Transcript of Thursday Afternoon Breaking Updates with Ben - 7/23/26 New

Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Myselis and this is your breaking news. By all accounts, this catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran by Donald Trump and his horrible regime appears like it's about to escalate even more as the United States military suffers disaster after disaster in the Middle East but pretends that it's winning. It pretends that Iran wants to make a deal. It pretends that everything is Amazing. There have been about 10 medevac flights to the Middle East from U.S. medevac planes taking people either to Walter Reed or to an air base or a hospital base rather, uh, nearby the air base in Germany. Um, according to the United States military, the injury amount is somewhere in the range of 450 injured 18 killed in action. I think, uh, we all, we all believe, at least when it comes to the injuries, that that is being significantly understated. Believe that number is probably multiples of that amount. I mean, we can see some of the satellite imagery of these bases in Jordan and Kuwait and Bahrain and, some of the nearby bases. At this point, the US has evacuated a lot of its military bases in the Middle East of equipment.

It removed its valuable, precious military equipment, airplanes and other equipment, to Israel.

Why?

Because they have an Iron Dome there in Israel which is protecting, uh, the equipment there. Uh, but the Arab nations that gave Donald Trump a lot of money, gave Trump's companies a lot of money, I think what they thought were quid pro quos, found out that the security umbrella may be working for Netanyahu in Israel but really ain't working all that much for these Arab nations. Munitions running low in terms of the U.S. PAC-3 interceptors, the THAAD interceptors, and other equipment. Iran's been doing an effective job targeting early detection systems and radar systems as well at these, uh, bases belonging to the United States in these Arab nations. And we've been seeing right now a situation where every time the US announces, all right, 12th night of escalation, Iran's been able to respond by striking these US military bases in a, in a very surgical way as well. Iran's not utilizing hundreds and hundreds of ballistic missiles at a time. It often does these 8 to 12 ballistic missile salvos that maybe 20% of, uh, the missiles are able to be struck down by the United States interceptors. And so lots of the missiles have been hitting their targets.

We've got satellite and surveillance confirmation of that, and we've been reporting on that each and every day here. Uh, just to keep you updated on what's actually happening in the region. And look, this isn't to paint a rosy picture in terms of like everything's going great in Iran. Obviously the United States military is striking Iran hard— civilian bridges, desalination, uh, facilities. That's how Iranians get water. Also military facilities, IRGC barracks. Uh, the US has been striking, uh, a lot of targets, often on the coast of Iran. If you looked at the way the US has been striking, the pattern appears to be prepping for some sort of ground invasion, whether that's ultimately a massive ground invasion or special forces trying to take over Keshem Island, which which I think would be catastrophic. Um, the pattern of U.S. strikes along the coast seems to be in an effort to, um, allow for an invasion of Keshem. And I guess in the view of CENTCOM, this will open up the Strait of Hormuz, and then all of the, uh, tankers will say, thank you, we're free to go, we did it, Strait of Hormuz is open. Look, right now CENTCOM is falsely claiming the Strait of Hormuz is open.

I mean, literally, as tankers are running into or sailing into mines and blowing up, as Iranian fast boats have been able to strike these tankers in the Strait of Hormuz as well. And a lot of these tankers are turning around. You hear over the VHF frequency some of the captains of these tankers saying to the US supercarriers in the area, shut the fuck up, stop telling us to go. We don't want to go. Stop it. You're not giving us protection. We're not going to take the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz. But CENTCOM is saying it's open, it's free. What would CENTCOM say? 900 ships since May have been free to go, or 900 ships over the past several months have been free to go. Okay, so that's even if you accepted the number of CENTCOM, That's about 10% of the amount of ships that were leaving the Strait of Hormuz before the war. Isn't that such like an obvious Trump deal where he breaks something and then he gets something that's 10% of the amount of what it was and then brags about the 10% because it still sounds like a big number, but it's 10% of what took place before the war started by Donald Trump and Netanyahu.

Woohoo! So that's what CENTCOM's bragging about. And by the way, the cent— you know, Trump's been fraudulent with numbers his entire life. The CENTCOM number is also based on the tankers that went through the IRGC route, which is the route where they don't get blown up and destroyed, and they pay a small nominal fee to Iran for Iran to say it controls the Strait of Hormuz. That's what was in the MOU. Iran administers, uh, the Strait of Hormuz. So You have that going on in the Strait of Hormuz, in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, uh, in the Red Sea. Uh, it's right by Yemen, right? Western Yemen is controlled by the Houthis. Houthis control a large part of Yemen. The international, so-called international recognized government in Yemen is not the Houthis. The Houthis have their capital in Sana'a. Just want to give you a sense, like, when we talk about— there's a lot going on, right? Houthis, their capital is Sana'a in Yemen. They control a large part of Yemen, but then there's a Saudi-backed government, which is like the government as it's viewed in the international community. In Yemen, it's like a coalition government, and there's, there's a lot going on there.

But just for purposes of this, it's a Saudi-led government, um, but The Houthis control the area that's close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Houthis are allied with Iran. It's a Shiite community, part of the Axis of Resistance, and their spiritual leader was Ayatollah Khomeini, who the Trump regime and Netanyahu killed. I mean, on any given day, they call themselves Ansar Allah. It's the Houthis. And on any given day when the leader, al-Houthi, when he speaks, he doesn't go out and talk all that much, but you'll have, you know, hundreds of thousands of people, you know, show up in the area. And, you know, you see these images of just massive, massive amounts of people. Looks a lot like Ayatollah Khomeini's, you know, funeral proceedings. And that goes on a lot in Yemen. But any event, the Houthis Remember back in 2025, the Houthis were controlling a lot of the Red Sea. And then remember the whole Signal Gate issue where one of the first, like, wars that were taking place was actually against the Houthis. And then Donald Trump— and there was, like, unusual things that were happening. Remember back in May 2025? I know there's so much stuff with the Trump regime happening that people forget a lot of these things, but the whole thing with Signal Gate was they were talking on the— on the Signal app about the strikes in Yemen, right?

And they were giving away the coordinates when the strikes would take place. And then remember, at that time, there were like a number of like US fighter jets and helicopters that were crashing. Do you remember that? There were like jets that were crashing and helicopters that were crashing and lots of drones that were mysteriously crashing. And they'd be like, yeah, you know, the helicopter or the plane, it just— it fell off the side of the boat.. And remember, the Houthis were saying, no, we were hitting them. But then the official, uh, thing that came out was, no, it just fell off the side of the tanker of the supercarriers, and that's what was happening. And then Donald Trump— remember Donald Trump begged for a ceasefire with the Houthis? This probably gave a good indication to Iran and the Houthis how you deal with Donald Trump back in 20— a lot of people aren't even talking about this 2025 one. And then Donald Trump praised the Houthis and said that they're very strong and they're very brave and they're courageous and they're really great people and he did a solid deal with them and things are going great.

