crimes of him and Netanyahu's catastrophic war in Iran. Prices are through the roof. People can't afford gas. People can't afford groceries. People can't afford their rent.

Foreclosures now up 27 percent year over year. People are struggling having their health care ripped away while the Trump regime continues to inflict more pain, more suffering on the American people. Meanwhile, the Trump regime engaging in more trade with Russia than ever before, bringing in lots of fertilizer from Russia right now, no tariffs on Russia, no sanctions really, the sanctions being removed on Russia. So Russia, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, the entire Trump regime focused on building. those relationships, which are not helpful to the United States at all. There was a big meeting, though, in Yerevan, Armenia, which is a pretty significant location,

given their prior affiliations in the kind of Soviet block back in the day. But Europe held their political community meeting in Yerevan, Armenia, showing that Europe's united and extending and expanding. Prime Minister Carney was attending as well. The first time a non-European leader was attending there. You see lots of alliances and relationships forming while Donald Trump's America first means America all alone, the Epstein class, isolating the United States from the world. We'll talk about this and more on the Midas Touch podcast. Brett and Jordy, great to see you. Before we went live, we learned about the United States striking in Iran, Iran responding with attacks on these U.S. naval ships.

This is a rapidly developing story. And we'll talk about why I think this is happening, but I think they're doing it in service of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and the UAE and all these countries who were blocking their air bases and airspace to the United States after Trump launched this disastrous project freedom and didn't notify them. And then basis said, oopsies when Iran struck the Port Fujara in the UAE earlier in the week and the UAE ship and the South Korean ship. And so I think Trump to get them to reopen the airspace and their air bases, which they've now done. He's like, all right, I'll strike them symbolically, symbolically. This will be part of the game. Americans don't want these games. Americans are sick and tired of this Epstein-class stick.

Brett and Jordy, how are you? Doing well. It's good to be here, Ben, good to be here, Jordy. Good to be here. Might as mighty. I guess it is Schrodinger's war on, as the war on, is the war off. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. Who knows?

Donald Trump is now calling the strikes love taps. That's the phrase that he's using. He always uses the most demented language possible to describe these sorts of actions. But you just see that there is just no thought going into any of this. It's kind of act now and then deal with the consequences later. It's been that way since the start of this war, which Trump claims is both over and also that he's still continuing. And the messaging is all over the place.

None of it makes any sense. Every single day you're getting these headlines from the press and from U.S. officials and from Trump that says, we're closing it on a deal. A deal is very close. A deal is imminent. moments away from a deal. It's been BS now day in and day out. I am sick of the constant reporting. I'm just laundering the messaging of these U.S. officials who are so blatantly lying. And man, how far has the U.S. fallen where we have to look at what Iran is saying, what the Iranian regime is saying,

to try to get some semblance of the truth? And I'm not saying that everything they say is truthful, not by any means. But I can guarantee you that, well, I can tell you that, that so much of what we've heard from the United States government has been complete and utter lies and fabrications. We got a lot to talk about this episode. A lot of news breaking quickly while we are here live. First, I got to turn it over to Jordy. Jordy, what's the latest on your end?

Brothers, good to be here. Might as mighty, great to be here. Can't wait to get into tonight's show. Brett, the messaging is all over the place to your point there because there's no plan. There's absolutely no plan and there's no leadership. So of course, someone's gonna say something, then Trump's gonna say something else,

then the media is going to report something. It is nonsense right now. And a lot of it just comes down to, like, they, they being the Trump regime, I guess corporate media. Like they think you're dumb, like the viewer, the listener of all of this, because they think they could just trick you. They think they could pull, you know, the blanket over your head and make you just believe anything.

There are some corporate entities out there specifically. I think we might even get into that tonight show that are just literal mouthpieces for Donald Trump and the Trump regime. And it's just like, Don't take your audience for granted, right? People are smart, especially the folks who are hungry for information here in this country, that don't like being lied to. Hey, people don't like being lied to.

What a big shocker. What a crazy stance to take. And so it's very frustrating to see like the reports and Donald Trump's endless lies, but just no, might as mighty, this pro-democracy community, we bring the receipts with every single episode, pumped to get into tonight's show, Benji, where we're starting off. Yeah, you should, we should just name drop. the guy, Barack Ravid over at Axios, who's probably the, you know, the worst violator of all of this.

And he's also apparently, you know, very thin skinned when it comes to criticism about it, right? So whether he is knowingly or unknowingly doing this, he seems to continue to post that there are deals that are right around the corner. I guess he takes issue with Iranian media saying that over the past 19 days, there have been at least five separate occasions. Frankly, I thought it was more than just five occasions where Barack Ravid said there is an imminent deal that's about to happen between Trump and Iran. My sources tell me, I thought it was way more than five times. But then Barack Ravid's like, that's absolutely false and it's defamatory against me. And I didn't say those things. Whatever words you used, you continue

to imply that your sources within the United States and Israel were telling you that there were deals that were right around the corner or very close to happening, or there were memorandums of understanding that were being exchanged, and that this was the real time that there was going to be a real hope that there was a deal. And forget the last 19 days. This was since the very beginning of the war, whatever kind of message the Trump regime wanted out,

we've always been talking about this. It would be laundered through Barretted, Barack Ravid over at Axios. And he would say he's got his sources. And I'm sure he has his sources. I mean, he's probably talking to Kushner and Rubio and Vance and Trump. And they're probably, you know, saying here are the things. And then he goes, Trump said, I've been told by these senior officials.

Trump told me this. And on that, it then gets reported, Axios says. Often it's not like Barack Ravid, the same guy who has been wrong every time. It's like Axiose said. Then that gets picked up on the newswires. And that moves the market. significant amounts. So Barack Ravid goes, I'm not intentionally doing it. All right. Well, you should be aware that it's clearly, if I'm aware, and most Americans and most people in the

world are aware that your posts are moving the market dramatically, and right before you make your posts and right after there's unusual trading volume, and you may not know, Barakravid, that should probably concern you. Maybe I'm being used. So I'm frankly not sure what's worse, you doing it intentionally or you thinking, are you not realizing that this is actually what's happening, but continuing to do the same damn thing? I'll let people make their own judgments, form their own opinions about it. But, you know, this week began with Donald Trump saying, Project Freedom. They tried to sell us that Epic Fury is over. Why? Because we were approaching the 60-day mark where Trump needs authorization from Congress. So, Epic.

Fury is over, success. And now we've moved on to entirely new thing, right? Hegsyth and Rubio both held press conferences and said that. This is separate. This is a new thing. This is a humanitarian operation called Project Freedom. We're sending our ships in the Strait of Hormuz. We're going to escort these tankers out. Already, we've helped escort a hundred tankers out, they said, like just totally lied, like made up a number. And then you had Centcom and others have to walk that back. And so actually, Project Freedom is defensive. It's more of a coordination.

And we're going to provide updated data to ships, to insurance companies, but it's not actually going into the strait of her moves. But Trump made it sound like we're going into the strait of removes. Then Iran saw it seemed like the United States naval assets were heading into the strait of removes. And so Iran saw this escalatory ambiguity. And I guess the cease fires off.

So Iran sees a South Korean ship, a UAE ship, looking like it's going to try to get around Iran's control over the Strait of Ramuz. Iran hits those two ships. Then Iran to send a message hits UAE's port of Fujera, which is used by the UAE to try to circumvent Iran's control over the Strait of Ramuz because there's pipelines there that can send the oil around through the land, and then the oil can be taken out through different waterways or on land. And so Iran hits those targets.

