S2 Ep1035: Bill Kristol: A Reckless, Tin-Pot President

The Bulwark Podcast

The Bulwark

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 8.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Trump 2.0 is showing so little concern for his political standing that even Fox made primetime room for Karl Rove to vent about how he's failing at the fundamentals. Our aspiring Gaddafi doesn't care that tariffs aren't popular or that he sounds like Mr. Scrooge when he says kids should have fewer toys. And while belt-tightening is good enough for average Americans, he's throwing himself a giant, ostentatious military parade that will cost tens of millions of dollars. Plus, conservatives in the Anglosphere take another hit, this time down under—and thumbs-up for Maine Gov. Janet Mills, thumbs-down for Gretchen Whitmer.

Bill Kristol joins Tim Miller.
show notes

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Bullwark podcast.
0:14.8	I'm your host Tim Miller.
0:16.1	It is Monday.
0:17.3	So we are back with Editor at Large of thewark, Bullwork God King, Bill Crystal.
0:23.8	What is that, Bill? I don't get the God King deference and tributes as often enough,
0:28.7	frankly. So thank you for that. I agree with that. Sarah, you know, JVL, Sam. They're not really
0:34.1	into that stuff. I don't know if I don't know why. I can be the one that throws roses at your feet, getting prostrate down in front of you. All right, well, let's just get
0:41.7	into it. It's, Janice is over. So all my revelry is done. I ended with Remy Wolf last night. And so now
0:47.6	I'm just back to the dire reality of trying to read Trump's bleats and to determine how seriously to take them.
0:56.3	You are out with a newsletter this morning that is sort of on this front about Trump's
1:01.9	increasing megalomania, about how he is.
1:05.2	He wants to be the department store God King of America and the world.
1:08.9	Why don't you just kind of summarize the argument that you're making?
1:11.7	You know, I first was going to write about the staff, and I do write about that sum.
1:14.3	I'm very struck, if I could just begin with that, that, you know, in the first term, who was
1:19.2	bumped in the first month, Mike Flynn, who was bumped in the first year, Steve Vannon,
1:23.5	the crazies were for a while marginalized to some degree, to some degree.
1:27.4	I don't overstate this.
1:28.6	And the Normies kind of ran the show for the next two or three years, more or less,
1:31.9	or at least we're able to curb Trump, the Kellys and the Mattis's and so forth.
1:37.5	Right.
1:37.7	So John Bolton, McMaster.
	...

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