Transcript of Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 5/12/26 New

You're watching Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news. Before we went live, we learned that the Pentagon is considering a new mission, a new invasion of Iran. They're calling it Operation Sledgehammer. They believe that the ceasefire is likely going to collapse. I don't even think the ceasefire is even real right now. And when the war resumes, which I believe is likely going to take place, as soon as Donald Trump's trip to China, which is sure to be an absolute disaster. When that is done, then there will be Operation Sledgehammer, and then this will be yet another catastrophic invasion of Iran. NBC reports that the US military presence in the region is also now larger than even at the start of the war, with an additional carrier strike group and rearm assets. Now, this news of Operation Sledgehammer comes at a time where we got perhaps one of the most disastrous economic reports in recent history. We learned earlier today inflation surging year over year to 3.8%, its highest level since May of 2023. Donald Trump promised that he was going to bring inflation down, that he was going to bring energy prices down.

Under former President Biden, inflation was coming very close to hit that 2% Fed target. Yes, inflation was high during the first half of former President Biden's term as he was dealing with the catastrophic mess that the arsonist Donald Trump left him when Donald Trump left the country in complete and utter shambles. But the American people forgot about that. They forgot about how Donald Trump said, like a miracle, COVID's gonna go away. It's never going to hit our shores. But former President Biden handed Donald Trump an economy that was the envy of the world. And like Donald Trump's past failed businesses, what did Donald Trump do? He wrecked it. And now we got this inflation report, 3.8%. But when you dig in on this report also, the data is worse than that because inflation is exceeding wage growth right now, meaning any year-over-year wage growth, which is about a 3.6%, that's eclipsed by the 3.8% inflation. So that's one of the reasons also Americans feel that, look, I can't afford anything at all because inflation is rising quicker than wage growth. Also, when you get into these specific, uh, sectors, sectoral inflation, like when you look at energy inflation, when you look at food inflation, when you look at housing inflation, when you look at all these categories, the stuff that impacts the American people the most, that's where inflation is at its highest.

So energy commodity inflation up 29.2%. Okay, gasoline inflation up 28.4%. Airfare up 20%. Energy inflation up 17.9%. Electricity inflation up 6.1%. Fruits and vegetable inflation, 6.1%. Hospital services up 5.5%. Motor vehicle repairs, 5.1%. Apparel inflation, 4.2%. And also cumulative inflation since 2020 is up about 29.2%. And so something that would've cost you $100 back in 2020 now costs you $129. Extrapolate that. $1,000? What would that cost you? $100,000? What would that cost you? $10,000? What would that cost you today? It is unaffordable. But folks, you didn't need this report to tell you this, because if we go out or even go online and say, whoa, or stay in our homes and go, holy crap— I know you, you may have the same reaction that I do when I get that energy bill. When I get some of these bills, I go, that's— I go, that's got to be wrong. That's got to be incorrect. How could that possibly be? No, that's what it— that's what's going on. So we all knew this. But Donald Trump and MAGA, they want to flood the zone and say we're in a golden age and everything is amazing and people are doing great.

We've never been richer. We've never been wealthier. Right. Their euphemism is the K-shaped economy. They call it K-shaped, which basically means most Americans— if you draw a K and you have a horizontal line, 99% of Americans live in the recession, Great Recession, Depression area, right? That's where most Americans are. And above the horizontal line in the K, the rich get richer and have never been richer and wealthier right now while everybody else is getting absolutely screwed. And MAGA does it with a frickin smile. Donald Trump out there, things— I don't care about how you feel. I don't care about what the American people think. You think I care one bit about how the war impacts America's financial condition? It's a direct quote from Donald Trump moments ago as he's heading out with his oligarch crew to head to China, where America has never looked weaker. Donald Trump tried to go after China last year. Remember when Donald Trump threatened to tariff China 140% and China was like, you see, the thing about that, Donald, is we control the rare earths that go into your semiconductors and your military equipment and the cell phones. We control all of it.

So Sure, you want to put your tariffs on? We will just shut off rare earths. And then Donald Trump's like, no, no, no, Xi Jinping, you're my king. Xi, Xi, you're my king. You're my friend. We're friends. Don't do that. Right. Some of the original tacos Trump always chickens out. We saw with China when Donald Trump thought, oh, we're going to be so strong. No, you're going to China now looking like an utter fool. You're going to China looking so weak, so pathetic. You don't have any allies around the world. I did a report this morning how now the European countries in NATO, along with Canada and others, are thinking about reconstituting a NATO-like entity, whether it's a European army with Canada and Australia, you know, and some other countries as well that has Article 5 guarantees because Donald Trump, Donald Trump destroyed Article 5 and destroyed NATO. So you're heading to China with losing the war to Iran, and you did lose because you're a loser. How do you lose? Who controls the Strait of Hormuz? Who got things? Who lost things? That's usually how most people decide winners and losers. I know in your loser world, Donald, with your loser friends, you view losing as winning because you personally benefit while everybody around you gets absolutely screwed.

