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Saturday Afternoon News Updates — 1/10/26
Trump faces a disastrous day as oil executives, foreign allies, and the American people reject his chaos and lies.
By Ben Meiselas
Hi everyone, we made it to the weekend. I hope your Saturday is off to a good start. This past week was not easy, but I have a feeling much of the chaos we are seeing is because Donald Trump’s back is against the wall, and consequently, he is lashing out, both at the American people and the world. Those Epstein files must be very, very bad, Donald!
Thanks to all those who have been tuning into our live reporting from on-the-ground in Minneapolis this weekend. The corporate media may not want to give these protests the attention they deserve, but we will here at the MeidasTouch Network. We’ve partnered with Status Coup to bring you live, unfiltered coverage from in the front lines of the protests. Here is the link to our next stream on YouTube. Watch. Share. Spread the word. The revolution may not be televised. But it will be on MeidasTouch.
Back to Trump’s awful Saturday. The rebukes are now coming from every direction. Oil executives are rejecting his Venezuela stunt. Norway and the Nobel Peace Prize board are calling him out. Economists confirm we are in a hiring recession. Protests against his policies and abuses of power are spreading across the country. And as all of this unfolds, Trump has barricaded himself in Mar-a-Lago, glued to social media, rage-posting conspiracy theories as the country he is supposed to lead falls deeper into crisis.
This morning he posted a string of Gregg Jarrett articles trying to revive the debunked “Russia hoax” narrative. He is still ranting about James Comey, all while ignoring that he personally rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Our troops were forced to kneel. Cameras captured Trump praising Putin repeatedly. There is no hoax. Trump’s alliance with Putin is as clear as day.
Then Trump turned to Minnesota, where he has escalated his ongoing military-style occupation of a blue state that rejected him at the ballot box. He sent his paramilitary ICE forces into Minneapolis and St. Paul with another 1,000 agents, bringing the total to 3,000. He praised Jarrett’s claim that if Governor Tim Walz were ever charged with fraud, “his best defense is incompetence.” It is absurd. Walz has not been charged with anything. The DOJ under President Biden prosecuted the actual criminals in the 2024 Minnesota fraud case. They were convicted in court. Trump, meanwhile, has spent three years pardoning fraudsters and commuted the sentence of a notorious narco-terrorist connected to El Chapo. He pardons criminals. Biden prosecuted them. That is the record.
Trump’s projection is relentless. He has been found civilly liable for fraud. He has been convicted of felonies. He has been found civilly liable for sexual abuse. He has bankrupted company after company. He pardons those who commit the same crimes he has been accused of. Then he goes online to pretend he is the last honest man left in America.
Oil executives aren’t even buying what Trump’s selling. Trump held a White House meeting Friday where he claimed that oil companies had committed $100 billion to his Venezuela plan. According to reporting from people close to the meeting, the companies have “no clue” what he is talking about. They made no such commitment. Trump appears to have invented the number out of thin air, unless what he really meant was that taxpayers would foot the bill. His lies are becoming more frantic as elections approach and his support continues to erode.
Next came his new financial “plan,” which is just another empty declaration. Trump posted that he will “no longer let the American public be ripped off by credit card companies” and declared a one-year 10 percent interest rate cap effective January 20, 2026. He gave no details on how he plans to pass legislation or work with Congress. He simply posted it, as if saying it makes it real. He made similar promises about dividend checks and tariff rebates. None of them materialized. But he did manage to give $40 billion to Argentina and push for $100 billion in subsidies to oil companies. When it comes to actual economic relief for Americans, he never delivers.
Meanwhile, everyday Americans are struggling. Economists agree we are in a hiring recession. Of the 72 categories of manufacturing tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 38 percent are still hiring, compared to 47 percent a year ago. Wages are stagnant. Families are working multiple jobs and still cannot afford housing, healthcare, or childcare. Billionaires, however, have increased their wealth by trillions.
As these crises unfold, Trump is not working to solve them. He is invading states. He is targeting blue communities. He is retaliating against areas that did not vote for him. His USDA has now cut off all federal funding to Minnesota, following earlier efforts to cut childcare funding to multiple blue states before a federal judge blocked him. These are deliberate acts of economic punishment.
