Transcript of MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/21/26

the Trump White House in full panic mode. So much so they had to rush out Melania Trump. The Ponzi scheme that is the Trump regime, that is Bessant and Lutnick— by the way, where is Lutnick in this entire cast of despicable characters? The Ponzi scheme is now obvious for all to see. And you've got Treasury Secretary Bessant saying, I'm not really even sure why the gas prices are so high right now. You're not sure why the prices are so high? Let me explain it to you. Donald Trump launched a trade war against the world, then launched a catastrophic and unlawful war against Iran. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. Despite Donald Trump posting deranged AI memes of hot dogs running around the White House or himself controlling ships like a pirate in the Strait of Hormuz, the fact remains the US lost this catastrophic war. It's evident for all to see. The US security architecture and umbrella in the Middle East and Asia throughout the world has utterly crumbled. America has never been weaker. That's why the treasury yields are reaching record highs. And your schemes to try to manipulate the market on a day-to-day basis are now utterly smoked out, though they should have been a while ago.

And we are in dire times. So let's just bring out Melania. Let's just bring out Melania. We'll talk about that and more. As noted, the catastrophic war continues. Earlier this week, Donald Trump said that his strategy was gonna be to do nothing. Just kind of disengage and that Iran was going to just crash on its own. Didn't we hear that before from the Trump regime? Although, didn't you claim you won and that they wanted to make a deal or whatever? And now he's saying economic D-Day. We're gonna launch the most brutal economic campaign on Iran ever. Okay, so what does that mean? We're gonna go after anyone who does business with Iran. Okay, so what are you gonna do about China? I don't know. What are you gonna do about North Korea? You mean my friend Kim Jong-un?

I like that guy.

What are you gonna do about Russia?

I don't know.

What are you gonna do about anyone who actually does business with Russia?

Oh, I don't know.

I'm just gonna post in all caps and that'll be my solution. Talk about that. And big election week. People need to pay attention to what's going on. In another special election, this time, Jordy, your home state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in their House State District 12, Democratic candidate there outperforming by +19 in a +18 Trump district. We saw yet another 19-point swing. We've been seeing this in special election after special elections. Republicans have not won, get this, a single special election like this for the entire last 18 months or so. And Democrats overperforming consistently. And also Trump-endorsed candidates in Florida and elsewhere. Not winning. Talk about that and more on this episode. Brett and Jordy, great to see you, brothers.

Great to see you too. You know who doesn't want to talk about all that and more? Donald Trump, who always tries to deny that he actually endorsed the person after they lose, like with Corey Mills. Donald Trump, who enthusiastically had endorsed Corey Mills recently, went all in for Corey Mills with his endorsement. All of a sudden, Corey Mills loses his primary. What does Donald Trump say? Oh, I actually told him that he should get out of the race. That's what I was actually telling him the whole time. So it actually doesn't count towards my endorsement record. So frickin pathetic. And man, oh man, did John Ossoff get in Donald Trump's head that they had to wheel out Melania today in the public after she was not seen for more than 30 days. This whole story comes into the— into focus all of a sudden. Melania Trump. Hello, everybody. Remember me? I'm back. Okay. Interesting timing is all I'm going to say. Very interesting time and curious, one might say. Anyway, good to see you, Ben. Good to see you, Jordy. Good to see you, Midas Mighty. Jordy, what's the latest on your end?

Brothers, Midas Mighty. It's great to be here. First thing I want to say first is Melania. Ben, if I remember correctly, you've done a couple of stories about her disappearance, like where the heck has she been? So those have gone quite viral, those videos as well that you've made, if I'm not mistaken. So just, just, just, just putting that out. I'm not saying the two are connected, that now she's starting to resurface, but I'm just saying that that, that, that's the cadence of events here. The other thing I want to say, folks, is yes, for those who don't know, I am your resident Pennsylvanian, proud Yinzer over here in Pittsburgh. Absolutely. The energy here has shifted. And I'm not just saying that to provide hopium. I'm just telling you what I'm sensing here on the ground from my own personal day-to-day interacting with the people out here. The energy out here has shifted in a great, you know, in a great positive way. I'm excited to see what that leads to.

When we want to know what's going on in the country, we go, Jordy, what's going on? Jordy sticks his— puts finger in his mouth, sticks it up, sees which way. Oh, I see what's going on in Pennsylvania.

Energy shift.

I see.

Shift.

Vibe shift alert.

Exactly. Exactly. But I'm being— I'm— but all kidding aside, I'm being very sincere. I'm excited to see what, you know, this means as we go forward. Benji. Where we want to start today, big bro.

You see, look, the Natalie Harp story isn't interesting because she's always around him and it's weird and people have suspicions of what's really going on and she's referred to as a human printer and she writes the letters to him.

It's—

that's not the issue. This is not a story of punching down or sideways. It's exactly the way Senator Ossoff delivered this, which is Donald Trump doesn't care about governing. Donald Trump doesn't care about the American people while the American people are suffering, while the American people are paying record high prices right now for regular gas, for diesel, as the crack spread on diesel's $102 a barrel, price of diesel's approaching $200 a barrel, over $5.50 a gallon for diesel, over $4 a gallon for regular gas, much higher than that in a lot of states like in California, as the American people have their healthcare are ripped away, as the American people are struggling to get a job, to afford rent, certainly can't afford to buy a home right now for most Americans, as Americans with kids or grandkids or just in general look at future generations having very little hope, what is Donald Trump doing? That's the story. You're running around in catering containers that you're hiding in with Natalie Harp and you're out there in Bedminster throwing yourself golf tournaments where you're awarding yourself the senior trophy in the regular club, trophy when we know you didn't win.

But it's just this bizarre behavior focused on golden ballrooms and signing your name on helipads and putting your face on money and taking statues that are bronze and painting them gold and then focusing on all of that and Natalie while the American people are like, you're the guy who promised you were going to make electricity 50% less than it was before you took office, and you were going to do that on day one. You promised gas would be $2 a gallon right away, and it's at record highs right now. You promised that you were going to make things more affordable and make things not as expensive, and right now you claim you don't even know what affordability is and that it's a made-up word. And so that's the story. It's the juxtaposition, it's the contrast, and that's why it resonates. And it's just fascinating as I watch corporate news go, oh my God, they're talking about Natalie, Natalie, Natalie. First off, she has a government position. I know that according to some of the recent reporting, she didn't want to get a security clearance for at least the first year. She just declined to apparently.

But regardless of the threats and the dangers that may or may not exist, I mean, she's someone who's around him while he's destroying the country and she's a gatekeeper. She has an important role, like it or not. Not is the way I view it. A lot not. But these are people who are in positions of power who are punching down at the American people. So to me, it's actually punching up to criticize the power structure that's abusing their power. And she's included in that. It's like the way Donald Trump refers to his children, Don Jr. and Eric, as though they're little kids. And Ivanka, my daughter, my kids, like my kids. These are, these are grown-ass humans who are out there engaged in horrible, horrible behavior. And the moment you call these MAGAs out, they go right into this victimhood cocoon and they're like, oh, you can't talk about us like that. You can't say things like that. And then they go out there and engage in the most egregious and disgusting behavior. I mean, Donald Trump is literally a sexual predator. He's been found civilly liable for sexual assault. And you've got people in the Trump regime like, oh, you can't mention Natalie's name like that.

Really?

