Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 5/7/2026 New

Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news. Moments ago we learned about an exchange of gunfire between Iran and the United States in the Strait of Hormuz. We first heard this from the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, that's the Iranian state media agencies. It was then confirmed by Israel's Hayom media, uh, media agency. Uh, we're learning more about what's taking place. A source very close to MB Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament leader, said the following: Iran has initiated a military response to the maritime blockade. Military units of CENTCOM that are responsible for the attack on Iranian vessels will be targeted tonight. Clashes have occurred due to this reason. The United States has once again failed in extracting stranded destroyers from the Strait of Hormuz, and strikes have been reported in the Keshem and Bandar Abbas areas. The attacks are attributed to the United States and the Israeli regime, with the UAE participating openly and Saudi Arabia covertly. Waves of missile and drone launches are on the verge of firing. We heard from Fars Iranian military sources claiming after US forces attacked an Iranian oil tanker, Iran returned fire with missiles on US units in the Strait of Hormuz, forcing them to retreat with damage.

During the exchange of fire between Iranian forces and the enemy, parts of the commercial area at the Bahman port were hit. More details are indeed coming in right now, uh, from, uh, DropSite and Iread, the Iranian broadcast network. Iranian state media reports commercial pier struck near Bandar Abbas. Iranian Revolutionary Guard-affiliated outlet Fars News Agency reporting Thursday that parts of the Bahman Qeshm pier, a commercial and passenger port on the eastern side of the Qeshm Island at the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz, were struck during what described as exchanges of fire between Iranian forces and the enemy. Um, unclear if that's UAE and the US, uh, naval ships or, uh, just the UAE, uh, but we are learning more. Tasnim Agency reports that, uh, the hostile actions by the UAE at the Baamin Qashem Dock near, uh, Bandar Abbas— we're waiting for additional, uh, confirmation, uh, to take place there. Uh, some reports also claiming air defenses responding to two drones drones. We heard multiple explosions over at, uh, Bandar Abbas. Other sources alleging that the UAE, described as Tasnim, is acting in the interest of the Zionist regime, was behind the incident on the dock.

That's how Iran media is framing this. Uh, Tasnim emphasized the claims remain unconfirmed. And more data coming in right now as a senior military official, uh, from Iran telling Fars News that Iranian forces indeed launched missile strikes against aggressor units of the United States military in the Strait of Hormuz, responding to a US attack on an Iranian oil tanker. The official message from Fars, although we need confirmation of course, is that the US units sustained damage and were forced to flee the area. No comment yet from the United States, uh, military at this, uh, point, and we'll keep you posted every step of the way here. Uh, you know, so you know what's happened in the past 48 hours or so, right? Over the weekend, Donald Trump announces Project Freedom. He says, we're sending ships into the Strait of Hormuz that are going to escort the tankers and cargo ships out. Uh, then less than 24 hours later, Donald Trump announces Project Freedom is over. He declares it the most successful military operation and maneuver in the history of the United States. Military and says, all right, Project Freedom, we're done. We did it, everybody.

The markets move on that. Stock market goes up. The Dow passed 50,000, although today the markets were down. Oil prices dropped. Barak Ravid, Donald Trump's buddy who has the Trump bobblehead, the Axios guy who seems to get it wrong 5 times a day. He's very sensitive to this now, this Barak Ravid guy. But he goes, a deal is coming. My sources tell me the deal's happening this time. A memorandum a memorandum of understanding, things are going great. It's like, dude, no, it's not. You've been saying this literally every other day since the war began. And Barak Ravid denies that he's manipulating the markets, although we will say that before he makes those reports, the markets sure move in very atypical ways. But Barak Ravid said a memorandum of understanding was out, things are going great. And then we learned what really went down, which is Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, perhaps other media outlets, as reported by other media outlets, that other Arab countries did not allow the United States to use their air bases, did not allow the United States to use their airspace because apparently the US didn't again tell Saudi Arabia and Kuwait about Project Freedom.

And that was— that's what they're calling it. And then when Iran retaliated against the cargo ships and the port of Fujairah in the region, Donald Trump's response was, yeah, where's the ceasefire? Still on. Everything's good, everything's great, uh, everything's going well, um, everything's going really well. Um, so again, we will keep you posted every step of— we'll keep you, uh, we'll keep you posted every step of the way. As we get more information. And I just want to check right now to see if there's additional updates going on. Okay, here's what we're learning right now. Moments ago— yes, moments ago— we're learning that the United States military indeed just carried out strikes on Iran's Keshem port and Bandar Abbas. Senior U.S. officials are now confirming that they carried out strikes on Iran, but they are saying This is not restarting the war. More to come. We'll keep you posted every step of the way as we learn more. But let me repeat that right now. The United States military is confirming, we talked about earlier, that it indeed carried out strikes on Iran's Keshem port and Bandar Abbas. Senior US officials are saying this is not a restarting of the war.

Unclear what the hell that's supposed to mean because We will have to see what Iran says about that. That's not restarting the war. And an incident like this could certainly lead to massive retaliation right now. And again, as the news develops right now, as we learn more, we're going to kind of keep you posted because now the news starts flooding in right now. Talking about how the United States was maneuvering 3 of its destroyers through the Strait of Hormuz when it met with— or it was trying to covertly move 3 of its tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, um, and it was met with fire by Iranian naval ships. And then it seems like the United States then launched these, uh, strikes, uh, and we will again keep you posted as we learn more. But again, for those just joining us, United States military saying it just carried out strikes on Iran's Keshem port. So that's what the, uh, that's what the, uh, the, the information, what the loud bangs, what the explosions were, uh, that we heard. I saw one account, this Craig Shapiro, saying we're gonna now need Barak Ravid from Axios to tweet something positive soon.

