The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump Shuts Down White House as War Escalation Backfires

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump closing down the White House as his attacks on Iran instantly backfired as the Strategic Oil Reserves are about to be fully depleted. For a limited time, our listeners get 50% off FOR LIFE, Free Shipping, AND 3 Free Gifts at Mars Men at https://Mengotomars.com 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

Your sales order says one thing. Your inventory says another. Your spreadsheet says good luck. O-Doo brings your business together on a single platform. From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, visit Odu.com to book a demo. It's ODO.com. Donald Trump has shut down the White House. He has kicked out all of the press for the day as his escalation of this catastrophic war in Iran has backfired in his face in the most predictable. way and it's in a way that's not getting nearly enough attention. The biggest way it's backfiring right now is that the strategic petroleum reserves in the United States have basically hit functional tank bottom. That actual tank bottom marker will be hit in the next five to 10 days, which means we are on the brink of global economic catastrophe while Donald Trump is out there playing war games, killing people in Iran and saying, oh, they called. They want to make a deal.

I want to go through this with you with receipts to give you the analysis you need to hear that you may not be hearing anywhere else. And I want to remind you, make sure you subscribe to the Midas Touch YouTube channel. We're on our way to 7 million subscribers and we really need to hit that 7 million mark soon to get out the truth, to get out the word. Just take a look right here of the satellite image of the Strait of Hormuz right now. You have very little to any inbound traffic, and the only ships that are basically leaving are tied to Iran. Iran has been able to get out 10 million barrels of oil in the past 24 hours. They know what is coming. Since the Trump regime removed the blockade with the Memorandum of Understanding, Iran had a strategy,

While Donald Trump was ranting and raving like a lunatic, Iran was able to get out between 50 and 70 million barrels of its oil to the market, which will allow Iran to now survive for at least another 12 to 18 months if a blockade was put on it immediately and the blockade was actually enforced to perfection. So Iran now has bought itself a significant period of time. The United States hasn't, and this was all very, very predictable. As Donald Trump has shut down the White House, it should also be noted, the escalation in the war continues. Iran launched phase two of its retaliatory strikes after the United States announced through CENTCOM that 90 targets were hit by the United States, including areas near nuclear facilities in Iran, air bases and coastal cities. Iran struck earlier this morning in Jordan and was able to target a base there. The IRGC says it struck a U.S.-linked command and control center in West Asia at the Mouac-Al-S. Air Base in Jordan with 10 ballistic missiles. According to Iran, significant damage was done to that U.S. air base in Jordan.

Iran also targeted U.S. military assets in Bahrain and Kuwait. You can see right here, play some B-roll for you. At least five Iranian ballistic missiles were launched from northwestern Iran towards that airbase in Jordan a short time ago. So let's just take a look right here at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Cushing, Oklahoma, here in the United States, as Eric Natalik, explains the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is now 19 million barrels away from estimated minimum operating levels. There very soon will no longer be a safety buffer to protect the world from further losses out of the strait. Now, when the U.S. depletes those strategic reserves, it gets sold on the world crude market. And that's one of the reasons that the price of crude is going down

despite the instability because massive amounts of the strategic reserve get unloaded into the global market. It's not like that accrued or that capacity rather all of a sudden goes to just American gas stations. It's why the price at the pump for you is not going down really at all or at any significant amount. In fact, you're probably paying just about the same. Some of you are paying more, perhaps slightly less. That's called a crack price, which is the delta or the difference between the price of crude, which you may see, ah, $75 a barrel. We know that's now gone above $80 a barrel. But when the MOU was entered, that was like $69 per barrel. But the crack price is the difference between that and what the refineries charge. I won't get overly complicated, but they call it a 321 crack price

because you, out of three barrels, two are used for like gasoline and one is used for jet fuel or other types of like distillate or distillation. But basically that now, the crack price is $65 a barrel, which is incredibly high, like historically high. And that means that what you're paying for gas is still expensive. And why is this all happening? because everybody recognizes the strategic petroleum reserve crisis within the industry itself. And also what seems to be taking place when it comes to the market for the crude is that that is being heavily shorted and heavily manipulated by the United States government through both ways of releases in the reserves, but also through shorting.

