Transcript

LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/25

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 19 min · 14,759 words · 145 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/25", an episode of MeidasTouch published December 19, 2025 (1 h 19 min, about 14,759 words). It mentions 19 people, works and ideas, including Trump Kennedy Center, Patriot Games, Warrior dividend, MAGA Mike, Andrew Ross Sorkin.

What this episode is about

The discussion focuses on the impending release of the Epstein files and Donald Trump's efforts to obstruct it, including a national security team's involvement in redactions. Key points include the release of new Epstein-related materials, Trump's distraction tactics such as the introduction of "Patriot Games," the controversial renaming of the Kennedy Center, and disruptions in legislative processes led by Trump-aligned figures, particularly concerning healthcare subsidies.

Key takeaways

  • Epstein Files: Trump's redaction squad spins intrigue better than a Hitchcock plot twist.
  • Trump's 'Patriot Games': Hunger Games if you swapped Katniss for varsity jackets.
  • Warrior Dividend: A budget 'gift' that's more regifted than last year's fruitcake.
  • Inflation Fiction: When Black Friday becomes Trump's go-to economic advisor.
  • Survivor's finale hijacked: Trump's real-life version of 'outwit, outlast, outplay.'

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Warrior dividend, MAGA Mike, Patriot Games, The Hunger Games
  2. – 20:00: Jameson Greer, Hitachi
  3. – 30:00: Cash App, Block, Inc., Midas Plus Substack, The Perfect Jean
  4. – 40:00: MAGA Mike
  5. – 50:00: Patriot Games, Trump Kennedy Center
  6. – 1:00:00: Trump Kennedy Center, Patriot Games, The Hunger Games
  7. – 1:19:06: Roosevelt Room

Notable quotes from "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/25"

  • Donald Trump renaming unlawfully the John F. Kennedy Center, the JFK Center, the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center. we will talk about what went down there. Also…
    about Trump Kennedy Center · at
  • Then you had Andrew Ross Sorcin question Jameson Greer who's Trump's top trade representative just so you know all the officials just so you don't get confused at home. Right. You have Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett,.
    about Jameson Greer · at
  • Of, hundreds of millions of dollars and billions of dollars. We have the Japanese companies like Hitachi and others building. So, we see a lot of progress on that front and we're going to be looking at it over the life of President Trump's.
    about Hitachi · at
  • To discuss when we come back from our first quick break of the show. I want to give a shout out to the Midas Plus Substack. It's our get shouting out our own Substack. Check it…
    about Midas Plus Substack · at
  • Fake shopping sites and giveaways that are way too good to be true. Luckily, Cash App's 24/7 fraud monitoring helps detect and alert you for unusual card activity should…
    about Cash App · at
  • Cash.app/legal/mpodcast for full disclosures. All right, I've got to talk about the perfect jean because I genuinely hate most jeans.
    about The Perfect Jean · at
  • Better off when Biden was still in office. This was around the time when I had interviewed Biden in the Roosevelt room a year ago. it's almost probably exactly a year ago. and…
    about Roosevelt Room · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • MAGA Mike — Person · 3 mentions · first at
    You have MAGA Mike shutting down the House of Representatives as a discharge petition got the necessary votes that would otherwise force a vote to extend affordable care act subsidies which are.
  • Andrew Ross Sorkin — Person · 3 mentions
  • Jameson Greer — Person · 2 mentions · first at
  • Dr. Mehmet Oz — Person · 1 mention
  • Ron Philipowski — Person · 1 mention
  • Thomas Novelly — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

  • The Hunger Games — Book · 2 mentions · first at
    Epstein Files. He's announced something called the Patriot Games, which is his own version of the Hunger Games, if you will. He's got a male athlete and a female athlete from…

Companies & orgs

Concepts & topics

  • Trump Kennedy Center — Concept · 4 mentions · first at
  • Patriot Games — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    Tactics right before the release of the Epstein Files. He's announced something called the Patriot Games, which is his own version of the Hunger Games, if you will. He's got a…
  • Warrior dividend — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
    What went down there. Also, Trump announced what he's referring to as a warrior dividend, which is a bunch of BS. He's just taking money away from a housing allowance for the…
  • Consumer Price Index (CPI) — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

Sponsors

Full transcript with timestamps

We've got a lot to discuss on this episode of the Might as Touch podcast. The Epstein files are set to be released. What is Donald Trump going to do to try to obstruct it? We know he's already got a national security team at the Department of Justice working on redactions. What were they doing back in March? Also, a New York Times expose landed today about Donald Trump's uh relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. and more Epstein photographs were released by Democrats in the House Oversight Committee. We'll talk about that. Donald Trump is trying his usual distraction tactics right before the release of the Epstein Files. He's announced something called the Patriot Games, which is his own version of the Hunger Games, if you will. He's got a male athlete and a female athlete from each state in high school. They go to Washington DC and they compete against each other. also Donald Trump renaming unlawfully uh the

uh John F. Kennedy Center, the JFK Center, the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center. Uh we will talk about what went down there. Also, Trump announced what he's referring to as a warrior dividend, which is a bunch of BS. He's just taking money away from a housing allowance for the military and uh saying that this is a special warrior dividend that he's giving to our troops. You have MAGA Mike shutting down the House of Representatives as a discharge petition got the necessary votes that would otherwise force a vote to extend affordable care act subsidies which are set to expire in basically a week week and a half from now. Magga Mike said nope, we can't let that get to a vote.

Shut down the House of Representatives. Said everybody go home and now a vote can't be taken until January after the new year. That's how vicious Magga Mike and Donald Trump are. That's how much they hate the American people. You've got Donald Trump and his regime putting out essentially fake data today regarding inflation where they claim that rental uh and leasing um and housing inflation was basically 0%. And then they utilized Black Friday discounts to show that there were price reductions. We'll get into more of that.

You had Brendan Carr, Trump's chairman of the FCC on Capitol Hill this past week where he said that the FCC is not an independent agency. Uh you've got, of course, Donald Trump's speech that he gave on uh Wednesday night. I don't know what the hell that even was. uh he took over the airwaves, took over Survivor's finale, and I think we were all turned into non-consensual participants of Trump's version of Survivor, if you will, because it was beyond deranged to even sit through that. We've got a lot to discuss, folks. That and more. Let's bring in Brett and Jordy. Good to see you, brothers. Good to be here, Ben.

Good to be here, Jordy. Good to be here, Midas. Mighty, as we said yesterday on the Mightest Touch Twitter account about that speech, that was some weird folks, that we witnessed. And I think everybody thought the same thing. I even saw people who were like MAGA friendly people, like Republicans, you know, MAGA types saying, "What the hell was the point of that? that made him look absolutely horrible to interrupt people's I think Survivor was on like and and a lot of these other shows that people were excited to watch and then Donald Trump comes on and just lies to people about the economy and says that everything's great. Don't believe your eyes. Don't believe your ears. Just a a very bizarre thing. But I think a a throughine of this episode is going to be two C's, corruptions and cover-ups.

And that is exactly what we are seeing with the Trump administration in full effect. I mean, we've been seeing that over the past, you know, year or so, but that has gotten even heightened and especially today, I think a lot of the news can be wrapped up with those two terms. I am excited to dive right into it. So, I'm going to pass it over to Jordy. Jordy, what's the latest?

I'm excited to get into today's show. I think there's another Cword people use to describe this administration that we won't get into here. Benji, where do you want to start off today? Crooked is I think the word that you were looking for.

