Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Mycelis and this is your Breaking News. A lot of developments happening fast and furious on Capitol Hill. We just learned that the United States Senate will be shutting down for the foreseeable future.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, after a very contentious meeting with Donald Trump's Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch regarding the $1.8 billion slush fund that Donald Trump wants to give to
Chapter 2: What recent developments are happening on Capitol Hill?
January 6th, insurrectionists soon announced, we're all going home. We're done here. After this fight with the Trump regime, Republican on Republican, MAGA Republicans in the Senate versus MAGA in the White House. And
The Senate and the House feels that they are being basically attacked by Donald Trump with his ballrooms and his arches and his reflecting pools and his slush funds and his attack on sitting senators like John Cornyn, the Texas Republican senator. Donald Trump endorsed Ken Paxton, the corrupt AG of Texas, over Cornyn. And now that's going to cost tens of millions of dollars.
uh potentially being lost by republicans in the senate james talarico now leads in the polls over ken paxton republicans are pissed about that you know you had senator cassidy bill cassidy of louisiana lost his primary over the weekend as donald trump endorsed his primary opponent so bill cassidy's now unleashed calling out Donald Trump's ballroom and slush funds and all of this.
And lots of Republican senators are just absolutely livid at this Trump regime right now. Acting Attorney General Todd Blunt, this guy's like a total maniac, was apparently screaming at the Republican senators during the lunch. They were screaming back and then Then you had Majority Leader Thune just say, we're out, we're leaving.
And they were supposed to pass a reconciliation bill to fund Border Patrol and ICE even more than they've already been funded. They shouldn't be funded at all. They should be defunded, in my view, and they should be abolished, frankly, in my view there. There needs to be something on the border, but that ain't it.
This has been used for terroristic purposes, in my view, and it's not what it was ever supposed to be. That's my own opinion. You can have your own. You can disagree with the opinions. But we are now seeing probably the same thing in the House. We'll probably shut down shortly also. And kind of here we go again. It's the most dysfunctional
house the most dysfunctional senate the most dysfunctional white house it is a government that quite literally does not function and the stakes cannot be higher right because as donald trump shows this utter weakness abroad with that horrible trip to china with xi jinping and then xi jinping meets with putin what did putin do today we've been covering this and frankly this should be i think a front page story everywhere this would just this should be what's leading coverage i mean you had putin
do nuclear drills in belarus with a clear message uh to the trump regime which is the nuclear triad of russia um and is is going he says look we don't want to use nuclear weapons but if we have to use nuclear weapons you know we reserve the right to do that
they've made it very clear that they've given belarus nuclear weapons which is right there on the border with ukraine as ukraine is increasingly uh changing the course of this war ukraine is is i always viewed ukraine as winning in the sense that uh the goals of russia were to take kiev in three days and they didn't do that and uh the way the ukrainian army has performed has been nothing short of miraculous and incredible and uh
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Chapter 3: How is Donald Trump's influence affecting Senate Republicans?
For those on audio, I'm showing the video footage. of what was put out by the Russian side of things, showing what these nuclear tests look like, showing... And clearly, I mean, this was supposed to be a warning sent to... Donald Trump into NATO as, sadly, under Trump. I mean, Trump consistently is attacking NATO over and over and over again.
We've been covering here on the Midas Touch Network the NATO meeting that was just taking place in Brussels. There's going to be a broader conference in Ankara that's going to be coming up soon as well. At a foreign minister level, as I remember, I reported NATO is not doing presidential or prime minister levels because they don't want to be around Donald Trump.
So they're doing it at a foreign minister level because they view Trump as a distraction. And, you know, I've been reporting how you have.
You know, some of the top NATO commanders like Grinkovich and Dragoni and Vernier and some of these other people, you know, who are doing their best in NATO to try to hold the alliance together and project strength as it seems that no matter what, all Trump wants to do is attack NATO and kind of elevate NATO.
I mean, what just yesterday you had Donald Trump demanding that Zelensky encourage Europe to buy Belarus potash fertilizer from Belarus. I mean, that's what you're going to Zelensky to help Belarus, which is allied with Russia. to encourage, you want Zelensky to encourage Europe, buy Belarusian potash. Seriously, that's where you're at.
And then, of course, we saw lots of market manipulation again this morning. I saw that there was a report that there was a deal in principle, once again, that was reached between the United States and Iran. And then the markets moved on that news.
oil prices dropped futures on that news then iran came back and said no there isn't any final deal uh in principle there's no letter of intent yet they say said the parties have moved slightly closer together but on the main issues iran in control of the strain of her moves and that iran's not going to give up its any of its nuclear material to the united states i think iran was open to an obama style non-nuclear deal because iran claims it's using
It's nuclear material for non-weapons-grade purposes, whether you believe that or not. But they say that they're open to an Obama-style deal, but with the nuclear material being kept in Iran, not being transferred to the U.S. or even Russia or anywhere else. So they're real. The main issue is straight of Hormuz. Nuclear material, there's been no changes there at all.
