The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump CRACKS as IT FINALLY HAPPENS…

Episode Date: September 13, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump’s disastrous trip to Ireland as things continue to go off the rails, with Trump repeatedly claiming that Iran is begging him for a deal while developments tell a very different story. Meiselas breaks down Trump’s latest statements, the reaction to his trip, and how the situation continues to unfold. Go to https://ground.news/MTN to cut through misinformation, critically analyze the news shaping our lives and hold the media accountable. Save 40% off unlimited access to Ground News with my link or scan the QR code on screen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump further be clowning himself in Ireland as his regime crumbles. He's at the Irish Open, which is the real reason he went to Ireland. Shout out to all the people in Ireland who have been protesting Donald Trump. While at the Irish Open, Trump, ranting and raving like a lunatic, says, Iran wants to make a deal so badly. They keep on calling me all of the time. It's all projection. Donald Trump is utterly desperate right now. And Iran's like, we can't do a deal with.

with a psycho like you. Here, play this clip of Donald Trump saying, Iran, they want to do a deal so badly while at the Irish Open here, play this clip. Not gonna end until after the midterm elections. Does that- It could end before the midterm. Look, it could end before the midterm.

But it'll end after the midterm. Iran, I will tell you this. Iran wants to make a deal so bad. They're calling constantly, they wanna make a deal. They gotta make the right deal. I'm not gonna make a deal that's no good. Well, I'll show you what Iran is actually doing right now, the foreign minister of Iran, wrapping up a successful trip to the BRIC summit in New Delhi, India.

You can see this photo right here of the Iranian foreign minister Araghi with the foreign ministers of Russia, China, Egypt, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan. It's all smiles. Hey, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, remember when you threatened economic deed for any country, who dare speak to or do business with Iran. You said economic outcasts. Well, sadly, the only economic outcast right now is the United States. I say that's sadly because I live here in the United States, but it's such an utter embarrassment and so despicable what this Trump regime has done to our country here. Then Donald Trump at the Irish Open says, but here's the thing. I promise you. I guarantee you. Iran will end right after the midterms.

before the midterms and gasoline it's gonna drop like a rock it's gonna drop like a rock he says here play this clip tax on tips no tax on social security for our great seniors no tax on overtime it all gets tendon he wants that the country is booming the country's booming Iran will end right after the maybe before but it'll end right after the midterms gasoline's going to drop like a rock like it was just before I got, I mean, I knew what I was doing. I had to do it. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Really, Donald, it's going to drop like Iraq. We've been talking here on the Midas Touch Network. Not only does Iran control the straight of Hormuz now, not only do the Houthis control the Bob Almondab straight right now. We also talked about how the east-west pipeline

connecting the coasts of Saudi Arabia were hit hard. It was hit hard in the past 48 hours. It had to be shut down. And here's what we're learning. Saudi oil exports equivalent to up to 4% of the global supply could be disrupted if the damages to the east-west pipeline are unable to restart within days. The pipeline, of course, shut down after a drone attack. The Saudis blame this on the Iraq.

Iraqi resistance, also allied with Iran as part of the access of resistance. The Iraqi resistance, as it was in us, the Houthi said it was us. Saudis too scared to admit it was the Houthi, so they're blaming the Iraqi resistance. In any event, it does appear that the East-West pipeline is going to be shut down for quite some time, further causing the price of diesel and gas to surge. The Houthis continue to advance east now after taking over all of Western Yemen. You can see the Houthi tribal mobilization right here as they start heading east. We'll be following the breaking developments there.

Also, there was some smoke scene at the Yanbu-Aramco refinery facility, which had been hit before. That's in Saudi Arabia. It's part of the connections to the east-west pipeline in the western area of Saudi Arabia. Unclear if it was hit again, it appears it may have. We'll be following up there as well. Donald Trump then at the Irish Open is asked by a reporter, do you expect Congress would need to approve your $5,000 dividend that you're promising voters if they vote Republican? And again, I just want to be very clear here.

