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Bulwark Takes

Trump’s DC Press Conference Was Genuinely Horrifying

Bulwark Takes

The Bulwark

News, Society & Culture, Politics, News Commentary

4.71.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

JVL, Sam Stein, and Andrew Egger take on Donald Trump’s latest press conference — part authoritarian cosplay, part surreal stand-up routine. From talking about “good violence” and floating military takeovers of blue cities, to comparing DC to Baghdad and rambling about a new presidential ballroom, the spectacle was as bizarre as it was alarming.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:02.0

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0:04.0

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0:07.0

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0:13.0

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0:18.0

Visit sumup.co.uk to learn more.

0:20.0

This is Liberation Day in DC, and we're going to take our capital back. We're taking it back

0:26.5

under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States. I'm officially

0:32.2

invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. You know what that is? And placing the D.C.

0:40.3

Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control. And you'll be meeting the people

0:46.0

that will be directly involved with that.

0:48.7

Hey, guys, Sam Stey, managing editor at the bulwark here with JVL and Andrew Eger. We are here

0:53.8

to talk about the announcement. Oh, welcome back JVL and Andrew Eger. We are here to talk about the announcement.

0:55.7

Oh, welcome back, JVL, by the way.

0:57.6

We're here and you two, Edgar.

1:00.0

Welcome back.

1:00.7

We're here to talk about the announcement that Donald Trump will be instituting home rule for Washington, D.C., sending the National Guard to take over the law enforcement responsibilities here.

1:13.6

He's putting the D.C. Metropolitan Police under the jurisprudence of Pam Bondi, our attorney general.

1:20.3

He's not ruling out the possibility of sending the military into our nation's capital.

1:26.2

He had a press conference. The press questions element of it

1:30.1

went off the rails pretty quickly. The statement element of it was not much better, but it does

...

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