The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump Panics as Iran Defies Ultimatum

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump panicking as Iran rejects his ultimatum, with the ceasefire deadline approaching and Trump already scrambling to send his team to Islamabad to negotiate despite Iran saying it won’t engage while the U.S. blockade continues. Meiselas breaks down what Trump is telling U.S. media versus what Iranian leaders are saying to their own press, providing the clips and receipts so you can decide for yourself what’s really happening. Get 20% off your purchase at https://FastGrowingTrees.com using the code MEIDAS at checkout. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! 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

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Match with a licensed therapist today at Talkspace.com. Save $80 with code space 80 at talkspace.com. Donald Trump is panicking and looking so desperate as Iran says it has no intention of showing up in Islamabad for further negotiations with the United States on coming up with any deal until the Trump regime agrees to the 10-point negotiating framework that it previously agreed to and to stop threatening Iran to move away from its non-negotiable points, which Iran has said it will never move away from. Now, the Trump regime has already started to send military and civilian aircraft into Pakistan

in advance of potential talks with Iran. At the same time, Iran says they will not be sending any of their negotiators to show up unless and until the United States removes the blockade from the Persian Gulf, and unless and until Donald Trump stops lying about, Iran's negotiating position. Now, Pakistan's field marshal, Mu Nier, who is the top official in Pakistan, has told Donald Trump, Iran really is not going to show up as long as you have this blockade and as long as you keep on threatening to destroy their civilization and to destroy all of their bridges and civilian infrastructure. There's no way to engage in a negotiation, Donald,

while you continue to say that. Nonetheless, Donald Trump is already sending. in his advanced team for negotiations. I mean, it's a fairly desperate move that while Iran is saying they're not showing up and they're publicly saying they're not, they may show up, but they're posturing as though they won't show up. Donald Trump is rushing his team to show up in Islamabad to basically wait for Iran. You can see the plane right there flying in to the Nur Khan air base near Islamabad a short while ago. As noted, Pakistan's army chief of Simunir told Donald Trump that the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is blocking renewed U.S. Iran talks. Trump said that he would consider it, but then Donald Trump went on social media moments ago

and posted the following this morning. Israel never talked me into the war with Iran. The results of October 7th added to my lifelong opinion that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon did. I watch and read the fake news pundits and polls in total disbelief. 90% of what what they say are lies and made up stories. The polls are rigged, much as the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Just like the results in Venezuela, which the media doesn't like talking about, the results in Iran will be amazing. And if Iran's new leaders, regime change, exclamation point, are smart, Iran can have a great and prosperous future, DJT. So he's already toning down his rhetoric a little bit, but I mean, he still is ranting and raving like a little.

lunatic. And what Donald Trump's military generals are saying, it's Donald, if you want to go in for a ground invasion, if you want to talk tough, we have the capabilities to do that. But we're going to incur massive casualties. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of American soldiers are going to die. But we can complete this mission. Is that what you want us to do? And then Donald Trump's like, no, I don't want us to do that. Okay, well, what do you want us to do? Watch me go on social media and I'm going to post things in all caps, and that'll show Iran. We're going to threaten. Iran recognizes that Donald Trump isn't just a paper tiger.

He is the most paper tiger that there is. He talks tough. He has this bluster and bravado. But if you've followed him before, he always backs down when you confront him. And that's what Iran realizes. They see Donald Trump as terrified of markets crashing. They see Donald Trump as always chickening out. and that taco meme.

And that's why they continue to mock him over and over again. I mean, they're posting these, you know, again, these AI memes of him drinking crude oil. They're posting their Lego videos. A new one just dropped. I'll just show you 10 seconds of it. Here, play this clip. Iran's posting pictures like this today, two American. Your enemies aren't in Iran.

They're in the Epstein files. Or a post like this from Iranian. social media accounts. Battleships that were supposed to defeat an alien armada are wandering for cargo ships? Why so serious? Isn't that called piracy? This says the U.S. Navy has trained at sites on Iranian or Iranian-aligned cargo ships to interdict in Iran saying, didn't you say you were going to force us to unconditional surrender and you were going to destroy us? And now you have the U.S. Navy, the most powerful Navy in mankind, in mankind, basically functioning as pirates going into cargo ships that are sending goods and material to China. And then Iran's social media account writes,

with any equation moving from unconditional surrender to writing about a cargo ship, one of many is a loss, a big loss. And the main reason is being trapped inside a Zionist war machine. There's mock and Donald Trump. Free oil market for all, they're posting. And at social media post, or social media posts like this. We also then heard from Iran's foreign minister spokesperson who said the following, we have no plans for the next round of negotiations. At no stage of ongoing or previous negotiations has the issue of transferring Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles to the United States or any other country been raised.

