The MeidasTouch Podcast - MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/21/26

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Trump White House in full panic mode, so much so they had to rush out Melania Trump. The Ponzi scheme that is the Trump regime that is Bessent and Lutnik. By the way, where is Lutnik? And this entire cast of despicable characters, the Ponzi scheme is now obvious for all to see. And you've got Treasury Secretary Besson saying, I'm not really even sure why the gas prices are so high right now. You're not sure why the prices are so high? Let me explain it to you. Donald Trump launched a trade war against the world, then launched a catastrophic and unlawful war against Iran. Iran controls

Starting point is 00:00:38 the Strait of Hormuz, despite Donald Trump posting deranged AI memes of hot dogs running around the White House or himself controlling ships like a pirate in the Strait of Hormuz. The fact remains the U.S. lost this catastrophic war. It's evident for all to see the U.S. security. Architecture and umbrella in the Middle East and Asian throughout the world has utterly crumbled. America has never been weaker. That's why the Treasury yields are reaching record highs and your schemes to try to manipulate the market on a day-to-day basis are now utterly smoked out, though. They should have been a while ago, and we are in dire time. So let's just bring out Melania.

Starting point is 00:01:19 Let's just bring out Melania. We'll talk about that and more. As noted, the catastrophic war continues earlier this week. said that his strategy was going to be to do nothing, just kind of disengage and that Iran was going to just crash on its own. Didn't we hear that before from the Trump regime? Although didn't you claim you won and that they wanted to make a deal or whatever? And now he's saying economic D-Day, we're going to launch the most brutal economic campaign on Iran ever. Okay, so what does that mean? We're going to go after anyone who does business with Iran. Okay, so what are you going to do

Starting point is 00:01:56 about China. I don't know. What are you going to do about North Korea? You mean my friend Kim Jong-un? I like that guy. What are you going to do about Russia? I don't know. What are you going to do about anyone who actually does business with Russia? I don't know. I'm just going to post in all caps and that'll be my solution. Talk about that. And big election week. People need to pay attention to what's going on. In another special election, this time, Jordy, your home state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in their House State District 12. Democratic candidate there. outperforming by plus 19 in a plus 18 Trump district, we saw yet another 19 point swing.

Starting point is 00:02:35 We've been seeing this in special election after special elections. Republicans have not won, get this, a single special election like this for the entire last 18 months or so, and Democrats overperforming consistently. And also Trump endorse candidates in Florida and elsewhere, not winning.

Starting point is 00:02:54 Talk about that and more on this episode. Jordy, great to see you, brothers. Great to see it too. You know, who doesn't want to talk about all that and more? Donald Trump, who always tries to deny that he actually endorsed the person after they lose, like with Corey Mills, Donald Trump, who enthusiastically had endorsed Corey Mills recently, went all in for Corey Mills with his endorsement. All of a sudden, Corey Mills loses his primary.

Starting point is 00:03:17 What does Donald Trump say? Oh, I actually told him that he should get out of the race. That's what I was actually telling him the whole time. So it actually doesn't count towards my endorsement record. So freaking pathetic. And man, oh man, did John Ossoff get in Donald Trump's head that they had to wheel out Melania today in the public after she was not seen for more than 30 days.

Starting point is 00:03:43 This whole story comes into focus. All of a sudden, Melania Trump, hello, everybody. Remember me? I'm back. Okay, interesting timing is all I'm going to say. Very interesting. time and curious, one might say. Anyway, get to see a Ben, get to see a Jordy, get to see you, Midas Mighty, Jordy. What's the latest on your end?

Starting point is 00:04:01 Brothers, Midas Mighty, it's great to be here. First thing I want to say first is Melania. Ben, if I remember correctly, you've done a couple of stories about her disappearance, like where the heck has she been. So those have gone quite viral, those videos as well that you've made, if I'm not mistaken. So just, just putting that out, I'm not saying the two are connected that now she's starting to resurface, but I'm just, I'm just. saying that that that's the cadence of events here the other thing i want to say folks is yes for those who don't know i am your resident pennsylvania proud yinser over here in pittsburg abs of frigginn lutely the energy here has shifted and i'm not just saying that to provide opium i'm just telling you what

Starting point is 00:04:43 i'm sensing here on the ground from my own personal uh day to day interacting with the people out here the energy out here has shifted in a great you know in a great positive way. I'm excited to see what that leads to. When we want to know what's going on in the country, we go, Jordy, what's going on? Jordy sticks his, puts finger in his mouth, sticks it up, sees which way. Oh, I see what's going on in Pennsylvania. Energy shift. I see.

Starting point is 00:05:07 Vive shift. Five shift alert. Exactly. Exactly. But all kidding aside, I'm being very sincere. I'm excited to see what this means as we go forward. Benji, where are we going to start today, big bro? You see, look, the Natalie Harb story isn't interesting because she's always around him.

Starting point is 00:05:25 and it's weird and people have suspicions of what's really going on. And she's referred to as a human printer and she writes the letters to him. That's not the issue. This is not a story of punching down or sideways. It's exactly the way Senator Assov deliver this, which is Donald Trump doesn't care about governing. Donald Trump doesn't care about the American people. While the American people are suffering, while the American people are paying record high prices, right now for regular gas, for diesel. As the crack spread on diesel's $102 a barrel, price of

Starting point is 00:06:04 diesel's approach in $200 a barrel over $5.50 a gallon for diesel over $4 a gallon for regular gas, much higher than that in a lot of states like in California. As the American people have their health care ripped away, as the American people are struggling to get a job, to afford rent, certainly can't afford to buy a home right now for most Americans. As Americans with kids or grandkids, or just in general, look at future generations having very little hope, what is Donald Trump doing? That's the story. You're running around in catering containers that you're hiding in with Natalie Harp, and you're out there in Ben Minster throwing yourself golf tournaments where you're awarding yourself the senior trophy and the regular club trophy when we know you didn't win. But it's just this

Starting point is 00:06:52 bizarre behavior focused on golden bowl rooms and signing your name on helipads and putting your face on money and taking statues that are bronze and painting them gold and then focusing on all of that and Natalie while the American people are like you're the guy who promised you were going to make electricity 50% less than it was before you took office and you were going to do that on day one you promised gas would be $2 a gallon right away, and it's at record highs right now. You promised that you were going to make things more affordable and make things not as expensive. And right now you claim you don't even know what affordability is and that it's a made-up word. And so that's the story.

Starting point is 00:07:38 It's the juxtaposition. It's the contrast. And that's why it resonates. And it's just fascinating as I watch corporate news, go, oh, my God, they're talking about Natalie, Natalie, Natalie. First off, she has a government position. I know that according to some of the recent reporting, she didn't want to get security clearance for at least the first year. She just declined to, apparently.

Starting point is 00:08:01 But regardless of the threats and the dangers that may or may not exist, I mean, she's someone who's around him while he's destroying the country. And she's a gatekeeper. She has an important role, like it or not. Not is the way I view it. A lot, not. But these are people who are in positions of power who are punching down at the American people. So to me, it's actually punching up to criticize the power structure that's abusing their power.

Starting point is 00:08:31 And she's included in that. It's like the way Donald Trump refers to his children, Don Jr. and Eric as though they're little kids. And Ivanka, my daughter, my kids. Like, my kids are these are grown-ass humans who are out there engaged in horrible, horrible behavior. And the moment you call these magas out, they go right into this victimhood cocoon. And they're like, oh, you can't talk about us like that. You can't say things like that. And then they go out there and engage in the most egregious and disgusting behavior.

