Episode Overview

Title: How MAGA Tried to Spin the No Kings Protest
Podcast: Bulwark Takes
Date: October 20, 2025
Hosts: JVL (A), Andrew Egger (B)

This episode delves into how MAGA influencers, politicians, and right-wing media attempted to reframe, minimize, or distort the massive and overwhelmingly peaceful "No Kings" protests that swept the country over the weekend. The Bulwark team breaks down the varied strategies and narratives being pushed in the aftermath, highlighting the post-truth tactics, disinformation spread, and also critiques mainstream media's tepid coverage.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. MAGA's Diverse Coping Mechanisms

(00:00 – 03:20)

• Right-wing and MAGA-aligned voices expected and wanted chaos from the No Kings protests—anticipating violence, arrests, and "antifa" clashes.
• Initial hope for a "Hate America" narrative fizzled as the protests were exceptionally peaceful, defying typical right-wing talking points.
• MAGA-aligned outlets, especially Fox News, tried to amplify any minor incidents, nonetheless failed to demonstrate widespread unrest.

Quote:

"You could tell that what they were really gearing up for going in was let's see some violence, let's see some violence. ...But we didn't get a lot of that, right. ...these were overwhelmingly peaceful protests."
—Andrew Egger (00:22)

2. Trump's (and MAGA's) Contradictory Messaging

(03:20 – 06:19)

• Trump dismissed the protests, calling them "a joke," "not representative," and suggested signs were "paid for by Soros."
• At the same time, his own social media output showed large crowds, contradicting his public claims of "small" demonstrations.
• The hosts note the incoherence: simultaneously minimizing the turnout but also casting it as a threatening, Soros-funded operation—fuel for both downplaying and paranoia.

Quote:

"Totally small, totally ineffective. On the other hand, you know, paid for by Soros, still sort of alarming and, and sort of the sort of veiled threat of 'we’re checking it out.'"
—Andrew Egger (02:55)

3. Searching for "Hate America" Content

(03:20 – 06:19)

• Congressional Republicans like Steve Scalise fell back on past tactics, pointing to cryptic protest signs ("8647") as supposed coded assassination threats, despite the absurdity.
• No evidence of prevalent, explicit anti-American sentiment; the hosts joke about the absurdity of restaurant "86 lists" being criminal code.

Quote:

"If there were 8 million people out in the street that actually all actively wanted to kill the President, you would be able to find some signs somewhere a lot more explicit than 86 47. One might think."
—Andrew Egger (05:13)

4. Isolated Incidents Overblown by MAGA Media

(06:19 – 07:17)

• Viral clips of bad rhetoric were rare; MAGA influencers highlighted a five-second video of a woman miming a "bullet in the neck," linking it to past rhetoric after the Charlie Kirk assassination.
• The hosts ridicule how right-wing outrage industries will seize on any available moment, even if it's extremely isolated.

Quote:

"If there were like worse things than this happening or like a lot of things this bad happening, they would be all over the Internet."
—Andrew Egger (07:12)

5. Manufactured and Fabricated Narratives

(07:17 – 11:14)

• Viral social media posts, especially from large MAGA influencer accounts, falsely claimed that aerial footage of the Boston protest was recycled or faked from past rallies.
• These conspiracy theories spread rapidly—claims that MSNBC pulled and apologized for the "fake footage" were completely fabricated but widely believed in MAGA circles.

Quote:

"But all that stuff basically doesn't matter. Not only does the footage go viral and these claims go viral, but also a claim goes viral that MSNBC has already pulled the footage and apologized for it. Again, just totally made up out of whole cloth..."
—Andrew Egger (10:20)

6. The Role of Post-Truth and Loyalty Tests

(11:12 – 16:34)

• The conversation explores how MAGA's psychological flexibility allows for contradictory narratives: calling the protests both fake and dangerous, both tiny and somehow existentially threatening.
• Trumpian politics, more broadly, no longer demand consistency—just performative loyalty.
• The post-truth ecosystem is fed algorithmically, ensuring each supporter gets content (influencer outrage, conspiracy, minimization) tailored to their preferred narrative.

Quote:

"There is no need for internal consistency and, you know, it’s okay actually for various parts of the coalition to each settle on a contradictory explanation for things they don’t like. And that's fine, right?...everything just becomes a loyalty test."
—JVL (11:27)

Quote:

"It's not like there's some eye in the sky figuring all this out this is just emergent properties of distributed social media networks."
—Andrew Egger (15:43)

7. Mainstream Media's Editorial Shortcomings

(16:34 – 19:59)

• The hosts criticize the Sunday New York Times for relegating coverage of the "largest single day protests in American history" to two small pictures on page 23.
• JVL finds this editorial decision shocking, especially given the historical scale and peacefulness of the protests.

Quote:

"I simply cannot justify in any way. Like, I can’t even steel man this editorial decision. Can you?"
—JVL (18:49)

• Egger speculates perhaps fatigue or assumptions about protest "sameness" led to undercoverage, but both agree it was a major misstep given Republican rhetoric had supercharged turnout.

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• Trump’s “Truth Social AI video”: Egger highlights the bizarre Trump video where “King Trump on a fighter jet...dumping literal feces on crowds of protesters,” noting it depicted a much larger crowd than Trump claimed existed. (Approx 01:35)
• On the contradictory MAGA mindset:

  "...you can just slide from one of these to the other with no trouble whatsoever. Right. There is no need for internal consistency..."
  —JVL (11:34)

Important Timestamps

• 00:00 – 03:20: MAGA’s initial expectations and Fox News coverage
• 03:20 – 06:19: Trump, Scalise, and the “Hate America” framing
• 06:19 – 07:17: The viral Chicago clip and overblown outrage
• 07:17 – 11:14: Fabricated narratives and viral conspiracy claims
• 11:12 – 16:34: The Trumpian ecosystem, loyalty tests, distributed disinformation
• 16:34 – 19:59: Mainstream media’s muted response, New York Times critique

Tone and Style

• Analytical, sardonic, and incisively critical, especially toward both right-wing spin and media failures.
• Conversational, peppered with humor and exasperation (“I could murder a chicken parm right now”; “God help me for saying that word, bad word, horrible word. My skin is crawling. But disinformation machine and matrix...”).

Summary

This Bulwark Takes episode unpacks the frantic and often contradictory efforts by MAGA world to define what the No Kings protest meant and how it should be perceived. Through personal observations, media analysis, and wry humor, JVL and Andrew Egger showcase the incoherence, conspiracy, and post-truth maneuvering that now define right-wing responses to public dissent—and critique mainstream media's own shortcomings in meeting the moment. If you missed the protests or the media circus after, consider this your sharp, comprehensive catch-up.