Remember that? I think, Jeremy, go, go back and check. I think we have that clip somewhere in our archive that I want to show from May of 2025 just to show how all this stuff is, uh, how all this stuff is related. But the Houthis have said if Trump continues to escalate again, and one of the areas where Trump is using to escalate is bases in Saudi Arabia. Uh, the Houthis said we'll shut down the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi tankers. Yeah, that was the clip from 2025. Um, it was the one on the Houthis, um, where Trump praises the Houthis in the first act, Jeremy. And so the Houthis made good on their threat and they shut down the Bab el-Mandeb Strait as it relates to the Saudi tankers. Two Saudi tankers tried to leave yesterday. Both were shot at and destroyed by, by the Houthis. And so now with the great work of Donald Trump, and I say that sarcastically, you have the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down. You have the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait effectively shut down. You have the price per barrel of oil right now at over $100 a barrel. And I think that's going to very quickly escalate to $150 a barrel pretty soon.

We have the 10-year Treasury note yield approaching 5%. We have the 30-year Treasury yield already well over 5%, which ultimately means interest rates going up, up, up, up, up, your mortgage rates going up, up, up, the cost of borrowing going up, up, up, the amount of interest, uh, that has to be paid ultimately by taxpayers in this Ponzi scheme of escalating debt by the United States and the Treasury Department just gets worse and worse and worse. You all remember last year when I was talking about the kind of crisis developing from Trump's so-called Liberation Day, about how it was causing the Treasury note yields to go up. And I was like a Treasury note yield geek. Remember those days where I would say, let's focus on the Treasury note yields, let's focus on the 10-year, the 20-year, the 30-year. Remember I would say, well, never thought I'd have to be an expert in Treasury note yield percentages, but apparently under the Trump regime, that's, What you got to become? Well, now we're also collectively as a community experts in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Strait of Hormuz, the crack spreads, the delta between your price of crude and your refinery price.

And by the way, the crack spread continues to go up, up, up while the price of crude goes up, up, up. Which ain't good because that means your refinery— the refineries ultimately sell to the gas stations. So those prices keep going up. And so we're now at a period of time where the warnings that we were making on this show, which I hope you didn't think were hyperbolic— I get accused of that sometimes, but I hope, you know, or that I was just fearmongering and saying these things because whatever, you know, just to, just to say them and, you know, get clicks or whatever. No, it was— we were going through the science, we were going through the data, we were showing where this was all headed. And it was very clear that if you followed the data, this is what was ultimately going to take place. And that's why I was saying we'd be at $100 a barrel. And then all of these people like, you're a, you're a panicking, dude, it's at $68. And I'm like, well, first off, there's massive market manipulation taking place. Look at these short positions that are taking place, which are so incongruent to what the refinery prices were, hence the crack spreads that we were talking about a lot.

I said also strategic petroleum reserves are being depleted at a massive clip. And then I became a strategic petroleum reserve geek with all of you. And I was like, okay, look at the strategic petroleum reserves. Look at the strategic petroleum reserves. We're at tank bottom. We're at tank bottom. Well, now we're in the point though, where every day there's this exponential compounding effect in a very, very bad way where— and, and this is why Trump is as desperate as can be and why we see why the options are you just leave at this point. You destroyed the MOU, so I don't think there's any way to go back and do a deal. So you just leave. Which Trump can never do because he doesn't want to be called a loser or worse than Obama or whatever it is, or you escalate dramatically, dramatically, which will result in very predictable catastrophe. You know, history often seems complex, but sometimes, you know, I, I would reflect With all of the complexities in history, how is it sometimes that on an 8th grade social studies exam, the answer could so easily be true or false, or A, B, C, or D?

How did America ultimately get destroyed and go bankrupt and suffer a great economic depression in 2026, 2027? A, Donald Trump's tariffs. B, Donald Trump's war. C, all of the above. I mean, it's like, yeah, you know, it It is, it is so obvious.

The—

these aren't— it feels like we're going in slow motion into this too, because this regime is so callous, this regime is so stupid, and they're so— all these enablers. And you just watch, you watch, and you go, wow, you're just heading right into the abyss right now. Like You, you, the lesson that you've learned from all of this from the past 5 months is that if you bomb Iran more, that's going to make them want to do a deal with you? No, for Iran, this is an existential civilization thing for an Iranian civilization that's been around for thousands of years. They view it in that context. For Donald Trump, he views this as some transactional trophy as something that he wants to, you know, give a speech about to his MAGA base that he's losing, by the way, rapidly each and every day. And that very dynamic— and no American really, I mean, other than, you know, Trump and the kind of neocon war hawks, and increasingly even as just a tiny group of MAGA, like MAGA doesn't want this. And, you know, Independents don't want this. Democrats don't. Americans don't. Nobody wants it. We don't know why we're there.

We don't know what we're doing. We don't know what the hell is going on. We want nothing to do with any of this at all, this horrific, catastrophic, and unlawful war. And we watch this idiotic, vile piece of trash buffoon in Donald Trump. You watch this filthy thing up there, right? And what else did— filthy creature, this disgusting piece of trash. They want to do it so bad, they want to do a deal with me. And I'm like, can we have some grown-up please? If we could be, you know, just someone who one speaks in sentences 2, who stopped saying the freaking word deal over and over and over again. I don't need deal. I'm gonna do a deal. They're like, a deal?

I'm a deal maker.

I do deals.

You want me to do it? You want to do a deal with me? You want to do a deal with Donald? Dude, it's like, shut the hell up about this stuff. Just do it. Don't do— I don't know what— I know, I know, I know, I don't know what you're doing. I don't know what you're doing. And then you just watch him up there each and every day, and it's just Stop.

Just stop.

Just grow up. And I say this as someone who absolutely despises him, not because his name is Donald Trump or this or that, but because what he does is so harmful. He's a war criminal. He hurt so many people. He's an idiot. And to see what one man or him and Netanyahu, two men— I shouldn't even call them, you know, two things— the damage that they can cause on the entire world, on billions of people. It's wild. It's a crazy concept. So you have Donald Trump there doing a press conference before bragging, bragging about 18 deaths. It's only 18. It's only 18, everybody. I mean, Vietnam was a lot more. And World War II was a lot more, only 18. Here, let's play this first clip.

Still, that's 18 in 2 wars, and one is too many, but it's 18. Whereas in Vietnam, we lost 200,000. We lost thousands and thousands in Afghanistan. We lost thousands in every war. The Korean War, thousands. And these wars all lasted for years, and we We just want to get it over with and we want to do it right. But we have to, we have to do what we came to do. And that's we can't let these people, very violent people, we can't let them have what they want, which is nuclear weapons.

