The MeidasTouch Podcast - Total Havoc Breaks Loose as Trump Gets Desperate

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump unleashing havoc on the streets of the United States with ICE as his approval plummets including his approval on immigration is now in the gutter. Go to https://WildAlaskan.com/meidas for $35 OFF your first box of premium, wild-caught seafood. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! 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 The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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There's regular cold. And then, there's the mountains are blue cold. Mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light. The Chill Choice. Celebrate responsibly. Must be legal drinking age. No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFriills.ca.

This podcast is supported by Talkspace. Shop now at NoFrails.ca Military members, veterans, and their dependents ages 13 and older can get fast access to providers, all from the privacy of their computers or smartphones. I just answered a few questions online and Talkspace matched me with a therapist. We meet when it's convenient for me, and I can message her anytime. It was so easy to set up. And they accept TRICARE. Therapy was going so well, my husband and I started seeing a couples therapist through Talkspace too. Total havoc continues to break loose across the streets of the United States as Donald Trump's approval hits record lows. In the new YouGov poll, a majority of Americans say that Donald Trump is very weak. His approval is now negative 17 percent. And when you get to issues like crime, it's negative 5 percent. Immigration, negative 9 percent. Deportation, negative 11 percent and when you get to issues like crime it's negative 5 percent, immigration negative 9 percent, deportation negative 11 percent, doge negative 18 percent, tariffs negative 26 percent, inflation negative 32 percent.

People are infuriated by Donald Trump for basically every thing that he's doing but especially the ICE raids where they're disappearing human beings, throwing migrants and American citizens into concentration camps, into prisons where they're not heard from from a long period of time, how we are treating people who visit the United States, locking them up where no one can hear from them for weeks and sometimes over 100 days. I want to go through a lot of these recent stories with you so you can see the total havoc Trump has unleashed and why he is so deeply hated right now in the United States except for a small

group of the MAGA supporters. Here's a story right here from NBCLA. This one is absolutely devastating and made me cry. Here play this clip. A high school honor student from Westlake has been deported with her mother. They were sent back to Guatemala. Nory says she and her mother were detained at their immigration appointment. And I was scared because I didn't know where I was going to, they were going to take us. The family says Nory and her mother came to the US 10 years ago as asylum seekers. Nory was just six years old. She spoke to us on the phone from Guatemala.

I feel really sad because I was hoping to like graduate with my friends and like be there with them doing track and field. It's really like I didn't expect this. They were taken to Texas and then flown to Guatemala. I was like, can we like make a call because none of our family doesn't know that we've been deported. And they were just like, no, your family already knew,

like they already know that you guys are deported. Now, this next story I'm going to share with you. ICE detains mom and four US citizen children just for hugging her sister on the Canada border, accidentally taking one step over the line between the US-Canadian border to say goodbye triggered an unfounded accusation. The family has been locked up for over two weeks in windowless cells without access to legal counsel at the Peace Arch State Park in Washington State, long been considered

a neutral site to visit on the U.S.-Canadian border. That's something that Kenya, Jacqueline Merlos and her family have routinely done without incident, but not now under the Trump regime. Congresswoman Maxine Dexter explains, it is wholly unprecedented to detain any individual for weeks without cause, let alone four U.S. citizens. This is what authoritarianism looks like. Citizen children abducted, community members disappeared. We cannot look away, we cannot back down. Here, watch this.

Two weeks ago, Jackie Merlos, who's originally from Honduras, went up to Peace Arch Park with her mom and her children. It's a place they'd visited in the past, specifically to see her sister, who lives in Canada. But that trip took a turn, and they've been in custody ever since. A mother and her four U.S. citizen children from my district have been in an inhumane situation. Congresswoman Maxine Dexter calling out U.S. Customs and Border Protection outside a facility in the small city of Ferndale, Washington.

