The MeidasTouch Podcast - MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 5/9/25

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

In this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, we expose the chaos Trump is causing across the economy and political landscape. As U.S. ports face critical shortages, Trump is busy touting fake trade deals that don’t actually exist. Meanwhile, he’s being accused of market manipulation schemes that could land anyone else behind bars. The Fed keeps interest rates steady and warns that stagflation may be around the corner, thanks to Trump’s reckless trade war. Plus: Trump loyalist Kash Patel is grilled by Democrats, GOP Senators call Trump’s massive spending bill dead on arrival, and history is made with the election of an American Pope—whose past anti-Trump posts are now going viral. Ben, Brett and Jordy discuss all this and more! Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Get Meidas Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Deals from our sponsors!  3 Day Blinds: For their buy 1 get 1 50% off deal, head to https://3DayBlinds.com/MEIDAS. Graza: Go to https://Graza.co and use code: MEIDAS to get 10% off your Graza Starter Kit and get to cookin’ your next chef quality meal! L-Nutra Prolon: Visit https://ProlonLife.com/MEIDAS to claim your 15% discount plus a bonus gift! Oracle: Go to https://oracle.com/meidas and see if your company qualifies for this special offer. 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 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games

with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more. Make deposits instantly

to jump in on the fun and make same day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Donald Trump announced a fake deal with the United Kingdom today where essentially Trump partially removed tariffs that he put in place in early April and he's calling that a deal while trying to manipulate the markets and telling people, I don't know, something good may happen with China. You may want to start to buy stock right now. We've seen this game with Donald Trump before, but let's face it, mainstream, real people are suffering right now, unless you're in the 1% or the 1% of 1% inflations on the rise again.

The deficits, trade deficits are actually getting larger. Our economy is shrinking. We'll talk about that on this episode. Also, a new pope was selected, the first ever American pope, now named Leo XIV, who was previously a cardinal in Chicago. One of the interesting data points is that the new pope had previously made lots of posts, very critical of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, and also a bishop who was part of Donald Trump's Committee on Religion had made a statement that he does not expect there ever to be an American pope unless the power of America is in decline. And if an

American pope were to ever be appointed, it would demonstrate the view by the Vatican that America is in decline. So you can ask yourself if that's a correlation. But this bishop who's part of Donald Trump's religious council is the person who made that statement. Also, the MAGA Republicans at war with each other over the reconciliation of the budget. You've got a lot of MAGA Republicans who want to gut Medicaid. Others are worried about the optics of gutting Medicaid and how that could impact their election in the midterm. They're calling this a big, beautiful bill because Donald Trump's making them call it that, but it is a big, massive disaster. And already MAGA Republicans

in the Senate, like Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, are already saying there's no chance that a reconciliation along the lines of what the MAGA Republicans in the House are doing will ever pass the Senate. one doll and shut up. Trump regime central planning is telling you what you can buy and not buy while Donald Trump is getting ready for a trip to the Middle East to meet with countries whose sovereign wealth funds have put literally, what, $4 billion in Donald Trump's pocket in the past 100 days, whether it's a resort deal with Qatar, Abu Dhabi using Trump crypto, Saudi Arabia having Trump resorts in Oman and more. Donald Trump's family is the only person benefiting off of all of these, what I like to refer to as the rug pull Ponzi scheme presidency. Let's bring in Brett and Jordy. Guys, how are you doing brothers? Doing well, trying to make sense of this all, Ben, Jordy, good to see you guys, good to see you, Midas, Mighty, everybody watching here on YouTube, everybody listening on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. Make sure to add the Midas Touch podcast. Another day, another day of chaos, as always, with Donald Trump. I like how these Republicans are always concerned about the optics. What if it looks bad that we're taking away people's health care? How about don't be so concerned about the optics and be concerned about the fact that you're actually trying to take away people's health care? How about we start there and not with how is this going to look to people? Because it looks pretty bad because it is pretty bad. And Trump now kind of just encouraging these shortages, saying that we're going to have

to learn to live with less, that girls are going to have to have less dolls, fewer dolls. And what's his obsession with dolls anyway? Everything's about to get more expensive. There are about to be shortages of every single product under the sun. And Donald Trump just continues to sit there, manipulate the markets, do his same scheme, and honestly sound like a communist dictator the way he speaks. Trump is like full-on commie right now. The statements coming out of his mouth are what we've heard from communist regimes throughout history. Now it's coming from an American president. And the irony of the party who's always calling everything communist,

the irony of that coming from them is just very apparent to me, I would say. Anyway, good to be here with you guys. Jordy, what's the latest on your end? Excited to get into the show. Before I toss it over to Benji, I know everyone's on the edge of their seats. Yes, I do finally have power back after eight days. So super excited. Again, shout out Western PA, man. Us Yinzers, man, we're a different breed. We're tough. We're tough out here. Benji, where do you want to start? I was speaking at this conference this past week, and one of the things I was asked is, what do you think resonates about the Midas Touch Network to your audience? And I said, we try to just break things down, not at a political level, but just kind of basic common sense when it comes to people and facts and data. And we try to come with receipts and we try to come with common sense. So we all know that when the ships are not arriving at ports in the United States, that's a bad thing, right? The ships are supposed to come in. We're supposed to have healthy trading relationships.

So to me, when Donald Trump is out there holding press conferences and he's asked the most basic of questions, are you concerned that ships are not coming into, say, the port of Seattle or the port of Long Beach in Los Angeles or ports in Boston? Or does that concern you that these shipping volumes are down significantly? Isn't that going to result in scarcity and supply shortages? And it's a lagging indicator, but does that worry you? And when Donald Trump's response is, no, I think it's a great thing because that means we lose less money. You think about that and you go, that makes no sense right there. So we can't normalize statements like this here's what donald trump said earlier to that extent let's play it because business has slowed down as you mentioned we're seeing but we're seeing as a result the ports here in the u.s the traffic has really slowed and now

thousands of dock workers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs that means we lose less money you know when i see that That means we lose less money. When I see that, that means we lose less money. When I see that, that means we lose less money. We lose less money. What are you talking about? It means we lose more jobs. It means we lose trucking jobs.

It means we lose the jobs of longshoremen and longshorewomen. It means that the products are not getting on the shelves. It means Americans can't access goods. And that's a problem. That's causing harm to the economy. And by the way, the trade deficit is at record highs right now. So if this whole thing was, well, we need to reduce the trade deficit because America is getting screwed over. It's had the exact opposite effect as American companies have scrambled to try to import as much as possible before the supply chain completely breaks down. So that's what we're showing to our audio listeners. Just so you know,

this is a headline from Newsmax. Don't get much more right wing than Newsmax. U.S. trade deficit surges 14% to record high of $140.5 billion. And then you take a look not just at the trade deficit, but our overall budget deficits here in the United States. And you look at the GOP budget, that is going to explode the deficit by trillions and trillions of dollars, like at a bare minimum, like three to five trillion dollars just on this alone. I think it's going to be more like 15 to 25 or even more trillion dollars because the Trump regime's basically fired all of the IRS auditors and they've gutted it to the point where I don't think we're going to be able to effectively collect tax revenue the way we did before.

