MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/21/26

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In this entire cast of despicable characters, the Ponzi scheme is now obvious for all to see. And you've got Treasury Secretary Besant saying, I'm not really even. I'm not even sure why the gas prices are so high right now. You're not sure why the prices are so high? Let me explain it to you. Donald Trump launched a trade war against the world, then launched a catastrophic and unlawful war against Iran. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, despite Donald Trump posting deranged AI memes of hot dogs running around the White House or himself controlling ships like a pirate in the Strait of Hormuz. The fact remains the U.S. lost this catastrophic war. It's evident. For all to see, the U.S. security architecture and umbrella in the Middle East and Asia and throughout the world has utterly crumbled. America has never been weaker. That's why the Treasury yields are reaching record highs. And your schemes to try to manipulate the market on a day-to-day basis are now utterly smoked out, though they should have been a while ago. And we are in dire times. So, let's just bring out Melania. Let's just bring out Melania. We'll talk about that and more. As noted, the catastrophic. War continues. Earlier this week, Donald Trump said that his strategy was going to be to do nothing. Just kind of disengage and that Iran was going to just crash on its own. Didn't we hear that before from the Trump regime? Although, didn't you claim you won and that they wanted to make a deal or whatever? And now he's saying economic D-Day. We're going to launch the most brutal economic campaign on Iran ever. Okay, so what does that mean? We're going to go after anyone who does business with Iran. Okay, so what are you going to do about China? I don't know. What are you going to do about North Korea? You mean my friend Kim Jong-un? I like that guy. What are you going to do about Russia? I don't know. What are you going to do about anyone who actually does business with Iran? Oh, I don't know. I'm just going to post in all caps and that'll be my solution. Talk about that. And big election week. People need to pay attention to what's going on. In another special election, this time, Geordie, your home state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in their House State District 12. Democratic candidate there outperforming by plus 19 in a plus 18 Trump district. We saw yet another 19-point swing. We've been seeing this in special election after special elections. Republicans have not won, get this, a single special election like this for the entire last 18 months or so. And Democrats overperforming consistently. And also Trump endorsed candidates in Florida and elsewhere not winning. Okay. We'll talk about that and more in this episode. Brett and Geordie, great to see you, brothers. Great to see you, too. You know who doesn't want to talk about all that and more? Donald Trump, who always tries to deny that he actually endorsed the person after they lose, like with Corey Mills. Donald Trump, who enthusiastically had endorsed Corey Mills recently, went all in for Corey Mills with his endorsement. All of a sudden, Corey Mills loses his primary. What does Donald Trump say? Oh, I actually told him that he should get out of the race. That's what I was actually telling him the whole time. So it actually doesn't count towards my endorsement record. So freaking pathetic. And man, oh, man, did John Ossoff get in Donald Trump's head that they had to wheel out Melania today in the public after she was not seen for more than 30 days. This whole story comes into focus. All of a sudden, Melania Trump, hello, everybody. Remember me? I'm back. Okay. Interesting timing is all I'm going to say. Very interesting timing. Curious, one might say. Anyway, good to see you, Ben. Good to see you, Jordy. Good to see you, Midas Mighty. Jordy, what's the latest on your end? Brothers, Midas Mighty, it's great to be here. First thing I want to say first is Melania, Ben. If I remember correctly, you've done a couple of stories about her disappearance, like where the heck has she been? So those have gone quite viral, those videos as well that you've made, if I'm not mistaken. So just putting that out, I'm not saying the two are connected, that now she's starting to resurface. I'm just saying that that's the cadence of events here. The other thing I want to say, folks, is, yes, for those who don't know, I am your resident Pennsylvanian, proud Yinzer over here in Pittsburgh, abso-friggin-lutely, the energy here has shifted. And I'm not just saying that to provide hopium. I'm just telling you what I'm sensing here on the ground from my own personal day-to-day, interacting with the people out here, the energy out here has shifted in a great, you know, in a great, positive way. I'm excited to see what that leads to. When we want to know what's going on in the country, we go, "Jordy, what's going on?" Jordy sticks his finger in his mouth, sticks it up, sees which way. Oh, I see what's going on in Pennsylvania. Energy shift. I see. Vibe shift. Vibe shift alert. Exactly. Exactly. But all kidding aside, I'm being very sincere. I'm excited to see what, you know, this means as we go forward. Benji, where do we want to start today, big bro? You see, look, the Natalie Harp story isn't interesting because she's always around him, and it's weird, and people have suspicions of what's really going on. And she's referred to as a human printer, and she writes the letters to him. That's not the issue. This is not a story of punching down or sideways. It's exactly the way Senator Ossoff delivered this, which is Donald Trump doesn't care about governing. Donald Trump doesn't care about the American people. While the American people are suffering, while the American people are paying record high prices right now for regular gas, for diesel, as the crack spread on diesel is $102 a barrel, price of diesels approaching $200 a barrel over $5.50 a gallon for diesel over $4 a gallon for regular gas, much higher than that in a lot of states like in California, as the American people have their healthcare ripped away, as the American people are struggling to get a job, to afford rent, certainly can't afford to buy a home right now for most Americans. As Americans with kids or grandkids, or just in general, look at future generations having very little hope, what is Donald Trump doing? That's the story. You're running around in catering containers that you're hiding in with Natalie Harp, and you're out there in Bedminster throwing yourself golf tournaments where you're awarding yourself the senior trophy and the regular club trophy when we know you didn't win, but it's just this bizarre behavior focused on golden ballrooms and signing your name on helipads and putting your face on money and taking statues that are bronze and painting them gold, and then focusing on all of that and Natalie, while the American people are like, you're the guy who promised you were going to make electricity 50% less than it was before you took office and you were going to do that on day one, you promised gas would be $2 a gallon right away, and it's at record highs right now. You promised that you were going to make things more affordable and make things not as expensive, and right now you claim you don't even know what affordability is and that it's a made-up word, and so that's the story. It's the juxtaposition. It's the contrast, and that's why it resonates, and it's just fascinating as I watch corporate news go, "Oh, my God, they're talking about Natalie, Natalie, Natalie." First off, she has a government position, I know that according to some the recent reporting, she didn't want to get a security clearance for at least the first year. She just declined to apparently. But regardless of the threats and the dangers that may or may not exist, I mean, she's someone who's around him while he's destroying the country. And she's a gatekeeper. She has an important role, like it or not. Not is the way I view it. A lot not. But these are people who are in positions of power who are punching down at the American people. So to me, it's actually punching up to criticize the power structure that's abusing their power. And she's included in that. It's like the way Donald Trump refers to his children, Don Jr. and Eric, as though they're little kids. And Ivanka, my daughter, my kids, like my kids. These are grown ass humans who are out there engaged in horrible, horrible behavior. And the moment you call these magas out, they go right into this victimhood cocoon. And they're like, oh, you can't talk about us like that. You can't say things like that. And then they go out there and engage in the most egregious and disgusting behavior. I mean, Donald Trump is literally a sexual predator. He's been found civilly liable for sexual assault. And you've got people in the Trump regime like, oh, you can't mention Natalie's name like that. Really? I mean, Donald Trump's an actual sexual predator. He's been found civilly liable by a federal