Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 6/11/2026 New

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Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news. The morning began with Donald Trump saying that a ground invasion into Iran on Karg Island was imminent, that there was going to be a massive invasion taking place. He said that Iran was tapping him along and as a result an invasion was going to be necessary. He then called into state regime media, which calls itself Fox, for the morning show. To let them know about the ground invasion that would be taking place and that he was done being tapped along by Iran. He was really serious this time. He said, look, I don't think the American people have the stomach for it, but we got to do the right thing here. So it's what he said, and we're going to be launching something really, really massive, he said. And then quite literally 4 hours later, he posted that based on the fact that the discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I, as president, am canceling the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening. Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including Israel— of course, Trump listed them first— Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others.

He said the naval blockade will remain in full force and effect until this transaction is finalized. Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly. And then we saw the market manipulation at play. We saw oil prices plummet to some of its lowest levels yet after he made this announcement. We saw the stock market rise significantly after the past week of uh, it crashing, uh, significantly. Um, and the American people right now are the casualties of all of this. Donald Trump this past week said he loves inflation, loves it, it's a great thing. He said loves inflation. The American people don't love inflation. Uh, CPI increased to 4.2% year over year. Not good. You see right here, May CPI inflation rose 4.2%, uh, and, uh, then we had PPI, Producer Price Index, that increased 1.1% month over month where the expectations were 0.7%. So Producer Price Index, that means the inflation for wholesalers, that's now 6.5% year over year. So 6.5% higher than last year's, which was high, and then higher than all of the Biden years combined because this is in the aggregate. So you add Biden's first year, second year, third year, fourth year.

Trump said he was gonna bring down inflation. He increased it significantly towards the end, especially of the first year. And then of course this year we're seeing inflation really surge right now. And so you had this confluence of factors where we had our bond yields, which I really cherish the time where I didn't have to look at bond yields every day or multiple times a day. Y'all remember those times where it's just functioning? The bond market functioned, the Treasury Department held its, uh, auctions, and we can just not have to think, oh my God, is the bond market crashing? So bond yields, the 10, 20, 30-year increasing dramatically, meaning the cost of borrowing by the Treasury significantly higher. Um, and you know, that's, that's deeply problematic, increasing of course the United States debt. But that has an impact on mortgage rates and all the other borrowing, uh, that, uh, that you do. And then you had the inflation surging, CPI, EPI. And just so you know, like the level of CPI rising, Consumer Price Index, pretty much means that we're gonna be, you know, if we're at 4.2% every month now, we're at like, you know what, a month over month 0.3 to 0.5% increase there of CPI.

It's why I said, this war continues to drag on, because that's also a drag on the CPI and causes CPI to go up. We're going to finish this year close to 6% inflation. And I'm not like— it's like, I don't have to be like a wizard economist to figure this out. I know a lot of people were like, you know, how'd you call it right on the, on the dot, 4.2%? How'd you know it was going to be that? I said, because we're still in the war. And every month it increases about 0.3%. So that's how I follow it. And then I add up what it is year over year. And before it was 3.8% or 3.9%, and then of course it increased to 4.1%, 4.2%. Not really all that hard to predict. Next month it'll be 4.5%, 4.6%. Um, and then PPI, which is going up about 1%, 1.1% a month, we can expect that wholesale inflation next month to be around 7, 7.2. I mean, a 7 handle right there. And that's significant because when you have PPI wholesale inflation at 7%, that has to get passed on to consumers, or else the, or else the wholesalers, the producers, they go bankrupt.

So they're going to pass it on to the consumer, hence the CPI increases as the PPI increases. That's why You know, one is indicative of the other. And so you had that, you had crashing bond markets, then you had crashing stock market, and you had lots of the major banks predicting, uh, that we were heading into a recession. They changed their outlooks from kind of growth to neutral at best, recessionary, and you started to see Bank of America and Goldman Sachs and Barclays. And I trust Trump is paying attention to this. You know why? Because he's doing stock trades every 9 minutes in the first quarter, so he's very sensitive to what, what's happening. And based, based on the amount of money he seems to have in the markets right now personally, based on his trading habits, and based on the market dip that took place, I was running rough numbers. And again, these are just estimates. Trump could be losing like $30 million a day to $50 million a day on bad days, and he could be gaining $30 to $50 million on market going up. I just want you to think of it.

No one's really talking about it in those terms. And again, I'm just giving you a rough estimate, but if you figure based on his disclosures from Q1 that he's got roughly $400 million or $500 million in the market— I mean, he did $650, $700 million in transactions or some ridiculous number like that, but just assume for the sake of argument he's got $400— you could even do a lower number, $300 million. So when you have these dips of 5 to 7% in either direction, I want you to think about him personally losing massive amounts of, of money. Um, and he mentioned that today. He mentioned the stock market as, as a reason for the deal. And I mean, I want you to think about that too, because when you're— when, when you are being driven by your own pecuniary interests and you're being driven also by market manipulation or the market and not on what's in the best interest of the people, or how you address people's needs, or people who are not invested in the market, how you help them. And then you focus on all of Donald Trump's personal dealings with these countries in the Middle East.

You're starting to see why everything he's doing is from a position of kind of personal panic versus actually focused on this country, which we should never have been in this war in the first place. He went into this war, in my view, and I think it's your view too, to cover up the Epstein files because Netanyahu, I think, was holding it over his head, in my opinion. And also, um, and also I think he thought it was going to be easy as a way to make more money as well. We'll just take over Iran, we'll take over their oil. We took over Venezuela's oil in his own mind. So we'll control all of the oil, then I'll be super rich, I'll keep buying stocks. The mark— I mean, I, I think there was a lot of, a lot of that also. And then I think he also thought not only was he doing a favor, you know, for Netanyahu, um, because how beholden he is over there and how he lets Israel control American foreign policy, but also I think that a lot of the countries that did deals with him, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, behind the scenes.

