Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 4/23/2026 New

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Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is breaking news. Let's get into it right away. Moments ago, Donald Trump held this disastrous Oval Office, uh, press conference. And during this, uh, press conference, that's what I was waiting for, just to see what was happening. The feed cuts out. Let me show you what happens. He's talking about the catastrophic war, he's doing his typical lies, the feed cuts out. Watch what happens here. Play this clip. He said, I could use a shit, and then the feed cuts out. I know if he's having a medical emergency over there, but he's saying that he could use a shit right now. And that's what's going on in the Oval Office. There was a press conference was supposed to be about lowering prescription drug prices. In a moment, I'll show you all of the lies that Donald Trump was saying about this catastrophic war in Iran and how it is quicker than he expected. And he already won and he saved young girls.

That's his new one.

He created a completely fictitious story where he's saved 8 young girls. I'm not sure if it's AI or just a made-up story, but he's saved 8 girls. He called up the Iranians and he said to them, I need you to release the 8 girls. And the Iranians picked up and said, no, we're not going to release it. And then Donald Trump said, I'm going to make your life a living hell. I'm going to blow up your bridges. I'm going to destroy your civilization. Release the 8 young, beautiful little girls. Do you hear me? To which M.B. Ghalibaf and Araghchi and Pazeshkian and the others in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps said, okay, Donald, are you going to do another nasty social media post in all caps? And then Donald Trump's like, if you do not release those beautiful little girls. I am going to do a social media post and it's going to be really mean and there's going to be multiple exclamation points and lots of capitalized letters. To which Gerard said, please, please, this is getting serious. Please don't do that. Yeah, it is serious. Release the pretty little girls now. Okay, okay, we're gonna do it, but please don't do the post.

Hahaha, you see what I did? I saved the little girls, everybody. I I mean, I know that looks psychotic. That's what Donald Trump continues to claim is happening. Oh, you know, let me explain. And then he has state regime media, which calls itself Fox, like parrot these things. And you'll have like Jesse Watters do a segment. So why did Donald Trump agree to extend the ceasefire deadline? Let me explain to you what happened. You see, the ayatollah is a gay man. A very gay man. And then the Ayatollah was told by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, you're a gay man and we're going to lock you up right now. We're doing a coup. So the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said, Ayatollah, you do not have negotiations with Donald Trump, you understand? And so Donald Trump's like, we're trying to make a deal. We're trying to make a deal. Who do we do it with? And the Islamic Revolutionary Guard's like, we're not going to do anything like that. So Donald Trump said, what am I going to do here? Should I obliterate your civilization? And then, uh, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard was like, no, no, no, hold off.

We're going to work with Asim Munir, the Pakistani, uh, field marshal, and we're going to figure this out. Can you give us an extension? And then the field marshal said, Donald, we need your help. Okay. They've locked up the gay ayatollah. And I mean, by the way, if you're like, Ben, what the hell? That's literally what I'm just saying is the segment on Jesse Watters on like a Fox primetime show. Like, I'm not being hyperbolic. He said those things. And then as a result, that is why Donald Trump gave Iran a ceasefire extension indefinitely. Trump said he was going to obliterate the civilization, destroy everything. But that's what actually happened. Like, do we all realize how freaking humiliating this is? I mean, we have literally a demented, psychotic, delusional thing in the Oval Office who's talking about taking shits, uh, you know, in the Oval Office during press conference. I'm not, I'm not trying to be gross. That's what he's saying when the feed cuts out while he's out there making up lie after lie after lie about the war and bragging the Vietnam War lasted 18 years, so I'm beating the Vietnam War. Dude, you drive, you dodge, you dodge the draft 5 times in the Vietnam War.

What, what world are you in? What are, what are you talking about right now? And let's talk about the reality, like what's actually happening right now, uh, in Iran, um, all of their leadership from the judiciary to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard to the parliament to their foreign affairs minister, they all put out joint statements after Donald Trump's been making all of these, you know, weird posts and lies about what's going on in Iran. They each made a post at the same time that basically says the same thing. So the parliament leader writes, in Iran there are no radicals or moderates. We are all Iranian and revolutionary. And with iron unity of the nation and government with complete obedience to the Supreme Leader of the Revolution. We will make the aggressor criminal regret his actions. One God, one leader, one nation, and one path. The path being the path to victory for Iran, dearer than life. And they all wrote some variation of that. You can see Araghchi, you can see the head of the judiciary. Araghchi is their foreign minister. Separately, you can see the head of the— and they all reposted each other's messages.

So you have Iran making posts like that while You have Donald Trump this morning saying, let's kill Iranians who don't want to do a deal. I'm ordering the Navy to shoot any boat putting mines in the strait. We actually have full control over the Strait of Hormuz. Actually, I don't need to do a deal. And then he holds a press conference where the feed cuts out, where he says, I need a shit. I mean, this is the United States of America. This is the most— once the most powerful nation in the world. This is— This is the reality that we inhabit, and we're supposed to go on and just act like this is all normal while the Strait of Hormuz is closed. It's under the control of Iran. No ships are getting in and out except a few ships that are linked to Iran, and they're able to get around the blockade. Two ships that tried to jump the Strait of Hormuz and get out to test Iran, they were boarded by Iran's navy. Yes, the same navy that the Trump regime claims doesn't exist. Okay, that's the reality of what's going on. And we still have the biggest oil shock in history.

