Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben 8/20/26

Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis. This is your breaking news. We're gonna talk about Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant's market manipulation failing. The Treasury yields, which they tried to manipulate with bond buybacks.

Well, that failed yesterday. There was a $4 billion bond buyback scheme announced that temporarily reduced the 10, 20, 30-year yields. Now that it's been exposed as what we always know it is, an act of desperation. We're seeing the Treasury yields rise even higher. Gas prices again hitting historic highs, regular gas.

But also you take a look at diesel approaching $200 a barrel, the average price of diesel over $5.50. And I know lots of people pay attention to gas prices, which are record highs. Pay attention to diesel as well. I mean, that's going to impact freight. It's going to impact agriculture.

It's going to impact trucking. It's going to impact everything. So we're going to be focused on that as well. But I'll tell you what went up yesterday. The crypto bros were in the White House.

You got the Winklevoss and you've got all of Donald Trump's crypto bros who Donald Trump says, look how handsome these men are. Well, crypto went up. Bitcoin was up about 7-8%. And the same people who basically left the retail holders of the crypto holding the bag, wait until the prices dropped. And now with all of the uncertainty, that price of Bitcoin is going back up.

I wonder what they were talking with Donald behind scenes. I wonder, you know, as Donald Trump is crashing our economy, if they came up with a scheme together. Donald Trump and the crypto bros, that is. In order to now manipulate that market. What's Donald Trump doing while the American people are suffering?

D.C. Grand Prix. Oh, yeah, that's what everybody's focused on. D.C. Grand Prix. IndyCars going hundreds of miles an hour around Washington, D.C. Here's what you go.

Here's what you get, American people. Like, what is this? We don't want any of this. You ripped away our health care. You've made the cost of living way more challenging than it even was before.

People are barely holding on. Bankruptcies, personal bankruptcies, business bankruptcies, farm bankruptcies hitting an all-time high. But folks, let them watch Donald Trump do DC Grand Prix that the taxpayers have to pay for that nobody actually wants. By the way, like, it's cool if you like Grand Prix, if you like UFC, if you like these things. I'm not like hating on that.

I'm Grand Prix. I just— we don't need our taxpayer dollars to fund these cars going around Washington, D.C. in a propaganda fest, especially when our country is suffering. The people here are suffering. And Donald Trump's plan with Iran— I'm good. First, earlier this week it was, I'm going to just do nothing and that is going to harm Iran and they're going to give up.

Okay, we've been sanctioning Iran for decades with some of the harshest sanctions. What are you going to do, Donald? Economic D-Day, he says. That's what I'm going to do. Anybody who does business with Iran, we're coming after.

Okay, well, what about China? Maybe not them. What about Russia? Maybe not them. Okay, so nobody— we're gonna do— what's the game plan here, Donald?

What about, uh, Pakistan? Maybe not them. Okay, that's, that's where Donald Trump's over there. Um, meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to praise Kim Jong-un, North Korea. We know that Donald Trump has a love fest with Kim Jong-un.

He announced again, uh, while he's also making Grand Prix announcements that we are no longer doing military exercises with South Korea. I did a video earlier today from the president of South Korea, like, all right, goodbye, see you later, sounds good. We found out about this via social media post is what the president of South Korea said. Understand, all good. That's how Donald Trump the peacemaker does it, social media post.

Okay, we don't really think we need you in South Korea also, so look forward to us just taking care of our own security needs. And South Korea's president, President Lee, meeting with Wang Yi of China, China's foreign minister. Melania surfaced. I'm here, everybody, she says. I'm here.

Melania's here. Melania just held a press conference for the Grand Prix where she got a helmet. Melania got a helmet, everybody, from the Grand Prix racers. That's what Americans are saying. Oh, and we can't wait.

Did you hear Melania's coming out with the lost chapters of her documentary on Amazon that nobody cared about. Well, now there are the lost chapters, everybody. Oh, wow. What— wonder what's in those chapters. That'll be a fascinating, fascinating watch, Melania.

I mean, can you believe this dystopian absolute shit show? I mean, Jesus. Well, and again, it isn't— here's, here's the thing. Everyone's like, oh, Senator— not everybody, but like people trying to make the idea of Senator Ossoff calling out Donald Trump's bizarre, whatever you want to call it, with Natalie Harp. You know, like, that's not nice to Natalie.

That's not nice. Okay, okay, first off, just setting the Natalie thing aside. Okay, okay, Donald Trump is a sexual predator. Okay, he's been found civilly liable for sexual assault. The guy's on audio bragging about sexually assaulting women because he says he's rich and they let you do it when you are rich.

Okay, Donald Trump is on audio bragging about going into the locker rooms in beauty pageants and looking at the girls naked because he says, I get to inspect them when I own the pageants. Okay, so spare me Senator Ossoff mentioning Natalie. But he didn't just say, oh, did you see Natalie? Natalie and Donald sitting in a tree. That's not what he did.

He said Donald Trump's out there with Natalie flying around, objectively true, flying around in a Qatari jet that is apparently defenseless as the American— this is the most important part— as the American people are suffering, as the American people are having their and have had their healthcare ripped away, as the American people are seeing their jobs be lost. They've tapped out of tapping into their life savings and they don't have any more money. Consumer confidence at a historical low. And while all of this is going on, Donald Trump's out there doing Grand Prix in golden ballrooms and hiding in catering containers with Natalie, while the American people suffer. It's one of the things that I think Senator Ossoff does such a good job at, that he brings these— this is what we try to do at the Midas Touch Network.