They thought that the US would have the ability, as did Netanyahu, to crush Iran, to decisively end the war immediately, take control of Iran's oil. And of course, that did not happen. That did not happen. And people who studied the region or studied Iran or recognized culture in Iran who would tell you that it was pretty predictable that Iran would control the Strait of Hormuz. And when it came to the escalation ladder, Iran was able to inflict more pain on Donald than Donald could inflict on Iran. That's one of the— and, and so Trump would constantly panic. It was 38, 39 times he declared a deal when there wasn't. So this could just be— it probably is number 40. I think what's making it— this one sound a little more real is at first Iran denied it, but there are some Iran news agencies that are now saying that this looks more likely. So we've never seen that before, that the Iranian news agencies at first denied and then said actually it seems that there may be— there may be moving in the direction. Netanyahu's already trying to spin this with, I believe, terms that we know don't exist.

Netanyahu's posting, ah, you know, we're going to get to take, or the US will take all of the enriched uranium, and Iran agrees not to support its proxy groups in the region, which we know that's not— Iran will never agree not to support Hezbollah and the Houthis and its militia groups in Iraq. Like, that's, that's, that's, that's always a non-starter. So that's not going to be in there. But I think Israel's already putting out these statements about the deal. In order to try to cause this deal to fracture and break, if there really, you know, if there really is one. Um, so it's definitely market manipulation. It's probably not going to happen, but because Iran media is now saying that there's perhaps more of a chance of this than other ones, that's at least a little more informative to me. Although they first said that he's lying about everything, but just to reflect the chaos of this morning, that there was an invasion that was imminent. The American, you know, he always likes to put his own feelings onto others. I don't think the American people have the stomach for, you know, anything, you know, any escalating it.

So we'll see, we'll see, we'll see what I've, uh, we'll see what I gotta do. But to me, there's also another factor too that a lot of people aren't talking about that I think may be informative here for Trump, but You know, I could be wrong. I'll just give you another theory also. Uh, SpaceX IPO tomorrow, one of the biggest IPOs in history, the biggest IPO I think from a retail investor perspective of the amount of money they're raising. Also, the, the way Elon Musk got NASDAQ and all of these regulatory agencies to waive certain requirements about when you can be listed for purposes of being added to mutual funds and other people's funds, he got to waive it. So if you just— I'm letting you know, and you may not know this, but if you have a 401k plan, let's just say you have a 401k with, you know, that's operated by some mutual fund, whether it's Vanguard or whoever, who, whoever's in, whoever, wherever your money's being placed for your 401k mutual fund, because, um, because of the size of SpaceX upon opening bell, that will force the funds to put SpaceX into your portfolio.

So even if you don't want to own SpaceX, you will be forced to buy SpaceX unless you dump your entire mutual fund or your entire portfolio that's part of your 401k. Most people don't know that that's the way it works. And the one of the things that you do to kind of protect against a highly speculative stock being inserted into your fund is, you know, there's periods of time regulations that say you can't put it in the fund right away. But SpaceX and Elon got pretty much everybody to waive that requirement, and it's a much shorter time frame. And so with SpaceX IPO, I think that Trump wanted to create market— I'm again, it's giving you my opinion, so you could, you can disagree with it— create market conditions tomorrow on Friday in order to get, uh, SpaceX to pop right away so that the institutional shareholders who hold SpaceX can dump it on the retail investors and dump it into your portfolios. Then they can cash out, um, and, and make a lot of money. So again, you, you can call me conspiratorial on that, but I just think that when you hear analysis of the various timing behind all of this.

Because just imagine if that IPO went public during last Friday when the market was down, you know, what, 4.5%, 5%, and then SpaceX went public, this highly speculative thing. It could have resulted in, uh, it could have resulted in a crash. I could imagine a hypothetical that— and, and I'll give you another I'm going to give you another data point about why I think this happened. Also, it's just an interesting nuance. So the IRGC— yeah, this makes so much sense— the IRGC posted that they would, in another round of attacks, that they would be going after companies that are associated with Elon Musk. And so I think that they knew that specifically, and they said that their strikes would, would impact Musk. I mean, the fact that they said Elon Musk businesses leads me to believe that they knew that the SpaceX IPO was a major pressure point as well, because it's just a strange thing to say. I mean, I, you know, I, I get why you'd say to me Elon Musk is, is a prominent figure in America, unfortunately, But the fact that they said that, I could imagine they knew that was a pressure point.

And then Elon calls Trump and goes, you see what they're saying? They're gonna— you see what they're gonna do on my IPO day? Yeah, my IPO day, they're gonna go and start attacking SpaceX stuff. We shut it down. Shut it down. Again, I'm not, I'm not suggesting that that's definitely what happened. But I think you add all of these factors, the totality of these factors, and the pressure built and built and built on Trump. But here's the thing: if you took the oath of office to truly protect and serve the American people over your own interests, if you didn't violate the Emoluments Clause, if you weren't focused on— I'll give you the final factor. You all know the final fact I'm about to say, right? His birthday. The UFC fight. The UFC fight that's taking place this weekend. And then he's got his— the America— the— he's turned America 250 into Freedom 250. So then you've got, you've got that. And, you know, I think he wants it all resolved on his birthday. He turns it— you know, Trump turns 80. He wants to have a signature and the ceremony. He loves ceremonies, you know, and, and, and ultimately you look at this whole excursion.