But when I look at a scoreboard, you know, when I'm watching my New York Knicks, you know, have a good playoff series, I look to see, are they getting more points than the other team? Aha, then I guess you're winning. So before the war in Iran, what'd you say the objectives were? Regime change, get rid of Iran's conventional capabilities, the shield that protects their nuclear weapons, then get rid of the nuclear weapons. And then you are going to put your puppet to run Iran. And you said that was gonna make Iran great again. That's what Donald Trump said. Well, the Iranian regime is still in power. You can say regime change, but it's a more entrenched Islamic Republic. They control the Strait of Hormuz, something that didn't exist before the catastrophic war. They have all of their conventional shield, their Shahed drones, their FPV drones. If anything, they may have more, Russia and China. By the way, tell— why don't you ask Xi Jinping what he's doing with Iran? Why don't you check out what's going on in the Caspian Sea there, Donald? Because Iran is actually probably at a higher capacity of Shahed drones and FPV drones than when even the war started.

And Iran still has the nuclear material. And Iran's out there saying, okay, we had no intention to enrich the uranium at a 90% level. That's nuclear grade. But now Iran's saying, why wouldn't we enrich to 90% if this is how you're behaving when we've agreed to previous deals or every time we negotiate, you attack us? Yeah. One of Iran's spokespersons for the parliament says one of Iran's options in the event of another attack could be 90% enrichment. We will review it in the parliament. Why wouldn't they do it? Just look at Kim Jong-un. You know, your friend who you wrote love letters to. Are you gonna write love letters to Kim Jong-un, Donald, when you're in China? You know, you're close by, so you're gonna say hi to Kim Jong-un? Because, you know, now what's so fascinating is the media doesn't talk about how Kim Jong-un has nuclear weapons. No one even talks about it. I just remember when former President Obama was in office, every time Kim Jong-un would do just tests of cruise missiles or ballistic missiles, remember, front page New York Times, front page Washington Post, front page on every news network.

Obama's so weak, you're letting Kim Jong-un test cruise and ballistic. But what was he supposed to do? What did you want him to do? Like, like Obama stopped Kim Jong-un from getting nuclear weapons. And how did Obama do it? The way America exerted its power before hard power, soft power, developing relationships in the region, a pivot to Asia, which was a big priority of the Obama-Biden administration and Biden-Kamala. Helping relations with South Korea, with Japan, with India. Yeah, India, where Donald Trump threw that relationship under the bus to lift up Pakistan. And now we learn also that Pakistan may be helping Iran hide the Iranian planes and Iranian equipment in Pakistan. While Donald Trump loves Pakistan. I wonder why, Donald. Is it because Pakistan said that you should get a Nobel Peace Prize? For stopping the war between India and Pakistan, even though you didn't have anything to do with it at all? Did they flatter you so now you support Pakistan so much that you're not even willing to, or that you were willing to just throw away America's relationship with India, where now India is far more stronger allied with Russia, which America had, uh, created a situation where India was very much more allied with the United States.

So talk to us about Donald, if that was the smart move. Also, Pakistan invested in Donald Trump's crypto fund, World Liberty Financial. Pakistan created a Pakistan crypto entity, and that crypto entity spent a lot of money on World Liberty Financial. I wonder if that's also why you say that they are great mediators. And look, I am actually— anyone who's doing mediation and trying to avoid war, you know, I, I think that Pakistan has handled it in terms of a mediation about as good as, about as good as they, you know, they could. But, you know, just let's talk about it. Donald Trump being compromised, and you've thrown away your relationship, uh, with India there. And so, yeah, I mean, as, as I see it, you know, uh, you know, you— let's go back to Kim Jong-un for a second— allowed Kim Jong-un to get those nuclear weapons. Who else let them get it? You sent him love letters, you know, you let him flatter you. He built nuclear weapons and now no one even talks about it anymore. I mean, the fact that nobody is out there or like corporate news doesn't blame Donald Trump for that.

And that's just like, yeah, we remember the whole decade where we talked about two decades where we would talk about Kim Jong Un and then Kim Jong Un's dad and the threat of nuclear. We don't talk about that anymore. So if you're Iran and you're watching that experience, You're saying to yourself, okay, let's get nuclear grade. What are we doing here? Let's get nuclear grade. Let's use the ceasefire to try to do, you know, to try to do that. That seems to be our only option. We can't deal with the United States in good faith. Look what Donald Trump does. Look how he behaves. So you're going to China, having lost the war in Iran, having been outmaneuvered by China on rare earths. You've demonstrated that your security umbrella or the US security umbrella no longer works in the Middle East and no longer works in Asia. I read it was— I think it was Max Boot at the Washington Post. I think he interviewed a former CIA analyst. I think the guy's name was John Culver. His last name was Culver, 35-year CIA analyst. He said, at this point, China's military has far surpassed the United States military and that the CIA right now views that if China were to invade Taiwan, the psychological profile inside the CIA about Donald Trump is that Trump would immediately flee the area with our, with our troops and our ships, and Trump would not step in to help Taiwan.

And so the CIA analysis though goes on to say, from China's perspective, America's security umbrella now is so rapidly degrading that China feels, though, why would we ever even need to invade Taiwan? Not going to take it off the table as an option, but why would we need to invade Taiwan? Naturally, what is just going to happen as the US gets weaker and weaker, and Trump's pushing in that direction, Taiwan eventually is going to reckon— this is China's thing, this is how our CIA views it— China is eventually, uh, China going to be growing so strong that Taiwan will eventually say, we just got to make sure it's, it's one China and we do unification. There's already, if you're following what's going on in Taiwan, an opposition leader who traveled to China last month. Was about a 6-day or 7-day trip. And this opposition leader is gaining popularity in Taiwan. You know, think Nigel Farage of Reform Party, pushing Brexit. Think about Le Pen's party, uh, and the successors to Le Pen in France. Think about, you know, these opposition parties, if you will. There's, you know, different kind of concepts. I mean, in terms of like MAGA versus a lot of these, these other are like MAGA nationalistic groups.

