The Bulwark Podcast

It's hard to be in a celebratory mood about America 250. The administration only wants to tell a narrow story of the country without all the contradictions and complexities of its history. And for the past 18 months, it has also been a particularly challenging time for black members of the military under Hegseth, who brazenly disregards their service, blocks promotions of black officers, or expunges them from the ranks. But the aspiration of America as a multiracial, multiethnic, multi-faith democracy is a noble one, and our job is to keep trying to build the country we want it to be. Plus: the man who's trying to stop the magafication of the Smithsonian, advice for how to talk to kids about the country's history, and the simple joys of a July 4th cookout.
The Atlantic's Clint Smith joins Tim Miller for the holiday weekend pod.
show notes

Clint’s piece on being black in Hegseth’s military

Clint on the man who’s put himself between Trump and the Smithsonian

Clint's "How the Word Is Passed"

Thursday’s “Morning Shots” on the words of Gerald Ford

Tim’s July 4th playlist

This week only, a full Bulwark membership for everything we offer on our website is $86 a year. That's 14 percent off at http://thebulwark.com/july4

Not only did Trump pocket $2.2 billion last year—vastly increasing his pre-presidency wealth—he shamelessly showed off his new hand-me-down plane from Qatar which Americans paid hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade. Not to mention, there's a massive conflict of interest involved in Trump taking a gift from a country that is directly impacted by his administration's foreign policy decisions. Plus: Vance can't tell a joke to save his life, Trump is the polar opposite of Teddy Roosevelt in almost every way, the Russian casualty count from the war in Ukraine has been catastrophic for the country and potentially destabilizing, and the challenge of celebrating 250 when Trump has inverted the American dream.
Susan Glasser joins Tim Miller.
Show notes:

Susan's 'Political Scene' podcast

Tim's July 4th playlist

This week only, a full Bulwark membership for everything we offer on our website is $86 a year. That's 14 percent off at http://thebulwark.com/july4

Trump leaves ice cream cartons, potato chip bags, and candy wrappers all over his personal space at the White House. His diet aside, his aides are working overtime to keep the state of his health a secret. And it turns out that his loss in 2020 made him more powerful: He didn't have to deal with post-Covid inflation and the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump also wouldn't have been prosecuted, which ultimately led to him getting his get-out-of-jail free card to break all the laws, courtesy of the Supreme Court. Maggie joins Tim to discuss some of the revelations in her new book, including the pardons Trump is promising and the relationship between POTUS and a young aide who writes him "raw" and "emotional" love notes. Oh, and Marco—who's having the time of his life—was the guy who set up the deal to send people to the gulag at CECOT. Plus: Cam Kasky on why DSA candidates are resonating with voters and how things feel on the ground around Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
Cameron Kasky and Maggie Haberman join Tim Miller. 

Show notes:

Maggie's and Jonathan Swan's book, "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" 

This week only, a full Bulwark membership for everything we offer on our website is $86 a year. That's 14 percent off at http://thebulwark.com/july4

SCOTUS did manage, for now, to stop Trump from recreating the American republic, but four of the court's justices believe that the fundamental law of birthright citizenship in the Constitution can just be repealed—along with the very nature of what American citizenship means. But overall, while Trump had some big wins from the Supreme Court this term, he also had massive losses. David runs down some of the latest rulings with Tim. Plus: Mamdani doesn't think the Constitution should be changed so he can run for POTUS (David thinks he's wrong), Platner is not winning over white working-class voters, Dems need a bigger tent but there have to be lines the party won't cross, and the DOJ is (mostly) losing its immigration protest cases.
David French joins Tim Miller.
Show notes:

David's Newsletter on one-party rule

David on the purging of Gen. Donahue

More on the Broadview case in Chicago, from David
This week only, a full Bulwark membership for everything we offer on our website is $86 a year. That's 14 percent off at
http://thebulwark.com/july4

The most powerful person in the world repeatedly creates his own narrative about a news event despite what we can see and hear with our own eyes and our own ears. Media organizations that don’t fight like hell in response are failing at doing their most basic job—and they’re failing the country and our democracy as well. That’s what CBS News did when it settled Trump’s frivolous “60 Minutes” lawsuit and when it tried to change the story of the Minneapolis protests to benefit Trump. Plus: Dems are on the cusp of a big fight, the Iran war is being fought on social media (and on the weekend), Sen. Jon Ossoff is deploying a clever strategy, and why isn’t the left talking about climate change? Oh and this: How do you live a life of value and meaning?
John Dickerson joins Tim Miller from the Aspen Ideas Festival.
show notes

John's Substack

John's long-running pod, Slate's "Political Gabfest"