Republicans Accused of Horrible Things Have a Perfect Excuse: Donald Trump

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bulwark Takes

Episode: Republicans Accused of Horrible Things Have a Perfect Excuse: Donald Trump

Host: The Bulwark Team – Will Saletan
Date: August 15, 2026

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Overview

This episode of Bulwark Takes dives into the troubling trend among Republican politicians accused of criminal or unethical behavior: rather than resigning or apologizing, they use Donald Trump’s example as justification to “fight” rather than step down.
Will Saletan examines several high-profile cases, showing how Trump's own refusal to admit wrongdoing has set the tone for a new party culture—one that rewards resilience not in the face of adversity, but in the face of credible allegations and convictions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump as a Role Model for the Accused

• Main Idea: Republican officials facing scandal echo Trump’s strategies—deny, attack law enforcement, invoke political persecution, and refuse to resign.
• Trump’s legacy: Despite dozens of allegations (including a civil verdict for sexual abuse and 34 felony convictions), Trump neither apologized nor stepped aside.
• [01:29] Will Saletan recounts a recent call between Trump and Rep. Max Miller (accused by three women of abuse):
  • Miller reportedly told Trump:

    "No sir, I'm not going to drop out. I'm going to keep fighting these allegations just like you did."

2. Historic Examples of “The Trump Card”

• Duncan Hunter (2018):
  • Indicted for misusing campaign funds.
  • Publicly claimed he was being targeted by a politicized DOJ, paralleling Trump’s narrative.
  • Trump criticized his own Attorney General for the indictment and later pardoned Hunter after his guilty plea.
  • [03:39] Saletan sums it up:

    "Basically, Hunter played the Trump card and it worked."

• Matt Gaetz (2021–2024):
  • Under federal investigation over sex trafficking allegations (not indicted by DOJ, but found by House Ethics Committee to have violated multiple House rules).
  • Gaetz repeatedly cast himself as a victim, likening his situation to Trump’s.
  • Trump nominated Gaetz for Attorney General in 2024 despite the Ethics Committee’s damning report.
  • [05:39] Saletan:

    "But Trump thought this guy should be in charge of federal law enforcement. Fortunately, the Senate said no."

3. The Ongoing Pattern: Santos and Mills

• George Santos (2023–2024):
  • Indicted for financial crimes, refused to resign:

    "I'm entitled to that same process that Joe Biden is entitled, that Donald Trump was entitled to. But Donald Trump was denied." [08:23]

  • After his guilty plea, personally pleaded to Trump for a pardon, again invoking Trump’s own battles.
  • Trump responded by pardoning him, citing Santos' loyalty.
• Corey Mills (2024):
  • Facing multiple investigations, Mills frames the allegations as political persecution just like Trump’s.

    "He was facing, you know, a life sentence in prison ... accusations and things and time in the courtrooms. What we have to understand is this is politics." [09:55]

  • Trump endorsed Mills for reelection three weeks later.

4. Max Miller’s Defiance and the Trump Playbook

• Miller’s Own Words:
  • Miller frames his behavior as “resilience,” repeatedly citing Trump's survival through accusations as a positive inspirational example.

    "When President Donald J. Trump faced the most extreme allegations ... he stayed in and was resilient. ... the American people ... can see that somebody is fighting who is resilient. And that is a quality that the American people cherish.” [10:56]

  • Miller told Trump directly:

    “I reminded him of the same resilience ... when people told him that he was going to struggle in 2016 and he became the 45th President of the United States." [12:11]

• Saletan’s prediction: Trump will likely endorse Miller, rewarding him for invoking the “Trump defense.”

5. No Standards but Trump’s

• Will Saletan highlights that even family can’t influence the current GOP standard:
  • Sen. Bernie Moreno, Miller’s former father-in-law, publicly said:

    "If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them."

• Saletan’s conclusion:

  “There are no standards of character in the Republican Party. The standard of character is Trump. ... This is not a political party. This is a crime family." [13:52]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Max Miller (paraphrasing Trump):

  "You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them. ... It's like a magnet. ... And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything." [02:09–02:13]
  (Referring to Trump’s notorious Access Hollywood remarks, underlining the normalization of bad behavior.)