Because the markets are going down. So is a deal coming? Is a deal coming? What's, uh, what's going on there? You know, also, uh, you know, it's, it's interesting to see, uh, Barak Ravid again get so defensive. And there's lots of other people in the media saying, uh, you know, why are you— lots of corporate news folks— and why are you going after Barak Ravid? Why are you going after Barak Ravid? Ryan Grimm over at DropSite says, a few months ago, after one of Ravid's stories, I said people people should be careful because on this one he's often used to manipulate the markets and help set a narrative. I actually didn't even mean it as a criticism, just as a matter of basic fact. He blocked me for it and he has done nothing to stop being used. Anyway, he definitely has well-placed sources though, whether it's intentionally moving the markets or unintentionally moving the markets. Certainly his posts have had that impact. On it seems like a, uh, a basis every, uh, on a daily basis at this point. We're learning from Iran's Mehr News right now, air defenses are activated right now, uh, in Tehran.

And so folks, it does look like major, major escalation is indeed taking place. I don't believe that, uh, the Trump regime saying, oh, I guess this is not a breach of the ceasefire, or this is not, uh, this is not a resumption of the war. I'm not sure how that is going to be, uh, perceived, uh, given it seems that open hostilities are, uh, are beginning in a major, major way. For those just joining us, the U.S. confirming strikes, uh, in Iran from the United States military. And we will keep you posted throughout this episode, uh, regarding, uh, potential escalation over here. I mean, we do know that Donald Trump tends to, uh, taco over everything. And Donald Trump, you know, seems to want to have it all ways, you know, uh, not negotiate with Iran in terms of making concessions, not commit, uh, full forces to a ground invasion. Um, and kind of just be in this kind of middle ground, no man's land, if you will, and then manipulate the markets and, uh, say like a miracle, it's all gonna go away, it's all gonna go away, right? You had Donald Trump— what was it now, 2 weeks ago— saying that Iran had 3 days left based on the blockade creating all of this pressure in the, in the, in the oil, the oil systems in Iran.

And so in the refineries, that it would just explode because the pipes had so much pressure. That's how Donald Trump was explaining it. We had been reporting here that that's not the way, uh, like the world works. That's— and it's not even— it's not true, um, that Iran has many, many, many, many more months. It could, uh, do things like decrease production levels in order to lower the pressure. It could take the oil and send it through land routes. It doesn't all have to go out through the Strait of Hormuz. And looks like the CIA was just utterly fed up at the Trump regime today. Because the CIA leaked its intelligence assessment and it confirmed— not only it confirmed what we've been reporting on the Midas Touch Network, but it actually went a step further. Whereas we believe there was at least 50 to 60% of ballistic missile, Shahed drones, and ballistic missile launchers still intact weeks ago, uh, on behalf of Iran. And I said, well, the way they make it so quickly, that they're probably going to be at 100% soon because that's how they're going to be utilizing this ceasefire, and it's much cheaper for Iran to make these Shahed drones and their missiles and their launchers are far cheaper than the US-made weapons.

Well, this CIA report that leaked to the Washington Post said actually that the war only destroyed about, about 25% of Iran's weapons capabilities, and it still maintains 75% of its, uh, Shahed drones and ballistic missiles and launchers. And also the CIA assessments that Iran had months, months of, uh, before there was any significant or material impact on its, uh, oil facilities, uh, caused by the blockade. So they can go months. And see, hear my dogs in the background, they clearly agree with that assessment. Um, so we heard that, we, we, we were showing satellite footage. Javier Blas over at Bloomberg does a really good job on this beat, and he was showing— there was satellite footage that showed Iranian large vessels were still going in to Kharg Island, taking the oil, moving the oil, you know, as recently as 24, 48 hours ago. So all of Iran's, you know, oil facilities, you know, still functioning. There's nothing blowing up. More lies from Donald Trump, more lies coming out of Trump-related propaganda media. We also saw today, right before these hostilities increased, right before this escalation that we're covering right now, Donald Trump also made a post about the European Union.

Remember, Donald Trump threatened an additional 25% tariffs on the EU again. You make— man, that's déjà vu. Didn't he do that like a year ago? Yeah, I remember he did it again. And now, as he saw the markets not looking good today, um, he then did one of his, uh, Taco Trump Always Chickens Out posts. You saw it right there where he said, actually, now I'm not, I'm not gonna do the tariffs until after the 250th birthday of the United States. By the way, everybody, um, we have Trump taco emojis. So if you want to get your Trump taco emoji, uh, become a member of this YouTube channel. Uh, click the join button. You can gift memberships to as many people as you want. If, if you're able to afford memberships, gift memberships, give other people the gift of taco emojis and all those emojis. You also get to access exclusive podcasts like the one I do with, uh, Ron Filipkowski. Also earlier today There was supposed to be a meeting between Donald Trump and President Lula of Brazil. President Lula has been very critical of Donald Trump's authoritarian tactics. Trump tried to impose 50% tariffs on Brazil but then chickened out on that last year.

