Transcript of Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 5/5/26 New

This has been on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news. We have a lot to discuss. Moments before we went live, we learned that a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz has been attacked with missiles or drones. Obviously, uh, it seems to have been, uh, hit by Iranian, uh, fast boats. We will be following up to see what the latest is here. And this follows, uh, Donald Trump talking about the new operation. They call it Project Freedom. They said Epic Fury is over. We won. They declare victory. Epic Fury over. Big victory. Now we're on to Operation Freedom, which is purely defensive in posture. It's completely different than Epic Fury. Epic Fury, the Trump regime says that's done. We won. And so they have Rubio, who, let's face it, is a better public speaker than Donald Trump or Vance. Although that's not saying a lot. And I see people out there, you know, even like liberal progressive people like, oh, you know, Rubio did a good press conference. Dude, just because somebody can string together a sentence, we shouldn't reduce our body politic to— the guy was able to complete sentences.

We should listen to the words that are being said. And they are just as dangerous, disastrous, and awful as Trump and Vance. And so you had Rubio moments ago, literally side-by-side image. We have a cargo ship being attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, trying apparently to break through Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz. Then you have Rubio same time at the press conference saying Operation Epic Fury is done. We are done with that stage. We're into new operation, Project Freedom, everybody. I mean, is this quite literally like reading even a more dystopian version of 1984. Here's what Rubio says. Here, play this clip. About—

I think you're linking it— the operation is over. Epic Fury is— the president notified Congress, we're done with that stage of it. Okay, we're now on to this project of freedom. As far as a negotiation is concerned, I think the president's been clear that part of the negotiation process has to be not just the enrichment, but what happens to this material that's buried deep somewhere that they have— still have access to if they ever wanted to dig it out. That has to be addressed, and that's being addressed in the negotiation. I'm not going to go further on what progress has been made on that topic because I don't want to endanger the negotiations. But suffice it to say that the president and this entire team is aware of the centrality of that question, and that will have to be addressed one way or the other.

He does this with his thumb and he uses the word centrality. And so, wow, Rubio, Rubio 2028, you said the word centrality. Okay, he said a bunch of bullshit is what he just said. What do you mean Operation Epic Fury is done? What the hell does that even mean? It's done. We've moved on to a new project, everybody. Operation— what did he call it? Operation the Freedom. He doesn't even know what the name of this thing is. And then he says, I don't want to endanger the negotiations that are taking— what negotiations are taking place? I would— I I would truly like to know because back in early March, y'all said this was done. Iran was about to surrender. We were good. We were days away. Several weeks ago on one of your Market Manipulation Mondays or Fridays, you said Iran capitulated. They've agreed to everything. In fact, the Iranian military, they're friends with the US military now, and excavators are going in. And they're gonna go to Isfahan and all the facilities, and they're gonna take the nuclear material back to the United States. Iran has agreed never again to fund its proxies. A total victory.

Oh, wait a minute, that was a total lie. And then 2 weeks ago you told us the blockade is working so effectively that Iran's pipelines, they're filling up with so much damn pressure that it's about to burst and explode, and Iran is going to be rubble because of the— oh, wait a minute, you're saying that's a complete lie? I mean, do we even should reflect on the fact that Donald Trump has fake— he talks about fake conversations with Iran as though Iran's a person. Yeah, they speak to me all the time and I just tell them I don't like what you're doing. I don't like the deal. I don't like it. I push back and I'm— Iran has told me that they're very, very sorry for what they're doing. I mean, do we all realize that this is just a regime of Bernie Madoffs on steroids? So cut the crap that Rubio was able to string together a damn sentence. Okay, um, but if you want to know, Operation Epic Fury, a smashing success, Rubio says. So if you want to know what is Operation Project Freedom now, totally different, totally separate project. What are we doing over here?

Okay, the goal, if we can accomplish it— are you ready for it? To open the Strait of Hormuz. Because you see We declare victory on Epic Fury by getting the Strait of Hormuz closed. Mission accomplished. No regime change, no difference about Iranian nuclear material. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. They have all their ballistic missiles and Shahed drones. We basically have made Iran a superpower in the region, if you will, or at least a robust power in the region, far more powerful than Success. That's, that's success. Losing is winning for Donald Trump, as we all know. So now this phase, it's about opening the Strait of Hormuz. So here, here's Rubio saying that the goal is now to return the Strait of Hormuz back to the way it was. Let's play it.

The actor that enables Iran sanctions evasion is going to face secondary sanctions exposure and a loss of access to the U.S. financial system. As President Trump has said, and the facts clearly bear out, the United States of America holds all the cards. There is no scenario here in which if they decide to join a ladder of escalation, they wind up getting the last say. But our preference is for these straits to be opened to the way they're supposed to be open, back to the way it was. Anyone can use it. No mines in the water, nobody paying tolls. That's what we have to get back to. And that's the goal here. Every day the conflict continues, however, our leverage on Iran will continue to increase and their position will continue to weaken, especially as the blockade really begins.

