Sam Stein: The Ridiculously Unserious President
The Bulwark Podcast
The Bulwark
4.6 • 11.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2026
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’re raining hellfire down on Iran and American soldiers have died, but that doesn’t stop Trump from hitting the links, doing a little dancing, or holding a revenge rally. His main preoccupation is his daily PR battle over the war—which currently involves arguing that higher gas prices are a good thing. And his ever dutiful backup chorus in Congress is happy to explain how “freedom isn’t free.” Meanwhile, the immigration system has been so undone that we now have a shortage of seasonal workers. Plus, the absurd shoe-related loyalty test at the White House, a major Trump donor is trying to buy a Senate seat in Oklahoma, at least one white Afrikaner refugee has seen enough and wants to go home, Sam and Tim have new Cabinet member rankings, and some justice for JVL and Bill after Wednesday's pod.
Sam Stein joins Tim Miller.
show notes
- JVL’s “Triad” on Iran from Wednesday and Thursday
- Bill on the "epic failure" of the Iran war in "Morning Shots"
- Adrian and Jared on Markwayne Mullin
- Sam's and Catherine's 'Bulwark Take' on higher gas prices
- Tim's and Sam's year-end ranking of Cabinet members
- "Odd Lots" podcast
- Tickets for our LIVE show in Austin on March 19: TheBulwark.com/Events.
- Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/BULWARK and use promo code BULWARK at checkout.
- For their buy 1 get 1 50% off deal, head to 3DayBlinds.com/THEBULWARK
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Bullwark podcast. |
| 0:14.0 | I'm your host, Tim Miller. |
| 0:15.7 | It is Thursday, March the 12th. |
| 0:17.8 | I wanted to bring you a little comfort food, a little porridge, a little ice cream, |
| 0:22.2 | you know, whatever it is that makes you feel good inside, a little crawfish etouffé. |
| 0:28.4 | And it is my friend and yours, the managing editor of the bulwark, Samuel Stein. |
| 0:32.7 | How you doing? |
| 0:34.0 | Good. |
| 0:35.1 | Every one of those was great except for porridge. |
| 0:37.9 | I don't want to pay you. Why did porridge come to mind i don't know i know when's the last time you had porridge |
| 0:43.3 | tim i can't recall when the last time i had porridge what's your middle name i was going to do |
| 0:47.8 | your middle name it's it's ignatious no it's do we have to |
| 0:54.0 | ignatius would be catholic so it's something jewish what's an eye what's No. It's... Do we have to? |
| 0:55.4 | Ignatius would be Catholic. |
| 0:57.1 | So it's something Jewish. |
| 0:59.6 | What's a Jewish eye name? |
| 1:02.4 | I'm racking my brain for Jewish eye names. |
| 1:03.5 | There's a good story here. |
| 1:04.2 | It's short. |
| 1:05.5 | My middle name is Irving. |
| 1:13.3 | It's named after my grandfather, Irving Fine, who was a famous composer in his day, |
| 1:15.2 | tragically died at the age of 49. |
... |
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