MAGA Mondays: Max Miller is Facing a Right Wing Backlash

Summary

Bulwark Takes — “MAGA Mondays: Max Miller is Facing a Right Wing Backlash” (August 3, 2026)

Episode Overview

This episode of “MAGA Mondays” dives into the escalating scandal embroiling Rep. Max Miller amid abuse allegations, examining both the right-wing media reaction and the Republican Party's internal calculations. The Bulwark team—Sam Stein (host), with Will Sommer and Andrew Egger—analyze how Miller’s chaotic response, complete with a self-released Dropbox of supposed exonerating evidence, has only intensified calls from the right for him to exit. The episode also covers the latest on Trump media's pay-for-access scheme, the collapsing clout of MAGA media figures, the “Reflecting Pool” vandalism saga, Tucker Carlson’s fading influence, the “griper-ization” of GOP staff, and even Trump’s legendary golf cheating.

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Max Miller Scandal: Right Wing Backlash and GOP Strategy

The Allegations and Miller’s Response

• Max Miller, a congressman from Ohio and former Trump aide, is confronting serious accusations from his ex-wife (Bernie Moreno’s daughter) and other women, ranging from domestic violence to child abuse.
• Alleged incidents include throwing boiling water, physically harming his daughter (claimed broken collarbone), and psychological abuse. “He’s accused of basically everything,” summarizes Sam Stein. (04:02)
• Miller’s defense: He released a trove of private audio and documents via Dropbox, claiming to exonerate himself. The result: confusion and deeper suspicion.
  • “It has gone badly for him... a gigantic own goal by Max Miller to come forward and kind of put a spotlight on this.” —Andrew Egger (06:07)

Right-Wing Reaction

• Initially muted, prominent right-wing commentators, Republicans, and influencers now question Miller’s place in Congress.
  • Seth Mandel called the evidence “going against Max Miller”; Matt Gaetz posted audio with the comment “a little weird.” (01:39)
• Even Senator Bernie Moreno publicly condemned Miller, expressing fears for his granddaughter's safety and denouncing Miller's continued candidacy. (06:52)

Notable Exchange:

“If you watch that and you're like yeah, this guy should be in Congress…I'm a little bit confused what kind of conclusion you've drawn from it.” —Sam Stein (00:56)

Miller’s Released Evidence Backfires

• The “exonerating” Dropbox is ridiculed: technical botches, cringeworthy content, incoherent explanations.

  • Example: Miller explains a needle in the house by referencing discontinued testosterone therapy, which only raises more questions. (03:03)
  • Miller’s accounts of alleged abuse come off as evasive or minimizing:
    • “He says…‘that was like, caused by a seatbelt, maybe’…Then he says…‘that was horseplay. We were goofing off in the kitchen.’ But then…he’s like, ‘I told you not to get near me.’” —Will Sommer (07:27)

• The presentation—“I’m just a dad in the kitchen”—is mocked as contrived and unconvincing, complete with kids' art and a photo with Trump in the background. (09:00)

GOP's Dilemma & Next Steps

• The deadline for Miller to drop out and be replaced is August 10th. (11:09)
• Possible replacement: JR Majewski, a QAnon figure with a dubious résumé, infamous for mowing a giant “Q” into his yard. (11:28)
• The team compares this cycle to similar “fire-then-swap” GOP messes, noting each candidate waiting in the wings comes with his own baggage.

Quote:

“If you're at the Mike Johnson PAC when you're watching this Max Miller video, it's kind of like how I felt when Biden in the debate was like, 'and we're going to destroy Medicare.' It's like—No!” —Will Sommer (12:03)

Key Discussion

• [00:30–13:47] — Max Miller scandal breakdown, right-wing reaction, Miller’s own video missteps, GOP strategy for replacement, broader issues with the candidate pipeline.

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Reflecting Pool Vandalism Fiasco

Trump World’s Manufactured Outrage

• The Trump team pushed a narrative that the National Mall Reflecting Pool was vandalized with a “300-foot gash,” blaming left-wing vandals.
• The legal case against a former Olympian fell apart; U.S. Attorney Janine Pirro was forced to dismiss the charges, citing lack of evidence.
• Trump attacked Pirro for backtracking; Doug Burgum and others doubled down on debunked vandalism claims. (14:00–17:33)

Conservative Media’s Role

• Conservative reporters (Emily Miller et al.) became invested in pushing dubious “proof,” which, when replayed, comes off as “fever dream” clips of water and fence posts. (18:30)
• Even as evidence falls apart, MAGA figures continue to claim “different vandalism.”

Memorable Observation:

“Trump versus the facts. …I’m sure her U.S. attorneys were like, our assistant U.S. attorneys were like, ‘we could get disbarred.’ Like, we have to like, start covering up information. We're inventing a crime.” —Will Sommer (15:25)

Key Discussion

• [13:48–21:47] — The unraveling case, conservative media’s reputation at stake, who’s responsible for the mess, and why the narrative persists despite obvious fabrication.

