Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 6/4/26 New

Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis. This is your breaking news. Earlier today, Iran and Russia announced that they were signing a $25 billion memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the nuclear sector. Iran's ambassador to Moscow said, highlighting expanding collaboration between the two countries on major nuclear energy projects. Putin was discussing this deal that was just announced, and Putin said, Iran is a friendly state for us. I believe that the Iranian leadership and the people of Iran trust us. They fully trust us. And by the way, in the future, this uranium could be used— once we reduce the enrichment level, this uranium could be used for peaceful purposes, for nuclear power end our nuclear projects in Iran under the IAEA control. Note the word 'could,' 'could be used.' In other words, Russia is asserting itself even more, the same way China is, as protectors of Iran. We know that there's an alliance there to begin with, and when the Trump regime is out there saying Iran can have no nuclear dust, no nuclear material at all, right? What's Russia and China doing? Well, we saw China through Xi Jinping meet with Foreign Minister Araghchi, and they had very productive meetings.

And we know that we believe China is providing a lot of technology and other capabilities, likely of military variety, to Iran. And what's Russia doing? Russia's saying, we're gonna, we're gonna do a $25 billion nuclear deal together Think about the statement that that is sending right now. So in normal times, you would expect the President of the United States of America, as opposed to the president or leader of Russia, to speak out against that, right? I mean, that would seem to be putting a massive wrench in any of the American preconditions with Iran. And, you know, the question is, how is Donald Trump responding? Does Donald Trump respond with strength, or does Donald Trump respond with weakness? Well, let's, let's find out. Let's turn the page, as I tell my daughter Ximena. Let's turn the page and let's look what happens. Let's see where Spot goes. See Spot run. Let's see where Spot goes on the next page. Breaking: the Pentagon is expected to cancel plans to provide Tomahawk missiles to Germany, citing concerns that Russia could view the deployment as an escalation. Pentagon likely to cancel a missile sale to Germany over fears of Russia.

Over fears of Russia. If you've been watching the Midas Touch Network, you know that the United States, through its Chief Allied Commander Grinkowicz, I was the NATO allied commander, rather. The US has informed NATO generally that the US is going to be pulling out critical missile cells and other defensive weapons and other things that were promised to the NATO alliance, also out of fear over Russia. Just notable, right? Russia doesn't seem to have the fear over the United States because doing a $25 billion nuclear deal with Iran right now would seem to be a little bit worse than the Pentagon providing Tomahawks to Germany, right? But I want you to understand what's going on in the global, uh, geopolitical climate right now, because if I'm seeing this What do you think our NATO allies are seeing? What do you think Asian countries, African countries, Central America, South Africa, South American, African, European country, Nordic states— what do you think? How do you think they're viewing these moves right now? Moments ago, Putin said the following about Iran: The people of Iran have shown cohesion and their will to fight. This is a factor that undoubtedly should be taken into account as we find a solution to this crisis.

Here's what Putin said about Trump. We understand the US administration is distracted. They are forced to tackle this issue now. Putin said the following about Trump as well. Trump says he didn't expect the Ukrainian problem to be so hard. Some things don't seem too complicated, but as soon as you delve into the problems, it turns out there are too many unknowns. Once again, you know, I'm not a rocket scientist here, but it does seem like Putin is mocking Donald Trump, continuing to engage in moves where it's clear he doesn't fear Donald Trump taking steps that any former United States president would. And I think it's also worth reflecting as well, it's exactly what every other leader feels. The, the problem from our allies' perspective is that they are inextricably intertwined into a post-World War II global world order that the United States developed the architecture over very carefully, and it's hard to extricate yourself from that architecture where you've ensnared yourself in. And the reality is, is lots of European countries and others are realizing, man, we shouldn't have trusted the United States. We should have made sure that we took adequate care to build up our own militaries, to build up our own defenses.

But we thought the grand bargain here is we've got money, you've got weapons, you are able to take on a lot of debt. We give you our money, we buy your bonds, we buy your real estate, we buy your equities. We invest in your companies. You all are the wealthiest country bar none in the world. You protect us. That's the racket. That's the alliance. That's the— that— those were the rules of the game. The United States— there's a reason why you have the United Nations in New York. There's a reason why NATO is built around the United States as the global hegemon. There's a reason why all these other major world organizations are located in Washington, D.C. The U.S. was the nexus of power and wealth, and the— in return, you got our backs, right, on the military front. And Donald Trump saw that bargain as being unfair. And Trump said, no, we don't got your back. We want you to continue to— we want you to pay us basically a licensing fee for the honor of us even being your friend, and we give you no promises at all in return. It's like a Trump Org business, right?

That's all it is. Like a— it's like a Trump racket. It's like a Trump fraud. It's like one of Trump's fraud companies. That's what he views the United States as— not thinking long term, not thinking ahead. And, you know, when you look at, again, I think how the whole world sees, it's not even weakness masquerading as strength anymore. It's, it's raw weakness. Raw weakness. Putin sees it clearly. Netanyahu sees it. Netanyahu's national security guy Ben-Gavir sees it. His finance guy Smootrich sees it. All of Netanyahu's kind of far-right extreme government, they see it, and they mock him like every day. Mock him like every day. You know, they'll do a fake ceasefire like they did in the past 24 hours. We're doing a ceasefire with Israel, Lebanon, the United States. Where is Barack Ravid? Barack Ravid, we got to do another story. Ceasefire, it's happening. Lebanon, Israel, historical ceasefire. I just went back and I'm like, yeah, you made this announcement April 10th. You made this announcement May 1st. You made the same announcement May 15th. Another 10-day extension, another 45-day extension. You know how long the ceasefire held before Israel started bombing in Lebanon past the Litani River?

