Transcript

🚨 Trump is STUNNED as Ohio TURNS AGAINST HIM…

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 18 min · 3,041 words · 27 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "🚨 Trump is STUNNED as Ohio TURNS AGAINST HIM…", an episode of MeidasTouch published January 13, 2026 (18 min, about 3,041 words). It mentions 9 people, works and ideas, including Amy Actton, Ohio, David Pepper, MAGA, laboratories of autocracy.

What this episode is about

Recent polling in Ohio reveals a significant shift in public sentiment against former President Trump, who now faces a net negative approval rating, with 51% disapproving of his performance. This dissatisfaction stems from economic hardships faced by Ohio farmers due to Trump’s tariffs and a growing desire for change among residents, reflecting their exhaustion with current Republican leadership and diminishing support for gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is trailing in the polls.

Key takeaways

  • Ohio's once-vibrant red now bleeds change; voters crave relief from chaos and dysfunction.
  • Trump's approval sinkhole: 51% disapproval vs. 44% approval—a stark twist from earlier polls.
  • Vive Ramaswami's campaign is floundering; even he's reluctantly sharing his unfavorable polling data.
  • Ohio farmers see 74% sales drop due to tariffs—proof that politics can indeed have dire economic consequences.
  • While Ramaswami jets off to paradise, Ohio suffers; disconnection between luxury lifestyles and local struggles is evident.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 3:00: Amy Actton, MAGA, Affordable Care Act, Emerson polling
  2. – 6:00: Amy Actton, David Pepper, MAGA, fentinol
  3. – 9:00: laboratories of autocracy, Amy Actton
  4. – 12:00: fentinol
  5. – 15:00: MAGA
  6. – 18:00: Amy Actton, Ohio, David Pepper

Notable quotes from "🚨 Trump is STUNNED as Ohio TURNS AGAINST HIM…"

  • So that was from this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio. People in Ohio are scared. They are exhausted and they want change. It's showing up in all of the polling data. a state that was once.
    about Columbus · at
  • Accurate thing that Vive has ever actually said because indeed he is down in all of the polling there. The Emerson polling, all the latest polling, he is down. And…
    about Emerson polling · at
  • From Ohio was three. They joined with Democrats and they extended these subsidies. And meanwhile, people like Vake and Trump and MAGA leadership, they said that they're going…
    about MAGA · at
  • Okay, I want to bring in Dr. Amy Actton, the Democratic candidate for governor there along with her new pick, her running mate, David Pepper, a longtime friend of mine as well, the lieutenant.
    about Amy Actton · at
  • My lieutenant governor. He is a lifelong public servant who has been fighting tirelessly against corruption in our very broken state house. People in my state are struggling.…
    about David Pepper · at
  • Anybody who watches the Midas Dodge Network knows that the phrase that I commonly use as laboratories of autocracy. And whereas states were supposed to be laboratories of ingenuity and democracy, they've been turned.
    about laboratories of autocracy · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Amy Actton — Person · Main guest / featured candidate · 6 mentions · first at
    Interviewed as the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, presenting campaign themes (problem-solving, affordability) and contrasting herself with Vivek Ramaswamy.
  • David Pepper — Person · Guest / running mate / referenced author · 2 mentions · first at
    Introduced as Actton’s lieutenant governor pick; discussed for anti-corruption work, writing about state-level autocracy, and contrasting with Vivek’s chosen Senate President.

Books & papers

  • Emerson polling — Book · Evidence source / polling reference · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as part of the polling evidence that Vivek Ramaswamy is trailing and that Trump’s approval is net negative in Ohio.

Concepts & topics

  • MAGA — Concept · Core political concept / target of criticism · 3 mentions · first at
    Used to describe a style of leadership and culture-war politics attributed to Trump and Vivek, including opposition to ACA subsidy extensions and inflammatory rhetoric.
  • laboratories of autocracy — Concept · Core analytical frame / recurring show phrase · 2 mentions · first at
    Used to describe how state governments (especially Ohio) can be captured by corruption and gerrymandering, turning states into testing grounds for anti-democratic governance.
  • Affordable Care Act — Concept · Policy issue / affordability topic · 1 mention · first at
    Raised as a concrete example of policy stakes: expiring subsidies and alleged MAGA opposition to extension affecting hundreds of thousands of Ohioans.
    To help people while all of this is going on? Oh, by the way, don't even get me started on the Affordable Care Act subsidies expiring. You even saw multiple Republican Congress…
  • fentinol — Concept · Negative headline / scandal element · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in connection with allegations that Vivek Ramaswamy’s bodyguard had a fentanyl stockpile, used to underscore controversy around Vivek.
    Incredible research here to find all of this out. But when a headline is that your bodyguard was busted by feds with an alleged fentinol stockpile, not a great headline. A…

Places & events

  • Ohio — Place · Primary setting / core topic location · 1 mention · first at
    The episode centers on Ohio politics, polling, and the 2026 governor’s race, framing Ohio as a contested state shaped by gerrymandering and corruption.
    Yeah. I can't say enough. It is so exciting. Everywhere we go in Ohio, there is an energy and there is such a want for change. People are exhausted by this chaos, hate and vitrial and they are looking for public servants again.
  • Columbus — Place · Referenced event location · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the place where the host was the prior weekend, grounding the episode’s Ohio focus in a recent on-the-ground visit.

