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Donald Trump is spiraling as he tries to break the ceasefire that he purported to enter into when he agreed to all of Iran's terms of surrender. Donald Trump agreed to Iran's 10-point negotiating framework, and now Donald Trump says there must have been a miscommunication because maybe Iran doesn't know English that well. Maybe their negotiators didn't realize what we were saying, because even though Donald Trump posted that I've agreed to Iran's 10-point framework, as a suitable place to have these negotiations. I actually don't agree with any of those terms, and I'm going to now claim that Iran agreed to our framework. Now, Iran was clearly prepared for this, and they still control the Strait of Hormuz. So they're like, okay, well, you posted, Donald Trump, that you agreed to our framework. We've made it public and very clear what our negotiating framework is. But if ultimately you don't want to abide by the terms, that's fine. I mean, we control the Strait of Hormuz. And we're not going to let any tankers through. And that's exactly what's happening right now. Iran's not letting any tankers through. They've let some cargo ships through, but by and large, no tankers have been able to get through the Strait of Hormuz.
We're seeing the price of oil surge once again over $101 per barrel, and that's going to just keep on rising. But Iran's made it very clear the new normal as Iran sees it is they control the Strait of Hormuz. They get $2 million per ship. They become a massive regional power in the area, if not a global power. They're expecting full reparations from the United States and Israel for the invasion of Iran. They're also expecting long-term security guarantees for themselves, for Hezbollah, for the Houthis, and for Shiite groups in Iraq, because that's part of the stipulation that was in the 10-point negotiating framework. Also, they expect to enrich uranium because that was in the framework. And also they expect for all sanctions to be lifted against them, both United Nations resolutions against them, sanctions against them, anything, 'cause that's what Trump agreed to. And so I guess Donald Trump's plan is to do what he did his whole life, enter into agreements, then break 'em and say, you know, I'm not gonna follow them. But the reality is, is, uh, you don't have the cards right now. As, as someone once said, they have the cards in the sense of they control the Strait of Hormuz.
And so now Donald Trump's tactics are just putting on social media. There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait. They better not be, and if they are, they better stop now. Oh, you're going to post it on social media and that's, that's going to do the trick. And when that doesn't work, Donald Trump then threatens NATO and Europe that they better go right now, NATO and Europe, and they better go to the Strait of Hormuz immediately. And if they don't go to the Strait of Hormuz, They're going to be in big trouble. And I don't just want commitments. They better send their ships. And, you know, NATO members and European countries are like, yeah, we're not doing that. We're going to do negotiations with Iran like ourselves. So like European countries, NATO countries calling Iran and negotiating with Prime Minister, with Foreign Minister Araghchi and with President Pashinyan and others and M.B. Ghalibaf and basically just saying, hey, we're going to— this is how we're going to do it. We're going to do bilateral relations. So you have that going on. You had Donald Trump posting like weird photos of himself and Dana White in front of the White House while all of this is taking place.
And then out of nowhere, like literally out of nowhere, Melania Trump holds a press conference today to talk about Epstein and that I'm not involved in Epstein and images of me that are out there between me and Epstein and Ghislaine. She says those are fake images. And she says there needs to be a congressional investigation. We need to hold congressional hearings on Epstein. And people need to stop defaming me and, and saying bad things about me and Epstein and Ghislaine. I don't even know who they are, really. May I attended parties with them, but the documents and photos out there are basically fake, is what she's saying. And then an MSNBC reporter, of all people, reached out to Donald Trump and he picks up the phone because apparently That's just what he does. He picks up the phone to anybody who calls him, which is just weird in and of itself. And then he's like, yeah, I didn't know she was going to do that. That's what he tells an MSNBC. I didn't know that Melania was going to go out and hold this press conference. You got that going on. Then we got the latest GDP numbers that revised down the fourth quarter GDP numbers to 0.5%. That's when, remember, Donald Trump's regime, whether it was Howard Lutnick or Bessant or others, said that fourth quarter, they own it.
The GDP is going to be humming 2025. Things are going to be excellent. Well, it was revised down from like 1.4% to 0.7%, now 0.5%, a very, very sluggish, slow economy. And wait till we see the economic data from March, which is, you know, when the war has been taking place. And so, you know, we'll be covering that as well. I want to bring in Brett and Jordy. It seems like, you know, Donald Trump not even playing checkers. It seems like, you know, Donald Trump is like, I don't, I don't even know how to describe what the hell he's doing. But Iran mapped through all of the kind of permutations of the things that he was going to do. Like they made him post that he agreed to the 10-point plan. They kept control of the Strait of Hormuz. You know, they were, they, they were ready with the next moves to go so that when Trump agreed to that 10-point framework and all of those points, when he would break it, Iran was like, like literally they, they anticipated all of these moves. And here we are right now where you had— that's why also let me mention this.
Iran made sure that the negotiator and mediator selected by Trump, for whatever reason, the prime minister of Pakistan, Prime Minister Sharif, posted this ceasefire hereby includes Lebanon. And it was very much in the agreement. Because Iran realized that as soon as this was announced, Israel, Netanyahu, would attack Lebanon and Hezbollah. And yesterday was the deadliest day almost ever where 250-plus people were killed, mostly civilians in Lebanon by Netanyahu and Israel, and over 1,000 people were injured across Beirut and Lebanon. And, you know, that's obviously a ceasefire violation. And, you know, you have Iran right now saying basically like MB Golabaf, the parliament leader, they're like, Tick tock. Time is running out, Donald.
They're like, they're like toying with us.
They're toying with Trump. I don't know how, as an American, this isn't anything other than just utter humiliation.
Ben, you said you don't have the words, but I want to show you a meme I saw online going around because I think this sums up the entire situation. Let me pull it up right now. The meme says, told my wife to have dinner ready by 6 or I'll obliterate her entire civilization. So anyway, she now charges me a fee to use the bathroom that used to be free, and I didn't get any dinner, but I'm pretty sure I won that exchange. I mean, that I think is a good comparison to where you find this boomer.
Boomer, somebody posted the meme on our—
it's good.
It's really good. By the way, that's not me throwing shade at the boomer. That is a good meme.
It's a quality boomer meme. No, no, no shade intended. And, and yeah, you know, it was interesting because, well, first off, let me say hey to everybody. What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas Mighty? It's good to be with you. You know, right when the statement came out from Donald Trump that day where he said all civilization was going to be blown up and that crazy message. Once he posted that ceasefire message, I know the first thing that Ben said right after it went live was, did he say they agreed to the 10-point plan? Like, I might— Ben was like, am I reading this correctly? And I was like, yeah. And Ben was like, the 10-point plan is the Iran plan. Like, the United States' plan was the 15-point plan. So he just admitted to agreeing to Iran's framework of the deal. Like, What the hell is he doing? And immediately, as Ben said, you know, we saw the mediator, the independent mediator from Pakistan, you know, acknowledge that that was the plan that was released. Iran acknowledged that this has been very public knowledge. But like Trump does with all of his deals, he tried— I guess he makes the deal and then he pretends that he didn't, or they agreed to something else, and he just tries to kind of BS his way through it and lie and say, ah, that actually wasn't what we spoke about, when everybody is saying that is exactly what they spoke about.