But while that's going on, here's what Donald Trump was doing at the same press conference. And again, he's using his position in the Oval Office, and he's also using state regime media known as Fox. Because the chyron, did you all notice what the chyron said there? It said, Trump going to have a good weekend with China. That's what it said on the prior Chiron. And this is all arranged together. Regime media works, basically Fox, Trump, they're basically the same, right? Janine Pirro, for example, from Fox, she's being looked at right now to be the next United States attorney from Washington, DC after the Trump regime dropped that Ed Martin guy after at least one MAGA Republican, Tom Tillis from

North Carolina, said they wouldn't approve Ed Martin because he supported January 6th insurrectionists too much. There's a little bit of support for Jay Sixers is okay, but just too much for the MAGA Republican in the Senate. But here what Donald Trump then does with this press conference where he's announcing this fake UK trade deal, is he goes and tells people, you better buy stock, you better buy stock. Then he combines that with using the term Palestinian as a slur to attack a Jewish senator, Chuck Schumer. Here, watch this. Yeah, you better go out and buy stock now. Let me tell you, this country will be like a rocket ship that goes straight up. This is going to be numbers that nobody's ever seen before.

That's a very important element of all of this. You know, if we get that. If you don't, and the Democrats are fighting it only because they want to fight. They have Trump derangement syndrome. You know, if it was somebody else, they wouldn't fight. If you had a normal person, if you had some stiff sitting behind you, they'd be fine. But they have Trump derangement syndrome. You know, Senator Schumer has become a Palestinian.

Welcome. I don't know when they're going to give him the ceremony, whatever the ceremony may be. It's terrible what's happened to the Democrats. So very, very important element of everything, of what we're doing, unrelated to today, but related in the sense that we'll do, if that passes, we'll do even more business with the UK. We'll have so much. First off, all UK trade is under 2% with the United States, number one. Number two,

the person laughing in the background there at what was just not funny at all was Commerce Secretary Howard Nutlick. I mean, Howard Nutlick, and you heard him laughing. Oh, he called him a Palestinian. It's not funny. Number two. Number three, when you talk about this UK trade deal that they announced, again, it's another part of the Ponzi scheme. It's not a trade deal. So any corporate news that refers to this as a trade deal, it is not that. First off, trade deals need to be approved by Congress, number one. Number two, Donald Trump declared an emergency, essentially war, against the UK and every country to impose emergency tariffs, which Trump never had the

ability to do. He then reduced some tariffs, unlike Range Rovers and Land Rovers, from the UK basically from like 20% or 25% to 10%. And then they kind of encouraged the UK to buy American beef, which there's no guarantee of. That's what they're calling a deal. That's not a trade deal. Is that one of what Treasury Secretary Scott Besson calls a sub deal? This is not a deal that took place. Trump created a fire. He's the arsonist. He then tries to, he doesn't even try to put it out. He pretends, he shows up with a hose, doesn't even put the fire out. And then he just says, hey, everybody, I put the fire out. Look what I did with the UK. And then goes and says, you better buy stock now so that the market goes

up on that. Because the past times Donald Trump has said that, he's announced something where he can move the markets up and then the markets go down. You need to understand though systemically what's happening with our economy, what it means when the GDP is shrinking, what it means when mortgage rates are now 6.9% or 7% and housing is less affordable, not more affordable, and inflation's on the rise. I mean, you take a look at what Goldman Sachs, not exactly a lefty organization, Goldman Sachs. You take a look at what Ken Griffin, the head of Citadel, is saying, what Mark Rowan, the head of Apollo Global, is saying. You take a look at these Republican donors and Republican business leaders. They're saying that Trump has destroyed the brand of America.

Basically, the value of the dollar has essentially been irreparably tainted. Our bond market has been irreparably tainted, and the impacts are going to be felt for generations. And then you see the day-to-day market volatility. And again, it just looks like the Trump meme coin, our stock market. And who's going to get screwed? Not Trump, because he's getting Qatari money and Saudi Arabian money and Abu Dhabi money. You're going to get screwed. And you being the global you, anyone who doesn't have private jets and yachts and people, including Trump supporters, they're going to get screwed, Brett and Jordy. Those wokesters at Goldman Sachs, classic woke lib Goldman Sachs. Wokeman Sachs, I think is what they're calling him now.

Woke Adele. Wokealo. No, that one doesn't quite work. It was Apollo with woke, uh, before I didn't, didn't really, it was a good job. Sometimes you got to shoot your shot once every few,

you know, you connect. Yeah. I mean, this was totally embarrassing and, and Trump held it as this, this was going to be some sort of major trade deal last night. One of his classic all caps tweets.

We did it. Everybody. It's like, what did you do? First off, once it came out that it was the United Kingdom, I couldn't help but laugh because we actually have a trade surplus with the United Kingdom, which the whole point of this is for the trade deficit. So it doesn't even make sense to begin with. Of course, you're going to cut the deal with the one that we have the surplus with because your tariffs by your own admission of

the reasoning that you're saying these tariffs are being placed doesn't make any sense with the nation that we have a trade surplus on. And even with that, they couldn't even get to an actual deal. It's a concept of a deal that we are working on right here. And just like everything they do is just a scam from start to finish. And quite frankly, I wish that there were a lot of aspects of this that could work. I wish that Doge was actually an organization that was going in to improve the technology of government, increase the efficiency of government. But then I wish, you know, maybe they actually could actually lower the deficit or balance the budget. The fact is, when they actually come into office, they complain about all that crap

and then they do the opposite and they do it far worse than any of their major complaints. Like Donald Trump is going to explode the deficit once again, way more than what the deficit or debt went up under Joe Biden, which was actually decreasing under Joe Biden, the deficit. You see with this whole Doge nonsense, Trump or Elon Musk was promising over $2 trillion in cuts, right? We're going to have $2 trillion in cuts to the government. Well, Judd Legume did a report yesterday showing that Elon Musk is now on track to deliver just $5 billion worth of cuts, so 0.25% of the promised cuts. And that's him being generous to get to that number. And not only that, that doesn't take into account the amount that Doge is actually costing us, as Ben mentioned before. By Doge's actions in the IRS alone, it is going to cost the U.S. more than $1 trillion. I think some of the estimates are $1.6, $1.7 trillion in costs to the United States. So Elon Musk said that he was going to save the federal government $2

trillion. In fact, he is costing the federal government at least that amount and probably more while also causing chaos, while also causing mass unemployment, while also just disrupting people's lives. The trauma that comes with all this, the collective trauma that we are all experiencing here as Americans, it's just one scam after the next scam after the next scam with nothing actually getting done. And that's why we see when these Republicans actually have to do something or when Donald Trump actually has to do something like, okay, fellas, it's time to pass a budget. This is your most basic of tasks. You got to just pass a budget. This is what every Congress and president needs to do each year, right? They cannot even do the most basic tasks of governing.

That's why they're so focused on let's rename the Persian Sea or let's rename the Gulf of America, Mexico to Gulf of America. You want to go to the Persian Gulf, they want to call it the Arabian Gulf. I like that. Yeah. So that's all they could do because they could only handle the performative crap. And they're not even that good at that. I know I'm covering a lot right now, but even when you look at deportations, Trump's deportation numbers, despite all the chaos, despite all of his illegal actions, despite him deporting people, kidnapping people, abducting them, disappearing them, sending them to these death camps, these concentration camps. He's actually deporting fewer people than Joe Biden did, than Barack Obama did. How could you be so evil yet so incompetent at the same time? But that is the name of the game with the Trump administration. Brett, you talk about this collective trauma that we're all going through. And I just want to say that that's exactly what it is. Like, just chuckling it up. It's all just so honestly dystopian and like, what in the North Korea

are we watching? Isn't that just so embarrassing to watch too? Humiliating. You feel like the way he was laughing. Humiliating. You know it's a fake laugh. It's like, okay, you're doing fake laughs. It's like Austin Powers when the people around Dr. Evil are like, Yes. That's so funny that you were saying, I was thinking of, of an analogy. That's exactly what that is. Is the Dr. Evil when they're all around the circular chair, like, like the extended, but, but, but, but it hurts. Like, I wish it was funny, but it like genuinely hurts me as someone who deeply loves this country.