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Trump Insider Trading Scheme ("Truth Early Access")

Media Monetization Crosses an Ethical Line

• Trump Media is introducing a $100,000/month paywall granting institutional investors early access to Trump’s Truth Social posts—potentially market-moving information.
• This move (borderline “insider trading”—but offered to all who can pay) is criticized across the board, even among pro-Trump businesspeople, as “outwardly corrupt.”
  • “It’s crazy even to begin with that we have so much US Government policy that gets rolled out first on this website that the President owns and profits from.” —Andrew Egger (26:00)
  • “It almost becomes less of an insider trading thing, because everybody's on the inside. And more of just Donald Trump skimming off the top of…the entire financial system.” —Andrew Egger (28:15)
• Venture capitalist Sean McGuire and Jason Calacanis publicly objected.

Notable Exchange:

“Their own rollout of this is like ‘get access to the, to the most market moving truths before anybody else.’” —Andrew Egger (27:05)

Key Discussion

• [24:04–29:57] — How the scheme works, the ethical implications, right-wing and business world response.

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Media Meltdown: The Dwindling Influence of MAGA Influencers

Declining Viewership and Reach

• The New York Times reports major right-wing influencers (Candace Owens, Benny Johnson, Tucker Carlson, etc.) are experiencing massive drops in audience engagement and reach across social platforms and podcasts.
• Peaks hit during the "Trump's triumphant return" period; now, “the vibe shift quickly ended.” (51:46)
• The team speculates: is it just post-inaugural malaise, algorithm changes, or is it harder to energize a base when your party holds power?

Key Discussion

• [50:17–51:46] — Data trends, possible reasons for the decline, Bulwark’s competitive pitch.

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Tucker Carlson, Russian Disinfo, and the Shifting Right-Wing Landscape

• The team breaks down the peculiar case of Elizabeth Lane—a minor MAGA influencer with documented ties to Russian military intelligence—appearing on Tucker Carlson’s show.
• Carlson shrugs off concerns: “You have been accused of being a foreign intel operative… I just want to say out loud, I don’t care because that’s not the point. The point is, is the story you're about to tell true or is it not?” (34:01)
• The segment highlights the right’s casualness about foreign influence as long as it’s on their “side.” (34:01–35:45)
• Broader reflection: Tucker's fading influence and possible shifting allegiances inside the right.

Key Discussion

• [32:39–38:43] — The Lane segment, why Carlson amplifies these figures, MAGA “brain trust” group photos, and shifting power centers post-Trump.

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Inside the GOP: Gripers, Staff Pipeline, and Young Right

• Politico reports on the proliferation of “groypers” (Nick Fuentes-aligned far-right, often openly racist, young activists) inside Republican Party infrastructure and staff roles.
• Denials from College Republicans of America are undermined by their own “groiper” ties.
• “I don't know a single young Republican staffer who would dispute this.” —Andrew Egger (48:15)
• The professional Republican pipeline now prizes loyalty to Trump and culture war content over traditional conservative policy chops.

Key Discussion

• [47:00–50:04] — How the staffer “pipeline” has changed, evidence, and resistance among senior Republicans.

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Lighter But Revealing Moments

Trump’s Golf Cheating (39:40–41:26, 52:52–53:26)

• Trump claims his 43rd Bedminster Senior Championship with a supposed score of 70—key: “Unlike the rest of the field, I'm given very little time to practice. It's called talent. And I have it and they don’t.” —Reading Trump’s post (39:42)
• The Bulwark team jokes about infamous video evidence of Trump’s caddy cheating for him.

Vivek Ramaswamy Booed in Ohio (41:16–45:14)

• Running for Ohio governor, Vivek gets booed off the stage by Young Americans for Liberty for his “bootstraps” rhetoric and perceived elitism.
  • “He did an ad where he's just hitting a bunch of tennis balls as if that was like a very relatable thing for people.” —Sam Stein (43:21)
• Discussion of underlying racism, generational divides, and Vivek’s media strategy.

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “If I was a judge deciding should this guy get to kid every other weekend, I might have a hard decision to make. But if you're like, should this guy be in Congress? The answer is obviously not.” —Will Sommer (01:39)
• “We're starting to see...the preponderance of the evidence appears to be going against Max Miller.” —Will Sommer (01:39)
• “I don't know, that was like caused by a seatbelt, maybe...why do they make the seat belts like that?” —Will Sommer, mocking Miller’s excuses (07:27)
• “It almost becomes less of an insider trading thing, because everybody's on the inside. And more of just Donald Trump skimming off the top of...the entire financial system.” —Andrew Egger (28:15)
• “If you watch that and you're like yeah, this guy should be in Congress…I'm a little bit confused what kind of conclusion you've drawn from it.” —Sam Stein (00:56)

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Episode Timeline

• [00:30–13:47] — Max Miller scandal, right-wing/mainstream GOP reaction, internal party strategizing
• [13:48–21:47] — Reflecting Pool “vandalism” hoax, legal fallout, conservative media embarrassment
• [24:04–29:57] — Trump “insider trading” with Truth Social, ethics, reaction from the right
• [32:39–38:43] — Tucker, Candace, Russian influence, and the right’s shifting internal alliances
• [39:40–41:26, 52:52–53:26] — Trump’s golf cheating and video evidence
• [41:16–45:14] — Vivek Ramaswamy gets booed, racism and generational tension on the right
• [47:00–50:04] — “Griper” staffer pipeline in the GOP, Politico report, generational concerns
• [50:17–51:46] — MAGA media’s declining numbers, causes and implications

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Tone & Takeaways

The Bulwark crew treads the line between sharp critique and dark comedy, mocking the absurdities while highlighting real dangers of Republican infighting, radicalization, and post-truth narratives. The hosts attribute the ongoing chaos to both GOP mismanagement and the media ecosystem’s tolerance for grifters and provocateurs. The episode leaves listeners with a portrait of a movement at war with itself, unsure whether to cling to power, double down on scandal, or simply move on to the next own goal.