Then all these Middle East countries are looking to Donald Trump the next day. All right, you're going to like do something. And Donald Trump's like, nah, ceasefire is still in place. We're good. So Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, they get livid. And they're like, what are you? You better take action. You know what we're going to do, Donald?

We're shutting down our airspace and our air bases. You don't get to use them anymore. Then they leaked that to the press. And we reported that. others reported that Trump banned from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and likely the UAE, you can't use our air bases anymore. So Donald Trump then had to go back and make a deal with those countries now. Notice not a deal to open up the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump then found himself now in a quagmire with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and lots of these countries that he has personal

emolument clause violations with, where he's done personal deals to enrich himself and enrich his family, right? He owes favors to the Saudis, to UAE, to Kuwait, in my opinion, to Qatar, you know, to a lot, to a lot of these Middle East countries. And so then I think Trump and they manufactured what went down today because the one to punch that we hear today is Saudi Arabia and Kuwait agree that they're going to open up their air bases and airspace once again to the U.S. Okay, so it's like what's coming. Oh, got it. The U.S. sends. two or three of its naval destroyers into the strait of Hormuz, Iran then sees them coming, starts firing on them. It seems like those destroyers then kind of turn around, but then open fire

on these Iranian ports. And then these Iranian ports are hit right kind of by the Karg Island area. And then Sentkomm immediately puts out a statement, yes, we did these things, but we want to keep the ceasefire in place. We're just protecting the warship. So it seems, that we sent two warships or three warships into the Strait of Hormuz as bait, knowing that Iran was going to strike. So then we could say it was defensive, then shoot at the Iranian ports, so that we could ultimately tell Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Kuwait. See, we've done the damn thing, but then say it's defensive.

And Iran, we don't want to escalate this. So could we not actually go back to the war? Because Trump knows that'll cause a global depression and cause oil prices to further rise. And a lot of these entanglements are also built on his personal business dealings with these countries, which and Kushner's dealings with these countries, which we need to call out. And whenever we're telling these, whenever we're reporting on this news, we can't neglect those facts. So that's the latest update.

But I want you to think how weak it looks. And the question is this, was this a successful operation by the United States? by sending these destroyers into the Strait of Hormuz, was this successful? Do we control the Strait of Hormuz? No, who does Iran? Does Iran still have its nuclear material? Yes.

Do the Iran proxy group still exist? Yes. Is the Islamic Republic still in charge? Yes. Okay, so we'll maybe talk a little bit about the World Cup on this episode where we know attendance is significantly down, both because of the affordability crisis and tourism is down. But when we talk about the World Cup and teams winning, you win by scoring more goals, right?

If it's one nothing, the team with one beats the team with nothing. If it's five nothing, the team with five beats the team with nothing. Think about the war. Who's winning? Who controls the Strait of Ramoos? Who has the nuclear material? Who still has their proxy groups? Who controls who's now viewed as a regional power?

Go look at who do you think is winning? So I think that's how you have to look at it, Brett Jordy. Yeah, and it's interesting to watch right now because I think I see that Trump is in this weird place right now where it almost seems like he is a little hesitant to really proceed with full-blown war, but he also doesn't want to negotiate in good faith. So we're now stuck in like this purgatory of every day these baroque read stories of a deal is close. The U.S. has submitted their proposals to Pakistan. And it's the same exact proposal that the U.S. keeps submitting to Pakistan that Iran says this is a complete non-starter. It's a proposal that says, like, they need to hand over all their enriched uranium.

It's a proposal that says that they need to completely end all their nuclear activity. It's a proposal that says, you know, that they need to hand over the straight of Hormuz. Every single thing, every concession that the United States wants, Iran has already said, like, these are all non-starters. We're not doing any of that. And meanwhile, Iran is staying firm in their position as well where they want to keep all of those things. want to continue to have tolls in the Strait of Hormuz because they now have control over the Strait of Hormuz thanks to Donald Trump. And they have kind of positioned themselves now as a global power. And I think they're trying to flex a little bit. That's why we saw them go to China

and the foreign minister of Iran go to China and meet with the Chinese foreign minister ahead of Donald Trump's visit there. I think that's just kind of a show of force to say, you don't think we have any allies? Well, guess what? China's supporting us. Russia is supporting us. I think the meetings that they are having are very deliberate to show, you know, kind of who has their back on the global stage. And the fact is, and we've said this from day one, Donald Trump's lying just does not serve the American people. It does not serve our troops. It does not serve the war effort. You know, even if you put aside your personal feelings on the war, whether we should be in there doing this or not doing this, I think we absolutely should not be in Iran right now.

I think we were led there on completely false premises. But if you're there theoretically, and you want to win this thing and meet the objectives, not telling the truth about what's going on doesn't get you any closer to meeting those objectives. And all it does is also let the enemy know that you are completely spiraling. And so in this case, when Donald Trump is like they're completely decimated, they don't have any of their missiles left, they're just totally done. And Iran's like, we got plenty of firepower to go and we're actually going to be just fine. and we know exactly what buttons to press in order to give you pain and the rest of the world pain,

well, that puts Iran at an advantage, not the United States. And it's also lying to the American people and it's putting our troops in harm's way, which I think is incredibly screwed up. One of the most interesting things that I think we've also seen over the past 24 hours is that there was a classified assessment reportedly delivered by the CIA to the White House. Remember, this is Donald Trump's CIA. This isn't, you can't claim deep state or whatever it is. these are Donald Trump's people who he put in charge of the CIA.

And they told Donald Trump that Iran could actually withstand the straight of Hormuz blockade for at least another three to four months before they face any sort of serious economic pressure. And so this is something that runs completely counter to what Donald Trump has been saying and to what a lot of these reporters have been pushing, where they've been saying Iran is just days away from the collapse, the imminent collapse, get ready. They are suffering really bad right now. and it's almost all over for them, we just have to wait it out. Well, Donald Trump's own CIA has a much different analysis than that,

which completely goes against everything that he is telling the American people. And so Trump the other day, he said they're totally decimated. They're down to 18 or 19% of the missile stockpiles that they had. Well, the CIA assessment says that they still have roughly 75% of its pre-war mobile launcher inventory and around 70% of its pre-war missile stockpiles. They've restored nearly all of its underground facilities, storage facilities. They've been repairing their damaged missiles. They've even been assembling new ones.

And they also say that restoring the damage that has occurred is going to take them a lot faster than previous kind of reports and statements by the United States government have led the world to believe. And so they are actually much better positioned than we've been told. And I think it's interesting seeing the reactions. that you get from a lot of these MAGA supporters, the few who are still remaining who are supporting this war where they go, why are you saying that? Are you supporting Iran? Do you hate the United States? No, I actually love the United States. And I hate that there's somebody lying about the situation on the ground and putting our troops in harm's way and leading the Americans on

and lying about the progress in the war that we are, as Ben said, by all objective points, we're losing right now. I mean, I don't know. even understand how you argue any differently. I think that's why, and you know, I'm going to give a shout out here to Adam Mochler here at the Midas Dutch Network, who was on TV the other day on CNN. I'm sure all of you have basically seen the clip. Mockler went toe to toe with Scott Jennings on the air and basically cornered him into saying that there was no real, you can't claim a victory in Iran for the United States. Scott Jennings had nothing to say, so he like screamed like a baby and pretended like Mockler was like putting his hand in his face. But the fact that the fact

is you can't possibly, I mean, you see the people on TV, I guess they do, but there's no real way to spin these objective facts into something that they're not. And Donald Trump is lying to the American people. He's gotten us into the situation right now where he has zero exit plan, zero exit strategy. And when you kind of read the tea leaves as to what's going on and some of the suggestions that the United States is making behind the scenes and some of the things they're leaking to reporters, it feels more and more like they are kind of backdooring into the JCPOA, the Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal, but a much weaker version of that, ironically, because Trump ripped it up by saying it was the worst deal ever. It seems like they're trying to backdoor into this Iran deal, which

puts the United States in a much worse position than we were. And then this all falls at the feet of Donald Trump, who got rid of Barack Obama's nuclear deal, a deal that was, you know, and I think you see now with everything going on how difficult it is to do diplomacy like that. But Donald Trump, he doesn't want to do the work. He just wants to try to kind of bomb and get out and he hopes people will submit, but he's ran into an adversary this time in Iran that is refusing to submit to his demands. And they are kind of holding strong to him right now while he is just flailing. Absolutely.