Remember when Donald Trump posted that deranged letter and said because Brazil's former insurrectionist MAGA President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to prison that Trump was going to be imposing 50% tariffs on Brazil, which then caused massive inflation and then caused prices to immediately spike and the markets to crash. And then what did Donald Trump do? He removed those 50% tariffs on Brazil when he was then— like, remember Donald Trump, 90 deals, 90 days? But then Trump made up his own— same way he makes up his own fake ceasefires, he makes up his own fake deals. And then he reduced all of the tariffs, uh, on his own. Lula was in the White House today. There were supposed to be a press conference between Trump and Lula. The press waited there for hours, like literally 3 hours, and then all of the press activity was canceled. And then Lula, Lula left. Everybody could see right there it was on the presidential agenda today that there was going to be a forward-facing, press-facing meeting between Trump and Lula. And we learned that Lula confronted Donald Trump about Trump's unlawful wars. Trump's, uh, you know, invasion of Venezuela, Trump's invasion of Iran with Netanyahu, Trump's threatening of the hemisphere, uh, Trump's attack on multilateralism, Trump's tariffs against the world, Trump's blockade on Cuba where we blockade Cuba but then we allow Russian ships to enter Cuba but then otherwise blockade Cuba, um, should also be noted and we've been covering a lot of this on the Midas Touch Network, that there was that big meeting in Europe, uh, and actually it was in Yerevan, Armenia, for the European Political Community meeting that was taking place, uh, where Prime Minister Carney of Canada was invited as well.

It was a big deal that this meeting was taking place in Yerevan, Armenia, because Armenia used to be viewed as either like adjacent to a Soviet satellite nation or certainly under the sphere of influence of Russia, although lots of Armenians didn't feel that way, especially those in the diaspora here. But there was that, you know, view, of course, given its proximity to Russia and Russia's spheres of influence, and of course, the history of the Soviet Union in the region. But this big European meeting took place in Yerevan, Armenia, as Europe kind of projecting, you know, its strength. Prime Minister Karney Uh, was there, and it's just fascinating to see at an international level that America first has really meant America alone. I mean, I did a video on it this morning, uh, but think about it this way. You had the European political community meeting, right? Um, no United States there. They're talking about multilateralism. Um, you've got a meeting between Iran's foreign minister, Araghchi, and Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, in Beijing. Before Donald Trump said to go out to, uh, China. And you have Iran, you know, basically saying that, look, we're respected more by China now.

We're viewed as a, not just a player in the region, but a player internationally right now based on beating the United States in their catastrophic war and invasion, uh, with Netanyahu. And China condemning the United States and Israel's invasion of Iran, you know. And then Donald Trump just, you know, walking into China like, hey, hey, Xi Jinping, hey, Xi Jinping. You know, at the same time, you know, you have Iran meeting with, uh, or China's foreign minister planning their alliance, which is to strengthen Iran against, you know, the United States. I mean, similarly, as part of that alliance right there, you've got Iran and China, and then you also have North Korea, where, where Kim Jong-un brags about his nuclear arsenal, uh, all the time now. He conducts cruise missile and ballistic missile tests all the time. Nobody talks about Kim Jong-un and having nuclear weapons anymore, right? It's not a talking point once he got the nuclear weapons, apparently weaponized literally and figuratively against former President Obama. Every time Kim Jong-un did nuclear tests, Obama's weak, Kim Jong-un's doing nuclear tests. Yet Donald Trump allowed Kim Jong-un to get nuclear weapons. Ah, we're not going to talk about him anymore.

Yeah, Kim Jong-un is bragging that he's got more nukes than— ah, it doesn't matter, Trump's in office now. That's, that's how we go after Democratic presidents. We don't go after Trump by talking about facts. And what we do here on the, on the Midas Touch network. And so you've got, you know, Kim Jong-un, you know, constantly projecting, you know, the fact that he's got nuclear weapons. Trump doesn't talk about that, by the way. What do we think if you're Iran and you're watching global affairs right now? What do you think you're doing with the nuclear material that you have that the Trump regime did not totally obliterate? Whereas before you felt constrained by international pressure, right now, if you're Iran, don't you look at North Korea and go, got it, that's what we gotta do. We, we gotta rush getting a nuclear weapon because look how they leave North Korea alone. And so for us, it's existential that we get a nuclear weapon. It's existential that we control the Strait of Hormuz. As long as we control these levers, Donald Trump has zero leverage and we control him and we control the markets. And so what do you think Iran's— I mean, what do you think that they would be doing?

So while you have, you know, just think about these alliances, you know, Trump and JD Vance and Marco Rubio, they were talking about multipolar world, multipolar America no longer being the leader of the free world. That was a message that they had, you know, after the 2024 election. But like America just continuing to weaken itself every damn day. Because you have this, again, this meeting in Europe taking place where they have Canada there. You have the meeting in China with the Raggi and Wang Yi, China's foreign minister. And, you know, you have Russia having its, what they call the Victory Day parade for World War II on May 9th. It's just ironic too that, not ironic, it's interesting and fascinating that Russia does, you know, Putin and Trump do the same things. Like Putin has declared, we are doing the ceasefire on May 9th. We now have a ceasefire with Ukraine on May 9th. And it's like, according to who? Like, you're just making up, you know, Ukraine wants sustainable ceasefires, which Russia never acknowledges. But then Russia, like Putin, like Trump's like, we're doing a ceasefire on May 9th. And Ukraine's like, well, no one should go both ways.

Then you should talk to us and we can do a long-term ceasefire like we've always been trying to do. But you've got Putin saying, you got Putin saying that, you know, with the parade coming up And, you know, there's a lot of, uh, you know, top, you know, you usually the top Chinese leaders, uh, go there. Um, and so Russia kind of flexing its strength in the area. And what's the United States doing year over year? I think US purchases of fertilizer up 37% right now. Uh, and so the US is now getting its fertilizer from Russia as the US expands its trade with Russia. And that's going on kind of behind the scenes. But I think it's important that we focus on what's happening there because Trump has tariffed our allies while removing sanctions against Russia and not tariff— there's no tariffs against Russia. There were sanctions against Russia, but a lot of those sanctions have been removed by the Trump regime. And now the US— did you know that we get a lot of our fertilizer from Russia right now? And the Europeans aren't getting their fertilizer from Russia because they know that fuels Russia's war engine.