It's not— look, if Donald Trump was a shitty billionaire who ran off with people like Natalie and behaved, would we like— would I want to be friends with that individual? No. Okay, I wouldn't want to be friends with them. Would I devote my time to calling that person out? Probably not.

I mean, why would I? I mean, you know, and also what you do in your private life, you do in your private life. That's, you know, my view is government stay out. I'm not— you do what you got to do as long as you're not hurting people, as long as it's consensual, as long as you're behaving responsibly. Do what you want.

I'm not a prior, okay? I'm not a judge. You know, by the way, all these MAGAs are. And then when you actually put a— not even a magnifying glass— when you look at what they're doing, it's absolutely horrific. But the issue is that these people have positions of power.

Natalie isn't some random person. Natalie's holding and using Trump's phone to communicate with world leaders. This isn't like a random person. She's Donald Trump's Gatekeeper, apparently. She's with him at all of these meetings where decisions are being made to destroy American alliances, to destroy the American economy, for Trump to enrich himself.

She's there. She's whatever you want to call her, the sidekick, the side, whatever you want, whatever you want to say. She's by his side while this is going on. She's being paid by us, apparently by the taxpayers. And these are people who are causing harm to the American people.

These aren't, oh, defenseless. No, no, these are people causing harm to Americans who are frankly defenseless against the malicious incompetence of the Trump regime. And we're going to call that out. So, yeah, Melania surfacing. But I also want to talk about, I think, some good news this week as well.

Let's just focus on the bad news. Big Democrat win in Pennsylvania's 12th state House representative race in a +18 Trump state House district in Pennsylvania. The Democratic candidate had a big win there in a +18 district, flipping that 19-point swing. It's a really big deal, in my opinion. And it continues the trend that we've seen of Democrats overperforming the polling by, on average, 12.5%, an overperformance that we've seen frequently.

And I think you have lots of MAGA people who are very concerned about that heading into the midterms. Chief among them, you have Kevin McCarthy saying we're in a lot of trouble come the midterms. So let's talk about all this stuff. Let's talk about— I previewed it right there. We'll show you what went down moments ago.

You have Melania Trump emerging as though we, we don't— we didn't care that you weren't in public view, Melania. We were just pointing out how bizarre it is, you know. So she comes like, I am here, everybody. I heard you missed me. Here I am.

No, nobody, nobody really missed you. We frankly don't really care about you. We just think this whole cabal that is going on at the White House is freaking an oddity while the American people are suffering. So here she is. We'll just play this.

Moments ago. Good afternoon. I am here, everybody. Here I am, everybody. Let's play it.

Good afternoon. I heard you missed me. Here I am. Welcome to the White House.

Ah, here I am. Oh, so funny, Melania. So she's always— she's so, so inspiring. I'm so inspired by Melania. And then she's got a lot of inspiring words for everybody, like, look at this incredible, gorgeous, powerful race car.

Yeah, America, America. This is what I think about the red, white, and blue. This, this is, this is the American dream, everybody. Here, play this clip.

And finally, look at this incredible race car, gorgeous and powerful. I'm sure we cannot wait to see it start its engine. Good luck to all of the drivers and teams on Sunday's race.

Oh, did you see it? Fostering the Future, it's on the race car. The level of just performative stuff. Okay, just do— just help it. The wild— it's on the race car, everybody.

That's what— you know what's really going to help the foster children? This Indy race. By putting Foster the Children on the race car. That's— and then focusing on not the underlying systemic issues that need actual change in the foster care system, which the Trump regime has gutted, by the way, but to say what important is investment accounts. We need to make sure that the foster children are heavily invested the S&P 500 as children so that we can keep this Ponzi scheme Trump economy going by having that money get diverted to the companies that Donald Trump has in his portfolio.

And then you had the kind of Grand Prix people say, we now have a gift for you, Melania. Oh, his gifts. Like, why are they getting gifts? We are giving you a race car helmet. Here, play this clip.

And Scott, if the First Lady would come up, you have something special for the drivers to present to the First Lady.

What are we clapping for? What the hell is this? WTF, America. That's why I wake up and I say, what the hell? What the hell is that?

Okay, but then, you know, earlier this morning, the American people are deeply concerned about— we're all very concerned about gas prices. They say the national average is over $4 a gallon. Out here in California, it's $6. I don't know what it is by you. Diesel out here in California, $7, which that impacts you too.

Because California is the biggest agriculture state. And so when diesel's $7, what— where do you think that's going to get passed on to? Uh, and who's it going to get passed on to? The consumer, of course it is. Um, but I'm sure in your states diesel's probably similar.

Gas is probably closer to $6 than $4 in your state as well, like it is here in California. Um, mortgage rates, I mean, are unattainable. People don't have the savings to even possibly consider buying a home right now in the United States. People are struggling to pay their rent right now. But this is the, the Trump messaging.

And Jeremy, I, I don't need to play this whole clip right here of Monica Crowley because everybody will get the point. But with all of this going on, the media blitz today by the Trump regime was IndyCar racing, was IndyCar racing. And then I did a video on it the other day on state regime media Fox. Jesse Watters' big segment was talking to college ladies, young college girls on the beach wearing bikinis, and asking them about the First Amendment, or asking them, um, and, and asking them about it. Well, we'll play, we'll play both of them, Jeremy.

The first one I want to play is 25 IndyCars. Let's play this one.