And then, of course, one of the things we've been focused on is as Donald Trump is weaker than ever, we see him attacking allies. We see him attacking Canada. You saw the undersecretary of defense who calls himself an undersecretary.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Senate and House potentially shutting down?
We learned that the IRS lawyers also prepared a memo to the DOJ lawyers explaining why this case was frivolous and why it should be dismissed. The federal judge who the case was assigned asked the parties to do briefing about why this was even a case that was filed. Why wasn't the... Treasury Department filing a motion to dismiss, because that's what you would normally do in a case like this.
Is there adversity? Is there standing? Or is this some collusive thing? So the judge said, I would like some briefing on this. And then the Trump regime dismisses the case and just says, okay, we're dismissing this with prejudice, doesn't even tell the judge that there's a settlement agreement. So then outside of the case,
then there becomes a settlement agreement of Donald Trump in his personal capacity with the Treasury Department, with the government for $1.776 billion, meaning we the taxpayers are on the hook for $1.776 billion to go to January 6th insurrectionists many of whom are terrorists, not all of them, but there were some who were attacking police officers and engaged in, in my opinion, sedition.
So that's why, in my opinion, their conduct was terroristic. People who were found guilty of crimes by jurors who Donald Trump accused. than pardon. So Donald Trump wanted to give them $1.8 billion.
But there was another aspect to this, an addendum where Donald Trump then entered into a deal with himself, with him and Todd Blanch, his former personal criminal defense attorney, that says that Donald Trump can't be audited and that any of the past claims against him for not paying his taxes
are waived and that he's basically immune from audits and if he owed taxes he doesn't owe taxes anymore and that the irs can't look into him anymore and the way the waiver is written it purports to basically be any and all known claims get waived against him his family and the trump organization and while you may say well it's from the date of the agreement going back
One could also say that included in this are all of these shady deals he's done with foreign countries recently, all of these quid pro quo deals, all of the stuff that he's done with the crypto and the Bitcoin and all of that, because that conduct, this money grab, if you will, all predates the signing of the settlement agreement.
So in the future situation, he would argue all of these business endeavors are immune from any audits and any repercussions, which could be people are saying, well, that can mean 100 million or 200 million dollars. In my view, that can mean a billion dollars. Like the media is using the wrong number, in my opinion, because they're saying based on what they believe Trump owed in taxes in the past,
He could owe as much as $100 million in unpaid taxes from the Trump org and all of his entities. And I think what they're missing, though, there is Trump has made billions of dollars since he's been in the Oval Office so far, which he owes taxes on, right? If those are investments, maybe they're going to claim it as capital gains. I don't know the treatment.
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Chapter 5: What is the current situation regarding nuclear drills in Belarus?
that would be treated as capital gains. Although in a state like California, they treat capital gains as ordinary income. So there's a lot of aspects of that, though. And I won't bore you with the nuances of the way these tax structures occur. But what would stop him from saying, hey, I made $4 billion. So let's just take 20, let's take a blended rate of 20, 25%.
Let's say he's made income of $4 billion, right? That's probably the income that he's made from this crypto thing and that thing. I'm just giving you my opinion. I don't know for, none of us know. So let's assume he owes a billion dollars in taxes on the $4 billion. To me, as I read the agreement, he's made that money already. Why would he pay those taxes? So it's not just $100 million.
My analysis is that it's probably more like a billion dollars that he settled with himself because what's the taxable amount on all of these grifty quid pro quo improper deals, in my opinion, that he's already made? And not just him, the Trump organization as well. So he can try to shelter his own...
he runs everything to through the trust the entities are part of the trust he tries to hide his personal income in the entities themselves to claim that he personally loses money by moving by moving the amounts around from this entity to that entity that's what i've observed in my opinion you know before so now the trump org also gets this immunity so setting aside him think about what the trump org would owe and and how that and so if they don't pay their taxes
because they're going to cite the settlement anyway i think that that aspect needs more attention and i'm just giving you my opinion and my legal analysis how i see it because i don't think you're getting that legal analysis anywhere else anyway back to what's going on on capitol hill you have Congress member Fitzpatrick.
He told our Pablo Monriquez that this $1.7 billion fund is bad news and that he was going to try to kill it. And so here's a Republican Congress member from Pennsylvania in a vulnerable seat for the midterms. And here's what he had to say. Let's play this clip of him.