Starting point is 00:09:01 I mean, Donald Trump is literally a sexual predator. He's been found civilly liable for sexual assault. And you've got people in the Trump regime's like, oh, you can't mention Natalie's name like that. Really? I mean, Donald Trump's an actual sexual predator. It's been found civilly liable. by a federal jury and his own Supreme Court rejected his petition for Sir Shiarari. He's on audio tape bragging that he grabs women by their genitals because he's rich and you get

Starting point is 00:09:26 away with him. He's bragging about sexual assault on tape. So please, and we have, of course, all of the footage of him attacking women reporters and calling women reporters piggy and all of these things. But let's state the obvious. Let's state the undisputed fact, as we would say in a summary judgment motion when I was a lawyer. Trump is, undisputedly, a sexual predator.

Starting point is 00:09:47 And with it, oh, that's not happened. He had happened in a jury, a federal jury. Okay, so let's just be real. Oh, the victimhood, the victimhood. And then as you have our economy suffering right now and all of the schemes that they've been running, right? You know, what was it? A week and a half ago, you had Bessence's Japanese yen scheme, right? This is ridiculous schemes.

Starting point is 00:10:09 And so we swapped euros for Japanese yen, so we wouldn't have to use dollars in the swap, kind of screwed over the European Central Bank, because we didn't give them any notice of it. It temporarily propped up the yen, but then the yen started to crash again. As we've said before on the Midas Touch Network, using the reflecting pool as the metaphor here. You can paint it blue for a little, but the algae always comes back. The algae always comes back. What's the scheme this week? The bond buyback scheme, and when you read the language of what Bessent was doing, I mean,

Starting point is 00:10:47 the whole thing sounded like a complete sham. So I had Justin Wolfers, our chief economists, go over with us. And the scheme was they were going to buy back the long-term 30-year bonds, and they were going to sell more short-term bonds to buy the long bonds. And they would try to then take out some of the longer bonds out of the supply to decrease the price, but you would only do four billion of it. So you would signal to the market that Bessent got you back. And then hopefully the market would then say, got it, we feel better about this. If we know that $4 billion is just the appetizer and he's going to protect us. But what happened 24 hours later,

Starting point is 00:11:24 those treasury yields went up even higher than they were the day before. Nobody was buying, quite literally, nobody was buying what Bessent was selling, the bonds, quite literally. And so you see this. And this looks like, and I think that there was a meme of it today of all of the schemes that he's engaged in, like which manipulation is he going to do today? Is it going to be the treasury notes? Is it going to be the Japanese yen? Is it going to be the energy market? And the meme has them kind of swatting all of these things.

Starting point is 00:11:56 And what we look like is kind of corrupt developing nation right now, where you would have these authoritarian engage in all of this behavior. And this is the type of stuff that we, as the United States, United States used to look down upon. And we used to be the beacon of predictability and reliability. And that's been completely shattered right now. So let me pause there because I want to show different clips. We'll go through all of this.

Starting point is 00:12:20 But I think that's the perfect intro, Brett and Jordy, that kind of situates where we are. And then when these Trump bootlicking cabinet members are like, how did we get here? I don't even know. That's what best is. I don't even know. It's like, yeah, I could tell you, it's very easy. you declare a trade war against the world and then lose a catastrophic war and pretend that we want it, even though we lost it and every day gets worse.

Starting point is 00:12:46 And then you have all of Donald Trump's other horrific policies. It's a very obvious thing that has happened, Brett and Jordan. What do they call it? Putting band-aids on a bullet wound. I mean, that's what it feels like right here, right? We have this massive gash right now that's self-inflicted caused by Donald Trump. And every single day he seems to do more and more things to put more. more stress on the economy, on geopolitics.

Starting point is 00:13:10 Like, you name it, you look at a sector of literally anything. Donald Trump has screwed it up. And so then people need to get in there and they need to try to surgically fix the problem. But we don't exactly have the best surgeons right now who are there to fix the problem. We get people like Scott Besson. And so they do a patch here. But that patch here, I think it was Justin Wolfers, who are the Midas Chief Economist, who did an incredible segment with Ben.

Starting point is 00:13:34 It's on our substack, Midasplus.com. You should check it out. Incredible segment breaking this down. I think of the phrase he used was that there's no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to this stuff. So when Besson does one thing, that then causes a problem in another sector, in another way. And then he then has to fix that problem. And so what the Trump administration, the Trump regime right now has been kind of devolved to is fixing all of these little problems of their own creation. And then they create new problems.

Starting point is 00:13:59 And then they have to fix those problems. And then when they're asked about it, when they're actually, you know, given a little heat by the media about it, They have no actual real answers to the people, which is why they then fall back to, oh, it was all Biden's fault. Oh, it was the media's fault. It was this person's fault. It was that person's fault. Or the new one that Scott Besson deployed today, which is the one Ben just said, was, I don't

Starting point is 00:14:22 know, how did oil get like this? This is, this is bizarre. How did this happen? I don't know. You got to tell me. What do you fucking talk about? Are you kidding me right now? These people, the gaslighting is just so unbelievable.

Starting point is 00:14:36 But this is how they get through the day. You know, I had somebody ask, you know, me earlier. They were like, how long are they going to be blaming Biden for this stuff? I was like, forever. It could be 20, 27, you know, and they'll still be blaming Biden for this stuff. They're not going to stop. This is what they do. The debt just passed $40 trillion.

Starting point is 00:14:56 $40 trillion. And Donald Trump himself is personally responsible for about 25% of that. All the debt, all of it, going back to the beginning of the United States of America. Yet he takes 0% of the responsibility. Well, the reality is, and well said, B, is that incompetence is encouraged under the Trump regime. There's no other way to talk about that. I mean, when you see Besson, how could this happen? You know, it's like that meme, and people are going to get mad at me because I know this

Starting point is 00:15:23 is like a cult following show, but I don't know it. It's the one with the guy in the hot dog suit. How could this happen? Besson, because of you, dude, because of your sheer incompetence, because of the entire Trump's regime's sheer incommendant. sheer incompetence day after day after day. And don't play, like, you did this intention. Like, this was intentional.

Starting point is 00:15:43 You know that all the decisions that have led up to this moment have led to that. Absolutely. Can we just pause for a second to and just talk about how utterly weird like the Trump regime is? Like, brothers, might as mighty. Do you guys remember Biden's version of a Natalie Hart? Oh, no, you don't because it didn't exist. What about Obama's, though? Obama's Natalie Hart.

Starting point is 00:16:05 You guys know, remember her right? No. What? Okay. George W. Bush's version. No, it's never, like, the reality is, is this regime, the Trump regime is made up of these strangest cartoon reality star characters. And I use star very loosely there, obviously, characters that have ever existed.

Starting point is 00:16:28 Now they just exist within our government and not not the phone again. Benji, over to you. I know what's happening. I know. For the sketch comedy fans out there, I got to say, I think you should leave with Tim Robinson. It was the show, Jordan was referencing. I only mildly judge the Trump and Natalie relationship on the terms of the Trump-Nat-Lat-Lat-Lay relationship. I purely view the issue as this is what they're doing while the American people are suffering.

Starting point is 00:16:56 And I think that's how we need to take the perspective of it. You know, what's interesting, too, though, is to see how world leaders are responding to Donald Trump's threats. And I think presidently of South Korea typifies what's happening right now, which we've seen in Canada and elsewhere. Where Donald Trump will threaten now, I'll threaten, I'll threaten, I'll threaten. We're going to remove our troops. We're not going to help you. And the response is, okay, good. We actually don't want you. So we appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:17:30 and see you later. And if you want to be a peacemaker, good luck. So as you now know, Donald Trump has been on a tear in his own mind, threatening South Korea and praising Kim Jong-un and saying, it's so hostile that the United States would do joint military exercises with South Korea. While North Korea has been such a model international citizen,

Starting point is 00:17:54 they've been so great. I mean, meanwhile, you have like North Korea, number one, helping Iran against Donald Trump, If Donald Trump is trying to go after Iran, I mean, you may want to understand some of the connections here, North Korea, helping Russia, North Korea, helping China, North Korea. As part of a broader alliance, that's at least what our commanders have actually said. But you have North Korea launching all of these ballistic missile tests bragging about their nuclear weapons, overtly threatening the United States. If you listen to what Kim Jong-un saying. And then Donald Trump, again, makes up in his own mind.