Yes. You know, the president really promised the American people the greatest and most monumental celebration in our nation's history to mark our 250th birthday. And that's exactly what he's delivered, including this weekend, which will really be our last major 250 celebratory event. Which is the IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix race. You know, the last time Washington, D.C. saw a race of this kind, Thomas Jefferson was president and it was America's 25th birthday back in— Of course, we all remember the Thomas Jefferson Grand Prix race.

We all remember that. So certainly, uh, more from Monica Crowley right here, um, talking about Um, uh, you know, let's, let's pull in the one— these people are completely delusional. Jeremy, let's play. Absolutely. I mean, there's hard power, and, uh, as we know, America is a champion of hard power.

We're seeing it exercised by this president all over the world. But soft power is just as important, and this is the kind of soft diplomacy that we're engaged in every single day. It is about showing the world what America is really all about— our freedoms, our free enterprise system, our system of government, a government, and the kind of leadership and American strength that is demonstrated every single day by this president. So that kind of soft power exercise is tremendously important. And all of the people who came here over the summer for the FIFA World Cup, for our 250, and who are now here for the IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix.

They will go back home to their home countries, as we have seen, and preach the gospel of America and really how tremendous the American people are and what an extraordinary— Seriously, you want to talk about soft power and hard power? Soft power: the U.S. dismantled USAID. The U.S. has treated every country in the world like absolute crap other than North Korea and Russia and perhaps China, as Donald Trump is a bootlicker of Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin. Um, you want to talk about hard power? The U.S. got its ass kicked from Iran in a war that Donald Trump pretends that we control the Strait of Hormuz.

You got another Barack Revere article out this week from Axios The US has opened up a stealth route through the Strait of Hormuz. A stealth route. Not so stealthy when you publish it. We're bringing in half or maybe even 60% as much oil as we did before the war started. Well, that wouldn't be good if true, but that's not true.

It's just an absolute lie.

If it was true, then what are we— if we're— if we are bringing in all this oil, then why isn't it being reflected in the data? If— why is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at tank bottom? Okay, let's just accept the market, what they're trying to do. Okay, so you're saying that all this oil is being brought in, but also then what's up with the market? So you're actually— if that's true, then y'all are extra dumb.

No, the truth is is that there's no stealthy route. We know the route. It's by Oman. Iran knows the route. And every other day Iran strikes a tanker.

There are some ships that get through the southern route by Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, but not 10 million barrels a day. The lying is just so stupid. And it also signals to Iran just how desperate Trump is, how weak he is. Iran knows. You don't think they know in Iran that we're at tank bottom, that Iran can wait this out and the Treasury yields will continue to rise?

Why do you think Bessant made the move that he did yesterday, which, by the way, we did a detailed analysis with Midas Touch chief economist Justin Wolfers about the bond buyback scheme. I hope it was helpful to hear the way we broke it down, because oftentimes you hear about these things and it's inaccessible. It's like, what are they talking— treasury yields, what the hell are they talking about, right? Um, but you had Bessant manipulate the market to bring down the treasury yields by doing a bond buyback scheme of $4 billion, but then signaling to the market to manipulate it that the treasury would potentially do yield curve control or potentially take broader steps beyond the $4 billion buyback. So for a short period of time, the market was manipulated.

But as I've said before, and, you know, a constant theme I talk about when it comes to using the reflecting pool as the bigger metaphor of this Trump regime, You could paint it blue for a little bit, but the algae always comes back, right? You could pretend you've solved an issue with a miracle cure. You could call it American flag blue. You can attack Biden and Obama. You could try to scapegoat this person or that person or blame this person.

The algae always comes back unless you actually fix the problem. And Donald Trump's a guy who's a fraud his whole life. And so what does he do? He defrauds people. These are all— these are schemes.

These are Bernie Madoff-like schemes done at a much grander scale. So the market today said bullshit, bullshit. That's what they said today. The markets, Treasury yields surged higher than they were yesterday. I'm sure there were arbitrageurs who made that money, though.

Who made the market manipulation money? Not you or me or most Americans, but I'm sure they were the same way. Bessant, when he engaged in the bailout of the yen— remember, remember 2 weeks ago, the yen bailout, the Japanese yen bailout? Well, that didn't work. The yen continues to decrease.

It worked for a day, worked for a day. We sold euros and converted them into yen without telling the European Central Bank. First time we did a swap like that and not alert another central bank, especially the European Central Bank. Worked for a day, but then guess what happened? The algae always comes back.

You've got the yen crashing yet again, and the Japanese are going to have to do what we feared they were going to do. Sell US Treasuries. They're the biggest holder of our Treasuries. And what's that going to do to the yields? Up, up, up, up, up.

And what does that do to our debt? Up, up, up. What does it do to our deficit? Increase, increase, increase, because we now have to pay interest on that debt at these higher rates. And that is deeply problematic.

$1.3 trillion A year has to be paid in interest now on this paper that foreign holders don't really want to hold anymore. Um, as, uh, Carl Quintanilla posts, and he's citing an economist here, it's like, uh, disconnecting the smoke alarm so they can keep playing with the matches. I mean, the United States is behaving— I think there was someone who says, do you have this meme, Jeremy, where they were showing Bessant like trying to put out all these fires. We may not have it, but it's like the US is behaving like 1987. Yeah, here it is right here.

Lars Christensen says, I'm getting a lot of emerging markets vibe with Bessant, and it's not Poland in 2006, it's Bolivia in 1986. Bessant trying to decide whether to intervene in Treasury, currency, or energy markets today. And this dude is failing and he is flailing. And I don't like being right in these things. I don't like being right.

