Transcript of MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 1/27/26

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Tell me, Nikola, do you have this feeling, in the tax explanation, to stand in a corner?

No, not at all. Why is it the tax app, which I can't do anything wrong? Wow. Das heißt, damit ist alles sicher? Ja, genau. Wieso Steuer ist die Steuer-App, die dich versteht. Weil Steuer betrifft ja dein ganzes Leben. Arbeit, Kinder, Partner. Du kannst nichts falsch machen. Stimmt. Nice. It doesn't feel like a tax. Celebrant is done? Safe. With Visa Steuer. Now, we're going to test it. The insolvenzzahlen are rising. What is behind this development and what does it mean for the middleman? In Folge 6 of Endstation Insolvenz, Patrick Ludwig-Hanssch, Director of Wirtschaftsforschung bei Kreditreform, explains why business models today quickly hit their limits. We have a lot to discuss on today's episode of the Midas Touch podcast. We should talk about the horrific murder of Alex Pretty at the hands of Donald Trump's Border Patrol Gestapo, then the effort by the Trump regime to defame Alex Pretty, an ICU nurse at the VA in Minneapolis, someone who, by all accounts, was incredibly selfless, courageous, heroic, really one of the best human beings out there, killed by the worst human beings out there. Then the Trump engaged in a concerted campaign to defame Pretty after he was deceased, calling him a domestic terrorist, saying he was out to massacre ICE and border patrol agents.

100% false. This is 100% the playbook that they use over and over again. This is what they did to Renee Nicole Good. After all of those deaths at the ICE detention centers, they lie about the cause of death and say people died by suicide, and you find out it's at the hands of ICE Gestapo. I want to break down what took place, the aftermath, the response. It does seem like, finally, we've reached a fever pitch in this country where we're now even hearing from businesses who have refused to speak out. The NBA Players Association spoke out, and other people who have been on the sidelines were hearing more and more voices step forward. It's about time, and we need to hear from more people. Silence is complicity. I want to talk about Trump's health continuing to deteriorate Great. New York magazine had an incredible exposé that I want to cover. It was one of the most embarrassing and humiliating situations described in the oval office. It's almost hard to comprehend what the hell is happening there as this article by Ben Terrace describes Donald Trump going to these doctors and I'm the healthiest person, right?

No one's healthier than me, right? Yes, you're incredibly healthy. And then Donald Trump said, When something happened to my dad, it was something up here. And then Caroline Leved, his chief propagandist said, Alzheimer's. Yeah, he had that thing going on up there. Anyway, we'll talk about that. Donald Trump continuing to embarrass the United States on the world stage. He attacked Canada. I thought that was going to be the big story heading into the weekend where he said 100% tariffs on Canada if they do a trade deal with China after Prime Minister Carny took a trip to Beijing and announced a $1 trillion strategic pact with Xi Jinping, and that story seemed to fade in light of all of the other chaos and terrorism committed by this despicable regime. The regime continues to cover up the Epstein files. A child sex trafficking ring is continuing to be covered up by the DOJ, the same DOJ, I might add, that has been sending letters to Governor Walls of Minnesota saying that if you agree just to hand over all the private election information of the citizens of Minnesota, then maybe we'll leave if you just hand over and let us run the elections for the midterms, a Mafia extortion racket with state-sponsored terrorism as part of the force and threats behind it.

We've got a lot to discuss. Today is the day where I teach over at USA law, which is why you see this background right here. I'm not sure if anybody caught it. We'll talk about it in this episode. I had the opportunity to interview this weekend, Professor Justin Wolfers, another professor. It was like meeting my long lost Australian best friend that I never knew I had. Professor Wolfers and I were able to do this really long geeking out on the economy and global markets, and lots of people seem to like it. Then Professor Wolfers and I were talking all weekend about doing more videos together and how we can get more information out. Shout out to Professor Wolfers. We'll increasingly bring him on the Midas Touch Network more and more and build out our economics reporting the same way we have a DC bureau, the same way we're on the ground in Minneapolis. We were on the ground there when this horrific terroristic shooting murder took place. Brett Jordy.

That's some big 10 to big 10 love there, Ben, right? Wolfers is a Michigan guy, Michigan man, as they say. You guys will have to do a bet, USA, Michigan bet, maybe next season. Anyway, Brett.

Is there a secret professors' handshake you guys Is there like the professors have cool things that we don't even know about? I'll let you keep that all private. You can't tell. You can't tell. I get it. It's good to be here, brothers. Good to be here, Midas-Midi. Nice to be here with everybody. There's their sugar coating it. It was a really dark weekend, another dark weekend in the Trump regime. I know everybody's feeling a whole lot of pain. My heart goes out to Alex Pretty's family. I just cannot imagine what they're going through. But just an individual who lived his life by a hero. I've seen so many people, colleagues, people who work with him, people who went to school with him speak out to his character, and they all say the same thing about him, that he was just such an incredible human being who lived to help other people. I think we even saw in those final moments as we watched, he was trying to help somebody. He was trying to help a woman who was attacked by Trump's goons. He was recording the situation. They pushed a woman down. They pepper-sprayed her.

He was trying to render her aid. That's when they took him, threw him on the ground, and killed him point blank, murdered him, executed him. It's just beyond words. Every time you think there's rock bottom, this regime tends to find the basement every single time. Their reaction after the fact also just makes this so much worse. Not a regime that's looking for accountability, but a regime that rushes to smear and defame the victim, to basically try to say that this person's life was worthless, to say that they were a terrorist, to use all of these terms, to make you try to not believe your own eyes and ears. It is the most depraved administration, the most depraved regime we have ever seen. Everybody, responsibleness, every single individual deserves to, A, be out of a job, be prosecuted, and to be scorned and ostracized from society forever. This is moral deprivation. Honestly, we have not seen before in this country. It is so freaking appalling. But this weekend, I think also, well, so tragic. It was a tipping point. I think it was truly a critical juncture in where we are at. I can't believe that it's taken just these horrors for certain people to wake up.

But finally, we are seeing certain people finally speak out and speak up about these issues and about the regime. Because frankly, there have been far too many people who are in positions of power, celebrities, athletes, you name it, who have been afraid to speak out against this regime because they know what will happen is there will be some Twitter backlash to them saying something against the regime. They'll get a lot of mean tweets. They'll get harassed. Their lives will probably be threatened by these people because that's their MO. That's what these people do. They say, I'm just going to go about my life. I'll make my movies, I'll make my music, I'll play my sports. I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to speak up because I don't want any of that smoke. But finally, finally, finally, finally, and I hope it stays, we see at least some people like that speaking up speaking out, calling out the horrific murders of these individuals. And there are multiple individuals, and it's just so incredibly sad, tragic, and the fallout continues now from all of this. I think most Americans are I would say 80 % plus this is breaking through, too, are furious, are furious at this regime, are angered, and rightfully so.

We're going to get into this and more. Jordie, what's the latest?

