Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 5/14/2026 New

This has been on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news. Donald Trump's disastrous trip in China continues. We've been covering all of the developments there. I usually count wins by did you get something out of a trip, out of a negotiation, out of a deal? And it seems that what Xi Jinping was getting out of this were tangible things. Xi Jinping's plan for unification of Taiwan, as he refers to it, as getting his hands on the H200 GPU chips, those semiconductor chips that the United States never previously gave China or anyone else for national security concerns. China having the ability to protect itself as a global hegemon on par with the United States. China setting bright lines about what can and can't be discussed. You shall not discuss the Taiwan issue except under our terms. Do not discuss with us or make any claims or demands about Jimmy Lai, who's the pro-democracy Hong Kong media mogul who's in prison for over 20 years, who was leading pro-democracy movements and rallies, uh, in Hong Kong. Donald Trump in 2024 promised as part of the campaign, uh, that Jimmy Lai would be immediately— or Lai would be immediately freed when Trump took office.

He goes, I've got a great relationship with Xi Jinping, it'll be very easy for me to get Jimmy out of prison. And of course even right before Donald Trump took the trip, uh, to China. Trump took it off the table and compared Jimmy to, uh, James Comey and said, uh, you know, James Comey is a dirty cop. If somebody asked me to release Comey from prison, do you think I would do it? Jimmy Lai is causing a lot of bedlam in China, a lot of bedlam, creating lots of issues for my friend Xi. What this entire charade of Donald Trump going to China basically looked like is Donald Trump wanting to be liked by a fellow authoritarian who's more powerful than him, Donald Trump wanting to feel accepted, Donald Trump wanting to look strong, whereas Xi Jinping came in with a kind of clear plan with a clear strategy, and Xi Jinping extracting, uh, what he wanted out of this meeting. And as I sit here today with everybody, as we do, Ben, on breaking news, I ask you sincerely, I mean, what did the United States get? I mean, I could try to look at it as objective as I can.

He manipulated the market, so the market— the markets here if you have stock, and specifically if you have stock on the Nasdaq and the S&P, you did, you did good today. So I guess that was something. Long term, I think stocks and companies depend on consumers, depend on people. And if you keep on destroying the ability of people to afford things, eventually this whole Ponzi scheme is going to unravel. But perhaps, but perhaps for Donald Trump, you know, his, all his ideas, look, I'm going to do Ponzi scheme presidency, and I'm just going to pass it off to whoever. Maybe we get a Democratic president in the future. Then I'll be like, look, I set us up to be perfect and you destroyed it. So then the arsonist blames the firefighter. I mean, that's kind of the MO of these MAGA Republicans. But I don't, I don't think that America got anything. Did the Strait of Hormuz open? No. Uh, did the United States get any firm deals from China? I mean, did they agree, you know, other than the H200 chips, which they strategically want, because once they have them, they'll be able to copy them pretty quickly and catch up technologically to where the US is on semiconductors.

But what else, what else, what, what else did we get? What, what else were— what was the big get by the United States on It's frankly unclear to me, you know. And now, I suppose, as expected, Israel, which is also launching a defamation lawsuit against the New York Times— I never realized that countries can file defamation lawsuits. I am a law professor. The first time I heard of that. Israel expects the war to resume. I mean, has it really ever stopped? But war to resume as soon as Donald Trump returns from China. And will raise its military readiness to the maximum level when he lands, per Kan 11, an Israeli TV station. The US told Israel directly a few hours ago that Trump may soon order strikes inside Iran, with Israel already bracing for the Iranian response. And it's consistent with what we've— what we've reported here on the Midas Touch Network, right? I said Donald Trump did not want the war to take place. Or it's taking place, but do not want open hostilities to take place before meeting with Xi Jinping. Because, oh, Trump so wanted those photos. Trump wanted to be in the room.

For Trump, it was about Trump, right? I mean, it was about soothing his ego at the expense of American geostrategic, geopolitical, strategic interests. And on behalf of the interest of the American people. So that's what, that's what Trump wanted. Xi Jinping, you know, had a bunch of children jump up and down for Donald Trump, which is pretty creepy. Um, had Donald Trump show up though with a state visit that other leaders get that type of state visit. But you know, that's what, that's what Trump wanted out of this. And then we will likely resume open hostilities. I, I wouldn't be shocked if that's next week. If it's the week after. But I expect that the only reason it didn't happen, uh, is because Trump wanted this meeting with Xi Jinping to, uh, take place, and he knew it would be canceled like the last time it was, it was canceled. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed. You had Foreign Minister Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister. He played a major role at the BRICS conference that took place, right? So while Donald Trump was meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing. You had the BRICS meeting taking place in India, where Prime Minister Modi of India posted, glad to interact with foreign ministers and heads of delegations of BRICS countries.

BRICS has emerged as an important platform for advancing cooperation among emerging economies and giving a voice to the aspiration of the Global South. Under India's chairmanship this year. We will work together to strengthen multilateralism, promote sustainable development, enhance economic resilience, and build a more inclusive world order. So you had this BRICS meeting taking place in India, uh, while Donald Trump and people from his regime like Marco Rubio and others were attacking NATO right? You have Rubio saying, you know, NATO wasn't there for us. And, you know, you, you have Donald Trump sucking up to Xi Jinping, and you have a whole broader geopolitical architecture being formed. It's pretty obvious to see right now. And America first means America alone. But Trump soothed his ego and standing next to Xi Jinping. And it's just so fascinating because I think about all of those cabinet meetings which look like episodes of a lost season, a horrible season of The Apprentice, where Trump would make his cabinet members like glaze him in such a weird Kim Jong-un way. Oh, you're such a strong leader. Oh, we've now put up a major banner of you in our department building and it looks so beautiful.