And here's what's so dangerous in my opinion is, is Trump doesn't deal in facts or it doesn't live in reality. Like, he doesn't care what happens to the troops. He doesn't care what happens with oil prices or the impact of that on US citizens because he doesn't care about you, the American person. He just absolutely does not. He's a malignant narcissist that only cares about one person.

And that person is himself, Donald Trump. He has so badly embarrassed himself here and this country with no clear exit strategy of this thing and no real reason why we got involved in the first place. And he's backed himself into this corner now with one foot in, one foot out, like what he should do in order to get out. And that's what makes this so dangerous, in my opinion, in my personal belief here, is that just Trump is like waiting for Iran to escalate this in such a way where then he could just

go ahead and just bomb the shit out of them, right? Like pretend that he has the American people's supports. I don't mean to be so crude about this because I can only imagine how many innocent lives would get involved in something. like that. And I'm not saying I agree with it either, but it also just feels like that is his only sort of escape here to, for him, what he's thinking for himself is like, how can I Donald Trump leave this in some dignified way and also put my fingerprints all over the situation even way worse than they already are right now? I mean, there is no exit strategy. There is no one to tell him no

because he surrounded himself by yes people. And that's why now more than ever, it's so important for media, for all media. I'm talking about you, corporate media. I'm talking about you, Barack Ravid. Like, y'all need to report what is happening. You need to report what is happening because the outcome and the consequences here are dire. Dyer, when you start shilling for the Trump regime,

Barack Ravid and Axios, and you start being mouthpieces for Maga and him, like not once, not twice, but three, four, multiple times, Yeah, people are going to lose faith in your institution. People are going to lose faith in your company and question what your motives are as a person and as a company. And the reality is, too, again, deadly consequences are involved with every decision or lack thereof that the Trump regime makes or doesn't make.

And yet they don't seem to care. They don't care whether they, you know, this thing happens or that thing happens. All they want to do at the end of the day is try and do some self-preservation in whatever mindset and model, that kind of makes sense in their own world. They live totally absent from reality, and they do not give a damn about what happens to our troops and the American people at large. And that's what is growing more and more apparent as each passing moment goes by, Ben. You know, I think this, though, follows the pattern of Donald Trump's whole life, where he drag something out. He loves the headline. He doesn't like the doing and the concluding. He likes

the blaming is if it literally follows though the pattern of everything he's done and why he's bankrupted things and how he's announced that because he loves the announcement and then hates the follow through and then a dignified conclusion and then starting something new it's always blame destruction and so you know what i think he wants to do is he knows inevitably this blockade leads to calamity something's going to happen inevitably that's just the way life works things happen and he thrives in blaming when things are at their worst and people suffer that's where he points fingers and blames so I think for him keeping a naval blockade allows him to save face I didn't lose then something bad happens we may

run out of oil soon like we're heading towards a position where there's going to be actual shortages And then people go, oh, my God, where did this happen? The same way when COVID started going from, you know, Asia, and then it started heading to Europe, then it headed to the United States. You know, that's going to happen with supply shortages, oil. This stuff's going to kick in. And then inevitably, you know, what's going to happen? You're going to have the midterms, even with all of this horrific gerrymandering that the

Republicans are doing. And I'll talk a little bit about what's going on in South Carolina, what's going on in Tennessee, what's going on in Louisiana, what's going on in Louisiana, what's going to going on and with all these MAGAS states, just getting rid of any black congressional districts, just overtly racist. And it's political. The Democrats, I think, are still going to take control of the House. But what does Donald Trump do?

This is what I think he's waiting for. We had a plan. And then the Democrats won. They took over the House and now it's their fault. Watch, this is, he doesn't care about the country. Care about him. And so that's where they're positioning. It was the Democrats' fault.

They took over the House. They're the ones who did it. wow, I had the plan. It was so perfect. Have you seen the kind of little nuggets that he's been putting out to? You start seeing him like pre-buttal the midterms. And so in the past few weeks, he said a few comments that if you picked up on, he said things like, you know, well, I only wish I could be on the ballot. It's going to be a lot harder without me on the ballot.

I'm the one who drives Republicans out to vote. He's already pre-budding why the Republicans are going to lose the midterms. I think that tells you a lot. And I think it also tells you that Ben's, point of view here that Donald Trump's strategy is going to be blamed the Democrats, why he didn't get anything done is spot on. Yeah, that's right. The Dow was at 50,000. We were in the golden age. Everything was great. We were there. We were right there. And then it collapsed. When did it collapse? November. That's that's just exactly. You're about to get your dose checks. You're about

to get your dose. You dividend checks, your tariff rebates. We were, We're this close to the precipice of, that's his whole damn life. And to counter it, you better be ready to message that. And you better be prepared to rebut it. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. A quick reminder, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and become a member if you can. And gift memberships to others. Let them access the Trump Taco emoji.

And you get the special podcast episodes that I do with Ron, Lipkowski that are available only to members. Subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio. Also, Jordy, store.mitisttouch.com. Get the MidasTouch merch as well. Store.com. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back after this quick.

Knockoffs might look the same at first, but we all know they never hold up. Leaf filter isn't just another gutter guard. It's a trusted name that's built to last, with over 20 years of relentless engineering and over 50 patents behind it. Don't settle for a knockoff. Protect your home with,

leaf filter and save up to 15% off your entire purchase at leaffilter.com slash mitus. Gutters are more complicated than they seem, and it's why it's important to go with the trusted system and not the knockoffs. When it comes to DIY, doing something wrong can end up costing you more in the long run. An investment in Leaf Filter is an investment engineer to protect your whole home. Clod gutters aren't just annoying. They can cause extensive water damage. Don't trust companies that claim they work like Leaf Filter. They don't. Hoods style guards can't keep up in heavy rain. Water pours right over the edge and straight into your home's

foundation or basement walls. And in the lighter rain, leaves and debris can flow right in the gap. Leaf filter works better because it's topped by surgical-grade stainless steel and micro mesh. So water is channeled in while debris is filtered out, where it belongs. Every installation comes with a lifetime clog-free guarantee. With more than 50 design and engineering patents,

leaf filter is trusted by over a million homes. From drizzles to downpours, leaf filters engineered to protect in every condition. Let leaf filters trusted pro handle it. Call today to schedule your free gutter inspection and get a no obligation free estimate. A leaf filter trusted pro will clean out, realign, and seal your gutters before installing leaf filter. Engineering, reliability, and performance. That's what makes leaf filter America's number one gutter protection system. Start protecting your home today with leaf filter, America's number one gutter protection system. Start protecting your home today with Leaf Filter, America's number one protection home system,

and schedule your free inspection at leaffilter.com slash Midas. That's up to 15% off at L-E-A-Filter.com slash Midas. Minimum purchase required, restrictions apply, see Rep for warranty and promotion details. I'm not organized enough to be a meal prep person, but with Home Chef, my meals are on point every time. The meals are wildly impressive and so easy to make. I count on the Home Chef weekly delivery to stock my fridge and take care of meal planning. I've not only saved time, but also reduced dishes and cleanup. Home Chef makes cooking simple, fresh food delivered, easy recipes to follow, and meals that actually

taste great. No long shopping list, no complicated prep, and best of all, easy cleanup. It's perfect for busy schedules, whether you need a 30-minute meal, an oven-ready tray, or even a quick microwave lunch, Home Chef has you covered. And it's not one-size-fits-all. Home Chef has over 30 meal options each week with choices for different tastes and dietary needs. And people really love it. Home Chef is rated number one by users of other meal kits for quality, convenience, value, taste, and recipe ease.

