Transcript of Tuesday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben 8/18/26

Welcome to Ben On Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news. Moments ago, we learned that the Iranian-backed Houthis just struck a tanker in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It's believed to be a Saudi Arabian tanker. Now, the Saudis have had to use a different route other than the Red Sea, um, since every time it uses the Red Sea, and it gets close to the Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, western Yemen. And, uh, this one was, uh, very close to Al Mokka in Yemen, an area where the Houthis have been striking a lot lately. Um, these tankers have been repeatedly hit. I mean, we're talking about multiple Saudi tankers. So Saudi Arabia is trying to reroute some of the tankers to basically avoid the Red Sea and do a much longer route around Africa. Um, but anytime they send a tanker, the Houthis remind them that the Houthi-led blockade in the Red Sea against Saudi Arabian tankers remains in place. Also, we reported earlier how yet another tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was struck by Iran on the Oman route. CENTCOM continues to tell these tankers, use the Oman route, it's safe. Clearly it isn't.

Iran struck another tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, and then a few days, uh, before that, on August 15th, we reported here on the Midas Touch Network that another tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz. No one else was really reporting it in terms of other major news networks. It was being discussed amongst the open-source intelligence community, which of course we monitor very carefully. We monitor the surveillance footage, the satellite footage to try to give you everything that's going on. And now finally today, the UK, the UKMTO finally admitted that there was another tanker hit on August 15th. I've been noticing the UKMTO, which used to do a very good job reporting all the comings and goings of maritime-related issues in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, really has now become a total tool of CENTCOM. I don't know specifically how the change occurred, but it's been drastic over the past, I would say, month or so where the UKMTO is just very late to report what's happening. Now, these are very serious times, obviously, right? Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz through the Houthis. They basically have functional control over the Red Sea.

They can destroy all the other tankers that they want in the Red Sea. They're just right now focusing on Saudi Arabian tankers, given that Saudi Arabia backs the, uh, government that's recognized by the international community, uh, in Yemen, and that Saudi Arabia has attacked the Sana'a Air Base and other bases. Um, but functional control over the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait resides with the Houthis. I mean, these are just objective facts. I mean, the world is on fire right now as well, in a, in a bad way, not good fire, like very bad stuff is happening. Um, in the past, uh, 24 hours as well, Netanyahu struck hard in Syria in a new airport that al-Shara, the president of Syria, is spending a lot of time building. It's the Abu al-Duhir Air Base This was a major, major construction project by the new Syrian government, again led by al-Shara'a. When he was in al-Qaeda, he was named al-Jilani. I watched his clips. I mean, I watched his interviews and I've showed you clips of al-Shara'a. You know, a very— I mean, obviously interesting background given that he was in al-Qaeda and there was a $25 million bounty over his head.

But since he's taken over leadership, I mean, he's had to do some kind of Trump bootlicking to have sanctions removed against Syria. And he knows that Donald Trump loves, uh, people like who were in al-Qaeda and people who like beheaded people, like Trump's sicko who like looks up to that stuff. But if you followed al-Sharif's behavior, he's focused a lot on Arab nation unity. He's focused a lot on, despite the fact that there was obviously direct conflict between his al-Qaeda sect and Hezbollah during the Syrian civil war, about unity, about Arab unity. And we've been reporting over the past few weeks Israel really ramping up its anti-Syria rhetoric and how people in the Netanyahu regime were saying, We're going to do what we did to Gaza in Syria. Syria is Gaza on steroids, is what we've been hearing from the Netanyahu regime. More videos of Netanyahu as he gears up for Election Day in October there in Israel. Photos of him in the Golan Heights, which he said, this is ours, this is ours. We're never giving it back. We're never giving it back. And then we've been hearing again, it's hard to say increased rhetoric because genocidal rhetoric is hard to increase.

I mean, it's implicitly the worst thing imaginable. But you're hearing from their national security adviser, Ben-Gvir. You're hearing more from Smootrich and others. I mean, saying things like we should basically be killing every night. We should go out and like hunt the people in Gaza. I mean, and every night there should be someone who we, you know, we should, we should just do more killings and they're not even real people. You know, and these are the statements that they're saying on podcasts, like in their podcast sphere. They're just going on and they're saying these absolutely genocidal and horrific things. And it's incumbent on all of us, you know, to really call out this genocidal Netanyahu regime and speak with moral clarity. Donald Trump, meanwhile, is doing the opposite. Okay. Before we went live, the US announced It is imposing the harshest sanctions imaginable on— drum roll, please— who do you think that the United States would place the harshest sanctions on? Kim Jong-un?

Putin?

Netanyahu? Who should we push? Who should we impose the harshest of harshest? I mean, UAE for what they're doing in Sudan. What should— what, what should— who should we do it to? Hmm. The president of the ICC. That's who. The International Criminal Court president, Tomoko Wakani, from Japan. She is the ICC president, took over, I believe, in 2024. And the US announced, we are going after her and we're going to destroy her life. This is what Rubio posted. This is what Trump's been talking about. They're putting sanctions to destroy the life of the ICC president so that Donald Trump can protect Netanyahu. The sanctions freeze any US assets that she holds, and it cuts her off from the US financial system simply because she is the president of the International Criminal Court. Folks, it's why our book is called WTF America. Seriously, what the F? What the eff? This is again— but again, when you have a criminal, a felon, a sexual predator in office, when you have the worst person, you know, when you have a regime of scumbags, this is their behavior. And the post-World War II global world order with a U.S.-led global world order is done.