Starting point is 00:18:30 that he's having conversations with Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-un's sister came out with a public statement. She's like one of the top officials there in South Korea, which is kind of like the way Trump runs things like Ivanka and Jared Kushner. So that's the way these authoritarian dictatorships are. But in any event, Kim Jong-un's sister's like, yeah, we're not talking to him. We have no clue what he's even saying. Like, it's humiliating.

Starting point is 00:18:52 Can I quote what she said? Because I feel like the exact words of what she said were even more humiliating than that. She said that Donald Trump's comments were, quote, not even worth commenting on. And she said, quote, they were completely uninteresting and that she's completely unaware of any contact between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. I mean, how freaking pathetic. And, you know, like you're saying, in the one breath you have Donald Trump, again, tweeting all caps, you know, economic deed day against Iran. And if you're helping Iran or you're trading with Iran or doing anything, whether militarily or economically, where going to be. going to come after you. And then you think like, okay, so who are those people? And as you said,

Starting point is 00:19:33 it's North Korea, it's Russia, it's China. It's all the people that Donald Trump praises endlessly. And so if you're not going to go after them and Donald Trump ain't going to go after them, trust me, then he's got nobody to go after. I mean, who else of the major players even is there to go after? And so just another one of Donald Trump's empty threats, what are you going to do more sanctions? I think Iran is like sanctioned to death right now. They've got a lot of sanctions on them right now. Like the problems are never really thought out. They're just another all caps kind of threat, tweet. And again, it makes Donald Trump look that much weaker in the same way Iran's been following us and they've been looking at oil dwindling here and us digging more and more into our

Starting point is 00:20:13 strategic petroleum reserves. They're also looking at the debt spiking over here. They're looking at the economy over here going down the tubes. And so when Donald Trump calls for an economic D-day, it seems like the only economic D-day is the one that's coming to the United States, the one that's here in the United States. But I do gotta give it to Donald Trump. If there's anyone who knows how to destroy an economy, it is Donald Trump. I will give him that. I think it's also a big reason why too.

Starting point is 00:20:39 Donald Trump starts to point his fingers at our allies and starts to attack our allies because he's not getting, I guess, the emotional gratitude when he goes after these, you know, other other leaders, like the King John, like he's not satisfied with their responses and that they push. It's so bizarre to me to see then the pivot to attack our allies. Well, it's just like if when he's a loser in litigation, he's a loser in everything in life. Yes. So what does he do when he loses the case? He attacks the judge. It's so unfair. What does he

Starting point is 00:21:09 do when he doesn't like the fact that the treasury yields are rising or he doesn't like the fact that interest rates will probably have to increase. He attacks the Fed and goes after them and just screams at them. And it's like, dude, it is you. You're the loser. Everybody knew that tariffs would increase inflation. And when you run a trade war against the world, they're going to respond. And it's also going to cause the consumers here in the United States to pay more money. And it's going to be bad. When you invoke a 1930s tariff statute that has not been used since 1930, maybe the reason is because that's what led to the Great Depression or accelerated the Great Depression. And the Smooth-Hawley Tariff Act is not something you want to rekindle in 2026. But in any event, you have President Lee of South Korea,

Starting point is 00:22:02 who'd he meet with today and who is he meeting with in the next 48 hours? Wang Yi of China. That's China's foreign minister. South Korea is going to turn to China and say, got it. Well, we're not with the U.S. anymore under that security umbrella. So we're going to have to look elsewhere and we'll look to China and we'll have to improve our relations there. And President Lee, in his post, this is what he says, and this is obviously mocking Donald Trump. He goes, I have carefully reviewed the recent SNS messages and photos posted by President Trump, S&S or the social network messages. Those are, he's saying, I've closely reviewed Trump's social media messages.

Starting point is 00:22:43 And then he goes on to say that this message from Trump feels like a significant decision, deeply infused with the liberations aimed at transcending high. hostility and confrontation on the Korean peninsula to create peace. And it's Donald Trump's meme of Kim Jong-un saying, hey, Donald, we cool, right? They're mocking. I want you all to realize what President Liam South Korea did. He's mocking Donald Trump and saying that this is deliberation infused with great

Starting point is 00:23:13 amount of thinking. And then he goes, and then he goes, okay, you want to be peacemaker? Good luck. We wish you the best. And what did Kim Jong-un do in the past 12 hours? I could go back 48 hours. Past 12 hours. Ballistic missile test.

Starting point is 00:23:29 Ten ballistic missiles or so. Ten short rain ballistics, the guy shot after Donald Trump saying it. And then that's what Kim Jong-un did. And so President Lee of South Korea is like, I've seen first the messages on social media. And he's mocking Donald Trump for not, like, you're not going to go through commanders. You're not going to go through the military. You're not going to go through your ambassadors. But that's how the world views the United States right now.

Starting point is 00:23:53 You know, I feel like every kind of major power right now in the world is employing the same strategy against Donald Trump. And that's the famous, never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake. And I think Iran's doing a version of that, right? Like, you know, all the, you know, assassination threats, this, that, it's like, as Ben has said on the show, many times, like, why would they even want to do anything to Donald Trump? He's destroying everything on his own. He is their weapon of mass destruction. So let him destruct. I think Canada's handling things the same exact way.

Starting point is 00:24:24 I think you see China just stepping back. Okay, America retreat. Okay, retreat. Okay. See you later. All right, South Korea. Hey, what's up, guys? You're doing good?

Starting point is 00:24:35 You're doing good. Let's want to hang out? Want to hang out? I know that guy was crazy. So let's chill, man. Let's chill. Let's hang out. And so you're seeing all these countries right now take this opportunity.

Starting point is 00:24:45 And all they have to do is nothing, nothing. It's like Seinfeld, the show about nothing. It's a geopolitical war. all they have to do is nothing. They just have to sit back and let it all happen. You know, they're like the first year they were kind of feeling it out, right? You think about like a boxing match, right? And you kind of feel it out. You feel it out. Even where you are a, quote unquote, inferior power, you're still a heavyweight, right? I mean, countries usually still know what they're doing, right? If you're in the World Cup, you may not be Spain or Argentina,

Starting point is 00:25:15 but you're still in the World Cup for a reason. You could still play, right? You know what I mean? And so you're feeling it out. You usually have the smartest people, top people around you, expert. So you're feeling out, you're like, okay, this person, this entity, the United States, they have the reputation of being the best, the strongest, the power. They created the game. Okay, we've got to respect the game, even if it's a crazy person. And then it's like in a boxing match, you know, like what if the boxer who's, you know,

Starting point is 00:25:42 the undisputed heavyweight starts just like going like this, like going crazy? It's like, all right, that's a little weird. That's a little weird. but like maybe that's part of the plan and then we're going to get like sucker punched and so like even though they're doing that it's not i've never seen that boxing strategy that's a little freaking crazy all right let's let's wait a little bit then round two they do it again all right it's a little bit weird and then you start to jab jab and then the and then the big boxer keeps okay and they're going to punch back oh then they go oh i'm going to punch you really hard i'm going to punch you really

Starting point is 00:26:11 hard okay pop pop pop right back at you and the big heavyweight still like doing that okay this is Could this person actually fight? Like, what are they doing? Like, what are they doing? And then they keep seeing the person and then the person starts punching themselves in the face. And that's what Trump's doing. Like this starts punching himself. And then so these countries are like, oh, oh, it's like that.