Exactly. It was definitely crooked. Yeah, that was the first word that came to my mind.

Yeah. So, just imagine that you're want you're watching, you know, Survivor, the finale supposed to be on right in the middle of the night. You you've been looking forward to it or you're watching another sporting event or, you know, whatever your favorite TV show after a long day's work. You've got uh you know, things are less affordable right now. You've got the Trump regime ripping away your health care. There's a lot of stress being placed on you at work. So, all you want to do is just try to go home, watch some watch some TV with your family, right? I mean, that's pretty much what's going on. So, you turn on the TV. This is a presidential address.

And you're thinking to yourself, okay, well, what's going on here? Uh, we going to war? Presidential addresses to the nation usually are done for something like deeply serious. like is there some national emergency that we should be aware about? We go into war with Venezuela unlawfully. Is what what what is happening here? Is there some crisis we're unaware of? So you turn it on and you go, "Okay, it's must be pretty serious." Donald Trump said, "My favorite word. It's tariffs." Play this clip. Much of this success has been accomplished by tariffs. my favorite word, tariffs, which for many decades have been used successfully by other countries against us, but not anymore.

Like, what did I just what what did I just watch? Then he keeps going and he's like, and I've slashed prices. Your prescription drug prices are now 400, 500, 600% cheaper. Right. It's that that's that much better. Here, play this clip. What a difference a year makes. In addition, I'm doing what no politician of either party has ever done, standing up to the special interest to dramatically reduce the price of prescription drugs. I negotiated directly with the drug companies and foreign nations which were taking advantage of our country for many decades to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500, and even 600%.

For real, what are we even watching there? And by the way, why is he so angry and he like lunges at the microphone? Ah, it's totally I think there's a reason. So, after that speech, if you looked at like Twitter or any of these apps, like aderall was trending. Um, you know, a lot more demands for Donald Trump's MRI results, a lot more demands to really understand what kind of drugs Donald Trump is taking because the way that he was speaking there was just completely offthe-wall. And then he goes and I've gotta like as though this is like some like game show competition, right? I mean, because that's how he treats every like as though as I said at the outset in my intro, like an like non-consensual participants in his dystopian reality show, whether that's actually Survivor or the Apprentice or whatever. And it's just like just what are you even doing?

Then he's like, "I'm proud to announce that 1,450,000 military service members." When he says 1,450,000, he's like happy that he landed the number. Like I said, I'm going to repeat it again. And then he goes, "We'll each be getting $1,776." And I'm calling it a warrior dividend. A warrior dividend. Like as though again this is like the host of Survivor saying and the winner of this competition will be getting whatever you know here just play play this clip of it because of tariffs along with the just passed one big beautiful bill tonight I am also proud to announce that more than 1,450,000 think of this 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special we call Warrior Dividend before Christmas. A warrior dividend in honor of our nation's founding in 1776.

We are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that. And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago. We made

Why is that even a brag? No one understood what I was going to say. Maybe they should have understood it because it's a lot of money, right? And where's that money coming from? Oh, we found out where it's coming from. Shout out to Defense One, Thomas Navly, and others over there who reported on actually where that money is coming from. And basically Trump is taking money that was congressionally allocated for housing for service members and he's taking the money that's allocated for housing for affordable housing and just taking it and giving it as a check to the service members. Trump's $1,776 checks for 1.45 45 million troops announced Wednesday night come from congressionally allocated reconciliation funds intended to subsidize housing allowances for service members. This was then confirmed by the Trump regime officials. They admit this did not come from tariff money. It came from money

that was allocated for housing. And it's a not the tariff shelf. Not the tariff

tariff pot. No. That $2.9 billion was meant to subsidize basic allowance for housing, which is a monthly payment to cover troops troops off base expenses such as rent, mortgage, and utilities. And Congress didn't just like wing it. They weren't just like 30 minutes ago, I just did this. Congress did studies. Congress did research. And Congress said, what's a big problem facing our troops? They need affordable housing. And if you just gave sometimes young troops a check for 1776, they may not use it for something that's needed and that may actually harm military preparedness and readiness and actually harm the military. So there's,

you know, it kind of reminds me of actually his whole idea behind this fake healthc care uh scam that he's trying to pull also where we're not going to give money to subsidize these health insurance policies to make sure that people are able to afford health insurance, but instead let's give $1,000 or so to people and let them buy their own healthcare. It just doesn't make any sense. It it doesn't add up and it actually ends up screwing people in the long run. He's really he's stealing from members of the military and then giving them their money in another form. You know, you know what it kind of reminds me of? Uh you know, as a kid when we're like very young and you we I wanted to get like gifts for like our parents, I would find like a bracelet or something in our par in like mom's room and then I would give her the bracelet as like a Hanukkah gift or a birthday gift and she

bracelet. I would taken that's a normal shared experience that the kids do though.

But yeah, but but I' I'd say look and then she's like, "Oh, that's mine." You know, I I think this is Donald Trump's version of that. Like he's taking it from them, which you should not do. I want to be clear. And he is giving it back uh to the person and telling them to be grateful for it. And obviously he picks the 1776 number because everything is some sort of branding scam as well behind it. Um, but when you see the way that Fox is is presenting this, it's just, you know, it's it's just one of these other propaganda schemes that he's doing, which is just such a total uh disgrace. And you see like their network, look at this patriotic move by Donald Trump. Wow, this should be lauded. I can't believe he got this from the tariff shelf. Well, you can't believe it because he did not get this from a tariff shelf. He's saying that every possible way that he spends money right now comes from tariffs. And it's

all BS. It's just a lie every single time he says it. the 18 trillion, 20 trillion, 22 trillion, all the every number that he names is a massive, massive lie designed to scam the American people. So you had Kevin Hasset, Donald Trump's national economic adviser, go on MSNBC this morning. Everything that Donald Trump said, Brett, in the speech, $18 trillion, this that we've never been richer, like all lies. And so look, this was a good question to Hasset, which is like why does he constantly exaggerate every single number? Like why can't you just say hey here's what inflation is and we're doing our best like like what wh why does it all have to be lie if you brought in let's say $5 trillion of infrastructure uh investment or $5 trillion in foreign wh why not why not just go with that and then explain what the hurdles are going to be in the future like because the impact's not being felt so the American people know

this isn't happening like you may have been able to fool us for like a few months, but like now we're a year in. So you can keep showing us the fake data, but you can't convince us when our shared experiences say that's not actually like we we now know that's all that happening. We should have known before. We knew you knew before watching others that maybe didn't. But anyway, watch what Hasset said. Hasset's like, but did you see the slides? This is a Trump regime official. Did you I'm a little disappointed that the network didn't show his slides here. Play this clip.

Struck. We talked earlier in the show. Steve Ratner was here helped us with a with a fact check. You know, the president does have some good news to talk about the economy. Gas prices for instance, but why why the need to constantly sort of exaggerate gas prices are $3. They're not $250. You know, the idea of suggesting that that that I think a lot of the the impact of inflation, yes, some progress made, but not as much as he says. Why not just tell the present American people and say, "Hey, look, this is these are the facts. I can understand how you feel."