Which you said were obliterated in June of 2025. And now you're giving nuclear enrichment capability to Saudi Arabia. Who were instrumental in killing U.S. journalists and involved in 9/11. So the Saudis get nuclear material, and then Donald Trump doesn't even know the way enrichment works. And again, this is my thing. This isn't a Democratic thing, a Republican thing, an independent thing. Could we just not be a stupid thing? I feel like it's one of the Dr. Seuss books that I read to— One Thing, Two Thing, Let's Not Be a Stupid Thing, right? And I read to my, my almost 2-year-old baby girl. Pull up, Jeremy, the social media post that Donald Trump made this morning about Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, Donald Trump announces that he's doing a deal with Saudi Arabia to give them nuclear enrichment capabilities, right? There didn't seem to be any strings attached to it. It was just announced that that's what was going to happen. Today Donald Trump announces the following: the civil nuclear deal— there will be no enrichment of material— being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which pertains only to non-military use, such as the ones that Iran and UAE and others already have, will be approved.

But is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords. The United States is not opposed to civil non-enriched nuclear facilities. Thank you for your attention to this matter, Donald J. Trump. Let's go to me for one second, Jeremy, then I'm going to put it back up in a second. Y'all remember one of those games where they show you the photo and you're like match the things that aren't— that don't belong in the photo, right? Like, you know, underline everything that doesn't make sense about this. So now put it back up, Jeremy. Just think about the statement. This is supposed to be the commander-in-chief of the United States. There will be no enrichment of material. Do you know the way civil nuclear facilities work, Donald? The difference between weapons-grade and non-weapons-grade is how it is blended, whether it is down-blended, diluted, and the percentage of enrichment. Certain percentage makes it weapons-grade, certain dilution keeps it away from that. The whole point behind the JCPOA and what would have been the nuclear talks here— and this is what the Omani foreign minister was saying, that the Trump regime didn't even understand during the mediation that took place in February were the concepts of downblending.

And that was one of the reasons that Trump went into this war with Netanyahu, because they don't understand the way nuclear material works. Again, I don't care if you're a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent, okay? The issue of what makes nuclear material weapons-grade versus non-weapons-grade for civilian use is the percentage of enrichment that ultimately takes place. And so what Iran was conveying at the mediation in February was that it was agreeable to all downblending and dilution procedures with oversight to make clear that they would not have weapons-grade. To which the Trumps said, they're keeping it enriched. Yeah, because that's uranium. That's how, that's how civil nuclear facilities work. It is uranium. It is the percentage that makes it weapons-grade ultimately. Go back to the graphic though for a second as well. But then in this graphic In this post by Donald Trump, he says Saudi Arabia will have non-military uses such as the ones that Iran and UAE already have. Okay, one thing, two things, stupid thing, confession thing, right? That's, that's this Dr. Seuss page. So you're admitting right here that Iran has it for non-military uses. So you are admitting that you went to war, that you are a war criminal, that you went to war on false pretenses in that very social media post.

That's because you say that they have for not— for non-military purposes, which is what Iran always said, and you're admitting it in this post. And you then claim previously that you obliterated any ability for them to make it weapons-grade back in July 2025 or June 2025. Okay, we read on, but it says it's subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords. Now, that's the deal with Israel for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel. Now, Saudi Arabia has already made it very clear they don't want to do that until there is a Palestinian state. Now, whether MBS wants to do it or doesn't want to do it, MBS realizes if he enters into the Abraham Accords, he will be toppled. If there is not a Palestine recognized by his people, by his population in Saudi Arabia. So MBS has made it very clear he's never joining the Abraham Accords. Remember many months ago before the MOU when Donald Trump was saying, "If you want me to do a deal, you have to join the Abraham Accords." Remember Saudi Arabia and everybody else on the call, and they all went silent. Because they don't want to join this because Israel's committing a genocide in Gaza and Israel's committing a genocide in Lebanon.

They don't want to join it until that stops, until there's a Palestinian state that's recognized by Israel and the United States and the world. That's what Saudi Arabia's position is. I don't believe that Saudi Arabia should get any sort of preferential treatment over non-nuclear just because they have a quid pro quo deal with Trump over civilian-use nuclear weapons? Well, is it proximity to Donald Trump that gets it? I don't like the idea of Saudi Arabia— I don't like the idea of nuclear proliferation in general. I understand the use of civilian nuclear energy. I think there are ways to address it and deal with it. Um, but what Donald Trump is doing here now— this is why I've always said Trump can't do deals. What was the point of all of this?

How—

he's now made everybody less safe. He probably— now, if you're Saudi Arabia and you see that statement like that, I'm not just like, I'm not joining the Abraham Accords, what are you even doing? Saudi Arabia is just going to be like, all right, we're going to move closer to China. So even the thing that Trump purportedly wanted to do, which is a very dangerous thing to do, He now makes a stupid post where he shows he doesn't even understand the way enrichment works. He's now undermined himself here. He's undermined the relationship with Saudi Arabia and pushed them closer to China anyway. And then just— I don't even understand the— what, why would they announce that yesterday and not include this provision? Like, where's Congress? Where are people? Where, where's anybody? You know, to, to, to these things. We're talking about nuclear, okay? We're talking about things that have the capability to end civilization as we know it. This isn't something that you just throw around and go, ah, nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, everybody, right? Like, this is real. This is, this is real stuff. You're just playing with nuclear?

You're just—

yeah, okay. I want you, MBS, to join the Abraham Accords now. Will you do it for me, MBS? Oh yes, Donald, I will definitely join the Abraham Accords and have my entire kingdom be toppled as a result. Yes, yes, Donald, because you truthed it. You did it, you did it via truth. Yes, yes, yes. That's what I mean. This is, this is the whole, this whole situation is idiotic. This, this should not— again, this is not a political— does not mean vote for this guy, vote for this gal. Ain't that— it is the person is unfit to be in office and it's not even close. And that's an example of it. And now that person who doesn't understand the most basics of the way enrichment even works is moving the country and the world into a world war. It's not hyperbolic. The world is at war right now. And now even the UK having more of its bases used in the Royal Air Force base, which Iran says, okay, well, now you're fair game in the UK. You're fair game as well now because we're— we saw those B-1s being used in the UK. War is raging with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

War is raging in the Middle East and spreading Yemen to the Red Sea and beyond. And Donald Trump's out there, I hereby declare via, via this truth that if Yemen doesn't henceforth stop blowing up ships, I'm very disappointed in you, Yemen Houthis. I'm very disappointed in you. It's like, get somebody serious in this office, get a serious grown-up and adult in this office. This, this, this, this, this deranged Apprentice dystopian reality show needs to stop. It really does. It really does. By the way, it's what we talk about in WTF America. Pre-order right now. I think somewhere there's a QR code or somewhere in the description. Um, pre-order at WTF America. Take our first quick break. We'll be right back. We got a lot to discuss when we come back.