She's been denied access to counsel. She's been denied access to her U.S. representative. If we accept that citizen children can be taken without cause, without due process, that mothers can be disappeared across state lines, we surrender our democracy. That mother, Jackie Merlos, her mom and four children, traveled up to a well-known meeting spot on the US-Canadian border, Peace Arch Park. For years, people have used it as kind of a neutral area where they can see friends and family.

But that meeting with her sister ended in detention. Here's Mimi Letnich, close friend and guardian to Merlos' children. Her sister, who's a Canadian citizen, stepped over the line when she was saying goodbye. Following that fateful farewell on June 28th, Mimi says Border Patrol approached arresting Merlose, detaining her and her kids. Days later, she says ICE picked up Merlose husband Carlos in Portland, taking him to the facility in Tacoma.

They're the kind of people you want in society. They're the people that, you know, you're lucky enough to have as friends. But a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson claims the mother was arrested for trying to smuggle, quote, illegal aliens into the US. In a statement, they added her children were present during the smuggling attempt and she requested the children remain with her during detention.

Len Saunders, an immigration attorney in Blaine, Washington weighed in on the detention. Something doesn't add up here. It doesn't add up that a mom would bring her four American kids if she was trying to help smuggle aliens into this country. So I'd be interested to know what the final details are and if Homeland Security is being honest here and up front. Saunders also told me that this Ferndale facility isn't meant for lengthy stays. The family's attorney says while Jackie isn't a

citizen, she's applied for a special kind of visa, and those documents are pending. The attorney also says she's not been charged with any crime. David? As someone who's visited that park many times, safe to say there are still a lot of questions. Thanks Alma. I guess some positive news to report as well that Norisco Barranco, the landscaper father of three US Marines who was viciously beaten by Trump's Gestapo was just released. I'll show you this right here. I'm not sure if feels like he didn't know what happened at that time.

And then right now he's probably all over his head. What are the next steps for him? He has to follow up on his court and bond case. And then after that, we're just waiting for the parole in place to be in effect. Do you have any idea how long he'll be? No, I don't know. I do know that his next court date should be in August. And is his plan still to try to seek citizenship?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And just to remind you what went down with Narcissa with Narisco here play this clip. All right developing in Orange County shocking new video of ICE agents detaining a Gardner and Tustin. He's undocumented, but his three sons are US Marines. And one of them is talking to Fox 11's Gina Silva. This video showing customs and border protection agents arresting and punching Orange County Gardner, Narciso Barranco is sparking

public outrage. It was one guy that he was actually telling me why you hit him so hard you don't have to do that. IHOP manager Guillermo Villarreal says Narciso was working on the landscaping outside the restaurant in Tustin on Saturday morning when suddenly masked men approached. He says Narciso panicked and ran. They throw some something on his eyes. Mace? Yes. And he started coming this way.

That's when everybody got into him and they put him down on the street. And one of the guys was beating him so hard. It was sad to see that. Here's a photo of Narciso Barranco, a Mexican migrant with over 30 years in the US and father of three American Marines who was released on bail from an immigration detention center in California after being detained for nearly a month. His arrest on June 21 sparked outrage due to the excessive use of force by immigration agents that you saw right there. When was the last time that you truly trusted seafood you brought home?

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Trump has riled up his MAGA base so much against immigrants that one of his followers Beheaded his own father Justin moan was just sentenced to life in prison for beheading his own father Who he viewed as a traitor working for Biden his manifesto says immigrants are fifth column armies invading the border in Deliberate plots to undermine America, according to his written and video statements posted on social media. He accused the federal government, particularly the traitorous Biden regime, of declaring war on American citizens by allowing this infiltration.

His father, Michael Mohn, was a 68-year-old engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for over 20 years as a federal worker. In this video, Justin Moan displays his father's severed head to the camera, declaring his father now in hell for eternity as a traitor in this country. The video that I'm showing you doesn't have that. So it's not, there's not going, you're not going to see that. It's a local report on what went down and how sickening it is here.