I saw some people say 3 hours. I think it was literally as the document was being signed. Israel continues to attack inside Lebanon deeper and deeper and deeper, just pretending that there's a ceasefire and then saying, yeah, we don't— we're not following that. Hezbollah then is also attacking back and sending its FPV drones, which it's building more capable FPV drones, those first-person viewing drones that they're now able to hook up on these fiber optics that can avoid radar detection. It's becoming a big problem for the IDF. Back and forth, back and forth, the war escalates there. And ultimately, I think Israel knows Iran's never going to agree to a peace deal with the United States unless there is a security guarantee for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran has made that very clear, that its security architecture at the— in terms of it looking up for Iran, or Iran is protected mostly by China and Russia and Iran. Iran provides China and Russia with weapons. Then Iran flexes its influence by its proxy groups in the region— militia groups in Iraq, Shiite, that are allied with Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and then other groups in the region as well.

That security architecture for Iran is more important to them than any transactional deal that Whitkopf and Kushner could offer to Iran, because Iran knows— and it's not a surprise if you just listen to even what Netanyahu, Ben-Gavir, Smootrich are saying yesterday— we are going to wipe out this Iranian regime. We're going to wipe them out. We're going to exterminate them. We're going to get rid of them. There's no shot. We just need to pick our time when we're going to do it. Israeli National Security Minister Ben-Gvir, that's what he just said this morning. A ceasefire in Lebanon is a fantasy. Hezbollah will not withdraw north of the Litani River. Hezbollah has grown stronger and stronger. Under these circumstances, Netanyahu should have said to Trump, Mr. President, we love you, but the answer is no. We're not going to agree to a ceasefire with an organization that endangers Israel's security. And that's from their national security advisor. That's the national security minister, Ben-Gvir. They— so Israel didn't agree to, to anything. And so from Iran, it's like, okay, we're not stupid. So what, you're going to give us— let's just say you give us money, let's just say you give us $26 billion or $30 billion.

Okay, we know no matter what deal— this is what Iran's calculus is— no matter what deal you give us, We know you're going to come back and try to take us out again. So any deal is a temporary structure in the mind of Trump, and especially in the mind of Netanyahu, right? So Iran is creating these certain thresholds that need to be met so that they have as much permanent architecture security architecture as they need in order to flex in the region if indeed they're attacked again, so that the regime survives in Iran, so that the Islamic Republic— that's why they say we're, we're never giving up the Strait of Hormuz, never happening, off the table, don't even ask, invade us again. That's what Iran said, invade us again. We'll see how that goes, but there will never be a chance where we will voluntarily give up Strait of Hormuz. So don't even bother trying to have a negotiated discussion on that, right? Same thing when it comes to security guarantees over Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, Iraqi militia groups. That's what they refer to as their resistance axis. Israel needs to stop attacking them.

That's what Iran has said. They've been very consistent about it. While Trump's all over the place— here, there, there, there, here, there, deal, no deal, deal, I love him, gay ayatollah, no gay ayatollah, love the gay ayatollah— as Donald Trump's saying those ridiculous things, Iran has never deviated ever. I mean, I'm just being objective here. They've never deviated from their general framework. Which we've been, which we've been talking about here on the Midas Touch Network since March. If they changed and deviated dramatically, I'd let you know. Perhaps the money reparations, that number seems to have changed, which is where I thought there would be flexibility. But when it comes to the core tenets— security guarantees for Hezbollah and the Houthis, ceasefire that impact, uh, actual ceasefire in Lebanon, control over the Strait of Hormuz, Iran keeps— ultimately, a deal has to be blessed by the United Nations. Iran keeps its ballistic missiles and drones. That's— to me, the, the money part, that's negotiable. How Iran flexes its control over the Strait of Hormuz, that's negotiable. Not its sovereignty over it, that's non-negotiable. Like, I could see a world where Iran says, look, we control it with Oman, it's overseen by some other authority.

Then the U.S. says, well, then we need to have a multinational coalition that is prepared that if you shut it down, this multinational security coalition has an Article 5 NATO-like, prerogative requirement where then we open up the Strait of Hormuz. And by the way, I mean, Trump's so stupid. Like, all of these nations— yeah, it's led by Macron and Starmer, other nations, there's like 50 nations involved in this as well— they're trying to serve up this win to Donald and be like, look, what we are agreeable to doing Let's do a multi— we're not gonna join the war with you until you get a deal done, Donald, but what we're offering you is there'll be a multinational coalition to do the minesweeping and to do a lot of the legwork post-deal so that if the strait is closed again, you now have this international alliance, idiot, and you can point to us. That's what they're doing, and they're trying to explain that to him, and he's so stupid. But you have that. And so the overall framework right now, again, in the, in the Middle East, the overall framework right now, you know, in, in Iran, the overall framework is dependent also on security guarantees in Lebanon.