But this opposition party in Taiwan is supporting kind of this One China unification And China's view, Xi Jinping's calculation is just, why would we do anything right now that would get in the way of the United States fall? The United States is a desperate and flailing hegemon. That's what the CIA analysis says. And China's like, just let him, let him, let him fail. So Donald Trump's going to show up there, and already Donald Trump has made statements in the Oval Office during some of these deranged pressers that he's had. Where certain kind of key issues of like China locking up, you know, Taiwanese dissidents and, you know, Donald Trump's— Donald Trump always sides with Xi Jinping on this stuff. So it's just interesting, right? The Republicans, MAGAs, Tea Party predecessors, right? Didn't they always love to like lecture us that they were China hawks, right? They love to call themselves hawks. Hawks, like, like a stupid word, like Like, it's like, we're not liberal, we're hawks, we're China hawks, we're deficit hawks, we're debt hawks. Like, why do— first off, and by the way, corporate news like buys into that. Like, they give the right wing all these cool nicknames, like they're hawks.

What's hawk? You know, just because you call yourself a hawk, I don't even know what the hell that means. What, you're a hawk? And that's supposed to mean like, look, they're deficit hawk, they're debt hawks, they're China hawks, they're tough, they're tough. No, they're not. These are losers. These are loser psychotic human beings who are not tough. They're not hawks. They're pushovers. They're losers. They let Donald Trump push them around. They're bootlickers. They don't stand for anything. They're really just the lamest human beings. They're MAGA zombies. It's so bizarre and pitiful to watch these individuals behave so I don't even know how to describe it. Just so whatever, just letting Donald Trump run all over him. It's disgusting. But really, deficit hawks, debt hawks, deficit rising, debt surging, $1.5 trillion. Right. You had Hagseth there today. We need $1.5 trillion. $1.5 trillion for what? With $1 trillion, You couldn't control the Strait of Hormuz, so now you want $1.5 trillion for what? Golden domes! Golden dome! What is it? What the hell? What is a golden dome? What are you even talking about? You know, none of what they say makes sense. They're all con artists.

And as I said on the podcast I do with Brett and Jordy, the Brother Podcast, I said everything in this Trump regime is like the reflecting pool. How are you going to solve the problem? Let's just paint it blue. Just paint everything blue and then let's call it, you know, we'll call it we fix the reflecting pool. That's not how you fix it. You don't know the issues. The issues in the reflecting pool is that because DC is a swamp, it attracts algae and then the heat also creates cracks in the reflecting pool that causes water to leak. Millions of gallons leak each year. And because the reflecting pool is so big and it's so dang hot in Washington, DC, This creates a constant problem because it's outside and the size of it. It's really hard if you think about the physics and the science of it to actually deal with this problem other than to throw a lot of money at it. And maybe the right thing to think about is, should there be a reflecting pool there at all in the first place? Because of just the sheer science and physics behind the heat and the fact that it costs lots of money to continue to fix.

But whatever, past presidents, or they don't make their focus on the Reflecting Pool, but they have their National Park Services deal with it. But Donald Trump is obsessed with the Reflecting Pool, obsessed with the ballroom, obsessed with the triumphal arches. And when it comes to the Reflecting Pool, he hires his pool guy, he says, gives a no-bid contract with a $4 to $5 million profit margin on it so that they could turn the Reflecting Pool and coat it like the way a pool is, like a pool bottom. To turn the reflecting pool into like a, like an actual pool, which defeats the whole concept of what a reflecting pool is. It's supposed to be a little bit somber and reflecting, not this bright swimming pool. It's ridiculous that you're building a swimming pool there and you're not going to address the fundamental issues of the algae and the cracks. And if anything, it's going to look far worse when you actually see what the reflecting pool looks like. When it's so bright like that. And so just watch what's going to happen in, you know, if this thing actually goes through. You're going to see the sludge.

It's going to— it's so easy to predict what's going on. But that's his thing for everything. When it comes— starting with the beginning of this episode, what do we do? Operation Epic Fury didn't work, so what do we do? Project Freedom. Project Freedom lasts less than 24 hours, even though like our media pretends, okay, then we did Project Freedom. We just gave a name to— what do you mean we did Project Freedom? It's a made-up thing. Then what do we do? Project Freedom Plus. That's what Lindsey Graham's talking about. We got to do Project Freedom Plus. And now, because last summer we did Midnight Hammer, this is how Donald Trump thinks. Now think about it. My trip with Xi Jinping is now. My— the last time we went and attacked Iran was basically a year ago. So why don't we— we could do the sequel. It's like the second movie, man. It's like Rush Hour 2, right? It's like Rush Hour 2, man. We did Rush Hour 1, now we do Rush Hour 2. So we did Operation Midnight Hammer, and now we did Operation Sledgehammer. High five! Yeah, that's gonna do it. We're just gonna call it a different name.

We're gonna call it Operation Sledgehammer. Genius! What a great plan. I mean, what are we doing?