The consequences on the ground are devastating. Trump’s ICE forces are emboldened. A woman recording ICE agents in Minnesota was told, “Have you not learned your lesson over the past couple of days?” referring to the killing of Renee Nicole Good, a mother murdered in cold blood by an ICE agent. When she asked what that “lesson” was supposed to be, the agent grabbed her phone and threw it. This is the behavior Trump encourages. Thuggery.
The terror is not limited to the United States. In Greenland, residents are openly describing nightmares about Trump’s threats of invasion. They fear their peaceful country being seized as part of his plan to strip Greenland’s mineral resources to finance U.S. debt. One resident said Trump is so aggressive “he spoils my sleep.” Another described dreaming about Trump arriving on ships. These are ordinary citizens living in fear because the President of the United States is threatening their homeland.
And back in Minnesota, parents are afraid to send their children to school. ICE agents have been patrolling schools. Families remain inside their homes, afraid of crossfire and violence. A local parent described the agents as “out of control” and said children could have been caught in the chaos. These are American families living through state-sponsored terror.
Even Fox Business tried to spin this chaos and failed spectacularly. A reporter attempted to bait a protester into justifying ICE violence, and the protester calmly dismantled every talking point. He called the killing of Renee Good “disgusting,” described ICE’s actions as “kidnapping,” and explained that immigrants have a human right to seek refuge. It was a powerful moment of truth cutting through the propaganda, and Fox’s attempt to control the situation backfiring.
Finally, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was confronted by Minnesota’s Small Business Person of the Year, who explained how Trump’s tariffs are destroying her company. She described years of effort trying to manufacture domestically but being shut out because small businesses cannot operate at the required scale. Bessent smugly told her to “diversify.” It was a stunning display of arrogance and detachment from reality. This administration gives carve-outs to billionaires and giant corporations while small businesses collapse.
This is where we are on a single Saturday under the Trump regime. An economy sliding backward. Foreign allies terrified. Oil companies rejecting Trump’s lies. Americans protesting in the streets. States being punished for their politics. Families living in fear. And a president holed up in Mar-a-Lago posting conspiracy theories as everything burns.
There is no leadership. There is only chaos, cruelty, and corruption.
We will keep covering all of it. Stay informed. Stay vigilant. And check our YouTube channel throughout the day for more on-the-ground coverage.
Thanks for being a subscriber.
JUST A FEW OF MANY COMMENTS:
It is striking how small the moral ambition community really is. Not because the ideas are obscure, but because truly seeing suffering and then accepting responsibility for it carries a real psychological cost. Most people narrow their moral field to whatever is directly in front of them. It is a defense mechanism rather than a lack of compassion. Once you recognize structural cruelty clearly, you cannot unsee it, and once you admit you could act, you also admit you are accountable for not acting. That level of clarity is rare.
History shows that every major moral shift begins with a small group willing to hold that clarity. Abolition, civil rights, early environmentalism, and animal welfare all started with minorities who refused sedation and insisted on agency. The goal is not to make everyone part of the core. The goal is to create a gravitational field strong enough that others eventually move into its orbit. Moral ambition has always been a minority position, but it is the minority that moves the world.
What kind of system produces so much preventable suffering that ordinary people feel relief when the powerful finally taste the consequences they’ve spent years avoiding?
I have been confused by this for most of my life, and frustrated that most people I've encountered seem to either accept it or not see it. But you're right. History shows us that moral change does happen, albeit slowly and painfully, because of those few who persist on fighting for peace, justice and a humane world.
I relate to that confusion. When a system teaches people to adapt to harm rather than question it, acceptance starts to look like common sense. Most people aren’t endorsing the cruelty, they’ve just been conditioned to see it as the natural order of things.
Moral change has always come from the small minority who refuse that conditioning. The ones who keep naming the harm, even when everyone else has gone numb to it. They’re the reason the moral baseline eventually shifts, even if the shift is slow and uneven.
History moves because a few people insist that it should.
History also shows the opposite.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing."
Here is where that road is leading:
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The reason we are in this mess running headlong into tyranny is because the majority of people refuse to believe that the controllers would ever do this to us. These eternal optimists appear to be blind to this most fundamental construct of human nature: that power attracts and then corrupts nearly everyone who wields it—and the globalists - those obscure puppetmaster billionaires you never read about in Forbes and who've spent decades away from the disinfectant properties of sunlight - have indeed become quite corrupted.
