Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben 7/30/26

Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is our breaking news here. And I say our because this is all about the community right here. And I just want to say at the outset of this show how grateful I am for this community. And you know, as we are, um, kind of putting the finishing touches up on the book promotional tour, the WTF America I just want to say, like, everything we're trying to do is to honor you, um, the audience, and to dedicate it to you. And I, you know, I, I always am making sure that you're front and center of my mind. And so even though it's authored by me, Brett, and Jordy, I make sure in the book that one of the central lessons is this community. And as we break down the breaking news today, I mean, we're talking about stuff that corporate news is completely ignoring. That's the real story about what's actually happening right now. And there are wars throughout the world right now. All of the kind of fearmongering of Trump and MAGA during the Biden years of, oh, there's going to be war everywhere, and Biden's being weak, and all of these things Actually, with Biden, there was no new never-ending wars initiated by the United States.

And under Trump, the wars continue to spread. And so we were very early in reporting this morning on Russia's strikes in western Ukraine, in Lviv, um, massive strikes in Lviv, lots of casualties, but that the Russian ballistics went into eastern Poland, and there were sirens going on there in Lublin. And in this Lublin area, that's where Zelensky was meeting yesterday with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. And one of the things that I flagged actually, and what's concerning to me, and I know we, we show lots of videos of Zelensky striking these Wildberry logistical facilities in Russia. That's like the Amazon that they have in Russia. And Zelensky's destroyed a lot of these, a lot of cargo ships, tanker ships in the Black Sea, in the Sea of Azov right by the Black Sea. I know they have, you know, Russia's striking a lot in Ukraine as well. I don't want to paint this picture sometimes of like, oh, it's just a one-sided victory. You know, Ukraine's taking a lot of casualties as well, and a lot of, uh, residential civilian areas are under constant attack by Russia, and a lot of Ukrainian tankers and cargo ships are also being hit.

But one of the things that actually concerned me before is when Trump has been, I believe, pretending that he's more sympathetic to Zelensky getting interceptors and giving Zelensky a license. First off, we don't have the capability really to give interceptors right now. Our interceptor stockpile has dwindled where the U.S. is running out of interceptors. So when Iran strikes our bases, like the Muafiq base in Jordan or, uh, the base in Kuwait or Bahrain or wherever, the U.S. sometimes is not even shooting its interceptors because every THAAD interceptor costs like $12.5 million $3 million. Every PAC-3 Patriot costs around $4, $4.5 million. And so we are running very low on, on our interceptors. But what certainly concerns me is I don't trust Trump with anything. And so when he tells Zelensky, you know, let's meet, we may give you these things, you know, tell me about what's going on in the war, my own red flags is, is Trump just going to reach out to Putin right away and say, look at what Zelensky's been telling me, um, or can you believe that I said this to him? And, and then, you know, yesterday when Donald Trump was asked a question about Zelensky, are you going to help Zelensky?

What was Trump's answer? Well, I just want him to end the war. I just— it'll just be easy. Just, Zelensky, you gotta end the war. What does that mean, just to give up all of eastern Ukraine? And when you start to see the Laura Loomers and Tim Pool and all of them kind of start to act like, well, they're no longer pro-Russia and they're pro-Ukraine, and then our corporate news kind of gives them these glowing profiles, like profiles in courage. I'm like, okay, first off, all of these people all of a sudden are saying this— that does not raise kind of red flags to you before just glorifying these people as, oh, now they've, now they've changed? I don't know, that's a red flag. And then for me, it's like one of Trump's tactics in order to try to get people to submit is he'll use all these manipulation tactics, including like love bombing. And then he'll pretend that he likes you and that you're part of the crew and he's got your back, but he doesn't. He doesn't. This is Donald Trump, the Putin bootlicker. That's who he is. That's who he's always been.

And I view what Trump is doing as actually just another strategy of figuring out how to ultimately deliver eastern Ukraine to Putin. That's, you know, you can call me, uh, conspiracy, but that's kind of what, what I, what I believe is actually going on. And I think Trump will drag on these discussions. Okay, the license is coming, the license is coming. Don't worry, we'll get you the interceptors. And then I think that never actually arrived. You know, when Zelensky was forced to be independent of the United States and Trump, that's where they developed all of these innovative weapons— the FP-1s, the FP-2 drones, long-range drones, the FP-5s called the Flamingos, right? They were forced to do that because the US was not only not giving Ukraine the weapons, but promised that they would be giving Europe the weapons to give to Ukraine for sale. And then, uh, because of the catastrophic war in Iran, I think that is partially one of the reasons we've run out of interceptors, but also Trump has slow-rolled that process. So I want to flag that because Trump promised on day one he would end the catastrophic, uh, this catastrophic war, Russia's war on Ukraine.

And here we are recording this live July 30th, and things are escalating. Russia had to impose export controls on its, uh, crude because Ukraine is successfully striking its major refineries, especially those FP-5 Flamingos have been able to reach very long distance, and the FP-1s and FP-2 drones have been able to hit deep within Russia. And so Russia's reeling when it comes to its ability of its refineries, uh, to, to work and operate. But also Ukraine is being hit too, so things are worse there. Then you look at the Middle East, and before we went live, you had Saudi Arabia striking in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. The Houthis control that area, that's western Yemen. The Houthis had previously retaliated on another Saudi Arabian strike, um, on Sana'a, and the Houthis blew up 3 major refineries in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia signaled via Axios and Trump's stenographer that it wanted de-escalation, which I believe was kind of a form of, uh, deception because they didn't want de-escalation. I think Saudi Arabia is actually preparing for a potential ground invasion of Western Yemen. And so they leaked this, I believe, to Axios, and they sent MBS's brother to, to go to the United States, I think, as part of a decoy before these strikes took place.