We're—

this is like He's turned this country into the stupidest Trump company imaginable. And yes, the entire world is indeed laughing at the United States now. So, and by the way, as Donald Trump heads to China, he's got Brett Ratner, who was in the Epstein files. Brett Ratner, there was that photo of him. You know, that was, that was, that was one of the photos that surfaced. Ratner directed the Melania documentary, which was an utter failure. Which Trump and corporate news pretended was a success. Look, it was number one. I mean, you know, you guys spent $80 million on the advertising in the movie, and I think it made like $10 million. So once again, losing money is not gaining money. But Melania did well. So for Melania, I mean, she, she made out well. What did Bezos pay her and Trump? Like $40 million. I mean, and for Bezos, he's like, okay, You know, we've got Amazon, you know, we've got all the Amazon internet services and the cloud and all of these things that we do at Amazon. And so, you know, if I just pay Melania $40 million, you know, maybe that'll help me with my stock price and the rich get richer.

So I'll do that. You want to make Rush Hour 4? Okay, I'll just view making Rush Hour 4 as, you know, just, you know, R&D into Amazon cloud services. And I could justify it, you know, that way. I'll just treat it as a loss and write it and write it off anyway. Brett Ratner is part of the US delegation to China. Trump wants Bezos and Ratner to make Rush Hour 4. Operation Midnight Hammer. Operation Sledgehammer. We're doing Rush Hour 1, 2, 3. Now we got to do Rush Hour 4. I mean, can you think of someone who's so out? This is real. And again, this is beyond parody. You know, and I know sometimes when we talk about the ballrooms and we talk about the, you know, the arches and the reflecting pools and the golf course takeover, it was takeover the public golf courses and Club Rose Garden, you know, and all of this stuff, you know, I know sometimes it sounds like parody and sometimes the tone that we use can take the form of mockery. And I think we have to know though that these issues that Donald Trump is trying to flood the zone.

And they're part of a broader distraction plan to just make people so grossed out about politics, to have people so tuned out and turned off by all of this that their authoritarianism can fester, that they can engage in their genocide and their catastrophic wars and their pillaging of America's wealth, transferring it to the oligarchs. And people are so tuned out that They're like, just enough, enough, enough, enough, enough. And so, you know, if Donald Trump behaves semi-normal for 2 hours, the corporate news praises the guy, you know, like, oh, did you see? It's a new tone. It's a new tone. It's not a new tone. He's a fascist. He's an authoritarian. He's a damn loser. He's been a loser his whole life. He's making America into a loser nation. He's destroyed our alliances. He's harmed America long term. Just call it out. It's very easy. He's a war criminal. Call it out. He's a sexual predator. He's been found civilly liable for sexual assault. Shouldn't be in a room with children. Call it out. Just call it out. It's not hard. Just say the words, right? You know, I'm thinking last night, I'm thinking last night, you know, he's posting— last night he posted 50 posts.

Harry Sisson did a good job kind of documenting, you know, all of these posts that Donald Trump made. I did a whole video on it this morning where I talked about all the stuff that he's been posting. You know, Obama guilty of treason. Obama and the CIA are spying on me. You know, QAnon post this, QAnon post that. Weird AI images about the war. Bing bang bong. We're gonna bing bang bong shoot. You know, just like weird AI images. And Iran's just mocking. You know, it just looks so pathetic. You know, I— this is one of the posts. Lasers, bing, bing, bong. Bye-bye, bye-bye, fast boats. Bye-bye, fast boats. Bing, bing, kabong. I mean, really, we're in a really serious war. You committed war crimes. You slaughtered 168 little girls in Manab. You've engaged in other war crimes. You and Netanyahu are complicit in a genocide. You're right now complicit in another genocide in Lebanon as well. I mean, you're out there, you know, you know, you're out there engaged in all of this heinous conduct.

You got—

you're covering up the Epstein files every single day, you know, and, you know, and it's just post after post after post like this. And the corporate news doesn't want to do— you know, doesn't even want to deal with it. Yeah, I mean, he's posting this about JB Pritzker. Hey, Donald, you're obese. I hate to break it to you. You're an obese man, Donald. Like, you're— you're obese. You look physically ill. You— your hands are rotting. You look disgusting. You think you're like a handsome— you're a disgusting person. You're obese and you're attacking J.B. Pritzker. Lots of people in America, first off, struggle with obesity. You know who makes fun of obese people? Like idiot children whose parents should discipline them. That's who makes fun of obese, obese people. Grown-ups don't make fun of obese people. People struggle with them. You struggle with obesity. You're probably more obese than JB Pritzker right now. Like, like, let's be real about it. And you're posting memes of JB Pritzker to mock his weight. That's how you're using the power, the perch of the United States presidency. That's what pisses me off. It's such a dang honor to be the president of the United States.

And that used to matter. And now even Iran doesn't want to meet with you. The president of Brazil doesn't want to be seen with you in a press conference because you're so embarrassing. No one— NATO doesn't want to hold meetings where you're invited because you going there just ruins it for everybody. You destroy everything you touch. And no, and so bizarre to me that no one calls it out. I was— I'll drop this interview I did with Governor Bashir in the next day or two. But before I went live, I did an interview with Governor Bashir and I said, Governor, you and I both know— I said, I like you as a governor. You're a popular governor in a red state. You have a national identity. I said, Governor, if you made one post, just one that looked like any of these, you know, your legislature would impeach you. You know that you would probably feel I deserve to be impeached. I wouldn't want to interview you. I would tell— I would say Bashir needs to go if you did one of those. And when Trump does 50 of them a night, we just go, that's Trump, man.

