The MeidasTouch Podcast - Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 4/2/26

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on breaking news from the day. Sundays for Dogs: Make the switch to Sundays. Go right now to https://sundaysfordogs.com/MEIDAS30 and get 30% off your first 3 orders. Or, you can use code MEIDAS30 at checkout. Smalls: Head to https://Smalls.com/MEIDAS and use promo code MEIDAS at checkout for 60% off your first order PLUS free shipping! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Malcolm in the middle, life's still unfair. A special four-part event, streaming April 10th on Hulu on Disney Plus. This is Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myceles, and this is your breaking news. moments before we went live, we learned that the defense secretary, Pete Hegsa, has fired Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, forcing him into immediate retirement. That's the posture that they are framing this as. As Donald Trump's disastrous and unlawful war, filled with war crimes, continues to escalate in Iran, Donald Trump is now blowing up bridges in Iran. Donald Trump is now blowing up bridges

in Iran, what you're observing right there, and for those on audio, what I'm showing on the screen right now. It's the B1 Bridge on the Karaj Northern Bypass in Western Tehran, one of the biggest bridges that exists in Iran, the biggest bridge, as Donald Trump says, and Trump brags about his war crime. Donald Trump posted on social media, the biggest bridge in Iran comes tumbling down, never to be used again, much more to follow. It is time for Iran to make a deal before it is too late and there is nothing left. And there is nothing left of what still could become a great country, Donald J. Trump. And again, what he's saying in those posts. I mean, that's a war crime blowing up a bridge like this, civilian infrastructure.

It is a per se war crime, and it really sickens me to see him posting on social media that he took down the biggest bridge and he's going to be attacking more bridges. And the response from Iran is as follows. You have their foreign minister, Araghi. He posts striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender. It only conveys the defeat and moral collapse of an enemy in disarray. Every bridge and building will be built back stronger. We will never recover. What will never recover is damage to America's standing.

That's what will never recover. And when I read something like that, when I see something like that, You know, what pains me is, you know, in a war between the United States and Iran, when I'm seeing the Iranian foreign minister say that. And I try to get everything, as you know, from watching this from multiple perspectives. I mean, what the Iranian foreign minister saying there is like objectively correct. Like it does not show strength that you're blowing up civilian bridges. That's a war crime. That shows weakness, if anything.

Donald Trump told Time magazine regarding Iran, why wouldn't they call? We just blew up their three big bridges last night. And he also said, this is what Trump says. They say Trump is not negotiating with Iran. I mean, it's sort of an easy negotiation. And again, just talking about himself, they say Trump is not negotiating. Oh, Trump is negotiate. No, you're not. No, you're not. I mean, you're engaged in these war crimes. It's pathetic. Donald Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, expressing concern that Trump's aides are giving him a, quote, rose-colored view of how the war was being perceived domestically, telling Trump what he wanted to hear, and urge them to be more forthright with the boss about the political and economic risks. also the military risks.

You know, they're going on and pretending like we're winning this war and we're not. We are objectively or not because objectively, the objectives that were set out were regime change, making sure Iran's ballistic missile capabilities were completely destroyed and then ensuring that Iran can't rebuild any nuclear weapons, which they never built in the first place, but to stop them from enriching uranium to build weapons-grade material for nuclear weapons, which back in June the Trump regime claimed they had totally obliterated all of these facilities, and that Iran was not capable of rebuilding any of its nuclear facilities, totally obliterated, read the headlines. So those were the objectives, right? And now the objective shifted apparently

just to, can we reopen the strait of Hormuz, that that's the objective. And now Iran firmly controls the strait of Hormuz with Oman. Remember, the Oman foreign minister was working as the mediator handpicked by the United States to try to negotiate a deal. back in late February before the U.S. and Israel launched an invasion of Iran. Remember, end of February, the Oman Foreign Minister said, we reached a deal in principle, and Iran has agreed to a nuclear deal that was far stronger than even what Obama negotiated with far more oversight, and that this was a crowning achievement, the Oman Foreign Minister said. And the United States selected that Oman Foreign Minister, What the Oman Foreign Minister said is on Monday, that happened on a Friday, remember?

On Monday, we have to just go to the IAEA, the Atomic Energy Organization for some technical details about how inspections would be done. But generally, a deal was reached. And then that night, Trump and Netanyahu invaded Iran. Well, now Oman and Iran. Iran brought Oman in. They control these struts. of Hormuz. Iran says that the strait of Hormuz will remain closed long term for both the U.S. and Israel. At the same time, U.S. oil prices have officially marked their highest close since June of

2022. The nationwide average price of a gallon of gasoline has reached $4.8. We saw the WTI crude and Brent crude, both increasing dramatically. You know, what else is Donald Trump posting while all of this is taking place? Photos of Davy Crockett and weird behavior goes, Davy Crockett, obviously a distant relative of Jasmine Crockett and a very high IQ frontiersman would be proud of the legacy that began long ago and especially Jasmine's great success as a politician from the great state of Texas, Donald J. Trump. I mean, again, it's just really weird behavior. You know, also, I'll show some of the clips from Donald Trump's,

and it was probably the worst national address in the history of the United States that took place. But one of Donald Trump's lines was, we're going to blow up Iran back to the Stone Age, or we're going to send them back to the Stone Age. First off, I think I said this on my other Ben on Breaking News Live that I did on Tuesday. I said Donald Trump sounds like the corny bad guy cartoon character in the shows I used to watch growing up. Like, if you gave me a script of the bad guy in a movie and I saw the things that Donald Trump said, I'd say, yeah, that's that's so corny and so. hyperbolic, like real bad guys don't actually talk. I'm going to blow you back to the stone age.

