Speaker
Ben Meiselas
Appearances over time
9 episodes
Episodes
9
Trump DOJ Blocks New Probe Over His Dark Past
Trump Throws Vance Under the Bus as End Is Near
Trump Goes Silent as DC Turns into Toxic Dumnp
Trump Haunted by Ayatollah's Funeral
Governor Shapiro Gives Powerful July 4th Message
Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 7/2/2026
Trump Surfaces and Crashes Out at Presser
Trump Attacks Venezuela after Disaster
Trump FIFA Plan Completely Backfires
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
Following Trump's Fourth of July fireworks display, Washington D.C. recorded the worst air quality of any city on the planet.
New Mexico AG Raul Torres said the DOJ's delay in responding to his records request had lasted 130 days, which he called unreasonable under any rule of reason.
Trump's latest financial disclosures show he made close to $2 billion from stock and crypto trades while serving as president.
Trump's overall approval rating in Pennsylvania has dropped to 29%, a 10-point decline from 39% in March, per a Franklin and Marshall College poll.
The June 2026 jobs report showed only 57,000 new jobs created, far below expectations of 110,000–120,000, with nearly all gains confined to healthcare.
After their final World Cup match, the Iranian team was forced to immediately leave the US and arrived in Tijuana at 4:00 AM rather than staying in American hotels.
Tens of millions of Iranians turned out for Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral procession, with the Tehran stadium cycling in hundreds of thousands at a time.
The June 24 Venezuela earthquakes killed approximately 2,000 people and injured over 10,000, with tens of thousands still missing.
Ben Meiselas asserts that people inside Trump's circle believe Trump won't make it through the end of his term, or even through the end of the year.
An estimated 58,000 buildings were likely destroyed by the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24.
Fox News reported that Trump's display broke the Guinness World Record by firing 851,000 fireworks.
The Trump regime officially designated Iranian players as agents of the IRGC and said they should essentially be treated as enemy combatants.
According to the Economist poll, Trump's approval rating in Pennsylvania is net negative 22 points.
Trump's financial disclosure revealed over 21,000 individual stock trades during his time in office, a figure Meiselas says is likely even higher when fund investments are included.
Official delegations attended from Turkey, India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and dozens of other nations, underscoring Iran's global standing.
The Trump regime officially designated Iranian soccer players as IRGC agents and treated them like enemy combatants. They barred team staff, coaches, and family members from entering the country — all for a sporting event.
Despite being forced to travel to Tijuana at 4 AM and having staff barred from entering the US, the Iranian team left handwritten notes in both Seattle and Los Angeles locker rooms invoking Persian civilization and thanking their hosts. It was a master class in grace under pressure.
Iran captain Mehdi Taremi delivered a stunning press conference — calling the World Cup a 'disaster,' calling out Infantino by name for broken promises, and noting two goals overturned by VAR in two games. He asked, 'Who wants to help us?' and no one had an answer.
The Trump White House stole video footage from Seattle journalist Aaron Levine to produce pro-America propaganda — despite Trump repeatedly calling Seattle a shithole city. The hypocrisy became an instant punchline.
An Iranian father built a handmade cardboard football pitch so his visually impaired son could experience the Iran-Egypt World Cup match through touch. It was the kind of moment that cuts through geopolitical noise.
Iranian fans erupted in joy watching their team in cinemas and public spaces in Tehran. Meiselas argues this is a perspective of Iran — joyful, passionate, deeply human — that corporate US media deliberately ignores.
The cities that welcomed the world's football fans — Seattle and Los Angeles — are the exact cities Trump relentlessly calls shitholes. The 2026 World Cup became an accidental advertisement for the progressive cities Trump despises.
When Western journalists tried to corner Iran captain Taremi on LGBTQ rights, he calmly said he respects all LGBT people and redirected them to ask about football. It was more diplomatic and measured than most Western politicians manage on the same topic.
Families and football fans gathered in central Gaza to publicly watch the Egypt-Iran World Cup match, with the screening offering a brief respite from the ongoing war. It was a reminder that sports connect people governments try to divide.
Despite Trump's best efforts to inject hate and division into the World Cup, the response from fans, players, and host cities was one of unity. Meiselas argues that the tournament proved people-to-people connection is more powerful than authoritarian propaganda.
Trump's financial disclosures show close to $2 billion made from stock and crypto trades — 21,000 of them across 8 accounts while serving as president, averaging about 80 trades per day. No other president since 1990 came anywhere close to this volume.
Qatar gave Trump a $400 million jet. American taxpayers then spent over $1 billion renovating it. Trump is openly planning to keep it as his personal plane after leaving office — and called it a point of 'national pride.'
Pressed on profiting from the presidency, Trump pointed to the rising stock market and said 'we're all profiting' — sarcastically thanking himself for 401k gains. He never acknowledged the specific volume or scale of his personal trading activity.
Trump told Bill Pulte, his acting DNI who has no security clearances and no national intelligence background, that he could 'declassify whatever you want.' The Senate has withheld FISA reauthorization partly because of Pulte's appointment.
The Trump administration barred Iran's World Cup players from US hotels and forced them to travel back to Tijuana at 4 AM after every match. The Iranian embassy in Kenya called it the most unfair and shameful behavior ever seen at a World Cup.
Analysis
What they talk about
- News 61%
- Government 15%
- Business 12%
- Society & Culture 5%
- Sports 3%
- History 2%
- Religion & Spirituality 2%
Connections
Shows they appear on and people they share episodes with. Drag to explore.