And I know the Midas mighty in this pro-democracy community, it hurts you too. You see these losers up there, these completely incompetent fools who are just destroying the country that we love. And they're laughing about it on their way, and they just look so evil and manipulative. And it's just all so pathetic. And it's like whack-a-mole. There's so many things you have to cover at the same time. They're destroying museums in the United States. Like they're like getting rid of artifacts from the African American history museum, the Smithsonian. They're going after the Japanese American museum in Los Angeles and also museums like that across the country that celebrate diversity and inclusion of other ethnicities and other cultures. they're getting shut down.

And like attorney generals across the country have to like file lawsuits to protect museums. You know, one of the things that they're doing too, I know we have a lot of supporters from Sweden here on the Midas Mighty. So like this doesn't even get enough attention. So the U.S. embassy in Stockholm, in Sweden, is demanding that Stockholm itself, that the city, stop all diversity and inclusion initiatives. The U.S. embassy is making an order to Sweden through the U.S. embassy that they don't support Sweden doing diversity and inclusion. And it just goes to show you, you, I can go to different countries, but just think about what the people in Sweden are thinking. The US embassy is telling us in Sweden

that we can't support diversity here? Who are you? No, we're going to do what we do in our country. You talk about the renaming of the Persian Gulf. They want to call it the Arabian Gulf. And by the way, you know, it probably went down like this. Trump was probably like on a call with MBS or, or the Abu Dhabi fund or someone in advance. And, you know, he was probably like, you know, you know, which is like, you want to be funny? You want me to do that? I'm going to go out and get, I'm going to go, let go of America, huh, MBS? I'm going to do, I'm going to call it the Arabian Gulf, you know? And MBS is like, oh no, you're not going to do it. I'll go do it. I'm going to do it, you know, and like, that's what our foreign policy has become. But what it really abstracts and obscures is what we should be focusing on, right? Like what's going on in

the Red Sea right now? We've lost at least two F-18 Hornet jets that just fell off airplanes while the Houthis are attacking, I think it's the USS Harry Truman that's out there. We've lost at least, what, seven or eight, but potentially more Reaper drones over Yemen. And this is as we're also aware that the Department of Defense and State Department are putting a lid, they're preventing any information about U.S. casualties in Yemen from even being reported on at all. the Houthis and strike targets that were in the signal text threads between Mike Walls, the former National Security Advisor, and Pete Hegseth, the Department of Defense Secretary. And so do we have any trust or faith that the Trump regime is not covering up what the hell is going on? Like, why are we losing a combined half a billion dollars to maybe a billion dollars in military equipment

in the past 100 days? Could you imagine if former President Biden lost nearly a billion dollars in military equipment in just the Red Sea and there's no explanation really for it? Oh, then the plane just fell off the ship. The Reapers, they just got shot down. In the past 100 days, we're talking about- And I could tell you they'd be blaming DEI. They'd find some transgender person to pin this on because that's what they do. They'd be blaming some black person because that's what they do. This is like- I think about the hearings they'd hold. Oh my God, there'd be hearings. How could this happen? This is wokeism. This is DEI. I mean,

you know that- They would go up there and they would grandstand, right? They would go, eight Reaper drones. They would go and they would make it a big deal. This is treason. And they would say it just like, right? And then that would be on Fox, treason, impeachment. And by the way, four Americans died in Lithuania. Trump and the regime said nothing about it. Two American soldiers died in the border of New Mexico. Nothing about it at all. Like you said, their strategy is the COVID strategy, which is you don't test, there are no cases. And that's what they do in every single aspect. Anytime anything looks bad for them, they just don't talk about it. Or Trump says,

I don't know anything about it. They don't report the actual facts. The fact that we are like, let's face it, like we are at war in Yemen right now. Like we are at war in the Red Sea with the Houthis. And I know people don't want to call it that, but that is exactly what is going on. And Trump's, you know, now claiming that there's some sort of ceasefire. Well, there has to be a tax for there to be a ceasefire. There's a ceasefire. Everything's going great. We're saying it's a ceasefire. But even after Donald Trump said that, that's when a lot of these incidents continue to happen. And I believe, and this is my speculation, and it's backed up by facts, at least a little bit, that we're not getting the full picture of

what's going on because the Trump administration refuses to tell us what's actually going on in the Red Sea. So when I hear these stories of these fighter jets that are mysteriously falling off the USS Harry S. Truman, I cannot help but think, did something else happen here? Then this ship just happened to miss the landing, or it just happened to fall off. Like those stories, just to me, they're not like quite checking out as, oh, that makes sense. It's a usual thing that happens. Planes just roll off aircraft carriers all the time. And there's been like multiple, multiple instances just like this over the past few months,

multiple instances. And when you look at like, you know, what is Pete Hegseth saying while this is going on? You see Pete Hegseth like yesterday, like when we were learning about some of this new stuff with the Houthis and we were learning about, you know, these wars breaking out between India and Pakistan. You see Hegseth posting things like, no more woke bullshit in my military, kiss my ass. And it's like, okay, talk tough all you want. Like you're the worst. You're completely incompetent. Like our fighter jets are just being lost off our aircraft carriers. We're being attacked.

The world is on fire. And you're complaining about wokeism. Like get over yourself. Do your damn job. You mean, Brett, you don't think we're getting accurate information from the slow the testing down guy? You don't think he's giving us up-to-date details on everything? I'm going to say probably not. I'm going to say probably not.

It's also really weird, too, to, like, very quickly enter into, like, a ceasefire agreement with the Houthis after talking so much shit. Like, just think about it. Like, you're the United States of America, right? You're talking, we're going to demolish them. We're going to do talking we're gonna demolish them we're gonna do we're gonna F them up I mean right they want everything and then eight Reaper drones go down we lose two f-18s and then Donald Trump said he's like you know they're very he called the Houthis honorable people in a press guy because the very honorable people we trust them we're doing this he was like yeah they took our they took our hits very well. They were

quite brave out there. You're calling the Houthis brave? What are you doing, man? You're the commander in chief. Act like it. When we come back, I want to talk about this too, Brett, because we've covered a lot of topics. Wow. In a short period of time already. But I want to bring this too, because we've gone from real credible scientists, people like Dr. Fauci, who are out to now you have people who are in. And Fauci wasn't the surgeon general, but, you know, but but we had, you know, top doctors who used to be the surgeon general. But right now, for example, Trump fired his prior surgeon general pick, who was a Fox News host. But she was actually somewhat qualified, but she was pro-vaccine. So that made her go. The same way Donald Trump fired the head of FEMA today,

who was a MAGA guy, but he said that FEMA really needs to help communities. And so Trump fired the FEMA guy because the FEMA guy was too pro-FEMA. And the Fox host that he had as the Surgeon General was too pro-vaccine. So they bring in someone named Casey Means. Now, Casey Means is not a licensed doctor. She quit during her residency. She never made it through her residency, which by the way, as I've said before, as it relates to Jim Jordan, he never took the bar exam. And I said, look, I took the bar exam. Does that make me a smarter person because I passed the bar? I would prefer a licensed lawyer with experience to lead the Judiciary Committee.

So the fact that you have a not licensed lawyer in Jim Jordan, I don't like that. The Judiciary Committee, someone who never passed the bar exam, same thing too. Surgeon General, let's start with you passed your residency and you're licensed as a doctor. We could go up from there, but I also don't like when the Surgeon General said that the way she found love at the age of 35 was through shrines, full moon ceremonies. She talked to trees and then did mushrooms. And that was part of her plan. We've got a lot more to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast, although we covered a lot right there. We'll be right back after a quick message. I want to remind everybody, go to MidasPlus.com, support our sub stack.

