Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates With Ben 8/13/2026 New

Welcome to Ben On Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis. This is your breaking news, breaking news. Moments ago, a hearing wrapped up in a Washington, D.C. federal court regarding Midas Touch host Katie Fang's lawsuit against Donald Trump's Department of Justice and Attorney General Todd Blanch. This was under the Epstein Transparency Act, and you had a, uh, federal judge making it very clear that contempt is an option if the Trump regime continues down this path of obstruction. The judge says, 'We're not there yet,' but the judge made it very clear, 'That is a tool in my toolkit.' We'll be hearing more from Katie Fang throughout the day. She is an absolute hero for fighting for these survivors and pursuing transparency under the Epstein Transparency Act. So we're going to talk about that a little more on the show. Um, Aaron Parnas, affiliated of course with the Midas Touch Network. Aaron's got his own YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe to Aaron's YouTube, uh, channel. Aaron's been breaking news regarding the families of service members, Navy sailors and Marines aboard the U.S. supercarriers in the Middle East and how awful the conditions are there. I got to give a hat tip as well to the Military Times, to Stars and Stripes, to MS Now.

They've been doing a lot of good reporting as well, hearing from the military families about what's actually taking place and how our service members are literally trying to jump overboard, take their own lives on these supercarriers because the conditions are so awful. Losing 30, 40, £50. They're not getting the food they need. And you have Pete Hegseth lying, Trump regime lying, saying, oh, we take care of them, they're doing amazing. It's all lies. And I just want to be very clear, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth hate our military. They hate our troops. Donald Trump called them suckers and losers. Pete Hegseth was awful when he ran. He's awful his whole life. When he ran a nonprofit for veterans. They treat our veterans like shit. They hate our army. They hate our military. They hate America. And we need to just be very clear about that, okay? We don't need to use big fancy words. It's just who they are. They care about enriching Trump, making Trump more money, putting his name on stuff, even when he is blocked from putting his name on stuff. He's a predator. He's a sicko. And that's who this regime is, right?

We're learning, uh, moments ago that what Donald Trump is now seeking with the Kennedy Center is he wants to engrave his name onto it. Not put the letters, engrave.

Sicko.

Freaking sicko. He wants to engrave his name on it and say, 'And renovated by Donald Trump.' That's their way around the court order. And then they want to name the plaza the Trump Kennedy Plaza. Sickos. Sickos. And I wanted to connect what's happening aboard our supercarriers to the reporting that we also did and that others talked about as well regarding how Hegseth spent in one month alone $15.1 million on ribeye steaks. I'm not making this up. $15.1 million in ribeye steaks, $7.9 million on lobster tails, $300 million on new furniture chairs that cost $1,900 each. That's where they're spending our taxpayer dollars, these sickos. And so remember when they promised Doge dividend checks? Yeah. Fraud. You want to know fraud and abuse? It's what the Trump regime's— and we ain't getting Doge dividend checks. Obviously Doge made things way worse. We ain't getting tariff rebate checks. I'll tell you who is: the corporations. They're getting tariff rebate checks. $180-200 billion or so of, uh, tariff taxes, because their taxes on the importers that were passed on to the consumers. That money's been returned to the companies, but they've kept their prices elevated while we the people, uh, get screwed.

But this is what the Trump regime is doing. And again, you have Katie Fang, her incredible reporting, Aaron Parnas, his incredible reporting. You have Scott McFarlane on the ground He's been reporting about all of the waste, fraud, and abuse within the Trump regime. He's been documenting each of the wasteful billion dollars, billion dollars here, billion dollars there, and he's been talking to voters in the various swing states. This is the Midas touch machine in action, the truthful way to control the narrative by being the voice of the people, not the corporate interests. And you notice Fox looking a little bit desperate, eh? Looking a little bit pathetic, eh? Just ain't landing like it used to, eh? When they would talk about, ah, WNBA, WNBA this, WNBA that. Oh, are the men gonna be in the draft? Penis, vagina, blah blah blah. We're Fox, we all—

we're crazy.

Oh my God, let's make fake issues and pretend we're deranged second graders. Oh, weak, small, little, irrelevant. This is the way that we take control of the narrative, that we become the voice for the service members who are suffering. We become the voice for the survivors through people like Katie Fang fighting for them in the courts. We become the voice really shedding light on the waste, fraud, and abuse taking place within the Trump regime. You then bring in a Justin Wolfers, We break down the economics of it all. We start talking about the record deficit for the month of July, right? Never have you had a deficit so big in one month in history. Never have you had gas prices on average nationwide so high as they are in August in history. You've got right here the total interest expense. For fiscal year 2026, up to $1.17 trillion in fiscal year 2026 alone. So, you know, when I like it, like I'm a geek out and I talk about those Treasury yields and the Treasury bond sales not going well. And I've been saying what that means. The Treasury Department has to pay more interest on this debt that it's out there.

Selling.