That's just how he is. This is Trump being Trump, man. I mean, just think about what he did today as he was heading off for this disastrous trip in China. He was asked a question by a reporter. 'What extent are Americans' financial situations motivating you to make a deal?' And Trump's response, 'Not even a little bit. I don't think about Americans' financial situation.' Done. In any normal time where we once cared about vice presidents spelling the word potato wrong, this should be done. This should be disqualifying. It's done. I don't care about the American financial situation. I don't think about it one bit. But then when it's Trump, you know, Trump says things, Trump, he's Donald Trump. No, no, stop it. Stop it. Can I shake you all back to reality? Let me shake— the Midas Touch Network should be— that's what we should call this, shake you back to damn reality. The thing is, everybody watching this, the people out there actually are living in reality. A lot— most people are. If that wasn't the case, Midas Touch Network would not be successful. We wouldn't be the most watched digital network that's out there, and we wouldn't be beating Rogan in audio downloads and consistently being the number one YouTube podcast on all of YouTube if people didn't also, by and large, agree with this.

And also, when you look at the right-wing podcasts that are doing well right now, whether it's the Candace Owens or the Tuckers or people like that who are on the list with me, who I still beat them by significant amounts, but they're out there now speaking to their audience also about how deranged Donald Trump is too, from slightly different angles than me. But so the people understand what's going on right now, but yet corporate news and everybody tries to act like this is normal. That's why my dogs are angry about it. You hear the dogs. Let me just show you what Donald Trump says. Let's just play that video, Jeremy, of the reporter saying, what extent are Americans' financial situations motivating you? Fair question, right? Let's play it. Why not? Why not invest $1 trillion in Iran? When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans' financial situations motivating you to make a deal?

Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot Let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all.

And then here he is attacking the reporter. Let's just show the other one.

We have a ballroom that's under budget. It's going up right here. I've doubled the size of it because we obviously need that. And we're right now on budget, under budget, and ahead of schedule. I doubled the size of it, you dumb person. You are not a smart person.

And that's how he talks to female reporters all the time. Calls them piggy. You're a dumb person. That's how he treats female reporters. That's how he treats reporters in general, particularly female reporters. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. Reminder, subscribe to the Midas Touch YouTube channel. Do me a favor. If you are able to become a member of our YouTube channel, click join. And then gift as many memberships as you can to others and have other people become members also. As you know, there's the exclusive podcast I do with Ron Filipkowski that's available to our members only. Would love for you to have access to that. And then you have access to the emojis. And I know financial times are difficult right now, so if you have the ability to afford it, gift it to others who can't become members right now. And then they get to have access to the member. Just click join, you can gift them as many memberships as you want. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.

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Welcome back. Great ad reads. Thank you to our sponsors. They keep this show going. Support our sponsors. The discount codes are in the description below. So what do you think MAGA Republican senators, Congress members, what do you think they're saying after Donald Trump very clearly said, I don't care about the financial situation of America, not one bit. I don't care. I don't care. Well, this is one of the things we've been building up at the Midas Touch Network, our DC bureau, because we want to make sure that in an age where corporate news has failed us, we rapidly go to the members, go to the senators, and ask them these questions for you. Donald Trump just said this, what's your response? What's your response? Not wait, not delay. Not play cover-up for Donald Trump. So it's exactly what we did. We have Pablo Monriquez and Scott McFarland. They're there on the DC bureau. We'll also soon be announcing additional hires to our Washington, DC bureau. We continue to expand. Your memberships, by the way, help that. I think you've seen the expansion of Midas Touch. If you're also wondering, like, but what else do I get from my membership?

Well, I mean, I think the exclusive features is pretty good. I think the emojis are pretty good. I think the special podcasts are pretty good, but also it's helped grow this network and it's put us in a position where we have a thriving DC bureau and we can do things like this. So we asked right away Senator Susan Collins, hey, Senator Collins, any comment on Trump saying he doesn't care about the financial condition of Americans? Let's see what she says. Let's play it.

Donald Trump saying that he doesn't think about American— the American people's financial situation.

He just said it in the presser about an an hour and a half ago.

Well, I didn't see that.

You haven't seen it yet?

Okay.

Senator, okay, are you comfortable with the reports in the New York Times regarding—

Yes. Then Senator Marshall, what about you, MAGA Senator Marshall? What do you think? Let's play it.

On, uh, what Trump just said at his presser.

I don't know what he just said.

Well, he said he doesn't think much about the finances of the American people.

I would have to find out the context of it. I'm sorry. Got it. What about Senator Loomis? Senator Loomis, what do you, what do you think about— I saw you speaking with the TMZ cameras recently and they were asking you some interesting questions, but what about this? Pretty big deal. What do you think? Here, play it.

Consider it.

So real quick, what do you make of Donald Trump saying that he doesn't think about the finances or the financial situation of the American people.

Did he say that?

Yeah.

I don't have a comment about that, mostly because I think he actually does care. Don't— I think he— don't listen to what he says or does, just listen to the fantasy version that, that we've created for you. Oh, we know that he doesn't say these things. He doesn't He doesn't care about the gold. He's focused every night. We all know that about him. No, that's, that's, that's wild and crazy and dangerous what we're just observing there.