It's gone. It's not pretty quickly. It's not like, oh, it's gonna be gone. No, no, no, no, no, it's gone. China leads the world right now. Not a debate. I'm not going to debate you who's the leader. It's China, 100%. Wang Yi of China announcing that he will be meeting with the president of South Korea in the coming weeks. What's also notable is that Xi Jinping also saying that he's just going to visit Donald Trump for one day, just one day. He wants in and out. Thucydides trap, baby. One day going to show up in the United States. And by the way, I did a whole video on it this morning. If you read all of the Chinese newspapers, they're like, the U.S. is in disarray. They don't even know how to even be able to host an event for Xi Jinping. It's pathetic. He's going to meet with Trump for less than a day. By contrast, he spent September 22nd through September 28th of 2015 with former President Obama in 2015. OK, and so there's a difference of power dynamic. Donald Trump bows. To Xi Jinping. Donald Trump bows to Xi Jinping. That's the global world order right now.

The US has removed its final aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Say goodbye to the United States as the leader of the world post-World War II. It's done. It's over.

Goodbye.

Doesn't, doesn't exist anymore. The US took out the USS George Washington. Because it needs to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln. Hat tip to the Midas Touch Network's reporting on this, more significantly Aaron Parnas. Let's give credit where credit is due. Aaron, of course, is affiliated with the Midas Touch Network, and it's an honor to have people like Aaron and Katie Fangs and Scott McFarland and Popox and all these people who work at the Midas Touch Network. I am but a humble YouTuber, um, being able to report on some of their incredible enterprise reporting. Although this is what we wanted to build at the Midas Touch, or a machine that can get out the news like this. Anyway, I digress. The George Washington is replacing the Abraham Lincoln because obviously they can't even give basic nutrition to our troops aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. but don't forget about the ships that surround the Abraham Lincoln. We've been doing a lot of reporting on that too. You know, when you have an aircraft carrier like that, it's protected by destroyers and other ships. And so the people on those other ships are suffering as well. And the aircraft carrier's bigger, has a little more space than some of these smaller ships, still big ships.

Um, but there's a lot of concerning information coming out of those other ships as well. We're hearing from family members. I hear you. I know you're watching. I hear from family members. I want to bring attention to it. I think it's my obligation. I'm duty-bound and I support our troops. I think being patriotic, being a patriotic American, is not going along with a war criminal regime led by a sexual predator who is a loser. I don't want to see our troops being treated this way. Our troops are feeling psychologically tortured by this idiot scumbag in the Oval Office who, I did a deal, I did a deal. Oh, we own the Strait of Hormuz. We own it. It's ours.

It's ours.

I'm going to make it a territory. You know, sometimes y'all— not you, not you watching this, but people are like, Ben, 'You're being hyperbolic. You know, he didn't say he wants to make it a U.S. territory. He just said we control it.' I said, 'Just listen to what he's saying.' I can predict 5 days ahead what the guy is going to post. I don't know if that's a good skill or an awful skill, and I don't know the long-term psychological impact on me to be able to have such a skill. But this is what I was saying he was conveying. Sadly, I know Trump speak now because I've studied it. And I study it not because I have some view about this guy that I don't like. I don't, you know, there's a lot of scumbag billionaires out there that I probably disagree with. Um, I probably maybe don't think that what their behavior is is something that I look up to, you know, but I don't spend my time talking about them. This idiot's out there doing 21,000 stock trades and he's hiding in catering containers with Natalie while the American people suffer. And I've heard some people say, I don't know why, even people who are supporters of Senator Ossoff, and that's a very small group of people, they're like, why is he saying these things about Natalie?

There's so many other things to focus on other than Natalie. I agree with you, and Senator Ossoff agrees with you. You have to listen to how he is presenting the facts. He's not just saying, ooh, Natalie, Natalie, Natalie. You know, it's not just, oh, look, Donald Trump, it looks like he's wearing a diaper. No, that, that, that's not, that's not what the reporting is. Oh, look, he says all these stupid things. Look what he's— no.

It's—

he's doing these things. He's looking this way. He's behaving in this manner while the American people are suffering, while the American people are having their health care ripped away, while we're in a never-ending war, while Treasury yields have hit 5.3% on the 30 and closing in on, what, 4.7% or something crazy on the 10. On the 10-year yield while our strategic petroleum reserves— yeah, 4.736. I almost don't believe the number when I say it out. I'm like, come on, it can't be 4.7. It's 4.7. It was 3.995 before the war began. Our strategic petroleum reserves have hit tank bottom. The highest gas prices ever in history of the United States right now. The highest ever for this time in August in history on a nationwide average. So the issue isn't just, oh, look, it's Natalie, it's Natalie. By the way, Senator Ossoff didn't say that Donald Trump was engaged in X, Y, and Z. He just says he seems to enjoy spending his time with Natalie while the— while the American people are suffering. He's out there golfing and throwing weirdo tournaments for himself and focused on golden ballrooms and all this dumb shit. While the American people are suffering.

