What Happens After Trump?: Why Tim Miller Thinks Politics Can’t Go Back

Conversations with Coleman

The Free Press

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 614 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tim Miller is a political commentator and former GOP strategist who became one of the most outspoken “‘Never Trump”’ conservatives in the country. Tim and I talk through the Republican Party’s transformation, from the guardrails John McCain tried to hold in place, to the anger and conspiratorial thinking that helped fuel Donald Trump’s rise. We get into what it was like to be an openly gay Republican in the 2000s, why Trump’s favorability is collapsing, and the administration’s bizarre new policy of blowing up alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. I also ask him about his recent interview with journalist Olivia Nuzzi and more. Bundle FOX One and FOX Nation to stream the entire FOX Nation library, plus live Sports and Entertainment at our lowest price of the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman. My guest today is Tim Miller.
0:05.9	Tim Miller is a political commentator, MSNBC analyst, and writer at large for the bulwark.
0:11.6	He used to be a Republican communications operative who worked for candidates like John McCain and
0:16.0	Jeb Bush, but years later, he became a leading, never-Trump conservative, and wrote the best-selling memoir, Why We Did It, a travel log from the Republican Road to Hell.
0:26.3	In this episode, we talk about what it was like to be an openly gay Republican back in the 2000s.
0:32.2	We talk about whether it's really true that fire-breathing homophobes are often secretly gay themselves. We talk about how
0:39.2	the Republican Party has changed since the days of John McCain. We talk about whether Trump's
0:44.1	deportations are fascist in nature. We talk about why Trump's favorability numbers are declining so
0:50.0	steeply. We talk about the Trump administration's bizarre policy of blowing up drug boats in the
0:55.8	Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. We talk about whether the Groypers have really infiltrated the Republican
1:01.5	Party. We talk about conspiracy thinking on the right and much more. So without further ado,
1:08.8	Tim Miller.
1:17.6	Thank you. So without further ado, Tim Miller. Okay, Tim Miller. Thanks so much for doing my show.
1:20.3	Hey, man, happy to do it. Thanks for the invite.
1:22.8	So I want to get into the sort of political news of the day, but you have a really interesting
1:29.3	backstory. I've been reading your book, Why We Did It, which came out a few years ago.
1:35.7	Yeah. It's like, it's a super interesting, part memoir, part analysis of Trump's rise.
1:40.8	So I assume some of my listeners will be familiar with you from the bulwark.
1:45.1	You have a great podcast you do there.
1:47.7	But for those who aren't familiar, I want to get into your backstory a little bit more than I normally do with guests because it's so intimately tied to what's happening in the country right now.
1:57.8	The Trump administration, what happened to the Republican Party.
2:01.6	Your story is kind of like a mirror or a guide into what happened to the Republican Party. So I guess take me
	...

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