And again, making no distinction either between the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the people of Iran. I mean, Donald Trump, Hegsef and the Trump regime comments about decimating Iran, it's focused on the Iranian people, the whole country. You know, and, you know, the Iranian people, of course, have a cultural heritage that dates back over a thousand years. And Iran has repeated that over and over and again, that we actually have a proud history. You think that we're afraid of a country that's been around for 250 years. We're not going to be broken. And Iran's, whether you want to say it's Iran's propaganda, their messaging, is directed with a purpose. I want us to understand the tactics because in war, there's asymmetrical warfare that Iran is

deploying right now with the Shahi drones, FPV drones, and ballistic missiles, right? They have a strategy there. And they have a communication strategy that is systematic and is systemic and it is purposefully driven and it is planned. Right? They have a plan. and Donald Trump seems every day to just be kind of winging this thing and saying deranged contradictory things that's causing a lot of problems and is resulting in a catastrophic

situation becoming even worse. And you can see why with Donald Trump's pathological defects, why he's bankrupted so many entities and why so many of his companies fail to the point of bankruptcy and utter destruction because, you know, he's like the, you know, gambler in the casino who won't leave until they lose everything. And he keeps doubling down, doubling down, doubling down, doubling down on stupid, dumb, and evil. And it's having really bad results, really bad outcomes, right? I mean, the foreign minister of Iran in response to the stone. Stone Age comment made by Donald Trump, he writes, there's one striking difference between the

present and the Stone Age. There was no oil or gas being pumped in the Middle East back then. And POTUS and Americans who put him in office, are POTUS and Americans who put him in office sure that they want to turn back the clock? Those are the messages that they're saying here. I mean, you know, it's interesting. I saw, I think it was Dana Perino, one of the Fox propagandists. She used to be, I think, the press secretary for George W. Bush. Remember, she's the lady who Donald Trump was sexually harassing, in my opinion, that's what it was. You can call it whatever you think it is.

But when Donald Trump, she was asking him serious questions. And Donald Trump's like, remember when we had lunch so long ago? Again, I'm just giving you my opinion. You can disagree with that opinion if that's that or something. else, you know, because she was asking a very serious question. He's like, you're so beautiful, you're so attractive, you know, you're a good looking lady. You know, you never even changed. And can you, you remember when we had lunch back in, you know, back in the day, you're just as beautiful now as you were then.

You know, on TV. I mean, I think it was, you know, intended to embarrass her, in my opinion, giving opinion speech protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. I'll just flag all of that for you right there. you know, she was saying about Donald Trump's disastrous speech last night. She goes, you know, but before it took place, I did a video on this too earlier. She goes, the problem is, is that because of the repression of the Iranian regime, the Islamic Republic, the people of Iran are not going to get to see that speech. They're not going to get to see Donald Trump's words because of the media blackouts and

the control that Iran has over the media ecosystem there. I mean, ironically, our media here in the United States is controlled mostly now by right-wing oligarchs. She's saying it from state regime propaganda media in the United States, which calls itself Fox News. But she's also just factually wrong. The leadership in Iran loves showing their people what Donald Trump's saying. Donald Trump is cutting the highlight reel of the greatest hits that they can show their people to rally. support against the United States and keep people there motivated to never surrender and to fight back. I mean, Trump is literally giving them ammunition. I say literally because he is giving them ammunition.

Think about it. He's quite literally giving them ammunition. He's removed the oil sanctions from Iran, allowing them to make $14 billion, right? Trump and MAGA, they always attacked Obama. And they lied about it. They're like, you gave them $1.4 billion in cash packed on a plane. There was never cash packed on a plane. But whatever, I'll assume for the sake of argument you did. You just gave Iran in a short term a $14 billion influx based on removing sanctions on their oil. They now control the straight of Hormuz, where they can charge $2 to $3 per gallon of oil to $3,4 million toll.

So they use that to literally buy ammunition. That's why I said you've literally given them ammunition. For they can build more drones, more ballistic missiles, more Shaheeds to attack the United States. And their Arab nation neighbors who have American military interests in them, Donald Trump's removed the sanctions against Russian oil, Russian vessels. Trump's attacking NATO, right, which also allows Russia to continue to invade Ukraine and, fuel Russia's war against Ukraine while also allowing Russia to manufacture military supplies, Shahid drones, FPV drones to then give, usually via the Caspian Sea to Iran. So you're giving them ammunition there.

You're also quite literally giving them ammunition in the form of these posts where they can repost them and tell their people, look what he's saying. Look what he's saying. So when Donald Trump posts the biggest bridge in Iran, comes tumbling down, never to be used again, much more to follow. The Iranian social media accounts say the following. Trump directly admits to targeting civilian positions. International organizations, governments, hasn't the time come to act against this brutality?