And as I mentioned Netanyahu knows that. Netanyahu— for Netanyahu, the worst thing that could happen right now, for Netanyahu's personal survival, for Netanyahu's broader horrific, uh, vision, I think, for the region, um, this MOU can't happen from Netanyahu's perspective. And he will do everything he can to butcher it. And that's what you're seeing play out in Lebanon and accelerate Netanyahu's plan. Notice when the acceleration into Lebanon happened. It's right whenever it was a few weeks back when we were getting closer to the MOU, when Donald Trump said we're 3 days away. That's really when Netanyahu pushed harder because Donald Trump doesn't understand the links. In Iran's mind between Lebanon and Iran. Netanyahu sees it. And so, you know, Netanyahu knows that the best way to, to draw Iran back— because that's what Netanyahu knows— Israel can't attack Iran offensively right now. That's off the table because that was a disaster. But what they're trying to do is draw Iran in and figuring out entry points of how you draw Iran into this, right? And so accelerating an invasion of Lebanon is, is, is one of those things. And I think a lot of— I did a video on it this morning— I think a lot of the neocons, who basically— that's Donald Trump's crew— they're trying to say, look, the Iranians are also trying to kill you, they're trying to kill Ivanka, and so you need to do something because they're gonna, they're gonna come after you.

So it's very personal, Donald, because you killed Soleimani, Qasem Soleimani, back in 2020. So they all want to avenge his death by killing you. And I think they're trying to press on him, they're trying to press on him that way, and he's just frozen there right now, right? He's frozen. So anyway, going back though to where I started, because I think Netanyahu sees the weakness and presses upon it. Russia clearly does as well. So as Russia and Iran— just think about it. So for those who are just joining, what I pointed out before is that Donald Trump is not selling the Hellfire missiles or Tomahawks or others to Germany because Trump— this is what all the sources in the Pentagon are saying— are scared how Putin would perceive that. Okay, Putin just announced a deal with Iran for Tomahawk missiles, for $25 billion for nuclear and nuclear material. So do you, do you see that the who's scared of who is incongruent? As I said before, one would think that it would be a more furtive, a more aggressive move, what Putin is doing there than giving Tomahawk missiles to Germany for defensive purposes and fearing what Putin will think about you.

Hmm. So then what else is happening in the past 24 hours? Well, if you've been watching the Midas Touch Network, you know that in St. Petersburg they have their Russian Economic Forum, is what they call it. As Russia has escalated its drone and hypersonic and other attacks on Kyiv— drone attacks, ballistic attacks, orsiniks, etc. And we've seen dozens of people, innocent people, killed in Kyiv. Zelensky has developed an arsenal that continues to amaze in a technological way. Now they're striking deep into Russia. You've seen my videos where Zelensky has been able to strike deep into Moscow as well. He's also hitting Saint Petersburg, which is where this economic forum is taking place. So when countries, mostly BRICS countries, right, in Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, other countries that are allied with, with BRICS, when they show up to this economic forum, they're seeing the visuals of oil depots on fires as, as they're there. What a striking image to see when you arrive in St. Petersburg. But guess who showed up? A U.S. delegation. On the same day that Russia announced $25 billion to Iran for nuclear purposes, Trump sent a delegation to Russia to do what?

Number one, Trump sent his Fine Arts Commissioner Rodney Mims Cook Jr. To show off Trump's ballroom, to show off the ballroom at Putin's flagship Congress in St. Petersburg, as Max Saiden explains. Think about that. And then also to ink a MOU, a memorandum of understanding, to build tunnels under the Bering Strait connecting Russia with Alaska. Kirill Dmitriev, Russia's envoy to the United States, said that they are working on this tunnel now, and that's going to be a deal. Russia, U.S. in an economic partnership. So while the United States is threatening once again Canada and saying as part of the CUSMA review, Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement, as part of the CUSMA review, Canada's sovereignty is negotiable. Just think about that. The U.S. says Canada's sovereignty is a point of negotiation in CUSMA review. That's again the Canadian-U.S.-Mexico— that's Trump's deal. It was NAFTA, and then Trump's first term, CUSMA replaced NAFTA, which was an updated version of NAFTA. Basically. Trump's been posting more about 51st state. And so we've— so that's how Trump treats Canada. How is Trump treating Europe? You saw Marco Rubio's testimony when he was talking about Denmark and Greenland, and the question was, so, you know, is Greenland a territory of Denmark for now?

For now, is what he— is what he said. Trump keeps on posting the photos of himself, like these AI photos of himself, like looking over Greenland in a very kind of creepy and predatorial way. But, but anyway, attacking our allies while this is what he's doing with Russia, on the same day that you have Russia announcing $25 billion for a nuclear program in Iran. I, I guess I'm also amazed that— I don't know, are you seeing this? I, I don't mean to be kind of self-patting, patting myself, patting this network on the back and be like, uh, you, if you're not seeing it— but like, I truly mean it. Like, this seems to be a pretty big deal in terms of stories. That's why I led with this story, this breaking news. I think it's pretty important stuff. I just don't really see anyone talking about it, and it's so, it's so obvious. Now, obviously there's a lot of other news that we should talk about. I mean, you saw there was a memo that was sent earlier today from the Kennedy Center. The next 8 days All of the Trump name will be removed from the Kennedy Center letter.