But I hope when you go back and you think about our discussions together and the things I was saying 2 months ago that, you know, haters of Midas Touch would tell you, oh, he's being hyperbolic. These things aren't going to happen. And they don't know. Don't worry about it. Don't call them fascist.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I hope you see that, you know, we were right about these things. And I was warning about these things because they were pretty frickin obvious. And you had all this. You had all of this kind of corporate news deluge, whether it was Axios or Politico or this one or that one saying Donald Trump said the Strait of Hormuz is open.

We have a super secret route. We're making progress. Things are going amazing. Iran's not going to last another 2 days. Oh, it's going to be great.

We've never been stronger. Bessant figured it out. He's— don't underestimate Bessant. Shut up. We know what's going on.

All right. Let's take our first quick break of the day. Quick reminder. Make sure you all subscribe to the YouTube channel. Get your copy of WTF America, the book that I wrote with my brothers.

It comes out October 20th, 2026. Preorder it now. Also, I did a long interview this morning. I was up early speaking with Anthony Scaramucci. I joined his podcast this morning.

We spoke for about an hour. Check that out. I think that's going to go up. They're going to put that on audio soon as well. I was interviewed by Scaramucci.

I think we talked about the book. Where's the book? Right there. Right there. All right.

Thanks, everybody. We'll take our first quick break of the show.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news. Uh, show you what Treasury Secretary Bessant was, uh, saying earlier today. Held a press conference outside of the White House. He was asked why oil's going up so much.

Bessant, you told us we're going to get this under control, weren't you promising something with the 2 in front of it by now? So Bessant goes, we got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand. He says, I don't really understand it. Here, let's play this clip. Declining.

We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand. You know, our announcement is for economic action, and I think that the economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner. Sir, you don't understand it. I mean, I think actually most Americans do understand it. We are in a catastrophic war that the US lost.

We went in there with Netanyahu, a genocidal war criminal. We started slaughtering little girls in Manab, in Lemaire, and other areas. The Epstein class slaughtered little girls in Iran. The United States blew up 30,000 other sites in Iran. Iran maintained its leadership structure, took control over the Strait of Hormuz, as everybody predicted that they would.

And the U.S. has since then, under Donald Trump's completely failed and utter deranged and demonic leadership, has fake conversations where he makes fake deals up with himself. And as I said before the break, the algae always comes back. You can't hide it. You can't— I mean, you know, because the U.S. led the post-World War II architecture. Okay, that's not a minor thing, you know.

It's not like building a shitty Donald Trump building or something, you know, with, you know, not the best material and then pretending it's great and whatever. That's not what it is. This is post-World War II security architecture, right? Remember we used to like watch the History Channel, or you'd watch the World War II videos, and you would see American generals, and you would see American presidents, right? You'd see FDR, you'd see Truman post-World War II, you would see Eisenhower, you would see all of these people, you know, speaking in carefully worded statements.

And, you know, let's be clear, the post-World War II architecture had lots of problems. It was not perfect for the entire world. It wasn't perfect for the United States. I'm not out here saying, look how great everything was, it was so amazing. I'm simply saying that the architecture that was created with America as the leader was intended to benefit America, and Donald Trump viewed that as not enough.

That it had to be more, that we were being exploited by the countries who had to deal with American military bases in their countries and bought our stuff, which would ultimately go to America. Donald— so the architecture is hard to unravel, but Trump did it. He managed to do it in 2 years. 2— I mean, you know, it's, it's— didn't do it the first year, but he definitely eroded the architecture. And right now it's like America in the— it's embarrassing.

Like, it is truly— if you use a modicum of logic and you have a threshold where you actually feel shame and humiliation. Like, you should genuinely be humiliated at what America is in the world right now. It's a shameful thing. And you can say that as a patriotic American who hopes to one day restore the dignity and restore trust and restore predictability in it. But what Donald Trump has created is the way people would look at the Trump organizations in the '80s and the '90s and before The Apprentice.

Ugh. 'Ugh, the F, what the F, that guy is a piece of shit.' That's what people would say in New York about this guy. He said, 'Shit.' That's like the United States now, of America. That's what we've become. Excuse me, that's what people would say about Trump.

And we went, you know, this is a guy who was a wrecking ball to so many people's lives. That's what America becomes. So Treasury Secretary Bessant, this is a confusion. Why did the oil price spike? I don't know, maybe because we got less oil.

Cool. Again, I'm not sure why the Mickey Mouse voice. Maybe because we're not bringing 10 million barrels out there, Treasury Secretary Bessant. Maybe that's why. Okay.

What do you, what, what, what? That's a real shocker. We're not bringing 10 million barrels a day. We don't control the Strait of Hormuz. And despite Donald Trump posting, that's my new coping mechanism.

I do Mickey impressions about how ridiculous our country has become. I don't know. It just comes outta nowhere too. I can't control it. That's Mickey.

Um, I can't control— I'll stop doing Mickey impressions.

Um, U.S. does not control the Strait of Hormuz. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Red Sea— the Houthis can effectively run a blockade as it relates to Saudi tankers, which is what they are doing right now. Trump said he would solve Russia's war against Ukraine in 24 hours. That didn't happen.

And Ukraine is now striking hard deep in Russia. Refineries there, tankers in the water, right? Black Sea, Sea of Azov. Russian tankers getting hit. Russia striking hard in Ukraine.

