The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump’s First Cabinet Meeting Plunges Into Disaster

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

MeidasTouch host Brett Meiselas reports and Donald Trump disastrous first cabinet meeting in which Trump often appeared confused as he spouted lie after lie and turned questions over to Elon Musk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Midas Touch. I'm going to walk you through the lowlights and fact check it all. But first, remember to hit subscribe and help us get to 5 million subscribers. The meeting began with a prayer where they thanked God for President Trump. Just completely bizarre stuff. Watch this. Father, we thank you for this awesome privilege, Father, to be in your presence. God, thank you that you've allowed us to see this day. The Bible says that your mercies are new every morning. And Father God, we give you the glory and the honor. Thank you, God, for President Trump, Father, for appointing us. Father God, thank you for anointing us to do this job. Trump then didn't even seem to know that he is president right now. And he said that while

egg prices are a disaster and are really high now, they were low with him. Eggs are a disaster. The secretary of agriculture is going to be showing you a chart that's actually mind boggling what's happened, how low they were with us and how high they are now. But I think we can do something about it, Madam Secretary. I think you're going to do a fantastic job in that position. Trump was then asked about consumer confidence, which is absolutely plummeting right now. People are very unhappy with the Trump economy and how he is handling it, or probably the lack of how he is handling it right now. Trump then argued that confidence was high after the election.

I mean, when Biden was still president. Play the clip. I've seen consumer confidence this week have a sharp drop from last month, the biggest dip in, I believe, three years. Why is that your assessment? Why is that the case? And is there anything you can do? Consumer confidence, if you look at confidence in the nation,

it had the biggest increase in the history of the chart. It went up 42 points in a period of like days after the election, since the election. So since the election, the confidence in our nation, including right track, wrong track, the first time it's ever happened where we were on the right track because this country has been And because we always show receipts here at Midas Touch, let's pull this up. Consumer confidence has registered the biggest monthly decline since August 2021 as inflation fears take hold. The latest evidence comes from the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for February, which was released this past Tuesday morning. The index fell to 98.3, falling for the third straight month and marking the largest monthly decline since August 2021 as expectations for inflation in the year

ahead climbed. And that coincides with the trends that were reflected in the University of Michigan's consumer survey for February. Trump then turned the meeting over to Elon Musk to tell people what is happening because apparently he doesn't know what the heck is going on. And Trump said that Elon probably found fraud, but he won't be able to prove it. The Doge is very important and Elon is here to give you a summary of what's happening, some of the things they found, some of the of what's happening, some of the things they found, some of the horrible things they found, some of the theft and fraud, and we call it waste and abuse, but a lot of fraud and probably some fraud that we're not going to be able to prove is fraud. But when you hear the names and the places where this money's going, it's a disgrace.

Elon Musk then admitted that he, quote, accidentally canceled briefly funding for Ebola prevention. Watch this. Like, well, is this real? Just go to doge.gov. Line item by line item, we specify each item. So, and I should say, also, we will make mistakes. We won't be perfect. But when we make a mistake, we'll fix it very quickly. So for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola. It was Ebola prevention. I think we all want Ebola prevention. So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption. By the way, for some perspective on how Doge is actually going, NPR's recent data show that while Doge has said they cut $55 billion in spending, they've actually only reduced about $2 billion

with all this chaos, just $2 billion. And the New York Times reports that the top five biggest cuts that Doge claimed to have put forward, they've now been removed from their website because they were all fraudulent claims. They were just completely made up factual errors. And while they're causing all this chaos under the guise of cutting the deficit, they are currently pushing through this budget bill in Congress that would add $19 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. 19 trillion with a T. So even if NPR's data is somehow wrong by 100x, and even if Doge somehow found a lot more savings since that report came out, it's still not even a dent in what the Trump GOP tax plan is about to cause. And also,

they could give $4.5 trillion in tax breaks to the richest Americans. And you don't have to believe me. Here are the deficit numbers as listed in the GOP resolution that passed last night. Take a look at this. And by the way, all these Republican politicians and influencers are now lying about the resolution, saying that they've ended tax on tips, tax on social security, tax on overtime. It's just a flat out lie. And you could see these posts like this one by Republican representative Anna Polina Luna. It got fact checked on Twitter of all places. It says on the bottom, the fact check, quote, House resolution does not include provisions for no tax on tips or no tax

on overtime. It's a budget resolution setting fiscal targets, not a tax or labor law, and Trump's proposals on tips and unmentioned overtime would require separate legislation. Also, to reiterate what was just said in that note, this is just a resolution providing the framework of the budget. The bill itself has not been passed. They are literally making up benefits for the working class out of thin air so that they could push forward these tax cuts for the rich. It's absolutely abhorrent. Well, back to the cabinet meeting Trump threatened Canada again by calling them the 51st state. Watch this. We don't need that lumber. What do we need their lumber for? When you look at the, we subsidize them $200 billion a year. Without us, Canada can't make it. You know, Canada relies on us 95%.

We rely on them 4%. Big difference. And I say Canada should be our 51st state. There's no tariffs, no nothing. And I say that we give them military protection. They have a very small military. They spend very little money on military. On NATO, they're just about last in terms of payment.

Because they say, why should we spend on military? That's a tremendous cost. Most nations can't afford to even think about it. why should we spend on military? That's a tremendous cost. Most nations can't afford to even think about it. Why should we spend on military? The United States protects us. And I would say that's largely true. We protect Canada, but it's not fair. It's not fair that they're not paying their way.