What did it get us? What did it get us? To be in a worse position than when this started, to expose the fact that the US security umbrella is, um, weak, to really create a further rebalancing of, of, of order. Throughout the world. And, and I guess here's my long-term fear in all of this. It is what happens to the next president and the president after that when the world has already formed and is forming all of these new multinational structures that exclude the U.S. from it. I mean, I saw a recent poll out of Europe. It was from the Europe Foreign Relations Council, and, uh, so it was done in conjunction with YouGov. This is only 11% of Europeans see the United States as an ally. Now pick the name of your Democratic candidate who becomes the next president, just whoever it is. They could say all and do all the right things. I think forever, forever, or at least for the foreseeable next several decades, Canada, Europe, Asia, they're all going to see the US as not reliable, right? And then what happens with all of the debt that's now being added, just like in Trump one What happens with all of the systemic cracks?

Like, our system is a lot built on this idea that America is a Ponzi scheme, but it's a Ponzi scheme that continues because of America's security umbrella throughout the world and because the international global world order post-World War II architecture was caused by the United States, created by the United States. So the US could financially sanction people who stand up to it because they use dollars, or the US controls the banking system, and thus the US can print money and print money. Now, it's unsustainable, of course, in the sense that all of this debt is accumulated, but ultimately, if you started having countries sell their bonds, not participate in the US bond market, move away— if the dollar doesn't become the world's currency, if they move away to other currencies, if you start shifting the financial architecture, and then you have all of this massive debt, at some point that bill becomes due. And right now it's dealt with in a ballooning national debt, uh, balloon, you know, and it's a Ponzi scheme in the sense that, you know, you have to kind of keep on raising to pay for all of the debt that's accumulating, which accumulates more debt and more debt and more debt.

And again, it's like a Ponzi— it's like a Bernie Madoff scheme in the sense of once it's called All right, we want everything, and you don't have it. You don't, you don't, you don't have it. The habit though, why no one calls is that America provided this architecture, global security, security umbrella, reliability, predictability. It was based on America's rules. And so when that changes, because you're seeing how incoherent, chaotic, authoritarian, unpredictable it is. What happens to the next president and the president after that? Because it seems pretty clear to me that for the next X, whatever, in the next years, you're going to have the right-wing oligarchs working with Trump, constant pump and dumps while the American people suffer.

Right.

Like, that's where this is going. And in many ways, in addition to this war covering up the Epstein files, in addition to this being America being dragged into this by Netanyahu and all of that, which is true, it also seems to have been a massive— I'm giving you my opinion again— massive money-making scheme for Donald Trump. Buying dips, selling high, buying dips, selling high. I mean, you saw the massive amounts of stock trading that took place, and he didn't— he stock traded a little bit the first year of this term. But when this war started, it was like insatiable. It was quite literally insatiable when you see those patterns. So I hope I could give you a framework that perhaps helps us think about this more intelligently, sophisticatedly, long term, the international dynamics at play. Why these things are happening the way they are. I also noted in a video I did this morning, I found interesting that Iran was speaking with the United Arab Emirates. I thought that was massive. And Iran was speaking to European Union. Kaja Kallas, European Union's number 2, their foreign minister, basically number 2 in the European Union. She was speaking— she's right under Ursula von der Leyen.

Uh, which I, I, I love that the European Union has two powerful women running it too. Like, that's why we, we need more of that, um, especially for predictability and stability. I'll just say that. Um, Kaha Khalas spoke with Foreign Minister Araghchi of Iran. I thought that was notable. United Arab Emirates, which one of the only Arab nations in the Abraham Accords which was, uh, saying, was really allowing Trump to say and do anything. They, that's why they took the brunt. Dubai, Abu Dhabi just got beat the hell up in this, in this war. I mean, from a tourism perspective, from, you know, people, from people, the way people view Abu Dhabi, Dubai as, as a center also for semiconductor growth, they got freaking crushed. And I think they were at their wit's end. They called Foreign Minister Araghchi. Calla, calla, callas. European Union called Araghchi. This is what I said was going to happen, that all of these countries one by one are like, okay, screw this. We are, we're going to have bilateral relations with Iran. We have to for our own survival. We have to recognize that Iran is now more powerful than it was before.

And we can't be relying on this crazy Trump yo-yo market manipulation thing. And so I thought those were notable events. So before I went live, Donald Trump said the following about Iran. He said the deal, it should get done over the next few weeks. It should get done. Let's, let's play this clip. We got that one.

Great settlement of the war with Iran. And we're going to be so Subject to finalization of documents, which should get done over the next few days. We'll probably have a signing maybe in Europe. And it's a great thing. Stock market's up 1,000 points. That means they like the deal. See, that means they like— the market goes down, that means they don't like the deal. But it's been up. Oil's dropped. Oil will start coming down to, I think, even lower than it was before we had—

So also giving you some updates as well, a few, a few updates here. This is what we're hearing from Jerusalem Post and I24 News. Amici, Stein, Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu moments ago says although Israel is not a party to the memorandum, the prime minister expressed his appreciation for Trump's commitment to ensuring that any final agreement reached at the conclusion of the negotiations will include the removal of enriched nuclear material, the dismantling of enrichment infrastructure, restrictions of the missile production, and an end to Iran's support for its terrorist proxies throughout the region. Um, let me read what, what Babak Vahad says also, who's been a pretty reliable source of things that have been happening. Interesting narrative emerging from the Iranian sources. Of course, this is an Iranian reading of events. According to reports close to Tehran, a draft Iran-US understanding was already largely finalized around 2 weeks ago, was awaiting final political approval in Tehran and Washington. The problem reportedly began when Trump sought to add new clauses after US negotiators already accepted the Iranian draft. Iran allegedly refused to review the revised text after which tensions in Hormuz, southern Iran, and Dahiya strike effectively put diplomacy on hold.