Oh, and thanks to your strength, Donald, right? That's how his cabinet meetings go, and he like broadcasts them live so that people can see his cabinet members act like bootlickers and sycophants. But Donald Trump at the meeting with Xi Jinping was behaving the way he makes his cabinet members behave to him, is how Trump was behaving to Xi Jinping. Oh, you're so strong, you're so powerful, you're such a great leader, I admire you so much. And Xi Jinping was saying things like, look, we have a very, uh, fragile global world order. We're seeing massive changes and massive shifts, massive shifts in the global order right now. And Xi Jinping said, what we must be wary of is not to fall into the Thucydides trap. And we can avoid that through cooperation. And the Thucydides trap was a term that was coined recently, but it referred to Thucydides talking about the start of the Peloponnesian War and talking about how a lesser power that emerges as a greater power inevitably gets into fights and wars with the greater power. So at the time Thucydides wrote, he was reflecting on the Peloponnesian War, was reflecting on Sparta at that time, the greater power, the rise of Athens, Athenian democracy, and that put Athens and Sparta on an inevitable course to war.

That both really didn't want, that wasn't really in the interest of others, but they were dragged into this war based on the Thucydides trap. And so Xi Jinping was saying, America's hegemony is done and it is waning, it is falling. China is rising and we're the new dominant hegemon. We're the new major power in the world. And so we shouldn't fall victim to the Thucydides trap. You shouldn't get jealous of the fact that we're a more dominant power than you are. I mean, that's the, the language utilizing diplomatic speak that Xi Jinping was talking about— global order, multilateralism, cooperation. And Donald Trump was fawning over Xi Jinping kind of personally. Um, let's talk a little bit more about this conference, and I'll show you just the kind of words versus reality. And we can do words versus reality on, on a lot of things, but you have this issue over Jimmy Lai. Again, uh, he's, uh, was, is Hong Kong media mogul, often identified— he's Catholic— often identified with kind of a pro-democracy media when MAGA Republicans pretended that they were China hawks. Remember that back in the day when they're just like they were deficit hawks and debt hawks?

Remember, they're China hawks. We're gonna stop China. We're gonna decouple. That's what they always used to say. We're gonna decouple. We're gonna, we're gonna make China realize that we're the strong power, that we're, you know, that we're the hegemonic power, right? That language was being used. And so Donald Trump would be asked when he would go on right-wing radio, all right, what are you going to do about Jimmy Lai? What would you do if you were in office? And Donald Trump would say, oh, it'll be easy. I'll get him out in 24 hours. I'll just call up Xi. It'll be really, really easy. And then right before Donald Trump even took the trip to China, when Donald Trump was asked So here we are, May 2026. You're going to meet Xi. Are you going to bring up Jimmy? Are you going to talk about it? Are you going to get him freed? Because that was one of the things you promised. That was an issue that was raised by people in the election. The Catholic MAGA supporters were particularly kind of animated over the fact that China had put this Catholic pro-democracy media mogul in prison.

And you said that there's an easy solution. So watch 2024 versus now Donald Trump here. Let's play this clip. There's a guy named Jimmy Lai who's very important to America's Catholics, to the world's Catholics. He's a Catholic in Hong Kong and he's a great publisher, billionaire like you. Xi has him in jail. Do you think you could speak to Xi when you're back in the presidency about getting Jimmy Lai out and out of the country?

100%.

Yes.

Now, Jimmy Lai, you know, caused a lot of bedlam. I don't know. It's like saying to me, if Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out? That might be a hard one for me. Does that make sense? It might be hard, you know, because he's a dirty cop. But Jimmy Lai is in that way. But Jimmy Lai, He caused lots of turmoil for China. He tried to do the right thing. He wasn't successful, went to jail, and people would like him out. And I'd like to see him get out too. So I'll bring him up again. I have brought him up.

I'll bring him up again. I'd like to bring him up. Bring him up again. He didn't. He didn't bring him up again. Jimmy Lai is not out. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed, and China publishing statements like this through its foreign ministry spokesperson. President Xi stressed to President Trump that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations. If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy. Taiwan independence and cross-strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water. Safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the biggest common denominator between China and the US. And that's a big deal that China's putting out that statement. Now, in normal times, if America believed that while its president would be in Beijing that China would put out a statement like that. An American president wouldn't even show up, or an American president would be prepared to put a statement that reflected America's position over Taiwanese sovereignty. I understand that America had this way of articulating it that was sometimes referred to as strategic ambiguity, although Donald Trump's policies I've heard people refer to as incoherent ambiguity.