Go to Patreon.com slash Midas Touch, and we're going to have another Zoom meeting with our patrons soon there. And store.MidasTouch.com, get that Midas Touch gear. And for everybody in Canada, we got that elbows up Canadian gear, 100% made in Canada over there. And then the rest of the stuff is here in the US. But we may have to make some gear for our Australian supporters. Elbows up in Anthony Albanese's honor.

Elbows up, elbows up. Let's take our first quick break of the show. It's 2025. Why aren't my blinds smart and automatic like the rest of my home? Are your blinds still from 2025? Look, there's a better way to buy blind shade shutters and drapery. It's called 3-Day Blinds. They are the leading manufacturer of high-quality custom window treatment in the United States. And right now, if you go to 3dayblinds.com slash Midas, they're running a buy one, get one 50% off deal. Look, we can shop for almost anything at home. So why not shop for blinds at home too? 3dayblinds has local professionally trained design consultants who have an average of 10 years plus experience. They provide expert guidance

on the right blinds for you and the comfort of your home. Just set up an appointment and you'll get a free, no obligation quote the same day. It's what I did. And then I put their blinds all over my home, except for right there because my neighbor's a Midas Touch fan and she likes to see her green friends when I do these hot takes. Look, if you're not very handy like I am, just go trust them. They come into your house, they figure it out for you, and you're not going to regret it. I am so happy I have three-day blinds. Look, it's 2024. I have so many smart gadgets and gizmos in my house.

Why not do that for your blinds as well? That's what I did. I'm very happy. So right now, get quality window treatments that fit your budget with three-dayblinds.com slash Midas for their buy one, get 50% off deal on custom blinds, shade shutters, and drapery for a free, no charge, no obligation consultation. Just head to 3dayblinds.com slash Midas one last time. That's buy one, get 50% off when you head to the number three, dayblinds.com slash Midas and spell Midas right. M-E-I-D-A-S. Thank you. This episode of the Midas Touch podcast is brought to you by Graza.inds.com slash Midas. And spell Midas right. M-E-I-D-A-S. Thank you. This episode of the Midas Touch Podcast is brought to you by Graza.

And yes, it's my new favorite olive oil. It's fresh, never blended, and comes from a single type of olive, the Pocual. Straight out of high-end Spain, where over half the world's olive oil is made. So what makes Graza so good? First, its single origin, which means no mystery blends, just pure, flavorful oil you could actually trust. And the packaging? Game changer. Squeeze and spray bottles, no drippy mess, no fussy tins, just aim, squeeze, done. They've got three types.

Frizzle, the newest one for high heat frying and grilling. Sizzle, your go-to everyday oil for sautéing or roasting. And Drizzle, a bold finishing oil you'll want to put on everything. Yes, even ice cream. Don't knock it till you try it. Personally, I love using Graza. It's perfect for when I'm roasting veggies. Super clean, super flavorful, and way easier than my old olive oil setup. I've also been making some amazing salad dressings with the drizzle oil. It's so good, so convenient, I don't think I could ever go back to anything else. So head to graza.co and use code MIDAS to get 10% off of TRIO, which includes sizzle, frizzle, and drizzle, and get

to cooking your next chef quality meal. That's graza.co and use MIDAS, M-E-I-D-A-S. Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Shout out Three Day Blinds. Big update, Benji, looks like you got some Three Day Blinds behind now. Sorry to your neighbor, but those are looking pretty fresh. Shout out to Graza. These sponsors are new this year and they've just been frigging awesome. So if you're in the market for that stuff, check it out. Links in the description of audio and the YouTube. Click the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you. Benji, where to next? Treasury Secretary Scott Besson is a guy who came from Wall Street. He knows what a tariff is. He knows that tariffs are bad. There are some things

that we shouldn't even have to have debates over. We shouldn't have debates over, is there due process or not due process? There is due process. That's the United States of America. If you are even having a debate over it, the debate is in bad faith because the answer is yes, there's due process, period. You don't like that, go to Russia, go to North Korea. We have due process here, even for really bad guys. They get due process. And then if they're convicted, they get thrown in jail and we should be law and order. Law is the first part of it and then order. Law and order, that's what there should be. We shouldn't have to have debates again over is a tariff a good thing or a bad thing? We know what a tariff is. A tariff is a tax. It is a levy, quite literally, on the importer in the United States, which is passed on the consumer.

It's the biggest regressive tax in American history. That's what's taking place. That gets passed on to the consumer. That's what it is. Not a hard question, but people like Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, who know better, lie. And the problem is it's this whole COVID mentality of like a miracle, it's all going to go away. It's not happening. Seven cases are going to go to zero cases while a gathering storm is happening, while the shores are moving back and the tsunami wave is coming. We see it. And all that's happening in the interim is market manipulation, which sucks because that's helping regular folk, which is why there shouldn't be a Democrat or a Republican issue.

We see what's happening at the ports. We know what's happening. I don't think we need to play the clip, but the guy who runs the port of Seattle saying he doesn't see ships. The guy who runs the port of Long Beach, which is in Los Angeles, I don't see ships, less ships. We're going to run out of supplies. They're telling us this. And Scott Besant is lying. Here was his testimony. Here's Treasury Secretary Scott Besant being asked a very simple question by a Democratic Congress member.

Who pays the tariff? You don't get much more basic than that. Here, play this clip. Who pays tariffs, Mr. Secretary? No, no, no. Ask the answer to the questions I asked, please. I only have five minutes. Who pays tariffs?

Sorry? Well, who pays tariffs? Sorry, Mr. Secretary, please. Excuse me. The question is very simply, who pays tariffs, pays tariffs mr chairman i'd like him to answer that question uh well he wants to answer other questions well congressman if the congressman if the exporters they dislike tariffs so much they why wouldn't they if I think what you're trying to get me to say. Did you remember the question? I'm not sure you did. Who pays tariffs?

It's a very complicated question. Reclaiming my time. People pay tariffs, right? Reclaiming my time, Mr. Secretary. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Secretary. Reclaiming my time. You clearly aren't going to answer. I'm not going to waste my time having you go, uh, uh, uh, uh.

Mr. Secretary, reclaim. You know what he was trying to say? If the exporters dislike the tariffs so much, just a barrier for them to do trade based on the levy that's being imposed on the importer. So when they go, oh, well, they're going to eat the tariff. What do you mean they're going to eat it? What are we even talking about? They're going to eat it? No, it's going to happen what happened in China,

where there's now basically a trade embargo. No one's eating it. I don't know what they're talking about. I don't even know what eating it means, honestly. I guess the only – If we really want to dig into this stupidity, and I don't know why I'm bothering, I guess the company can eat it and then pay the consumer to buy their product, I guess, if there's 145% tariff. It doesn't make any sense. They just say phrases. You don't have the cards, Zelinsky. You don't have the cards.

Fold. He doesn't have the fold. He didn't have the cards. They're going to eat it. They're going to eat the tariffs. They just say shit. And their words don't have any meaning. In that case, wouldn't the importer be the one eating it if they didn't pass it on to the consumer?

