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The MeidasTouch Podcast

Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 6/18/2026

18 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What are the latest developments from the G7 summit?

0.52 - 28.452 Professor Devi Sridhar

I am Shannon Maldonado, the founder of the Jaui gift shop, which sells handmade artisanal products. I chose Shopify because when I tested the devices, I found them to be one of the easiest to use devices. It was important for me to consider our development in the future. All the tools needed for sales, such as storage design, are in the dashboard. Start the free trial at shopify.com.

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29.343 - 57.291 Professor Devi Sridhar

I'm Shannon Maldonado, the founder of Jaui, a gift shop that sells handmade artisanal products. I chose Shopify because when I tested the equipment, I found it to be one of the easiest to use equipment. It was important for me to consider our development in the future. All the tools needed for sales, such as stock planning, are in the dashboard. Start your free trial at shopify.com.

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58.182 - 81.694 Professor Devi Sridhar

I am Shannon Maldonado, the founder of Jaui gift shop, which sells handmade artisanal products. I chose Shopify because when I tested the devices, I found them to be one of the easiest to use devices. It was important for me to consider our development in the future. All the tools needed for sales, such as the design of the stock, are handy in the dashboard.

0

81.714 - 110.531 Professor Devi Sridhar

Start the free trial at shopify.com website. I am Shannon Maldonado, the founder of Jaui, a gift shop that sells handmade artisanal products. I chose Shopify because when I tested the equipment, I found it to be one of the easiest to use equipment. It was important for me to consider our development in the future. All the tools needed for sales, such as stock planning, are in the dashboard.

0

110.551 - 114.936 Professor Devi Sridhar

Start your free trial at shopify.com.

Chapter 2: How is Trump’s cognitive and physical health impacting his leadership?

115.861 - 143.64 Professor Devi Sridhar

Aloita ilmainen kokeilu shopify.com sivustolla

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145.072 - 173.492 Ben Meiselas

Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Mycelis. This is your Breaking News. We've got a lot to discuss. Obviously, the developments following Donald Trump's appearance or his physical presence at the G7. His body was there. I'm not sure of sound mind, cognitive, physical deterioration before our eyes in such a massive way in a healthy media environment that would be

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173.472 - 193.179 Ben Meiselas

not just a front page story, but it would be something that everybody would be talking about. It's why I don't ignore it. I don't mean to sound repetitive when we talk about Trump's physical and cognitive deterioration, but just like for the past four years, five years, We've been on the Epstein beat. We've been talking about the cover-up.

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193.299 - 219.402 Ben Meiselas

We've been talking about all of the connections, what was going down at Mar-a-Lago, all of the key players, the conspiracy before it was something that was being talked about. I just think it's important that we don't follow narratives that corporate media is pushing here. We lead the narratives. Because at this point, we have perhaps the biggest audience that exists right now in news.

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219.462 - 232.564 Ben Meiselas

And the Midas Mighty needs to get the truth and get the information out together. So we'll talk about what went down at the G7. We'll talk about some of the developments just even over the past 12, 24 hours.

Chapter 3: What is the significance of Trump's memorandum with Iran?

232.805 - 256.197 Ben Meiselas

The Republicans are livid. at this memorandum of understanding that Donald Trump entered into on behalf of the United States. With Iran, we have everybody kind of piling on J.D. Vance, throwing J.D. Vance under the bus and saying, it was J.D. Vance who did it. Let's blame J.D. Vance for this. I think you all know

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256.852 - 285.082 Ben Meiselas

my view, America should never have been involved in this catastrophic war in the first place with Netanyahu. Objectively, this is a far weaker deal. It's not even a deal, a far weaker thing than former President Obama's deal, the JCPOA and the Iran nuclear deal there. That said, it's undoubtedly a surrender by Donald Trump and the United States, but it's because Trump lost the war.

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285.142 - 304.678 Ben Meiselas

That's what happens. When you break something, you fix it. You have to. I mean, and of all of the possible options, this deal is the only option that I could think of that was the right decision. move. Now, we shouldn't have been involved in this catastrophic and unlawful war in the first place.

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Chapter 4: How are Republicans reacting to Trump's Iran deal?

