By Ben Meiselas
Hi Meidas Mighty! I hope your Sunday is off to a good start. Today I am focused on a wide range of stories, but perhaps most importantly, I am following the meeting between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump’s actions this morning tell us everything we need to know. Right before he was set to meet with Zelenskyy, Trump made a point of announcing who he spoke to first. Can you guess who?
If you guessed Vladimir Putin, ding ding ding, you’d be correct.
Trump proudly posted that he had just enjoyed a “good and very productive” call with the Russian dictator ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy. Here’s how the order of operations work when it comes to Trump: Putin first. Ukraine second. America last. Every time.
By the way, if this story sounds like a repeat, you’re not wrong. This is the same exact strategy Putin employed the last time Zelenskyy and Trump were set to meet. And because Putin was the last person Trump spoke with prior to meeting with Zelenskyy, that meeting completely blew up both in public and behind the scenes. We’ll see if today’s meeting meets the same fate.
Then of course, we need to talk about the setting of today’s meeting. Trump scheduled the meeting with Zelenskyy in the main dining room of Mar-a-Lago. Not the Oval Office, but the dining room in his private club. The disrespect is as obvious as it is intentional.
The disrespect didn’t stop there. When Zelenskyy arrived in Florida, no U.S. officials were there to greet him. He was met only by Ukraine’s own ambassador. As journalist Julia Davis (creator of the Russian Media Monitor) noted, not a single American official showed up. Contrast that with the red-carpet treatment Trump gave Putin in Alaska, where American soldiers were literally photographed on their knees rolling out a red carpet.
And we’ve seen this movie before. Russian state media and Kremlin-aligned voices immediately began spinning the narrative. Illia Ponomarenko of the Kyiv Independent perfectly captured the pattern: “Let me guess — Putin again whispered sugary compliments to Trump about how he’s the greatest world leader in history, told him that Russian full victory is just five minutes away, promised his family a chance to make money off another round of “business projects,” and Trump melted. And now he’s once again going to start throwing maps around and swearing at Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago.”
While all of this was unfolding, Trump was also busy flooding his social media feed with lies, racism, and dangerous admissions. He falsely accused former President Barack Obama of funding Iran’s nuclear program. He reposted vile propaganda claiming Democrats want to replace Americans “with uneducated Mexicans who would be easier to enslave.” The text was written alongside imagery of nuclear annihilation.
Trump also reposted claims about “double tap strikes” under Obama, and in doing so, effectively admitted to engaging in them himself. He tried to blur the distinction between an actual war and U.S. forces killing people in boats off the coast of Venezuela.
Trump once again declared peace between Thailand and Cambodia, congratulating himself for ending “breakout fighting” that, conveniently, keeps “ending” every few weeks in his posts. War breaks out. War continues. And Trump constantly tries to spike the football as real lives hang in the balance.
I know my plea falls of deaf ears inside corporate media newsrooms, but please, stop playing along with what Trump says. He’s a liar. A fraud. A cheat. Don’t give him the headlines he is looking forward. Instead, expose the truth. Inevitably, you’ll find that Trump’s claims are about as legitimate as a FIFA Peace Prize.
In other news, Trump’s billionaire head of the Small Business Administration, Kelly Loeffler, went on television claiming small business owners are thrilled with tariffs, thrilled to pay taxes, thrilled with an economy that actual small business owners will tell you is crushing them.
At HUD, officials were asked to defend Trump’s floated idea of 50-year mortgages, a proposal that would trap generations in permanent debt and do nothing to solve the housing crisis. HUD Secretary Scott Turner noted that “more research needs to be done.” The truth is, these officials have no answers. They are put on TV simply to defend Trump’s insanity, and as we all know, loyalty to Trump is valued over the truth.
Even Republican members of Congress, lie Rep. Mike Turner, struggled to answer a basic question: which side is Trump on in the Russia-Ukraine war? That should be an easy one! “I, you know, clearly, umm, Trump is on the side of peace,” Turner sputtered.
Amid all of this, I do want to highlight one voice cut through the noise. Senator Bernie Sanders raised alarms about the unchecked spread of massive data centers, their environmental impact, and their role in driving up energy costs.
Speaking on CNN, Sanders remarked: “I think we need to be thinking seriously about a moratorium on these data centers. Frankly, I think you gotta slow this process down. It’s not good enough for the oligarchs to tell us, ‘It’s coming, you adapt.’ What are they talking about? Are they gonna guarantee healthcare to all people? What are they gonna do when people have no jobs? Make housing free?”
It’s always important that we level set and highlight the issues having the most impact on the American people, especially as Trump tries to distract.
I’ll continue to post new reports throughout the day on the MeidasTouch YouTube channel and podcast feed.
I also want to highlight a couple brilliant year-end features written by MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski.
Ron has begun publishing his list of the “500 Worst Things Trump Did in 2025.” You can read the first part of this series here.
Ron also recently published his new piece ranking the “25 Worst Villains of the Trump Admin.” You can read that article here.
Ok, that’s all for now. Ron Filipkowski will publish his full recap of the weekend’s news in his bulletin later today. I am looking forward to reading it. Ron always highlights stories that fly under-the-radar. I firmly believe Ron’s daily bulletins are the best political newsletters in the universe.
Enjoy your Sunday and thank you for spreading the word about MeidasTouch and this Substack!