What do you mean?

I think he did. What, what would lead you to believe he does when literally every action he does hurts? I mean, and I know, look, when I show you this stuff, it certainly has the ability to turn off people to politics in general, right? Like, somebody who wants to watch this sometimes— I mean, I say this as someone who does this for a living, because sometimes you're like, what? Come on. All right, whatever, let me just do something else today. I don't want it. But no, but we have to, because this stuff— we have to watch this, we have to see it, because this stuff is impacting us. And what's more important than focusing on the things that are out there that are harming us. We know that these actions have consequences, and I would love to— instead of being in a Trump two-week death spiral cycle, waking up to the drama, waking up to the chaos, waking up to the weirdness and the, and the WTF. I would so much rather go to a world where there's just normalcy and stability and things were calmer and more boring. Would be great. It would be great.

You know, there would still be an opportunity to report on the news. You know, we would, we would certainly be able to talk about this policy versus that policy and show you congressional hearings and show you what's at stake. But I truly want to get out of this loop. But the importance, I think, of the Midas Touch Network is when I see corporate news just ignoring all of this stuff. Donald Trump is off to a trip in China where Donald Trump believes that he is in a very strong position to negotiate regarding, uh, future relationships between the two major powers in the world. Donald Trump said that he feels very good about his friendship with Xi Jinping. Cue the clip of Donald Trump. Yeah, Xi Jinping and I are really good friends. It should be a good meeting. Well, that's what Donald Trump said. And let's take a look at what are— what's MAGA Mike— what's Mike Johnson saying? Yeah, we've never been more stronger. We're in the golden age and we look forward to a positive outcome. Well, there you have it, everybody. Donald Trump is heading to China. We will keep you more posted.

In other news, a squirrel has been, uh, you know, it's like You know, you watch the corporate— it's, it's, uh, you know, it's like, which regime media is there? Fox, state regime media. CBS, state regime media. By the way, you saw CBS, state regime media, you know, after Donald Trump went after 60 Minutes for making the— a cosmetic edit for Kamala Harris that just basically edited out some ums or ahs and didn't change the context of what she said at all. Trump sued CBS. Remember, that's one of the things that started all of this. Trump was too afraid to do a 60 Minutes interview, and Kamala did the 60 Minutes interview, but then Trump sued CBS and then had them do a ridiculous settlement, and then Trump took over the network essentially. Um, but you saw that CBS. I mean, whenever Trump was on 60 Minutes, it was heavily edited. Material points at like critical moments edited out. And then Netanyahu was on, critical moments edited out. And then apparently Barry Weiss didn't allow Leslie Stahl to do the interview of Netanyahu and gave it to Major Garrett. And Leslie Stahl was absolutely livid because she's the one who does good, tough interviews.

Remember, Donald Trump was afraid of Leslie Stahl. And walked out of that interview back in 2020 and then tried to show Leslie Stahl a binder of his health plan. It was all blank pages. And then she asked for a copy of it from Kayleigh McEnany. Remember that? And it was all blank pages. I mean, just think about who does that. You gave— could you imagine if Biden gave them a fake binder that didn't have anything on? Like, we'd all be like, dude, impeach this guy immediately, right? I mean, it's just, this is wild to me. The, the double standards, or the, you know, it's double standards is putting it lightly. So a few other things happened today. You know, you had, uh, you had Hegseth and General Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and others testifying on Capitol Hill. Um, here's a notable moment where Lindsey Graham was cross-examining Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Hegseth about the reports about Iranian airplanes and drones and other equipment being kept in Pakistan so that they would avoid being blown up in the war. And this was like, let's see, like, how is our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and how is Hegseth answering this here?

Let's play this clip.

Pakistan, uh, are you aware of reports that Pakistan are allowing their bases to be used to park Iranian aircraft Uh, General Cain, sir, I've, uh, I've seen one report on that. Was it accurate? Um, sir, I think, uh, based on the variety of classified classification matters, let me just say, do you agree if it is accurate, that is sort of inconsistent with it being a peace mediator?

Sir, I wouldn't want to comment on that based on the ongoing negotiations.

Secretary, Secretary If the mediator is allowing reconnaissance aircraft of Iran to be parked in Pakistani air bases, do you think that's consistent with being a fair mediator?

Again, I wouldn't want to get in the middle of these negotiations.

I want maximum—

Well, I do.

I want to get in the middle of these negotiations. I don't trust Pakistan as far as I can throw them. If they actually do have Iranian aircraft parked in Pakistan bases to protect Iranian military assets, that tells me we should be looking maybe for somebody else to mediate. No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere.

Oh wow, wow, wow, wow. Let me show you Senator Reid's questioning, which demonstrated that, um, when the Trump regime is saying they've only spent $29 billion on the war so far It's a made-up number. Like, they're not counting probably 90% of the expenses, nor are they even counting the consequential and incidental expenses, like the fact that interest rates are not going to be reduced, the fact that our debt will continue to increase, the fact that, um, you know, this will have— this will now cause, you know, as a result of this failures, we have to increase our military budget. By, you know, one— now it's got to be $1.5 trillion. So the cost of this, in my view, is probably in the, in the, in the trillions. I mean, look at the bond market right now, right? The cost of borrowing by the Treasury Department significantly higher. And so the interest that we have to pay off is higher, and that's because this is a catastrophic war. The bond markets would stabilize, interest rates could eventually go down as they were supposed to go down if we didn't do trade wars against the world and disastrous, catastrophic you know, wars.