There's even new reporting today from CBS News that says that Donald Trump knew very well that Lebanon was a part of the ceasefire deal, acknowledged it in these, in these conversations. And his interpretation of the deal only changed following a phone call he had with Benjamin Netanyahu, where Netanyahu said, nah, I don't think that was part of the deal. And then Trump decided to say it was not part of the deal. So you just see, like, Trump has been crashing out all day with all these posts, just post after post after post, like watching this like psychotic meltdown happen on social media. And he keeps accusing the press of making up the points in the agreement and saying they're posting fake agreements. They're literally posting exactly what was agreed to, exactly what came from Iran, the exact framework that Donald Trump decided to put his arms around. So this whole thing right now is on Donald Trump. What we saw yesterday in Lebanon was a appalling, absolutely appalling, those Israeli strikes on Lebanon. I cannot say it enough how grotesque it is to see that level of attacks on innocent civilians. And it's just like a common thread right now that we continue to see with Israel, unfortunately.
And then we had the Melania presser, which was just like, man, the weirdest moment. We're going to get into all of that. I got a lot to say, but I got to toss it to Jordy. Jordy, what's the latest?
What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas Mighty? Pumped to get into tonight's show. Benji, I'm starting off right here, big bro. I'm giving you your flowers. You have done such incredible reporting on this whole saga, Ben, keeping me, the Midas Mighty, everyone up to date on everything. To Brett's point exactly there, when we heard that Trump agreed to the 10-point, like, we knew exactly what that was and we knew that was a gigantic L for Donald Trump, for the United States. And it just, it really shows the danger of having so many yes people exclusively and nothing but yes people around Donald Trump? Because the only logical conclusion that I can kind of come to in my mind is when Donald Trump started to hear, you know, legacy media, us independent media, and everyone talking about just how bad he got played on this thing, did it maybe finally hit him that, that Oh, maybe I didn't do a good job on this deal. Maybe we didn't get everything that I thought we were going to. And I could only come to the conclusion that Trump has surrounded himself by all of these yes people that had told him, you know, that they wanted to end this thing.
And so they told him, this is a great deal, Mr. President, you're going to look like a hero. And then he had so much egg on his face, humiliated us, the country, humiliated himself. And now he's trying to back himself out of this corner. I mean, it's proven time and time again, he's the world's worst businessman. He's the world's worst negotiator. Now he's not dealing with a business entity. I mean, in some respects he is, but he's dealing with a country and he's dealing with soldiers and citizens and civilians, and he's got no idea what he's doing. Ben, where do you want to start off today, big bro?
Well, look, if you don't want to say here's what Trump said, here's what Iran's been saying, just look at here's what Trump said yesterday, here's what Trump said today, right? Yesterday Donald Trump said that he was happy that Iran would be charging tolls on the Strait of Hormuz. He said, I know it, we're doing a joint venture together. That's why they're charging the money. We're going to split the money and make a lot of money together. This is going to be great. This is what we've talked about, right? That's what he was saying yesterday. So now today he said there are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait. They better not be. And if they are, they better stop now. So just compare what he said yesterday to what he is saying today. You know, then when it comes to the 10-point plan, you know, what Donald Trump's been saying over the past, you know, 24, 48 hours is to Brett, your point, he blames the media for putting out the lists that he goes aren't really the lists and that there is a super secret 10-point plan that nobody knows about.
I mean, this list that we're showing right now, it comes from Iran's National Security Council, and they've been using the same list for 3, 4 weeks now of these 10 points. Sure, maybe sometimes the order of these things were changed from number 1 was number 3 or number 2 was number 7, but the 10 points were always the 10 points. And one of the difficulties I always was telling all of you watching and listening about reaching an agreement is, you know, Iran fully rejected Donald Trump's 15-point plan, which was basically complete surrender. And the 10-point plan was the exact opposite of the 15 points, like the exact opposite. And so as we were heading to Donald Trump's 8:00 PM Eastern Time deadline, I was saying the only way this resolves basically, if Iran holds its ground, is that Donald Trump is going to agree to the 10-point framework. And that's when Donald Trump posted, I agree to the 10-point framework that Iran has been circulating as the basis, you know, to start the negotiations here. And so we all knew this 10-point framework because we've been talking about it for weeks and weeks and weeks about what those 10 points were.
And then at the same time, the mediator who Donald Trump picked, Prime Minister Sharif, he posted, we've reached a ceasefire, it begins immediately, and it includes Lebanon. And I believe that Iran as part of the guarantees that they wanted, that there would at least— that they would agree to a ceasefire. They wanted him to— they wanted Trump to make a social media post saying he agreed to the 10-point plan, and they wanted the mediator in Pakistan to say Lebanon is included, which was in the 10-point plan. But they wanted to leave no ambiguity because they wanted to have him post it. And then the prime minister of— prime minister of Pakistan, Sharif, say, yes, it included Lebanon. I think Iran's negotiators realize Trump's going to violate— and Israel probably will almost instantly violate the ceasefire agreement. And that's what happened. I mean, you call it a ceasefire agreement, call it a market manipulation agreement by Trump, call it just a, you know, a surrender agreement by Trump, call it what it is. But you have to understand, from Iran's perspective, as they were weighing this and they were thinking to themselves, just so everybody sees, our audio listeners.
This was what the neutral, the mediator picked by the U.S., wrote. Okay. Right when the ceasefire was announced, with the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere, effective immediately. There's no ambiguity in what that says. Lebanon was written in the initial document by the mediator of what it was. I think Iran said, okay, look, Trump's obviously going to violate this, we know. But to get the United States of America, defeated the Nazis in World War II, who's led the world in a post-World War II global order, to have the president of the United States post that they agreed to Iran's 10-point negotiating framework, that is just utter humiliation. You did. So let them violate the ceasefire. We still control the Strait of Hormuz. If they violate, what are they going to do? We control the Strait of Hormuz. It'll look even worse for them. But Iran was probably telling the mediator, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Sharif, that Donald Trump had to post this message because Donald Trump's message said the following: Based on the conversations with Prime Minister Sharif and Field Marshal Manure of Pakistan, wherein they requested I hold off on destructive force being sent tonight to Iran and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz, I agreed to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of 2 weeks.
This will be a double-sided ceasefire. Then here's what it goes on to say. We received a 10-point proposal from Iran and believe it as a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a 2-week period will allow the agreement to be finalized and consummated. We received a 10-point proposal from Iran. And now Donald Trump says in the past 24 hours, numerous agreements and lists and letters are being sent out by people that have absolutely nothing to do with the USA-Iran negotiation. In many cases, they are total fraudsters, charlatans, and worse. They will be rapidly exposed after our federal, federal investigation is completed. There is only one group of meaningful points that are acceptable to the United States. And we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these negotiations. These are the points that are in the basis on which we agreed to a ceasefire. It is something that is reasonable and can easily be dispensed with. It is very much like fake news CNN last night headlining a source that had no power or authority to write a letter claiming great authority over it.