And what that means is that our debt continues to increase, the deficit continues to grow, that interest has to be paid. Who do you think's paying it? Us and future generations, because Donald Trump is a loser and he's bankrupted things. Just think about it. Wow, who would have predicted the sexual predator covering up the Epstein files? Who could have predicted that that would happen? The guy who bankrupted casinos now putting us in a condition where our strategic petroleum reserves are under 300 million barrels right now. We're out of ATACMS, we're out of PAC-3 interceptors, we're out of SM-2, SM-3, and other SM anti-ballistics on the Navy destroyers. Morale is at an all-time low on our supercarriers where our sailors, our courageous sailors and Marines, are jumping overboard. Some have actually jumped overboard, some are attempting it because the conditions are so awful there. 25 to 30% of our MQ-9 Reapers have been blown up by Iran. Who would have predicted that the guy who bankrupted all of his companies would do this? I don't know. And here's the thing too, I don't want any authoritarian leading our country. Let me be very clear about that, okay?

This is a pro-democracy network. I don't want— I think democracy can be slow, it can be frustrating, but ultimately to me, when you bring together the best minds and science and data and people can actually fight about ideas and reach compromises. To me, that's actually the best system, though it has its flaws. It's the best system. But why does our damn authoritarian have to be such a frickin loser? We couldn't get like a strong one. I'm being half sarcastic. I don't want any authoritarian, but we couldn't get like the smart— usually they aren't that smart. I'll be clear because they usually all suffer from malignant narcissism. Which is the historical issue with the Thargoids. But we couldn't get like the strong one who stares death in the face and says, I'm not afraid of you, not today. No, we get the guy who hides in the freaking food container truck. That's the thought. What did we do to deserve this humiliation, God? What did we do? What do you believe in, I don't believe in God. I'm being, you know, I'm being a little bit silly, but I mean it. I go, what did we do to deserve this humiliation ritual every damn day?

He's—

you got our—

you got the guy who's supposed to be the commander-in-chief of the strongest military hiding in catering container trucks with his freaking human printer. What did I do to deserve this? What did I do? Oh my freaking God, the hell is going on here? It's like the most pathetic thing— is the most pathetic thing you can do. And then the reporting today with, you know, our CIA was— has been leaking like wild. And they're just like— and the thing is that this was just like a Netanyahu— this is what our CIA is saying— this is just like a Netanyahu plan in order to get the United States to re-engage in the war, which is what happened right after that. Let's not remember— let's forget— let's remember, we were still in the MOU at that time, right? And then shortly thereafter, we got back into the war, which technically the MOU was being violated every day by Donald Trump and his despicable regime. But it was all like— you remember, was it the Hillary Clinton debate where she's like, if you can like bait this dude with a tweet, can you imagine She said what Putin can do to him.

Could you imagine what Netanyahu can do? Can you imagine what anyone can do to him? And let Iran— don't want to kill Donald Trump, okay? He's their precious. They want to keep— they want to keep that safe. They want to save this guy at all costs. Trust that. You think Iran wants to go after— he's killing America. He's destroying America's military. He's their weapon of mass destruction. They're like, no, no, why, why would they go after that guy? I mean, you know, he, he destroys the country, the United States, and our alliances every day. You couldn't ask for a more anti-American weapon than the— than how Donald Trump has behaved, hiding in a catering freaking container with Natalie Harp. And then Caroline Levitt, you know, resigned. She's like, I'm out, I'm out. It'll be, you know, look, she's, she's horrible, horrible human being, awful propagandist. Um, it'll be fascinating to see who can replace— it's a very unique skill set to be able to replace that level of propaganda. So we'll look to see who replaces her. But, you know, lots of people are saying, well, Caroline didn't get to go with Donald in the catering container.

She had to go in the old Air Force One, which was the fake target of what Netanyahu claimed was going to be blown up, blow up by a, uh, shoulder missile, uh, shoulder air missile that hit the old Air Force One. She got— she and Rubio got thrown under the bus. By the way, Marco Rubio, you know, he's been focused on all the important things right now, this clownish regime, right? Do we have this video, Jeremy, of Rubio talking about, uh, you know, the things that really matter to Rubio right now? I think it's, uh, his keto plan and how keto makes him so angry. We may— yeah, this, this is, you know, the U.S. Secretary of— and the crazy thing is, is that Rubio's probably— first off, he's— they're all deranged. When I say of all of the Trump cabinet people, this guy's— I don't know how you'd— no offense to clowns, but he's a— he's the This is the person who is the most stable of instable, unstable people. This is what he was talking about. Let's play it. I did at one time, maybe 4 or 5 years ago, I tried this thing called keto.

You've heard of this?

Yeah, keto.

And you just eat all this protein. And so you go through this massive withdrawal from sugar and carbohydrates for the first 72 hours.

It was a near psychotic event for me.

It's true.

Like if I did this in this job, I would be in a Mr. President, we must bomb, you know, You know, Paraguay. And it's like, why?

I don't know. I'm just really mad I haven't had any sugar.