Yeah. And by eating it, you mean the exporter would need to make their prices lower. So when you still add the tariff to the lower priced good, it technically evens out what it was, but then you still have the tariff. And a lot of these tariffs are like the China tariffs over 100%. It's like 145%. So it's not even a possible thing. One of the things that we've seen also is that, and remember, when it's a China tariff, that's like Ben saying, a tariff on the imports coming from China that's being paid by American businesses. That's America paying more. That's the American consumer paying more. And it's pretty obvious why Scott Besant didn't want to

answer that because he would be directly contradicting Donald Trump, who continues to lie about what a tariff even is. Or maybe he honestly doesn't even know what it is because when we watched that ABC interview the other day, it showed that his mental capacities were at rock bottom. And so perhaps Donald Trump doesn't even know what this is. Who knows? But Scott Besson definitely knows what this is. And he's just trying to protect Donald Trump here by continuing to lie to the American people about what's going on. I think one of the interesting things that I've seen, I'm not sure if you guys have seen this, but on social media, a lot of companies now are posting their tariff bills. And a lot of these people are people, you know, small business owners who supported Trump. And I

think it's actually a really interesting trend that we are seeing, whether it's on Blue Sky or Twitter or on Facebook or whatever, people posting like their statements from DHL that says, in order for you to take this package, you not only have to pay the price of the goods, but you also owe and its prices are exorbitant. Like for, you know, goods that don't even cost that much. They're paying thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars that they now have to pay. And so when Donald Trump says, we're getting rich, we're getting rich, maybe he's just speaking about himself because the people who are actually paying those fees are American businesses and the American people. Now, most employment in America actually comes from small and medium-sized businesses,

right? The big corporations are out there lobbying for their exemptions, but the small and medium-sized businesses are getting absolutely screwed. And so when Besant or Lutnick say, well, look, I've spoken to a lot of corporations and they've already built up the inventory to be ready for this situation. Small and medium-sized businesses are not. And what this all leads us to head towards, I've said it before, I've called it a Tom Hanks moment. Because remember when Tom Hanks got COVID, and by the way, Australia took great care of him. After Donald Trump's lies, like a miracle, it's all going to go away. It's great. Everything's amazing. Tom Hanks got COVID and then everyone was like, whoa, this is real. It's not going away.

And then we had Trump lockdowns. Remember, when is there going to be that Tom Hanks moment? Because Trump's entire life has been that. When the lies have caught up to him. And then there's been a catastrophic event that's led to a bankruptcy, right? What Donald Trump do in Atlantic city created three casinos right next to each other that cannibalized each other. He over leveraged it. He told everybody it was going great. And then one day bankrupt, everybody loses their jobs. Contractors don't get paid. Employees get fired. It devastates all of Atlantic City. And there were so many people saying, dude, if you open up three casinos next to each other and you take and you're over leveraged the way you are, of course,

you're going to go bankrupt. And Trump would try to get those people fired. The experts fired, right? That's what Trump did during COVID. When the Ponzi scheme runs out, he blames the expert. And now he's trying to Dr. Fauci, the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. And so when things go bad, when it all blows up, they're going to blame Powell. And you're going to hear Powell did this. If he just lowered the interest rates, we'd be good. You would have figured it out. That's the campaign that they're running right now. Now, let me show you this treasury secretary scott besant like all these trump regime members they go on tv and they talk about because donald trump donald trump says

alcatraz they say alcatraz donald trump says tariff movies they say tariff movies donald trump it's just parroting what he's saying donald trump posts ai images of himself as the pope oh that's so funny you know isn't guy the funniest ever? And by the way, just let me address quickly the idea of Trump saying that this is a joke. Donald Trump said that when he claimed that he was going to bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours, he told Time Magazine that that was a joke. And he said it was in jest. And if the fake news took him seriously, they shouldn't have. So Donald Trump uses the concept of jokes, which, by the way, there's a time and a place for jokes. You know what time and a joking about bringing peace to Ukraine in 24 hours, that's not a funny joke. We're not looking for, no offense to clowns because it's a real

profession and circuses. I don't want to offend. Donald Trump, we're not looking for that in a leader. Be an adult, be grown, behave normally, just to stop with, stop with this crap. Anyway, I digress. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant has to go out there and then say, so what Donald Trump, and he has this like arrogant face too. What Donald Trump really meant, what Donald Trump really meant when he was saying that you get two pencils is that you're going to, your life's going to be much better, much better to the girls, little girls, little girls. You understand, have your pencil and your one doll here. Watch this. The other thing, too, is this reporter behind me was quite snarky the other day when President Trump talked about the girl having two dolls. And he said, well, what president didn't take

the question, but he said, what would you tell that girl? I said, I would tell that young girl that you will have a better life than your parents, that you and your family, thanks to President Trump, can now be confident again that you will have a better life than your parents, which working class Americans had abandoned that idea. Your family will own a home. You will be able to advance. You will have a good education. You will have economic freedom. That's what we are advancing. That's why you get one doll and one pencil and you pay more for it. Housing is less affordable right now, not more affordable. We're not moving towards a situation. And by the way, if tariffs are working great, then why are you trying to do deals that remove the tariffs? Of course, there's no intellectual consistency here because there's nothing intellectual going on. I'll show you this clip right here of the ultimate irony is let me show this video of

these little girls that the Trump campaign and like the MAGA supporters put out there during the campaign, where even just, it just, there's always a clip for everything with Donald Trump, right? Where these little girls were like, he's going to give us more Barbies and we're going to get Barbies cheap. And that's like the message that right-wing media was pushing over and over again. We're going to get Barbies. And now literally Trump central planning says you get one doll and one pencil. Here, watch this. What do you want him to do?

What do you want him to say today? I want him to lower prices and lower the taxes and make Barbies cheaper. Make Barbies cheaper? Yeah. Tell me more about that. Have they gotten expensive? Yeah. And Polly Pockets. All my favorite toys are so expensive. By the way, real quick, that's what indoctrination looks like. I feel for those girls. And they're just given talking points by their parents to say these things at these rallies. And it actually breaks my heart a bit. I haven't seen that clip. Holy cow. There truly is a clip for everything. Un-frigging-believable. somehow the FBI director, he shows up for a Senate hearing today on the FBI budget. And he doesn't do his homework, right? He doesn't hand in his homework, which like literally you have to turn over the budget so that the Senate can go through it

and ask you about your budget. So the senators are asking him, where is it? You know, it was due by law. It was due and you violated the law. Are you going to follow it? Watch FBI direct. This is why this shouldn't be a Democrat or Republican thing, right? This is why this should just be an American people thing. And the American people think, wait a minute, you're not even doing your homework. You're not even submitting the budget. And then when he's asked, like, so are you just going to violate the law? He's like, I'll submit it to you when I want to submit it to you. Just think about that. Just think about where you work. Matt, you tell your boss, did you hand in your thing? No. Why? No, I'm not going to do it. Do you plan on doing

it? No. When? When I want to. Here, watch this clip. I have a timeline on that. It was due last week by law. I understand. And your answer is you just understand you're not going to follow the law? My answer is that I am following the law, and I'm working with my interagency partners to do this and get you the budget that you are required to have. And you have no timeline? No. Well, we also need a full budget request, not a single paragraph full of wild talking points that we saw with the skinny budget proposal. We're now having a budget hearing without a budget request. So, Director Patel, where is the FY2026 budget request for the FBI?

It's being worked on, ma'am. Have you reviewed it? Have you approved it? Not yet. When will we get it? As soon as I can get it from my interagency partners and get it approved. Six months from now? I don't know, ma'am. Well, how do we as Congress do our budget and our work without that request and without the spend plan? Well, ma'am, I'm here. I'm doing the best I can. I can't make up answers. I'm going to commit to you to work on getting you the information you need. That that is insufficient and deeply disturbing. No response.

I've given my response. Again, can you imagine if Pete Buttigieg, transportation secretary, can you imagine if the previous FBI director under Donald Trump was, you know, who was competent, showed up and did that? Can you imagine what we'd be talking about here? And again, what the hell is that? This is where, again, I don't care what political party you're from. You watch that and you think about, wait, these are the people who are making economic decisions. These are the people who are making decisions over war and peace. These people have access to military.