Dahiya, that's in Beirut, that's the Israeli strikes. And as I've been saying, Israel would be— was striking to break up this deal from happening. As I was saying, that Mossad, Netanyahu knew that this deal was happening and that it was moving closer to something real, and then they escalated in Lebanon. Remember, I was doing some, you know, videos on that. So that's seems to confirm that. Now, following Qatari mediation, Iranian sources claim Washington has withdrawn those additional demands and returned to the original draft. At the same time, Trump is portraying the development as an Iranian climbdown under military pressure. By the way, go look at the— look at the video I did this morning at 4 AM, which I called Trump Surrenders, and I said look at the Qatari mediation. I said these strikes seem to be face-saving exercises by him so he can say, look, got out of my system, I did it. Here's, here's why, here's why we're doing this deal right now, because I was so strong and dropped all of these bombs. Um, the Iranian version is the exact opposite. Tehran has not yet given its final answer, while it was Washington that ultimately returned to the previous text.

If true, the real story is not an Iranian concession but a US retreat to the last mutually negotiated draft. Source: Iranian media channels close to the negotiating process are saying that. Um, let's see what Faituk says. Higher chance of winning in lotto than Iran agreeing to the— this is in response to Netanyahu saying that we believe there'll be removal of enriched uranium and da da da da da. What everyone's saying is, yeah, Iran's never going to agree to that. And I, I, I think I've said this to you before, which is I despise, absolutely despise this regime. I, I truly think that Trump will go down in history as frankly one of the most despicable humans to have ever lived, one of the biggest cancers on planet Earth in world history. And I'm not trying to be hyperbolic, I feel that way. I really am rooting for a deal because there has to be an exit, there has to be a way out here. I've always been rooting for diplomacy, and despite the fact that I hate this guy and I hate the everybody, the hags, that these are the worst, scummiest humans. Okay, I'm still an American.

I'm still a member of the world. I'm a world citizen. I'm an American citizen, right? And I just, I know that any longer, people are breaking. I— people are broken. Right now when it comes to affording anything. And this path is not— it has not been sustainable already. It's not sustainable every day that goes on. And I, I really, I really, you know, and this is where I think when you want something to happen. Sometimes your, your mind and your heart hopes that there's— all right, can there really just be a deal? And then you can get sucked into all of the fraud that takes place. But it's like, if we can get the hell out of there, have the Strait of Hormuz opened again, if there's a reasonable deal that'll probably look like the JCPOA again, I think that we should be very critical about why the hell we got into this in the first place. And I think we really need to reevaluate— I think before we need to really reevaluate and reflect on what the hell is happening with, with Israel. It's not, you know, there's— we, we have to, we have to all acknowledge the genocide taking place in Palestine right now.

We have to all work to make sure that it is American policy to stop this genocide. And it should be disqualifying for anybody who doesn't call it a genocide and who doesn't work to end the genocide and who doesn't work for a Palestinian state. And we should not be supporting anybody in Israel ever. If they don't share that goal, just cut them off. Just cut it off. It's not a nuanced answer. It's not a, you know, the Smootriches, the Ben-Gavirs, the Netanyahus. Frankly, even if you like Israel, what they've done to the country, especially in the world perception, is virtually irreparable, caused by their bloodlust and their desire for genocide. It's sick. And when we look at what's happening in Lebanon, in Beirut, you have to be a human being and you have to recognize that what also is happening in Gaza is happening there in Beirut. And they're blowing up Tire and Daya and these, and these, uh, these incredible areas in Lebanon and Beirut. And bombing any area would be terrible. Let me be clear. Um, blowing up all of these buildings. Hey, we're going after Hezbollah. Okay, you're gonna have to expose— you're gonna blow up the whole building and the whole block and kill the medics and the little girls and the little children?

No, it's not acceptable. And we got dragged into this war and other wars because of the behavior of Netanyahu in Israel. That's just what— that's just the reality of the situation. It's not really a debate. It's not really a debate. We know from our intelligence community Iran did not pose an imminent threat, just enough. And I know Israel saying that we're not associated with this deal or we're not doing it. Well, then you know what? Then you got to stand firm against them and you got to say We're— you're cut off. I mean, we should have said this a while ago. If you're going to inflame this region with more of this shit, with more of this genocide, you're cut off. You're done. You're done. You know, I know Trump is very much beholden to Miriam Adelson, you know, and to other large Israeli donors. I, you know, that— why, you know, I know Jared Kushner, you know, says is part of moving the whole Abraham Accord concept was pushed, was pushed there. But this is not a workable arrangement for the United States. It's an understatement. And it's not a workable arrangement in, in the region.

And so this is where I say leaders have to lead. And if Netanyahu's plan is, well, we're gonna not support this deal, which is what they're saying and we're gonna go out and we're gonna start invading Lebanon and this and that, you gotta, you know, you, you gotta stand up to that at a minimum. At a minimum, you know, you, you've got to stand up to that. It's just the reality. And so I'm very, I'm very, um, kind of just contemplative about all of the— all of this. And I, I want us— I want us all to reflect, and I know you all know this, but why elections matter so much. Why putting incompetent, bankrupting losers into power who don't have— so I care. I talk a lot about moral character. And leadership and empathy and values. Before I even get into politics, I talk about those things because that to me is frankly more important than politics, because the politics should fall into place when you show me what your moral character is, when you show me who you are, what values you represent. How you treat others. And by the way, part of that to me allows for redemption.

