Transcript of Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 3/24/26

This has been on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis, and this is your breaking news. Moments ago, Donald Trump held a deranged press conference in the Oval Office where he bragged about how Iran gave him a very secret prize, a very valuable gift that Donald Trump says he was very grateful for. Doesn't want to talk about what the gift is, but He got a present, he said. Now, this follows 24 hours before where Donald Trump said his plan is to create a joint venture agreement, like an LLC, if you will, with the Ayatollah to jointly control the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump and his new buddy, the Ayatollah, working together, Donald Trump said to the press. When he was on a tarmac heading to Tennessee, where he went to Graceland and in a very deranged fashion— I did a video on it— started autographing Elvis's guitar and started acting as though Elvis was alive today. It was very, very bizarre. You had Pete Hegseth at this press conference in the Oval Office saying that Basically, we don't negotiate except with bombs. That's how we negotiate, with bombs. And meanwhile, the Iranian regime is like mocking Donald Trump and his regime.

They've been posting photographs of like a car that has like the steering wheel. I'll read you this one in a moment. There's another one where they have like a car with like an actual steering wheel, but then like the baby steering wheel on the passenger side. And they were like, Donald Trump and the Ayatollah will work on the Strait of Hormuz together. Then the Iran embassy from South Africa, they posted like a fake Signal message. And the reason, of course, why they use Signal is because they probably have hacked into all of the Signal messages of the Trump regime officials. But regardless, they say good and productive talks with Iran, and they mock Donald Trump. Having a conversation with himself on Signal where Donald Trump's like, hey, Ayatollah, let's talk about the Strait for sure. Oh, that's good to hear. Okay, I will cease attacks for 5 days. Thank you for your attention to this matter. And it's basically left on read. Like, there is no response to Donald Trump's message. If you pull it up one more time, it actually says on top, It says President of Peace is who he's— is who it's from.

President of Peace. I mean, again, that's what they're doing in Iran. I mean, we can look at some of the objective facts because we know that Donald Trump lies about everything and/or does this to manipulate the markets. Both. The guy lies about every word. I suppose if there was a superpower, although I don't mean it in a positive sense, It's that how could literally every word and syllable be laced with a lie? It's an impressive quality that quite literally all you spew all day is an imaginary world, but that it is based on forcing others to bend to the reality of your imaginary world. And I guess the frustration would be putting it lightly. The panic that the Trump regime is having with Iran is Iran is saying, no, we're not, we're not doing that. We're not agreeing to any of these things. No, we're not going to give up the Strait of Hormuz. Why would we? We control it with an iron fist now. You've already removed sanctions on our oil, which we never had lifted before. We're making billions of dollars. We created a toll in the Strait of Hormuz. Countries like India have to negotiate with us bilaterally right now, and then their ships can pass.

China negotiating with us bilaterally. We are increasing our penetration rate of ballistic missiles, and Iran has rolled out these cluster munitions right now. That they've been using where they shoot less missiles by far. And one of the reasons is the US has been able to strike a lot of the ballistic missile launchers in Iran. But Iran also has shifted tactics and they figured, why do we even need to shoot so many ballistic missiles if we can just shoot 1 or 2 a day at the right location, be more precise with it, and disrupt massive amounts of trade, we're just going to keep on doing that every day while we control the Strait of Hormuz. And so last night in Isfahan and Kashmir, the United States and Israel were able to strike energy facilities of Iran. Iran responds, strikes energy facilities in Kuwait. Also, Iran's been striking Israel. in addition to, other areas that we talked about earlier this week, where Israel's nuclear weapons are. I mean, they've been able to strike kind of in the heart of Tel Aviv, in Haifa, and we're not getting a lot of the information out because Israel is suppressing a lot of video footage and information about just how bad it is there.

But from people who live there, they've never seen it this bad ever. And the interceptors provided by the US to Israel are effective. But a lot of these Iranian missiles have been able to evade the interceptor systems. Like I'm showing you video footage right now of what transpired, where you're able to see these ballistic missiles evade the Israeli interceptor system, where before Israel's interceptor systems were able to you know, kind of strike and strike these ballistic missiles all the time. So this video footage is showing a failed interception of Iranian medium-range ballistic missiles that struck earlier near the city of Safed in northern Israel. But whether it's northern Israel, southern Israel, central Israel, Iran continues to strike there, continues to strike around the Arab nation neighbors as well. So That's objective data. So I show that to you because when Donald Trump's like, they're crushed, they don't have weapons, they don't have anything, they don't have leadership. Not only do they have leadership, they have leadership that are trolling you with memes right now. Not only that, you have, for example, Ali Larijani, who the Trump regime and Netanyahu killed recently, replaced by a more extreme person.

