Very Important Monday Message from Meidas Founder

By Ben Meiselas

Let’s start this week strong, Meidas Mighty. I want us to get loud. No slouching. No moping around. No hiding. No excuses. We need to stand strong, together. We need to win each day and not give in an inch. This week is critical for our fight to save democracy.

Trump will make his biggest authoritarian move yet this week. He will try to distract from his economic failures by openly defying the Supreme Court and the federal courts, which have ordered him to return Abrego Garcia from the El Salvador gulag.

Over the weekend, Trump’s DOJ filed papers with the Maryland federal court stating it would not comply with the court ruling. Trump’s DOJ argued it cannot take further steps to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia since Garcia is “under the sole custody” of El Salvador’s dictator, Nayib Bukele. The Trump regime says any information relating to its interactions with Bukele is classified and they will not provide any further info.

This is about more than Abrego Garcia.

It starts with Abrego Garcia and other migrants with tattoos. The Trump regime defies requests to return the migrants once they are disappeared to gulags. Next, Trump comes after his political opponents (American citizens), sends them to gulags in El Salvador, and refuses to comply with court orders. Trump plans to do this all under the pretext of “national security.” We need to be clear-eyed about what his plan is.

It’s not a coincidence El Salvador’s dictator Nayib Bukele is visiting the White House today. He will get a hero’s welcome from the Trump regime and be fawned over in the Oval Office press conference. It will be the opposite of the Zelenskyy meeting. I have no doubt today’s Oval Office press conference will be a showcase of authoritarianism. Trump views Bukele as his Mussolini.

The message of Bukele being in the Oval Office while migrants who were kidnapped in America rot in El Salvador is intended to give the middle finger to the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court.

I predict Trump will threaten to send American citizens to El Salvador gulags today.

I say this not to scare you.

I say this to map out our plan together. If we know their moves, we can build infrastructure to take countermeasures. That’s precisely what we are doing.

Here is part of the plan.

First, we need to call out the effort by corporate news to normalize this.

For example, the Miami Herald has a headline today announcing: “The World’s Coolest Dictator Bukele Gets White House Visit.” This is how the media wants to cover this visit—that somehow Bukele is “cool” and his deal with Trump is “powerful.”

Look, El Salvador’s entire annual GDP is $28 billion. Their poverty rate is around 25 percent, with close to 10 percent living in “extreme poverty.” They have the largest per capita incarcerated population in the world. There is nothing cool or successful about it.

The MeidasTouch Network will use our platform—as the most viewed media network in America—to undermine the false narratives that corporate news will try to spew today about Trump and Bukele.

We will make sure we report meticulously on what’s really happening. We will also focus heavily on our legal coverage surrounding the court violations by Trump and his DOJ.

Second, we need to highlight the protests and opposition to Trump that are growing. Corporate news is intentionally suppressing what’s happening on the ground.

This weekend, Senator Bernie Sanders and AOC spoke before 36,000 people in Los Angeles on Saturday. Then, Sanders went to Coachella on Saturday night and spoke on the main stage in front of 125,000 people, who all booed Trump. Then, on Sunday, Senator Sanders and AOC spoke in front of 20,000 people in Salt Lake City, Utah, with 5,000 people in the overflow area. More than 10 percent of the entire population of Utah showed up to watch this speech. The crowds were on their feet chanting, “Tax the rich!”

Remember how corporate news covered every single Trump rally? Do you think they covered Senator Sanders and Congresswoman AOC drawing crowds that were multiple times the size of Trump’s? Of course not!

That’s fine, though. The MeidasTouch Network gets far more views than corporate news now—and millions more views than Fox News. We’ve used our platform to cover all these rallies, just as we did before, and as we have covered all the protests in America.

We have covered the international resistance as well—in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere.

We’ve united pro-democracy communities internationally. And of course, we’ve covered the shadow hearings.

Our coverage of the Democratic shadow hearings exposing Trump’s crimes was documented this weekend by acclaimed journalist Max Tani from the media business journal Semafor. We are ensuring the people are armed with the knowledge of what’s happening.

All of this is to say—we have a very detailed plan to combat Trump’s authoritarian machinations and his propaganda machinery intended to flood the zone and overwhelm consumers of news.

We stand on the frontlines at the tip of the spear to fight back. We have the roadmap to stop Trump’s propaganda machine, and we have more viewers now than the right-wing media machines propped up by their oligarchs.

I go back to what I said at the outset of this post. We need you to stay positive this week and not let Trump’s moves make you tap out.

Stay in the fight.

No matter what he throws at you, remember—we’ve got your back.

Remember, you are part of the biggest pro-democracy community in the world, and we look out for each other.

You are not in this alone.

As always, we will provide you updates on this Substack, on our YouTube, and on our other social media channels throughout the day.

I am confident the resistance will grow stronger this week and Trump’s plans will once again backfire.

We would really love your help if you are not subscribed to this Substack and are reading this now. We need your help to keep growing.

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We got this, Meidas Mighty. Let’s start the week strong.

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