Full transcript with timestamps

So that was from this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio. People in Ohio are scared. They are exhausted and they want change. It's showing up in all of the polling data. a state that was once thought to be ruby red, which I've always thought was more kind of voter suppressed and gerrymandered red. Um, but it was considered to have turned ruby red. They want change. You look at the polling data and you see Trump as a net negative right now. You see uh Vive Ramwami who's running for governor as a net negative right now. Just look at what's going on in the governor's race.

You have Vake Ramaswami there in Ohio sending text messages alerting his followers that he is losing to Amy Actton in the Ohio governor's race. Hey everybody, it's Vive. Thanks for taking the time to open my note to you. It means a lot. I want to share this with you. And he shares a poll showing that he's losing. It may be the first accurate thing that Vive has ever actually said because indeed he is down in all of the polling there. The Emerson polling, all the latest polling, he is down. And interestingly too, you look at Trump's approval rating right there and it is a net negative there. His disapprovals at 51% while only 44% approve. And that number has flipped dramatically since the Bowling Green poll that was taken several months back that showed Donald Trump as a net plus right there. I mean, if you look at what's happening in Ohio, the facts speak for themselves. And it's it's not

a good picture about what this Republican leadership there has done. Whether you're talking about Ohio farmers who've seen a one-year 74% loss in sales due to Trump's tariffs in terms of China buying soybeans and buying other produce there. Um whether it's just the assault on the community organizations in Ohio. Ohio's known for its strong community uh organizations that help families stay afloat, whether they're uh organizations with religious backings or not. It's a very giving state and the federal government has wanted to control all of it. And most of the people in Ohio said, "Why are you getting in the way of us just trying to live our lives and to and to help people while all of this is going on?" Oh, by the way, don't even get me started on the Affordable Care Act subsidies expiring. You even saw multiple uh Republican Congress members from Ohio was three. They joined with Democrats and they extended these

subsidies. And meanwhile, people like Vake and Trump and um MAGA leadership, they said that they're going to block any extension of the affordable care subsidies. 500,000 people from Ohio can be affected or are being affected. And you know, people are really see they're seeing their premiums double. Not good, you know. And what's Vive doing? You know, it seems that every time I do a story in Ohio and you just Google Vive, it's just it's something that is more grotesque than the last time I I do it. And I'd like to say, oh, I did some incredible research here to find all of this out. But when a headline is that your uh bodyguard was busted by feds with an alleged fentinol stockpile, you know, not not a great headline. A bodyguard of top MAGA figurehead V Ramaswami arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling after investigators said they found fentinol and meth stashed in his home. Okay. And then Vive taking trips

over the weekend to Turks and Caos. As Dr. Amy Actton, who's running for governor, says, "Vague, how's Turks and Caos? It was warm in Ohio today, by the way." So, he's evidently flying his private jet to the Turks and Caos Island. I mean, it's cold. He needs to get away from the cold. Vake needs his luxury five-star vacations. you know, he thinks that the people of Ohio are too mediocre to hang out with, I guess. I mean, this follows him cancelling speaking engagements amid backlash from online conservatives and right-wing people were saying, "Why are you speaking at this event that he was supposed to speak at?" So then, Vive's most recent move, another op-ed. That's that's also the theme. Every time I do an Ohio story, it seems that Vive like writes a new op-ed and changes his personality. So his new personality is that he doesn't like social media. Vive Rama Swami, the number one social media

troll. His new thing doesn't like social media anymore. I'm swearing off Instagram and X. It's too easy to get a distorted sense of the public's concern. I mean, this was a guy who was like mocking people as being snowflakes if they didn't like being harassed by him online. He goes, "On New Year's Eve, I deleted X and Instagram from my phone. I'm going to spend my this guy's the most phony guy in the world. I'll spend my newfound time listening to more voters in real world Ohio or Turks and Caos developing more policies to make our state. This guy is such a clown.