That's the point. That's what breaks through. That's what connects, because it's not even a political message. It's a humanity message. It is a good versus evil message. And that's why these MAGAs are so damn desperate for their boogeyman heading into the midterms, because they've screwed everything up. They control all branches of government. And all the things that they are trying to fearmonger about, oh, the communists, they're gonna take over the methods of production of companies. You literally did that. What are you talking about? Trump behaves more like a communist authoritarian than anybody since Stalin. That's not me being hyperbolic. Just look at his freaking damn behavior, please. You know, Donald Trump's gonna— oh no, they're gonna make you— they're gonna take away your healthcare. Trump's done that. He's taken away your healthcare. What are you talking about? It's like these are things that are happening. So we have to connect all of these things, uh, we have to connect all of these things together. But you have again this global erosion of U.S. moral, ethical, military, you name it, authority abroad and at home, at the whims of this crazy person who's out there posting on social media these deranged posts.

I mean, how bizarre and morbid. I mean, he's posted this morning some weird photo of Lindsey Graham. I mean, even weirder than the new US territory. By the way, when they go to the new US territory, you know, this is why basic education is important too. There's no Qatar on this map. And also, if that area became a US territory, so doesn't that make Iranians from Iran and also whatever that circle is incorporating as well, Oman and other areas, doesn't that make them American citizens now? So they're going to vote in the midterms, or is that— we take it to the logical conclusion, this is now, uh, you know, this is now an American territory. I mean, it's so stupid but equally bizarre and morbid. He posts these things of Lindsey Graham, who died a month ago, whenever he died, warmonger Lindsey Graham. Um, holding up a Trump Wikipedia, wearing a hat that says Make Iran Great Again. I don't—

what, what is it?

I don't want to zoom in. What is that?

Just—

is that a bunch of— is that just a tub of mayo? I don't even know what the hell is in that. Is it a plate of mayo right there? It probably explains a bunch of things, that there's just— they just drink mayo soup over there. Looks like he's drinking— he's got a— I'm not, I'm not trying to be morbid, but he's got a plate of mayo soup, it looks like. He's got a cup of coffee and a diet soda, it looks like, while holding up— imagine like that being your freaking legacy of life. Like, you're, you're a United States Senator, right? You know, you're a United States Senator, and at the age of 71, right, your life's freaking work is holding up the Wikipedia of a sexual predator while having mayo soup and some deranged quid pro quo Mar-a-Lago bizarroville wearing a hat that says Make Iran Great Again. And then, boop, you die. That's your life. That's your life, Lindsey. Boop, you do that and then you're dead. That's what you wanted? I mean, that's the purpose of living a life? That's kind of crazy to me. And that's why I always tell us, I'm like, pull back a moment.

Like, I know this sounds like existential and like, Ben, don't get all weird on us now, okay? I try not to get weird on you now. Like, I wasn't weird on you before. But sometimes we have to like ask ourselves, like, what's the point of government? What's the point of like our life? Like, what are we trying to do with our life? Like, it's a weird thing that this guy's life was spent thinking about killing people And then like the fish that cleans the shark's teeth, you know, going around with his little Trump Wikipedia, wearing stupid hats that say, "Make Iran great again," while like, you know, like having these weird, like smiling as he slaughters little girls in elementary schools in Manab. And by the way, there's lots of other war crimes as well. I know we focus on Manab, as we should, the slaughtering of the little girls there, But the Trump regime slaughtered 17— oftentimes it's young girls. You see a pattern? Epstein files, Manob. They slaughtered 17 young girls with a new dispersing pellet weapon on the first day of the war. 17 young girls in volleyball practice as well were killed by the Trump regime as they tested a new pellet dispersion weapon where the missile released these pellets.

That spread all over the little girls playing volleyball. Objective fact, Google it. Lemaire is where it took place. And, and by the way, you then wonder why our service members, the Navy sailors, uh, our courageous Marines, are also feeling psychologically tortured and complicit in the sicko psychos' war crimes. Like, what are we doing? We, we, we're, we're protecting Benjamin Netanyahu. Like, what are we— what are we doing? The hell are we doing? And we're killing little girls to protect Netanyahu as he commits genocide, and America gives their money to the— what are— what are we doing? That's our mission? That's why we're out here? We didn't devote our time in the military to this crap. What the hell? What, what, what the hell are we even— what the hell are we even doing right now? And, and you're not giving us food. You're not taking care of us. Join the Navy, they said. You're not going to— you're not going to, you know. And then state regime media went from support the troops, which we do, to shut up and stop whining and do what Netanyahu tells you to do. That's where Fox is right now with our troops.