Because Barak Ravid and others at Axios published Saudi Arabia wants de-escalation. Well, it actually seems like escalation has taken place. So what I expect to happen shortly is the Houthis, obviously part of the axis of resistance with Iran, will now strike more refineries in Saudi Arabia. So I expect that to happen. Um, you had the United States launching more strikes in Iran. We'll see ultimately if the escalation is what Donald Trump threatened, but one of the things that occurred yesterday, and I reported on this, on the, on the various shows we were doing. Donald Trump goes to state regime media Fox. We're going to blow the effing ass out of them, is what Trump said. Blow that— I mean, just think about the President of the United States speaking like that. We're gonna blow the effing ass out of them. I mean, the day before, we're working towards a deal, they want to do a deal, everything's going— we're going to blow the effing ass out of them. They want to do a deal, but we're going to blow the effing ass out of them. So Trump says to, uh, Trey Yingst over in state regime media Fox, we're going to blow the effing ass out of them.

To which Iran then responds, um, by sending a drone to strike the Damietta port in Egypt. Why did they do that? Well, they then sent a warning to Pakistan and Qatar and the other, and the other mediating bodies, and Egypt also has attempted at times to be a mediating body, that we can expand this thing, Trump, beyond Hormuz, beyond Bab el-Mandeb, right? Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf, right? Bab el-Mandeb, Red Sea, and then the port of Damietta, Mediterranean, Egyptian port. We can go there.. And that was the message that Iran wanted to send. We can escalate this in other locations if we want to also. And then working with the Houthis saying, if Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, if you all think that you're going to avoid the control by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthis in Bab el-Mandab by trying to build pipelines, whether it's from Fujairah with UAE, whether it's pipelines that go from the east to the west in Saudi Arabia, we're going to strike those pipelines, we're going to hit them, we're going to destroy those pipelines. And the Houthis in Iran, they're not bluffing. I mean, they're doing these things.

And so the United States did strike areas of Iran. They hit Keshem. Looks like they killed a family in Keshem, like a civilian family in Keshem during the US strikes last night. The US hit some other areas. It wasn't yet the we're gonna blow the effing ass out of them. That's not the— but it was still a strike of significance. But then Iran responded, and I'm going to do a video on this in a little bit as well, by hitting once again the Salty Muwaffiq Air Base in Jordan. That's where those 3 service members were previously, uh, killed. There, there's another service member killed in Erbil in Iraq. But if you looked at the imagery And the satellite footage that, you know, we have access to here, um, it does appear— go back to the other one there, Jeremy, first, because we'll show Kuwait in a moment— but in this Muwafiq Salty Base in Jordan, it looks like one, maybe two F-35s were destroyed by Iran. And I mean, we, we can see where those F-35s were positioned. And the intelligence Iran has is kind of scary, scary good, whether it's being provided by China, Russia, or whoever.

Because it seemed that those F-35s were just moved in and boom, from the footage. Now, is it possible those are not F-35s but they look like F-35s from the satellite footage? Possible, possible. But those look like the F-35s, and it looks like multiple— at least one, but probably multiple. But clearly something— I mean, the base was hit. Muwafiq was hit again hard, and that's in Jordan. Then in Kuwait, we're seeing the satellite footage as well. We can show the other one now, Jeremy. And this is Ali al-Salam Air Base in Kuwait. 2 drone hangars look like they were fully destroyed. And this is an area— the satellite imagery confirms the impact by Iran's drones at the hangar where Iran claimed that they hit. Now, CENTCOM has banned U.S. private companies from publishing this type of satellite imagery, so we get this from Sentinel-2. European-based, Russia satellite imagery, Chinese satellite imagery. Now, is it possible that, that this is AI and it's manipulated and it's not real?

Sure, possible.

But what we've seen— sad, this is a sad thing to admit as a someone who considers themselves a patriotic American, and I think the ultimate form of patriotism is criticizing when you have a fascist war criminal regime like we do right now in the United States. That's— if you want to call yourself patriotic, I think that's your duty to call out what's, what's happening. But you have CENTCOM posting absurd lies, and it seems that when I see the satellite imagery on Tasnim or Mares or Fars or whatever, that it tended to prove to be accurate, right? The US would deny that there were these casualties or these deaths, and then we would learn No, that those deaths happen and the casualties happen. They just reported it later once they were basically forced to. And so you take a look right here about what CENTCOM's putting out. This is what they say. Over the past few hours, Iranian state media continued to report false claims by the IRGC, 3 in particular. First claim, the IRGC claims free and open routes through the Strait of Hormuz are dangerous for commercial vessels. Like, let's just take that one.

Okay, first claim by the IRGC. IRGC claims free and open routes through the Strait of Hormuz are dangerous for commercial vessels, and the U.S. is saying that's false. Okay, you lose all credibility after that. What do you mean that's false? Of course that's a true statement by Iran. I mean, objectively, you're saying it's not dangerous to cross the Strait of Hormuz? You're saying false? You make us all look stupid. Stop. Of course it— by the way, saying it is dangerous, that's just an objective damn fact. That's not a, oh my God. So if you're lying about that, if you're saying that the IRGC is falsely claiming that it's not safe to go through the Strait of Hormuz, if you're saying that that Iran claim is false, then you've lost me on everything. You have zero credibility when you then say over here, no US aircraft were destroyed or damaged in recent attempted Iranian attacks. All missiles and drones were intercepted or failed to reach targeted areas.

This is not—

it's just false. We know it hit targeted areas. Now, if you want to make the argument that those weren't F-35s, but they were F-15s. Or that they were some other aircraft that I'm unaware of, or that it was a decoy plane that we, you know, I mean, maybe they were decoy planes to draw Iranian strikes. The US put inflatable deep— that happens in war. But when you say nothing hit the base, we, we know it hits the base. And so now on X, formerly Twitter, They've banned Tasnim. They've banned the Iranian— they're so afraid of it, they've banned it. We could be able to, to discern what's propaganda and what's not propaganda, but they've now banned it. And then you have CENTCOM publishing statements like that, which again is, is deeply, deeply concerning to me. So let's take a look at the facts, Jack. Let's see the reality over here. So you have Donald Trump going to state regime media Fox saying, we're going to beat the effing s out of Iran. Let's listen to how— again, this is a Fox reporter like, I just got off the phone with the president who tells me that the United States is going to beat the effing s out of Iran.