jury. And his own Supreme Court rejected his petition for certiorari. He's on audio tape bragging that he grabs women by their genitals because he's rich and you get away with it. He's bragging about sexual assault on tape. And we have, of course, all of the footage of him attacking women reporters and calling women reporters piggy and all of these things. But let's state the obvious. Let's state the undisputed fact, as we would say in a summary judgment motion when I was a lawyer. Trump is undisputedly a sexual predator. And with it, oh, that's not happened. It happened in a jury, a federal jury. OK, so let's just be real. Let's just be real. Let's just be real. Let's just be real. Oh, the victimhood, the victimhood, you know, and then as you have our economy suffering right now and all of the schemes that they've been running, right, you know, what was it a week and a half ago you had Besson's Japanese yen scheme, right? This is ridiculous schemes. And so we swapped euros for Japanese yen so we wouldn't have to use dollars in the swap, kind of screwed over the European Central Bank because we didn't give them any notice of it. It temporarily propped up the yen, but then the yen started to crash again. As we've said before on the Midas Touch Network, using the reflecting pool as the metaphor here, you can paint it blue for a little, but the algae always comes back. The algae always comes back. What's the scheme this week? The bond buyback scheme. And when you read the language of what Besson was doing, I mean, the whole thing sounded like a complete sham. So I had Justin Wolfers, our chief economist, go over with us. And the scheme was they were going to buy back the long-term 30-year bonds and they were going to sell more short-term bonds to buy the long bonds. And they would try to then take out some of the longer bonds out of the supply to decrease the price. But you would only do $4 billion of it. So you would signal to the market that Besson got you back. And then hopefully the market would then say, got it. We feel better about this if we know that $4 billion is just the appetizer and he's going to protect us. But what happened? 24 hours later, those treasury yields went up even higher than they were the day before. Nobody was buying, quite literally, nobody was buying what Besson was selling, the bonds, quite literally. And so you see this and this looks like, and I think that there was a meme of it today of all of the schemes that he's engaged in. Like which manipulation is he going to do today? Is it going to be the treasury notes? Is it going to be the Japanese yen? Is it going to be the energy market? And the meme has him kind of swatting all of these things. And what we look like is a kind of corrupt developing nation right now where you would have these authoritarians engage in all of this behavior. And this is the type of stuff that we as the United States used to look down upon. And we used to be the beacon of predictability and reliability. And that's been completely shattered right now. So let me pause there because I want to show different clips. We'll go through all of this. But I think that's the perfect intro, Brent and Jordi. I think that's the perfect intro. And then when these Trump bootlicking cabinet members like, how did we get here? I don't even know. That's what Besson, I don't even know. It's like, yeah, I could tell you it's very easy when you declare a trade war against the world and then lose a catastrophic war and pretend that we won it, even though we lost it and every day gets worse. And then you have all of Donald Trump's other horrific policies. It's a very obvious thing that has happened, Brent and Jordi. And then when these Trump bootlickers come in and say, you know what, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, we're going to do this. Now, who are there to fix the problem? We get people like Scott Besson. And so they do a patch here. But that patch here, I think it was Justin Wolfers, the Midas chief economist, who did an incredible segment with Ben. It's on our sub stack, MidasPlus.com. You should check it out. Incredible segment breaking this down. I think the phrase he used was that there's no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to this stuff. So when Besson does one thing, that then causes a problem in another sector, in another way. And then he then has to fix that problem. And so what the Trump administration, the Trump regime right now has to do is fix that problem. And so what the Trump administration, the Trump regime right now has been kind of devolved to is fixing all of these little problems of their own creation. And then they create new problems. And then they have to fix those problems. And then when they're asked about it, when they're actually, you know, given a little heat by the media about it, they have no actual real answers to the people, which is why they then fall back to, oh, it was all Biden's fault. Oh, it was the media's fault. It was this person's fault. It was that person's fault. Or the new one that Scott Besson deployed today, which is the one Ben just said was, I don't know how I had an oil get like this. This is this is bizarre. How did this happen? I don't know. You got to tell me. What are you talking about? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me right now? These people, the gaslighting is just so unbelievable. But this is how they get through the day. You know, I had somebody ask, you know, me earlier, they were like, how long are they going to be blaming Biden for this stuff? I was like, forever. For it could be 2027. You know, and then they'll still be blaming Biden for this stuff. They're not going to stop. This is this is what they do. The debt just passed $40 trillion. $40 trillion. And Donald Trump himself is personally responsible for about 25% of that all the debt, all of it, going back to the beginning of the United States of America. Yet he takes 0% of the responsibility. Well, the reality is, and well said be is that incompetence is encouraged under the Trump regime. There's no other way to talk about that. I mean, when you see Besson, how could this happen? You know, it's like that meme, and people are gonna get mad at me because I know this is like a cult following show, but I don't know it. It's the one with the the guy in the hot dog suit. How could this happen? That's it. Because of you, dude, because of your sheer incompetence because of the entire Trump's regimes, sheer incompetence, day after day after day. And don't play like you did this intention like this was intentional. You know that all the decisions that have led up to this moment have led to that. Absolutely. Can we just pause for a minute here? Let me just pause for a second. Let me just pause for a second here. Good. Do it. We actually don't want you. So we appreciate it. And we'll see you later. And if you want to be a peacemaker, good luck. So as you now know, Donald Trump has been on a tear in his own mind, threatening South Korea and praising Kim Jong Un and saying, it's so hostile that the United States would do joint military exercises with South Korea, while North Korea has been such a model international citizen, they've been so great. Meanwhile, you have like North Korea, number one, helping Iran against Donald Trump. If Donald Trump is trying to go after Iran, I mean, you may want to understand some of the connections here. North Korea helping Russia, North Korea helping China, North Korea as part of a broader alliance. That's at least what our commanders have actually said. But you have North Korea launching all of these ballistic missile tests, bragging about their nuclear weapons, overtly threatening the United States. If you listen to what Kim Jong-un is saying. And then Donald Trump, again, makes up in his own mind that he's having conversations with Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-un's sister came out with a public statement. She's like one of the top officials there in South Korea, which is kind of like the way Trump runs things, like Ivanka and Jared Kushner. So that's the way these authoritarian dictatorships are. But in any event, Kim Jong-un's sister is like, yeah, we're not talking to him. We have no clue what he's even saying. It's humiliating. Can I quote what she said? Because I feel like the exact… The exact words of what she said were even more humiliating than that. She said that Donald Trump's comments were, quote, not even worth commenting on. And she said, quote, they were completely uninteresting and that she's completely unaware of any contact between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. I mean, how freaking pathetic. And, you know, like you're saying, in the one breath, you have Donald Trump, again, tweeting all caps, you know, economic D-Day against Iran. And if you're helping Iran or you're trading with Iran. You're doing anything, whether militarily or economically, we're going to come after you. And then you think like, OK, so who are those people? And as you said, it's North Korea, it's Russia, it's China. It's all the people that Donald Trump praises