Why they need to exaggerate? You know, I'd have to go back and look at at the specific language, but I you know, and I hate coming back with with questions for you guys, but but the president, in order to make sure that everybody understood the facts, and the facts were documented, uh spent a lot of time with us, with our team, uh preparing slides that that showed the data for what he was talking about in the speech. And in some networks, while he was speaking, they showed the slides, and in some networks, they didn't. And and and I just thought that was kind of unusual. I was expecting when I was flipping around to just see this

the slides, Brad. It's all about the slides man. Well, you know why they didn't show the slides? I actually read about this. It's because the White House created a bunch of fake data, put it on slides without any sort of substant substantiation, without any sort of sourcing for their numbers, and they gave it to the networks and they said, "We want you to present this data, this madeup data." and all the kind of more legitimate networks, I will call them, said, "No, we don't put unverified information, unverified uh quote unquote facts on the air. That's not something that we do here." I think the one network that actually did show some of those slides, unsurprisingly, was Fox. I don't think anyone's going to be surprised by that.

It's just a regime propaganda channel. And then if you watch the uh watch the event on the White House's official stream, they put up those slides. Um, but you know, they they just throw a bunch of numbers out there. It's all made up. Everything basically comes from Donald Trump just making up numbers. You know, even in his speech, you know, when he says, "We're going to, you know, we're bringing down drug prices by 500, 600, 700%." It just, it's all made up stuff that even under the slightest bit of scrutiny doesn't make any sense. And I think we saw these networks not want any part of it. Then you have Hassid go up there and he's like, "Oh, you can't believe that they wouldn't run the slides." Yeah, cuz you're cooking the books. You're making up the numbers.

That's not a way to run a government. It's not a way to run an economy and it doesn't help the American people. And no matter how much you try to cook the books here and make things seem like they are rosy and great. It doesn't matter to the American people when somebody goes to the store and they know that they're spending far more money right now than they were spending a year ago. Doesn't matter. You could lie to people's faces all you want, but they know their own lived experiences.

Exactly. And it's what folks keep saying about this Trump regime. If their lips are moving, they are lying. And you see Kevin Hassid up there and I said this previously whenever we show him I mean he's just got this eating grin on his face and he absolutely he loves it. He loves going on TV and lying to the American people and he is beside himself when he's looking at the networks who refuse to air the propaganda slides that the Trump regime had given out and he's like huh I found that to be an interesting thing with his eatating grin and it it's it's infuriating when you look at him up there because at the end of it again I don't want to be gas lit. just want the truth and Kevin Hasset is a total puppet man. It's awful.

Then you had Andrew Ross Sorcin question Jameson Greer who's Trump's top trade representative just so you know all the officials just just so you don't get confused at home. Right. You have Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett, Treasury Secretary, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, National Economic Advisor, who you just saw over there, Kevin Hasset, and then trade representative Jameson Greer. That's like the core economic team, if you will, and they're all losers. So, here's Jameson Greer. And trade really supposed to be the one that deals with, you know, the tariffs and normally would be kind of free trade is what it would focus on.

So Jameson Greer is asked by Andrew Ross Sorcin. By the way, I did an interview with Ross Sorcin. Check out the interview that I did with him, which is on our feed. He went into a lot of areas that I think

great, great, great interview. I got to say this was a really good deep dive into the economy, into Donald Trump's claims about the economy. And I recommend that everybody either watch it on YouTube or listen to it. It's on the Midas Touch podcast, like the audio feed. Check it out. Apple podcast, anywhere you get your audio podcast. A a great deep dive, Ben. Incredible stuff.

Hold on. I'm going to hype it up one more time. I think it was the best interview and we squeaked it in right before the new year. Might might be my personal favorite interview of the year.

Oh Yep. It's getting the Jordy stamp of that. This is Andrew Ross. These are the issues I was speaking to him about actually and I was I was glad to see that he asked these questions. One of the things I wanted to ask you about was the president spoke obviously uh to the American public last night and talked about the $18 trillion I think was the number he used uh of investment pledges made into the US as part of some of these tariff transactions or or tariff deals uh with various countries. And I think the American public wants to understand the math behind that because $18 trillion is an extraordinary amount of money. you look at some of the the countries that have uh made these pledges, it's, you know, close to their entire GDP.

Over what period of time should we anticipate uh these deals actually coming to fruition? And I should also just mention that Bloomberg had done a an analysis of this and suggested that in fact there were closer to only really $7 trillion which by the way is still an extraordinary number but in terms of measurable uh deals that that we should be thinking about.

Well uh remember the deals they really have a couple parts to them. You know one are one is the investment headline numbers that that you're talking about which are really important. It's helping to re-industrialize America and I'll talk a little bit about that. And the other part are what I'd call the pure trade issues where they're opening our markets to us. They're taking their tariffs down. They're removing their non-tariff barriers. And on that part, a lot of that is already in progress or going through legislatores in foreign countries. On the investment piece, you know, this past week, we saw a new zinc smelter be announced by a Korean company. Uh we have the Koreans talking about more ship building in the tunes of, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars and billions of dollars. We have the Japanese companies like Hitachi and others uh you know, building. So, uh, you know, we see a lot of progress on

that front and we're going to be looking at it over the life of President Trump's term on the investment figures,

right? The other thing that, okay, just to be clear, he just lied. Do you hear what he just said? Like, just break it down what he just said. He goes, "When we talk about 18 trillion, write this down or or or just remember it. That's the investment headline number." The hell does it even mean? the yeah that that the issue that you're being asked is that you're making up fake headlines. You go it's the investment headline number. So that that's what we look at the investment headline. Okay. So you made up the number. That's basically what you're saying. And then the other thing we look at is the pure trade issues. What does that even mean? The you're the trade represent. You think there wasn't trading before. So are you just counting trading that takes place between countries as a gross number of investment into the United mean pure trade issues investment headline number?

And then he says there's a zinc smelter plant from a Korean company that we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars and perhaps billions, but you need to measure it throughout the lifetime of the presidency. Okay, that's what he said right there. Like do you all realize he just literally just just vomited out a bunch of words that make literally no sense at all?

Can I give some can I give some other facts also just to like level set these numbers that the Trump administration continues to say global when you're talking about global trade and I'm talking like all of glob all of global trade every single single aspect of global trade $35 trillion for 2025. So Trump is claiming he's brought in 18 trillion, 20 trillion,$22 trillion of investment. The entire global trade, all of it is 35 trillion for 2025. And anytime he says the numbers about these various uh countries, it's often times as much as the country's GDP, most of the country's GDP, more than the country's entire GDP. It just none of it makes sense. None of it adds up. It's also why the Ponzi scheme that the Trump regime is running right now, lying about the trillions and trillions of dollars that they brought in, just absolutely makes no sense to me because at that same tokens, they they'll talk about,

oh, we brought in this much money, you know, trillions of dollars here. The economy, it's it's it's an A++ plus economy. And then in the same breath, they'll go, Biden left me a disaster. This economy is horrible. But but you should be feeling great about it because it's actually great. It's like the mixed messaging here makes absolutely no sense because they're lying. They are lying to you. And that's why

it's Schroinger's economy, right, Jordy? It's both the best economy, the golden age A+++ but also it's horrible and it's all Joe Biden's fault.

Exactly. And meanwhile, Dr. Oz was holding a press conference today and here's what he was talking about. Let's play it.

Vaginoplasty. A vaginall plasty. A procedure a child does not need costs $60,000. Shockingly, a phaloplasty, the creation of a penis, costs on average in America, according to this data, high quality, $150,000 per child. Now, look, we don't need to get into much more of what he I mean, he's trying to attack transgender people and he's trying to attack gender affirming care and and that's the main thing though that his focus is on like just to be clear, you know, again, while Americans are having their healthc care ripped away from them as Maggami Johnson refused to allow a vote on the Affordable Care Act subsidies to be extended to even take place despite there being a discharge petition. They go to their toolkit, right? They go there. Don't forget the massive measles outbreak.

