1064: Trump Is About to Own a Disastrous Middle East War | Secret Podcast
The Next Level
The Bulwark
4.8 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Paid members of The Bulwark can watch the FULL episode of The Secret Podcast.
JVL and Sarah Longwell discuss the Trump administration’s stumble into an Iranian conflict that betrays its "no more wars" promise. They analyze the sudden resignation of Joe Kent over foreign wars, Tulsi Gabbard’s surreal FBI testimony regarding Fulton County ballots, and the looming "bloodbath" within a fracturing Republican coalition.
Pre-order Sarah’s book, How to Eat an Elephant, coming in September: https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/how-to-eat-an-elephant-9781250464170/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone. I am JVL here with my best friend, Sarah Longwell, publisher of the bulwark. |
| 0:09.0 | Quick temperature check. Who has ordered Sarah's book already? |
| 0:16.5 | Yes. Oh, that side doesn't look good over there. |
| 0:22.9 | Don't worry. |
| 0:25.5 | We'll get you the QR code immediately. |
| 0:30.3 | Very much appreciate all of you doing it, please. |
| 0:34.1 | Because again, if we get to a big enough number, I get to moderate a focus group. |
| 0:34.6 | Yeah. |
| 0:38.7 | You guys are so sick. |
| 0:40.3 | It's such... And won't these poor, unsuspecting flippers |
| 0:43.7 | be surprised to have the moderator going, |
| 0:46.4 | what the fuck is your problem? |
| 0:52.0 | They'll be like, is this candid camera? |
| 0:55.5 | Am I being punked? If I get number one on the New York Times bestseller list, if you make someone cry, I won't intervene. |
| 1:04.7 | I'm just kidding, I absolutely will intervene. |
| 1:07.5 | You know, when I decided to write the book, the publisher was like, you know, you're going to talk about the voters, and you and JVL talk about the voters all the time. |
| 1:16.5 | Like, should he be involved in some way? |
| 1:19.2 | And I was like, no, absolutely not. |
| 1:22.8 | And then I was like, well, you know, obviously people are going to have some appetite for pushing back on the voters. |
| 1:30.6 | I hear this a lot. |
| 1:31.7 | And so I let JVL write the forward, and I shit you not. |
| 1:34.9 | The forward is JVL being like, look, Sarah's great, and she's got a big heart, and you should not fight with the voters, but here are seven examples of how stupid they are. |
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