That's a good story. Accountability. Happy about that, right? Um, we're seeing more UFC people speak out against, uh, this ridiculous fight that's happening on June whatever, June 12th. Can't believe we're doing UFC fights, you know. Donald Trump's like, I may keep the UFC stage here forever. Okay, you're just gonna make the White House look like a junkyard, like you're going to keep the UFC stage in front of the White House forever. It's just, well, gross. Okay, you're a weird guy. And then during his press conference today, all he wanted to do was talk about ballrooms and arches when he wasn't sleeping. There are real serious things happening right now in this country, right? I mean, saw for May 97,000 jobs cut. In May, the most jobs cut, job losses since 2020. Who was in office then? It was COVID. The most job losses there. We see inflation surging. As I said, we'll hit, we'll be very close to 5% inflation by the end of this year. And I'm not trying to be like a fearmonger, just every month it goes up, what, 0.2%? So just do the math. Just say it goes up 0.2% for the next, whatever, 6 months.

We get a reading in June, in July, in August, September, October, November, December. Yeah, I'm just counting on my fingers, right? So you add another 1.4 to 3.6. I mean, that's how you get it. It's pretty, pretty basic. I, I, and it may be accelerating even more than that. And I think it's very important to point out, as we always get ahead of the stories, we don't, we don't chase the story once it happened. We, we have to get ahead of it and explain what's happening is that these oil inventories are hitting a critical level, and any day now we could be hitting tank bottom. All oil experts agree that at most we're 2 weeks away from tank bottom. What they don't know though, is it 14 days? Is it 12 days? Is it 10 days? Is it tomorrow? It's probably not tomorrow. It's probably closer to 7 to 14 days. Now, tank bottom, to be clear, when you're explaining this to people who you know, it doesn't literally mean that the reserves worldwide drain out and there's literally the bottom. So what it does mean though, is that once the supply in the reserves gets below a certain threshold, we are deemed to be in an emergency mode.

And in order to get at that, at those levels, when you go and do your economist supply and demand chart, at a certain level, all oil executives and economists in the field say, What happens is so that you don't actually go bottom bottom is that the price shoots up so high where you then get shortages and it causes the price to literally be $8 a gallon, $10 a gallon, $12 a gallon at, at least $150 per barrel. Into the $200 per barrel for the futures market. And the actual market of, of where transactions are happening are much higher because the way the free market, which we see though is heavily manipulated, I might add though, tries to autocorrect and self-correct is by creating so little demand, by creating situate because the supply is going down by reducing the demand, by creating these highest prices possible. And then so that should regulate people's ability to utilize gas. And that's where, that's, that's where we're heading. And farmers are suffering. Americans of all different professions are suffering right now. You know, if you're, again, speaking in overly simplistic economic terms, everyone refers to the economy— not everybody, but economists use the euphemism of a, of a K-shaped economy, because you have one line that goes up and like a K, and the other line going, going down.

And if you think about the line going straight down, that's 99% of Americans. And that line straight down is in economic Great Recession, depression territory. That's where it is. That's why people feel the way they— that's why you see in the consumer sentiment reports why people feel that they're in a depression is because they're in a depression. They're in a Great Recession. So you may be saying, but Ben, that doesn't make any sense because we're not in a technical recession at this point. Well, because a technical recession requires there be two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction, but because that wealth is concentrated in the 1%, there is still a GDP growth taking place amongst corporations for AI and data centers that are pretty much driving all growth. Without AI and data centers, we are in a massive depression right now. Without AI. With AI and data centers though, even though the— this is why it's very hard to wrap minds around, but that's why I want to break it down this way, right? There is corporate growth spurring nominal GDP growth versus contraction, right? But that is also going back to my point why you're seeing 97,000 jobs cut, because AI and those data centers are also replacing the jobs.

So at the high corporate billionaire level, and deca-deca-millionaire level. There is levels of wealth that heretofore are incomprehensible. And then the wealth gap is so expansive between where most Americans are and where the rich is, where all this money is being concentrated, that in normal eras where you didn't have this gap, you were more likely to have a recession because the burden was shared more because the inequality gap was less wide. So when we were all feeling it, we— more of us felt it together versus the rich on their superyachts and everybody else being really screwed over. So that's my overly simplistic economics professor breakdown of why it is we're not in a technical recession, but why people are suffering. While Donald Trump just wants to talk about golden ballrooms and arches and all of the things that he's meandering about, you know, in, in, in, in, in this state where he just looks so awful. Did you all see— I'll show it to you when we come back— that cross-examination by Congressmember Ted Lieu of Rubio? Do you see that where he said, you know, he's sleeping next to you all the time? He's sleeping.

And Rubio's like, no, he's not. And Ted Lieu's like, he's lit. I'm showing you a video of the guy sleeping. What are you talking about? He's there, he's sleeping. We're watching him. Why are you lying to Congress? We can see him. I think there needs to be more cross-examination of that, where you literally just show the person him and ask them to give you an obj— an objective reality, and they refuse to. And they refuse to do it. Um, but yeah, you, you have so many Americans suffering, and then you have the Trump regime trotting out Rubio, trotting out Bessant, trotting out Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, trotting out whoever, and they go, things are amazing, we're in a, we're in a golden age, everything's so great. Aren't you happy? Aren't you happy right now? Be like, what are you talking about? My hat? No, it's really bad. We don't want any of that. What are you talking about? And you know, he's like, do you know that the reflecting pool is taller than the Empire State Building? What kind of comparison is that? It's a, it's a reflect— it's a pool that's supposed to be reflecting, not blue like a, like an act, like an outside swimming pool.