Transcript

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[Sam Stein]

Morning everybody. It's me, Sam Stein, managing Under the Book with Andrew Egger, guest contributor to MAGA Mondays, and Will Summer.

[Will Sommer]

Don't let anybody in here.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, I know standards have gone really low. It's a pleasure to be with you guys. It's Monday, August 3rd and I am fresh off of travel hell. I know Will Summer really wants to get into my travel karma, but I was in Maine this morning after an 11 hour delay that ended up in a cancellation, woke up at 4:30am to get on a 6am flight. So I'm a little tired and I have not been keeping up with what's going on on the Internet. So Will, you're gonna have to really guide me and Andrew, you're gonna have to really guide us too. But I did see, or was fortunate enough to see, I suppose Max Miller and I know Andrew talked about this a little bit yesterday on video, but I was blown away by how creepy the entire thing was and frankly, like if you watch that and you're like yeah, this guy should be in Congress. I'm a little bit confused at what kind of conclusion you've drawn from it. But I what I didn't get, Will, was what the right wing Internet reaction to this was. So what has it been?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I mean the one thing I want to say about the Max Miller thing as we dive in here is I, I went through a lot of the Dropbox. I've evaluated the evidence and it's kind of going through it and you're like if I was a judge deciding should this guy get to kid every other weekend, I might have a hard decision to make. But if you're like should this guy be in Congress? The answer is obviously not, you know, the we're starting to see and Andrew and I kind of pointed at this in our video yesterday that as Bernie Moreno, the senator and his former father in law as he wades in Republicans are start and they're like wait a minute, this is a battleground seat maybe starting to get a little more like you gotta go man, you Know, we got about a week to get rid of you. So we're starting to see. I saw Seth Mandel, a conservative commentator. You know, I have to say the preponderance of the evidence appears to be going against Max Miller. Matt Gaetz. Now I will say Matt Gaetz, he's got a lot of feuds and I feel like maybe he's like, Max Miller, you know, didn't support Matt Gaetz's section and again or whatever back in the day. But Matt Gaetz was just posted some of the audio and he said a little weird. Little weird things going on here. So I think we're starting to see Max Miller kind of come under some fire.

[Sam Stein]

Are we allowed to. Do we have the audio that Matt Gates found weird? I mean, all of it was particularly weird, but is there a specific slice that my Gates didn't like ever had

[Will Sommer]

a needle in my bedroom drawer.

[Sam Stein]

And that is not.

[Advertisement Voice]

Where are they, Max?

[Will Sommer]

Because that's where I found it. Nope, I don't have needles in the house. You can come check. There's no.

[Sam Stein]

I've never put a needle in the house.

[Andrew Egger]

Please do.

[Will Sommer]

Okay, but I understand. And the other thing too, and I completely agree with you, but the other thing too is eight months prior. Okay, I want to be clear and have an understanding about this. I told you I was doing TRT and then I had stopped. I want to be clear because you acknowledge that and you knew I was testosterone placement there. I know this for a fact. So you've already acknowledged that. You already know that that behavior was going on and you already know that it has ceased for over seven months.

[Andrew Egger]

So.

[Will Sommer]

Well, you told me you did it

[Advertisement Voice]

and that was it.

[Andrew Egger]

Correct?

[Advertisement Voice]

Right.

[Andrew Egger]

So when I found a needle, I

[Will Sommer]

had no idea what the fuck it was.

[Advertisement Voice]

I also asked you several times if

[Andrew Egger]

you were still doing it and you said no.

[Sam Stein]

All right, let's back up for a second, Andrew. So we jumped right into it and I suppose the listeners and the viewers may need a little bit of refresher. Max Miller is a congressman from a relatively safe Republican district in Ohio. I mean, it's not like totally safe now plus five.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah, I mean it's.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, it's not that safe. Okay, I take it back. He is embroiled in this controversy, scandal, chaos with his ex wife, who's Senator Bernie Marino's daughter. He's accused of basically everything. Like he's accused of throwing hot water, boiling water at his ex wife, of. Of hurting his little girl, fracturing her. One of her bones or did. It was A fracture was a break. I forget what it was. Physical psychological torture, basically. And he's been. He's also an ex Trump aide, and so he's got the backing of the president. Matt Gates there, played a video of it and, and he released just one second.

[Will Sommer]

He.

