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The MeidasTouch Podcast

MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 4/14/26

14 Apr 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What triggered Trump's naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz?

0.605 - 27.186 Ben Meiselas

Failed negotiations in Pakistan between the Trump regime and Iran. The Trump regime shows up and wants to change the 10-point negotiating framework that they previously agreed to as an inducement for the ceasefire taking place. Iran refused to change the 10-point negotiating framework. After 21 hours of negotiations, the talks were off.

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27.166 - 50.912 Ben Meiselas

Apparently, there may still be some communications taking place, but Donald Trump is out there talking about obliterating Iran again and destroying their bridges and destroying the people there. Also, Donald Trump announced a full blockade of the Persian Gulf, at least as it relates to oil emanating from Iranian ports, although people who understand

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50.892 - 77.136 Ben Meiselas

maritime law and maritime routes no that's pretty hard to identify so trump's plan to open up the strait of hormuz is to further close the straight up removes by adding yet another layer of a blockage there meanwhile we have donald trump posting that 34 ships got through the straight of her moves in the past 24 hours do you think that that's true

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77.116 - 104.743 Ben Meiselas

and because everything donald trump says is a lie at most there have been four ships which were all either aligned with iran or iranian flagships um but no real movement of ships going out of the strait of hormuz you know we're gonna keep monitoring what's happening with this blockade because you know what happens now as china sends its ships in order to get iranian oil what happens

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104.723 - 120.866 Ben Meiselas

If India sends its ships, what happens if other countries send its ships? Will the U.S. truly enforce its blockade or will it do what it did with the blockade of Cuba? When Russians send ships into Cuba, the U.S. backed down and allowed the Russian ships to just get into Cuba.

Chapter 2: How is Trump escalating tensions with Iran?

120.886 - 146.644 Ben Meiselas

You also have announcements that the U.S. is getting ready to have mine sweepers enter the Persian Gulf and particularly the Strait of Hormuz. The US Navy is apparently moving in multiple minesweeping ships. As Donald Trump has behaved in perhaps the most deranged manner yet, we'll talk about that in a little bit as well, some of the posts that he's been making.

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146.624 - 174.555 Ben Meiselas

know he's acting like iran's been totally obliterated is begging for anything to survive iran sent its top leaders to go to this uh negotiation or what it thought would be a negotiation in pakistan phds people who have been diplomats for a very long period of time they took it very seriously you know they have a lot of their missiles are still intact a lot of their fast ships are still intact

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174.535 - 196.845 Ben Meiselas

And so if this is truly going to be the plan that Donald Trump is pursuing, I think it's going to lead to confrontation very soon. And my hope is that's not the case. But if Donald Trump truly intends to enter the Strait of Hormuz area with military ships, Iran's going to go after it. And perhaps that's what Donald Trump wants. Perhaps he wants to use the ships as bait.

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196.865 - 211.388 Ben Meiselas

You know, during those negotiations in Pakistan, The Trump regime tried to send two naval destroyers into the Strait of Hormuz, a ship belonging to the Iranian Navy. Yes, Iran still has ships, despite what Trump and some U.S.

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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Trump's feud with Pope Leo XIV?

211.708 - 234.638 Ben Meiselas

media tells you. Reached the U.S. naval destroyers and said, turn around or we're going to blow you up. Thankfully, the U.S. naval destroyer turned around, but Iran was ready to attack the naval destroyer. What would have happened if that resulted in the naval destroyer being hit? You can imagine how quickly a war would escalate if that were to take place.

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234.698 - 261.698 Ben Meiselas

As I see these minesweepers heading there, as I see this blockade, it seems that Trump is trying to bait Iran to attack US ships using our Navy and our soldiers as the bait to try to use that as a pretext for the obliteration of Iran that he wants. I think Iran realizes that, but we'll be, of course, focused on that. But pay very close attention there

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261.678 - 284.127 Ben Meiselas

pay very close attention to what's going on in the Red Sea and whether or not Iran will respond by trying to shut down the Strait over there. Now, I mentioned Donald Trump's been posting a bunch of deranged things. He posted AI images of himself as Jesus. He posted photos of Trump buildings on the moon. He posted random photos of Bruce Springsteen.

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Chapter 4: How is Canada responding to U.S. military spending policies?

284.147 - 307.635 Ben Meiselas

I mean, it's been some of the most deranged things after deranged things. Lots of Catholic groups from all different Catholic sects, from conservative groups to more liberal Catholic groups, all said, take this down immediately. It's blasphemous. What the heck are you doing? Donald Trump did delete it, but then in an interview said, He never thought that the image of him was being Jesus.

