Transcript

🚨 Trump’s FRAUD gets EXPOSED like NEVER BEFORE…1929?!!

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 26 min · 4,974 words · 54 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "🚨 Trump’s FRAUD gets EXPOSED like NEVER BEFORE…1929?!!", an episode of MeidasTouch published December 18, 2025 (26 min, about 4,974 words). It mentions 28 people, works and ideas, including Andrew Ross Sorkin, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History, and How It Shattered a Nation, Consumer Price Index (CPI), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Shareholder.

What this episode is about

The main topic addresses the economic claims surrounding Donald Trump's presidency, particularly in light of current negative economic indicators and the responses of Trump supporters like JD Vance and Caroline Levit. Key points include the contradictions in grading Trump's economy, the manipulation of inflation data, and the portrayal of inflation as primarily a blue state issue, challenging the narrative put forth by Trump's advocates.

Key takeaways

  • Inflation isn't just a red or blue state problem; it's lurking nationwide like an economic specter.
  • Trump’s math is as fuzzy as a panda, but red state inflation is grizzlier, especially in Florida.
  • Blending economic data is like saying wine and vinegar are a cocktail; the average misleads.
  • The only constant in politics? Both parties claiming an A+ economy while people feel flunked.
  • Data spin is like a circus act; mesmerizing but don't forget the wires holding it together.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Squawk Box, Allentown, DealBook Summit, Joint Economic Committee
  2. – 15:00: Brook Rollins, Material misrepresentation, Shareholder
  3. – 20:00: Private credit, Charles E. Merrill, Inequality
  4. – 25:00: Shareholder, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Notable quotes from "🚨 Trump’s FRAUD gets EXPOSED like NEVER BEFORE…1929?!!"

  • JD Vance speaking in Allentown where a lot of the Trump policies have been harming that community and he was asked, So, what rate what grade do you give Donald Trump's economy? Here's what he.
    about Allentown · at
  • You had Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant. he was on recently at the Dealbook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorcin.
    about DealBook Summit · at
  • At. Let's bring in New York Times bestselling author Andrew Ross Sorcin, also co-host of Squawkbox, which we cover here sometimes on the Midas Touch Network, and author of the…
    about Squawk Box · at
  • In 30 years from now I don't they'll go on the shows in the morning with a straight face and Brooke Rollins will say look under Biden no one's ever bought this many metric tons…
    about Brook Rollins · at
  • These numbers that are said publicly in these other environments you know whether shareholders or others you know sue at some point trying to claim that they were misled. It'll…
    about Shareholder · at
  • All those loans are. Meaning it's not coming from the banks right now. It's actually private credit, shadow banking.
    about Private credit · at
  • Red line. That is always the question. back in 1928, Charles Merrill, who was the co-founder of Meil Lynch, told everybody to get out of the stock market. So, you'd say, Oh, he…
    about Charles E. Merrill · at
  • Your decades of coverage of that feels different specifically in this moment look I think the inequality issue is real and I think it's getting worse and I think the inflation…
    about Inequality · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Books & papers

Companies & orgs

Concepts & topics

Places & events

Full transcript with timestamps

So, as the White House gets more terrible economic news, I guess their economic plan is just to say everything's great and to say it's A+++. JD Vance speaking in Allentown where a lot of the Trump policies have been harming that community and he was asked, "So, what rate what grade do you give uh Donald Trump's economy?" Here's what he says. Play this clip.

Uh, President Trump last week gave his economy a grade of A+ plus. What grade would you give the economy today?

A++++. But then they also blame former President Biden for the A++ economy. I'm just I'm just trying to figure it out. Then you had Caroline Levit, Donald Trump's chief propagandist, just lying about the inflation numbers and just saying they are what they aren't here. Just play this clip.

Just first, very quickly clarifying uh Caitlyn's question. You acknowledged that CPI in January when you took office was 3% and in September the last month for which we have data was also 3%. So inflation

No, it's 2.5%. Not in September it was 3%. 2.5% the average CPI right now I have it in front of me in President Trump's first eight months in office inflation as measured by the overall consumer price index has slowed to a 2.5 average pace. This is down from the 2.9% inherited in January. January is one month in the back.

What they do to manipulate the data is notice the word average. So they talk about what Trump did before his liberation day, which I call liquidation day, and then they blended as what they call an average. So I'm 40 years old. It would be saying like my average age is 20 years old and using that I'm I'm 20 years old. That's my average age. Then you had Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant. he was on recently at the Dealbook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorcin. And the point that they're trying to push in MAGA, which is just entirely false, is that inflation, it's really just a blue state issue. It's not really all that bad in the red states, or it's so much worse in blue states. And then Andrew Ross Sorcin came with the facts.

