Transcript of MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 7/28/26

We've got a lot to discuss on today's episode of the Midas Touch Podcast. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait effectively closed by the Houthis. Zero ships leaving from the Strait of Hormuz through any route other than the IRGC route. And even then you have the US blockade in the Persian Gulf, uh, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Saudi tankers are effectively blockaded by the Houthis. You have what appears to have been a major major drone strike by Iranian drones in Erbil, Iraq, by the Erbil International Airport. You have strikes escalating between Russia and Ukraine, each striking, uh, each other's infrastructure, often refinery-related infrastructure, but also cargo ships. And you had Donald Trump over the past 24 to 48 hours following that disastrous White House Correspondents' Dinner debacle, posting AI images of himself attacking Karg Island, engaged in war crimes, weird AI cartoons of Bruce Springsteen and Chris Christie, mocking Chris Christie for being fat, saying that we're the guardians of the world as he posts weird AI slop of the United States destroying civilian infrastructure in Iran, weird AI images of himself standing next to JFK, I mean, deranged post after deranged post all throughout the day.

And weird posts from the White House account where it's like a cartoon of an actual alien being like, looks like, like assaulted and touched in the chest area by Border Patrol while Donald Trump frolics, cartoon Trump frolics. And it's like, the hell is even going on here, America? I mean, seriously, WTF. And while all of this is going on, Donald Trump said, We hit the hell out of Iran, we hit them hard. So they asked, can we do a deal? They're begging me for a deal. We're doing that timeline. They're begging me, they're begging me. And I said, time is of the essence. And I may blow the hell out of them again. But I'm gonna wait and see. I'm gonna wait and see this as we learned over the weekend, what we've been reporting here now for weeks at the Midas Touch Network, that the US is running very low on munitions. Some of the precision munitions have been 80% exhausted, others in that range. The US air bases nearby to Iran basically do not have any defenses at all. So Iran's been able to really hit hard when it comes to the early warning detection radars and a lot of the equipment and planes and containerized barracks and other things that are there.

That's why the US moved a lot of its equipment to Israel right now where there is that Iron Dome in Israel, but no security umbrella really anymore for the other Arab nations. One of the reasons we believe that Donald Trump stopped the escalation that he threatened to do, although, you know, who the hell even knows, this guy posting weird AI slop, is because China has been getting involved in a more robust way. Xi Jinping, through his foreign minister Wang Yi, conveying to the Trump regime. China stands behind Iran. They've always said that before, politically, militarily, economically. And if Trump unleashes hell on Iranian infrastructure, China could get involved. And since the United States doesn't have precision munitions, that would be a very big deal and very problematic. So, and what we're— a lot of this is being a lot of updates happening moment by moment here. And then Donald Trump gave a speech in a Michigan General Motors plant where he was actually protested by data center, anti-data center activists, which, who, that's basically most people right now are anti-data centers as Donald Trump keeps pushing that he wants more data centers ever in every community.

Also people calling him a pedo protector and then Trump calling someone who called him a pedo protector, a communist. You're a communist. You're a communist. And then Donald Trump told the crowd, I'm better than your parents are for you. Remember that. I'm better than your mom and dad. Remember that. And we're in a golden age right now. So we've got a lot to discuss. In other words, Brett and Jordy, how are you hanging in there, brothers?

Very, very normal intro, Ben. Very normal things happening, uh, in the world. I gotta say, it's good to be here, Ben. Good to be here, Jordy. Good to be here, Midas Mighty. Man, what is it called when, you know, you have all these various countries entering a war, like China and Russia and Ukraine and Iran and the United States, and they're all kind fighting each other in this massive— what do they, what do they call that? I feel like they have a name for something like that. The escalation we are seeing is honestly incredibly frightening right now, and Donald Trump continues to deny reality as he does. We'll of course get to that in a moment. We do not have unlimited munitions. We do not have unlimited interceptors. And I think our generals and the actual military experts are trying desperately through the press and to Donald Trump to warn him that this isn't a video game. You can't just keep going and going and going. You gotta actually account for all that stuff. And I mean, we haven't got it as brothers, we haven't been able to speak about the White House Correspondents' Dinner, which honestly, just first of all, like, what a shame for journalists to even like be there in the first place and, and be there and laugh along to such horrendous jokes, if you even want to call them that.

But it was really just a bizarro world, like, event. Like, the whole thing was so strange. Trump was just like the worst, like, stand-up comedian you've ever seen in your entire life. Like, I've never seen him bomb so hard. It was so unfunny that I like couldn't I couldn't even believe what I was seeing. There was that moment where the Wall Street Journal journalists won the Epstein— won the award for their Epstein reporting, and Trump like shrugged it off and like shook their hands. And it was— I felt like I was living in Bizarro World watching this stuff, and it was just so horrendously unfunny. Like, the guy could not land a single joke at all. But something I did find funny was I woke up this morning to a lot of comments on the Midas Touch YouTube channel, and everybody was saying that it looks like Ben has a mohawk. Ben's in a new location right now recording this. And then I looked at the future, I started cracking up. For the audio listeners, Ben was recording, uh, the earlier podcasts with a plant behind his head, and I guess he didn't realize that the way he was sitting, it does look like you have a mohawk here, Ben.

And it's so many— I got like more emails about this than you could even imagine about the— about mohawk Ben. But I wanted to share it with anybody in case anyone was unlucky enough to miss this real comedy right here.

I guess I see them.

It's doing it.

I moved it. I moved it because of the comments. I wasn't gonna— I wasn't gonna lean into that. The funny thing is I told Ben—

Ben goes, I've seen the comments. I moved it.

I've seen the comments.

Ben knew right away. Yeah, Ben knew right away. I guess I see the mohawk. I mean, it kind of looks more like gift wrapping paper. Like when you—

He's got it coming out of the right side of his head too. It looks like the mom from Rugrats. Doesn't she have hair like that on Top, bottom, or the doll, Cynthia.

I think the doll was— anyway, we're very millennial.

Sideshow Bob. Sideshow Bob.

Brothers, Midas Mighty, I'm excited to be here, Benji. I know we have a whole lot to talk about, but I just wanted to comment on this. Maybe we'll get into more of the White House Correspondents' Dinner during this episode. But what a— just a shameful event that was just in general. I mean, the guy's out there, Donald Trump, he's out there like arresting journalists. And so you're going to show up to that dinner. Like y'all are going to show up and, you know, dress your finest. And again, to me, it all comes back to the same point is all of these journalists care about is access like that. Ultimately, to me, that's what it feels like. And I don't want to bash corporate media for the sake of just bashing it. Again, I'm someone who feels like there needs to be a strong-ass fourth estate in this country if we want to build back better here, to borrow a phrase from Joe B. Yeah. Exactly.