Here, let's play this clip. President Trump tells Fox News about Iran, we are going to beat the effing s out of them. He went on to say, we'll be hitting them hard. They're going to get a beating. So clearly the United States is going to respond to what the president described as a surprise attack. He says U.S. forces— Okay. And also the framing that Iran did a surprise attack 2 days ago is also false framing. It's incorrect. And maybe I should have been more nuanced in my reporting also. In a sense, I suppose it was surprising that Iran didn't wait this time for the United States to strike. Perhaps that was surprising because the pattern usually is U.S. strikes, then Iran responds. So this was a different pattern where the U.S. said, we're— the U.S. said, we're done. Iran did its thing.. And then usually we wait for the US to do its thing and then Iran responds like a tennis match. But Iran struck in Jordan because for Iran, they're like, we're in a war with you. Like, we're not doing negotiation. We're not going to just sit around while you talk about fake ceasefires and fake deals.

Like, you know, we know you're going to attack us again. You're out there saying you're going to attack. So we're going to— we're good. If we see targets of opportunity, we're going to hit it because you pulled out of the MOU. You violated the MOU. So what do you expect us to do right there? So you have Donald Trump say, we're going to blow the effing ass out of them. And just think about it. Like, I know there were these, you know, regime change book, right? That's like well-sourced and it's got all of these You know, people saying behind the scenes, let's talk though about what's happening in front of the scene, right? What's happening in plain view. I mean, that's an absurd thing. And if I can imagine, okay, well, behind the scenes, 3 sources said that Donald Trump said, let's blow the effing ass out of them. It could be a big deal. Why isn't it as equal big of a deal or more that he's saying it publicly? That's a horrible temperament, putting it lightly, to have as the United States president as war is spreading everywhere. Again, what's it called where you have a war involving almost every nation in the world, from Egypt to Poland to Ukraine to Russia to Yemen to Saudi Arabia to Jordan to Kuwait, uh, where you have China and Russia helping Iran, where you have ostensibly the United States and NATO pretending— or NATO's helping Ukraine, but Trump pretending he's close with Zelensky now when he's not, and he's just saying that to lure Zelensky in while then saying, you know, they're both good guys, Putin and Zelensky.

It's going to be great. Let me show you the footage that we're getting of the drone attack that occurred in Egypt yesterday. Let me show you again the scary precision of these Iranian drones. This in Damietta in Egypt. Let's play it. Now let me show you, and I believe, Jeremy, we've got this from Ukraine strike in Penza at one of these Wildberry facilities there. The update from Penza, let's play that clip if we've got it. And then I believe we've got insane footage from Lviv, Ukraine, as Russia then strikes Lviv, Ukraine, western Ukraine.

Let's play it.

I've got footage from the burning Wildberries logistical hub in Ryazan. So first I showed you Penza, then I showed you Russia striking Lviv, and now I'll show you what one of these Wildberry logistical facilities in Ryazan looks like. Here, let's play this. So, you know, don't say these titles are hyperbolic, okay? Don't say, oh, might just touch a hyperbolic word. No, no, no, no, no. We are capturing what the hell is happening right now accurately. I think that it is deeply distressing when media wants to normalize this as, oh, just, uh, you know, it's come to expected, that's just the way the world They get— what are we talking about here? We've got refineries being blown up in Saudi Arabia by the Houthis. We got the Houthi capital of Sana'a being blown up by Saudi Arabia. We've got Saudi Arabia and the United States killing dozens of people in Iraq. You have the United States launching strikes in Iran. You have Iran striking Damietta port in Egypt. You've got Iran striking Muwafiq Salty Base with freaking impunity. Like, what do we want? We want to hit that F-35, we want to hit this one, we want to hit this one.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, hit them all. We got hitting in Kuwait, in Bahrain. So, oh, and then it's like, you know, you'll say he's not panicking, he's not— that's what I always get. Stop saying he's panicked. What The guy's out there saying, I'm gonna blow the effing ass out of them. What do you call it? I mean, you give me a better— you know, okay, the guys, the guys, uh, he's coming unglued. You know, what are you talking about? He's out there like a crazy person, you know. Oh, I'm gonna do this, I'm making a deal, I'm making a deal. Well, you, you tell me, you give me better words in the lexicon for real and tell me, and I'll, and I'll use them. But the reality is, is that he's flailing The world is in a war. Oh, and I could have kept on going. You know, Russia striking in Lviv and then its ballistic missiles going into Poland. And by the way, the response by Prime— the Prime Minister of Poland sounded an awfully lot like the response that we hear from the Arab nations. Oh, it was just the ballistic debris, right?

It was always the debris of— it's never the drones. We knocked down all the drones, but the debris. You know, hit us. It's just like, no, what Poland knows is that the US isn't going to support an Article 5 or even an Article 4 invocation of NATO. So they don't want to say that it actually happened in Poland because it would trigger Article 5, which they know the US is not going to abide by. So they cover it up. It's all these people just covering up stuff again that's happening in plain view. And so sorry, not sorry that we're out here calling out what's happening accurately. But I think we've been spot on in the things that we've said, calling the casualties before they've happened, calling out this, calling out the base, you know, you know, saying these things in real time. By the way, it's why with WTF America, the one of the main points we make is, okay, you, you have all these super secret sources and these things and that thing's great. I like, I like when you— there are lots of reporters on The Midas Touch who do great source work, do great, great source work, great investigative journalism.