Ali Larinjani, very extreme person. Let's be very clear about that. Was very much involved in massacring protesters in January where Trump promised that he would save the protesters and lied and got them massacred. We should never forget Donald Trump's great betrayal of actually the democracy protesters. Since Donald Trump betrayed them, they're not coming out. Why would they come out? Especially if Donald Trump's talking about doing joint venture agreements with the Ayatollah or working with the Islamic Republic. If that's ultimately the endgame here was a much stronger Iran and a weaker United States. That's what this— that's what the goal of all of this was right now. But you have Mohammad Bagher Zaghedar, who's now been appointed as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Replacing Larijani. So you got a more extreme Larijani in the Larijani position. And this is the case throughout the regime. So sure, you killed a group of people who were in leadership. Yeah, but they were replaced by more extreme leadership. And now one of the things I think we're seeing as well is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the army itself, solidifying and forming a kind of army dictatorship that's asserting more power than it ever did before.

I mean, I know Donald Trump didn't study Iran's bifurcated leadership structure, but if you look at their leadership structure, it's decentralized. They frequently refer to it in Iran as their mosaic architecture of defense, meaning there's lots of different levels and layers I guess, think a jigsaw puzzle of autonomous control with set targets already and set leadership structures and succession structures already kind of in place. I don't want to necessarily compare it to like federalism in the United States, but you have all of these kind of regional leaders within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. And also within their kind of secret police domestic forces that are both empowered to kind of strike. And now we're seeing, I think, a further entrenchment of power in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard side of things. So things are getting worse. Arab mediators are saying they have a lot of skepticism that they're anywhere close to a deal because Iran feels emboldened. Iran sees the deranged statements that Donald Trump is making. They view it as weakness because they know it doesn't bear any resemblance to reality. Let's state the facts. Yes, the United States and Israel have seriously bombed and degraded traditional forces within Iran.

Iran's navy, you want to say that's obliterated its traditional navy? Sure. Iran's navy obliterated. You want to say that Iran's tanks and some of its missile facilities that were above ground obliterated? Sure. I think that that's accurate. But let's be clear what Iran has— an entire underground network, almost like underground malls that are filled with hundreds of thousands of Shahed drones that they can bring up from underground at this point with impunity. And they have all of these ballistic missiles underground that they can bring up that are very mobile and that they are utilizing now with less frequency but with more precision, with a higher penetration rate. In some days, 25 to 30% penetration rate versus the interceptors. So Iran is saying, we're digging in, okay? We think that any deal has to have no sanctions against Iran. We control the Strait of Hormuz. An apology by the United States. Remove United States bases in the Arab nations. And we have the right to produce ballistic missiles. We'll agree, as we did before, We won't develop nuclear weapons, but we will develop civilian nuclear weapons. Sorry, civilian nuclear material, not weapons-grade. Let me be very clear, not weapons-grade civilian nuclear purpose energy.

So that's what Iran is saying. And Donald Trump is saying it's 15 points. They're totally obliterated. They have to surrender. They've given up everything. They need to say no more missiles. We control the Strait of Hormuz. And it's like, if you're Iran, why would you do that? You've gotten rewarded so far in this war. So we have that taking place. I don't think we're having productive mediated or settlement conversations, although Donald Trump is begging Pakistan and Turkey and others in the region to get involved. And then you have, as the title of this show discusses, you have these paratroopers from the 86th, 82nd Airborne Division, um, being sent there. The commanding general of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division, Major General Brandon R. Tegtmeier, and his command element members of his headquarters staff have been ordered by the Pentagon to deploy to the Middle East as several thousand paratroopers with 82nd Airborne Division's immediate response forces prepare to deploy to the region. So you add the USS Tripoli Marine Expeditionary Forces, there are thousands there, the USS Boxer, thousands of Marine Expeditionary units there leaving from San Diego, which will take a few weeks for them to get there.

You have this staging taking place where you have thousands of troops that are going to be, uh, near Iran shortly, the paratroopers that are going to be in the region shortly under kind of the CENTCOM region of command. And that's what you have. That's what you have happening there. So that's just the data. That's just the facts. You can do with the facts what you want, but we shouldn't bend them. The facts don't lie. We should be telling the truth about what's happening here. And that's what the Midas Touch Network is all about. And so as the Midas Touch Network continues to grow, It is such an incredible honor to expand this network, to grow this network, and to work with legends in the field like Katie Fang as an example. And I want to bring on Katie Fang right now. And I think Katie Fang is one of the best examples of what Midas Touch Network, I think, is going to be in the present and in the future. Your fearless voice is needed now more than ever, Katie. And we have a great announcement to make as well. That Sidebar with Katie Fang, your live show, is officially launching on the Katie Fang News Channel on YouTube at 5:30 PM Eastern time on Tuesdays.