Starting point is 00:26:32 Like, you dumb dumb. Like, oh, got it. This is the game. Okay. And then Trump's like, what, you want? You want this? You want this? You think you could handle this?

Starting point is 00:26:44 And then these countries are. watching him like okay okay for the audio listeners Ben is punching himself and on yeah there this is a very physical bit that's like gonna make sure you subscribe to our youtube channel and check right now make sure you subscribe that may not translate at all for any audio listeners yeah this is what are so many action there's so many actions and for the audio listeners they're going to be like what are we doing here you get you can is taking off his shirt right now. Ben, you don't have to get into this bit. Ben, easy.

Starting point is 00:27:19 Let's take our first quick break of the show. WTF America is the name of the book that I wrote with my brothers. It comes out in October 20th, pre-order WTF America right now. Lots of momentum behind it. We hope you'll pre-order it. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel as well. Let's take our first quick break of it. It's a good bit. I came up with it on the spot. Let's take our first quick break of the show. After checking how much I spent eating out last month, I was honestly shocked. So switching to Home Chef, that's been a real game changer for me. Home Chef makes cooking simple, fresh food delivered, easy recipes to follow, and meals that actually

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Starting point is 00:30:52 If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. SpringSleep, new sponsor to the network. Definitely check that out. That's very, very, very cool. Home Chef, obviously, everyone loves them. Real quick, before we move forward, just want to say the bit with my phone over here earlier, not planned for those who listened to the show on Tuesday,

Starting point is 00:31:09 watched it Monday night. I had a lot of noises going on. I did not force, a phone call here I saw some comments saying I did that on purpose did not do that in purpose and Ben great physical podcasting today so far I'm really happy you know like physical comedy like the guys that you like on SNL back in the day with Ben's a physical podcaster tonight and fantastic and speaking speaking of physical comedy and audio comedy I want to remind everyone to make sure you're also that you're subscribed to the Midas

Starting point is 00:31:35 Touch podcast on audio we did get some emails from people saying that they were having trouble playing the episodes on the feed so just go into the Midas Dutch podcast be to like Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, play the episodes, make sure it's working for you. Let us know in the comments. All right, Ben, what's next? Look, I think I approach this. I know, I hope I approach as or you feel I do. This isn't coming like the Democratic perspective, the independent perspective, a Republican perspective, or whatever.

Starting point is 00:31:59 I mean, using the World Cup football analogy or soccer in the United States, you want your best players out there, right? You don't want to send out a JV team to play a game. to play against other teams that have the best from their countries, you can't underestimate it. And the Trump regime always underestimates while putting out the worst people. And it's led by the worst possible captain in Donald Trump, who is not a leader at all, who is a bankruptor, who's been a lifelong failure and a lifelong fraud, who's put out a team of JV fraud.

Starting point is 00:32:36 It's not even good fraud. They're like JV frauds. and you watch them all head out, do their state regime media propaganda bits today. And I'll tell you, today more than ever, and this was deeply concerning. And Brett and Jordy, tell me if you feel this way also, amongst really bad propaganda, today kind of seemed the worst I've seen it with them. Like they all just kind of didn't even have their heart in the fraud anymore. Like they all just kind of are like, yeah, want to talk.

Starting point is 00:33:09 talk about the Grand Prix race. It's like, no, no, we don't. But we're doing a great race. And the cars, they're gonna go Zoom, Zoom, Zoom in Washington, D.C. Do you like that? People are like, dude, what are you talking about? We're still doing the American 250? It's freaking August.

Starting point is 00:33:28 We're still doing this bit. Yeah. We've reached, you know, we're in the bread and circuses phase of the Trump regime right now, but they forgot the bread. Like people can't eat. So it's just these. bizarre circuses while people are going hungry and while people can't afford things. So they're like, hey, you see the race we're doing it the way?

Starting point is 00:33:44 You see that UFC fight? That was pretty cool. That wasn't we did in Ohio when they did their hunger games when they do it. I did a video on it. I, you know, I really couldn't keep it. Other way, I don't think anyone saw it. They didn't know how other than the people that watched your thing. I did a video on it and I was reading the comments as I watched these individuals who were purported

Starting point is 00:34:09 to be the best high school athletes. And so it's called the Patriot Games. I did a whole bit on it. I won't spend that much time on it right now. But the Trump regime put out a notice to Christian schools, particularly Christian private schools, that you send an essay in a video of yourself to join the Patriot games.

Starting point is 00:34:26 And then they say if you qualify, like it's not, it's not even like, I don't wanna offend, even though these kids are probably like MAGA families, I don't really wanna offend the kids. Like I wasn't trying to mock the kids, but they're not the best athletes. They weren't really even good athletes. They were mostly all white kids.

Starting point is 00:34:40 There was like a few people who were not white in it. It was so it was just like Trump's... Someone's got to make a meme of Ben, like the MJ meme, the fuck them kids. I was very careful in how I presented it. No one made that meme. Don't do that. They basically had these like white Christian kids run around like, you know, those dog races that they do.

Starting point is 00:35:03 But I'm not even joke, Jordi. Go watch it. They had them do the dog obstacle course, And they run around and these kids are out of shape mostly. And they're trying really hard. You know, I'm 41. It would look like me doing it. It's like, you know, and they're like, these are the best athletes in the country. So the whole thing was utterly deranged.

Starting point is 00:35:25 I'm not even sure why I'm even bringing this up. But the point is, is that we're doing America 250. That was last week. They want to talk about Grand Prix this week. And the American people going back to the way Senator Rossop does it, which I think is the right way you have these discussions. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, you promised us on day one that groceries would be incredibly cheap and that you would decrease inflation. Inflation has increased. You promised electricity would be half. You promised us gas prices would have a two in front of it.

Starting point is 00:35:55 It would be two bucks. Now it's the highest nationwide ever in the history of the United States. You promised us no never-ending wars or no wars. You promised you would resolve Russia's invasion of Ukraine, you've lied about everything. And now you're doing Grand Prix. Now you're doing this with Natalie. Now you're doing golf tournaments and ballrooms and anything like, what the hell's going on? So the Trump regime brings out Brooke Rollins. Brook Rollins, Agriculture Secretary, goes on newsmax, pretty safe channel. It's regime media. They say, so is food affordability becoming a test on whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promise. Is affordability becoming a test?

Starting point is 00:36:39 Here, play this clip. With the midterms approaching, how do you see this playing out? Is food affordability really becoming a test of whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promises? No, affordability, you know, I think continues to be a key conversation as it should be. But I think we have to put this all into context. And certainly on the food side, which is what we are looking at it, USDA, protecting the food supply number one, but affordability as well. Under Joe Biden,

Starting point is 00:37:07 the cost of food went up almost 25%. I mean, this is what we're battling against right now. Under Trump, we are right at the 20-year average, which is around 2 to 3%. Blame Biden, blame Biden, blame Biden. But here's the thing, even though it wasn't Biden, but whatever, just except for the sake of argument, just except for the sake of argument. Biden didn't run. Biden dropped out of the race. So by that law, Trump should drop out, you know, or Trump should, you know, y'all hated Biden. I mean, them being the Trump regime. So you're comparing the two? Okay, so even if that's your comparison, Trump promised he would make things better. He's actually made things worse by far.

Starting point is 00:37:48 And also when they talk about, you know, they always bring up Biden's like first year or second year. And using my sports example, it's like analyzing the game in the second quarter versus the fourth quarter. You know, it's like after the team wins the game and goes through fourth quarters, it'd be like saying, but did you see the second quarter? It's like, okay, yeah, we were down in second quarter, but they won the game at the end. We can look at the totality and say, let me sharpen that analogy for you there. It's as if it's a complete rebuild. When President Biden had taken over, he was rebuilding what Trump had destroyed. It's like when new ownership and a new coach actually comes in and tries to get things back on track. And by the way, starts to make

Starting point is 00:38:25 progress there. And then all of a sudden, you know, it happens when it happens. And now the bad coach is back. And they do it in the inverse too, right? Like they're always cherry picking data and they're always trying to find like what was the sliver of time we could point to where things were okay and you see that with the way they speak about Donald Trump's first term which by the way was also a headed for of disaster and manufacturing before COVID happened but what did you hear Donald Trump and what do you hear all these people say well we were doing great we were doing really great but then oh something happened and you just you can't actually count that last year You know, you can't count the year before either.