The oil, the crude is not leaving, uh, and, and, and getting to its destination at, uh, anywhere near— it's, it's right now, it's a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what it was before the war. And because Donald Trump is doing a fake blockade, a blockade to make him feel good but is not all that effective, but a blockade nonetheless. Then doing some interdictions in the Indo-Pacific of, uh, of ghost ships linked with Iran. That's what Donald Trump thinks is the way to negotiate right now. I'm just going to put this naval blockade on. That's how strong I am. Look what we're going to do. What, we board cargo ships? The great proud American Navy is now basically Jack Sparrow, like we're pirates, like that's what we do right now in the United States Navy. Meanwhile, you have the, uh, Secretary of Navy John Phelan resigning, uh, or he was fired. He said he was resigning, but we learned what actually happened. And Pete Hegseth wanted him gone. Apparently he was following certain court orders as it relates to Senator Kelly being disciplined. Um, and Phelan wouldn't, uh, break the law even though, I mean, this guy has no military back.

He's a private equity guy, John Phelan. No connections with the Navy, no connections with our military. He's a rich private equity guy who was a Republican donor, and that's what allowed Donald Trump to Pick him as the Secretary of Navy, and then he quickly got fired because he wouldn't fully violate the law like Hegseth wanted him to do. And so now you have Hung Cao is going to take over as acting secretary. Hung Cao, do we, do we have any clips, Jeremy, of the guy who's now— it's like in the middle of a catastrophic war, we fire the Chief of Staff of the Army, 4-star general, General Randy George. It's the top position in the United States Army. We previously fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the beginning of Donald Trump's term, Brown. We fired that guy. Two other top people were fired when General George, the Army Chief of Staff, was fired. And so not just— so the top Army person and the top Navy person during the middle of the war have been fired by the Trump regime. Complete chaos, complete disarray. And now we have Hung Cao. Jeremy's like, which— our editor Jeremy goes, which clip of Hung Cao should we play?

Jeremy, literally play any of them right now, okay? Play any of them because they're each worse than the next. So just play whichever one you want to.

This is great. I know I'll be attacked by left and call me white supremacist, but I have one ask for them. It's just when you give me my hood, make sure it's got the little slits and not the circles so I can see better.

Captain Hung Kao, thank you very much for joining us in War Room. KKK jokes, so funny, so funny. And Steve Bannon, what are you doing, man? Could these people behave like grown-ups, please? Can they just behave like adults? Who behaves like this? Do we have another clip of Hung Kao, the one on on witchcraft and that people in California practice witchcraft, according to the new acting secretary of the Navy. Here, play this clip.

There's a place in Monterey, California called Lovers Point. Yeah, the original name was Lovers of Christ Point, but now it's become— they took out the Christ. It's Lovers Point. And it's really— Monterey is a very dark place now. Yeah, a lot of witchcraft. And the Wiccan community has really taken over there. And we can't let that happen in Virginia. Virginia is— I mean, especially down, down in Roanoke, they're God-loving people, right? Richmond too, and Virginia Beach. And we just need to mobilize Christians across the nation.

I mean, okay, well, while he brings up Virginia, we might as well acknowledge that in Virginia, the yes referendum vote passed, assuring a constitutional amendment in Virginia's constitution that would allow the congressional delegation in Virginia to be redistricted. So it's 10 Democrats, 1 Republican. Yes, a Republican-appointed extremist judge did rule to block the mid-district gerrymander that occurred, the constitutional amendment. Most observers of this believe that the Virginia Supreme Court is going to allow the constitutional amendment to stay in place and is going to overrule what the lower court did. There's arguments that are going to happen in the Virginia Supreme Court. If you look at the prior rulings by the Virginia Supreme Court regarding this specific constitutional amendment, where the Virginia Supreme Court could have struck it down before it was voted on by the people, uh, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing the redistricting to take place. That's why when people tell you that they're pretty confident this Virginia Supreme Court should— we don't know, but should rule to uphold the amendment— they've had this exact issue before them where they upheld the new maps and what was going on in the legislature and allowed the referendum to proceed before.

So that's why when people like, yeah, we know that this lower court blocked it, but we think Virginia Supreme Court is going to allow the referendum. And it's like, why is it even a question? And why are Republicans so whiny about it? Isn't this what you wanted? This is what you wanted. Democrats in Congress at the federal level wanted there to be a law passed that would ban all gerrymandering, get rid of political gerrymandering. That was the Democrats' position. The Democrat position is we don't want gerrymandering. Let's just compete fairly in every state. No political gerrymandering at all. Let's just end the practice. It makes no sense. It's stupid when you look at these districts where, you know, the idea that you could politically gerrymander and, and slice up districts so that you, your side can win. Democrats are saying we want to ban that. Republicans blocked that legislation. So let's just deal with the facts, okay? And Democrats didn't start this gerrymandering mid-decade redistricting. Democrats previously were playing by the rules of the stupid game, right? The rules of the stupid game is every 10 years there's a census, and then based on the census, you can then politically gerrymander.

And then a lot of the gerrymandering that would take place had these racial components to them. But then you would try to claim— the Republicans particularly, but I'm not saying, you know, it's all— and, you know, it's, it's a bad practice, Jeremy. Democrats want to ban it. Ban it. But they would say, oh no, it wasn't racial gerrymandering. The reason that we kicked out Black people, or the reason that we kicked out this group or that group from voting, is because of the political identities, not because of, uh, any racial considerations. You know, meanwhile, you had the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act from the 1960s, you know, and the enforcement mechanisms and the preclearance requirements, which meant before you could do any gerrymandering at all, you had to go to the Department of Justice and a 3-district court panel to approve your gerrymander. And they, and they had to pre-clear it before you can do it. Now you can do it. And then they, and then you have to then file lawsuits about it. But Trump went into Texas first, right? Trump went into Texas first and did the 5 seats, and he was bragging, here's what we're going to do, here's what we're going to do.