endlessly. And so if you're not going to go after them and Donald Trump ain't going to go after them, trust me, then he's got nobody to go after. I mean, who else of the major players even is there to go after? And so it's just another one of Donald Trump's empty threats. What are you going to do, more sanctions? I think Iran is like… They're sanctioned to death right now, they've got a lot of sanctions on them right now, like the problems are never really thought out. They're just another all caps kind of threat tweet. And again, it makes Donald Trump look that much weaker in the same way Iran's been following us and they've been looking at oil dwindling here and us digging more and more into our strategic petroleum reserves. They're also looking at the debt spiking over here. They're looking at the economy over here, going down the tubes. And so when Donald Trump calls for an economic D-Day. I feel like the only economic D-Day is the one that's coming to the United States, the one that's here in the United States, but I do got to give it to Donald Trump. If there's anyone who knows how to destroy an economy, it is Donald Trump. I will give him that. I think it's also a big reason why, too, Donald Trump starts to point his fingers at our allies and starts to attack our allies because he's not getting, I guess, the emotional gratitude when he goes after these, you know, other leaders like the King John, like he's not satisfied with their responses and that they push. It's so bizarre to me to see the pivot to attack our allies. Well, it's just like if when he's a loser in litigation, he's a loser in everything in life. Yes. So what does he do when he loses the case? He attacks the judge. It's so unfair. What does he do when he doesn't like the fact that the Treasury yields are rising or he doesn't like the fact that interest rates will probably have to increase? He attacks the Fed and goes after them and just screams at them. And it's like, dude, it is you. You're the loser. Everybody knew that tariffs would increase inflation. And when you run a trade war against the world, they're going to respond. And it's also going to cause the consumers here in the United States to pay more money. And it's going to be bad when you invoke a 1930s tariff statute that has not been used since 1930. Maybe the reason is because that's what led to the Great Depression or accelerated the Great Depression and the Smoot-Hawley tariff. And that's why the Smoot-Hawley tariff act is not something you want to rekindle in 2026. But in any event, you have President Lee of South Korea. Who'd he meet with today and who is he meeting with in the next 48 hours? Wang Yi of China. That's China's foreign minister. South Korea is going to turn to China and say, got it. Well, we're not with the U.S. anymore under that security umbrella. So we're going to have to look elsewhere and we'll look to China and we'll have to improve our relations there. And President Lee. In his post, this is what he says. And this is obviously mocking Donald Trump. He goes, I have carefully reviewed the recent S&S messages and photos posted by President Trump. S&S are the social network messages. Those are he's saying I've closely reviewed Trump's social media messages. And then he goes on to say that this message from Trump feels like a significant decision deeply infused with deliberations aimed at transcending hostility. In confrontation on the Korean peninsula to create peace. And it's Donald Trump's meme of Kim Jong Un saying, hey, Donald, we cool, right? They're mocking. I want you all to realize what President Lee of South Korea did. He's mocking Donald Trump and saying that this is deliberation infused with great amount of thinking. And then he goes and then he and then he goes, OK, you want to be peacemaker? Good luck. We wish you the best. And what did Kim Jong Un do in the past 12 hours? I could go back 48 hours past 12 hours, ballistic missile test, ten ballistic missiles or so, ten short range ballistics. The guy shot after Donald Trump saying it. And then that's what Kim Jong Un did. And so President Lee of South Korea is like, I've seen first the messages on social media and he's mocking Donald Trump for not like you're not going to go through commanders. You're not going to go through the military. You're not going to go through your ambassadors. But that's how the world views the United States right now. I feel like every kind of major power right now in the world is employing the same strategy against Donald Trump. And that's the famous never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake. And I think Iran's doing a version of that. Right. Like, you know, all the, you know, assassination threats, this, that. It's like as Ben has said on the show many times, like, why would they even want to do anything to Donald Trump? He's destroying everything on his own. He he is their weapon of mass destruction. So let him destruct. I think Canada's. Handling things the same exact way. I think you see China just stepping back. OK, America, retreat. OK, retreat. OK, see you. See you later. All right. South Korea. Hey, what's up, guys? You you you doing good? You're doing good. Let's want to hang out. Want to hang out. I know that guy was crazy. So let's let's chill, man. Let's chill. Let's hang out. And so you're seeing all these countries right now take this opportunity and all they have to do is nothing, nothing like Seinfeld to show about nothing. It's it's a geopolitical war where all they have to do is nothing. You just have to sit back and let it all happen. You know, they're like the first year they were kind of feeling it out. Right. You think about like a boxing match, right? And you kind of feel it out. You feel it out even where you are a, quote unquote, inferior power. You're still a heavyweight, right? I mean, countries usually still know what they're doing, right? If you're in the World Cup, you may not be Spain or Argentina, but you're still in the World Cup for a reason. You could still play, right? You know what I mean? And so you're feeling it out. You usually have the smartest. People, top people around you expert. So you're feeling that you're like, OK, this person, this entity, the United States, they have the reputation of being the best, the strongest, the power. They created the game. OK, we got to respect the game, even if it's a crazy person. And then it's like in a boxing match, you know, like what if the boxer who is, you know, the undisputed heavyweight starts just like going like this, like going crazy? So, all right, that's a little weird. That's a little weird, but like maybe that's part of the plan. And then we're going to get like sucker. Punched. And so, like, even though they're doing that, it's not I've never seen that boxing strategy. That's a little freaking crazy. All right, let's let's wait a little bit. Then round two, they do it again. All right. It's a little bit weird. And then you start to jab, jab and then the big boxer keeps, OK, are they going to punch back? Oh, then you go, I'm going to punch you really hard. I'm going to punch you really hard. OK, pop, pop, pop right back at you. And the big heavyweights still like doing that. OK, this is good. Could this person actually fight? Like, what are they doing? What are they doing? And then they keep seeing. The person in there and then the person starts punching themselves in the face, and that's what I'm still like, this starts punching himself. And then so these countries are like, oh, oh, it's like that, like, like, like, you dumb, dumb, like, like, oh, got it. I this is the game. OK. And then Trump's like, what you want? You want this? You want this? You think you can handle this? And then these countries are watching him like, OK, OK, for the audio listeners, Ben is punching himself. And on. Yeah, there's a very physical bit. It's a very good physical. That's why I got to make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel. Check right now. Make sure you subscribe. That may not translate at all for any audio listeners. There's so many action. There's so many actions. And for the audio listeners, they're going to be like, what are we doing here? You get you. Ben is taking off his shirt right now. Ben, you don't have to get into this bit. Then you take our first quick break of the show. WTF? America's next best friend. We're going to be back with Ben. Ben, you don't have to get into this bit of it, then you take our first quick break of the show. WTF? America is the name of the book that I wrote with my brothers. It comes out in October 20th. Pre-order WTF? America right now. Lots of momentum behind it. We hope you'll pre-order it. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel as well. Let's take our first quick break of the day. It's a good bit. I came up with it on the spot. Let's take our first quick break of the show. After checking how much I spent eating out last month, I was honestly shocked, so switching to Home Chef, that's been a real game changer for me. Home Chef makes cooking simple. Fresh food delivered. Easy recipes to follow. and meals that actually taste great. Take the stress out of your week with convenient weekly deliveries that keep your fridge stocked and eliminate meal planning and grocery runs. No long shopping lists, no complicated prep, and best of all, easy cleanup. 