Now, Donald Trump said they received the 10-point plan from Iran. And right now what Iran is basically saying and calling Trump out for is violations of the 10-point plan that that we've always been discussing. Just to be clear, what the 10-point plan was, was cessation of war on all fronts, including against Hezbollah, withdrawal of US forces from the region, payment of compensation to Iran, termination of all Board of Governors resolutions, UN Security resolutions, lift all primary sanctions, all secondary sanctions except Iran's uranium enrichment program, continue Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz where they charge $2 million. For any ships passing by and a commitment to non-aggression indefinitely into the future. And so in Iran, you now have their parliament leader, M.B. Ghalibaf, you know, and he's basically citing the 10-point plan. It's not like a random CNN posting. It's Iran posting the plan that they previously posted before. And M.B. Ghalibaf, their parliament leader, goes, number one, Lebanon and the entire resistance axis as Iran's allies form an inseparable part of the ceasefire. Point 1 of the 10-point proposal. He cites the 10 points. Number 2, Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan publicly and clearly stressed the Lebanon issue.
There is no room for denial and backtracking. 3, ceasefire violations carry explicit costs and strong responses. Extinguish the fire immediately. And then Golubov writes after about an 8-hour time period today, time is running out with an hourglass emoji. And so, Bret and Jordy, I'll pass it to you, Bret. Even the way they're toying with the United States, time is running out, like they're mocking him. And the message this is sending to the region, to the Middle East, to the rest of the world is not that just Donald Trump can be played, but that this guy surrendered to Iran. And Trump can have state regime media call itself Fox and everybody say all the things they want to say. Trump surrendered. The world power players know that Trump surrendered. Heck, even Trump's base knows that he surrendered. I mean, people like Alex Jones and Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson and all these people have been criticizing Donald Trump's handling of this war, this catastrophic unlawful invasion, working with Netanyahu to engage in these war crimes. And one of Trump's posts— I'm not going to read it because it goes on and on and on— was this bizarre post.
Marjorie Traitor, nasty. This Rosie O'Donnell, you know, goes on to all this stuff, but it attacks the top kind of former MAGA influencers. Every one of them attacks. Brett and Jordy.
Yeah, I mean, this entire MAGA movement is falling apart. Honestly, I could even say like the MAGA movement as we've known in the past, I don't know, few years, past decade or whatever. To me, it's, it's on dead or on life support, whatever you want to call it. It'll reconstitute as, as something, you know, probably more deranged. Let's not get it twisted. But this thing is fragmented beyond repair at this point. And it seems as you hear Donald Trump speak about all these various things, maybe he like doesn't understand the structure of the Iranian government and the various facets of the Iranian government. Like you had Trump the other day when he was trying to refute the story, he posted a statement by the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran and was saying how this was like the official story. This was what everyone needs to focus on, this statement. And that statement, by the way, also mentioned the 10 points. But what Donald Trump was so angry about was the fact that CNN and us and The New York Times and all these organizations were reporting on an additional statement. And, you know, like in addition to that statement, a statement from the Islamic Republic's Supreme National Security Council, which that statement that they released was much more like the United United States surrendered.
This is a massive victory, um, over the United States. You know, it was much more of a spike the football sort of statement. And if anything, the Islamic Republic Supreme National Council has more authority than the foreign minister has. And Donald Trump tried to pretend like all these news organizations were putting forward a fake statement when they were not. They were just putting forward a statement from a different facet of the Iranian government. And so right now there is zero trust between any of the parties here. And frankly, why should there be? When I look at the situation, of course I'm happy that there is a ceasefire. I hope the ceasefire lasts forever. I hope this war ends. I hope our brave men and women who are overseas right now get home. That doesn't look like what's happening, however. And Donald Trump has made the United States weaker in this process. And he's made like Iran— he's turned Iran into like a global superpower at this point. They control the region right now. They control— they control the Strait of Hormuz as we are currently reporting this, we still see a massive buildup of U.S. fighter jets in the Middle East who seem prepared to start back up this war any moment.
Iran continues to say that they're ready to start this war up at any moment. Israel keeps saying that they're ready to start this war up at any moment, even though they never stopped. They've been bombing Lebanon relentlessly ever since this so-called ceasefire even occurred. And we have Iranian state media as of this moment also saying that they're not even sending any Iranian negotiators to Pakistan. Like the United States is sending, saying, quote, Iran has no plans to attend to peace talks in Islamabad with the American side until a ceasefire is established in Lebanon. So we're getting so many mixed signals from everybody. But I think the clear through line is that there really is no ceasefire right now. The tensions are exploding and full-scale war could break out at any second. And it's really unclear how this leads if The whole time the negotiations have been such a difficult process because what did Donald Trump do during the first negotiation? Well, first he ripped up the Obama deal, which is a total F-you right after you work on this deal with Iran and regional partners. And that Obama deal, I thought it was always a good deal, but that looks like the greatest deal of all time compared to what Donald Trump just got for Iran and with the United States.
But first, Trump rips up that deal, which shows that you're not a reliable partner. Then in the middle of negotiations, negotiations for this, he starts a war and bombs their leaders and, and their families. Also not a— not showing exactly a sign of trust there. And now we get to this point where they make another kind of temporary deal, and then Donald Trump denies the actual terms in the deal that he agreed to. Maybe he should be reading the stuff. Maybe somebody should tell him what's in it. He's either lying or his brain is totally gone and he has no idea what the hell is going on. Maybe both. I think maybe all of the above is probably the most accurate thing that we are seeing right now. But this behavior is just unhinged. It's weak. It makes the United States look ridiculous on the global scale. And the whole thing is just beyond, beyond absurd. And he's just playing with fire right now.
Also, what was the point of any of this if Trump was just going to taco? Because, you know, Trump always talk, he always chickens out, by the way. By the way, for the members of the Midas Touch YouTube channel, we have a Trump taco emoji specifically for the members. So everyone drop your Trump taco emojis right now as I, as I talk over here, I see them in the chat. If Trump was going to agree to the 10-point plan, like literally my genuine question is, what was the point of any of this?
Right.
If we're going off the numbers that, that we have been reporting, like the United States has been reporting about casualties and losses of American servicemen during this time period, we got 13 U.S. troops killed. Killed over this, another 300 injured. And again, that's the reports that we have here from our own intel. It could be different than that. What was the point of this? So he could bomb an elementary school in Iran? Like, what was the point? So he could give Iran complete control over the Strait of Hormuz? What was the plan? For me, it's as simple as putting it in that framework and that statement. What did we get out of this? Just endless chaos, dead servicemen, Wounded servicemen. We're bombing civilians. We're losing our credibility on the world stage. Donald Trump further goes down this dementia-riddled behavior that the Republican Party, as we know it right now, just has to completely align itself with, like he's some great leader. Like, this is getting out. It's already out of control. It's getting so much worse than I could have ever imagined. The Republican Party is okay with American troops dying and getting over 300 of them injured.
Are you kidding me? Like, I just try to contextualize it too, is if this was any other president, the outrage collectively on both sides would be gigantic and rightfully so. So for me, the question is just so simple is why can't Republicans condemn this behavior by Donald Trump? He literally got at least, as we know it, 13 American servicemen killed. To me, that is absolutely disqualifying. And what did we— what do we get out of this? I couldn't tell you. And I'm genuinely asking you brothers and the viewers here and the listeners. What did we get from this, like this 2.5, 3-week stretch over here, aside from endless chaos and ruining our reputation even further?
