The Bulwark

Warning: The Chaos President THRIVES on Chaos Failed wars have tail risks for democracy.

"In the America of 2016, we would assume that there was nothing a president could do to alter the progress of free and fair elections." A long, long time ago...

‘Project Hail Mary’ Review The most perfectly crowd-pleasing movie I’ve ever seen.

"It is the most perfectly crowd-pleasing movie I’ve ever seen in my life."

@sonnybunch.bsky.social reviews "Project Hail Mary": lnk.thebulwark.com/4ljrq2h

What It Felt Like to Face Combat in the Middle East Everyone experiences fear differently. Here’s what it was like for me.

"Here’s the other side of fear: When you overcome it, when you face it and push through, you grow in ways you didn’t think possible."

An excerpt from @markhertling.bsky.social's new book out today, "If I Don’t Return: A Father’s Wartime Journal": lnk.thebulwark.com/4b0Y0SW

Leaked Private Texts Reveal Wild Fishback Campaign Drama Aides feared candidate’s couch was repossessed, called heterosexual sex gay.

Well, you just have to read this. It's a good thing the indebted groyper candidate James Fishback is only polling single digits in the Florida GOP gubernatorial primary.

The latest edition of False Flag from @willsommer.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/3NqgiUC

TACOs With a Side of War Porn Despite his callous bluster, Trump is seemingly retreating.

It looks like Trump is getting ready to TACO on Iran. But it’s not as easy to get the fierce dogs of war back in the kennel as it is the docile puppies of tariffs.

That and more in today's Morning Shots from @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social and @markhertling.bsky.social:

Hegseth: "No nation takes more precautions to ensure there's never targeting of civilians than the U.S…No nation has ever attempted in every way possible to avoid civilian casualties…Where things happen that need to be investigated, we will investigate."

Trump Is Repeating Putin’s Blunder Both men thought they could start easy, quick regime-change wars at minimal cost.

"Without taking into account the particular personalities of two major world leaders, it’s hard to explain two of the most important international events of the last five years." One of them could have learned from the other.

New from Matt Johnson:

Hegseth: "From the beginning from this podium we haven't stated how long it will take. Our will is endless. Ultimately, the president gets to determine the end state of those objectives…This is not endless, it's not protracted, we're not allowing mission creep."

Hegseth: “This is not endless nation building under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama…Our generation of soldier will not let that happen again, and nor will this president who very clearly ran against those kinds of never-ending, nebulously-scoped missions.”

Hegseth: “Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran. The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence, more refined, and better than ever.”

Watch the full episode of Bulwark Takes at lnk.thebulwark.com/4aoCA1S and YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts: lnk.thebulwark.com/3MWL1Zo?utm_...

"The problem is not that Lindsey Graham is scaring people. The problem is Lindsey Graham is actually leading Trump into wars."

Sam Stein and Will Saletan discuss the South Carolina senator's insatiable bloodlust on his Sunday show appearances.

Watch the full episode of the Bulwark Podcast at lnk.thebulwark.com/4aoCA1S and YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts: lnk.thebulwark.com/4bh5FLW?utm_...

"I can see the asymmetry so starkly having done both and then having listened to the way in this new environment voters are being impacted by Republican's ability to do narrative dominance in a way that Democrats just haven't figured out yet."

Sarah Longwell on her new book 'How to Eat an Elephant.

Watch the full episode of the Bulwark Podcast at lnk.thebulwark.com/4aoCA1S and YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts: lnk.thebulwark.com/4bh5FLW?utm_...

"Part of our obligation as big, powerful democracies is our ability to show a certain amount of restraint and proportionality," Sarah Longwell says in discussing the Iran war. "We shouldn't be unable to say 'no, what I'm seeing with my eyes is too far...or making us less safe.'"

Warning: The Chaos President THRIVES on Chaos Failed wars have tail risks for democracy.

COVID deaths, his attempted coup, and his felony convictions hurt him at the margins but consolidated his base of support. Trump's Iran war may function the same way.

Watch the full episode of the Bulwark Podcast at lnk.thebulwark.com/4aoCA1S and YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts: lnk.thebulwark.com/4bh5FLW?utm_...

"When I think about the first year...it was really bad, maybe slightly better than what my Trump derangement syndrome baseline was. [But] this war is the first time I'm like... I didn't think that he was gonna be this stupid."

Tim Miller on Trump's year and why the Iran war surprised him.

Loose Talk of ‘Fake News’ Is Bad for Democracy The secretary of defense shouldn’t pit the military against the media.

Throwing around baseless accusations of “fake news” during wartime may generate applause, but it weakens one of the institutions that distinguishes us from the regimes we often oppose.

Watch the full episode of the Bulwark Podcast at lnk.thebulwark.com/4aoCA1S and YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts: lnk.thebulwark.com/4bh5FLW?utm_...

"We are already deeper in than I think he thought we would be, to the extent he thought about it at all. And the pain...it's not the kind of thing you can just get in and out of, and it is the kind of thing that voters notice."

Sarah Longwell weighs in on Trump's war with Iran.

Trump Confounded by the War He Started It’s now clear: There was no plan.

"The Ukrainians have become the world’s leading experts in counter-drone warfare. We need their expertise. Maybe we should have been learning from them this whole time."

‘The Bride!’ Review Every slugger will tell you: Big swings usually lead to big misses.

"You may have questions about what I’ve just described and I can assure you I have no answers."

The Kurds Won’t Solve the Iran Problem They’re good fighters and good allies, but not a panacea.

The Kurds are best understood not as an instrument for other countries’ strategic ambitions, but as a nation pursuing its own.

RFK Jr.’s Junk Science Diet His MAHA ideas about food are built on some of the same lies as his antivax campaign.

Most rational people reject the dopey Luddite nostalgia of the antivax movement. We don’t need to let nature take its course with our food, either:

Dems Slowly Figuring Out How to Talk About Israel Trump’s Iran war—and Netanyahu’s role in it—is just the latest complication.

While foreign policy typically isn’t what motivates voters in elections, Democratic officials believe that the debate has come to represent much more than a policy position.

Watch the full episode of Bulwark Takes at lnk.thebulwark.com/4aoCA1S and YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts: lnk.thebulwark.com/3MWL1Zo?utm_...

"The problem is not that Lindsey Graham is scaring people. The problem is Lindsey Graham is actually leading Trump into wars."

@samsteindc.bsky.social and @saletan.bsky.social discuss the South Carolina senator's insatiable bloodlust on his Sunday show appearances.

Warning: The Chaos President THRIVES on Chaos Failed wars have tail risks for democracy.

"How many elected Republicans could you get to state, unequivocally and on the record, that Trump cannot and will not run for a third term? That’s the foundation and I don’t think anyone appreciates what a sea change it represents for our country."