The Bulwark Podcast

Andrew Weissmann: A MAGAtocracy and a Babytocracy

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While Republican senators worked to protect Kash Patel from answering some ver-wee hard questions at his confirmation hearing, not one of them had the...

Tommy Vietor: Deniability Is All That Matters

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Republican senators don't care that Trump's nominees are lying—like Kash pretending he didn't know a Nazi-adjacent podcaster whose show he's been on...

Mona Charen: A Moment of Truth

29 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trump is trying to seize powers he doesn't have—like unilaterally rewriting laws and deciding on his own how he wants to spend money Congress approp...

Chris Hayes and Alex Kantrowitz: Trying To Break the Whole Thing

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The directives putting a pause on federal grants and the firing of career DOJ prosecutors is about trying to make the entirety of the federal governme...

Bill Kristol: Trump Loves Fraud

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gullible Republicans have really been proving what they're made of recently, including Susan Collins, who claims Trump wants to root out corruption, e...

David French: Vengeance and Rage

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trump launched his first week back in office signaling to loyal followers that they are free to break the law on his behalf, while telling political o...

Sam Stein and Adrian Carrasquillo: We Are in a Simulation

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Emotionally-stunted video game boys, who are also government contractors and/or quasi government officials, are fighting on Twitter, a POTUS who went ...

Stephanie Ruhle: Unlimited Money and No Rules

22 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

All those CEOs cartwheeled down to Mar-a-Lago and then dutifully lined up at Trump's inauguration because they were fed up with social justice warrior...

Tom Nichols: A Farce and a Sham

21 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trump tried to pencil out literal words in the Constitution and then freed 1,500 violent insurrectionists—while the media attempted to normalize it ...

Bill Kristol: Resist the Nihilism

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trump wants us to believe that nothing matters, so we'll brush off all his corruption and grifting as though everybody does it. That's what aspiring a...

Ron Brownstein: Don't Take the Bait

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trump governed as a wartime president against blue America, so expect him to keep stirring up culture battles—but the Dems have to avoid getting dra...

Melissa Murray and John Avlon: The Dark Legal Clouds Ahead

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pam Bondi is likely to sail to confirmation—even if she's an election denier and pretends she was born yesterday—because she meets the simple qual...

Adam Kinzinger and Mark Kelly: Dirty Little Secret

15 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Being secretary of defense is one of the hardest jobs on the planet. But after Pete Hegseth was plucked from a part-time Fox & Friends gig, Republ...

Peter Hamby: The Politics of a Firestorm

14 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Real estate is everything in Los Angeles. Karen Bass's absence from the city when the fires broke out, and now her seeming aloofness, has instantly ma...

Bill Kristol: Cannons All the Way Down

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trump's favorite judge, Aileen Cannon, has been attempting to exercise authority she doesn't have over Jack Smith's required report on his investigati...

Amanda Carpenter: We Are Team Karen (Pence)

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Mother" Pence is owed an apology. She snubbed Trump so hard and so beautifully at Jimmy Carter's funeral—and wasn't about to make nice with the man...

Derek Thompson and Elizabeth Weil: The Trend Toward Solitude

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Americans have been spending more time alone—and less time doing face-to-face socializing—than we have for at least 60 years. And our alone time i...

Liam Donovan and Brendan Boyle: The Great Grift

08 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trump talked a lot more about Hannibal Lecter during the campaign than one of his actual top priorities: extending his 2017 tax cuts. With those $4.5 ...

Charlie Warzel: Zuck Sucks Up to Trump

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Zuckerberg is doing all he can to get an audience with the big man at Mar-a-Lago, including praising Trump's (faux) free speech bona fides and re...

Bill Kristol: The Preposterous and Ridiculous Lies About the FBI

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kash Patel's Jan 6 lie requires FBI officials to have been able to see into the future: to *know* that Trump would lose in 2020 and then try to get Co...

Jonathan Martin: A Resilient City

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

New Orleans is the most special city in America, but it's a place that also breaks your heart. Local leaders will have to reassure the world that the ...

David Frum: Sociopaths and Political Tribalism

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Apart from the death and carnage on New Years Day in New Orleans, Americans revealed another darkness once again: an eagerness to pin violence on some...

Sarah Longwell and Jonathan V. Last: We Are Sticking With the Mission

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While some media outlets may be moving to accommodate Trump out of fear he'll target them, The Bulwark will not be recalibrating. We'll keep providing...

Bill Kristol: Exploit the Rifts

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

MAGA v DOGE, the Christmas gift that keeps on giving, is an early sign of the coming infighting that could diminish Trump's power—we're definitely n...