Russia strikes in Kyiv last night. Jeremy, do we have the video of the Russia strikes in Kyiv last night? Ukraine doesn't have And there it is. Uh, you see what you're watching right there, these strikes. Ukraine doesn't have interceptors, so Russia's ballistic missiles can strike whenever they want at this point.

Look at this other one right here. Boom. Um, nothing Ukraine can do about it because Trump promised Zelensky, we're going to get you an interceptor or get you interceptor licenses. Trump ran out of interceptors for the United States of America regardless. He wouldn't have— he's not even going to give Zelensky the license, so You know, but, uh, a ton of people killed in Ukraine yesterday, and we're heading to the winter, and Russia's been building up its ballistics, its cruise missiles, its Shahids.

Who do you think is helping Russia with that?

Who do you think's helping? North Korea, Iran, China. It is what it is. That's just the reality. A lot of the— as Donald Trump says, North Korea has done nothing harmful.

Why would we and South Korea be hostile to North Korea? Dude, in the past 12 hours since Donald Trump made that statement, Kim Jong-un launched about 10 ballistic missiles right around Japan and said, we are not changing our position. About South Korea, Japan, or the United States because of Donald Trump's post. Kim Jong-un's sister, who has a top military position in North Korea, said, "We're not talking to Donald. We don't know what he's even talking about." Kim Yo-jong said she's unaware of any recent communication between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.

I mean, it's like a humiliation ritual.

Donald Trump just pretending He's like talking with authoritarians who he like dreams about. It's freaking weird, man. And, uh, you know what, if you go and watch the interview I did with Scaramucci, I said, I said, I said, Mooch, I said, this guy's just a— this guy's just a loser. I said, there's so much to criticize, obviously, and I would never want an authoritarian in our country. I want democracy, I want empathy, I want dignity, I want civil rights, I want equality.

You know the values and principles we talk about here. But the part to me that's undeniable is that this regime is a regime of losers. These are loser— these are loser people. These are lifelong losers who are just bad people, and they're horrible at doing that. They're horrible at even being authoritarian.

They're bad. And I watch them. I'm like, what the hell are they doing? What the hell are they doing? What the hell is this?

You know, you watch Brooke Rollins. She's asked, is affordability becoming a test? This is on Newsmax on whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promise. What do you think she answered this question? Do you think she said, well, We understand that the American people are deeply concerned, so we're going to be rolling out specific plan X, Y, and Z to make things less expensive.

Or I'll give you B, Joe Biden did it. Joe Biden did it. A or B? Let's find out. Let's play it.

With the midterms approaching, how do you see this playing out? Is food affordability really becoming a test of whether the Trump administration can deliver? On its economic promises.

No, affordability, you know, I think continues to be a key conversation, as it should be. But I think we have to put this all into context. And certainly on the food side, which is what we look— are looking at at USDA, protecting the food supply, number one, but affordability as well. Under Joe Biden, the cost of food went up almost 25%. I mean, this is what we're battling against.

Against right now. Under Trump, we are right at the 20-year average, which is around 2 to 3%. Ah, it's Joe Biden's fault. August 20th, 2026. It's Joe Biden's fault.

Really? The guy who ran— now I'm referring to Trump— on, I will lower the costs on day one, your electricity bills will be cut in half, everybody will get $5,000 Doge dividend checks. Groceries will all be super cheap. It'll be so easy to afford a home, you're not going to even know what to do with it. You're going to be so rich, it'll be so easy to afford a home.

Of course, I'll be able to stop Russia's war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Gas will be $2 a gallon. Yeah, really, really. So, uh, That guy couldn't fix it, but he said, I alone can fix it. I alone can.

All right. Bessin, Bessin, Bessin, Bessin. You got better answers than Brooke Rollins, right? Treasury Secretary. Right now, our national debt has exceeded $40 trillion.

$40 trillion. We're paying $1.3 trillion a year right now. In interest on that debt. What's the deal? How did this happen?

Is that a concern? Should we be concerned about it? Let's listen to what Treasury Secretary Bessant had to say. Play this clip. And remember, we did not get here in a day.

We were left with a mess. The Biden administration had the highest deficit to GDP in history when we weren't at war or weren't in a recession. For 2025, we brought it down by more than a percent.

Okay, really? So that's Biden's fault too? You do realize that 35% to 40% of all of that debt comes from, comes from your boy?

It comes from Donald. Where do you think it was coming from? Where do you think it comes from? His first term, this term. And by the way, should we say that the debt did go up under Biden?

Biden ain't the president. Biden dropped out. So under your logic, Trump should drop out. Let's just assume they're right. Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden.

OK, well, Biden dropped out, so Trump should drop out. If you're saying Biden as your shield of Trump, Biden dropped out, so Trump should drop out. That's, I guess, the logical conclusion, right? That seems logical to me. But let's also be real.

Under former President Biden, whose mess did he have to inherit? Trump's first term, he inherited a prosperous economy from Obama and he screwed it up by the time he was done with it. He handed former President Biden, piece of crap economy with COVID raging, with shipping destroyed, with the disastrous way PPP was dealt with, where like hundreds of billions of dollars were just like lost, were just like lost by the Trump regime. That didn't actually hit the American people, went to lots of rich people. But I need only show Donald Trump running for office in 2015.

And this was Donald Trump. Now that we know the US debt reached $40 trillion, Donald Trump once warned of the dangers of reaching a debt level of $20 trillion or $24 trillion. That's the point of no return, he said when he ran in 2015. Here's what he said. Here, play this clip.