Starting point is 00:39:01 Like, you could actually only count this tiny little period. And that's how we should be judged upon. And it's like, that's not how it works, especially when you're the guy who's mishandling all the crises, when it's your job to manage the crises. I also can't get over the fact of how on TV ready so many people in the Trump regime truly are. Like, that clip right there is super pathetic. First off, for the audio viewer, she's on Newsmax. She's on Newsmax. And she just had a layup of a question.

Starting point is 00:39:28 And all of a sudden, her MAGA brain-rotted brain just couldn't answer a simple. Yes, affordability is a huge crisis. We're doing our best to correct the oil. Just give any of that. But instead of, no, it's Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden. I mean, honestly, they have Biden-derangement syndrome. Everyone in his cabinet, including Donald Trump, suffers from deeply disturbed Biden derangement syndrome. Yeah, and Biden-Donald promised on day one that he was going to make it better.

Starting point is 00:39:58 That was his whole pitch. I mean, his whole pitch was day one, day one. And then they said, ah, give us another quarter. I give us another quarter. Ah, beginning of 2026. Ah, give us until the end of 26. Ah, give us over here. And it's like, I just think the American people are like, times up.

Starting point is 00:40:14 Like the Ponzi scheme, the Ponzi scheme is over. And look, that's why his approval right now is the lowest in modern presidential history period since 1953. It's the lowest. I know for our international viewers and people here, in the United States. It's still like, wait, 33% of people still, that's still a high number, man. Like, how does 33% still support him? But, you know, I think you have to realize that there has been decades and decades and decades of very kind of tribal behavior and right-wing media propaganda

Starting point is 00:40:48 that basically has told people in some of these, you know, red states or whatever that the worst thing in life is being a Democrat, that they're the enemy from within. in and that they're really horrible people and that, you know, and this has been generationally passed down and it didn't just happen. Although I do think people are waking up. And I think people are waking up not to say, oh, I really love Democrats and the donkey logo and I love political party. I don't think people really like politics.

Starting point is 00:41:18 I think they realize that Trump and MAGA have weaponized politics to divide us and to hurt them. So now people are looking for a politics of a county. and a politics of humanity and empathy that protects people, seeing how politics was weaponized by these con artists and losers to inflict pain and suffering upon us. Speaking about con artists, losers, here's Treasury Secretary Besson. This guy's the Treasury Secretary, okay? And he's asked a very basic question about today's spike in oil. And we all knew this was coming. we all, because it's been happening for a while, and they've been manipulating the markets for a very long time.

Starting point is 00:42:03 But as I said in the first segment, and we say in WTF America, the reflecting pool metaphor holds. You can paint it blue for a little bit. You can try to cover up your problems. You can come up with a catchy slogan. You can blame others. You can defraud. But guess what? The algae always comes back.

Starting point is 00:42:23 The gas prices are going to do what market. forces do when you have supply and demand issues. When you blow things up, both in terms of a trade war and in terms of actual war, when you blow it up, guess what? There's less things. When there's less things, there's less supply of it. When there's less supply of it and there's more scarcity, the prices go up. It's not a hard thing to realize. We don't control the strain of Hormuz. Okay? And the Houthis also control the Red Sea. And they're only enforcing their blockade against the Saudi tankers right now. But that is a major issue also. Also, Trump didn't resolve Russia's invasion of Ukraine on day one. And now you have Russia striking hard in Ukraine. And you have

Starting point is 00:43:09 Ukraine striking hard in Russia destroying lots of refineries over there. And so we have a massive, massive issue when it comes to oil, when it comes to crude. And we're seeing that reflected. And by the way, when Donald Trump's like, it's not like the price of gas is $200 a barrel. It is. I understand Donald, you're an idiot. And you don't understand the difference between the paper price of crude, WTI and Brent, which is now in the 90s.

Starting point is 00:43:42 You don't understand that. But at the refinery, the crack spread, we're talking about $102 for diesel. We're talking about the price of diesel per barrel, close to $200 per barrel. When you actually have to buy it from the refinery, what the price of diesel is. So it is at those levels. It is. And the fact that Bessent is like, we don't know. We very much know.

Starting point is 00:44:09 Let's play Besson. Let's play it. Declining. We've got a spike in oil. oil prices today that I don't really understand. You know, our announcement is for economic action. And I think that the economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner. I mean, Brett and Jordy.

Starting point is 00:44:28 I just don't understand the, our market manipulation was supposed to work. But it didn't today. I just don't get what's going on. It's like it's such a crazy thing to say. Obviously, it's all related to Donald Trump and his war. It's all related to the fact that the war. war is still ongoing, that the straight of Hormuz is still closed, that there's ships being struck in the Babamandab Strait, that there's chaos in the region, that Ukraine and Russia are

Starting point is 00:44:53 still at war. That's why Scott Besson. It's all of those things, that all those things that Donald Trump said he would either fix or never start in the first place, that is the cause of it. And literally, if Donald Trump went into office and hid in a catering cart and stood in that catering cart and ate McDonald's and KFC all day or Taco Bell or whatever he does, the economy would be better now than without him. By the way, even the stock market, which has been doing quite well, would be better if Donald Trump was in a catering cart than what he is doing

Starting point is 00:45:22 right now with his market manipulation and all of volatility. It just would be. I mean, when you look internationally, you see other markets have been doing, not all of them, but markets have been doing better than the United States. And so Donald Trump is a destructive force. And for Scott Besson to play dumb, for Brooke Rollins to play dumb about all of this, like it all traces. back to one person, but also to you, because you all are responsible for actually holding this person responsible, giving them the information. And frankly, I think this is why the Natalie Harp's story actually takes on more importance, because remember what her supposed job actually is. It's giving Donald Trump fake data is essentially her gig. Why is she called the human printer?

Starting point is 00:46:08 Because she prints out flattering articles or fake news articles or memes or whatever. And she, shows things that Donald Trump wants to see, not the actual facts. And so sometimes you don't even know, is Trump seeing the truth about X, Y, or Z? Because if he's just watching things like, you know, Fox or propaganda like that and he's just being handed things by Natalie, then you actually like, you're like, what is this guy even basing his decisions on if he's not even living in reality? And so that is also part of the problem. And it's why this is, you know, also worth further investigating. and it's why the fact that you didn't have security clearance is such a major issue. And to Ben's point, I think all of this chaos is why we're seeing such an erosion of Donald

Starting point is 00:46:50 Trump's support all over the place. I mean, I saw this truly, truly wild exit poll from CNN. And Jordy, I think this was in your Commonwealth over there, Pennsylvania, exit polls from the state over there from the elections the other night. Trump was plus 34 points amongst white working class voters in the 2024. election and the exit polls taken this week have him at negative four points among white working class voters. I mean, that is theoretically Donald Trump's base. That is essentially the reason why Donald Trump is president and to see a 38 point swing in this category is unheard of. And I saw pollsters

Starting point is 00:47:35 speaking about it. Like they have never seen something like this happen so quickly. And it is all the testament to what Trump is doing every day. You know, you could only pull the rug from under people so many times before. I think they finally hit their heads and wake up and say, hey, what you're doing right now seems to only be helping you, your kids, and the top 0-0-0-0% who hang out with you at Moralago. And not me, the working class, not me, the person that wants to put food on the table, not me that needs health care, not me that needs to be able to afford my house, not me that it is so truly despicable what the Trump regime. has been doing. A couple points here. First, with Besson and Brooke Rollins. Again, I want to say this very clear. Incompetence is encouraged under the Trump regime. And what I mean by that is they have one obligation. That's all they care about, and that is singly protecting Donald Trump. They do not

Starting point is 00:48:29 care about making your life better as an American person. They do not care about making your housing more affordable. All they care about is how in this TV hit when the press asks me questions, when I have to do reports, how can I continue to run cover for Donald Trump, a failing, aging, grotesquely evil and ugly president that is just hurting Americans day in and day out. Back to the Natalie Harp situation very quickly, too. I wanted to say this because I know I fairly made light of it a little bit earlier on the show just talking about how utterly bizarre and weird it is.