And then Democrats fought back. Democrats challenged what was going on in Texas, and the Supreme Court of the United States said, we're going to let it happen. It's political, political gerrymandering. Okay, racial gerrymandering, not okay. So just call the racial gerrymandering political gerrymandering, and then you're good. It's basically what the Supreme Court ruled. I think it's a ridiculous ruling, but then that became the rules of the game. So Democrats said, okay, you do it, we do it, right? Gavin Newsom then said, we're going to do Prop 50. We'll neutralize your seats in Texas. And Democrats picked up 5 seats in California. So Republicans got 5 seats in Texas, Democrats got 5 seats in California. That was neutralized. Donald Trump then tried to run to different states to pick up a seat here or a seat there. Democrats did the same thing when they took control of the governorship in Virginia with Spanberger. Democrats said, okay, temporarily we're going to do a 10-to-1 map in favor of Democrats. And then Democrats now have an actual lead in the aggregate from all of the gerrymandering. This whole thing backfired. This was a dummy mander, a dummy mander on Donald Trump.

And Democrats will now pick up more seats and potentially even more because Democrats have been overperforming. So Democrats may win some of those Texas seats that were dummy mandered by Donald Trump and Abbott, believing Hispanic voters were moving in favor of Trump and MAGA, which they're not. So if those Hispanic voters vote the way they're voting in the special elections right now, not only are the Democrats going to neutralize what MAGA and Trump and Abbott have done in Texas and in some other states by picking up 5 seats in, uh, in California, 4 seats right now, it's 6 to 5, 6 to 5 in Virginia, and soon it will be 10-1. So it's a pickup of about 4 additional seats there. So Democrats pick up anywhere from 9 to 10 seats if you count Utah. Republicans pick up about 5 to 6 seats if you count Texas. Democrats are +4, but Democrats may win some of those Texas seats as well, you see, if they continue to overperform in these special elections. And so now MAGA is like, oh my God, we never thought this through, it backfired, oh my gosh. It's why Democrats need to fight back.

It's why we all, regardless of political parties, affiliations. You need to just fight back against fascism. You need to punch fascism back in its face, and you got to stand up and exercise all of the authority you have— moral authority, formal authority. Bring the community together and stand up to, stand up to all this stuff, right? I mean, they don't— they're not really strategic thinkers, okay? I mean, that's one of the issues. If you go to Iran, you know what Donald Trump's saying? He didn't think through that Iran would block the Strait of Hormuz. Didn't think that was going to happen. Didn't think Iran was going to attack the neighbors. Donald Trump says this publicly. Nobody expected them to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Nobody expected them to attack their neighbors where there are American interests, which is what Iran struck— American interests in its Arab nation neighbors. No, no one thought— no one thought this could happen. Okay, so you just rushed into this war with Netanyahu. You and Netanyahu, you don't tell any of the Arab nations that are supposedly allied with you. You don't tell NATO, you don't tell anyone, you just, you do it alone.

Then you start attacking NATO and all of our allies. And then you act shocked when Iran does what actually all of the generals and admirals and your chairman of the Joint Chiefs warned you about. We were talking about this on Midas Touch for a very long period of time. And then don't even get me started on the fact that last June Donald Trump said he totally obliterated Iran's nuclear capabilities. And anything to suggest otherwise, Trump said, is defamatory. He'll sue you. He's so, he's so thin-skinned, he'll sue you because if you dare even say even a little bit that it was not totally obliterated. Okay, so if it was obliterated, what's the point of, what's the point of any of this? You know, and then you see the messages that he makes today, and the messages today are, as I said, let's kill the Iranians who don't want a deal. I'm ordering the Navy shoot any boat putting mines in the strait. We actually have full control over the Strait. I don't need a deal. I don't need a deal. Okay, you're all over the place right here. Then he makes up again these like fictitious stories about things that, that aren't happening.

Like he goes, Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is. They just don't know. The infighting is between the hardliners who have been losing badly on the battlefield and the moderates who are not very moderate at all but gaining respect It's crazy. We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz. No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States. It's sealed up tight until such time as Iran is able to make a deal. Well, every aspect of this is false. It's like a made-up story. And I'm not sure, I mean, is your audience literally Jesse Watters? And so Jesse Watters can then say this to, you know, the MAGA brain morons who watch him still? Like, is that what this Is that the intended audience for this? Because aren't you trying to accomplish something in these negotiations? In theory, aren't we trying to figure something out, right? You have two paths. You're either going to go to war and escalate, or you're going to negotiate. But when you say stupid shit like this, to use a term that Donald Trump used when the feed cut out this morning or moments ago, Iran just thinks you're an idiot.

They just think you're weak and pathetic. So do NATO countries. So does China. So does Russia. They look at you and they go, this guy is just out of his mind. And not like out of his mind, like, ooh, It's like the, uh, Crazy Ivan. Like, what's he gonna do next? No, like, literally, like, like, this guy is like a pathetic, weak maniac. Like, what do we even— what do we even do with him? So he's like, we control the Strait of Hormuz. Okay, if we control the Strait of Hormuz, then bring ships in. If you believe you control the Strait of Hormuz, then take the USS Gerald Ford and bring it in and see what happens. And they show you control it. Bring, bring the minesweeping ships in. Bring, bring them in. See what happens. See, see, see actually what happens there. We'll see. Why don't you, why don't you bring in the USS Tripoli? Bring in some of the ships. Just why don't you take it all the way into the Persian Gulf and why don't you see what happens if you totally control it? And then this whole story about the hardliners against the moderates in Iran, fiction, just not true.