Let's play it. That her people in her district are having an affordability problem. I should have said, well, she's in a red state. Affordability is worse. I mean, in a blue state, affordability is worse than a blue state. Uh, we can debate that, but keep

No, there's no debate. The the the number 50 basis points higher inflation, the the 10 highest the uh inflation rates they are um in blue cities. But just just so you know, because I went to look at this uh this is the joint economic committee 2000 since 2021. Uh the highest uh inflation over the past four years has been in red states,

especially Florida. I'm talking about current current current, not over the past four years,

right? Today I would think four years would be a reasonable trend line to look at

today. Like more data would be better to look at. Let's bring in New York Times bestselling author Andrew Ross Sorcin, also co-host of Squawkbox, which we cover here sometimes on the Midas Touch Network, and author of the new book 1929, Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street history, and how it shattered a nation. It's not just a great look back there. It's also a look present and look forward. You talk about the seductive illusions that were taking place back then and the warning signs that it gives us for the present. So, it's great to have you here. It's great to

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. It's great to read your book. Let's just start there with these Trump regime officials who you've interviewed who go on Squawkbox and they're giving you these data points that you know are not accurate. How do how do you as a reporter deal with that? We saw you there deal with it. H how do you process what they're spewing?

Look, I think the the role that I'm supposed to play is to the extent that you can fact check in real time, which unto itself is a is a complicated and oftenimes challenging thing to do. uh you know in that instance he he had made a comment like that uh earlier about a week earlier and I had actually after hearing it had gone and looked up some of the math and was not confused by it but I saw the math and it didn't didn't seem to translate so I thought well if he brings that up then we can actually talk about the numbers and by the way it comes from a place of curiosity more than anything else it's not coming from a place of you know here I am trying to to prove him wrong it was I I I really want to understand he has a p a perspective ive and thinks that this is the these are the numbers to focus on.

Clearly there are these other numbers that contradict those numbers. How is the public supposed to think about that? But I think the larger point that underlies this is, you know, you have an administration that often times is trying to jawbone their way uh towards a specific goal irrespective of the facts. And by the way, you know, that's almost a thing to say about this administration, but you could say the same thing about the previous administration. And there was a period of time where the Biden administration was telling people, you know, uh, that the economy was better than it really was. And you go on TikTok, go on X, go, you know, back then people would say, but I'm feeling something very different. And I think that's the same thing that's actually in some ways happening right now, which is, you know, the president saying A++ economy and everybody else is saying, but that's not

the economy I see. You know, you take a look at, I think, some of the mistakes that you mention in the Biden administration. They're just telling people they were feeling good when they weren't feeling good. But do you think that's a bit different though than telling people it's A++ plus? But but but setting aside that, the Trump regime outright saying something like this, which I don't think we've really ever heard in any administration. I say this from an a-olitical point. I say this as a data junkie who just cares about like can you just give me like the real numbers right like when they go they brought in $23 trillion and they'll have someone like Lutnik commerce secretary or Bessant they know they're not that that money doesn't exist and they'll say with a straight face that we've brought in and then you'll get them to say ah commitment commitment it's a this and a that all the big numbers that they've bandied

out about about investments in the US, sovereign investments from Saudi Arabia, from all of these other countries. You know, I think Bloomberg did a really good look at this recently. I think of the $23 billion figure that that the administration's put out publicly, I think we'll be lucky lucky if we get $7 billion. And in fact, I I said this to the Treasury Secretary on that stage and he said something to the effect of, "Well, isn't$7 billion, you know, extraordinary?" And I said to him, "It is extraordinary, but just go with that number. Go with the 7 bill. You don't need to go with the $23 billion if that's the case." But I think that we've seen this over and over again. It's the same story with the inflation story, which is, you know, they've said repeatedly, "Tariffs do not create inflation." And yet, it is very hard to find a real economist in this country or elsewhere that will tell you that

tariffs don't cause inflation. Invariably, they cause inflation. invariably they are attacks to some degree on the American public. That's just what they are. And so when you tell everybody that they're something that they're not, when you know it's literally right now, by the way, it's sunny here in New York. It's literally like telling somebody it's raining right now even though I can see that it's sunny. You know, and one of the things that I love dissecting as as a law professor or just as someone who's hungry for information is that when a big trade deal is announced that is said to be on the scale of like the United States, Mexico, Canada agreement or be that's big. It's a big seismic types of shift.