One of the things I note as well is that the Trump regime has been using this guy a lot, Barack Ravid, this Axios reporter, to try to funnel lots of the propaganda goes through Axios and this guy, Barack Ravid, who's almost always wrong about everything. He's the guy who will be like, Donald Trump says ceasefire is happening. Donald Trump says this is happening. Donald Trump says this is happening. He kind of reminds me when I used to be a litigator and I would handle sports cases. There were always those, those, uh, the sports reporters who would like, for each league, they would like, they'd be like the insider, right? There was like an NBA insider and the NFL insider, um, well, like Schecter and sham and all these, I'm not making a one to one

comparison, but, you know, like the, the team or the agent would call them, hey, post this and they would post it, you know, whatever. And then they did some good reporting too. So I'm not, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, in the sports realm, there's a lane for that, right? But when we're talking about matters of war and peace, life, or death, you know, anyone in the Trump White House calls this guy Barack Ravid and he publishes it. And then he uses, you know, the masthead of Axios as a way to, you know, be like, look, Axios is reporting it. But it's the same guy. So Barack Ravid two hours ago wrote, A U.S. official tells me the bridge was attacked because it was used by the Iranian armed forces to try to secretly move missiles and missile parts from Tehran to launch sites in Western Iran

and forgiving logistical support for Iranian military in Tehran, to which Mertaza Hussein goes. This is obviously a lie since it was not even operational yet. The U.S. president also said he bombed it because it was the biggest bridge in the country. Like Barack Revid will write that, but then it's like Donald Trump, It's the biggest bridge in Iran comes tumbling down. I'm going to come after your other bridges. So you see how like others in the Trump regime then tried to sanitize the war crimes that Donald Trump admits to through our propaganda media in the United States. And so what I've been trying to do here at the Midas Touch Network and all of this reporting is to, I'm showing you what Trump is posting, right? And then I'm showing you what the Iranian foreign ministers.

And then I'm looking to see what's actually happening in the region, right? So if we were dominating and decimating the war, we would control these straight of Hormuz. Iran would not be successfully retaliating by hitting the Amazon facility in Bahrain or infrastructure in Qatar or infrastructure in the UAE or they would not be able to continue to send missiles into Tel Aviv, right? They were decimated. We wouldn't see those things happening. If they had no more leadership, we wouldn't see social media posts from their leadership. I mean, you can literally see the gatherings of their parliament, you know, meeting and deliberating on laws. I mean, how much deliberation, you know, the hell knows.

But, you know, they pass the Strait of Hormuz law that gives Iran, that declares Iran has sovereignty over the straight of Hormuz. And by the way, what Trump was saying in his speech, last night, we all heard his speech. He said, you know, that's for France to deal with. That's for other countries to deal with. That's for everyone else to deal with. They can deal with the Strait of Hermuz. We're going to leave. We don't need, we don't need oil. We have so much gas. We have so much gas here in the United States. And it's like, what do you? And then Donald Trump also said, there's no inflation. Inflation's good. We're all good. And it's like, what do you mean we have so much gas here. What are you even talking about? And it also doesn't understand the different

types of gas, like the difference between liquefied natural gas, crude oil, right? He has no clue of the distinctions. WTI versus Brent. And frankly, can I be totally honest with you? I don't want to know the difference, right? There was once upon it, I want to know it now because I report on it. But once upon a time, I didn't have to know the difference between Brent crude, WTI crude, liquefied natural gas, the components that are extracted to help make helium in fertilizers. You think I wanted a del. I have to because we all have to be very knowledgeable on these areas because of the lies and disinformation that's out there. So we have to apply, you know, like when I was a lawyer, and I would jump into a, I'm still a lawyer when I was a litigator, I would have to become experts in areas that I, very quickly, especially if there was a trial coming up, I'd often get hired to what we called parachuting into a trial. So we would parachute into a trial and, you know, I'd have to make compelling cases and explain it to jurors in ways they understand it very quickly and I'd have to become an expert in topics. There's some areas, you know, in the way government functions that we took for granted.

that it required competent people and smart people and things where you didn't have to think about these things. Right now I'm constantly studying the two year, the 10 year, the 20 and 30 year treasury yields and whether they're going up and how that impacts mortgages. And I think it's helpful for me to explain all of these things as I do on these videos. But Donald Trump doesn't know any of these things. It's clear to me as I learned him. He does not know anything. We all know the most basic rudimentary understanding of international crude oil markets, if we didn't need the Strait of Hormuz, then why is it that oil prices are going up? Why is it that the WTI crude is going up even higher than the Brent crude if we, the United States, are not impacted by what happens in the Strait of Hormuz?

We clearly are impacted. That's why gas prices are going up. So if you think that the United States can exist by supplying itself with crude drilled in the United States, then you don't understand the way crude oil is drilled and processed and refined and before it's turned into the gas at the pump. Right. And instead, what we get here, you know, is state regime, foxes, propaganda. We had Lara Trump on today and Lara Trump was split screen next to the bridges that I talked about being blown up and she's like, this is so great. Other presidents never had the courage to do that. Other presidents didn't do this Lara because this is a war crime.