[Sam Stein]

So this has been building up and. And Max Miller decided he was gonna finally speak out about it, said, oh, this is all nonsense. All these allegations against me are wrong. This is a bitter divorce and a custody battle. And as proof, I'm going to release all this evidence. And he put out a Dropbox. It didn't particularly go well. He had to put it down, put it back up. And this is the stuff that was. Will was combing through and that my Gates found so strange, including the testosterone replacement therapy. Okay. That's the backstory, Andrew.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah, just. Just to kind of put a little bit of a finer point on the allegations against him. His ex wife is one of several women who has accused him of being physically violent and abusive. Is it Stephanie Grisham, am I right about that? The former Trump aide, who is. Who is another one of these. And then there are allegations dating back, you know, to his time in high school and in college. So that is. That is toward women. And this is stuff that these women have come forward to say. The allegation about his daughter was that there was a Child Protective Services investigation after she went to the hospital with, I believe, a broken collarbone. And there was just a lot of suspicious stuff around that injury to suggest that it might have been abuse. I don't think anything ever came of that investigation. Obviously there were never any criminal charges or anything like that, but it was just another suspicious injury around this guy. A lot of this stuff was reported in. A couple of journalists were looking into it. Basically, there was a big Mother Jones piece, a big Politico piece into Max Miller, but it was all in the realm of media coverage. Right. It had not really taken off on X on social media. And then I think what we have seen since yesterday is that this has been a gigantic own goal by Max Miller to come forward and kind of put a spotlight on this in a format and, you know, just with a different kind of flavor that makes it more buzzy on social media, where all these Trump people are hanging out and talking. And it has gone badly for him. It has led to Bernie Moreno coming out for the very first time and saying a bunch of remarkable stuff about how abhorrent he finds Max Miller, about how he is afraid whenever his granddaughter is in this guy's Custody about how this guy has no business being anywhere close to Congress. And it also has a lot of these right wing influencers combing through again, some of this same stuff that he himself put out there and being like, whoa, this guy sounds.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, why did he put it out there like that? That doesn't really. I didn't get the strategy there.

[Will Sommer]

Well, yeah, I mean, you know, we can show another highlight shortly. But I mean, look, he's an eloquent guy. He's a master of spoken word and video. So I can understand why he would wait.

[Sam Stein]

Or is that okay? Because I just. How would you know?

[Will Sommer]

There's a long lineup. It's kind of like when we start MAGA Monday. And it's like unclear whether it's gone live yet. And he's just looking around and he's like, okay, are we live? And then he does like a face. You know, if, if you're facing these allegations about maybe drinking too much, maybe I wouldn't be drinking from like a highball glass or whatever. I mean, it, it's a lot of weird stuff going on. I mean, it struck me he has all these excuses. You know, you mentioned the broken collarbone. He says, yeah, I don't know, that was like, caused by a seatbelt, maybe. Classic children. See, why do they make the seat belts like that? So they're always breaking kids collarbones. And then, you know, then he says at one point he's like, because there's this allegation that he like threw hot water on his wife. And he says, that was horseplay. We were goofing off in the kitchen. But then when you listen to the audio, he's like, I told you not to get near me. That's the audio he put out. He's all right, don't get near me. And he's like, it just left a red mark.

[Sam Stein]

Put the. Let's play. Let's. Let's play this psychologist. Play the psychologist part because it's kind of funny. But I also just want to actually keep up the picture of it because there's a lot to dissect about the choices Miller made in, in this setting

[Will Sommer]

or appointed parenting coordinator. And please listen to. This is a psychologist. Psychologist. Psychologist.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, so just leave that for saying. Did they not. I guess they didn't edit this video because you would take that out. Right?

[Will Sommer]

It's weird.

[Andrew Egger]

Live.

[Will Sommer]

It's supposed to be live, but. But you can, you know, you can record a video and then be like, we're live, you know.

[Sam Stein]

Right.

[Will Sommer]

It was a little surprising to Me that he really like taken it.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, that's what I was wondering. If he's to go live at 11, but it's just really him in a recorded video. That would have been a better, a better choice there. He just, the setting is so, I don't know, it jumps out of me as a little contrived. Obviously the kids are all around people who are listening and I was told actually ran into a couple MAGA Monday fans in, in Maine over the weekend. But they're like, I can't. I'm listening to the pod. I'm not seeing it. So you gotta describe what we're seeing. Anyways, he's sitting in what appears to be his kitchen. He's wearing a golf polo over a white, what looks like a white tee. Yeah. V neck T shirt and a golf over shirt. And he's got like, just, I don't know, how would you describe his eyes? His eyes are like, there's like a sadness and intensity somehow both in those eyes. And then there's kids art plastered right behind him very ubiquitously. And I believe there's a photo of him and Trump all the way over his back right shoulder, him trumping someone else. Anyways, it's like a classic. I'm just a dad hanging out in my kitchen, just got back from a game of golf, I wouldn't throw water on my wife type of setting.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah. He's saying I'm just a guy dealing with my crazy ex wife who has, along with several women for since going back to high school, fabricated allegations against me. It's great.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. Andrew, so does he. What's the deadline here? He's got a couple days before he can drop out.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah. August 10th is, I believe, the deadline for them to call a new special election to replace him in the primary if he were to drop out. It seems like there is a growing permission structure, at least, I don't know if I would call it momentum exactly yet. But the business with Bernie Moreno, the senator, coming out and attacking him in such remarkably vivid terms has clearly at least given Republicans who were already leaning toward thinking this guy was bad news has given them a permission structure to really start saying that out loud without having to, you know, ally with the fake news media or the Democrats and aid and abet the enemy by saying that this obvious lunatic maybe should not be in Congress going forward.

[Sam Stein]

Maybe should not be. Yeah, well, I don't, I don't know. Do you think he, do you think he'll drop out? I, I, it didn't, there's no indication from the video that he has any desire to do that.

[Will Sommer]

One thing I want to flag is that there's already challengers or replacements waiting.