Just play this video of the local report. There's nothing violent in this here. Play this clip. He is now in hell for eternity as a traitor to his country. It is said that those who commit treason and betray others occupy the lowest pits of hell for all time. These were the chilling words uttered by Justin Maughan just moments after he fatally shot then beheaded his own father and displayed the severed head on YouTube. Charges have been filed in a gruesome killing in Bucks County. A man was found decapitated in a home.

Police took his son into custody 100 miles away and they believe there was more to this murder than just a family grudge. On January 30th, 2024, residents of Pennsylvania were shocked to learn the details of this disturbing family tragedy. A year and a half later, the adult son behind the killing has taken the stand in a murder trial

that prosecutors described as something straight out of a horror film. Here's everything we know about the brutal beheading and the crazed conspiracy theories of the accused. On the third day of his trial in suburban Bucks County, 33-year-old Justin D. Maughan coldly told the court how he fatally shot his dad, Michael Maughan, age 68, in the head during a quote, citizens arrest.

Justin was living at home with his parents in Levittown while he was looking for a job and apparently becoming radicalized. I unfortunately had to use deadly force, he said in his testimony, which eerily echoed what he told Philadelphia's NBC 10 in September of last year. Well, I wasn't expecting this. I had a speech ready, but I don't have that speech on me. A lot of other people around America believe that the federal government has betrayed America.

They're destroying the country, and we have to do something to take our country back. What does killing your father have to do with that? Well, he was a federal employee and betrayed me. I was trying to perform a citizen's arrest. He resisted that citizen's arrest. It's lawful to use deadly force in that event. Justin testified that his dad had threatened him and tried to take away the 9-millimeter handgun

that he purchased the day before. He said he believed his father was trying to stop him from becoming a charismatic political leader like President Donald Trump. Justin painted his political beliefs as different from his parents, whom he described as being on the far left. He also explained that his dad was a martial arts expert with two black belts. Michael Mann was a respected civil engineer who spent 20 years with the Army Corps of Engineers. But in his seemingly emotionless two-hour testimony, Justin said, I would object to

calling it a murder and claimed that killing his dad was his plan B and that he knew his YouTube video would go viral. His sick video ran indeed spread like wildfire. In the nearly 15 minute speech Justin said he needed to kill his dad to inspire others to join his movement to overthrow the government. His tirades spanned everything from immigration and the border to the war in Ukraine. True crime aficionados including popular YouTuber Ray William Johnson have since pored over the grisly details. In that video, he holds up his dad's head to the camera to show everyone.

And I promise you, whatever you're imagining the scene is, it's worse. All right. Now, if you want to hear the type of rhetoric, though, that is being used yesterday, for example, and always, this is what Donald Trump's top aide, Stephen Miller, said yesterday here at Play This clip. The rhetoric from Governor Newsom, the rhetoric from Karen Bass, the rhetoric from Democrat leaders in Washington is directly encouraging and incentivizing murderous migrant mobs to attack ICE officers.

When they describe ICE officers, these heroes as some kind of fascist force, some kind of a Gestapo force, they are using the language that is meant to justify violence. ICE officers are literally in real time liberating American communities, once peaceful, once idyllic American communities, from an invasion force. I cannot imagine a nobler and more righteous activity for any American to do than to go into these communities, face off against hostile mobs, and literally free them from the forces of destruction and violence. Now here's the ICE raid that just took place in Van Nuys. Let't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. You touched me first, motherfuckers. Leave him alone.

What are you doing? Stay back. What are you doing? This man did nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong. Film all this shit, please. Yeah, but it's being filmed. Everything's being filmed.

Leave him alone. You're not doing anything. Why are you on top of him? Why are you on top of him like that? What the fuck? Sir, he is impeding with an investigation. You were trying to run him over with a vehicle. There's no need for him to get in my face.

Don't put him like that, sir. There's no need for him to get in my face. You're not doing anything. You're not doing anything. You're not doing anything. You're not an investigation. You were trying to run him over with a vehicle. There's no need for you to run over him with a fucking car. I get it. Oh my God. Oh my God. I got it all.