'The Hottest Circle of Hell Is for Those Who Stay Neutral'

27 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Do you have to pick a side in politics? That was the question Reason Magazine, the flagship publication of the libertarian movement, invited The Bulwa...

Jon Favreau: Funny and Horrible

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While it's still going to be bad, for the first time since the election we're beginning to see that we may actually have a little fun watching these i...

Heather Cox Richardson: The Reality Show-ification of the Government

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We are seeing in real time what it looks like to turn a democracy over to an oligarch, namely the unstable guy from South Africa who thinks he's going...

Mark Hertling: Putin's Weakness

18 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Russia is on its weakest footing since it invaded Ukraine: Putin has destroyed his military, his economy is in the toilet, and the North Korean troops...

Tom Nichols: Don't Descend into Darkness

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The existential dread has a strong pull, especially since Trump has made a lot of Americans worse people, but we've had other bad, immoral, and creepy...

Bill Kristol: Fake Nicey-Nicey Sh**t

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

ABC News and George Stephanopoulos have joined the preemptive capitulation parade by settling Trump's defamation suit—and by conspicuously paying ou...

Anne Applebaum: Planning for a Techno-Oligarchic Regime

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The billionaires rushing to get on board with Trump, and contributing millions for his inauguration, may have missed this key detail: Enhancing the po...

Matt Yglesias and Tyler Austin Harper: Popularism v Populism

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The origins of the Democratic party's current malaise include ineffective messaging on climate and economic policy, too rigid a tent on cultural issue...

Adam Kinzinger and Pat Ryan: Bring It On

11 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Team Trump is trying to intimidate the opposition. Stop showing them your fear. Plus, Gaetz moves from AG nominee to low-rent MAGA cable channel host,...

Susan Glasser: A Lame Lame Duck

10 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A sense of Biden's irrelevance has descended on Washington, with Trump flying off to Paris and meeting world leaders, and also openly conducting his o...

Bill Kristol and Michael Weiss: Catastrophic Success

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump is threatening members of Congress with jail and Republican senators may be circling the wagons around his nominees, but we still need to protec...

Jamelle Bouie: Bad at Being President

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump may have authoritarian aspirations, but he's very bad at governing and managing—four weeks into the transition, he's had two major Ls. Meanwhi...

David French: We Are in the Bad Multiverse

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kash Patel is making legal threats to try to silence his critics, and Tulsi Gabbard wouldn't even be able to get a security clearance in the regular j...

Rep. Mikie Sherrill: Who Will Be In Charge of Our National Security?

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're going back to a president who can't be bothered to read his briefing books. So who will be getting in the ear of the man who had the judgment to...

Michael Weiss and Thomas Zimmer: Competent and Radical

03 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Russ Vought, Trump's nominee to run the Office of Management and Budget—and a Project 2025 author—believes we are living in a post-constitutional ...

Bill Kristol and Elaina Plott Calabro: A Sordid Lot

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kash Patel, who could potentially run the FBI, is a compulsive liar who can't keep his facts straight about his work experience or even where he was b...

Jonathan Chait: A Scary Clown

27 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Pete Hegseth may have a winning Fox & Friends smile, but his desire to shoot protesters, commit war crimes, and purge non-MAGA leaders from the mi...

George Will: Democracy Rests on Persuasion

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For those living under a gray cloud because of what the American electorate has done, it's time to get to work on changing opinions. People who follow...

Bill Kristol: We Were Right To Be Alarmed

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The danger of Trump's nominees is that the main condition of employment—aside from being on Fox—is their fealty to him, and a willingness to go al...

Sarah Longwell and Jonathan V. Last: The Lonely Boy Club

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The country is now paying for the pathologies of the oligarchs and baddies who were stuffed into lockers when they were kids. And let's be honest: A c...

Sam Harris: Our Democracy Is Already Unraveling

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Because Trump wasn't penalized for trying to steal the 2020 election, our democracy has already been damaged. And he was laying the groundwork to do i...

Marc Caputo and Dan Goldman: Trump v. the United States

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The incompetent and compromised nominees Trump has assembled at record pace show how little regard he has for the essential functions our government p...

Jen Psaki: Don't Speak to Me

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Democrats focus too much on reaching white college-educated voters, and the threat to democracy was not the right closing message. Plus, Nancy Mac...

Bill Kristol: A Power Play for Autocracy

18 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump is flooding the zone with unqualified nominees who would destroy government norms and standards and create the kind of chaos that would let him ...

Amanda Carpenter: Lessons from the Tea Party Era

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ted Cruz and Jim DeMint ground things to a halt in the Senate quite effectively during the Obama era, and Democrats should take a cue from them for Tr...