[Sam Stein]

Oh God. Talk about this guy, what's his name? The challenger, the potential right wing Challenger,

[Will Sommer]

J R JR JR Majewski, who is a hardcore QAnon believer who ran against, I believe her name is Marcy Captor. Elsewhere in Ohio, he, once he car, he cut a Q and A queue into his lawn with a lawnmower. And, and so you could see it from an airpl. And so this guy, you know, he's, he's run to great defeat in the past, but he has volunteered. He's ready.

[Sam Stein]

He was a character, he was a real character in the last cycle. I forget what else happened that was like deeply problematic with his candidacy. But he, he got toasted. Like it wasn't even close. Yeah, it'd be fun.

[Andrew Egger]

Plus five just to say it again.

[Will Sommer]

Can you imagine if they're like, yeah, thanks, we won't need you on this one, Junior. I feel like if you're at the Mike Johnson pack when you're watching this Max Miller video, it's kind of like how I felt when Biden in the debate was like, and we're going to destroy Medicare. It's like, no.

[Sam Stein]

Fuck no. Jared Majewski, this is from the AP. In 2022, campaigning for Northwestern Ohio congressional seat, Republican J.R. majewski presents himself as an Air Force combat veteran who deployed to Afghanistan after 911 terrorist attacks, once describing tough conditions including lack of running water that forced him to go more than 40 days without a shower. Military documents obtained by the assess press, though through a public records request, tell a different story. They indicate Majewski never deployed to Afghanistan, but instead completed a six month stint helping to load planes at an air base in Qatar.

[Will Sommer]

That's right.

[Sam Stein]

This guy's, this guy's the best.

[Andrew Egger]

This is so much, this is so much like that, that Texas race where it was Tony Gonzalez, right, who had that horrible, horrible scandal with his staffer. And like he put off resigning and put off resigning and put up resigning until it became totally untenable. Finally he resigns. It's like, oh, who's waiting in the wings? Brandon Herrera, the crowd craziest maga gun youtuber you've ever seen in your entire life, who has like this insane history of incendiary comments. So it's like, hooray, we got the, we got the horrible, you know, sex pest out of here. And, and this is our reward.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, we got in Trouble for talking about Brandon Herrera. Will and I did on 1 Mega Monday. We didn't really get in trouble. I mean, we were talking about the gross things he was saying about kids, and I don't want to repeat it. And we had one listener who was, like, very upset that we used his vivid language.

[Andrew Egger]

She was me.

[Sam Stein]

You wrote us anonymously from like the email account Dolores something.

[Andrew Egger]

Correct? That's my burner.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, good to know. All right, let's move on because I'm actually more excited about this story, which is the reflecting pool story that also transpired over the weekend. Basic just is it was all horseshit. Trump lied the entire time about there being a 300 foot yard. 300 yard slit down the middle of it. Everyone knew his horseshit. Eventually they're gonna have to miss horseshit. And so it falls to Janine Pirro, of all people, to file to file a motion dismiss the charges against this, this Olympian who they had charged for this stupid made up crime. And then that was not the end of it, though. Like, they couldn't even let her fall on the sword. Trump had to go on to True Social and just berate Janine Pirro for dropping the charges, saying, of course it was vandalism. What are you talking about? And then Doug Burgum, who used to be like, you know, a serious person, he had to go and he put up something. I know we don't have it here. I'll read it. The evidence is clear. Vandals have repeatedly caused damage to the reflecting pole. Some of these acts were even caught on camera. We also provided the U.S. attorney's Office expert and eyewitness testimony to the damage done by vandals. Blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's, it's a, it's a mess. And Will, I, I mean, I don't feel bad at all for Jeannie Perry because you ruined this dude's life. Like she ruined this Olympian's life. Well, not ruined life, but she caused him pretty big harm. But can she survive this? Like, how do you go through this and, and come out the other side staying as U.S. attorney?

[Will Sommer]

You know, I think it's, I think she might make it through. I mean, I, I think if it was kind of some random person who was U.S. attorney, they, they might not.

[Sam Stein]

Not Judge Janine.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I mean, look, she's a survivor. I mean, she know, she's, she, she botched the, you know, the jinx, prosecution, whatever. She's been here before. I mean, the, the. I think, on the other hand, this is one of these Classic instances where you end up with like, Trump versus the facts. And you just have to acknowledge at some point, it's like, I'm sure her U.S. attorneys were like, our assistant U.S. attorneys were like, we could get disbarred. Like, we have to like, start covering up information. We're inventing a crime. And so at some point they had to say, all right, you know what, we kind of got to let this go. But it is interesting to me that Doug Burgum was like, we provided all the evidence of the awful vandalism, which, by the way, obviously we can't show anyone else, you know, but it's so real, we could only give it to Janine and I guess she botched it.

[Andrew Egger]

Well, and Piro's filing too. I mean, it really did throw the Interior department under the bus. It explicitly said, you know, we did not get a complete picture of the state that the reflecting pool bottom was in before any of these so called vandals showed up. And now, knowing what we now know about how it was just a botched application process, we would not. I mean, it's really funny the way they phrase it because they're like, you know, we can't even really argue in good conscience that these people did, did this damage, let alone be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt because the liner was just already pulling away. Like, everybody knew from the very beginning. So, yeah, I mean, kind of through Burgum under the bus there.

