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2 days ago | 
thebulwark.com | William Kristol |Jonathan Cohn |Jim Swift
Happy China Trade Thaw Day to those who celebrate! The United States and China agreed overnight to suspend many of the tariffs put in place after Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day,” which had ground trade between the two nations to a virtual standstill. “The consensus from both delegations is that neither side wanted a decoupling,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at a news conference in Geneva hours ago.
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5 days ago | 
thebulwark.com | William Kristol |Andrew Egger |Jim Swift
So, look: Your Morning Shots correspondents aren’t highly acclaimed Vatican watchers. But what’s this we’re hearing about the new American pope, Leo XIV? He voted in Republican primaries in Illinois in 2012, 2014, and 2016—but seems to have departed the Republican fold since. Recently he’s been a resolute antagonist of Vice President JD Vance. Hey, on the off chance he’s a subscriber: Your Holiness, we wish you all the best.
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6 days ago | 
thebulwark.com | William Kristol |Andrew Egger |Jim Swift
A tough lede to read, from the AP:Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union in his home state when things quickly devolved. Before long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why “everybody is mad at me,” “why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do” and slamming his hands on a desk, according to one person who was briefed on what occurred.
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1 week ago | 
thebulwark.com | William Kristol |Andrew Egger |Will Selber |Jim Swift
The Senate confirmation of Ed Martin, Trump’s loyalist pick for U.S. Attorney for D.C., looks like it may be in trouble. The Washington Post reports:Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said he informed the White House that he opposed naming Trump’s interim appointee to a full four-year term. “If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where Jan.
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1 week ago | 
thebulwark.com | Andrew Egger |Sam Stein |Jim Swift
We don’t know about you, but we sure find it reassuring to have an education secretary with a real flair for prose style.
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1 week ago | 
thebulwark.com | Jim Swift
The New Yorker's Susan Glasser joins Mona to discuss Trump's big beautiful deals, the cowardice of the press, and more. Watch, listen or leave a comment. Ad-free editions are exclusively available for Bulwark+ members. Don’t care for video? Use the controls on the left side of the player to toggle to the audio edition. The Mona Charen Show is a weekly, one-on-one discussion that goes in depth on political and cultural topics. New shows drop Mondays.
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1 week ago | 
thebulwark.com | William Kristol |Andrew Egger |Sonny Bunch |Jim Swift
More from the disaster zone:Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, said he personally thanked President Trump on Saturday night for issuing a pardon that cut short the 22-year prison term he was serving in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Mr. Tarrio’s expression of gratitude came during a brief but extraordinary encounter with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club and residence in Palm Beach, Fla.
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1 week ago | 
thebulwark.com | Jim Swift
Happy Saturday!Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a Bulwark+ member: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it. ICYMI: Here are links to each newsletter section so you can quickly get back to that edition you may have missed this week.
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1 week ago | 
thebulwark.com | William Kristol |Andrew Egger |Jim Swift
We’ll be honest: When Sam and Andrew unearthed a clip last November of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. interviewing a chemtrail conspiracy theorist on his podcast—“I am persuaded by what you’re saying,” Kennedy told him—we thought we were spotlighting the then-HHS nominee’s conspiratorial frame of mind. The idea he would actually use his lofty perch in the government to succor chemtrail nuts seemed, even then, a little far-fetched.
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1 week ago | 
thebulwark.com | William Kristol |Andrew Egger |Jim Swift
Heading into any business meetings today? We hope you’ll have someone on hand to gas you up as effusively as Attorney General Pam Bondi did for Donald Trump in yesterday’s cabinet meeting. “President,” she said, eyes locked on her boss, “your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country. Ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it.” Bondi went on to claim that Trump’s efforts to crack down on fentanyl had already saved—“are you ready for this, media?