But also what we can't ignore is the stuff happening in plain view. It's ironic, you know, if someone were to craft a Truman Show version of all of this, they'd maybe have me born in a place called Plainview. Which is actually the town I grew up in. I grew up in Plainview, New York. Go figure, I grew up in Plainview, New York. That's the place, Plainview. And, you know, maybe a future book title is Plainview. This stuff is happening in plain view. I see it, we see it, and we need to call it out and we need to stop ignoring it. And so when we come back from this very quick break— oh, by the way, scan the QR code, it really helps if you do the pre-orders. It's what our publisher says because it helps us decide, you know, which local bookstore should we be doing our tour with, where should we be going when we see the preorder. So preorder your copy now. There's great momentum behind this, but preorder now. When we come back, one of the things I want to talk about is, you know, you've got Trump regime out there saying GDP— we were going to say we're going to do 6%.

They told us These Bernie Madoff motherfuckers told us we were gonna have 6% GDP. Remember?

I remember.

We'll talk about that when we come back from our first quick— it wasn't 6%, hint hint. It was much lower. It was 1.5, 1.2%, whatever it is. And who even trusts those numbers? Take our first break.

This episode is sponsored by RO. When it comes to GLP-1s, most people don't actually know what their lowest cost could be. They just assume that it's expensive. Ro helps eligible patients figure that out by checking coverage for free and showing cash pay options, helping people access FDA-approved GLP-1 treatment at the lowest cost available to them. Ro wants to help people lose weight. That's why they have the lowest cost options out there, whether you're paying with insurance or cash. Ro's free insurance checker makes it easy to see if you're covered. Just Submit your insurance card and Ro handles the rest. No paperwork, no waiting on hold, no confusing phone calls. If insurance doesn't cover treatment, there are still options. Ro offers lower-cost cash pay FDA-approved GLP-1s, including newer dosage forms like daily pills and multi-dose pens. Ro offers a multi-month membership option in addition to multi-month medications that help members prepay and save on their GLP-1 medications. Just another way Ro working to increase access to this life-changing medication. Join the over 1.5 million people who've trusted Ro on their weight loss journey. I use this and you should too. Go to ro.co/mitis to see if you qualify.

That's ro.co/mitis to get started on Ro. Go to ro.co/safety. That's ro.co/safety for boxed warning and full safety information about GLP-1 medications. Let's face it, after a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. I have to make a choice. I can either have a great night or a great next day. That is, until I found PreAlcohol. ZBiotics PreAlcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for rough days after drinking. PreAlcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make PreAlcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Every time I have PreAlcohol before drinks, I notice the difference the next day. Even after a night out, I can confidently plan on having a great next day without worrying. Look, I won't lie, I was a bit on the fence about PreAlcohol initially, but after giving it a chance, believe me, it's the real deal.

July is packed with barbecues, fireworks, lake weekends, weekends and late nights with friends. Keep the good times rolling into the next day. Drink pre-alcohol before you go out and wake up ready for whatever Sunday brings. Remember to head to zbiotics.com/mitus and use the code MITUS at checkout for 15% off.

If you've ever actually looked at the ingredient list on your dog's food, it gets pretty wild after the first ingredient. Half of it sounds like something from a chemistry textbook, and it got me thinking If I wouldn't want to eat food packed with ingredients I can't even pronounce, why would I want that for my dog? That's one of the reasons that we switched to Sundays for Dogs. Sundays is different. They start with 80%+ all-natural meats, then add superfoods like kale, ginger, and blueberries, and gently air-drying everything instead of blasting it with high heat. It doesn't even look or smell like typical dog food. It looks like high-quality human-grade jerky. No fillers, no nutritional blends, no chemicals, just simple, complete nutrition. It was founded by Dr. Tori Waxman, who created Sundays to meet her standards as both a veterinarian and a dog parent. And Mochi, my dog, absolutely loves it. Mealtime has become something she actually gets excited about, and I've noticed that she has more energy, her coat looks great, and I just feel better knowing that I'm feeding her real quality food. The other thing I love is, well, how easy it is. There's no fridge, no freezer, no prep, and no mess.

You get the quality of a home-cooked meal with the scoop and serve convenience of kibble. It's really what dog food should have been all along. Over 100,000 dogs are eating sundaes and it's easy to see why, make the switch to sundaes. Go right now to SundaysForDogs.com/Midas50 and get 50% off your first order, or you can use code MIDAS50 at checkout. That's 50% off your first order at SundaysForDogs.com/Midas50. SundaysForDogs.com/Midas50 or use code MIDAS50 at checkout. That's M-E-I-D-A-S-5-0.

Welcome back. Thanks everybody. Thanks to those sponsors, they help support the show. Support our sponsors, Brett and Jordy. Thumbs up on the, uh, on those ad reads. Have you been noticing I use props now? And so when I call out a Trump bootlicker, I pull out the sandal to do bootlicking. I'm not sure if I'm going to add that into the repertoire or, or not, but something I've been doing over the past, um, past few days. Um, new background here. I know someone said Carrot Top. Carrot Top. But yeah, I— Carrot Top Ben over here, remember when I started with this new background? I was like that. Um, all right, I'll stop, let's stop wasting everybody's time. Donald Trump's polling right now record lows. Um, according to all the polling data right now. I mean, it's not just one, um, and the group that he's getting crushed on right now— non-college voter white people. That's his base, white non-college voters. Um, net negative 8. He was plus 24 February 2025. That's what he said, he loved the uneducated. Um, but I think that lots of— everybody's feeling it in their pocket right now. Like, on the issue of gas prices, he's net negative 58.