What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas, Midi? And I just I'm going to build on to that last point, seeing as we are finally seeing folks speak out. Look, I think I've been incredibly gracious to a fault, and I'll admit that, to a fault of giving people either brainwashed or willful participants in propping up MAGA in the past and off-ramp. But over the weekend, I hit my personal tipping point. With everything that's happened, with Keith Porter, to Renee Good, to Alex Pretty, if you still can't disavow this avou this regime? If you're still sporting that red MAGA hat and saying that's Donald being Donald making excuse after excuse for the atrocities that are being committed right here on US soil. I can't help you, nor, quite frankly, do I want to help you anymore because you don't want to be helped. You're a hateful, evil person that doesn't care for your fellow American. That's the only conclusion I can draw. And here we are. This audience cares. We care here deeply in our bones about this country and about its citizens and about what real leadership looks like. And quite frankly, what's coming out of the White House right now is an absence of leadership.

And that's just putting it as mildly as I can, Ben.

Yeah. I mean, immediately after the murder of Alex Pretty, the Trump regime in a coordinated campaign said that Pretty was a domestic terrorist, that because he had a legal permit to conceal, carry a handgun, that he was there to massacre the Border Patrol and ICE Gestapo who were there, that he had an intention to massacre, is what they said. When you watch the video about what actually happened, again, there's video of this. There's no dispute about what happened. The only investigation that's frankly needed is who were the border patrol terrorists who shot and murdered Alex Pretty. Who else have these people been shooting, murdering, terrorizing? That's what the investigation should be about. Who are these mass terrorists? It's not doxing them to put their name out there. We shouldn't secret police in this country. Their name should be out there because they deserve to be prosecuted. That's the way our system is supposed to work. We saw Alex Pretty in the final moments of his life going to lend to hand to help a female protester who was being brutalized by Border Patrol Gestapo. They were pepper spraying her. Alex Pretty is someone who was described by his colleagues in the VA ICU and in various other programs that he was a part of as someone who would always stand up for the underdog.

If people would harass or say negative things about female doctors or others in the profession, he would always stand up. That's how he was known for. He instinctively went to lend a hand to this female being brutalized. He had a camera in his hand. He didn't have a gun in his hand. He then was pepper sprayed by the Border Patrol Gestapo. They brutalized him, 6-8 people, threw him to the ground. They basically pistol-whipped him. Then there's a photo that looks just like the photo of the Nazi execution that has been one of the horrifying images of Hitler's reign of of the Border Patrol Gestapo, like execution style, murdering Prety. Then they shot him over and over and over again. When his body was lying limp, they shot him over and over and over again. You saw in the video also that one of the Border Patrol Gestapo took the handgun that was concealed carry, that was being concealed carried by Prety. Prety never took it out. He was allowed to have it. Frankly, in Minnesota, it didn't even have to be... It could have been open carry, but he had it concealed carry. He never took it out ever.

It was removed by one of the Border Patrol Gestapo before they executed him. You had all of these statements coming out from Trump, from Steven Miller. Steven Miller said directly, This is a domestic terrorist who was there to massacre people. You had Christine Ohm say he was there to kill and massacre. You had Greg Bavino, a terrorist who leads the border patrol terrorists, say he was there to massacre people. Then you had others in the regime, and it was Noem, Bovino, others, Trump, saying, this is Stephen Miller's direct quote, a domestic terrorist tried to assassinate federal law enforcement, and this is your response, you and the state's entire Democrat leadership team have been flaming the flames of insurrection for the singular purpose of stopping the deportation of illegals who invaded the country. Again, Miller using the language of Nazis right there. Pretty was not a domestic terrorist. He was not there to massacre people. But then you had all the Trump regime officials say, If you show up to a protest and you have a legal permit to conceal, carry, then you can be killed and the government can tread on you and kill you and shoot you.

Over the course of the weekend, although we knew this before, the Trump regime and their MAGA Republican sycophants admit they don't care about the First Amendment. We knew that before. They don't care about the Second Amendment. I've never heard any politician from any party hate the Second Amendment as much As much as Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. They've said things I've never heard Democratic politicians who they've always attacked, say. I guess for the MAGA Republicans, okay, the Second Amendment protects the school shooters who bring the semi-automatic to elementary schools. That should be protected. But when you have a lawful permit and you conceal carry, and it's actually there for the purpose the Second Amendment was intended for, then the Second Amendment should be impeded and you should be murdered for it. And again, if you're like, Well, Ben, don't be all hyperbolic. Let me just remind you. This is what Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said over the weekend. Let's play his clip first. Let's play this one. I am sorry that this gentleman is dead, but he did bring a nine-millimetre semi-automatic weapon with two cartridges to what was supposed to be a peaceful protest.

I think that there are a lot of paid agitators who are genning things up, and The governor has not done a good job of tamping this down. Yeah.

I mean, as you know, he was an ICU nurse, worked for the Veterans Administration, and there's no evidence that he brandished the gun whatsoever. The fact that he brought a gun.

He was disarmed before he was- But he brought a gun.

Have you ever gone to a protest, Jonathan?

We do have a second amendment in this country that- Jonathan, have you ever gone to a protest? Have you gone to a protest?

No, actually, as a reporter covering it.

Okay, I've been to a protest. Guess what? I didn't bring a gun. I brought a billboard. Okay. I brought a billboard. For those on audio, we're showing photos right now of Kyle Rittenhouse with a semi-automatic with an AR. We have over here these MAGA Republican protesters who showed up in the Michigan Statehouse with their AR-15s, standing outside of where the governor's office was with AR-15s.

I want to just be clear on the heels of Besson's comments, and you're seeing these images if you're watching here on YouTube, that nobody even knew that Alex Pretty had a gun. They didn't know this before they attacked him. This is all after the fact them trying to find justification for their actions. It's disgusting and it's appalling. The fact that all of these people who know better just fall in line, whether you're Christie Noem, or Scott Bessent or Todd Blanch, or whoever it is, following the script. It's so freaking appalling, and it goes everything this country stands for. It is evil. There should be nothing political about this. You should be able to look at this, if you're a Democrat, if you're a Republican, if you're an independent, if you don't even care about politics, and say, This is wrong, this is un-American. If you are a Republican or if you are a, consider yourself a MAGA person, then just think about this situation. Think if you'd be okay if because these protesters that you see in these images that I'm pulling back up, like the protesters in the Michigan state capital here with their weapons.

Do you think that would have made it okay if some officer or federal agent or whatever you want to call them came in and then gun these people down and used that as their justification? Because you've exerted a whole lot of energy over these years claiming that you actually support the Second Amendment. The second there's a situation where the Second Amendment actually comes into play, you abandon all your principles because none of these people believe anything. They are vessels for for whatever Donald Trump wants to put through to them. They don't stand for anything. They are shells of human beings. It's disgraceful.