There's nothing true about this. And then so when the media is like, well, Trump says, Trump says, yeah, Trump's a liar. He lies about everything. I saw some, one of these stupid, you know, some of them are really good, but some of them are just such like Trump bootlickers. This open source intelligence, what's one of them? Some of them are really good. So I don't mean to attack someone, but there was ones like, I don't understand what happened last Friday when Donald Trump said that he reached all of these agreements with Iran and he was very specific. And so what happened that it all fell apart? Did Iran miscommunicate? No, no. Donald Trump lies about everything. This isn't some complicated thing to figure out. The guy lies about everything. Every word, every sound, every syllable, every utterance, every shit. Everything that the guy says is 100% a lie. Lie, lie. Like there's nothing. It is. It is. The guy should be in a straitjacket. In a very serious involuntary psychiatric ward. That's the truth. That is the reality of his situation. Yet this is— we act— not we here, but others act like, oh, you know, this is what he does.

This is his negotiating style.

It's fine.

No, no. He deserves to be in a straitjacket and put in a psychiatric ward. He's a psychotic human being. And I'm not trying to use a clinical diagnosis. In order to, or my opinion thereof, I should say, in order to like alleviate what a malicious, horrible human he is. So I always have to be careful. But, but I mean, this is someone who is completely untethered from reality and he wants to bend other people's reality and live in his horrible, you know, terrible world of lies. And he wants you to live in there. I mean, look at this other post that he makes this morning. I've ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any small boats or ships. I've destroyed all of their naval ships that are putting mines in the waters. There is to be no hesitation. Additionally, our minesweepers are clearing the strait right now. I'm hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled-up level. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Wow.

Our minesweepers. Did you all know this, everybody? Our minesweepers, even though they're satellite imagery, you know, are actually in the strait right now as we speak. And they're doing such a good job right now, so amazing, right, that Donald Trump has asked that they triple their efforts. So we're gonna even do more minesweepers inside the Strait of Hormuz. And that's what's happening right now, everybody, right? You don't have any minesweepers in the Strait of Hormuz. For a moment in time, when there were the initial talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, you sent a minesweeper for a very short period of time. The Iranian Navy got on their public channel and said, 'Sapah Navy, Sapah Navy, turn around or we'll shoot.' Sapah Navy, Sapah Navy, turn around and we'll shoot. And then the United States naval ship said, Sapah Navy, we are turning around, we are turning around, we hear you, we're turning around. And then the US naval ship turned around. And then the Trump regime denied that. Then we got video footage of that. That's exactly what happened. And so you sent a navy ship to play chicken with the Iranian navy And then when the Iranian Navy, which you claim is obliterated, said, 'Safar Navy, turn around,' our Navy turned around.

How— I don't like that as the result. You think, you think I'm rooting for that as the result right now? You think I want to see our proud Navy looking like this? You know, and by the way, as Donald Trump fired the U.S. Navy Secretary One of the things that Donald Trump was upset with the Navy secretary about was that Trump wanted Trump battleships built, and the Trump ships were not being built quick enough. You see, Donald Trump doesn't like aircraft carriers, he doesn't like stealth ships, and he doesn't like the smaller, more mobile ships. Donald Trump likes the ships that were used in World War I, the big kind of tank-looking steel, whatever, whenever those ships were made. That's what he likes. And so he wants Trump-class battleships that look like World War I ships and early World War II ships. That's what he wants. And those weren't being built quick enough. And you're like, well, Ben, you're making this up.

Go, go.

I've done so many videos on this. So you go watch the other videos that I do, you know, if, if you want. And then Donald Trump posts this: let's kill the negotiators, or let, let's kill the ones who don't want a deal. Let's kill them. Let's kill them. Look, the bottom line, I said this before, if your view, Donald, is let's kill them and you want to be a war criminal, and you, well, you already are, but if you want to go in the direction of escalation, our generals and admirals and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and others, they've given you the plan of if you want to escalate, you'll destroy the markets, you'll put the United States in a Great Depression. More significantly, you'll cause deaths of at least tens of thousands of American soldiers, maybe hundreds of thousands, or maybe even more than that. But if you want to talk kill, kill, kill, okay, there's a path. There's a kill path for you. Okay, there's a kill path for you. But you saw the direction the war was going. You begged for this ceasefire with Iran. You agreed to their 10-point framework.

That's why we are where we are now. And they're not moving off of their 10-point framework. I'm sure I'm sure that if you remove the naval blockade and you agreed to concede some things that Iran wants, I, I would be willing to bet that Iran would move away from some of those 10 points. I believe they would go, they would move on. Which ones? I mean, I think they definitely want permanent security guarantees for themselves and Hezbollah. As well as, uh, the Houthis and their Shiite groups in Iraq. I think that's one. I think that they would agree to not enrich uranium to weapons grade in a very similar way they did with Obama. Maybe Obama's would be slightly stronger than what they would agree to now because they feel that they won on the battlefield. They feel that they now, they have something they didn't have with Obama. They control the Strait of Hormuz. But I think they'd probably be willing to do a deal that looks like a weaker version of Obama's JCPOA. But, but something similar. So I think you'd get that. My gut would be that they would— here's my suspicion— that they would give up control over the Strait of Hormuz if you agreed that they could get paid reparations for the war in the form of either a tax on the ships until they reach a certain threshold, and then it gets transferred back to international kind of international control.