He's not giving anybody $5,000. It's just more fraud from Donald Trump. You know this. He promised people $5,000 doge dividend checks last year, then $2,000 tariff rebate checks. Remember what Donald Trump has said before, he said he would make the greatest communist like Lenin, he called Lenin. Lenin, he said, because I would just promise people free stuff and free money. And then you would never have to deliver it. And people would live in squalor. He said, that's the problem with communism. And Donald Trump behaves like a communist authoritarian. It's true. So a reporter says, do you expect Congress would need to approve the $5,000 dividend? And Trump's like, we have so much money right now. It'll be easy. I don't need Congress. Here, let's play this clip.

Mr. President, do you expect Congress would need to approve the $5,000? I don't know, but it's easy enough. If the Republicans will, as I said, it's $5,000 to all adults in the country, and we can easily handle that because we're taking there so much money. We've never done better. The Democrats can't make that pledge because it'll all go to hell right away. Well, our debt continues to skyrocket under Donald Trump this past much. month, month and a half. The debt has now increased to over $40 trillion. Our deficit is increasing

dramatically. Donald Trump's responsible for about 30% of all of our debt, the most of any president. He is reckless and he is incompetent and he is malicious. It's a horrific combination right there. So you then have Maga Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House. He made his way onto the various morning shows. He was asked, well, what do you say to Susan? Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, who's running for re-election and she's running against Troy Jackson, who's now the Democratic candidates leading in Maine. And Susan Collins says that these $5,000 checks shouldn't be tied to election results. It's criminal to do that what Donald Trump is doing.

And it's fraudulent and it's going to increase the debt and it will cause inflation to rise. And Mag and Mike Johnson is like, oh, it's the Democrats' fault to which the host. does like, yeah, Susan well, it goes Susan Collins is a Republican. Here, play this clip. Mr. Speaker, I want to read for you something that Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said about these $5,000 checks. She wrote, quote, tax and spending decisions should be made based on the needs of the American people and the state of the economy. They should not appear to be tied to election results. The president said that these checks are contingent on election results? Is this an attempt to buy votes? No, of course not. Remember, the Democrats who are making

that claim are the same ones who gave out COVID checks and all sorts of stimulus checks. Well, she's a Republican. Susan Collins is a Republican. Susan Collins is a Republican. Sure, sure, but that's right. And so is the president. He's the lead Republican in the country. And what he is articulating there is the obvious truth that you have more money in your pockets with Republicans in control than with Democrats. And more for Maga Mike Johnson here when he's asked about the impact that Donald Trump's fraudulent promise would cause to the national debt. Again, this is how he's just so, such a weak and pathetic individual Maga Mike here play this

clip. In the past, you have called the national debt the largest threat facing the country. Why would you want to add to the debt, Mr. Speaker? I don't want to add to that, Kristen. and I guess we're going to spend the whole segment talking about this one issue, and there's so many other things. No, we're going to get to other issues. We've actually done and not ideas on the table. Okay, I'd love.

With our economy reeling here in the United States, with inflation surging, we expect this week the Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates here. Again, that's going to be very harmful to families who are already struggling to afford homes and are unable to afford homes. let's just face it. Had Donald Trump done nothing and basically let former President Biden's economy just go into autopilot, we were expecting three rate cuts this year. Three rate cuts. Donald Trump managed to screw that up because just go look at the charts. Inflation was going down. Biden had brought it down. It was bad earlier. It was bad because of Trump's behavior during the first term and Donald Trump's reckless printing of money, the debt that Donald Trump had caused, Trump's reckless handling of COVID, all of that.

But anyway, it was going down. And now interest rates are likely going to go up. Everybody says almost certainly interest rates are going to go up. And by the way, if somehow the Fed doesn't raise interest rates, that may even be more harmful now because it'll show just the utter manipulation and lack of independence of the Fed. And that act alone could further crash the economy. because if they were acting independently based on where the economy is, they should be raising the interest rates. Unfortunately, that's just the reality to trying to rein in the inflation.

And then Donald Trump's response is, I know more about formulas than anybody. What do you mean you know more about formulas than anybody? What the hell are you talking about here play this clip? I don't know. We should be paying the United States is so strong. We should be paying the lowest interest rate in the world, regardless of their formulas. about formulas than anybody. And we're the best credit in the world.