These people are idiots, and they're dangerous, and they're lazy, and it's not a political thing, and they're just there to dismantle. They're not there to be efficient. If you want to be efficient, Department of Government efficient, maybe efficient is submit the budget. It's the first part of efficiency. We've got a lot more to discuss. I want to talk about Cardinal Robert Prevost becoming Pope Leo XIV in his post and MAGA freaking out after they've looked at his social media post. They didn't seem to like that at all. I'll talk about the big, beautiful disaster that is the MAGA Republican budget bill. Reminder, everybody, go to store.midastouch.com.

During the last break, there was a lot of people at store.midastouch.com. I guess everybody's gearing up for the summer gear. Go at store.midastouch.com. I guess everybody's gearing up for the summer gear. Go to store.midastouch.com. Also, MidasPlus.com, the fastest growing sub stack in these United States and the world. Subscribe to MidasPlus.com. We'll be right back after our last quick break. Long work weeks and busy weekends can leave you feeling, and looking, depleted. Prolon's 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet works at the cellular level to rejuvenate you from the inside out, providing real results.

And now, they're upping their game with the new NextGen 5-Day Program, delivering the same science-backed benefits in a cleaner, more convenient, and more flavorful format. Prolon is a plant-based nutrition program featuring soups, snacks, and beverages designed to nourish the body while keeping it in a fasting state, triggering cellular rejuvenation and renewal. NextGen builds on the original Prolon with 100% organic soups and teas, a richer taste, and ready-to-eat meals. Developed over decades at USC's Longevity Institute and backed by top U.S. medical centers, Prolon has been shown to support biological age reduction, metabolic health, skin appearance, fat loss, and energy. Now, I did the five-day program and I feel so much better. Now I can't wait to experience

Prolon NextGen and continue to see results. For a limited time, you can be first in line to experience the new NextGen at special savings. Prolon is offering the Midas Touch podcast listeners 15% off site-wide, plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their five-day program. Just visit ProlonLife.com slash Midas. That's P-R-O-L-O-N-L-I-F-E dot com slash Midas to claim your 15% discount and your bonus gift. ProlonLife.com slash Midas. Even if you think it's a bit overhyped, AI is suddenly everywhere from self-driving cars to molecular medicine to business efficiency. If it's not in your industry yet, it's coming fast. But AI needs a lot of speed and computing power. So how do you compete without costs spiraling out of control?

Time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI. OCI is a blazing fast and secure platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, plus all your AI and machine learning workloads. OCI costs 50% less for compute and 80% less for networking. So you're saving a pile of money. Thousands of businesses have already upgraded to OCI, including Vodafone, Thomson Reuters, and Suno AI. Right now, Oracle is offering to cut your current cloud bill in half if you move to OCI. For new U.S. customers with minimum financial commitment, offer ends March 31st. See if your company qualifies for this special offer at oracle.com slash Midas. That's oracle.com slash Midas. Shout out to our sponsors. Prolon is like super legit, by the way. Definitely love it. Links in

description of YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes, let them know we sent you one sec. With those ad reads, like a quick aside, that's kind of funny. The hardest part for me is when you have to spell out the link sometimes, like on the scripts, it's like spell out each individual letter of the vanity of like the special URL. Trouble with letters? I really like i you could see me in the read i am hyper focused on making sure i hit every letter in order benji's looking at me like i'm so ashamed of you little brits okay i'm just sometimes sometimes you nail the read and then at the very end you've got to do the letters and then you're like and then you

miss i'm like i gotta do i gotta do it all, I didn't realize I had to spell during the reads that it's like, it's like an NFL player who's like running to the end zone. He like does great 90 yards. And then in 10 yards, he like drops the ball right before the end zone. So speaking of letters, I think we should, uh, speak about Trump's latest DUI hire, perhaps Janine Piro, uh, who is now, uh, going, we, we mentioned this at the top, at the top of the show briefly, but it is like an official thing that Trump is actually doing. Trump announced that Judge

Janine Pirro, that's right, the Fox host, aka Judge Boxo Wine, will be appointed interim United States attorney for the District of Columbia. Trump, you know, goes on and on and on about her things. I mean, he's appointing her because she's a Fox host. Trump actually had pardoned her husband for crimes, I believe it was during his last administration. Hard to keep track of all of this stuff. And I remember people think this is like a meme. People think this is fake, but this is legitimate what Donald Trump is doing. Just adding to the complete and utter clown show, as Ben says, no offense to clowns, but the clown show of the Trump administration that we are seeing right here. This, of course, after Ed Martin, the previous U.S. interim attorney for the District of Columbia,

was withdrawn from his nomination today because of his overall, he was just too crazy for, even too crazy for the magazine. Ed Martin was the guy who actually, he defended the January 6th insurrectionists, he defended the January 6th insurrection. If you saw a lot of the memos that we covered that Ed Martin has released while he's been interim US attorney, it is straight out of authoritarian governments, like very scary stuff. He's the guy who put forth all of those various memos saying, like, if you criticize Elon Musk, we're going to come after you with the full power of the Department of Justice. Like this guy is a complete and utter lunatic. So he's gone and we got another lunatic, I guess, in his place. Now, Judge Jeanine, Donald Trump picking again

from the Fox News propaganda pool. Ben, your thoughts on Judge Jeanine as a U.S. attorney, a very what used to be a highly respected position. Well, just look at his cabinet and look at his hires. They're all Fox hosts, right? I mean, you've got Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, was the former co-host of Fox & Friends weekend show and a Fox News contributor since 2014. Sean Duffy, who got famous from the Real World Road Rules Challenge, was a former Fox co-host of the show called The Bottom Line on Fox Business, and he was a Fox News contributor since 2020. You have Pam Bondi, who co-hosts The Five on Fox News three days in August 2018. And she was a guest who frequently appeared on The Hannity Show and on Laura Ingraham

and Jesse Waters. And then the other positions, whether it's Dan Bongino or Tulsi Gabbard or you name them, I mean, these people are, you know, he hires Fox hosts. It's why I call Fox state regime media, because there is no separation between the regime media and the Trump administration. You know, and, you know, there's Sean Duffy right there. I mean, you know, we've seen plane crash after plane crash after plane crash. You know, this guy, we've seen plane crash after plane crash after plane crash.

You know, this guy like then takes like selfies of himself and he'll like be like, ooh, so good to be home on Friday for the fiesta. Hashtag Latino wife. She's making me tacos. And by the way, Sean Duffy's wife, I'm not making that play word for her to tweet that he says, hashtag Latino wife. And then Sean Duffy's wife is currently a host on the Fox morning show right now. You know, Lara Trump has her show on Fox. It's just a bunch of Fox hosts. And it's a bunch of people who cosplay and they, they like, they dress up like it's Halloween, um, you know, or I guess for Duffy, Dia de los Muertes. And they're pretending, they're playing

make-believe. And politics has become so gamified by corporate news that we're like, these people are not, these aren't the people who should be in these positions. Again, stop Republican, Democrat. I don't really think that we should have WWE wrestlers become actual professional athletes. You know what I mean? What in the world is going on here? Anyway, there's nothing to say about judging. This is ridiculous. This is an embarrassment right here. You know,

maybe not quite as embarrassing of the secretary general or the surgeon general that Trump's picking. Casey means not actually being a licensed doctor and not passing her residency, but maybe it's tied or quite close. The big, beautiful budget bill, that's what Donald Trump's calling the stupid thing, which is going to gut your Medicaid, like $880 billion. One of their scams they're trying to do is shift the Medicaid financial burden to states. Many states already have trigger laws, which would automatically stop state funding of Medicaid if federal funding shuts off. But then even states that don't have the trigger laws, they don't have the funds to fund Medicaid. There's a role for federal government, right? You need federal government to do certain things. States don't have the ability to coordinate natural disasters themselves. They can help.