Okay, but I wouldn't want to make sure that everybody said thank you because this is a favor to the world. Everybody's saying thank you. This is, this is a favor that we've done. Here, play this clip.

A favor to the world. Foreign policy, it could have some domestic ramifications, but ultimately I don't want to mislead you. The primary responsibility for this Project Freedom is on the United States because we're the only country that can project power in that part of the world the way we're doing now. We're the only ones that can do it, and we're going to do it as a favor to the world. Understand this. This is a favor to the world because it's their ships that are stranded. It's their fuel supplies that are stranded. By the way, it's their humanitarian— there's humanitarian aid destined for different countries in the world that's stranded in the Persian Gulf right now. It's the fertilizer that they need for their food and crops that's stranded in the Persian— not our fertilizer. Their fertilizer. So we want to be helpful, and that's why the president stepped forward, because we're the only ones that can. Frankly, we're the only ones that can.

You created the wreck, you created the mess, and now you're doing them a favor by saying that you may or may not clean up the mess. And I don't know what he means by this. That's not our fertilizer, it's their fertilizer. That's not our oil, it's their oil. That's not our liquefied natural gas. That's their liquefied natural gas. That's fundamentally not how markets work. I understand that America produces lots of oil, but guess what? And I understand America produces liquefied natural gas, and I understand that America produces lots of things. I get it. But guess what? We are part, whether you like it or not, of international markets. So if we thought that none of the stuff in the Middle East impacts the United States, then why are our gas prices going up? If you've said that this, uh, Venezuela conquest, which any former president could have done, doesn't take a lot of, uh, it's pretty obvious that if the U.S. wants to take over neighbors and do the law of the strong, which is no law at all, we can do that. But We all— this oil you say is flowing from Venezuela, so why don't the American people feel cheaper oil?

Why isn't oil— if we have abundance of oil and all of these things, why is it that our oil isn't $1.50, $1.25 a gallon? If you're gonna go and say we've never drilled this way, drill baby drill, amazing, why, why isn't the oil price— maybe, just maybe, because that's not the way oil works. And we're part of an international community and an international market. And when there are supply shocks in the Middle East, that reverberates throughout the markets, that there's spot price, and then there is futures price of WTI and Brent futures price, spot price. And then why is it such a big deal that the last big tanker that predates the world coming in from the Middle East right now into Los Angeles, into the ports out here on the West Coast? Why is that significant? Why can't we— if you're all so right and that's not our fertilizer, not our this, not our that, not our anything, then why can't we— if Trump and Rubio and Vance and Besant and Lutnick and all these people are such They're so brilliant and we have $21 trillion that's in at the most basic level, then okay, well, why can't we just do it ourselves then?

Why can't you guys— can't figure that one out? We're drill baby drilling according to you, and $21 trillion is in. So basically with $21 trillion, we could be giving every American right now like $150K, $175K a year. Every American can make, you know, just, just, you could just write us a check like that right now. So where, why, why, why? Oh, wait a minute. That's not the way, that's not the way markets work. And even when we produce oil, that doesn't mean that we produce, refine, and then bring to market all in the United States. And that there's a complex supply chain that exists with all of these things. And you know, that's the thing too. It's like, here we are in May 2026. And what do you hear all of the time? Biden was the one who bankrupted Spirit Airlines because in 2022, Biden and Elizabeth Warren, they didn't want to do a merger between Spirit and JetBlue, and that would have saved everything. Well, that's not what Spirit Airlines says in their court filing yesterday and today. Their court filing says it was the unexpected recent geopolitical events that resulted in a massive and sustained increase in fuel prices.

I know that the Trump regime doesn't want us to talk about courts or evidence or facts, but Spirit does not say, oh, it was because of a failed merger. Spirit says it's because of the catastrophic war in Iran and these sustained prices. The reality is, is that if JetBlue and Spirit merged in 2022 and they were a combined entity right now, and JetBlue hasn't made a profit like in a decade, it's like $9 billion in debt. You saddle Spirit onto JetBlue, we probably would have had a combined bankruptcy of both of those entities. And one of the reasons that it went bankrupt is a lot of Republicans didn't, you know, didn't want to give Spirit a bailout. So you had Senator Kennedy of Louisiana, you had a lot of MAGA Republicans like Thune and others. They don't believe— these are the people who, when the auto industry was bailed out by Obama, they did not want to. They wanted to see the American auto industry burn to the ground. That's a lot of their— it's a lot of their views. Just let these, you know, the free market means you let these industries fail, you let them burn down to the ground and you prop up, you know, your buds.