• George Santos, appealing for a Trump pardon:

  "I think no one better than President Trump to know what a weaponized Justice Department looks like." [08:40]

• Will Saletan’s closing summary:

  “The standard of character is Trump. And when women accuse these men of abuse, when law enforcement investigates and prosecutes and convicts these men, they all point to Trump and they say they're just like him. And then he gives them endorsements or pardons or whatever they need." [13:52]
  "This is not a political party. This is a crime family." [14:07]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:29–02:17: Trump’s call to Max Miller; Miller adopts Trump-style denial.
• 03:39–04:55: Duncan Hunter’s indictment and pardon; precedent of invoking Trump.
• 05:11–06:05: Matt Gaetz claims targeting by DOJ, parallels Trump.
• 07:55–08:40: George Santos invokes Trump, seeks pardon, and receives it.
• 09:55–10:09: Corey Mills cites Trump to argue allegations are just “politics.”
• 10:53–12:21: Max Miller frames resilience through Trump’s survival; tells Trump directly.
• 13:47–14:08: Bernie Moreno denounces Miller, Saletan calls out the “crime family” dynamic.

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Conclusion

Will Saletan and The Bulwark team paint a compelling, chilling picture of how Trump’s personal conduct and political survival tactics have become a playbook for Republican officials engulfed in scandal. Rather than stepping down or showing contrition, GOP figures now invoke Trump as both excuse and shield, and are often rewarded—by Trump himself—for their loyalty and shamelessness.
Saletan’s final verdict: the party's standards are gone, replaced by a culture of self-preservation at all costs, leaving accountability behind.

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For listeners seeking a concise, critical, and fact-driven analysis of the shifting norms in the GOP under Trump’s influence, this episode offers blunt insight—with memorable sound bites and specific examples to bring the issue into sharp focus.

Transcript

[Conservative Commentator]

What's up everybody?

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[Will Saletan]

hey, it's will Salatan from the Bulwark. So I don't know if you heard about this, but last week Donald Trump made a phone call to a Republican congressman, Max Miller. And Trump hinted that maybe Miller should drop out of his campaign for reelection because three women had accused Miller of physical abuse. And Miller, Miller gave Trump a very interesting answer. He said, oh no sir, I'm not going to drop out. I'm going to keep fighting these allegations just like you did. Remember when Trump bragged about groping women?

[Max Miller]

You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful.

[Will Saletan]

I just start kissing them.

[Max Miller]

It's like a magnet.

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You just kiss.

[Matt Gaetz]

I don't.

[Max Miller]

Either way.

[Conservative Commentator]

And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything, whatever you want,

[Will Saletan]

grab them by the pussy, do anything does. Dozens of women accused Trump of sexual abuse, and one of them, E. Jean Carroll, won a civil court verdict that Trump had sexually abused her. But Trump never apologized, never admitted anything, and he never stopped running for office, even after he got convicted of 34 felonies. And that is what I want to show you, Max Miller and a bunch of other Republicans in Congress have adopted Trump as their role model. They're criminals or their abusers, or they got so much evidence against them that they would step down if they were in a normal political party. But instead, they are in the Trump Party. So they stay and fight because the Trump Party is the party of dirtbags and, and crooks. Let me take you back to 2018. The Department of Justice got an indictment against this guy, Duncan Hunter. He was a congressman from California. And the indictment said that he stole money from his campaign for personal use. But Hunter said, no, no, I am not going to quit my campaign. I am going to stay and fight because I am just like Trump.

[Matt Gaetz]

This is the new Department of Justice. This is the Democrats arm of law enforcement. That's what's happening right now. And it's happening with Trump and it's happening with me. And we're going to fight through it and win. The US Government can do what they want whenever they want to. And they've showed that against me. They showed it against Trump.

[Will Saletan]

That was the same line that Trump used. Trump said the Department of Justice, the FBI, they were all out to get him in the Russia investigation. So Hunter said, me, too. I'm just like you, boss. So what did Trump do after Hunter said that? Well, the first thing Trump did was he posted a tweet attacking his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for indicting Hunter. Here is the tweet. You can see what Trump wrote there, sarcastically at the bottom. Good job, Jeff. And then a couple of months later, Trump fired Sessions. And then a couple of years later, after Hunter pleaded guilty, Trump gave him a pardon. Basically, Hunter played the Trump card and it worked. Let's take another Republican, Matt Gaetz. He was a congressman from Florida. And in 2021, as you can see here, he was under investigation for his involvement with a sex trafficker. They were buddies. They had sex with the same young women. It was really bad. But Gates said, no, no, no, I'm not stepping down. I'm a victim of dirty cops at the Department of Justice, just like Donald Trump.

[Conservative Commentator]

What you see from the government, I think, is really politicization of the Department of Justice. And really that started under Barack Obama and Eric Holder, and then it continued over. I mean, you think about what they're doing, to me, it has no comparison to the level of venom they brought against Donald Trump. If they would do that to the President of the United States, do you think it's the first time they've done it? Do you think it would be the last time they've done it? I think there's a lot of swamp left to be drained at the Department of Justice.

