The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump Crashes Out in War Presser Conference with Japan PM

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump holding a disastrous Oval Office Press Conference on the Iran War with Japan’s PM Takaichi. 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 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

Donald Trump just had a full-on meltdown in the Oval Office during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister, Takaishi. Donald Trump was asked why he did not tell his allies about the war before attacking Iran. And Donald Trump's like, you know a thing or two about surprises, Japan. Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Now, Donald Trump is just ripping to shreds our alliances in real time. Watch how uncomfortable Prime Minister Takaishi is here. let's play this clip. Of course, no, Japan and the US are a very good friend.

But one question, why didn't you tell US allies in Europe and Asia, like Japan, about the war before attacking Iran? So we are very confused about Japanese citizens. Well, one thing you don't want to signal too much. You know, when we go in, we went in very hard. And we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted Surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?

Okay? Right? You know, he's escapably. Do you believe in surprise? I think much more so than us. And we had a surprise and we did. And because of that surprise, we knocked out the first two days we probably knocked out 50% of what we, and much more than we anticipated doing. doing. So if I go and tell everybody about it, there's no longer a surprise, right? Okay, one. Next, Donald Trump talks about how NATO doesn't want to help us defend the straight of

Hormuz. He goes, but now they think I'm being nicer to them. So now they want to help, but I don't want their help anymore. We don't need the help of them. Here, play this clip. But we think of it, we don't use the straight. We're defending the straight for everybody else. And then in the case of NATO, they don't want to help us defend the straight. And they're the ones that need it. But now they're getting much nicer because they're seeing my attitude. They're getting much nicer. But as far as I'm concerned, it's too late.

You know, UK wants to send aircraft carriers now. And I said, I want the aircraft carriers before the war. I don't want them after the wars won. They want to send me aircraft carriers after the wars. there's practically nobody to shoot at him. You know, their missile count is down. Maybe you could discuss it by about 90-something percent. The drones are way down, and the factories are being demolished.

Yes, sir. Missiles being shot are down over 90 percent since the beginning. One-way attack drones down 90 percent since the beginning, which is a reflection of overwhelming firepower. But you mentioned the most important part, Mr. President. They're defense industrial base. If you can't make more of it in the future, you have a limited supply. And so we're going after all of their defense contractors that make all

of their exquisite weapons and ensuring that even if they wanted to rebuild more launchers or more missiles, they couldn't in the future. And that's a level of devastation for their military that they've never seen before. So we have literally more from Donald Trump here. He says, we expect Japan that you must step up immediately right now because we have that kind of relationship. What are you doing, Japan? as our editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski says, this moron continues to incinerate alliances that were built by far better people than him over the past 80 years. Let's play it.

This looks like one of your people right here. Thank you. Is he good or bad? Is you a good reporter or a bit? Not you know? So, so. All right, it looks like a nice guy. Go ahead.

Mr. President, you just mentioned Japan is stepping up. What kind of? of this happened do you expect from Japan in the future? Look, I expect Japan to step up because, you know, we have that kind of relationship and we step up with Japan. We have 45,000 soldiers in Japan. We have, we spend a lot of money on Japan, so,

and we've had that kind of a relationship. So I expect, I'm not surprised that they would step up. We don't need much. We don't need anything. I mean, honestly, we don't need anything from Japan or from anyone else, but I think it's appropriate that people step up. In the case of Japan, I hear they get more than 90% of their oil through the straight. So that's a big reason to step up. I mean, we've demolished.

That country is close to demolish. The only thing is the straight. It's very hard. You could take two people and they could drop little bombs in the water and they're holding things up. We don't want that to happen. but honestly, Japan, China, Europe, parts of Europe, get a lot of their roll through the straight. We get none, practically. We're less than 1%.

We don't have to be any percent. I think we do it just to be nice. But we think of it, we don't use the strait. We're defending the strait for everybody else. And then in the case of NATO, they don't want to help us defend the strait. and they're the ones that need it. But now they're getting much nicer because they're seeing my attitude.