But until they get— I think they claim their damages are $267 billion. So maybe you would meet somewhere in the middle. You would say, okay, Iran will— I'm not suggesting this should be— this is where a negotiation would work. What would I think net out? $75 billion, which you can recover based on ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Either the ships pay you or we pay you. And by the way, How humiliating would that be? It would be very humiliating, but I'm trying to describe what I actually think a workable resolution is. Then you'd open up the Strait of Hormuz. We would then want an international coalition to make sure it doesn't get closed again. So we would say, okay, as long as we make these payments, we're going to now work with our NATO ally— former NATO allies, I guess— European countries, Arab nations, and we need to let those ships in So that we have other militaries in there to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz after Iran gets paid what it wants to get paid. Iran, you can, I mean, you'd probably have to let them keep their ballistic missiles and Shahed drones, and you'd probably have to lift sanctions.

That what I described is probably the deal, you know, that, that is workable. There'll have to be technical details, obviously, with the Atomic Energy Commission to iron out. you know, dilution of nuclear, nuclear material, very specific stuff that Whitkopf, Kushner, and JD Vance know nothing about. But that's ultimately how a resolution to me would look. And if you're going, Ben, Ben, that's a sellout, man. You, are you selling out the— I'm a patriot, 250th anniversary, man. You're selling, you're selling out the great country, man. Okay, well then don't do a deal and then go, go back to war. Go back to war. That's another, that's an option for you. Go to war and then ask them. But the reality is, is that we're in this strategic bad— non-strategic, but we're in this situation because of Donald Trump going it alone with Netanyahu. He screwed up. We lost. Okay. We lost based on what our objectives were. Regime change, people in the streets were supposed to greet Trump and Netanyahu like heroes. How ridiculous of a concept is that? And then we're going to obliterate this, obliterate all of their missile capabilities, all the things they said at the beginning.

We didn't do that. That's why we lost. Right. Seems pretty basic. Those were the objectives. Win. Objectives achieved? No. Loss. Very basic. Very binary.

Right.

Okay. So now we have to figure out what to do. If you want to win, okay, treat it like it's the second quarter. Go to war again. Do a ground invasion of Karg Island, see what happens. I don't support that. It's war crimes. I'd be very clear where I said that's your option. That's an option. The other option is negotiate, and the deal probably looks eerily similar to what I described. And again, I've— just to be clear, I've never been in a negotiation regarding nuclear material. In my life. I haven't. I do teach negotiation at a prominent law school. I do, in my past as a litigator, I was involved in some of the most contentious and high-profile cases involving negotiations and settlements and resolutions before I started working at Midas. So, I at least know in a very high-intensity business setting in front of the top mediators in the world, I've, I've led mediations and settlements. So I think at least that experience gives me some insight. I, I am a rapacious student of the Middle East and Iran and what their people are saying, because in order for us to understand how to negotiate, you have to listen.

One of the things I teach my law students in negotiation, listen, ask, shut up. The worst negotiator— it's like Trump: blah-blah-blah! Worst negotiator. The best negotiator? You ask a question and you fill the negotiation with silence and you listen to what the other side is saying; strategic silence. And you hear them and then you ask him questions.

Well, it seems to me that your business plan doesn't make sense because I'm not seeing any revenue streams coming from this product or service line here.

What do we need to change about our marketing strategy so people will buy more of these products? Or how can we improve on some part of our manufacturing process so they're able to produce faster side is saying. Strategic silence—and you hear them and then you ask 'em questions. "Well, it seems to me—" What you're saying is this. Listen, because people will start to say how they feel. And am I missing anything here? Who are the key decision makers? Should there be anyone else that I'm talking to? Well, what do you think about this? Gather the info. And the info is out there. That's why I know how to reach a resolution in this thing, because the info, the info is out there. I'll show you what the worst behavior is. Jeremy, do we have— first show that clip again for people just joining us of Donald Trump as the feed cuts off saying that he had to take a shit. Here, play this clip. He said, I could use a shit. I could use a shit. That's what goes on in the Oval Office. Now, I'm not suggesting that presidents are impervious to taking shits.

I'll be very clear about that. But I mean, Is it such word vomit that you literally have to announce to your staff when you have to go do a number 2? I mean, that's like— that's like— that's where we are. That this is the guy walk around the White House just talking about taking shits. I mean, is— I mean, for real, is this— this is what the White House— okay. Um, and here he is talking about how he saved 8 young women. It's a total made-up story. I've saved 8 young beautiful women. They're so young. Very young. I saved him. I saved— false. Here, play this clip.

Or the military operation, whatever you want to call it. And they're coming to us. The problem they have is they are very disorganized right now. Well, now yesterday, and I was very pleased with this, 8 young women were going to be executed yesterday afternoon at 6 o'clock. And I, I asked them, call it a favor or call it just a moral request that they not be executed. And they came back with an answer that they won't be executed. They're going to release— it was protesting— 8 beautiful young women, very young women. And they were— the pictures in the paper. And it's been a story for a little while. And I saw that and I said, let's see if we can save them. And they were— it was very nice what happened. So Uh, they're not going to be— what they're doing is, as you know, they're releasing 4 of them very shortly, and they're going to keep 4 of them in jail for a period of 1 month and release them. So they won't be executed.