You know, you, you prop up who you choose as the winners. You let the losers die. That's their view of, of capitalism, which to me looks like an oligarchical socialism while they You know, claim, oh, socialism, socialism. You're doing it just for billionaires right now while screwing over everybody else and claiming it's capitalism. But that's just— but that's just me. But that's why he went bankrupt. Donald Trump, the master negotiator, the dealmaker. You couldn't find $500 million to bail him out. You said you brought in $21 trillion. You couldn't find $500 million for a bailout. I mean, everything is a lie from this regime. And if we're in such a golden age and manufacturing's up and everything's amazing, Why is it that a company like Spirit went bankrupt? Why are farm bankruptcies up around 50% now versus under Biden, or year over year, up 50% in the Midwest? Farm bankruptcies are up 73%. And why are beef prices so high? Oh, beef prices are so high because of Biden also, right? That's what they say. They go, well, why are beef prices so high? Well, you know, Biden hated the beef industry. That's why. Biden hated our ranchers.

That's literally what they say when you watch them. And it's like, guys, guys, you're almost thankfully midway through this catastrophic time frame in American history, okay? It's May of 2026. You are— you're just, you know, everything is Biden's fault. Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden. I mean, come on, grow up. That's just not— that's not leadership. And what bugs me is that the Overton window shifts so much. So when Rubio gets up here and speaks in a sentence, people like applaud this guy. That's so presidential. No, it's not presidential. Presidential should be leveling with the American people honestly, with integrity about the situation that we have the biggest supply shock. This is what you should say if you're a president of the United States. The supply shock that exists right now caused by this war is the biggest supply shock by far in the history of, of, of oil. So my dogs agree with that. And that this supply shock means that prices are not going to go down anytime soon, that even if this catastrophic war were to end right now today, not in the next 6 months, not next summer, perhaps next September, not this September, maybe September 2027, maybe, probably into 2028 is when you'll start to see prices potentially go down.

You should level with the people that from here on out, every one day that the war extends, is the equivalent of 1 week more of the global supply shock in terms of how we can rein this back in. 1 day extending the closure of Hormuz equals about 1 week longer of supply shock from when you turn on, uh, the oil, uh, uh, centers again in order to— or the refineries— and you start the process again of of putting these facilities back on, back online. That you'd have to level with the people and let them know what's coming in the future is really, really bad. And the same way as with COVID came on our shores, and it started in Asia, and the supply and the, uh, and the— and COVID spread, spread, spread, spread, spread. That's what we're seeing. I mean, we're seeing overseas rationing of oil. We're seeing the impact of the supply shocks there. And that's going to start to sweep over the world. And that's going to be— that's going to be a major issue here that we're going to be talking about probably after the midterms. So then here's what Trump does.

That wasn't happening when Republicans controlled both houses. Now you have the Democrats in control of the House. We'll see if the Democrats take the Senate and the Senate, the House and the Senate. Now, all of a sudden, because they're not putting forward the policies, this is what authoritarians do. See, for Trump, he doesn't give a shit about you or me or anybody. He just genuinely doesn't. What he does is he creates the drama. He creates calamity, he creates destruction, and then he blames. He looks to take credit where he can take credit, to steal other people's ideas and steal other people's, um, positive accomplishments. And then otherwise, he blames. So for him, he isn't suffering right now by the Uh, Strait of Hormuz closure. For him, it's how's Trump doing? Well, Trump's up. Trump's made billions of dollars. Trump still has lots of corporations, uh, begging him for favors and tariff relief and this and that. Trump says, you know, ballroom, triumphal arch, what the new thing is, the golf course. Not— that's the new— we just are starting to hear about it more that he took. We know in December he sees these golf courses, but this is one of the things that he's focused on right now, the golf, the golf course.

By the way, did you see in the most recent reconciliation bill there they want a billion dollars of our, of appropriations of taxpayer dollars to go to the ballroom, the East Wing modernization project, $1 billion, $30 billion for ICE, $2.5 billion for DHS, $3.4 billion for CBP, $1 billion of our money to go to the freaking ballroom, by the way. I mean, it's right there. I highlighted exactly where you can— you can read it. Read the appropriations bill for yourself and you'll see it says $1 billion. Oh, taxpayers aren't going to pay for any of this. No one's going to pay for any of this. Oh, you know, it's all coming from private. The guy's a freaking con artist. But Trump doesn't view the nation as an accumulation of people, you know, who are out there. He doesn't— he doesn't give a crap about us or you or anybody, red state or blue state. He doesn't care about the people. He cares about Trump. So for him, He's fine. Let's keep the blockade. People like, well, what's the point of this? If he wasn't entangled in all of these emolument violations, all these conflicts of interest, all these quid pro quos, the Netanyahu entanglements, the UAE entanglements, the Saudi entanglements, right?