I mean, Donald Trump's an actual sexual predator. He's been found civilly liable by a federal jury, and his own Supreme Court rejected his petition for certiorari. He's on audio tape bragging that he grabs women by their genitals because he's rich and you get away with it. He's bragging about sexual assault on tape. So plea— and we have, of course, all of the footage of him attacking women reporters and calling women reporters piggy and all of these things. But let's state the obvious. Let's state the undisputed fact, as we would say in a summary judgment motion when I was a lawyer. Trump is undisputedly a sexual predator. And with it all, that's not happened.

He was—

he had happened in a jury, a federal jury. Okay, so let's just be real. Oh, the victimhood, the victimhood, you know. And then as you have our economy suffering right now and all of the schemes that they've been running, right, you know, what was it a week and a half ago? You had Bessens' Japanese yen scheme, right? This is ridiculous schemes. And so we swapped euros for Japanese yen so we wouldn't have to use dollars in the swap. Kind of screwed over the European Central Bank because we didn't give them any notice of it. It temporarily propped up the yen, but then the yen started to crash again. As we've said before on the Midas Touch Network, using the reflecting pool as the metaphor here, you can paint it blue for a little, but the algae always comes back. The algae always comes back. What's the scheme this week? The bond buyback scheme. And when you read the language of what Bessant was doing, I mean, the whole thing sounded like a complete sham. So I had Justin Wolfers, our chief economist, go over it with us. And the scheme was they were gonna buy back the long-term 30-year bonds and they were going to sell more short-term bonds to buy the long bonds.

And they would try to then take out some of the longer bonds out of the supply to decrease the price. But you would only do $4 billion of it. So you would signal to the market that Bessant got you back. And then hopefully the market would then say, got it, we feel better about this if we know that $4 billion is just the appetizer and he's going to protect us. But what happened 24 hours later? Those Treasury yields went up even higher than they were the day before. Nobody was buying. Quite literally, nobody was buying what Bessant was selling, the bonds, quite literally. And so you see this, and this looks like And I, and I think that there was a meme of it today of all of the schemes that he's engaged in, like which manipulation is he going to do today? Is it going to be the Treasury notes? Is it going to be the Japanese yen? Is it going to be the energy market? And the meme has them kind of swatting all of these things. And what we look like is a kind of corrupt developing nation right now, where you would have these authoritarians engage in all of this behavior.

And this is the type of stuff that we that we as the United States used to look down upon. And we used to be the beacon of predictability and reliability. And that's been completely shattered right now. So let me pause there 'cause I wanna show different clips. We'll go through all of this, but I think that's the perfect intro, Brett and Jordy, that kind of situates where we are. And then when these Trump bootlicking cabinet members like, how did we get here? I don't even know. That's what Bess said. I don't even know. It's like, yeah, I could tell you it's very easy when you declare a trade war against the world and then lose a catastrophic war and pretend that we won it even though we lost it and every day gets worse. And then you have all of Donald Trump's other horrific policies. It's a very obvious thing that has happened.

Brett and Jordy, I mean, what do they call it, uh, putting Band-Aids on a bullet wound? I mean, that's what it feels like right here, right? We have this, a massive gash right now that's self-inflicted, caused by Donald Trump. And every single day he seems to do more and more things to put more stress on the economy, on geopolitics. Like, you name it, you look at a sector of literally anything, Donald Trump has screwed it up. And so then people need to get in there and they need to try to surgically fix the problem. But we don't exactly have the best surgeons right now who are there to fix the problem. We got people like Scott Bessant. And so they do a patch here. But that patch here, I think it was Justin Wolfers who the Midas chief economist who did an incredible segment with Ben. That's— it's on our Substack, MidasPlus.com. You should check it out. Incredible segment breaking this down. I think the phrase he used was that there's no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to this stuff. So when Bessant does one thing, that then causes a problem in another sector, in another way, and then he then has to fix that problem.

And so what the Trump administration, the Trump regime right now has been kind of devolved to is fixing all of these little problems of their own creation, and then they create new problems and then they have to fix those problems. And then when they're asked about it, when they're actually, you know, given a little heat by the media about it, they have no actual real answers to the people, which is why they then fall back to, oh, it was all Biden's fault. Oh, it was the media's fault. It was this person's fault. It was that person's fault. I— or the new one that Scott Bessant deployed today, which is the one Ben just said, was, I don't know how— how did oil get like this? This is— this is bizarre. How did this happen?

I don't know.

You got to tell me.

What are you fucking talking about?

Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me right You know, these people, the gaslighting is just so unbelievable. But this is how they get through the day. You know, I had somebody ask, you know, me earlier, they were like, how long are they going to be blaming Biden for this stuff? I was like, forever. It could be 2027, you know, and then they'll still be blaming Biden for this stuff. They're not going to stop. This is, this is what they do. The debt just passed $40 trillion, $40 trillion, and Donald Trump himself is personally responsible for about 25% of that. All the debt, all of it going back to the beginning of the United States of America. Yet he takes 0% of the responsibility.

Well, the reality is, and well said, B, is that incompetence is encouraged under the Trump regime. There's no other way to talk about that. I mean, when you see Bassinow, how could this happen? You know, it's like that meme and people are going to get mad at me because I know this is like a cult following show, but I don't know it. It's the one with the guy in the hot dog suit.

How could this happen?

That's it. Because of you, dude. Because of your sheer incompetence. Because of the entire Trump regime's sheer incompetence. Day after day after day. And don't play like you did this intentionally. Like this was intentional. You know that all of the decisions that have led up to this moment have led to that. Absolutely. Can we just pause for a second to and just talk about how utterly weird like the Trump regime is like? Brothers, my smiley. Do you guys remember Biden's version of a Natalie Harp? Oh, no, you don't, because it didn't exist. What about Obama's, though? Obama's Natalie Harp? You guys know, remember her? No.

What?

Okay. George W. Bush's. No, it's never like— the reality is, is this regime, the Trump regime, is made up of the strangest cartoon reality star characters. And I use star very loosely there, obviously, characters that have ever existed. Now they just exist within our government. And not— not the phone again. Benji, over to you.

I know it's happening. And for the sketch comedy fans out there, I got to say, I think you should leave with, uh, Tim Robinson. It was the show Jordy was referencing.

I only mildly judge the Trump and Natalie relationship on the terms of the Trump-Natalie relationship. I purely view the issue as, uh, this is what they're doing while the American people are suffering. And I think that's how we, how, you know, how we need to take the perspective of it. You know, what's interesting too, though, is to see how world leaders are responding to Donald Trump's threats. And I think President Lee of South Korea typifies what's happening right now, which we've seen in Canada and elsewhere, where Donald Trump will threaten. Now I'll threaten, I'll threaten, I'll threaten. We're going to remove our troops. We're not going to help you. And the response is, okay, Good.

Do it.

We actually don't want you. So we appreciate it and see you later. And if you want to be a peacemaker, good luck. So as you now know, Donald Trump has been on a tear in his own mind, threatening South Korea and praising Kim Jong-un and saying it's so hostile that the United States would do joint military exercises with South Korea. Well, North Korea has been such a model international citizen, they've been so great. I mean, meanwhile, you have like North Korea, number one, helping Iran against Donald Trump. If Donald Trump is trying to go after Iran, I mean, you may want to understand some of the connections here. North Korea helping Russia, North Korea helping China, North Korea, um, as part of a broader alliance. That's at least what our commanders have actually, uh, have actually said. But you have North Korea launching all of these ballistic missile tests, bragging about their nuclear weapons, overtly threatening the United States if you listen to what Kim Jong-un's saying. And then Donald Trump again makes up in his own mind that he's having conversations with Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-un's sister came out with a public statement. She's like one of the top officials there in South Korea, which, you know, is kind of like the way Trump runs things, like Ivanka and Jared Kushner.