And why would you compare something that's horizontal on the ground to something that's vertical? I don't know, what are you talking about? I just think there's so many Americans like, dude, what are you talking about? And every day, go back to the beginning, we move closer and closer to this cliff. And I think what, you know, what Trump— where he, where he thrives is in calamity. Because when people are suffering, that's when he blames somebody. He's a good— he's the best blamer out there. Biden, Obama, blame. He's not a leader. He's really— he's a loser. He's a real scumbag who just lies and blames. You did it, you did it, you did it. Fauci, this person, that person. Zero personal, never accountability at all, you know. Or you wait it out and the problem resolves, and then you take credit for it. You see someone else, you steal the valor, and you go, I did it, I did it, I did it, I did it. You know, if you, if you look at India and— as an example, India and Pakistan, right? Trump and Trump and the Trump regime did nothing to resolve India and Pakistan at all.

It resolved though. There was a mediation. China got involved a lot. More than anybody else. Um, and Trump says, that's a war that I resolved, I resolved. And, and India knows that's not true, and Pakistan knows it's not true, but they're okay with saying it's true because Pakistan can improve its relations with the United States and its wealth while it cuts deals with the Saudis and the Chinese while Donald Trump is literally sleeping at the wheel. And okay, yeah, you did it, Donald, you did it, you get a Nobel Peace Prize. What do you want? That's not a healthy way to— for adults to adult. It's not, it's not, it's not adult— be not grown-up behavior. Anyway, a lot of dense material, we covered a lot. Why don't we take our first quick break of the show? Hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers. We're very close to hitting 7 million. Let's get there. We'll be right back after our first quick break of the show.

Time for some talk, life insurance talk, that is. You probably have it, but do you know how much you're paying for it? And for how much are you being covered? Odds are you pay too much for too little. And did you know if you receive life insurance through your job and you're unexpectedly laid off, you could suddenly be covered for nothing? Scary to think about, but simple to get right thanks to SelectQuote, where I'm headed to sort out my life insurance policy today. For over 40 years, SelectQuote has been one of the most trusted brokers in insurance, helping more than 2 million Americans secure over $700 billion in coverage. Their mission is simple: to find you the right insurance policy for your unique needs. They shop, you save. Unlike other one-size-fits-all life insurance companies, SelectQuote's licensed agents work for you. In as little as 15 minutes, they'll compare policies from top-rated carriers to find you the best fit for your health and your budget. And they work for you for free. No medical exam, no problem. They partner with providers offering same-day coverage up to $2 million without needing you to visit your doctor. Have high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease?

SelectQuote has partners with policies designed for many pre-existing health conditions, so you get the protection you deserve. Head to selectquote.com and a licensed insurance agent will call you right away with the right policy for your life and your budget. Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today. SelectQuote— they shop, you save. Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50% at selectquote.com/mitis. Save more than 50% on term life insurance at selectquote.com/mitis today. To get started. That's selectquote.com/mitus.

Whether you're planting now or later, Fast Growing Trees has everything you need to make your dream yard a reality, starting with the best quality and selection of plants delivered to your door. Fast Growing Trees is America's largest online nursery with over 1,600 unique trees and plants. They've been delivering trees and plants since 2005, so they know how to do it right. They have all the plants that your yard needs, like fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and so much more. Fast Growing Trees makes it easy to get your dream yard. Order online and get your plants delivered directly to your door in just a few days without ever leaving home. Their Live and Thrive Guarantee ensures your plants arrive happy and healthy, ready to thrive in your yard. All plants and trees are locally grown in the US and cared for by experts before they ship to you. So I ordered a lemon tree from Fast Growing Trees a few years ago at this point. And it is still going strong. Every time I walk up to my door, I get hit with the smell of fresh citrus. It's amazing being able to grow my own fruit right in my yard without hiring a landscaper or spending a fortune.

FastGrowingTrees saved me easily like 90% of the cost of hiring a landscaper to do this for me. And I didn't have to give up an entire Saturday driving around to nurseries that may or may not have had what I wanted. No messy car, no wasted trips, no guessing. They delivered everything right to my door and it actually thrived. This season they have the best deals for your yard, including up to half off tons of plants and other deals. And listeners to our show get 20% off their purchase when using the code MIDAS at checkout. That's 20% off their purchase at fastgrowingtrees.com using the code MIDAS at checkout. M-E-I-D-A-S. Now is the perfect time to plant. Use MIDAS to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Check out the link below or in the show notes and support the show. Let me tell you, if there's a surefire way to wake up feeling fresh after drinks with friends, it's with pre-alcohol. Look, I'm not 21 anymore. If I have a night out, I still want to be productive the next morning, and that's why I started using this. ZBiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic.

It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking, and here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's a buildup of this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for rough days after drinking. PreAlcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make PreAlcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. I was honestly skeptical at first, but I tried it before going out to dinner with friends, and the next morning I was getting up early, but I was feeling good, getting work done, no problem. Now it's just part of the routine anytime I know that drinks are involved. From the crack of the bat at the stadium to the start of wedding season and the roar the engines in Indy. May is packed with back-to-back reasons to be out. Don't let a rough morning after keep you on the sidelines. Drink pre-alcohol to stay ahead of it and make the most of every Saturday this month. Go to zbiotics.com/mitus to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use code MITUS at checkout.

ZBiotics is backed with 100% money-back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they will refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com/mitus midas and use code MIDAS at checkout for 15% off.