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That's homechef.com slash Midas for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life. Homechef.com slash Midas must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. Do you snore? Did somebody hand you a CPAP? And did you cry? And did you quietly stop using it? The mask that never quite seals, the hose tugging at you every time you roll over, and a machine sitting abandoned in a closet. Well, Excite OSA works a different way. It treats a root cause instead of managing the noise, and you use it while you're awake. It's an FDA-cleared prescription device for primary snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea. And here's what the routine looks like. 20 minutes once a day. While the coffee brews, while you watch one episode of something daily for six weeks, then a lighter routine to keep it. Most people notice, a change in just four to six weeks. And then, when it's actually time for bed, you go to bed like a person. Nothing strapped on, nothing plugged in. 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Real quick, before we move forward, just want to say the bit with my phone over here earlier, not planned for those who listened to the show on Tuesday, watched it Monday night. I had a lot of noises going on. I did not force a phone call here. I saw some comments saying I did that on purpose, did not do that on purpose. And Ben, great physical podcasting today so far. I'm really happy. You know, like physical comedy, like the guy who did the podcast, the guy on SNL back in the day. Ben's a physical podcaster tonight. Fantastic. And speaking of physical comedy and audio comedy, I want to remind everyone to make sure you're also, that you're subscribed to the Midas Touch Podcast on audio. We did get some emails from people saying that they were having trouble playing the episodes on the feed. So just go into the Midas Touch Podcast, be it like Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, play the episodes, make sure it's working for you. Let us know in the comments. All right, Ben, what's next? Look, I think I approached this. I know, I hope I approach this or you feel I do. This isn't coming like, the Democratic perspective, the independent perspective, Republican perspective or whatever. I mean, using the World Cup football analogy or soccer in the United States, you want your best players out there, right? You don't want to send out a JV team to play against other teams that have the best from their countries. You can't underestimate it. And the Trump regime always underestimates while putting out the worst people. And it's led by the worst people. It's led by the worst possible captain in Donald Trump, who is not a leader at all, who is a bankruptor, who's been a lifelong failure and a lifelong fraud, who's put out a team of JV fraud. It's not even good fraud. They're like JV frauds. And you watch them all head out, do their state regime media propaganda bits today. And I'll tell you, today more than ever, and this was deeply concerning. And Brett and Jordy, tell me if you feel this way also. Well, you know, amongst really bad propaganda today, kind of seemed the worst I've seen it with them. Like they all just kind of didn't even have their heart in the fraud anymore. Like they all just kind of were like, yeah, want to talk about the Grand Prix race? It's like, no, no, we don't. But we're doing a great race, and the cars, they're going to go zoom, zoom, zoom in Washington, D.C. Do you like that? People are like, dude, what are you talking about? We're still doing it. We're still doing America 250. It's freaking August. We're still doing this bit. Yeah. We've reached, you know, we're in the bread and circuses phase of the Trump regime right now, but they forgot the bread. Like people can't eat. So it's just these bizarre circuses while people are going hungry and while people can't afford things. So they're like, hey, you see the race we're doing? You see that UFC fight? That was pretty cool. That wasn't a good fight last week. Did you see what we did in Ohio when they did their Hunger Games? I did a video. I did a video on it, and I, you know, I really couldn't keep it. By the way, I don't think anyone saw it. They didn't know Ohio other than the people who watched it. I did a video on it, and I was reading the comments as I watched these individuals who were purported to be the best high school athletes. And so it was called the Patriot Games. I did a whole bit on it. I won't spend that much time on it right now. But the Trump regime put out a notice to Christian schools, particularly Christian private schools, that you send an essay and a video of yourself to them. And they said that if you qualify, you have to join the Patriot Games. And then they say if you qualify. Like, it's not even like, I don't want to offend, even though these kids are probably like MAGA families, I don't really want to offend the kids. Like, I wasn't trying to mock the kids. But they're not the best athletes. They weren't really even good athletes. They were mostly all white kids. There was like a few people who were not white in it. So it was just like Trump's view. Someone's got to make a meme of Ben, like the MJ meme, the fuck them kids. I know. I was very careful in how I presented it. No one makes that meme. They basically had these like white Christian kids run around like, like, you know, those dog races that they do. But I'm not even joking, Jordy. Go watch it. They had them do the dog obstacle course and they run around and these kids are out of shape mostly. And they're trying really hard, you know. But, you know, I'm 41. It would look like me doing it, right? You know, it's like, you know, and they're like, these are the best athletes in the country. So the whole thing was utter chaos. They're literally deranged. I'm not even sure why I'm even bringing this up. But the point is, is that we're doing America 250. That was last week. They want to talk about Grand Prix this week. And the American people, going back to the way Senator Ossoff does it, which I think is the right way you have these discussions. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. You promised us on day one that groceries would be incredibly cheap and that you would decrease inflation. Inflation has increased. You promised electricity would be half. You promised us. Gas prices would have a two in front of it would be two bucks. Now it's the highest nationwide ever in the history of the United States. You promised us no never ending wars or no wars. You promised you would resolve Russia's invasion of Ukraine. You've lied about everything. And now you're doing Grand Prix. Now you're doing this with Natalie. Now you're doing golf tournaments and ballrooms and anything like what the hell is going on. So the Trump regime brings out Brooke Rollins, Brooke Rollins, agriculture secretary. Goes on Newsmax, pretty safe channel, it's regime media, they say. So is food affordability becoming a test on whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promise? Is affordability becoming a test? Here, play this clip. With the midterms approaching, how do you see this playing out? Is food affordability really becoming a test of whether the Trump administration can deliver on its economic promises? No, affordability, you know, I think continues to be a challenge. It's going to be a key conversation, as it should be, but I think we have to put this all into context and certainly on the food side, which is what we are looking at at USDA, protecting the food supply, number one, but affordability as well. Under Joe Biden, the cost of food went up almost 25 percent. I mean, this is what we're battling against right now. Under Trump, we are right at the 20 year average, which is around two to three percent. Blame Biden, blame Biden, blame Biden. But here's the thing, even though it wasn't Biden, but whatever. Just accept for the sake of argument. Biden didn't run. Biden dropped out of the race. So by that logic, Trump should drop out, you know, or Trump should, you know, y'all hated Biden. I mean, them being the Trump regime. So you're comparing the two? Okay. So even if that's your comparison, Trump promised he would make things better. He's actually made things worse by far. And also when they talk about, you know, they always bring up Biden's like first year or second year. like sports example, it's like analyzing the game in the second quarter versus the fourth quarter. You know, it's like after the team wins the game and goes through fourth quarters, it'd be like saying, but did you see the second quarter? It's like, okay, yeah, we were down in the second quarter, but they won the game at the end. We can look at the totality and say- Let me sharpen that analogy for you there. It's as if it's a complete rebuild. When President Biden had taken over, he was