That's why I don't even call them humans. That's why I refer to them as creatures. It's because what they are, they're soulless creatures who are just parroting Trump regime. Extreme talking points. Look, the Renee Good situation, the Renee Good murder, the murder of Pradee, those are on video, clear as day, right? Especially in the case of Pradee. When you play that video, he's not holding the gun. He wasn't bringing the gun there to shoot up law enforcement, as Christie Noem likes to suggest now and defame Pradee in his death. It's unbelievable what they do to these people when they're gone, how they lie on them, how they defame them, how they treat them. It's so utterly disgusting and just un-American. It's un-American. And so when you see Besson up there and you see Noem talking, I just look at them. I'm like, you actually hate this country. You hate this country. You love the position of power that you're in. I don't know. Maybe you're monetizing off of it in some way, shape, or form. Probably are. But you actually don't like this country. You could wrap yourself in the American flag all you want and say the pledge of allegiance, do whatever.

But when you can't look at that video and objectively say, That was murder and execution, what we just witnessed, then I can't have a conversation with you.

I mean, look, Trump's post right after was to ratchet things up. And now in typical Trump fashion, he's like, Wait a minute, the country hates for this? Maybe I should just say, Well, I got a call from Governor Walls, and Governor Walls now called me, and we had a very respectful phone conversation together, and I just told him, We're just trying to go after the bad guys, so maybe if you just help me go after the bad guys, we can figure this out together. Then after that, he has Caroline Levit do a press conference, though, his chief propagandist, where she then goes and says the most hateful things after he posts that. This is It's all part of the same trend and pattern that Donald Trump does with everything. He threatens to invade Greenland. There's backlash. People stand up against him and he's like, I did a deal. Oh, we're good now. Everything's fine. This is what I wanted from the outset. Every aspect of this is utterly political. This is what Trump said right after the murder of Pretty. He posts within minutes, This is the gunman's gun loaded with two additional full magazines and ready to What is that all about?

Where are the local police? Why weren't they allowed to protect ICE officers? Then he goes on and he attacks Governor Walls and Mayor Fray. He goes on to say, The mayor and governor are inciting insurrection with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric. He accuses them of being an insurrection. That's his post right after the murder. Then you had Christine Ohm. She was asked after the murder. So did Did he brandish a gun? Watch what her response was when she was asked. Play this clip.

Thank you so much for doing this and would welcome also any other guidance from Chief Scott.

Did the 37-year-old who had a license to carry, did he brandish a gun? At what point did law enforcement retrieve the gun and also the magazines from him?

Can you offer clarity on where this were found? This individual showed up to impede a law enforcement operation and assaulted our officers. They responded according to their training and took to defend the officer's life and those of the public around him. I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign. This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons and are using them to assault law enforcement officers.

Do we have the old clip of Christie Noem from... By the way, I could show you hundreds of clips like this of her, but I'll just show the one at the 2023 the NRA speech, where she accused former President Biden of engaging in tyranny with the Second Amendment because Biden was proposing common sense gun controls as it relates to semi automatic weapons near schools after actual massacres, after school shootings. This is what her statement to the NRA was after a school shooting. Let's play this.

And a White House that is so hell-bent on grabbing power in control of your life, they will do anything and stop it absolutely nothing to take it away. They will even take away your last tool of defense. The Second Amendment is about deterrence. It's about ensuring the government respects the rights and the liberty of citizens. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of a people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

She quotes the Second Amendment. Round of applause. When it's actually addressed through how it's supposed to be utilized by Alex Pretty, they don't care. The point is, they don't care about anything. They really don't. Jordie, you say creatures, whatever you want to say. These people don't care about anything other than propping up their own Kim Jong Un. These are incompetent in people who couldn't make it other than by propping up someone who will hoist a right-wing oligarchy to suck up the wealth of this nation, to butcher this nation, to turn this nation into a dystopian hellscape where the worst of the worst thrive and people who just want to live their lives struggle to survive. That's what this is about. I want to take our first quick break of the show. When we come back, we have a lot to discuss that New York magazine, Blockbuster Report on Donald Trump's Deteriorating Health and some of the most bizarre descriptions of human behavior I've ever heard in any setting. Talk about that. Talk about the continued cover up of the Epstein files. We're never going to forget about that. Trump's attack on Canada and more. We're going to take our first quick break.

A reminder, click Join right now if you can and gift memberships to others. Midas Touch Network continuing to expand. We've got a reporter in Nuke in Greenland right now. We've got reporters on the ground through our partnership with Status Coup in Minneapolis. We've got a DC bureau that's holding politicians accountable. There was 100% attendance of Democrats this past week, which is unheard of because they know our cameras are there. Democrats who voted to fund ICE have been apologizing for it because they were asked simple questions. It wasn't trick questions. Do you support Funding ICE or do you not support Funding? Just asking the questions. Our reporters are there asking the questions that you want answered. That's thanks to our expansion that you've made possible. Click join right now, become a member, and subscribe to our sub stack as well at mitisplus. Com. Let's take our first quick break. We'll be right back.

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Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Sorry, my light's flickering. I think my power is about to go out, I swear. So just a heads up if I go totally... You guys see this, right?

No, I don't see anything. I think you're just losing your mind.

Okay.

I see it. Jordy is in the midst of the snowstorm, as I'm sure so many of you out there are. So please, all of you, stay warm, stay safe. I know the temperatures are literally beyond ice cold. They're freezing.

I've seen the pictures. I always comment on what's happening on the screen, and finally someone was like, Fine, I'll go to the YouTube and watch it. And they're like, I'm really glad I did that. This was someone who I was DMing back and forth. So for the audio listeners, you could hit up the Midas Touch YouTube account and see those lights.

Let's talk about what's happening on Capitol Hill in the House of Representatives, Mag Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House, ordered the house into yet another recess. Vacation time, more vacation, right? The same way, they seem like they don't work anymore under Maga Mike. The same way there was recess for all of those. It's like lunch. Recess, everybody. No more working. While they get the gold plan health care while ripping away health care from Americans and not extending the Affordable Care Act and just destroying Americans' lives. But they went on Recess when they were covering up the Epstein files, and they're still covering up the Epstein files. But over the summer, they didn't work for, what, two months or something like that? They just decided not to show up, basically. And he did the same thing again. So the MAGA Republicans, with the assistance of seven Democrats who we've called out, they push through a $1. 2 trillion overall. It's called a minibus, a big appropriations plan that has defense spending and FEMA money and Then they sneak in additional spending for ICE and Border Patrol. What they try to do with the minibus is be like, Well, we all need disaster relief because there's going to be snowstorms.

If you don't want to fund ICE and Border Patrol, we're going to call you out because then that means you're not going to fund FEMA during the winter storm, and then we're going to use that against you. They tried to tie these things together in order to pressure people to vote to give more money for state-sponsored terrorism by saying, Well, if you don't support the state-sponsored terrorism, then I guess we're not going to be able to fund emergency relief for the storms. That's how screwed up is. I guess we're not going to fund the troops, and our troops are going to go starving, so you got to fund the Ice and Border Patrol. No, do not fund Ice and Border Patrol. As Brett said at the beginning, it needs to be defunded, abolished, and frequently prosecuted. It is what needs to be happening. We can talk about funding Funding Terrorists. What are we talking about here? The House pushed forward that. Then that moves to the Senate. Remember how a bill becomes a law? Now it's in the Senate. If the Senate makes any to the House Appropriations Bill. It has to go back to the House.