So that's the way these authoritarian dictatorships are. But in any event, Kim Jong-un's sister's like, yeah, we're not talking to him, we have no clue what he's even saying. Like, it's humiliating.

And I can't—

can I quote what she said? Because I feel like the exact words of what she said were even more humiliating than that. She said that Donald Trump's comments were, quote, not even worth commenting on. And she said, quote, they were completely uninteresting, and that she's completely unaware of any contact between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. I mean, how frickin' pathetic. And, you know, like you're saying, in the one breath you have Donald Trump again tweeting all caps, you know, economic D-Day against Iran.

Iran.

And if you're helping Iran or you're trading with Iran or doing anything, whether militarily or economically, we're going to come after you. And then you think like, okay, so who are those people? And as you said, it's North Korea, it's Russia, it's China. It's all the people that Donald Trump praises endlessly. And so if you're not going to go after them and Donald Trump ain't, he ain't going to go after them, trust me, then he's got nobody to go after. I mean, who, who else of the major players even is there to go after. And so it's just another one of Donald Trump's empty threats. What are you going to do? More sanctions? I think Iran is like sanctioned to death right now. You have a— they're— they got a lot of sanctions on them right now. Like, the problems are never really thought out. They're just another all-caps kind of threat tweet. And again, it makes Donald Trump look that much weaker. In the same way Iran's been following us and they've been looking at oil dwindling here and us digging more and more into our strategic petroleum reserves, they're also looking at the debt.

Spiking over here. They're looking at the economy over here, uh, going down the tubes. And so when Donald Trump calls for an economic D-Day, it seems like the only economic D-Day is the one that's coming to the United States, the one that's here in the United States. But I do gotta give it to Donald Trump. If there's anyone who knows how to destroy an economy, it is Donald Trump. I will give him that.

I think it's also a big reason why too Donald Trump starts to point his fingers at our allies and starts to attack our allies because because he's not getting, I guess, the emotional, uh, gratitude when he goes after the, these, you know, other, other leaders like, like the King John. Like, he's not, he's not satisfied with their responses and that they, they push back. It, it's so bizarre to me to see then the pivot to attack our allies.

Well, it's just like if when he's a loser in litigation— he's a loser in everything in life.

Yes.

So what does he do when he loses the case? He attacks the judge. It's so unfair. What does he do when he doesn't like the fact that the Treasury yields are rising, or he doesn't like the fact that interest rates will probably have to increase. He attacks the Fed and goes after them and just screams at them. And it's like, dude, it is you. You are the loser. Everybody knew that tariffs would increase inflation. And when you run a trade war against the world, they're going to respond. And it's also going to cause the consumers here in the United States to pay more money. And it's going to be bad when you invoke a 1930s tariff statute that has not been used since 1930. Maybe the reason is because that's what led to the Great Depression or accelerated the Great Depression. And the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act is not something you want to rekindle in 2026. But in any event, you have President Lee of South Korea. Who'd he meet with today? And who is he meeting with in the next 48 hours?

Wang Yi.

Of China. That's China's foreign minister. South Korea is gonna turn to China and say, got it, well, we're not with the US anymore under that security umbrella, so we're gonna have to look elsewhere, and we'll look to China, and we'll have to improve our relations there. And President Lee, in his post, this is what he says, and this is obviously mocking Donald Trump. He goes, I have carefully reviewed the recent SNS messages and photos posted by President Trump. SNS are the social networks. Messages. Those are— he's saying, I've closely reviewed Trump's social media messages. And then he goes on to say that this message from Trump feels like a significant decision, deeply infused with deliberations aimed at transcending hostility and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula to create peace. And it's Donald Trump's meme of Kim Jong-un saying, hey Donald, we cool, right? They're mocking. I want you all to realize what President Lee of South Korea did. He's mocking Donald Trump and saying that this is deliberation infused with great amount of thinking. And then he goes, and then he, and then he goes, okay, you want to be peacemaker?

Good luck.

We wish you the best. And what did Kim Jong-un do in the past 12 hours? I could go back 48 hours. Past 12 hours, ballistic missile test. 10 ballistic missiles or so. 10 short-range ballistics the guy shot after Donald Trump I'm saying it. And then that's what Kim Jong-un did. And so President Lee of South Korea is like, I've seen first the messages on social media, and he's mocking Donald Trump for not— like, you're not going to go through commanders, you're not going to go through the military, you're not going to go through your ambassadors. But that's how the world views the United States right now.

You know, I feel like every kind of, uh, major power right now in the world is employing the same strategy strategy against Donald Trump, and that's the famous never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake. And I think Iran's doing a version of that, right? Like, you know, all the, you know, assassination threats, this, that. It's like, as Ben has said on the show many times, like, why would they even want to do anything to Donald Trump? He's destroying everything on his own. He, he is their weapon of mass destruction, so let him destruct. I think Canada is handling things the same exact way. I think you see China just stepping back. Okay, uh, America, retreat. Okay, retreat. Okay, see ya, see you later. All right, South Korea, hey, what's up guys? You, you, you doing good? You doing good? Let's— want to hang out? Want to hang out? I know that guy was crazy, so let's, let's chill, man. Let's chill. Let's hang out. And so you're seeing all these countries right now take this opportunity, and, and all they have to do is nothing.

Nothing.

It's like, like Seinfeld, the show about nothing. It's, it's a geopolitical war where all they have to do is nothing. They just have to sit back and let it all happen.

You know, they're like the first year they were kind of feeling it out, right? You think about like a boxing match, right? And you kind of feel it out. You feel it out. Even where you are a quote unquote inferior power, you're still a heavyweight, right? I mean, countries usually still know what they're doing, right? If you're in the World Cup, you may not be Spain or Argentina, but you're still in the World Cup for a reason. You could still play, right? You know what I mean? And so you're feeling it out. You usually have the smartest people, top people around you, experts. So you're feeling out, you're like, okay, this person, this entity, the United States, they have the reputation of being the best, the strongest, the power.

They created the game.

Okay, we got to respect the game, even if it's a crazy person. And then it's like in a boxing match, you know, like what if the boxer who's, you know, the undisputed heavyweight starts just like going like this, like going crazy. So, all right, that's a little weird. That's a little weird, but like maybe that's part of the plan, and then we're gonna get like sucker punched. And so like even though they're doing that, it's not— I've never seen that boxing strategy. That's a little freaking crazy. All right, let's, let's wait a little bit. Then round 2, they do it again.

All right, it's a little bit weird.

And then you start to jab, jab, and then the, and then the big boxer keeps— okay, are they gonna punch back? Oh, then they go, I'm gonna punch you really hard, I'm gonna punch you really hard. Okay, pop, pop, pop, right back at you. And big heavyweights to like doing that. Okay, this is getting— could this person actually fight? Like, what are they doing? What are they doing? And then they keep seeing the person in there, and then the person starts punching themselves in the face. And that's what Trump's doing, like, just starts punching himself. And then so these countries are like, oh, oh, it's like that. Like, like, like, you dumb dumb. Like, oh, got it. I— this is the game.