Um, but a statement like that should be countered, or affirmatively, the United States in past normal times would put out their readout first. We wouldn't be hearing from a spokesperson from China's foreign ministry first. Making it clear that China will take— how else can you read that— military action, clashes and conflicts if you meddle with China's view of One China, Taiwan. We in the past would hear from the State Department spokesperson or a Defense Department spokesperson or a White House, but it's probably the State Department spokesperson who would give a readout that was very clear about the United States made very clear that it supports Taiwan sovereignty. America made it very clear that Jimmy Lai needs to be released. America made it very clear that China should not meddle in the Strait of Hormuz, that China's, uh, any support by China to Iran is unacceptable. And will be met with the full force of American power in the— I mean, that's what we would normally see from the United States, not what we got. And what we got is what you've kind of come to expect from Donald Trump. Donald Trump standing next to Xi, and Trump ignores questions about if he and Xi discussed Taiwan and just almost looked like Donald Trump saw a ghost.

Here, play this clip when Trump's asked. For your talk, sir.

It's great.

Did you talk about Taiwan?

Great place. Incredible. China's beautiful.

Yeah, neither wanted to say anything about it. Okay, what about Donald Trump at his speech where he addressed Chinese delegation He addressed American deli. He addressed the world. The whole world's watching this. Donald Trump was focused on Chinese restaurants. Let's play this clip.

Just as many Chinese now love basketball and blue jeans, Chinese restaurants in America today outnumber the 5 largest fast food chains in the United States all combined. That's a pretty big statement.

Before that, when Donald Trump was in the room with Xi and the kind of bilateral negotiation part that's public occurred. Donald Trump told Xi, you're such a great leader. I say to everybody, some people don't like me. It's true. You're so great. Here, play this clip.

You're a great leader. I say it to everybody. You're a great leader. Sometimes people don't like me saying it, but I say it anyway because it's true. I always say the truth.

It's bizarre behavior right there. I, I don't want people to think that that's normally how an American, uh, president's supposed to behave. You know, this one account said it in a way that resonated with me. The funniest contrast is the tone. Xi was talking about bilateral relations, global turbulence, cooperation, confrontation, the future of humanity. Trump was basically saying, it's an honor to be your friend, you're a great leader. I only say the truth. The children were beautiful. One was conducting diplomacy. The other sounded like he finally got a private dinner with his political crush. Um, Donald Trump then went on Hannity. Again, we don't, we don't have a State Department coherent message readout. Here's the bright lines that the U.S. drew. Here's how the U.S. projected strength. The U.S. has given a lot, especially the H200 chips. Like, this is a home run. for China, and China made clear that the US should never bring up Taiwan, and the US largely remains— did remain silent on it. So what Trump does is he goes on his regime media Fox, and Hannity asks him, you know, did you discuss China's support of Iran? Like, did you discuss that?

That's a pretty big deal because America invaded Iran with Netanyahu, and then China likely provided these MANPADS, these, uh, weapons that were used to shoot the F-15Es. China denies it, but most intelligence officials will tell you both China and Russia are providing, um, major arms sales to Iran, um, you know, at least $5 billion worth of worth of weapons and these portable anti-aircraft missiles and also providing technical logistics. That's— it's pretty much accepted by our intelligence community. So did you, did you confront Xi about that? Did you speak to Xi? Hannity asks him. Let's take a look at what Trump said. Let's play the issue.

And you've been asked about it and you've spoken about it, and that is China's support of Iran. How big a discussion was that today? We discussed it. I mean, when you say support, they're not fighting a war with us or anything.

No.

He said he's not going to give military equipment. That's a big statement. He said that today. That's a big statement. Said that strongly. But at the same time, he said, you know, they buy a lot of their oil there and we'd like to keep doing that.

The— what are you saying? He said it strongly. What does that even mean? He said it strongly. Strongly. G said it strongly. Stupid. What are you talking about? Okay, if he said that, he's not telling the truth. Shocker. Like you, like you lie all the time, you know that. And you know, that's what Trump says, you know, Putin told me strongly, she told me strongly. And by the way, while I just mentioned Putin, I'll go back to the meeting with Xi in a second, but it's related because while this meeting with Xi Jinping was taking place, Russia launched its biggest drone and ballistic strikes maybe since the war began, maybe since its invasion of Ukraine began. Most major cities in Ukraine were struck. Fortunately, I mean, Ukraine's developed this, uh, these, these drone interceptors and other technology to knock out the ballistics. So 93% of the drones and ballistics were halted. Think about that. And that percentage has gone up dramatically from the early when the war began, which it was more in the 70% and the 80%. But just think about the, uh, think about the amount of, uh, the sheer, the sheer volume of the, of the weapons that were shot into Ukraine.

We're showing people, for those listening in audio, I mean, we're showing what it looked like when literally an entire apartment complex in Kyiv, you know, was obliterated, was just completely destroyed. So Donald Trump promised though in 2024, right, that he would, he would and he alone would bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours. Just like he said, I'll be able to bring Jimmy Lai back easy. I'll speak to Xi, no problem. He said, I'll be able to end the war in Ukraine 24 hours. I've got a good relationship with Putin. I know Zelensky. I'll be able to bring them together. This will be easy. This will be done in— this will be done in 24 hours, no problem at all. And of course, that didn't happen. Trump couldn't even get a ceasefire for under 12 hours, right? I mean, Putin got his parade. Zelensky acknowledged the parade. Then the prisoner swap didn't happen. Trump couldn't even get that done. If you can't get a 12-hour ceasefire, how are you going to end the war? And I can just keep on going, right? Trump promised in 24 hours inflation would go away. This week we saw inflation surge to 3.8%. That's the CPI.