And fundamentally, this option is not on the agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran does not recognize any deadlines or old. ultimatums and securing its national interests, safeguarding national interest will continue for as long as necessary. And in the event of any new adventurism by the United States or the Zionist regime, the armed forces will respond decisively with full capability. We see no signs that the U.S. is serious about advancing diplomacy. Iran's foreign minister spokesperson says multiple signs point to the exact opposite. The U.S. side constantly changes its demands, but we remain steadfast. Some issues are simply unacceptable and no amount of insistence on them will change our positions.

And so you're hearing statements like that. So then Donald Trump calls up the various regime medias and propagandist medias and people who will just generally serve as his stenographer. So he calls up the New York Post because he's like, oh, crap, the markets are tanking again. They realize that I did another market manipulation on Friday. Duh. So he pulls the same stunt. He calls up reporters so they can print his words to fit.

filter it through their newspapers or their websites to make it seem, oh, well, they're publishing and so maybe they did diligence when they didn't. So Donald Trump's like, I have no problem going to Islamabad myself. Maybe I will go to Pakistan and I will do the negotiations. I assume at this point, nobody's playing games. We're supposed to have talks. Then Donald Trump called up a reporter from the Hill, Julian Manchester, and she just publishes exactly what he says, for word. Trump told me over the phone that he disagrees with Energy Secretary. Chris Wright's assessment that gas prices may not drop until next year. No, I think he's wrong on that. Totally wrong, Trump said, okay, but don't you see the scheme and the scam and the fraud that he posts? Let me show you

the words of his Energy Secretary yesterday, the person in charge of this who said that they expect to have very high gas prices through 2027. Here's what he says. Let's what he says. Let's Let's play this clip right here. So when you were on the show March 8th, I asked you when gas prices would go under $3 a gallon for regular unleaded. You said, quote, in the worst case, this is a week's, this is not a month's thing. That was six weeks ago. So we're still within the weeks realm, but we're two weeks away from the month's thing.

When do you think it's realistic for Americans to expect that gas will go back to under $3 a gallon? I don't know. That could happen later this year. that might not happen until next year, but prices have likely peaked, and they'll start going down. Certainly with a resolution of this conflict, you'll see prices go down. Prices across the board on energy prices will go down. But it might not be under $3 a gallon until 2027. Under $3 a gallon is pretty tremendous in an inflation-adjusted terms. We had that in the Trump administration, but we hadn't seen that in inflation-adjusted term for quite a long time.

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show notes and support the show. Now, Donald Trump had some of his sick offense on state regime media this morning. Maga Republican Congress member Buddy Carter, along with Maria Bartaroma, were just spewing Trump propaganda talking points that bear no reality. to what's really happening on the ground. Play this clip. Yesterday, the president told me that he is expecting the Iranians to sign this agreement tonight. And if they don't sign it, he said that the U.S. will blow up every single power plant

and bridge and more in Iran. Your reaction in terms of where we stand. Well, certainly you would think the Iranians would have learned a lesson by now, and that is when this president says something, he means it. And he has proven that to them. And yet they still don't understand, which I think is an indication, and first of all, that they just don't get it. Secondly, of the deep hatred that they have for America.

And this is something that he's trying to address right here. And I applaud him for doing that. We've got to end this reign of terror that has existed for 47 years. And, you know, high gas prices, nobody likes that. But except for Democrats and John Ossoff, they like it. I remind you of June of 2022 when price of gas was $5 and $6 a gallon. But we will see gas prices come down again. that you saw last week when we had a temporary opening

of the Strait of Hormuz that prices came down. The price of oil per gap per barrel was lower than $80. They'll come down again as soon as we can get this resolved. So many things underway and going. Then you had Democratic Congress member Roe Kana go on Maria Bardo and fortunately he was pushing back. It was good to see Ro Kana on that show. Play this clip.