We make other countries rich. We can turn that off in two minutes. Then Donald Trump says, we make other countries rich. So we can turn that off in two minutes. If we want to make you poor, we'll make you poor other countries. So while you have this BRICS summit taking place, China asserting itself as a new global hegemon, talking about multilateralism and cooperation, here's Donald Trump. just continuing to threaten countries.

As former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said, America's not a serious country right now under Donald Trump. She says, America's a dangerous country, not a serious country. And here Donald Trump's like, we make other countries rich. You want us to turn it off? And he's saying this at the Irish Open, which again, if I hadn't said it already, is that his golf course in Ireland, which is the only reason that he's there. Here, play this clue.

And with the best credit in the world, we're the best credit in the world. make other countries rich. We could turn that off in two minutes. You understand that. And so while Donald Trump threatens countries across the globe, countries are moving on. Mark, this was a article from the Wall Street Journal today. But if you've been following the Midas Touch Network, Midas Canada, you know we've been covering this every day, basically. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's audacious bid to make Canada an associate member of the EU, As trade talks with the U.S. collapse, Prime Minister Carney pursues a major and risky pivot to Europe, and Ottawa Book Club plays its part.

Carney has even suggested Canada take on a new title, Associate Member of the European Union. And look, because of Trump's weakness, we're living in an even more volatile world right now. Remember one of Donald Trump's promises, on day one after the election, I will be able to resolve the war in Ukraine. I can go over all of Donald Trump's other lies, that he was going to bring electricity prices down in half, that home ownership would become accessible to all Americans,

that gas prices would be $2 a gallon, that grocery prices would be cheaper, that the cost of living crisis would be solved, everything would be so much better. Everyone was going to be so rich. He lied up, no more never-ending wars. He lies about it. Every sound utterance word is a lie.

But one of those big lies, of course, is that he was going to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. While Donald Trump was at the Irish Open, while he was at the Irish Gulf tournament, Trump called on Ukraine. Ukraine, you need to halt the strikes on Russian refineries. That's and the Russian tankers. And then Trump said, the reason that diesel's surging, it's Zelensky's fault. It's all Zelensky's fault right now. Donald Trump says it has nothing to do. This is not being done by the Middle East, Trump says.

It's all Zelensky's fault. This is what Donald Trump does. Okay. When there's catastrophic situations, he blames. And so Dr. Fauci, Biden, it's everybody's fault. It's everybody's fault. Look, the fact that Ukraine is striking refineries is that causing diesel to go up? Sure.

You promised you were going to end the, war in 24 hours. That would have been over two years ago at this point is what you promised. Also, Russia invaded Ukraine. Also, the main reason for diesel surging is you want to take a look at this map Donald right here about what it looks like with the East-West pipeline disabled, with the Bob El-Mandab Strait controlled by the Houthis and the Strait of Hulhu's controlled by Iran, and like only one or two tankers are able to. to leave the Strait of Hormuz each day now. And before the war, you had 20 million barrels leaving. Think about it, 20 million barrels a day leaving. And from the East-West pipeline,

you had five to six million barrels. All of this is being shut down because of you, Donald, is being because it's because of you. And you were the guy who said you would easily bring peace to Ukraine. So it's all your fault. It's all your fault. Anyway, here's what Donald Trump says, his message to Zelensky is play this clip. Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. Wait a minute. Can I talk? Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia.

Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he's causing a shortage of diesel. This isn't done by the Middle East. This is done by what's happening with Russia and Ukraine. So we spoke to Mr. Zelensky about it. There are plenty of other targets. diesel field because that's hurting that's hurting the world we don't want him to hit diesel field and while Donald Trump was saying that earlier today Russia struck the locomotive of a passenger

train in ukraine's volion region just two kilometers from the polish border we have video of what went down and let me show you what it looked like let's play it now the russian drone strike hit a chartered train that was the same type of train, not the exact train that these diplomats were on, but you had Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Merz's security advisor, Gunther Sauter, and numerous other Western officials were on another train that passed right before the train that was ultimately hit by the Russian Shaheed that I just showed you over there. And so the escalation right now of the war is actually getting more significance, escalating more and more by the day.