I don't want to act like some holier-than-thou person when there's valid, authentic redemption. I'm— I, I can understand that people who have done bad things in the past if they truly change and acknowledge what they've done in the past. Truly, not, not as like, oh yeah, I acknowledge it just as a political talking point. I'm, I'm, I'm open to give second chances, maybe not third chances, second chances, and not, you know, cancel people because they did this or that or the other. But I start with moral character. I start with intelligence, expertise, humility. Humble, be humble. Be a good person, then we can branch out in terms of, of politics. And the moral rot, the corruption, the self-interest, the self-dealing, the idiocracies— is you add all of these, these things together and it's like, here you are. Look, we'll talk. Uh, I'm— my family is from Mexico, my wife's side, so That's why I'm wearing the Mexico jersey right now, as my family's there watching the Mexico game in the, in the background. Um, but even the way, the way this regime is dealing with the World Cup— heck, Russia and Qatar treated teams, fans, foreign dignitaries, countries, athletes, and their staff way better than the United States.

It's Qatar and Russia. It's not a good look for us, and it's not the right way to behave. We've got a lot to discuss when we come back from this quick break. We're going to take a short one. Hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers. We appreciate you. I appreciate you hanging in there, really do. I appreciate with all— like, this is some PTSD level of triggering, and I know it's not an exaggeration to say that this stuff is psychologically torturing. I know you're psychologically tortured by this. I know it's not okay, but we will, we'll stick through it together. We're almost through year 2. We'll get through this, but we've got to build a, a better foundation for how we think about politics beyond Democrat, Republican, independent. It's important that they align with us, and where a party does, we should support them over the other side. But we have to truly make sure we stand for things, because if you don't stand for something, you fall for everything, and then you fall into these traps. Where you're pulled in directions by really bad demagogues and bad people. All right, enough preaching for me.

We'll take our first and only break.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis. This is some more breaking news. Hat tip to my brothers for those great ad reads. Those sponsors help the show continue to grow. Discount codes are in the description below. Check them out. Jordy spends a long time negotiating these discount codes and finding the right types of sponsors. And so, uh, give them a try, give them a shout out, tell them Midas Touch sent you, and take the discounts, uh, that Jordy negotiates. All right, I was, I was touching upon an important topic before the break, you know, which is like leadership. Qualities of leadership. And one of the things I like about being a law professor when I'm not doing this— I don't teach in the summer— is trying to teach college students about being a leader. This is not a political message, and how leaders should behave publicly, privately, how leaders should reflect organized thinking, predictable, reliable, um, well-studied, well-researched, expert-based. Where you don't have expertise, surround yourself with experts. When challenges arise, take accountability, stand up for what you believe in, your values and your principles. And if you're unable to do something without your values or principles being compromised, you leave, or you do everything you can to force change.

And if you can't do it, um, and you can't, and you're compromised morally based on your ability to lead, and you can't rally others, you, you can't be perpetuating, uh, and, and allowing yourself to be compromised. And, um, and, and, and you have— and when you draw these bright lines and these boundaries, that makes you, I think, a more capable and competent leader who stands for things and who is able to get things done. Why am I even bringing this up now? I'm not trying to preach, because I, I think we see You know, there's a perfect example in this breaking news of how the head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, is behaving, right? For the past year and a half, 2 years, he's been rolling around at the Oval Office, it seemed, almost on a weekly basis. He's been sitting in at major world meetings next to prime ministers, presidents, and princes. Giani, Giani. He loved it, he loved it, he loved it, he loved it. And now when he's seen FIFA being compromised by Trump's racism and ICE and Border Patrol and everything that Trump has done— I mean, you think about Omar Atton, Somali referee who's been who had a visa, but because this top African referee is Somalian and Trump hates Somalian people, Trump wouldn't let the Somalian referee into the country.

If you're the head of FIFA, you got to support that ref unconditionally, unconditionally, and you got to speak out and say this is unacceptable. And then you gotta, you gotta draw a bright line and say if he can't be here, then we're gonna, we're gonna boycott you. Or we're going to have no refs, or we want solid— I, I— that could lose you money. You have to stand up for people, you know. And Omar Attaan, he's been viewed as a hero now in Somalia, across Africa, and frankly across the world. But you have that, you have the way Donald Trump has been treating lots of African fans and fans from Middle East countries, and, you know, where he's denied visas just because of race, ethnicity, uh, you know, the way he didn't allow the Iranian team's officials, managers to be there. And I understand, you know, the United States is saying, you know, look, we're in a war, we're in a war. Yeah, but even that, this is not how you, how you treat someone. If you're a host country, this is not how you act. And if you're going to go to war with the rest of the world, don't be a host country in an event that's supposed to, that's supposed to unify.

But now Gianni Infantino's his new shtick: chill, just chill, just relax, relax. We're not like a government. What can I— I'm just a soccer league. I'm just a— I'm just a soccer league. That's the chill, chill, chill. Let me show you first Gianni Infantino. On the expulsion of Omar Artan. Here's what he has to say. Let's play this clip.