Go back.

And so like when he's up there and he's not being funny and he's just dragging along and like they're like, the whole thing is what a mess.

What a mess.

Benji, a lot to get into. Where are we starting off today, big bro?

Right, but when it is what a mess, the easy way to critique it is just to be like, look, this is a psycho, this is a loser, this is a deranged individual. All very true, right? And then you compound it or, you know, you add to it by those AI posts post after post after post. All right, I get it. A post after post after post all day. And, you know, and you can say, look, this is actually a psychotic human being. All true. The broader point though is, is what's going on in the world? And is this behavior— is his focus or lack thereof on whatever the hell this AI slop is this disgusting behavior, is, is it impacting the world or is it impacting your lives and how? And the answer is yes, in a very catastrophic way. The world is on fire. The world is at war. The stability and predictability of America as a global leader and all of the things that came with it has been flushed down the fake golden Trump toilet. It's been destroyed in record time. And what you're seeing is the fallout as a new world order is being formed with the US losing its influence in the world.

And not to suggest the US was always on the right side and did everything— far, far from it.

Okay.

But the idea of predictability, stability, alliances, all of these things has just been utterly destroyed. And we're seeing the fallout right now. And, you know, it makes me reflect, you know, in World War II, did they call it World War II when World War II was happening? Like, you know, or was it a reflection after? I mean, and I mean, it is a reflection, okay, that this was a war involving the entire world. And when you're in it, you know, you don't necessarily give it the name in real time. I don't know. Um, but I do know, Brett, to your point, Right now, the entire world in one way or another is involved in a war. And we see this conflict right now, whether it is in the Middle East, obviously with Trump and Netanyahu's catastrophic war in Iran, but also Israel's genocide in Gaza, the attacks and genocide in Lebanon, Israel's occupation of certain areas, you know, in Syria as well. What we see in all the proxy wars going on in Africa right now. Obviously, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the escalation taking place there. And, you know, Donald Trump wants peace prizes, right?

He goes around and says, I stopped all of these wars. We've never since World War II had this situation as we have right now. Same way Donald Trump goes in the General Motors plant, that this is the golden age, and he's turned the turned the country around in 18 months, he says, and, and everybody's doing amazing. So when Donald Trump says we have more munitions than we need, and we have more weapons than we could possibly want, you know, that's the biggest tell that quite the opposite is happening, right? And that the reporting is accurate, that top US military commanders, whether it's General Kayne, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, or the head of CENTCOM, Brad Cooper, told Donald Trump, we're running very, very low. And one of the concerns is if China is drawn into this war, and China's clearly made clear through diplomatic speak that that's what they would— that would happen if Trump further escalates in Iran. You may be able to cause some more damage to Iran, you're not going to accomplish regime change or anything that you've thought you can do, far from it. Iran's showed that it's incredibly resilient. But if you draw China in right now, and Russia in, in a bigger way, then you've got to be prepared, Donald, to have all-out war with hundreds of thousands of American service members being killed.

And you're not going to be able just to change the name of the war so that you can claim there are deaths and casualties that didn't take place in Epic Fury but now took place in overseas conflict, right? All of a sudden this weekend, The overseas conflict category saw a huge increase in the number of injuries. And when you add those injuries with Epic Fury, you get over 624 injuries, which I still think is undercounting the amount of injuries and casualties in this horrific and unlawful war in Iran. And then the Trump regime shifted the 4 deaths into other casualty events. They wanted to move it to Enduring Freedom, the ISIS the ISIS war. And then they moved it from Epic Fury to Enduring Freedom to other miscellaneous. I mean, just think about that, miscellaneous for the service members who died in this catastrophic and unlawful war. And so, as I noted, part of the reason Trump backed out of the escalation that he was saying he was going to open up the gates of hell was indeed the munitions. I said the other part was China saying that it would be involved in this war on behalf of Iran if the Trump regime escalated the way Donald Trump threatened.

And then we woke up this morning, Iran spokesperson saying, do not believe the United States when they say there is a deal or there's negotiations. Iran spokesperson, we're not negotiating with them. We want to be very clear. We're only talking with Oman regarding Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz and working out arrangements with Oman. And how we're going to handle that, because part of the Strait of Hormuz is in the Oman territorial waters. We're not speaking to the US. We don't want to do a deal. We view the blockade as escalatory. We reserve all of our rights. So just ignore what Trump's going to say today. And sure enough, Trump gets out there and what does he start to say? There's a deal. Iran's begging. They're desperate. I'm going to give them a little more time, but then I'm going to unleash hell. The same exact stuff we're hearing over and over again. But as I say, stop listening to what this idiot psycho is saying. We can listen to it for purposes of criticism and calling them out as a liar, but not for parroting, because I'm looking at what's going on throughout the rest of the region.

And I'm waking up and I'm seeing a massive column of smoke rising from yet another refinery facility in Saudi Arabia. This time, the Saudi Aramco's Abqwaq oil processing facility, the world's largest and eastern hub of Saudi Arabia's east-west pipeline, with multiple impacts in a few hours. And then I was looking at the Abqaiq facility, the Yanbu facility, the Jazan facility. These are the— some of the 3 biggest facilities in Saudi Arabia. And when you look at it, it connects the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. It's one of these pipelines that's used by Saudi Arabia to try to divert around the Strait of Hormuz with Iran shutting that down. So have you heard people going, well, Iran's overplaying its cards because Saudi Arabia and UAE, they're just going to build pipelines to get around it. You don't think Iran's thought about that? You don't think the Axis of Resistance, the Houthis, Hezbollah groups in Somalia and others have— of course they've thought about that. So now they're going to blow up the pipelines that try to do any end run around the Strait of Hormuz while also choking off the— choking off the Red Sea through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

And that's what we're seeing happen now. Remember, Saudi Arabia struck an airport, Sana'a, which is controlled by the Houthis in western Yemen. And the Houthis control is mostly this big area, a lot of Yemen, but western Yemen in the area closest to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Houthis said, we're going to attack Saudi Arabia. And they did. They attacked those 3 refineries. They started about 72 hours ago or so and then hit the— that refinery earlier this morning. So all of these refineries are on fire right now. And notably as well, I'm looking at the statements coming out of Saudi Arabia. They were blaming Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, and the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said, that wasn't us. And the Houthis were saying, it was us, we did it. And Saudi Arabia was not directly going after the Houthis, but going after the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, which I found fascinating. And what that's telling me is that actually Saudi Arabia is very worried about the Houthis, or seeming to their population within the kingdom that they remain kind of defenseless to the Houthi attacks because they said they could stop the Houthi. So that's why they're saying, I was just a rogue Iranian militia group in Iraq.