We saw the PPI, producer price, instead the wholesale price, 6%, supposed to be a 4.8% year-over-year readout. Just think about it, wholesaler prices year over year increased 6% in one year. So on top of all the other inflation, including the inflation that they hate on Biden for, which Biden was bringing down, right? That still compounds in the aggregate. So it's 6% on top more than last year, which was whatever percent more than it was for Biden. So it could be 10% or 12%. In the aggregate under Trump with the PPI. And the PPI is an important indicator because if wholesalers are now paying 6% more year over year, who do you think then pays that eventually? It eventually gets passed down to the consumer. So that 6% gives you directionally where your 3.8% of your CPI is going by looking at your PPI. You see how that kind of— it's not directionally always like 3.8 is going to get to 6. 6%, uh, or 6%. But if the 6% starts looking like 8%, and 3.8 will probably look like 4.2% by the end of this year. But I'm just showing you just more, more lies.

They're just con artists. They're just a bunch of frauds. So then Donald Trump says, um, regarding the Strait of Hormuz, like, did you get anything regarding the Strait of Hormuz? Did we do a deal there? And Trump goes, she would like to see a deal made, he said. Maybe I can be of help. He'd like to do a deal. Okay, but did you do a deal? What do you mean he'd like to do a deal? I'm like, you know, he's so weird about the word deal. I get like his thing is Art of the Deal, which he didn't even like write, and, and, and, you know, he's the worst deal maker. A deal!

I want a deal! I want a deal! Everybody give me a deal! I need a deal! You need a deal!

Deal! No, just, just get it done or shut up. Have you ever heard of somebody talk so much about like, like a deal before, like you look so thirsty for the deal that you, that you get played so damn easily. And, you know, as I've said before, the thing with Donald Trump and the deal, he's never been a dealmaker. He's always been a destroyer. And the same way he breaches contracts all of the time and doesn't acknowledge any type of good faith, For him, the— the way he weaponizes the idea of a deal, what's supposed to happen in a deal? People are supposed to negotiate in good faith, make concessions, and try to find mutually beneficial arrangements to do a deal, because ultimately both sides need to sign. A deal is different than a surrender. A deal is different than a war. But see, Trump weaponizes the very concept of a deal to sucker punch you. You let down your guard in a deal-making process and he uses it to take advantage of you. That's what he's tried to do with Iran. OK, this is what he's done his whole life in business, right? Sure.

I'll agree to your framework. You got it, Iran, or whoever he dealt with in business. Sure. I'll agree. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. OK, sounds good. And then you think he's going to do it. Then he ties you up in litigation and he doesn't do his. You know, he doesn't do his portion, or in the business side, he's got all these LLCs, so he personally benefits, but then he can bankrupt his LLCs. Oops, got him. That's not me, that's my LLC, right? Like, that's, that's what he's done his whole, his whole career. Anyway, here he is talking to Xi, or here he is saying Xi would like to see a deal made. He said, if I can be of any help, I would like to help. Here, let's play this clip.

President Xi would like to see a deal made. He would, he would like to see a deal made. And, oh, he did offer. He said, if I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help. Because he did say that. Yeah, he did say that. And look, anybody that buys that much oil has obviously got some kind of a relationship with him. But he said, I would love to be a help if I can be of any help whatsoever. He'd like to see the Hormuz Strait open. He said, if I could be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help.

Okay, so then what do you do?

Then what?

Then, then he said he'd like to help. Did you get a commitment? Was there a deal, or are you talking about a framework for a deal that has a framework for a deal that, that doesn't— what, what did you— what am I missing here? Like, what did you get? What did you extract? Okay, so let's hear from Marco Rubio, right? Secretary of State. We heard from the foreign spokesperson for Iran about what they're saying about Taiwan. So, Rubio, what, what say you, Rubio? Let's play this clip.

The other topics, we know where they stand. I think they know where we stand.

Do you think China wants to invade Taiwan?

Well, I think China's preference is probably to have Taiwan willingly, voluntarily join them. In a perfect world, what they would want is some vote or a referendum in Taiwan that agrees to fold in. I think that's what they would prefer. Ultimately, it's featured prominently in President Xi's mandate. In the time he's been in office, he's made clear that what they call reunification— that's what they call it— is something that has to happen at some point. We think it would be a terrible mistake to force that through force or anything of that nature. It would— there would be repercussions for that globally, not just from the United States. And we kind of leave it there. That sort of ambiguity is what I think has defined our care— the way we characterize this issue. And the reason being strategic ambiguity is we don't want to see conflict. We don't want to see something disruptive happen because I think it would be very disruptive for the world and for both countries.

Okay, so what are you going to be doing about it? You, you've articulated China's position. What was America's position there? What's America going to do? Are you going to talk about our other allies in Asia? Are you talking about Japan? Sure, if you want to say there's strategic ambiguity in Taiwan, do you want to talk about whether there's ambiguity with Japan, with South Korea, with our allies? Did you consult with any of them before this trip? Jeremy, do we have the clip where Xi Jinping talks about the Thucydides trap, where Xi goes to Trump. Currently, we're seeing transformation not seen in a century accelerating across the globe. Let's play that clip if we've got it.

Currently, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent. The world has come to a new crossroads.

Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap? So that's what he was saying. What about, uh, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant? When Bessant was asked by Joe Kiernan on CNBC, will Xi ask Trump to change the long-standing strategic ambiguity policy or limit arms sales to Taiwan? We know the answer because China said it publicly. China made it very clear. They said, we're going to get into conflict and clashes against you. So to the extent the whole relationship was defined by strategic ambiguity, meaning ambiguity from both sides, China's putting forward a statement that says, we will, we will go to war with you if you help Taiwan, essentially. How else do you interpret clashes and conflict, the language that they use here? There will be clashes and conflicts with us if you support Taiwan. Okay, so what is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant doing? Here's what he says. Let's play it. Uh, sure, sure, Joe. It wouldn't be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up. And I'm confident that President Trump understands the issues around that and is very, very resolute in his answers. And I'm sure we'll be hearing more from him in the coming days on that.

Something to note as well, one of the ways that China is improving its standing in the world and developing global alliances is by being the global leader on the green transition. So as Donald Trump mocks green energy, as Donald Trump calls it the Green New Scam, as Donald Trump says no solar, as Donald Trump says, you know, we're not going to be doing windmills, we, you know, we hate the wind and it doesn't work, the Donald Trump and his regime don't know the way batteries work. UN climate chief was lavishing praise on China as Trump meets with Xi. China is reaping the benefits as the global leader on the green transition, and other nations should follow as the Iran war shows the vulnerability of fossil fuel-based economies, what the top United States— the United Nations climate official says. Uh, goes on to say the further China goes, the faster the clean energy transition accelerates. The greater the benefit to your people and economy, says Simon Steele, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in the text of a speech delivered Thursday in Beijing. Where China leads, others follow. Steele's comments at a major university in China, home to several of China's leading climate institutes, coincides with Donald Trump's visit.

It is in every country's interest to seize the moment for prosperity and for stability, Steele said. That requires doubling down down on climate multilateralism. Whereas Donald Trump's regime withdrew the second time from the Paris Agreement, the binding 2015 accord on global warming, Chinese leaders have remained committed to climate action even as the Iran conflict has triggered global energy shocks. Critics also point to, uh, critics also point to China's role at least last year's COP climate summit, where the U.S. was absent, and many diplomats called for assertive leadership from Beijing. And then China's building out its green energy, uh, factories, green energy companies, uh, in across the, across the world right now, lending its technology. And it's not just good for the environment, it's a, it's good for business, and they're making a lot of money on it. And America was making a lot of money on it towards the end of the Biden administration, but the Trump regime reversed all of that. All right, let's take our first and only break of the show. I always want to talk about climate a little bit. Let's take our first and only break of the show. We come back, I want to discuss what was going on in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives today.

I want to talk about the Lutnick deposition transcript being released and my observations there, including that Lutnick refused to answer any questions about Donald Trump's communications with him, talk about that. We'll talk about what was going on in BRICS meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi, what he was saying there while Donald Trump was in Beijing. Talk about that and more. Let's take our only quick break of the show.

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Welcome back. Ben on breaking news. I'm Ben Myselis. This is your Breaking news. So while we had the Trump-Xi Jinping, whatever you want to call that, taking place— Trump fawning over Xi Jinping in Beijing, Donald Trump selling out decades of United States geopolitical interests so that Donald Trump can make himself feel strong, Donald Trump just in real time breaking the United States position as the leader in the world. You had other major world conferences taking place. Also, if you were to be planning a meeting like this, you'd probably want to see, well, what else is taking place in the world? Is this good timing for this event? Because at the same time you had Trump meeting with Xi, you had a major meeting of the BRICS nations taking place in India. Now, Prime Minister Modi of India And India generally used to be a very close ally of the United States, and the United States worked very hard in order to build that relationship with India. Donald Trump certainly picked a favorite during the war between India and Pakistan. Donald Trump took the side of Pakistan after Pakistan said that Donald Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize, and India said, why would we give him a Nobel Peace Prize?

He had nothing to do with stopping this war. And Pakistan created a crypto fund and invested in Donald Trump's crypto company, World Liberty Financial. And so Trump has developed an affinity for Pakistan. I look— personally, I think Pakistan has done a decent job in the mediations, um, and I think they've, they've demonstrated actually, you know, a, a, an appearance at least of a desire of willingness to, to try to step in in a very thorny situation to try to reach a deal. And so You know, say what you want. I, as I said, I try to evaluate things objectively as I can. It should be noted that, uh, it's reported recently though that Pakistan has been keeping Iranian military equipment in Pakistan to protect it before Trump and Netanyahu's invasion. So that's led some to question, well, is Pakistan truly, you know, serving as a neutral or not? Um, but in any event Trump threw— the point I'm making— Trump threw away the relationship with Modi, um, and Modi then moved closer to Russia and China. Now gets a lot of its oil from Russia, you know, and, and is strengthening its relationship there, and kind of threw away decades and decades and decades of, you know, a strong relationship there.

So Modi is— has been holding the BRICS meeting, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. That's the main countries of BRICS, but Iran is part of it and other countries are part of it as well. And so as Donald Trump and Rubio are attacking NATO, as they're attacking American alliances that America used to lead, BRICS, which was created to basically counter NATO, has been growing, uh, has been growing strongly. And so BRICS was on full display, their unity and their strength, as Trump was in China getting checkmated by Xi and throwing away our NATO alliances. And who was one of the main speakers at the BRICS meeting? Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi, who met with Xi last week. So last week, in advance of Donald Trump's visit to Beijing, Araghchi from Iran, foreign minister, met with Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, and they mapped this out. They planned a lot of this. Part of the plan we saw implemented when Donald Trump was in Beijing, where Iran let out about 30 Chinese tankers and VLCCs, those very large cargo container ships, the VLCCs, because what Iran and China realized is Trump was going to try to use the Strait of Hormuz as a leverage point for China to say, well, China, you need our help to help open up the Strait of Hormuz.