They're getting much nicer. But as far as I'm concerned, it's too late. By the way, just take a look at Prime Minister Takehishi's face right here, as Donald Trump is saying these things. She is utterly bewildered, I would say it, mildly. Then Donald Trump says, of course we're going to need to spend

another $200 billion on this war. He says, It's a small price to pay so that we're tippy, tippy top. We want to be tippy, tippy top here, play this clip. Sophisticated rockets, every single one of them were shot down with our equipment. All our equipment. It's amazing, actually, how good it is. So we want to be sure, and it's a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top.

So then naturally the questions are, well, if you're asking for another $200 billion, then clearly this war isn't going to end any time soon. And by the way, didn't the Republicans say we didn't have $30 billion to ensure that people can continue on with their Obamacare plans and that we don't have any of this money and we had to take away $200 billion from rural hospitals? And now it's all going to this disastrous and unlawful war. But Trump's like everything was going great. The economy was going great because things were so amazing, Trump says, I decided to take an excurs. We all want this excursion in Iran. An excursion?

You mean a disastrous war, which is now resulting in the death of many of our troops and crushing our economy. Here, play this clip right here. All done. Everything was going great. The economy is great. Oil prices were very low. Gasoline was dropping to, I mean, we had $1.99, $1.85. We had great everything.

And I saw all was happening in Iran. And I said, I hate to make this excursion. but we're going to have to do it. And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. I thought that it would go up more than it did. But we're doing this excursion. And when it's completed, we're going to have a much safer world. And the Prime Minister agrees with me on this.

She considers it to be terrible what they're in it. I think every country does. Just about every country does. Iran is a serious threat to the world, to the Middle East and to the world. And everybody agrees with me. I think virtually every country agrees with me on that. So I wanted to put out that fire. And I said, you know, but I do that, oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit.

I thought it would be worse, much worse, actually. I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It's not bad. And it's going to be over with pretty soon. And Donald Trump says we've demolished Iran. The only thing left is the straight of Hormuz, which we know is false. We know that even today Iran hit an American F-35. We know that Iran just struck the Haifa energy plant.

We know that Iran struck the liquefied natural gas plant in Qatar the other day and Riyadh. I mean, Iran's capabilities have actually been improving and their ability to strike targets has actually been improving. But here's Donald Trump lying. You can hear him live for yourself. Here, play this clip. It's right. So that's a big reason to step up. I mean, we've demolished.

That country is close to demolish. The only thing is the straight. It's very hard. You could take two people and they could drop little bombs in the water and they're holding things up. We don't want that to happen. And Donald Trump passes when asked another question

on the straight of Hermuz. Let's play this clip. To $4 billion. Mr. President, on the straight of court, Mr. President. Thank you. Mr. President, you just mentioned Japan. What about you coordinating all of these attacks

with Netanyahu, Donald? Have you talked to Netanyahu about attacking the oil and gas fields? And Donald Trump, I did, and we won't do that. We all know that Donald Trump coordinated the South Pars attack in Iran with Netanyahu. We can play this clip right here. I don't blame them.

Thank you, Mr. President. You talked to Prime Minister of Netanyahu about attacking the oil and gas fields. Yeah, I did. I did. I told them, don't do that. And he won't do that. We didn't discuss.

You know, we do, we're independent, we get along great. It's coordinated, but on occasion, he'll do something and if I don't like it. And so we're not doing that anymore. And the last one, I think, the- Next, Donald Trump is asked about Jerome Powell. And Donald Trump starts saying that Jerome Powell is under investigation because he's building the Federal Reserve Building,

and it's too expensive for Donald Trump. It's too wasteful, he says. says here to play this clip and the last one if I could the Fed chairman told me yesterday that he plans to stay until a new Fed chairman is confirmed he also plans to stay on the board until the investigation that federal court is done well he's under investigation because he's building a building for hundreds of billions of dollars more than it's supposed to cost the building you see over there is under budget and ahead of schedule that's the ballroom the ballroom is a much bigger building it's a much more complex building than what he's doing and it's at a fraction of the cost.