Against Ukraine and then eventually Europe while the US gets its fertilizer from, from Russia. So just look at what Donald Trump's done here with this catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran. I'll give you some more updates about the escalation in the region in just a moment as well. Let's use a World Cup reference. If we, if, if, like, let's, because, you know, obviously the World Cup is coming up here and we know ticket sales are lagging. Even the Paraguay versus United States men's team game in a 70,000-person stadium, I think has only sold about 40,000 tickets so far. There's a lot of reasons for tourism boycotts. The, the cost of FIFA is so damn high, people can't afford, you know, to go to these games. The cost of everything is so damn high, regular Americans are struggling. So you have all of that. But just think about it in a, in a soccer match or a football match if you're international, okay? The team that scores more goals wins the game, right? The team that scores 1 goal beats the team that scores 0 goals. So as we think about Donald Trump and Netanyahu's catastrophic war in Iran, and we want to say, who's winning the war?

When Iran says we've won the war and Trump says we've won the war, okay, like, let's analogize to the World Cup. Who scored the goals before the war? Did Iran control the Strait of Hormuz, or was it open for everybody's use? It was open for everybody's use. What did Donald Trump say? Were the priorities? What were the goals, if you will, of the United States? Regime change. They were going to get rid of all of Iran's nuclear capabilities, get rid of the conventional shield, as Hegseth called it, around the nuclear capabilities, the drones and the ballistic missiles. They were going to have the people rise up in Iran, they said, and they were going to get rid of all of Iran's proxies in the region. And that— and Trump was gonna handpick who was going to be the next leader of Iran, right? Those were objectively— and this isn't a political thing— those were Trump's goals, right? So of all of those things, if you were keeping score, did Trump do any of those things? If we— if each one of those things would be the equivalent of scoring a goal, did Trump do any of them?

No. Zero goals, zero points. What about Iran? Iran's controlled the Strait of Hormuz. That's goal number one. They've kept their conventional shield around potential nuclear weapons and nuclear material. That's goal two. Proxy groups still exist. You know, you have Hezbollah, you have the Iranian militias, you have the Houthis. They've now gotten additional access to tech— to the drone technology, the Shaheds and the FPV drones. So they've actually bolstered their capabilities, and Iran's developed more missile capabilities around the Patriots and around the THAAD missile system. So That's a, that's a third one. Iran's nuclear capabilities, you know, haven't been, uh, you know, taken away. They control the Strait of Hormuz. So I mean, however you're counting it, Iran's scored like 4 or 5 goals. The United States has scored 0 goals. Yet Trump runs around and saying, we're the winner. Look how great we are. Look how strong we are. Just keeping score. I don't care what political party you're from. I don't know how you, uh, you know, I don't know how you score it any other Uh, I don't know how you score it any other way right now. We're going to keep on focusing on what's going on in, uh, the region.

Here's what Barak Ravid just posted moments ago. Barak Ravid over at Axios goes, the US military conducted strikes on Thursday on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz area, a US official said. The US official said these strikes do not constitute a resumption of war. With Iran. Folks, isn't that just like a complete and utter clown show right now? And sometimes my editorial team sends me things and I'm like, I'm like, is this real before I go and talk about it? Yes, it is. So even though Donald Trump's meeting with President Lula was not public, Donald Trump did meet privately with the Nelk boys today. The right-wing Canadian YouTubers, uh, who, you know, who engage in a lot of bizarre behavior, who supported him in 2024, they got the red carpet treatment at the White House while all of this is taking place. As I said, this is a complete and utter clown show right now at the White House. A reminder to everybody watching Uh, go and get the, uh, if you want to get the taco emoji, if you want to access all of the emojis that we have here, if you want to become a member of our YouTube channel, hit subscribe and then click join.

And the join is where you become a member. You can gift memberships to as many people as you want if you're able to afford memberships. Um, when we come back, I want to talk more about the, uh, escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, as we're now learning that the United States did indeed strike targets near Kharg Island. Although, and this is again bureaucracy, it's so embarrassing, the US Army attacked Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz, but they do not constitute a resumption of the war. The US military, and it just keeps on posting this over and over again, um, We'll see what Iran has to say about that. We're going to be very carefully focused on the region. I want to also focus on what this is all a massive distraction from as well, which is the Epstein files. And it's the fact that the Trump regime, the Epstein class, are in the files. They're all over the files. And as Donald Trump told Marjorie Taylor Greene, these are my people, these are my friends. You're going to hurt us. Well, Howard Lutnick refused to sit for an under oath deposition. You all know that now.

He did a transcribed interview, no videotape. And then James Comer has the audacity to say we're being super transparent. Can we just show Jeremy the clip of James Comer? So I just, I just want to set the stage quickly right now just so we all get this right. We all know that, uh, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in the Epstein files, photos of him on the island. He said he never hung out with Epstein except in 2005. They were neighbors. He went over Epstein's house once. He was grossed out. He knew Epstein was a blackmailer, uh, he knew, he knew Epstein was a blackmailer and, uh, and was involved in horrific conduct, so he would never see him again. Well, he's on the island then Lutnick's like, yeah, well, I, I brought my children, so it's okay. And I brought my friend's little kitties with them. I brought my little kitties and I brought my friend's little kitties, so I wasn't lying. I said I never went. I brought my kitties. I brought the kids to the island where kids get sexually assaulted. So I'm, I'm better, right? Because I didn't lie. Nothing bad happened on the island, is what Lutnick said.