Shut up and do what Netanyahu says. It's crazy. It's crazy. And it's happening right before our damn eyes. So the question is, what are we going to do about it? Seriously, what are we gonna— what are we gonna do about it? Well, yes, there's a midterm coming up. I don't view the midterms as a political thing. I view it as an accountability and a humanity thing. I don't view this channel as a political channel, frankly, although lots of people say, okay, you talk— I'm talking about leadership, empathy, human life. I'm talking— I'm talking about calling out genocide. I'm talking about supporting people. I'm talking about supporting our troops. I'm talking about running things efficiently. I'm talking about keeping your word, doing real deals, sticking to your deals. We got a lot to discuss. We got a lot to discuss. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, I want to talk about apparently, you know, last-minute talks in Canada. Is Trump gonna taco again before he 50% tariffs Canada? Be on hockey sticks and all of these things because he's a freaking lunatic. While praising Kim Jong-un. What's gonna happen on the next episode of Donald and B.C.?

I say this sarcastically, but what we should recognize is we don't have to be non-consensual extras in sicko dystopian reality shows. We can actually have government that fights for us. That's the purpose of all of this. Reminder, WTF America, the book I wrote with my brothers, it's out in stores October. Pre-order it right now. Our publisher says the most important thing is preorders. And we want— we got to keep the momentum going with these preorders. So preorder it now.

All right.

We'll be right back. Before continuing, one quick PSA for the Midas Mighty when it comes to Medicare. Most Medicare agents push Medicare Advantage plans even when they're not right for you because they make more money doing it. That's why we strongly recommend you do what thousands in our audience have already done. Speak with Chapter, please. They don't just share the amazing benefits of Medicare Advantage, they explain the pros and cons of all your Medicare options: Original Medicare, Medicare Supplement, Medicare Advantage, and Part D. Chapter supports you in comparing every plan against your specific healthcare needs because they want to ensure you have the best coverage for you. One chapter member, Jill, said her advisor presented options she didn't even see on the Medicare.gov website. And in many cases, Chapter saves people over $1,100 a year by getting them on the right plan. So if you're on Medicare or will be soon, dial 82-MEDICARE and get honest advice from Chapter. That's 82-MEDICARE. It's free and quick. They can review your options in under 20 minutes. If you're on the right plan already, they'll tell you. If you're not, they could help you save thousands the way they have with thousands of members of the Midas Mighty.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben, so this must be me on breaking news. Good to see everybody. Shout out to our sponsors. Uh, I don't really recognize myself, you know. I had those foggy glasses on the other video. I looked a little different over there, right? Y'all might as mighty made me step up my game. New glasses, new look. I listened to— I listened to the comments, try to improve the physical appearance thanks to your comments. As I read them, I read them. I take constructive criticism, trust me. I get them, I get a lot of them, I get a lot of them. All right, I want to talk about Um, what Trump said a few weeks back though, where he previewed that he was going to hit the ICC president hard. You just think about the sicko thing, to spend your— the, the power of the U.S. to attack the president of the ICC, by the way, who's Japanese. Not that, you know, okay, Japanese or whatever, but, but the point being The United States has tried to help Japan's government, the Takahashi government, with certain bailouts as well. It is a source of national pride for the people of Japan that the president of the ICC is someone who's Japanese, and the U.S., again, while doing a failed bailout of the Japanese yen, because everything the Trump regime does is incompetent, you know, we also then leave Japan very vulnerable to basically fend for itself at this point.

Um, in terms of, we removed the supercarrier, so the security umbrella by the United States in South Asia is gone, and Asia is gone. Remember, what was it, 2 weeks ago, the US rushed, we're gonna bail out the Japanese yen. And the US did it in the most effed up way as well. So rather than using our own currency to help bail out the yen and do a swap with our own currency or use our own money to prop it up, without telling the European Union, the US dumped euros in order to then prop up or swap with the Japanese yen, which kind of screwed over the European Union Central Bank. And it's not like the most massive thing, but like, central banks are supposed to talk with each other. It's unprecedented that— and just the screwed up thing that the US would just unload all of these euros and then not even give a heads up like, hey, we're about to unload $10 billion in euros and do a swap with yen, and this may impact you. So we want to give you the heads up. Nope, nope. And what I believe was happening behind the scenes also was market manipulation, because let me tell you what went down.

Treasury Secretary Bessens' background was actually a currency trader. That's how he made his money.

Swaps.

And it's a very, uh, niche area that involves arbitraging the deltas in these swaps and predicting when certain currencies will fall or rise. And I won't bore you with the details, but if you remember at Camp David— and I'll show you a clip of Trump in Camp David in a moment— Essent wrote on a napkin $5 to $10 billion for the yen. Now that was then published to— by the press who were like, look, he— did he do this on purpose? Is he leaking information? And so people who were not in the know would have assumed that it was not going to be the euro, that it would be the dollar, and if you knew that it was going to be a sale of the euros to yen, which— how would you know that? It's never really happened before that the US Central Bank, you know, or that the Treasury Department or whatever would be, would be doing, would be doing that. You could have made a lot of money arbitraging that delta during that trade. If you just saw what was on the napkin, you might have assumed, oh, got it, this is going to be a different type of bailout.

In any event, it didn't work or it worked for— and this is kind of a lot of what Trump does. It works for a few days, right? You can paint it blue for a few days. But as we say in WTF America, the algae always comes back.

Right.

