Tom Nichols: There’s Something Wrong with the President
The Bulwark Podcast
The Bulwark
4.6 • 11.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
p’s recent insomnia-induced, Obama-obsessed posting spree showed a level of paranoia and delusion that should be raising real concerns about the mental health of our commander-in-chief. The new blotch on his neck to go with the giant bruises on his hands is not helping matters. Is the DOJ mulling a $10 billion IRS settlement with Trump to try to ease his emotional distress over his seeming loss in Iran? Plus, Gorka’s half-baked “official” counterterrorism strategy, Tim did ask Comey about the Hillary email investigation in a previous interview, and the poll numbers for POTUS are worse than they were after Jan 6.
Tom Nichols joins Tim Miller for a special LIVE pod.
show notes
- Tom on the administration's counterterrorism strategy
- Tim's interview with Comey last year
- Just announced: San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and our own MAGA culture expert, Will Sommer, will join the gang on stage at Bulwark Live: San Diego on May 20. And on May 21 at Bulwark Live: LA our friends Jane Coaston, Jon Favreau, Erin Ryan from Crooked Media, The Ringer’s Van Lathan and progressive commentator Brian Tyler Cohen will join Sarah, Tim and Sam on stage. Grab your seats today at TheBulwark.com/Events
- Join at functionhealth.com/THEBULWARK or use gift code THEBULWARK25 for a $25 credit toward your membership.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody. Hello and welcome to the Bullwark podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. We are doing it live today. We're doing it live. We had an all-hands meeting. |
| 0:23.1 | Thankfully, it went better than the Iranian all-hands meeting a couple months ago. |
| 0:27.4 | We're all live and well, but I could not take the pod in the morning. |
| 0:31.3 | And since we're doing it live, I wanted to bring in our resident guest whose temperament most matches Bill O'Reilly. And that is Atlantic writer, |
| 0:43.1 | Radio Free Tom, Tom Nichols. How you guys? Oh, that, that stinks, but hell. Do it live. |
| 0:50.6 | Doing it live. Thank you for those you with us live on YouTube and Substack. |
| 0:54.6 | Everybody else will be in your ears a little late today. |
| 0:57.3 | And then we're back to our normal schedule tomorrow. |
| 0:59.7 | We've got a great lineup the rest of the week. |
| 1:01.1 | Tom, we got a bunch to discuss. |
| 1:04.4 | We'll do a little music at the end, as is our want. |
| 1:07.5 | But I kind of wanted to frame up the whole conversation just by taking a look at the bleats that Donald Trump sent on Monday night between 10, 15 p.m. and almost 2 a.m. |
| 1:23.0 | Luckily, friend of the show, Harry Sisson, kind of summarized each bleat. There were 45 of them |
| 1:28.3 | from our totally insane and sleep-deprived president. And we're just going to go through a few. |
| 1:34.8 | 1015 accuses Barack Obama of attempting a coup. 1015 says Obama worked with the CIA to overthrow Trump. |
| 1:43.0 | 1015 reposts the tweet saying Obama is a traitor and he should |
| 1:45.8 | be arrested. 1022 attacks dominion voting systems. There's been some lawsuits about that. 1023, |
| 1:52.6 | back at Obama, accuses him of personally making 120 million from Obamacare. I don't know how that |
| 1:58.3 | happened. 1027, demand Senator Mark Kelly resign. 1030 demands |
| 2:03.0 | Jack Smith be arrested. It's kind of lucky for Mark Kelly, just resigned for him or jail for Jack |
| 2:07.3 | Smith. 1030, Obama Clinton and yesterday's guest, Jim Comey, are guilty of treason. 1039, reposted a tweet |
| 2:15.3 | from a MAGA account saying they have secret intel proving Clinton and Obama committed crimes. |
... |
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