I just brought the little kids. Okay, you think that's a better fact for you? So we all wanted to like see Lutnick. He refused to speak when he was in front of the, uh, various House committees on the budget. He said, I'm— don't worry, I'm not going to tell you what happened on that island with the kitties because I am gonna be testifying under oath before the House Oversight Committee. Well, he shows up yesterday at the House Oversight Committee and guess what? Doesn't take the oath, doesn't do a deposition, doesn't have it videotaped. None of that. None of that. And what does he do? I'm going to do a transcribed interview. Okay. Well, the questions were like, well, then. Okay, well, then why? Why did you go to the island? I don't know. You don't know why you— why did you bring your kids? I don't know why I brought my kids. Definitely, definitely surprising to me. It surprised you that you brought him? It was surprising to you that you were in the files and you brought your kid? Yeah, I don't know. And he's not under oath. There's no videotape of it. They don't release the transcript right away.

And then James Comer comes out of the room, and here's what Comer said. Let's play it.

I feel compelled to have to come out and clean up and, uh, correct some of the statements that the Democrats made. I couldn't believe as I was getting updates of what they were saying. And I hope that when you get the transcripts, you fact check them on what they say. This is a habit of the Democrats on this committee coming out telling you all stuff that was said that was not said. The only cover-up that I've seen on the Oversight Committee is the cover-up of the Democrats trying to cover up our investigations of the Metro Police Department lying about crime statistics and the cover-up of the Minnesota fraud by Tim Walz and Keith Ellison and the cover-up of the hospice fraud in California. So what we asked some very substantive questions the first hour. The Democrats during their hour repeated the exact same questions because there's only so many questions you can ask Howard Butnik, who lived— had a property next door to Epstein in New York, but talked to him 3 times over a decade.

We'll be right back after our first quick break, get you more updates about what's going on in this trade of promos. Let's take a quick break.

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Welcome back to Ben On Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis. This is breaking news. Thank you to our pro-democracy sponsors right there. Thank you to all of our sponsors. Great ad reads, Brett. Uh, link in the description below if you want to use those discount codes. They support our show, support them. Jordy and Brett spend a long time getting you the best deal, so check that out. Let's talk about what we're learning has happened over the break. Well, According to Iran's state media, as we speak, the Iranian Navy is currently shooting at American destroyers in the Sea of Oman. Tasnim News says that Iran's Navy's attacks on American destroyers on the Sea of Oman are currently ongoing. Iran's Navy targeting 3 US destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz using combined missiles, suicide drones, and other artillery. According to Tasnim, the United States, uh, ships are now, uh, the destroyers are apparently leaving the Sea of Oman. We're waiting for additional confirmation. Now, one of the things that I always find incredibly disconcerting in a situation— there's so much I find disconcerting. Information is power, and especially in times of war. And the fact that US CENTCOM— CENTCOM— look, Donald Trump has zero credibility.

Anything spewed from the White House has zero credibility. James Comer, MAGA Republic, zero credibility. Epstein class have zero credibility. But CENTCOM CENTCOM, right? The crown jewel of kind of military entities. You know, the fact that they've been spewing a ton of nonsense where frankly we all don't know— is CENTCOM telling the truth? Are the Iranians telling the truth? I don't know. The Iranians seem to have been telling us more truthful things than CENTCOM. That's not a good place to be in. As an American. But quite frequently when you hear from CENTCOM, well, you know, hundreds of tankers and cargo ships are leaving the Strait of Hormuz. We've opened up lanes and Project Freedom is going exceptionally well. And you're like, then why? Okay, show me. Are there transponders all off? Where are these ships that are all leaving the Strait of Hormuz? If our tankers are truly in the Strait of Hormuz, where are they? I mean, they're not being picked up on lots of satellite. When they are picked up, you could kind of see where they are on the satellite image. But where are they located right now? Or, you know, CENTCOM will say minimal damage on the air bases, you know, nothing really a big deal, cosmetic damage.

Like, we've learned that, like, most of America's bases in the Middle East, which by the way Middle East nations really aren't even letting us use anymore, they were like not just destroyed, they were not just damaged, like seriously destroyed by Iran. And that was all covered up, right? No, no one was ever talking about that. And the United States military, Pentagon, CENTCOM, etc., they have shut down all of the commercial satellite companies?

Who does—

you know, it's just this, it's the bizarre thing. They shut down the commercial satellite companies from utilizing or distributing photos of satellites in the region. And it's just very bizarre that that's what, you know, that's how CENTCOM is. That's how CENTCOM is behaving. And we don't have any statements out from CENTCOM. We don't have any statements out from the Defense Department or the State Department about what's going on. We do hear right away from Iran. These are statements from Iran. Here's their spokesperson from their navy. The invading terrorists and banded American army, by violating the ceasefire, targeted an Iranian oil tanker underway from Iran's coastal waters in the Jask region toward the Strait of Hormuz. As well as a number— as well as another ship entering the Strait of Hormuz opposite the UAE's Fujairah port. And simultaneously, civilian areas were subjected to its aerial assaults on the shores of the Bandar Khamir, the Sirrik, and the Keshem Islands. In collaboration with some regional countries, the Armed Forces of Iran also immediately launched attacks on U.S. military vessels in the Eastern Strait of Hormuz and the south of Chabahar Port, inflicting significant damage upon them. The criminal and aggressor America and the countries supporting it must know that the Islamic Republic of Iran, as in the past, powerfully and without the slightest hesitation, will deliver a crushing response to any assault or aggression.

Where CENTCOM Where's the Defense Department? Where's anybody? Too busy hanging out with the Nelk Boys, right? You're too busy hanging out with the Nelk Boys in the White House. You're too busy talking about the UFC fight on June 14th. You're too busy talking about the golf courses that you've— the public golf courses you've destroyed, the Golden Ballrooms, the Triumphal Arches. The Trump airports that are now licensing Trump's name, image, and likeness so that Trump's family profits off of the fact that an airport's now named after him. That, that's the focus. That's the focus. And by the way, to add insult to injury, and I did a report on this this morning, you know how Donald Trump said the UFC fight gonna be a huge stadium, 20,000 people are going to be there to watch the fight? No, We've now learned the details, by the way, of the UFC fight. It's going to be 4,300 people who are all getting comped tickets, and they seem to be saying they're going to be using members of our military as props, and the military members are going to be the 4,300 people who are going to be attending.