Exactly. Exactly. So, we have a lot more to discuss when we come back from our first quick break of the show. Um, I want to give a uh shout out to the Midas Plus Substack. It's our get shouting out our own Substack. Check it out. I think you'll like Ron Philipki does a great job there with his daily summaries. Go check it out. Midasplus.com. Become a member of our YouTube page if you can. It helps grow this independent media platform. Subscribe across all Midas platforms. YouTube viewers, go to audio. Check out the audio podcast. Audio podcast listeners, go check out the YouTube page. Let's uh keep trying to grow this thing as much as we can. We appreciate all your support. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show.

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They're childish. Because we need adults in the room. If we actually if we actually as a country want to start solving the issues that are in front of us, inflation, this economy, making everyone and our citizens actually feel better moving forward. Like we just need to be serious and we need to have serious people as leaders and the Trump regime are not serious. They are childish. Ben,

well, you look at what they even said the this morning, right? They said consumer price index. They said, "Wow, big drop in inflation all of a sudden out of nowhere. big drop in inflation like like a kind of like a pretty drastic drop. And it's like, well, where where is this coming from? Well, it's coming from housing and rent. Wait a minute. Housing and rent is all of a sudden going down like dramatically over the past what month and a half? And then it's like, wait a minute. Did you all use the number zero and just make a assumption that there was zero increase without actually gathering the data? And is that one of the core inputs that dragged down in a good way that brought although it's fabricated information that brought down inflation and yeah they did and you can say well they did this because the algorithm just input zero that was one of the excuses there just the algorithm did it okay what is

it even the algorithm put zero why don't you just they've had a lot of time to gather the right data like why don't you put what it actually is before making a report that's false and if the algorithm truly inputs zero improperly when it's not zero. Then maybe you say, "Hey, an input zero, so you can't trust this D. This we're going to figure it out." Like people saw it and said, "Wait a minute. How'd this happen? Wait, you put zero?" They're like, "Wait a minute. The cost of all these products and goods and consumer stuff that went down dramatically as well. How'd that happen?" Like all of a sudden, oh wait a minute, you didn't collect any data other than basically the Black Friday sales across the board.

So, you're literally using the Black Friday discounts to claim that inflation is going down. And then when you see this, it's just like you can't there's nothing you trust with these people, right? It's like what I said before. Oh, that's the headline investment number. Did we tell you about the zinc plant? And it's just Jordy to your point like when children lie when children lie or give fake gifts to their parents and regift them for their birthdays, you know,

who would do something like that? That's like such a weird thing to do. I don't know who who would do that and then admit it on a podcast to millions of people. That would just be a freaking

just because it came out of like you know when you're like a kid and it's your mom's birthday coming up and you give her her own necklace as a gift and people like I'm not sure about that one Brett. I'm not sure that's a shared experience.

I defin I defin I definitely did that to you guys too by the way. You definitely got regifted gifts of

maybe you thought you were just winning. You're like you're like a unique experience to you Brett. Okay. But but but the the way they lie is the way like a child gets caught in a lie too. And it's like, okay, did you just come up with like the stupidest lie? Like, you know, something can't decrease by 600%. Uh uh what he really means. It's like, okay, is there this is the American economy, though. This isn't this isn't Brett regifting on Mother's Day when Brett's eight years old. This is the American this is the American economy right here. So, we've got that taking place. Then I I I want to talk about though what's going on in the House of Representatives because the American people right now are very alarmed. They're very worried that they're going to be losing their health care, especially if they were on Medicaid. The disastrous budget bill gutted a lot of people's Medicaid. Then lots of people get their health care

from the Affordable Care Act exchanges and plans. It wasn't some Democratic talking point. Oh, your premiums are going to triple or quadruple if these subsidies are not extended. It's just it's called a fact. It's just the reality of it. Okay. And sure enough, people are seeing that their Affordable Care Act plans that they bought on the exchanges last year that the premiums have gone up to air to amounts that they can't afford. You're seeing in all of these states, people are not buying the health insurance off the exchange because they can't afford it. And so something had to be done about it. And MAGA Mike and Republican leadership at Donald Trump's demand as well refused to. And one of the things is too because Donald Trump hates Obama. So anything Obama affordable care anything any of Obama's achievements or Biden achievements even if they're they're good for the country, Trump has to

destroy. So that's that he thinks in that kind of simplistic terms and I think he likes to see people suffering. So, Maggamike refuses to allow a vote to take place. Just let Congress vote on extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies. What Magga Mike does allow for is a vote on just like a hodgepodge of like old plans that Republicans had come up with and like a lot of them like involve not allowing affordable care act plans to like give women reproductive rights, right? in blue states also, not just the red states that like basically have abortion bans. So, just to be clear, not only was Maggamike refusing to allow a vote to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies, what he put on the floor and what Republicans did vote for was limiting Affordable Care Act plans ability to provide for like maternity and um reproductive right care and and and and other types of things that are vital. Um, but you had four Republicans

join forces with Democrats on Democratic leader Hakee Jeff discharge petition that would have a three and shout out to Hakee Jeff because he held his ground. He said, "No, you can join my discharge petition or nothing." Like this is what the American people need right now. It's not just like what Democrats want. It's like actually what the American people like actually need to live right now and to have this certainty. And Jeff was like, "Look, we can negotiate. You want to talk about other plans, come up with something real, but in the meantime, extend the subsidy so people aren't losing their healthcare and dying. Like, so you had four Republicans join forces with the Democrats or sign the Democrats discharge petition to go around Maggamike. discharge petitions are ways to get around the speaker who controls what bills um are able to be voted on because Maggamike wasn't even allowing the extension to get a vote because he

knew if it got a vote it would be voted on because it's actually something that American people want. So what did Magamike do after this discharge petition was signed? Magamike shuts down the House of Representatives. Remember when he did this during the government shutdown where he could still have showed up and like actually done work but they didn't want to swear in Adalite to Grihala because she would be the signature on the discharge petition to release the Epstein files. We'll talk more about that on the show but remember when they did that so he literally shut down Congress. That's like his playbook to your point childish. He shut down. He shut it down and he said everybody

think about the think about the two recent times that and and the only times that really Mike Johnson has forced the rest of Congress to employ these discharge petitions which are rarely used rarely successful but they've been used twice now in the past few weeks. And the first time was because Mike Johnson refused to put the bill for the to release the Epstein files on the floor. And now we have this a simple clean extension of healthcare subsidies to save millions and millions of lives.

And I I'll give you one build on that, Ben, about how childish that is. So you guys remember when you're kids and the older brother's beating you in a video game or something and you turn it off really quickly cuz you don't want them to win.

That's how Magic Mike is looking at government right now. He's shutting down the government because he's scared he's going to lose because that's how they see this too. They see this as a game instead of just getting

We already get that example, Journey. American people. That one's hyper specific to me. I never let the brothers beat me in video games. That system would get shut off real quick.

Oh, come on. That That was a Ben That was such a Ben move to Come on. I I'd be so close to beating Ben in like Madden football and he'd turn off the game. And I mean, that was the classic move. Classic MAGA Mike move.

I was defending mom's honor and shutting it off. That's a good point. classic Magamike style deflection. I did not allow someone who regifted necklaces on Mother's Day to defeat me in a game. So that's why that's why to the extent I ever did that that's why I did it. So Maggamike was then Jordy to your point childish. He ran around the halls of Congress saying I didn't lose control. I I don't lose control.