Customers say they spend less time planning, shopping, and prepping meals. Plus, it's affordable. Home Chef customers save an average of $86 per month on groceries. Home Chef takes the stress out of your week with convenient weekly deliveries that keep your fridge stocked and eliminate meal planning and grocery runs, making it easy to eat well, save time, and enjoy quick and delicious meals, even on your busiest days.

For a limited time, Home Chef is offering my listeners 50% off and free shipping for your first box plus free dessert for life. Go to homechef.com slash Midas. That's homechef.com slash Midas for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life. Home Chef.com slash Midas

must be. an active subscriber to receive free dessert. Let's go ho. Shout to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. As Ben mentioned before the break for the audio listeners,

you guys didn't get to see it. So make sure you go to the YouTube channel. Subscribe there. It's totally free. On our way to 7 million subscribers. We got this new great MTN play the clip. Dad Hat. I think they're called Dad Hats.

I didn't make the name, but I believe that's how they're mostly referred to. So definitely check those out. Store.mitestouch.com, get yours while they last. Benji, where to next? You know, I think when we talk about how bad this Supreme Court is, this right-wing fascist Supreme Court, what we shouldn't ignore is a little, just digging one step deeper because obviously we all know now

that they basically struck down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prevented discrimination, in voting and specifically as that relates to these racist gerrymandering that these states with, you know, we're trying to create by eliminating black congressional districts. And there was, you know, a need, right, to have states that had 30, 40 percent of the population that was African American have Congress members who represented the community. And so we talked about majority black congressional districts as a way to counteract states from diluting the black vote by looking at black neighborhoods and carving them up so that a black neighborhood could vote as a voting block. And their votes would be diluted by putting them into other districts where there was a majority white population.

and you would have a dilution of the black vote in that by kind of carving it up almost like a pizza pie, if you will, where it was carved up in, you know, eight different directions or 12 different directions as opposed to being the actual concentrated of the black vote. And now the Supreme Court saying this whole idea of black majority districts is racist. The idea of being anti-racist is racist because the moment you talk about race, that must mean you're racist. And if states just simply say, oh, we're not diluting the black vote. We're just encouraging Republican votes. And if that correlates with diluting black votes, we're just doing a political gerrymander. Aha, you're not being racist because you said the magic words, political gerrymander. Whereas if you say that we need to make sure there's fair representation of the black community, that that is a racist construct.

Okay. Now, I just think it's important as we talk about Tennessee. now following up the Louisiana Calais decision, which gutted Section 2, what are these MAGA states doing? They're getting rid of any black congressional district, right? So Tennessee pushes forward a map eliminates the fact there's zero black representation in Tennessee, no Democratic seats in Tennessee, and now they're going to go state-by-state, these MAGA states, doing emergency sessions to eliminate all black representation, all minority representation, just kind of fully eliminating, eliminating it.

And here's the thing when we talk about this. And this is what really should anger us all on a bipartisan basis, frankly. And this is what I teach my law students, not in a political way. I just say to them, like you realize the Voting Rights Act wasn't really a partisan thing. How do you know that? Because it was passed on a bipartisan basis in 1965. Democrats and Republicans came together and they recognized the problems. that we're seeing now in 2026 that preceded 1965.

That's why they came up with the voting rights act. Similarly, John McCain and Senator Feingold came up with McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform to get rid of corporate money and to get rid of all of the, you know, these corporations buying elections, only for the Supreme Court to say, you know what, Democrats and Republicans, you came together. Screw that. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution actually says that corporations as a free speech right gets to say whatever they want by spending billions of dollars to buy an election.

You go, where does it say that in the Constitution? Well, clearly that's what the First Amendment means. I'm an originalist. That's what the founders meant. That's what the founders meant that corporations could spend unlimited money. So I think when we talk about this, these are bipartisan pieces of legislation. McCain-Feingold, Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, that the Supreme Court guts and says, you know what, we're sitting in 2026 and we're telling you we want to go back and predate when there was collegiality and Congress actually passed laws that benefit the people. And what you get is a perverted, grotesque and disgusting Congress now that is led by Maga Republicans that cover up for the Epstein class because they,

go, we don't even going to work with them. We're just going to be arms of fascism at this point. And quite literally, when I say they're grotesque and perverted and sickos, I mean it because they're covering up child sex trafficking rings. And I'm not being hyperbolic. They're covering up the damn Epstein files. I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, independent. Heck, I don't care what you are. How could you be okay with how we? Ludnik not testifying under oath. Who roots for that? Like who?

That's like rooting for COVID. That's like rooting. What's the name of the new horrific virus that were the Honda virus? It's like rooting for like who roots for the virus? Right. Some of these Maga people do it. This is the same way they did back then, right? It's bizarre.

But you are okay with, with Lutnik, not testifying. under oath? Like, that's something that you're okay with? So James Comer, Maga Mike Johnson, Donald Trump, all get together, and they go, oh, crap, Lutnik is subpoenaed to testify. He had to show up before an appropriations committee last week. He had to talk about the budget. He had to speak in front of budgeting committees. And he was asked about Epstein. He goes, I'm not going to answer that. I have to testify next week or in two weeks before the House oversight committee. And he remember, he doesn't actually, he goes, I'll voluntarily testify under oath. You don't have to subpoena me. I'll voluntarily testify. So he shows up yesterday and I'm not going to do

it on video. What do you mean you're not going to do it under oath? What do you mean you're not going to do it under oath? I never agreed to do that. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. No, do a transcribed interview. I don't have to tell the truth. It doesn't have to be on video. That's what I'm going to do. And then the Democrats are like, no, we got on video. And James Comer controls the rules. Republicans control the rules. They control the House oversight. This is what they want to do with Bondi on May 29. Transcribed interview, no video, not under oath. This is what Trump. This is what they want. Howard Lutnik previously said he was never on Epstein Island. That's what he said in 2005. I won't do the Lutnik. Maybe I'll do the Luttony. I was never on Epstein Island. I saw the guy once.

never again. He's the ultimate blackmailer. He's disgusting. I would never see him again. And now his whole point is I said that I would never see him again. I brought my little kids. That's we. We went and saw him again. I would bring my friend's children. We went, not I. There's a distinction between the we, me and little children on an island where children are sexually assaulted. We went there, not I. But nothing bad happened, Lutnik said. Nothing bad happened on this. I'm blackmailing? What? Did I say blackmail? No, he's not, no. He didn't ever did any sort of And he goes, nothing bad happened on the island. I just brought my kids and my friends' kids to this island. And now I'm not going to testify under oath. And then he was asked questions.