And when the Trump regime says, "Hey, we've got this deal that we just made with China or we made a deal with Japan or we made a deal with the European Union." I go, "Okay, well, where's the let me read it like let me look at it. Where are the terms?" And then you sometimes get a press release or you get maybe a statement and then you don't get a statement from China. How do you process that though? because these things and I always wonder this from a financial reporter's perspective when they're out there saying these are deals that are happening but there's the most basic I think I'm doing what I imagine I'm doing what I think the investor class is doing which is that at some level you have to discount what's being said so we are living in a policy by press release environment right now and you have to look at that press release and you have to almost put a haircut on it you know earlier this year the

president came out and said that, you know, China was going to buy what 12 million or what whatever the number was, billion um

yeah, 12 million metric tons of soybeans. Metric tons of soybeans by the end of the year. I repeatedly asked members of the cabinet administration over the last couple of weeks, I said, you know, the end of the year is like here, like we're we're we're it's 15 days away at this point. It's coming. And I think it's I think we've sold 300 some odd thousand uh metric tons. So 300,000, how are you going to get to 12 12 million? It's just it the math doesn't add. And you can never get a straight answer. And then of course, you know, just in the past week or so, they've said, well, it's not actually the end of the year. It's it's the growing season. And so, you know, you tell me what the growing season is, and everybody has a different view about that. So, this could get out extended out several months. And call me in March or April, whenever you think the end of the growing season is, and you tell me

whether we have 12 million uh pounds. the average of years multiplied by the cosine divided by 12*

maybe we'll get there I don't by the way maybe we get to $23 trillion worth of investments in 30 years from now I don't

they'll go on the shows in the morning with a straight face and Brooke Rollins will say look under Biden no one's ever bought this many metric tons of soybeans and I'm sitting there you're pushing back pushes back but then occasionally you know other people are like nodding their heads and I'm like no no no no under Biden it was 27 million metric tonses right now it's 300,000 that's but that brings me to the broader point about your book though which is

but can I say one thing the other crazy part the crazy part it's not just the administration saying these things it's that business leaders make these commitments publicly these are publicly traded putting aside the sovereign the the big investments from countries think about all of the business leaders who announced these gigantic investment plans that when you actually read through to them. They've either already made half of the commitments before or they're doubling double counting this and double counting that because it's all an audience of one. And I do think that the in investors in particular, I think, look through all of this and I I hope that journalists are trying to point these things out because that's that that's our job. Having said that, there are clearly supporters of this president and this administration who don't want you to do that and I hear from them. Trust me. And to your point,

I mean, just look at the first week of this administration. You had SoftBank, Open AI, the whole tech crew right there. And what did they I forget the number that they did that we've committed immediately like $1 trillion in AI infrastructure projects together. And you know, it's like the soybeans. I don't think they as that group. First off, looking at that group, you're like, these people are going to work together, aren't they? That's a strange crew to work together, but you know, they all wanted to be there in the Oval. They've done nothing. You look at Zuckerberg, he was there at one of those meetings and he's like, "What number do you want me to use?" 800 billion. 800 billion. I mean, he literally said that. And so your point though is is that when you speak to a lot of business leaders in Wall Street, they know they have that audience, number one, but two, smart money is actually dis putting a lie

discount into what the guy said. So he's out there and the street's like, "Don't even listen to this guy. He's a freaking listener."

Listen, the only thing they're when they're looking when the investor class is looking at Meta and and what Mark Zuckerberg's saying, they're looking at the quarterly reports. They're looking at what he is saying and what the company is saying genuinely quote quote on the record in those statements, in those press releases, on those analyst calls because it is those numbers that they're going to ultimately be held responsible for. It'll actually be very interesting to see if in fact some of these numbers that are said publicly in these other environments um you know whether shareholders or others you know sue at some point trying to claim that they were misled. It'll be very interesting to see what kind of case could be brought because they could make these arguments that it, you know, that their intention over a much longer period of time is to in fact make these investments, but you know, I think it's

it's it's a little bit hard to measure, right? I mean, back in the day when I was a practicing lawyer and I would deal with SEC types of cases, the level of meticulousness and carefulness of a CEO before just saying a number like that because they were aware that an SEC would take that and look at it and say, "You just made a material misrepresentation misrepresentation on the market. You're the CEO of a publicly traded company. You said it in the

is not doing that." Exactly. And that's an issue that part of the open season is that the SEC said go for it basically which brings us to the thesis of your book and the framework that I wanted to establish there is this seductive illusion. You know the the the you know you talk about these big personalities in 1929 and you know the the similarities here with Trump throwing a Gatsby party which is a little a little party never killed nobody with half naked women in martini glasses. I think the symbolism may be a little bit too real, especially with what your book is, but here we are right now, you know, and it just feels like with all with this deluge of disinformation, we are treading water, you know, and people are still treading water, but there's so much disinfo out there and we're looking at the numbers. 54% uh job losses year-over-year. Like, that's a bad number. Inflation actually