And while all of this is going on, you've got Trump out there just doing a bunch of— doing the AI images. Karg Island, you know, AI image slop. Strike on Karg. I've got Rosie O'Donnell's, you know, AI slop. Trump being a pirate and being on an Iranian ship saying, my ship now. And just think about it, the proud US Navy has been reduced to Donald Trump, the President of the United States, posting AI slop as a pirate with these kind of racist images of Iranians wearing these like white garbs. And that's, that's the United States military, right? That's what's going on. Let me pass it. I just want to situate us with what's going on. In the world right now.

You're exactly right, Brett. Not to throw off our order that we typically go in, but I'll be quick here. That's the part I just want to emphasize Ben's point there. That's the part that scares me the most as someone who deeply loves this country, that, that the worst people that could be in charge right now are in charge. What Donald Trump is doing, he's making Americans less safe. He's making our troops less safe. And he's continuing to escalate and prolong this war, his war of choice. It frustrates me to no end. He is not a serious person. This is a very serious matter that we need to handle with grace, with tact, with skill. And he's got absolutely none of that. Sorry, Brett.

No, it's almost like Trump views this whole thing as like a video game, like I was saying earlier, like you just have unlimited munitions, you have unlimited interceptors, you know, you're going to defeat the big bad boss. Except now the issue is that Donald Trump is the big bad boss. And he's the one who's being defeated. And the only way that he's kind of crawling out of it right now, or thinks he could crawl out of it, is through AI. Like, he literally— he is having so much trouble creating this alternative reality because the reality is so harmful to the United States, to him, to our troops, that he is now literally going beyond that. And he is using artificial intelligence to create his own reality where he's actually winning the war, where he's taking Karg Island. It looks so incredibly desperate and makes us look so incredibly weak. And meanwhile, we're stuck in this sort of Groundhog Day Iran war loop where every day we wake up and the guy is saying the same things. And if you notice everything that Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and all the people in the Trump regime have been saying, everything they've been saying has been actually the opposite.

You know, we always talk about the psychological projection, but, you know, there was an example the other day that I feel like didn't didn't get nearly enough attention. And we had played the clip of Rubio on the Midas Touch podcast, and Rubio had said, uh, something along the lines of, you know, Iran, they're trying to reach out to us desperately for a ceasefire. They're going through intermediaries, and we're just not ready. We're not ready for it. Not ready for it.

Not us.

We, we need to pound them a bit more, or whatever the hell he said. And then the report came out like 24 hours later that it was the United States that tried to reach out to Iran through intermediaries, through the Iraqi prime minister. And the Iraqi prime minister delivered Donald Trump's request for a ceasefire, and that was rejected by Iran. Iran said, no, we don't want a ceasefire with you. We're not done with this right now. So stop, stop. So everything they say is actually the opposite, which is why, you know, when Donald Trump gets out there and goes, we have unlimited munitions and we're looking at the data, We know that it's the opposite. We know that that is a huge pain point right now because that's what our military leaders are saying. If you notice, in the past few weeks, there's been an increase in leaks. I feel, you know, leaks maybe is not the right word, but, you know, anonymous sources, US officials saying things that, you know, don't present a good picture of what's going on right now in the Middle East. I feel like a lot of that are these military officials and US officials like trying to warn the public and trying to get this message out into a broader space that like we're in a lot of trouble right now.

And Donald Trump's trying to act like everything's all rosy and great, but things are actually really, really bad. And this maniac is going to get even more people killed.

Also, this whole notion of we're going to bomb them to the negotiating table, you guys were hip to it, you know, early. Brett and Ben, I give you guys a lot of credit, but also, again, just following the data here, though, bombing more and escalating the war further is seemingly only emboldening Iran.

And Jordy, to that point, there was a report that came out and it said it was, you know, sourced from multiple U.S. officials and military officials. And what did it say? Said exactly what our analysis has been on the Midas Touch podcast over the past few weeks, if not few months, that these bombings are actually having the opposite effect. Before, that was my opinion. Now I could say that this is a substantiated fact via U.S. officials and military officials who are speaking to outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. They're saying this was meant to weaken Iran. It's having the opposite effect because all it's doing is it's having all the people in Iran now rally around the Iranian regime. It's giving them a cause to rally behind. It's having the opposite effect, and it's not making them want to come any closer to the negotiating table. It's making them want to run away from the negotiating table.

Bombing a little girl school is going to be like, okay, now, yeah, let's go.

Let's go and negotiate.

Negotiate now. They just bombed a little girl school. Oh, let's go negotiate. They just killed more of our civilians. No, it's infuriating them. And we're getting further and further away from, from ending this war. Sorry about it.

Oh no. And here's the thing. The US— want to talk about transparency— has banned private companies here in the US from releasing satellite footage of the Middle East, right? So I have to get satellite footage from the Chinese, what they're putting out. There's a satellite called Sentinel-2 which still exists. We'll see how long, uh, that thing comes out of Europe. And then Iran often shares the satellite footage from China and Russia of the American bases in the Arab nations that it's striking. And so what we've been following since Trump escalated even more this catastrophic and unlawful war over the past 2 weeks or so is we've been looking at the photos, the before and after of King Faisal Air Base, of Muwafiq Salty Air Base, of, uh, of Ali al-Salam Air Base, um, of an airbase in Erbil, Al Udeid over in Qatar, you know. So we're looking at Jordan, we're looking at Kuwait, looking at Qatar, we're looking in Syria, and Iran is releasing these, and one of your instincts, right, is, come on, maybe they're putting out the AI, right? Like, you almost don't want to believe it. And then you've learned by covering this war for the past 5 months is that usually, almost always, that satellite footage is accurate.

And they show the before and afters, and we see the US air bases where the hits are happening, where they're being destroyed, and the US hides it for a few weeks. Then we learn than what actually happened. The US, through the President of the United States, is posting not just AI, but AI slop. And so, you know, we didn't need— although I'm glad we got it finally— the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and other reports saying that we are having a big issue with our US air bases being hit and our interceptors struggling. We knew that for weeks though. Because we've been following the underlying source data that exists. And ultimately, as we pull back and we, in this episode, share with you what's Donald Trump saying about the US economy right now, what are the MAGA Republicans saying as we're now 100, less than 100 days out before the midterms, what's going on here in the United States, you know, more broadly, why is the Trump regime now saying the biggest threat is communists and they're a bigger threat than ISIS and Al Qaeda and Nazis and World War II. Why? Because we're in a dire situation, a dire situation caused by Donald Trump's catastrophic and unlawful war and his tariff war against the— trade war against the world.

