S2 Ep1033: Tom Nichols: The Hollow Opportunists
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What are the key updates from the podcast's recent events?
Hello and welcome to the Bullwark Podcast. I'm your host Tim Miller. A few quick housekeeping items. The Chicago event with Adam Kinzinger sold out. Sorry, you can stand outside and, I don't know, throw underwear at Kinzinger if you want, but the tickets are no longer available. Nashville is available May 29th. Thebullwark.com slash tickets. Yesterday, I interviewed Chris Van Hollen, Senator Chris Van Hollen. So make sure you're not missing those bonus interviews and instant reaction hot takes I'm doing on YouTube. We're putting them in the Bulwark Takes podcast feed for you audio folks. So go check that feed out if you haven't. And lastly, tonight, me, JBL, and Sarah are doing a live AMA, stands for Ask Me Anything, for Bulwark Plus members only on YouTube and Substack. So go grab a beverage. Join us at 8 p.m. Eastern. I'll be pre-gaming an LCD Sound System concert, so I'll have a beverage. And you'll find links for this live AMA on theblog.com or on the YouTube page. See you all tonight. Here's the guest.
You know who he is. Professor Emeritus at the Naval War College. He's a staff writer at the Atlantic. He wrote The Death of Expertise. It's Tom Nichols. What's up, man? Hey, Tim. Good to be back with you. Is it good to be back with me? It's been a little long. It's been a little too long. I need my Tom Nichols. You know, every 27 days or so, you know.
Yeah, it's been about a month. I think we're in the lunar cycle of, you know, hanging together.
Okay, good. Bill Kristol did me the displeasure of listing how many days left we have of this Trump term yesterday. And it was like 1,300 and something. So, you know, we have a lot more podcasts ahead of us. I'm curious what the very long list of topics to get to. But just the biggest picture. 100 days was yesterday. What has alarmed you the most, surprised you, if anything?
I guess it's become fashionable to say that you're completely surprised by the speed with which Trump moved. But I actually look at it from the other side. First, let me be optimistic. I actually think Trump and his people, once again, while they are aggressive and cruel, they're not competent, which is still working to the benefit of the United States and its people. Wow. Okay, fair enough. Maybe not on the economic side, but we'll get to that. In terms of what he's up to between he and Elon Musk, this is not going so great. With that said, what's really dispirited me has been the kind of passivity of millions of americans including you know at least some of the institutional democratic party but also a lot of other folks who are kind of you know feeling helpless now i know there have been big protests and people have been marching but i guess i am always stunned when trump does something staggeringly illegal i mean doge let's just doge itself for the past three months there is no such thing as doge they made it up it's not a thing
You know, and and yet, you know, news reports of, well, you know, the new Doge, a new Department of Government Efficiency. It's not stop talking about it as if it were, you know, passed with legislation and that it's a real thing with offices and letterhead and, you know, a cabinet department. It's not. I think that's been kind of a pebble in my shoe for the for the past three months. I suppose I focus on that stuff because I don't want to focus on legislation. really what is probably the most important story, which is how quickly Trump has unwound America's position in the world. I mean, the stuff about tariffs and, you know, dollies and all that stuff, that's bad. And that will mostly affect us.
But to see, you know, 80 years of post-World War II construction of a world order that was created by the Americans, led by the United States, to the advantage of the United States of its allies, just come apart in a matter of you know, three months is really astonishing.
Yeah, let's go ahead and start there then because I had Tony Blinken on yesterday. And, you know, on the one hand, it's nice to hear from somebody that just sounds basically normal and competent. You might be able to disagree with him on this issue or that issue or exactly, you know, how aggressive they were with Ukraine. I had plenty of nitpicks. We went over some of those.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the key updates from the podcast's recent events?
0:13–8:09
2
How has Marco Rubio's role changed under Trump?
8:09–12:26
3
What is the significance of Trump's approach to foreign policy?
12:26–18:24
4
Why is the discussion around Ukraine's security guarantees important?
18:24–29:13
5
What are the implications of Trump's administration's actions against critics?
29:13–34:26
6
How does the current administration handle cabinet meetings?
34:26–40:22
7
What concerns are being raised about the treatment of political opponents?
40:22–42:29
8
How are U.S. deportations impacting relations with El Salvador?
42:29–51:09
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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Mehdi Hasan: 9/11's Fallout 25 Years Later
Sarah Longwell and Pedro Gonzalez: Meet the Young MAGA Edgelords—and the One Who Got Away
Jessica Tarlov: POTUS Needs Some Moral Support
Adam Jentleson and Pablo Torre: This Country Is Being Scammed
Bill Kristol: A Blue Wave vs. the Toxic Red Tide