Okay, I want to bring in Dr. Amy Actton, the Democratic candidate for governor there along with her new pick, her running mate, David Pepper, a longtime friend of mine as well, the lieutenant governor pick. It's the Actton pepper ticket. So, a lot has seems like a lot. We spoke like three weeks ago, Dr. Actton, and and a lot has happened since that time. So, talk to us and I want to talk about your pick of of David Pepper as your running mate. Talk to us first about where we are 2026 in Ohio. This is the year. This is the This is the election year. It's big.

Yeah. I can't say enough. It is so exciting. Everywhere we go in Ohio, there is an energy and there is such a want for change. People are exhausted by this chaos, hate and vitrial and they are looking for public servants again who solve the problems of our everyday life instead of making problems. And so we are so excited to be out the gate strong.

So talk to us about your this is a big pick, you know, big pick. You picked your lieutenant governor. Vake picked his Turks and Caos uh person. So, so, so tell us though first about your pick and then let's talk and then then David, I'll bring you in.

You know, this is one of the biggest decisions you make is who is going to be uh your sidekick, who is going to be in the saddle with you. And I couldn't have been more thrilled that David Pipper is my my lieutenant governor. He is a lifelong public servant who has been fighting tirelessly against corruption in our very broken state house. People in my state are struggling. There are special interests and bad actors who have been taking our state backwards on nearly every measure. And David has been a voice his entire career, both, you know, in his early career in city council, as a councilman in his city of Cincinnati, of which he is so proud, to work he did as a Democratic party chair, to the books and the things he has been writing on what is broken. And I am just so grateful to have someone who cares about Ohioans the way I do. Um, who has the same passion I have for change. So, David, in addition to you being a

longtime friend of mine, um you're actually one of my favorite authors as well, and I'm not just saying that. Anybody who watches the Midas Dodge Network knows that the phrase that I commonly use as laboratories of autocracy. And whereas states were supposed to be laboratories of ingenuity and democracy, they've been turned upside down. And you gave a case study of how Ohio had essentially been hijacked. And it's not really the ruby red state that it's reported. It is a laboratory of autocracy that was used to do these, you know, experiments that didn't that we know the outcome. They did not work. Um, and we're seeing them not work. So, talk to us about though your this campaign. um what kind of sets you apart from the other lieutenant governor pick but but also this concept of laboratories of autocracy I think is is something that has always I I always cite it in every one of my shows.

Well, thank you. Uh it's an honor to join Dr. Actton and by the way we're so glad you're focused on Ohio in the way that you are. We agree completely this is a state that can be turned around. We used to be a bellweather as terms of political results. Now we are bellweather and how corruption and gerrymandering can not just destroy the politics but destroy everyday outcomes for e for everyday Ohioans. So one of the things I wrote about is once you have these broken states they basically take the public assets and and hand them over to all the special interests. And so when you're sitting around talking to every Ohioans they're paying more property taxes because of that. They're paying more for child care. They're they're paying more for utility bills.

That's the sort of the method of these state houses and and I'm excited to get in this to to make that case and to bring that fight. And here to to to the other candidate that VC picked, you know, the frame could not be more clear. I've been spending years exposing the corruption of state houses and how they're destroying outcomes for everyday people. Vivec Ramaswami selected the guy who leads one of the two institutions of that broken legislature, the Senate President. So we have the clearest contrast between a change ticket. No, no more no more deals where we're giving billionaires breaks while we're talking about four days of school a week in Toledo. Let's change that. Vivc Ramaswami literally picked a guy who's been one of the leaders of all that.

When I testified against gerrymandering, as you know, I've been doing, I was staring at the Senate President who was just picked. He did the gerrymander. So, I think the contrast for Ohioans could not be more clear between the change ticket who's going to clean things up and bring some relief for Ohio families versus the same old status quo broken state house ticket.

And Dr. Actton, you put out recently a video of real Ohioans uh use speaking in the words that Vivvec used to attack the people of Ohio. I always found it to be a strange strategy that V employed, which is to attack the people of Ohio, attack the people of America, say that they're very mediocre and that they've always idolized all of the wrong things and that they're really bad people. and then say, "Hey, bad people, I'm going to go to Turks and Caos and vacation and my, you know, my bodyguard may get arrested with fentinol and methamphetamine and I'm going to now be Mr. I don't like social media after literally becoming after making a career or being the social media troll, but I want your vote, you know." So, so what what what do you make of all of that, doctor? you know, uh, you're talking about the very famous Christmas tweet as it is now called. And this year, one of the wonderful things my

team did is they literally just had Ohioans read his quote. And it was everyday Ohioans from every walk of life. And at the end, one woman just said like, I just started laughing. She said, "This makes no sense." You know, like, "Oh my, it makes no sense to me." You know, it makes no sense that we are putting the wants of billionaires and extreme special interests against the needs of everyday Ohioans. And this campaign is about taking back our state and beginning to address the problems that people actually want us addressing.