Oh, okay.

And then Trump's like, what, you want You want this?

You want this?

You think you can handle this? And then these countries are watching him like, okay, okay.

For the audio listeners, Ben is punching himself.

And on that, this is a very physical bit.

It's a very physical fit.

That's why you gotta make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and check right now. Make sure you subscribe.

That may not translate at all for any audio listeners. Yeah, this is like, there was so many action things. There's so many action And for the audio listeners, they're going to be like, what are we doing here?

You can—

you can—

Ben is taking off his shirt right now. Ben, you don't have to get into this bit.

Ben, easy. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. WTF America is the name of the book that I wrote with my brothers. It comes out, uh, on October 20th. Pre-order WTF America right now. Uh, lots of momentum behind it. We hope you'll pre-order it. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel as well. Let's take our our first quick break of the— it's a good bit, it's like I, I came up with it on the spot. Let's take our first quick break of the show.

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Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Uh, use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Spring Sleep, new sponsor to the network, definitely check that out. That's very, very, very cool. Home Chef, obviously everyone loves them. Uh, real quick before we move forward, just want to say, uh, the bit with the— my, my phone over here earlier, not planned. For those who listened to the show on Tuesday, watched it Monday night, I had a lot of noises going on on. I did not force a phone call here. I saw some comments saying I did that on purpose. Did not do that on purpose. And Ben, great physical podcasting today so far.

I'm really happy.

You know, like physical comedy, like the guys that you like on SNL back in the day. Ben's a physical podcaster tonight.

Fantastic. And speaking of physical comedy and audio comedy, I want to remind everyone to make sure you're also— that you subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast on audio. We did get some emails from people saying that they were having trouble playing the episodes on the feed. So just go to the Midas Touch podcast, be like Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, play the episodes, make sure it's working for you. Uh, let us know in the comments. All right, Ben, what's next?

Look, I think I approached this— I know, I hope I approach this, or you feel I do— this isn't coming like the Democratic perspective, the independent perspective, Republican perspective, or whatever. I mean, using the World Cup football analogy, or soccer in the United States, You want your best players out there, right? You don't want to send out a JV team to play against other teams that have the best from their countries. You can't underestimate it. And the Trump regime always underestimates while putting out the worst people. And it's led by the worst possible captain in Donald Trump, who is not a leader at all, who is a bankrupter, who's been a life failure and a lifelong fraud who's put out a team of JV frauds. Not even good frauds. They're like JV frauds. And you watch them all head out, do their state regime media propaganda bits today. And I'll tell you, today more than ever, and this was deeply concerning, and Brett and Jordy, you tell me if you feel this way also, amongst really bad propaganda, Today kind of seemed the worst I've seen it with them. Like, they all just kind of didn't even have their heart in the fraud anymore.

Like, they all just kind of were like, yeah, want to talk about the Grand Prix race? It's like, no, no, we don't, we don't. But we're doing a great race, uh, and the cars, they're gonna go zoom, zoom, zoom in Washington, D.C. Uh, do you like that? People are like, dude, what are you talking about? We're still doing America 250. It's freaking August. We're still doing this bit.

Yeah, we've reached, you know, we're in the bread and circuses phase of the Trump regime right now, but they forgot the bread. Like, people can't eat, so it's just these bizarre circuses while people are going hungry and while people can't afford things. So they're like, hey, you see the race we're doing at the way— you see that UFC fight? That was pretty cool. That wasn't like last week.

Did you see what we did in, uh, Ohio when they did their Hunger Games? When they do it, I did a video I, you know, I really couldn't keep—

I don't think, by the way, I don't think anyone saw what they did in Ohio other than the people that watched your video.

I did a video on it and I was reading the comments as I watched these individuals who were purported to be the best high school athletes. And so it's called the Patriot Games. I did a whole bit on it. I won't spend that much time on it right now, but the Trump regime put out a notice to Christian schools, particularly Christian in private schools that you send an essay and a video of yourself to join the Patriot Games, and then they say if you qualify. Like, it's not— it's not even like— I don't want to offend, even though these kids are probably like MAGA families. I don't really want to offend the kids. Like, I wasn't trying to mock the kids, but they're not the best athletes. They weren't really even good athletes. They were mostly all white kids. There was like a few people who were not white in it. It was so— it was just like Trump's vision.

Gotta make a meme of Ben, like the MJ the fuck them kids.

I know, I was very care— I was very careful in how I presented it, but they don't make that meme. They basically had these like white Christian kids run around like, like, you know, those dog races that they do.

I—

but I'm not even joking, Jordy.

I'm—

you go watch it. They had them do the dog obstacle course and they run around and these kids are out of shape mostly, and they— and they're trying really hard You know, you know, I'm 41. It would look like me doing it, right? You know, it's like, you know, and they're like, these are the best athletes in the country. So the whole thing was utterly deranged. I'm not even sure why I'm even bringing this up. But the point is, is that we're doing America 250.

That was last week.

They want to talk about Grand Prix this week. And the American people, going back to the way Senator Ossoff does it, which I think is the right way you have these discussions, it's like, no, no, no, no, no, you promised us on day one that groceries would be incredibly cheap and that you would decrease inflation. Inflation has increased. You promised electricity would be half. You promised us gas prices would have a 2 in front of it, would be $2. Now it's the highest nationwide ever in the history of the United States. You promised us no never-ending wars or no wars. You promised you would resolve Russia's invasion of Ukraine. You've lied about everything, and now you're doing grand Pry. Now you're doing this with Natalie. Now you're doing golf tournaments and ballrooms and anything like— what the hell's going on? So the Trump regime brings out Brooke Rollins. Brooke Rollins, Agriculture Secretary, goes on Newsmax, pretty safe channel. It's regime media. They say, so is food affordability becoming a test on whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promise? Is affordability becoming a test here?

Play this clip. With the midterms approaching, how do you see this playing out?

Is food affordability really becoming a test of whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promises?

No.

Affordability, you know, I think continues to be a key conversation, as it should be. But I think we have to put this all into context. And certainly on the food side, which is what we are looking at at USDA, protecting the food supply, number one, but affordability as well. Under Joe Biden, the cost of food went up almost 25%. I mean, this is what we're battling against right now. Under Trump, we are right at the 20-year average, which is around 2 to 3%.

Blame Biden, blame Biden, blame Biden. But here's the thing, even though it wasn't Biden, but whatever, just accept for the sake of argument, just accept for the sake of argument. Biden Biden didn't run. Biden dropped out of the race. So by that logic, Trump should drop out, you know, or Trump should, you know, y'all hated Biden. I mean, them being the Trump regime. So you're comparing the two. Okay. So even if that's your comparison, Trump promised he would make things better. He's actually made things worse by far. And also when they talk about, you know, they always bring up Biden's like first year or second year and using my sports example, example, it's like analyzing the game in the second quarter versus the fourth quarter. You know, it's like after the team wins the game and goes through fourth quarters, it'd be like saying, but did you see the second quarter? It's like, okay, yeah, we were down in the second quarter, but they won the game at the end. We can look at the totality and say—

let me sharpen that analogy for you there. It's as if it's a complete rebuild. When President Biden had taken over, he was rebuilding what Trump had destroyed. It's like when new ownership and a new coach actually comes in and tries to get things back on track. And by the Okay, starts to make progress there. And then all of a sudden, you know, it happens when it happens.