I’ve tried and failed countless times to open their eyes to the truth of the situation – that the elites are evil incarnate, and that they want most of us dead, and that they want to enslave the rest of us.
And the stunning part about their blindness is that none of this is new: the psychopaths often rise to the top of every power structure over time as the bad drives out the good and as such tyranny has taken control of nations many many times throughout history. This time is no different, and the freedom we take for granted has actually been an aberration from the historical norm.
If people still cannot see this given how obvious what is occurring has become, then I do not see how we have any hope of turning the tide.
The normies will just keep on complying and believing what’s being done to them is for the greater good while they drag themselves and the rest of us into totalitarianism.
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Therefore we must do something meaningful to prevent it.
Denial and cognitive dissonance.
It’s all behavioral…
Yes, the Stepford clones!!
In A Democratic Country , Billionaires , should not exist period !
Back in the 1980’s, before St Ronnies first “trickle down” bill, America only had less than 10 billionaires. That bill put the first 3/4’s of the nails in the coffin of our middle class. Each subsequent republican administration since, has just added another nail. I’m afraid, this one, is the final nail.
He was the very last republican I voted for and to this day, I will never vote for another republican, so help me God.
Release the Epstein files!! He thinks we have forgotten about them!
I got home an hour ago from the lively iCE protest in the center of little Pittsboro NC. Hundreds of peaceful, sign carrying protesters, summoned by the local Indivisible organization. lined the traffic circle around the historic courthouse. The vast majority of drivers passing by honked and waved enthusiastically! One of the rare exceptions was a woman who drove around the circle literally frothing at the mouth in her anger, spewing profanities, and over exercising her middle finger. The crowd just smiled and wished her well.
What a sad little life that woman lives. A pity. Thanks for showing up!:)
"a woman who drove around the circle literally frothing at the mouth in her anger, spewing profanities, and over exercising her middle finger."
Maybe she wasn't there to show her annoyance at the peaceful protesters but, instead, there in hopes of getting a position as an ICE agent. After all, she obviously has the right qualifications for such job. Angry, ignorant, hateful...HIRED!! 😆
Donald ("Krasnov") Trump has been a Russian "asset" for decades -- that according to "The Economist." When will America FINALLY wake up to this seminal realization ?
To anyone out there protesting or looking to set up a protest or rally consider your safety first. I found Kris Goldsmith’s “On Offense” Substack column, especially informative. He’s a Nazi Hunter Army Veteran and has practical information whether you are in a rally, a car, your home. His YouTube content is also important for the times.
Interest rates on credit cards have been over 20% for years. It is a crime. It should have been dealt with a long time ago. By legislation. But don't take the bait from Trump when he says it. He uses things to distract us from what's really going on.
Republicans, among them J. D. Vance, blocked laws on "payday" loans with exorbitant interest rates. Vance tries to explain his stance in his Hillbilly Elegy book by claiming he was standing up for his people who ran short of money and needed the loan. He never talked about how they got trapped into a cycle from which they could not escape due to the excessive interest.
A local real estate agent is positively giddy over his promise to buy $200B in bonds. Everything I’ve read says this could at most move mortgage rates down .25- .50 points. They live in information silos.
He is trying to recoup his lost votes via buying people off!!
I’ve been wondering what Usha Vance, a mother of 3 young children, must think of the horrible things her husband has said publicly about Renee Good, a mother of 3 young children.
It is unbelievable the Jedi mind trick and gaslighting that Trump is trying to do to the American people. He says it is in our best interest to steal Greenland because he doesn’t want Russia to do it first What makes us unsafe is his continued capitulation and sucking up to Putin when it came to Ukraine and all the times he defended Putin over everything else and rolling out the red carpet when Putin comes to visit and all the ridiculous things that Trump does to suck up to him. Trump now wants to steal Greenland because it’s easy to steal an island from a small nation. He says it’s to make sure that Russia is not our neighbors but he’s the one that’s consistently making us unsafe by capitulating to Putin. Dems need to really stress at this point. He’s the bully in the playground who bullies the weak (Denmark) because he can’t stand up to the strongman (Putin)
There are so many disturbing aspects of his threats to take over Greenland, but what angers me the most is reading that people in Greenland are now feeling the effects of Trump’s terror. It’s bad enough that those of us who didn’t vote for him have to live with the consequences of his reelection, but now other countries’ citizens are as well.