We don't control everything. We try, we will discuss, we will speak, we will see. Maybe sometimes it's good as well to just, you know, chill, relax. We work on everything. We try to solve everything. Sometimes to immediately start screaming and shouting has the opposite effect of finding a solution. Believe me when I tell you, or don't believe me if you don't want, but we try always to find solutions. Always. But then we need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces and I don't know what. We are a sports organization, we try to do our best with the means that we have to make as much as possible. And in this, and I conclude, we want to unite the world and if I can ask you one thing, again, if you want to criticize me, criticize me, it's fine, it's okay, but promote the unity of the World Cup.

You promote— shut the fuck up. You promote it. You're in the leadership position. The media is just reporting on what you are doing. If you promote unity and stand up for the Somalian referee and stand up for teams that have members of their country who have been banned under Donald Trump's racist policies, then the media will report on what you're doing. They're not arbitrarily calling this out just because. It's because you have defied the unifying principles of the game. If you look in Mexico, they're having a great time out there. They are greeting people and treating people lovely with no drama. That's what it should be in the U.S. And you were linked at the hip with Trump. You gave him a fake Peace Prize to soothe his ego, and that made you feel good, right? I mean, you got a lot of media, you felt tough. He put you— when he announced some Board of Peace fake thing, you were seated, you were sitting there in a Board of Peace after giving him a fake Peace Prize. You were cosplaying that you were like a prime minister or a president. And now when things are happening, I'm just a soccer league.

These are the kings, and that you sat next to the kings and the princes and the presidents, and now I'm just a soccer league. And there's so many people like that. Like, think about the Energy Secretary Chris Wright, right? He was cross-examined by Democratic Congresswoman Amelia Sykes, and he was asked some very basic questions. And to see a person like that who achieved a degree of success in their private life before— uh, my success is symbolic. He's not like a real, you know, lots of people would look at his life as an energy executive. That's not the measure of success. I hear you, I agree with you, but you know what I'm trying to say. Uh, To see someone who is supposed to be a leader in their field then become the Energy Secretary and then behave like this. By the way, hat tip to Amelia Sykes, Democratic congresswoman, for her great cross-exam. Let's just play a little bit of it. Let's play it.

Uh, thank you to the witness for being here. I, I will say, uh, your expertise is energy, and I would hope that you would not invoke the words of Dr. Martin Luther King without adequate context, because quite frankly, that is not your expertise. But since you want to talk about people unqualified in meritocracies, let's talk about President Trump. Do you feel like your positions and policy statements are in line with President Trump?

Yes, I hope so.

Do you love inflation?

Uh, I love ending Iran's ability to have a nuclear weapon. I think that's existential.

That was not my question. Do you love inflation? Yes or no?

I love ending Iran's—

That is not my question. Do you love inflation? Yes or no?

No, I would prefer lower inflation.

You would prefer low inflation. Do you know that your boss, essentially President Trump, just stated that he loved inflation?

He's an entertaining, hyperbolic guy who's done tremendous leadership and on balance is driving inflation down.

So it sounds like you're unaware that President Trump just mentioned that he loved un-inflation, and I certainly don't want to get you in trouble with your boss, but it sounds like you don't love inflation, but he does. But let me ask you this other question. Are you aware that the United States was taking millions of barrels of gasoline from Iran in the Strait of Hormuz?

We are preventing the flow of Iranian oil through the Strait.

That is not the question that I just asked you. Were you aware that the United States has been taking millions of gallons of oil from the Strait of Hormuz?

Just not sure taking is the right word. We're preventing the flow of it.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. If I may, can I play some audio from some comments that President Trump made in the Oval Office? Okay.

The numbers were great.

I don't think we've heard this. I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know, I can say it now, something you didn't know. Do you know we've been taking out— let's suspend, let's suspend that. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran.

Until right now.

Mr. Secretary, it seems like you didn't know about this either. So why would the United States be taking out millions of barrels of oil from Iran?

Well, it's essential that we prevent oil sales from generating revenue for Iran to, to spend to develop nuclear weapons and oppress—

Mr. Secretary, I understand this might be an uncomfortable line of questioning and you don't want to do it, but you are not answering my question. So I'm going to ask you again, and I'm going to hope that you will enter— answer it honestly. Did you know that the United States was taking millions of gallons of oil from Iran?

I'm unaware.

So do you think that the president is lying based on the audio that you just heard? And I will send it to you in case you say you didn't hear it.

Oh, no, I do not think the president's lying. I think the president's talking casually about our efforts to stop the flow of Iranian oil.

Do you think that war is casual? Do you think that it is appropriate to talk casual— casually about war?

I think you talk to all different audiences and you talk in all different styles. But I don't, I don't have any serious objection to what he said.

You don't have any serious objection for someone talking about war casually? Do you have that objection? There are 13 servicepeople who are dead. There are hundreds more that are injured. But we should be talking about war casually.

He treats this war deadly serious, and he has worked tirelessly on this war.

Mr. Secretary, you just said that he was a— he was speaking casually about this. He speaks 20 hours a day.

He speaks 20 hours a day in different styles for different audiences.

He is the president of the United States of America. He is the commander of chief who is responsible for 13 service members who have died and hundreds more who are injured. So you mean to say to me, testifying in front of this committee in the United States House of Representatives, that it is appropriate for the commander of chief to talk about war casually?

He speaks candidly, openly, and honestly. I think all of America benefits from that.

Well, I appreciate your attempt to protect your boss and to keep your job, but let me be very clear with you. It is not appropriate to talk about war casually. He is clearly keeping you in the dark about what he is doing in Iran. And now you are sitting here in this committee unaware that the president just made an announcement about millions of barrels that they have taken from Iran and stated in that very, very clearly people don't know, but now we get to know it. But unfortunately, he sent you here and you didn't know it. What is your response to that?