The perfect metaphor for all of this, by the way, is the reflecting pool. You could paint it blue. You could pretend it's whatever. The algae will come back if you don't address the systemic issues. The water source from the Potomac has algae in it. It is summer. It is a small, shallow body of water in this massive, vast, huge body, but it's shallow. So of course the algae is going to come back if you don't address systemically what the issue is. And you could try to pretend that you're better than algae. You're not, you're not, you're not better than the science. Just because you say it, it isn't going to happen. But then they'll blame and they'll blame and they'll blame. The algae always comes back, right? You could try to manipulate the price of the Japanese yen for a few days, a week, a month, but guess what? The algae always comes back. And now we see the collapse of the yen again. So for about a 3-week period, we propped up the yen, screwed over more relations with Europe. And now what's going to happen? The Japanese central bank will probably have to do what the U.S. tried to avoid.

They're probably gonna— they're the biggest bondholder of U.S. Treasuries, so they're gonna unload our bonds And what's gonna happen? The value of our bonds is going to decrease. The yields are going to increase. The Treasury Department's going to have to pay more interest, in other words, because the paper is weaker. So to incentivize infusions of money, you have to raise the yields. So the 30-year becomes 5.3%, uh, the 10-year becomes 4.7%.

Okay.

And that will go higher and higher and higher. And that has a massive detrimental impact on the functioning of our economy as we now have to service $1.3 trillion a year in debt from our taxpayer dollars, which increases the deficit and prevents us from, in theory, putting money in ways and make it work for ways that help the American people, or it forces us to borrow more and incur more debt and more debt. And when you lose the trust of— like, this Ponzi scheme debt, and Trump's responsible for 30 to 40% of it, it works where the dollar's the reserve currency, where the United States is viewed as the undisputed economic hegemon in the world. That's the Ponzi scheme.

Keeps—

nobody questions it when you're the main economic hegemon, when nobody doubts it, when you've got the petrodollar. The dollar is the reserve currency. The U.S. markets are viewed as the safest place to put your money. The U.S. private equity is viewed as the same. The U.S. real estate is viewed as the safest and most When that breaks and that shatters, it also shatters the Ponzi scheme of the fact that it's just the Treasury printing out money. And, um, and it will— and, and it has a generational impact, and it's having an impact right now. It's having an impact right now. We're seeing the impact happen right now before our eyes. It impacts things like the mortgage rates. That you pay, right? It impacts these things that are happening right before our eyes. I mean, before our eyes as well, we're seeing diesel crack. And that doesn't mean like diesel crack, like crack, crack, but it's the diesel crack price, the spreads, if you will, the deltas, right, between the cost of diesel and crude that's out there. What's going on in the refinery? Versus what's going on, um, in the paper markets, the manipulated paper markets.

Although, as diesel crack hits a record $102 a barrel, the, the, the floor of the crack, if you will, which is the crude part— I mean, we're seeing crude prices now, that paper crude is at like $91 a barrel, and it's going to keep on going higher and higher and higher and higher. I would not be shocked if it hits $100 a barrel soon. Remember, folks, the algae always comes back. You can paint it blue, you can manipulate the market. Oh, we're doing a deal, we're so close to a deal, Iran's begging for a deal, they want a deal, deal, deal, deal, deal, deal. Like, you can keep on doing that, but eventually you run out. Eventually your words don't matter, and eventually people say You know what? I actually trust what they're saying in Iran more than I trust what you're saying. And that pains me as an American to say, really? I'm getting my news from Tasnim? I didn't even know what Tasnim was a year ago. And I'm getting my news from there and I view it more reliably than what I'm being told on state regime media Fox. Now I know that's going to be tinged with propaganda.

Let's be very clear. We're not naive. To wartime propaganda. What? But I'm like, uh, I don't know, I— what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz, objectively, from what I'm seeing on satellite footage and what I'm seeing in terms of our strategic petroleum reserves, what we're seeing in terms of tankers in and out, sadly, tragically, I say to an American seems more consistent with what they're saying in freaking Tasnim or Fars than what they're saying on state regime media, which calls itself Fox. That's unfortunate. That's like the— I don't want that. I don't want that to be— I don't want that to be the case. But that's, you know, the algae always comes back. And now we're seeing the things that you may have said, Ben, 'You were saying strategic petroleum reserves and you were warning about these things and it never happened. So are you just this— are you just a doomsdayer YouTuber who, who just says all of these things and then they don't happen and that's how you get clicks? Is that what you're doing right here?' No, the whole point of why we created this YouTube channel and this network is that there were an ecosystem of people who were masquerading as experts who didn't know shit.

They didn't know what they were talking about. They weren't experts. They weren't in the trenches. So the idea was, let's actually bring on the best experts and let's not waste our time with split screens of people yelling at each other. Oh, you never said this about Natalie. Oh, this about Natalie.

Natalie. Natalie.