Rick Wilson and David Brooks: MAGA to the Max

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump's appointments—like degenerate Matt Gaetz and Putin stooge Tulsi Gabbard—are about his raw power and his stupid show, but are also a risk to...

Osita Nwanevu: Democrats Need A Better Story

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Republicans have been good at telling a story about the economy and how people should feel about it, and Democrats haven't responded in a sufficiently...

Jon Lovett: The Worst People Are Happy

12 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The worst people believe their worldview has been validated, while the best people are uncertain, scared, and angry. But we have to stay focused on th...

Bill Kristol: A Pro-Putin America First

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Trump team is moving quickly to sell out Ukraine, but it's not clear yet whether Putin would settle for taking a quarter of the country—or if he...

BONUS EPISODE with James Carville: We Are the Opposition

09 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's time to get our opposition organized and develop a narrative about Trump. And one narrative that's likely to emerge is how he betrayed his voters...

Ben Wittes: Americans Elected a Serial Criminal to Be President

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Trump trials were a cosmic democratic disaster, and the justice system did not do justice: Trump was not treated in the same way as other people w...

Tom Nichols: This Is What They Want

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The American people made their choice, and the fight to preserve the global democratic coalition against the global authoritarian movement continues. ...

Sarah Longwell and Jonathan V. Last: Election Debrief

06 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kamala's tailored campaign message and ground game didn't matter. Voters were unhappy with Biden and didn't want a 'regular' politician. They also did...

David Frum: Pride in the Fight

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Whatever happens tonight, Never Trumpers and voters should be proud that we rose to the challenge of Trump—and that a majority of Americans see thro...

Bill Kristol: Maybe It's Dobbs, After All

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Republicans are crowing about a big turnout of early rural voters and a decrease in African American voters in the cities. But the early vote also fea...

Ann Selzer: How Could This Be?

03 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Few states are as red as Iowa, and yet the legendary Iowa pollster Ann Selzer found that Kamala has leapfrogged over Trump to take the lead there. The...

Mehdi Hasan: Memory-Holing the Worst President

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The WSJ wants readers to think that Trump is too stupid to coup—despite Jack Smith's indictment showing a very clear plan. And for those on the left...

Adam Kinzinger: All the Little Bros

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump and his pack of dude-bros are pitting men against women, even inside the home—the current Republican Party is definitely not pro-family or pro...

Alex Vindman and Lakshya Jain: No More Petty Tyrants

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The character of the nation is on the line: We have to stop an autocratic minority from imposing its will on the majority of Americans. And no questio...

Robert Draper: The Prosecutor

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kamala Harris sees the world as divided between those who follow the rules and those who break them—and that injustice requires action, not whining....

Robert Kagan and Bill Kristol: It's Already Happening Before our Eyes

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

By de-prioritizing The Washington Post in his business empire, Jeff Bezos is showing exactly how a free press gets dismantled. Other corporate titans ...

Bret Stephens: Pray Kamala Wins

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump is corrosive to the soul of our democracy. He's a bigot, an ogre, and an isolationist. And for all the Reagan Republicans on the fence: If Trump...

David French: 2017 Trump Is Gone

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

 A whole faction of Red America thinks the judges and tax cuts in the first half of Trump's presidency were the 'real' Trump. But the Jan 6 'burn it ...

Jeffrey Goldberg and Catherine Rampell: The Un-American

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump doesn't share our values or our norms, and he wants the privilege of being able to shoot down Americans in the street. And former officia...

Mitch Landrieu and Will Saletan: Trump Lives in the Mud

22 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The ex-POTUS has resolved that his route to regain power is creating hate, fear, and anger. Meanwhile, his little fascist from Santa Monica is plannin...

Mallory McMorrow and Bill Kristol: Imagining a World Where Trump Is Irrelevant

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Remember those few weeks when Trump ceded the stage to Kamala and didn't do any campaigning? How glorious it was not to have to talk about him. Meanwh...

Live from Philadelphia (Again)

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Bulwark kicked off its weekend 'Swing State Swing" in the City of Brotherly Love Thursday before a packed house. George Conway, Sarah Matthews, a...

Bob Woodward: The Threat Is High

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since the release of Woodward's "War," Gen. James Mattis has reached out to the journalist to endorse the book's warnings about Trump, and to urge tha...

Susan Rice and Mondaire Jones: The Dictator Hugger

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Amb. Rice says Trump is a "surrender monkey" who is all about building up Russia and China for his own benefit—and to the detriment of our national ...

Tom Nichols: He's Bait for the 25th Amendment

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump's fitness for office is a central question now more than ever after his bizarre town hall Monday night, where instead of taking questions, he ca...