Inflation, net negative 50. On Iran, net negative 42. Economy, net negative 40. Immigration— that was his thing— immigration, net negative 22. They want to really focus right now on Dr. Fauci. That's their big one right now. Dr. Fauci, Dr. Fauci. They want— they want to bring more attention to Trump's mishandling of the COVID pandemic and attack Fauci to distract from the catastrophic war, to distract from the Epstein files. It's like the most perverse game of Seven Degrees of Bacon, right?

It was—

was the game Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon? Seven degrees of distracting from Donald Trump and his regime covering up child sex trafficking rings. First, the cover-up of the child sex trafficking ring. Then they go to war with Netanyahu against Iran. Then they start bringing in Dr. Fauci. And then they start attacking Mom Donny and saying, you know what would be the worst? Could you imagine if government takes equity stakes in private companies and controls the methods of operation. That would be communism and the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks are coming to get you. They're all over. You don't even know. They're just— you look, you look to the person, that could be a freaking Bolshevik, and he or she Or they, a Bolshevik they, could be coming to get you. Could you imagine? Don't actually think about the people who are actually getting you right now, who are ripping away your healthcare, who are taking over the methods of production, who are taking over countries like Venezuela and stealing their money. No one knows where it went. $13 billion. Who are doing social welfare for the oligarchs who make it so you can't afford anything. Rent, can't buy a home right now.

We're talking about you certainly can't afford rent. People, jobs recession right now. That's the— that's— this was the announcement. Commerce Department quietly announces 7 new equity stakes in private companies. So here's the Trump gimmick. They're doing this now. Like they did with Intel, there's going to different companies that are supposed to get incentive money from the CHIPS Act, the semiconductor companies that were supposed to get money based on Biden's CHIPS Act, which was done on a bipartisan basis. And it was incentives. If they do certain things and hit benchmarks, then they can get funding. Now, you may like that or not like that. We needed to spur the semiconductor industry here. Given that when Donald Trump handled COVID in such a disastrous way and the supply chains were crushed, what did we find? We have no semiconductor industry here. And so with supply chains crushed, that became a problem. And that was one of the reasons that inflation surged so much, because we weren't able to make the things that go in the things, the semiconductors. And that was caused by Trump's mishandling of COVID So Biden had to fix it. So Biden gave an incentive program.

And what's Trump doing? You want that Biden incentive money? I'll make you a deal. Have you ever heard about the Bolsheviks? Have you ever heard about the Bolsheviks? He goes, have you ever heard about Lenin? Let me tell you, I've got a solution for you right now. We're going to give you that Biden money, not for the incentives, but if you give us an opaque 10% stake in your company. And who knows what the hell we're gonna do with it. I don't know, we'll probably give it to the— the Kushners will end up getting everything at some point anyway, like FIFA. I'll give it away to the Kushners and give it away to the Kushners, but we're gonna take over the methods of your production. I don't know, it's like You know, Donald Trump says, I would make the best communist like Lenin because I would just promise everybody everything and then I wouldn't deliver. Okay, meet the mirror. Meet the mirror. Okay, so you look at the various polling. CNN, Trump 34%. AP-NORC, Trump 33%. Quinnipiac, Trump 32%. Well done, Donald. That's not what the graphic is, but it's the very— there it is.

Um, well done, well done. Encore! Bravo, bravo, Donald. Fantastic. You deserve, uh, more money. Jeremy, can you do me clapping just so that people see me? Well done, well done. And I'm more interactive with Jeremy now on that, like we have a thing going. You don't, you don't see more interactive with them. Um, so with all of this happening, what was What was GDP growth this morning? State regime media Fox, take it away. In line with estimates. Let's get to GDP. This is the first look we're getting at second quarter GDP, Maria. The first read is 1.5%, 1.5%. The estimate was a gain of 2.1%. So we're coming in a little bit light on this first look at second quarter GDP. The market loved it though. I mean, the funniest part, but that's horrible numbers. If you looked, if you looked at the right, I mean, you want to talk about the market manipulation. I mean, could you imagine if Biden did, um, you know, like horrific— I mean, Biden's numbers, Biden's first year, granted it was after COVID, it was like 6% GDP, but that was right after COVID. And then he was somewhere in that 2.8% kind of range, 2.8% range.

He never said, I'm gonna do like 5%, you know, or 6% like Trump said. But like, could you imagine if you get a readout of like 1.5% GDP or less and it's in the Yeah, Donald, like, again, it's like, you know, the market manipulation participation trophy is crazy while the American people are the ones who are suffering. I mean, there's a reason why in America consumer confidence is the lowest in the history of the University of Michigan polling. All right. But it wasn't like the Trump regime told us. It wasn't like they promised. Look, it would be one thing if they actually promised us 4% to 6% growth, but fortunately they tempered our expectations, right? They, they were very honest about, we're going to go through difficult times, tariffs not the greatest, so just buckle up. They told us that, right? Let's see, Treasury Secretary Bessant, what did he have to say, Jeremy? Let's play Bessant. Jeremy, that was such a good lead-up. Do we— I mean, we don't have the Bessant clip? I did the whole lead-up. So I, I think we could be at 4% inflation— excuse me, 4% real growth, and then inflation trending back towards target at 2, so 6% nominal growth.

He was right about inflation. He was right about the inflation. He was wrong about the GDP growth. Okay, but okay, that's Bessant, bootlicking Bessant. What about Kevin Hassett? Come on, National Economic Advisor. What are we doing? We're in the— how are we doing? Where are we gonna hit Hassett? Let's play Hassett. So yeah, we're cruising at about 3, and again, I expect the second half will cruise about 4. 4% growth in the second half.

That's right.