305.299 - 330.343 Ben Meiselas

Again, let's acknowledge that the deal is a worse deal than the Obama deal. The American people are suffering. It doesn't change that dynamic. But I don't think we should rip apart this memorandum. I want to root for this thing to succeed. As much as I despise Donald Trump and this heinous and despicable fascist genocidal regime, this Trump regime, I want there to be peace.

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330.944 - 342.401 Ben Meiselas

I want the Strait of Hormuz to be open. I want there to be as much... relief as possible to the American people. I know it's not going to be a lot. It's not going to solve the harm that's been caused.

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343.042 - 369.211 Ben Meiselas

So as I kind of opened up in a very vulnerable way to the audience, it's difficult to report on in the sense that I hold thought one, catastrophic, unlawful war, that Donald Trump, Netanyahu, Vance, this whole regime are war criminals. On the other hand, this memorandum of understanding should never have had to follow a catastrophic and a lawful war.

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369.251 - 389.239 Ben Meiselas

But as I look at it, that's the option that we had. And fundamentally, I think that if there is more empowering Middle East nations to take agency and responsibility over the Middle East, a removal of the US presence there,

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389.219 - 417.484 Ben Meiselas

uh removing uh the u.s israel from lebanon and syria and air pushing that influence out i think that's uh i think that it's actually a positive outcome now i i despise that the trump regime keeps on lying about this agreement it's like if you did the deal so just just explain to us why you think this is a beneficial deal don't tell us Things that are just complete lies, right?

417.504 - 418.766 Ben Meiselas

Like, own it, own it, you know?

Chapter 5: What are the implications of Trump's foreign policy on the Middle East?

419.448 - 433.418 Ben Meiselas

There's $300 billion that you're giving Iran, right? That's more than Obama. Don't act like it's less than Obama. That's more than Obama. So sell it to us, though. Explain it to us. Why you think this is a good idea? Where are you going to get the money from? Tell us. We're adults.

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433.398 - 455.693 Ben Meiselas

We can handle the information, explain the logic to us about why you think this could bring long-term stability, why you think this can bring down gas prices. Stop the gaslighting. Stop being so defensive about it. And when you're defensive about it, then we're like, I got it. You don't even know what's in this agreement. I just noticed, too, that

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456.398 - 472.781 Ben Meiselas

Donald Trump signed the Memorandum of Understanding in Versailles. I think that has a unique symbolism, obviously, that we've been talking about. 1919, the Treaty of Versailles signed by Germany represented Germans' humiliation after World War I. It was total capitulation.

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473.442 - 486 Ben Meiselas

And so the very idea that Donald Trump would sign this in Versailles, I don't know if it was French President Emmanuel Macron, kind of the newly forming multipolar world order,

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Chapter 6: How does Trump's behavior at the G7 reflect on his presidency?

486.993 - 504.836 Ben Meiselas

putting Donald Trump through this symbolic humiliation ritual and the United States through it by doing it at Versailles or if it's just coincidental or whatever. When I looked at the document Trump was signing, it seemed to be the document that he was signing that the White House put out was in Farsi. And of course, we all know that Donald Trump speaks Farsi.

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504.896 - 530.314 Ben Meiselas

So it's good that he was really attentive to the nuances of Farsi and the language there. But, you know, there you have it. And, you know, that follows really a G7 that if I said it was humiliating for the United States, the biggest understatement ever, it just objectively was. I mean, you know, setting aside...

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531.442 - 560.736 Ben Meiselas

I mean, I think about past presidents, right, where their words are parsed for meaning and symbolism and, you know, because you have to speak so carefully and what do you mean and what would he said that and, you know, and the subtleties of diplomatic etiquette and all of these things, right? You know, Donald Trump really couldn't walk. I'm not saying this to be hyperbolic or to mock him.

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560.776 - 577.497 Ben Meiselas

I'm just saying it as an objective observer of what we saw. I mean, he really couldn't. He struggled to walk. He struggled to sit down. There was a lot of disinhibition where he would blurt out things.