They don't have those resources. States don't. That's why our system of federalism relies on cooperation between the federal government and state governments. So Trump fired the FEMA guy, who was a MAGA guy, because the guy said he takes his job, but even though he's MAGA, he says FEMA needs to do a better job reacting to the states. See you later. Bye-bye. That gets you fired. They walked him in and they perp walked him out today. MAGA FEMA guy, just because he said he cares about FEMA. You have to be like a Linda McMahon who runs the Department of Education, who's willing to gut $2 billion in mental health money for mental health treatment in schools. That's what they're doing because she's so rich, it doesn't affect her. And she doesn't give a crap about public schools. They care about private schools and helping businesses run private schools. So Linda McMahon gets rid of all mental health treatment in public

schools. And she says, oh, I, I, she's so rich. It doesn't mean nothing matters to her. She's like, yeah, I'm going to fire myself. So they try to destroy the Department of Education from within. Anyway, moving back to though this budget, what they call the big beautiful bill that gets Medicaid and it's not beautiful. It's a big disaster. You have MAGA Republicans at war with each other basically because one group of MAGA Republicans want to get rid of Medicaid. The other group of MAGA Republicans want to get rid of Medicaid. The other group of MAGA Republicans want to get rid of Medicaid. They just don't want people to know about it. And because you all have made loud noise, we've all exposed it. Democrats have exposed it. The people have

exposed what they're doing. They tried to hide it. They tried to say, no, this is actually 800 and billion getting removed from like the commerce committee. And we're like, okay, that means Medicaid. Okay. That means you're getting rid of Medicaid. So they got caught there. Now they're like, oh crap, now we're going to get voted out for sure if we cut Medicaid. So we can't do that. So now you have this tension taking place. And then on the Senate, while this reconciliation is happening, where the Senate has a bill and the House has a bill and they have to blend them together through these markups and whatever, the MAGA Republicans in the Senate are already saying we're not going to pass the House bill. Zero chance. We're all wasting your time. Don't believe me. Here's a pretty far right wing guy,

MAGA Republican Ron Johnson from Wisconsin. Here's what he's got to say. Let's play. The tax bill, will we get it before Memorial Day? No. No, there's no way because because again, unfortunately, President Trump chose the one big, beautiful bill. What he should have done is the multiple step process. I suggested three steps. Get the border funding. Second step, just extend current tax law. So we take an automatic will we get it before the end of the year quickly? Not if we don't come down with a reasonable pre-pandemic level spending. There's enough of us in the Senate that will not agree to that. Oh, boy, that's bad news.

Senator, thank you for that. Appreciate it. Have a good weekend. Appreciate you coming on. And again, this is like, don't look up, right? Like we know what's going to you don't believe him there. He said it again today. Here, let me show you him saying again today.

Here, play this clip. Arguing over, you know, additional tax provisions and getting down to a reasonable pre-pandemic spending level, but that's not the path we chose. So I think the sooner we acknowledge the fact that this current effort is doomed to fail. I'm sorry. I've got to disagree with the president on this. It's doomed to fail. I'm not going to vote for it.

I know a number of senators who will not even come. We're not even contemplating. This is not a start. Right now, as it's being written, we would actually increase the deficit. I don't think many people realize that we would actually increase the deficit. That's a complete non-starter. So no, we're not even close. So as I was saying before, you know, the movie Don't Look Up, right?

The comet or the asteroids coming and everybody's acting like it isn't. So we know what's happening at the ports. We know what's happening with this bill. We know what's happening with inflation. We know what's happening with the fundamentals of the economy. We know where that's moving. So as I said, this Tom Hanks moment where it's like, ah, that should never happen. Leadership should avoid that from happening. That may mean when you're a leader, you have to be honest. You have to confront the situation. You have to explain things. You have to let people know. You have to alter your strategies if they're not working. But Donald Trump's like a miracle. It's all going to go away. It's not what you're happening. Tariffs are the greatest thing ever. Things are amazing. Gas is $1.89 when it's not. Eggs are down 87% when it's not.

We've solved inflation. Inflation's up. That's just not how you run things. And we just want us to use our logic and our basic humanity and common sense to say, we know where this is headed. We know where this is headed. Brett, I want you to talk about the Pope, if you can, because that was an interesting pick today when we found out that it was going to be an American pope. And so there was a lot of people wondering, you know, who is Cardinal Robert Prevost, right? He's someone who spent most of his time in Peru, but he is American, who was in Chicago for quite some time. We saw this from the guy who sits on the White House's Commission on Religious Liberty, someone named Bishop Robert Barron, and he said, until America goes into political decline, there won't be an American pope. He was citing a Cardinal George of Chicago.

He goes, because the Vatican doesn't want America to have a pope while it's running the world politically, culturally, and economically. They don't want America running the world religiously. But one of the signs of America declined by the Vatican would be to pick an American pope. And so it seems that the Vatican was actually sending a message here as well to the United States. All right, we'll give you your pope now because he wasn't the front runner, you know, from, you know, and by the way, this guy's by all accounts, this Pope seems like, you know, he's, he's gonna facilitate some of the good stuff that Pope Francis did, but he wasn't the easy pick. But then when you explain it like that, you're like, oh, and MAGA's freaking out, Brett. Yeah. MAGA's losing it. I mean, just to kind of, you know, get back to the beginning here, just the basic facts.

You know, this morning, I think we all saw the white smoke emanating from the Sistine Chapel chimney. That signifies that a new pope has indeed been elected in conclave. By the way, the timing of that movie. I mean, my God, did they get lucky? But we saw yesterday there was the black smoke, which meant that there was no Pope elected. And some people thought that this was going to take quite a bit. And then I think everybody was shocked when all of a sudden the white smoke was coming up today. And we then learned about, I don't know, about an hour or

so later that the person who was selected is Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost. He is from Chicago of all places, the first pope from the United States in history, the 267th pope. He has now taken the name, you know, the popes take other names. He's taken the name of Pope Leo XIV. And immediately, you know, our researchers started looking him up and found his Twitter account right away. He tweets, not that much, but when he does tweet, he's quite intentional about it. And so, you know, his tweets are honestly the kinds of things that you would expect somebody who embraces the tenets

of Christianity to be speaking about, right? Speaking about, you know, positively about immigrants, speaking about, you know, caring for thy neighbor. When you look at his tweets, it is like the fundamentals of Catholicism, of Christianity. But I think the funny thing that kind of happens in these moments, and it happened all the time with Pope Francis, and by the way, Pope Leo XIV was actually very close with Pope Francis, shares a lot of his beliefs about things, is known to be kind of centrist, but more progressive on a

lot of these kind of key social issues. One of the things I think we realize when there are these moments is how contradictory the MAGA ideology and the Republican notion of Jesus in the United States is to that of the actual church. And when those come into conflict, MAGA doesn't know how to react. And so they lash out. They call him a DEI Pope. They call him a Democrat. They call him a woke lib. They try to just throw all these words out here to try to smear the person who is simply just speaking about the tenets of his religion and somebody who hasn't even said much, even in English at all, I don't think at this point, about his papacy. And so when you look at his old tweets, I think they're very revealing about who he is as an individual. And this is one of the reasons why MAGA is so furious right now. Cause you look at his tweets, you see some of the ones right here.

