Bill Kristol: Trump Is All-In on Authoritarianism
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello and welcome to the Bulwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. It is Monday. I'd like to welcome back to the show. It's the editor-at-large of this year's Bulwark, Bill Kristol. Hey, Bill. Hey, Tim. How are you? I'm doing pretty good. It's Pride Month. Can I tell you probably a wrong thought, a wrong opinion that I'm allowed to have, but you're probably not? Sure.
What recent developments occurred in the Iran deal negotiations?
Can we just do that? It's June 1. It's Pride Month. Is it okay if I listen to it? Yeah, sure. I think it's a little overkill.
I won't be canceled just for listening to a wrong opinion.
Yeah, no. I don't think you'll be canceled for listening. I do think it's a little overkill at this point. You know, I think the gays, like we had this big transitional moment. I think that the spirit, I love going to a pride parade. The spirit of pride is still important. And, you know, you've got to safeguard the rights that we've secured, of course. And it's good to celebrate. Forcing the streets to like have to deal with a rainbow explosion every time they go into the store for a whole month. You know, at this point, I feel like we could just dial it back a little bit. Like just the parade itself, I do think is sufficient. That's just one man's opinion. So you can just, you can just, yeah, solemnly nod.
I don't honestly see, I guess the stories here in McLean, Virginia are not like wildly festooned with, I don't know, obviously gay pride things. So it's not a problem.
really come to the forefront of my mind woke bill crystal outflanking me on gay pride month i like that that's perfect um let's start with the war in iran i did get a kick bill maher's had a lot of misses lately but um he did have a little bit where he said he's not going to talk about the iran war updates because people are going to think it's a rerun I am starting to feel a little bit that way about the podcast, but there were some things that happened over the weekend I do want to highlight. On, I guess it was Saturday, Friday, Axios, which keeps reporting their deals right around the corner, reported some sources for the Trump administration saying essentially there's a deal on Trump's desk.
Trump was just waiting to sign it. And then there were some provisions of that deal that Trump wanted to be tougher. And so they were going to send it back to the mullahs in Iran. But that would take them like three days to get back to them. It's hard to even communicate with them because they live in caves and such. And so, you know, maybe we'd have a deal like more like next week, which is now this week. So that was the pitch kind of going into the weekend right there, like the two yard line. That's like it's almost there. It's just we got to wait for these. prehistoric monsters to get back to us from their caves. Since then, the Iranians rejected Trump's counterproposal within like two hours. So the cave Wi-Fi must be better than they thought.
And then active fire started last night. The Iranians attacked Kuwait. U.S. sent more self-defense attacks onto Iranian radar because we're still in a ceasefire. So self-defense attacks. Now, this morning, Iran's negotiators have said, according to their state media outlet, TASDOM, that they're suspending all message exchanges with the U.S. because simultaneously with this, Israel was also attacking Lebanon over the weekend. And they cited those attacks as the reason for ending the negotiations. So it seems like we can communicate with them if we want to. It seems like they're hearing the messages.
How does Trump’s social media behavior reflect authoritarian tendencies?
And it doesn't, to me, seem like a deal is very imminent.
I mean, I think one question has always been how much leverage does Iran think it has and how much pressure do they feel to have a deal, which maybe gives Trump a little bit of face saving, you know, fig leaves. And how much do they just don't think they have much pressure to have a deal or want to really make clear that they retain leverage on the Straits and retain no and make no commitments on the nuclear issue and get some money up front or whatever. And a lot of it and so forth.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:12–0:31
2
What recent developments occurred in the Iran deal negotiations?
0:31–3:23
3
How does Trump’s social media behavior reflect authoritarian tendencies?
3:23–6:52
4
What are the implications of Trump’s midnight posts targeting judges?
6:52–9:42
5
How does Bill Kristol view the current political landscape regarding Trump?
9:42–13:21
6
What are the potential risks of election meddling in the upcoming midterms?
13:21–17:30
7
What role does Susan Collins play in the current political climate?
17:30–21:26
8
How does the Epstein cover-up relate to current political dynamics?
21:26–54:57
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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