Congressman, what are you making this $1.7 billion fund for? Bad news. We're going to try to kill it. You're going to try to kill it? Yeah. Wow. Okay. And how? Well, we're considering legislative options. We're going to write a letter to the AG to start, but we're considering a legislative option. We're trying to unpack exactly what the legal machinations are, but can't do that.
Have you ever heard of any other Americans other than Trump as an associate? I haven't. Who are unauditable by the IRS? I've never heard that before. So would that be part of the legislative? Of course. Of course. Yeah, you can't do that.
Got it. Thank you.
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Chapter 6: How is the Biden administration handling relations with Iran?
Got it. Coach, who's going to win the World Cup?
World Cup? You got me on that. I'm an American football fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Got it. Thanks, Coach. Dude's such a phony also. And speaking of dudes who are such a phony, you had Todd Blanche ā I'll just share this one with you right here ā was asked by CNN ā Would the average taxpayer, wouldn't the average taxpayer respond, why do my tax dollars need to go to people who are upset about their involvement in J6?
Like, don't you think the average taxpayer would be upset about that? Here's what he said. Let's play it.
But wouldn't the average taxpayer respond and say, okay, but why is that now my problem? Why do my tax dollars now need to go to people who are upset about their involvement in investigations?
Well, if you're just upset, you're not getting it done. On the other hand, I think if you said to the American taxpayer that there is a horrible wrong committed by your government, and now you can apply and you can have your lawyer's fees back, you can be compensated for what you lost financially, what American would say, oh my gosh, that's terrible?
I mean, I very much disagree with the idea that the American taxpayer is indignant about the fact that a victim of weaponization, a victim who suffered, whether it was legal fees, lost a job, had their life turned upside down in a way that was not appropriate. If it was appropriate, there should be no compensation. And that's why we have five commissioners who will take a look at it.
But I do not think the American people have issues with that. To the contrary, I think they do want their tax dollars spent on things like that.
You think that right now, while the American people are suffering, you want our tax dollars to go to J6 insurrectionists? And here's the deal. These people were convicted of felonies of crimes in criminal courts. Thus, they are not victims. Every single one of them, if they filed a lawsuit in federal court, would have the lawsuit instantly dismissed.
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Chapter 7: What are the controversies surrounding Donald Trump's recent legal actions?
I think that's probably what they'll try to do for the end of this term. But I think they're just going to try to not show up anymore because showing up means having to deal with all of this. It's like what NATO is doing. NATO's not doing meetings at the prime minister and president level. Why even deal with this? Just try to get through these next two years and just ignore it.
Just pretend that it's not happening and just wait it out, I guess. The problem is, while that's happening, our adversaries are strengthening. The BRICS bloc is strengthening as a credible alternative to NATO. The dollar is becoming... used far less. You just look at Turkey, just a country like Turkey.
Quietly, they've reduced their bond holdings by 95% as they've dropped their US Treasury holdings. China's slowly dropping their treasury holdings. Our bond market's a complete mess right now. And all we have is the Trump regime. Wake up, manipulate the market. Wake up, manipulate the market. Wake up, manipulate the market. And then talk about the ballroom. So I'll leave you this.
This is what Donald Trump's now saying about the ballroom, which, by the way, Republicans are not funding right now to the tune of a billion dollars. They pulled that out. with Democrats. And look, Democrats deserve the credit for showing leadership and standing up to this, not Republicans for finally doing the right thing. I'll be clear about that. But here's what Trump says about his ballroom.
I'll leave you with this. Let's play.
The ballroom is being a tremendous amount of what's being done with respect to the ballroom is for national security, including, as an example, a drone port on top of which was top secret until litigation made it less than top secret. But we have a drone port. We have also, we have the glass that's four inches thick, bulletproof glass. We have bulletproof walls. We have things.
You need a place like this. But this is being made as a gift from me and other people. that are great patriots that spend a lot of money. We're building what will be the finest ballroom anywhere in the world. If they want to spend money on securing the White House, I think it would be very, very much a good expenditure. But the ballroom is being built.
I'm also just being, I'm a little distracted by the guy in the background. I just got a guy in the background, you know, just distracting me a little bit on the right. It's a drone... it's a drone empire ballroom and the litigation exposed my plan and secret hospitals. And it's a, it's a shield for ballistic missiles. And yeah, yeah, yeah. So there, there, there, there you have it.
There you have it folks. Make sure you watch the brother show tonight, eight Eastern five Pacific and subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers, a great late birthday gift. If you can gift memberships to people who can't afford memberships by joining, if you can afford them, that would be great. Also, will you do me a favor, too?
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