Now, the Trump regime saying, well, we have room for 80,000 people. On the Ellipse. First off, it's going to be very hot in Washington, D.C. around that time period. But also, they're just going to, what, claim general tourists in the area as people who attended, who attended this fight? You're going to use 4,300, 4,300 members of our military while you're in this catastrophic and unlawful war as part of military propaganda at the White House. As you rip away healthcare from people, as people can't afford gas right now, as once again hostilities escalate in the Middle East because of Trump and Netanyahu's unlawful invasion, catastrophic invasion, war crimes in the region. That's what— that, that's the event. I mean, and did you see this yesterday? You have Donald Trump holding this press conference where he's talking about how the US kills all of these fishermen. You know, the US killed like 100 people on these fishing boats. They're narco-terrorists. We don't get any evidence. We just— the United States just murders people on fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela to satiate Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth's bloodthirst, bloodlust. Donald Trump goes, you know, we do it by sea, by ocean, by water.

When we talk about the sea, I don't mean see the eyes like you see. I mean the sea, the water. Here, play this clip.

Like it, but the numbers are— the numbers speak for themselves. If you really get down, you see drug traffic coming into our country is way down. And by sea, by sea, by ocean, by the water. You know, a lot of people say, what do you mean by sea? Is it sea like vision? No, it's the SEA, but, uh, it's down 97%.

This makes up numbers. 97, 99, 99%, negative 700%. What are you talking about? And who, who is it that you're speaking to when you say sea? They go, you mean like a sea, like the water, or you mean like seeing with the eye? What are you even talking about? And so again, while hostilities are escalating, while Trump's catastrophic war in Iran escalating right now once again What has Donald Trump been doing in the past 24 hours? Showing renderings of the UFC event. That's what he's doing. Here, play this clip.

A lot of people haven't seen this yet, I'll give you that. I think you'll probably be able to do okay with it.

Wow, the media is going to go crazy.

And that— I'm not bad, right? Championship belt.

Did you hear someone in the background goes, whoa, the media is gonna crazy for your stupid AI photo. What do you mean, oh, we're gonna go crazy? You're showing some AI photo that anybody can generate on freaking ChatGPT in, in 25 seconds, and what you're doing is you're putting 4,300 military members as props at the White House. It's, by the way, it's Trump's 80th birthday. That's what he's— that's what one of the reasons he's doing it, his 80th birthday. But while we have all of these things going on, that's— could you just imagine if Obama did that? Can you imagine if Biden did that? Can you imagine if George W. Bush or Bill Clinton did that? How is any of that normalized? I mean, for real, how is any of that normalized? Then you have Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's national economic advisor, bragging how much money people are putting on their credit cards now. Like, this is, this is their boast. Here, play this clip.

So in fact, I had the head of one of the big 5 banks in my office yesterday going through the credit card data, and just as Secretary Bessant said, credit card spending is through the roof. They're spending more on gasoline, but they're spending more on everything else too. And so in terms of the jobs picture for the rest of the year, you know, it's really hard to see having the unemployment rate go up, for example. It's probably going to drop a little bit, but it's already very close to full employment. But I—

hmm, we went from Golden Age, jobs are going to be surging, to at best, to at best, maybe we'll basically break even. It's basically what he said. It may go up, may lose some jobs. Hard to imagine that we lose anymore. That's— they're just all a bunch of grifting con artists, and they move from one con to the next con. And then the corporate news normalizes all of this behavior. Oval Office, little children, Donald Trump ranting about rigged elections. Why would any corporate news even cover that? Why? It's Donald Trump. Donald Trump found civilly liable for sexual assault, brags about grabbing women by their vagina because Donald Trump says you're rich and you get away with it. Donald Trump, who says that's locker room talk. Trump, who brags about inspecting girls naked in beauty pageants because when you own the beauty pageants, they let you get away with it because you're an inspector, you're the owner. There shouldn't be kids anywhere near this guy. There shouldn't be kids anywhere near this guy. Then there's kids with him and he starts talking about Rigged elections and nobody— like, no, not a single, not a single major publication thinks there's anything wrong with this.

Here, play the clip of him saying rigged election.

Here, play it.

And unfortunately, bad things happened. It was a rigged election. And I said, well, I'll do it again. I had the ultimate poll. I did so well. And I had the ultimate poll and we won in a landslide. We won every single—

or calling former President Obama Barack Hussein. Listen what he says in front of the kids.

Each other in the presidential fitness test, but others. Then we had the Obama administration. Wonderful, wonderful person. Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him? We had the Obama administration, which phased out this wonderful tradition of physical fitness. Thank you, Barack, very much. Great job.

And we're bringing it back. What are we watching there in front of little kids? It's one of the things I hit upon a lot on this show, which is, you know, I think about being a father. I know lots of parents out there, grandparents out there, regardless of if you're a parent or grandparent, doesn't— but just thinking about our kids, our children, our future generations. I mean, that scene is sick. That scene is disgusting, disgusting to watch that. There was once a time where Dan Quayle would spell potato wrong in front of kids. You can't— your political future is over. But our corporate news has so embraced this dystopian reality show, sicko, sicko world where that doesn't even register as a thing. That just shows you to me how things have fallen in the US, where things are. Contrast that to Prime Minister Karney, who was in Yerevan, Armenia, showing actual leadership, talking about how the world is undergoing a rupture. Yeah, it's going under rupture because that sicko in the past clip I just showed you ranting and raving like a lunatic in front of children, scaring the youth with his sick and disgusting behavior is out there perverting the whole world with his grotesque sludge of, of, of, of his sicko vision of the world.