So guess what? Today's a Tuesday, and that means as soon as this show ends, The audience here will automatically be brought into Sidebar with Katie Fang, or you can just go there on your own. But everybody, make sure you subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel. And such an incredible honor to have you on this network, Katie, to work with you. An incredible job that, uh, that you did co-anchoring the Midas Touch Network's People's State of the Union. Let's get into it first. Why don't we just talk about your show? Because I want people to know about it. Then let's talk about some of the news.

Well, I don't know why we don't do this more often, Ben. You and I hanging out together, that would be a lot of fun. I'm excited to launch Sidebar with Katie Fang. One of the things I did when I was on mainstream media is my show was live. And so there was the element of kind of having to deal with things on the fly as they came along. But what I really missed, Ben, about a live show component is the ability to interact with viewers, which is why I'm thrilled that part of what we're going to be doing at Sidebar is we're going to be going through the major headlines. Like we do on Midas and like we do at Katie Fang News. But because it's live, we're also going to have our subscribers be able to participate in the chat. So not only are they going to do what they get to do on Midas, which is interact with each other, but they're also going to be able to interact with me. I want this to be an experience where we are going through the news together and we're actually focusing on the issues that make a difference in your life.

Of course, a lot of it will be focusing on politics and the law, but there's also going to be a component of it that deals with culture and other relevant topics. And so I'm thrilled. 5:30 Eastern. And I would be honored to have the privilege of everybody who listens to you, Ben, to be able to come and hang out with me at 5:30.

Everybody, make sure you hang out with Katie Fang. Make sure you're subscribed to Katie Fang's YouTube channel. I want to talk about some of the news of the day with you, and I want to share with you this Oval Office presser that was held before we went live, where Donald Trump, in my opinion, once again to manipulate the markets after Iran has repeatedly said we're not talking to them, they're trying to manipulate the markets, that's all this is about. In fact, that guy who leads the Iranian parliament, Ghalibaf, He said very specifically, this is market manipulation. I mean, this is so strange to see them call it out so obvious in that way and saying that's all this is about. And by the way, that Golubov guy who leads their parliament yesterday, Trump was leaking to Politico and Axios and others that this guy Golubov was hot. The Trump regime said he's a hot option. Is what Dasha Burns was reporting. He's our hot option, that this is the guy that they claim that they want to lead Iran. And if anybody knows about this guy Ghalibaf, I mean, he may be hot in the sense that he wants to lob ballistic missiles at you, but he's not hot in the sense that he's America's guy.

Like, what are you talking about? But let me show you what Donald Trump said. I want to get your reaction to it because again, he does this like this is some like, like, like, like a riddle. Like, like the people are unimportant because that's how he feels. And he's like, I've got a gigantic prize from Iran. They gave me a present, a present. And it's like, what are you talking about? This is life and death. Be normal. What do you mean you got a present? Here, play this clip.

Because they're going to make a deal. They're going to make a deal. They did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present. And the present arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. And I'm not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize. And they gave it to us and they said they were going to give it. So that meant one thing to me. We're dealing with the right people. No, it wasn't nuclear related. It was oil and gas related. And it was a very nice thing they did. But what it showed me is that we're dealing with the right people because, you know, you don't know because—

I mean, when you watch that, I know that's what he's like every day and that's how he behaves. But what we're watching there is vomit. Like, we're watching just vomit in the Oval Office. It's incoherent. You got it. You're getting a prize. I know objectively what's happening in the war. I see it in the region. There are videos. We can see what's happening. But you're talking about getting presents and prizes, and I'll tell you, the American people are suffering right now, and that's what he's saying. It's deranged, Katie.

Yeah, and you know how he is looking like he's trying to play coy? He's like posing his body at the podium. He's like a toddler that's like, I shit my pants, but I'm not gonna really tell you when. I mean, that's how he is. And yet 175+ civilians, mainly 170 of which were children, died on the first day of this war with Iran, which they still haven't admitted as a war. I mean, this just goes to show that we have no business as Americans supporting somebody like Donald Trump, who has his literal finger on the button to be able to deal with something on a nuclear level. And the fact that he's like, well, it's it's not nuclear. Well, according to you, we eradicated all of the nuclear capabilities of Iran in the summer. So why would it even be nuclear related? And here's the thing, you talked about that hot commodity. I thought we weren't doing regime change, Ben. Last I checked, we weren't supposed to be doing regime change. But of course, nobody in Congress actually has been told the truth. And that is why what we're doing here, what you're doing is so important.