That's M-E-I-D-A-S. Talk about the breaking news that just developed while we were on a break. Here's what we're learning. The US State Department has just issued a security alert for all Middle East countries, warning of potential hostilities and instructing US citizens to locate the nearest shelter immediately. After the US has given Iran a new end-of-week deadline— a deal or a military strike, per Channel 12, an Israeli channel. Multiple US Air Force assets are currently airborne in the region, with 6 C-17 Globemaster aircraft leaving the Middle East towards Europe. The IRGC says its forces have been placed on full combat alert, with units now instructed to stand ready for immediate execution of orders. Also earlier in the day, we learned that multiple Iranian-flagged oil tankers carrying 7 million barrels of oil to China successfully broke through the US blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, the first breach since April 17th, per Kpler, which monitors all of this. And so I guess here we go again with another deadline, another fake deadline. Make a deal with us by Friday or else. Okay, we've done that before. You've said that before. That's not how Iran negotiates. As of now, Iran has won the war.

They won. That's just the fact. We can be delusional and say they didn't, or we can look at the facts and say the Islamic Republic is in power. There's been no material degradation of their ability to enrich uranium. If they so choose to do that. They have ballistic missile capabilities with precision that we saw in Kuwait the other day. They have their drones. They have their proxy groups in the region. They can execute an order not just to close the Strait of Hormuz but also to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea. Trump promised regime change. He promised he would have his own proxy there, that he would be able to get all the nuclear dust out of Iran. None of that was achieved. That's why, that's why America is the loser in the war. It's not, you know, it's not anti-American to think— I think it's actually very pro-America to accurately reflect that America lost to Iran. And Donald Trump threatened, as you all know, when the war was raging, we will destroy the civilization and blow you up to the Stone Age, or whatever the hell he said. Well, not— we'll erase your civilization.

He gave a deadline. The deadline was about to hit, and then Donald Trump did not follow through on the deadline. And instead, Trump reposted the deal terms from the foreign minister of Iran. There was no ambiguity in what Trump agreed to. He agreed to Iran's terms. Go back, look. Trump posted the foreign minister of Iran's deal terms, which had all of the things that I told you in the framework— security guarantees in Lebanon, Iran, reparations for Iran, uh, security guarantees in Iran. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. US leaves largely military bases in the region. The United Nations and all other international groups, you know, kind of recognizes the removal of all US sanctions. But that's what Trump agreed to in terms of the cease— there's no ambiguity in what he actually agreed to. He didn't have to agree to that, but that's what he did. We shouldn't pretend that he didn't do that. He did that. I, I— he posted it. Like, you know, I'm not going to be like Rubio, who's like, he's not sleeping. Yeah, he's, he's sleeping. He's sleeping today too. He sleeps every time. He's always sleeping. He's— it's, it's, it's not healthy.

He's not a healthy human being. That stops— he— I was always weird, you know. I was always— there's always like weird people who would always be like, I never sleep. I don't get any, and they brag about it, you know. I never get any. So it's not good. It's not good when I don't get— I haven't, I haven't gotten a lot of sleep. I don't like it. I don't want to brag about it. It's not good. I want to get sleep. The more sleep is a good— is a plus. Do you rest? That's a healthy human being thing to do, not get less sleep to brag about it like it's some freaking accomplishment. I'll show you over here. Look, this is Trump today. Looks like he's about to hit REM sleep during this, as Brian Tyler Cohen says. He's sitting back in the chair and just straight up dozing off as they're at this, uh, press conference saying that they're gonna invoke the Defense Authorization Act, uh, the Cold War-era authorities to dole out hundreds of millions of federal dollars of our taxpayer money to support coal-fired electricity as well as U.S. exports of fossil fuel.

So I'm just trying to— you, you, you, you may, you may all be a little bit smarter than me now, so, but, but let's try to follow this. Amid the rising costs due to the war, Trump made things significantly worse by canceling less expensive, less pollution from clean energy projects, and now he's trying to funnel all of this money into coal while other countries future-proof their countries with wind and other clean energy. So in essence, as Jesse Ferguson says, you pay more and you get more toxins. You pay more, it's worse off, and you get cancers. Black lung and other— that's the art of the deal. I, I, I, he, all of his stuff, the tariffs against the world, the guy's an idiot. I mean, he really is. And the fact that there are people who go along with this just shows you. I, I never understood, never understood how people could, you know, could, could go along with like a Hitler or a Mussolini or, or these people on history. I never understood it as a kid. How did— didn't they realize? Didn't they see it? I— aren't human beings able to exercise independent thought?

When you see these MAGAs out there, you know, and they're just like, uh, you know, you just got to approve whatever Donald Trump says. If Donald Trump wants to have a trust fund kid who used to do dildo parties where they slapped each other in the face with dildos and we made him the head of Fannie and Freddie, And, and now we're going to make him the, the head of the ODNI, the Office Director of National Intelligence. Let's do it. Whatever. All good. Let's give this guy, let's give this guy, give the dildo guy the, all of the, all of the information, all the most classified information. What do we do? What are we doing? You know, what are we doing? The guy, the guy who throws the parties where they, where they slapped each other with dildos. I don't even understand it. And then these are the people who want to judge others. These are the people who want to judge others. These idiots, they did a press conference and they were like, look at the Republicans, we cut your taxes while Democrats give your money to trans mice. Democrats are promoting trans mice.