Natalie. You know, reminds me of Billy Madison, like, conditioner is better, shampoo is better, conditioner is I don't need to have a debate over what's better, shampoo or conditioner. Okay, both shampoo is better, um, because you need shampoo before you get to the conditioner. So it's not even a debate, by the way. But setting that aside, we just want the data. Show me the chart, show me the graphs, analyze it in detail, leave me smarter than when I came here. And then if you want to give me your opinion, you give me a little opinion. I'm okay with that. We all are allowed to hold opinions. But guide me there by telling me the facts and showing me the science and showing me the footage and the photos and the videos and the clips. So, Ben, when you say that Donald Trump is attacking the ICC for Benjamin Netanyahu, when you're saying that, that's a bold claim, Ben. You're going to— you're going to go there. Come loaded with some facts. Come loaded with some evidence. Then I say, OK. Okay, well, here he was at Camp David saying it, as I would do when I was a litigator, when I did trials, and when I was a lawyer.

I would say, all right, pull up Exhibit A, let's play from your deposition, or here, let's just play the clip. That's why I say let's play the clip. That's from when I was a lawyer. Let's show the exhibit. All right, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm showing you Exhibit A right now. Here was Donald Trump at Camp David. Here's what he said. Let's play that clip, Jeremy, of Donald Trump in Camp David. So we've begun— we tried to get them to reform and listen to us. They wouldn't do it. They're very arrogant. We've now begun an effort to really try to bring that court to heel.

There's no information that they're after me. You could have, just so you know, just talking about it. I'm saying you He's not trying to defend me. He is trying to defend Bibi and various other people. But there are many people that shouldn't be looked at that way. But there is no indication that I'm one of them at this moment.

He said it. He said it. Those are, those are, those are his words. All right. Let's take our last quick break of the show. When I come back. I want to talk about that Oval Office press conference that Donald Trump had yesterday, but I want to talk about it from an angle that to me, whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or independent, we should all look at it. And it's one of the— there's so many alarming qualities about this malignant narcissist, but there's something particularly, and I've talked about, I want to emphasize it again. Because to me it tells the whole story of, of, of the moral rot that exists. Moral rot. And, and that's— I, I try, and not in a waggy finger way. We're all human. We all make mistakes. We all sin. We all hopefully can apologize and take accountability. And I don't mean sin in a religious sense, you know. We all make mistakes. We all err. That's what makes us human. But it's how we take accountability, how we respond, how we support each other, how we lift up people, not punch people down, how we try to improve and become better people, and how we carry ourselves for future generations.

And when I'm watching in the Oval Office and I'm seeing Trump's behavior, with a 16-year-old boy and a 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old little girl. It was one of the most horrific things I watched. Let's take our last quick break of the show.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis. So this is our breaking news. As I noted, uh, before the break, I wanted to talk about that Oval Office presser that Donald Trump had yesterday. It's, it's one of those things that sometimes will just be chalked up to it's Donald being Donald. This is who he is. It's a bad— you know, that's just him. And that's the biggest mistake in how we report on these things. Every media entity needs to not only call it out, but you need to also talk about some of the most basic things that are happening and in that not normalize this— with the 16-year-old courageous lifeguard appears to be a white kid with blonde hair. And Trump's setting up a dynamic, he's setting up a dynamic that's very intentionally scripted. There's a lot of people who do courageous things, and I don't take anything away from the courage of this 16-year-old. I think it was— I saw the video, it was absolutely courageous. Um, but the dynamic is a dynamic of a savior, and then there's, uh, 8-year-old or 10-year-old kid, Nathaniel Ray. Um, and this idea that— the idea that this kid saved this kid And despite Donald Trump covering up child sex trafficking rings, I just want you to understand the propaganda tactic.

Um, he shields himself in the valor of a white knight savior story and positions himself as a lead character in a story of white kid, blonde hair, right out of a Saved by the Bell type of script, although Zack Morris I think was half Asian, um, but, but, but with that dynamic, and a young kid who, you know, appears to be from a minority group. And Trump casts himself as kind of the actual person who blesses that this was an act of savior in the Oval Office, the site where they're actively covering up child sex trafficking rings.

Okay.

And he brings on the— has them dress up in, you know, their uniforms. And he's signaling— these are, these are signals. And if you criticize his behavior, he will turn it into victimhood. But he will use the 16-year-old and the 8-year-old and the scene as his shield, right? And so when a reporter asks him questions about, look, you just said you're supporting Kim Jong-un and that you don't want any testing in— or you don't want any testing, you don't want testing, but you don't want any military exercises taking place. Well, um, his response when he's asked a question of like, we're giving up our alliance with South Korea just like that, like via social media post— how dare you ask that question? Do you see I have these kids here with their families and you're asking me questions about what's happening in the world? Don't you see what I'm trying to do? Okay, no, I mean, we American people, it's great. We, we all recognize the kid's heroic. Yes, there's a crazy situation. Yes, great. Okay, you're the commander-in-chief, sadly, and we have a lot of catastrophes happening where nobody's coming to save tens of millions of Americans who have their healthcare ripped away who can't pay their rent right now, who can't afford things.

And so we want to ask you what the eff is going on. Okay. Oh, you're fake news.

You're fake news.