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577.949 - 603.552 Ben Meiselas

And again, I'm not saying this to mock him at all, but a lot of the disinhibition seemed to be in the form of homosexual thoughts, where he would say things to world leaders about being sexually attracted to them, where he would say, you know, you're handsome, you're, you know, I like to stay in the hotel room with you. And he would talk to reporters and say things

603.97 - 614.77 Ben Meiselas

that they're so good-looking, you're so good-looking, you're so attractive, you're so attractive. It was just very strange to watch. I don't know how else to describe it.

Chapter 7: What criticisms are being leveled against Trump's handling of international relations?

614.79 - 652.827 Ben Meiselas

And again, I'm not doing this in a mocking way. It's just that seems to be a disinhibition that he was – that he was objectively projecting. He seemed to be passing gas in public a lot. And then he would just say a bunch of word salad nonsense that people were like, what? What are you talking about? What's he even saying? We saw world leaders almost

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653.532 - 688.58 Ben Meiselas

treating him in a way that you would expect of somebody perhaps in hospice care. Right? You know, as a trained nurse would treat an elderly, or not just an elderly, just an individual in hospice kind of end of life type of care. And the world leaders, you know, I mean, you would see Prime Minister Carney go up to him and say things like, Donald, Donald, here's the deal.

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688.78 - 706.59 Ben Meiselas

This is the deal we did with China. I thought you'd like it, Donald. 49,000, caps, caps, caps. And you would have French President Emmanuel Macron and others would, hey, Donald, over here, over here. He would

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707.093 - 732.561 Ben Meiselas

know constantly i mean the the the bridget macron thing it wasn't you know uh the the the disinhibition also wasn't kind of purely what i was describing as kind of homosexual projection where he was saying all of these things about like loving people and things like that i mean it was also um with bridget he was like leaning in for kisses and like multiple and she's like come on man just stop like

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733.03 - 739.838 Ben Meiselas

Like why, you saw when he kept on like trying to kiss her and she would like pull away and he would like hold on to her hand for 30 seconds.

Chapter 8: What can we expect moving forward in U.S. foreign policy?

739.878 - 761.502 Ben Meiselas

And it was just, we're just observing these things, you know, these things happening. So let me show you. First, a hat tip to my brother, Brett, who put together, I think a good summary of some of the health issues that just were on the, I could go on and on and on, but I'll show you the health issues from the first day. Let's play that.

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762.224 - 783.203 Mat Nuclear

So I've been watching Trump for the past day or so at this G7 summit in France, and there's clearly something going on with his health. He's looked awful. I mean, just look at him in this picture trying to sit down. It did not go well for him. His voice has been incredibly hoarse. He keeps walking in the wrong directions. He doesn't seem to know where he is at times, what's going on at times.

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783.524 - 797.265 Mat Nuclear

His ankles look incredibly swollen. I mean, let's just go through some of the things I've noticed. First, there was this photo, and if you zoom in on Donald Trump's hand, you could see that once again, he's got the makeup caked on. Here's another shot of his hand from today. And so that was just his right hand.

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797.305 - 812.442 Mat Nuclear

When you look at his left hand, you see that he has this little weird mark right over here. There's a quick close-up for you. Here's a photo that Ukrainian President Zelensky posted on his social media, but let's zoom in for a second. Once again, you see that intense swelling in his ankles.

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815.185 - 819.711 Mat Nuclear

Then there was this moment where he needed Indian Prime Minister Modi to help him get up a tiny little step.

821.814 - 829.423 Emmanuel Macron

This moment after a photo where he starts wandering in the wrong direction.

829.673 - 851.293 Mat Nuclear

You can see McCrone and the other leaders say, other side, other side, you're going in the wrong way, and redirect him. Then there was this strange moment where he grabs Bridget McCrone's hand and doesn't let go. He seems to completely lack the strength in his right hand to do his typical handshake.

854.615 - 876.544 Mat Nuclear

There was also this moment where the world leaders were posing for a photo around this table and Trump just doesn't seem to know where he is at all. He's just standing there looking off to the side while everybody else is posing. He's just standing there, not moving, doesn't seem to know where he is, not reacting at all. And here's how that final photo turned out, courtesy of Reuters.

876.844 - 878.867 Mat Nuclear

You can see Trump here staring off to the side.

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