That's that's how you know you're in control. And and and that's what that's where I would perhaps say or Jordy would perhaps say I didn't lose the game. I didn't lose. I'm actually still the winner. Play this wh while while the winning brother would play we are the champions and make the other brother cry here. Play this clip.

Hypothetical we're talking about hypothetical. Have you lost control? I have not lost control

because there are me. Look, we have the smallest majority in US history. These are not normal times. There are process processes and procedures in the house that are less frequently used when there are larger majorities. And when you have the luxury of having 10 or 15 people who disagree on something, you know, you don't have to deal with it.

Okay. Okay. Sure. I got they come in there, they're like, "We have a mandate. We have a huge mandate. We're going to bulldo through and do everything we Oh, I'm sorry. We actually have a very slim majority and we'd love to get this healthcare. We'd love to do all that. just can't. We just can't. And sometimes things like this happen. Okay. Okay. Magic. This guy is such a disgrace.

Okay. Well, Maggamike, well, what about the fact that 22 to 24 million Americans are on these Affordable Care Act plans, perhaps even more, and they're they could be losing their health care now because of what you're doing. And you've never put forward a plan to actually reduce costs. And no, Donald Trump being out there and saying he's reducing the cost by 600%. That's actually not a solution. So what's your plan, Megan Mike? Here, play this clip.

But here's here's the false narrative. The Democrats are are pretending as though this affects everybody in the country, it affects 7% of Americans, this extended subsidy. And of those, even if it was extended without any reforms at all, it would only reduce that small group of Americans premiums by 5.7%. The Democrats have tried to 24 million Americans.

No, I I understand that this is not for everybody, but it's 22 to 24 million Americans and there are some Republican some Republican

Republicans whose districts are going to face some real trouble and some real issues with this. We we've talked to some of them.

I understand that Mike Lawler from New York was particularly upset yesterday that he was kind of um furious about it. Said it's idiotic. It's

But here's the thing, too. It's not just about Mike Lawler or Fitzpatrick. Like, it's about the people. Like, man, these this this these are the we're talking about people's lives here. We're talking about our viewers, our listeners. Maggamike in Louisiana, your constituents, Mike Lawler's constituents. I don't give a as you know I don't give a crap about Michael Lawler's job you know or you know you you represent human beings who can die because you have not come up with a plan and you're failing to allow the plan as imperfect as it may be that provides people though with a solution that gives them comfort and that they like. you're also taking the option away from somebody without replacing it with something that could help them. So that's that's just cruel and unusual. I think about that term cruel and unusual punishment. What a cruel and unusual way, right? To treat to treat the American people. It's just very strange,

Brent. Very strange behavior. And it is it shows a I think a a a hatred frankly uh you know for for for the American people.

I mean you can see it there. He Mike Johnson is treating like 25 million Americans like it's some sort of rounding error or something. These are real people's lives. That's a lot of people. And honestly you talk about Ben and and you know I know we've had Senator Bernie Sanders on the show speak about this that idea of psychological torture. This right here is an example of that psychological torture that we speak about and that so many people in these rallies across America, whether they're Republican, Democrat, independent, doesn't matter what their political affiliation is, this is what they speak about. This is what they mean when they're talking about it. When you are faced with this spike in premiums that is could be thousands of thousands of dollars, some cases like 10 plus thousands of dollars a year. Like how do people afford that? Like I I I don't understand how this is feasible, how

this is sustainable. And there is a way that we have made it feasible and sustainable for people. And in any other normal time, this would not even be a question. This would be probably unanimous vote if this was like 10 years ago, right? Of course, you would extend these subsidies because there are so many lives on the line. You're going to push a lot of people into bankruptcy. You're going to make them have to decide between their health insurance or other necessities in their life. But instead, you have Mike Johnson writing them off so flippantly. And by the way, if Donald Trump came out tomorrow and said, "Yes, I want to extend these subsidies and name a Trump subsidies." He'd flip in a second because he has no values. He has no principle. He has zero foundation to stand on. These people do not believe anything except doing Donald Trump's bidding. That's all they care about. And because Donald Trump says he does not

want these subsidies to pass, Mike Johnson just acts like he is a vessel of Donald Trump. And he repeats that. And then he makes every single excuse as to why he is about to be the reason that millions and millions of Americans, tens of millions of Americans are going to be forced to pay astronomical health care premiums, health insurance premiums that could send them into bankruptcy and really destroy their lives. Not to mention the psychological trauma that comes from that as they receive these bills and as they have to now monitor what the hell is Congress doing? Are they going to pass this? There's a discharge thing. It's now not going to take the floor until January because Mike Johnson refuses to put it on the floor. Is it going to pass the House? It should pass the House. Will it pass the Senate if it passes the House? Why should the average American have to worry about these things? They should

just be able to pay for their health care, their health insurance, and get the health care that they need. They shouldn't have to worry about the intricacies of politics and the horse race and who's up for election and who may flip on this because they're more moderate and in this district or that district. It shouldn't even be on any American's mind. they should be able to go about their lives. And when I think about this notion of freedom, the idea of freedom that Republicans pretend to be these representatives of freedom, there is nothing more uh the opposite of freedom. There's nothing more kind of shackling than be having to be worried about your this these sorts of issues in your life. How could you go about your dayto-day enjoy your life when you have to worry about the very fundamentals of keeping yourself and your family alive?

It is so hateful. There's no excuse for this. 10,00%. And going back now to how he started the show with that Trump speech, how whatever you want to the rally speech that he addressed the nation with that he made us all watch. The bizarre part of me really thinks why he did that. I'm not trying to get into his mind. That's a scary place. But we all know the holidays are here. They're coming up. Christmas is right around the corner. Families are going to be getting together. What that sounded like to me was he was giving his his base the talking points to kind of back pocket as they roll in. Oh no. Oh no. Because look, politics inevitably comes up at these things. Oh no, it's the Democrat's fault. And here's why. And it's at the end of the day again, people just don't want to be gaslit, man. Like the the tone when you hear Mike Johnson there, it's just so I'm gonna use another C word. I'm gonna say it this time. Don't

believe me. Condescending. It's so evil and condescending and just so arrogant that they just continue to lie to us to our faces. And I'm proud of this community here, the pro-democracy community, who pushes back. Says, "Hey man, this is not what the data is reflective of. You continue to lie to us. You continue to gaslight us. Here's X, Y, and Z reason why. Now just can you tell us the damn truth? Why are our premiums skyrocketing? Why is our healthc care skyrocketing? Magga Mike, what's going on? I'm feeling this in my pocket. I am a human being. Don't talk to me like I'm some sort of constituent that you need my I just want to live, man. So, what's going on, dude? What?

Why can't we just be there as a society? Like, how how has this MAGA Republican party so lost its way that they just hate the American people so much that they're willing to let them die so long as they continue to gaslighters? Well, you know, they thrive as this opposition, this anti- everything and tear it down and burn it down. And so the contradiction is this whiny, pathetic, orange aderallfueled loser in the White House like whining and yelling, right? But you're in the White House, so you're in charge and we're a year in and you're whining about Biden and you're whining that the unaffordable care act. Dude, you're in charge.

I'm watching an address that in the past we had leaders, presidents stress the American people on the most serious of matters. Whether it was announcing war, whether it was announcing peace, whether it was announcing uh killing of Osama bin Laden, whether it is announcing um you know a a a national tragedy or or or being there as a consoler and chief, you're there with the trappings of the White House and this and this w this whiny, childish, immature, dangerous racist racist. A lot of Americans don't see, you know, we we cover it and a lot of people follow the Midas Touch Network. We're the most watched digital news network that there is. You know, a lot of people though just wanted to watch Survivor.