I'm very proud to serve with President Trump. He's been tremendous leadership in a time of great stress right now. I'm proud of what he's doing, proud to be part of the team.

Well, I would not be proud if my boss sent me up, uh, Schitt's Creek and left me here in a committee without adequate information and speaking casually about war. That is a horrible place to be. And I'm so sorry that you have to defend that. It's beneath your honor.

And a woman's time has expired. And also, yeah, that was surgical right there. And by the way, all Democrats should watch that. All politicians should watch that when they're questioning any witness. We don't want to hear you as the politician speak and give speeches. I'm not even— just so you know, from my editorial perspective If you think that that's going to help you get press, it isn't. It's going to do the opposite. I don't need to hear you give a speech unless you're a committee ranking member and you give the opening speech. But when you're questioning the witness, question, question, question, reclaim my time, question, question, reclaim my time, question. Like, that was— every Democrat or any should study that because that's exactly how you need to cross-examine a witness. Very, very impressive. And then you heard his responses. He's an entertaining hyperbolic guy. He talks casually. He talks 20 hours a day. What's up with the 20 hours? He doesn't talk 20 hours a day. He sleeps in public. He doesn't talk 20 hours a day. When he talks, he talks nonsense and gibberish, and his sentences are incoherent. They don't form sentence structures.

And he's a maniac, and he contradicts himself within the same— I'm gonna blow him up, I'm gonna blow them, I'm gonna blow the shit out of them, or whatever he says. I'm gonna make a deal, I'm gonna make a deal. It's, it's— I'm not looking for a hyperbolic, entertaining, casually talking president. I'm looking for a serious individual, sober, serious circumspect. And I think they hit on something even broader, which is one of the reasons why we got here today, uh, in general, which is this going back to values and principles where so much of the media turned into this reality shit show over the past 20 to 30 years. Is it shocking that some reality TV shit show person is able to captivate and entertain the media as he talks casually? That's why we created a different type of media here at the Midas Touch Network that calls out the behavior and says that's not how we should be reporting on things. And in fact, our thesis here as well is by us not chasing that stuff and by calling it out and by focusing on what we do here, there's actually a bigger audience over here as well, because most of you, most of the people out there don't like that stuff.

Just corporate news controlled the tubes. They controlled the pipes, and they got arrogant, and they thought, well, we control it, so that's why people want to hear. People didn't really have another choice. And that's why when we create a new structure, it's not— it's not do the gamification stuff and this person, that person. I don't know, I just— you may like this or not like this about the network. I don't like even covering like the race and like a primary between— I don't like personalities. This personality, that person, I just, it doesn't appeal to me as much. What appeals to me is the overriding values and principles of being a good person and caring for others and focusing on uplifting people and calling out corruption across the world and exposing authoritarianism. And ultimately, where that aligns with politicians, they can join us on our turf. But I don't want to chase them on their turf. That just doesn't— that doesn't fascinate me. Any politician, or most politicians, will mostly let you down eventually. So I don't want to get too invested in this personality or that person. This doesn't excite me as much. And then when you talk about this reality shit show, Trumpian, whatever.

I mean, just think about this. You had Hegseth yesterday in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, doing PT with members of the military there. You're the, you're the defense secretary, and he's like staging some weird— it looks like some like Straight to DVD movie when I used to watch DVDs, or straight to Blockbuster. What was the— what was the name of the video store in my, my town? Like, Movie Town? Was it called Movie Town? It was called Movie Town. They had a little popcorn that you'd go and you have a little popcorn in Movie Town. Um, I don't know why I'm talking—

thinking about that.

Here's straight to DVD movie, straight to tape. Look at Hegseth at Guantanamo Bay. This is what he said yesterday. Iran would be unwise— movie land, it's movie land— Iran would be unwise to challenge us further. Here, let's watch this.

Out in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and ensuring Iran doesn't target shipping. And again, we're prepared there to do what needs to be done. Right now, they're defensive strikes to ensure we protect our people. Again, Iran would be unwise to challenge us further. President Trump is seeking a deal, but not just a deal, a great deal on behalf of the American people so that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.

What the—

what the hell is that? What the— I mean, I watch this stuff and I'm like, what the hell is that? I mean, it's like literally this guy's a clown. Like, he's like a clown. Hoorah! Okay, Iran would be unwise. Look at us, look at us, boys! Look at us, boys! Look at us go, boys! We're gonna do some push-up, boys! Yeah, yeah, we're just a bunch, we're just a bunch of dudes, right? Yeah, okay, right. You take this to Iran, we're just a bunch of dudes being dudes, man. Watch this. I'm like, who the F are these freaking losers? These goblins and goons who are running the— what the fuck are these freaking people? And then, you know, and so going back to my leadership speech, you know, then you've got Rubio, and Rubio is like, Donald Trump makes good on his threats, and he's threatened to leave the UFC claw in the White House. He'll make good on his threat. Watch what Rubio says. Let's play it.

I was there late last night. They were testing the pyrotechnics. I'm not going to give away anything other than to say they work.

It was good.

Secret Service wasn't as excited by the explosions, but everybody else— and what they built out there is phenomenal. We'll never see it again. Although the president's threatening to leave it permanently. You heard that, right? He's threatening to leave the gym. Just don't know. Maybe we'll just host weekly fights between people in politics. And settle our scores that way. But all kidding aside, Sunday is an unbelievable, historic, I think never to be repeated until next year, experience for the American people to be able to see a sport— this is where I want to close, and I made this point earlier, we were doing a little interview about it— the White House is the people's house. It belongs to the people of the United States. The American 250 celebration belongs to the people of the United States.