Yeah, we were cruising. What, what the hell happened there, Hassett? I thought we were— I thought we were cruising. We'll pause there. Reminder, order WTF America right now. If you watch these clips and you go WTF, order it. Okay, look, there are some people who are like, Ben, you promote the book too much. It is truly a passion project inspired by all of you. It's enduring beyond the election, and it's one of the things I want— I'm not going to get all morbid and weird right now, but like, you know, we live in very, uh, um, turbulent times, and I want this book— if anything happens to me, or if anything, I want it to be all of the thoughts and philosophies. I'm not trying to get like, okay, Ben, I'm sorry, but like, I wanted to be out there about how we can harness the power of movements like this to make generational change, because we need generational change right now. And that's one of the main theses of the book, that we can't be trapped in a cycle where all of a sudden it's like. You get Obama and then you get Trump and then we get a new Obama and then we, you know, and then we get a new Trump.

That's broken. That's not going to work. So how do we get out of this loop? And you have to think generationally. So, uh, pre-order it now. Let's take our last quick break of the show.

One thing I love about summer is how easy everything feels. The days are a little more relaxed and I find myself reaching for the same comfortable go-anywhere pieces again and again. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They focus on well-made essentials that naturally become those everyday staples you actually live in all season long. Quince's 100% European linen pants and shirts are breathable, easy to throw on, and the summer upgrade your rotation needs, starting at just $34. Their tees are soft enough to live in all day, and the lightweight cotton sweaters are exactly what you want when summer nights cool down. Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen, so you're paying for exceptional quality and not the brand markup. The Quince linen shirt has been my go-to all summer, and I know you're going to love it too. And it's not just clothing. Quince has become a trusted favorite for everything from home to travel to everyday essentials. Make your summer wardrobe easier. Go to quince.com/midas for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada too.

That's Quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E. Quince.com/mitis for free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com/mitis. If you're like me, your day and night routines are not always routine. Whether it's doom scrolling keeping you up or hangovers keeping you down, bad habits can throw off your rhythm. Something I found helpful to balance out my bad habits is Sol's Mood Gummies. Sol is a wellness brand that makes delicious hemp-derived CBD and THC products designed to make feeling good simple. Soul's new Mood Gummies have precise dosing, clean ingredients, and formulations designed for predictable effects so you can choose how you want to feel while staying in control. If you're looking for a bright social and energizing buzz, go with the Uplift Gummies. 3mg of sativa THC plus CBG, perfect for daytime plans or beating the afternoon slump. When it's time to wind down, the Mellow Gummies deliver 3mg of indica THC plus CBN, ideal for cozy nights and fully unplugging. And if you're looking for that just anytime vibe, Soul's Balance gummies blend 3mg of hybrid THC and CBD for an easy, versatile feel, perfect for when you're listening to your favorite podcasts. 3 moods, 3 intentionally crafted formulas, same great taste. Whatever the moment, there's a Soul gummy to match.

Make today a good day and get yourself some Soul gummies. Right now, Soul is offering my audience 30% off your entire order. Go to getsoul.com and use the code MIDAS. That's getsoul.com, promo code MIDAS, for 30% off.

Welcome back, everybody. Um, great to— great to have everybody here. I, I saw somebody ask during the break, so how the hell do we get out of this loop? What I hate about when people promote books is sometimes like, well, now you got to buy the book. So I'm going to tell you how we get out of the loop just very briefly. I'm not gonna read the whole book, but, um, I'll give you one of the main theses, you know, that I write, just so I'm not—

I don't want to—

I don't like when people promote things and they withhold, well, you have to buy the book if you want to get out of the loop. All right, it's a little bit cruel and unusual, especially given the moment that we're in. One of the things I posit is the following: the right-wing fascists have had a plan that they've been executing since the 1970s, and the Roger Ailes manifesto with Nixon, how to create a right-wing propaganda network that was built out into right-wing radio, which was built out into state regime media Fox, which its tentacles then expanded with, uh, the internet, with innovation, with AI. And suddenly you had this paradoxical situation with more information and access to information, but that it created a feudal dynamic of lord v. serf where you had an educational disparity, um, because there was polluted information despite there being more information. And I argue we have to recognize that there are broader forces at play than just the day-to-day gamified elections, uh, which are important, but there are enduring principles that we have to deal with and contend with. And so it is important that we focus— look, there's 100 days to the midterms, yes, but what we have to make sure we focus on is not the cult of personalities, because we're always going to be let down by personalities.

What we have to understand are the values and principles and qualities that we want in leadership beyond political tribal identity. And what we need to do as people who want to build a generational change is we have to approach it from different areas. The area that we approach it in is from media and the way Fox built its thing. From 1970s. They're 60 years ahead of us. So we need to start now. We're 6 years in. Imagine where we could be in 60 years, okay, with fighting the tainted, polluted information environment with accurate information. And whether people are associated with the Midas Touch Network, like a Katie Fang or a Scott McFarland or a Legal AF or a Justin Wolfers, you know, or all of these people, or if they're not affiliated with Midas Touch Network, network, um, but they're inspired by independent media that provides a way to counter the disinformation that's out there. And it is important that we recognize that this isn't going to be solved next election cycle. It just isn't. It's going to be solved though if we keep at this for the next 50 and 60 years, parallel to what we do There was the right-wing Federalist Society.

They got all these law students to speak in a fascist way, and they used the unitary executive as cover for dictatorship. And really what they wanted was dictatorship. So they used all of these frameworks, you know, states' rights, this, that, you know, you know, you know, big government, small government. This is— I'm a hawk, I'm a this, I'm a that. Um, but that was a way— heads I win, tails you lose— um, for them to ultimately get what they wanted, was they wanted a monarch with absolute immunity. That's— they thought the way to deal with complex times. Empower the oligarchs, crush everybody. And so what we— and so we have to recognize that, and also that the issues here are international in scope, global in scope. And so we need to address it global in scope as well, because if you're trying to fight international forces of fascism, you're like bringing a toothpick if you think that, you know, one election cycle is going to deal with these forces internationally. Now, I get into lots of specifics, I get into the background, we get into all of this, but I saw people saying, okay, Ben, you can't just leave me hanging.