Something is going on, whether it's contractors, that's what I do best in the world. I build. I build great buildings. I've always done it. And I build them under budget and I had a schedule. They could have four billion dollars. This is a renovation job. Another question is asked, which is if the war is almost over, so then why are you spending $200 billion? A reporter asked a similar question. And Trump's like, we want to have vast amounts of ammunition, which we have right now, but it's being taken down by Ukraine. So he finds a way to attack Ukraine here. How despicable is that?

Let's play this clip. If the war is almost over, why is the Pentagon going to ask Congress for an additional $200 billion? Well, we're asking for a lot of reasons beyond even what we're talking about in Iran. This is a very volatile world. And the military equipment of some of this weaponry is unthinkable. You don't even want to know about it. Oh, you could end this thing in two seconds if you wanted to.

But we are being very judicious, but we want to do. Don't forget, Biden gave away. I rebuilt the military my first time. Biden gave away so stupidly to Afghanistan a lot. He didn't want to move it. He was too lazy, too stupid to move it. But it was a very small amount. It was a lot, but it was very small relative

to what I purchased and what I built. We want to have a good, we want to have vast amounts of ammunition, which we have right now. We have a lot of ammunition, but it was taken down by giving so much to Ukraine. Then Donald Trump says, we can take out the island anytime we want. I call it the island that sits there totally unprotected.

What the hell are you saying play this clip? We can take out. the island if any time we want there I go out the little oil island that sits there so totally unprotected that we've taken out everything but the pipes we left the pipes because to rebuild the pipes would take years for you know for them to do but we are I would say we are substantially ahead of schedule now earlier today Treasury Secretary Scott Besson was talking about removing sanctions not just on Russian oil but apparently awarding Iran and removing sanctions from Iran. Let's play this clip right here.

We had a break the glass plan across the administration and at Treasury. We unsanctioned Russian oil. We knew that there were about 130 million barrels on the water. And we created supply that is beyond the straits of Hermos. So we anticipated this. We knew that there could be a temporary, and I want to emphasize temporary, chock point there and there was a hundred and thirty million barrels of floating storage in the coming days we may unsanctioned the Iranian oil that's on the water it's about 140 million barrels so depending on how you count it that's 10 days to two weeks of supply that the Iranians had been pushing out that would have all gone to China in essence we will be using the Iranian

barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days as we continue this campaign. We then heard from Pete Hegsth earlier in the day as well, where Hegseth talked about, we need $200 billion to kill the bad guys. Yeah, to kill the bad guys. How despicable is this guy here play this clip. Both what happened with Midnight Hammer and what happened with that as well. As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move, obviously. It takes, It takes money to kill bad guys. So we're going back to Congress and folks there to ensure that we're properly funded for what's been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition is, everything's refilled and not just refilled, but above and beyond.

I mean, President Trump, as he said, rebuilt the military in his first term, didn't think he'd use it as dynamically in his second, but he had. So thank goodness he did that. An investment like this is meant to say, hey, we'll replace anything that was spent. And now that we're reviving our defense industrial base and rebuilding the arsenal and freedom and cutting deals like our great deputy secretaries here is doing. And then, you know, as the Tennessee Holler says, so which country is the extremist theocracy again? Because throughout Pete Hegseth's entire press conference, that was right before Donald

Trump's press conference, Hegsith was like, may the almighty God continue to bless us in this war. May Jesus Christ and the church's support. I mean, it's like, just like listen to this guy. what are you doing? Stop invoking religion right now as you engage in this disastrous war. Frankly, whether you're religious or not, this administration is the most hateful and despicable regime, which any religion, it would violate its basic precepts. And regardless of religion, it violates basic humanity and dignity with these despicable clowns

in Washington right now who have ripped away our health care, ripped away your futures, ripped away basic life, send people to die in Iran, and then they go up there and they do this? Seriously, these are the worst pieces of trash imaginable. Here, play this clip. And I say the same to every American who wants peace through strength. May Almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight. And again, to the American people, please pray for them.

Every day on bended knee, with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ. There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think about this all. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. And thank you all so much for watching. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack at Midasplus.com. They'll get daily recaps from Ron Philakowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at Midasplus.com.