Yeah, so if you're asking for— none of that's true. You're like, Ben, which part of it? None of it. The guy just makes it up. He, he invented a thing that maybe he saw somewhere online. And he's like, I saved these 8 beautiful women. I did it. I had the conversation. They were so young and pretty, and I saved them. What are you talking about? Or, I mean, all of the Iranian leaders are publicly posting like that, that you're making this up. Like, they're not talking to you, and they have no interest in having any conversation with you at all until the naval blockade is lifted. I'll show you this one over here. How long are you willing to wait for a response from Iran? So to be very clear, just so we can sequence the questions, the fact that this next question is even asked, right? How long are you willing to wait for a response from Iran? I thought you just spoke with Iran and you saved the 8 young beautiful girls. Like, do we see some of just— that wasn't exactly the logic games that I needed to ace the LSATs, okay?

But, but here's what he says here. Play this clip. How long are you willing to wait until you get a—

Don't rush me, Jeff. You know, guys like you, you want to say, oh, so we were in Vietnam like for 18 years. We were in Iraq for many, many years. We're in for all the— I don't like to say World War II because that was a biggie, but we were 4 and a half, almost 5 years in World War II. We were in the Korean War for 7 years. I've been doing this for 6 weeks and their military is totally defeated. They're outside of the little wiseguy ships. I call them the wiseguy ships, the little boats that they have running around with guns in them. We'll take them out too when we see them. But—

Got it here. Don't rush me. But I spoke to them. I saved the 8 girls. These little ships, these little ships, the wise guys I call them, the wise guy ships I call them. And World War II was a biggie. That was a biggie. A biggie. A biggie. The hell is going on here? How does anybody report on this and not respond? Like this for real. How do you, how do you look at that and go, oh, you know, the Oval Office press conference and Donald Trump said, uh, you know, no biggie, a biggie, a biggie, and he talked about pooping in the Oval Office, and then he talked about saving the lives of 8 girls. Yeah, normal stuff, normal stuff. All right, my producer saying we've got to take our first break of the show. I know, we were having a good conversation though, Jeremy, with everybody in the chat. I'm seeing everybody's messages. We had a big crowd today, 15,000 people watching. It's a great convo. 16,000 right now. All right, make sure you all hit subscribe. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. Double check. Also, if you can, make sure you, uh, subscribe to Midas Touch on audio also.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis, and this is your breaking news showing you what was going on in the White House moments ago. Donald Trump, uh, the feed cut off, talked about having to run to the bathroom, and then he talked about saving young, beautiful women in Iran. They're very young and very beautiful, which never happened. Then he called World War II a biggie, and that as long as this doesn't last longer than Vietnam, he's okay. And, uh, and you'll notice, like, as he goes through this press conference, he keeps on changing the duration of the war. And so, you know, it's— we basically have been in this war for like 2 months now, about 8 weeks, maybe 7 or so. And so he's— he, he, he just can never say a true number. So here he is when a reporter says, so how long are you willing to wait for— sorry, the next one goes, uh, Trump says, we've been doing it for 5.5 weeks. And the reporter fortunately is like, sir, it's been 8 weeks. Why, why are you saying 5.5 weeks? Like, why, why is every word a lie?

Why is every word a lie? I mean, you could say, look, it's 8 weeks and it could have, you know, when we're going to try to end by 12 weeks, but now we're, now we're 2 months in. Here, play this clip. We have no pressure.

It's only guys like you with a question like that about what's your time. We've been doing it for 5 and a half weeks.

But sir, is your administration—

weeks that the U.S. now has been involved with Iran. You had initially said it would be 4 to 6 weeks.

Well, I hope that, but I also took a little break. I gave them a break and I took a break.

I took a break so we don't count the war right now. Even though the Strait of Hormuz is closed. That's how he gets his— I took a break. I took a break. I mean, I mean, what a wild— yeah, he counts the ceasefire as we're not at war, and I took a break all of a sudden. Okay, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, everybody. There ain't no, ain't no commerce going through the Persian Gulf right now. That's a big problem. That's a big problem internationally. And I mean, you have a naval blockade in Iran which isn't all that effective. They have full control of the Strait of Hormuz. So what are you going to do? We learned that at least 34 tankers with links to Iran have bypassed the U.S. blockade. Financial Times confirming this both with ship tracking data as well as independent sources. Because you want to know here, for those watching here, here's how Iran does it. This is how they easily defeat the US blockade. For those on audio, I'm showing people the path, um, that Iran takes, and it basically takes its ships right through the coast of Iran, and then they stay in the territorial waters of Pakistan and India, and then they come right out because the US naval blockade is not allowed in the territorial waters of Pakistan and India.

So if you want to break the blockade, you just basically kind of hug the coastline as much as you, you can as a tanker. You know, if you see CENTCOM and the US military bragging about interdicting ships, it's kind of more— it's, it's not in this area. They're interdicting Iranian ghost ship cargo ships in the Indo-Pacific. And they, you know, they create these videos of our soldiers boarding these like cargo ships like pirates and searching them. And that's like, that's like the big accomplishment of our Navy. Yeah, we stopped a, we stopped a defenseless cargo ship. You know, and that's why they're mocking us in Iran. I mean, they're just like, America's ongoing piracy in international waters. The US Department of War announced the inspection and seizure of another tanker claiming it was carrying Iranian oil. The company that tracks oil cargo shipments, TankerTrackers, has also claimed that this tanker is the same vessel Phoenix that has been assisting Iran in exporting 20 million barrels of oil since 2023. And so that's what, that's what the US Navy is is doing right now. And then, um, Donald Trump goes, if we left Iran right now, things would be tremendous success.

