Boos at a Republican town hall in Fulton County, and boos at the White House: We're beginning to see signs of people refusing to be ruled by unelected billionaires, oligarchs and CEOs. This may be the time for Democrats with some heterodox views to run for office. Meanwhile, the supposedly free speech president and his shadow are trying to intimidate people from criticizing them—including a member of Congress and one of Elon's baby mamas. Plus, Trump's advisers seem more worried about Zelensky saying mean things about him than the fact that he wants to hand the spoils to the losing side of the war. 

Rep. Adam Kinzinger joins Tim Miller for the weekend pod.
show notes

• Tim's interview with CA Democrat Rep. Robert Garcia
  
  
• Sam's interview with FEMA chief who was fired and has now been rehired
  
  
• Evidence of Elon shadow-banning Grimes
  
  
• Kinzinger's substack
  
  
• Tim's playlist
  
  

If Marco Rubio was NOT playing the long game masquerading as a patriotic neocon who gets placed in the State Department to then give Russia everything it wanted, what would he be doing differently? Meanwhile, a Democratic version of the Tea Party may be brewing, the tensions between Elon and Russ Vought are likely to pop out, and a psychoanalyst needs to explain Mitch McConnell. Plus, the Saudis are getting their claws in our sports with a LIV-PGA deal and Trump's astonishingly corrupt involvement. And also -- Trump doesn't know ball.

Pablo Torre and David Graham join Tim Miller.

show notes

• David's forthcoming book, "The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America"
• David's newsletter on the Department of Education
• Pablo's podcast, "Pablo Torre Finds Out"

Crypto should be one of the biggest stories out of the Trump administration, but the crypto guys are really good at making it seem more complicated than it is. Bloomberg's Zeke Faux joins Tim to run down the ins-and-outs, and the players—including the Chinese businessman facing SEC charges who swears the $56 million he gave Trump has absolutely nothing, zero, zilch to do with his case. Meanwhile, we're about to find out how much Republicans really care about the deficit with the coming budget, and the Democrats must not cave. Plus, Elon's crappy math, America would not get anything out of Trump's deal with Russia, and Tuesday's violence in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz and Zeke Faux join Tim Miller.

show notes

• Zeke's book, "Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall"
• Zeke on Chris Hayes's podcast

Trump is A-OK with all the murder and mayhem Russia has unleashed on Ukraine, and he's making a mockery of all his enablers who claimed he'd do a Reagan-esque kind of deal. Instead, Ukraine wasn't even invited to the "peace" talks, while Trump tries to impose an extortion deal on the Ukrainian people for daring to fight back against the Russian invasion. Plus, the danger to our constitutional system if the main guy in the Oval Office defies a court order, the real live threat to the First Amendment from the White House's lockout of the Associated Press, and the origin story of Trump's obsession with Greenland. 

Susan Glasser joins Tim Miller.

show notes

• Susan's latest New Yorker column
• Tim's new Gen Z politics show, "FYPod"
• The "Bulwark Takes" feed on Apple podcasts
• The NYT story on the Panama hotel that Susan mentioned
• Larry Diamond's piece in Persuasion
  
  

Firing air traffic controllers over a busy holiday travel weekend, cutting a veterans crisis hotline, axing and then rehiring people who maintain and keep our nuclear arsenal safe: Musk and his minions aren't trying to "fix" the government. They're trying to make it more susceptible to Trump's personalized leadership. And the MIA Dems need to get out there and throw some punches since the media loves fights. Meanwhile, the US is now more of a problem than a solution on Ukraine, Elon's massive corruption isn't drawing anywhere near the same attention as Hunter/Burisma—and Bill Cassidy could just vote against Kash or delay his confirmation if he's really worried about the FBI. 

 Bill Kristol joins Tim Miller 
show notes

• Bill's 'Bulwark on Sunday' conversation with Eric Edeleman
  
  
• Don Moynihan's newsletter that Bill mentioned
  
  

Unlike the cowardly Republican senators who are rolling over in the face of Kash Patel's bald-faced lies, the men and women of the Justice Department are taking their oaths of office seriously by refusing to comply with a blatantly political order to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Meanwhile, Trump is just over the moon with Vladimir Putin—even though his army is performing quite poorly on the battlefield against Ukraine. Plus, the makeup heir advising Trump on foreign policy, Emil Bove is this moment's cartoon villain, and Pizzagate's Jack Posobiec is somehow inside the administration's inner circle. 