Starting point is 00:48:59 Well, it is. But it is also incredibly dangerous for the points that my brothers have laid out here. Mainly the fact, again, that she didn't have clearance. She didn't do security clearance since when is that like? an okay thing. To be the person that's hanging around the president of the United States and not going through the proper channels that everyone else has ever had to go through to be that close to the nuclear football at all times and not be properly cleared is absolutely banana land to me, man. And again, it's a testament here to this community, this pro-democracy community, who continues to call this stuff out

Starting point is 00:49:30 and make those types of points because it is only with a community like this and people who deeply care about this country that we can start to build back something that could be better than this, hopefully one day. Did you say, did you say build back better? What if I just, what if that was my new bit? I just kept dropping like Biden puns like throughout the, like throughout. I'm having PTSD from hearing those words said in that honor. Thanks, Joe Manchin.

Starting point is 00:49:58 And I give you another three letters there. WTF, that's the name of the book that my brothers and I wrote. WT.F. America. I just want fun. Because when we wake up in the morning, sometimes we just say, what the, I look at my phone. They say never a good idea to look at it right away, but that's what I do. So, you know, turn it.

Starting point is 00:50:17 Look. I go, what the F did he do today? He did this. He did this. And pre-order it right now, a lot of momentum around the pre-orders. I did an interview with Mooch, Scaramucci. I co-hosted Scaramucci's podcast. Check, you could check that out as well.

Starting point is 00:50:34 We've got a lot to discuss when we come back. I want to talk a little bit more bread about the Pennsylvania results. Kevin McCarthy freaking out, MAGA Republican disgrace speaker saying MAGA Mike Johnson has no plan. When Kevin McCarthy is saying MAGA Mike has no plan, that is a Russian nesting doll of destruction right there. Let's take our last quick break of the show. Reminder. Subscribe on audio, please. become a YouTube subscriber

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Starting point is 00:53:53 Sundaysfor-Dogs.com slash Midas or use code Midas at checkout. Let's go. Shout to our sponsors. Links in description about the YouTube and the audio. Use the links. Use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, where to next, big bro? You know, when I say I really do my best to approach this, even not as this party or that I, when I try to just give you the analysis, I just try to give you just the facts, the objective damn facts. And I think about something like what's Donald Trump doing with a steam king? catapult? What? What does it make any sense? Donald Trump doesn't like that on aircraft carriers. They were electromagnetic launch pads because that's the current best technology. And then Donald Trump says, I don't like that. Okay. What do you mean you don't like that? Who are you to judge that? You don't know what you're talking about. He goes, I like steam catapults. What do you mean? You like steam? Okay. I like chocolate chip cookies. Should I just start eating chocolate chip cookies when I'm

Starting point is 00:54:57 doing this podcast. Like, I mean, a lot of things I like, it's a very strange, you know, if I start eating chocolate chip cookies while doing the show, I'm not going to be able to speak because I'm going to have cookies in my mouth just because I will, but I want a cookie monster. That's like a version. It's like, what are you doing? Donald Trump likes the way battleships look between 1920 and 1940, likes the aesthetic, doesn't like stealth, doesn't like aircraft carriers, doesn't like the drone technology. He really likes back to the basics, is what they're calling it right now at the Defense Department. So they fired their top four stars or pushed him out like Randy George of the Army. They pushed out their head of Southcom who

Starting point is 00:55:44 didn't want to commit war crimes. They pushed out another general Donahue, top Army general. He was known as the last soldier in Afghanistan. They pushed out CQ.R. Brown Jr., the chairman of the joint, so many more incredible top military people were pushed out and they bring in sycophants who say, we got to get back to the basics. You know, one of the issues, you know, if you study World War II, as you reflect on, you know, with the U.S. kind of security umbrella in Asia collapsing, I think, about Bushido in the Bushido code and like almost like the kind of samurai code in Japan, if you will, and the warrior spirit has lots of.

Starting point is 00:56:25 of other countries were advancing in certain types of technology and the world is moving in a certain direction, this idea of U.S. going back to basics is a bit like what he talking about. Like wars are fought today with drones, drone interceptors, unmanned submersives, the FPVs, variations of what Iran is producing in the Shahid's. They're called different things here. Yes, ballistics, you need your interceptors. You need an arsenal of these things. Like, that's how modern warfare exists.

Starting point is 00:56:57 And when the U.S. runs its military simulations and did exercises with Ukraine, Ukraine kicked the U.S. military's ass where the U.S. had to respawn like a video game in the simulation over and over and over again. And the war exercises, like within minutes, Ukraine's drone swarms destroyed the entire United States military. Now, China is learning the lessons of modern warfare, and they're working. with Iran. They're working with Russia. It's not a secret, okay? They can say we know in North Korea. They're working together and bricks block nations are cooperating as well. The U.S. and Trump, Trump likes battleships. Trump likes steam. Trump no like drone. Trump like testosterone. You know,

Starting point is 00:57:49 and then they have, you know, people who, you know, look very low tea, but pretend this is what what a man looks like like a heggseth or whatever, and he's too scared to even be around the media. So he has to kick out all the media from what he's doing. By the way, hat tip to those defense reporters. They're still doing great work in New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, financial. The defense reporters who have been kicked out of the Pentagon

Starting point is 00:58:15 are awesome. MS now. They are really doing a very, very good jobs. I almost feel like it lit a fire under them in like a weird way. Like, like, you know, Trump, because for, you know, those who may not understand the context, you know, Trump kicked out all the real reporters from the Pentagon and replaced them with all these right-wing hacks who aren't reporters. And the Pentagon reporters are really freaking good, really, really, really talented. Like, I commend them.

Starting point is 00:58:41 And they're really good once they're able to kind of lock in and hone in and start getting their sources and poking here and poking there and trying to uncover what's actually going on. And they've realized pretty quickly, like, we don't actually have to be in the building to do that. And there are a lot of people in this Pentagon who want to talk to us outside of this building anyway. And so they've been getting just like some incredible scoops. You know, I feel like the kind of line in the Trump administration for the second term in the beginning, people are like, oh, there are a lot fewer leaks going on. Well, I think if you thought that earlier on, those days are certainly over. I mean, this thing is leaking like a sieve.

Starting point is 00:59:23 You know, everybody's talking because every move seems like to be made with such disdain towards the people who are working and all in order to support Donald Trump in the weirdest, most cultish ways. Even like when you look at one of the things that CNN was reporting on earlier today, the Trump regime is considering renaming the USS Doris Miller, which is an aircraft carrier that honors a black sailor who celebrated for his heroism at Pearl Harbor, they're considering renaming it after Donald Trump. And that's a real story in the mix of a lot of stories that's happened today in this week, right?

Starting point is 00:59:59 And so this is a real thing. They don't know who they may rename it after, but they want to take this ship that's named after this historic black sailor. They want to rename it after somebody, and Donald Trump's name is in contention. It's basically what the story says. And we're dealing with like a sick, like sick people. This is sick, sick, sick, sick, sick stuff. And so, you know, when you're dealing with that, I think as a reporter, you have to understand that you're dealing with sick people. You have to understand that the people, especially at the top, the Trumps, the Heggseths, those people are going to constantly lie to you.