You don't target civilian bridges. It's not what you do. The whole war is unlawful. But then you brag about targeting civilian bridges. And again, you know, I mean, Trump's such a fraud and everything he does in my opinion, you know, because, but he's able to convince certain people. And I think that ability is fading by the day. But he's able to convince certain people that what he, that this is smart and this is how billionaires behave. And this is what rich people do. And this is what strength is. It's always been the opposite. I mean, the Iranian foreign minister is right. in saying that actually shows desperation. That shows weakness.

It shows that you're flailing and your plan is to just blow up bridges and just think about that. All that's going to do is force this war to continue on and on and on. I saw one person who's the main kind of oil analyst for Kepler, K-E-P-L-A-R in the Middle East, And what she was saying was right now, the earliest that we can potentially even think about oil

shipments returning to some pre-warliest is at the end of May. And my own view is that's incredibly optimistic. And to me, it's just like COVID all over again, right? Remember COVID? If you track 2020, you all remember COVID. If we track 2020 with 2026, start times we're right around the same, right? February, February-ish, right? You think about what is the Tom Hanks, the basketball player, right?

Those early signs in February. March, it starts picking up, obviously. Donald Trump says, like a miracle, it's all going away. We're going to bend the curve by Easter, right? We're heading into Easter weekend again. We're going to bend the curve by Easter. It's getting better. We've won.

We've defeated it. No one said it could be done. You remember he said all that stuff? It's the same stuff. But now the other side is speaking and they're saying we're not going away. Here's our plan. In Iran, you know, Donald Trump and Fox and right-wing propaganda, like they've in a very racist way, I think. they framed or ethnocentric, whatever the right term is, they framed Iran as though these are

just a bunch of like lunatics in caves yelling like Allah Akbar over and over again and they don't know what the hell is going on and these are not smart people like you're very wrong about that you know and and and and and and and and but that's the stereotype that I think they try to convey to people you know when if you've. learned any basic military history or military tactics, whether you've read Sun Tzu's Art of the War or whoever, you have to know your enemy or just understand the other side, if you believe they're your enemy, but you have to understand the dynamics taking place there. And when you understand the cultural subtleties, the dynamics of Iran, who the former Ayatollah was in terms of his

meaning to the Shiite community, the idea of martyrdom within the Shiite population, the sophisticated engineering historically and presently of Iran, Tehran University, and even with a very repressive Islamic Republic regime, first-rate engineering capabilities. That's why Russia and Iran partnered when Russia needed help churning out drones and churning out missiles, the Shaheeds and FPVs, in Russia's invasion of Iran. I mean, in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And the Russian-Iranian relationship is so obvious right now. And Donald Trump, you know, either is so ignorant or just so woefully defamation. We're just so utterly unlearned and evil, probably a combination of all of it, that he acts like, he's like, what was it the other day?

What are they going to shoot us with BB guns? BB guns? No, no, no, no. Like, what do you? Like, that's a disqualifying statement. No, they're going to shoot. They're going to shoot the bases with the Shahi drones and FPV drones and ballistic missiles that they still have. Not BB guns.

You know, what are you talking about with that, right? Like there are so many words that he uses that are so utterly disqualifying. I saw, I forget which reporter. We know Donald Trump's polling is record lows, right? I mean, CNN poll, his approval is out like 35%. UMass, Amherst. UGov poll has him at, what, 33%. His net negatives are like record highs, like way worse than even like Biden at Biden's

worst. I mean, historically low. But I saw a reporter basically say, you know, it's interesting to watch the percentage drop of Trump and they try to compare it to Biden. And they were like, well, after Biden removed the troops from the Afghan military base and, you know, soldiers, American soldiers were killed at that Afghan military base. You know, it's like Donald Trump's war in Iran has done the same thing to Trump as Biden getting. out of Afghanistan did to Biden's poll numbers. First off, Trump's polling is worse than that. So just set that aside. But the broader point to make is that every day in this war, Donald Trump, to me, is doing about 10 things that are like the withdrawal from that have a bad outcome, let's just

say. I actually think, let me be clear, the withdrawal from Afghanistan was the right decision. obviously a horrific terrorist attack took place. Donald Trump was actually the cause of the fact that the Taliban had their 5,000 prisoners released. Remember, that was a Donald Trump Pompeo deal. I want to remind everybody about that as well. That the thing that they blame Biden for was a Trump thing. You know, and now granted there was a terrorist attack that took place under the Biden.

administration. Biden always took accountability for what happened, even though Biden left and didn't get us into wars, yet alone, never-ending wars in the middle. He removed it. All of that was Trump doing a deal with the Taliban. Remember, Trump invited, people sometimes are shocked when I remind them of this. Trump invited the Taliban to Camp David on 9-11 to have like a like a like a like a like a a feast on 9-11. He invited the Taliban leaders to hang out at Camp Dave. Just think about, think about that right there. Right. And then, you know, but the broader point I'm going to making, maybe it's not a good comparison to Biden and Afghanistan, but the point is every day Trump does 10 things that are far worse, that are far worse. To me, every day, at a minimum,

He does 10 things that are impeachable, that are criminal. Again, I'm just giving you my opinion protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. You can share my opinions or disagree. Ten things that are impeachable, in my opinion, ten things that are criminal and impeachable, and ten things that would require the 25th Amendment to be invoked. Every single day, probably way more than that. Every single damn day. You know, and we saw that.

that yesterday. We're seeing it today. We're going to see it tomorrow. And he is incapable of thinking strategically, of developing plans. All he knows is, in my opinion, fraud and then cover up for the fraud and turning bad decisions into worst decisions, into catastrophic decisions, into bankruptcies. And I fear that that's exactly where the global economy and the United States, is being, you know, being pushed into. Now, I want to talk about, of course, how other countries are responding, whether it's France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, not even allowing the U.S. to use airspace or military bases.