But if you weren't entangled in these things, there's actually probably a deal that could be made here in the interest of the world. If you weren't self-interested at this point. You could potentially take a really bad situation, a catastrophic and unlawful war, and maybe try to come up with a way for a realignment in the region. But you see, a realignment in the region, it would mean a weaker Israel, a weaker Saudi Arabia, a weaker UAE, and a stronger Iran. Not to suggest Iran would be significantly even stronger than Israel, Saudi Arabia, or UAE, but relative, Iran would get a boost or a significant bump in its standing in the world. And perhaps in exchange for that, again, you know, there, there, there are some issues here that we can't completely know the cascading domino effect, but if Iran had a more robust role in the region and the world, and you could then shut down though Hezbollah, some of the, you know, the Houthi stuff, the Shiite militias that are kind of tied to the Iraqi army. If you did kind of a grand deal, but you allowed Iran to, you know, to have some role regarding the Strait of Hormuz where it wouldn't be full control, but you know, you, 'cause you need some maybe international mechanism to deal with, you know, to make sure that Iran doesn't shut it down again.

But maybe there's a way to tie in reparations for the war by some minor tolls. Maybe you recreate the Obama nuclear deal again, but Iran, and you remove all of the sanctions against Iran, but you have to deal with Hezbollah, you have to deal with the Houthis, and you have to deal with, perhaps there's a grander bargain, and a really bad situation can become a, a actually a big deal where we can help create, uh, some, some maybe more stability, you know, in, in the Middle East. And, and maybe if there were true intentions to help Gaza and not, you know, the Trump, Netanyahu, uh, Kushner version of it, which is, you know, to claim there's help but just perpetuate genocide, You know, maybe there would be a way with, you know, figuring out to actually help a lot of situations. The issue is Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE are not okay with an Iran ever having even more of a, you know, slightly more robust role in the region. Israel sees it as a zero-sum game. Any increase in power and authority Iran Israel says they won't be okay with. And based on Trump's entanglements, you know, with Netanyahu and frankly someone like Miriam Adelson, in my opinion, who gives Donald Trump hundreds of millions of dollars in the campaign.

So, you know, you have the UAE giving Donald Trump personally and his companies all of this money, Saudi giving Trump personally or Trump's companies all of this money. You know, Trump is thinking Trump. So in Trump's view, I can't screw up that personal gravy train of mine. So I don't think— I can't do the deal with Iran right now. I don't want to escalate because if I escalate, that could lead to the markets just completely tanking. And, you know, this blockade seems to, you know, at least for now, the markets are— I can manipulate the markets every week. You know, the stock market, my Dow, the Dow at 50 thou, you know, it's, you know, by the way, if Trump did nothing and just let Biden's economy roll, I firmly believe the Dow would be at like 65,000, 70,000 right now. And all the markets would be up like significantly right now. Even though that's not a metric of the success of people. I also think if Trump did nothing, we would see a lot more manufacturing jobs created, a lot more people doing better outside both the market. That really isn't accessible to a lot of people, though some people's 401(k)s are in there, and the market that people feel would both be doing better if Trump just stayed out, just went golfing and did nothing.

But Trump, in Trump's mind, markets aren't like tanking, and that's how he sees everything. So I'll just keep the blockade and I won't have to make a decision as a leader. I won't, you know, get Netanyahu angry at me or UAE angry at me. Saudi angry at me, and then, you know, something catastrophic will happen eventually, right? It's bound to. It's bound to because you can't— this is unsustainable. Unsustainable. So then when it's catastrophic, I'll just pull a Trump. I'll blame you and you and you. I'll blame this one, that one, and that one. And I'll blame the Democrats. Look, they control the House, they control it. That's this, like, that's what this is about. And if he didn't have these entanglements, that wouldn't, you know, that wouldn't be the case. All right, we're gonna take our first quick break of the show. Reminder, hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Subscribers. Subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast on audio as well. Become a member, get access to those emojis. Let's take our first quick break. We only have one quick break, so quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news. Let's get into, you know, some additional details. I referenced this before as well, um, you know, part of— not part, a lot of this catastrophic and unlawful war is distraction. Distraction from the grift, distraction from, uh, you know, the all, all of the Uh, you know, my opinion, theft of the American taxpayer and the American people that Trump and his regime, you know, are engaged in. I, I did a report on this earlier this morning, but you know, while everybody's, you know, distracted by this, that, and the other, you have Palm Beach changing the name of its airport to the Trump Palm Beach International Airport. But it wasn't sufficient for Donald Trump to plaster his name, which never happens for like a living, uh, you know, it never happens for like a living person who's currently president to put their name on, on an airport while they're alive. That's, that's like an unheard of thing. But it's not just enough, right, for him to have the airport named after him. He then has to create a holdco that holds this new IP called the Donald Trump International Airport, and then the airport in perpetuity has to buy all of its merch and has to enter into a licensing deal with the Trump Organization to pay the Trump Organization to use the Trump name, image, and likeness.