Yeah, it was a little longer than that. It was over the end of February. But the point's well taken. But I'll tell you who benefited a lot. Russia, China, they benefited. Iran, they benefited. North Korea, you know, that access benefited. I'll tell you who who didn't benefit. Donald Trump, the United States. I'll tell you who else didn't benefit. I mean, you have NATO is suffering massively. Basically NATO exists in name only. I mean, there's this charade going on pretending that NATO's still around and strong, but I mean, watching the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, go around and saying, you know what, I don't know anything anymore. I don't know. Yes, but Donald, we must like the worst guy for the moment right now. I mean, so, you know, this is a massive disgrace. It's really a disgrace. I mean, Putin couldn't be doing any better right now. I mean, Putin's gotten way more money, sanctions have been removed, um, and so that access has strengthened itself dramatically. And, you know, I, I think if you look at it through that prism, there's frankly— I, I don't know how you could damage the United States worse than what Donald Trump has already did and what he's going to continue to do.
And we're going to monitor this ceasefire, this fake ceasefire, because as Brett pointed out, you have the Iranians saying, we're not showing up to Pakistan. Stop reporting fake news. We're not going there right now until it's very clear that the United States and Israel include Lebanon in the ceasefire. We're not even going to show up. And you have Netanyahu and Trump saying, Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire. So, okay, well, then to me it's just a matter of time. Is it going to be tonight? Is it going to be tomorrow morning? You know, when do the rockets start again? And when do we go through this COVID cycle again where this continues on and on and on and on and on for another month and 2 months and 3 months? You know, does it last till 2027, 2028? You know, and then when a Democratic president comes in and fixes it, now all the Republicans are like, now we need to restrain the power of the executive branch. We're fiscal hawks.
Go, go, we're hawks now.
How dare you do this? How dare you do that?
Right?
Like, you know, that's where this goes. That's what they're going to do. Meanwhile, Melania Trump said today would be the best day to talk Epstein, and nobody in the White House seems to understand what she did. She just held the press—
Things have gotten so bad with the Iran war that they're using Epstein to distract from the Iran war, which was a distraction. That the war was a distraction from Epstein. And it was wiped off. It did, to their credit, right? We were still talking about it, but the major headlines of the corporate newspapers and everything, Epstein was not on the front page anymore, was not really being talked about. But I guess Melania determined we need to distract from this war thing. Time to talk about Epstein. And this Melania's speech today where she decided to make an emergency address Well, hold the thought because we're going to get into it in a moment.
We're going to take our first quick break of the show. Become a member right now. Get your taco emojis.
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Get on the chat for the YouTube folks.
If you like the taco emoji, which you could use right now, I take credit for it. If you don't like it, you could blame Salty. And so there you go. Throw Salty on the spot.
If you remember, let's take our first quick break of the show.
We'll be right back.
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Let's go! Shout out to our sponsors. Links in the description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the if there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Brett, I gave Ben flowers earlier to start the show. Let me say, if like this whole Midas thing didn't work out or whatever, I think you could do like commercial ad reads. You're very impressive with the reads.
Thanks, Jay. You know, and if anyone is, uh, you know, out there and does that sort of casting and wants to put me in commercials, I think, I think you did get put in because you read for these sponsors. I'm here, I'm available.
Anyway, Benji, Melania, what would What was that, dude?
Yeah, before going to Melania, though, I mean, you can almost see, to Brett's point before the break, that she's now distracting from the war, which was distracting from the Epstein files because she's doing that. Trump's spiraling out of control here. You've got these two paths. You've got Trump making posts like Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable, some would say, of allowing oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That is not the agreement that we have. I mean, again, that's the agreement that you made. It's just a lunatic. I don't know how else to describe it. A demented lunatic. This is not like a political attack or like, uh, it's just an objective reality that there is this lunatic madman who is ripping the United States apart, behaving like such a, such a maniac. I don't even know how to describe it.
Genuinely, like, I'm genuinely asking, and I'm not like— it's a rhetorical question, so I don't need an answer from you, Ben, or Midas Mighty. But how is somebody supposed to negotiate ever in the future with this guy? Like, say they actually get to the point where they're going to be in negotiations again, right? They somehow figure a way to put all this behind them again. How do you trust Trump when he pretends the agreements aren't even real, when he calls them hoaxes, when he threatens to to sue CNN and The New York Times for reporting on just the facts that we all know, the undisputed facts. How are you supposed to enter an agreement with that kind of guy? And this is the lesson that all throughout Donald Trump's life people have learned. Every single contractor who's dealt with him, every single vendor, every single business who has worked with him. It's why he was held liable for fraud, why the Trump Organization was found to be committing massive amounts of fraud. It's why people like this, quite frankly, are supposed to be in jail, you know, before they get to a point like this.
They're supposed to be in prison because he is a serial fraudster now doing it on a global scale in the midst of one of the most dangerous situations in history.
And the hard part about, you know, the hard pill to swallow is when you have so much of daddy's money and his lawyers and he's bankrolled by all this engine, you're viewed— not what he's not— but as this great businessman. That's, that's the con of it all. He should be in There's no doubt about it. He's the world's biggest fraudster.
He—
everyone knows his relationships with the contractors, Brett, to your point. Exactly. But he gets away with it. He skates away with it because of the country's foundational, you know, just issue here is like when you have endless money and all of these connections, you just continue to get away with this stuff. But at least we're here to call it out and hold his feet to the fire.
Yeah. I mean, as you would say, Jordy, in his previous fraud life as a disgraced fake business person who bankrupted all of the things. He would lean on the fact that he inherited huge amounts of wealth, and he would use that and wield that to harass and torture and lie. And then things would go bankrupt, and then he would do a new scheme. And that was his whole life, scheme after scheme after scheme, you know. And now, having the keys to 250 years of American history, and broadly speaking, the power that the US developed, you know, and what a post-World War II world looked like with NATO and the United Nations is headquartered in New York for a reason, right? I mean, US deemed the leader of the world basically, you know, as the main global superpower with other powers rising and Trump trading on all of that goodwill from history that the US were the ones who rallied the world to stop Hitler and the Nazis, right? That's the lore of the United States. And constructed this in very sophisticatedly a post-World War II structure. And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to act like this post-World War II structure was great for everybody.
Far from it. But the power itself is an undeniable aspect of it. And Trump is using that and abusing that as an abuser. And destroying that. You know, when you see posts like that, Iran's doing a very poor job. I mean, who even talks like this? You know, what's fascinating is, you know, I saw earlier today Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom, like, finally kind of giving public speeches where he really calls out Donald Trump in kind of clear and unequivocal terms, saying, I'm fed up with Donald Trump and people like that because it's people like him him and Putin are making the world suffer. People suffer because of that behavior. And it's finally call him out by name and say it the same way Prime Minister Carney previously called him out by name, right? There's a reason why Prime Minister Carney is about to get a majority government in Canada because he stood up to Donald Trump and by and large hasn't backed down. They had somebody cross over from the Conservative Party in Canada, leaving Pierre Poilievre, the Maple opposition leader who lost his riding in last year's election but still weaseled his way to steal somebody else's seat in the Conservative— steal somebody else's seat in the Conservative Party.