But the problem is, Maga Mike is on vacation, and he sent the House home. So they can't make any adjustments if the Senate excises or removes the ICE and Border Patrol portion from the minibus, as it's called, the appropriations package. Now, the Democrats have put out a statement in the Senate, and I hope they stick with this and they don't fold, but they've made it clear that there are certain non-negotiables that they're saying they need to see happen in order for there to be any additional funding, and there needs to be accountability from Christie Noem and Bovino. Troops need to get out of Minnesota. There needs to be an independent investigation, and the state officials have to come back in. No more funding for ICE and Border Patrol right now, given everything. It shouldn't have taken this to get there, but here we are. Now, Now you have statements like this from Susan Collins. She's concerned, everybody. She's concerned, you all. So Republican Susan Collins says the following. Colin says, A shutdown would be harmful, unnecessary, and disastrous. Colin says, She shares the concern about Alex Pretty's killing over the weekend, but she notes that the DHS Funding Bill also includes money for FEMA, TSA, et cetera.

Yeah, we know that's part of the extortion racket here by combining these things and making them package No, what you should do is just... It's very easy. Remove the portion that includes funding for ICE and Border Patrol. All you have to do, I'll make it very easy, Brett, Jordy, and Midas, might. Here's how you would do it. You put a line through it. You say, No, we're not doing that. Then it goes to the house. But wait a minute, the house isn't there. But if they were working and we wanted to keep the government open, they would show up, although Maga Mike doesn't want to, Maga Mike Maga Mike would do his job. He would pass the identical language, and then the government would be funded. Don't let corporate news and others try to overcomplicate this situation. Maga Mike sent the house into recess to contrive a controversy while he's gone radio silent about the murder of Pretty. That's what happened. Now the Senate Republicans want to try to call the Democrats bluff that you're going to screw over our troops if you don't fund terrorism with ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo. No, just Democrats.

Stand on principles, stand on values, say no. That's what happening, though, in the House and the Senate. I wanted to break it down in a way that you understand the extortion racket that these magas are polling. Even when the media acts like this is a complicated thing, it isn't. You strike one line from what the House did or a few lines that deal with ICE and Border Patrol, then the House votes on it, they pass it, and the government's funded with no additional funding for ICE and Border Patrol. Anyway, I wanted to mention that at the outset. Brett Jordy, what did you think about that article from New York magazine here? They followed the Wall Street Journal's tactic here where they give a headline that Donald Trump will like, but then in the reporting itself, it's scathing. So they call it the Superhuman President. They're probably fishing for Donald Trump to repost it. The Superhuman President, right? Donald Trump will be like...

I mean, just look at the photo they used. It was quite intentional. They used an incredibly unflattering photo of Trump struggling to walk up the steps. I think the irony is there for anyone to see it. But no, this was an interesting look into the mind, I would say, of Donald Trump. This writer here, his name is... What's his name?

Ben Terrace.

Ben Terrace. He wrote this piece, and he spoke with Trump, and he spoke with some of Trump's doctors, and it was just some of the most deranged stuff you've ever seen. But certain things, I think when Donald Trump says things out loud, especially unprompted, I think the alarm bell should go off in your head and you should be like, That's interesting. That's interesting. One thing is something that we've been reporting here incessantly on the Midas Touch podcast on the Midas Touch Network. If you've been following this reporting, Ben has been doing deep dives into Donald Trump's family history and has been speaking about the way in which Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And how Donald Trump himself seems to be going down a very similar trajectory. Donald Trump started speaking about this himself during this interview. It was one of the things that came out in this interview. I'll read this piece quickly, and then I'll toss it back to the guys. But here's an example from this piece right here. This is what Donald Trump said to this writer, Ben Terrace. My father had one problem, Trump said. He started getting, what do they call it?

He pointed to his forehead looked to his press secretary for the word that escaped him. Alzheimer's, Levet said. Like an Alzheimer's thing, Trump said. Well, I don't have it. Now, I'm just going to say it's probably not a great sign and doesn't speak to your mental faculties when you can't remember the name of the diagnosis that you yourself are being accused of having and that your father had when it has to do with memory loss and mental decline, cognitive decline, and all the like. But that was really just the beginning of the story as well. But I found that line in particular, guys, very revealing, and especially the way that Trump volunteered, felt the need to say that himself to this person who is prying about his health.

If we wrote that here, if we wrote that into a Ben video, you guys would think we made it up. Or a little bit too on the nose might as touch, a little bit too on the note. Oh, my God. He pointed to his head. He forgot the word. Caroline Levet has to interject, say Alzheimer's. It's beyond me. It is beyond me that more people aren't speaking up about Donald Trump's mental fitness.

Well, let's talk about how this piece opens by Ben Terrace. This is how he describes it. I don't want to give you my characterization. Let me just read it. This is from Ben Terrace about showing up at the oval office to ask Donald Trump questions about his health. When I arrived at the oval office in December to talk to Donald Trump about his health, the President was standing next to a couple of men clutching pieces of paper labeled talking points. These are two doctors, Trump told me before I could ask a question. And by the way, I don't know them. They're not my best friends. They're respected doctors that practice out of Walter Reid, and they happen to be taking care of me for anything, but I don't need any taken care of because I'm in perfect health. I do purposefully every year or less a physical because I think the American people should know that the President is healthy, so you don't get a guy like the last one who was the worst thing that ever happened to older people. Because I know people in their 90s that are 100% Gary player is 90 years old.

He shot 70 with me the other day. Trump gestured at everyone present, me, the doctors, and Press Secretary, Caroline Levent, to follow him into the room. Let's sit for a couple of minutes, he said. I hate to waste a lot of time on this, but if you're going to Can't write a bad story about my health, I'm going to sue the ass off of New York magazine. There will be a time when you can write that story, maybe in two years, three years, five years, five years. No one is going to care, I guess. Go ahead and sit down. Then Donald Trump showed his hand that was discolored and said and bruised. This is only from shaking hands, he said, rubbing his left thumb over the back of his right-hand, a claim he would repeat to other journalists. Trump turned to the doctor's, Captain Sean Barbarella, his lead physician, and Colonel James Jones, a physician's assistant with a PhD in health science. Can you just verify that? He said, Absolutely, said Barbebella, a short man with close cropped hair and a nervous smile. I've seen the President shaking hands for over an hour. Trump held up his non-shaking hand.

Look, this one's perfect, he said. People say, What beautiful skin you have. What beautiful skin you have. The White House said that the bruise that appeared on his left hand in Davos was caused by him hitting it against a table corner. Trump also also blamed women's fingernails and rings for the cuts on his right-hand, including one particularly nasty slice that came from a botched high five with attorney general Pam Bondi. Levet then turns to Jones and said, Yes, I did. He said, Jones had, in fact, worked from 2009 to 2018 as a senior medical leader in the White House. At the end of his presidency, Barack Obama, a fitness fanatic, rumored to allow himself precisely Lastly, seven apples a night, was 55 years old. Who is healthier, Obama or President Trump? I asked. This is the reporter asking Trump's physician. Trump stared across the desk making eye contact with Jones. Jones didn't hesitate. President Trump, he said. Trump nodded. There was no sign of a smile as if there could not have been any other answer to that question. Also, we learned from this piece that Marco Rubio said he covers his head with a blanket when taking naps on Air Force One, so Trump won't think his Secretary of State is weak for needing sleep on overseas flights.