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Good to see you, Jordy. By the way, after the brother show tonight, 5 Pacific, 8 Eastern, we're going to be talking about WTF America, the book. We're doing a Patreon special, patreon.com/midas-touch, and you can ask us questions about the book what's in the book, the chapters are like. And so, uh, check it out. And if you've pre-ordered, write WTF already in the chat below. And hopefully I see you on the Patreon chat tonight, patreon.com/midas-touch. Really, uh, excited to see you all. Look, I just want to take a step back as well for a moment though and recognize these are very difficult times and I understand how difficult this must be for all of you, whether you're here in the United States or, or whether you're abroad. This is not a game. This is not an experiment or some reality show, although sometimes it feels like we're non-consensual participants and stuck in this dystopian, corrosive of thing that Trump and the media normalize. It feels like an escape room. But, you know, you, you all remember that, you know, last week when I was playing the video on the Fight for Progress YouTube channel and they highlighted someone from Pennsylvania who had 3 items in her fridge.

You remember that? And she would talk about how I, I have to decide, am I going to have one item in the fridge, three items in the fridge? What am I going to do? What am I going to do for my kids? How am I going to afford healthcare? I'm losing my healthcare. This government, with all of the stuff that's going on, is just take, take, take, hurt, hurt, hurt, inflict pain, and then the chaos every damn day. Right? And it's like, while this catastrophic war is going on as well, then what's Trump doing? Tariffing Canada 50% on hockey sticks and other items. I mean, there's a lot of exclusions from those tariffs, of course, but it is. And then whining about, oh, Canada's so unfair, Canada treats us so unfair, Canada this, Canada that. It's like, what are you whining about? Canada treating us unfairly?

What are you—

the nicest people. It takes the most deranged people to think that Canada treats us bad. Like, who would— it's truly the most deranged group of humans who are like, you know who we should be really angry with right now?

Who?

The Canadians.

Why?

And, and, and it is, you know, you go back, you remember the South Park blame Canada, you know, and the way South Park would also mock like North Korean dictators and things like that, right? Like, we used to mock this stuff, but this is what this regime is. This is what and who MAGA actually— you know, what, what MAGA is actually all about. And so I just want you to know that when I do these videos, when I go live, when we discuss the war when we discuss tariffs, when we discuss ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo killing people in our streets, when we talk about civil rights violations, discriminations, the racist behavior, when we discuss healthcare being taken away. I just, I want you to know that at the heart of all of this reporting is, is you. It's grounded in what you're going through, what your experiences are, and what and what you're, what you're saying, and, and how we can best fight for you. Along those lines, I, I want to share this with you as well, and this is, uh, out of Pennsylvania, uh, as well, where the cost of tariffs, just like you see wherever you're living, or if you live in Pennsylvania, it's causing inflation to rise, which isn't just some amorphous thing.

It means that Things aren't affordable. You layer on top of that and you have this catastrophic war in Iran, Trump's catastrophic trade war against everybody, and people can't afford things. And so Fight for Progress highlighted the story of Lisa and John Ronca over in Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania's, uh, they live in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District. They've got a MAGA representative, this guy Ryan McKenzie, right there, northeastern Pennsylvania. Ryan McKenzie. And, um, he's allowed Trump's tariffs. He's enabled all of the pain and suffering that MAGA is inflicting on John and Lisa. But this is what we're seeing in your neighborhoods as well. So let me just share with you their story quickly. Let's play it. The tariffs have greatly impacted us. President Trump's tariffs are starting to have an impact on businesses and consumers. It's insane how much things have increased. Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports doubled to 50%. We've owned Cutter's Bike Shop for about 17 years now. The metal, aluminum, steel type tariffs really impacted our business.

Our profit margin is shrinking significantly.

I think the tariffs are going to be great for us because it's going to make us rich.

Are there any discussions about giving any relief to small businesses?

They're not going to need it.

Okay.

Are these—

they're going to make so much money.

It's just so bad because to me it's just like, how dumb do you think we are? We're not getting extra money from the tariffs. We're actually losing money. Do you feel like the president could have maybe rolled it out in a more consistent way?

That—

yeah, I've heard it many times over from business businesses right here in our local community that are dealing with tariffs. Whatever the number is, they're going to deal with it and they're going to adjust their business. Representative McKenzie feels that we should just adjust our business to make up for the rising costs. I would love to see McKenzie walk down the street of Bethlehem. What was your reasoning behind voting for the tariffs, did you take into effect that this can hurt a lot of small businesses in your area?

You can't just continue to absorb that. You just cannot.

Mackenzie, yeah, kind of left us, abandoned us a little bit, and I'm not sure why. Powerful video. You could watch a longer version of that at the Fight for Progress YouTube page. So after this live ends, you can search Fight for Progress, watch the full video, and will you do me a favor in the comments section? Tell the folks over at Fight for Progress that Ben said hi. And you can even, if you wanted to tell them, WTF America, and that'll be our code language as well. But you could tell them that Ben says hi at Fight for Progress. So I wanted to share that with you because when I watch, you know, this press conference, for example, that Marco Rubio just had— Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State, he's over at the ASEAN conference, Southeast Asian conference, on the sidelines there where he held this press conference. And to see the Secretary of State whining about the Iranian Lego videos and saying they make stupid Lego videos, and it's like, y'all are whining about Iran's Lego videos while killing little girls in Iranian elementary schools and engaging in all of these war crimes across the world.

When there are people like those people in Pennsylvania 7 that I just showed you who are suffering? What do you do? You're— and as we talk about Reconciliation 3.0 and all this money that the MAGAs want, which is part of their Ponzi scheme, you want to take our money away from giving services to people and helping people like that, like you, so that y'all can buy missiles, tomahawks, to just engage in more war crimes and kill people? That's where That's where you're putting my taxpayer dollars for this catastrophic war and for other wars that are taking place around the world. What are we doing right here? Here's Marco Rubio whining about the Lego video. Here, play this clip.

Because the price they're paying is very high despite their tough talk and their flowery language and their stupid Lego videos they put out. I've never seen them, but they put these things out on social media. Despite all that bravado, they are suffering tremendously and they're going to suffer more until they come to their senses. They're not there yet, unfortunately.

Which countries?

I can't tell you who.

I'm going to make them suffer more. They're not there yet. This Lego video. Let's play the clip. Yeah.

Failed into talks.