Starting point is 01:00:34 So you have to actually get to the people who understand what's going on, who actually maybe understand strategy, how weapon systems are supposed to work, understand the needs of the military, or the soldiers aboard the USS Lincoln, you know, like Aaron Parnas here at Midas Touch, has been speaking with the families, you know, on those ships, which is finally, you know, back home. But we're seeing all this every single day, and it really paints a picture of tumult and turmoil. Absolutely. And like, I'm not saying this through shade, although it may sound like it. It's just, it's amazing the reporting that could be done when you're not worried about access constantly. We're not worried about having that access on Air Force One or access. It's amazing the type of work that can actually be done. It feels freeing. Benji. I want to go bring back the world.

Starting point is 01:01:18 Cup analogy, international football, U.S. soccer. So the U.S. had the undisputed best team in the world by far. Like, imagine a team who are some of the best players in this tournament. Messi, Holland, Bellingham, whoever, right? You name the players. Who did we have as our generals? We had the Joint Chiefs Chairman. We had CQ. Brown Jr. The Army Chief of Staff, you had Randy George, beloved, cutting edge, four star. And people loved his wife, Patty. They were like the morale booster of like the military. And Randy George was like, you know, he was like the Holland.

Starting point is 01:02:03 He was like the most popular person also. And then we had another guy, General Donahue, who was a four-star general, widely known for being the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan during the 2021 of Act. Christopher Donahue. And he wasn't even responsible for the evacuation. He was just, he went there to help and help the situation. And he's a beloved individual as well. And so what did Hague set do? Imagine a team is stacked with the best players, right?

Starting point is 01:02:36 He got rid of the best players. He got rid of him. He pushed them all out. And he replaced him with people who aren't really that good, who are like, let's go back to the basics. Let's go back to the basics. go back to the basics, everybody, and let's do what we did in World War II to fight wars in 2026. And to me, that should infuriate you, whether you're a Democrat, whether you're a Republican,

Starting point is 01:02:59 whether you're an independent, whether you're not political. That's just, it's a competence issue. It's a leadership issue. It is a just basic running operations issue. And that to me is where a lot of my criticism comes from. I mean, when you look at this Darlene, Graham debate that a lot of people are talking about and rightfully so, where she was asked to question, well, what's your view about Taiwan? What should the U.S. do about Taiwan as it relates to China? What's your perspective? And her response is, I don't know anything about it. I don't know much about it. And then she tried to justify it by basically saying, you know, at the end of the I don't know national security. I don't know anything about any of this. And so I just,

Starting point is 01:03:46 I just wanted to be honest with the people at the end of the day. And so I care about domestic issues, but I just don't know anything about national security. And that's like her line. It's like you're currently a United States senator. These national security issues relate directly to domestic issues. As we talked about before, the reason why prices are what the prices are is because there's a world and there's trade in the world and Trump's policies are having an impact here. So let me show you what happens when she goes and speaks at an event and she's asked about that answer in a very MAGA crowd. Let's play this clip. Because there are votes that go toward funding wars or declaring wars. And if you're deciding vote in that factor, how can we trust

Starting point is 01:04:33 as constituents that you'll make the right decision if you're not informed on national security issues at this moment of time? That's a fair question. But you know, I answered it honestly because I'm not a national security expert. Lindsay was, right? Because he talked a lot about national security. You know why? He spent 33 years in the Air Force. He had a military background.

Starting point is 01:04:55 So he had a lot of foreign relations and that was his focus. To me as I walked around this room and I've asked people, are y'all concerned about Taiwan? You know what they said? No. They're concerned about the price of groceries. groceries, the price of gas, rising health care costs. Is national security important? Absolutely. Can I learn? I'm smart. Yes, I'll learn. I'll become informed. Everybody has the first day on the job. President Trump, was he a politician? Has he done a good job?

Starting point is 01:05:30 Yes, he has. That's my answer. So, that's my answer. But I I will always be honest. Encourage is encouraged. Well, because here's the thing. And then they're saying it out loud, Jordy, right? Because you see who's running against her? Is Ralph Norman running against her in the primary? Yeah, yeah, Norman.

Starting point is 01:05:55 And so one of the things that you can kind of continue to hear, Trump world say, is, you know, they're like, well, what's wrong with Ralph Norman, right? He's a guy. Like, he's a guy who's been in the House of Representatives. like he's a very right wing guy. Like, what's your issue? And they're like, he's not for Trump. He's not all in on Trump.

Starting point is 01:06:14 And the whole thing is not about competence. The whole thing is, are you all in on Trump? And everything is judged by that. You could be Darlene Graham with zero experience and not understand foreign policy, even one iota. But if you're all in for Trump, then that's okay. That's all that matters in the MAGIC cult. And Ralph Norman's response may have actually been worse.

Starting point is 01:06:34 I mean, she said she didn't know. And then Ralph Norman's response is, why do you think China's so scared of us right now? Why do you think? It's like, why do you think China's so scared of? What world are you object? Like, what world are you living in? America's security, objectively, America has no security umbrella in Asia. Our last supercarrier is gone.

Starting point is 01:06:56 We have no security umbrella anywhere anymore. We're all alone. Idiot, psycho, lunatic flagpole boy, Donald Trump is talking about, being friends with Kim Jong-un. What world are you living in? And this is not Brett, Jordy, Midas Mighty. This is not like, I'm not giving you, this is a democratic position. I'm just like, y'all are the most dangerous, freaking psychotic humans imaginable that you can

Starting point is 01:07:22 see the world we're in now with all of the suffering happening here, with America's object. This isn't a talking point. This isn't an effing game. This is real life. And you're out there saying, you think Xi Jinping is scared of Donald Trump. Xi Jinping could not be happier. And the craziest thing with these psycho-humans who are like, oh, I'm a China hawk, this is what we wanted. You wanted to be this week?

Starting point is 01:07:44 Like, we couldn't be weaker. Dude, freaking Elbridge Colby, the number two at the Defense Department, who's Mr. I'm going to decouple from China. He is begging Xi Jinping for a visit to Beijing. And Xi Jinping's like, nah, get the hell out of it. Weren't you the decouple boy? Weren't you the guy who said you were going to harm us? And you saw what we did with rare earths in two minutes and made you bow to Xi Jinping.

Starting point is 01:08:08 You didn't see that? You think we want you to visit us? I mean, do we realize what it's so obvious what's happening? And again, this isn't like, oh, Midas, you're reflecting. I'm just telling you the facts. Like, this is the reality. What you choose to do with the facts choose, but that's what's happening, right? Yeah, it's like, have you heard of beer goggles?

Starting point is 01:08:27 I feel like all this people wear maga goggles and they put them on. And all of a sudden, it's like a bunch of transgender people. running around trying to play sports, trying to turn your kids. It's Donald Trump full of muscles running around, you know, with a AK-47 and Iran going, oh, sir, I'm sorry. In any event, Jordy, what are you? I'm just joking by it.

Starting point is 01:08:50 It's like, it's nuts. It's out. It's the craziest thing. You know, there was another clip of Darling Grandma Fox that was absolutely, that was crazy also, where she was like, you know what? I don't think my constituents care so much about this national security stuff. I'll learn that. But you know what?