We heard Kier Starrmer, Prime Minister of UK, give a speech addressed to the nation, addressed to the UK, saying, we will not be dragged into this war, be bullied by Donald Trump, right? Powerful speech he gave, I thought. You know, I think there are domestic things that he's struggling with on international affairs. I think he's been too cozy with Trump publicly. He's been great on Ukraine.

I understand the special relationship between the U.K. and the U.S. I get it as an American. I think he's been a little bit too cozy with Trump publicly, although I understand there's a lot intertwined that if that fully ruptures, what happens? So I'm sympathetic at least to understanding that, but he's been strong on Ukraine, you know, in my view. We saw Anthony Albanese and Australia address the nation. We're seeing a lot of countries, Austria no longer allowing U.S. to use airspace. Lots of people are starting to assert themselves as Trump attacks NATO. That's been a theme throughout Donald Trump's life, always attack NATO, attack NATO, attack NATO.

now saying because NATO didn't help invade, engage in a lawful war that, you know, NATO, America should pull out from NATO after the war. But Trump's going to keep dragging this thing on and on and on and on. He doesn't know how to get out. He's lost all of his allies, all of America's allies. I don't know if America's a superpower right now. I mean, I think the superpower is its cruelty, but it is a below-the-aided. like the way it's like an it's like a bloviating fraud at this point a Fugazi yes it has these resources

yes we have the biggest military yes we have these things but in the hands of a maniac what use is it in the hands of a maniac other than to inflict cruel and unusual war crimes and punishment on the rest of the world I'll show that quick clip right here of Lara Trump that I was talking about just because I don't want to lose that train of thought but this is what they're doing on propaganda media today. Let's just play it. Because you want to talk about what the United States of America can do? Take a look at this video. Take a look at all the videos he's posted of the bombs dropping, of the explosions, of us targeting something the size of basically a fingernail our United States military. It is really impressive. It has so much more gravity to it

when you see it like this. And I just think it's so impressive because, again, we have never seen something like this happen. We've never had a president like this willing to do this sort of thing. And hopefully it's all for the best, you know, for the entire world, the best for our people, the best for the rest of the world. And just to go back to what you guys were talking about with the allies, this president has talked about how disappointed he is with the NATO allies. He also talked last night about the fact that the people who rely on the Strait of Hormuz to get their oil need to step up. Now's the time they need it. We don't need it here in the United States of America. They're going to have to step up and do something about it. I thought his speech

last night was really powerful, and I think that he sent a message then. He's sending a message now with this video as well. I mean, again, if you're Iran, if you're any country in the world, then you watch that. The president's daughter-in-law is going on TV to threaten NATO and to say that look at the precision with which we bomb bridges. You know who bombs bridges? Terrorists bomb bridges. War criminals bomb bridges like that.

Civilian bridges and then boast about it? That's what terrorists do. It's what war criminals do. Bombing bridges like that that are used for civilian purposes in that way. And then bragging and boasting about bombing. the bridge. What are we doing? And we have Lara Trump out there attacking NATO.

You better get your act. Who are you? Who are these? You know, do we have the quote, Jeremy, from French president, Emmanuel Macron? There were a few snapshots that I took today of just some of the things that he said. He goes, we must be serious. And when we are serious, we do not say the opposite of what we. said the day before. Perhaps we should not speak every day. We should simply calm things down

and build a lasting peace. What else did he say? Six months ago we were told everything had been destroyed and settled. Clearly that was not the case. Without international inspectors verifying materials, research, and hidden sites, simply not serious. And this is a common theme, not serious. He goes, opening the Strait of Hormuz by force, it's not the option we have chosen because it's unrealistic. A military operation to reopen it would take an infinite amount of time and expose forces to immense coastal and ballistic risks. From the beginning, we have said it must be reopened, but only in coordination with Iran. The world cannot live with a strait that can be opened or closed overnight. Like, let's be serious. Like, that's one of the main messages since Midas Touch was created.

Like, let's be, let's act like adults. Like, let's act like grownups. And, you know, I know lots of people like, oh, you hate Trump. You're a far leftist because I'm like, let's just be grownups and adults. I was not a political person in the past as you all. I was a litigator. I represented Democrats, Republicans. I went into trial. Whatever. I was just a lawyer. My own person. views were always privately, very progressive, always privately, you know, very aligned with helping marginalized communities and stopping bullies. That's where I was personally, professionally. I wasn't like a politician person. I just wanted to help people. But I try to approach my work with the level of seriousness. And so when I see this behavior, it's clown stuff.