I mean, this is some of the most deranged stuff imaginable right here, folks. And to me, it raises many more questions. This is someone who wakes up in the morning and posts things like this. If Governor Kanye thinks he's going to make Canada a drop-off port for China, to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their business, social fabric, and general way of life. If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the USA. Thank you for your attention to this matter, DJ team. Brett, I don't know. I know we have the side by side there. Do we have the video portion of that? Where this is what he said the week before he posted this, two weeks before, when he was asked about Kanye making the deal with Xi Jinping, that then Trump in this deranged state said he's now doing 100% tariff Tariffs on Canada. This is after he threatened countries with 30% Tariffs if they didn't allow him to invade Greenland.

Then he made up a fake deal with Greenland and Denmark that he claimed would give him spots of sovereignty within Greenland that Greenland and Denmark never agreed to coming out of Davos, where he confused Greenland with Iceland. But here's what Trump said two weeks ago about the Canada deal with China. Let's play this clip. How do you see the deals Canada and China? I've just signed trade deals between the two partners. Well, it's okay. That's what he should be doing. It's a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do it. If you should get a deal with China, you should do it. Then so then, Carny is asked, Well, what do you make of Trump saying 100% Tariffs on Canada now as Canada opened up its legislative session. Just watch Carny, who's a competent, smart, shrewd leader, who's basically the leader of the free world right now, the right person for this moment, very high popularity in Canada, and he shuts down Trump's tariff threats in one sentence. Watch this.

How are you responding to Trump's threats of 100% terrorists?

Well, the first thing is that Canada respects our engagements, our commitments. We have commitments under Kuzma that not to pursue free trade agreements with non-market economies without prior notification. We have no intention of doing that with China or any other non-market economy. What we've done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years. In many respects, we're going to use the expression back to the future with respect to EVs, with respect to agriculture, with respect to fish products and other food products, but with additional protections. For example, back in 2023, we didn't have a cap on the number of EVs. We didn't have a requirement for a large proportion of those EVs to be affordable, highly affordable EVs for a Canadian. It's entirely consistent with Kuzma, with our obligations, which we very much respect under Kuzma, and we'll continue to work that- And by the way, Trump had already said he wants to rip apart Kuzma and doesn't care about it. That's the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement, also known as the USMCA, depending on United States, Mexico-Mexico Canada Agreement, depending on the country's framing of it. But Trump already said, Why would I care about Kuzma or USMCA?

And so what Prime Minister carny is saying, what Europe's saying, what other countries are saying is, your words are meaningless now, Donald. Do it. We believe forged alliances, whether it's trans-Atlantic alliances with Canada and Europe or trans-Pacific alliances with Canada, China, and other Asia nations, whether it's Europe forging alliances in South America and elsewhere. The rest of the world has made their chess moves while Donald Trump is out there playing checkers in the oval office saying, What's this on my head? Alzheimer, what is it? What is it called? Well, I mean, what is happening here? We have a lot to discuss. We're going to take our last quick break of the show. Lots of big moves are happening right now as the pressure counts on the Trump regime. Greg Bovino is out. Bovino is getting demoted. We'll talk about what's happening with Bovino. We'll talk about the continuing cover up of the Epstein files. Trump is a creature, to use your term, Jordy, of habit, of demented habit. So In his mind, the walls are closing in, so what does he do? Bill Barr worked for me with the Mueller report. Let me bring back Bill Barr.

So he's got Bill Barr now writing op-eds for him in the Wall Street Journal saying, I think Pam Bond is doing a great job with the Epstein files. We'll talk about that in more. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, you may think you're subscribed to our YouTube channel. Double check, make sure you're subscribed. But also maybe join, become a member and help grow the Midas Touch Network, and you can memberships for other people right now. And also make sure you're subscribed on audio and YouTube. So if you watch this on YouTube, search Midas Touch podcast on the audio platform where you listen to podcast and hit subscribe there. It helps us in the audio algorithms as well. And we just launched on the Midas Touch Network, the Aaron Parnas audio podcast, which was climbing the charts and which was one of the most downloaded and listened to political podcast. You've got the Midas Touch podcast there, and we just launched the Aaron Parnas, in addition to all of the other great podcasts we have.

And that's called the Parnas Perspective. For all those who want to go check it out on all the various podcast apps, go check it out. Rated five stars. And Aaron is really good at these quick news hits, injecting you with exactly the information that you need to hear. It's a really good show. Aaron is such a great reporter and just does a really good job with his sourcing and getting all the stories and getting some really great scoops.

Last break of the show. We'll be right back.

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Let me pass it over to Brett for a second. I got to knock on the door. Brett, can you take it over for a second?

Yeah, absolutely. First, I want to show everybody right now some of these comparisons because what some folks have realized online and seeing the messaging that's been put forth by Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol Commander at large, and we have some news to announce in that regard in any second. I'll get to it. But I just want to show you the way that this Trump regime handles their communications and their information and how they align their and how it's intentional in the ways that they smear and defame victims. This isn't just an individual acting rogue. This is what they do. This is intentional. Let me show you this video right now. I'm going to show you, and for the audio listeners, so you know what I'm playing you, you're going to see Greg Bavino, the Border Patrol Commander-A-Large, well, at least was, and like I said, we'll get to that in just a moment, and Chris DeNome, the DHS, the Homeland Security Secretary. Their reaction to Alex Pretty and the comments that they made after his murder. And watch how they line up word for word.

Check this out. An individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm this individual, but the armed suspect reacted violently. Fearing for his life and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, a border patrol agent fired fired defensive shots. Medics were on the scene immediately and attempted to deliver medical aid to the subject, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The subject was pronounced dead at the scene.

The suspect also had two magazines with ammunition in them that held dozens of rounds. He also had no ID. This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.

It's just absolutely appalling when you watch that and how in sync they are and how this is all intentional. Their goal was to smear the victim, and this is what they do every single time. One of the things I've been saying is we're so lucky there are cameras present at these events. That's why Alex Pretty was there with his phone filming. That's why I think one of the most patriotic things that people are doing right now are recording this Gestapo that's out there doing these actions. Because without the video evidence, you are just relying on this regime narrative. We know they lie about everything. I just want you to think about a few days ago, one of the things that we covered, one of the discoveries that we made here at the Midas Touch Network that made massive news that the Department of Homeland Security and Donald Trump in the White House released an AI altered image of a woman that they arrested at a church in Minneapolis. They altered the image and presented it as if it were real to the public. If they're willing to do all of this stuff, they're quite literally willing to lie about everything.