Very sad. I think most Americans are immune to his constant threats. We’ve been listening to his bullshit for years. He’s nothing but a bully.
Great comment! I'm guessing Trumpty Dumpty thinks Greenland would make a great gift to Pootie Poot. [TD would probably offer it to Mohammed bin Salman as well, except MBS is probably cold intolerant and would freeze his patooties off in Greenland.]
I’ve always wondered what kind of dirt Putin has on the conman. Same for MBS and others in the Middle East. Trump’s similar to Melanie, she’s always for sale for the right price.
He doesn’t want “HAPPY”! He wants misery, wailing and gnashing.
Precisely! The cruelty is the point.
He wants us all to pay for losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden. He is still so obsessed with it, he brings it up, still, almost every time a microphone is pushed in his orange stained face.
[On 5-Jan-26] Stephen Miller said, "The real question is: By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?"
The Answer, Which He Either Does Not Know Or More Likely Has Chosen To Ignore:
1720s: Denmark colonizes Greenland. 1814: Denmark and Norway separate and Denmark keeps Greenland. 1916: U.S. confirms Denmark’s rights to Greenland. 1933: an international court ruled that as of July 1931, Denmark "possessed a valid title to the sovereignty over all Greenland." 1951: U.S. signs a Greenland-related defense agreement with Denmark that outlined the American military’s presence and confirmed Greenland’s status had changed "from colony to that of an equal part of the Kingdom of Denmark." 1954: Denmark incorporated Greenland using a constitutional amendment. 1979: Greenland achieved Home Rule. 2008: Greenlanders voted 76% to 24% in favor to expand Greenland’s autonomous status and a 2009 law confirmed that Greenlandic people can pursue independence from Denmark if they choose.
85% of Greenlanders do not want to leave the Realm and become part of the United States, while 6% want to leave the Danish Realm and become part of the United States, whereas the remaining 9% are undecided. All five political parties in Greenland's parliament … issued a rare joint statement rejecting … Trump's threats to take control of the Arctic island. "We will not be Americans, we will not be Danes, we are Greenlanders. ... [and we] "strongly oppose" any US takeover of Greenland and condemned recent American statements as "extremely disrespectful". "No other country can meddle in this. We must decide our country's future ourselves - without pressure … without procrastination, and without interference from other countries."
Sources:
Trump administration sets its sights on Greenland after Venezuela. How does Denmark factor in?, PolitiFact, 8-Jan-2026 https://tinyurl.com/5zba7mky
Why is Greenland part of the Kingdom of Denmark? A Short History, Danish Institute for International Studies, 9 October 2025 https://tinyurl.com/y257n8e8
Opinion poll in Greenland, Jan. 2025 , Verian, 29-Jan-25 https://tinyurl.com/4jup79a5
'We will not be Americans', says Greenland's parliament after Trump threat. RTE, Ireland's National Public Service Media, 10-Jan-25 https://tinyurl.com/2ybux2zb
Ben, can you talk about things the public can do to make sure we have midterm elections and if a massive strike, boycott besides basic necessities, using taxation without representation tactics, or anything else that could be helpful if midterm elections are paused or canceled?
Also, as an attorney, it would be helpful to hear about our rights if approached by ICE in public and our homes and to remind readers how to peacefully protest, what not to do, since the trump administration is hoping to incite more violence.
I want to see Renee Good's murder stand for more persuasive actions and not be in vain. We are not approaching a dictatorship, we are all in it and preparation is the key to success.
What a stupid dork at the end. He's obviously never tried to start a business--or try to keep one intact. Diversify with WHAT??????????? Sell candy bars or something? God almighty, these pukes make ms so mad it's unbearable. What is that lady supposed to do? Dimwits these republiCRAPS. Just like they're a**h*** "god" who spends his days the golf course. Hitler Incarnated.
We who have a moral code will not stand with treachery, treason, deceit, fraud, piracy murder, incessant lies, theft at every level, and a host of other criminal acts nationally and internationally! Any company that supports such evil will do so without the financial support of good people!!