I mean, hilarious when you're actually engaged in war crimes near Paraguay and you're blowing up fishing boats. Let's do jokes about— let's do jokes about your keto diet while our service members, our Marines and sailors on our supercarriers, are losing 40 to £50 because they're not getting food. They're unable to get fruits or vegetables or milk, or I mean, occasionally they can get some frozen meat nuggets. But yeah, go on, funny. It's all, it's all hilarious. It's all hilarious to these people while the American people suffer, while the American people can't afford things, while the American people are experiencing a jobs recession here. It's really funny, Marco Rubio. Funny, funny, funny people. Funny, funny people. Um, then you have Donald Trump filing an emergency motion, uh, saying that we need to keep that unlawful settlement that he entered into with the IRS and with the Treasury Department. And he wants— he's ran to the 11th Circuit, and then the DOJ asked the 11th Circuit to fire, to remove and reassign the federal judge to a new court. That was their argument, because she called out the collusive settlement agreement between Trump and Trump's IRS and Trump's DOJ and Trump's Treasury Department.

And said the settlement agreement was pervaded by fraud and collusion. They were saying she needs to be reassigned, is what Trump and the DOJ had the audacity to argue. And you also know the memo that the DOJ put forward, one of Todd Blanchard's first acts, saying any conversation that Donald Trump has with any one outside of the White House that he deems to be an advisor will be deemed executive privilege, such that the Trump regime will take the position that there could be no oversight. And that when Democrats take control— and Democrats are going to take control of the House, and I'm pretty confident Democrats will take control of the Senate— you're going to see a version, a legal version, of Donald Trump cowering in a catering container. Oh, don't subpoena! Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight! Don't subpoena! Don't do it! Executive privilege! They can't answer the questions! They can't answer the questions, folks. This is just a pathetic— it's just pathetic, just pathetic losers. And again, I don't want any authoritarian leading our country. But man, the manifestation we got were a bunch of freaking scared coward loser stolen valor pieces of— you know what, I don't like to curse on the show.

That's what they are. Let me bring in the interview I did with Aaron Parnas regarding the conditions aboard the US supercarriers, Gerald Ford, Abraham Lincoln— well, the Gerald Ford left— George H.W. Bush, and the Abraham Lincoln are the two that make up Donald Trump's pristine blockade, as he calls it. His perfect, his perfect blockade, everybody, where he's going to semi-negotiate and just low-key it, man. I'm gonna low-key it, yo.

Here, play it.

He comes up with the flashy name, Epic Fury. He loves the social media post, we win. But then it's like, hey, you know, how are you gonna get the food? How are you gonna get the mail? How are you gonna get the stuff to the troops? When you abandon those bases in the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and other areas, that was one of the areas that would route the stuff to the ships. And now because you don't have the interceptors, Iran's able to strike there, which has these third and fourth level consequences of, well, Well, then how do you get the food and the mail and the supplies to our troops who are out there? You can't just keep them there. And it's like, Aaron, they don't think about it. It's like they don't think about that. And they just go, eh, if we're asked about it, it's a PR issue. No, it's a people issue. The PR issue of you lying, you could do it once, but the people are there. They ain't PR, this is lives.

Well, Ben, just imagine if the president wasn't Donald Trump and the president was Joe Biden. Imagine if the Secretary of Defense wasn't Pete Hegseth and it was Lloyd Austin. I mean, if you had these facts come out, just one of these stories, let alone dozens and dozens of service members experiencing the same thing— imagine one service member tries to jump off an aircraft carrier under the Biden administration. Number one, we'd never hear the end of it. Fox News would be running it on 24/7. Jake Tapper would have written another novel. But number two, Congress would have opened up investigations by now. They would have hauled Lloyd Austin up to Capitol Hill. They would have asked military leaders to testify. They James Comer would've opened up an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. I mean, this is as bad as you can get. This is a dereliction of duty. And I asked Governor JB Pritzker today whether or not he believes that Trump is essentially fit to command our troops. And he essentially says, no, he, he's not, right? He has mental health issues, he has possible dementia issues, and now it's a complete just mess as our service members aren't getting the necessary resources abroad.

So it's, it's bad, and unfortunately it's not getting the coverage it deserves.

I'm going to play for you in a moment Aaron's interview with Governor Pritzker, because Pritzker was not holding back. Someone just, uh, is watching live. A friend of mine says, you've done epic entertaining media work, but it will be hard to ever top the segment that you just did, culminating with your perfect mommy. I want to eat my little burger, mommy. Keep up the great work, is what he says. I just got that message right now as I'm doing it. But here's the photo he sent. And I'm not sure if it's the angle of it. I'm not sure if you can see. Is my head really that big? Actually, I look like Mr. Garrison. It looks like Mr. Garrison. I don't know if it's the— maybe that's what I look like now.

I don't know.

I look like Mr. Garrison here. Okay, okay. My dogs don't agree. Let me— should I show you the Aaron clip, or should I— should I tease it during the break right now? Um, all right, let's take a quick break and then I'm going to show you, uh, Governor Pritzker. I want to ask you about the interview I did this morning with Professor Mirandi in Tehran. I want to get your feedback. I'm Kai. I want to get your feedback. Okay, you get your copy of WTF America. Pre-order WTF America now, uh, comes out in October. Um, there's a lot of momentum right now behind the pre-orders. It's not an election book, so if you're looking for an election book, don't get it. If you're looking for a book of how we get out of the cycle that we're in and try to get generational change and how collectively we can build something like we're trying to build here at The Midas Touch with the Katie Fangs and the Arons and the Scott McFarlands and the legal AFs and the whole crew we've got here, that's what the book is about. How do we build something like that?