By the way, they never, they don't release the transcript either, you know, the transcribed interview. It's like takes whatever. And then he's asked apparently, though, he's, he's asked about why did you go to the island? It was a surprise to me. It's a surprise. Do you know how you get surprised? He goes, it's inexplicable. His words were it's inexplicable and surprising. They blindfolded them. They put him on a plane and then he just, whoa, I'm on Epstein's Island. It's like, it's like when someone takes you on like a surprise date, right? It's like, all right, don't wait. Don't open up yet. Don't open up. We're almost there. Don't open up yet. We're at Epstein's Island. Welcome.

I don't mean to make a light of it by any means. It's just so it's so beyond parity what they're doing. And I think it's pretty clear, but I want to emphasize how anytime they are doing these sorts of interviews and stuff behind the scenes, one of the reasons that they're fighting for all these to not be under oath and to have these not taped interviews with James Comer and stuff, it's part of the cover up.

This is all part of the cover-up scheme. and they're doing it under the guise of what, we're seeking transparency. You wanted us to ask Howard Lutnik questions. We're asking Howard Lutnik questions. This is all part of actually suppressing the truth and preventing people from speaking out. By the way, I got to say, have you guys seen that exhibit in New York City?

In Tribeca, there's a museum that they set up. Epstein Files library, where they actually physically printed out all the documents from the Epstein files, put them in bound books, and it's like two stories tall, thousands and thousands and thousands of binders and pages, millions of pages of Epstein files that they put in there. And I just thought it was just, it's, you know,

it's one thing to see it online. I think it takes on an extra, there's just even more power when you actually see it physically like that laid out. Katie Fang, by the way, My DisTouch Network, did an incredible report on this. She went there with Danny Benson, one of the Epstein survivors. and it was such an emotional, powerful segment. Check it out on Katie Fang's YouTube channel

because honestly, one of the more powerful segments I've seen throughout this entire Epstein-Files saga and shout out to the survivors who are continuing to fight for justice when the Trump regime continues to push back. And when I'm just looking at Trump right now, it's hard for me to understand like who is supporting this guy right now, right?

If the Epstein files were a big issue, he's been covering up the Epstein files and specifically protecting Epstein's associates, including himself. And he even said, as Marjorie Taylor Green has said, he yelled at Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Beaubird and all these people telling them not to vote to release the Epstein files because it would hurt his friends. I'm paraphrasing there, but that was something he said. If you're the anti-war guy, well, clearly he's not the anti-war guy.

We're a war with Iran right now when he's been bombing things nonstop and trying to invade countries and take over countries. If you're one of the Maha people, if you're a Make America Healthy again person who thought that Donald Trump was going to get in there and he was going to push for healthy foods and all the stuff, he's betrayed you. He's been pushing glyphosate, this toxic herbicide, which is devastating to people's health. He just had his FDA. He like stepped in personally to ensure that they approved flavored vapes because he wants young kids to vote MAGA and he knows that young kids like flavored, flavored vapes and wants them to partake in that. Like everything that he's done, he's completely betrayed his base.

And so when you look at this Trump regime right now, it's hard not to see just the regime completely propped up by the billionaire class, by the Epstein class, by these billionaire institutions like Fox News, by this money that's being funneled to these influencers on the internet who really don't have any beliefs or any backbone whatsoever, but they're just doing what the money tells them to do, what these entities are telling them to do. I mean, what a complete betrayal of everything that Donald Trump claimed to have stood for. We're seeing it play out now in real time. Absolutely. And Ben, I know you want to show some clips coming up, but I just wanted to make this one point. I've never seen you make a decision quicker than when you went from saying that you

weren't going to do the Lutnik impression to like, all right, actually let me do it. And you're very good it. I just, the audience likes it. The might as mighty love it. Let me say, I've got more comments, Jordy, I know you see them because you're on the socials a lot. The people are talking about Ben's Lutnik impression. They say it's his best impression to date. Yeah. It doesn't it actually hurts my throat and it goes? Well, that's why people, they know, no pain, no gain and you're putting in the work. I look at Epstein and I said, you're disgusting. I will never see you. I went to my wife. I said, that man, is a blackmailer. That man disgusts me. And I don't even want to look at him ever again.

Okay, Howard, so it turns out that you were on the island? Yeah. And you said that you were never going to see him again. I never said I. I said I. I never said we. Oh, so you went with people. Yeah. Who'd you bring to hang out with Jeffrey Epson? I was like, my little kitties. You brought your children. My kitties, yeah. Who else did you bring? My friend's kids. So you went to the island?

Yeah. You know that's an island where children are sex trafficked, right? Yeah. You brought your kids? Yeah. You brought your friends, kids? Yeah. Okay.

Hey, Donald, you okay with, he brought his kids. What's right? He brought his kids. That was fun. Okay. Are we living in some crazy? World? What are we talking? All right. Surely James Comer, you're the oversight guy. House oversight committee chair. I know you're Maga through and through. I know you're corrupt.

I know you've got a very dark past and dark stuff in your relationships. But come on, you're the house oversight guy. We care about this, right? Surely you want to see him go at least under oath and videotape the same way you made Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton have their depositions be under oath and videotape. At least Lutnik, who was actually on the island and lied to the American. We all agree, right? James Comer comes running out. I mean, like quite literally, like runs out of the door while Lutnik's getting deposed. And this is what happens. Let's play. I feel compelled to have to come out and clean up and correct some of the statements that the Democrats made. I couldn't believe as I was getting updates of what they were saying.

And I hope that when you get the transcripts, you fact-check. them and what they say. This is a habit of the Democrats on this committee coming out, telling you all stuff that was said that was not said. The only cover-up that I've seen on the Oversight Committee is the cover-up of the Democrat trying to cover up our investigations of the Metro Police Department, lying about crime statistics, and the cover-up of the Minnesota fraud by Tim Walts and Keith Ellison, and the cover-up of the hospice fraud in California. So, quote, we asked some very substantive questions the first hour. The Democrats during their hour repeated the exact same questions because there's only so many questions you can ask Howard Lutnik, who had a property next door to Epstein in New York, but talked to him three times over a decade, three interactions over a decade.

He was on the island with his history, family with his wife and kids six people in his family and six people in his friends family for lunch for two hours and he has admitted that so the Democrats are going to go another hour I'm sure they're going to try to filibuster and do whatever they had a narrative to come in they were hoping Lutnik wouldn't come in they were hoping Pam Bondi wouldn't come in remember Pam Bondi came a month ago to answer questions, the Democrats didn't ask them a single question. The first 20 minutes of the Democrats question in here, they complained about not having video

and not having things to be able to put on MSNBC for their angry, purple-haired viewers to be outraged over. This is a serious investigation. Okay, but we could, but on a serious note, like, this isn't, you're no longer making it a serious investigation. When you're just going to haphazardly choose, okay, Bill and Hillary, you're coming video deposition, we're going to have all our people there, camera lights, action, go. Lutnik, let's close the door. Let's not bring in any cameras. And, you know, let's just have this conversation over here.