[Will Saletan]

Now, apparently this conspiracy theory about the Department of Justice didn't check out because DOJ did not indict Gates. But he was still under investigation by the House Ethics Committee three years later when Trump decided to nominate Gates for Attorney General. And just to be clear, a month after that nomination, the Ethics Committee issued this report. It found substantial evidence that Gates, quote, violated House rules and other standards of conduct, prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, and obstruction of Congress. But Trump thought this guy Happy Birthday, America.

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[Will Saletan]

Fortunately, the Senate said no. How about this guy? George Santos? Remember him? So in 2023, he got indicted for money laundering, wire fraud, credit card fraud, identity theft, and theft of public funds. But he said, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not leaving Congress. He said, I deserve due process. Just like Trump, I'm entitled to that

[George Santos]

same process that Joe Biden is entitled, that Donald Trump was entitled to. But Donald Trump was denied.

[Will Saletan]

Well, a year later, Santos pleaded guilty. And right before he went to jail, he asked for help from you know who.

[Conservative Commentator]

If Donald Trump is watching this interview, do you want to make a personal plea to him?

[George Santos]

Now, I am in the process of filling an application to a pardon for the President. I'll take a commutation, clemency, whatever the President is willing to give me. And, you know, I don't want this to seem like a political pitch. I want it to be a fair pitch. And I think no one better than President Trump to know what a weaponized Justice Department looks like. And, you know, this is. This is exactly it.

[Will Saletan]

There it is again. They weaponized the Department of Justice just like they did to Trump. So how did Trump respond to this plea from Santos? Well, here's the answer. Trump announced that he was releasing Santos from prison immediately. And right above that, he wrote that Santos was a good guy cause he always voted Republican. Santos got out of jail because he was a corrupt congressman appealing to a corrupt president. How about this guy? This is Corey Mills. He is a congressman from Florida, and he's under investigation by the Ethics Committee and the Department of Justice for allegations involving women and violence and a whole bunch of things. But here's what he said in January about those allegations.

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[Will Saletan]

Oh, yeah, this is all politics. Just like. Just like when they prosecuted Trump. Never mind that a jury convicted Trump of 34 felonies and another jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse. So can you guess what Trump did three weeks after Mills gave that interview? Here's what Trump wrote. Quote, corey Mills has my complete and total endorsement for reelection, of course. And that that whole history of Trump rewarding crooks and creeps who invoke his name, that is why Max Miller won't drop out. He says he's just like Trump.

[Max Miller]

Are all three of these women who

[Will Saletan]

don't know each other, are all three of them lying?

[Max Miller]

In 2016, when President Donald J. Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world, that hit him day after day after day. And people in the media, very much like yourself and others, said that he would have no shot at winning, that he should not be the President of the United States. But guess what? He Stayed in and he was resilient. And what the American people can see is that they can see that somebody is fighting who is resilient. And that is a quality that the American people cherish.

[Will Saletan]

He's openly bragging that Trump also faced allegations from multiple women. He's bragging that Trump said that those women were all liars and he won. And here's Miller again in another interview last week, bragging about all the women who accused Trump.

[Max Miller]

When we go all the way back to 2015, 2016, and people in the media and they looked at President Donald J. Trump, and everyone came out with allegations. Dozens of women, dozens of crazy allegations, dozens of nasty criminal misconduct. And do you want to know what he did, Rob? He stayed in the fight because Americans see. And one of the qualities that they respect the most is somebody who is resilient.

[Will Saletan]

And. And Miller says he told Trump the same thing when they had their phone call.

[Max Miller]

I reminded him of the same resilience that he had when people told him that he was going to struggle in 2016 and he became the 45th President of the United States.

[Will Saletan]

Resilience. Dozens of women stay in the fight, just like you, Mr. President. And you know what Trump did after Miller told him that? He backed off. Mr. President, the deadline for Representative Max

[Matt Gaetz]

Miller to withdraw from his race is coming up next week.

[Max Miller]

Do you believe he should withdraw?

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Well, I'm not going to get involved in that. It's a very sad situation.

[Will Saletan]

I'm going to make the world's easiest bet. I'm going to bet you that Trump endorses Miller for reelection. But I got to show you one more thing. It's a tweet from Bernie Moreno. He is a Republican senator, and until a year ago, he was Max Miller's father in law. Here's what he wrote a week and a half ago. Quote, if there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. That is a Republican senator. That is Max Miller's former father in law. But of course, there are no standards of character in the Republican Party. The standard of character is Trump. And when women accuse these men of abuse, when law enforcement investigates and prosecutes and convicts these men, they all point to Trump and they say they're just like him. And then he gives them endorsements or pardons or whatever they need. This is not a political party. This is a crime family. See you next time.

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