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307.695 - 329.334 Ben Meiselas

He said he was pretending to be a Red Cross doctor healing patients, not Jesus, is what he said. I mean, again, it's such a level of deranged lies. It's hard to even fathom. I mean, he was at a UFC fight while these critical negotiations were taking place in Pakistan. And Trump's secretary of state was at the UFC fighting with him.

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329.354 - 347.642 Ben Meiselas

I mean, talk about disrespect to the negotiation process where your secretary of state, is literally with you at a UFC fight. And as Donald Trump was heading in, the UFC crowd was not really cheering for him. Dana White had to hold Donald Trump's hand because it seemed like Trump was gonna be falling at certain points in time.

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348.644 - 362.847 Ben Meiselas

And then Donald Trump held this press conference today where he had a door dash employee who calls herself a DoorDash grandma. And she said she had to work at DoorDash because her husband had stage three cancer and she couldn't afford the medical bills.

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363.228 - 381.797 Ben Meiselas

And so working at DoorDash was the only way to keep her husband alive, which tells you a lot about our healthcare system here in the United States of America. I don't think it was the press conference that Trump thought he was going to get for a lot of reasons. And Trump's poll numbers continue to tank, especially among young people. I mean, it's as bad as you can be.

381.837 - 384.4 Ben Meiselas

And that's where we are heading into the midterms.

Chapter 5: What recent political shifts are happening in Hungary?

384.42 - 407.143 Ben Meiselas

We're going to talk about that. We'll also talk about in the show, Congress member or I should say former Congress member Swalwell now resigning for Congress. He put out a statement saying that he plans to resign. I don't know what that means. It means I think he's resigning and we'll cover his dropping out of the governor's race, his resignation and what went down there as well.

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407.123 - 430.178 Ben Meiselas

um horrible horrible stuff uh and and our hearts go out to all the victims all of the survivors out there and everybody who you know step forward and anybody who's gone through has gone through those heinous acts brent and jordy good to see you good to see you too brothers nice to see you ben nice to see you jordy good to be with you midas mighty i hope everybody was able to enjoy their weekend at least a little bit

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430.158 - 453.482 Brett Meiselas

Watching Trump handle the situation, and I use that term lightly, you can't help but just think this is a massive humiliation for the United States. Trump thinks he's projecting power, but all he's shown is complete and utter weakness. And every move that Donald Trump makes just seems more and more desperate. And the thing that really bothers me right now is seeing, you know, just from an

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453.462 - 478.138 Brett Meiselas

The point of view of like an American who enjoyed our alliances, the thing that really upsets me is seeing all of these allies move on without the United States. This whole idea with America first has clearly become America alone. And Donald Trump thinks that America alone can conquer and invade all of these other countries, which wasn't even what the whole America first thing was all about.

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Chapter 6: How does Trump's behavior affect international relations?

478.479 - 502.179 Brett Meiselas

Honestly, like who the hell even supports this guy at this point? Like, what are you doing? I'm watching him offend every single group out here. And, you know, the discourse around this photo that Donald Trump posted where he positioned himself as Jesus in this photo, you know, I understand the fallout from the photo. And I'm showing it here for the audio listeners. I'm sure you've seen it.

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502.7 - 506.487 Brett Meiselas

I certainly understand the fallout from this photo. But this guy...

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506.467 - 536.473 Brett Meiselas

is a walking talking violation of the ten commandments every freaking day do we need this photo to realize that the guy is blasphemous do we need this photo to realize that this guy is against any sort of moral teachings no matter what your religion or if you don't even have a religion this guy is against everything single tenant of any semblance of morality imaginable so i don't understand why it takes the posting of this image to be like oh you shouldn't have done that when he lives like this

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536.453 - 542.04 Brett Meiselas

all the time. Okay, we got a lot to talk about. Jordy, I'm going to first toss it over to you. What's the latest?

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542.36 - 543.001 Jordy Meisels

What's up, brothers?

Chapter 7: What are the consequences of Trump's ongoing legal battles?

543.021 - 563.727 Jordy Meisels

What's up, Midas Mighty? Pumped to get into tonight's show. I'm a little under the weather, brothers, Midas Mighty. You can kind of hear it in my voice, so apologies. Look, there's not a day that goes by where Donald Trump doesn't embarrass us as a country, as a people, as a species. Like, everything this man does is just, it's a humiliation ritual that he puts us all through.