George, it's the Democrats. Democrats. The thing is, it's just a mockery of like the very serious situation and what people actually wanted to get to the bottom of. This should not be politicized. Yet at every step of the way, Trump and MAGA have politicized the evidence. It's politicized the Epstein files, have politicized this entire investigation because their investigation into this is a total, it's like a sham because they're trying to just do this gotcha on anyone that

is a left-leaning person. And it's because, no, no, I want to see Lutnik's deposition. I want to see him under the cameras. I want to see Bill and Hillary under the cameras. I want everyone who is potentially in these files to be under the cameras on their deposition. I want to hear from their mouths. And so do the American people. It's not a Republican Democrat issue. It's just simply not. But they're making it weird.

The Republican Party is making this weird. And it's frustrating because it's hard to, you know, see what's coming out and believing what's coming out when they're going to like take their buddies aside and be like, you know what? You actually don't have to be on camera. Why don't you just tell us behind closed doors what's going on? And that's all you need to do. It's bullshit. Let me just say, I don't think Hillary should have been.

taking it at all and not not even a little bit i have to disagree with you there i mean i think that was ridiculous i think that was complete weaponization and they're going my main point in that just so i could quickly correct there is i'm just saying if they're going to take the stance of everybody that we bring in is under video depositions then everyone needs to be under video depositions yeah for sure but hillary had no reason to be there they shouldn't be blaming wives for uh actions or alleged actions of their husbands absolutely not she shouldn't have been in there but hillary to her credit went in there and she answered every question. She did it under oath.

And remember, they lied about that, too. James Comer, oh, you know, they're coming here and they're lying about what was said in the room, and they were trying to say that he said this. And that's what you did with Hillary, right? You came out and you were like, oh, she was so shrill, and she was yelling at everybody, and she threw a tantrum in there.

And then you had Lauren Bobert taking these, like, spy pictures and giving it to Maga influencers and blowing the whole thing up. And then you see the footage, and you see that Hillary Clinton was the one telling the truth, and the Democrats were the ones telling the truth, and it was James Comer, again, who was lying about all of this. And so, you could, like, it's just, once again, it's objective facts. Like, who is telling the truth in these situations,

and who is not telling the truth in these situations, and James Comber is a proven liar. And for you to say something like, oh, but the Democrats want to do something like, like, they think it needs to be put under oath, or it needs to be put on camera, like, they just want their clips for their blue-haired viewers over at MS. NBC. No, like put everybody under the same standard to Jordy's point, ensure that everybody is given equal treatment in this process. And of course, the bare minimum of these investigations, you need

to put people under oath and you need to make there be some consequences if they're not telling you the truth. They analyze every single little thing that Hunter Biden did and made the biggest stink out of it. Hunter Biden sold the painting. We need to do hearings. We need to do this. We're going to do this for weeks and weeks and weeks. But then the way he just minimize. Oh, well, Howard Wattnick. Okay. So he was Jeffrey Epstein's neighbor for many years. Okay. And then he bought Jeffrey Epstein's apartment. Okay. Okay. So he went to the island and they had care about him going to the island. Okay. He went with his kids. Okay. I mean, the way, they just brush these things off as if they're like nothing. It's like no,

those everything you said there. And by the way, that's the bare minimum that we know right now. Those are all like pretty bad things. And the fact that you're brushing it off as just like a side thing is pretty messed up. And then he lied about it to the American people. He went in the New York Post interview and then just said he didn't do it. And then he got caught doing it because then there was photos of him in the file. What are we even doing it? One final point there though.

Hunter Biden wanted to have his, uh, he wanted to be in a hearing. Remember he showed up and he said, I'm here. Let's do the hearing. Let's do it in public. And the Mago Republicans went, no, no, no, no, no, no. We do that private. Nobody gets to see. So I just want you all to think about that generally.

Who wants to put the things on camera? Who wants to do the things under oath? Who wants to do it publicly? Who continues to hide? Who rushes to regime media to manipulate the facts, but then won't speak in front of the American people in a format that actually allows for accountability? Just to me, it's sometimes that basic. All right.

Last quick break of the show, a quick reminder. Hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. Also, click the join button and become a member of our YouTube channel, and you can give memberships to others. So, if you're fortunate enough to be able to afford things right now, which I know a lot of people aren't able to, and we certainly understand that. But if you can, gift memberships to other people. Give them access to some of the member features here, and you can do that by clicking join. Then you can gift memberships.

All right. And also, subscribe to the Midas Touch on audio and go to store.mitistuch.com and get some of that Midas touch gear. All right. Last quick break of the show. We'll be ready. Longevity is all the rage these days. But with so many supplements making all kinds of promises, it's hard to know who to trust. How about a product that sold over 2 million bottles, over 5,000 5 star reviews and powered by Nobel Prize winning science? Juvenon's blood flow 7 helps boost nitric oxide levels by up to 230% and open arteries by 62% improving blood flow and circulation. You'll feel the effects in as little as 30%.

minutes, including support for healthy blood pressure, steady energy throughout the day, sharper mental clarity, warmer hands and feet, and even improve bedroom performance. And for longevity, it can't be beat. Powerful blood flow is the river of life, and blood flow seven helps transport oxygen and nutrients that heal and renew to all parts of the body. All it takes is too easy to swallow capsules every morning. Every Juvenon product is made in the USA third-party tested for purity and backed by their 60-day unconditional guarantee. See why over 500,000 happy customers trust Juvenon.

Head to bloodflow7.com slash mitus and use code Midas for 30% off your order. Once again, that's bloodflow7.com slash mitus for 30% off. And make sure you use my promo code Midas so they know that I sent you. ED is way more common than most guys think. Millions of guys deal with it at some point. And that's exactly why Hymns offers a straightforward way to handle it. Hymns connects you with licensed healthcare providers online, giving you simple access to legitimate ED treatment options from home, no awkward appointments, no pharmacy lines. Just complete a simple online intake and a provider will review your information to determine if treatment is right for you. If prescribed, your treatment ships directly to your door in discrete packaging.

That includes sedenophil, also known as generic Viagra, available through HIMS at up to 95% less than the brand name version. And if that option isn't right for you, there are additional treatment options available so you can find what works best for your body. It's straightforward, transparent, and designed to make getting care feel easy. To get simple online access to personalized,

affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit hymns.com slash mitus. That's hymns.com slash mitus for your free online visit. Hems.com slash mitus. Prescription required. website for details and important safety information.

Sedinafil is a generic version of Viagra. Viagra is a registered trademark of Vietra's specialty LLC. Hymns is not affiliated with or endorsed by Vietras. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you.

Those are some really great products. Might as mighty. Enjoy all of them. So definitely check them out. Let me just say this. And not to talk about, you know, Barack, Brock, whatever his name is again, Brock Ravid again. But it's just you can't be a puppet for MAGA for Trump and then have like the thinnest skin and get upset when people call you out for your bullshit.

It's like, uh-uh. You can't play both sides of that. You want to have thin skin? That's totally fine. Then you can't be a MAGA puppet. I'm sorry. You just absolutely cannot. Ben, Brett takes on that.

Yeah. I mean, first of up, he's like responding to the whore moose letter. It seems to be like an. Iranian aggregator. Like, it's someone from Iran, by the way, who does a decent job aggregating. But it's like, dude, you're, you're like the editor-in-chief at Axios. So you're like a senior editor at Axios. Right.

You're responding to the Hormuz letter. I mean, you've now, and by the way, the Hormuz letter is like, sources are telling me, Barakravied has manipulated the market. And Barack Ravid's like, that's a lie and that's defamatory. And then you have a lot of other corporate news dudes like running to Barakraveed. Yeah, and that's a defamatory. Dude, it's the Hormuz Letter. Who even knows what the Hormuz letter is?