So it's a constant stream of money in the future. And ultimately, you know, where do public airports get a lot of its money from? Taxpayers. And so in my view, it's a massive kind of— it's not, you know, it's an honorific that's usually in most circumstances given to people who are dead. Because you don't plaster— living presidents don't plaster their names on things. They should be focused on affordability, helping people who are like alive right now. Okay, but then he does this holdco structure, right? So, so you've got that. You got him lying to the American people and saying not a single taxpayer dollar is going to go to the ballroom. Well, East Wing modernization in the latest appropriations reconciliation bill that, uh, that just came out has $1 billion. $1 billion for East Wing modernization. What the hell is going on there? Then you have his now infatuation on the golf course, right? It's the, it's the reflecting pool and the triumphal arches and the golden ballrooms. And now back in December, he seized the public golf courses. There's lots of public land. There's golf, there's there's running trails and baseball fields and all these things in this area also.

And if you've ever been to D.C., are these golf courses like the most beautiful? I'm not really a golfer, so, so you take what I say with a grain of salt. I don't think I've golfed for like a very long time. I go to the driving range occasionally. I, I, I, I, I could be a dangerous driver from time to time, but I don't like— I don't know where I would even have time to go golfing, as you know from— but, but any event, When I was in D.C. and I went to GW undergrad in Georgetown, I played in those courses. They weren't like the greatest, you know, courses, but I would go with my friends and they would, you know, it's fine, it's nice, it was open to the public. It's a public thing. No one ever said, man, you know what I hate about D.C.? Damn, those public golf courses. And so, you know, they're seizing those courses. They've also used the courses to move— it's all kind of related— to move some of the material from the East Wing some of this like asbestos. In my opinion, it's like, because it was when all of the, you know, all of this asbestos, um, was used in, in a lot of construction when the East Wing was originally built.

You have all of this like, you know, carcinogenic metal. They buried it by these golf courses. And so the, the White House East Wing debris dumped at nearby golf courses has these toxic metals in. Like, you can literally see these big mounds that's— that, that, that has these, um, you know, that has these, you know, in my view, like real serious carcinogens, you know, in them. But Trump's broader plan now is to turn these like golf courses into, you know, into Trump golf courses. And nobody want— no, nobody wants any of this stuff, really. People just want to have health care. People just want to be able to afford housing and to have jobs that pay themselves with, uh, you know, where they could be paid with dignity. And they don't have to— if they're working 40 hours a week, you know, or even less, they shouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. It's a lot of time to be working out in a job, you know, and people do that and they can't afford a house. That's crazy. And he's out there talking about this golden ballroom, that thing, the other thing, putting his face on the dollar bill, $100 bill, and this, that, and the other.

I think people are livid and they are, and they are, and they are absolutely, you know, they're absolutely, you know, losing it. Now, what else, uh, is going on? What else are the kind of major, um, you know, what else are the major distractions right now? I mean, the Epstein files, right? The Epstein files. And right now, Trump, Comer, MAGA Mike, Bondi, DOJ, Blanche, they're not going to allow Bondi to have her deposition taken on May 29th. It's just going to be a transcribed interview, not under oath. They don't even want to allow it to be videotaped, and Democrats are like, come on, you have to have it videotaped. But Democrats, because they don't control the Oversight Committee, they can't choose. They can't even force it right now. They that there be an actual under oath deposition. The Democrats don't have the subpoena power. So what Comer said is, well, we'll accommodate Bondi first with a transcribed interview. No one wants a transcribed interview of Bondi where she can lie. We want her under oath. Frankly, we want a hearing. But isn't it notable that Jack Smith wanted a public hearing and the MAGA Republicans like, no, no, no, no, no, no public hearing for you.

Hunter Biden wanted a public hearing. Let's do it in public. No, no, no, no, no, no public hearing. No public hearing for you. Okay. Bondi, who does, you know, uh, who does all the state regime media appearances, right? Um, Kristi Noem, who would do all the state regime media appearances. Notice they never want to sit for a hearing. They never want to go under oath. They never want to actually have to answer in formats that make them accountable. Think about Trump when he files lawsuits. He never wants to sit for a deposition. He never wants to do discovery. He just wants the headline. Same— his same view about war. He wants the headline quick, easy, get the headline. Look, look what blockade, epic fury. But then you gotta, you gotta do the thing. Leadership is not just making an announcement. It's doing the damn thing and then concluding the damn thing and then holding yourself accountable for the journey from beginning, middle, and end. For Trump, it's beginning, beginning, beginning, beginning, and then the middle and the end are the failures. But then it's lots of beginnings of, in my opinion, fraudulent stuff. And then the endings are all, you know, when, when things hit the fan, he then blames, you know, people, people for all of these things.