He's creating a fake AI reality that doesn't actually exist here. And every day where he goes and defrauds us rather than solves the problem and roll up our sleeves with a, with a level of maturity, which obviously is incapacitated to even come close to that. The problem gets worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and harder to dig out of. And that's what's going on right now. Every day it gets worse. Right now, today, if you turned on corporate news earlier today, you would think, oh, major advances were made. We're getting closer and things are looking better. And oh, and, you know, the Dow Jones went up today and, you know, and this was doing better and we may be— no, this is— this is— it is all fraudulent. It is all— it is not what's happening. That's why I start by saying Red Sea, Persian Gulf effectively shut. There's war everywhere taking place right now. Supply chains are shot right now.. And Trump keeps raising tariffs everywhere, still coming up with new justifications to tariff, you know, 60 countries at the end of last week, saying that they're involved in supporting involuntary servitude and the US isn't.

So that's why the US will be tariffing Australia and the UK and all these countries. I want to cue us into what's happening right now. So we can have a real sober understanding of the situation. Okay, let's pause. And by the way, WTF, right? That's why we call the book WTF America, because WTF, like, what the hell is this moment? When we started My Distouch in 2020, we were asking these questions about how Trump was dealing with COVID when we didn't have political backgrounds. We were just saying, dude, what the F is happening? And this is WTF, or what? Seriously, WTF is that? And how do we get out of this hell? Let's take a quick break right now. We'll be right back after this quick break. Hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers. Pre-order the book right now. The pre-orders are critical for us to decide where we might go for a book tour, which cities we're going to hit, which countries we're going to hit.

Not where we might, Ben, where we are going. We're going places, but y'all are going to determine where we go.

Spoiler alert.

Spoiler alert.

Let's take our first quick break.

Of the show.

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General Motors, Jordy, Michigan, another US auto manufacturing plant where the crowd was not loving what Donald Trump was selling. You remember back in January at a Ford plant, where there was that courageous person who called Donald Trump a pedo protector. True, Trump was— Trump is a pedo protector. That's what Trump and his DOJ are doing right now. Well, we heard that again at the General Motors plant when Trump gave a speech in Michigan today. I'll get to— I'll get to that in a moment. And then when I show you that clip though too, I think it's notable because, you know, Donald Trump immediately responds. When Trump was at the Ford plant in January, he gave the guy the middle finger, the guy who was saying pedo protector. And so now because the whole shtick with MAGA is they call anybody who they don't like communist, and that's their whole thing.

Communism!

You're a communist and you're a communist and you're, you're a Bolshevik! You're a Bolshevik! And this is what state regime media pushes. Notice, notice they used to call their enemies pedo protectors, right? They called their enemies pedo. That was the whole thing. They accused everybody else of being Epstein's person. Well, now, because the Trump regime is literally covering up the child sex trafficking ring, their thing now is label people communists and Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks. And I just want to say this. You know who handles it the best when that— when, when media tries to, like, you know, do this, you know, AOC, because when they go, AOC, what are you, democratic socialism and communism? And AOC like laughs. And it's the reaction that I have to like, what the hell are you talking about? What we want? I don't have time to buy into your stupid shit. Excuse my language. I don't have time for that. Okay. The American people are suffering right now.

Okay.

Donald Trump starting never-ending wars with Netanyahu. He is destroying our economy. He is causing endless suffering right now. He's out there building himself, you know, golden ballrooms or whatever the hell he's doing. He's making billions of dollars while American people are psychologically tortured right now. He's ripping away healthcare. So I'm sorry, I don't want to— I don't want to— I don't need to have discussions with you about, oh, dude, what do you think about Is that person a socialist? Is that— you know what I care about right now? I care about what the American people are going through with this regime who has promised that they were going to make everything amazing and things would be free and incredible. And you'd get those dividend checks and you'd be richer than you ever wanted. And what they did instead was the regime took control of the modes and method of production. Sounds familiar. Took over companies, enriched themselves, helped the right-wing oligarchs. While screwing over everybody else. That sounds, sounds, sounds a little communist to me with the people in power right now. But I don't have the time. I don't care. That's not the— that's not a debate that most Americans are having.

It's a manufactured one. Most of the debate the American people are having is what the hell is going on right now? Because I'm being psychologically tortured by, by this regime. And I'll just share with you, I mean, these are people in Michigan right here. As Donald Trump speaking at the General Motors plant, you've got people out there who are protesting Donald Trump, rightfully so, because he wants data centers in every community. If it was up to him, he would put data centers in every person's backyard. That he calls it liquid gold. Let me show you what this protest looked like.

Let's play.

Including a 25% tariff on foreign automobile companies like no other president has incurred.

And if you go, well, Ben, are you being hyperbolic by saying he wants data centers in every community? Who would want that? We know how unpopular it is because it destroys communities and it eats up their power grids., and it has all of these horrific environmental and health impacts, and it's loud and it destroys communities. So there's no way that he says that I want it. Every— yeah, this is what he said at the end of last week, that the smart communities are the ones that have data centers and the stupid ones are the ones that don't want it.

And even communities compared to other communities, you have some communities that really want this. This isn't all negative stuff. This is— you have communities that that really want the data centers. And frankly, those are the smart communities because it means tremendous numbers of jobs, very little actual disruption. And the ones that don't want it, the happiest people in the world are foreign countries, number one. And number two, other communities within our country because they're begging for them to be there. And some of them are great communities, very, very forward-looking communities, very smart communities.

Can you see? They're begging, begging for a data center in their backyard. Ben right now is— he froze at a great time, actually.

Ben is, uh, do you have the Cynthia Rugrats I sent you on the side?

You mean this one? It's— I mean, it's uncanny when you pull it up like that right now. You got Ben with the— we're pulling back up the image, not to digress for a second. Um, of Ben with the hair plant behind him and to the side of his head. And it does indeed look like the mom of Tommy Pickles' mom from Rugrats. And the— what is it? Cynthia Doll Jordy?

Is that—

that's right.

That is. That's what it looks like.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just so, you know, because even the Trump voters, this is a very passionate issue for them. This is a passionate issue for most people. You know, we spent a lot of time kind of during the Biden administration where the kind of MAGA folks and the media would be like, look at the Democrats on the wrong side of another 80/20 issue, on the wrong side of another 80/20 issue. This is what Trump is doing right now, and he's doing it with increasing frequency. This is an issue that most Americans agree with. Most Americans do not want these data centers in their backyards. There have been mass protests when people have tried to build these massive structures inside states like Utah, like a Kevin O'Leary. The communities pushed back. Kevin O'Leary accused them of being Chinese agents. So he had to— he's now being sued for defamation over it. This has become a big battle right here, and it is really like the kind of clearest and most physical representation right now of the kind of class divide in our country, of what billionaires are doing and what billionaires want to force on the people and what the people people actually want.

