Bill Kristol: Are the Winds Finally Shifting?
The Bulwark Podcast
The Bulwark
4.6 • 11.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Orbán’s loss in Hungary was so overwhelming he couldn’t cheat his way out of it. But the decisive defeat for both Putin and authoritarianism may also suggest that the vibes they are a changin’. For instance, at home, Trump had to take down his Jesus post because of the backlash from across the political spectrum. People can see he’s flailing on the war and the economy. Plus, Vance has the stink of a loser, Dems can learn some campaigning tricks from Peter Magyar, the Melania-Epstein mystery continues, Trump and Marco are likely to regret those images from the UFC fight, and The Bulwark remains Team Pope Leo.
Bill Kristol joins special guest host, Sarah Longwell.
show notes
- This week's Focus Group pod with sad, mad GOP base voters
- Bill's "Bulwark on Sunday" with Sarah Matthews
- Monday's "Morning Shots," with David Baer from Budapest
- Pre-order Sarah’s book, How to Eat an Elephant, coming in September!
- Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/BULWARK and use promo code BULWARK at checkout.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone and welcome to the Bullwork podcast. I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of the Bullwork, and I'm sitting in for my good buddy, Tim Miller. |
| 0:19.8 | I didn't have my pearls today, but I'm going to try this hat for just a minute. Actually, Bill, what do you think of the bulwark. And I'm sitting in for my good buddy, Tim Miller. I didn't have my pearls today, |
| 0:21.1 | but I'm going to try this hat for just a minute. Actually, Bill, what do you think of the hat? Excellent. But you look better in it than, you look better in it than Tim Miller. I'm going to just say that for the record. But you can take it off. You can take it off. You can take it off. Now the fits over. |
| 0:34.5 | It's over. |
| 0:36.3 | Okay, well, just because I am sitting in for Tim, since he is, nobody works anymore, Bill. No one works anymore. These kids. Except for us, you know. Except for us. I know. But just because you don't have Tim doesn't mean you don't get Bill Crystal. Bill Crystal's here to join me after a action-packed news-filled weekend. |
| 0:55.9 | So many things happened. |
| 0:57.1 | In fact, Monday hasn't slowed down one bit. |
| 1:00.0 | We have this morning Donald Trump posting himself as Jesus. |
| 1:06.5 | He is in a hot war with the Pope. |
| 1:09.4 | America has now closing itself the Strait of Hormuz. |
| 1:14.0 | And most importantly, and where I want to start, is with the big election in Hungary, |
| 1:20.4 | where Victor Orban yesterday was defeated resoundingly, resoundingly. |
| 1:27.3 | And for people who maybe at a macro level say, I know Orban's a bad guy |
| 1:32.4 | and I'm glad he lost, but maybe they don't understand all of the implications, both for Europe and for |
| 1:39.7 | us. So I thought, Bill, I just turn it over to you and let you set the stage for why yesterday's |
| 1:44.0 | election was so important. |
| 1:45.8 | Happy too, and it was important. |
| 1:47.6 | And I found it exciting and moving, really, when you saw the scenes from Budapest and elsewhere in Hungary |
| 1:53.6 | and read about everything that had happened to make this possible. |
| 1:57.8 | I do think we're living in a new world when I was at this long scheduled kind of social get together yesterday afternoon and evening. |
| 2:05.4 | And, uh, checking my phone constantly for updates on the Hungarian returns. |
| 2:10.5 | Looking at this one website that had me too. |
... |
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