Together with you, with us collectively. All right, let's take a break.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis. This is your breaking news. Again, you've got, uh, hearing Washington, DC. I'm going to be bringing on Katie Fang, uh, probably sometime later today. Um, but that federal judge Judge Sullivan, in the case under the Epstein Transparency Act, he was not happy at all about the Trump regime not complying with his orders. The judge made it clear, while we're not at the contempt stage yet, the judge ain't afraid to use it. And you knew it was going to be a pretty important hearing where the judge said, I want to do this in public so that everybody in this country can know what the hell is actually going on. And we need to bring transparency to the Epstein Transparency Act. I just want to let you know how big of a deal it is that Katie Fang has pursued this lawsuit, has created a forum now where the legal process can play out also in public. That's what the purpose behind the Epstein Transparency Act was supposed to be and what our system is in general. I mean, I just saw during the commercial break that Trump was announcing a new golf resort, this time in Korea.

Trump announces Korean golf course, new golf club. That's not what our government—

why?

That's not what our system should be about. It should be about what could government do to help people. That's the purpose of this, right? And to me, it's such a tell that all of these MAGA people— the level of attention and focus right now on attacking like momdani. You just look at what's actually happening in New York right now. What's happening? Violent crime. Homicides at an all-time low. At an all-time low. That's a good thing. Meanwhile, you have the universal pre-K actually making people's lives better. They're working through a real affordability agenda, figuring out, okay, well, we have to raise revenue somewhere. How do we do it? What's a good way to do it? Ah, the pied-à-terre.

Tax.

If people are avoiding paying state income tax in New York and they're living in places like Florida, but they keep a second mansion in New York City, okay, tax the second mansion a million, uh, 1% if someone's keeping a mansion like that, you know, in New York City, right? Be back in one second. Let's play the clip of, uh, play the clip of Aaron Parnas. I know my dogs are going to bark. Someone's, someone's at the front door. Play the Parnas clip with Pritzker, and then I'll open open up the front door, and then I'll be right back.

Do you believe, based on that, that the president is fit to command America's troops right now?

When you say, is he fit to command, I mean, this is a person who clearly is having mental health challenges. I mean, you can see it every day when he, you know, he sits there at that desk with, you know, 20 people, 30 people around him, uh, talking to the press because he can't apparently stand at a podium for a long period of This is somebody who says inane things. And, you know, you can't figure out why he's doing it from one moment to the next. He's— and then he, you know, likes to talk about the dementia tests that he's taken, like, like he passed a dementia test. You know, we should all celebrate. He passed a dementia test. He thinks it's some sort of IQ test. It isn't an IQ test. And all I can say is He's not passing the dementia test that all of us have for a president. He's not speaking rationally or acting rationally. So, I mean, I didn't want him to be president because I never thought that he was capable of being commander-in-chief. And I think he's proving it.

Yeah. Basic capacity. Are you capable to lead? The guy's not capable to lead. He's not fit. He's not fit mentally for the office. He isn't. And it's because I observe it. It's very basic. It's very common sense. We all see it. And part of this whole problem— and again, we talk about this in WTF America— is that we've somehow been told by corporate media and business leaders and other people who are not leaders at all that this is normal, when it isn't. When it's the job of leaders and the job of institutions to block and stop this psycho and not to enable it by even sometimes having these debates with them on the stupid shit. We're validating the existence of the thing as a real issue. I mean, when these idiots want to talk about, oh, Sophie Cunningham in the WNBA, and could you believe it, and I know I can't— I don't care. I really don't care. I truly don't give a shit about Sophie Cunningham.

I don't care.

I don't even know what you're talking about. It isn't a thing I think about. I care about what's happening with so many Americans across this country, not Sophie Cunningham getting fouled, or, oh, can you believe it, Um, there are two NBA players that are— that they're guys and they're really tall and they're gonna do the WNBA draft. And, uh, this is what the liberals want. This is what the liberals are— what are you even talking about? Wait, what, what do you even mean? What are you even saying? I don't even know what you're talking about right now. Oh my God, do you disavow Hasan Piker? Do you disavow a streamer? And then you take his statements and you splice it together in 6-second clips where he's reading comments a lot of times. And do you have to disavow every word that some streamer said? Why does that have to do with that? What does it have to do with anything? Oh, can you believe that Mom Donnie, uh, said that? I'm looking at Mom Donnie's actions right now. Oh my God, the pied-à-terre tax, it's gonna make people flee from the city. Do you even know what the pied-à-terre— do you even know what— what do you mean they're gonna— they've already left the city.