Andrew Weissmann and Michael Weiss join Tim Miller for the weekend pod.
show notes
Support "Orange Ribbons for Jamie" here, formed in honor of Parkland shooting victim Jaime Guttenberg
Details on Zelensky offering Trump a Ukrainian boxer's championship belt
Tim's playlist

While Elon claims he's storming the government to cut waste, he's also getting himself a big fat check for $400 million from the State Department for Tesla armored vehicles—though administration officials are now trying to hide the grift because the Trump glow does not extend to the weird dude. Meanwhile, McConnell may have voted against confirming RFK Jr, but he's the one who drew up the blueprint for breaking the rules. Plus, the asymmetry in passion between MAGA and the resistance, and Alex's new podcast looks at how people are being affected by the policies and promises of Trumpism.

MSNBC’s Alex Wagner join Tim. 
show notes
Trumpland with Alex Wagner
Dave Weigel's piece that Tim referenced
Axios piece that was mentioned

If Republican senators had any shred of dignity left, they'd demand that Kash Patel answer why he brazenly lied under oath to them about the purge of agents at the FBI. Credible sources have come forward to say he was directing the whole thing. Meanwhile, Trump has leveled the playing field so companies doing business overseas can do all the bribing they want. Plus, our modern "boy problem," our genetic wiring to not be loners, and finding a way out of our polarization by seeing we have an obligation to respect and care for other people. 

Carol Leonnig and Bob Putnam join Tim Miller
 show notes

• Bob's "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community"
  
  
• The documentary about Bob, "Join or Die"
  
  
• Bob's co-written book, "The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again"
  
  

The Democratic Party was made for different times, when rules were followed. But to preserve the basic power of Congress, and to prove that the Constitution is worth the paper it's printed on, the troublemakers in the Dem caucus have to get busy fighting over tariffs and a looming budget deal. Besides, Trump's strongest hand is performative outbursts—making threats and pretending he got something in return. Plus, Elon is giving away America's greatness, the EU should call Trump's bluff, and the Democrats should quit chasing donations from the social media companies that broke our democracy.

Former congressman Tom Malinowski joins Tim Miller.
show notes:

Tom's Bulwark piece on how the Democrats should fight

The new administration has been routinely breaking the law, including on Friday when it announced it was cutting funding for universities doing medical research, specifically in violation of legislation passed by Congress last year. And over the weekend, Trump, Musk, and Vance signaled a willingness to ignore court orders—a federal judge on Monday declared that the White House was doing just that in response to his order lifting a freeze on grant spending. Meanwhile, Trump designated himself the Supreme Leader over the Kennedy Center, and canned the national archivist perhaps because the agency happened to notice he was hoarding classified documents. Plus, at a time when we could use some decent role models, Jalen Hurts showed what it's like to win without being petty and consumed by grievance.

Bill Kristol joins Tim Miller.
show notes

JVL's Triad newsletter on how the Dems can win the USAID fight

Partly because of the courts and partly because the White House keeps stepping on rakes or trying to break everything, the Dems who were too chill about Trump pre- and post-election have fully moved into 'threat to the Republic' mode. Meanwhile, angry bureaucrats, particularly at the FBI, are digging in. But don't be sanguine because the administration is still trying to take a wrecking ball to the civil service— anything that goes wrong that involves the government though (like that measles outbreak in Texas) they're going to own from here on out. Plus, Trump's dirty energy policy, the challenge of getting his tax cuts through Congress, and Kanye goes all in on Hitler.

Ezra Klein joins Tim on the weekend pod.

show notes
Ezra's forthcoming book with Derek Thompson, "Abundance"
Ezra's show on YouTube
Measles Outbreak Mounts Among Children in One of Texas’ Least Vaccinated Counties
Tim's playlist