I got you. Why the fuck are you doing that? A man was standing in a parking lot. Help! Help! Help! Help! If you can get this to work.

I'm ready. You're fucking insane. You're insane. You're tearing this to work. I know you. You're fucking insane. You're insane. You're tearing apart the. Help. Help. Help. My friend Alex Michelson over at Fox 11 LA just reported how farm workers are demanding an end to ICE raids after

ICE went in there in Ventura County and Santa Barbara County and Fresno County and Riverside County and Los Angeles County attacking the farm workers killing one farm worker in their Gestapo like raids here play this clip some of the farm workers We were talking to her calling for a strike by the way, are saying that they have continued. So let me go to these images that I actually I was able to get from the organization union del barrio. They are looking into these photos and they show federal agents supposedly today in Monte

Bello. They are gathering and then they're detaining at least two people. One of those, I was able to check out, that person may have had a warrant, an old old warrant. The other one, we don't know yet why they were stopped. So it does seem that things are slowing down because I didn't get 30 of these every Monday like I do. But some kind of action continues by the federal authorities. You know, and here's what the immigrants are saying. It has to stop. Listen. When you pick up a strawberry, a tomato or grapes, you're holding it in your hands from the sweat, the struggle and story of a farm worker,

more than likely an undocumented, exploited farm worker farm workers gathering at Placita Alvera to announce a national labor strike demanding a path to citizenship and an end to the raids that are dehumanizing and terrorizing our communities and workplaces. Raids, a federal judge in LA halted, saying agents cannot indiscriminately arrest people without reasonable suspicion they are in the country illegally. What that means is they cannot stop people solely on these factors, on apparent race or ethnicity, on speaking Spanish or English with an accent, on presence in a particular location or on work that the person does.

The federal government has filed an appeal. Border SAR, Tom Homan, putting it this way on Fox News last week. ICE officers and border patrol, they don't need probable cause to walk up somebody briefly detained and question them. They just need this, so totality of the circumstances. Reasonable suspicion is what his agents apply, he says. Based on the location, the occupation,

their physical appearance, their actions, to which these farm workers react with anger. We are being detained because of our skin color, she insists. We work through COVID, he says, and we're called essential then, but now we're criminals? Go after the real criminals, she says, echoing those here. We are not criminals. We are the backbone of our food system. And Alex, you asked at five o'clock about the agricultural programs here in the U.S.

There is a legal program. It's called the H2A program and it does allow for people who are going to work in the fields and they have an employer to work here, but it's only for some months. And I'll tell you, it has exploded the need because it went from 48,000 positions 2005. Two years ago, it was almost 400,000 positions. 2005, two years ago, it was almost 400,000 positions, agricultural workers that, according to their employers, were badly needed in this country. Now, none of those have a path to citizenship. They're just here for a few months at a time, but it does exist. And most of the organizations that deal with this say they have to be expanded and improved.

That strike, by the way, Wednesday through Friday. I'm Cristina Gonzalez in downtown Los Angeles. Now, one thing to note as well is that the Trump regime is now ending the deployment of 2000 National Guard troops who were deployed to Los Angeles after immigration raid. Half the number deployed last month now remain in the area. So 4,000 were deployed, 2,000 are going home. But just the fact that I'm even talking about the National Guard was deployed in Los Angeles. And by the way, Los Angeles pays more in federal taxes to the federal government than all but four states

as a county and you're sending the National Guard to attack Los Angeles. Here's Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Here's what she had to say. Let's play it. Oh, we had a big victory in Los Angeles today and this is an example of what happens when Angelenos stick together. So the Trump administration, they got the message. They are withdrawing 50% of the National Guard troops who should have never been sent here in the first place. But now that they're leaving, I certainly hope that they are going home and not that they're being deployed to another city.

We need to stop this. And if they do go to another city, stay strong. There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Thank you for watching.