That's the issue. The issue is, is that they're secretly living in the city and they're avoiding state income taxes by saying they live in Florida so they can avoid a state income tax. Meanwhile, Florida is actually screwing most Floridians because they got to make up that tax revenue somewhere. And you know where they're making up that tax revenue from? From the massive property taxes, from the massive utilities, from the massive day-to-day taxes that people have in their very regressive tax policy, where the people who are not the rich are the ones getting screwed. It's why you actually have a lot of real issues with the standard of living, you know, there. But the issue with the pied-à-terre is, okay, millionaires You have a second home here, you're utilizing New York services while you're avoiding the state income tax here, pay 1%. If you have a $20 million home in Manhattan, pay $200,000 a year so we can use that to try to help the New Yorkers who actually live here in the city. Now you could push back and you can go, Ben, that's too much, that's too little. That to me is the type of debate that we should have.

That's a, that's an actual discussion, and we can be like, well, maybe we improve it here, maybe we do this, maybe do that. Not to say, oh, what we really need to do is be taught, you know, is, is, is have ICE and Border Patrol have electronic gloves that when they touch you, you get electrocuted. Did you hear that? That's the new thing ICE is going to be trying out because they're pathetic losers. It's the same people who hide in containers, who need electric gloves. You know who doesn't need electric gloves? Police. You know who doesn't need to cover their face? Police. And I think there are fair criticisms with how some policing goes down. I was— when I was a litigator, I handled civil rights cases, and I met really good officers. I met great sheriffs who I respected. And great sheriffs and good officers don't like the bad ones. There are bad ones. I handled cases in Bakersfield and Kern County where there were, uh, people who worked for the sheriff's department and people who worked for the police department who were like dealing drugs, and there were people who were covering it up at a high level.

And when I was litigating, we had to get, uh, the Department of Justice at that time to issue an injunction to try to reform the systems and to push out some of the, the bad apples. But they don't cover their faces, you know. I mean, good cops don't see any need. Good cops, good police, good sheriffs, they want to be involved in the community. They want to be at community events to build trust. Not talking about masks and electronic gloves. The hell are we even talking about here? You know, you think about the Treasury Department yesterday, they announced that they were deleting the database regarding beneficial ownership. Did you see that for LLCs? And this was a database that was set up by Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz both in the Trump regime, right? Waltz is the ambassador to the United Nations. Rubio is the Secretary of State who is angry about Quito or whatever he's upset about. You know, Waltz when he was a congress member, Rubio at the Senate. This was a bipartisan piece of legislation that was passed in 2020. Its purpose was to prevent drug traffickers— pull that back up— its purpose was to prevent drug traffickers and money launderers, uh, from Russia and China and elsewhere, and other international criminals from setting up shell companies in the United States, because you have to declare who's affiliated with these entities and it's kept in a government database.

Now, I did an interview earlier today with that congress member here, Malinowski, Democrat from New Jersey, former congress member, and he was heavily— he was a co-sponsor of this bill, and he said he had been— look, there were some problems with it. I said, what? He said, there were some small businesses that got pulled into this, and they ended up having to pay a fee of a few hundred bucks, and it really wasn't intending to bring them into this. And so there were some businesses frustrated. He goes, I want to be fair, you know, because— and they were frustrated because they had to pay $100 or $300 to fill out a form, and they didn't think they'd have to fill out the form, but they were brought into this thing, which wasn't the intention. He's like, so we can fix it if that was the issue, let's fix it. But why would we delete the database where we've kept records of money laundering, where we've kept records of the kleptocrats, of the financial crimes? Of the sex traffickers, of the drug traffickers who launder money through U.S. shell companies. The Treasury Department, through their Financial Security Division, just deleted the database.

That's, that's crazy. Why would you delete the database unless you are pro the criminals? Okay, we could— I want to have conversations about, could we make this better? Can we fix this? How do we address this? How do we deal with that? But the Trump regime, they're on the side of the bad guys, right? You all get that, right? Like, in every aspect, line it up, line it up. They are the criminal cartel. They are the bad guys. And I think we just have to recognize that. And we don't have to— this isn't a debate of, oh well, this is the Republic, the conservatives. These people aren't conservative. They're not fiscal hawks. They're not China hawks. They're not Russia hawks. Stupid hawk, hawk. They're not hawks, okay? These are people who cover up child sex trafficking, who aid and abet money laundering, who steal and pilfer from the American people, who hate our troops, who run up crazy deficits, who increase our debts about to hit $40 trillion, who are starving are sailors and Marines who are courageously serving right now in the Persian Gulf, and many of them don't want to be being involved in these war crimes that the Trump regime is involved, which is adding to the psychological torture that they are facing.

And they see the so-called Commander-in-Chief, this weak, pathetic thing, this weak, pathetic gremlin hiring— I mean, hiding and cowering in catering containers. Sick. It's sick. Even Caroline Levitt's resigning. Do we have the clip of Caroline Levitt where she was saying regarding the Epstein files, 'Eh, we're done. We're done with this. We're not going to talk about this anymore'?

Says who? Says who?

What do you mean we're not going to talk about this anymore? Yes, we are. We're going to talk about it every day here.

Play this clip.