Okay, what is your infatuation with First off, bullying transgender people, you evil, cruel people. Why are you doing that? Just why, why do you want to hurt the lives of marginalized communities? It's really sick, really a sick thing to do. Democrats aren't giving money to, to transgender mice, you idiots. It's transgenic, transgenic mice. It's research that will help deal with Alzheimer's and that will help deal with a lot of diseases that Lots of Americans have. Republicans stood next to a sign saying Democrats want to trans the mice because they don't want people to realize they're talking about transgenic mice, genetically modified mice used in life-saving medical research on cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, neurological disorder research. And people could die because Republicans saw the word trans and then they say we're eliminating that because we don't like the word trans. It's sickening to me. It's sickening to me what their behavior is. And this is what they're doing, uh, announcing Defense Production Act to push about $700 million out to help the coal industry, $425 million to fund 13 coal plants, $185 million to open 2 plants in Alaska and West— and West Virginia, as well as restart a coal plant in Maryland.

Why, why wouldn't you just invest in jobs that are sustainable into the future? This is like the dumbest thing to possibly do, the dumbest thing imaginable right here. And if, by the way, then if you're gonna do it, and, and, and, and the harm it causes to the climate, I might add, but okay, if you're gonna do it Don't you want to, like, be awake during your press conference, like, and not fall asleep? So take a look as Trump is sitting back in his chair dozing off. You can see for yourself here. Play this clip. The warmth of a job, an economy, a community, a family.

And for too long, you saw Democrats who were telling these coal miners that they should just learn to code.

And what we saw during the Biden administration at the EPA, for example, was regulation after regulation after regulation trying to strangulate out of existence. More of Donald Trump just like mumbling here. I'll show you.

Thank you, President Trump.

Thank you. Thank you, Secretary Bergam. Thank you, Lee Zeldin.

Good.

And yeah, then you have— he didn't realize that Chris Wright, His energy secretary was right behind him. I'll show you this one.

Let's play it. Better man than me for that one. Not in all ways. You feel that? But in one way, in energy, you do. And that was Chris, right? Where's Chris? Right here.

Right behind you.

He's a hard one to find. And Chris has done it.

You mean he's a hard one to find? He's right behind you. He was just talking. Then Donald Trump said, You know, the big problem we face in America right now is nobody's allowed to fix their car. Let's play it.

And the job he's done is great. We had the auto industry in yesterday. They don't want people to fix their car. I said, that's strange. I've never heard of that. They have a thing to— nobody's allowed to fix their car. They gave a man 7 years in jail, actually, because he fixed his own car. So I thought we'd do something about about that. But we'll get, we'll get it all straight going. Can you believe it? They want a bill that prohibits people from fixing. So if you're mechanically inclined, you know, I grew up, I went to school with some guys. They were, in some cases, horrible students.

The hell are you talking about? Then he talks about the Giants quarterback Jackson Dart, how big and strong he is, and that he would be so much better than women at women's sports. Okay, play it.

We had the quarterback Jackson was the quarterback, is the quarterback for the Giants. He's a big, strong guy. And I said, how do you think you do in women's sports, Jackson? He said, pretty good, sir. He didn't know I was joking. He was not worried. Let me put it that way. He would have been the greatest athlete in the history of women's sports. You got to see the size of this guy. Like a male model, and he's going to be a great quarterback.

Okay, so naturally that's deeply concerning. I don't think I'm going out on a leap here to say that's a very sick human. I don't want to use that as a way for him to— for us not to hold him accountable for his horrible behavior. But I mean, we all just watched that, like We're not—

we're not—

we're going to pretend that that was normal, what we just saw. On Biden's worst day that I can fathom, there was nothing even a fraction of that, not even a fraction of what we just saw there. I could keep on going. I'm not— I'm not— why do it? We get the point. But let me show you Ted Lieu cross-examining Marco Rubio. I think we have two clips of this, Jeremy. Let's play the first one first, then the second one.

Secretary Rubio, have you been at more than one meeting where President Trump has fallen asleep?

That's false. That's false. I've never seen him fall asleep. On the contrary, the guy doesn't sleep, which is a big problem because he calls me at 2 in the morning. He calls me at 5 in the morning. And, you know, I like to sleep a little bit, maybe not 12 hours or at least 6. So he works. The other day he was at the Oval Office until 12:30 PM, 12:30 AM.

I don't know what you're I'm going to show you in a moment a video that shows you just lied to Congress.

Oh, okay.

So this is a video of a cabinet meeting literally from last month where Donald Trump is sleeping while you are talking. Please show this video.

Coalition of countries that line up behind the peace deal, behind the border peace, and it's still— every day is a challenge, but it's been driven driven personally by the president. It's the reason why we're involved in this whole Ukraine-Russia conflict. That's not our war. It's not the president's war. This war started— it never would have happened if you've been president. But this war is going on, and the president is trying to end it.

You are literally talking about issues of war and peace, and Donald Trump is sleeping right next to you.

No, he's not.

If Donald Trump cannot stay awake at these important meetings where the cameras are rolling, Imagine what he's like when the cameras are not there. So I'm going to ask you, have you been at classified meetings where Donald Trump has fallen asleep or had trouble staying awake?

I've never been at any meeting where— and the things you're showing me now, he was not falling asleep.

And I think so.

You're lying.

Yeah, you're lying consistently to Congress. You're lying to Congress, Secretary Rubio. So I'm going to show you another video in a moment. The president's inability— the president's inability to stay awake on the job has caused other countries to perceive him differently. They mock him. They see he is weak and he is feeble.

Show the other video, Jeremy, if we have it, as well as he goes on.