And now people are looking at this Maple MAGA Canadian Conservative Party and like someone who's basically like their Marjorie Taylor Greene or like a Lauren Boebert or Nancy Mace crossed over and switched parties and joined the Liberal Party. And she announced, I'm going to be joining the Liberal Party. So with elections that are scheduled next week in Canada, it looks like without a doubt Prime Minister Carney is about to get the majority there. I mean, Prime Minister Sanchez in Spain standing up to Donald Trump and his regime. French President Emmanuel Macron, Anthony Albanese. You stand, you have to stand up to Donald Trump. This is what's so pathetic about Mark Rutte of NATO. Is that that level of appeasement emboldens Donald Trump. We have to say to Donald Trump when he threatens to leave NATO, say, go, we don't want you. In fact, get the hell out of here, you little— you know, that's how you have to speak to him.
There's no other way. NATO, like, if there's any lesson that NATO should have from its forming is that you can't appease a fascist, that you can't appease a strongman or a wannabe strongman or whatever you want to describe it as. But this Mark Rutte, Mark Rutte guy, however he says it, he keeps going out there and he keeps just Oh, Donald Trump, he just wants what's best. He's amazing, this guy. He's like, stop it, stop it. Stand up for yourself, will you? We've seen what it's like when leaders throughout the world stand up for themselves, and we've seen what it's like when they show weakness. And as we've said on the show, you give Trump an inch, he'll take your life. That's exactly what he's doing. The second Mark Rutte left that meeting with Donald Trump yesterday, what did Trump do? And I bet he He just, you know, he threw so much praise on Donald Trump. But what was Trump's response? To attack NATO, just to continuously attack NATO, to continue to threaten that he was going to leave NATO, to say that NATO was weak, that they're not helping out. And it's also part of this, like these mixed messages.
I don't need help. I don't need NATO's help. It's too late for your help. Please help me, NATO. Please, I need you. We don't need the Strait of Hormuz. We don't even use it. It's a Europe problem. They'll have to deal with it. It'll all open up by itself. Oh, why won't anyone help Europe? NATO, please send your warships right now. We really need it. All the messaging is all over the place. The guy is flailing. And I know some people throw out like this madman theory, like, oh, he's just so unhinged that the, the enemy, they don't even know what he's going to do next. No, it doesn't project strength in the slightest bit. It projects overwhelming weakness. That is what the United States of America is projecting right now. Under Donald Trump.
Yeah, one of the things we're learning about, uh, one of the things we're learning about too, and we'll talk about this when we come back from a quick break, Ambassador Paolo Zampoli, the guy who introduced Donald Trump to Melania, um, he ran a modeling agency and he would have these girls and women from Eastern Europe come in. He'd, you know, work with them on coming into the United States, then he'd hold these parties at the Kit Kat Club and And they are— he's going to be deposed by the House Oversight Committee. And so when we talk about Melania in a little bit, I just wanted to get that point out that a lot of that can be, you know, it's possible that she and Paolo Zampoli were talking about that, that that news was going to be breaking. And that may be one of the reasons that Melania went public. Don't worry, we're going to talk about Melania in a moment. But I got to show you some clips right now, though, that I think frame these issues. First, I want to show Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Let's show you Starmer and what he had to say about Donald Trump.
Let's play. I'm fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses' bills go up and down on energy because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world. Finally, he said Trump. Finally, by name, right? Just don't— that's what you got to do. I bet you the people in the UK will reward him from going in that direction, and rightfully so. Now is not a time to acquit, but you got to stand up to this guy. You got to stand up. And far from countries taking Donald Trump's social media posts and Donald Trump's message to Mark Rutte that Europe and NATO needs to send their ships immediately into the Strait of Hormuz or else— nobody's listening to that. And then Donald Trump flails and he makes those posts. I'm really disappointed in what Iran is doing. I mean, you're disappointed. You agree. You said you were going to obliterate their civilization and then you agreed to their 10-point plan. But now let me show you what JD Vance was saying. So first you have JD Vance saying that perhaps the Iran parliament leader, M.B. Ghalibaf, just doesn't understand English well.
And that's— this is all one big confusion because Ghalibaf doesn't understand English. That. That's, that's the level of patheticness that the Trump regime was going to—
is going with.
All right, let's agree to the terms and then we'll be like, oh, they're from Iran, they don't speak English. So, so they don't— they didn't know because they don't speak English well. That's the level. It just looks more pathetic by the day. Let's play.
A lot of agreement. That's point number one. Point number two, to respond to each of those issues, and I read it very closely, Let me just say this. I actually wonder how good he is at understanding English because there are things that he said that frankly didn't make sense in some of the, in the context of the negotiations that we've had. But to address the 3 points, first of all, he talked about an attack that allegedly happened on Iran and how that was a violation of the ceasefire. Ceasefires are always messy. An hour after the president announced the ceasefire, the Iranians launched a bunch of missiles. Then the Israelis respond.
Here's another clip where he talks about like his wife wanting to go skydiving and that somehow relates to this ceasefire regarding saying you're going to obliterate the Iranian civilization. Here, play this clip.
The second thing Ghalibaf said, which again I found fascinating, is he said, we refuse to give up the right to enrichment. And I thought to myself, you know what, my wife has the right to skydive. But she doesn't jump out of an airplane because she and I have an agreement that she's not going to do that because I don't want my wife jumping out of an airplane. We don't really concern ourselves with what they claim they have the right to do. We concern ourselves with what they actually do. And I think the president's been very clear on the enrichment.
Here's what I concern myself with, and I'll toss it over to you, Brett. Obviously, combining misogyny with war crimes in one is something uniquely within J.D. Vance's purview.
View.
So that there's that, you know what I care about? The objective facts of what was the deal that was agreed to. And objectively, I look at it, I look at Trump's post adopting the 10-point plan, reposting the Foreign Minister of Iran, Araghchi, talking about Trump adopting the 10-point plan. I look at the independent mediator, in this case Prime Minister of Pakistan Sharif, and what he said, that Lebanon is included. I think back to the last mediation that took place in late February February, before Trump and Netanyahu invaded Iran, where the mediator was Oman, another country that was chosen by the United States to mediate. That time it wasn't the Prime Minister of Pakistan, it was the Foreign Minister of Oman. The Foreign Minister of Oman said, we reached a deal in principle and we were ready to have this all resolved. And then that night, Donald Trump and Netanyahu invaded Iran. And I think about all of those factors right there and, and, and more. I look at who's been talking about the 10 points for weeks, and then I use just my objective. You know, I look at logic and I go, okay, you've adopted their plans.
And now I hear Iran citing the plan, or I see them citing the plan. Point 1, point 3, point 7. Here's what we said. I see it. On the other hand, I have JD Vance talking about his wife skydiving and that ceasefires are made to be broken. And so to me, I see actually a psychotic sociopath in JD Vance and an utter liar. And I see Donald Trump making conflicting posts each day. And on the other hand, I say this objectively, it's just the reality. I see Iran being very consistent with the 10-point plan and citing the exact, the exact clauses that are violated. It's not a hard one for me to decipher here.
And then, and then, and Brett, Brett, I'll toss it to you in a sec. But before I lose my thought here, when you hear JD Vance speak, right, sort of that smugness of his that got us to where we are in the first place.
