Trump vs. The Courts (w/ Nathaniel Zelinsky)
Bulwark Takes
The Bulwark
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 May 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nathaniel Zelinsky, lead counsel in the Kennedy Center case against Trump, joins Bill Kristol for Bulwark on Sunday to discuss the current situation with Trump and the courts.
Nathaniel Zelinsky is a senior counsel and member of the Washington Litigation Group’s steering committee. He is an appellate lawyer who has handled high stakes cases involving major constitutional questions and multibillion dollar disputes, and has argued at every level of the federal judiciary, including before the Supreme Court.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. |
| 0:04.8 | Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable |
| 0:10.3 | themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there. |
| 0:14.7 | Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time. From startups to scaleups, online, |
| 0:20.1 | in person and on the go. Shopify is made for |
| 0:22.8 | entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. |
| 0:29.8 | Hi, Bill Crystal here. Welcome to full work on Sunday. Very pleased to be joined today by |
| 0:34.1 | Nathaniel Zelensky. I met a little over 10 years ago when he was a law |
| 0:38.7 | student at Yale and I was a conservative law student and I was a conservative speaker. And that's, |
| 0:44.7 | I guess, how we met. And last, I think we met when I was in undergrad. Is that right? It was almost 20 years ago. |
| 0:50.6 | Yeah, I was a conservative editor of the weekly standard. Things have changed in those two decades or even in the last decade. That's Yeah. I was a conservative undergrad. Yeah. Right. And I was a conservative editor of the |
| 0:54.5 | weekly standard. Things have changed in those two decades or even in the last decade. That's it. I've forgotten that we'd met earlier than that. Anyway, Fanioz has been a, went on to a distinguished career as a appellate and Supreme Court lawyer in big law, quit his law firm in 2025, but it was one of the firms that took the deal that Trump offered. |
| 1:13.6 | As you recall, all those law firms were being pressured to cut deals with Trump and his did, |
| 1:18.6 | and you, Nathaniel, you quit. You started a boutique appellate, well, law firm, Washington Litigation |
| 1:26.5 | Group, which is a 501c3, a not-for-profit entity with several |
| 1:31.9 | other fine lawyers, younger ones, also some older ones, you're managing counsel of that firm, |
| 1:38.0 | and that firm defends individuals and institutions and the rule of law more generally in the era |
| 1:43.0 | of Trump. |
| 1:43.5 | And you've done a great job. And one reason I wanted to talk to you, but in general about the rule of all more generally in the era of Trump. And you've done a great job. |
| 2:03.2 | And one reason I wanted to talk to you, but in general about the state of play and introduce you to our audience, but also you were the lead counsel on the Kennedy Center case, which there was a pretty notable decision Friday. So I thought we should begin with that. Anyway, Nathaniel, thanks for joining me here. Happy to be here, Bill. I think you also wrote a couple of pieces for the bulwark, right? When you were... |
| 2:03.9 | Yeah, yeah, back in... begin with that. Anyway, Nathaniel, thanks for joining me here. Happy to be here, Bill. I think you |
| 2:01.2 | also wrote a couple of pieces for the bulwark, right? When you were... Yeah, yeah, back in, back I think in 2020, 2021, yeah. Yeah, yeah, good, yeah. Okay, so Kennedy, tell us about the, I mean, people know the headline of the Kennedy Center case that the judge found against the Trump appointed board's decision to rename it and to close it per Trump's orders |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 24 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Bulwark, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Bulwark and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