Because we really do have to get going, because if we have another 3 or 4 years, you know, we're at $18 trillion now. We're soon going to be at $20 trillion. According to the economists, who I'm not big believers in, but nevertheless, this is what they're saying, that $24 trillion— we're very close— that's the point of no return. $24 trillion. We will be there soon.

That's when we become Greece. That's when we become a country that's unsalvageable. And we're going to be there very soon. We're going to be there very soon. Make America great again.

That's when we become 1987 Bolivia or Argentina or an emerging market, as I discussed earlier. And again, I don't know how anybody watches that and sees where we're at now and doesn't go, what a freaking con artist. What a piece of— I don't know how you don't— I really don't. I don't know how you don't look at that and go— I just get angry. I also don't know how you look at that and go, man, this guy has cognitively and physically rotted away.

I mean, what the hell was— I mean, you compare him now to, to there, I mean, it's still a bunch of nonsense back then, but looked like a different human being. All right, let's take our last break. WTF. Let's take our last break of the show. Reminder, QR code right there, uh, pre-order WTF America.

I want to keep the presale momentum going. Um, let's keep it going. Let's take our last quick break of the show. Get your copy.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis. This is our breaking news. Shout out to Jordy, my brothers, for those great ad reads. Thank you to our sponsors.

They support our show. Jordy negotiates actual deals, not concept of deals, not frameworks, deals with our sponsors in order to bring them to you. Uh, so put the discount code in the description below. By now I'm sure you've seen the clips of Darlene Graham, Lindsey Graham's sister, who for reasons that are inexplicable to me and probably more inexplicable to people who don't live in the United States, is now a United States senator simply because she's Lindsey Graham's sister. She was appointed.

What kind of system do we have here? The WTF. Um, and at the debate, she was asked a pretty basic question about Taiwan. What do you think about Taiwan, threats around Taiwan? And her response is, I don't really know anything about Taiwan.

I'm gonna be honest, I don't really know anything about, uh, foreign affairs, she said. And then I think even perhaps worse than her is, uh, like, I know she got a lot of crap for saying that, but then you had her, uh, opponent, um, who's Ralph Norman. And like, I get Ralph Norman answered the question confidently, but he's like, 'And that's why China fears us. Peace through strength.' And why do you think China is worried about us and scared about us? I don't know whose answer I would— they're both horrible answers.

They're like, like they're equally bad. Like her answer got the attention because she's like, I don't know foreign— this is what the Republican Party is. I don't know foreign affairs. And then Ralph Norman, her opponent in South Carolina, and that's why China's terrified. What world is China terrified?

Like, you know, these people who call themselves China hawks— we're going to be strong, we're going to decouple. Dude, China— I can't even say is cleaning our clocks because that's the present. It's been done. They have cleaned our clock. China right now, definitely in Asia, is indisputably the hegemonic power, I would argue, in the Middle East right now.

And I would argue internationally, I would say the Chinese— the military in China significantly stronger than the United States right now. And you can— like, man, that's crazy, that's crazy. Well, we don't have weapons, okay? Okay, one side has weapons, China. One side, the U.S., is out of weapons.

The US ran out of weapons in a war with a country, Iran, that was not even a regional power at the time. We shouldn't have been involved in this catastrophic war. I'm not endorsing the war by saying, oh, we should have done— I'm just letting you know an objective reality. We went into a catastrophic war with Netanyahu, a genocidal maniac. We should not have been involved in this war.

But Iran was not even a regional power. They are a regional power right now. Iran won the war. I think as a patriotic American, we have to recognize that America lost. Okay.

But Donald Trump is a lifelong predator. He's a sex predator. He's been found civilly liable for sexual assault. He is a— he can't accept an L even when he wins. So it's clear we're never going to resolve this catastrophic war in Iran as long as Donald Trump remains the president.

Just look what he did with E. Jean Carroll. I mean, obviously he sexually assaulted her. She's— he's been found civilly liable for that. I can say that definitively.

Sue me, I dare you. I dare you to sue me for that. I would— I would be— by the way, if Trump were to sue me for that or whatever, my strategy, I would go to trial right away. I wouldn't play these games on motions to dismiss. I would take his ass to trial.

I would set his deposition right away. I wouldn't even bullshit around. I put his set his deposition immediately and start asking him about all of the allegations. Just go through it, 7 hours. I'd ask the judge for 3 days' worth of depositions, but I digress.

But my point is, he gets rejected by the Supreme Court in his petition for certiorari to appeal a case that he— and then he petitions again, then he petitions again. You lost, buddy. You're a loser. You're a sexual predator. You've been found civilly liable.

Get the hell away, sicko. Right. But Iran, who does— who do they go after? Who do they go after on day one? Just think about it.

What did Iran strike day one? They struck the American logistical sites. Bahrain, UAE.

Where else? Al Udeid. So that we couldn't bring supplies to our aircraft carriers. That's where Iran struck after we attacked them. Where did the US strike Iran?

Little girls slaughtered 168 little girls in Iran. And it sickens me to this day right now that that just isn't talked about more. It sickens me. It saddens me to think that I live in a nation right now. And I think as a patriotic American, I go, well, then get out of here.

Don't be here. Go somewhere else. No, I love— I still love this country, but I think that it's sick and demented, and I can't even think of the words that describe it. And it's not just there, it's Le Maire, it's other areas. We— then Trump and Hegseth slaughtered the day before that a little girl's playing volleyball, 16-year-old, 15-year-old girls playing volleyball with— and they tried out Sick.