And now the bad coach is back and they do it in the inverse too, right? Like they're always cherry-picking data and they're always trying to find like, what was the sliver of time we could point to where things were okay? And you see that with the way they speak about Donald Trump's first term, which, by the way, was also headed for disaster in manufacturing before COVID happened. But what did you hear Donald Trump and what do you hear all these people say? Oh, well, we were doing great. 'Great, we were doing really great, but then, oh, something happened, and you just— you can't actually count that last year, uh, you know, you can't count the year before either. Like, you could actually only count this, this tiny little period, and that's how we should be judged upon.' And it's like, that's, that's not how it works, especially when you're the guy who's mishandling all the crises, when it's your job to manage the crises.

I also can't get over the fact of, of how un-TV-ready so many people in the Trump regime truly are. Like, that clip right there is super pathetic. First off, for the audio viewers, she's She's on Newsmax. She's on Newsmax. And she just had a layup of a question. And all of a sudden, her MAGA brain-rotted brain just couldn't answer a simple— yes, affordability is a huge crisis. We're doing our best to correct the— just give any of that. But instead, it's no, it's Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden. But I mean, I mean, honestly, they have Biden Derangement Syndrome. Everyone in this cabinet, including Donald Trump, suffers from deep, deeply disturbed Biden Derangement Syndrome.

Yeah. And by— and Donald promised on day one that he was gonna make it better.

He—

that was his whole pitch. I mean, his whole pitch was day one, day one. And then they said, ah, give us another quarter. Ah, give us another quarter. Ah, beginning of 2026. Ah, give us until the end of '26. Ah, give us over here. And it's like, I just think the American people are like, time's up. Like, the Ponzi scheme, the Ponzi scheme is over. And look, that's why his approval right now is the lowest in modern presidential history, period. Since 1953, it's the lowest. I know for our international viewers and people here in the United States, it's still like, wait, 33% of people still— so that's still a high number, man. Like, how does 33% still support him? But I think you have to realize that there has been decades and decades and decades of very kind of tribal behavior and right-wing media propaganda that basically has told people in some of these, you know, red states or whatever, that the worst thing in life is being a Democrat, that they're the enemy from within, that they're really horrible people. And that, you know, and this has been generationally passed down, and it didn't just happen.

Although I do think people are waking up, and I think people are waking up up not to say, oh, I really love Democrats and the donkey logo, and I love, I love political party. I don't think people really like politics. I think they realize that Trump and MAGA have weaponized politics to divide us and to hurt them. So now people are looking for a politics of accountability and a politics of humanity and empathy that protects people, seeing how politics was weaponized by these con artists and losers to inflict pain and suffering bringing upon us. Speaking about con artists, losers, here's Treasury Secretary Bessant. This guy's the Treasury Secretary, okay? And he's asked a very basic question about today's spike in oil. And we all knew this was coming. We all— because it's been happening for a while and they've been manipulating the markets for a very long time. But as I said in the first segment, and we say in WTF America, the reflecting pool metaphor holds. You can paint it blue for a little bit. You can try to cover up your problems. You can come up with a catchy slogan. You can blame others.

You can defraud, but guess what? The algae always comes back. The gas prices are gonna do what market forces do when you have supply and demand issues. When you blow things up, both in terms of a trade war, And in terms of actual war, when you blow it up, guess what? There's less things. When there's less things, there's less supply of it. When there's less supply of it and there's more scarcity, the prices go up. It's not a hard thing to realize. We don't control the Strait of Hormuz.

Okay.

And the Houthis also control the Red Sea. And they're only enforcing their blockade against the Saudi tankers right now. But that is a major issue also. Also, Trump didn't resolve Russia's invasion of Ukraine on day one. And now you have Russia striking hard in Ukraine and you have Ukraine striking hard in Russia, destroying lots of refineries over there. And so we have a massive, massive issue when it comes to oil, when it comes to crude. And we're seeing that reflected. And by the way, when Donald Trump's like, "It's not like the price of gas." $200 a barrel. It is, it is. I, I understand, Donald, you're an idiot and you don't understand the difference between the paper price of crude WTI and Brent, which is now in the 90s. You don't understand that. But at the refinery, the crack spread, we're talking about $102 for diesel. Talking about the price of diesel per barrel close to $200 per barrel when you actually, this, when you actually have to buy it from the refinery what the price of diesel is. Okay, so it is at those levels. It is. And the fact that Bessant is like, we don't know— no, we very much know.

Let's play Bessant.

Let's play.

Declining.

We got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand. You know, our announcement is for economic action, and I think that the economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner. I mean, Brett and Jordy, I just don't understand the— our market manipulation was supposed to work, but it didn't today. I just don't get what's going on. It's like, it's such a crazy thing to say. Obviously, it's all related to Donald Trump and his war. It's all related to the fact that the war is still ongoing, that the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, that there are ships being struck in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, that there's chaos in the region, that Ukraine and Russia are still at war. That's, that's why, Scott Bessant. It's, it's all of those things that all those things that Donald Trump said he would either fix or never start in the first place. That is the cause of it. And literally, if Donald Trump went into office and hid in a catering cart and stood in that catering cart and ate McDonald's and KFC all day or Taco Bell or whatever he does, the economy would be better now than without him.

By the way, even the stock market, which has been doing quite well, would be better if Donald Trump was in a catering cart than what he is doing right now with his market manipulation and all volatility. It just, it just would be. I mean, when you look internationally, you see other markets have been doing— not all of them, but markets have been doing better than the United States. And so Donald Trump is a destructive force. And for Scott Bessant to play dumb, for Brooke Rollins to play dumb about all of this, like, it all traces back to one person, but also to you, because you all are responsible for actually holding this person responsible, giving them the information. And frankly, I think this is why the Natalie Harp story actually actually takes on more importance because remember what her supposed job actually is. It's giving Donald Trump fake data is essentially her gig. Why, why is she called the human printer? Because she prints out flattering articles or fake news articles or memes or whatever, and she shows things that Donald Trump wants to see, not the actual facts. And so sometimes you don't even know, is Trump seeing the truth about X, Y, or Z?

Because if he's just watching things you know, Fox or propaganda like that, and he's just being handed things by Natalie, then you actually like— you're like, what is this guy even basing his decisions on if he's not even living in reality? And so that is also part of the problem. And it's why this is, you know, also worth further investigating. And it's why the fact that you didn't have security clearance is such a major issue. And to Ben's point, I think all of this chaos is why we're seeing such an erosion of Donald Trump support all all over the place. I mean, I saw this truly, truly wild exit poll from CNN. And Jordy, I think this is in your commonwealth over there, Pennsylvania. Exit polls from, from the state over there, from the elections the other night. Trump was +34 points amongst white working-class voters in the 2024 election. And the exit polls taken this week have him at -4 points among white working-class voters. I mean, that is theoretically Donald Trump's base. That is essentially the reason why Donald Trump is president. And to see a 38-point swing in this category is unheard of.

And I saw pollsters speaking about it like they have never seen something like this happen so quickly. And it is, uh, all the testament to what Trump is doing every day.