rising, the job report number, unemployment up 4.6%. 6%. What What do you see in the parallels and what made you write this book? Now,

look, I I think there's some parallels. There's some things that in truth are different. Um, you know, you mentioned the Gatsby party. There actually was a famous party that took place March 1929. By the way, at Mara Lago in 1929, it was owned Mara Lago was owned by EF Hutton, who owned the brokerages because the brokerages were the biggest thing rolling back in 1929. But no, the similarity is that you know the 20s were a great era of invention uh around new technologies like like radio like you know Nvidia or AI. So there was a lot of excitement around that. There were no rules back then. I mean manipulation insider trading all of that that was allowed. There were no rules against it.

And right now you do have some of the guardrails coming off uh of uh what the SEC is doing. There was no SEC back then. But also you have crypto and leverage. I mean, I think one of the great lessons of every financial crisis is you have a lot you have too much debt in the system. And I think right now there's a lot of people taking on a lot of loans to make all of this happen. And what's different is we don't know where all those loans are. Meaning it's not coming from the banks right now. It's actually private credit, shadow banking.

So I think there's there's a whole bunch of things to look at. That doesn't mean we have to have a great depression style, you know, crash that ends up with 25% unemployment in America. Uh but it does mean that if we're not careful, uh we could, you know, at some point have a real and meaningful pullback. And that would not surprise me at all. You talk about the overlever leading up to the depression and right now what seems to be happening with all of these overlevered AI companies. What they're doing it seems and maybe you can describe it better than me is a company like a Meta is creating these hold co rent back deals with these shady not shadowy lenders

and they're basically treating capex expenditures as loan payments and so they're hiding they're hiding the actual leverage because that would harm their IBIDA or or or reflect as as as a lack of profits. And so there's there's that's going on at a very high level and people are minting like we're seeing stuff like that that that cons how much should I be concerned about. I don't want to scare here's the thing. I think these are all red flags. I think the second you see Meta instead of investing its own money in a data center decide to partner up with a what's called a private credit firm and effectively have like a lease back deal with them so that they don't have to actually claim that they're making the investment themselves and effectively guarantee money back to this other firm and you know I think there's some questions just about how those transactions ultimately settle out. I think all those are supposed to

be red flags. The problem for investors is figuring out, you know, what a red flag is and when it becomes, you know, a red line. That is that is always the question. You know, back in 1928, Charles Merrill, who was the co-founder of Meil Lynch, told everybody to get out of the stock market. So, you'd say, "Oh, he looks so smart." Except for the fact that the stock market between 1928 and September of 1929 went up by 90%. So you can be a Cassandra and I can say here look these are things that I'm nervous about a warning and we should be anxious about and I do think you ought to watch them but that doesn't mean that we have to go off the cliff tomorrow.

And we talked about investors and we've talked about corporations. Let's talk about the people a lot of them who aren't investors. Sure, there are people who have 401ks, but what we're I think seeing increasingly is people who if they're fortunate to live paycheck to paycheck, what they describe to me is feeling psychologically tortured by this economy where there are the corporations that are too big to fail. But there is the failure by design of people in this economy who are working sometimes two jobs and

yes the working class in America it is the word affordability it it's unaffordable

how what are you seeing there that's is there something now though in all of your decades of coverage of that feels different specifically in this moment

look I think the inequality issue is real and I think it's getting worse and I think the inflation is outpacing wages and that's what inspires people to say this feels unafford. Look, I took a taxi across town the other day. I looked at the bill. I couldn't even believe it was happening. And I think that that is happening all over the place. You walk into a supermarket, you go get the gas, you go to a restaurant, whatever it is. Everything the prices have have risen so fast. And and look, life is relative, too. So, we all remember what the price was 2 or 3 years ago. And and that's why it feels this way. But the other beyond that feeling, the wages haven't kept up.

Um, and of course so many of our other costs, the costs that matter most to us, education, healthcare, have obviously skyrocketed. And so I think it's a confluence of all of those things. Plus, of course, housing, you layer student loans on that. And and you can understand why people feel the way they feel. And so the question is, how do we get out of that? Um, and I think there's a whole bunch of sort of structural things we got to think hard about. Um, but I I do think it's it's raising questions uh about frankly about capitalism and whether capitalism works.

I I'm a believer it does work, but I'm a believer it works only when the rules are the right rules are in place. And I I I fear that we're we're getting to a place where they're not.