They're doing a decent job backering. And then Barack Ravid responds to the Islamic Republic broadcasting network, like literally, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, like self-designated propaganda. Like, they're posting it. Like, you're the writer and why are you responding to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, like media entity? This is a lie. Axios didn't report even.

once over the last three weeks that a deal was imminent. The Iranian regime at state TV and its bots and influence accounts on social media are pushing this lie. It's regime propaganda. Don't fall for it. Look, literally what Barack Ravid posted yesterday was the following. Scoop. The White House believes it's getting close to an agreement with Iran on a one-page

memorandum of understanding to end the war. and set a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations, right? So what the Iran regime posted was Axios reported five times that a deal was imminent. What Ravid says is getting close. So are you parsing the Iran's words of imminent versus getting close? I think imminent means getting close or some variation. I said getting close. I said we were in the final stage.

I said we were making great progress. I said this was nearly complete. I did not say the word imminent. That is to be a vatheur. And it just so happened that like billions of dollars of oil was shorted, you know, and there were all of these options taken out right after just, it just so happens that every time I'm about to do these stories, these whoopsies, oopsies.

Wait, Brett, bring up the tweet. Brett, bring up the tweet one more time because like, it's so preposterous to me. And with him responding to the literal is romantic propaganda. Because I just want to also focus on how he ends that tweet, which he says something to the effect of, don't amplify this. And meanwhile, what he did, what he did was he took a screenshot. He goes, bots and influence accounts on social media are pushing this lie.

It's regime propaganda campaign. Don't fall for it. Don't amplify it. And then he takes a screenshot of what he's telling people not to amplify and puts it right under his tweet for everyone to see, in fact, amplifying the tweet. It's a great, but everyone's dunking on it too. Here's the thing. I don't want to spend that much more on Revee.

It's the perfect split-scrut. He's like, okay, this is what we were saying at the beginning. It's like, okay, we understand. Irib Iranian broadcasting is, that's their propaganda. But they kind of say it. Like, it's not, like he doesn't say Israeli, like his name is Barack Ravid, Axios. He's not Barack Ravid, Trump, Israel, Trump Netanyahu. At least the Iran's like, okay, here's what,

we are, I rib, you know, but in my opinion, he's Trump Netanyahu regime media. So I have both. I have reviewed regime media versus Iran regime media. And Iran says that he said that. He goes, I did it. And I'm look, I'm genuinely trying to search out the facts here. So I'm like, huh, he's, I believe he said it. Am I going crazy here? Because I'm pretty sure a dude said this a lot. Then I looked at what he wrote yesterday and he said, super close to getting a deal done. And so it's like, okay, right there, not only are you amplifying Iran media, but they're kind of right. I'm sorry you take issue with the word quote imminent versus getting close. But your post every other day, it's I thought if anything, Iran media undercounted. I was surprised it was only five

times. I honestly think though it speaks to like I think a greater. I think it speaks to like a greater rot like in the, you know, honestly, it's a lot of what's kind of wrong and not to harp on this point too much with kind of the state of corporate media is there's like there's a disdain for the people who follow them and the people who read them. And to me, if every time you were posting these things, the comments are always like, oh, this again, you've been saying this for the past five weeks, six weeks, like, oh, we're getting close again, really, really, oh, the markets just moved on your tweet again, really, really, really? Like, in all seriousness, like, instead of arguing with those people and

fighting with people online, maybe just like think inwards for like one second and think, like, am I laundering propaganda? Like, yes, you know, like I said, like Ben said earlier, like I'm sure his sources are good sources in terms of them being high level in the Trump administration. I believe them to be people like Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner and Trump and folks like that. I mean, those are very high-level sources, but are they sources that have a track record of giving you truthful information? I mean, even if you stacked all three of them, three sources say, say it was Trump, Kushner, and Whitkoff, those are three very bad sources. And if the information you're getting every day and that you post all the time turns out not to be true and turns out to continuously be clowned on by the public and you just essentially get mocked when inevitably things start escalating every time you say that. you're seeing these major swings of the market coincide with those messages, instead of arguing

with random people on the internet, maybe just go like, maybe I hold back on this one and I see what happens, or maybe I try to consult somebody who has an alternative opinion here and try to figure out what the truth is in between these two, like whatever it is, but just continuing to be a stenographer for the liars to me and then arguing with the people and showing disdain for the people who are simply, I mean, are people trying to get the information during it? very tense situation right now. To me, that just, it just shows a lot of what's wrong right now with the way a lot of these legacy outlets are reporting. You know what? It reminds me of when I used to be a litigator and I would handle sports-related cases, I was always fascinated by how

in these different sports leagues professionally, they had their insiders, the NFL insiders, the MLB insiders. Like in the NFL, they had the NFL network, right? And the NFL insiders at the NFL network would act like, oh, no, no, no, but we make sure we don't, like, collude with the NFL's. Okay, got it. You know, the NHL insiders or the NB, you know, whatever you have. And, you know, the teams and ownership and management and the agents, right, they have their relationship directly with the insider. And they call up the insider.

Hey, here's what's going on. Oh, they're getting close to a deal. And the insider often, you know, is like a stenographer and breaks the news. and it's like a symbiotic relationship, and then they get the information out. And, you know, and that's like, but it's sports. And I was always kind of when I was handled cases that have often litigation issues,

you know, I was always surprised that, you know, the way this kind of ecosystem function. But the fourth estate, our media is not supposed to be like the NFL or the MLB or the NBA insider, right, who just gets the call and then writes it. Like, you should get the data and then go, okay, I realize now that I have a platform and before I publish it, I need to check if this is truthful or if I'm being used as a pawn in order to manipulate the market.

And, you know, Ravid says, I'm not manipulating the market. Let me clear. He totally denies all of that. And he says even making the accusation is a defamatory accusation. He strictly denies it. So as I said at the outset, then if you're doing it unknowingly and it's, keeps on happening, is that worse? I think it may be worse if you actually truly think you don't recognize that when everybody else is seeing that that's continuously what happens. You know,

but Brett, when I think about what happened today also with President Lula Brazil showing up, I also think about like the, and just another example of the media rot, right? You had Fox. Ooh, it looks like the press conference is happening. It looks like it's about to happen. Ooh, we're told Donald Trump's going to happen. Oh, it looks like it's not happening. But that's because Lula and Donald Trump have such tension. So clearly Donald Trump didn't want to be seen with this guy. Do we have the montage that you created of like what went down when the press was waiting for three hours for Trump and Lula

to have a joint press conference and then it never happened? Here, play this clip. Meanwhile, we have a live look at the White House as we await President Trump to speak. He is meeting in the Oval Office with Brazil's president. We do await President Trump any moment now. Fox News Alert here. We are waiting President Trump. He is set to speak any moment now from the White House.

President Trump is set to speak live from the White House any moment. Now we've got our eye on it. And Trump, meanwhile, is set to speak. We promise we just haven't gotten word when that's happening. We were hoping, John, that we were going to get to see the two of them, as it was sort of, we were led to believe that, but we did not. But it sounds like the meeting went well. Sounds like the meeting went well.