Say in 1.7 billion he told Congress was frozen. Iranian assets. Now, there was a back channel to Tehran through Valerie Jarrett, active for 2012 to 2024. This was after he left office. So, you know, it was almost like a shadow government. He also sent pellets of cash in a plane to Iran. Now, why would you send money to Iran, knowing that they are building a nuclear weapon and they are the leading sponsor of terrorism? Barack Obama was a great statesman who left America much safer. I wouldn't put Donald Trump in the same paragraph. The reality is when President Obama left, because of the great efforts of people like Valerie Jarrett, we had 97% of the enriched uranium out. The reality

is we didn't have 13 American service members dead. The reality is we never had gas go up from $2.30 to $4. The reality is we did not give China more role in the region. Let me finish very. I'll let you finish. We didn't give China more role in the region. We did not give the IRGC, a more hardline regime in there. You know why? Because Obama actually did his homework. He actually tried to engage in statesmanship. He had gotten, he got China, Russia, the entire European allies on board with getting Iran on a path to not having a nuclear weapon. All Trump did is listen to Netanyahu. That's his entire foreign policy. And you know what? I resent the fact that Israel is going to tell the United States what to do. The American

president should call the shots in this country. And, well, the American president should call the shots in this country, but you... By the way, while we're on the topic of the media, just want to give a hat tip to Jude Legham, because he pointed out something that I was noticing as well. Articles about Jared Kushner's diplomatic role with Iran that mentioned Kushner has received billions from the Saudi government. He looked at it from February 28th to April 19th. The New York Times, 5 out of 58th.

The Washington Post 1 of 43, Wall Street Journal, 0 of 40, Associated Press, 0 of 26, CNN, Wyer, 0 of 18, New York Post 0 of 17, Chicago Tribune 0 of 4, L.A. Times 0.4. In other words, in these articles that reference that Kushner is serving as like a chief negotiator and a diplomat in this area, even though he's not Senate confirmed and nobody wants him to be doing this, that he has all of these business entanglements to the tune of billion and billions of dollars. Glenn Greenworld says, so during Trump's second term,

Jared Kushner became a billionaire. The net worth of Trump's three sons exponentially skyrocket as they're doing all of these deals with Middle East nations and throughout the world, they're doing drone deals and crypto deals

and all of these quid pro quos and Don Jr. has a club called the executive branch club. I think you pay him $500,000 for great access to the executive branch club. Baron Trump is apparently worth $120 million.

Much, if not most of this came from huge cash infusions from Persian Gulf tyrannies, Glenn Greenwald says. Hunter Biden, on the other hand, got $50,000 a month for Burisma to serve as a board member when he previously had a history after Yale Law School of being on multiple boards, including George W. Bush appointed him to be on boards. He was on Amtrak boards, and he was on boards for UN. food aid boards, and he was a lawyer from Yale. And the reason he was on the Burisma board to begin with is because they wanted someone with pro-American or pro-Western allegiances on the board,

so it wouldn't be fully controlled by Russian interests. And he was paid $50,000 a month. And that was viewed as the biggest scandal ever. Meanwhile, the Trumps are like quite literally grifting billions in what are like direct quid pro quo. Marjorie Taylor Green this morning mocking Donald Trump his regime, she reposted this account Della Dream and Marjorie Taylor Green says, brilliant mocking Maga. Maga talking to a normal person who voted for Trump. Here, play this clip right here. Aren't you excited?

The straight of Hormuz is open. Or or or or or or or or. No. How could you not be excited? Or, or, or, or, or, or. Because that was open before the war that Trump started for Netanyahu and now a lot of people are dead and gas prices are really high. That's anti-Semitic.

You're an anti-Semite. What the fuck? And then you had Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's National Economic Advisor. He went on and spewed a bunch of nonsense on CNBC this morning. Here's what he had to say. Play this clip. Right. Well, I think that what's been happening more than anything else is that President Trump

has been communicating with the American people on like what the current state of things is, and he's been talking about how negotiations are moving forward well. He trothed over the weekend that their talks are resuming. Now, there are a lot of people chattering in Iran that aren't necessarily in power who are trying to perhaps undermine their own colleagues, but the fact is that the President Trump's truths, you go back, look one after another, have given a very clear guide to the journalists of the country and American people about the progress that we're making. At the beginning, the president said, in four to six weeks, we expect this could be resolved, and I think we're getting pretty close to that.

And again, it's lie after lie after like, oh, he's been so truthful. He's been, what are you talking? These people lie every moment of every day. And finally, speaking of that, let's remember the post that Donald Trump made on March 6, 2026, a very long time ago. Remember when Donald Trump posted the following March 6, 2026? There will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender. After that, and the selection of a great. and acceptable leaders, we and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners

will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. Iran will have a great future. Make Iran great again. Thank you for your attention to this matter, Donald J. Trump, and as our editor-in-chief, Ron Filipkowski says, three of Trump's war objectives six weeks ago in addition to seizing uranium, unconditional surrender, selection of a new leader of Iran by U.S. and Al-S. and Al-EU.S. and allies, U.S. helps build Iran. Tell me what you think, folks. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers and thanks for watching everybody. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack at Midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Philikowsky,

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