I'm also not going to pretend like this started with Donald Trump, although this is probably the most in your face example of all of this. I think we could look out there and talk to any Black American out there who has had experience with police. They've experienced this. It's deeply ingrained. It's deeply known that individuals, police officers, law enforcement, in this case, this ICE Gestapo, will use any excuse, will smear you with any lie, make up anything about you in order to put you in jail, in order to kill you. This is their MO. That's why these agencies, their biggest fear is being identified. Their biggest fear is being shown exactly what they are doing and getting exposed for their actions. That's why they are forcefully fighting back, in this case, murdering an individual for recording them. That's why they're wearing these masks. That's what's behind the whole thing because that's their biggest kryptonite, so to speak. I think so many Americans have known this now for a long time, but now we're seeing this at the highest levels of our government with this ICE Gestapo, it's border patrol.

Look at the statement put out before by the German Foreign Ministry. The German Foreign Ministry is now warning travelers to the United States to be vigilant and exercise increased caution because of violent confrontations with federal agents in Minneapolis and other US cities. This is an updated travel advisory, putting people on alert. Be very careful. The damage that's being done to America internationally right now, generations traditionally, both in terms of the state-sponsored terrorism and violence taking place in our country, our attacks on NATO, our attacks on allies or former allies, it is creating generational problems. As I mentioned earlier, I had the opportunity to interview Professor Justin Wolfers, economist over at University of Michigan. He and I were discussing, it's not just measuring the impact of what Trump's doing on our economy this quarter or next quarter. It's focusing on the long term damage to America's reputation and how America, as a wealthy country, as a country that was the envy of the world economically, now shrinks and shrivels away as other countries assert themselves, as the bricks block grows, as these other alliances, Canada and China, trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific relationships grow. Let's take a look at what Professor Wolfers had to say.

Let's play.

But let me Before we go one step deeper, Ben, I want to challenge you and literally everyone in the media to think a little harder about what economic things we should be looking at. Here's what I mean. Don't think about next quarter. Don't think about next year, and even look through a recession. Ask the much deeper question, what are the foundations of economic prosperity, shared prosperity, equitable growth? Look across countries and ask yourself, why is the United States rich and the country of my birth, Papua New Guinea, poor? And we have economists who ask this question, and they load all sorts of numbers into their computers, and they run very complicated analysis, or they do studies, or they case studies and historical analysis. The answer turns out to be what we call institutions, the rules of the game, the rules of economic and political life, the fact that we respect the rule of law, that we have contestable elections, that we have contracts that We respect that the government plays a limited and predictable role in economic life and on and on the list goes. The thing is, those are the things the President is undermining.

He's attempting to take away the independence of the Federal Reserve. He's tried to undermine how much federal economic statistics reflect reality. He's tried to overturn an election. He's snatching people up off the streets. He is calling CEOs and telling them what to do. The This is the most interventionist government of my lifetime. It's the least conservative government of my lifetime. When you are the richest country in the world, maybe you're not the ones who should be thinking about ripping down your existing institutions. It's those who are somewhat behind. But that's what the President is doing. That's not going to show up in next quarter's GDP. What that's going to show up as is in a decade's time, there'll be some companies that were never founded. There were some entrepreneurs who couldn't afford to go to business school. There were immigrants with great ideas who ended up staying in their home countries instead. And so whatever the next generation's Google or OpenAI is, it may not end up being invented or it may not happen on our soil. And we will never see that absence. But our kids will feel it. Our kids will feel it instead of lost opportunities.

There'll be businesses they never started. There'll be job opportunities. There'll be new technologies. There'll be ways of creating a greener, safer, more prosperous future that simply aren't possible But we're not going to see it straight away. And that, I think, is our current media is not well set up to talk about those issues because there's no number comes out. There's no news cycle. There's no Wall Street Journal headline. But it turns out economic research tells us that's the stuff that matters.

Powerful stuff right there. And we're going to bring on Professor Wolfers much more on the Midas Touch Network. I've been speaking to him over the weekend about how we integrate him more into the Midas. I know the Midas mighty love Professor Wolfers. I've always been an admirer of his. So as we expand our coverage, I want to be able to bring more economic data from the top economist in our country right now. I'll bring this up, and then, Brett, you'll talk about Bovino. But very quickly, You had Bill Barr, former attorney general, pen this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Why Pam Bondi didn't publish all Epstein files in 30 days? The answer is simple. It was not possible. Then he goes on to say, House Democrats, added by a handful of misguided Republicans forced the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November. The statute directed Pam Bondi to release the files within 30 days. Then he goes on to say it was more than 5 million pages of material. In linear feed, it's more than three times the height of the Washington Monument. So how could they possibly get this done? Well, let's be very clear.

Pam Bondi claimed that she was going to turn these files over back in February. She had basically a full year to turn these over. That's the issue. It wasn't that they had 30 days. The 30 days was after they said they were going to turn it over and refuse to turn it over. They had a thousand lawyers working on this. A thousand. When I was doing document productions like this, when I was a lawyer and I would have five associates with me, it would take us about 60 days to go through 3 to 5 terabytes, which is more documents than this. We'd have it logged and sorted. So if you have a thousand lawyers who are just doing this, and why is only one % of the files been produced? Why aren't they loading these documents on a rolling basis and putting 50,000, 50,000, 50,000? Why aren't they doing that? They did one dump of 12,000 documents. What now? Almost 40, 37 days ago, and now they're not going to turn over everything. The whole thing is a cover up. But it's just interesting to me that the Trump regime goes back to Bill Barr to go to the Wall Street Journal to pin that op-ed, which is total BS.

I don't want to do an episode where we don't talk about the cover up of the Epstein Files. Brett, I've got because I'm at a location where I have to leave this room.

They're kicking you out of class.

But Brett, I'm going to turn it over to you to talk about the big news in Bovino. Midas-midi, we love you and we're grateful for you.

We'll do. Thanks, Professor. We'll see you soon. Okay, so let's dive into this. But before I dive into this, I also want to mention Bill Barr has been Donald Trump's hatchet man from the beginning, right? Yes, while when he thought that Trump wouldn't be reelected and all that, you saw Bill Barr make statements against against Donald Trump. That's true. Bill Barr was essential in covering up everything for Donald Trump during his first term. It's no surprise to me that he is a guy who is rushing to the Wall Street Journal in order to launder this BS for Donald Trump. It's also no surprise to me that it's about the Epstein files. I don't know how many of you all know, but Bill Barr is actually deeply ingrained in the Epstein of it all. Bill Barr's father, Donald Barr, was headmaster of the Dalton School in New York, and he was literally the who hired Epstein as a teacher there in the 1970s. Weird coincidence? I certainly think so. I remember Epstein at this time didn't even have a college degree, but he was hired as a teacher at this prestigious Dalton School. I'm just going to say that's a little freaking weird.