Now they want to blockade the strait. Okay, you get the point. That, that's, that's what's irritating the US Secretary of State right now. That's that, that right there is what is on the mind of the United States Secretary of State right now. Okay, then Rubio says, but every day Iran's calling up, they're begging, they're begging me for deals. This is what you're going with, that they're begging you for deals? This is what Rubio said. Let's play.

Okay, these people who are calling us every day begging, let's do a deal, they send us messages through other countries, third countries. I mean, they're running out of countries to send. Even I had countries here coming up to me, oh, I just spoke to the Iranians, they want to do a deal. The problem is every time these people do a deal, they either break it or after they make it, they want to change the deal. So they're probably not ready to do a deal yet, but they will be.

They will be. We bomb them more, we escalate more, and then they'll be like, Donald, Marco, we want to do a deal with you now. You before, no, but now we want to definitely do a deal with you guys.

I just—

it is unfathomable to have literally the dumbest, most evil human beings up there saying the stupidest stuff. I mean, I'll show you. This is new footage earlier today, uh, by Jordan showing the moment an Iranian ballistic missile directly hit King Faisal Air Base again in Jordan, where numerous U.S. service members are stationed.

This is—

they're calling, they're saying, Marco Polo, Here, play this clip. That's, that's, you know, meanwhile you have these satellite images, for example, of Ali al-Salam Air Base in Kuwait. This is July 23rd. It looks like there are casualties, you know, in, in this area. This is one of the areas where, you know, so our troops are in these containerized— are in these containerized barracks. We don't have the image, but you've seen— I've shown them before, these containerized barracks. By containerized barracks, you all know what I mean. Containerized, they're containers. Our troops live in containers, okay? And I, I use language sometimes, but like, let me explain, you know, like the containers, like the, the truck cargo, right? That's where our troops live. While we don't have the interceptors and the munitions to stop the Iranian strikes after we attack, Iran, if they wanted to, could attack more of these containerized barracks. But our troops basically live in the back of trucks, those cargo, uh, containers, and all, all in one, while you have ballistic missiles and Shahed drones raining down on them. And then our CENTCOM and Defense Department goes, uh, minor concussions, minor concussion. I mean, it's like the most offensive stuff.

And again, saying a Democrat or a minor concussions after a Shahed drone and ballistic missile hit the base— there's no such thing as a minor. It's a traumatic brain injury that will impact these people for the rest of their lives. A traumatic brain— stop calling it a minor concussion. And again, I don't care if you're a Republican, a MAGA, a MAGA MAGA, a mutant, a Teenage Mutant Ninja MAGA. I don't, I don't care what you— I don't care what the hell you are. Minor concussion from a Shah hidden ballistic missile drone, and you're, you're cool with that? You're cool with the behavior of this regime saying things? This is Marco Rubio at the press conference. This is his message. To the Houthis. Please stop, Houthis. Houthis, please, please, you're being not nice, Houthis.

Are you—

the Houthis were suckered into this. They were suckered into this by Iran. Houthis, please, please, Houthis, don't do this to the United States. And you're being very mean to us. Here, play this clip.

Yeah, look, I hope that they'll stop. They shouldn't really do that. They got suckered into this by the Iranians. You know, the Houthis largely were smart and stayed out of all this throughout the conflict. But they now apparently have gotten themselves suckered into this, going after Saudi Arabia and their ships. And by the way, that's, you know, I was reading reports a few hours ago that there is actually a Saudi fuel ship that's flagged Chinese. It's a Chinese ship. Are they going to blow up the Chinese ship? And this becomes a problem for China. This will become a a problem for the whole world. But I hope that will de-escalate because I think the Houthis frankly got snookered into this thing by, by the Iranians. And, um, and, and they were smart to stay out of it, and they should stay out of it, and they should stop. We'll see what happens there. Obviously it's not a positive development. We'll see what happens.

Yeah, the, the Houthis, the Houthis. I'm going to speak with my hands the way these people, the way the people in the Trump talk. That's all, that's all. Be more thorough. The Houthis, they got snookied from the Jersey Shore into this. They were snookied from Jersey Shore. What was, what was the Jersey Shore? What'd they do? They tanned, they wore the shirts. What was the three things on the Jersey Shore? Snooki was on the Jersey Shore, right? They got snookied into— I know you said snookered, but who says that? Well, you said they got snookered. What do they, what does it even mean that they— what were the three things? Jeremy, my editor, you were a Jersey Shore fan. Jeremy, what, what were the three things? You tan, you, you club. He says he never watched the Jersey Shore in the comments to me. Someone in the comments will know what the 3 things were, and I'll talk about that. No, it's not drink. It's like 3 things. You iron your shirts or something. You iron. Anyway, I'll, I'll find— I'll, I'll remember what those 3— anyway, they got— let's take a step back though and be serious here.

It, it is beyond parody though that Marco Rubio, the secretary, Do you understand who the Houthis are? The history? Do it— does he really think that? Does he just think everybody's so stupid? Does he think when he does the hand motions also that we all are just like, okay, Marco, I guess they got snookered into this, they got snookied from the Jersey Shore into this, that's, that's what happened, yeah, that's, that's what happened to the Houthis? The Houthis are allied with Iran. They didn't get snookered into anything. The history: Iran traveled to Sana'a Airport July 13th. They delivered weapons and military equipment, and they've been doing that for a long time. The axis of resistance is Iran, is Hezbollah, is the Houthis. Iran set up a mosaic, uh, decentralized defense structure that if there were to be an attack on Iran, they'd be able to escalate in a way to destroy the global economy and to inflict maximum amount of pain if they had to, if they had to do that. I mean, if you think about in wildlife, or, you know, like, uh, you know, some animals, uh, that, uh, you know, are weaker than, let's say, like a shark, right?

Like a poisonous puffer fish versus a shark or something, right? Ultimately, you're not going to be— I don't know if this is a good example, but you get the point that I'm trying to make. One may actually be a lot more powerful, but the other has developed a strategy that if something were to attack, it's mutually assured destruction and everybody dies. The shark and the puffer, everybody, right? Everybody feels a massive amount of pain. Um, and so what Iran was able to do and what they've mapped out also with its proxies in the region is the strategy they're implementing right now. And by the way, it doesn't just stop at the Houthis, it's also in Somalia. They have the access right there as well of resistance, as they call it, which is also bordering through the eastern side of Somalia on the Red Sea. So from the west in Yemen, from the east in Somalia, you can shut down the Red Sea. And Somalia really hasn't even activated yet, but, but they could. Um, you can shut down the Red Sea, you can shut down the Strait of Hormuz. And given the geography of Iran as well, it can easily target these other areas.