And we expect as we head into autumn and winter, there's going to be a massive, massive escalation. And Russia's telegraph this and a massive escalation of ballistic missile strikes. And now Zalinski doesn't have Patriot interceptors or was never given the license. And Trump promised he was going to do that. Of course, Trump lies about everything. Meanwhile, CENTCOM, it's posting, CENTCOM is posting graphics. U.S. CENTCOM posting graphics

that it successfully redirected 100 commercial ships over the past 60 days since America resumed the steel wall blockade against Iran. Zero ships have passed through the blockade without U.S. forces allowing. So our once proud Navy is boasting of 100, redirects of commercial vessels, commercial vessels, not war vessels, food, medicine, supplies, commercial vessels, war crimes, post and boast on war crimes, not letting food get in.

That's what the Navy is bragging about, becoming a bunch of pirates. By the way, when I, and by this is why we need a good media diet, though, so we We can identify what's really happening in the world right now. And I spend so much time just trying to bring you not just like ranting and raving opinions just to give you the facts and enable us to be able to make sense of this chaos and what Donald Trump has done to the world right now also. So that article I shared with you, Trump calls on Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian diesel saying attacks are causing a shortage.

What I've been finding interesting lately as I look at how's left-wing media covering this, how's the so-called center media covering, how's right-wing media covering it? It's fairly evenly distributed right now, whereas a year ago, you would see certain things, especially when it comes to the war coverage, being more focused on either right-wing coverage or left-wing coverage, depending what the story was. So I actually think this is a good development to see mostly all media is covering what went down when Donald Trump basically going after Zelensky and blaming Zelensky because I think we all know, no, Donald, it's because you're catastrophic war in Iran and you promised you were going to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.

By the way, that's exactly why I partnered with Ground News for this episode because they're the best tool that helps me stay objective with my reporting. You see, Ground News is an app and a website that pulls in thousands of articles from around the world and organizes them by story to show you how is the left center and right framing the story differently. And they have also a way to determine, is it corporate news that's doing a story, a large media conglomerate, or is it an independently owned media entity? And so Ground News has this dedicated blind spot feed that I use. It's a favorite of mine. It highlights these stories being disproportionately covered on either side of the,

political aisle to help burst through echo chambers, help me burst through, help anybody burst through echo chambers. I believe in ground news so much we're offering you 40% off the same vantage plan that I use for my research. So just go click the link in the description or go to ground.news slash mtn or scan the QR code up here. It's one of the biggest discounts they've ever offered. If you want to support this channel and get a clearer understanding of the world, try

out ground news one more time that's ground.news slash mtn so going back to the irish open now for a moment Donald trump also praising china and he says look jingping has been so fair with us he's been so we have such a great relationship here play this clip we have a great relationship he wants to get along and we want it we're going to get along china's been i think very fair with us over the last number of years that I've been there, but over the years, over the decades, but over the years, and during Biden and during Obama, China took tremendous advantage. And it's so bizarre that Donald Trump views this as like, Xi Jinping really likes me. No, Xi Jinping looks at you like you're an utter fool.

I did a whole video on China's President Xi, and in the past 24 hours, she has threatened Donald Trump. I'm not going to come and visit you in September if you provide any support to Taiwan for their military. China has threatened to cut off rare earths to the United States based on certain threats that were made by Donald, by Trump against China. And so with all of that as background, and after Trump and best threatened economic deed day, I've showed you all the photos of China at Bricks and their foreign minister Wang Yi standing right there with Iran's foreign minister, Araghi, and then Donald Trump's like, I think they've been very fair. I think they've been great.

The message that that also sends, though, is when Bessent and Trump threatened economic deed day. Again, the same way Donald Trump will always say, I'm going to do this to you 24 hours, and then Trump doesn't do it. The U.S. has zero credibility right now. But it's more huffing and puffing. Donald Trump says, we're ultimately going to get out of Iran unless we decide to keep it like the oil in Venezuela. Here, play this clip.

You're right. You'll ultimately get out. Unless we decide to stay and keep the oil, like Venezuela. You don't talk about Venezuela anymore, do you? Take it in billions and billions and billions of dollars. Unless we decide to get it. What are you talking about, man? It's so ridiculous.