Here's what Carney says. Here, play.

As the world is undergoing a rupture across several dimensions— in technology, in energy, in commerce, and geopolitics— integration is being used as is a weapon by some, and the rules are not constraining the hegemon. Now, we have to actively take on the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. We know nostalgia is not a strategy, but we don't think that we're destined to submit to a more transactional, insular, and brutal world. And gatherings such as these point to a better way forward. I think I'll close my my remarks with a few observations on strategic autonomy, recognizing that security and prosperity today extend well beyond the traditional areas of food, energy, and defense, important as they are, to include space-based communications, semiconductors, digital sovereignty, critical minerals, independent payment systems, clean energy, and vaccines. And our strategic imperative is to build these sovereign capabilities with the most trusted partners, and that creates enormous opportunities for partnership between Canada and Europe. We view ourselves as highly complementary to your economic and security goals. That's demonstrated through the work we're doing with the presidencies on the new EU-Canada Strategic Partnership of the Future, building deeper relationships from digital to defense, supply chains to security.

We're honored to be the first non-European country as part of the EU SAFE initiative. We would observe that in the last year we have struck $18 billion worth of critical minerals deals across 20 of the world's leading critical minerals. The way to look at this is we are warehousing these to look for government-to-government deals with our close partners and under the rubric of the G7 first and foremost. But then more broadly, we're working with European partners across the technology stack from hardware, cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and space. And as we'll discuss later, we are an energy superpower, third largest oil producer, fourth largest natural gas. Largest hydro renewable base. We're committed to addressing climate change while providing reliable, affordable energy to our citizens and partners.

Now, I show you that because that's how a leader is supposed to speak. I don't care if you were a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent or a Liberal Party member of Canada. Or a Liberal Party member of Australia, which is really their Conservative Party, or a Labor Party member of Australia, or a Conservative in Canada, whether you're a Liberal Party in the UK, whether you're a Tory, whether you are, uh, you know, whatever. The end— at the end of the day, you should be speaking thoughtfully, competently, in complete sentences. It should be rooted in values and principles that demonstrate that you're a public servant, that you are in service of the people. It should foundationally be rooted in democracy. It should show respect to the history of your country. It should show respect to humanity, respect to the people who are living in the country. It should show respect to people in the world more broadly. I mean, it should be a logically coherent ideology and policy so we know where you stand and what you're doing. I mean, to see Donald Trump wake up and post Photos of golden statues. You saw today he posted the golden statue in the morning, uh, at the Doral Club.

The real deal gold at Doral in Miami, put there by great American patriots. DJT, by the way, it was a terrible golf tournament at Doral, the worst in PGA history. Whether it's UFC, PGA, the United States, think about this, the 250th anniversary FIFA. The 250th anniversary of the US is a big deal. It's not about you, it's not about your birthday, it's not about, you know, it's not about MAGA, it's not about Democrats or Republicans, it's about the United States of America. And again, you've turned it into some weird, gross thing, you know. Look, I don't really watch UFC all that much, it's not my thing, but I, I, friends who watch UFC. I'm not really a golfer. I'm not sure what I do right now. I record videos. Not really. I used to, used to golf. Um, I'm not much of a golfer, but I have friends who golf. You know, I, um, you know, with, with all of these things, it's like, why are you making them so damn weird? Just let the tournaments go on. Let the people go and play. Let people just enjoy their life. Stop treading on us. I think about The Don't Tread on Me flags.

All Donald Trump wants to do with those fascist tentacles of his is tread on you and tread on people. It's the ultimate big government, whether it's quite literally sending troops into your city like he did in Minnesota, whether it is imposing, you know, what he wants, his Trump ideology, onto where you learn and what you think and how to Live your life. Just every damn thing. I mean, the UFC stuff— why, why is the UFC a MAGA thing? Why can't you just let the people fight, you know, and engage in the sport without making it some political propaganda with soldiers? And, and you entangle it at the White House, which is where the Epstein class resides and is being protected. It's just very, very strange. And the golf with the golden statues of you. I just think we just have to look at all of this and say this is some dangerous, weird, strange behavior, and it's hurting Americans most significantly. Americans are feeling the pain, you know, and when you see what Barak Revid of Axios posts, when you see the markets fluctuate the way they do every day, when you see more significantly people looking at those gas prices and saying $4.56 a gallon.

Look, in California it's like $6, and I'm sure in a lot of states it's over $5 a gallon. But you look at that, I think the nationwide average is like $4.60, close to $4.70. Who can afford that? You look at rent, who can afford that? You look at groceries, who can afford that, right? You look at foreclosures hitting record highs. You look at, you know, healthcare being ripped away from people, and then you see him there with the UFC, and you know, he's got his little hands, little tiny fingers holding the UFC fight. And like, he's really weird with the UFC fighters too. He's like— I think I said this morning— he's like attracted to them physically, in my opinion. Just give me my— oh, you're so strong, look at those arms, your hands are so big. So it's just like, I was like, what, what are we watching? What is this? The hell is this? And can we please get out of this timeline? And can we have somebody like a Carney in the Oval Office? And by the way, if it was, if it was a Democrat like Carney, if it was a Republican, if it was an independent, if it was someone from new, some newfangled party that doesn't exist yet, if we just had a grown-up who governed responsibly, who talked about a future-looking vision spoke to the pain that people are experiencing, competently spoke to the media, conducted themselves in their personal and professional lives with dignity, I think we'd all be like, okay, you know, but that's not what we have here.