Why would it sound like the meeting? because Trump posted it went well. I don't know, maybe the fact that they were supposed to come out together and then didn't means that the meeting did not go well and maybe be a journalist and say, I wonder what's actually happening here. Well, you have Lula who has stood up to Donald Trump as Donald Trump has projected fascism in the Western Hemisphere

and all hemispheres. Donald Trump's blockade on Cuba and Donald Trump's threat to invade Cuba. And Cuba responding recently through their leadership that a bloody war may be days away from happening in Cuba. Maybe it's because Donald Trump is trying to free Jair Bolsonaro, the MAGA extremist puppet president, who's in jail basically 20 plus years in Brazil

for leading an insurrection there, and that Trump keeps trying to come up with ways to like get Jair Bolsonaro free. Maybe it is something to do with that. Maybe it's because Lula has been calling out Trump and Israel's genocide and calling out the catastrophic war in Iran and also both genocide and Gaza and Lebanon and calling out the behavior that maybe we act as reporters and we go, they didn't meet. Maybe that's the thing, you know, which leads me to one of the last points. There's so many points that I could be making here. I could talk about how state regime media.

They had Lara Trump, Donald Trump's daughter-in-law. I mean, just think about like the layers of this regime media stuff, like would make North Korea or Russia, you know, like kind of jealous of like this. So wait a minute. Your daughter-in-law is like the host of the regime. Yeah, Lara Trump is the host. And so I did a segment on this earlier where she had Dana White, the head of UFC, And she's like, so Dana, the hottest ticket in town, the UFC fight.

Where can you get tickets? And Dana West, well, actually, we're not going to be selling tickets anymore. We're just going to be giving tickets out. We're comping them. Oh, that sounds so hot. Yeah, it's really, really hot. And we're going to be bringing 4,300 members of the military because Donald Trump loves the military. Amazing.

So it's going to be our military there. Yeah. So hot. I mean, I'm like, what are we doing? We're doing a UFC fight on Donald Trump's birthday at the White House. And he said there was going to be a major stadium of 20,000 people. And now he's going to use our military during a catastrophic war as props. And that's what's going to be the fight. And I mean, speaking of Iranian Broadcasting Network, if we were seeing, you know, footage come from the Iranian Broadcasting Network that was like Mujtaba, uh, uh, to the name. like daughter or son, we'd be like, this is insane. Like this, these people are like, imagine this. You could just flesh out the best. You know, so imagine we're watching Iranian TV. And it's Mojtaba Khomeini's freaking daughter, a daughter-in-law. And they're doing a cricket match.

And in the middle of the war, all they're talking about is, and it's going to be so hot. There's going to be a cricket match right in front of the clerical shrine and everybody's going to show you'd be like dude what are you doing what are you saying yeah we'd be like this is the most overt most insane propaganda that you've ever seen in your life but sometimes you need to separate yourself from like our kind of insular view of actually being here in the united states and i know like it's probably how our our international audience feels and you can tell us in the comments you know all you internationally i see you know people here from

canada and australia and other places like it's got to seem like freaking because it is absolutely crazy. But what's honestly a very serious thing is this international network of authoritarian's that has continued to build. And this is deadly serious. And I do want to highlight some really good reporting that we've seen recently. And this was from El Pais, which is a Spanish language publication, which let me pull this up quickly because it was just absolutely stunning, stunning,

stunning, stunning. Basically, it says that there was a plot between Javier Malay, Donald Trump, and other kind of right-wing leaders to like infiltrate and spread propaganda into more left-wing government. So to try to kind of ruin what Claudia Scheinbaum is doing in Mexico and infiltrate them. This reporting is absolutely shocking. I haven't actually seen it reported in the United States yet, but they're calling it Hondurasgate. And they're saying that leaked recordings Thai Trump, Malay, and the Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, to this alleged effort to create this fake news operation to destabilize the governments of Mexico and Colombia, which you know Donald Trump has not been a fan of. You remember Juan Orlando

Hernandez? That's the guy who Donald Trump pardoned or commuted a sentence, whatever he did. The guy who was like a drug trafficker. Well, one of the reasons they're saying he did that. is allegedly so that they could build these right-wing networks together. And according to El-Pais, they discussed setting up this digital media cell in the United States, funded with a ton of money to push all this disinformation, specifically targeting Mexican President Shinebaum, Colombia President Gustavo Petro,

and political opponents in Honduras, spreading this propaganda machine. And by the way, you know that they're doing this in the United States right now for the Trump regime, right? They are spending all this money, doing all this stuff, to spread MAGA propaganda here at home, Now they're taking that operation, and I think they have been already. But we're seeing apparently they've recorded proof that they're doing this internationally.

They have these recordings from WhatsApp, signal, telegram chats, and they analyze them using forensic tools by the intelligence agencies to confirm that the people on the calls were the people who I was naming before, like Trump, Malay and Juan Orlando Hernandez. Mexican President Shinebound claims that she actually has heard these recordings. and she's warning about this network of fake news campaigns that Trump and these people are allegedly operating. And we've already seen in the past few weeks. Remember, there was that kind of CIA operation gone wrong in Mexico that we covered here, where there were two CIA agents who died allegedly in a car accident. And when it happened, you know, they didn't say it was CIA at first, but the first thing I thought when I saw that there was a story of two United States officials who died in a car accident near a drug facility.

in Mexico was that's got to be CIA. And ultimately, they did actually admit that those were CIA agents. So there's a lot of really shady stuff right now going on. And believe me, Donald Trump is not the first person to do shady things abroad with the CIA, far from it. But I think it's important to see the way that this is being directed right now. And it's specifically being directed at governments around the world who are on counter to this MAGA worldview, who are against the authoritarian, people who are actually standing up for democracy, people who are actually pushing more progressive values, more pro-freedom values. That's who the Trump regime is going after. And you also see it in this national security report that just came out, this anti-terrorism report. And this is also absolutely crazy. This is the counterterrorism strategy document, which was released yesterday by the Trump administration. I haven't seen, I've seen barely any coverage about this.

But this document specifically names, I'll pull it up, some of the beats that I pulled out. So it lists, these are the biggest threats to the United States of America. It says left-wing extremists, people with radically pro-transgender ideologies, anti-fascists. That's what they view as terrorists. And they equate those groups to ISIS and other actual terrorist groups saying that they're all the same. And they're saying that the United States government is building a map. They're using their counterterrorism powers. to map all of these people, map people who are against fascism,

who are what they consider left-wing extremists, in order to track people who have these sorts of points of view. So we see it happening here domestically, we see it happening abroad. This is something that needs to be talked about a whole lot more. I think it often gets buried in the day-to-day chaos of what's happening. But this stuff to me is as bad as it gets from a government, especially a government that pretends to be for, freedom and democracy and liberty like here in the United States.

Covered a lot on this episode. And don't worry, we'll be covering a lot more on the YouTube channel throughout the evening and of course throughout the day. Share the Midas Touch network with people you know become a member by joining this YouTube channel. Subscribe to this YouTube channel as well. Help us at 7 million subscribers. Subscribe on audio to the Midas Touch podcast. Leave a five-star review there. Go to store.midestouch.com and check out the Midas touch gear. We're thankful for all of you. We're grateful for all of you. We hear you. We're listening to you and you better believe every damn day we're fighting for you on this network. So thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Let's stay in this together. We got this everybody. Jordi, take it away.

Shout out to the Midas, my day. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack at Midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Philpowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at Midasplus.com. Behind every F-35 jet is a Canadian company, horizontal tails built in Winnipeg, engine sensors from Ottawa, and stealth composite panels crafted in Loonenberg to name just a few. Thanks to thousands of skilled Canadian workers, the F-35 aircraft is delivering unmatched capabilities for 20 allied nations around the world and will generate more than $15.5 billion in industrial value for Canada.

This ad is sponsored by the F-35 partner team, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, and RtX. www.f35.com slash Canada.