And when you see some of the trading behavior happening, you see, aggressive, well-like short position taken as the price is naturally trying to go up because of the dynamic in the straight of Hormuz, which it is effectively shut down. So you have this massive market manipulation underway there while you have these strategic reserves being depleted. And then the reality of what the oil prices is reflected in the crack price, which is basically the delta or the increased amount that the refineries are set. selling at, which is why there's this massive, massive crisis right now. I think a good analysis of what's going down when people say, well, Iran is striking back,

but it's notable. Iran's hitting back at the United States, but it's not like an overwhelming response as the United States continues to escalate and escalate and escalate. So I've been asked a lot, then why do you think Iran is responding kind of, you know, not as aggressive as one might expect as Trump keeps on escalating. Well, Trump's escalation reflects the dynamic that I just talked about, which is desperation and it's based on a fundamentally flawed assumption, which is if you bomb Iran consistently, they're going to beg for mercy and give up when they're not. Iran is playing actual three to five dimensional chess. They see what's

going on. I think this description here is apt. So people say, well, is Iran not responding with the firepower necessary to deter Trump. That's because the so-called four weeks until global economic crisis that Trump talked about a few weeks back. Remember, I had to do the MOU because we're in a global economic crisis. What he was talking about is what I just mentioned. And it gets a little bit more complicated in terms of how the refineries actually operate, but just that is referring to the strategic reserve drawdown and depletion, basically. So I'm 33. And suddenly everything that used to be easy, wasn't. I barely ever talk about this, but it has to be said. Nobody tells you about this stuff. One day you're crushing it, and the next day you're wondering why everything

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plus free shipping and three free gifts at Men Go To Mars, That's men go to mars.com for 50% off and three free gifts when you check out. After your purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know that Midas Touch sent you. So now we're closer to 10 days away from that actually taking place. So Trump must escalate to break free from this trap that he announced. Iran realizes that. For Iran's goals, however, the situation must continue as is.

Omani route must be made sufficiently insecure to take it off the table long term. That's the southern route and the Strait of Hormuz that the Trump regime has tried to open, using the MOU, to open their own lane, which they couldn't accomplish when Trump and Netanyahu launched the war in Iran. So Iran's basically saying, we got to just make sure we control the strait, deter tankers, VLCCs and other ships from using the U.S. lane. make sure they all use the IRGC lane and then wait, then wait for the U.S. to hit tank bottom, then they will suffer massive economic catastrophe, and then they will be in a very precarious

situation, and Trump has trapped himself. That's what they realize. So it goes on to say, worse yet for Trump, oil reserves on his side are steadily decreasing while Iran is exporting with the blockade lifting. That's what I described at the outset. If Trump reactivates the blockade, markets, and the memorandum of understanding enabling states will be adversely affected. But it's one of his last remaining escalation options. Option he knows won't affect Iran's behavior because time, oil, is fully on Iran's side. Those MOU enabling nations, I mean, we're talking about Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Pakistan and others.

And so if Trump puts the blockade, he then screws all of those. So those nations saying, don't you dare do that. Trump is also financially entangled through all of the quid pro quo deals, right, with all of those nations. So Trump is stuck in trap? So is Iran incentivized to escalate by a massive missile strike or Iran shutting down the strait of Hamos at this moment? No.

Because Iran wants to get out as much as, its oil as possible while the strategic reserves are being deployed in. Not escalating, just builds clarity with the MOU enabling nations, Qatar, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and others on who is the escalating side? It makes clear Trump and Netanyahu are the bad guys. That's what they're trying to show, at least. A restraint credit that can be used for escalation at a future point in time. And look what Qatar has just announced.