You know, you could only pull the rug under people— from under people so many times before I think they finally hit their heads and wake up and say, hey, what you're doing right now seems to only be helping you, your kids, and the top 0.001% who hang out with you at Mar-a-Lago, and not me, the working class. Not me, the person that wants to put food on the table. Not me that needs healthcare. Not me that needs to be able to afford my house. Not me that— it, it, it is so truly despicable what what the Trump regime has been doing. A couple points here. First, with Bessin and Brooke Rollins, again, I want to say this very clear: incompetence is encouraged under the Trump regime. And what I mean by that is they have one obligation. That's all they care about, and that is singly protecting Donald Trump. They do not care about making your life better as an American person. They do not care about making your housing more affordable. All they care about is how in this TV hit, when the press asks me questions, when I have to do reports, how can I continue to run cover for Donald Trump, a failing, aging, grotesquely evil and ugly president that is just hurting Americans day in and day out.

Back to the Natalie Harp situation very quickly too. I wanted to say this because I know I fairly, you know, made light of it, uh, a little bit earlier on the show, just talking about how utterly bizarre and weird it is. Well, it is, but it is also incredibly dangerous for the points that my brothers have laid out here. Mainly the fact, again, that she didn't have clearance. She didn't do security clearance. Since when is that like an okay thing. To be the person that's hanging around the president of the United States and not going through the proper channels that everyone else has ever had to go through, to be that close to the nuclear football at all times and not be properly cleared, is absolutely banana land to me, man. And again, I, I— it's a testament here to this community, this pro-democracy community, who continues to call this stuff out and make those types of points. Because it is, it is only with a community like this and, and people who deeply care about this country that we can start to build back something that could be better than this, hopefully one day.

Did you say— did you say build back better?

What if I just— what if that was my new bit? I just kept dropping like Biden puns like throughout the—

like throughout.

I'm having PTSD from, from hearing those words said in that order. Thanks, Joe Manchin.

And I'll give you another 3 letters there. WTF. That's the name of the book that my brothers and I WTF America.

That's a good brand I just went on.

Because when we wake up in the morning, sometimes we just say, what the F? I look at my phone. They say never a good idea to look at it right away, but that's what I do. So, you know, turn it, look, I go, what the F did he do today? He did this, he did this, he did this. And preorder it right now. A lot of momentum around the preorders. I did an interview with Mooch Scaramucci. I co-host Scaramucci's podcast. Check. You could check that out as well. We had a lot to discuss when we come back. I want to talk a little bit more, Brett, about the Pennsylvania results. Kevin McCarthy freaking out. MAGA Republican disgraced speaker saying MAGA Mike Johnson has no plan. When Kevin McCarthy is saying MAGA Mike has no plan, that is a Russian nesting doll of destruction right there. Let's take our last quick break of the show. Reminder, Subscribe on audio, please become a YouTube subscriber and an audio subscriber. We'll be right back after this last—

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You know, when I say I really do my best to approach this even not as this party or that, I, I, when I try to just give you the analysis, I just try to give you just the facts, the objective damn facts. And I think about something like, what's Donald Trump doing with a steam catapult? What, what doesn't make any sense? Donald Trump doesn't like that on aircraft carriers. They were electromagnetic launch pads because that's the current best technology. And then Donald Trump says, I don't like that. Okay, what do you mean you don't like that? Who are you to judge that? You don't know what you're talking about. He goes, I like steam catapults. What do you mean you like steam catapults? Okay, I like chocolate chip cookies. Should I just start eating chocolate chip cookies when I'm doing this podcast? Like, I mean, a lot of things I like. Very strange. You know, if I start eating chocolate chip cookies while doing this show, I'm not going to be able to speak because I'm going to have cookies in my mouth just because I want them. But I want them. Cookie Monster. That's like aversion.

It's like, what are you doing? Donald Trump likes the way battleships look between 1920 and 1940. Likes the aesthetic. Doesn't like stealth. Doesn't like aircraft carriers. Doesn't like the drone technology. He really likes back to the basics, is what they're calling it right now at the Defense Department. So they fired their top four stars, or pushed them out, like Randy George of the Army. They pushed out their head of Southcom, who didn't want to commit war crimes. They pushed out another general, Donahue, top Army general. Um, he was known as the last soldier in Afghanistan. They pushed out C.Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint— so many more incredible top military people were pushed out, and they bring in sycophants who say, "We got to get back to the basics." One of the issues, if you study World War II, as you reflect on with the US kind of security umbrella in Asia collapsing, I think about Bushido and the Bushido code, and almost like the kind of samurai code in Japan, if you will, and the warrior spirit it as lots of other countries were advancing in certain types of technology and the world is moving in a certain direction.

This idea of US going back to basics is a bit like, what are you talking about? Like, wars are fought today with drones, drone interceptors, unmanned submersives, the FPVs, variations of what Iran is producing in the Shaheds. There's— they're called different things here. Yes, ballistics, you need your interceptors, you need an arsenal of these things. Like, that's how modern warfare exists. And when the US runs its military simulations and did exercises with Ukraine, Ukraine kicked the US military's ass where the US had to respawn like a video game in the simulation over and over and over again in the war exercises, like within minutes Ukraine's drone swarms destroyed the entire United States military. Now China is learning the lessons of modern warfare, and they're working with Iran, they're working with Russia. It's not a secret, okay? They could say, we, we know, and, and North Korea, they're working together. And BRICS bloc nations are cooperating as well. The U.S. and Trump— Trump likes battleships, Trump likes steam. Trump no like drone. Trump like testosterone. You know, and then they have, you know, people who, you know, look very low T, but pretend this is what a man looks like, like a Hegseth or whatever.

And he's too scared to even be around the media, so he has to kick out all the media from what he's doing. By the way, hat tip to those defense reporters They're still doing great work at New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Financial Times. The defense reporters who have been kicked out of the Pentagon are awesome. MSNOW, they really are really doing a very, very good job.

I almost feel like they lit a fire under them in like a weird way, like, like, you know, Trump, because for, you know, those who may not understand the context, you know, Trump kicked out all the real reporters from the Pentagon and replaced them with all these right-wing hacks who aren't reporters. And the The Pentagon reporters are really freaking good, really, really talented. Like, I, I commend them, and they're really good once they're able to kind of lock in and hone in and, and start getting their sources and poking here and poking there and trying to uncover what's actually going on. And they've realized pretty quickly, like, we don't actually have to be in the building to do that. And there are a lot of people in this Pentagon who want to talk to us outside of this building anyway. And so they've been getting just like some incred— incredible scoops. Um, you know, I, I feel like the kind of line in the Trump administration, uh, for the second term, in the beginning people were like, oh, there are a lot fewer leaks going on. Well, I, I think if you, if you thought that earlier on, those days are certainly over.

I mean, this thing is leaking like a sieve. You know, everybody's talking because every move seems like to be made with such disdain toward the people who are working and all in order to support Donald Trump in the weirdest, most cultish ways. Even like when you look at one of the things that CNN was reporting on earlier today, that the Trump regime is considering renaming the USS Doris Miller, which is an aircraft carrier that honors a Black sailor who celebrated for his heroism at Pearl Harbor. They're considering renaming it after Donald Trump. And that's a real story in the mix of a lot of stories that's happened today in this week, right? And so this is a real thing. They don't know who they're— who they may rename it after, but they want to take this ship that's named after this historic Black sailor. They want to rename it after somebody, and Donald Trump's name is in contention, is basically what the story says. And this— we're dealing with like a sick— like, like sick people. Like, this is sick, sick, sick, sick stuff. And, and, and so, you know, when you're dealing with that, I, I think as a reporter, you have to understand that you're dealing with sick people.