Whether it's child care or health care or property taxes or energy bills going up, people are just longing for us to stop all this nonsense. You know, we just couldn't have a bigger contrast in our state of somebody who is flying around in that private jet versus David and I. Even when we launched, we launched in a working group that we do every day, sitting around a table with small businesses, listening deeply, learning what it is that is needed from us to serve the people of Ohio. And and the contrast couldn't be greater. You know, David Vake made his career as being a snake oil salesman. I mean, quite literally, that's how he that's how he made his money. He may or may not have actually been selling snake oil or may not have been selling anything at all. But then he he invented himself as the MAGA culture war guy who was literally the social media troll who would virtue signal his, you know, MAGA culture war.

Let's talk about the bathrooms and let's talk about the this and let's talk about the that, you know, and let's not talk about the fact that they're looting most people and giving the money to the billionaires and they're making things less affordable and screwing over people. And I think and I want to get your take. Vake has seen what's happened in these special elections. He's seen the blue tsunami that took place back in November. And the message I think from a lot of people is we don't want we don't want to do these culture war stuff right now. We want to know what are you gonna do for us? You you got us with the culture war stuff in 2024. You got us with it there, but like not this time.

Like what are you really going to do for us? So now he does these op-eds once every week as like a new like like a look everybody I'm not doing social media anymore. I am now going to be it's like dude you were the Mr. Troll. Do you think we didn't forget about who you are David?

Yeah, I mean, he's had a really bad year. He launched, I think last January, I think January 20th is the anniversary where he got fired on the first day of Doge and and after that he decided to run for governor. And he's kind of like Iowa. The longer people see him and hear from him, the worse he does. That's happened to him all year. And as you said, the last month has been especially bizarre. I mean the most recent things with the bodyguard almost hard to believe but reinventing yourself. I mean here's the thing about VC Ramaswami like first impressions really count in politics. Dr. Atkins first impression was I'm a doctor trying to help everybody. She skyrocketed huge respect not even in a partisan way. The what you described of of Mr. Ramaswami that first impression is sunk in deep. his his polling number he is very well known and it's quite negative. That's why he always trails Dr. Actton overall and

incredibly so with independence and I think an effort to to reinvent himself will only further make him seem like a snake oil salesman. Uh because it's it's halfway through the campaign. Um and one other thing too by the way if you dig a little deeper almost everything he's rolling out on policy and Dr. Dr. and I are very serious about we need to build the best schools in America again. We used to have that. We're serious about lowering costs on all the items we talked about. Almost everything he proposes is also snake oil sales stuff. None of it adds up. He's going to get rid of every tax, but he's going to build the greatest.

It's all nonsense. It's like clearly was his business sort of mo. And I don't think that's going to work in politics because it it I think most Ohioans are smart enough to see through a salesman. It may have worked for him in business. Maybe he sold some books talking about it, but as a matter of of serious issues, it just doesn't fly. And I think people we hear it every day. People see through it is is again one more conj job.

Dr. Actton, before we go, what's your final message to the people of Ohio and throughout this country right now as we start heading into mid January 2026? And uh where can people learn more about the campaign?

Thank you. Thank you, Ben. You know, we continue to see things that are breaking our hearts. We all know that these are hard and difficult times. Um, but I'm a very hopeful person, but my definition of hope is optimism plus a plan. And I'm so excited because here in Ohio, we have a plan to turn this state around. Um, and we need everyone's help. You can learn a lot more about our campaign at acttonforgovernor.com. Join David, join me. Ohio is going to be that bellweather state again. We are going to flip this state blue. We have amazing people up and down the ticket and we're all ready to go back in there and do the work of everyday Ohioans and build the Ohio we actually deserve.

Thanks. Thanks so much, Ben, for for having us. Dr. Amy Actton, David Pepper, the Lieutenant Governor pick. Thank you both for joining.

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Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "🚨 Trump is STUNNED as Ohio TURNS AGAINST HIM…"?

Ben (Guest), Dr. Amy Actton (Guest), David Pepper (Guest).

What is "🚨 Trump is STUNNED as Ohio TURNS AGAINST HIM…" about?

Recent polling in Ohio reveals a significant shift in public sentiment against former President Trump, who now faces a net negative approval rating, with 51% disapproving of his performance. This dissatisfaction stems from economic hardships faced by Ohio farmers due to Trump’s tariffs and a growing desire for change among residents, reflecting their exhaustion with current Republican leadership…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Amy Actton, Ohio, David Pepper, MAGA, laboratories of autocracy, Affordable Care Act. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "🚨 Trump is STUNNED as Ohio TURNS AGAINST HIM…"?

The episode runs 18 min; the transcript is about 3,041 words in 27 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 January 24, 2026.