rebuilding what Trump had destroyed. It's like when new ownership and a new coach actually comes in and tries to get things back on track, and by the way, starts to make progress there, and then all of a sudden, you know, it happens what happens, and now the bad coach is back. And they do it in the inverse too, right? They're always cherry-picking data, and they're always trying to find what was the sliver of time we could point to where things were okay. And you see that with the way they speak about Donald Trump's first term, which, by the way, was also a headed for disaster in manufacturing before COVID happened. But what did you hear, Donald Trump, and what do you hear all these people say? Well, we were doing great. We were doing really great. But then, oh, something happened, and you can't actually count that last year. You know, you can't count the year before either. Like, you could actually only count this tiny little period, and that's how we should be judged upon. And it's like, that's not how it works, especially when you're the guy who's mishandling all the crises when it's your job to manage the crises. I also can't get over the fact of how un-TV ready so many people in the Trump regime truly are. Like, that clip right there is super pathetic. First off, for the audio viewer, she's on Newsmax. She's on Newsmax, and she just had a layup of a question. And all of a sudden, her MAGA brain-rotted brain just couldn't answer a simple, yes, affordability is a huge crisis. We're doing our best to correct the, just give any of that. But instead, no, it's Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden. I mean, honestly, they have Biden derangement syndrome. Everyone in this cabinet, including Donald Trump, suffers from deep, deeply disturbed Biden derangement syndrome. Yeah, and Biden, Donald promised on day one that he was going to make it better. That was his whole pitch. I mean, his whole pitch was day one, day one. And then they said, ah, give us another quarter. Ah, give us another quarter. Ah, beginning of 2026. Ah, give us until the end of 26. Ah, give us over here. And it's like, I just think the American people are like, time's up. Like, the Ponzi scheme is over. And look, that's why his approval right now is the lowest in modern history, period, since 1953. It's the lowest. I know for our international viewers and people here in the United States, it's still like, wait, 33% of people still, that's still a high number, man. Like, how does 33% still support him? But I think you have to realize that there has been decades and decades and decades of very kind of tribal behavior and right-wing media propaganda that basically has told people in some of the, you know, red states or whatever, that the worst thing in life is being a Democrat, that they're the enemy from within, that they're really horrible people. And that, you know, and this has been generationally passed down and it didn't just happen. Although I do think people are waking up and I think people are waking up not to say, oh, I really love Democrats and the donkey logo. And I loved, I love political party. I don't think people really like politics. I think they realize that Trump and MAGA have weaponized, weaponized politics to divide us and to hurt them. So now people are looking for a politics of accountability and a politics of humanity and empathy that protects people seeing how politics was weaponized by these con artists and losers to inflict pain and suffering upon us. Speaking about con artists, losers, here's treasury secretary Besant. This guy's the treasury secretary. Okay. Uh, and he's asked a very basic question about today, today's spike in oil. And we all knew this was coming. We all, because it's been happening for a while and they've been manipulating the markets for a very long time. But as I said in the first segment, and we say in WTF America, the reflecting pool metaphor holds, you can paint it blue for a little bit. You can try to cover up your problems. You can come up with a catchy slogan. You can blame others. You can defraud, but guess what? Energy always comes back. The gas prices are going to do what market forces do. When you have supply and demand issues, when you blow things up, both in terms of a trade war and in terms of actual war, when you blow it up, guess what? There's less things when there's less things, there's less supply of it. When there's less supply of it and there's more scarcity, the prices go up. It's not a hard thing to realize. We don't control the strain of her moves. Okay. And the Houthis also control the red sea and they're only enforcing their blockade against the Saudi tankers right now. But that is a major issue also. Also, Trump didn't resolve Russia's invasion of Ukraine on day one. And now you have Russia striking hard in Ukraine and you have Ukraine striking hard in Russia, destroying lots of refineries over there. And so we have a massive, massive issue when it comes to oil, when it comes to crude oil. And so we have a massive, massive issue when it comes to crude oil. And so we have a massive, massive issue when it comes to crude. And we're seeing that reflected. And by the way, when Donald Trump said, it's not like the price of gas is $200 a barrel, it is. I understand, Donald, you're an idiot and you don't understand the difference between the paper price of crude, WTI and Brent, which is now in the 90s. You don't understand that. But at the refinery, the crack spread, we're talking about $102 for diesel. We're talking about the price of diesel per barrel, close to $200 per barrel, when you actually have to buy it from the refinery, what the price of diesel is. Okay. So it is at those levels. It is. And the fact that Besant is like, we don't know. No, we very much know. Let's play Besant. Let's play. Declining. We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand. You know, our market manipulation was supposed to work, but it didn't today. I just don't get what's going on. It's like, it's such a crazy thing to say. Obviously, it's all related to Donald Trump and his war. It's all related to the fact that the war is still ongoing, that the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, that there are ships being struck in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, that there is chaos in the region, that Ukraine and Russia are still at war. That's why Scott Besant. It's all of those things that all those things that Donald Trump said he would either fix or never start in the first place. That is the cause of it. And literally, if Donald Trump went into office and hid in a catering cart and stood in that catering cart and ate McDonald's and KFC all day or Taco Bell or whatever he does, the economy would be better now than without him. By the way, even the stock market, which has been doing quite well, would be better if Donald Trump was in a catering cart than what he is doing right now with his market manipulation and all the volatility. It just would be. I mean, when you look internationally, you see other markets have been doing, not all of them, but markets have been doing better than the United States. And so Donald Trump is a destructive force. And for Scott Besant to play dumb, for Brooke Rollins to play dumb about all of this, like it all traces back to one person, but also to you, because you all are responsible for actually holding this person, responsible, giving them the information. And frankly, I think this is why the Natalie Harp story actually takes on more importance because remember what her supposed job actually is. It's giving Donald Trump fake data is essentially her gig. Why is she called the human printer? Because she prints out flattering articles or fake news articles or memes or whatever. And she shows things that Donald Trump wants to see, not the actual facts. And so sometimes you don't even know, is Trump seeing the truth? About X, Y, or Z, because if he's just watching things like, you know, Fox or propaganda like that, and he's just being handed things by Natalie, then you actually like, you're like, what is this guy even basing his decisions on if he's not even living in reality? And so that is also part of the problem. And it's why this is, you know, also worth further investigating. And it's why the fact that you didn't have security clearance is such a major issue. And to Ben's point, I think all of this chaos is why we're seeing such an erosion of Donald Trump's support all over the place. I mean, I saw this truly, truly wild exit poll from CNN. And Jordi, I think this was in your Commonwealth over there, Pennsylvania, exit polls from the state over there from the elections the other night. Trump was plus 34 points amongst white working class voters in the 2024 election. And the exit polls taken this week have him at negative four points among white working class voters. I mean, that is theoretically Donald Trump's base. That is essentially the reason why Donald Trump is president. And to see a 38 point swing in this category is unheard of. And I saw pollsters speaking about it like they have never seen something like this happen so