It's a red flag. It's a red flag. It's a good way to call it. It's a bit of a red flag. My spidey senses are going off as soon as I hear that. Then, of course, Bill Barr also oversaw the sex trafficking case of Epstein during the first term, and he was in charge when Epstein died under very suspicious circumstances in the federal prison system. It was overseen by Bill Barr at the time. I'm just saying there's a lot of smoke over there. If you want to say where there's smoke, there's fire, I'll let you draw that conclusion. But I want to just note all of these facts. These are undisputed facts for people so that you can understand that. Barr, I think, also worked for one of these big law firms. I think it was Kirkland & Ellis. I think they had represented Epstein in the past. I don't know if Bill Barr had any actual direct relationship with that or if it was just the firm at large, but it just shows you all these connections there at play. So no surprise. Now, let's get to the breaking news of the moment, and this has to do with Greg Bovino.

Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol Commander at Large, Irony at Large. He's a very tiny man in morals and in stature. But here's Greg Bavino for those watching. I'm showing a couple of images of Greg Bavino because this guy basically presents himself like a Nazi Gestapo figure. I just have to say it straight. When you look at these images of him, he's not even really trying to hide it. I think all of you have probably seen these images. I'm showing the folks right now who are watching on On the right, there's the image of him in this very unusual trench coat-looking thing. On the left, I'm showing him make a specific arm gesture that looks like a Nazi arm gesture. When you watch that video, that's what it looks like. That's what he went down the streets of these cities He's been dispatched to Minneapolis in order to cause terror there, and he has caused terror there. As we began this episode, we were speaking about the damage control that Trump is trying to do right now, not because it's the right thing to do, but because Donald Trump, reportedly, was watching television all weekend, as Donald Trump does, and he was seeing the ways that people were speaking about him and his regime's cold-blooded murder of yet another innocent person.

He wasn't upset that his regime murdered an individual in cold blood, but he was pretty upset that the people on Fox News and all these other networks and stuff were saying some mean things about him about it and saying that it wasn't a good idea, that the administration looks terrible, and that they need to do something about this. Donald Trump didn't like that. He didn't like being embarrassed on television. That's where this all stems from. We're just learning right now, this is new reporting coming in from The Atlantic, that Greg Bovino has been demoted. I'll read you this reporting here. It's from nick Miroff, Myroff of The Atlantic. Says, Greg Bovino gets demoted. The Border Patrol chief was the public face of a traveling immigration crackdown on cities governed by Democrats. It says the following, and this is the big news, Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol commander at large and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon, according to a DHS official and two people with knowledge of the change. Bovino's sudden demotion is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration is reconsidering some of its most aggressive tactics after the killing Saturday of 37-year-old Alex Pretty by Border Patrol agents under Bavino's command.

We've been hearing that there's through all this reporting lately, that there's been a lot of tension at these agencies. I think a lot of people also in the agencies are even disgusted by what happened. I mean, it's appalling. The whole thing is appalling and it's inexcusable. But as our editor-in-chief, Ron Philipkowski, says, Ron basically said, Wake me up when they're not just shifting seats around in the Titanic, because that's what this feels like. Exactly. They want to act like there is accountability right now without there actually being accountability. But let me just read on the story just a little bit more because there's a little- I'm going to read on from there.

I just want to add this. It just shows you what a coward Trump continues to be in this whole situation. Firing Bovino, I think Trump would think, oh, he would then admit that he was wrong, right? But this demotion to, Okay, then Bovino is going to quietly resign in this old position that he used to have. There's no accountability. Ron put it perfectly in that statement. They were just shuffling seats around at this point.

Yeah, and as Ron said also, he says, Bavino is just the patsy, a noxious and odious fall guy. Steven Miller is the architect and prime mover of the whole thing. Everything they do is at his direction, often after his threats. As as he runs policy in the White House, nothing will change no matter how many of the Vinos come and go. And within this story, very well said. Another nugget in this story says that Homeland Security Secretary, Christie Noem, and her close advisor, Cory Lewandowski. I'm going to put advisor in big quotes there for those who know a little bit about their rumored relationship, I will say. But a lot of people think that Lewandowski is basically a big guy running a lot of this stuff for Christie Noem also behind the scenes. Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem and her close advisor, Cori Lewandowski, who are Bovina's biggest backers at DHS, are also at risk of losing their jobs, two of the people told The Atlantic. That's where we are at right there. But once again, that's re arranging the chairs in the Titanic. It's not justice, it's not accountability. Steven Miller is still in charge of everything.

Steven Miller is one of the most horrific human beings on the planet, one of the most odious human beings who has ever existed. A I'm a truly evil person. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt at all times, especially if they have different views than me. But Steven Miller is an evil, vile human piece of trash. I mean, he's just a piece of trash, this guy. What we want is We want the identities of the officers out there who committed these heinous acts, who committed this murder over the weekend. We want their prosecutions. We want actual investigations into the conduct. All of these freaking people need to go. All of them need to go, including Donald Trump, of course. All of these people need to go. They are all complicit in the murder of an American citizen. They're all complicit in murders of multiple American citizens and people who are here legally for various reasons or undocumented people, whatever it is. Don't just go around killing people. You are not a judge, jury, and executioner. How dare are you for thinking that you could take that role? I think it's interesting also.

We monitor all sorts of things on the internet with people, what people are saying, because that's oftentimes when they say things and reveal who they really are. We know who these people are, but they really say things. If you monitor even Katie Miller, Stephen Miller's wife's Twitter feed, it's some of the most odious stuff that you could ever find. It just shows how much they truly hate the Constitution. She posted earlier today, there was an OpenAI executive, the company makes ChatGPT. They posted the amendments to the Constitution. The first amendment says this, the second amendment says that, the third amendment says this, the fourth amendment says that. That really offended Katie Miller. She was like, Could you believe what this guy just posted? Could you freaking believe this? Why do you have a problem with the US Constitution? I think that's very bizarre. One of these other AI founders, one of the cofounders, Anthropic is the company. He said the following, My deep loyalty is to the principles of classical liberal democracy. Katie Miller goes, If this is what they say publicly, this is how their AI model is programmed. Woke and deeply leftist ideology is what they want you to rely upon.

It's just a lot of this, just the fact that these people don't freaking understand anything, or are they not understanding any purpose? Because if you actually know what liberal democracy is, that's what we should all be striving for. I know that's what most of the Western world strives for. That's what the United States strives for. It does not mean liberalism in the political sense. It does not mean leftism. It does not mean what she's talking about. Classical liberalism liberalism is the political philosophy that emphasizes the rights of individuals, liberty, the right to life, liberty, speech, property. That's what classic liberalism is. The fact that these people keep telling on themselves and revealing that they actually hate, as Jordie said, hate the American experiment, hate the United States Constitution, hate the actual values these countries stand for, and while they do it, they wrap themselves in the flag and put a cross around their neck. Disgraceful, disgraceful people. If there's anybody out there defending the murder of Alex Pretty or the murder of any of these people, then don't talk to me ever again. Don't talk to me. Don't give me the BS. That's also why I hate so much, so many of the...