You know, we had, uh, Justin Pearson, a state representative from Tennessee, um, on an Instagram Live with our Dina Dahl the other day. And Justin Pearson said something like, you know, they want us to pay for these data centers which are being built so that they take our jobs away from us. Like, like, like, no, we don't want that. And I think that's why you're seeing such rage. This is really one of the ultimate tests of kind of Donald Trump's cult of personality for his people, because he is trying to get them to kind of drink the Kool-Aid in a big way. You know, it's metaphorical, but not so much, because he's basically telling them to put aside your life, put aside your livelihood, and let us build these monstrosities in your community that are going to take your jobs. And they don't really bring any jobs to the community.

And that's the biggest thing, too, here is like what we see. This is another one of those moments where it's like, like, don't piss in my mouth. And tell me it's lemonade. You know that expression, guys? MAGA is like, hey, even this lemonade tastes a little funky. Even MAGA, even his core, like most core MAGA folks, like, I don't really like his lemonade. And that's because this is such a hard sell. So many people have so many questions, rightfully so, about these data centers and communities. And it's just important that these questions get answered before we just so quickly rush into putting them everywhere. And Donald Trump just so blatantly lying, saying you have people begging, begging for data centers. I don't know a single person that's ever been like, we need one, please, sir, put it here, please put it here. It's unbelievable to me just the lengths he's willing to go to and how easy it is for him to just so blatantly lie like that. And, you know, I guess it is believable because we've seen it. We've seen it time and time again. He says it's liquid gold. Yes, Donald, liquid gold, likely for you, because who knows what type of backend contracts that you or your sons may have with these companies?

Who knows? Who Who knows? But I'll tell you who it's not liquid gold for, and that's the people living right up against the data center that don't want this, that are concerned about what it does to the water quality, that are concerned about what it does to the air pollution in their, in their communities. There are very legitimate questions that people are asking, and I think it's right to be skeptical of putting data centers in every community, as Donald Trump so obviously wants to do, seemingly to line his own pockets with this liquid gold, while people have really legit legitimate questions.

Well, you take a look at what was going on in this Michigan speech that he gave as well. Someone there protesting him, calling him a pedophile protector. That's objectively true, right? I mean, they're covering up the Epstein files. So if you cover up the Epstein files, that is protecting Bettos. That seems to me— I mean, I'll express that as an opinion, but you tell me what your opinion is. That's my opinion. That's the opinion of this person who was there, that it was objectively true. And then Donald Trump calls the person, you're a communist. It doesn't also reveal the whole game. Someone protesting him, that makes you look at— if you just disagree with him, you're, you're, you're a communist and you're worse than Nazis and Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Here, play this clip of what went down.

Let's play it.

These companies were coming in and just robbing us blind and it was causing tremendous problems for your jobs. But now all of that is changing because I placed historic tariffs on foreign producers and manufacturers, including a 25% tariff on foreign automobiles, something that no other president had the courage to ever do. He's a communist. He's a communist.

He's a communist. He's a communist.

Then, by the way, Trump was like— he had said after, like, he's like, I didn't even hear what he was saying. I didn't even know he heard. Oh, he heard it. He heard it.

Absolutely. But then what Trump wanted the audience to know, I've done more for you. Like, this has— this is like some sick stuff, some real sick stuff. He goes, I've done more for you than your parents. I won't knock your parents. But I'm— he's not saying this as a joke. He's saying it's, I'm better for you than your mom and dad were in your life. And this is his cult. This is deranged, strange, disqualifying. Lock this person up in a mental sicko institution. And how anybody normalizes this stuff to me is, is, is WTF. It's WTF. Here, let's play it.

Yeah. Mary, I hate to say it, you wouldn't have an auto industry right now if they got elected. You wouldn't have an auto industry. But I don't know what happened to the guy. Somebody said he got fired. But I can tell you, the people that count, those people love Trump because I've done more for you than your parents. Okay? Your parents are good. I'm not going to knock your parents, but I have been I'm better to you than your parents. That I can tell you. And they would agree with me wherever they may be. They would agree.

Also, I mean, not to read too deep into this, but we know that, like, he likes when his followers refer to him as Daddy. They've done it on Fox News. They've interviewed people before. We've heard the phone calls of his most loyal followers and congresspeople referring to Donald Trump as Daddy. That's how he sees himself. Like, he truly does see himself as a cult-like champion to this MAGA base where he can do no wrong and they will just blindly follow whatever he does. And I mean, look, for the most part, he's not wrong. They do. There's always that 30%, right? It's that number that we always see, that 30% from the Republican Party on like the most radical issues is always that MAGA base that will just kind of fall in line with Donald Trump. It's gross to see. And it's even grosser to hear him like, like like, like he just, he despises them. He despises his most loyal support. Like, he hates them. I'm better for you than your parents ever were. Like, he just like loves talking down to them, man.

Right. Then his message on affordability. Let's play the clip of what he said about affordability.

But I had nothing to do with it. You know, they have this term. So here I am. I'm one day in office and the fake news goes, Affordability, affordability. I said, what's affordability? What's that all about? Prices are too high. I said, I'm here for less than 24 hours, but we've brought down prices.

I wonder who said that in 24 hours I would make your electricity half the price. I would bring down gas prices in 24 hours to under $2 a gallon. I would end the war. That Russia started in Ukraine in 24 hours and that everybody would be amazing in 20— who, who was it who said those things? But now Donald Trump with— okay, objectively, most Americans are far worse off, far worse off. And that's borne out by all of the polling data across the board. I mean, you take a look at the latest CBS poll, state regime media CBS, Donald Trump's policies are making you better off, worse off, the same. Only 13%, 13% of Americans say that they are better off today.

That's a wild number.

Only— and it's accurate because objectively everybody is worse off. But what's Donald Trump out there saying? What's he— what's— what was he pushing at Michigan? He says, we've had the single greatest year we've ever had as a country. Let's play. We got that clip of the single greatest year as a country.

No, I'm not sure we had that one.

Okay.

What about Donald Trump saying the Iran war is like playing a banjo?

Do we get that one down faster than at any time in the last 6 years? When, when the fuel comes down, which it did for a little while, then they didn't behave and I had to go back and Now they're behaving again. You know, it's like playing a banjo.