They just wanted to watch Survivor. They wanted to watch their favorite show and they turn that on and they don't really following politics. Like, wait, what? What? What? What are you saying? Huh? Now, when we come back, I want to talk about a few things. I want to talk about what Trump is doing to cover up the release of the Epstein files. what I expect is going to happen when they're released on Friday, what's going to be released, what's not going to be released. And let's talk about what Trump's priorities are, like what's he actually focused on doing right now. Uh renaming the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center, putting his social media posts and attaching it to the White House like he's doing true social posts on the White House. He's focused on his own com Trump Media acquired like a or merged with a energy fusion company and then all of a sudden Trump media stock soared a fusion company that

requires D department of energy approval merges with Trump media because you know Trump media as we've always talked about was doing hard you know my opinion was doing really bad I mean lost tens of millions of dollars each quarter so now it announces a merger with a fusion company this technology that hasn't even been implemented yet. While Trump is getting rid of solar and wind, which we know work and reduce energy prices, while energy prices are up 13% to 15% year-over-year. I mean, these are the derangements. He's announcing the Patriot Games, Patriot Games, one male high school student, one female battle it out in DC at the capital, at the federal capital. We

may the odds be ever in your favor. May the odds be in your favor. Let's take our last quick break of the show. Reminder, hit subscribe. Help us get to six million subscribers. Subscribe to us on audio and video. Just search Midasouch wherever you get your audio podcast. We'll leave a fivestar review there. And if you can go to midasplus.com, check out the Substack. All right, let's uh take our last quick break of the show. You hear that? That's the sound of my new holiday tradition. I've got the holiday lollipop can right here. Yep.

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You know, I said when we come back from a break, I'm going to discuss all the distractions and I like just discuss them. I I ended up saying all the things I was going to say when I came back. So like I could kind of be redundant about it. But yes, Donald Trump said that he was announcing the Patriot Games, which is like the Hunger Games, except it's it's a little bit different obviously, but you know, it's like literally borrowing the idea, but like it's one female high school athlete, one male high school athlete, and they compete each other from the different districts.

Okay. He's renaming uh the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy Center, which again is illegal. The Kennedy Center was named that by Congress. They But Donald Trump doesn't care because they're it's an unlawful regime. They're they're a gangster regime. They do what gangster regimes do. They've changed the website of the Kennedy Center. So, it now already says the Trump Kennedy Center. They're going to replace all the signage, but it requires a congressional act. But the MAGA Republicans won't keep him um won't hold him accountable to all the Kennedys other than RFK Jr., but all the Kennedys are like, "This is so horrible." like this was part of the legacy of a fallen president and like uh you have Maria Shrivever saying some things just leave you speechless and a rage and in a state of disbelief at times such as that it's better to be quiet for how long I can't say you have Joe Kennedy IIIT the Kennedy Center is a

living memorial to a fallen president named for President Kennedy by federal law it can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial no matter what anyone says and you had Caroline Levit over there saying I've just been informed that a unanimous vote was taken and the entire board voted to change the name and they're now calling it the Trump Kennedy Center. First off, Donald Trump appointed like 90% of the board. Like they're all Trump people. It's like Pam Bondi and Steve Scaliz and like Dan, not Steve Scaliz, like Dan Scavino, you know, and uh like all the Trump just it's just Trump's people. Um the people who were not Trump's people, their phone was muted during the vote.

So they were not even allowed to voice their objection even though Trump had packed the board with enough people to have the the board can pass resolutions. They can't change the name. It's like again it's a crime and frankly those board members when everything's said and done they should be criminally prosecuted, right? Like this is a crime. You can't It's like it would be like putting graffiti on it. Like you can't put graffiti on it. So again another crime that I think these people should actually be look there's a lot more that these people should be prosecuted for. A lot of them are war criminals also but not all of them but you know some of them pam bondi others but you know it's just every day they commit crimes crimes crimes crimes crimes and you know screw you Supreme Court for giving Donald Trump absolute immunity because right here is part of the consequence when you treat some when you say that someone has

king-like powers all they got to do is say oh national security or this or that you know uh that's what they claim with everything by the way uh Donald Trump's latest briefing um regarding tearing down the east wing. I did a whole video on this. You know what he cited? National security because they're building a bunker underneath it. They're renovating a bunker. You think the taxpayers are paying for that? Absolutely the taxpayers are. They said, "Ah, you know, the the ballroom won't be done until 2028. So, judge, it's moot anyway. Like, you can't tell us to stop building. We've already destroyed it."

But national security when it comes to the bunker. So they invoke national security for like quite literally everything. So do we have one of the board members, the the congresswoman um who said who who said actually what really went down uh during during the vote? I think we have a video of her. Let's play this clip if we got it.

I'm Congresswoman Joyce Batty. I'm sitting here in my congressional office in Washington DC just ending a call with the Kennedy Center where I serve as an ex official member. I am bringing this to you live today because what you may hear is that there was a unanimous vote to rename the Kennedy Center the Trump Center. Be clear. I was on that call and as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted. Each time I tried to speak, I was muted. Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online.

Yet, it was said at the end, it was a unanimous vote. Clearly the Congress has a say in this. This senator, the Kennedy, they muted the Congress like who literally required to pass a law. They muted Congress's ability to object and they said it's unanim I mean Jordy that's be I mean yes it's childish behavior but it's like this is these people are thugs. I mean this regime this gangster regime I mean like just look at their behavior. I don't know how anyone looks at this and goes, "Oh, yeah. I like this. I like this spread."

Yeah. I mean, it's it's Orwellian and it's it's just fascist behavior. I mean, this is, you know, it's how like fake trials are run in Russia. You know, it's it's straight out of 1984. It's unanimous. Oh, why? Cuz you muted all the people who object. And the way that they stack these boards with, you know, all of these Trump sick offense. I mean, you could go down the list. It's just like atrocious. It's like they made a mockery of all of our institutions and and the American people hate it. Like no one's even going to the Kennedy Center for events anymore. Like they've just totally desecrated the place. It's it's just so so appalling. I mean, you got people like Susie Wilds, Usha Vance, you been said Dan Scavino before, Lee Greenwood, Laura Ingram, the Fox host, the Maria Barta Romo, Elaine Chow, uh, who was in, uh, Donald Trump's administration, uh, Pam Bondi, uh, you know, Sergio Gore, uh, all of these

people are the people who are making these decisions about the Kennedy Center. So, it's not like some, you know, independent board, it's Trump's sickance, and it's against the law, as Ben said. Um but that doesn't matter to them. They just press ahead. And I think it's very ominous when we see them doing things like this. When we see things like them uh you know make calling it the Donald Trump Institute of Peace, when you see at the Department of Labor, Donald a giant poster of Donald Trump's face. I mean these are the things that we would look at uh you know Saddam Hussein's Iraq or we'd look at North Korea and we'd go wow what an effed up society that is. You know I'm thankful to live in a country where that's not how things are here. But Donald Trump has quickly transformed our society into that thanks to all the enablers around him.

For me, you know, I look around sometimes and I'm hopeful that we will get out of this one day. I really am. And restored normaly here and really put our best foot forward as a nation. But I'm talking like 15, 20, 30 years down the line when we all sort of reflect back on these cowards who just bent the knee so willingly to Donald Trump. And for me, I'm just so curious as to genuinely why. Is it money? Is it because you don't want to get called a bad name? Do you not actually like this country? Do you not actually want this country to be better off for its citizens? Like there are are are so many way so many ways to look at this thing multiple times. And it's frustrating.