Anyway, let's play this clip right here. Let's play the clip.

Mr. Secretary, uh, we have been trying to track down the expenditures in Operation Epic Fury and Operation Freedom Now, and we've sent letters and we've got very few responses. We've been sending letters since March 10th. Uh, we did understand that was released that in the first 6 days $11.3 billion was spent, uh, and then recently we were told $25 billion was spent. Today I think the number is $29 billion. Um, can you provide some details as to what consists of that $29 billion? Have we counted everything?

Yes, Senator Reid. So I testified this morning to HACD that between the Joint Staff and the Comptroller's staff, our operational cost estimate is now $29 billion. A lot of that increase comes from having a refined estimate on repair and replacement costs for equipment. Our munitions costs are fairly fixed. We think they're very accurate, and there's some O&M costs there as well. We're not making an estimate for MILCON at this time. We don't know what our future posture is going to be. We don't know how those bases would be reconstructed, and we don't know what percentage our allies and partners will pay for that reconstruction.

So you do not consider installations that have been damaged in the conflict, correct?

We just don't have a good estimate at this time.

So it's not in the $29 billion?

That's correct.

Expended weapons, are they totally included within the estimate?

Yes. To the best of my knowledge, we have a full count of the expended weapons.

And weapons transferred to other countries in the region, are they counted in?

I would want to double-check to make sure we have that accurately.

Please.

I mean, uh, you're coming up and asking for another significant supplemental, etc., and before we can, I think, reasonably appropriate additional money, we have to find out how the existing appropriated dollars have been spent. So that's critical.

Well, what about our munitions, right? We've seen reports that America expended around 70% of our munitions and that, uh, very little of Iran's munitions have been destroyed. We— America's lost 70% of our overall munitions, like in the world, on this war, and Iran apparently still has most of its drones, missile capabilities, launchers. So, care to answer? Basic question, right? Basic question. Um, General Cain and Secretary Hegseth both declined to comment. On reports that only 30% of Iran's missile capacity has been destroyed. Let's play.

Drone program. The president said just a week ago that Iran maybe had 18 to 19% of their missile capacity left, but there is public reporting suggesting that our intelligence agencies say that Iran still has 70% of their missile and drone capability, which would be a failure of our objectives if that were to be true. Um, what can you tell us about the number of missiles and drones that they have left, and do you dispute your— that intelligence estimate?

Sure, I'm not going to comment— with deep respect for the question, I'm not going to comment in this forum on what may or may not have been opined on by the IC, which would suggest a leak or a confirmation of any intel. So while I appreciate the question. I hope you'll also appreciate my not answering it.

Well, then just give me what is— the president said that 80% of—

yeah, I'm not going to comment on BDA on either way, sir.

Uh, well then, how do we, how do we or the American public assess the success of the mission when you've stated publicly the purpose of the mission is to destroy their missile and drone capability?

How do Exactly.

And here's the thing, Trump is out there saying lies. That's the point. The question is, Donald Trump says that we destroyed— what Senator Murray said, Murphy said, is 80%, but actually, if you— I know Trump said that once, but mostly Trump says we obliterated it all, none of it exists. So here's the thing, Trump has a forum for propaganda and lies without any accountability because our sycophantic media refuses to do its damn job. So then when you have the ability to ask under oath the people who should be providing answers, what about what Donald Trump said? Is that accurate? I can't answer that question. Why not? He's saying it publicly. There's no classified thing. Trump said it publicly. Is what he said publicly true? I can't, I can't speak on that. That's authoritarianism right there. That's fascism right there. That right there, you should be held in contempt. I don't care if you're the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. You should be thrown in. That's it. You're not answering any question. You're not doing— you know, you're in Congress. And it's so pathetic to me, so pathetic that MAGA Republicans in Congress are totally okay with Congress becoming the Russian Duma.

A rubber stamp for a real sicko, for Donald Trump, a real sick and vile human that you just rubber stamp what he's doing. The whole point of Congress is to be a check and balance on the executive branch. So when you're a member of Congress, you're not supposed to be the cheerleader. You're supposed to be someone who holds them accountable. That doesn't mean you should not support the legislation. You know, and if it's someone in your party and you agree with the legislation, certainly pushing through an agenda that you agree with. But they're giving you the— the executive branch is giving you the middle finger in an unprecedented way that they don't have to answer your questions. Now, the Democrats don't control the committee. Democrats don't control the Senate. Democrats don't control the House. Republicans control the House and the Senate, and under our rules, Republicans are the ones who have subpoena power. They are the ones who lead what type of legislation gets out of Congress for the president's signature. They're the one who controls the legislative agenda, and this is just what they do. I mean, yeah, I'm not sure if you saw my earlier coverage, but you got Jim Jordan.

Jim Jordan says, uh, 'You know, look, could you imagine how bad things would be if Kamala was in office?' No, I can't imagine that because she's not in office. What a stupid argument. What a senile—

Donald Trump—

what a stupid person you are, Jim Jordan. What a stupid person you are. What a stupid thing to say. Can I imagine what— why would I imagine what it would be like with Kamala? She's not in office. You don't need to create— you know, the Republicans, they want to create a fake Donald Trump avatar who doesn't say the things he says he does. Then they want to create a fake, uh, alternative universe that we get angry at a universe that doesn't exist. Can you get— look, if Kamala was doing this stuff, yeah, I'd call for her impeachment.