Recently, this is in February, 2025. He wrote on Twitter, Pope Francis's letter, J.D. Vance, and what the gospel asks of us all on immigration. One of the other tweets he posted around then was J.D. Vance is wrong. Jesus does not ask us to rank our love for others. A very recent post from him was about Donald Trump sending immigrants to these prison camps in El Salvador. He was harshly critical of Donald Trump on that and was retweeting other people who were being critical about that. He retweeted Senator Chris Murphy on gun control in 2017. He's tweeted in the past about Donald Trump, you know, going back at least we stopped going back at least to 2015 about the things that Donald Trump has said about migrants being highly critical of him there. And you could just go through kind of all of his tweets, you know,

go through what the things that he was saying about COVID-19. You see November 2015, sign the Catholic climate petition. So, you know, you have all these things that are happening. And so you have the typical MAGA folks, the MAGA propagandists, once again, lashing out because the concept of faith and their ideology, where their religion, let's face it, is MAGA. Their religion is Donald Trump. That is their God. And so when anybody, especially in a role like this, goes against their God, they don't know how to react. And so we saw just all these deranged posts. Laura Loomer called him a woke Marxist pope. She was like leading the charge against the new Pope. We saw this guy, Joey Manorino saying Pope Leo the 14th is not an American. He's a Democrat. Just read his

Twitter feed. That's very revealing also about the way that they view Democrats in this country. One of the comments to that person said another MAGA wrote this bolstered the new world order fight against Donald Trump and the American people, feeling discouraged. I mean, these people are, this is like mental illness that we're seeing right here. Laura Loomer was just on a rampage today. She said, this is the new pope. His name is Robert Prevost. He's the first American pope.

He's anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis. Catholics don't have anything good to look forward to. Just another Marxist puppet like Pope Francis. Catholics don't have anything good to look forward to. Just another Marxist puppet in the Vatican. Sean Davis, another one of these magas. The new Pope seems to be anti-Trump and pro-open borders. It's just so pathetic when you see this. Every kind of moment, they just have to view everything through the lens of, what does Donald Trump think about this? I must be loyal to my leader. I must be loyal to my God, Donald Trump. And it's just so incredibly embarrassing when you see it like that. This reaction was no different. But obviously, a big day for Catholics, a big day for the world out there, and a historic moment to have an American pope. I think it's just a crazy thing. I mean, just think about a pope

from Chicago who graduated from Villanova University. I mean, that's kind of wild, no? I know he spent like, what, 20 years, I think, in Peru doing a lot of things in Peru. He speaks like eight languages, obviously like a brilliant dude. And yeah, I mean, it was like the second day of them doing the voting and he's in. There you have it. So wild. I don't know if this is going to come out correct, but it's just like, MAGA attacking the Pope. It's chef's kiss, just pure comedy. What timeline are we living in?

These people are so sick. Please, MAGA, go touch some grass. Go outside. Take a breather. You're attacking the Pope? It's utterly ridiculous. Jody, think about how much they smeared former President Joe Biden and his religion. He was a devout Catholic, a practicing Catholic, somebody who went to church every single week. Every Sunday he'd go to church. How they hold up Donald Trump as this beacon of religiosity and piety when he represents like quite literally every sin, Donald Trump. But you did nail it. The MAGA, their God is Donald Trump.

And he is infallible to them. And so, so that those two things are in contradiction, you know, at the end of the day. And so, you know, I mean, you see it play out, but that's why we always say here that this whole MA you know, at the end of the day. And so, you know, I mean, you see it play out. But that's why we always say here that this whole MAGA movement, it all kind of, the only way it can operate is when there are no facts, right? The only way it could operate is when they live in this alternate reality. So, Ben, you were speaking before about, you know, like what a leader would do is tell the truth, right? What a leader would do is say, these are the things that are going to be happening. There are going to be these shortages. It is going to be difficult. Donald Trump, you know. But I think what they learned from, I think they always learn the wrong lessons. They learn that you got to lie more. From COVID, they didn't learn that, oh, we should have been more prepared for this disease. We should have been more open with the American people. We should have tested more people. No, if you ask these MAGA people right now, they double down on everything they did in COVID. They say that, oh, we were actually

right during COVID. Actually, COVID wasn't really that bad, even though millions of people died. It actually wasn't that bad. Everyone just went crazy, and it was just like a little cold, and why did everybody freak out? They refused to ever step back for one second and say, you know what, maybe, just maybe it would have been better if we actually acknowledged the reality of the situation, the gravity of the situation. They just know that if they continue to steamroll with their propaganda networks and their lies and they just keep going, that they will ultimately be able to bring those MAGA diehards along with them on this fake reality journey that they have. That applies whether we're talking the Pope, it applies whether we're talking COVID, shortages, you name it. It's all propped up by this house of cards of lies. One again, if the tariffs are working so well against China right now, and we're crushing it, why are we rushing to try to make a deal? Why is Besant even talking to them? Isn't this winning?

Isn't this what they say is great? If tariffs were so great, why don't you do 500%? Why don't you do a million percent? If that's the correlation, obviously because the tariffs aren't so great. And then let's just assume there's a pause on the tariffs with China and that that's viewed somehow as a deal and a win. Like I just want everybody to think about like just the framework of the win for Trump. This is how much he's babied by corporate news, that it's viewed as a deal or a win when he slightly backpedals on a disastrous decision that he made. And whereas former President Biden has to be perfect with everything, and then even when he has 50 to 60% returns in the market to 16.2

million jobs, 40,000 infrastructure projects, record low unemployment, energy independence, the most drilling ever while focusing on climate change, bringing the semiconductor industry here to the United States. Even when you do all of that, doing all of that's never strengthening NATO, two new nations joining NATO, countering Putin's aggression. You can do all of that, but you're viewed negatively. And Donald Trump can do the most disastrous things for corporate news and then slightly unwind a disastrous thing that he did. And then that's viewed as like, oh, look, wow, he did a deal. He didn't do a deal. Stop it. He didn't do a deal with UK. With all of these 90, a trade deal takes three and a half years to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal. So the fact that Donald Trump ripped

up the USMCA, the United States, Mexico, Canada agreement, ripped up a deal he did with Japan, ripped up prior deals with the UK, ripped up a trading relationship with the European Union. I can go on and on and on. And then slightly adopts something that was part of a deal that was already in place, a deal that does not make. That's not called a deal. The problem is the incentive structure, though, I think that's in our media and in our financial system, which is completely backwards, which is when Donald Trump does backtrack on something a little bit after making everybody suffer, and then he cuts the

tariffs from, okay, instead of 100%, it's 95%. When he does these little stupid moves, what happens? You get a quick stock market pump, right? You get the news making all these headlines that they made a deal. Like that whole machine turns on. And what Trump, I think, is savvy enough to know through all of his batshit crazy moves is that he can manipulate the media easily. He can manipulate the stock market easily. He can manipulate all of his followers easily. All he has to do is do one little sort of thing and they go, oh my God, this is amazing. Oh my God. He didn't do anything. He's made things so much worse. Everything is still on. There is no deal. Let's get back to reality, folks. I know that's what we're trying to do here at the Midas Touch Network. Ben, like you said at the Milken Institute in your speech, we just got to look at these things and go like, what we're watching right now is nuts.

This is crazy. And we can never accept what we are looking at as normal. So stop being gaslighted, whether it's by the media, whether it's by billionaires, Wall Street tech bros, you name it. We all know what is going on. It is very obvious, okay? It is very obvious. And that's why they are working overtime. And that's why these billionaires are working overtime to propagandize all day long to try to hide the simple facts from the public. Jordy, take it away, bud. Shout out to the Midas Mighty! The Midas Mighty standing strong Against the fascists we sing our song We will get it right whenever

Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas Plus sub stack for ad-free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, and more. Sign up for free now at MidasPlus.com.