It's like playing a banjo. They stopped behaving. Now they're behaving again. Again, this world that he creates, this fictitious world, isn't the real world. It's not reality. And he may bend reality in the minds of his cult. That's increasingly dwindling every single day. And he may have state regime media parrot this stuff, but it isn't the world that exists. And in the actual world that exists, he's flailing. The US is out of munitions. The US has lost the war repeatedly, multiple times. We've lost a war against Iran. He continues to go through these open the gates of hell iterations, and then, oh, they're coming begging for a deal. And they're out there saying, no, we're not. We're not begging. We're not talking. We don't, we don't want a deal. Who controls the Strait of Hormuz right now? It's that simple. And Donald Trump may have CENTCOM continue to claim we do. That ain't reality. Who controls the Red Sea right now? What's up with Bab el-Mandeb Strait? What's going on in Erbil, Iraq? What's going on in Saudi Arabia? Why do we have all of our military equipment in Israel right now where there is an Iron Dome but nowhere else right now in the Middle East where those bases have been destroyed?

Why does Iran keep on striking our bases repeatedly in those— in the Arab nations there? What the hell is going on? WTF? I mean, we have to take a look at what the reality is. And it's our job as reporters to objectively report what the heck is happening. And that's what we're going to continue to do here. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A quick reminder, get your copy of WTF America. You can hit the QR code wherever that QR code is. Preorder it right now. Apologies if, you know, I've had a few technical issues while I've been traveling, but you all forgive me for that. Preorder it right now. We'll take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, we've got a lot more to discuss. Let's take our last quick break.

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Shout out to our sponsors, y'all. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's that exit survey, please let them know we sent you. Benji, Brett, real quick question. I'm being serious. The banjo comment that we played before break with Donald Trump saying like a banjo, was he saying the war is like a banjo?

Dude, I couldn't even begin.

Bombing is like a banjo.

No one knows.

No one. It's provocative. It gets the people going. I have no idea what he's talking about.

I mean, I just— again, but again, that's another— that's not to get too serious here, but to get a little bit serious. That's just another way of him making light of this war and the real life ramifications that this war has had. There are 18 dead troops, as we know, that's been allegedly reported right now that we at least know of, that the Trump regime acknowledges. 18. And he's out there saying stuff like, like a banjo. I had to go back. I had to go back. It's, it's really disturbing, disturbing stuff.

I mean, and from the perspective of our coverage, when I say the President of the United States is referring to the war in Iran as a banjo, and he continues to say that we control the Strait of Hormuz and that Iran is begging for a deal and everything is amazing right now, and I go, that's what— and CENTCOM says Navigation free, everything's perfect. As you see tankers getting destroyed that use the non-IRGC route, right? When you see what's happening in Bab el-Mandeb Strait, when you see that, that's the United States and CENTCOM. And then I have to like report. I'm like, well, on Tasnim, Iran media, they've got a show with two podcasters who have said the following: $21 billion in US losses in 2 weeks of recent war against Iran. So why did the US temporarily back down from large-scale attacks on Iran? Many reasons are cited. These two Iranian podcasters on Tasnim say, uh, many reasons are cited for the US once again pulling back from the attacks on Iran. From the rise of US Treasury bond yields above 5% to oil prices surpassing $100 a barrel. These are the reasons that we suppose in Iran the US is unilaterally backing out.

And I read that and I go, are US Treasury bond yields— were they above 5%?

Yes.

Was the price of oil surpassing $100, which was then manipulated again. So it's lower than that now based on this idea that we're now back in a ceasefire when I'm telling you what's the status of this trade-off for moves. That's why I start with this, the bombe à main-d'œuvre. And I'm seeing what Tasnim is reporting. Then I see Donald Trump saying everything is great. We've got more munitions than ever. They're begging. Then I see the Iranian general on whether it's Mehrs or Tasnim or Fars. And he's like, here are all the bases we've hit. Here's the satellite images that we have. And I'm like, dude, is the Iranian general on Fars or Mehrs or Tasnim telling me more accurate information than Donald Trump and CENTCOM? And I'm like, just the even idea that I'm asking the question is disturbing in and of itself. Don't even get me started on the fact that that the answer is what they're providing is more accurate information of what is happening. Now, I understand that in wars there is massive propaganda, and in peace there is propaganda. I understand that when Iran puts out the Lego videos, which clearly get under the skin of Marco Rubio, and that when they say certain things that they are propaganda, I get it.

But ultimately, I want the objective damn facts of what's happening. In this war. And when I see 3 Saudi Arabian refineries that are destroyed right now, that are destroyed in Yanbu, in Jizan, in— and the latest one that was just destroyed as well, which is their biggest refinery in Abqaiq, the Abqaiq oil— Abqaiq oil refinery. I say that seems to be— there's a lot of issues going on right now. Then Donald Trump aboard Air Force One, and Donald Trump says Iran took a beating over the last 4 days, 14 days. So they asked us very nicely, please, please, sir, can you please stop? This is Trump aboard Air Force One.

Here, play this clip.

Well, Iran took a beating over the last 14 days, and they asked us very nicely. 'Please stop. Let's meet.' And that's what we are right now. We'll see what happens. If we don't make a deal, we go back to the—

if we don't make a deal, we go—

big deal.

You're gonna do a deal.

I did the deal.

I do deals, deals, deals.

Here's the deal. There's the deal.

Dude, shut up again with the stupid deals. And he's a lot— I mean, he's a liar about everything he says. He's asked, 'Have you been frustrated with Secretary Hegseth because of the advice he gave you early on in the war?' and how it turned out. Do you think this is a great job right now? I mean, do you— you all promised that this war would end in days, then 4 to 5 weeks. We're now 5 months. Iran and its proxies control the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. They're striking Saudi Arabia right now. You have China basically getting involved. Things are escalating. People are suffering. Inflation is surging. This is you believe this is a good job.

Here, let's play this clip. On the Iran war, have you been frustrated with Secretary Hegseth because of the advice he gave you early on in the war and how it's turned out?

I think he's done a great job. We've pretty much destroyed their military. They want to meet and we're meeting. We'll see what happens. There's a chance we could make a deal, but without what we did, they wouldn't even be talking to us. They requested a meeting through their surrogates and directly. And we're meeting, and, you know, good things can happen, I guess. Oil dropped very big today. Stock markets, as of about an hour ago, was like through the roof. But no, they requested a meeting. They would not have requested the meeting if we were doing poorly. The only reason they want They want to meet just because we've been hitting them very hard. Yeah. How much patience do you have left with Iran, sir? I have plenty of time.