Its proximity to the UAE, its proximity its proximity to Bahrain, its proximity to Qatar, its proximity to all of these countries. What Iran realized was its mistake before is that it would attack Israel right away, but Israel was well-funded by the United States and had the Iron Dome. And Iran's learning lesson was, why would you go after Israel? They have a massive military, they've got the Iron Dome. The bases in the Arab nations, if you look at how they were positioned, actually form the first layer of the Iron Dome to protect the actual Iron Dome in Israel. In other words, if you think about, you know, your chessboard, if you will, the very first line are actually the Arab nations, and those U.S. bases over there were actually structured in a way to protect Israel. So what Iran realized and what its strategy is, is, okay, let's pick off these bases first. Let's not— we'll figure out what we're going to do with Israel later, but why, why bring them involved in this fight as of now? Let's pick off these other air bases. So if you look at the strikes, Iran's getting rid of and hitting radar bases, early detection, and all of these Arab nations that form the first line of the perimeter where, where Israel is.

Secondarily, Iran has activated the Houthis in Bab el-Mandab to shut down these Saudi tankers over there. One of the reasons that I suspected that Trump was giving our semiconductor technology classified to UAE and nuclear stuff to— we'll see what even happens to Saudi Arabia— was because our security umbrella failed there. So Trump now has to give him something for the quid pro quos that he was involved you know, that he was involved with. And so Iran is now implementing a strategy that anybody who knew what I just knew would tell you this was exactly what they were going to do. It's what I was saying before the war started. And let me, let me say this to myself about, about me. Um, I don't have access to the information that the top people in the government have. And if, if I knew that then they should, you know, clearly know that. And I think from someone like a Marco Rubio or whoever, if they articulated what I just said publicly, the war— we would know what's happening. And you could at least— like, I, I think this war is catastrophic and unlawful, we should never be involved in it.

I'll be very clear, this whole thing is a catastrophe. You, you should at least though explain publicly what, what is happening and what the dynamic is, rather than say that the Houthis were on a Jersey Shore episode with Snooki or something like that, whatever Rubio was saying.

Snookered.

All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. Make sure you get your copy of WTF America right now. I'll see you also patreon.com/mightiestouch after the Brother Show. Last quick break, we still have some show to go. I like that.

I like that.

Get your— put WTF right now in the chat if you pre-ordered. We'll be right back after our last quick break.

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Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. The 3 things they said in Jersey Shore were gym, tan, and laundry. I looked it up during the break. Those were the 3 things. And why, if you're just joining, am I saying that? So you don't say, I thought I was watching a show on breaking news, because Marco Rubio said that the Houthis were snookered into helping Iran, like they were just tricked, if you will. And then I said, is he saying that they were Snooki from Jersey Shore? Because it's just as ridiculous and absurd as saying that the Houthis were somehow snookered. So that's how I got— that's how I got there. That makes you want to stay and watch this more. Um, look, in, in all seriousness though, right now things are rapidly escalating in this catastrophic and unlawful war. Um, based on the latest reporting, over 150 medical personnel have on an emergency basis been moved to Germany right now. 10 medevac flights are taking place in the region as well, where it does seem that numerous of the containerized barracks have been hit recently, I believe The Trump regime is covering up additional casualty numbers, at least injuries.

I don't know about fatalities. I think I can confidently say that they're understating the injuries, I believe, by multiples of 3 to 5 times, and they're downplaying the injuries and saying things are minor concussions when they— when there's no such thing as a minor concussion. It's a traumatic brain injury. Um, last week, right, I was— I did numerous videos last week where the titles of my videos were basically Trump is losing control, as he hides casualties, as he hides air bases being destroyed. I did numerous videos like that, and I got a lot of comments basically saying, you know, well, you know, why are you saying these things? I'm not hearing it anywhere else. Are you telling us the truth? Like, why are you saying these things? Are you the only one saying these things? That didn't happen. No one else is saying these things. And look, do I get it right all of the time? I mean, no one can get it right all of the time, but the United States has banned the satellite companies from showing the photos that used to be taken in the Middle East, this open source stuff. There's, uh, companies that do these photos for private entities.

One of them is called Planet Labs, but they and others have been banned from showing photos of the Middle East. So a lot of the satellite footage that we get comes from open-source intelligence from China, because you can't ban— you know, just think about it, you know, as Trump's out there saying, you know, China's, you know, bans everything and all this information, that the China footage is there. So, and it's been accurate to date, it hasn't been inaccurate. Um, so we look at those. There's other open-source intelligence satellite images from other countries as well that make its way out there from Russia and elsewhere. And I don't like that I have to rely on that that. But I do want to know, is it accurate? I'm like, is it showing me fake AI images of the bases being destroyed, or are these images actually containerized barracks in Kuwait and Jordan and Al Udeid and others being destroyed? Is the footage of Al Udeid base, the one in Qatar, being totally abandoned at this point? There's no U.S. aircraft or other equipment in Al Udeid in Qatar. Think about that. And we're saying we're strong. We, we abandoned the base.

We've abandoned numerous bases in, in, in the region. You can see that from the satellite footage, and you can see where Iran has done direct hits. Now, sometimes the IRGC will say we killed lots of soldiers in Syria, and that proves not to be true. And I'm trying to be very careful when just because the IRGC or Tasnim News or Mehrs or Fars reports on something. I don't go, well, Tasnim must be— I understand very well that in the theater of war you're going to get propaganda from Iran, you're going to get propaganda from the United States. In the past, while I think we all knew we were getting propaganda from the United States government, I at least thought that when CENTCOM would post something, it wouldn't just border on the— not border on, be worse than the Baghdad Bob type of propaganda, right? I mean, when you see what CENTCOM posts these days, when they'll— truth, the Strait of Hormuz is opened, it is free for everybody, ships are sailing through and things are amazing. Do y'all remember since I'm doing pop culture references. My wife had no clue what I was talking about here, but help me out on this one.

Starship Troopers. Remember Starship Troopers?

I think they would—

they live in Argentina at the time, and they would go to war against like the space aliens and, and all of that. And on Starship Troopers, they would have like their CENTCOM, right? And it would— and they would have their media. Another great day for the Starship Troopers. Here's the footage from over— then they would show the footage, and then after the, you know, the propaganda footage would roll, and you would actually see what's—

I want to—

I think I'm gonna watch that. I don't know with what time I'm going to watch— I'm going to watch it, but with my fake imaginary time, I'm going to watch Starship Troopers one of these days again. Like, what are you talking about, Ben? You don't— you're not like sleeping right now in general, but I do want to watch Starship Troopers in my make-believe life. I'm going to watch it. But then when you would actually see what was happening in the planet, like the aliens were like taking out all of the— and they were not winning the war. And all of the comets, remember that those aliens would like launch the comets into Earth and they always get hit and like, how'd that happen? Um, I, I, I, I, I, you know, between 1984, Starship Troopers, and all these things, it's, it's like, it's absurd. It's absurd, you know, uh, what, what CENTCOM is saying. I mean, that guy Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of CENTCOM, I mean, is a clown. And lots of top military people tell me privately that they think this guy is a clown. He's beclowned himself. He wasn't before, but anytime that guy speaks and he says the stuff, you know, that he knows will please Trump and Hegseth, I mean It's sad, but Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of CENTCOM, is a clown.

