Speaker
Ben Meiselas
Appearances over time
16 episodes
Episodes
16
Trump Changes Course After Xi Jinping's Warning
Trump Melts Down as Iran Strategy Unravels
Fox News Turns on Trump After Iran Reversal
Trump's CIA Director Issues Stark Warning on National Security
Trump's Past Returns to Haunt Him Before AG Hearing
Iran's Red Sea Threat Raises Stakes for Trump
NY Governor Kathy Hochul Discusses Major Announcement
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
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.
Fox News guests including Sid Rosenberg explicitly called for 'complete annihilation' of Iran and urged Trump to launch a massive all-out attack.
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.
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.
Iran hit at least seven tankers in and around the Strait of Hormuz in the past seven days, demonstrating the effectiveness of its anti-shipping campaign.
The US reportedly burned through approximately 80% of some of its precision interceptor missile stockpiles, including Patriots and THAADs, during the Iran campaign.
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.
Trump's latest financial disclosures show he made close to $2 billion from stock and crypto trades while serving as president.
The June 24 Venezuela earthquakes killed approximately 2,000 people and injured over 10,000, with tens of thousands still missing.
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.
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.
New Mexico's Department of Justice sent multiple letters and requests from February to July 2026, all met with near-total non-compliance from the federal DOJ on Epstein records.
Trump announced the US would allow NVIDIA to ship H200 AI chips to China with a 25% fee, a deal Ratcliffe's own public warnings implicitly contradict.
Following Trump's Fourth of July fireworks display, Washington D.C. recorded the worst air quality of any city on the planet.
Trump posted hundreds of AI-generated images on his official presidential account in a single day during an active military conflict with Iran.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Trump said the U.S. hit Iran 'very hard for 3 nights' but immediately followed up by saying denuclearization is 'moving along well' and 'we're getting along very well.' Meanwhile, zero ships are using CENTCOM's Strait of Hormuz lanes.
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 20%
- Business 12%
- Society & Culture 3%
- Sports 2%
- History 1%
- Religion & Spirituality 1%
Connections
Shows they appear on and people they share episodes with. Drag to explore.