Starting point is 01:09:07 People are really concerned about. Transgenders and sports. I was like, that's what people are concerned. Not even a thing in South Carolina at all. And again, you're going after this marginalized community because you're a bigot for no reason and an issue that is not an issue. You're trying to make it an issue while you're diminishing national security, which has major implications on every single thing in our lives, as you could see right now from the disaster of the Iran War,

Starting point is 01:09:37 how it's affecting people's pocketbooks, how it's affecting everything. And so, you know, it's one thing if you're a random person on the street, right? I mean, I don't expect people to know if foreign palsy. I don't expect, you're, but if you're a United States senator, I at least hope that you have a rudimentary knowledge of these things before becoming a senator and before deciding to then rerun for the Senate or whatever. I mean, the whole thing. The whole thing's crazy. People's lives are in your hands at the end of the day. Your decisions affect people's lives. And I want to clarify something I said before, just in case I wasn't clear about the USS Lincoln,

Starting point is 01:10:11 which was finally relieved. They were relieved of duty finally today. The USS George Washington took over that deployment, made its way to the Middle East. And so the USS Lincoln finally relieved from that deployment and should be making its way back. Hopefully they get back safely and soon. and hopefully to get to some better conditions because we all know how much of a disaster that was and all of our service members who are out there,

Starting point is 01:10:39 wishing them all the time. That brings us to your Commonwealth, buddy. Were you saying there? That brings us to Pennsylvania. Hold on. I just want to say this one quick thing, is that Darlene Graham is the world's worst sequel that absolutely nobody asked for that never needed to happen.

Starting point is 01:10:56 But here we are watching this all unfold. And like it's it's like a train wreck watch in every single interview she does live, man. It's crazy. It's crazy how uninformed she is running for this seat. Sorry, Ben, I thought I really needed to add that to this. She goes, well, Donald Trump didn't know much about foreign policy and how good is this? Worked out great for everybody. It's the golden age, no wars, everything is great. I mean, that's the part where like you go like, what, what, you know, and that's, I think, what you're seeing in a Pennsylvania where you have a plus 18 Trump district, it's Butler.

Starting point is 01:11:34 It's where Donald Trump won't release the medical records where he claimed he was shot in the face by an AR-15, but miraculously the AR-15 bullet was injured, not him. And for those unfamiliar, Butler can't, like, I need you to think of the most MAGA district wherever you exist. Times that by 10, and that's Butler. Right. So in Butler, Butler County, Donald Trump plus 18, 2024. And now right now, the Democratic candidate, Brandon Dukes, won that by one point. So it was a 19 point swing in favor of a Democrat. What did Brandon Dukes run on? He ran on kitchen table issues. Let's talk about the economy. Let's talk about the roads. Let's talk about education. Let's talk about education. Let's talk about. things are too expensive. Let's talk about what we can do for people in Pennsylvania. Let's get stuff done, right? It's Governor Shapiro. The get stuff done governor says, like, let's get it done. We work. We're working for the people. Like, we're not doing culture

Starting point is 01:12:43 war stuff. We're not, we're getting stuff done. Right. And what was his MAGA opponent running on? transgender hate, bathrooms, WNBA, Donald Trump's amazing, ballrooms. Isn't the big beautiful bill amazing? No, it's not. People don't like that. It's a disaster. And no one, and people weren't buying it. People weren't falling for it there.

Starting point is 01:13:11 It was also plus 18, but in the prior state house race, it was a plus 30 Republican as well. well. So it is a, you know, massive swing. But this is what we've seen over and over again in these special elections. We've seen a 12 and a half to 13 point Democratic overperformance in these special elections over and over again. And it frankly started pretty early on late January, we were covering it in Iowa and Pennsylvania and elsewhere where you would have these major flips taking place. And so I'll leave everybody with this. This is Kevin McCarthy talking about how he's very concerned. And let's play the clip of Kevin McCarthy if we got it. How do you size up the midterms right now? The midterms right now, I'm worried because the

Starting point is 01:14:03 generic ballots over six. That's advantage to the Democrats. I'm worried that I'm not seeing the clear message from Republicans. What is the plan of why you should stay in the majority? What is your economic plan going forward? What are you touting as the successes that you've had already? I'm worried about certain states. I'm going to watch Iowa. I think that governor's race very cold. Ashley Henson is the best Senate candidate probably in the country.

Starting point is 01:14:27 I think she ends up winning. But we've got four congressional seats there. When I first came in, we only had one Republican one. They're going to be some tough. Pennsylvania is going to be a swing state. Democrats have a very good governor. They'll probably try to run the tickets up because he wants to run for president. I'm worried about Arizona because I don't think this Republican nominee we have Biggs.

Starting point is 01:14:43 can actually move out, could cut across, get moderates and others. And we picked up seats from Democrats to win the majority. If he underperforms, he could cost us Congress's majority. Brad, Jorny. I don't even understand. Like, why even put Kevin McCarthy on TV? He was like a failed speaker ousted from his job. Like, what political insights does he have?

Starting point is 01:15:02 He kowtoed to Donald Trump the same way that Maga Mike is counting to Donald Trump. He'd probably be doing the same exact thing right now. He now gets to be out of that bubble. And so he gets to act like, oh, I could be the critical one. And I'll be the moderate thinker here. And I'll say, oh, we need actually more normal people. And perhaps we should be focusing on the issues that matter for people. Like, come on.

Starting point is 01:15:23 Feel free to flame me for this. But like, I thought it was pretty astute analysis right there by McCart. Like, I actually think that that's probably a much better role when he's able to act. It actually sounded like he had some soul in his chest. That's my point, though. Because he's a shape shifter, right? Totally. All I'm saying is he's an actor.

Starting point is 01:15:41 And he was ousted from Congress for doing the opposite of the advice that he's saying right now. If he was in the position, he'd be doing exactly what Amanda Mike is doing and you cannot convince me otherwise. 100%. You think he'd be going, and I'm not saying you, Jordy, you probably, you think he'd be going against Donald Trump right now. He'd be doing the same exact thing. And then there'd be some other guy going on TV. I don't know, some other former speaker or someone who was ousted would be saying, well, I just think Kevin McCarthy and these Republicans aren't understanding people's issues.

Starting point is 01:16:12 It's just the cycle. It's what they do. It's this talking head BS. It's this cable news BS. Kevin McCarthy is a hack. He's a hack, hack, hack, hack. He was ousted from his job because he was shitty at it. And he had an opportunity to show some spine, but he ended up coutowing to Donald Trump and being a pathetic little weasel like the rest of them. Anytime they're in positions of power, they're all cow. They're all weasels and they're all pathetic. I mean, that's what's proven. But it's interesting when, they can freely speak or, you know, they don't have the pressure of the mean Donald Trump tweet. That's all I'm saying there is. 100%.

Starting point is 01:16:47 100%. And like, like, you know, objectively, unless you're looking at things through macagoggle, objectively, when you look at the data right now for Republicans, I mean, it's very grim for them. It's a very rough environment for them. Yeah, I don't think he was going out on the ledge. I like, I don't think he was like, like, I have some brave stance I'm going to take. I mean, I think it's just like, yeah, we're going to. Let me tell you something you don't know.

Starting point is 01:17:09 Yeah. But hey, for a Fox audience, you know, maybe they aren't hearing that. Yeah, exactly. Great show, brothers. Great show. We did a lot of sports analogies. I did some physicality that the audio listeners. Big time physical podcasts.

Starting point is 01:17:22 Big time physical podcast. That's why the audio listeners need to go, make sure they subscribe on the YouTube. The YouTube watchers need to go right now. You got to go, you know, it's easy. You just open up the Apple podcast. Here's the thing. I know we kind of make light of it when we ask you to subscribe to these platforms, but it does tremendously help us out.

Starting point is 01:17:38 It helps get this information out. It takes two seconds. And best part, all 100% free and easy to do. Brother, what a wonderful episode. This has been great spending this hour with y'all. Thank you guys so much. And as always, shout out to the Midas Mighty. Before you go, our book, WTF America, is available for pre-order now.

Starting point is 01:18:16 It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code, or click the link in the description. Let's do this. Thank you.

The MeidasTouch Podcast - MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/21/26

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