So I, I, I think that there— it is a mindset, it is a broader philosophical approach and pursuit. And when I show you this Howard Lutnick clip right now— and Jeremy, I want to show the one on the All In podcast, not the other one. Because it's just even more absurd. But it's Howard Lutnick talking about 6% GDP. And Jeremy, watch my signal because I don't want to play the whole thing here, but let me show you again like what we're contending with. You know, you have Lutnick, Epstein class oligarch, you know, you know, who is there. Again, like if you told me this was Bernie Madoff saying this I would tell you, I mean, this is Bernie— this is watching like Bernie Madoff on steroids to see Lutnicko. And it's the same creepy voice that he does that when he was like, I wasn't on Epstein Island, I wasn't there, never. He's disgusting. He's a blackmailing disgusting— I would never be— why would I be in his presence? And it's like, well, you were there. 'Yeah, but I was with my kids.' 'Yeah, but that makes it worse.' 'Well, I said I wasn't there.

I never mentioned I wasn't there with my little kids.' 'Yeah, but that's, that's worse. That's even worse than being there with your kids is worse than you.' Okay, and so he, and so he's out on this podcast and they're asking, they're like, 'Yo, what do you think the GDP is going to be? You know, you know, what's your plan? What's your growth plan?' Pod Bros all in. We're finance We tech, we tech, we're finance dudes, we know our shit, we know our stuff, okay? You know, I do, I do SPACs, you know, this is the guy who does the SPACs, the special purpose acquisition companies, whatever. And then Lutnick in that same voice, 6, 6% growth, and then when they cut the interest rates, oh, it's gonna be special. Here, watch what he says, let's play 5. You're going to see 5s in the greatest economy in the world. You're going to see 5s. And people think you can't, you can't— like 5% GDP on a base this big is just—

it's enormous.

We have $30 trillion, so 5% is $1.5 trillion in growth. And if we cut rates You'll see 6s, and people do not— would never— before Donald Trump walked into that office, they would— don't think that's possible. And what's 6 mean? Let's just put 6 in context.

6 was China at its peak under central planning with—

I was saying go back to me, that's why I'm making the hand signals. Um, yeah, I'll put 6 in context. You're fraud. Okay, I'll put it in context for you. You are a liar. That's the context. Okay, there's no 6. Okay, you're making it up. And this stuff has real-world impact on people who are suffering while you promise 6. You last year basically did negative in many ways. And, you know, we, we see a shrinking GDP right now. Few other things I want to point out. Blanche Epstein, time together. We'll keep you posted on what the latest developments are with Blanche's nomination. Confirmation hearing was canceled and it was moved to sometime in the future. Cornyn and Tillis, both who Donald Trump destroyed their careers, Republican senators, they've told Blanche, look, just put in writing that you're not going to have this January 6th slush fund settlement that Trump did with the own— with his federal government, and, um, that Trump wants to waive all tax evasion liability and criminal investigations for not paying taxes and all of this. And Blanche isn't signing a written document, so it seems pretty clear that Trump's plan is to to not pay his taxes.

This is what my opinion— this is my opinion, let me be clear, you could have different opinions— to not pay those taxes and then claim, well, the settlement agreement can only be undone in a— in writing. It needs a writing to be undone. There's no writing, so I don't have to pay my taxes. Just sign the freaking document then. What do we want? Sign a written document. By the way, Blanche is so unqualified, he's so unethical, he's so heinous, He should not even be anywhere near the DOJ. He should not have a law license, in my opinion, but I'm giving you my opinion. But why are you so afraid to sign the document that says it doesn't exist? That just— it's a crazy concept. But we're not giving— why would we give billions of dollars to the January 6th insurrectionists and waive Trump's tax liability? That's, that's psycho. That's crazy. So just put it in a written document. Nope, we're not going to put that. Okay, well then you're— then, then you're a bunch of frauds. The hell are you doing? You think we're stupid? You think we're stupid? By the way, even the non-college educated know it.

By the way, let me be very clear too. Just because you're non-college educated does not mean that you are less smart than college educated or law educated. Todd Blanch went to law school. Okay, I'll put non-college educated over Blanche any day at this point. So I'll make that point clear also. Um, but that's Trump's base, and non-college-educated white— that is, non-college-educated white people. And even they're like, come on, come on, man, what are you doing? What you doing here? We're not— we're not doing this anymore. But by the way, that's what the people in Atlantic City saw. That's what the people in New York— that's Trump's life, man. That's Trump's life. Why do you think the guy went bankrupt so many times? You know, tariffs against the world. You know, he did— okay, I'm just gonna do 3 casinos right next to each other and run up all the debt. It'll be easy, it'll be great. I'll just, just have Michael Jackson show up at the, uh, opening and things will be great. So anyway, that's Todd Blanch on the Epstein case. Hat tip to Katie Fang. Everybody subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel. If not, make sure you subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel.

Midas Touch host, her lawsuit against Todd Blanch and the DOJ. The judge ordered Blanch to turn over a bunch of files for in-camera review. Apparently the files were turned over. We don't know. I mean, the DOJ did a notice of compliance in-camera review. Means the judge has it. We can't see it yet. In camera review, it's what it's called. I-N space camera, C-A-M-E-R-A. It's italicized in law. That just means the judge— Katie Fang doesn't even get to see it. The judge will get to look at it and determine if the judge wants to take further action. Katie said she's good with that because let's have a federal judge see if these representations are true or not. Or wait, so we're waiting on that. A notice of compliance was filed by Trump's DOJ saying they did it. We'll keep you posted as we, as we learn more there. And Donald Trump is now saying that he may withdraw Todd Blanchard's nomination until after the midterms, hoping the Republicans keep control of the Senate and believing that with Tillis and with Corman gone, then he could push Blanche through without a writing that voids the settlement agreement.