I just think it's on a bipartisan basis an outrage. Bondi's not sitting for a deposition. So anybody who goes, oh, well, May 29th, do you remember when Democrats said we are going to file a contempt motion against Bondi? And then, and then Comer was like, oh, you know, uh, more of Garcia being dramatic, more of Garcia being dramatic. That, that's, that's Comer's line about Garcia. He's a drama queen, he's a drama queen. And that's kind of his dog whistle because Garcia is gay, that that's why Comer's being drama all way too much drama over here. Oh, he's not being dramatic. Uh, there's a cover-up of a child sex trafficking ring taking place right now, okay? That's what's happening, and Bondi's at the center of it. And you said the Democrats are being drama queens are being dramatic because they want Bondi under oath. And you said, we're going to make her available for a deposition. It's May 29th. And now you've said, nope, it's actually not a depo. It's a transcribed interview. Oh, and by the way, one of the top DOJ officials, Armit Dhillon, who is the number 2 or 3 at the DOJ, who may become the next attorney general, by the way, she's going to be representing Bondi not as a top DOJ official, but in her personal capacity as a private lawyer.

Well, wait a minute, DOJ lawyers aren't allowed to do that. Their loyalty has to be to the DOJ. You can't represent people in proceedings. Ah, that would be if it was a proceeding. This is an informal transcribed interview, not a proceeding. Gotcha, right? That's what— go back to how I started this episode. Operation Epic Fury isn't going on. There's no Operation Epic Fury. This is Project Freedom where we have to open up the Strait of Hormuz. That's the objective. Epic Fury, well done. We're not doing anything with Epic Fury. Like, what are you talking about? What do you— what does that even mean? And that's everything that the Trump regime does about everything. Well, there's an appointment clause, so you need to appoint United States attorneys, the top federal prosecutors. Ah, we don't need to do that. We'll just make the first assistant deputy We'll give them the same responsibilities as the United States Attorney. So we'll have an acting United States Attorney. Their term will expire. And rather than actually go through the appointments clause, we'll then make them the first assistant deputy and they'll serve in that capacity, but basically do the job as the acting United States Attorney, even though the statute requires that we have a confirmation and it goes through the appointments.

It's like, well, you violated the appointment. We didn't violate the appointment clause. Just look, they're not the United States Attorney on an acting— they're the first assistant deputy. Everything they do is that. The problem, I, you know, when I teach constitutional law at law school, one of the things that I think we marvel at with our Constitution is not long. Right. When I teach about collective bargaining agreements and labor law, collective bargaining agreements are really long documents. They could be like 1,000+ pages. They're really, really, really long documents. And, um, that, that detail everything. Like if you look at an NFL CBA or an NBA CBA, every possible thing that could happen is, or in general, usually contracted for in a CBA, this massive document. The Constitution— I'll go try to do a word count of it, but like, look at the First Amendment. It's like a sentence or two, right? You look at the Second Amendment, it's like a sentence. You know, it's a little bit of a run-on sentence, but it's a, it's a sentence. I mean, you look at all these amendments, you look at the Constitution, you know, they're kind of these broad pronouncements that rely upon a contract principle called good faith and fair dealing.

Requires good faith, norms, principles, good faith that you can have this grand contract, the United States Constitution, with these broad pronouncements and they're followed and complied with. And, you know, that's why our Constitution for a long period of time was kind of viewed by other countries as saying, well, how does it even work? You don't even lay out all of these issues, yet you can have disagreements and you generally follow this document. And, uh, you know, and, and, and you— and the, the, the president doesn't often— you know, there'll be times where the president oversteps, but like, you know, in generally they respect their lane and there's an Article 1 lane and an Article 3 lane. Then when a court makes a decision, you respect the decision and they're not whining. And, and, and, you know, you don't have a Look, Donald Trump didn't invent the election is rigged. That's authoritarian baby behavior since the beginning of mankind or person kind. Well, you know, I should have won.

Me, me, me.

Look at me. Look at me. That's not new behavior. What was novel about the United States and not to say the US was the only one who did this. I mean, the enlightened philosophies of the 18th century, early 18th century extending on was adopted in lots of constitutions that we saw across across Europe and elsewhere, and it became a model and a template for the rest of the world. But people looked, you know, American law professors would take trips abroad, delegations to teach. How do you guys do this? How'd you do it? And so now to see this perverted Orbán-Putin style, you know, piece of shit here, you know, excuse my language, but I just, it just, dang, it makes me livid. It makes me angry, you know, to see that behavior here. I don't view it as a Democrat or Republican or independent thing. I just view it as a rule of law, rule of law, as a law and order thing right now. And Trump in the past never was like a negotiator. He was always someone who used negotiations to sucker punch. He lures you in under the pretext of good faith negotiations and punches you in the back of the face.