And that remains true. And this call, if it did happen, corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning. And I'm sure many of you, when you read that, that alleged FBI report, probably thought to yourself, wow, this really cracks our narrative that we've been trying to push about this president for many years. So we're moving on from that. Okay, well, we're not moving on from it. Katie Feng isn't moving on for it. The Midas Touch Network isn't being moved on from this independent media ecosystem, isn't being moved on to it. But I want you all to understand the very deliberate creation of an independent media ecosystem, and is what we talk about a lot in WTF America, because it's very deliberate, it's very intentional, and it was a recognition by all of us that as corporate news had bent the knee We need to control the narratives with the truth. What Fox does very good— and I mean this in a bad way— but what they do good is they control narratives. They set the framework. They've got Fox, they've got New York Post, they've got an entire ecosystem that then kind of pushes it and launders the narrative.

And then, like fish in a barrel, You know, they set the bait and then people buy the bait and they start living in a narrative, a, a, a, a bent reality that is created by Fox and the oligarchs to distract us, for us to live in the Overton window that they've created, to, to move the Overton window and normalize behavior of authoritarianism that's not okay, and to divide us. And so what's important that we build, and what Midas Touch was created to do, and this is what I want the legacy of the network to be even beyond this great YouTube channel and the great network, is to create an ecosystem that puts out the truth and then has experts and all— everybody kind of fill in the gaps, and then Set the narrative, not react. It's not a reaction to. It is, here are the most important issues: the cover-up of child sex trafficking rings, the distraction from that which led to the catastrophic war in Iran, the terrible treatment of our sailors and our Marines, Donald Trump's cognitive and physical decline, how weak and pathetic he is. All of the grift, all of the horrific inside trading, inside dealing.

Just make it clear that that's what we care about. That's what the people are. Let them be like, oh my God, are you the Democratic Socialist, uh, this podcaster?

Or do you—

what do you—

do you disavow this person? Or, uh, WNBA, what do you think about Sophie Cunningham? What do you think about that? Uh, 'What do you think about this movie? A little bit woke? Movie a little bit woke for you? Oh my God, could you believe that they like this movie? Uh, let's hear what Fetterman has to say.' Stupid, stupid, stupid. But know that— know the tactic, understand it. Don't underestimate the strength of the tactic, okay? You know, and sometimes I hear people say Are you guys doing more than just talking? And I say this sometimes, I go, well, Fox just does talking. And no one go, man, they're so weak. All they do is talk. All they do is like do media and they cover stories. And that's not what it is.

People go out.

It's a very powerful force for bad. But I want to let you know that it's an honor to have people like Katie Fang and Allison Gill and Aaron Parnas and the Legal AF folks. A lot of the Legal AF folks are litigating these cases right now. And it's an honor to watch them fight in court and to do what I don't see a lot of politicians are doing. And I ain't stealing their valor at all. I'm just honored to be associated with these heroes, and I'm honored to do whatever I can to be helpful, whatever that— whatever that is. WTF America is the book. Pre-order it now. We'll be right back after, but seriously, pre-order it if you can. We're trying to build the momentum. So you can Google it, you can hit the QR code, um, put in the comments if you've pre-ordered it. Good, good momentum. We need to, we need to keep it going though. Um, so pre-order it now. You could Google WTF America. Hatchett is the publisher. Um, all right, let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be back.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. There's apparently a blue screen right here, and there it goes. There, there I go. I bet you when you watch other— do you even watch other news? But I bet you when you do, you don't have like the dogs barking at the front and go, I gotta get my dogs. I should get an office or bigger studio, but I like being here. I like hearing my daughter in the background. I like seeing the dogs. I like being close to my wife, and the niece is here also, who also works at Midas. So what'd you all think about the interview I did with Professor Morandi? Did you all watch that? If not, it was one of the videos I did this morning about Iran checkmating Trump. Getting a lot of good feedback from it, and, um, I thought it was an important— you may have seen Professor Marandi elsewhere, and, you know, I think it's, I think it's important. Part of the big problem, existential problem, to what's happening in the United States is a willful ignorance, disinformation, uh, recklessness, a unwillful ignorance, just stereotypes sometimes rooted in racism, sometimes rooted in tropes, sometimes rooted in what you read.

And so I think that there are all, you know, and especially when it's being peddled by the guy who hides in container trucks in Turkey, you know, who's the main purveyor of lots of disinformation. And, you know, he would— the way he talks about Iran is like, oh, you know, they're like cavemen, they're like hiding in their caves, and the military is all destroyed, and people are being, you know, every— no one— it's such disarray, they're falling apart, and if we just do nothing, they're gonna— the pipes are gonna explode, they're gonna be horrible, and they're— for them, and they're suffering, and You know, so for me, I wanted to hear from, you know, what a prominent university professor in Tehran is saying about the day-to-day life in Tehran, in Iran, the sentiment of the people, and also to kind of better under— better inform us Is there a possibility for a deal? I mean, obviously Trump is incapable of doing a deal, but what would that look like? What are the Iranian people— what do his students think about the American people? What do they think about everything that's going on right now? I mean, their, their leader was, was killed.