Right.
The outright xenophobia and the racism, treating the Iranian people like they're some sort of savages this entire time, I think is what's resulted in us getting into this mess, just totally underestimating them from a communication standpoint, from a war effort standpoint, every step of the way. And so when they're like, oh, well, maybe he doesn't even speak English like that, again, that has been their playbook from day one of this thing. They have not learned a goddamn thing, bro. Right.
First off, uh, cardboard has a better personality than JD Vance. Just the weirdest fucking dude. Excuse me, he's just the weirdest dude on the planet. What a bizarre thing to say. What a bizarre way to say it. I'm just like watching him like, what are you— what are you talking about, man? Like, we're talking about war here. Like, you have an agreement with your wife not to jump out of planes? Does it happen that often that you need an agreement with her to not do that? Like, what are we talking about? Here. To the Trump administration has lost and never had any sort of moral authority to be projecting morality, or like the United States is better than Iran in this situation, or any of that. And to me, that— I hate that because I think, you know, the United States has done its share of horrific things, do not get me wrong. But I think our leaders at least try to put forward an image of moral authority. And you had Caroline Levitt yesterday, you know, saying things like speaking about the moral authority of the Trump regime and saying, listen, well, all these people, you know, in Iran, they just go, death to America, death to America, death to America.
Well, you know, how dare they say that? We're here and we're there for freedom and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Trump is saying we're going to exterminate your entire civilization. So once you have a president of the United States saying that, all of a sudden, any of your other kind of arguments that you're trying to make about moral authority and to say that the United States wants what's best for the people, those Those are out the window. You've just totally tossed that. And to me, that's, that's a hard thing to grapple with, I would say, as an American. And just think about, think about what this is all based on in the beginning, too, right? Donald Trump said this was about regime change. He said this was about getting rid of all the people who were oppressing the people in Iran and that the Iranians were going to be able to take to the streets and the U.S. would have their back. And this would be a great moment. Democracy is coming to Iran, right? That was the messaging in the beginning. Now Trump just goes, "Oh, we actually changed the regime. Everything's great. Regime change is done.
Done. Best of luck. Everything is awesome. Good luck to the Iranian people. Oh, and we might blow up your entire country and all your infrastructure, all your power, all your water, everything. So good luck. See you later." The only thing that's changed has been that they moved from the Ayatollah to Ayatollah Junior, and everyone else is still in their positions of power. It's the same regime, and it's what we've seen in Venezuela. Venezuela, right? It's the same exact pattern that we've seen everywhere. And I guess I could mention this quickly as well. If you look at Venezuela and what's going on in Venezuela right now, it's utter chaos because Trump claimed to have taken out the Maduro regime when he did not. He got rid of Maduro at the top but left in the entire other power structure around Maduro. So even just today, we were seeing hundreds of Venezuelan public sector workers and pensioners marching in Caracas demanding higher wages and pension increases, increases amid this severe fear inflation there. They're getting hunger-level pay. And we saw these security forces in the streets using tear gas and all these crowd control mechanisms, beating protesters, dispersing the demonstrators who were there near these government sites.
So you notice wherever Trump goes, whether it's Minneapolis, whether— or Los Angeles or Portland, or whether it's Iran or whether it's Venezuela, Chaos follows him because he causes the chaos. He causes the disruption. At this point, I don't think he even knows anything else other than chaos. He like, he like thinks he thrives in this chaos, but all of us are the ones who are left to deal with it.
Exactly. And let's just be honest with ourselves here too. Like, if there are any savages in this thing currently, like the first operation that we did, Operation Epic Fury, we bombed the elementary school, a girls' school, civilian girls ages between 7 and 12. You know, like, where are we when that's your frame? When that is how you start this thing, Donald Trump? Yeah, negotiation, it's going to become quite difficult, dude. And like, I understand it from their perspective of like, how can I deal with this guy in good faith when their first thing they did was bomb an elementary school? Very tough, very difficult situations here. I think we could all outright condemn that type of behavior. And it's just insane to me again again, that the Republican Party is just letting Donald Trump skirt away with this. I am actually grateful. I think there are more Republicans that spoke about— out about how horrible this 10-point framework was. But more need to be continuing to speak up here because it's brutal. It is brutal. And it's just a national and global embarrassment.
All right. I said we were going to talk about Melania, but we will. Don't you worry. It's a deep tease right there. So when we come back, we'll talk about Melania Trump's press conference out of nowhere. Out of nowhere, seemingly out of nowhere, although it may be related to the fact that Paolo Zampolli is going to be deposed by the, uh, House of Representatives in connection with the Epstein files. And he's someone who did know Epstein, and he had his own modeling agency, and he brought in Eastern European girls and women from, uh, into the United States and threw parties at the Kit Kat Club, which was this, uh, venue where he would have Manhattan wealthy guys meet up with the European women or girls. That's where Melania met Donald Trump. She described that event as, oh, such a beautiful highbrow event. I mean, it's not exactly what the Kit Kat Club was, but okay, go and go, go and say that. So was there a connection there? I don't know. But Melania bringing back the Epstein files that we've been always talking about on the Midas Touch Network, but front and center right now.
And she said some just odd things and, you know, very Trumpian things. We'll talk about that and more. Let's take our last quick break of the show. Reminder, become a member of our YouTube channel and unlock that taco emoji right now. And also, just becoming a member helps continue to grow this independent media platform. And also hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers, and subscribe to The Midas Touch on audio as well. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show.
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Yeah, so with everything going on in the world that we've been talking about talked about so far in this show. Pretty serious stuff going on would be an understatement. Melania Trump announces that she's going to be holding a press conference from the White House. It's like, okay, well, what do you do? What press conference is Melania Trump holding from the White House right now? And I guess she leaked it to Fox also, state regime media, because they kind of teased she's going to be making a big announcement that's going to be making a lot of news. And so, Brett, I think I was taking a walk outside after doing some reporting, and then you sent me this, and I had to think, was this like— I knew it came from our reporters, but I'm like, is this like a parody account or like playing a late April Fool's joke on you, Benji? I don't know.
Everyone's worried about this war right now. Is the ceasefire have any teeth to it at all? Are we about to go into nuclear war. And then Melania's like, listen, I've got an announcement to make, folks. Stop saying I have ties to Jeffrey. Please, I'm demanding, stop talking about me and Jeffrey Epstein. Yes, there may have been a lot of photos of us, and yes, we may have been in the same social circles, and yes, we may have been, I don't know, possibly introduced by mutual friends in the same part. I don't listen. I don't know.
Elaine might call me Sweet Pea.
Elaine might call me Sweet Pea in emails. I might call her G.
I might tell her that, uh, the New York Magazine article that she was in was a great photo spread of her, and Jeffrey looked amazing in it as well.
Barely know each other.
We barely know each other. Please, I am begging you to stop thinking that I have any connections.
Right. That New York Magazine article though, too, that she's— here, just pull up the email. It's a 2002 email where Melania says to Ghislaine Maxwell, dear G, how are you? Nice story about Jeffrey Epstein in New York Magazine. You look great in the picture. I know you're very busy flying all over the world. How is Palm Beach? I cannot wait to go down. Give me a call when you are back in New York. Have a great time. Love, Melania. October 23rd, 2002.
