The Bulwark

Will Saletan gives his take on Sen. Bill Cassidy's remarkable CBS interview, where the outgoing Louisiana Republican criticizes Trump on everything from Iran and affordability to executive power, RFK Jr., vaccines, and the Constitution. Cassidy says RFK Jr. is building public health on "a foundation of lies," warns against putting any president above the law, and reflects on why standing up to Trump ultimately cost him his Senate seat.Leave a commentAs always: Watch, listen, and leave a comment.

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, YouTube, Shutterstock)TWO WEEKS AGO, Ben Shapiro announced the hiring of the Daily Wire’s explosive new star: “Mat Nuclear,” a 19-year-old internet-debating wunderkind.“We wanted to bring him on board to be a person who just debates,” Shapiro said, promising that Nuclear (unclear if that’s his real name) would host a nightly debate livestream where he would “take on all comers.” Perha

Former Republican Senator Jeff Flake joins Sarah Longwell for his take on the moment Republicans could have stopped Donald Trump and why they didn't. Flake reflects on his famous 2017 speech, the GOP's surrender of congressional power, why so few Republicans stood up to Trump, and whether the party can ever return to its conservative roots.Leave a commentAs always: Watch, listen, and leave a comment. Bulwark+ Takes is home to short videos, livestreams, and event archives exclusively for Bulwark+

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 Donald Trump’s frivolous 60 Minutes lawsuit and when it tried to change the story of the Minneapolis prote

E. Jean Carroll. (Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Bulwark | Photo: Leonardo Munoz / AFP / Getty Images)1. Johnny KGBI hope you read the headline in a thick, fake Russian accent because that’s how the voice in my head read the news of the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear Donald Trump’s case against E. Jean Carroll.In case you’ve forgotten: In 2023, Carroll won a civil lawsuit against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation and was awarded $5 million in damages. Tr

Sam Stein, Andrew Egger, and Politico's Kyle Cheney go live to break down the Supreme Court's latest rulings, including decisions upholding mail-in voting, blocking President Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and allowing him to remove independent regulators.Read more from KyleLeave a commentAs always: Watch, listen, and leave a comment. Bulwark+ Takes is home to short videos, livestreams, and event archives exclusively for Bulwark+ members.Add Bulwark+ Takes feed to your pla

Feels like you can’t turn around these days without tripping over some brand new story of staggering, jaw-dropping White House corruption. The New York Times reports on a meeting last September between Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and the president of Kazakhstan—a meeting that resulted in an exclusive deal for the American company Kaz Resources to mine tungsten in the country. Both the Trump and Lutnick families soon announced highly lucrative business connections

Abelardo de la Espriella speaks to supporters following the preliminary results of the presidential runoff election at the Ventana al Mundo monument in Barranquilla, Colombia, on June 21, 2026. (Photo by Juan Barreto / AFP via Getty Images)THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE OF LATIN AMERICA has changed dramatically. Within the span of several weeks, two of South America’s largest democracies have elected leaders from the far right. In Peru, Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the dictator who governed th

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty)IN A RECENT VIDEO, Elon Musk, the world’s first trillionaire, defended his decision last year to feed the United States Agency for International Development “into the wood chipper.” When someone on his social-media platform claimed that not a single child had died because of his destroying USAID, he reposted their argument with a single word of commentary: “Exactly.” Musk said that during his “DOG

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock)SINCE THE START OF THE WAR with Iran, Donald Trump has argued that whatever economic pain resulted from the conflict would not only be worth bearing but temporary. Following the June 17 signing of a memorandum of understanding to end the war, he’s been practically giddy about the falling price of gas.But what if, from a political standpoint, any reprieve at the pump is simply too late for Trump politically?That&#

Will Saletan takes on Trump's unraveling Iran war—drone strikes on U.S. allies, Iran's claim to control the Strait of Hormuz, and a new threat to build nuclear weapons. He breaks down the actual text of the agreement Trump signed, fact-checks a week of contradictory claims about oil prices and military control, and explains why Iran knows Trump's threats are empty.Leave a commentAs always: Watch, listen, and leave a comment. Bulwark+ Takes is home to short videos, livestreams, and event ar