The only reason they want to meet is because we've been hitting them so damn hard. And they requested a meeting. They begged for it. Now the market's doing good. No, you are manipulating the market again. Iran began the day— just think about how embarrassing this is, right?, right, that Iran begins the day with their foreign ministry spokesperson saying, today Donald Trump is going to get out there and say we want him— we don't want to meet with him. We're meeting with Oman. There's no meetings taking place. Just look who controls the Strait of Hormuz. Just look at it. I got to find this quote from the Iranian spokesperson because it's so damn devastating and, and painful as an American to read. But this is what we've This is what we've gone through as a country here. Let me find this quote.

As you pull it up, I'll just say, like, it's, it's so wild how much he gives away the game on when he speaks about the war. Like, the war— if you're going to enter into this war and this campaign, you don't want to let everybody know that your biggest concerns are the markets. And Donald Trump, every opportunity he gets, he's like, look, we stopped, and look, the oil's coming down, right? The oil, oil, you see that? And then the stock market, it's going up, it's going up. It's like that's all he really cares about.. And so, you know, when you give that sort of leverage to your, uh, adversary in a war, you're giving them a whole lot of power because they know exactly your pain points to hit.

Okay, let me just, let me read for you these points. Ready? This is what he says. Don't pay attention. This is the Iranian foreign spokesperson early this morning. Like when I wake up at 5:00 AM to do my videos, I'm looking at what he's saying. What's CENTCOM saying? CENTCOM says we control the Strait of Hormuz. Things are great. Everything's amazing. We're obliterating them. Never been better. Iran, they're saying, do not pay much attention to these media speculations. We have no negotiations with the United States. The negotiations we are having, which may sometimes be subject to different interpretation, are the ones we are holding with Oman, focused on making necessary arrangements regarding the Strait of Hormuz. Then the Iran spokesperson goes on to say, I don't know how you think that they, Trump and the United States are managing the war, a war that was supposed to lead to Iran's collapse within 3 days, forcing Iran to surrender. And yet now, after 5 months, they are stuck in a quagmire of their own making. This is not war management. Committing war crimes every once in a while while taking pride in them is merely flailing in a disgrace created by their own hands and tempted by a Zionist regime, naturally, They must pay the price for it.

Then regarding the United States announcing it was going to do a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, and then less than 24 hours, Donald Trump then says, well, actually, Saudi Arabia has to join the Abraham Accords. And if they join the Abraham Accords and become allies with Israel, then we may do it. But then they can't enrich uranium, even though even civilian nuclear plants enrich uranium. And this is what the guy says about Trump's Saudi Arabia deal that broke apart in 24 hours. Regarding the matter itself, according to the usual behavioral habit of the United States, this agreement apparently did not last more than 24 hours and they raised conditions.

That's what—

that's, that's, you know, and they're mocking Saudi Arabia for believing that they did a deal with the, with the United States. So you've got, you've got that going on. And then I'll show you the clip that I was talking about earlier. I know, Brett, you found it. It. So do you all feel objectively, right, that we had the best year, that this year for our economy was the best we've ever had? I mean, objectively, I mean, I don't care what political party you're from. Do you feel that way, that this year was great? It was amazing. Everybody thrived. What a great year. Well, Donald Trump does. So this is the reality he inhabits. Is that the reality you trust? It was a great year for him. He made $4 billion. Maybe more, probably more. $4 billion we're aware of, right? Did you, did you make more money or are you struggling right now and suffering? Here's what he had to say. Let's play this clip.

You are good years, bad years. We're having the single greatest year we've ever had as a country. We're not going to let these people destroy it.

We're having the single greatest year. And again, when you see that deranged and psychotic behavior, That's the individual who is the commander in chief, the commander in chief of the United States Armed Forces. And you want to know why we lose over and over again, why we're put through this humiliation ritual? Because he's a loser. He's a bankrupter his whole damn life. And now we're all losers because that's, you know, The reality is, in Trump's America, we're all losers other than him. And for short periods of time, the right-wing oligarchs do well. But once they lose favor, they're the next target.

Brett and Jordy, I don't think anybody would agree with Trump's statements there. I think it's ridiculous. And, you know, it makes me think about during the Biden administration, all the kind of think tanks and think pieces and everything that was released when, when Biden was dealing with the inflation, which was a legitimate issue. And people don't like to say that it was caused by Donald Trump, but it was caused by Donald Trump. It was caused by the COVID supply chains. It ended up reverberating and ended up actually hitting during the Biden administration, which was then made worse during the oil crisis. And when the Russia-Ukraine invasion happened, which, you know, the markets reacted wildly different to than what we're seeing right now, apparently. Me for some odd reason. But I remember when Biden was trying to approach the subject because he wanted to tout his accomplishments but also wanted to acknowledge that people were feeling pain. He would try to kind of— we would try to kind of walk the line on this issue, right? He would say things like, I understand that a lot of people out there are still not feeling the success in the economy, though, and we need to work to make sure that every American is feeling the success of the economy.

That he would— He would say a lot of things like that and get with these endless think pieces written about him that Biden just isn't caring enough about the American people. He's just not— he's just not saying enough. He's lucky he touted the stock market. How could you tout the stock market? Okay. Yeah, he said the other thing, but how could you possibly say that? Trump says this stuff all day and people are like, oh yeah, we're going to do— what are you going to do about it? It's so offensive. To just regular, ordinary people to see this and this sort of rhetoric every day?

The single greatest year. I mean, he just like says it with no shame. And then you hear the lemmings clap saying, some good lemonade, Donald. Thanks for that lemonade in my mouth. It's— I hope it is graphic, by the way, because that's how frustrating and ridiculous the time that we're living through really is. And Ben, again, big on giving you your flowers. Brett, I want to give you your flowers. But Midas Mighty, specifically the pro-democracy community that watches this, this. I want to give you guys your flowers because day in and day out I read all the comments, I see all of your posts, whether it's on Threads or Blue Sky or X or Facebook or Instagram. Like, wherever you are, we are. And we're constantly seeing you guys push back against all this madness and calling this stuff out in real time. And for us, I mean, that's half the battle, at least real time. Turn— like, speaking up and saying, this is a lie, this is BS, we're calling it out together collectively, and we're going to make some noise about why this is such BS, as Donald Donald Trump loves to brag about the greatest time we're all living through.

Ridiculous.

Let me tie this all together, though, because something that got almost no attention, which to me was the biggest tell, was one of the random posts that Donald Trump made earlier today, where he was seemingly attacking John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader. But Trump was giving you the tell of how he's going to cast blame. When even more economic catastrophe takes place. So he makes this post. John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to leave town until it passes the Save America Act, or far better still, terminates the filibuster, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep-throated Save America Act, the budget, and the ever-looming debt ceiling disaster, comma, 1929 exclamation point. The Democrats will do it on day one and can't believe how lucky they got. I've highlighted the point I want people to focus on. First off, again, what a sicko mind referring to the Save America Act as like deep throat, like full and deep throated. Why would that be full and deep throat? It's like, it's very, very like, yeah, that never is bizarre, bizarre phrase. The ever looming debt ceiling disaster, comma, 1929 exclamation point.