quickly. And it is all the testament to what Trump is doing every day. You know, you could only pull the rug under people from under people so many times before I think they finally hit their heads and wake up and say, hey, what you're doing right now seems to only be helping you, your kids, and the top 001 who hang out with you at mar-a-lago and not me the working class not me the person that wants to put food on the table not me that needs health care not me that needs to be able to afford my house not me that it is so truly despicable what the trump regime has been doing a couple points here first with besson and brooke rollins again i want to say this very clear incompetence is encouraged under the trump regime and what i mean by that is they have one obligation that's all they care about and that is singly protecting donald trump they do not care about making your life better as an american person they do not care about making your housing more affordable all they care about is how in this tv hit when the press asks me questions when i have to do reports how can i continue to run cover for donald trump a failing aging grotesquely evil and ugly president that is just hurting americans day in and day out back to the natalie harp situation very quickly too i wanted to say this because i know i've fairly made light of it a little bit earlier on the show just talking about how utterly bizarre and weird it is well it is but it is also incredibly dangerous for the points that my brothers have laid out here mainly the fact again that she didn't have clearance she didn't do security clearance since when is that like an okay thing to be the person that's hanging around the president of the united states and not going through the proper channels that everyone else has ever had to go through to be that close to the nuclear football at all times and not be properly cleared is absolutely banana land to me man and again i i it's a testament here to this community this pro-democracy community who continues to call this stuff out and make those types of points because it is it is only with a community like this and and people who deeply care about this country that we can start to to build back something that could be better than this hopefully one day did you say did you say absolutely what if i just what if that was my new bit i just kept dropping like biden puns like i'm having ptsd from from hearing those words said it said in that honor thanks joe manchin and i'll give you another three letters there wtf that's the name of the book that my brothers and i wrote wtf america and i just went on because when we wake up in the morning sometimes we just say what the i look at my phone they say never a good idea to look at it right away but that's what i do so you know turn it look i go what the f did he do today he did this he did this he did this and uh pre-order it right now a lot of momentum around the pre-orders i did an interview with mooch scaramucci i co-hosted scaramucci's podcast uh check you could check that out as well um we had a lot to discuss when we come back i want to talk a little bit more brett about the pennsylvania results kevin mccarthy freaking out mega republican disgraced speaker saying maga mike johnson has no plan when kevin mccarthy is saying maga mike has no plan that is a russian nesting doll of destruction right there let's take our last quick break of the show reminder subscribe on audio please become a youtube subscriber and an audio subscriber we'll be right back after this last one you know what's easier than fixing a problem not having the problem in the first place your liver is one of those organs that you don't think about until you have to supporting a daily is one of those small things that can make a huge difference in how you feel overall and that's where dose comes in dose for your liver is a clinically backed liver health supplement this isn't just another capsule or powder dose is a liquid supplement it's taken in a daily two ounce shot and it tastes like fresh 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the current best technology and then donald trump says i don't like that okay what do you mean you don't like that who are you to judge that you don't know what you're talking about he goes i like steam what do you mean you like stink okay i i like chocolate chip cookies should i just start eating chocolate chip cookies when i'm doing this podcast like i mean a lot of things like it's a very strange you know if i start eating chocolate chip cookies while doing this show i'm not going to be able to speak because i'm going to have cookies in my mouth just because i will but i want a cookie monster um that's like a version that's like what are you doing donald trump likes the way battleships look between 1920 and 1940 likes the aesthetic doesn't like stealth doesn't like aircraft carriers doesn't like the drone technology he really likes back to the basics is what they're calling it right now at the defense department so they fired their top four stars or pushed them out like randy george of the army they pushed out their head of south com who didn't want to commit war crimes they pushed out another general donahue top army general um he was known as the last soldier in afghanistan they pushed out cq brown jr the chairman of the joint so many more incredible top military people were pushed out and they bring in sycophants who say we got to get back to the basics you know one of the issues you know if you study world war ii as as you reflect on you know with the u.s kind of security umbrella in asia um collapsing i think about bushido in the bushido code and like almost like the kind of samurai code in japan if you will and the warrior spirit as lots of other countries were advancing in certain types of technology and the world is moving in a certain direction this idea of us going back to basics is a bit like what you're talking about like wars are fought today with drones uh drone interceptors unmanned submersives the fpvs variations of what iran is producing in the shahids there's they're called different things here um yes ballistics you need your interceptors you need an arsenal of these things like that's how modern warfare exists and when the u.s runs its military simulations and did exercises with ukraine ukraine kicked the u.s military's ass where the u.s had to respawn like a video game in the simulation over and over and over again in the war exercises like within minutes ukraine's drone swarms destroyed the entire united states military now china is learning the lessons of modern warfare and they're working with iran they're working with russia it's not a secret okay they could say we we know in in north korea they're working together and brics block nations are cooperating as well the u.s and trump trump likes battleships trump likes steam trump no like drone trump like testosterone you know and then they have you know people who you know look very low t but pretend this is what a man looks like when like a hegseth or whatever and he's too scared to even be around the media so he has to kick out all the media from what he's doing by the way hat tip to those defense uh reporters they're they're still doing great work at new york times washington post bloomer financial the defense reporters who have been kicked out of the pentagon are awesome ms now they really are really doing a very very good job i almost feel like they lit a fire under them in like a weird way like like you know trump because for you know those who may not understand the context you know trump kicked out all the real reporters from the pentagon and replaced them with all these right-wing hacks who aren't reporters and the the pentagon reporters are really freaking good really really talented like i i commend them and they're really good once they're able to kind of lock in and hone in and and start getting their sources and poking here and poking there and trying to uncover what's actually going on and they've realized pretty quickly like we don't actually have to be in the building to do that and there are a lot of people in this pentagon who want to talk to us outside of this building anyway and so they've been getting just like some incred incredible scoops um you know i i feel like the kind of line in the trump administration uh for the second term in the beginning people were like oh there are a lot fewer leaks going on well i i i think if you thought if you thought that earlier on those days are certainly over i mean this thing is leaking like a sieve you know and it's not going to stop you know everybody's talking because every move seems like to be made with such disdain towards the people who are working and all in order to support donald trump in the weirdest most cultish ways um even like when you look at one of the things that cnn was reporting on earlier today uh that the trump regime is considering renaming the uss doris miller which is an aircraft carrier that honors a black sailor who celebrated for his heroism at pearl harbor uh they're considering renaming it after donald trump and that's a real story