We have to give the people this information and let them understand what's at stake and have them understand that what we're seeing is a train wreck in real time. Right.

So Donald Trump creates this imaginary world where I mentioned earlier in the show, if you want to call it a superpower, and I don't mean it with any positive light, I just mean It's impressive in a way that a human being could have every word out of your mouth and every syllable embedded therein be tainted by a lie. Everything spewed the entire day. Because if I fib a little bit, whether it's, you know, I'll be back in 5 minutes and I know it's going to be 10, the human being reaction is to like feel something and to be like, oh, okay, maybe I should have said 10, whatever it is. But to lie on matters where people are being massacred and there's death and just to fully detach. And I think the issue and one of the big problems, though, is in fabricating this imaginary world. Others who inhabit it are bending to this made-up fictional place that doesn't bear a relation to the way we've all existed in a civilized society. So I'll give you an example right here. So after fabricating and manufacturing fake settlement agreements that aren't happening, he then goes a step further and then describes the drama within this fake— within this fiction that he's created, where everybody was happy that we were doing the settlement, which isn't even taking place, except Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Kane, and they're upset because they want to bomb more.

And then it's like he goes so far in this plot that's a made-up thing that it's like people get lost in it. You're just making all of this up. None of this is even happening. And also, what a deranged thing to say that your defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs want to just keep on bombing people here. Let's just play this clip and let's talk about that.

And that's exactly what we're doing in historic fashion. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Richard. Mr. President, you know, the only two people that were quite disappointed. I don't want to say this, but I have to. I said, Pete and General Raisin Caine, I think this thing's going to be settled very soon. Here they go. Oh, that's too bad. Pete didn't want it to be settled. These guys are doing a great job. That's a good attitude, though, Tom, right? They were not interested in settlement. They were interested in just winning this thing.

Yeah, please, Mr. President, can you?

Well, that's kind of true, Ben. I mean, let's be— I think Hegseth, his bloodlust, I mean, I think that's legit. I got to be honest with you. I think Hegseth thinks that it's the only place he can get credibility in any professional space is if he keeps on pushing this pro-toxic bro, you know, chest-thumping bloodlust agenda. And because he gets such a wide, long leash from his master, he's able to do this. But the smiling and the smirking and the joking, that level of disrespect for American life and American dollars. Let's be, let's be frank, right? It's not just the loss of life, it's the investment of American dollars in a failed mission where they know, they know that this is not going to end the right way for the United States.

And speaking of Hegseth, in this press conference when he spoke, I'll rewind to prove your point right there. He says The way we negotiate is with bombs. Here, let's play this clip.

The air campaign that we've conducted, that Israel's conducted alongside us, was one for the history books, truly. And it's because we have a president of the United States that when he sends his warfighters out to fight, he unties their hands to actually go out and close with and destroy the enemy as viciously as possible from moment one. And that's why we see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs. You have a choice as we loiter over the top of Tehran, as the president talked about, about your future. President has made it clear that you will not have a nuclear weapon. The War Department agrees. Our job is to ensure that. And so we're keeping our hand on that throttle as long and as hard as is necessary to ensure the interests of the United States of America are achieved on that battlefield. This is—

I'll pause it to you in a moment, but he— let's break down some of those words he says. We're doing this viciously. We negotiate with bombs. We loiter over Iran. That's what we at the War Department do. And we're going to throttle as long as it's hard. Okay. Those were the words that he used right there. So is he writing the script for the propaganda campaign for Iran? To say, you know those Epstein-class people? Here's what they're saying that they want to do to you. Here's what they are treating the— not just the regime. They make no distinction between the republic, the Islamic, and the people of Iran. And it plays right into what the Islamic Republic is going to tell their people. Look, look what they're— and Iran is using it to say, look what they're saying. And it makes us weaker. And it harms our troops. What do you make of that, Katie?

It's very incestuous, is it not? It's something that drives the state-run propaganda machine, which is the quote War Department, which I don't even want to call it that, right? It's the Department of Defense, and it's not the Department of Offense, last I checked. It wasn't the Department of Warmongering. It was the Department of Defense, one. Two, Hekseth knows that it feeds the flames of the ego of that megalomaniac, which is convicted felon Donald Trump, who's standing there again like the toddler, just standing there swinging his arms as if he's bored having to be a part of this. And then to your well-taken point, whatever happened to the soft power of American moral right? Whatever happened to the soft power of saying to the people of Iran who want a true a true infrastructure that would allow them to grow and prosper and succeed. We are here to help you in that regard. Now what they're doing is just allowing, allowing a dictatorship to thrive because they're saying, yeah, look, this is what the West wants to do. The West is not here to build you up. The West is here to bomb you down. And they have also seen in that region what has been happening with Gaza, right?