It's clown stuff. And so when we come back, I want to talk about Pam Bondi's termination. We started off talking about the Trump regime firing the Army chief of staff, the top Army, one of the top Army people, Army chief of staff, Randy George. That's always a sign that the war is going well, right? This headline will get buried, though, in the bigger headline that Pam Bondi was fired. Pam Bondi's already out there taking pictures. I guess she's at football stadiums now.

I don't know what they're how she is. We'll talk about when we get back. Have you subscribed to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel yet? If you do, throw that blue emoji heart. If you subscribe to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel, also subscribe to our YouTube channel. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. A lot of your feedback was on my last episode, you're like, Ben, you're too ranty. You're ranting too much on the show.

Tone it down. I just get angry sometimes when I see this stuff. So I took your consider, I took your feedback into consideration. I will share my emotions less. I was just, the last Tuesday when I was just so angry about all the lies. So I was like, I'll bring it back down to that voice. We have a lot more show. We'll be right back after our first and only quick break.

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So I don't want this video not to just fade off into a new cycle. It's Donald Trump and the White House. White House saying that the federal government can't take care of daycare. We're too big of a country. We're fighting wars. We can't do Medicaid. We can't do Medicare. We can't do daycare. All we can do was war. Now look, for those who haven't seen this, you probably have seen it by now. But you probably think when I give you that setup, come on. He couldn't have actually said those. How could he have actually? He actually said those words. I mean, like, do you remember back in

the day when it would be kind of disqualifying when a politician couldn't spell potato, like with Dan Quayle. Remember, it was over. The guy, the guy spelled potato the wrong way. When you've got Donald Trump from the White House as a war escalates in Iran, spiraling out of control. And Donald Trump says, we can't take care of daycare. We're too big. Our money needs to go to the war. to the war. Their whole thing was that they were, the whole thing they ran on was no more wars, we're going to make things affordable. That was the lie. That was the fraud. Here's what he said yesterday at the White House. Let's play. Because the United States can't take care of daycare. That has to be up to a state. We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We have 50 states.

We have all these other people. We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up, but it's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing, military protection. We have one thing that we focus on, military protection. You know, one of the ironic things if you want to use the word irony is that one of the ways that the trump regime whether it's rubio or hegsith or others have attacked iran we're like can you imagine this in iran they

spend all of their money on weapons and the people don't get anything at all all the money is taken away for weapons and war everything with this regime with this trump regime is projection and confession. And we now know that Trump has proposed a 2027 budget where there will be $1.5 trillion in military spending. Remember when they were talking about $1 trillion, and that was going to be a crazy number. Now they're at $1.5 trillion while cutting domestic programs to support it. And every time everyone's like, oh, we don't have enough money for the Obamacare subsidies. We don't have enough money for this. We don't have enough money as you do.

Here's what you want me to do it really simple for you. You take that $1.5 trillion military budget and you bring it to, how about this number, everybody, $450 billion a year. You go from $1.5 trillion, let's go to $450 billion a year. In my opinion, probably still too high. It would still be leading the world by significant amounts. 450 billion, especially with modern day warfare, where it's basically drones, drone interceptors, you know, a lot of that, you know, we're seeing what's happening with conventional army forces against drone armies.

Say, $450 billion there. Look, voila, I've just saved us $550 billion, right? You know that $200 billion supplemental that they found? Okay, well, let's add that. I just found us basically close to $800 billion right there. What else? What else? Okay, now we'll tax the rich a little bit more, just a little bit more. You know, I'm not, I'm not going to, I won't, we don't have to go super high right away. But let's just tax the rich what? How about this? Two percent, one point five percent. One, let's start one percent to one point five percent more. How much money do you think I bring in with that? Probably in the trillions, but who knows?

I don't have the number. I'm not going to pretend I know. Let's just say for the sake of round numbers that I just found us another $500 billion by putting another $1.5 trillion. By the way, I believe in the idea of a wealth tax. But if you say, hey, Ben, that's complicated. And well, how do we deal with unreal. capital gains and do we do we tax future stuff and just tax income actual income 1% 1.5% more okay

I've just made us somewhere in the realm of 1.5 trillion to $2 trillion. I found you the money right there. I found you the money right there. Lots of money. Lots of money to help lots of programs. Now you can say well then Ben so you're just going to give $2 trillion to the the federal government, like, do you trust these bureaucrats with all of it? And I would say, what if rather than Doge firing everybody and engaging in this reckless whatever, what if you really, though, did look for efficiencies? And we use technology to actually find ways to make government more efficient, not in the cruel and unusual ways that the Trump regime did it. But we try to figure it out, okay, you know, does it make sense in 2026 to have this division over

here and this department over here and this over there. Can they be consolidated? Oh, I found two and I abolished ICE and I abolished border patrol. I still think there needs, let me be clear. Let me be clear. I still think there needs to be a strong border, right? I think there needs to be a strong border. I think that there's a role at the border for some people to deal with border. I think there should be a pathway to citizenship for people who pay taxes and who participate in our economy and are helpful. I agree criminals need to go and bad people need to go for sure, be prosecuted or go. I 100% agree there. I don't, to me, ICE and Border Patrol aren't doing that function.