He's a liar. And I hate to say that. I really do, because I thought CENTCOM, that was untouchable. But no, the Trump regime tainted CENTCOM, and their social media account frankly is less accurate a lot of times than what I read on Tasnim. That's crazy. That's absurd that I, you know, that I see them posting these things. I see the images and I see CENTCOM saying the Strait of Hormuz is open, and I'm like, am I really looking at— am I looking at Tasnim and Mehrs and Fars and, and, and these statements, and they appear to be more accurate than what CENTCOM is saying to me? You know, CENTCOM will say no troops are killed in the region. When they know the troops were killed in the region. Then you find out 2 days later there were troops killed and they were covering it up, which makes me want to go back even more, you know. And, and I remember the, the war with the Houthis that lots of people don't talk about anymore in 2025 with the Signal chat. Remember Hegseth and all these people were communicating on this, and Mike Waltz, who used to be, you know, in the, uh, National Security Advisor, and then now he became He got promoted to the ambassador of the United Nations after inviting in that Jeffrey Goldberg guy from The Atlantic onto the Signal chat where they were like giving away the war plans.

Remember what they would say back then? That, you know, the Starship Troopers would, would, would come on. Another airplane mysteriously fell off the aircraft carrier into the water. We're not sure how this happened, but Donald Trump has a plan. He's going to do a deal with the Houthis, who are very brave, very courageous people, according to Donald Trump. It has no relation to the fact that F-15s are falling off of aircraft carriers at all. America has won another war. Right, right, right. This was May 2025, what Donald Trump said about the Houthis. Houthis. Let's play it.

Take a look. But, you know, we had really a very good— as you know, we had a very good outcome with the Houthis and we honor their word. I mean, they made a commitment and we dealt with other countries that were close to them and their surrogates. And we honor all of their words and we'll see what happens. But I think, you know, I I believe that hopefully that's over with and they'll leave the ships alone. You know, just leave those ships alone. But so we do. We take their word for it. It was, you know, we hit them very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment. They took tremendous punishment. And, you know, you could say there's a lot of bravery there that it was amazing what, what they took. But we honor their commitment and their word. They gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting ships anymore, and we honor that. I want to thank you all for being—

we honor them.

We honor your word, Houthis. Just want to let you know, you know, and why we so loudly and are often falsely accused of being hyperbolic is because these moments are existential. I'm going to scream from the rooftop, WTF is that? And to me, treating that as normal is actually hyperbolic in a self-defeating way, not accurately calling it out and saying WTF, you know what I mean? Like, if you go back to everything he does, it looks like that. We could talk about the reflecting pool and vandals that he makes up. You can talk about COVID like a miracle, it's all going to go away. You can talk about the nuclear deal he claims he's making with Saudi Arabia and then says they need to join the Abraham Accords, and they don't need to join the Abraham Accords. And that the enrichment is not going to be allowed, even though that's the way civil-use nuclear energy works. There's enrichment, just at a certain level. You know, you, you, you— this is what he says about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the war there. It's a good deal. Putin had a great— we had a great conversation.

It's very close to being resolved. Really, it's very close to being resolved. I see Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk and, uh, all of these areas, and Odessa. I see Russia striking very hard in Ukraine every day. I see Ukraine with its FP-1, FP-2, FP-5 drones and ballistics hitting Russia very hard. I see the Wildberries facilities, which are their logistical centers, getting blown up in Russia and Moscow region and other areas nearby. I see war everywhere right now. And, you know, it's all good, everything's great, never been better. Could you imagine what it would have been like under Joe Biden? And come on, come on, Joe Biden, I brought in all these billions of dollars. It's like, dude, shut up. And clearly, you look at his polling data Latest Pew Research poll, his approval's at 34%. You know, he'll be in the 30s, he'll be in the low 30s soon. He'll, he, you know, I, I talk about this in WTF America, you know, there, there are 28 to 30% of Americans I, I, that like this, that actually like that. There's like, and there's, and there's, and we're never going to get through to them.

I, I do, this just is, that's, they, they like this. I, I, I, I can't— I can try to give you explanations, but they, you know, and you can say, well, is it racism? Is it hating immigrants? Is it feeling like they're going to be part of the club? Is it— well, I, I don't— you know, there, there is 70% of the country who doesn't like this. Shit. I, I go into this as a big part of, of WTF America that I, that I talk about, because what Trump is able to do though is if you start with a 30%, politics is a game of addition, not subtraction. It's simple. Democrats often view politics as a game of subtraction, not addition. Which is a problem. And who can you get rid of? Who can you get out of versus who can you bring in? It's a— it could be very simple. I, I, by the way, I hate politics. I, I mean, you know, I, I go on these rants, so I'm evaluating it from, uh, from it, from, from a, a more pragmatic level though of my observation, because the day-to-day politics, I just—

not for me.

I, I care about people and principles and values and fighting for people. Where those align with politics, great. But that's increasingly where I'm at. All politicians will let you down, but it's important that we find people who truly fight and who are aligned with values and principles. But what Trump does, if you start with 28 or 30%, then you go and you make promises to all these other groups. And you— and for Trump, he lies to all of them. The Maha Moms, I'm gonna give you all of this. Or the, the gym alpha looks max, whatever the hell, you know, the, you know, I, I'm gonna give you this, I'm gonna give, you know, this group this, I'm gonna give that group that. It's often all kind of contradictory and it's all lies. And, you know, the crypto people, I'm going to give you all of this. Okay, crypto's crashed, never been worse. Glyphosate, all these pesticides Donald Trump promotes, every one of these groups, you, uh, this cultural reference may make sense. It makes sense to me, at least. I hope it makes sense to you because I discuss it in the book too.

Is, you know how the bad guy in the cartoons that you grew up with or I grew up with, you know, would be like a, like a soul sucker. And the way they got their energy is by taking away the energy from the, you know, the other people. And so Trump will go kind of group by group, you know, he has this kind of 30%, 20% base, then it goes to other people and just kind of takes it. Takes it. And, you know, now they promote glyphosate. It's the preferred pesticide. It's the measles outbreaks. So it's like, great, great work, maha, great work. You know, you literally got the worst, you know, worst person. You know, the crypto people— Trump made a lot of money on crypto. Look at the price of Bitcoin. Look at the price of crypto. You know, look at all these NFTs. They all crashed under Trump. I mean, Trump just, you know, Trump destroyed it. Um, go one by one by one. You know, this— but this is what he's done his whole life. This is what he's done his whole life. He's bankrupted most things he's touched. I don't say that in a hyperbolic way.