Not to go on a rant, why I hate so many of these debate shows and all these, Oh, well, don't you want to debate me, bro? No, because these people aren't working from an honest place. You cannot look at that footage. You cannot evaluate the situation and come to any other conclusion other than what we witnessed was an execution by Trump's goons of an innocent man, of an American patriot, of somebody who actually went out there to help. It's no wonder that in this midst of this chaos, of this destruction, this destruction of our country, that we are seeing so many people overseas say, We don't want anything to do with the United States of America anymore. How could they? Right? We have the World Cup. The World Cup is going to be split between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. A lot of countries now are Why would we send our people to the United States of America?

You don't see what's going on over there?

It's a warzone. It looks like a warzone. You have these psychopaths rounding people up, putting them in camps with no regard to any criminal history whatsoever. There was a legal reporter, Kyle Cheney for Politico, who did an incredible thread on Twitter, where he went through so many of these cases of the people that they actually arrested in Minneapolis and Minnesota at large. All of these cases, so many of them, no criminal backgrounds, just normal people who they whipped off the street. Some of them were the silent claims, some of them were people who were just here illegally. There were citizens, green cards, whatever. Took them off the streets, threw them in detention camps where they were basically tortured. These countries, you want to send your people here to play soccer, football, whatever you call wherever you live? Is that what you really want? We're also seeing this latest comment right here that I just want to bring to you before we wind things down. This is the former FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, and he is calling on World Cup fans to stay away from the United States. I don't blame him. He said, this is the exact quote, For the fans, There's only one piece of advice.

Stay away from the USA. I think that speaks volumes as to where we are at. When you look at the numbers of tourism in the United States, when you look at the way people feel about the United States, sentiment towards the United States. Donald Trump said that we used to get laughed at and that we weren't respected and that now we're respected again. Quite the opposite. Quite the opposite. Donald Trump has brought shame to the United States of America, and he brings shame every day to the United States of America. That's why we are ramping up our coverage all over the place. That's why right now we have Ken Harbaugh in Nuke, Greenland. I'm so excited for the footage that he's going to be. By the way, go to our sub stack right now at mitisplus. Com. Ken has written his first piece from On the Ground in Greenland, and he's reporting what's going on there. And he was telling me earlier, I was texting with him. He goes, These people do not like Donald Trump. Let me tell you.

Ken's incredible, man. Ken goes to you, Ukraine, Ken goes to Greenland. Ken is like the best of the best.

One of the things I respect about various reporters, and especially Ken, is Ken is audacious, and he sees danger, and he sees a crisis, and he wants to go there because he wants to make sure that people see what's actually happening. While most people's gut, probably a good instinct, is to get as far away as possible, Ken goes, I want to be right there. So in Ukraine, he goes there. He's on the front lines with the Ukrainian military as they're shooting down drones, and he's helping them shoot down drones, and he's covering it all. It's gotten some incredible footage. And by the way, we have a lot of footage from the front lines of Ukraine. We're working on a release for that, so stay tuned for more information there. But this footage is mind-blowing. When I saw it, man. Chills. If Ken showed me it in a real-time, I would have been like, Dude, I'm not sure I would have allowed him to go on the trip. But it's mind-blowing. And now he's there in Greenland. He says that everybody hates Donald Trump. He has an incredible essay, his first essay that he released. And we're going to be working on something with Ken also called Midas Defense to further expand the network.

And Midas Defense is going to be we're going to bring on the top experts, foreign policy experts, national security experts in the entire world. They are going to be speaking to all of these issues on our sub stack and YouTube videos, on social media, all of it. We're just trying to assemble basically the super team of people who actually have knowledge. Because while there are so many networks right now, CBS, who are like, We don't eat experts. We just want to know what average MAGA in the diner wants to hear about, and we're going to do that. No, I think we want to hear from the experts, actually.

Cbs's first order of business was downplaying experts. It's like, Maybe For too long, we've relied on experts.

That's not people's issue with the news.

We talk about that, though, Brett. I know we're wrapping up here, but like the MAGA regime talking point, just denouncing experts, people who are experts in the field, advocates, going after the word advocate. It's beyond anything.

And it's all been in order to set the stage for this moment. It's been in order to set the stage. They could kill somebody and somebody says that was wrong and here's why, and they go, I don't have to listen to you. I don't know. Or a measles outbreak is hitting the country as it is right now. And we're already on pace through this month of January. Over 416 measles cases already throughout the country, which is on pace to blow away records of measles cases in decades and decades and decades and decades, all because of Donald Trump. They go, We don't have to listen to the experts. We got RFK. What are you going to do about it? What are we doing here, people? What are we doing here? But stay strong. I think shining a light on this stuff, like I said, it was a turning point moment this weekend. A turning point. That doesn't happen on its own. It happens because of pressure. It happens because of us documenting this. It happens because of people like you speaking out, you calling your representatives. The fact that we already saw some of these representatives who voted for this additional DHS funding to say, I screwed up.

It was a failure of mine. I want to make this up to my constituents because I failed and I hear your voices. That's the power of this network. That's the power of you. I want to also give a shout out again to Aaron Parnis with the Parnis Perspective podcast. Podcast already crushing it, already taking over the podcast charts by storm. You see here number four of all-Number four?

There's Apple charts right now, Parnis. Let's go, buddy.

Parnis' perspective right now, head of Joe Rogan, head of a whole lot of shows. I mean, he's number four overall right now. I can't Incredible. Incredible, incredible, incredible. Let's keep that momentum going. Add that. Leave a five-star review. Add the Midas Touch podcast. Leave a five-star review on Apple podcast, on Spotify, wherever you listen to a podcast. It helps more than you know. Make sure to check us out on Substack, Ken's latest post, and so much more. We're going to have a lot of great guest pieces coming. I'm really excited. We're really just trying to continuously elevate the game and up the game as to what this is. We listen to your feedback and we try to implement that every single day. A shout out to our DC bureau, our entire team of editors and producers, our editorial staff, Status Coup, who's on the ground in Minneapolis, recording every single day also, like Ken, going to the front lines, going to the scenes, and getting that footage that the Trump regime does not want you to see. So shout out to them. And shout out to you, the Midas Mighty, for hanging in there even when times get tough.

They rely on you to give up. And so the fact that you stay, that you persevere, that you remain in this fight, it does more than you could even know. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It has been great hanging with the brother. It's been great hanging with Ben until he got kicked out by squatting in a classroom.

Never met a room he didn't like getting kicked out of.

I'll just say this before I sign up. There was a moment in the Midas Touch podcast, in the early days, where Ben literally was in a stairwell recording. That was our dedication to this project, and Ben got kicked out of a stairwell. And this reminded... It was a throwback to Ben getting kicked out. Do you remember Ben getting kicked out of a stairwell?

Yeah, but Ben got removed by security that episode. There's a slight difference.

I see some people in the comments who remember. You guys are O'G's. You all are O'G's if you remember that. All right. No, thank you so much. I'm going to stop rambling. Sincerely, thank you. Everybody, brave in the cold. Please stay warm. Jordie, take it away.

Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

The Midas Mighty, standing strong.

Against the fascist, we sing our song.

We will get it right whenever.

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