And if they had to pay their way, they couldn't exist. Trump then threatened Ukraine and said they could forget about ever joining NATO. Watch this. Our equipment, that would have been over very quickly. What concessions would you like to see? Oh, I don't want to start right now, but I can tell you that, uh, NATO, you can forget about. That's been, I think that's probably the reason the whole thing started. Then Trump refused to say if he would ever let China take Taiwan by force. Mr. President, you've been very clear in saying that as long as you're president, Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.

That's true. Is it also your policy that as long as you're president, China will never take Taiwan by force? I never comment on that. I don't comment on anything because I don't want to ever put myself in that position. And if I said it, I certainly wouldn't be saying it to you. I'd be saying it to other people, maybe people around this table, very specific people around this table.

So I don't want to put myself in that position. Trump was then asked about the message it sends to China if he allows Russia to keep territory they claimed by force. And he once again showed his weakness or rather subservience towards Russia. Take a look. Nobody thought you could make peace. I think you can. But if Mr. Putin gets to keep the land that was claimed by force, if the Russians get to keep the territory that they claim by force, doesn't that send a dangerous message, let's say to China?

Oh, you try and take it away, right? We're going to, we're going to. Trump was then asked about his plan to sell $5 million gold cards in order for rich people to be able to buy citizenship to the United States, including Russian oligarchs. The country is literally for sale right now. Trump claimed the country could make $50 trillion on selling gold cards if they could find 10 million people willing to pay the $5 million. I mean, the guy just makes things up. Watch this. Trillion. Howard was using a different number, but that's $5 trillion. If we sell 10 million, which is possible, 10 million highly productive people coming in or people that we're going to make productive, they'll be young, but they're talented, like a talented athlete. That's $50 trillion. That means our debt is

totally paid off and we have $15 trillion above that. Trump then encouraged China to invest in the United States. As I said before, the country is literally for sale under Trump. Watch. Pacific people around this table. So I don't want to put myself in that position. But I can tell you what, I have a great relationship with President Xi. I've had a great relationship with him. We want them to come in and invest. I see so many things saying that we don't want China in this country. That's not right. We want them to invest in the United States.

That's good. There's a lot of money coming in, and we'll invest in China. We'll do things with China. The relationship we'll have with China will be a very good one. I see all of these phony reports that we don't want that money. We don't want anything to do with them. That's wrong. We're going to have a good relationship with China, but they won't be able to take advantage of us. Trump was also asked if he could guarantee that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will not be touched. And he said he's going to find the fraud. And then he repeated these lies about 200-year-old people getting checks,

completely made up. The spending bill that passed last night aims to cut $2 trillion. Can you guarantee that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security will not be touched? Yeah, I mean, I have said it so many times, you shouldn't be asking me that question. Okay, this will not be read my lips. It won't be read my lips anymore. We're not going to touch it. Now we are going to look for fraud. I'm sure you're okay with that. Like people that shouldn't be on people that are illegal aliens and others, criminals in many cases. And that's with Social Security, we have a lot of people. You see that immediately when you see people that are 200 years old that are being sent checks for social security. Some of them are actually being sent checks. So

we're tracing that down. And I have a feeling that Pam is going to do a very good job with that. But you have a lot of fraud. If you remember, Trump and Musk were previously saying 150 year olds were getting checks. Now that number has magically moved to 200-year-olds. This is all based on Elon Musk and his 20-something-year-old doge kids not knowing how to read government data. And I want you to have your guard up any time. I'm just going to say this here.

Have your guard up any time Trump and Musk or any Republicans say that they are going after waste, fraud, and abuse. They are using that lie are going after waste, fraud, and abuse. They are using that lie to go after crucial government programs and to fire employees. But as you've seen at these town halls lately, people are already catching onto this lie anytime Republicans try to use that line. And finally, RFK Jr. was asked about the measles outbreak that's going on in Texas. We just learned this morning that an unvaccinated young child just died of measles. It's the first measles death in over a decade. RFK Jr. was asked about this and he said, it is not unusual. There are measles outbreaks every

year. Watch this. Bobby, do you want to speak on that? We are following the measles epidemic every day. I think there's 124 people who have contracted measles at this point. It maintains the county in Texas. Mainly, we're told, in the Mennonite community, there are two people who have died. But we're watching it, and there are about 20 people hospitalized, mainly for quarantine. We're watching it.

We put out a post on it yesterday, and we're going to continue to follow it. Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year. In this country last year, there were 16. So it's not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year. You sound a little under the weather yourself right now. I just, I have a permanently bad throat. I mean, it is unusual.

This is the first time this has happened in 10 years, and this is a deadly outbreak right now in West Texas due to people not getting vaccinated. As a reminder, RFK Jr.'s lies about vaccines during his visit to Samoa in 2019 have been linked to a massive measles outbreak there, which ended up resulting in 83 deaths, mostly children. So there's a track record of this with RFK Jr. Oh, and I have to show you this. This was an AI video that Trump posted on social media last night depicting the Gaza Strip as Trump Gaza, showing gold statues of Trump in a resort-like setting in Gaza with bearded ladies, Trump dancing with a woman who isn't his wife,

Trump shirtless with Netanyahu having drinks by the pool. This is just completely disturbing. I'm sorry to even show this to you, but people need to see what he is posting. Take a look. Yeah. Well, that's the latest. We are on our way to 5 million subscribers. Subscribe now to help us get there. Also, remember to add the Midas Touch podcast right now on Apple and Spotify and keep us as the number one podcast in the United States and in Canada. See you in a bit. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas Plus sub stack for ad-free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, and more. Sign up for free now at MidasPlus.com.