Let's do it together because you depend so much on oil and from cargo that goes through the Strait of Hormuz. So you need this as well. To which Iran allowed these Chinese VLCCs to go through. And then because Donald Trump wanted the meeting, the summit with Xi to look— to make him look good personally, who's even talking about the blockade at this point? I mean, those ships just get out and go ahead to China while Xi was there. So yet another checkmate move. Move. Then you have China, which leads basically the BRICS, um, with Russia and with India now— of India before, but taking the more assertive role, you know. Then they host Aragchi, who's out there giving speeches like this, saying at BRICS, uh, at the BRICS meeting, Aragchi goes to virtually everyone in this room, our resistance against U.S. bullying is not an unfamiliar battle. So as Trump has attacked NATO and divided it, Article 5 basically means nothing anymore. Ukraine is— you see how this is all being coordinated though, right? Trump in China, then you have the BRICS meeting in India, then you have Putin doing the most, uh, vicious and the one of the most serious drone swarms and ballistic attacks of the entire war, of his entire invasion of Ukraine while Trump is there in Beijing.

And then you have a Raggi of Iran rallying the BRICS nations united against the United States bullying. Here, play this clip.

Surely everyone in this room, our resistance against US bullying is not an unfamiliar battle. So many of us encounter a slight variation nations of the same repugnant coercion. It is high time for us to jointly step up and work towards making clear that those practices belong in the dustbin of history. Today, our nations are closer to one another than ever before, and we cannot ignore the common and dangerous challenge we all face. History has shown that empires in decline will stop at nothing to arrest their inevitable fates. A wounded animal will desperately claw and roar on its way down.

Notice the symmetry of the language. Empires in decline behaving desperately on their way down. That's what we've seen in history. Xi Jinping, Thucydides trap. We must not fall into such a trap. Which means an empire is falling, another empire rises. So you have Xi Jinping saying that there. These are strategic coordinated positions. And when you say, well, what's our State Department supposed to be doing, and what's our Defense Department supposed to be doing, should they be, you know, should they be chain— you know, what are they supposed— they're supposed to be on message. You know, they're supposed to be coordinating with our allies. So in the past, when Trump was in China, NATO would be speaking with one voice. Maybe we would coordinate a sideline summit in Asia while Trump was in Beijing. Maybe we would hold a meeting in, um, maybe we would be holding a meeting somewhere in Asia. With all of our NATO allies and have a joint statement about NATO support of South Korea, or NATO support of Japan, or NATO support of Philippines, or NATO support of other countries in the region. And, and there's just— there's none of that.

There's, there's, there's none of that. Instead, Jeremy, do we have that video of Hegseth where he like does the video about the $1.5 trillion budget See if we can find this video. Yeah, let's— like, instead, this, this is what we get now. This is the behavior of the United States. Let's play. Despite what you might hear in the media, America is not in decline. We remain the strongest military power on Earth, but that power requires renewal. And with global threats that are constantly evolving, it's time to make a $1.5 trillion investment, a generational down payment. First off, you start off that video by saying like you're obsessed with the media. Despite what you've heard in the media, we are not in decline. Okay, that's like literally what losers say, right? Like, who starts off anything like that? Like, if you're strong, then just behave that way. You know, as we used to say in the United States, talk soft or walk soft and carry a big stick. 'Lots of people say that I'm a loser, but I'm not a loser. I'm cool,' right? I mean, it's not good talk. Who talks like that? You, you are showing through things like that how weak you are, how not confident you are.

And, and by the way, I, I want to dig into this a little more. I, I saw Elon Musk and I saw Jensen Huang, Huang, um, from, uh, Nvidia there. I saw those two CEOs there, and I saw, uh, Tim Cook. I saw him there. Weren't there going to be like 50 CEOs who are going to be showing up there as well? Did they get in the room? Like, what, what, or do they just travel there so that they can have their stock prices manipulated? They just go to China? Like, what do they do? Did they cut actual deals? We gave our H200 chips to China. What did our companies get? I guess they got— I mean, look, let's be real. The markets— check what the markets were like today. The markets which Trump manipulates all the time went up today, I think. Let me go— I'll just check what they were. Let's see what they were today. Uh, S&P up 50— S&P up 56. Then, uh, let's see, NASDAQ up 232. Um, so yeah, I mean, the stock market— stock market went up today, so I guess, you know, I guess people who trade stocks, you know, did good.

I don't know in a long and sustainable way if that— it's not translating to more jobs, that's not making life more affordable for people, that's not impacting people who are psychologically tortured living paycheck to paycheck right now. That's not— Dow up 370. Yeah, that's, that's not helping Americans afford things. A reason why consumer sentiment is at its lowest level in history right now. Consumers have been the lowest since the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey was created. It's the lowest since that was created. All right, so now let me bring you to what else was going down today. Hearings, hearings in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. One of the things that have or that has really bothered me a lot is, of course, well, we know that Donald Trump lies about everything. His regime is crooked, corrupt, horrible. We know they're gonna lie. Anything from the White House account is gonna be beyond, you know, cringy and, and gross. That's just what they do. But CENTCOM, Central Command, I still would always think, all right, Admiral Brad Cooper, or who's ever in that CENTCOM position, you know, is someone of integrity, and they're gonna just— they're gonna— they're gonna call it like it is.