Absolutely.

I don't care if she's a Democrat. If she was doing this stuff and talking about ballroom vish— and you know who would probably impeach her? The Democrats would lead the impeachment against her. I can guarantee— I can guarantee you that. I mean, you had— you have Democrats who have thrown out Democrats from the Senate. For things that wouldn't even be a, a, a afterthought of an afterthought of an afterthought for Republican behavior. Okay, so, so, so don't, don't give me the both sides or whatever. Republicans play by— for those Republicans play by a different set of rules. For those who are my age, you may remember Game Genie. I remember Game Genie. For those who remember who played Nintendo, you would put Game Genie on your cartridge, then you could like get immunity and like you wouldn't have to play by the rules of the game and you could like beat all of the boards, you know, Game Genie it was called. Yeah, like Republicans operate by Game Genie rules. Democrats have to be on expert level all of the time. Republicans get Game Genie. That's stupid. That's stupid. It shouldn't be that way. It should be we all play by the same rules, we're all judged by the same standards, you know, there's a report card.

We, we, whether you're A, B, C, D, E, F, you know, pass/fail, however you want to do it, and we assess credibly what's going on in our country. That's it. That's what we should do. So here's, here's, here he is. You got MAGA Republican Jim Jordan saying, could you imagine what Kamala would be like? Why? Here, play this clip.

President Trump makes decisions that are in the best interest of our country. He's going to do things that benefit the United States of America, and that is his focus. And thank goodness we have him on the world stage. Thank goodness he's our president doing these negotiations and frankly, not Kamala Harris, because, you know, Lord knows what she'd be up to if she was there. So I feel confident he's going to talk about all these issues and, you know, make progress for things that, again, benefit the citizens of our great country.

You know, I say it a lot. But like, I don't know how else to— these are sick humans. Like, these are sick people. Like, these are really bad, sick humans. Like, their behavior, it's not normal. They don't behave like— these— this is not normal human being behavior that you see from these people, right? I mean, I'm watching that and I go, what are you— takama— what are you even talking about? What, what weird world do you live in? And by the way, how dark must it be? This, their, their whole worldview, their whole life being a pathetic bootlicker all day. Donald, Donald, Donald, Donald, Donald, what can I do for you, Donald? Could you— I just can't even imagine that existence every damn day. So odd. All these people, all of them. I mean, here You see Kash Patel today. Watch, watch. These are— it's like freaking dangerous, strange, weird human beings. Like, what? Watch Kash with his shirt button, his shirt button. I mean, dude looks like he just walked out of a— well, anyway, here, play the clip.

As do the men and women of the interagency and state and local law enforcement in the White House.

And so there have been no occasions when your security detail had difficulty waking or locating you, is that right?

Nope, it's a total farce. I don't even know where you get this stuff, but it doesn't make it credible because you say so.

I'm not saying it, Director Patel. It's been written and documented.

You are literally saying it.

No, I'm saying that these are reports, Director Patel.

Unlike, unlike I was saying, reports, the only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist was you. You know, the only person that ran up a $7,000 $7,000 bar tab in Washington, D.C. at the Lobby Bar was you.

This is just the allegations drinking on taxpayer dime during the day. Are you polygraphing, Director Patel?

Come on.

These are serious allegations that were made against you. They're allegations that are false.

You drinking margaritas with a gangster.

Actually, I'm just supposed to show you—

Running a $7,000 bar tab at the Lobby Bar has been filed by your own office goes to show during the day, that's you. This is the ultimate example of hypocrisy. I will not be tarnished by baseless allegations. Let me ask you a question from the media.

The fact that you mentioned that indicates you don't know what you are talking about. Now, here, the only thing I know is you're the one drinking margaritas with— actually, that's a false statement. And I'm asking you about your statements.

I've answered that.

And I'm asking you about a particular report, and it's not a report. Testimony is. So let me ask you this. Are you willing to take the test? It's called the audit test that members of our active duty military and others take to determine whether they have a drinking problem.

I'll take any test you're willing to take.

I will take it, Director Patel. I'll take it. You ready to take it?

Let's go.

Yes or no?

Let's go.

Side by side.

I'll take it.

All right.

I think that—

and I'll tell you what, they think that— Maga thinks that looks strong. Do you know how weak that looks? Do you know how embarrassing that makes the FBI look? The FBI agents know how embarrassing— law enforcement knows how embarrassing that makes them, them look to see that. The hell— what the hell is that, right? I mean, what, what is that? And again, lying about a senator with AI margarita photos. What are you talking about, man? You know, the guy sells cash merch. K-A-dollar-sign-H. Deranged behavior, all of them. That's what we have today, folks. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. Become a member of our YouTube channel. Click join. You can gift memberships to as many people as you want. If you're able to afford a membership, gift some memberships to people, uh, it grows the channel as well and you get access to our bonus features. So do that. Thank you everybody for watching. We appreciate you watching Ben on Breaking News. We appreciate you. Hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers, and we'll see you next time. Shout out Midas Mighty. Have a good one, everybody.

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