Sunday Message from MeidasTouch

Hey everybody, it’s Ben Meiselas, co-founder of the MeidasTouch Network.

I started my morning extra early, as I’m sure many of you saw from our reporting, with the sudden passing of Lindsey Graham.

MeidasTouch was one of the first news networks to report on it. More importantly, though, I think we handled it the right way. We approached it responsibly and respectfully, recognizing the weight of life and death, while also refusing to ignore the objective record.

Being respectful does not mean rewriting history. It does not mean pretending the decisions someone made didn’t have destructive consequences for our country and the world. We made sure that our coverage of Lindsey Graham highlighted the harm and devastation he caused the world during his life and how he stood for nothing other than power.

That’s always been an editorial principle at MeidasTouch, and it will continue to be.

As this Sunday begins, Donald Trump is already trying to use Lindsey Graham’s death for his fascist agenda.

He’s calling the Sunday morning shows, saying Graham would have wanted his voter suppression legislation passed, while also trying to use the moment to avoid discussing his rapidly escalating war with Iran.

As you’ve seen from our reporting, CENTCOM struck roughly 140 targets yesterday.

Beginning Friday, the Trump regime once again pushed an elaborate piece of fan fiction. We were told Iran was supposedly begging for mediation, apologizing to Donald Trump, and asking for forgiveness.

We were told Iran was preparing to announce that the Strait of Hormuz was fully open.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Every week Donald Trump pushes some version of this fantasy to friendly outlets. Every week the facts prove otherwise.

We warned our viewers that escalation was far more likely than de-escalation.

When additional ships were pushed through waterways that Iran had repeatedly warned about, it was entirely foreseeable that they would be attacked. That’s exactly what happened.

Trump responded and Iran responded even more forcefully.

We saw major strikes against American military infrastructure throughout the region, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and shipping infrastructure near Oman.

Remember, Donald Trump repeatedly claimed Iran had no military left, no navy, and no meaningful ability to fight back.

That wasn’t just false. It was dangerously false.

Even before these strikes, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was posting messages online that sounded more like a movie script than serious military leadership. That’s not how responsible governments communicate during moments that could spiral into regional war.

Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, despite repeated public messaging suggesting otherwise. We can all see what has happened over the past several months. Trump promised this conflict would be over in days. Instead, we’ve watched continuous escalation, attacks on shipping, strikes on military bases, and an expanding regional conflict.

The United States has been left much weaker. Iran continues to checkmate Trump. And people like Lindsey Graham have be the biggest cheerleaders of war crimes and the suffering caused to Americans and people around the world.

That is simply the reality.

So we head into another week facing an expanding war, catastrophic pressure on America’s strategic petroleum reserves, a falling military, and an economy in shambles.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues posting about his cognitive exams and Walter Reed tests instead of addressing the consequences of the crisis unfolding around him.

Anyway, that’s my Sunday morning update.

Thanks, as always, for being here.

Your support means everything to all of us at MeidasTouch.

I’m about to head into the studio to

record another video, but before I do,

I have one favor to ask.

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