Their leader, the Ayatollah, was, you know, say what you want. I mean, Trump was hiding in food containers. Catering containers in Turkey when he had Air Force One. I mean, when Trump and Netanyahu killed the Ayatollah, the guy was in his house. He was in his house with his daughter, his granddaughter, his son-in-law, and their extended family. That's where they were. They weren't in a bunker. They were just having dinner in the house. And the granddaughter was killed, the daughter was killed, the entire family was killed. And so, you know, you wonder also, how do the young Iranians feel about what's happening? And he was very, you know, he was very forthcoming in a way. Well, he's just gonna say what is helpful to Iran, sure. But what he did say was, he said, and he, he's like, you know, there was a lot of young people in Iran, he said, who were very sympathetic to the West. There was a growing feeling amongst young people before the war. He said even after the 12-day war last year, that's what he said, um, especially amongst young people, that they identified even closer with the US and were looking for reforms within the Iranian system.

And he said now, since Trump and Netanyahu slaughtered the girls in Manab and, and, and engage in many other war crimes which don't get as much attention, but it's horrific war crimes. And have, you know, when there were deals actually happening, that's when Trump invaded in February. That's with the Oman foreign minister. There's a deal and then Trump invaded that night. And then last year in June, there was a deal June 2025. And then that's when Trump invaded and there was the 12-day war. And so he said, well, now the young people have a completely different perspective. And amongst Iranians that he talks to, he said there's a greater desire now to develop a nuclear weapon, is what he told me, because they see it as the only way to long-term protection. And they said they don't even like listen. They said, you know, Trump's words at this point are because what Trump posts, everyone realizes it's market manipulation and it's just a bunch of nonsense, is how they think about his, you know, they think about Trump's words there. And it was, it was a very interesting perspective for me. We spoke for about 30 minutes, and I, I think we, you know, I think we have to, I think we have to at least listen especially if there's a desire to make a deal.

That's why there's a whole chapter called No Deal Donald in WTF America. And I was, uh, when I was a professor, I, or I'm a professor, but when I teach, one of the topics I teach is negotiations. And at the very most basic level, you have to appreciate the existence of the other side. In a negotiation, both sides are going to have to give, and you're going to have to reach compromises. That's part of a negotiation. And Donald Trump used the negotiation as a tool to extract that which he couldn't during the war. And by the way, if you look at Donald Trump's past dealings I think you'll see also that that's how he's always dealt with the negotiations. For his shortcomings, for his inadequacy, for his business failures, for his loser behavior, he viewed negotiations as like a trick. And again, this is a major part of WTF America, his toolkit. One of the toolkits is negotiation as subterfuge. Negotiation for Trump is a way to deceive because people let down their guard, and then he sucker punches you in the back of your head while you're not paying attention, and he tries to extract.

Then he just relentlessly uses the negotiation to kind of trick you and to pressure you and to have pit you against other people and to compromise you by sucking you in and drawing you into a nego— that's one of his tactics. The other tactic is the litigation stuff where he always loses his lawsuits. He's a litigation loser, right? I mean, if you look at what he's doing with BBC, right? Trump's scared. We all know Trump very scared of BBC. BBC terrifies Trump, right? We all know that by now. Um, he thought he'd be able to deal with BBC, but in the end, BBC got him. And so where Donald Trump is right now, where Donald Trump is right now He's had to beg a Trump-appointed judge in the Southern District of Florida, 6 to 7 months after a deadline passed in the BBC case, can I amend my— I want to change my complaint. I want to change my complaint, and I want to say that I'm no longer injured $10 billion because of my businesses. I'm injured because my reputation has been harmed $10 billion. And also, we believe that there are 13 instances of people playing the BBC Panorama documentary in Florida, 13 clicks.

So therefore, Judge, there should be jurisdiction because those 13 people who saw it now think less of me regarding the January 6th insurrection. So I want to amend my entire lawsuit even though the deadline has passed. And I want, uh, to— I need to amend my complaint. If you look at Trump's dealing with BBC, it's very similar to Hormuz. It's like, it's the, the parallels are, you know. So this is how he litigates: splashy announcement, $10 billion, epic fury. It's, it's his playbook. $10 billion, BBC, Hormuz, Epic Fury, Midnight Hammer. Okay, there are some people who litigate like Venezuela, right, and say, ah, just enough. What do you want to do? You want to, you want to be corrupt together? We'll be corrupt together. All right, got it, got it, got it, right? Some of the law firms that bent the knee, the ABC settlement with Stephanopoulos. Can give you a lot of examples like that, right? But then there are some people who fight back, like Iran, BBC, and they show that when you stand up to him— that's comparing BBC to Iran, I'm just saying— when you resist or you fight back aggressively, he loses.

But he makes it very painful while he loses, because for him, he's got billions of dollars, he had his daddy's money, he's got a, you know, for him this is all part of the game. For most human beings, and in war as well, and in litigation. Most humans take it seriously. He doesn't. It's all— he's divorced from emotion and reality and connection and things which most humans mourn. All he cares about is himself. Most humans care about others. Most humans care about being in the litigation, you know. For him, it's just like, whatever, whatever, unless, unless his life is on the line. Then he hides in food containers in Turkey. But otherwise, you know, he doesn't, uh, you know, he just, you know, plays the game. So he'll amend it and make it very messy and, and just kind of screw with your life and ruin your life and make it difficult. Think about Iran. It's not like it's easy for Iran, right? As Professor Mirandi tells me, shop owners are suffering, there is inflation, it's not easy. There is economic harm. There's been a lot of deaths. It ain't easy, um, but they've taken on en masse resistance as their mantle, and Trump doesn't know what to do with that.