in the mix of a lot of uh stories that's happened today in this week right and so this is a real thing they don't know who they're who they may rename it after but they want to take this ship that's named after this historic black sailor they want to rename it after somebody and donald trump's name is in contention is basically what the story says and this we're dealing with like a sick like like sick people like this is really sick sick sick sick stuff and and and so you know when you're dealing with that i i think as a reporter you have to understand that you're dealing with sick people um you have to understand that the people especially at the top the trumps the hegseths those people are going to constantly lie to you so you have to actually get to the people who understand what's going on who actually maybe understand strategy how weapon systems are supposed to work understand the needs of the military are the soldiers aboard the uss lincoln you know like our aaron parniss here at midas touch has been speaking with the families you know on those ships which is finally you know back home um but we we're seeing all this every single day and it really paints a picture of tumult and turmoil absolutely and like i'm not saying this to throw shade although it may sound like it it's just it's amazing the reporting that could be done when you're not worried about access constantly we're not worried about having that access on air force one or access it's it's amazing the type of work that can actually be done it feels freeing benji i want to go bring back the world cup analogy international football u.s soccer so the u.s had the undisputed best team in the world by far like imagine a team who are some of the best players in this tournament messi holland bellingham whoever right you you name the players who did we have as our generals we had the joint chiefs chairman we had cq brown jr the army chief of staff you had randy george beloved cutting edge four star and people loved him he was one of the best players he loved his wife patty they were like the morale booster of like the military and randy george was like you know he was he was like the holland he was like the most popular person also and then we had another guy uh general donahue who was a four-star general widely known for being the last american soldier to leave afghanistan during the 2021 evacuation christopher donahue and he wasn't even responsible for the army he was the only one responsible for the army he was the only one responsible for the evacuation he was just he went there to help and help the situation and he's a beloved individual as well and so what did hegseth do imagine a team is stacked with the best players right he got rid of the best players he got rid of him he pushed them all out and he replaced him with people who aren't really that good who are like let's go back to the basics let's go back to the basics everybody and let's let's let's do what we did in world war ii to fight war wars in 2026. And to me, that should infuriate you, whether you're a Democrat, whether you're a Republican, whether you're an independent, whether you're not political. That's a competence issue. It's a leadership issue. It is a just basic running operations issue. And that to me is where a lot of my criticism comes from. I mean, when you look at this Darlene Graham debate that a lot of people are talking about, and rightfully so, where she was asked a question, well, what's your view about Taiwan? What should the U.S. do about Taiwan as it relates to China? What's your perspective? And her response is, I don't know anything about it. I don't know much about it. And then she tried to justify it by basically saying, you know, at the end of the day, I don't know national security. I don't know anything about any of this. And so I just wanted to be honest. With the people at the end of the day. And so I care about domestic issues, but I just don't know anything about national security. And that's like her line. It's like you're currently a United States senator. These national security issues relate directly to domestic issues. As we talked about before, the reason why prices are what the prices are is because there's a world and there's trade in the world and Trump's policies are having an impact here. So let me show you what happens when she goes and speaks at an event and she's asked about that answer in a very MAGA crowd. Let's play this clip. Because there are votes that go toward funding wars or declaring wars. And if you're a deciding vote in that factor, how can we trust as constituents that you'll make the right decision if you're not informed on national security issues at this moment in time? That's a fair question, right? But, you know, I answered it honestly because I'm not a national security expert. Lindsay was, right? Because he talked a lot about national security. You know why? He spent 33 years in the Air Force. He had a military background. So he had a lot of foreign relations and that was his focus. To me, as I walked around this room and I've asked people, are y'all concerned about Taiwan? You know what they said? No, they're concerned about the price of groceries, the price of gas, rising health care costs, what is national security important? Absolutely. Can I learn? I'm smart. Yes, I'll learn. I'll become informed. Everybody has a first day on the job. President Trump, was he a politician? Has he done a good job? Yes, he has. That's my answer. But I will always be honest. Well, because here's the thing, and then they're saying it out loud, Jordy, right? Because you see, who's running against her? Is it Ralph Norman running against her in the primary? I think it's Ralph Norman. And so one of the things that you can kind of continue to hear, Trump world say is, you know, they're like, well, what's wrong with Ralph Norman, right? He's a guy like he's a guy who's been in the House of Representatives. Like he's a very right wing guy. Like, what's your issue? And they're like, he's not for Trump. He's not all in on Trump. And the whole thing is not about competence. The whole thing is, are you all in on Trump? And everything is judged by that. You could be Darlene Graham with zero experience and not understand foreign policy, even one iota. And but if you're all in for Trump, then that's okay. That's all that matters in the MAGA cult. And Ralph Norman's response may have actually been worse. I mean, she said she didn't know. And then Ralph Norman's response is, why do you think China is so scared of us right now? Why do you think it's like, why do you think China is so scared? What world are you object? Like, what world are you living in? America's security? Objectively, America has no security umbrella in Asia. Our last super carrier is gone. We have no security umbrella anywhere anymore. We're all alone. Idiot, psycho, lunatic, flagpole boy, Donald Trump is talking about being friends with Kim Jong Un. And this is not Brett, Jordy, Midas, Mighty. This is not like that. I'm not giving you, this is a democratic position. I'm just like, y'all are the most dangerous freaking psychotic humans imaginable that you can see the world we're in now with all of the suffering happening here with America's object. This isn't a talking point. This isn't an effing game. This is real life. And you're out there saying you think Xi Jinping is scared of Donald Trump. Xi Jinping could not be happier. Like, and the craziest thing with these psycho humans who are like, oh, I'm a China hawk. This is what we wanted. You wanted to be this weak? Like, we couldn't be weaker. Dude, freaking Elbridge Colby, the number two at the defense department, who's Mr. I'm going to decouple from China. He is begging Xi Jinping for a visit to Beijing. And Xi Jinping is like, nah, get the hell out. Weren't you the decouple boy? Weren't you the guy who said you were going to harm us? And you saw what we did with rare earths in two minutes and made you bow to Xi Jinping? You didn't see that? You think we want you to visit us? I mean, do we realize it's so obvious what's happening? And again, this isn't like, oh, Midas, you're reflecting. I'm just telling you the facts. Like this is the reality. What you choose to do with the facts, choose. But that's what's happening, Brett. Yeah. It's like, have you heard of like beer goggles? I feel like all these people wear MAGA goggles and they put them on and all of a sudden it's like a bunch of transgender people running around trying to play sports, trying to turn your kids. It's Donald Trump full of muscles running around, you know, with a AK-47 and Iran going, oh, sir, I'm sorry. Jordy, in any event, Jordy, what do you want? I'm just joking, Brett. It's like, it's nuts. It's the craziest thing. You know, there was another clip of Darlene Graham on Fox that was absolutely, that was crazy also, where she was like, you know what? I don't think my constituents care so much about this national security stuff. I'll learn that. But you know what people are really concerned about? Transgenders and sports. I was like, really? That's what people are concerned about? Not