Then the reporter says, what do you make of the Gulf Nations meeting with Iran? There's a big meeting tomorrow that will be taking place in Muscat in Oman, in Oman, where Iran will be formally announcing its deal with Oman for its control over the Strait of Hormuz. And a lot of these Arab nations are now moving closer to Iran, moving away from the United States, recognizing a shift in the power center right now. And I want you to listen to what Donald Trump says. Trump's like, I don't care. I don't really care that they're doing the meeting. But Trump says, as long as Israel is happy. Notice, listen carefully.

He'll say, as long as, I'm good with it, as long as Israel is happy. So not only is he basically admitting that his policies dictated by Israel, but he puts it on Netanyahu, basically, because Trump himself is like, ah, whatever. What should Netanyahu tell me to do? Listen, he says it himself here. Here, play this clip. What do you make? That's up to that. They can be happy.

Israel, along with the nations that we're talking about, that's fine. Then he rants and raves like a lunatic about windmills because that's his happy place just to say, demented stuff and not actually grapple with, you know, the ramifications of his horrible and erratic behavior. Like when he's in Ireland and he then says, well, I think that the Falkland Islands can't be protected by the UK. And then he's asked questions about it. Oh, windmills, your windmills are horrible. That's what he goes back because he doesn't know what the hell he's doing. And he's an absolute lunatic here. Play this clip right here. Far less than Scotland. Scotland is, it's a shame what they've done. Here's a good thing about a windmill. It can be taken down. But you know it's so

bad. It's so pathetic. You can't really bury them. They say the blades will cause all sorts of problems in the air. They've got something for everything. I'll leave you with this. Iran's president, Pasekian, who's been at the BRICS, just gave an interview with India today, and here's what he had to say about Trump. He said, Trump is saying something every day. One day he wants to destroy Iran. Another day he says we are friends. One day he says he accepts us.

Another day he says he doesn't accept us. So we are not sure what kind of statement we should, you know, accept and proceed based on which. But their technologies, actually, they, referring to the Trump regime in Israel, are the real terrorist in the world. You look at Israel and America. No difference what they are doing in Syria, in Lebanon, in Gaza, Iraq, Qatar, even in Iran. They assassinate anybody they wish. And then they claim that these people are terrorists.

So it's a weird world. They kill people very easily for a single person. They kill a whole family and they destroy a whole building. Then they say they kill the terrorist. They are the real terrorists. They are state terrorists. And that's what he's saying, while shoulder to shoulder with China, with Russia, with India, with the other BRICS nations that we've been sharing with you. And then you had Jared Kushner this morning, who was at the Yalta European Strategy meeting.

And he zoomed in. And he was asked. So are you going to come back to Kiev? Kushner. And Kushner's like, well, hopefully soon. I'm really not into performance of diplomacy. Okay. Why is the son-in-law idiot?

Why is the idiot son-in-law involved in any of this? Why are we normalizing the idiot son-in-law who's not appointed, who's not a diplomat? Why is any of the, why are we normalizing anything? Who the hell is this guy? Kushner, freaking loser? Seriously, Whitkoff, Donald Trump's scumbag, real estate in Manhattan? These are the hell's the secretary of state? Where the hell's the secretary of state?

Where the hell's our country here play this clip? I will say that you know it's. And my question, just when are you coming back to Kiev? Well, hopefully very soon. Well, Victor, look, you're a businessman. And I think that, you know, again, I have now, after doing this for 10 years, I do a diplomatic experience, you know, having done all these different deals. But we're not really into performative diplomacy, meaning that, you know, we do what we need to do on the phone.

We do what we need to do over Zoom. People come see us. We see them. And so, you know, we're trying to put our effort as focused as possible on the things that actually could drive the results forward. And so just because- By the way, everybody, make sure you get your copy of WTF America. Pre-order it right now. And it comes out October 20th, but pre-order it right now if you can.

Thanks, everybody. We appreciate you. We're grateful for you. Keep watching. We're going to keep making videos throughout the day. We're in this together. We're going to get through this together. Thanks so much.

our book, WTF America, is available for pre-order now. 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.