[Sam Stein]

But that's like, okay, fair enough. She did throw him under the bus. Well, yeah, I was gonna say, what's the alternative? It's like, oh, man, we just absolutely fabricated everything. Like we. We just totally made everything up. No, she had to be like, we were given faulty information. I was gonna do my second Biden reference. This whole thing, like, you know, they just refuse to show us the vandalism that they've caught repeatedly. It's like that whole thing where Biden is just so sharp. Dumbass. Coming out of this, this guy was like a respected business leader and a governor of a state, and he's been. Not only has he been reduced to telling like, stupid lies about the reflecting pool, but it feels like the entirety of his job is just going around D.C. and doing renovation projects. He's the interior secretary.

[Will Sommer]

I think he got addicted to that America 250 clout. I mean, I feel like he was on stage so much at like, you know, these awful concerts or whatever, and he's just like, I'm the star, you know, I got to stick with Trump. You know, one thing I want to flag here is that after the America 250 thing, remember, the FBI had an evidence response team out there investigating the pool. So, you know, is Cash going to get pulled into this? What's their proof?

[Sam Stein]

I haven't really heard from Cash about this, to be honest with you.

[Will Sommer]

He's laying low, I think, which is the other thing, is there. There were, like, some media figures who were involved in promoting this. I mean, Brian Stelzer does a thing out this morning saying, what's up with when Jesse Waters was like, here's the proof of the vandals. You know, and obviously, the real star of the Reflecting Pool saga was, of course, Emily Miller, the running reporter, conservative reporter, who would say, here's my damning video about the vandalism. And then it would be sort of like a fever dream of images that really didn't prove anything. And, you know, now she's insisting, you know, the proof is out there. It's just kind of, let's.

[Sam Stein]

Let's play here, because this is her talking about the vandalism and gives you a sense of the type of reporting and reputational stake she put on this.

[Advertisement Voice]

Trump has been telling the public about the very serious vandalism that happened here at the reflecting pool on June 8th. While I've known about it since the morning of June 9th when it was discovered, it was only yesterday that I got the visual evidence that I needed to prove the serious vandalism had happened with a knife right here.

[Will Sommer]

This audio really puts it over. So she's just violent. Trump violent.

[Sam Stein]

What is the Trump colon? Violent? Have anything. What are those pegs that she's pointing to?

[Will Sommer]

Like, fence posts that were thrown into the water. I mean, I remember. God. I think my favorite Emily Miller video was when they had the fence up around it and some guy jumped the fence to, like, retrieve a soccer ball. And she was like, you can't be doing that. They won't even let me near the pool. It's a weird. She had kind of like a.

[Sam Stein]

She's defended herself, though. People have been calling her out about this, being like, will you just acknowledge that you made everything up? And she's like, no, no, different vandalism. You got it all wrong. I wasn't talking about the Olympian David hearing. It's someone else I was talking about. So she's not backing down.

[Will Sommer]

There's a lot of, like, timeline issues with the, like, people who believe in the vandalism. Like, they just won't, like, lay out a timeline because they'll show some video and it's like someone dipping their hands in the water and it's like, yeah, this is pretty much when we assume someone cut a 40 foot gas down.

[Sam Stein]

It's not a 40 foot cash, it's a 300 foot gash. It's gotten so big. How did someone go through the pool just cutting a gash for what is the length of a football field? It was never caught on tape.

[Will Sommer]

Thick stuff. And they escaped. You know one thing that struck me is I don't think they've ever caught the people who did 8647 in the grass.

[Sam Stein]

They have not.

[Will Sommer]

Right. Which is kind of weird because, you know, if they, if you look at the video from the Washington Monument, it was like a dozen people or something. I mean can people really do that then just get away with it?

[Sam Stein]

I don't know.

[Andrew Egger]

I like how Trump's posts repeatedly suggest that it's the same people, the same person or group of people who did reflecting pool damage in the 8647. I mean he keeps saying, he keeps saying, I can't believe that anybody would suggest there wasn't any vandalism of the reflecting pool. Didn't they see what these guys did to the grass? It's like, well, yeah, that was a different thing. That one happened. That one's on camera.

[Sam Stein]

That one did happen and it does raise a question why nothing has happened with that. That one's pretty prosecutable. I feel like there's gotta be some cameras on the mall, right? Like that seems pretty obvious.

[Andrew Egger]

There's a 24 hour lives. I mean it's from the top of the Washington monuments. You're not going to get face faces, but you would think you could stitch it together. What's, what's Cash doing? Where is he? Come on, get these guys.

[Sam Stein]

What if it was Comey? It was just walking the grass in the grass. Just killing his time, getting dreaded on the grass. Okay, so what's gonna happen with the reflecting pool? Are we is ever gonna open again? It's gonna open, right? They just need to redo repairs. Do we have the status of the repairs?

[Will Sommer]

Can they do. Do we know how to do repairs anymore? Have we lost the art of having a working reflecting pool? I don't know.

[Sam Stein]

How hard is it to do these? It actually is quite hard. It's a big pool and clearly they botched it. That's the other thing in the pure filing she does say like it was botched. Right? Like that's kind of problematic for Trump. I don't know. I don't know if she lasts. How can you last? He's throwing her under the bus.