So I would create something else. So maybe that other entity gets $50 billion or $100 billion. I don't know. I still found us close to $2 trillion. and I think with that money, we could fund health care for all. I think we can build housing. And I think we could, yeah, I think, I mean, China spends $250 to $300 billion per year on their military. So we'd still be leading in my plan.

We'd still be number one, America, number one, right? And my plan, I think it's reasonable. I think it recognizes lots of dynamics. And it puts the money back with the people. problem solved this isn't actually a complicated problem it's just people creating the complication so that you get screwed that's anyway that would be my I'm not running for anything though so use my playbook don't use my playbook whatever but that's what I would do um what else did Donald Trump say was ballroom talked about his ballroom yesterday it was big I can't get my

ballroom approved. Remember, Judge Leon, federal judge blocked them. I told you that the judge was going to block the ballroom. I was almost wrong, though. Remember when the judge denied the preliminary injunction twice? And y'all gave me a bunch of shit for that, huh? We're like, you were wrong. You told us the ballroom was going to be blocked. Your legal analysis, they didn't fully utilize the legal analysis in their preliminary injunction. So they actually filed an amended complaint, and that's what was granted. But here's Donald Trump whining about the ballroom. Here, play this clip. They call me king now. Do you believe it? No king. I'm such a king. I can't get a ballroom approved. Pretty amazing. I'm a king. If I was a king, we'd be doing a lot more. I'm doing a lot,

but I could be doing a lot more if I was a king. And then he attacks his own Supreme Court justices. He attacks them. And he goes, they're stupid, they're dumb. Here's what he says. Let's play Republicans, judges, and justices, they always want to show that they're independent. I can, I don't care if Trump appointed me. I don't care if he doesn't make any difference to me. I'm voting against him because they want to show their independence, you know, stupid people. Okay, those are the people he appointed. Stupid people.

Stupid deal. Right. He says that the United States, Mexico, Canada agreement is a stupid deal. You did it. You did the USMCA. You did the trade deal with Japan. These are your deals that you've done in the past that you say are stupid. I mean, you know, again, just so screwed up.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired. I did a whole hot take on it. So I don't think I need to totally repeat everything. But here's what she posted most recently. spent today partnering. This is a post that she made moments ago, that she spent today partnering with local sheriffs in the NFL Hall of Fame

to promote the National Child ID Kit Program, like she's acting like she didn't get fired. Here's what, I'm okay. Everything's all right. We think that Cash Patel's probably going to get fired soon as well. Democrats are making clear, though, with Pam Bondi. Okay, just because you got fired, though, doesn't mean we're not subpoenaing you still.

you're going to show up at your deposition. And arguably, if she's not the attorney general anymore, she certainly even has less excuses now to try to avoid showing up. I mean, she's a civilian. Civilian, civilian, subpoena. You got to show up, Pam. You got to show up. April 14th. Yeah, Donald Trump posted that the acting attorney general will be Todd Blanche right now. We love Pam. she'll be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector. Daily Mail reporter that Pam Bondi begged, begged Trump not to fire her during dramatic White House showdown as insiders reveal his final straw. And Daily Mail claims the final straw is that I guess people were saying that Bondi tipped off Eric Swalwell about the FBI's effort.

to release investigative documents regarding his relationship with Christine Fing. I don't know. That doesn't. To me, it seems like it was her botcha in the Epstein file cover up. How'd you screw up that cover up? By the way, did you want, at 5.30 a.m. Pacific time. I did a video saying that she was going to get fired today. Granted, the New York Times reported it first.

But we went, you know, we went all in on the reporting and saying it definitely seems that given all of the. information out there right now, how livid Donald Trump is that the House Democrats in the Oversight Committee just keep on pushing forward. Pushing forward. Bondi was not able to wiggle out of the deposition from April 14th. Remember two weeks ago, I reported how she tried to voluntarily show up on 24 hours notice in front of the House Oversight Committee.

And everybody was like, well, the Democrats were like, we're not, we're not sitting here. here so you can use this as an excuse to avoid a subpoena. No, you're going to show up for your subpoena deposition. I'm sure Donald Trump's going to have to pardon her an issue of pardon. It'll be interesting to see, honestly, if any states move to criminally prosecute her right now, if there's any state criminal prosecutions or state criminal investigations into her behavior. I mean, she's now a civilian. Donald Trump can't put. pardon her for state crimes. So I'd be interested to see if that happens. What else on that? Pablo Monrique says, someone needs to find Jamie Raskin so he can say, who's the washed-up loser lawyer now?

Congressmember Frost wrote, Pam Bond, he still has to testify under oath in front of the House Oversight Committee regarding the Epstein files. This does not get her out of that bipartisan lawful. subpoena. We will see her soon. Watch. She'll try to get out of that. I'll show you this. There was a last week. I did a video on this also before. James Comer, right, who chairs the House Oversight Committee. Even he was basically saying, well, nobody agrees. The Justice Department did a good job on the Epstein House. Here's what he said. Let's play this clip of James Comer if we've got it. Well, I think the Justice Department has botched this. I don't think anyone in America, Republican or, you know, avid Trump supporter would defend the way that this has been

rolled out. Having said that, it's very complicated because of all the lawsuits. That's kind of what they go back to, right? Like, it's so complicated. Like, you can't understand this. And so everything's so complicated. So complicated. Like, let us figure it out for you. Okay. Let Donald figure it out because It's so complicated. Don't you see that that's what they always do over and over again? So complicated. So complex. You wouldn't understand it.