And do you feel though that the system under Trump is even I I I know this sounds odd, capitalism where at this stage he's out there kind of building

this is like a state this is now we're into state sponsored capitalism. I mean, this is not really capitalism. Everything runs through 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now, this is total this is new. This is completely and utterly new. We have never we have never had a time where CEOs, business leaders are making their decisions daily. their strategy is based on whether their strategy is going to be in line with the strategy of this president uh and whether he's going to agree or disagree or come out in favor uh or not or decide to sue or not over whatever you're doing that is a fundamental reshift and that is something that's more akin to to you know place like China frankly

did it surprise you with your relationships in the business community and of course you don't have to name who but just the idea that these business leaders right after the election seemed so Gavin Newsome talks about this a lot you know supine they just go right away what can we do for you or is that you know or did you expect that based on them thinking that they had to do that for their shareholder

I mean I think that I have a level of sympathy and empathy for this situation in so far as I I think that they're they think they're justifying and rationalizing in their that they're doing this for their shareholders and they think to themselves if I stand up and raise up raise my hand and say I don't like what's happening here or I'm doing it differently can they still fight another day or do they lose their job uh or does something terrible happen to the company I mean I think that is I mean I think there's sort of like almost an existential nature to this this time around and that's different uh for a business leader who feels responsible not just for the shareholders by the way and this is where maybe you'd have some empathy or maybe folks watching us would you know if you're a CEO and your job you got I don't know a couple hundred thousand employees let's say part of it is you're trying to keep the company

it's not just shareholders you actually do have people that you hopefully feel some responsibility for and then the question is what pick your poison what's what some of these people are swallowing their pride there's no question that they disagree with this president and yet they're going to the oval office and they're giving gifts and they're doing things that and you're saying to yourself how is this even possible possible, but they're thinking to themselves, the alternative the alternative is worse than that. Now, the bigger question in my mind is if if this administration does something that, you know, crosses some kind of red line, does the business community or do these individuals who do disagree with the administration raise their hand and say, you know what, there's red line, I'm out. And I just don't know whether whether that happens. And I think some of them think if I can just hold on long

enough, I still want to be there so that if that moment happens, I can raise my hand. But I don't know if the goalpost will have moved so much that the red line will have moved too.

And I'll say that, you know, perhaps some push back that my audience would give as well. Do these uh corporate leaders even want employees anymore at all or is their endgame to use AI to push out the as many employees as they can and right now employees are

convenient. I wouldn't disagree with that. I mean I think there's a there's you know a a true I hate to say it a true capitalistic CEO would say yeah if we could get to a point where we can we can lower our costs they would try to do that. They would want to do that. I I I mean I I think that there is a a a level of um I don't want to be cynical about it. I think that's true. I think that's true.

Andrew's these are the conversations that I love and the books that you write. People sometimes know well like what do I do like what books do I read? It's books by Andrew Ross and so I want everyone in my audience to go out and by 1929 inside the greatest crash in Wall Street history and how it shattered a nation. I know that most of my staff here at Midas Touch have told me they're reading the book and I told them all uh to read the book and they love it and they've been sharing with me some of their observations. Before we go, Andrew, anything else you want to say to our six million subscribers, our audience just about these times or or or whatever.

You know, the one thing I would just say is I think we get into these moments and I do have some optimism. I just give you I'll just leave you with this. Um and it's not a blind optimism. You know, sometimes people say, you know, America is exceptional and this and that. I don't believe that. I believe that you have to we have to earn that exceptionalism every day. Um, I do think there's a lot of smart people, including uh yourself and a lot of the people who are watching this broadcast, who have a lot of ideas about, you know, what needs to happen to this country and they're using their voice and I do think that over time uh, you know, if if you if you feel dispirited, we will get to a better place.

Andrew Ross Sorcin, we appreciate you joining us. We hope you come back and everybody get the book 1929. Thanks Andrew.

Appreciate it. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers this month.

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Questions about this episode

What is "🚨 Trump’s FRAUD gets EXPOSED like NEVER BEFORE…1929?!!" about?

The main topic addresses the economic claims surrounding Donald Trump's presidency, particularly in light of current negative economic indicators and the responses of Trump supporters like JD Vance and Caroline Levit. Key points include the contradictions in grading Trump's economy, the manipulation of inflation data, and the portrayal of inflation as primarily a blue state issue, challenging…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

28 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Andrew Ross Sorkin, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History, and How It Shattered a Nation, Consumer Price Index (CPI), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Shareholder, Leverage (finance). Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "🚨 Trump’s FRAUD gets EXPOSED like NEVER BEFORE…1929?!!"?

The episode runs 26 min; the transcript is about 4,974 words in 54 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 18, 2025.