[Will Sommer]

And you know, at this point also you, you add in she messed up the sandwich guy. You know, all these things that are kind of Trump priorities. You know, he had to farm out the, the grand jury, you know, to Joe de Genova down in Florida of his real enemies. You know, it's, it's a whole, I think it's back to Fox News.

[Sam Stein]

All right, let's take a quick break from our sponsors. On the flip side, we will continue maga Monday with a few things on Trump Insider. Trad. I really wanted to do something on Trump golf or golfing. And we got a little thing on Tucker.

[Will Sommer]

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[Andrew Egger]

Damage.

[Will Sommer]

It comes in tons of flavors including mint, cinnamon, bubblegum and berry. They have a really great fluoride free toothpaste, too. We had some Lorenco gum here at the Bulwark office and I tried the cinnamon flavor and I really liked it. Now when I'm writing my false flag newsletter, I pop in a piece of Lorinco and it feels good to know that I'm helping my teeth stay strong and healthy every time I use it. It's a totally effortless way to make sure that you're taking the best care of your teeth possible. Right now, Laureen Co is offering our listeners up to 50% off at bylorine.com bulwark takes that's by Laureen L A R I N E dot com bulwark takes for up to 50% off.

[Sam Stein]

I love it. Dude, look. Let me see those teeth. Let me see. Look at those teeth. Those are some Lorenco teeth right there.

[Will Sommer]

Brought to you by Lorenco.

[Sam Stein]

Damn.

[Will Sommer]

That's the enamel goes crazy.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, my God. Those teeth are pearly white and straight. Your gums look fantastic. Is that all Lorinco?

[Will Sommer]

That's. Yeah, they were all falling out before.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, my God. You know what? They could use Larynka. If it works like that, they should put it as the sealant on the reflecting pool just like a lot of chewed gum. Rub it in I like it how you, that's how you converge the advertiser in the mega Monday content. Andrew, welcome to the show. Jesus Christ.

[Andrew Egger]

I'm learning a lot.

[Sam Stein]

All right, let's talk about Trump insider trading. This one really bought. This isn't even like a MAGA Monday topic because this is just so outwardly corrupt. The only reason I'm talking about it in the MAGA Monday context is that there are actually people out there who are like appalled by this. So Trump media, we all knew this was coming. They, they were going to do this data service deal where you could pay for early access to Trump truth so that you could basically, you know, get a heads up when he's going to make some market moving bleat. I, I guess. And so I now the, the reports were that they were going to charge $100,000 for this. Is that right?

[Will Sommer]

A month?

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, a month. $100,000 a month.

[Will Sommer]

That's right. That's bad pocket change.

[Andrew Egger]

That's, you can get a deal on it. 60,000amonth if you, if you prepay. So sounds so bad.

[Sam Stein]

Should we do it?

[Will Sommer]

Can you imagine? Hey guys, here's Trump's tweet in two minutes.

[Sam Stein]

Sarah Long. Well, hey, we just kind of need this. We need early access if we're gonna bet. You know, we need the X now. That's a lot of money. It seems outwardly corrupt. I don't think there's any defense of it but has anyone mustered a defense?

[Will Sommer]

Well, you know, I haven't seen, I feel like more and more with the Trump corruption stuff we're seeing a kind of like looking away. I mean we've kind of seen this all the time but like they're just like, I mean, you know, Betty Johnson doesn't have to engage with this if he doesn't, you know, people aren't like defend this. So you know, we are seeing though I think from the more business minded Trump world people there's a little bit of like, you know, because a lot of this is related to markets and like kind of insider trading type stuff. So they're seeing a little like don't mess with the money man. You know, they, I think this is like one they recognize as a bad thing because it relates to, to markets and money.

[Sam Stein]

It's pretty gross. I mean there's no, it's just straight up insider trading, right Andrew?

[Andrew Egger]

It's extraordinarily gross. Right. I mean it's crazy even to begin with that we have so much US Government policy that gets rolled out first on this website that the President owns and profits from, it's the only thing that gives this website any value. So there's already a little bit of rent seeking to that. Right. And now the idea that we're going to gate it behind a paywall and that if you just give the President personally hundreds of thousands of dollars, you get to be the first one who knows what the US Government is up to about any given thing at any given time. I mean, it's. Any way you slice it, it's like one of the craziest things that you've ever seen. It's like we just did the anti weaponization fund, which has now gotten canceled. And like, that was, that was insane, at least cancelled. Well, we've had some action on that. It seems like it's more canceled than it was yesterday. But even that was just going to J6 first, right? I mean, this straight into the President's own pocket by design and by their own admittance, I mean, their own rollout of this is like get access to the, to the most market moving truths

[Sam Stein]

before anybody else had the conversation. How do you think the conversation went, Andrew, behind deciding to do this? Because I envision something like this. It's probably like Trump and Devin Nunes and something like, you know, there's all Evans accusing us of insider trading because of all this market activity. And, you know, everyone's like hitting us like that. We're telling people like, we're going to announce this potential ceasefire and what if we just monetize that? Like, why don't we just make money on the fact that we have this insider information and then we could actually, you know, just make even more money.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah, yeah. It can't be insider training if they offer it to everybody, right? I mean, but that's like, it's, that's it, right? And that's, that's the, that's the trick of it is a lot of people are going to have to pony up for this, right? JBL has been writing about this. I mean, it is, it is really going to be like an indispensable service for as long as this status quo persists of Donald Trump making these crazy announcements that create and wipe away trillions of dollars in market cap with a random post on Truth Social, right? Like, you'd have to be crazy to run any kind of financial firm and not pony up for this.