And they've seen what's going on. But the interesting thing is this, it is not leading them to capitulation. In fact, we've seen decidedly Iran saying, we're not playing ball because this is not a version of negotiation when you're saying that you have the throttle on full thrusters to be able to just bomb Tehran all day long. For what? I am sitting here, Ben, with you, and I still have not heard the reason why the United States has deployed in any fashion in Iran. I haven't heard why the Pentagon needs another $200 billion to achieve what mission. And because we don't have a clear answer, this is just a distraction that actually benefits only the Epstein elite.

Right. And I think the honest answer was what they had to walk back right away, when Rubio said Netanyahu on that Friday night, all of the Epstein files are coming out, Donald Trump's name all over them. Trump in a very vulnerable position. Everybody talking about Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. Netanyahu, I think, knew the moment to make the phone call, said, we're going in right now. That same day, there were productive mediated discussions. By the Oman foreign minister between the United States and Iran. Remember, the Oman foreign minister went on CBS and said, we have a deal in principle. What a breakthrough. This deal is better than Obama's deal, which, even though you and I are probably fans of Obama's leadership, although we may disagree with some things that he did, but overall I thought Obama's leadership is something to be admired and a great example. And I thought the Obama deal was a good deal. But if Trump did a better deal objectively, even though I am very critical of Trump's policy, I'd have to still applaud it. Yeah, we'll say you did a pretty good deal and okay, let's see if it's real. Let's see if it holds.

But with the confluence of those factors, I think Israel, as Israel sees right now, no, we can't have them do a deal that puts us in a position that we don't want to be in. Right. Israel saying even right now, you can't do that, you can't do the deal. And by the way, MBS, Trump's bud who invests in Kushner and Trump— and this is why we have an emoluments clause provision, because now you're intertwined personally and financially with this guy MBS in Saudi Arabia— MBS is saying, you can't, you can't do a deal right now. What are you talking about? You know, you either need to obliterate Iran, like, actually, or we're not Say goodbye to all of Saudi Arabia's help for you. So that's going on right now. But anyway, that's why the US got involved in this thing, because Netanyahu said, we're going to get involved in it, and then you're going to get attacked, so you better join us. And Netanyahu has been doing that with past administrations. The past administration just said, okay, no, we're not going to do that. Good luck.

We have some autonomy.

See you later. And then to your point, and I'll toss it back to you. Iran also says to their people, look at Gaza, look at what's happening right now in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, with hospitals being destroyed, suburban areas there, not just Hezbollah, but innocent people being killed en masse, just like in Gaza. And Iran saying, you see that? You see the Epstein cover-up? You see all of that? And it morally compromises us. which means we're weaker and our troops are imperiled by this. That's what this outcome ultimately is. And let's just not forget the basic humanity of individuals and innocent lives lost and human beings who have a heart, who have a pulse, who are dying in mass in Gaza and in Lebanon. We need to reflect basic humanity and recognize what's taking place. Katie.

Yeah, this has become a regional, quote, conflict, although I only use the word conflict because that's the phrase that is used. This has led to thousands of people losing their lives, property damage in the billions. And what you just put up, Ben, that OSINT post on X, you'll see that there's a phrase there that shows that the deal would fall well short of, quote, Israel's objectives, end quote. Why in the actual you know what Are we prioritizing Israel's objectives? It just goes back to square one. There has been zero clarity provided, no transparency. There is a reason why we have members of Congress leaving classified briefings saying, I have now gotten the 20th excuse that matches excuse number 4 that was provided to me 3 days ago that doesn't actually track with the realities of what is happening in the Middle East. There's a reason why they don't want to go to Congress. This administration doesn't wanna have to explain what it's doing to Congress because they'd actually have to provide real reasons, ration, rational, logical explanations as to what is happening. Meanwhile, meanwhile, people in the United States on the most superficial level are being forced to deal with skyrocketing prices, which do pose a real existential threat to some American families.

They're dealing with, again, maybe it's a superficial example, but they're waiting in lines of 4 hours because this administration won't approve deals that will fund critical federal agencies. I mean, it just shows that there is a lack of priorities from this regime and that at the end of the day, this has always been about convicted felon Donald Trump, his family, his cronies, his billionaire buddies, and also him always kowtowing to Netanyahu. And that is an established fact that we have seen. And look, I don't have a problem helping an ally, but I will go back to something I've been stressing for a long time now. I don't see this energy for Ukraine. I don't see this energy, Ben, for Ukraine at all. And I think that's a big freaking tell is what I think it is.

