Written by Ben Meiselas
Hey Meidas Mighty, it’s Ben Meiselas.
I am so proud of this community!
Trump thought he was going to bulldoze us this week. He thought he would break us and do whatever he wanted. That’s not what happened—at all.
This community stood united. We stood up to Donald. We pushed back. We humiliated him at his inauguration by showing puppies and kittens. We were ten steps ahead of him every single day and exposed all of his plans. We helped unite the international community against him. We stood proud. We stood strong. We stood tall.
Trump’s week was ruined—thanks to you.
Trump’s week began with the lowest inauguration ratings ever in modern history. His week ended with California Governor Gavin Newsom showing up on the tarmac in Los Angeles and squeezing Trump’s little hand so hard, Trump wanted to squeal.
Governor Newsom pointed his finger at Trump’s chest. He towered over Trump—even with Trump wearing a pair of strange brown high heels—and Newsom dared Trump to call him out face-to-face in front of the cameras.
Trump backed down. Trump didn’t call him “Newscum” or any of the other immature names he uses on social media. Trump was stunned into submission.
This is exactly what we’ve been saying all along. Yes, Trump is a bully. But like most bullies, he becomes a pathetic coward when you confront him, stand up to him, and don’t back down. Like the possessed demon that he is, Trump feasts off of fear, but deep down he’s a scared little boy with a tiny… brain.
This is why it pisses me off so much to watch media companies capitulate to this fool.
I grew up admiring the Fourth Estate, and to see them cower in the face of such a weak, dirty scoundrel has been such a disappointment.
It’s the same thing with so many American corporations and CEOs who would never even consider hiring someone who behaves remotely like Donald. Yet, they now justify, normalize, and promote him instead of exercising a modicum of courage around him.
The parade of pathetic people prostrating themselves to be trampled on by Trump and his stampede of fanatical sycophants is sickening to me.
It’s also very weird to me that they do this since it’s so obvious that Trump is a chump.
Confront him like Newsom, like Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, like E. Jean Carroll, like Kamala Harris at the debate, like Letitia James in court, and he cowers.
Confront Trump powerfully to his face, and he reverts to his essence, hiding beneath his orange goo. Weakness. Total and utter weakness.
We have built the MeidasTouch Network with the infrastructure to fearlessly take on Trump. To get under that orange goo.
As we have this week, we will confront him every single day and every minute of every day with the type of media coverage he dreads and hates the most: the truth.
Since we have zero outside investors and we grow from people subscribing to this Substack, we are 100 percent independent, and no one controls our content.
We are people-powered, meaning our only stakeholders are you, the Meidas Mighty.
We have built the top editorial team, led by our Editor-in-Chief Ron Filipkowski. We have the best writers, researchers, analysts, hosts, editors, staff, video clippers, and personnel, and this was all built with zero outside investors.
You can actually see every day how your subscription to this Substack has helped grow this network to where we are today. Also, I think the content on this Substack, especially Filipkowski’s daily recaps, is just the best. How about you?
I know that Donald thought this week was going to be a cakewalk.
Trump’s team called their plan “shock and awe” as they flooded the zone with executive orders and tried to scare everyone with fear and loathing in America.
Before this week, Trump threatened our network and our hosts in court filings. Trump supporters made death threats against us. They thought we would back down and that this would be Trump’s Napoleonic coronation.
They failed.
Not only that—Trump looked pathetic this week.
Not only that—we have kept our spirits high and are ready to fight now more than ever.
I am willing to bet that you didn’t expect heading into this week that you would be able to smile and feel hope again by the end of the week. But here we are, together, with hope. I’m not saying this was easy or that it will be easy. But we have each other, we have a plan, and we have seen this week that we can execute the plan with surgical precision and success.
So where do we go from here? That’s easy.
In the words of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut during the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
There is only one way to go. We must grow.
We must grow this network. We must grow this community. We must be true to our values.
That means we must remain independent and fearless. We must never obey. We must continue our growth by increasing our subscribers to this Substack and never fall under the control of billionaires and oligarchs.
We must fight Trump and his MAGA army across all platforms every day and every minute of every day. And through all of this, we must never forfeit our love, our joy, our hope, and the need to treat all humans with dignity.
We also need your help. This is a team effort.
We hope you have appreciated the coverage we have provided on our YouTube channel, across our digital platforms, and on this Substack.
You have helped us grow to a place where more people get their news from the MeidasTouch Network on digital platforms than any other major news network—other than Fox, which we go back and forth with for the top spot.
We need your help to keep growing.
Because we are 100 percent independent, our growth is fueled by subscribers to this Substack.
So please, only if you can, subscribe now to this Substack.
Send this Substack to anyone you know today and ask them to subscribe.
You can gift subscriptions of this Substack to people in your life.
If you can’t subscribe now, see if you can ask someone in your life who can subscribe to check us out and subscribe now.
Any of these things go a long way to help.
I feel we have extraordinary momentum this week—thanks to you.
I feel hopeful—thanks to you.
I know we can make history together.
I am so grateful for you, your courage, and the work you put in.
Trump ruined our week. He fired my partner, who has been a career civil servant for decades, along with thousands of others. DEI is good for the USA, but MAGA has destroyed it: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/public-servant-democracy-defender-introduction
Gavin Newsom = a master class in how it’s done! Take notes Dems!!! 💙 Love you MTN! 🩵💛💚💜❤️