The looming debt ceiling disaster. Donald Trump has added more debt than anybody by far. I mean, trillions and trillions of dollars have been added to our debt. Our deficit is increasing massively right now. Our debt will soon hit over what,— what, what, $30 trillion, you know, $40 trillion, $40 trillion soon, $40 to $39.5 trillion, $40 trillion soon. And 1929, Great Depression, right? And so what Donald Trump is setting up as a dynamic right here, where he knows the Save America Act, which he labels Save America Act, Act, which has nothing to do about saving America. It's a voter suppression act, but he calls it Save America Act. If you don't pass Save America Act, debt ceiling crisis, comma, 1929, exclamation point. Do you see what he's doing? What he's doing right now is he doesn't care when there is an economic Great Depression, which is coming. He doesn't care because he got rich. In fact, he probably wants there to be an economic Great Depression as long as he gets rich. That's his whole life. Bankrupt Company A, bankrupt Company B, take the money for himself, blame people for the bankruptcies and move on to the next one.

Right. This is what he's actually good at. He's good at being a fraud and he's good when people are suffering to blame people. Because very few people other than the worst scumbags in human history use suffering to cause— to lie about it. And that's what he's going to do. So what he's saying is, because you didn't save America, that's what's caused 1929 Great Depression. I had it all figured out. I was gonna fix it. We had the greatest year ever. Everything was going amazing. Things could All not true, right? That's how he also casts his first presidency before COVID All lies, right?

All lies.

But I was the best. Then COVID hit and then, and so what he's setting up is the dynamic, is the dynamic his whole life has been. I was about to be there. We were in the golden age. I told you everything was right around the corner. 2025 set the stage. 2026 was the banquet. It was about to happen. Then the Republicans didn't pass the Save America Act. The Democrats came into power. And it's a fictional narrative where he now has his bad guys and he fixed it. And now it's all destroyed. When what I'm trying to convey to you is right before our eyes, everything's destroyed right now. All of the preconditions, everything is a fugazi and a fraud and a lie. We are currently living in right now a horrible time with war everywhere, with healthcare being ripped away, with Treasury yields at record highs, with mortgages rates so high no one can afford homes or rent right now. But he's going to repeat over and over again, and with compliant oligarchy corporate media, they're going to keep saying, we're there, things are good. Donald Trump said, Donald Trump said, Donald Trump said. And what I want you to be aware of, and I know you know it, but don't let them gaslight you, is he did it.

He did it. He did it. And all of these scumbags around him did it. They were the ones who did this to you. These are the scumbags who hurt you. These are the scumbags who hate America. These are the scumbags who are not patriotic. These are the scumbags who hate you. They hate you. They hate this country. And this is what they do. Because they hate you. I want you to know that. And they're taking from you. And they're ripping you off every damn day. And let's be very clear where it is coming from. This isn't a Democrat or Republican thing. This is a good versus evil thing. And this is who the Trump regime are— evil, evil humans, demons amongst us. And we've got to call them out for what they are. And that's what we're going to do every damn day here. So I'll leave you at that point, Brett and Jordy.

Anything else you want to say? Well said. I certainly don't have anything anything to add to that, but I, I just, I do want to highlight, you know, the power of private citizens stepping up and taking action. And, you know, at a time when our institutions are failing us, when you see corporate media failing us, when you see the courts failing us— I go on and on— you see examples of folks who actually are able to get stuff done. And so I just do want to give a shout out to Katie Fang here at the Midas Touch Network for her incredible work. She has been tenacious. She has been relentless in pressing the Trump regime to release the Epstein files. The court has continued to agree with her arguments and is telling Todd Blanch now that I believe it's by this Thursday. I may not have the date right, so don't quote me on that. But Todd Blanch basically now has to show the judge. The judge said, Todd Blanch, I don't believe you for a second. You know, when you say, trust me, trust me that our redactions are all good, I'm not going to show you, but, but just trust me that I redacted everything just for the right reasons.

And the judge said, you're going to show me— the judge— you're going to show me all these redactions. And I, as the judge, I will determine whether you are lying or you're not lying. This is a huge phase of the Sepsin investigation. It would not have happened if Katie Fang didn't file this lawsuit. So shout out to Katie Fang. And it just really shows, you know, You know, every— when Katie Fang filed that lawsuit, everyone was like, on what standing? On what grounds? They were saying it was going to get thrown out of court. But no, this is moving ahead. So shout out to her, uh, Katie. Obviously make sure you're following Katie on her YouTube channel, like, at Katie Fang News. And Katie has a podcast too, which is great. And Katie has been breaking down all the updates in her case for her podcast listeners, and it's really worth a listen. And she does so much other reporting too. It's called Sidebar with Katie Fang, so you could search for that on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and all the apps. Sidebar with Katie Fang, add the show. I just am— I'm so impressed with Katie Fang.

Huge shout out to Katie Fang, such an honor to have her here on the Midas Touch Network. And I'll just leave on a, you know, on a light note, uh, with, with the book. Uh, you know, first I want to thank everyone for your support of the book WTF America, but you learn a lot about this process as, as you go through it. And so before I got on this episode, it's funny, I had like a legal call about the book because they go through every single word of the book, right, to make sure that you're not saying anything, you know, over the line about somebody. And it's just— I just want to share this because it was so funny to me. You know, they'll go like, on page whatever, you call Kash Patel a doofus. Yeah, that's, uh, you know, that's okay, that's your opinion. They go through one by one every single line said about everybody, and it just, you know, It's a funny process. It's been surreal. I'm grateful for the support. We have the QR code on the screen if you want to preorder. Preordering really, really, really helps. And there's also a link in the description to this podcast so you can check the link, preorder the book.

Let us know in the comments if you preorder the book. If you're watching on YouTube Live, do those WTF America. There's an emoji. You could let us know by doing the emoji. And we're really grateful. We're excited to at some point be in a city or town near you. And we are, uh, you know, just thrilled for you to get your hands on this. I think it's honestly, uh, gonna be a great resource, uh, for, for everybody. Really, really grateful. Jordy, take it away.

Shout out to the Midas Mighty! Breaking news right now, my brothers and I wrote a book. It's called WTF America, and well, doesn't that just say it all? It comes out officially this October, but you can pre-order your copy today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description below.