Can you think of anyone who is trying to help us more than Ukraine? On their own, they developed the drone interceptor technologies. You know, the way to stop these Shahed drones are interceptor drones, not the Patriots or the THAADs. When Ukraine saw what the US and these Arab nations who were using US training were doing, Ukraine's like, you're using 9 Patriot missiles to shoot down one Shahed drone? It's like $60 million to go after a $20,000 drone? How many dummy drones do you think Iran has been sending purely to draw out $60 million? Why would Iran even need to strike a $60 million or $100 million building if they can just get $100 million chasing a $20,000 drone? It's the most obvious thing that's going on. That America's like, well, we need billion-dollar weapons rather than funding our healthcare. Zelensky wants to help, and all Trump has done— endorse Orbán, who's working with Putin, remove the sanctions against Russian oil, giving Russia a critical lifeline right now, which they'll just use to fund the war, removing the sanctions from Iran's oil, and then saying that that was jiu-jitsuing Iran. How's it jiu-jitsuing around? The stupidest thing I ever hear.

So talk about that, Katie. I just want to remind everyone, we got a big audience. So when this episode ends, you will be brought to Katie Fang's channel. You should all make sure you subscribe to Katie Fang's channel. It's called Sidebar. With Katie Fang is the name of her live show. It's on Tuesdays at 5:30 PM Eastern time, meaning As soon as this show ends, you'll get to that show right there. And Katie, before we go, why don't you plug the show one more time? Tell people what they'll see on your channel. And I'll just say this, as the Midas Touch Network is growing, I mean, it's just the biggest honor for me ever. And I'm so humbled to have the trust of people like you. We just brought on Scott McFarland and his YouTube channel, the Scott McFarland News. That's been growing. And to have legends just crushing it is such an honor. But let's talk about your channel before we go and what people can expect to see if they subscribe to your channel and Sidebar.

Yes. So the channel right now, until we have launched Sidebar Live with Katie Fang, has been episodes that have been taped, and they are either just me speaking or interviews with policymakers, lawmakers, newsmakers. And the reason why I wanted the live was to be able to interact with all of you, all of you subscribers that have put your trust in me to be able to give you the info straight, no chaser. And so what you can expect is just like the name Sidebar, when you are, even though it's a legal concept, it can go anywhere, but in the law, when you do a sidebar, you're going somewhere and you're going deeper. And that's exactly what I want to do with all of these topics. I want to actually look at the headlines and I want to go deeper on those headlines because I think it's important. I think right now we are living in an attention economy, and it is a commodity to be able to have time to know what is really going on. And so we're going to cut through all of that noise like we do at Midas, like we do at Katie Fang News, like Scott's going to do at his channel.

And we are going to make sure that you know what's critically important about these headlines so that you can be what I like to call a high-information American. We are creating an media ecosystem here in independent media, where our Americans that are focusing, and even our international friends that are focusing on all of these issues, that y'all actually have the facts, only the facts and the truth, and then you can disseminate that information. So we're going to go on a sidebar deeper on all of these issues, and we're going to do that right after they hang out with you, Ben, here.

Well, Katie Fang, the show's called Sidebar, 5:30 PM Eastern time on Tuesday. So we're going to take our first and only quick break of the show. You know, Katie is going to get ready to prepare for her show. We should definitely do this more often, Katie. I'd love to have you on the show that we do, especially in the lead-in to your show would be great. Katie Fang, everybody, right here on the Midas Touch Network. And make sure you subscribe to Katie Fang's YouTube channel and watch Sidebar. Thanks, Katie.

Thanks, guys.

And we'll take our first quick break of the show. When we come back, we still have a lot to discuss. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showing that Donald Trump's approval, the lowest in presidential history, the lowest of any of his, uh, terms. We'll talk about that, talk about much more. First and only quick break of the show. We appreciate you. Let's keep growing this network.

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Right, I'll say this. Yes, there were 3 ads right there back to back to back, but those were good ads though. And those were great products that I think that that you'll actually use. And Jordy, who's your favorite Mycellus brother, he negotiated some great discounts with each of those, um, sponsors, and they help keep the show going. So the discount code's in the description below. I knew we threw 3 in there, but they're great sponsors. They help the show, they help us build the network, and they're great discount codes. So On balance, I think it's a win. And check out though, and check out those sponsors. So as I'm sure you know by now, as the Midas Touch Network continues to expand, uh, I think the White House was a bit unhappy with our latest hire as well. The Midas Touch Network brought on Scott McFarland. Make sure, by the way, you are all subscribed to Scott McFarland's YouTube channel. You search @ScottMcFarland News. Um, what, in 24 hours that channel's got basically 75,000 subscribers? I think we'll hit 100,000 subscribers by tomorrow. Help us do that, uh, if you can. But Caroline Levitt, uh, the chief propagandist at the White House, she posted the following message to us today: Veteran CBS reporter joins far-left media company Midas Touch as anchor.