No, no. It's actually pretty easy. It's pretty easy, right? You want to give Americans universal health care and help people get housing and get people resources to make the entire country better. Tax the rich a little bit more. Remove 500 billion or now if it's $1.5 trillion, remove $1 trillion. from the military budget.

So it's about $450 billion. Defund and abolish ice that gives us another two. It's actually fairly easy. I just solved the problem. I just solved the problem like that. The complicated part is that lots of people will be like, oh, my God, can you believe that men are playing women's sports? And oh, my God, do you know sports and bathrooms?

and they're eating your cats and dogs. They're coming to get you. Everyone's coming to get you. The complicated part is that they want to pit us against each other. So we don't realize how simple the solutions are simple. But these sociopaths, these sickos, right? These Epstein class, these pieces of trash, right? these miserable people, you know, these people who want to see us suffer because they're miserable,

so they want to bring us into their miserable worlds. They try to pit us against each other when actually the solution is very simple. I solved the issue. Everyone gets health care. Everyone gets free education. We're still a safe country. We have a strong border. We could focus actually on the.

the criminals, not the people here who are helping, we're nice to each other. It's actually, it's actually fairly simple solutions to a lot, to a lot of these issues. You know, when it comes to the Epstein files, just release the files and you were going to release it, release the files. But Biden, Biden, Biden is not president anymore. What do me tell you? What are we to tell you? He didn't run on releasing the Epstein files.

He ran on creating manufacturing jobs. He did that and then he got treated like shit. But he led to a manufacturing boom, just solved all the chaos that Donald Trump created would go. But, you know, the American people didn't want him because he was, you know, slower, older, whatever, you know, but did the things he said he was going to do. I mean, I remember when I interviewed Biden in the Roosevelt room, I said, what do you want your legacy to be? Remember, he was, remember I was the last person who interviewed Biden. By the way, that was before Midas Touch was all that big. I mean, we were growing.

But, you know, 2025, I think was our watershed year, 2026. You know, we're obviously, and I'm so humbled and honored, thanks to your support, that it's like the number one show across more people watch this than anything else, Fox, whatever. But back in 2024, Biden gave his last interview to us. And lots of people were like mocking that that he gave it to us. But I think he saw what the future of me. media was going to look like. That's what he said. He said, I saw it the future. That's why,

that's why I'm doing this. But in any event, what he told me is I said, well, what do you want people to remember you by? And he said, I want them to know that I kept my word. That no matter what I said what I was going to do, I did those things. I got inflation under control by the time I was leaving, it was heading to 2%. I created more manufacturing jobs and more jobs than any other president. That's what I said I was going to do. I got us out of wars. That's what I said I was going to do. I handled the chaos that was left by Donald Trump with all the disinformation about COVID. I got it under control. I stabilized things. And for four years, it was barrage after barrage after barrage of attacks, attacks, attacks, attacks, attacks, attacks, tax, tax.

And, you know, politically, he couldn't survive that. He said, I kept my word. And I think that's a good place for us to end here with, which is, which is, you know, simple values, keeping your word, being honest, treating each other with respect, right? to me, this is why I've worked to create this network, was because somewhere in the gamification of our dystopian politics, that stuff isn't talked about. And that's the most important stuff out there is being a good human being with the short time that we have here on Earth and being stewards of this valuable and precious time

that we were granted on this planet to ensure that future generations are left with either something that they can live with comfort and stability or ideally something better. That's why we're here. And if we're not here for that, what are we here for? I mean, Donald Trump is 80 at this point. And his focus is on turning his presidential library that he got. gifted money from Miami Day, got gifted land from Miami-Dade

college, which he basically stole, like DeSantis basically stole it. And Donald Trump's turning that into a hotel, a hotel that he can make money off of, using the settlements that he extracted from media companies to have a tax-free hotel. You know, we all have a very finite time on this.

What's the, you're, you're so crazed about making money and that you want your legacy to be, you know, that you defrauded the presidential library system? What are we doing here? What are we doing here? we'll keep on fighting for you each and every day we're going to stay in the fight we're going to keep growing this network and we're very grateful for all of your support as always and let's keep doing it remember the show i do with my brothers starts at eight eastern five pacific check it out excited to be with my brothers tonight live and just thanks for continuing to

watch and spread the message about the Midas Touch. Have you subscribed to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel? Have you subscribed to Katie Fang's YouTube channel? Have you subscribed to the LegalAF YouTube channel? Have you subscribed to Aaron Parnas's YouTube channel? What about Tennessee Brando? What about Adam Mockler's channel? Have you subscribed to all of the Midas Touch YouTube channels? Would love for you to subscribe to all of them. We're building something special here with your help. We're grateful for you. Thanks so much. We'll see you next. time on a much calmer and zen-like been on breaking news per your advice. Shout out Midas Mighty.

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