Critical Tuesday Message from Meidas Founder

By Ben Meiselas

Yesterday I was lecturing to my class at USC Law on the topic of negotiation skills. It’s usually one of my favorite classes of the semester.

This year’s lecture on the topic was different. I don’t talk about politics in my class, so it was difficult teaching negotiation skills knowing Trump might be the worst negotiator ever—he would undoubtedly fail my exam.

A good negotiator uses tactical empathy to form connections with their counterparty.

A good negotiator asks lots of questions and doesn’t presume to know everything or talk for the sake of getting attention.

A good negotiator uses time to their advantage and doesn’t set arbitrary deadlines they can’t meet.

A good negotiator never whines about feeling they are being “treated unfairly.”

A good negotiator wants to empower their counterparty in the negotiation and make them feel good about the outcome so you can do deals together in the future.

A good negotiator studies their counterparty and shows respect and compassion.

Literally every negotiation skill I teach, Donald Trump can be used as the perfect example of how not to behave.

Relatedly, yesterday I interviewed former President Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who shared with me his thoughts on Trump’s failures.

Jake’s take—and I agree—is that Trump and his regime don’t ever have a plan.

They wake up each day with the sole goal of winning the news cycle, with no long-term plan or even a plan at all about winning on the issue. It’s about rage-baiting and getting attention.

This is why Trump says things like “90 tariff deals in 90 days.” It sounds good, but it’s utterly idiotic.

A typical trade deal with another nation takes around 18 months.

Trump revoked all of the United States’ trade deals on his “liberation day” fiasco—including deals he negotiated during his first term.

In addition to being pissed at his breach, foreign countries genuinely have no clue what Trump is even asking for. Other than wanting foreign nations to publicly “kiss his ass,” Trump has not articulated what he wants them to do.

It is also worth noting that Trump has largely left Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia—whose sovereign wealth funds do personal deals with him—alone.

During my lecture yesterday, I kept getting news alerts on my phone. I saw the markets lost another $1.5 trillion.

Even more alarming than the markets, Trump has broken the foundation of America’s full faith and credit, and America is no longer seen as a safe haven for the world. That’s something Americans have not fully processed yet—even though the world clearly has.

When I got home from class yesterday, before going live on the podcast with my brothers, I reflected on how corporate news is not really covering what’s going on in the economy with the urgency it deserves. I won’t mince words—their coverage is absolute trash.

This is the same corporate news that continues to suppress some of the largest mass protests in the history of America.

This is the same media that gave us The Apprentice and then turned all of America into a dystopian reality TV show where we are all non-consenting extras in Trump’s hellscape.

This is the same corporate media that gleefully ran to Mar-A-Lago after the 2024 election to sell us all out to Trump’s fascist design.

They each jockeyed for their role in the oligarchy. They didn’t give a crap about democracy or our freedom.

But they underestimated you.

They underestimated the Meidas Mighty.

They underestimated the capacity of the resistance.

They underestimated real patriotism—not their MAGA perversion.

They thought they controlled the flow of all information and that they were necessary and indispensable.

They were mistaken.

With the help of our subscribers on this Substack, the MeidasTouch Network grew to be not only the top independent news network in the world but also the most viewed news network in general in the world—beating Fox News and Joe Rogan. (Remember to add the MeidasTouch Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify right now to keep this momentum going.)

With our platform, we report on the topics the corporate news wanted covered up.

We cover the protests, the town halls, the shadow hearings, the experience of workers, and more.

We prepared and planned for this moment.

We were ready.

Now we must continue to meet this moment together.

We hope you will subscribe to the MeidasTouch Substack today and help us hit our goal of 1,000 new subscribers by this week. The MeidasTouch Network has been able to grow at this pace thanks to our subscribers on this Substack, so please subscribe if you can now.

Thanks for everything, Meidas Mighty—and let’s keep growing together.