You have to understand that the people, especially at the top, the Trumps, the Hegsets, those people are going to constantly lie to you. So you have to actually get to the people who understand what's going on, who actually maybe understand strategy, how weapon systems are supposed to work, understand the needs of the military, or the soldiers aboard the USS Lincoln, you know, like our Aaron Parnas here at Midas Touch has been speaking with the families, you know, on those ships, which is finally, you you know, back home. Um, but we're, we're seeing all this every single day, and it really paints a picture of tumult and turmoil.

Absolutely. And like, I'm not saying this to throw shade, although it may sound like it. It's just, it's amazing the reporting that could be done when you're not worried about access constantly. We're not worried about having that access on Air Force One or access— it's, it's amazing the type of work that can actually be done. It feels freeing.

Benji, I want to go bring back back the World Cup analogy, international football, US soccer. So the US had the undisputed best team in the world by far. Like, imagine a team— who are some of the best players in this tournament? Messi, Haaland, Bellingham, whoever, right? You, you name the players. Who did we have as our generals? We had the Joint Chiefs chairman, we had CQ Brown, Junior. The Army Chief of Staff, you had Randy George, beloved, cutting-edge, 4-star, and people loved his wife Patty. They were like the morale booster of like the military. And Randy George was like, you know, he was, he was like the Holland. He was like the most popular person also. And then we had another guy, uh, General Donahue, who was a 4-star general widely known for being the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan during the 2021 evacuation, Christopher Donahue. And he wasn't even responsible for the evacuation. He was just, he went there to help and help the situation. And he's a beloved individual as well. And so what did Hegseth do? Imagine a team is stacked with the best players, right? Right? He got rid of the best players.

He got rid of them. He pushed them all out, and he replaced them with people who aren't really that good, who are like, let's go back to the basics. Let's go back to the basics, everybody, and let's, let's, let's do what we did in World War II to fight wars in 2026. And to me, that should infuriate you, whether you're a Democrat, whether you're a Republican, whether you're an independent, whether you're not political, that's just— that's a competence issue. It's a leadership issue. It is a just basic running operations issue. And that to me is where a lot of my criticism comes from. I mean, when you look at this Darlene Graham debate that a lot of people are talking about, and rightfully so, where she was asked a question, well, what's your view about Taiwan? What should the US do about Taiwan as it relates to China?

China.

What's your perspective? And her response is, I don't know anything about it. I don't know much about it. And, um, and then she tried to justify it by basically saying, you know, at the end of the day, I don't know national security. I don't know anything about any of this. And so I just, um, I just wanted to be honest with the people at the end of the day. And so I care about domestic issues, but I just don't know anything about national security. And that's like her It's like you're currently a United States senator. These national security issues relate directly to domestic issues. As we talked about before, the reason why prices are what the prices are is because there's a world and there's trade in the world, and Trump's policies are having an impact here. So let me show you what happens when she goes and speaks at an event and she's asked about that answer in a very MAGA crowd.

Proud.

Let's play this clip.

Because there are votes that go toward funding wars or declaring wars.

And if you're deciding voting that factor, how can we trust as constituents that you'll make the right decision if you're not informed on national security issues at this moment in time?

That's a fair question, right? But, you know, I answered it honestly because I'm not a national security expert. Lindsey was right because he talked a lot about national security. You know why? He spent 33 years in the Air Force. He had a military background. So he had a lot of foreign relations. And that was his focus. To me, as I walked around this room and I've asked people, are y'all concerned about Taiwan? You know what they said? No, they're concerned about the price of groceries, the price of gas, rising healthcare costs. What is national security Is it important? Absolutely. Can I learn? I'm smart. Yes, I'll learn. I'll become informed. Everybody has a first day on the job. President Trump, was he a politician? Has he done a good job? Yes, he has. So that's my answer. So, but I will always be honest.

Honest, listen, is encouraged.

Well, well, because here's the thing, and then they're saying it out loud, Jordy, right? Because you see, uh, who's running against her? Is Ralph Norman running against her in the primary? I think, yeah, yeah, Norman. And, and so one of the things that you can kind of continue to hear, um, Trump world say is, you know, they're like, well, what's wrong with Ralph Norman, right? He's a guy, like, he's a guy who's been in the House of Representatives, like, he's a very right-wing guy. Like, what's your issue? And they're like, he's not for Trump, he's not all in on Trump. And the whole thing is not about competence. The whole thing is, are you all in on Trump? And everything is judged by that. You could be Darlene Graham with zero experience and not understand foreign policy even one iota, and but if you're all in for Trump, then that's okay. That's all that matters in the MAGA cult.

And Brett Norman's response may have actually actually even been worse. I mean, she said she didn't know. And then Ralph Norman's response is, why do you think China's so scared of us right now? Why do you think— it's like, why do you think China's so scared of— what world are you object— like, what world are you living in? America's security— objectively, America has no security umbrella in Asia. Our last supercarrier is gone. We have no security umbrella anywhere anymore. We're all Idiot, psycho, lunatic flagpole boy Donald Trump is talking about being friends with Kim Jong-un. Like, what world are you living in? And this is not, Brett Jordy Midas Mighty, this is not like, I'm not giving you, this is a Democratic position. I'm just like, y'all are the most dangerous freaking psychotic humans imaginable that you can see the world we're in now with all of the suffering happening here here with America's object— this isn't a talking point, this isn't an effing game, this is real life. And you're out there saying you think Xi Jinping is scared of Donald Trump? Xi Jinping could not be happier. Like, and the craziest thing with these psycho humans who are like, oh, I'm a China hawk, this is what we wanted— you wanted to be this weak?

Like, we couldn't be weaker, dude. Freaking Elbridge Colby, the number 2 at the Defense Department, who's Mr. I'm gonna decouple from China, China. He is begging Xi Jinping for a visit to Beijing. And Xi Jinping is like, nah, get the hell out. Weren't you the decouple boy? Weren't you the guy who said you were going to harm us and you saw what we did with rare earths in 2 minutes and made you bow to Xi Jinping? You didn't see that? You think we want you to visit us? I mean, do we realize what— it's so obvious what's happening. And again, this isn't like, oh, Midas, you're reflecting. I'm just telling you the facts. Like, this is the reality. What you choose to do with the facts, choose.

But that's what's happening.

Yeah, it's like, uh, have you heard of, uh, like beer goggles? I feel like all these people wear MAGA goggles and they put them on and all of a sudden it's like a bunch of transgender people running around trying to play sports, trying to turn your kids. It's Donald Trump, uh, full of muscles running around, you know, with an AK-47 and Iran going, oh, sir, I'm Jordy.

In any event, Jordy, what do you want? I'm just joking.

It's like, it's, it's, it's nuts. It's, it's, it's out. It's, it's, it's the craziest thing.

You know, there were—

there was another clip of Darlene Graham on Fox, uh, that was abs— that was crazy also, where she was like, uh, you know what, I don't think my constituents care so much about this national security stuff. I'll learn that. But you know what people are really concerned about? Transgenders and sports. I was like, really? That's, that's what people consider— not even a thing in South Carolina and at all. And And again, you're going after this marginalized community because you're a bigot for no reason, and an issue that is not an issue, you're trying to make it an issue while you're diminishing national security, which has major implications on every single thing in our lives, as you could see right now from the disaster of the Iran War, how it's affecting people's pocketbooks, how it's affecting everything. And so, you know, it's one thing if you're a random person on the street, right? I mean, I don't expect people to know Farnbalse. I don't expect— you know, but if you're— but if you're a New United States senator, I at least hope that you have a rudimentary knowledge of these things before becoming a senator and before deciding to then rerun for the Senate or whatever.