You're fake news. So within this, he's cocooning. You get it? He's creating— he's, he's, he's a weak, weak thing. And he creates this cocoon for himself to hide quite literally the physical manifestation is the bunker that he's creating in the White House, his Golden Ballroom, which he says is a shield. While the US is not equipped to handle drones from foreign entities, he wants himself to be protected in a bunker, and he says Golden Ballroom is my shield so I can hide. Weak, pathetic cocooning. But he does this in so many other ways. Yes, physical manifestation— him, Natalie Harp, catering container, cocooning, literally hiding. But he does that with these setups where he surrounds himself with sports teams or surrounds himself with this 16-year-old and this 10-year-old and the 8-year-old girl sister. So you ask him questions and he's like, ah, don't you see I have kids here? Don't you see? Oh, okay, no, you while you are doing this press conference, you are also saying we're no longer allied with South Korea and Kim Jong-un is your friend and is not engaged in hostile activity when he just launched a ballistic missile that nearly hit Japan, while he brags about his nuclear capabilities, while he's providing weapons to Russia and tens of thousands of soldiers.

So no, you're the president, we're going to ask you questions, okay? It's not all state regime media. So in this cocoon that he creates, he can't even behave normal. So one of the things he does is the 16-year-old lifeguard, he basically says how good looking he is. And then he says his mom, who's standing behind him, Trump basically tells the 16-year-old without saying this specifically, like, you got a hot mom is basically what Trump says. And it's a very creepy thing to watch that this is Donald Trump. Good genes, your mom. I could tell you've got good genes together. And it's like, dude, what are you doing? Why are you making this like a weird thing in the Oval Office? Here, let's watch this clip first.

That's the mom. So you did a good job. It's good genetics. When you look at him, you can see really good.

When you see you did really good by producing him, like, the hell kind of creepy-ass thing is that to say? Then the reporter asks him the question about Senator Ossoff's speech where Ossoff said you'd rather travel with your aide Natalie and build ballrooms than do your job. That's objectively true. It's why Donald Trump's approval is at historic lows. Let's play this clip. Mr. President, you'd rather travel with your aide Natalie Harp and build the ballroom than do your job as president. What is your response?

You mean Pee-wee Herman? Pee-wee Herman lookalike? No, I would much rather do other things. It's a— we're building a great facility here. We're fixing a White House that hasn't been taken care of. You can look at this. This room was a disgraceful situation, the Oval Office. And it was let go, the whole building, the White was let go.

It literally looks like he's swimming in piss in the Oval Office. That yellow around him literally looks like he's drowning in quicksand of golden piss around him. Like, like, I mean, just the deranged fact that this Oval Office looks the way it does. I mean, you know, what was the, uh, what was the show I watched growing up? Scrooge McDuck? DuckTales? You know, the scene is— I don't know if it's called Scrooge McDuck, but that's what I'm gonna call him for purposes of this segment. And he would— and you know, the beginning song where it was like, DuckTales, woohoo! And he would like swim in the gold, and he'd have to put the gold all over him. At least that's how I remembered the opening. Maybe, maybe I imagined that. But I'm looking there, I'm like, what are you doing? This looks so freaking weird. What the F is happening? You're calling the kid's mom hot. You're destroying our alliances. And our service members are suffering. You're not feeding our troops the most basic. We've run out of weapons in the war, went through trillions of dollars of weapons, gone. Our service members don't have food to put in their stomachs.

Pretty basic stuff. There's feces all over the floor. You hear about one of the ships that accompanied the USS George Washington in the Pacific before the USS George Washington had to abandon the Pacific. They didn't have working toilets for nearly a week, so everybody had to go to bathrooms in buckets that filled up and the feces was everywhere on a smaller ship covered up until recently, covered up until recently. And he wants to cocoon and hide and say, look, I got kids around, I got kids around. So let me show you the moment where Trump scolds the reporter and says, quiet, you're very disrespectful in front of this young man.

Let's play this clip.

Mr. President, Mr. President, quiet, quiet, quiet.

You're very disrespectful in front of this young man. Okay. Don't you find her disrespectful? He understands. Quiet. Who are you with?

I'm with CNN.

Fake news. You're fake news. You're loud. You're a loud, boisterous person. You're fake news. Be quiet. Be quiet. Be quiet. You're a fake reporter and you report fake news. Go ahead.

At first, I didn't see the angle. And I thought he was talking to the 16-year-old, which still would have been bad, the 16-year-old boy. He was talking to the 8-year-old, and he was telling the 8-year-old, "Don't you think that female reporter is disrespectful?" He wanted the co-sign from an 8-year-old little boy, or 10-year-old little boy. Let me clarify. 10-year-old little boy, his 8-year-old sister was sitting next to him. Nathaniel's 10, his sister 8 was sitting right next to him. Then Trump told her and Nathaniel, I'll show you the Lincoln Bedroom after this as well, which is especially given the fact that he is a sicko, is something that's also deeply concerning. But he needed the cosine of a 10-year-old boy to attack the female reporter, and he didn't do it. He, he, that's genuinely him. I can't think of anything more disqualifying as— well, I can think of a lot of things more disqualifying. I, I, it's up there of some of the most disqualifying things in terms of character. Just do you think any of you in the presence of a, of a 10-year-old would use the 10-year-old to attack? You agree? Like, just even think about Thanksgiving or being at a restaurant or whatever, and you call upon as, as a grown-ass man— we know that Donald Trump isn't— or a grown-ass woman or person, whatever.

