Sam Stein: Trump Is Trying to Instigate Unrest
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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 Thursday, and I'm delighted to be here with my friend, the managing editor of the Bulwark, the man Stephen Miller called repugnant, the interrupter-in-chief at Sam Stein.
Thank you.
Repugnant Stein.
Thank you. I'm not going to interrupt you. I promise.
I don't believe you. I'm going to be interrupting you. We have an insane amount of stuff to cover today. I had a concept of where I was going to do a potpourri of things that I haven't gotten to that are also in the news, but we might not get to those today either. I sent you like five. I know. We'll see. We're going to try to get to them at the end. We'll see how it goes. But we've got to start with more news out of Minneapolis. Last night around 9 o'clock, Federal agents shot rubber bullets and released gas canisters in North Minneapolis as protesters gathered after a federal agent shot a migrant in the leg. I want to play just a little bit of the audio from the scene.
I got hit in the head really bad.
This is going to be a photographer from Status Coup News. We're going to be playing a couple things from them today. I guess before we get to the DHS's story about what happened, I guess initial thoughts on the escalations last night.
You know, it's getting like, well, it's well past the point of disturbing, but it's getting really like defeating more. You feel defeated watching this stuff because this is a major U.S. city that is under siege by its own government. I mean, there's no other way to really look at it. What they've done is they've sent thousands of ICE agents into a city that doesn't want them. doesn't need them, isn't asking for them. And it's just stirring shit up. And it's so obvious what the goal is here is they're just trying to create chaos to justify more federal authorities going in there. I mean, Trump this morning, as we are recording, this is talking about using the insurrection act, which basically would allow for the deployment of the military.
So I guess the question, Tim, I don't really understand is like, what is the end game for Trump here?
They're trying to instigate unrest. I just think that it's extremely obvious. Nothing could be more obvious that that's what they're trying to do. But what's the endgame of that? Well, as you mentioned, he wants to invoke the Insurrection Act to control more power.
But what's the endgame of that?
Well, it's a combination of things.
I'm interrupting that.
I think there are a few things happening. There's like a psychodrama at play here where Donald Trump and other people involved wish they would have cracked down on protesters harder after George Floyd.
What recent events in Minneapolis are causing unrest?
and there is a psychological element to this there is a policy element to this from stephen miller sure he is just looking for more and more creative ways to try to figure out how he can deport people as fast as possible and menace people and that is like he has an ideological project there are only a couple ideological projects in this administration trump loving tariffs and stephen miller wanting to deport brown people are like the main two He was bombing drug boats in Venezuela as like a triple bank shot effort to try to get more rationale for deporting Venezuelans. So I don't see why this is any different than that. And I also think that there's a political element to this. This is the part that I'm more skeptical of.
I think they think it's a winner. Trump, in one of his press briefings last two days, he was like chipper. Yeah. You know, like more than we've seen him in the past few days. He's like, we're feeling good. Things are going well. Maybe it was the Tony DeCouple interview that I'm thinking of. And I think that they thought that things were going badly at the end of last year. And the Epstein files and economy and just a wide range of things. And that this has them on offense. Again, I remain a little skeptical that that's going to work. But I think they think that.
I remain very skeptical. Okay. I'm putting aside the morality of it.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:13–2:51
2
What recent events in Minneapolis are causing unrest?
2:51–4:46
3
How is the Trump administration escalating tensions with federal agents?
4:46–7:12
4
What are the implications of Trump's use of the Insurrection Act?
7:12–13:56
5
How are Democrats responding to Trump's immigration policies?
13:56–14:36
6
What is the current political landscape regarding ICE?
14:36–55:11
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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