Written by Ben Meiselas
Hey Meidas Mighty,
I am delighted to have coffee with you this Sunday. Fill up your cup. Let’s talk.
Thankfully, I was able to return to my house. It’s still here. It’s been a scary few days. We are not out of it yet. My heart goes out to all who have suffered from these awful fires.
The stores by me aren’t open.
I am making the coffee at my house.
I can make a decent coffee when I try. Or at least, I like to pretend I do.
I want us all to be prepared to fight this week.
This week begins the confirmation hearings of Trump’s cabinet picks.
Of note, there will be the hearings of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Director, and Pam Bondi as Attorney General.
We will be covering the hearings.
We have a rapid response team and a research team who have been working around the clock to prepare.
I want to thank our paid Substack subscribers here who have helped us grow our research, rapid response, and editorial teams. I’m sure you’ve seen the growth for yourself. That’s because of you.
I think you will be impressed with the work they do, as always.
Most of the clips you’ve seen about Pete Hegseth that have gone viral have originated from our research team. Great work, team.
If you’ve been watching my coverage lately, you know I’ve been using the acronym WMD to refer to Trump, in that he’s a “weapon of mass distraction.” I’ve implored others to stop getting distracted by Trump’s chaos and focus on his fraud, broken promises, and failure as a leader.
Trump did not broker peace between Ukraine and Russia in 24 hours after the election as he promised, and he won’t 24 hours after inauguration. Trump’s Ukraine envoy has canceled his trip to Ukraine. Putin said he would only take a deal if Trump groveled and accepted total surrender by Ukraine. Broken promises.
Trump will not lower prices. The price of eggs will rise. Trump will not make housing more affordable, and mortgage rates will rise. Trump’s tariffs and deportations will harm the economy and lower GDP growth. Trump will not lower your taxes unless you are a billionaire. Trump will add trillions of debt, not reduce it.
Don’t be distracted by his psychotic behavior. You can still call it out, sure, but always bring the messaging back to his broken promises and how he’s trying to distract from his failures.
This week, for instance, Trump spent his time 3,000 miles away from California at Mar-A-Lago spreading lies about the fires here.
He lied and said that California Governor Newsom refused to sign a “water restoration act,” “prioritized smelt fish over fire safety,” and didn’t have enough water in California. All lies.
Right-wing social media platforms like X, right-wing influencers, and media pushed these and other lies about the fires, once again using tragedy to politicize and divide Americans in the middle of a tragic crisis.
This behavior sickens me.
We need to come together and unite during tragedy as we once did before Trump and MAGA.
I will use this media network to fight for a return to the way it used to be when we came together before Trump.
This week we also saw Donald Trump lose before the Supreme Court when he tried to get them to block his criminal sentencing.
The right-wing justice Trump appointed, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and the right-wing justice George W. Bush appointed, Chief Justice John Roberts, ruled with the three liberal justices in a 5-4 decision against Trump. We should pay close attention to this 5-4 lineup as it may represent a new alliance on the Supreme Court to push back against Trump’s personal behavior. I won’t hold my breath, but it’s a start.
Trump was sentenced on Friday to an “unconditional discharge,” meaning he was officially labeled a felon, but he won’t serve time in prison because the “Office of the Presidency” protects the holder from incarceration, or at least that’s what the NY judge said who presided over the case.
I know I am usually more witty and fun on these Sunday coffee entries, but I am not in a funny or witty mood today.
I almost lost my house. I had to evacuate a few days ago with my wife and three-month-old girl. I’ve gotten little to no sleep.
My close friends lost their homes.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk and MAGA have made matters much worse for us here by lying about the fire and dividing people against each other.
I take pride in the content we have been putting out on the MeidasTouch channels. I’ve continued to report during evacuation.
Our videos have been viewed tens of millions of times. We have used our media platform you helped build to bring Americans and the world the facts about what’s really happening in California. We have hit back hard at the disinformation.
We have continued to build out our intentional coverage as well.
We have had more Canadian leaders on the network this week as we prepare to start a Canadian MeidasTouch Network.
We are looking to expand to other countries as well, like the UK and Australia. When you become a paid subscriber or gift subscriptions for friends and family, you help us grow and expand.
We hit our subscriber goal five days in a row this past week. We don’t have investors in the MeidasTouch Network since I don’t want others to tell us what to do. I want to stay independent. You have made it clear you want us to stay independent.
Our only stakeholders are you, the Meidas Mighty.
We have racked up 5.36 billion views on YouTube in two years and stayed independent.
As we close out this very emotional week and get ready to fight during these confirmation hearings, I want to use these feelings I have as motivation to grow this network together even faster.
I want to try and hit six days in a row of meeting our subscriber goal, but I want to set the goal even higher today.
I want to try and get 200 new paid subscribers as we expand our coverage.
If you haven’t become a paid subscriber, it would mean the world to us if you became one now and helped the MeidasTouch Network hit our goal. You can also gift others a subscription to this Substack.
The billionaire-backed media companies absolutely hate what we have built with no investors, which makes me want to hit the gas and grow even faster.
Thanks for your help.
Thanks for drinking this coffee with me.
Maybe next weekend I’ll be more fun.
I don’t know.
I want you to know, in all seriousness, how important you are to me and this network.
You are the heart and soul of this movement.
You lift me up each day.
You have made MeidasTouch Network into a movement that is ready to make history and restore sanity, decency, normalcy, empathy, love, truth, and democracy.
Great coffee. Thanks for subscribing.
I love this channel and I believe the work that everyone is doing is 1000th% better than main stream media. God bless you and your family and so glad that ur house is there and ur safe. This channel is the best investment I’ve ever made. Keep up the great work!’
As always, many 🙏 for all you guys do! We are Meidas Mighty strong. I'm so glad that your family is safe and your house made it through. I'm also thankful for the hard work and dedication of the fire fighters... including help from our friends to the North (Canada) and South (Mexico.) Stay well and indeed, we are in this fight for Democracy together. ✌️