If Donald Trump cannot stay awake at these important meetings where the cameras are rolling, imagine what he's like when the cameras are not there. So I'm going to ask you, Have you been at classified meetings where Donald Trump has fallen asleep or had trouble staying awake?

I've never been at any meeting where— and the things you're showing me now, he was not falling asleep.

And so you're lying again. You're lying consistently to Congress. You're lying to Congress, Secretary Rubio. So I'm going to show you another video in a moment. The president's inability— the president's inability to stay awake on the job has cause other countries to perceive him differently. They mock him. They see he is weak and he is feeble. This is a video of a French news channel talking about Donald Trump falling asleep at a Memorial Day ceremony. Please show this video.

Well, Mark, a video that appears to show Donald Trump falling asleep at a Memorial Day ceremony this Monday has been circulating heavily online. Internet users have a lot to say about it. It's also reignited rumors about the state of the US president's health. Now, in the video, social media users say that Trump is fighting sleep whilst he listens to the speech given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and that his eyes appear to be closed for a large portion of the ceremony. Now, we need to remember here that this is a ceremony to honor and remember those those US military personnel who have died while serving in the armed forces. And the idea that Trump was asleep at a somber ceremony like this, well, that has triggered outrage online.

Donald Trump's inability to stay awake on the job shows that there's something very wrong with his health or cognitive abilities. And in fact, on a number of occasions, Donald Trump will contradict himself in literally the same meeting or interview. In this video I'm about to show, It shows that Donald Trump says the Iranian military is both destroyed and not destroyed at the same time, something that Dina Titus alluded to. Please show this video.

In terms of leadership, we've actually left their military alone. People would be surprised to hear that because mistakes have been made in wars where you wipe out everybody and then you have a country that's, you know, for 40 years can never rebuild. You look at what happened with Iraq. We did. So Iran is in a very bad position. They have no military. They all they have is good talk and they have a fake press.

So, Secretary Rubio, instead of holding North Korean-style cabinet meetings where everyone goes around the room kissing Donald Trump's ass, I'm going to ask you to come clean with the American people and the White House as well. There's something wrong with Donald Trump's health or cognitive abilities. There's a reason he keeps going to the hospital and they keep giving him cognitive tests. We have not seen the president in 8 days. The American people deserve the truth. I yield.

I thought that was a powerful line of cross-examination. You just show it right there, and I'll leave you with this one right over here. Congressmember Larson cross-examining Treasury Secretary Bessett. Let's play.

Are we at war? Every year under the Biden administration, are we at war currently? That the conflict has been halted. The conflict has been halted. So we're not at war. So our military is not involved. We're not at war. Again, if you would like for me to call the Secretary of War, I can ask. I'm the Secretary. So as part of the administration and as part of this, we're not at war. How in God's name, if we can't answer any questions at all, And I don't know, maybe there was special orders where we're not allowed to these, these questions or not. We ought to make that clear. Are we at war or not? I'm asking as relation to the cost of going up with for oil and gas. That hasn't risen. Has it risen because of the war? Uh, it did rise because of the conflict. Yes, sir. The, the conflict. So that's what we call it. Our people go into battle and lose their lives.

Mr. Larson, your time has expired. Well, the midterms are coming up. The midterms are coming up. And for me, it's never really even about a Democrat thing or a Republican thing or this or that. To me, it's about an accountability thing. And that's how I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking, who is going to hold this regime accountable? And who is going to fight this regime. That to me is what I look for above and beyond anything— who's going to fight this versus who is complicit in this. Do we have, Jeremy, the MAGA Mike Johnson clip from the press conference where he talks about how, you know, the Democrats wouldn't confirm Jesus? They wouldn't even allow Jesus. Let's just play. I mean, this to me Tells you everything. Let's play it. Could you pass FISA without Democrats? The answer— the Democrats wouldn't trust Jesus. He hasn't been nominated. There's not a single person— he hasn't been nominated. But do you— do you— I mean, how do you handle this if you can't get— if you can't have Democratic votes? Look, they're playing political games, uh, Jake. The Democrats are not willing to do anything, even the most simple, basic important responsibility to keep the American people safe because they want to make life hard for the president.

Like, I don't even understand these human beings. They're like gremlins. They're like, like the bad— we're all gremlins bad, or when they became like— when you put the water on them, they become the gremlins. But they were— they're the good gremlins, or was there— were they all like once they were gremlins? But anyway, they're great. It's like, it's like our gremlin creatures. Like, who are these people? Like, did you— like, his joke wasn't funny, they wouldn't do Jesus, and then like they're all up there. I'm like, I'm like, who the hell are these freaking weird, weird humans? Like, who the hell— who the hell are these people? Why, why are these people in positions of power? Oh, Jesus, Jesus! Stupid, stupid people. Just enough of this. Dangerous. Dangerous people as well. Well, as you probably can hear, my little one's in the background. That's usually time to tell me the show's up. Um, we'll be on with my brothers, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. We'll jump on the trampoline now a little bit, me and Ximena. That's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna jump on the trampoline. Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching. Hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers.

Gift memberships to people if you can. If you can afford to give memberships, gift those memberships right now. Um, make sure you're subscribed, turn your notifications on, tell others about the Midas Touch Network. You could check out our gear, you know, we got good merch. store.midastouch.com. Check out store.midastouch.com and we'll do that. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you tonight with the— be there at the Brother Show. 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. Thanks everybody. Shout out Midas Mighty.

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