Former Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer joins Bill Kristol to discuss Todd Blanche, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.Read Liz Oyer's SubstackLeave a commentAs always: Watch, listen, and leave a comment. Bulwark+ Takes is home to short videos, livestreams, and event archives exclusively for Bulwark+ members.Add Bulwark+ Takes feed to your player of choice, here. Read more

(Courtesy of Manning Family Children’s Hospital)A LOUISIANA MAN WALKED OUT of a hospital this week, functionally cured from a debilitating disease that until very recently was mostly incurable. In so doing, he offered a genuinely heartwarming case study in what modern medicine can now achieve—and a genuinely worrisome reminder of what Donald Trump’s attacks on science could now destroy.I’m here to tell you about both.Let’s start with the medical miracle and the man

Sonny Bunch and Catherine Rampell take on Mel Brooks' 100th birthday and AFI's new ranking of Blazing Saddles as the funniest movie ever made. They dig into his EGOT-winning career, his fearless mockery of Hitler, why his comedy still holds up — plus the upcoming Spaceballs sequel and Catherine's middle-school Spaceballs obsession.Leave a commentAs always: Watch, listen, and leave a comment. Bulwark+ Takes is home to short videos, livestreams, and event archives exclusively for Bulwark+ me

Mona Charen and FT columnist Ed Luce dig into Giorgia Meloni's public dressing down of Trump, the UK's political chaos, and the fallout from Trump's Iran war—including the case that the U.S. is now paying Iran reparations and Israel is boxed into an impossible corner. Plus: Luce's surreal Sunday phone calls with Trump himself.show notesFT Swamp Notes with Ed Luce: How to lose a war in three easy stepsLeave a commentBulwark Book Club: Mona will interview presidential historian Lindsay Cher

Tim Miller and Will Sommer to give their takes on one of the strangest weeks in MAGA world. They unpack the arrest of a pro-Trump streamer accused of committing lewd acts at Trump's Great American State Fair, the latest legal troubles facing Students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier, and the new report raising questions about Rep. Abe Hamadeh's live-in senior staffer.Read more from Sources Say News: https://sourcessay.news/p/looksmaxxing-gilded-offices-and-a-live-in-staffer-insider-allegations-of

Tim Miller takes on the collapsing Iran ceasefire—Iranian drones hitting ships in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. counterstrikes, Iran retaliating against U.S. targets in Bahrain, and JD Vance's tough-guy statement that's landing nowhere. Plus: Trump's new self-portrait passport, and whether he understands what a passport is.Leave a commentAs always: Watch, listen, and leave a comment. Bulwark+ Takes is home to short videos, livestreams, and event archives exclusively for Bulwark+ members.Add B

Happy Saturday! Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a Bulwark+ member: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it.Join nowJoin now📖Bulwark Book Club: Making the PresidencyNext week, Mona Charen will interview Lindsay Chervinsky to discuss her book: “Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Repub

Colorado isn't much of a swing state anymore, but we're covering its primaries anyway. Both of its senators and one longtime member of Congress are facing bigger headwinds than you might expect. Our focus groups of Colorado Democrats will tell you why. Kyle Clark, host of Next with Kyle Clark, joins Sarah to discuss Colorado's upcoming primaries. Plus: Kyle's crazy run-in with the Republican frontrunner for governor, whether Rep. Lauren Boebert has gotten less crazy, and how Democrats feel about

Tim Miller went on MS Now to talk to Nicolle Wallace to give his take on one of the most disturbing political stories of the year after Pete Buttigieg revealed that a false report led child protective services to investigate his family. Tim explains why weaponizing the government against political opponents should alarm every American. Plus, Tim reacts to Megyn Kelly's comments about Haitian immigrants and fact-checks JD Vance's take on Watergate.Read more from Pete: https://petebuttigieg.substa