And but he'll try everything, right? We're semi-negotiating. We are low-keying it. I'm gonna bomb your bridges. The ayatollahs, the new ayatollahs, good, I like them, they're responsible. Oh, they want to make a deal with like everything. He'll throw everything. And they're, and they're— and any human who feels a scintilla of shame would be ashamed to behave this way. He doesn't. He doesn't feel those things. He only fears his own death and losing his own money. And that's really the only thing. And his own embarrassment, which is why when you go personally He backs down. He hides in food trucks. If you notice his deposition, he will run away from that deposition like the plagues that are spreading here and abroad because of his cuts to the various health departments, right? Because he's terrified of that. He doesn't like to testify at the cases the same way you go to war, and then all of a sudden he gets scared because war is war. It ain't a game. You can label it Epic Fury, you can brand it. This ain't a marketing gimmick. This is real. This is freaking real. And then he's like, oh, well, I'm just gonna— we'll just wait.

We'll just wait 2 weeks, 2 weeks, 2 weeks. Then it becomes like his healthcare plan. Then there's a 2-week loop. I talk about that in WTF America, and there's a loop. All right, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 2 weeks, 4 weeks. And where this all ends is blame. He then blames whoever it is because in catastrophe, in times where people are fearful, it really becomes a sick person who uses the fear to divide. But that's his go-to. So to him, when there is panic, when there is fear, he can then blame, oh, they did it, they did it, they did it. Biden was the perfect foil for him because Biden was older and trying to bring people together and couldn't really adapt to this environment where everything would be weaponized. And they come up with fake shit like Gavin Newsom had to discover in California, right? Wait a minute, you're blaming the wildfires on smelt fish and you're saying I care about the smelt and I didn't turn on a faucet hose. In Canada and that that's why the fire spread. And we laugh and we go, oh, Trump's crazy, he's crazy, no one believes that.

But he repeats it over and over again, and these sick psychos he surrounds himself with, they start repeating it. And then before you know it, that becomes a view that then on CNN or one of these shows, they'd get an idiot like Scott Jennings, you know, and then you have to like debate this idiot. No, that's not happening. Oh yeah, it is happening.

What is happening?

And then they start to like scream, and it's like, okay. And then the viewer leaves. The viewer leaves like, ah, I can't—

this is just—

this guy, I don't like politics. I don't want to hear any of this. I don't even know— you're all, you know, you're all just kind of crazy. And, uh, and oh, one guy is saying that he's gonna cut my electricity by 50% and I'm gonna be rich. I'll just go with that guy. I just want you to know the game, the dynamic, and how we get out of this hell is you have to recognize that that is a framing that we've been trapped in. By the way, not merely through Trump, but generationally we've been trapped in this really since— I mean, going back a very long time, but, but, but really for the, for this last 60, 70 years. It's kind of been trapped in this cycle that inevitably brings you a fascist, a vessel of authoritarianism here, and that vessel exists internationally. This is all connected, right? Now, the one part about it is, is that, as I said at the outset, and as the one person who texted me said, you know, thought my commentary was funny, it's like Damn, like, Arthur— Arthur Tarian's like some, like, real, real freaking loser, man. Like, hiding in the truck.

Like, he couldn't even be like, ah, I got you. You know, I've seen the memes of, you know, fight, fight, fight. It was like, okay, you want us to believe that the fight, fight, fight guy is the guy who— the guy who's hiding in the, uh, food containers or the catering containers? It's, it's truly like a humiliation ritual for our country. And I just want you to think about what's happening internationally. You have Taiwan preparing for a potential invasion of China. You have Putin right now, uh, in an island that Japan says it's, it's part of its territorial areas, which Putin is showing an aggressiveness towards Japan. You have war escalating, of course, between Ukraine and Russia. Russia able to strike into Ukraine much more frequently now because Ukraine is out of ballistics. Ukraine striking into Russia at logistics centers and other areas, although it could be a very difficult winter for Ukraine right now if they don't have the interceptors, which Trump ran out of the interceptors. You have in the Middle East the Mecca Pact between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey. You've got in Israel— I've been seeing a lot coming out from the Netanyahu regime saying that Syria is the next Gaza.

Seen a lot of statements coming out there. And then you've got our guy here hiding in catering containers. Crazy, crazy, weak, pathetic. Pre-order WTF America, comes out October. You can Google WTF America. Get your copy now and, uh, make sure you hit subscribe here. We covered a lot, we talked about a lot, we covered a lot of bases. Thanks for watching. I'm going to do a video now on Katie Fang's court hearing. Thanks for watching, everybody. We appreciate you. Want to stay plugged in?

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