They're not MAGA, they're CENTCOM. And you'd always hear from military people, look, we— we know that the political side of this is corrupt, but our warfighters, our generals, our admirals— Admiral Cooper— these are top-notch people, these are high-character people. Well, I think after Donald Trump and his regime on the civilian side purged all of the top people, they purged the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, C.Q. Brown. They purged the former Army Chief of Staff, the top person in the Army. They purged the— they forced out the head of, uh, uh, the, the central— the command in Caribbean Southcom, I think. Um, they, they got rid of all of the people. They got rid of all— I mean, dozens and dozens of top generals and admirals were forced into retire or fired or pushed out. So I think you get a situation now where these people are acting a lot like MAGA. When I see a lot of the posts from CENTCOM, I'm like, this looks more like propaganda than just— they're just giving me— than just giving me the facts. Um, and so let me pull up this one right here, um, where, uh, we have Uh, let's see, this one over here.

Uh, it's, it's, it's the 29 to 2:31, Jeremy, where Senator Gillibrand is speaking to Admiral Cooper. If Iranians were warned, how did we bomb 22 schools? And what are you doing to investigate whether or not war crimes are being committed? So we know that the United States shot a tomahawk into Manab, which resulted in over 160 little girls being killed. It's a war crime. Anybody responsible for that should be tried in The Hague. They're war criminals. It's unforgivable. Unforgivable. They should be brought— America, they should be brought to justice. They're war criminals for doing that. Anybody in that chain of command, it's unacceptable. And I hope one day they are tried at The Hague. Absolutely. Including Hegseth. And my— that's what I want. To see happen. Okay, well, we also know from Midas Touch reporting, New York Times reporting, Dropsite has done a really good job reporting this, others have done a really good job reporting on this, that there were likely dozens of other schools, hospitals, gyms that were also bombed. Don't get enough attention, not like Manab, but there are other dozens So what do you know about that, Cooper? You're, you're a CENTCOM guy.

What do you know about that? Let's play it.

Have you been implementing all the laws that are required under current law to minimize civilian death?

Senator, we have executed every operation consistent with the law of armed conflict. The subject of civilian casualties is a particular passion of mine. We pay attention to it. We follow all the procedures. And have gone above and beyond to, in my case, personally warn the Iranian people of several instances during conflict where they were being potentially destroyed.

If they've been warned, how did we then bomb 22 schools?

There's no indication that we have that that has been corroborated.

How many schools have we bombed?

There is one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13,629 munitions.

So how do you explain the publicly available information that 22 schools have been hit and multiple hospitals.

There's no way that we can corroborate that. No indication of that whatsoever, Senator.

There's no way you can corroborate or no indication of it? Which one?

No indication.

Well, the indication is what's publicly available. There is indication. Have you investigated those claims?

We have not.

Why have you not? If this is a passion of yours, if you believe that the civilian casualties are not consistent with the law of war and not consistent with human rights obligations that our military regularly follows with great pride and great diligence. Why have you not investigated those allegations when they're publicly being made on the COVID of The New York Times?

I'll be happy to take a look at the— in each instance.

I would like a report to do that.

I would like a report from you, from your team, about whether there have been attacks that have resulted in the destruction of schools and hospitals? And if so, why? And how then, last, have you managed the 90% cut to the personnel who are supposed to avoid civilian targets?

Happy to provide any, any report. And I would invite you and every staff member here to come to Tampa to look at the process, to see exactly how, how it works.

Thank you. Thank you, Admiral.

Yeah, don't even say thank you at the end of it. Horrible behavior right there. In any normal time, he should be immediately removed for that. Done. You didn't even investigate it, and you had the audacity to testify that there was no way of corroboration. Her questioning was pitch-perfect cross-exam. She was listening to what he was saying, and it became very clear to her that they didn't even look into any other incident. Other than Manab, just because Manab had gotten a lot of attention at the outset. So all of these other incidents, they weren't even looking into at all, actively covering it up by being actively ignorant. By the way, it's exactly what we see in Israel with Netanyahu. They're not looking into it. They're not corroborating it. They don't know anything about it. If you criticize them, you're anti-Semitic and how dare you criticize anything that they do or say. And then they're like, well, actually, you know, there are, you know, 80,000 or 90,000 deaths. Uh, so everything that people were saying about the genocide was accurate, but whatever. And then people talk about it. And then what would today— Netanyahu wanted to— he, he and Netanyahu posted that he was suing the New York Times for defamation because they wrote an article about truly horrific things that were going on, and they're going to— a nation state is going to— a nation state is going to sue for defamation.