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563.707 - 582.93 Jordy Meisels

uh we'll get into all of it i mean i like just to give you an example i woke up this morning like this is how i wake up now too i i wake up my beautiful pregnant wife is laying next to me she's waking up she turns over go good morning she goes good morning i go so donald trump attacked the pope last night and then spent eight hours just rage tweeting and she's like oh

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582.91 - 604.564 Jordy Meisels

okay so it's a tuesday or it's a monday it's every single day this guy just it's totally unhinged behavior and i feel like we've all kind of grown like accustomed to it as gross as that sounds but not the collective we here at the network and we the mightiest mighty in this pro-democracy community who are just outraged at all of this so i'm excited to get into tonight's show benji where do you want to start off

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605.641 - 627.936 Ben Meiselas

One of the things I didn't mention in the intro, which we should talk about right away, is the incredible victory of the pro-democracy party, the TISA party in Hungary. Peter Magyar, the new prime minister of Hungary, prevailing and not just prevailing, but winning big with the super majorities that were needed. and taking over parliament there.

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627.996 - 652.793 Ben Meiselas

It's going to be able to dramatically change Hungary for the better, moving it in a pro-European Union direction, a pro-democracy direction. And from the outset, the new prime minister, Peter Magyar, said that our country wants to live again. It wants to be a European country again. As the crowd was chanting, go home, Russia, Russia, go home.

652.773 - 682.392 Ben Meiselas

he was also saying that we're not going to be having cpac events anymore or any of these right-wing you know events here he said he's going to hold everybody from victor orban's government accountable if they've engaged in traitorous and treasonous conduct in helping putin and he started off by saying formerly press conferences worked in a way that propaganda media asked questions that were written for them by the government

Chapter 8: What lessons can be learned from the current political climate?

682.372 - 707.248 Ben Meiselas

we will now give the floor to those hungarian outlets who are still independent i thought what a great way to start the press conference there and it was so incredible to see the young people of hungary really fuel this movement that's really at the core of this big victory you know and here at the midas touch network we've spent a lot of attention focused on international affairs right

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707.228 - 734.802 Ben Meiselas

In addition to focusing on the Middle East and Asia and South America and Africa and Europe and elsewhere, we've been paying very close attention to elections like this for months and months and months, letting you know this election was coming, who the people were, the difference between the TISA party and the Fidesz party, what Viktor Orban was trying to pull.

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735.263 - 755.629 Ben Meiselas

And I think it's been such great feedback also to hear from the Midas mighty in Hungary, shout out to all of you, and building these bridges here at the network, right? With, I think, Canada really leading the way and what an incredible speech that you had Prime Minister Carney deliver. But one of the most important things when Donald Trump

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755.609 - 780.553 Ben Meiselas

became you know president again sadly but one of the important things we dedicated to was this international coverage because we recognized that donald trump was going to try to destroy a stable world order and we had to be on the front lines covering what a shifting global order looked like and so uh what we've been seeing brett as you said america first has meant america alone

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780.533 - 808.38 Ben Meiselas

And we've seen all of these international agreements and movements basically making the United States smaller. As Donald Trump has tried to huff and puff his chest, we've seen all of these links, transatlantic, transpacific, Canada, Australia, bringing everybody together. So shout out to the great folks in Hungary. One of the things we've been covering as well, the Pope.

808.36 - 826.133 Brett Meiselas

and the dynamic before before we get away from hungary i want to talk about hungary for a second because i think what people in the united states should take away from hungary and shout out to the people of hungary i know we have a lot of listeners in our we got to figure out a cool name for the midas uh hungarians uh out there but shout out for standing up for your democracy

826.113 - 840.332 Brett Meiselas

But I think here in the United States, there are lessons to be learned from this. And I just want to say it in this way. In Hungary, Viktor Orban did all the things that Donald Trump is doing in the United States. He cracked down on the free press.

840.652 - 860.862 Brett Meiselas

He had people in those briefing rooms who were asking questions, who were propaganda press, who would have pre-screened questions or questions approved by the government. that they would ask him. It's the same thing like when they have these Pentagon press briefings and the people they call on are Breitbart, the Daily Caller, random Twitter influencers, you know, and not the actual press.

861.102 - 871.358 Brett Meiselas

They don't even allow them in the room. Orban did that. Orban also engaged in this heavy sort of gerrymandering similar to in the United States, which made the Fidesz party a lot more powerful.

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