By the way, it's what he did to Iran twice, back last June, this past February. We're in negotiations. I kind of, you know, bring you in, bring you in. Boom. That's when, that's when you get hit, when your back is turned, when you don't expect it. Sucker puncher. He's a sucker puncher. That's what he is. That's what he is. And then he tries to get you, you know, when you, you know, when you, when you try to appease him or when you think you're in some sort of good faith negotiation. So he's someone his whole life who ripped apart, you know, contracts. And that's what he's doing with the Constitution. It's not— it's really not all that complicated. And so all of these things, They think they're smarter than anybody. Oh, here's the workaround. Here's the workaround. Here's the workaround. Here's how we're going to do it. Here's how we're not going to follow this. We'll just basically say, ah, you know, it's, uh, it's not Operation Epic Fury, so we don't need war powers. It's Project Freedom, defensive, humanitarian. Okay, but what's the long-term impact of all of this? And here's the important point that I want us all to remember, though.

The moment the Democrats take power, all of the crap that Donald Trump has you know, left the United States with and the world with, they're going to be like, oh, his plan was perfect. It was going to plan. But then the Democrats took over and now we see the surging inflation and now we see that this and now we see the— now we see this. That wasn't happening here. I mean, the guy's manipulating the markets every day. He's artificially suppressing what really should be happening to our economy right now. Right now. He's broken the bonds of American alliances. He's destroyed America's standing in the world, and that's not going to be repaired after, uh, you know, after he, after he leaves. And so, you know, his sycophants will say, but look, you know, he, he, he had this plan, he had this vision. No, what he's putting the country in the direction right now is something so deeply dangerous, and I just think we have to get in front of it and call it out. And whoever the president in the future, you know, you can't, you The big— to me, the big problem with Biden was not his ideas.

I think it was, you know, his age made him a less effective communicator in a 2021, in a post-Trump world. The level of communication when right-wing floods the zone with crap, you have to flood it back with truth and you have to do it right away. And you have to really flood the zone, and you kind of have to be everywhere all at once, and you have to have, you know, separate social media accounts that do the mockery. You have to have your official accounts that do your kind of official speeches. You have to go out there and you have to give the speeches every day. You have to be with the people all of the time. You have to do all of that, you know, uh, you know, right now. And I think as you looked at the last year or so of the Biden administration, when inflation was heading down to 2%, when you looked at the job creation record, which set records, I mean, there were quite literally the most jobs created under Biden than anybody out there. When you looked at his reduction of insulin and as he brought the semiconductor industry back to the United States, as you had a manufacturing boom, don't take my word for it.

I mean, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, others said America's economy by the end of the Biden administration was the Goldilocks economy, that it was the envy of the world at the end. Not to say at the beginning, I mean, you know, inflation was very high, gas prices were very high. Um, you know, and a lot of the shock took place in a post-COVID world where all of a sudden in this right-wing flood the zone culture, uh, that's taking place, you know, people were like, moved on very quickly to the idea that Donald Trump told you 9 months before he was out of office, like a miracle, COVID was going to go away. It was never going to hit our shores and everybody was going to be fine and things were going to be perfect. And just inject yourself with bleach. In 2 weeks, he's going to have a healthcare plan and this is going to happen then. And this is going to happen. I mean, Trump lost jobs and then it's like, well, if COVID didn't happen, we would have been fine. COVID happened. You keep— what do you mean if it didn't happen?

You, you You get a mulligan. You pretend that you— I never even know, like, what, what standard you get graded on. You get graded on like a baby curve. No, you were in office. What are we talking about? You know, what are we saying? You know, it's like, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's like, you know, when you'd be a blame, you know, it's like, uh, you know, whether it's, you know, look, George W. Bush, it would have been a great presidency if it wasn't for Afghanistan and Iraq and, and, uh and the financial crisis and subprime mortgages? You're going to blame him for Lehman Brothers and subprime mortgages? What do we do? We're talking about— was it, you know, he would have been great his second year. His— if you just judge him by his second year response when it was just going after the Taliban and his approval ratings were like— what was Bush's approval ratings like right after 9/11? Like 80% or something. It was like one time it was super high and then it flopped to record lows. Just judge— why do we judge this guy by some bizarre curve where— or this entire MAGA movement, going back to where I started this episode, where Rubio speaks in a sentence that's coherent and I have people like, I'd feel good if all things considered, Rubio is somewhat intelligent guy.