Says they share the same North Star. I like when they go like far left because I'm sure that everybody who watched this episode today would say, wow, Ben, you are a super far lefty with wanting to support humanity and empathy and make sure things are more affordable for people, and saying that if we go to war it requires congressional authorization, and condemning wars that don't have clear or any objectives at all and standing up for our troops and wanting to make sure that Americans have access to healthcare and better educations and aren't psychologically tortured living paycheck to paycheck. What a radical lefty. All of these, the radical left. I mean, it's just so fascinating to me. When people hoist these labels upon you. I mean, look, I'll say this, you know, my entire life I've never been a Republican. There are some people who I guess don't know the origin of the Midas Touch Network, and they'll be like, were these the former Republicans and the former right-wing people? I was never that. If you looked at all of my views going back and what I did as a civil litigator, I was a civil rights lawyer, right?

And I practiced a lot in Bakersfield and in Fresno representing families who lost loved ones to excessive force and police brutality cases. We were leading some of the biggest cases there when Bakersfield and Kern County was referred to as Killing County, had the highest police shooting deaths per capita in the nation. And one of the things that we exposed when I was doing these civil rights cases with the courageous families of Bakersfield, that they had police officers in the Bakersfield Police Department who were taking the drugs that they confiscated and working with the drug dealers to sell the drugs on the streets. And they would keep confidential informants off the books in order to help them basically deal drugs and to build a basically drug cartel. And there were a number of officers who we found through the cases that I was litigating who were involved as drug dealers. They were put in jail, they were put behind prison. So I was handling cases like that. Then I met Colin Kaepernick, and I was Colin Kaepernick's lead lawyer in his various cases. Then I was Colin Kaepernick's transactional lawyer, and I built Colin Kaepernick's media businesses with him.

And then I created the Midas Touch Network. My entire life, if you wanted to throw labels on it, my views and values would be viewed as like progressive if you were going to give it like a label. But for me, it was always defending people who were being bullied and standing up for humanity and fighting for people and using my law background from Georgetown Law and as a civil trial litigator to help people. That's what I've tried to do my entire life, and I was blessed to have a successful legal career doing that, which I turned into a professorship over at USC, where to this day I still teach law at USC. And then building this network with my brothers and with this great community here at the Midas Touch Network. And so it's just, it's fascinating. I never, when I was a lawyer, I never asked my clients, you know, especially in Bakersfield where there's a lot of people who are Republicans, And are you a Democrat or are you a Republican? I never viewed things in those terms. And when you watch my reporting on a day-to-day basis, it just to me is in line with what my career was before this, just standing up for human beings and standing up for common sense and empathy and leadership.

I'm not like randomly against Donald Trump because he's Trump. I'm like, oh, I hate this guy named Trump. There are a lot of billionaires out there who do bad things, and there's a lot of people who do bad things, a lot of people, right? You know, so why Trump? Because he has, I think, destroyed the stability of our nation, where while certainly imperfect, I found that the arc was heading in the right direction directionally, although a lot of work needed to be put into making a more perfect union here in the United States. But I just think that he's ripped to shreds our Constitution. And I even think more significantly than that, a value system and this idea of order and leadership and ripped it apart for kind of anarchy and destruction and hate. That to me is what I call out more than being like, oh, I like this Democrat versus that Democrat, and this is my favorite Democrat. That is the least interesting thing for me. I think you all know that watching this network. The most interesting thing for me is connecting with human beings at a values and principle level and fighting for that, fighting for healthcare, not because it's a Democrat issue, but I believe it's a human rights issue.

Fighting for your healthcare, fighting for your education. I believe these are universal rights. Fighting for you to have a job where you can get paid with dignity, where marginalized communities are supported. That's the value system of this network. So I just find it fascinating to see the attacks of far left this, far left that. You had Brendan Carr, who is the commissioner of the FCC. He responds to Caroline Levitt and says, same job, new duty station. You know, it's funny because Scott McFarland responded. He's like, I guess by same job you mean reporter. Yes, I'm a reporter. So that's what I do. My— by the way, Scott has full editorial independence. We'll never tell him or anybody write this or write that ever. In fact, if you've learned about the model we've been building at the Midas Touch Network. When we bring people on at the Midas Touch Network, they then have their own channels, their own media companies, and they control and own 100% of their intellectual property. And so we just facilitate and help them grow their channels, but in terms of like their IP, That's theirs, their editorial control, that's theirs. And if we can lend our support, that's great.