By the way, just, just real quick, I don't know about you guys, but people I don't know or very, very casually know, I don't— I'm not up to date on their travel schedule. That's just— but that's just me. Maybe I'm weird.
Let me read you Ghislaine's message to remind everybody this was in the Epstein files. And so Ghislaine's response to Melania Trump was the following. Sweet pea. And I'm not making— she called her sweet pea.
Is a—
yeah, I don't think you call anyone sweet pea. Sweet pea, thanks for your message. Actually, plans changed again and I'm now back on my way to New York. I leave again on Friday, so I still do not think I have time to see you, but I will try and call though. Keep Well, G, by the way, I don't want—
I actually really don't want to lose sight of the sweet pea here because I think it might be regional. Like, my wife's grandmother calls her sweet pea. It's like, it's a very endearing term that families use.
I don't think— I don't think sweet pea needs like an introspective analysis.
But I'm just saying, like, I just— I just want to further state for— we have a lot of terms all over the world.
Is actually a term of endearment. That's, uh, all right, you're gonna make fun of me on that one.
Okay, that's fine.
Yeah. And by the way, the New York Magazine article that's being referenced is the one with all of the red flags about Epstein. Like, Epstein did not look great in that article. Like, it was a borderline exposé, right? Like, they pulled back— like, it was a bad article. Um, they pulled back some of the reporting, and that was one of the criticisms, right? That there was a lot of stuff that they were gathering, and it became kind of a weird piece that was somewhat complimentary but also with like a lot of red flags and a lot of like mysteries. Like, how did he get his money? Like, all the question marks were there. It was not all that And that's where Donald Trump was quoted in like a very gross way, right? Trump's like, Epstein's a great guy. He likes women on the younger side, and everybody knows that about him, basically, right? And so Trump— that was the article that Melania said, great article, like you looked amazing in that. That was not the amazing article. It's not like they were profiled in like Vogue, you know, for like being great people. In any event, Melania holds this press conference, and out of nowhere she starts to speak.
She gets up to the microphone. We're all thinking, what's Melania going to say? Say? And she goes, numerous fake images of the airplane. Let's play this.
The first time I crossed paths with Epstein was in the year 2000 at an event Donald and I attended together. At the time, I had never met Epstein and had no knowledge of his criminal undertakings. Numerous fake images and statements about Epstein and me have been circulating on social media for years now. Be cautious about what you believe. These images and stories are completely false. I'm not a witness or a named witness in connection with any of Epstein's crimes. My name has never appeared in court documents, depositions, victim statements, or FBI interviews surrounding the Epstein matter. I have never had any knowledge of Epstein abuse of his victims.
I did not have relations with that man, Jeffrey Epstein. That's like the kind of speech that you get— like, you could picture somebody giving a speech like that at a courthouse after they're like indicted as a co-conspirator with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Like, that's how it sounds, in my opinion, the speech she is giving. It's like, you know, this You know, my 'I have no ties to Jeffrey Epstein' t-shirt is sure raising a lot of eyebrows in this room. Well, everyone's starting to look at me funny because I'm wearing the shirt that says 'I have no ties to Jeffrey Epstein.' It's like it screams like this odd guilt, and it's like the Streisand effect in full effect. Everybody is talking about this right now. She's brought Epstein right back to the top of the headlines when it was kind of buried in the headlines in mainstream sources. Now this is is like back in the news in a big, big way. And now I think everyone's wondering, like, what is the next shoe to drop? Like, is she trying to get ahead of something here? Is there a big story coming? Is it the Zampolli, uh, you know, possibly being deposed?
Like, what the hell was that?
Also, according to Donald Trump and brothers— correct me if I, if I misunderstood this— he didn't know that she was going to make this speech today. So you have Melania there unilaterally making decisions about when she's going to hold these press conferences without at least consulting Donald Trump, the president of the United States, or whomever. It just like, for me, like that. Could you imagine? It's my favorite game. Imagine if Biden did. Imagine if Dr. Jill Biden held a press conference to talk about XYZ, very specific personal issue, I guess, without consulting with the larger White House staff.
Right.
It leads me to, like, ask the question, like, who's actually running this stuff over there.
I, you know, I'll show you what else she said as well as we, as we go through some of these clips. They get weirder and weirder. Here she goes. I've never been friends with Epstein. We were invited to parties from time to time, but I was never friends with them. Here, let's play.
I never been friends with Epstein. Donald and I were invited to the same parties. Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach.
We have your emails with her, though.
Like, what is— what is this press? This is the weirdest press conference.
I have your emails. How are you? Nice story. Let's hang out again. This is not overlapping social circles. Where you, where you are just in. And it leads you to believe, okay, if you're lying about that, if you're saying the photos of you and Epstein that we know are the real photos are fake photos, if you're saying the emails are fake emails which are in the files, if you're saying you're not in the files when— where do you think we got the— where do you think we got the emails from? The files? Where do you think we got the photos from? They're like on like— they're like, they're like news. It's like out there. These are like real photos that have been used for a long time. If you're saying all that stuff is make, then, you know, what, what, what's really going on right here, right?
That's the issue with their lying. And in a weird way, let me just quickly tie it to Iran, right? If you're lying about the undisputed facts that you agreed to use this 10-point plan as the framework, if you're going to lie about something that is in the public knowledge right now, then what else are you lying about? Probably everything if you're willing to lie about that.
And then she bizarrely. I mean, I agree that there should be congressional hearings, but I guess in her own mind she's like, all right, and now I'm gonna show solidarity with the victims and survivors, and I'm gonna say that Epstein was— he was indeed involved with lots of other bad people, but I'm not one of them, and Donald isn't one of them, but I want there to be congressional hearings, which We want— we all want that. Okay, sounds good. Let's, let's do congressional hearings then. Okay, here, play this clip.
Now is the time for Congress to act. Epstein was not alone. Several prominent male executives resigned from their powerful positions after this matter became widely politicized. Of course, these This doesn't amount to guilt, but we still must work openly and transparently to uncover the truth. I call on Congress to provide the women who have been victimized by Epstein with a public hearing specifically centered around the survivors. Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath. Under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony. Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the Congressional Record. Then, and only then, We will have the truth. Thank you.
Doesn't answer any questions, like walks out like, yeah, I did it, I did it. Well, we all want congressional hearings. We all would like that. Okay. But wouldn't the first witnesses be like, I don't know, like Trump and you? Like, wouldn't you be at the top of the list? Is that her way of trying to, like, counter the fact that the House may be wanting to subpoena her? I mean, if Hillary Clinton had to have her deposition taken and she's not in the files and doesn't— like, no connection at all— don't you think Melania should be, who's in the emails? But also, you have Melania saying that. But do you remember when Donald Trump— or I'm sure you remember, although a lot more of this was happening before his catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran, his invasion took place— here was Donald Trump calling it all one big hoax. It was all a hoax. What he said. Let's play it.