I mean, again, as I— all of it's the same playbook, right? All that you get to sue, you're going to sue. You have covert nuclear weapons. And you're going to file a civil lawsuit in New York Superior Court. I get it. It's just— it's just— it's so pathetic. You know, when Trump's like that, you know, we'd say, you know, the ranting and raving at 3:00 a.m. in the morning and whining about this and whining about that. And all of these sycophants are just a bunch of whiners, by the way. Hat tip to Senator Gillibrand also, because when she had Scott Turner Donald Trump's Housing and Urban Development secretary, who cut billions of dollars for low-income housing. And we're trying to understand, well, what's your plan for housing? We get you don't like Biden's, but what's your plan for housing? Watch. I mean, Senator Gillibrand, A-plus, Senator of the Week, right? I mean, this is truly incredible work. Watch what she does to Turner. Let's play.

And what I will say, and I offer this, is number one, the point-in-time, uh, report in the Biden administration, HUD, uh, said we had 770,000, uh, 770,000 people in America that were homeless at one given time. And this is with record funding. So we have record funding, but yet we have an increase in—

Right.

So what is your— what is your record? You had this job for for well over a year. I just want to know, did you get the number down? Do we have 700,000 homeless still, or is it 1 million or 1.5 million? So I get you want to do things differently, and this committee will support you as long as the goals are good.

Okay.

But where's the results? The report is delayed over a year. Over a year.

Can I offer this to you?

Yes, but we have no— I just don't want to hear about what you don't like about the Biden administration. You're in charge. You have a vision. Let's see it. Let's see the results.

And you know what I do? I thank God that I'm in charge so we can do stuff different because the plays that were ran before I got here, they failed. I've been here. Let me speak, if you will. I got here. You said I have been here a little bit over a year, but you all had during the Biden administration 4 years.

Stop talking about Biden. Talk about your record funding. This is so—

this is so—

this is so inaccurate, unhelpful, and doesn't let this committee do our job.

If I may. The point-in-time report would be out by now if we did not have an unprecedented government shutdown. It would be out by now if we weren't in constant litigation. It would be out by now. HUD has a great form. We have a great team and we move very expeditiously.

In what way does litigation— Okay, Mr. Secretary, I think you're obfuscating.

I'm not.

What way does litigation slow down your report?

A government shutdown helps us to not be able to work.

It was a government shutdown.

But tell me about the litigation.

The point in time report would be out right now if we did not have a government shutdown. Irregardless of all of that, during the Biden administration, record funding.

Oh my God. If you talk about—

it's like record funding.

It's like two children saying, I didn't do it, my brother did it. Stop with the excuses.

Just explain your record. Record homelessness. We have to do something different.

Switch topic. If after I'm gone, if after I'm gone, if it's still record funding and record homelessness, you'll be the same too late for the families that are suffering in New York today. Do you know what it's like to be a homeless little girl who has to have a Girl Scout troop just for other homeless little girls because that's all they have? That's the only consistency they have in their life. So I get you have a different vision.

It's happened in my family. Yes, ma'am, I do.

I need to know if you're stuck.

I'm talking to you about what I know, and what I do know The Housing First model failed.

By the way, if you go back and watch that again, there's some guy behind him who's like nodding his head just as bad as the people who are there on camera are the head nodders right behind them, you know. And there were— there's always the head nodders who stand behind people like that who spew a bunch of nonsense and are complicit in When I teach at law school, when I speak to younger people, I go, don't be a head nodder like that, okay? Don't be complicit in all— you don't have to be complicit. That behavior right there, and my dogs agree, is utterly pathetic. Blame, blame, blame, blame, blame Biden, Biden, Biden, government shutdown, government shutdown, government shut— you're a loser. Do something. And all of these people The Lutniks, the Bessons, the Greers, the Hegsets, the Trump. He assembled a team of grifter losers who are con artists. They're Ponzi schemers. And what do they do when they're caught? They blame others. And what's Donald Trump's plan in the Strait of Hormuz right now? There is none. It's just let it all fall apart. And then wait to see who do I blame? Do I blame NATO?

Do I blame the Democrats? Do I blame Canada? Do I blame someone in the Middle East? Who do, who do I blame when it all blows up? And this is Donald Trump's M.O. his whole life because he doesn't have principles or values. He cares about himself and himself alone. Here we are in 2026, May 14th, and we've got blaming Biden. Biden. Okay, then. And as the senator said, great. You don't like Biden. I get it. You don't like Biden. What is your plan? What are you doing? What's your thing? Can you show us the report? Can you show us the numbers? Can you give us the audit? Can you— how are you building the house? Biden, stop saying Biden. Stop it. Americans are suffering. You came in and promised on day one, here are the things that we were going to do. Inflation was going to go down under 2%. The war in Ukraine was going to end, that you were going to get all of these benefits, that things were going to be far more affordable. And you did not do any of it. You did not do any of it. And my dogs are there saying, Ben, you gotta go.

You gotta go, Ben. So I have no choice. I have no choice but to listen to my dogs at this point. Anyway, make sure, make sure you hit subscribe. Watch the Brothers show tonight, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. Check it out then. Um, check it out. Uh, I'll be doing the Brothers. Um, hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million. Uh, help us get to 7 million subscribers. Also, become a member. Join. Help us grow. You don't see this reporting anywhere else, right? I mean, you know, maybe a little bit you see over here, but you don't see this reporting anywhere else. Help us grow. Um, one of the ways to help us grow is by becoming a member. So become a member now. My dogs say become a member. All right, I'll see you next time. That's been Unbreaking News. I'm glad they waited to the end of the show. Shout out Midas Mighty. Okay, Taco and Chiquito, I got you. I love you, Taco.

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