And so I've seen some of Scott's reports today. Have you seen some of his reports? I mean, the one that he did from Capitol Hill today with Pablo Monriquez as we've grown our Washington, DC bureau. Go and watch it on Scott McFarland's channel as well after you watch Katie Fang's show first. We're 4 minutes away from Katie Fang's show, so I want to make sure you all have the opportunity to watch Katie Fang Show. But it's just fascinating. Stephen Chung, the communications director over at the White House, says every reporter who leaves— more like fired— from their outlet always comes out as a deranged liberal. Every single damn time. Just goes to show how biased media has become. I mean, again, go back and watch this video. Watch any of the videos that I do, frankly. Where is the deranged liberal aspect of this? I mean, I think that you could be a conservative farmer right now in Iowa, and you're probably suffering as a result of Donald Trump's trade war against the world. And now the fact that fertilizers are either inaccessible or so incredibly expensive. I don't know if you're a right-wing person in Oklahoma and you got to fill up the gas tank right now.

It got a whole lot more expensive. I'm not sure it's a deranged liberal saying that that's outrageous right now. If you got your healthcare ripped away and you're a right-wing person in Orlando, say goodbye to your healthcare. I'm trying to make sure you have access to your healthcare. If you can't afford things and you're in Nebraska, I don't think that that's a liberal position. I just want to make your life easier and fight for ways for you to afford things. I want to talk about things that matter to your life and how we can help you. What my focus is here on the Midas Touch Network and amplifying voices that provide solutions to you. So I don't see any of that. Oh, by the way, you want to get an MRI? Good luck if the helium supply runs out, because a lot of our helium used in MRIs comes from the Middle East. There are third and fourth and fifth layer consequences that even if this war ended today, even if it ended today, then there would be massive problems. Wait until we get the new inflation numbers out, right? Inflation was already surging. Could you imagine what the next inflation report is going to be?

I probably can imagine it'll be on a trajectory for 5%. That's where I think it heads. I think we'll see a very hot reading near the fours, and I think in no time it'll be 5, 6, or even— how could it not be? We know what the price of gas is. And that's going to pull everything up with it. And it's not just gas, it's food supply. It's all of these other things as well. And that's one of the things that we're focused on. Joe Concha over at state regime media, which calls itself Fox, says, in which Scott will also reveal himself to be much a partisan as Lemon, Acosta, Chuck Todd, Terry Moran, Katie Couric, to name a few. He's joining the Midas touch, the most The most far-left news organization in the country that literally ran a protest during the Trump State of the Union. It wasn't a protest. It was a People's State of the Union. It was a counter to it where we talked about the issues that matter to the people. All of those issues I just mentioned, that's what we were talking about rather than having to listen to somebody blabber about transgender sports or whatever the hell in order to bully people.

We were talking about affordability. We were talking about helping people find better jobs. And we were talking about manufacturing. That's what the speeches that we were talking about were all about. I guess that makes me a far left, the most, the most far left, the most far left there is. I learned something new about— I'm the most far left there is. But heck, if being the most far left means that we stand up for human rights, human dignity, civil rights, affordability, healthcare, women's rights, the rights of marginalized communities, that we focus on diversifying our energy sources in case there are oil shocks, that we focus on helping people get jobs with dignity, that we take care of people here in the United States, that we support unions. If all of that makes me a radical left, call me radical, I guess. Call me the radical Midas Mighty, I guess. All right, Katie Fang Show is about to start. We're going to bring you to Katie Fang Show right now. You don't have to do anything. Stay here, you'll automatically get transferred to Sidebar with Katie Fang. When you get there, say hello to Katie from Ben.

Say Ben says hi, Katie. You'll all be joining Sidebar with Katie Fang now. And if for whatever reason it doesn't transfer you there, just search on YouTube Katie Fang and join the live right now. I can't wait to watch Katie Fang's first live show. Sidebar with Katie Fang begins right now. Link is in the description also. Link is in the description. Katie Fang sidebar begin now.

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You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filippowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive Sag mal, Nicola, hast du auch immer dieses Gefühl, bei der Steuererklärung mit einem Bein schon im Knast zu stehen? Boah, nee, gar nicht. WISO Steuer ist so die Steuer-App, mit der ich wirklich nichts falsch machen kann. Wow, das heißt, damit ist alles sicher? Ja, genau. WISO Steuer ist die Steuer-App, die dich versteht. Weil Steuer betrifft ja dein ganzes Leben. Arbeit, Kinder, Partner. Du kannst nichts falsch machen. Stimmt. Nice. Fühlt sich gar nicht wie Steuern an. Steuern erledigt?

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