Qatar is pausing efforts to. rapidly revived production at the world's largest LNG facility after an attack on one of its tankers in the Strait of Hormuz raised fears that the transit through the crucial waterway is still too risky. As Anne-Marie Hordern explains, this pause is one of the most high-profile fallouts of the heightened tensions this week with attacks on a number of ships near Hormuz and the U.S. striking Iran two consecutive days. Meanwhile, Netanyahu is out there saying, The war is not yet over. The war is not yet over.

Attacking Iran is like removing a cancer from your body. Israel's defense minister, his name is Israel Katz. His name is Israel. He says, we did not ask anyone for permission to enter Lebanon, and we do not need anyone's permission to remain in Lebanon. And meanwhile, you have Trump, regime lackeys, and sycophants on all of the morning shows, saying, the Iranian people are begging, Donald Trump for a ground invasion. All of those massive crowds you saw at the Ayatollah's funeral,

that's all astroturfed. Those are all actors. Yes, that's what the Trump regime is saying. The tens of millions of people out there, while you say that Iran is bankrupt and has no money, tens of millions of people were all coordinated and paid off by Iran to show up in Tehran and Kham, in Najaf, in other areas, in Iran and Iraq, to, to astroturf this, on the biggest scale. I mean, come on. This is such a reckless and malicious, fabricated view that gets spread on state regime media that leads to economic depression and catastrophe and the loss of American lives and lives

around the world. It's so ignorant. It's so dumb. And I'm grateful that I have this Midas Touch platform that we can talk about the truth because this stuff is what was polluting the minds of the American people for generations. with state regime media and corporate regime media. Here play this clip. You see these astro-turf crowds are supporting the regime in Tehran, but I don't believe that

propaganda. I think the Iranian people are supportive of the United States coming in and helping them to achieve liberty. And I think that's the direction we need to go. Oh, for sure. The Iranian people are thanking President Trump. It's all over social media. Then state regime media brings on this guy, Scott Fitzgerald.

We're in a war in Iraq. Okay, you mean, okay, play this clip. Now, we're in a war in Iraq. That's once again, kind of at the forefront. If we don't get that done, we're going to have serious issues down the road. And then they bring on this guy, Roger Williams, who said, nobody wants ground troops on Karg, but maybe, maybe, maybe we take Karg Island and, you know, that'll really hurt Iran. What do you mean take Karg Island?

Do you realize that if U.S. invades Karg Island, there will be tens of thousands of U.S. casualties instantly, instantly. What do you mean just take it? We're just going to hang out. Do you understand that they don't, it is such a fatal ignorance and also and or just malicious, recklessness, war mongering to just kill Americans and kill everybody, not just. the Americans kill Irani, kill people in the world. Here, play this clip. Now, the president telling reporters on Air Force One coming back from the NATO summit, he may be eyeing Karg Island, the key Iranian oil hub,

but most military experts say that would require at least some boots on the ground. Now, so far, the war has only used air assets. Would ground troops taking Karg Island go too far for you? Well, you know, nobody watched ground troops. We got the greatest Air Force and air facility in the world. But there again, that's going to have to be made up by the decisions of our leaders. Personally, I would really hesitate to put boots on the ground anyway, American young men and women. Karg Island is something though that we can, if we are able to take it,

can really hurt Iran and their future as far as energy production and living conditions. So that's always a good question. But right now, I'd like to see that we can do it in other methods before we put it on the ground. Yeah. So we'll keep you posted every step of the way, as always on the Midas Touch Network. What's being discussed behind the scenes in the White House is that the strategic reserves are shot, are depleted, and Iran knows how to outmaneuver it, and now saying, oh, now we're going to do this.

Worst decision ever. I mean, unless it's intentional, because there's not a better way to send the United States into a depression than what Trump is doing right now. Like if you intentionally wanted to do it, then it all makes sense. Makes perfect sense. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Thanks for watching, y'all.

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