A new weapon that sprays these pellets. It exploded over the girls playing volleyball, and the pellets killed the little girls playing volleyball in a gym. Undisputed fact that that happened. Undisputed fact that it happened. And so the Trump regime engaged in this catastrophic war lost to a regional power— well, not a region, now a regional power in Iran.

And right now you have China in its ascendancy. And going back to where we started this— and I went all over the place, I know, I weaved and then wove and then kind of forgot where I was— but in all seriousness, you have Ralph Norman saying that we're somehow stronger than China right now, or like China— or China's afraid of us. China's not afraid of us. South Korea's foreign minister just met with, um, or South Korea's president just met with Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, and, and talked about a new security umbrella in Asia. We've had to move our last aircraft carrier from the Pacific Donald Trump is now getting rid of the Army drone program that former Army Chief of Staff Randy George was pioneering because Hegseth and this sycophantic new Army Chief of Staff that Hegseth put in, this guy Christopher LaNev, who replaced Randy George, wants to get, quote, back to the basics.

Back to the basics. We got to be like what we were in World War II. Okay, what— we're in 2026 now, though. Drone warfare. We don't need battleships.

We need drones, anti-drones, unmanned submersives. The hell are you talking about? Get back to the basics. Like idiotic. Donald Trump's like, we don't need electromag— we shouldn't have electromagnetic launchers on our aircraft carriers.

We need steam catapults. The fuck are you talking about? We need steam catapults? What are you talking about? We just, just engineer it the way our experts tell us to engineer it.

We steam catapults? What are you talking about? I want to redesign the Ford-class aircraft carriers so they look like battleships from the— from 1925. Why, why would we do that? Why are you so freaking stupid?

Again, this isn't like— damn, it's like you're dumb, like a dummy idiot, malignant narcissistic idiot loser. Like, what the hell is this? So these are important They're important questions. We were certainly, you know, so when Ralph Norman's like, this is America straight, this is America. When they tell people this is the golden age, this is the really, this is the golden age.

This is a, this is what y'all wanted. This is what you, this is why you sold us. This was your vision. Or maybe for them, because they're doing all the inside trading or they're making all the money or they're getting all the deals and they're doing it for themselves personally, whatever. Maybe it is for them.

This is what they wanted. The ultimate grift. Where losers are able to loot and pillage from the American people who are hardworking and just want to earn an honest day's living. While you've got Treasury Secretary Bessant doing bond buyback schemes while American workers just saying, I worked my ass off today. Why am I not getting paid with dignity so I can support my family and buy a home when I did everything that was asked of me and I can't even buy a home right now?

I can't even afford my rent right now. I can't get healthcare right now. And you idiots want to talk about, I don't know, the WNBA player getting fouled hard because she's white, and you want to make this into a white versus black WNBA player. We don't know what the hell you're even talking about on Fox. Just focus on what we're talking about here.

We have people working who are getting healthcare ripped away. We got people here who are struggling to live in the United States, and we're in these never-ending wars. You got idiot White House posting these weird photos of Mario Kart, Donald Trump like as freaking Mario, but it looks like he's riding with freaking Jeffrey Epstein in the back. Did you see this photo? It looks like he's riding around with Carol— with either Carolyn Levitt or Natalie.

It looks like Jeffrey Epstein is in the back. Do they literally pick Jeffrey? Who's that in the background? It's a Mario Kart with the worst type of Mario Kart— sexual predator Mario Kart. Donald Trump and Epstein.

The hell? The hell is even going on there? Crazy stuff. Darlene Graham. So then she— Darlene Graham.

That was the point. Focus. Darlene Graham. So she is on Hannity. And I just want you to watch the double standard right here.

I'm going to play for you this portion. This is a person who is a United States senator. Senator. This is a United States senator. It's like a Transformer.

She's a senator. Here, let's play this clip. Because there are votes that go toward funding wars or declaring wars, and if you're deciding voting that factor, how can we trust as constituents that you'll make the right decision if you're not informed on national security issues at this moment in time? That's a fair question, right? But You know, I answered it honestly, because I'm not a national security expert.

Lindsey was, right? Because he talked a lot about national security. You know why? He spent 33 years in the Air Force. He had a military background.

So he had a lot of foreign relations. And that was his focus. To me, as I walked around this room, and I've asked people, are y'all concerned about Taiwan? You know what they said? No, they're concerned about the price of groceries, the price of gas, rising healthcare costs.

Is national security important? Absolutely. Can I learn? I'm smart. Yes, I'll learn.

I'll become informed. Everybody has a first day on the job. President Trump, was he a politician? Has he done a good job? Yes, he has.

So that's my answer. So, but I will always be honest. Yeah, I'm always gonna be honest with all of you. I don't know a thing about national security. Ain't my thing.

I'm running— when I speak to people in this state, they don't care about Taiwan. They just care about groceries. Okay, they care about the groceries. Y'all are empowered. People saying, who is that?

That's Darlene Graham. That's Lindsey Graham's sister. She's currently a United States senator because she got appointed in that position by the governor because Trump wanted her to be in that position. Okay, so during her debate, she said she doesn't know about anything about Taiwan, and then she's now been going, oh shucks, I'm just an honest person. And I don't know, I'll learn.

Donald didn't know. Yeah, the problem is that Donald didn't know and he still doesn't know and he's winging it and worse, he's enriching himself and that's all he cares about. And he is a malignant narcissist and a psychopath and a sociopath and a demented individual. Who has caused all of these issues. And also, it is related.