And only time will tell. And I I hope I hope we're all around collectively still in this country still standing for us to kind of see the light of day on this and actually have that debrief here and understand why. But it's it's it's genu it genuinely upsets me as someone who truly loves this country. Truly.

Yeah. And I mean you just with all of these inc and they're incompetent. You know what? A lot of the people who take these positions though who are willing to say these things and behave in this way would not otherwise on their merit be able to get into these positions you know and so they're they you know like a cash Patel being the FBI director right Pam Bondi becoming the you know uh attorney general I mean uh you know Dan Bonino who's quitting but becoming the deputy the deputy FBI director Pete Hexith becoming a secretary of defense. Like what what are what you know Trump picks and this is the thing about authoritarian regimes in general like he picks the the the the the most unqualified people. Do we have the clip right of Lorie Chavez darrances she gave this morning where she at least was asked by Fox about the bad job numbers and if they're coming from you know jobless claims are up 54%. Um

unemployment's at 46 and rising. I think it'll probably be at about uh about 5% uh soon. Um and here's what she's like. Yeah, AI isn't a big deal. Like AI is not take you're the labor secretary and you're saying AI is not a threat to labor. Here, play this clip.

But back to this weakening of the numbers. Do you believe that the weakening of the numbers monthtomonth on on jobs and the unemployment rate ticking up is that a function of AI or is that a function of some weakness in the broader economy?

Absolutely not. It's not a function of AI again because we want to make sure that we're answering the call these market demands. You know, postcoid there was a lot of companies who who um you know increase their employee growth numbers and maybe they're laying off for those reasons and they have to answer that to the American people. But I will tell you at the Department of Labor, what we're doing is focusing on the apprenticeship program. We're focusing, you know, we've registered almost 300,000 new apprentices. We're answering the call for 700,000 jobs in electricians machinists plumbers.

Again, did you see that? She was basically attacking companies for hiring labor, right? She was like, "They're going to have to answer for hiring all those people or keeping people hired or you know, it's like what? you're the labor secretary and you're saying that AI isn't a threat and it's answering a marketing demand. Like you could say it's a that there is a that that AI like if you're the labor secretary you should say what yes we need to harness the power of AI but we need to make sure that we protect labor like isn't that like literally your whole job is and then it's like why is energy bills going up 13% right now since Donald Trump took office because it's going it's it's like literally going rampant. Why is heating costs going up? Like, why are all all these costs are going up? I I wonder why, Brett. I wonder why.

It's al it's all skyrocketing, too. It's like it's not even close. Like, electricity prices, I think you you said this stat before. They're up 13% since Donald Trump took office. Heating costs are expected to rise 9.2% this winter. So, think about all the other costs we talked about this episode, right? Health care costs and things like that. On top of that, all of these costs in addition to prices for everything being more expensive. And Trump just makes it worse because he keeps cancing all of these clean energy projects. So while he's giving all these kind of AI companies a cart blanch to build all these data centers and all these towns, he's cancelling these clean energy uh projects that would actually help the energy load that are actually clean ways to help with this energy load. So already Trump has either threatened to cancel or cancel 324 clean energy projects or companies. He put 165 thou

more than 165,000 clean energy jobs on the chopping block. $53 billion in clean energy investment is gone. And these projects just like so you could wrap your head around it a little bit. They would have generated enough electricity to power 13 million homes, but they're gone because of Donald Trump and all of this while like think about the other orders that Donald Trump wants to sign and and what these Republicans right now what what they're fighting for. They're fighting to stop any regulation on AI, like to not allow any states to regulate AI whatsoever, so that they can allow these billionaires to build these data centers which are destroying communities, straining the energy grid, consuming massive amounts of water. In many cases, they're even making water unsafe to drink in the towns. uh they're just allowing them to build these cart blanch with that's just out with no guidelines and no guidelines obviously

for the you know for the end result of AI for its many use cases that could be quite dangerous. AI if harnessed correctly could be a good thing. It could be used to improve efficiency. It could be used to help find cures to diseases. There's there's a lot of great use cases for AI but there without all these but it's also a very dangerous technology that also needs a lot of regulation. They do not want any regulation on this. And then that brings me to another really important story that I don't think is getting nearly enough attention, but the Trump administration just moved to dismantle the country's leading climate research center, which is the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. It's like worldrenowned, one of the top research centers in the entire world.

People all across the planet rely on this facility for life and death information about natural disasters and so much more. But the administration says because they report on climate issues and give actual data on the climate, not cooked books like the Trump administration gives out, but they give actual facts to the people. The Trump administration says that that is alarmist and woke. I I wish I was being facitious when I said that they called the work that they do woke, but they literally said that it's woke. It's woke to know about natural disasters. It's woke to have information on the climate.

It's woke to save lives, I guess. And it's all because they're just giving truthful information that goes against this regime narrative. It's part of the danger of having these sickopants, of having a regime that doesn't care about the facts and just wants to push forward its agenda without any regard for anything else.

Yeah. And I'd be remiss if we didn't talk about the Epstein files though for a moment. Um, first off, on Thursday, the New York Times dropped an incredible expose. By the way, Brett, that was a great segment. Um, New York Times dropped an expose. The headline, Don's best friend, how Epstein and Trump bonded over the pursuit of women. The article talks about, and it's very well sourced from like people who worked with Epste at the time, Epstein's assistant, like all the people who knew what was going on at the time. The two men forged a bond intense enough to leave others who knew them with the impression that they were each other's closest friend.

The Times found the president has tried to minimize their friendship, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women, say girls, but chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency. There's also photos that the Democrats from the House Oversight Committee released and it's like Epstein with like PE. It looks like very young girls in the photo. Their faces are redacted, but it looks like very young girls in this photo. Um, you go to what the New York Times also reports and they say one of the assistants who worked for Epstein, who would work late, recall that sometimes when the office emptied out, Epstein would check to see that she was at her desk and put Trump on speaker. Mr.

Trump, she said, seemed to enjoy regailing Epstein with tales of his sexual exploits, and Mr. Epste seemed to delight in how uncomfortable it made her to overhear them. She remembered one call in the mid 1990s in which the two men discussed how much pubic hair a particular woman had and whether there was enough for Mr. Epste to floss his teeth with. Epstein frequently mentioned his friendship with Trump according to several accusers telling one he had a bedroom reserved at Mara Lago. Um, so while this is going on, Donald Trump has also assigned a national security team, a national security team at the Department of Justice and FBI to work on the redactions uh, which removing things and and hiding things or not disclosing the names uh, before the deadline uh, which is on Friday. If you're listening to this on Friday, it's today. And so like hundreds of national security employees, lawyers,

FBI agents, potentially in the thousands. Interesting thing to think about though because didn't they do this in March? Also from the foyer requests that we know that Bloomberg sent out, we know that redactions were made in March. Remember there was one week where there was a thousand overtime hours that were spent by the FBI and the various teams there. There was also, I think, national security teams and other teams that dealt with these redaction teams back then. Um, yeah, a million dollars, I think it was, I think it was a thousand employees that worked on it in March and over a million dollars in overtime pay in one week alone. Um, and that's when Bondi said they were going to release it and then of course they didn't release it and said they're not releasing anything. Um, so I think given what we know, Trump's not going to produce things that have his, you know, it's either going to be redacted or not

produced. They'll probably produce, in my view, duplicates of what the estate turned over. And I think they'll produce some things that have Trump's name on it. But just to be like, oh, you see, his name is on it, but like, you know, but I think they're going to produce a lot of things that implicate people who Trump views as like just other people, not him. other, you know, people that he would perceive as enemies. Anyone who's friends with him, I'm giving you my opinion, friends with him, him, I think they're not going to produce it or just produce a little bit enough to be to like, hey, you see, we turn stuff over.