That's how important the settlement agreement is to Donald Trump, the written agreement, and he refuses to have Blanche sign a written instrument. Now, to me, it's ridiculous after everything. Like, it's not like Tillis and Corman are no heroes in this story, okay? I mean, the fact that that's their bright line and not all the other stuff that Blanche has done, but you know, that is their bright line apparently. Um, and you know, we'll, we'll— I, I don't have the greatest degree of confidence that they will do the right thing. Um, but, uh, at least that's where we are for now as of this recording. So over the next few hours, maybe even right now, I haven't seen it, the US I'm sure will strike Iran. Iran will strike back. CENTCOM will pretend it didn't happen. Donald Trump will say, I'm gonna blow the effing head off of them. He'll say they want to do a deal, they'll say they don't want to do a deal. We'll have more strikes in Yemen, we'll deplete our strategic reserves, we'll have a terrible day in the market followed by a better day in the market followed by a worse day in the market.

But meanwhile, the American people are the pawns in all of this who are just getting screwed in Whatever the Hell This Market Manipulation Dystopian Nightmare Is. WTF. I can't think of a better title that describes this moment. WTF. Get your— pre-order the copy of the book, um, if, if, if you can. It helps us decide where we're going to tour, what we're gonna do, how we— you know, all the stuff that you have to think with books, uh, but we've dedicated it to you. The first— the dedication page says, "To the Midas Mighty." So if you ever wanted to write a book, you want to tell your kids or grandkids, you know, I kind of helped write this book— you more than kind of helped write this book. You were the inspiration for this book. All of you are the inspiration behind this. All right. Got a lot, got a lot to report on. I did a video that we dropped at 2 PM. Watch the other video on our feed right now. I get into more detail about these Iranian F-35 strikes, what's going on there. I got the Brother Show. Watch the show with me, Brett, and Jordy tonight, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific.

And, uh, appreciate you. Really, really appreciate you. Thanks, thanks so much for everything. These are, these are not easy times. If we could laugh a little bit, if we can cry a little bit, if we can smile a little bit— more laughing and smiling than crying, but it's okay. These are difficult times. There are difficult things that are happening. It's real. This isn't a game. This is, this is real life, and we're, and we're in this together. We're in this journey together. That's that, you know, we didn't really ask to be in this loop, but this is the loop that we're in. And, um, you know, there's, there, there, there's a lot that I, you know, one of the points that I make too in the book, uh, WTF America, pre-order it now, is there are two paths to go down, an A and a B. A, a strong, a fake strongman, fascist, authoritarian, I alone can fix it. Who brings us into the abyss and disaster. Path B, people-powered, um, advancing civil rights, advancing, uh, better climate, better environment, no war. That's a path. The bad news is that we took Path A. Not you and me, but we took, we took the wrong path.

That's undeniable and sad. We literally had this path. Did we want to go in this direction or this direction? We chose as a country the bad direction. We shouldn't sugarcoat it and act like things are great. We took the wrong— the very wrong choice. But I argue, and I'll get into more detail about it in the book, so pre-order it, that we still have the ability to make a U-turn and get out of it right now. We're, we're almost past that, a point where we can't make the U-turn. But making the U-turn still means it's going to be very bumpy out of it, but we can get out of it. But that's not a window that's open for that much longer. I, you know, a few more of these, um, one more of these election cycles, um, potentially we're not out of it. That's just the reality money. But I think the good news is that the country sees this in its rawest, purest form of fascism. And I think this fascist experiment not just failed, but miserably failed. And so I think that opens up a window for progress in a generational way. But we have to think about it in terms of generational and not election cycles.

And we can't be so fixated on cults of personalities that we're blinded and are let down by personalities. And we have to understand the stakes. And that's why, you know, if you've been watching, you know, I think I've been covering the day-to-day politics of things but without being preachy and without being you know, this person and that person, and then, you know, what do you think about this person? For me, it's like, yo, we're, we're under attack from fascism and international fascism, okay? And unless we can recognize that there are different ways to fight it, but ultimately there's a team that wants to fight it, you either fight it or, or, or or it takes over. That's how I see it, as existential stakes. All right, appreciate you all so much. We covered a lot. Pre-order the book if you can, wherever the—

wherever it is.

Pre-order it now.

Uh, put—

can you do me a favor? We got 9,500 people here. Just so I can see it right now, I'm watching the chat. Can you all put WTF if you've done the pre-order or if you plan on pre-ordering it? It so I can, so I can see. I like that someone goes, look at the look on Ben's face when it comes back from the weed gummies. Yum. Ben's face was like, wtf, are you saying, are you saying that I'm doing— I don't do weed gummies. I don't do the weed gummies. That's Bretton, that's Brett and Jordy. Brett and Jordy are weed gummies. That's why I don't do— that's why I don't, I don't, I don't do the weed gummies. You think I could do— I'm like permanently on weed gummies. But they swear by— they like that stuff. But I don't do that. I mean, I'm, I'm perpetually— my natural state— that's why I don't, you know, I, I don't, I don't like— I don't smoke or, or do any of that. Like, I'm, I'm— people think that I'm always high because I naturally, I naturally look that way. So If I've done it in the past, like, dude, it makes me like— it— because I feel like my state of mind is maybe how people feel sometimes when they get high.

When I do it, it's like the worst. It's like ultra paranoia. I, I'm unable to— I'm, I'm truly not equipped for it, like, at all. And it's like, it's a It's a slippery slope, personally, for me anyway. I don't know, maybe, um, maybe I'm trying. I'm not high ever. Someone says, I think you— I've never, never— I've never— I don't, I don't smoke, I don't drink. I go for long walks. That's what I do. I do hot takes all day. That's my drug. I do hot takes all day. All right. Thank you, appreciate you. Shout out Midas Mighty.

I'll see—

I'll see you tonight. Have a good one, everybody.

Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our Substack at midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at midasplus.com.