even a thing in South Carolina at all. And again, you're going after this marginalized community because you're not going to be able to do anything about it. You're a bigot for no reason, and an issue that is not an issue. You're trying to make it an issue while you're diminishing national security, which has major implications on every single thing in our lives, as you can see right now from the disaster of the Iran war, how it's affecting people's pocketbooks, how it's affecting everything. And so, you know, it's one thing if you're a random person on the street, right? I mean, I don't expect people to know foreign policy. I don't expect that. But if you're a United States senator, I at least hope that you have a rudimentary knowledge of these things before becoming a senator and before deciding to then rerun for the Senate or whatever. I mean, the whole thing's crazy. People's lives are in your hands at the end of the day. Your decisions affect people's lives. I want to clarify something I said before, just in case I wasn't clear about the USS Lincoln, which was finally relieved. They USS George Washington took over that deployment, made its way to the Middle East. And so, the USS Lincoln finally relieved from that deployment and should be making its way back. Hopefully, they get back safely and soon, and hopefully, they get to some better conditions, because we all know how much of a disaster that was. And all of our, you know, service members who are out there, you know, wishing them all the best. Jordy, that brings us to your Commonwealth, buddy. What are you saying there? That brings us to Pennsylvania, where- Hold on. I just want to say this one quick thing, is that Darlene Graham is the world's, the world's worst sequel that absolutely nobody asked for, that never needed to happen. But here we are watching this all unfold. And like, it's like a train wreck watching every single interview she does live, man. It's crazy. It's crazy how uninformed she is running for this seat. Sorry, Ben. I thought I really needed to add that to this. She goes, "Well, Donald Trump didn't know much about foreign policy, and how good is this?" Worked out great for everybody. It's the golden age, no wars. Everything is great. I mean, that's the part where- Like, you're like, "What? What?" And that's, I think, what you're seeing in a Pennsylvania where you have a plus 18 Trump district. It's Butler. It's where Donald Trump won't release the medical records where he claimed he was shot in the face by an AR-15, but miraculously, the AR-15 bullet was injured, not him. And for those unfamiliar, Butler County, like, I need you to think of the most MAGA district, wherever you exist. Times that by 10, and that's Butler. Right. So in Butler, Butler County, Donald Trump plus 18, 2024. And now, right now, the Democratic candidate, Brandon Dukes, won that by one point. So it was a 19-point swing in favor of a Democrat. What did Brandon Dukes run on? He ran on kitchen table issues. Let's talk about the economy. Let's talk about the roads. Let's talk about education. Let's talk about things are too expensive. Let's talk about what we can do for people in Pennsylvania. Let's get stuff done, right? It's Governor Shapiro. The get stuff done governor says, like, "Let's get it done." Like, we work. We're working for the people. Like, we're not doing culture war stuff. We're getting stuff done, right? And what was his MAGA opponent running on? Transgender, hate, bathrooms, WNBA, Donald Trump's amazing, ballrooms. Isn't the big beautiful bill amazing? No, it's not. People don't like that. It's a disaster. It's a disaster. And no one, and people weren't buying it. People weren't falling for it there. It was also plus 18, but in the prior state house race, it was a plus 30 Republican as well. So it is, you know, massive swing. But this is what we've seen over and over again in these special elections. We've seen a 12 and a half to 13 point Democratic overperformance in these special elections over and over again. And it frankly started pretty early on. Late January, we were covering it in Iowa and Pennsylvania and elsewhere where you would have these major flips taking place. And so, I'll leave everybody with this. This is a massive swing. But this is what we've seen. This is Kevin McCarthy talking about how he's very concerned. And let's play the clip of Kevin McCarthy if we got it. How do you size up the midterms right now? The midterms right now, I'm worried because the generic ballot's over six. So that's advantage to the Democrats. I'm worried that I'm not seeing the clear message from Republicans. What is the plan of why you should stay in the majority? What is your economic plan going forward? What are you touting as the successes that you've had already? I'm worried about certain states. I'm going to watch this. I'm going to watch Iowa. I think that governor's race is very close. Ashley Hinson is the best Senate candidate probably in the country. I think she ends up winning. But we've got four congressional seats there. When I first came in, we only had one Republican won. They're going to be some tough. Pennsylvania is going to be a swing state. Democrats have a very good governor. They'll probably try to run the tickets up because he wants to run for president. I'm worried about Arizona because I don't think this Republican nominee we have, Biggs, could actually move out, could cut across, get moderates and others. And we picked up seats from Democrats to win the majority. If he understands that, he's going to win the majority. If he underperforms, he could cost us Congress as a majority. Brad, Jordy. I don't even understand. Why even put Kevin McCarthy on TV? He was a failed speaker, ousted from his job. What political insights does he have? He kowtowed to Donald Trump the same way that Maga Mike is kowtowing to Donald Trump. He'd probably be doing the same exact thing right now. He now gets to be out of that bubble. And so he gets to act like, oh, I could be the critical one. And I'll be the moderate thinker here. And I'll say, we need actually more normal people. And perhaps we should be focusing on the issues that matter for people. Come on. Feel free to flame me for this, but I thought it was pretty astute analysis right there by McCarthy. I actually think that that's probably a much better role when he's able to act. It actually sounded like he had some soul in his chest. That's my point, though, because he's a shapeshifter, right? Totally. All I'm saying is he's an actor. And he was ousted from Congress for doing the opposite of the advice that he's saying right now. If he was in the position, he'd be doing exactly what Maga Mike is doing. And you cannot convince me otherwise. 100%. You think he'd be going, and I'm not saying you, Jordy, you think he'd be going against Donald Trump right now? He'd be doing the same exact thing. And then there'd be some other guy going on TV, I don't know, some other former speaker or someone who was ousted, who'd be saying, well, I just think Kevin McCarthy and these Republicans aren't understanding people's issues. It's just the cycle. It's what they do. It's this talking head BS. It's this cable news BS. Kevin McCarthy is a hack. He's a hack, hack, hack. He was ousted from his job because he was shitty at it. And he had an opportunity to show some spine, but he ended up kowtowing to Donald Trump and being a pathetic little weasel like the rest of them. Absolutely. Anytime they're in positions of power, they're all cowards. They're all weasels and they're all pathetic. I mean, that's what's proven. But it's interesting when they can freely speak or they don't have the pressure of the mean Donald Trump tweet. That's all I'm saying there is. 100%. 100%. And like, you know, objectively, unless you're looking at things through Mac goggles, objectively, when you look at the data right now for Republicans, I mean, it's very grim for them. It's a very rough environment for them. I don't think he was going out on a ledge. I don't think he was like, I have some brave stance I'm going to take. I mean, I think he was just like, yeah, we're going to get this. Let me tell you something you don't know. Yeah. But hey, for a Fox audience, you know, maybe they aren't hearing that. Yeah, exactly. Great show, brothers. Great show. We did a lot of sports analogies. I did some physicality that the audio listeners big time, physical podcast, physical podcast. That's why the audio listeners need to go make sure they subscribe on the YouTube. The YouTube watchers need to go right now. You got to go, you know, it's easy. You just open up the Apple podcast. I know we kind of make light of it when we ask you to subscribe to these platforms, but it does tremendously help us out. It helps get this information out. It takes two seconds and best part, all 100% free and easy to do. Brother, what a wonderful episode. This has been great spending this hour with y'all. Thank you guys so much. And as always, shout out to the Midas Mighty! Before you go, our book, WTF America, is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this. Let's do this.