What are we talking? Rubio was the guy a few years back who worked on a bipartisan basis to say the president couldn't pull out of NATO without two-thirds of the Senate. And now Rubio is the guy that says basically America needs to get out of NATO. So I'm not going to— I'm not going to give Rubio applause because as a secretary of state, he speaks in sentences. Folks, Secretary of State said it's an august position. They should be the brightest of the bright, smart, sharp, encyclopedic. They should know who all the world leaders are, the capital of every country, the unique dynamics. If there are different ethnic groups in each country at a very macro and micro and submicro level, you should know all of that as Secretary of State. That shouldn't be like, whoa, the guy did a decent press conference. Wow. Wow. Can know that. What are we doing? The Overton window has shifted to such a degree where this is something that we see in authoritarian countries where people just accept breadcrumbs and they say, thank you, thank you, thank you. And we cannot be in that mindset where you just accept that government is an utter failure.

And that leadership doesn't exist and that this is just a battle of bombastic personalities puffing and creating drama in an election that's driven by reality show theatrics. That's not what the system is. We should be asking, what are these candidates going to deliver for us? What are they doing? What— how is my life impacted by this? Forget your team— Democrat, Republican, independent. You should be team yourself, your family, your community, your state or nation, your world. You should be on team our lives getting better. And are these people making my lives better? And where they are and that aligns with you, then support them. And if it doesn't, I don't care what political party they are, but stop everybody falling for these con artists and these people who it's me, me, me, me, me, me, me, who just constantly lie over and over again. You know, and they do it in different ways. I mean, you saw, you know, I showed you some of those clips of Rubio at the outset and Rubio in his own way, you know, you know, he has his own shtick, but that's not presidential. That's not presidential. Dude was up there lying and saying Operation Epic Fury is done and now we're in Operation Project Freedom and it's a separate operation and the goal is to open up the strait and then everything's going to be great and the ceasefire— that ceasefire is this thing.

We're in a humanitarian mission now. Come on, come on. Meanwhile, we saw what happened over the past 24 to 48 hours. Port of Fujairah in UAE was hit. A South Korean ship was hit. A, uh, a UAE ship was hit. Currently right now there's UAE air defenses being activated as Donald Trump threatens Iran. Iran is responding, believing that, uh, Trump's escalatory ambiguity is unacceptable. And, and, you know, and, and Trump and everybody's out there, you know, pumping up this market, manipulating this market that most Americans don't feel and they do it. It's the same shtick they got. Like Barack Ravid, the guy's got a Trump bobble— did you see this? This Axios guy, I saw somebody post, he's got a, he's got a Trump bobblehead behind him, this guy. And then, you know, you see, you know, at night, in the morning, right before the markets close, right before the markets open, Axios, Barack Ravid, he's got a new scoop. Several sources are telling him that Pakistan feels very, very, very confident that this time negotiations are super serial and everyone's going to do great. That's what Pakistan's saying. American officials say that the latest Iranian proposal is actually making significant progress and Iran is willing to make some concessions that they weren't before.

And the prospect of a deal seems to— I mean, it's the same, it's the same crap. And I see the oil futures fall, then I see the market rise. And then the information sits in, and then it goes down and up and down. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's the same pattern, okay? And corporate news is like, uh, corporate news then just, you know, buys it hook, line, and sinker. It's wild, wild concept. Anyway, that's why we have the Midas Touch Network. That's why we get out this information. Uh, that's why we say it's not normal when Donald Trump brags about cognitive exams, or when Donald Trump held the press conference with kids this morning and started talking about Hussein Obama and told a little girl that she's not going to be a volleyball player, or he started doing his weird dance, you know, in front of them, you know. And, and I point out, look, this regime's covering up, in my opinion, a child sex trafficking ring in the Epstein files. Shouldn't be children anywhere near these people, you know. Donald Trump was found civilly liable for sexual assault. There shouldn't be children near this guy.

Like, why, why doesn't anybody, like, I appreciate other people, independent media colleagues say it. Why is anyone saying that, dude? This is a guy found civilly liable for sexual assault who's on audio saying he grabs women by their genitals because you rich, you get— when you're rich, you get away with it. And he told high school students at a Young Republican club that he calls a locker room talk and that makes him courageous. Like, no one wants to— and now you're putting this guy with little children. Hell's going on here. I don't— and by the way, I don't think I'm being courageous for even saying these things. I just think I'm saying the thing. That's like reality. Anyway, that's all I got for you today. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Keep checking back the Midas Touch YouTube channel. We have updates throughout the day. We're grateful for you as always. Tell other people about this channel. Subscribe on audio. We'll see you next time on Ben on Breaking News. Appreciate you all. Make sure you hit subscribe. Shout out Midas Mighty. We're grateful for you. Have a good one, everybody.

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