You call upon the 10-year-old, that's a, that's a bad person, right? That's a bad person. And you— not hard to wonder how that loser— that's loser behavior— loses everything. It's loser behavior. Corrupt, yes. Criminal, yes. Deranged, yes. Behaves like an authoritarian, yes, but it's a loser. He's a loser.

That's what—

that's how losers behave. That's not how people who should be role models carry themselves. That's not how we expect the bare minimum modicum of adult grown-up behavior. And the idea that our country has— not all of it, but the institutions have bent to Trump's bent reality, and they've tried to force-feed the rest of us like that's normal. Right, like a zombie movie where the zombies have all been bitten or they've all drinking the Kool-Aid, perhaps quite literally. And then they want us to drink it. And all of us are like, no, what are you talking about? He's yelling at a 10-year-old. He's talking to a 10-year-old boy. He's yelling at the reporter. It looks like the Oval Office is a sea of piss. He's making up fake deals like he's like a crazy human. I don't want to drink. I don't want to drink that crap. Yeah, but if you don't drink it, the communists are going to get you and the socialists are going to get you. They're going to take away your healthcare. You're already taking away our healthcare. He's already taking over the methods of production.

I don't— we don't—

what are you talking about? The communist, the social—

I don't even know.

I don't even understand the conversation. I don't even understand the conversation that you're having, you know. And then you have people who try to like buy into that conversation, who you— some people like, we even like looked up to, like, what do you do? You're believing this shit? What are you talking about? They're just saying this to scare us. They're being dumb. We should— healthcare is a basic right. Just shut up. Stop trying to scare us into communism and socialism and this dumb shit. Let's talk about what's happening. Let's talk about his treatment of our service members. Let's talk about the fact that he's lost this catastrophic and unlawful war that we shouldn't be in. Let's talk about the fact that Americans can't afford to live in the United States right now, that the cost of living is prohibitive. Let's talk about what actually is on the minds of the American people, that because of the diesel crack spreads right now, because of the price of diesel, our farmers are suffering. That has a cascading impact for the rest of the economy as well. Not just farmers, other people who rely on diesel for their businesses right now.

And it's not just them, it's all of us who can't afford the price of regular gas, not just diesel. Let's focus on what's actually happening right now. And I'm sick and tired, sick and frickin tired of people falling into the trap of trying to debate within the bent reality, within the warped dystopian nightmare of what Trump and state regime media and these people who have clear agendas to subjugate us all, to inflict harm and to steal and to create just this social welfare for the oligarchs, for the billionaires, while they screw everybody over and try to divide us. It's so obvious. And we have to recognize the ecosystem, the information ecosystem that they created. And it's not enough for us just to report on the news. It's not enough for us to just report, here's what happened, here's what happened. What is critical is the generational task that the Midas Touch Network has embarked on with so many other independent journalists. And I hope we've demonstrated a leadership in this capacity, which is to create not just a news network, to create an ecosystem that controls the narrative with the truth. And so that they— everybody else has to have dialogue and discussion within reality, not bent, warped reality.

Within reality. And we can do that by promoting and encouraging other independent journalists. When you see Katie Fang leading the way, subscribe to her podcast, by the way, you say, aha, that's what this is all about. When you see Allison Gill on the Midas Touch Network with her FOIA requests, with her sourcing and on her own network, that's the way. When you see Scott McFarland, that's the way. When you see the Midas team, on Capitol Hill, reframe, reshape the discussions of how we report on what's happening in the Capitol. That's the way when you see Aaron Parnas, when you see other Gen Z Midas Touch Network hosts, when you see others here, whether it's Jack or Adam or others, you know, leading. That's, that's the way when you see on Legal AF Michael Popock and Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Dina Dahl, When you see Siri Crow, she does some incredible pieces on topics that aren't being covered on a lot of political shows and that it's very important that we cover. And she does a great job covering it. You've got— I could keep going on and on and on. That's the way. Create an ecosystem of the truth.

And then build out other institutions. That start to talk about things that get overlooked that shouldn't— moral character, leadership, mentoring, empathy, democracy, being there for each other, standing firm when it comes to values and principles. That's the message. That's the message that I want to leave you with. It's the message I talk about in WTF America. That's the challenge, not an election book. It is a how we get out of this hell book. And I gave you right there a little bit of the roadmap of how we do it. That's how we do it. So preorder it right now. Keep watching the Midas Touch Network. Shout out to all the great reporters at the Midas Touch Network and all the other independent journalists out there who we help. We've encouraged in small ways and big ways. To do this great work. We're all in this together. The rising tide lifts all ships, and when it comes to the truth, that's a tidal wave of truth that we need right now more than ever. All right, keep watching the videos throughout the day. That's all I got for you on Ben on Breaking News. Subscribe, put in the comments if you have, uh, pre-ordered WTF America.

And it looks also like, uh, Katie Fang is live right now. So when this ends, go check out Katie Fang's live as well. Thanks everybody for watching. This has been Ben on Breaking News. Shout out Midas Mighty. We got this. Want to stay plugged in?

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