He has objectively. He's bankrupted this casino, that casino, this company, that company, this thing and that thing. And you see why. He has a demented pathology. He's a demented— he's a demented psychotic thing. That's why he bankrupts all of these things. What was happening what was going to happen if he escalated the war in Iran is deeply obvious. I, I'm not trying to be like, oh, I'm— I figured it out. It's obvious.

This—

a lot of the stuff that I've said about what would happen in Bab el-Mandeb, what would happen in the Strait of Hormuz, how the Houthis would respond, how Hezbollah would respond, how Iran would utilize its axis of resistance groups, how it would activate all of these, how Iran would respond— you could have studied Iran's response in 2024 in Tel Aviv. You could have studied Iran's, um, you could have studied Iran's Shahed drone production and how the Shaheds were helping Russia invade Ukraine, and, and that, that was one of the big things that have kept Russia in their invasion was, was Iranian weapons. You could study the Iranian culture You know, or you can just stereotype Iranians and pretend they're cavemen and that all they do is scream 'Allah Akbar' every day and don't— and, and they don't know what they're doing and they're begging for deals. That's just stupid. Like, why, why are we— don't be stupid. Respect what the civilization is able to accomplish. Respect that they have some of the best engineering ever. You, you have to have a deep understanding of what's happening in the— you know, we should never go to war at all.

Let me be very clear that this war is catastrophic and should never— it's unlawful, it's horrible. But we have to be, we have to be approaching this, everything, with a sense of the most basic of logic. And we're not. We're doing, you know, Trump doing tariffs against the world, painting the reflecting pool blue, doing this war. Your lesson after inflation rising because of tariffs is to do more tariffs? And you may go, what, what the hell? Didn't— doesn't he see that everybody— that this is the worst and the tariffs are bad? And it's not, but not for Donald. He's getting richer every day, just like when his companies went bankrupt. He didn't give a shit about the shareholders. He didn't give a shit about the credit or anything. He cares about any of that? No. He would get rich, then he'd move on to the next one, and then the next one, and then the next one, and then the next one. That's what he would do, and that's what he's doing right now. And for Iran also, though, you think about, you think about the historic moment for them and the historical perspective that they have, and now they get someone as dumb and idiotic and as selfish and stupid as Trump.

For them, they're— who keeps lying about them wanting to make deals and all. I mean, just think about civilization-wise the opportunity that they probably also go, you know, see in this moment that Trump, if he continues to escalate and escalate, which he seems intent on doing, this could go— you know, look, Trump could have done the MOU. And in our culture, where people forget about this, that, and the other thing, if inflation leveled out, if things got somewhat back to normal, if he, you know, just stopped talking about Iran and, you know, the next distractions, you know, sadly, perhaps the accountability levers may not have even been, you know, there. We would have been calling them out. Hopefully independent media would have been able to you know, make sure— I think people would remember. But even with the horrors that he did, if he did the MOU, things are getting back to normal. But he's incapable. He's not going to end until he loses every chip on the table. And sadly, the chips on the table now, it's America. It's our history. It's who we are. It's our people. It's people in the world, actually.

You know, it's not just unique to us. And this is one of these kind of generational, world-defining, polar-shifting moments where this guy every day is doing catastrophic damage to the United States history. And it's not me being hyperbolic, like, to our future. It is like literally, it is It is that significant what's taking place right now, and that's how it needs to be reported. That's how maybe once upon a time when reporting was really the fourth estate, they would say it. But that's what's happening right now. And so he'll escalate further and further, will run out of munitions. Iran will feel further emboldened. They're not being destroyed, they're not being obliterated, they don't want to make a deal. They have every incentive right now. There's no deal to be made with Trump. He's a liar about everything. Iran knows $100 a barrel, $120 a barrel, $150 a barrel market will continue to tank each and every day. That's what's going to happen. And, and, and then Iran can just keep this going. Trump sends in ground forces, that'll be catastrophic. Catastrophic.

Iran's—

Iran has the cards, right? It's just the real— and, and to me, it doesn't make me unpatriotic to say that. Frankly, I think if you're a true— you know, although the term has been co-opted, patriot, patriot— but if you're actually patriotic and you care about the country and you care about what you hope this country could stand for, you would be saying the things that I think I'm saying. I think that's How you actually fight for this country is by calling out the truth and, and trying to course correct, trying to do something and get us back to, um, you know, get us the hell out of there. But Iran sees what's happening. Look, we covered a lot of material today. I don't— look, I'm going to cover a lot more with the brothers, a lot more clips, a lot more insight into what's happening. Do me a favor, If you preorder WTF America Right Now, I didn't give away the whole book. That was just, that was just one of the chapters that was on my mind. But the whole point of the book also is that I don't hide things. Like, I don't hide things that like you only could find out if they're in the book.

That's not the style of this. But this to me is something that will live on, a framework for thinking generationally of getting out of this death loop of Trump and MAGA. And it's inspired by the Midas Mighty. So pre-order it right now wherever the pre-order thing is, there or there, I don't know. I'm not a weatherman, I don't know where to point. Um, put WTF if you're going to order it now. Uh, I want to give also a special shout out as well, um, to all of the folks over, uh, all my editors, uh, all the people who are working hard at the Midas Touch Network right now every single day.

Thank you.

Um, you know, it's been a lot of sleepless nights here. I want to thank all of you, the Midas Mighty, for staying in this fight, trying to bring you all the accurate coverage day in, day out over here. I want to give a shout out to the folks at Fight for Progress. Subscribe to their YouTube channel, watch that full story about Tariffs Are Killing Us, and then put in the comments that I sent you. You can even say WTF America or Ben sent us. Um, watch the full video. It's about 9 minutes long and it's definitely worth your time to watch. We'll keep our coverage going throughout the day. Patreon.com/lightesttouch as well. We'll talk about the book, behind the scenes info about the book. All right, I've been talking for a long time. What was I going to say? Jim Tan Laundry. Snooki from Jersey Shore. Jim Tan Laundry. Starship Troopers. The bad guy from Captain Planet. We covered a lot of it.

It's—

some of this stuff is so, is so difficult that sometimes having these, um, references helps us, I think, digest it a little bit better and helps us communicate and convey things a little better. Thanks everybody. I'll see you tonight. I'll see you on Patreon. Hopefully you've ordered the book. Thank you.

Love you.

Appreciate you. See you next time. Have a good one, everybody.

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