BONUS EPISODE with Jason Calacanis: The Civil War in Silicon Valley

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump used to be considered an existential threat throughout Silicon Valley, but now the tech world is split between Mark Cuban and Reid Hoffman on on...

Bill Kristol: He's Not Hiding the Authoritarianism Anymore

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump's authoritarianism has intensified—with his calls for using military force against political opponents, taking away broadcast licenses, and de...

Susan Glasser and Jared Polis: Shaking Up the Holdouts

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Barack Obama made a direct appeal to people who don't like Trump, but may end up voting for him anyway. Team Kamala has to keep up the drumbeat: Make ...

David Axelrod: Change Agent

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Voters have a real hunger for something beyond the constant state of pugilism and the weaponizing of every problem. In her closing arguments, Kamala n...

James Carville: We Just Have to Win

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The information ecosystem is getting crazier than ever: The monster Trump created must be fed, even when the lies are too much for some MAGA members o...

Timothy Snyder: The Politics of Impotence

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump and Vance are pioneering a form of politics where American power means nothing, everything is bad, and politicians focus on tearing people down—...

Bill Kristol: The Musk of it All

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Do not sleep on this: The billionaire tech bros are on board with the authoritarian project so they can capture the regulatory state. They are showeri...

BONUS EPISODE with Doug Emhoff: We Have a Mission

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The second gentleman says Kamala has really stepped it up for this abbreviated campaign, and is showing the country the most badass version of herself...

John Dickerson: Hero Story

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Liz Cheney sticks to her values under incredible pressure in an old-fashioned Republican way. And she reminded us that Jan 6 is not in the past—but ...

Kaitlan Collins: Still Surreal

03 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jack Smith's filing on Jan 6 reads almost like a novel—with Trump shrugging about Pence having to be evacuated, mocking true believer Sidney Powell,...

Jim Messina and Michael Weiss: Midwestern Nice

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Harris campaign clearly opted not to send out an attack dog in last night's debate. While JD Vance helped the reputation of the Yale debate club, ...

Lis Smith: Go After the Weird Angle

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

JD Vance may be a good debater, but his creepy obsession with lady parts could put him on defense. Meanwhile, Kamala seems to embrace a more robust me...

Bill Kristol: Prepping A Closing Message

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While the Trump campaign is opting for trans panic, Kamala really needs to remind people to be alarmed about the disaster possibilities with Trump. Pl...

Amanda Carpenter: Get With the Program, Already

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If Mitt Romney and Mike Pence really want to have influence over a future GOP, then they need to join the Cheneys in what may be the greatest cross-pa...

Pete Buttigieg and A.B. Stoddard: Talk Is Cheap

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump likes to promise a manufacturing renaissance as though one isn't going on right now. But we also had a manufacturing recession when he was in of...

Dana Milbank: Fools on the Hill

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The current Congress is the most do-nothingest since 1861—when the Union was falling apart right before the Civil War. Speaker Mike Johnson is compl...

Michael Medved: America Is No Accident

24 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Longtime conservative talk show host Michael Medved believes America was chosen for a special mission—Republicans used to understand that, but now i...

Bill Kristol: Trump's Just A Huckster at Heart

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Melania is selling Christmas ornaments, while Trump is offering up 99.9% silver coins—the vibe feels more like a going out of business sale than hea...

Peter Hamby: Living the Racist Porn Message Board Life

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Robinson thinks so much about porn, he wouldn't have enough head space or time to do the job of being North Carolina's governor. Meanwhile, the "...

Sam Stein and Susanne Craig: Look Beyond the Polls

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're swimming in polling data, but we should also consider that Kamala has more money and a superior ground game. On the other hand though, she doesn...

Tom Nichols: The Cat Was in the Basement

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

JD Vance thought he had confirmation of his Haitian migrant conspiracy when a Springfield, OH resident filed a police report about her missing cat. Bu...

Amy Walter: A 50-50 Race

17 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The presidential race is essentially tied, with movement on the margins that may not be picked up in polling. So prepare for a lot of mood swings in t...

Bill Kristol: Fanning the Flames

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

MAGA is trying to take political advantage of what was apparently a second assassination attempt on Trump, but it's not the Democrats who routinely en...

Jeffrey Goldberg: Trump Doesn't Believe in America

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The former president doesn't think our country is exceptional, and the political press won't hold him to any standard because it has zero expectations...

Mark McKinnon: Taking Back the Freedom Agenda

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While Republicans paint a vision of America as a dystopian hellscape, Kamala is helping herself to the sunny optimism of Reagan and the Bushes. Plus, ...

S.E. Cupp: A Sucker and a Loser

11 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kamala laid trap after trap during the debate, and because he's so impulsive, Trump walked into every single one. And while he seethed, she was the no...