It is related. We don't just care about national security because it's like a topic. It's like Jeopardy. I'll learn that category a little bit better on the job. It's because it's national security.

We are a nation. And perhaps the security is important to the nation. And perhaps all of these things are related, as we've seen in the war. Why do you think the price of gas is going up? Do you think maybe it's because we have idiots who don't know about national security or just think that Trump and Netanyahu would be greeted like heroes after bombing little girls in Iran?

Do you think that maybe if we listened to national security experts, maybe, just maybe, we would not have gotten involved in a catastrophic and unlawful war that anybody could have told you the outcome? And then maybe, just maybe, Darlene, Darlene, just maybe, Darlene, That's connected to the affordability issue, because when you tariff the world and you start wars around the world, things blow up. And you know, when things blow up, you know what happens? There's— I'll give you a basic economics lecture— there's less of it. And when there's less of it, Darlene, you know what happens?

Costs more money. And so perhaps national security is also related. Aw shucks, to affordability, Darlene. Just maybe that was an issue. And maybe we need people who understand these things as United States senators.

And when you go touring around South Carolina and there are people who may not know what I just described about Taiwan, By the way, very important for a lot of things— tech, semiconductors, broader national security implications regarding the US trade relationship with China, rare earths, a lot of issues. But guess what, Darlene? You're running for the United States Senate. You are a senator, or as I said before, a senator, and your job is to be a leader. And to know these things, because that's what your job is.

Not to be, I'm just going to try my darndest, I'm going to do my best for the people. But again, when you listen to what Ralph Norman says and he's like, and that's why China fears us— if you truly believe that China fears us right now, I'm not sure who I'd want better in that, Darlene, or I want none of them. Who's better? The guy who is so delusional or is so freaking co-opted that he's got to say that, or Darlene's like, I don't know, I don't know. But to me, I don't approach that criticism that I just gave you as, well, this is my Democratic talking point, or we've got an election in 75 days, so that's why you've got to vote Democrat.

No, I don't. I'm calling this out from the perspective of leadership. I'm calling this out from the perspective of competence. From the perspective of strategy, from the perspective of being an adult, being a grown-up. I approach this from the perspective of being a public servant means serving the public, not talking about Grand Prix racing.

Not talking about golden ballrooms, not traveling in catering containers with Natalie. None of this weird shit. It's about serving the people. And so that to me is, I think, our challenge together as we think about this. And so I leave you with this also.

Which is— and I, I'll mention WTF America, but, and I, I know some people like, stop plugging the book all the time, you plug the book too much. But I'll tell you why I do it, um, because what I try to set out in it is the generational challenge that we have. Because if we continue down a path of Obama Trump, Biden, Trump, fill in the blank, Ossoff, Newsom, AOC, Buttigieg, whoever you have, and then DeSantis or Rubio, and then name the person, Ossoff, AOC. If that's the path and politics becomes this like gamified thing and it's We have zero credibility as a nation. What we have to do is ask more fundamental questions, which is what's the point of governance?

What are we looking for in leaders? Where do we see ourselves as a nation, not just over the course of the next 6 months to a year, but where do we see ourselves in the next 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years? And what is— what does it mean? And I know this feels existential and perhaps sometimes philosophical and preachy, but it isn't intended to, to, to do that. I mean, why— it's, it's the broader why, which I know in the day-to-day hustle we ignore.

But it's also like, why are we here? You know, life is short. You heard the— you hear the expression. Why, why, what are we doing here? Isn't it to find meaning in all of this, to bring joy to ourselves and to others, to leave this place that is a miracle, whether you're religious or not, that we're here?

Isn't it to leave this place better? And isn't it to aspire for better and to leave other generations ideally with a better place? And to navigate the challenges that we have here, but to, but to try to do it with a smile and with joy and, and, and to help others. Like, whether you're religious, not religious, this isn't a religious network, this is— but at a, at a core level, I mean, you know, you look at Lindsey Graham's life and it's like, you know, he's a feeder fish who would try to find whoever he thought was his shark and he devoted his life to genocide and killing and death, and then he died with his stupid MAGA hat and his, you know, and, and, and he's dead. That's why you live to be, you know, you live to be, you know, Donald Trump's— so many things I could say, but I'll keep it appropriate.

Um, Guy, you lived to be that? Like, that was your— like, that's what you did? And, and to root on the deaths of the little girls, and like, that's why you lived? Like, what are we doing here? Like, yeah, I mean it sincerely.

And what I hope this network does, what I hope these episodes— I, I have to react to breaking news, of course, that's what I do. It's a breaking day, but I hope the ecosystem that we create and inspire, whether it's with and, and work with and help promote, whether it's the Katie Fangs and the Aaron Parnasses, the Scott McFarlands, the Legal AFs, the Karen Friedman Agnifilos, the Tennessee Brandos, the working with the Allison Gills, and there's so many, you know, the The 5 Minute News and, and working with, uh, the Dina Dolls. There's so many, you know, trying to uplift and use this platform to create an ecosystem the way I saw Fox and right-wing ecosystems built for the last 70 years for such bad, for such toxicity. If we can build one for good, an ecosystem for good that spreads better positive, then we can tackle the generational issues. And so that's what I leave you with right now.

All right, thanks everybody for watching. Appreciate you. Get a copy of WTF America. Uh, watch the brother show tonight, will you? Um, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific.

We'll keep on loading content throughout the day, do videos throughout the day. But thanks everybody for watching. We appreciate you. Shout out Midas Mighty. Have it Everybody want to stay plugged in?

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