Like, if we left right now, if we did nothing, this is— we've already achieved victory. So now I'm just hanging out there because I like it. I like to be there, basically. So we won, and if we left, we would win, but I still want to be there just because I like it. I like being there. It's nice, nice waters. Look, if you're like, Ben, did he really say that? Basically, basically, here's what he says. Let's play it. A break.

And remember this, uh, I want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now. Do you know that if I left right now, we had a tremendous success? It would take them 20 years to rebuild. But I don't want to do that. I want to have it everlasting. I want to have it where they never get They never have a chance to get it. I mean, the way you asked that question, yeah, I did say that. I thought it would take 4 to 6 weeks. And I was right, because at the end of 6 weeks, at the end of 4 weeks, the military was decimated. But now what I'm doing, I don't— I can't tell you that. I don't want to put that kind of timetable on it, but it'll go pretty quickly and we'll have the strait opened up. Now, right now we have it closed. We have total Total control of the strait. And the fact that it's closed, you know, they would have opened it up 3 days ago. They came to us and they said, we will agree to open the strait. And all my people were happy.

Everybody was happy except me. I said, wait a minute, if we open the strait, that means they're going to make $500 million a day. I don't want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing. So I'm the one that kept it closed. We have total control of it and it'll open. When they make a deal or something else happens that's very positive.

Makes a lot of sense, right, everybody? Makes a great deal of sense, everybody. I mean, what in the world is he even talking about right there? I mean, by the way, if you look at what else is happening in this godforsaken regime, like, you thought it was bad enough when this guy Thomas Fugate, this 22-year-old, uh, guy who's fresh out of college who had no experience in national security, was named by the Trump regime as the main Department of Homeland Security official tasked with overseeing government extremism. He was the main counterintelligence— counterintelligence official, uh, Thomas Fugate III, a 22-year-old, no, no experience. But you want to know who like the deputy was? Now we learned about the deputy counterintelligence official over at the Department of Homeland Security. There she is right there. Julia Varvaro, and she's a notorious sugar daddy person. What do you call it? Sugar daddy person? Sugar— Jeremy, you were awfully quick with— Jeremy says you call it a sugar baby. Um, okay, sugar. I was gonna go with sugar daddy person, but Jeremy tells me it's a sugar baby, and How can I do this segment seriously now? But this was the top count— the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism.

And she would be on all these like websites, uh, where she would talk about searching for a sugar daddy. And one of the sugar daddies, uh, this, uh, divorcee who spent $40,000 bankrolling, uh, her, uh, she— there's all these tech— the relationship went wrong. She wanted more money from him. Again, she's 29 years old on these sugar daddy sites. She found this sugar daddy, she wanted him to pay her more money while she's the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Counterterrorism. And then this guy Robert Bianchi is like, um, he then blows the whistle on his sugar baby. This is true, this is really what happened, because he believes, and rightfully so, that this poses a national security security threat. And it does, because this is compromising. As I've said before, like, let me be very clear, like I said this also with Kristi Noem's husband on the bimboification, right? He was into— Kristi Noem and her husband, they judge people, right? They attack people, they make people suffer. But behind closed doors, her husband was into bimboification humiliation. So he would dress up as a woman and he would fill his chest with triple E or quadruple, whatever it is, triple E breasts because that's what he was into.

And then he would want women who look that way to humiliate and shame him, uh, on video. Like, that's what he was into. And as I said before, it's not for me to— as long as what you do is safe and consensual, and I'm not going to pry into any family dynamics, but I obviously don't want situations where families are being broken apart and things are being hidden or concealed. But if, if you do things safe, consensual, and in private, and that's what you want to do, I'm not going to mock any of this. But, you know, the issue becomes public service, the hypocrisy, national security, and these types of issues, right? What I will certainly call out is the behavior of Donald Trump's Department of Labor Secretary, Laurie Chavez de Rimer, who was fired this past week as well. I mean, because her behavior using our taxpayer dollars, it was alleged, to go to strip clubs with other people in the Department of Labor. Her husband was accused of sexual misconduct within the Department of Labor building. Such that he was like banned, I believe, from going into the department of those released allegations against him.

And then, um, all of these vacations on the taxpayer dime, you know, none of this should— while it should shock your conscience that this behavior is taking place, it also is not shocking that it's taking place because Donald Trump is a sexual predator. I mean, he's a, he's, he's a, he's a real vile He's a real vile thing. Like, his whole life he was. So the perversion, all of the things that you're seeing, that's what goes on in that guy's head. He's a sicko. I mean, he's like Epstein's closest friend. You guys, a sicko. You know, we shouldn't forget they're covering up the Epstein files, right? I'll talk about that in a moment. But this guy's a sicko, you know, and, and he wants to incur— you know, he's, he's— this, this is, this is what he attracts. And again, I'm not going to judge what you do in your private. I'm not shaming the underlying conduct. Again, if it's safe, if it's consensual, I don't— what do they call it, like king shaming? I'm not going to shame your things, whatever you, whatever you do. I really want to be— I think it's important.