I mean, the whole thing's crazy. People's lives are in your hands at the end of the day. Your decisions affect people's lives. To that end, I want to clarify something I said before, just in case I wasn't clear, about the USS Lincoln, which was— it was finally relieved. They were relieved of duty finally today. The USS USS George Washington, uh, took over, uh, that deployment, made its way to the Middle East. And so the USS Lincoln, uh, finally, uh, relieved from that deployment and should be making its way back. Hopefully they get back safely and soon, and hopefully they get to some better conditions because we all know, uh, how, how much of a disaster that was. And, and, and all of our, you know, service members who are out there, you know, wishing them all the best.

Your Commonwealth, buddy.

Ready?

That brings us to Pennsylvania.

I just want to say this one quick thing is that Darlene Graham is the world's worst sequel that absolutely nobody asked for that never needed to happen. But here we are watching this all unfold. And like, it's, it's, it's like a train wreck watching every single interview she does live, man. It's crazy. It's crazy how uninformed she is running for this seat.

Sorry, but I thought I really needed to add that to this because, well, Donald Trump didn't know much about foreign policy. And how good is this?

Worked out great for everybody. It's the golden age. No wars. Everything is great.

I mean, that's the part where, like, you go like, what?

What?

You know, and that's, I think, what you're seeing in a Pennsylvania where you have a +18 Trump district.

It's Butler.

It's where Donald Trump won't release the medical records where he claimed he was shot in the face by an AR-15, but miraculously carelessly the AR-15 bullet was injured, not him.

And for those unfamiliar, Butler County— like, I need you to think of the most MAGA district wherever you exist, times that by 10, and that's Butler, right?

So in Butler, Butler County, Donald Trump +18 2024. And now, right now, the Democratic candidate Brandon Dukes won that by 1 point. So it was a 19-point swing in favor of a Democrat. What did Brandon Dukes run on? He ran on kitchen table issues. Let's talk about the economy. Let's talk about the roads. Let's talk about education. Let's talk about things are too expensive. Let's talk about what we can do for people in Pennsylvania. Let's, let's, let's get stuff done, right? It's Governor Shapiro, the get stuff done governor, says like, let's get it done. Like, We work, we're working for the people. Like, we're not, we're not doing culture war stuff. We're not, we're getting stuff done, right? And what was his MAGA opponent running on? Transgender hate, bathrooms, WNBA, Donald Trump's amazing, ballrooms. Isn't the big beautiful bill amazing? No, it's not. People don't like that. It's a disaster. It's a disaster. And no one— and people weren't buying it. People weren't falling for it there. It was also +18, but in the prior state House race, it was a +30 Republican as well. So it is a, you know, massive swing. But this is what we've seen over and over again in these special elections.

We've seen a 12.5 to 13 Democratic overperformance in these special elections over and over again. And it frankly started pretty early on, late January. We were covering it in Iowa and Pennsylvania and elsewhere where you would have these major flips taking place. And so I'll leave everybody with this. This is Kevin McCarthy talking about how he's very concerned. And let's play the clip of Kevin McCarthy if we got it.

How do you size up the midterms right now?

The midterms right now, I'm worried because the generic ballot's over 6. So that's advantage to the Democrats. I'm worried that I'm not seeing the clear message from Republicans. What is the plan of why you should stay in the majority? What is your economic plan going forward? What are you touting as the successes that you've had already? I'm worried about certain states. I'm going to watch Iowa. I think that governor's race It's very cool. Ashley Hinson is the best Senate candidate probably in the country. I think she ends up winning. But we've got 4 congressional seats there. When I first came in, we only had 1 Republican one. They're going to be some tough— Pennsylvania is going to be a swing state. Democrats have a very good governor. They'll probably try to run the tickets up because he wants to run for president. I'm worried about Arizona because I don't think this Republican nominee we have, Biggs, can— could actually move out there, could cut across, get moderates and others. And we picked up seats for Democrats to win the majority. If he underperforms, he could cost us Congress's majority.

Brad Jordy.

I don't even understand, like, why even put Kevin McCarthy on TV? He was like a failed speaker ousted from his job. Like, what political insights does he have? He kowtowed to Donald Trump the same way that MAGA Mike is kowtowing to Donald Trump. He'd probably be doing the same exact thing right now. He now gets to be out of that bubble. And so he gets to act like, oh, I could be the critical one and I'll be the moderate thinker here and I'll say, oh, we need actually more normal people and perhaps we should be focusing on the issues that matter for people. Like, come on, like, feel free to flame me for this.

But like, I thought it was pretty astute analysis right there by McCarthy. Like, I actually think that that's probably a much better role when he's able to act. It actually sounded like he had some soul in his chest.

That's, that's my point, though, because he's a shapeshifter, right?

Totally.

All I'm saying is he's an actor and he, he was ousted from Congress for doing the opposite of the advice that he's saying right now. If he was in the position, he'd be doing exactly what MAGA Mike is doing. And you cannot convince me otherwise.

100%.

You think he'd be going— and I'm not saying you, Jordy, you probably— you think he'd be going against Donald Trump right now? He'd be doing the same exact thing. And then there'd be some other guy going on TV. I don't know, some other former speaker or someone who was ousted would be saying, well, I just think Kevin McCarthy and these Republicans aren't understanding people's issues. It's just the cycle. It's what they do. It's these— this talking head BS. It's this cable news BS. Kevin McCarthy is a hack. He's a hack, hack, hack. He was ousted from his job because he was shitty at it and he had an opportunity to show some spine, but he ended up kowtowing to Donald Trump and being a pathetic little weasel like the rest of them.

So, you know, anytime they're in positions of power, they all coward. They are. They're all weasels and they're all pathetic. I mean, that's what's proven. But it's interesting when they can freely speak or, you know, they don't have the pressure of the mean Donald Trump tweet. That's all I'm saying there. Is 100%.

And like, like, you know, objectively, unless you're looking at things through MAGA goggles, objectively, when you look at the data right now for Republicans, I mean, it's very grim for them.

It's a very—

it's a very rough environment for them.

I don't think he was going out on a ledge. I like— I don't think he was like, like, I have some brave stance I'm going to take. I mean, I think—

let me tell you something you don't know. Yeah, but hey, for a Fox audience, you know, maybe, maybe they aren't hearing that. That.

So yeah, exactly. Great show, brothers.

Great show. Did a lot of sports analogies. I did some physicality that the audio listeners—

big time physical podcast.

Big time physical podcast.

That's why the audio listeners need to go make sure they subscribed on the YouTube. The YouTube watchers need to go right now. You got to go, you know, it's easy. You just open up the Apple Podcast.

Here's the thing, I know we kind of make light of it when we ask you to subscribe to these platforms, but it does tremendously help us out. It helps get this information out. It takes 2 seconds. And best part all 100% free and easy to do. Brother, what a wonderful episode. This has been great spending this hour with y'all. Thank you guys so much. And as always, shout out to the Midas Mighty.

The Midas Mighty standing strong against the fascists.

We sing our song. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for preorder now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To preorder, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.