And it's just a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax as it pertains to the Republicans now. No, no, it's— I call it the Epstein hoax. Takes a lot of time and effort instead of talking about the great achievements we've had. A great gentleman yesterday, as you know, went on CNBC and he made the statement that Trump may go down as the greatest president of all in the United States. And instead of talking about the things we've achieved. We've had tremendous achievement. They're wasting their time with a guy who obviously has some very serious problems, who died 3 or 4 years ago. I'd rather talk about the success we have with the economy, the best we've ever had, and all of the things we've done, including the Middle East.
That's no way to talk about your best friend, Brandon.
Brandon Jardine.
I'm just saying, there's no way to talk about your best friend. I mean, You know, it's, it's, it's demeaning. Donald Trump, you and Jeff, you know, you guys hung out after Epstein said you guys were the best friends. They bragged about each other. Uh, it's— the whole thing's so nuts. I, and I, I truly don't understand what the hell Melania was thinking with that. What was she trying to achieve? If it was getting rid of photos of her and Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, she knows it's going to do the opposite. Everyone right now just keeps posting every picture picture of Ghislaine Maxwell and Melania Trump. Everyone right now is reposting all the emails between Ghislaine Maxwell and Melania Trump. And now everybody is just wondering, what's the next shoe to drop? What's coming? Why is she doing this? And that wasn't in the conversation before today. And honestly, I'm scratching my head now, like, wondering the—
the only thing I could think of. And like, I'm not being funny. We didn't play this portion of the clip, or at least maybe I didn't hear it. She plugs her book during this press conference. Like, she literally— we played it.
No, no, but she— at the end she goes, uh, she's like, I actually met my husband, uh, you know, by pure chance, by coincidence, and you could read about our encounter in my book Melania, in stores now. Like, that's how she ends.
It's how she said it. And, and so like, this whole thing was so weird to me, and like, I, I just genuinely don't understand why she held this today and again made the unilateral decision apparently to hold this press conference today, other than the fact that I think she's just trying to plug her book. And like, that's just so Trumpian and gross and just disgusting. But like, that's the most on-brand thing I could think of for this because for the life of me, like, not— I don't actually know a reason why she would hold this today. Ben, what are your thoughts? You think I'm on to something there or what?
I'm, you know, Setting aside the politics and the weirdness and all of like setting aside, to me, I just think things need to be done with intentionality and thought and planning and reasoning and logic. And I like to try to understand what any of this is. I mean, to watch Donald Trump spiral today from posting weird AI photos of himself and Dana light, talking about UFC fights at the White House, to saying, Iran, you're not being good. You're not supposed to be charging tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. You're being naughty. You know, to saying, you know, I don't like the Wall Street Journal. It's a crooked organization, the Wall Street Journal, and they're lying about this. And then, you know, it's just the whole day of all of this. And it's like, what's the— this is not normal behavior. What's the endgame here? What objectives are trying to be reached? And, you know, I mean, I just think it is— he's a chaos agent. He's a horrible human. And the best way to explain all of this is, is that, you know, lots of people are on Earth to do different things, and his is to destroy and to cause pain and psychological torture.
Just that he's the bad— the one of the worst, if not the one of the worst human beings to ever live, frankly. Just a horrible, horrific piece of trash human whose goal is to just spread hate every day and chaos every single day. And, you know, going back to what Prime Minister Starmer says, you know, it's, it's, it's really screwed up that people like Trump and Putin and I'll add Netanyahu and others, though, are here, you know, who cause mass disorder and pain and chaos. And, and other people have to suffer for for it. You know, by and large, people just want to get by and live and go through their lives and have families and not deal with this stuff, you know. And so, you know, when I watch, you know, when I watch the coverage of this, whether it's on a CNN or an MSNOW even, or egregiously on a state regime media or a News Nation, and they try to like talk about this like this is, you know, analogous to this situation or that situation, this is normal behavior, I'm This is, there's none of this is normal. We have to take a step back and say all of this is conscious shocking behavior that's unprecedented in American history and world history that is a humiliation ritual like our country has never experienced before.
And if you believe that this is strength, strength, then you're pathetic because this is not strength. This is not just weakness. This is just deranged, deranged behavior. And we're going to keep calling it out all the time here on the Midas Touch Network. So that's all I got with all this. I'll keep giving the updates every 90 minutes of what's happening in this war. Like, we learned that what, 8— as of this recording on Thursday, it It was 8 ships in total crossed through the Strait of Hormuz. None of them are tankers. They were all dry bulk and container ships moving cargo to Iran, moving cargo to Iran.
Right.
Probably if you looked into it, more weapons from Russia and China. If you actually look in what's in those ships, I don't know that for a fact, but if you probably want to know what's in those ships, it's probably things to help. It's probably, it's probably Shaheed drones, FPV drones. Drones, uh, you know, stuff like that, you know, unmanned, unmanned, uh, vessels to strike. That's probably what it is. But not a single, not one oil tanker. And mind you, when the war was happening pre-ceasefire, there was at least 8 to 10 oil tankers that were going. Now, no tankers. And what Iran's doing is they know going into these negotiations that if these negotiations hell, what happens? Boom, our markets crash again, right? That's what happens. They know exactly what's going to happen, so they're not going to open it up at all until Donald Trump agrees to their terms. That, that Iran knows where they got him. They know exactly where they got him. So anyway, that's what I've got.
The markets are ridiculous. The fact that they still believe anything Donald Trump says is absolutely crazy. But who Who knows? Maybe they're starting again.
You see it when you watch these, like, the CNBC show. I'm not gonna— we don't have the clip, but there was a clip of that clip. Can you explain it, Brett? I feel like I won't do it justice.
Uh, uh, I forget. I forget, you know, I'm paraphrasing, but the way it was where the woman on CNBC was like, um, she was like, so, so, uh, Donald Trump today threatened to wipe out an entire civilization. Uh, do you think that's good for the markets or bad for the markets? I'm trying to think, like, what's, what's your take on how it's going to be for—
I, I I need to stress, Brett is not exaggerating.
If anything, I'm underdoing it.
If anything, he— exactly, he is underdoing it. We don't have the clip. Go look up the clip. It is crazy stuff, man. That show— that— but that's how, that's how it happens. That's how it happens. These people are insane.
Insane.
It's, it's unbelievable. Well, anyway, thanks everyone for watching this episode of the Midas Touch Podcast. We've packed in a lot, a lot, a lot of, uh, topics, stories, news, information, all of it. And so thank you for watching. Remember to become a member of this YouTube channel. Hey, check out our Substack, MidasPlus.com. I love our Substack so much. I love the Substack community, the comments. There's a private chat for paid subscribers where everyone's constantly chatting with each other, speaking about issues of the day. There's Ron's Bulletin. Ben does a mid-afternoon bulletin. So much other great exclusive content. And, and we're going to have more content too as we go there. Um, what else, what else, what else? Add the Midas Touch Podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, become an audio listener if you aren't yet. And if you are, be sure to rate it 5 stars. All right, that'll be enough of my shtick. There's Midas merch at store.midastouch.com, all the other things. Follow us everywhere. Jordy, take us out.
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Trump is spiraling as he appears to sabotage his own ceasefire deal, raising serious questions about what comes next. Meanwhile, Melania suddenly steps into the spotlight with a bizarre press conference on Epstein, and new economic data paints an increasingly troubling picture. Ben, Brett, and Jordy break it all down and more.
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