I don't matter— you ever— everyone is into things. That's not— the government shouldn't be prodding into this, you know. No one should be, you know. But when you become a public servant and you've now compromised the safety of my daughter of my community, of my state, of my country, of the Midas Mighty, of our friends and family and all the people you know— when that now is compromised with this mess right now, yeah, you better believe I'm living. And you better believe we should call it out right now. What the hell is going on here? Now, just pivoting for a moment to Epstein, you know the updates, right? Donald Trump is working with James Comer to get Ghislaine Maxwell a pardon. I know we knew that was coming, but it's very, very much coming. James Comer admits it. Politico writes— Politico writes, uh, go back to that one again. Oversight Chair James Comer told me members of his panel are open to a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell so that she would share info with Congress. Do we have the specific quote from the Politico article? I think I highlighted it. I'm not sure if I gave— yeah, here it is.

When asked whether he believed it was a favorable deal to issue a pardon in return for Maxwell's testimony, Comer said, a lot of people do. My committees split on that, he added, declining to name the people on his panel who support granting a pardon. I don't speak for my committee. You literally do speak for your— you're the chair of the committee. Your job is actually to speak on behalf of the committee. Like, you're the chair of the Oversight Committee. Your job is you speak for the committee, okay? And you went on the record and you said that there are— seems to be lots of members who believe Ghislaine Maxwell, a child sex trafficker, should get a pardon. Right. And now we also learned that the Republicans want to shut down all further hearings on Epstein and all further subpoenas and depositions, and instead they want to turn everything into so-called roundtables. They want to go from hearings under oath, deposition, subpoenas, to roundtables and the roundtables would be not under oath, and they would be basically just complete charades, or my younger brother Jordy says charades, and it would just be total BS. That's what they want to turn it into.

Uh, Jeremy, I'm not sure if I gave you the assets though here, but if I did, do we have any of the Lutnick clips of Lutnick being um, cross-examined on Epstein and what Lutnick's response was. Yeah, let's just play one of them for everybody. Let's play it. If President Trump has even a shred of concern about accountability for Jeffrey Epstein's enablers, he would fire you too. Beyond Adfin, what other financial ties do you have to Jeffrey Epstein? As I said, I'm going to answer all these. Beyond Adfin, what other financial ties? You're the Commerce Secretary. We have a right to ask this question and get it answered.

Again, I'm not going to spend the budget day discussing something I've set aside time to spend on this topic.

I'm going to switch topics. Let me switch topics. Let's go cut to our Washington, D.C. bureau chief Scott McFarland with an update on this all. Let's bring in Scott McFarland.

Jeremy, let me tell you, this is going to be one of those days, one of those days in which we hear a lot about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and the political crisis the Epstein files are causing for the Trump administration. The latest reports that Ghislaine Maxwell is trying to angle for a pardon, or perhaps getting closer to securing a pardon, and again trying to get a court to vacate her conviction and sentence for sex trafficking have raised the hackles again and raised the profile of this Epstein Files crisis for the Trump administration. Rajagopalan Krishnamoorthy has asked the Department of Justice to hand over any records that they may have gotten from Ghislaine Maxwell or from her attorney in which they're discussing a pardon.

I heard that Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney is now saying that she's going to be pardoned. Are you kidding me? That is, that is Absolutely insane. I've already introduced a resolution saying that she should never be given any form of clemency or leniency, given that she perpetrated this ghastly sex trafficking ring with thousands of girls. She never admitted to it. She hasn't served any time, showing no remorse. Absolutely no, no, no to any kind of pardon for her. And by the way, what the heck is the DOJ doing with regard to this particular investigation. They've had 2 arrests. They still have not produced all the Epstein files. 3.5 million pages are missing from the production. And, uh, they're now talking about pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell.

This is crazy. And there was this report late on Wednesday that the House Oversight Committee was considering some clemency for Maxwell to get her to testify. It's been pushed back on by Republicans. I talked about it on CNN with Jake Tapper and explained why that thing is just a non-starter. Oh boy, try to find a Democrat to vote for that thing. Yeah, it's like playing the Powerball. You could win, but you're not going to. You could find a Democrat to support giving her clemency. You will not. So let's start there. This thing is politically cancerous to all who touch it. I can't imagine they're going to find a critical mass to support that toxic idea.

But again, We don't need that if it comes down to whether or not President Trump—

Yeah, and maybe it's— maybe he's crazy. Maybe President Trump is thinking about doing it and this is providing cover for him in some way, like, oh, look, members of the House Oversight Committee want it. Although we should note Chairman Comer did not say that he wants it one way or the other. But there are other issues too. If Pam Bondi was to show last week for a deposition under subpoena and did not— remember Members of Congress do not like being circumvented when they issue a subpoena, and Robert Garcia of California has said he believes both parties will support an effort to either get this thing back on the calendar, to find a contempt finding against Pam Bondi. Expect to hear more about that.

Well, we'll be reporting on that soon as well. Um, I want to thank Scott McFarland, great report. And just everybody, throw up blue hearts if you are all subscribed to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel. It's @ScottMcFarlandNews. Make sure you all subscribe there. I see 14,000-15,000 people who are watching this concurrently live, so make sure you all subscribe to Scott's channel as well and get his updates throughout the day as the Midas Touch Network continues to expand. As you know, I do a live show with Brett and Jordy at 5 Pacific, 8 Eastern today. Look forward to seeing everybody who's here. Join me and my brothers this evening for more, uh, breaking news. Oh, we, we released a new video on the Midas Touch YouTube channel. A lot of work today. Um, so as soon as this ends, go jump in and watch the latest video as well. So watch the latest video on the Midas Touch feed as soon as this ends. Just go and click to the main feed and watch the one that we just dropped during the show. And then go check out Scott McFarland's YouTube channel. Thanks everybody. I'll see you tonight with my brothers, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific.

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