And there are millions— except it's not an America 250 celebration. It's not even a Freedom 250 celebration. It's a UFC fight parent company Donald Trump has an investment in, where Americans would be forced to pay $9 a month to get Paramount Plus if they want to watch it. There's crypto advertisements and beverage advertisements all over the White House right now. And this is when I was watching, uh, when I was watching that and I saw Rubio, he's like, uh, this is really going to be a historic experience. This is where I want to close. This is going to be a historic— this is where I want— this is going to be an historic— you don't think if Obama wanted to have a basketball game outside the White House he could have done it? If Biden wanted to do a boxing fight outside, you don't think he could have done it? It, it is degrading to the People's House to see the commercial exploitation of some UFC fight politicized violent propaganda outside of the White House with a gigantic claw occupying the People's House that taxpayers are paying for this. Look, I, I've never really been a big fan of UFC.

I have friends who are fans of UFC. I just, I don't enjoy— I don't enjoy— I like boxing. I don't, I don't want— the UFC just doesn't do it for me. I don't, you know, there's, there's too many of them. There's like UFC 373, then 374, 375, and I don't know, it doesn't give me enjoyment watching it. I don't, I don't— the knockouts happen sometimes so quickly. They like grapple a lot. I know, it just, that's not my thing. So, but if you like it, you like it. It's all good. I prefer like a good boxing match if we're going over there, not like basketball. Another, like watching FIFA, you know. But it doesn't need to happen at the White House, and the taxpayers don't need to pay for it. It's not a historic experience. It's weird. And it's, um, and it, it is, you know, I saw, I saw it was a congress member who's like What are we going to do, cockfights next? We doing cockfights at the White House? What are we doing here? It's not historic. And all the people who are there and laughing and normalize this until we do it next year.

Hahaha. And then I don't like the pyrotechnics. I'm not going to give it away. You know what's a historic experience? I'll tell you what would be a historic experience. If you truly brought peace to the Middle East, that would be a historic experience. If you stop the genocide in Gaza, that would be actually a historic experience. If you stop the war from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, that would be a historic experience. Um, if you were able to create an economy that worked for most of Americans, on all of Americans, that would be historic. But if you built housing for Americans and people could afford homes again, that would be historic. But if you reduced inflation That would be a historic experience if you put safeguards on AI and you found ways to not allow the proliferation of these data centers, also recognizing a need for innovation in our country, but protected communities from the exploitation by data centers. That would be a, that would be a historic experience. You know, if you, if you could achieve the, this is when I think about electing people. To be public servants and what I want them to deliver.

I don't think, man, you know what I really, really want? What I'm really looking for is a renovation of the Rose Garden into a private club for right-wing oligarchs, and then ideally we can have a UFC fight with a gigantic claw right there on the leader— on the leader's birthday that will be put on a streaming service that I have to pay for. And that's really— I— that's, that's what I look for. And we, we have to, we have to take a step back before even getting into this political party or that political party or this or that. And we have to reflect on, like, basic humanity and our existence and what, what we're here— I know we're so busy, there's so much things going on, we're bombarded with so much information social media and this thing and that thing, and there's, ah, everywhere you look, and your iPhones and your Sam this and that, and, and, and, and AI revolution, and everywhere you look, and there's people angry. There's so much that sometimes a demagogue arises and says, I have the pro— I have the fix, I have this, I have that. And we have to We have to go back and recognize that we need to safeguard that, and where we should enjoy entertainment, where we should enjoy sport, where we should enjoy fun and all of these things.

And by the way, whether you're religious or not religious, your, your views and beliefs We can have those things outside of government. Within government, I want public servants. Public, for the people. Servants, you serve. You take an oath to defend and protect and preserve. And you keep that oath. And I don't need your personal drama, your personal emotions, your anger and weirdness. I don't need that in my face. I want a leader who is able to communicate transparently about the challenges we face even if they're bad, even if we're heading in a bad direction, even if there are job losses and rising inflation. I want someone to explain to me what the real situation is and how we get out of it and what we're doing to fight it. That's life. Life is—

problems emerge.

That's why we have leaders. The leaders aren't supposed to compound the problems. They're supposed to be problem solvers. And I'm not looking to be, I guess in the words of Energy Secretary Wright, entertained by hyperbolic demagogues who speak casually about war. I don't want that. I want people who talk soberly and seriously about the current conditions and who get us out. May that be boring? Yeah. May that be Not entertaining. Yeah. May that be challenging and cause debates? Yeah. Well, that may require compromise. Yeah, but that's what I want in the government. I want a bureaucracy that functions. Where there's waste, fraud, and abuse, let's figure it out. Let's find it, all good, but let's not use it as a pretext to cut screwworm detection, Ebola detection, cut critical staff that you then realize, oopsies, seems like we actually need them. No, I want a functioning bureaucracy, functioning agencies, regulations against overreach. Doesn't mean we need excessive regulations, but there's a reason why we have environmental regulations, security law regulations. There's a reason we have these things. And then at the very top, I want a leader who empathizes with the experience of the people.

And anybody who wants to step into the arena should have those qualities, and we the people should make sure that that's what we're looking for, not this cosplay, hyperbolic, casual talking, made-for-reality-TV dystopian nightmare. I'll leave you with that. This has been Ben on Breaking News. Watch the Brothers Show tonight, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific, and subscribe. Thanks for watching. Want to stay plugged in?

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