"[Trump] claimed that oil companies had committed $100 billion to his Venezuela plan . . . [T]he companies have “no clue” what he is talking about. Trump appears to have invented the number out of thin air, unless what he really meant was that taxpayers would foot the bill." And Mexico will pay for the wall . . .
this tRUMP regime are the criminals who are accusing the innocent of being the criminals of the crimes the regime is committing….this is how tRUMP and his gang of thugs play the game…..accuse those of the crimes that they themselves are committing so they have an excuse to do and say whatever they like to whomever they want by using military force and their so called law enforcement gangs of gestapo jackboots with impunity and lie about their cracking down on crime….which are the very crimes they are committing.
To the people of Greenland, as an American, I am so sorry! Trump is a crazy, evil person and we will get him out. In the meantime, if he follows thru on his threats, know that the American people will do our best to overturn his illegal actions once we get him out of office. Please just keep yourselves safe as well as you can. Ask your sane leaders to try to delay, delay … until we get the midterms. In our system, the midterms will matter a lot to what we can do peacefully to stop him.
The nerves of the news people. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. I would fire all of fox when this shit is over, if it was me.
Trump and ICE are the ultimate COWARDS. Stand up to Russia’s Putin? Oh no, he is too scary. Bonespurs and his worthless ICE thugs would rather pick on an unarmed woman, even shoot her to death. And pepper spray people doing nothing but yelling at them. Real tough guys. America hasn’t begun to attack back. Country wide work stoppages are coming. It will make Iran look like small change.
How can 40% of American think this orange idiot is doing a good job??????
He doesn’t care about our debt. He would pocket the money for himself and his billionaire buddies! He has no respect for the USA either!
It's just a distraction to make people think he is lowering costs.
Anyhow, the president can't unilaterally change credit card interest rates, but he can push for caps via executive action (which faces legal hurdles) or by encouraging Congress to pass legislation.
Trump's recent call for a 10% cap, would require new laws or regulatory changes, not just a presidential decree. Federal law sets consumer protections, but state laws or specific federal legislation usually dictates interest rate limits, and the Fed influences broader rates, not specific credit card APRs. Also it is just for one year.
OIL! There is a GLUT OF OIL ON THE GLOBAL MARKET!
Reports indicate that 2 MILLION BARRELS PER DAY ARE PRODUCED IN EXCESS OF DEMAND.
OIL PRICES are currently ~ $56/BARREL.
Look up the prices yourself!
OIL COMPANIES WILL NOT INVEST IN A MONEY LOSING PROPOSITION LIKE THIS! Incidentally, why isn't the PRICE dropping at the PUMPS?
Is it because of OIL COMPANIES & STOCK BUY BACKS with their excess profits? DIRTY ENERGY IS NOT A FUEL OF THE FUTURE!
Notice that DAFFY DON just spewed LIES about CHINA & WIND TURBINES...
From RON FILIPKOWSKI:
TRUMP WIND TURBINE LIES!
… Trump today on wind turbines in China: “All you have to do is say to China, how many windmill areas do you have in China? They are not able to find any. They don’t have windmills. I have told my people, we will not approve windmills. We will not approve any windmills in this country.”
… My 5 second Google search: “China has a massive and rapidly growing number of wind turbines, leading the world in installed capacity, with estimates suggesting hundreds of thousands of units by late 2024, China had over 560 GW of wind capacity, adding huge amounts yearly (e.g., ~87 GW in 2024), dominating new global installations, and has massive offshore wind farms, including the world's largest single wind farm (Gansu), underscoring its dominance in global wind power development.”
Dig in deeper and you'll find that CHINA is leading the WORLD with CHEAP SOLAR COLLECTORS that provide BATTERY BACKUP for poorer people..... while Trump wallows in DIRTY ENERGY $$$
The US is an ENERGY GUZZLER!
WE can reduce our consumption & challenge the DATA CENTERS that guzzle energy & water.
Delusional TRUMP cancelled OFFSHORE WIND PROJECTS that would provide CHEAP CLEAN ENERGY to MILLIONS of homes due to his LIES & DELUSIONS....
TRUMP is shipping LNG offshore causing GAS (METHANE) prices to rise for AMERICAN CONSUMERS.
TRUMP expects AMERICAN TAXPAYERS to pay for this fiasco as the National Debt is $70 TRILLION!
TRUMP et al are destroying the AMERICAN ECONOMY while they get RICHER with their SCHEMES.
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