I think they're also going to be sloppy and I think we're going to find out pretty quickly and you can go back to this tape when it happens that they will probably violate a lot of p actual privacy issues of the real victims and survivors. Um, we saw them do this before in other settings where they like give social security numbers. So, like I think there's going to be a great degree of sloppiness that we're going to find out right away. Um, but I think there's going to be a lot of cover up and I think a lot of the work's going to begin in terms of exposing what their what their cover up is. So, we will we will we will be on that every step of the way. I I just do want to show these two other points though just be be before we go. Um, and there there are just two separate hearings and I just want to make sure I give everybody this this info. You may have seen it on hot takes that I've done, but I want to show you

some of the Democrat cross-examination of witnesses that took place in the Senate. The first one where you had Democratic Senator Blumenthal cross-examining Trump's pick to be federal judges. So, you see like who are the future federal judges that Trump is pushing forward and that the MAGA Republicans are are pushing forward. And to what we described earlier, I think you said, Jordy, who would want to like who who would do this? Who would debase themselves? You know, these people want to be federal judges and they're willing to say anything and they know that if they say January 6th was an attack on the capital that they will not become judges. So, they say, "I can't answer the question." And you'll see how people like this bend and break. And these are disgraceful human beings. They're vile human beings. And I hope that their children and their grandchildren see this and say, "You know what? Uh, these

individuals in my family were utterly disgraceful here. Play this." Was the United States capital attacked on January 6, 2021?

And again, Senator, as a sitting judge under rule two of the Missouri Rules of Judicial Ethics, I believe that there are cases pending in front of courts. And so due to pending or impending litigation, I cannot comment on anything of political controversy.

I'm not asking you about a specific individual. Was the capital attack? And again, I do believe that there are cases currently in front of courts. And so as a sitting judge under rule two, I I cannot answer.

Uh Mr. Lee, the same answer. And I would add that as an employee of the Department of Justice, I would refer to the Department of Justice's positions and briefs.

Mr. Olson, um, Senator, the the January uh, six events um are a matter of of public controversy and and debate on how to characterize those and I think to that robust

all right, that's you know that very low character individuals, very shameful individuals, right? There are going to be federal judges deciding cases. hiding side cases that involve Donald Trump and MAGA, right? Such low character, such scumbags, frankly. I mean, I don't know how else to describe these people. Such shameful humans. They can't say that. But look, if if they want to not being asked to opine on do you agree with Donald Trump's impeachment, which should be an easy answer. I mean, do sorry, Donald Trump pardons should be impeached, you know, but you know, but also I mean, they weren't asked to opine on what what are your thoughts about Trump's impeachment in his first term. They weren't asked about like those questions. They were literally

not even by the way, Ben, they weren't even asked is Donald Trump responsible for the events on January 6. It was simply was the capital attacked on January 6th. This is common knowledge that we all know happened and they refused to even say that.

Yeah. Okay. So then you have Brendan Carr, the current chairman of the FCC. FCC is an independent agency. It's always been their website said it was independent until Brendan Carr said what I'm about to show you. Then they deleted their website language and removed independent agency from the website. Okay, but it's supposed to be an independent agency. And Brendan Carr, and it's great questioning by Senator Luhan. Um, watch what Brendan Carr, the chairman of the FCC, this is the guy who threatened Kimmel and ABC and he's been threatening all the comedians. this guy's the guy who threatens all the networks that if you don't say what Donald Trump wants to say, I'm coming after you as the chairman of the FCC.

And so he's asked by Senator Luhan like, "So, um, do you believe that the FCC is an independent agency?" Again, not a controversial question. The answer is yes. Of course, it's an independent agency and it's his own agency that he's supposed to defend. His job is literally to defend the independence of his agency. Watch what he says. Let's play it. SEC an independent agency?

Uh, Senator, thanks for that question. I think yes or no is all we need, sir. Yes or no? Is it independent?

Well, there's a test for this in the law in the the key portion of that test. Just yes or no, Brendan.

The key portion of that test is Okay, I'm going to go to commissioner trustee. So, just so you know, Brendan, on your website, it just simply says, man, the FCC is independent. This isn't a trick question.

Okay. The FCC is not is not is not. So, is your website wrong? Is your website lying?

Possibly. The FCC is not an independent agency. Okay, can I read this to you? The FCC's mission on the homepage of the

Okay, it's an independent agency. And you see how Brendan Carr was going to go into his like state regime media BS. Well, you know, I like that Senator Luhan's like, "Hey, Brendan. Hey, Brendan. Answer the freaking question."

Yes or no? But by the way, what they did after that hearing, like within the hour of Brendan Carr saying that, you might think, "Oh, they they corrected him. They showed him. Oh, this actually it says it on the website." No, they changed the website. They they changed history. They changed the website despite that being the history of the FCC forever. They that that was the way they handled that situation.

The only thing is he missed an opportunity at the end of that to just say, "Thank you, Brendan." It would have been just really funny for the the one person that made that that gets that joke. I like that funny after. Well, um on that note and the hilarious hilarious um the episode we covered a lot covered a lot. Um I just want to thank all the mightest mighty out there. Thank you all for standing strong. It's been peoplep powered resilience. Institutions may have bent and broken. We we've seen a lot of leaders, a lot of people bend the knee, a lot of disgraceful behavior, but the people have stuck together. And I've said this before and I'll say it again.

The country is far worse off right now, but I think there's a lot more hope because of the resilience of people. Whereas last year, I think there was far less hope, but the country was far better off when Biden was still in office. This was around the time when I had interviewed Biden in the Roosevelt room a year ago. Um, you know, it's almost probably exactly a year ago. Um, and when I asked former President Biden what he wanted his legacy to be, he said that I kept my word. That everything I said I was going to do, I did. And I didn't care if you were from a red state or a blue state or a purple state. You were an American and I fought for you.

And those words back then seem so distant yet what we should all be aspiring, I think, in future leaders. And so I love you all with that. Thank you all for watching. Brett, anything else you want to say? All Jordy.

Shout out to the mightest mighty. The mighty standing strong against the fascist. We sing our song.

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Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/25"?

Ben Meiselas (Host), Brett Meiselas (Host), Jordy Meiselas (Host), Donald Trump (Guest), Kevin Hassett (Guest), Andrew Ross Sorkin (Guest), Jamieson Greer (Guest), Mehmet Oz (Guest).

What is "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/25" about?

The discussion focuses on the impending release of the Epstein files and Donald Trump's efforts to obstruct it, including a national security team's involvement in redactions. Key points include the release of new Epstein-related materials, Trump's distraction tactics such as the introduction of "Patriot Games," the controversial renaming of the Kennedy Center, and disruptions in legislative…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

19 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Trump Kennedy Center, Patriot Games, Warrior dividend, MAGA Mike, Andrew Ross Sorkin, The Hunger Games. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/25"?

The episode runs 1 h 19 min; the transcript is about 14,759 words in 145 timestamped sections.

More from MeidasTouch

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 19, 2025.