That's not what we have here. And the bootlicking of Putin The fact that with all of this going on, you have TASS, which is Russia's state media. They're the ones doing these readouts. And we learn, oh, I guess Trump had another call with Putin today. I guess Rubio had another call with Lavrov today. And then what happens right after these calls? Not too soon or pretty soon thereafter, Russia strikes civilian areas in Ukraine. Then Russia declares, okay, we're doing the ceasefire now on May 9th. That's our parade day. You have to acknowledge our ceasefire, Ukraine. The same authoritarian thinking. Putin, Trump, Orbán, Jair Bolsonaro, Bukele, Mele, Netanyahu, Pierre Poilievre, Dutton, but he's gone, right? That's who they are. That's who they are, these people. We'll keep you posted throughout the day, um, as more news develops. We're just learning why now, uh, Lula says— here's what went down today. We're just getting this in because remember there was supposed to be a press conference between Lula and Trump, and the way Trump does it is he normally makes the foreign leader sit for a press conference before there's a discussion. Between Trump and the foreign leader.

And Lula's like, yeah, I'm not doing that. He goes, when I arrived here, I stated that I would not speak to the press before the meeting took place. It makes no sense for me to come here for a meeting only to hold a press conference before we've had our discussion. Sounds logical to me, but for Donald Trump, for this reality show dystopian apprentice drama where we're non-consensual extras in this hellhole. Trump, the Barack Ravid media, right? They like this stuff. They— you saw at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, oh, Donald, you're so courageous. You didn't attack us after the alleged incident. He's so courageous. He just wants a ballroom. I mean, these people are the biggest enablers. It's so humiliating to watch because as I watch them bend the knee, I watch this community focus on what really matters. And we've always been telling the truth about what's been going on in Iran every damn day. We show you the satellite footage. We show you what not just Trump propaganda machine. We show you what Iran is saying. We show you what the neighboring countries are saying. We show you what's going on in these regions.

We show you just because Donald Trump says ceasefire, peace deal, ain't, ain't what's happening. We're showing you what's happening inside. So when these developments happen, you're not shocked, you're not surprised by this, because we've been covering this every step of the way. So here's where things stand. US strikes port near Kharg Island. Iran's responded, striking back at two US destroyers. Apparently this is ongoing as we're speaking. Iran's media is claiming through their military leaders that the US Navy destroyers are fleeing. We don't know if that's true. That's what they're saying. Sources tell Fox that there are, you know, that confirm the US strikes, uh, in Kashem and in, in Iran's Kashem port and Bandar Abbas. Um, so Fox is— but that's all we know. Nothing from CENTCOM. Trump regime is saying, oh, this isn't a resumption of the war. That's not what's going on here. So stay tuned, we'll keep following this every step of the way. We'll keep you posted. And don't forget about the Epstein files. That's why I showed you that before. Don't forget that the Trump regime is actively covering up a child sex trafficking ring. Never lose sight of that.

Again, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, independent, not a political— I don't care what your political affiliation is. The fact that Howard Lutnick refused to go under oath and before a video camera and did a transcribed interview where they don't release the transcription? You're okay with that? If you're okay with that, maybe you're part of that 30% here that criticizes the Pope for wanting peace. I saw a recent poll, 30% is upset that the Pope calls for peace. You're, you're in that crew. I'm never gonna get— we're never gonna have a, uh, we're never gonna have a rational conversation. Finally, did CENTCOM— do we have the post before we go, Jeremy? Let's, let's pull it up because finally CENTCOM post. This is what CENTCOM says. So let's, let's read their side of it. CENTCOM protects U.S. warships transiting Strait of Hormuz. U.S. forces intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes as U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers transited the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman May 7th. Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones, and small boats as the USS Truxton, USL Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason transited the international sea passage.

No U.S. assets were struck. CENTCOM eliminated inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces, including missile and drone launch sites, command and control locations, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance nodes. CENTCOM does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces. So you actually put those stories together, and there they both— they both line up. Iran said to destroyers go in. Iran said they opened fire and the destroyers then left. US saying the destroyers entered, Iran tried to strike them. US says they hit these targets in Iran and doesn't want escalation. They, they— I mean, where it lines up, the part that is curious and interesting now is, does this escalate further? You have Trump's post. We do not seek further escalation is what CENTCOM says. Does Iran go, okay, there's no further escalation? And okay, where are the destroyers right now? So is the Strait of Hormuz open? No. And that's kind of going back to the analogy I gave before. If we view this as, was this a successful mission? I don't know yet, but if it's a successful mission, then we should start to see ships exit the Strait of Hormuz and we should start seeing control over the Strait of Hormuz.

So it's hard for you to sell me on it's a successful mission if ultimately the US says we don't seek further escalation and Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz. So I guess we'll see. But right now, as far as we know, those tankers tried to enter, Iran struck, US hit back. No ships leaving the Strait of Hormuz. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. I hope, I hope that gives you a, uh, fulsome update of, uh, of, of these developments. Do me a favor, can you, uh, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. We're very close to 7 million subscribers. Join, become a member, access our member features, special, special podcasts just for our members. I do one with Ron Filipkowski where we answer all of your questions, podcast just for members. If you can afford memberships, I know tough economic times. Gift other people memberships, then they can access the emojis, they get the bonus features. So you can click join and then you can gift memberships to people. So if you're able to do that, maybe try to do that. No pressure either way, it helps grow this network.

Thanks everybody for watching, we appreciate you, we're grateful for you. We'll keep you posted. Shout out to the Midas— oh, Brother Show! Be there for the Brother Show, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. I'll see you on the Brother Show. Thanks, everybody. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our Substack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.