[Sam Stein]

So that's what Captain Randall said. She's like, it's dropping the bucket for these big, big, big firms, right?

[Andrew Egger]

And so it almost becomes less of an insider trading thing, because everybody's on the inside. And more of just Donald Trump. Trump skimming off the top of, like, the entire financial system. Right. In a way that is, like, completely just, like, robbing every single individual participant in markets just as much as if you were taking this out of the U.S. treasury. I mean, it's insane.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, but Will, they're gonna. There's gonna be some poor desk that has to, like, sort through all the AI slop that he posts just for,

[Will Sommer]

like, yeah, like, okay, he posted Trust the Plan. You know, there's this image of him as Jesus.

[Sam Stein]

Here's one of him as the Emperor of Greenland. Oh, wait, he wants to, like.

[Will Sommer]

Do you think that they saw the teleprompter guy making all these bets on Cal or whatever? And then they said, we got to get our beak wets on the. On this. Somehow we got to get a piece of this.

[Sam Stein]

He can't be pro. He can't be the one profiting from the insider knowledge. We actually possess it. Let's sell it. I think that's exactly what happened. Maybe not like we saw the teleprompter story, but they are like everyone else is. Anyone else who has insider information is using it to make money money, but we actually possess it. We're the originators of the information. So let's just sell it. And that's it.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I think that's it. I mean, and so, yeah, so we saw this venture capitalist, Sean McGuire, among other people, saying, yeah, put it up. Yep. He's saying, I don't support this. Moves like this cheapen Trump's policy wins, of which there have been many. No, he didn't add the skepticism there, but the. Yeah, I mean, basically, we're seeing him and some other people.

[Sam Stein]

Jason Caliconakis said Trump was getting bad advice.

[Andrew Egger]

I hate it when the President gets bad advice.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. He has no agency whatsoever. Yeah.

[Andrew Egger]

Seems like pretty good advice for him. He's going to make millions and millions and millions of dollars for doing nothing.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. Here's the thing. It's like, if people want, you know, insider information from the Bulwark, I'm willing to offer a service for people if they want to Venmo me like, a couple bucks for my tweets. Yeah, no, you should just subscribe to the Bulwark anyway. We won't.

[Andrew Egger]

You can read. You can read Sam's conversations with Katie Miller on x.com Whole milliseconds before the rest of them.

[Sam Stein]

You got a little salty about the fact that I was talking with her online.

[Andrew Egger]

Why are we actually getting into this? No, you always tell us, save it for. You know, don't give that money to Elon. Save it for content. Go on YouTube.

[Sam Stein]

I. What I mean by that is that if you have, like, a little scoop or something, you shouldn't just post it on Twitter. You should post on the Bulwark and then we could send it out. I'm not like, all I'm doing is engaging Katie Miller in a conversation online. She wasn't gonna email me. It just happened. I don't know why she responded to me on Twitter. The backstory here, folks, is Katie Miller was exposed as having been cozying up to Anthony Fouch during the pandemic. Getting a lot of advice from him. She was nervous. She was pregnant. He was helping her. Yeah, there Butts. He was helping her get through a very difficult time in our country's history and a difficult time for her. And now she wants him jailed. And it was exp. Shows in her diary that she had this old relationship with him. And so I was kind of curious what the new one was like, but she posted. What was it like? I was just doing this to keep my enemies closer or something insane.

[Will Sommer]

Keep your friends close and your enemies apprised of the status of your pregnancy.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, it's like, that seems like an extraordinary, you know, bank shot move you're doing there. Katie.

[Will Sommer]

She never actually wear a mask, and she's like this sicko. This is going.

[Sam Stein]

There was one part in their exchange where she's like, he told my husband to leave me. And I. And I first was like, wait, what? Like. But what she meant was he got.

[Andrew Egger]

He had Covid.

[Sam Stein]

One of the. He got coveted. And so he advised even though to leave the house, but the tweet made it seem like he advised even Miller to divorce her. I was like, that's insane. What is Raji doing anyways? That was a fun exchange. I'm sorry. You were right, Andrew. I should have. I should have saved her for the book.

[Andrew Egger]

Now, that one was good. I take it all back.

[Sam Stein]

Hey, Pac. 1966 says Stein is the worst bully of a boss. I'm. I'm not. I'm really not.

[Will Sommer]

Every episode even, like, there's just like. Someone's just like, this man is twisted.

[Andrew Egger]

Blink twice if you're being abused, you know?

[Sam Stein]

Okay. Oh, my God. Auntie Lou says from an HR perspective. Interesting conversation, Sam. I don't know if she's. He's directing that at me, but I don't know. Okay. I'm Gonna be nicer. Sorry. Sorry, guys.

[Andrew Egger]

There are so many better moments to bring this.

[Sam Stein]

I know. I feel like we were bonding too. All right, a couple more. What's this Tucker thing? So this now I'm in territory where I have not.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah. So this is the part of the doc where Will's just up at like 1am Just thinking that I want to talk about it. Okay, so here's the deal. So one of my favorite characters in the MAGA universe universe is Elizabeth Lane, a woman from the Republic of Georgia, who I feel there's a lot of compelling evidence is a Russian agent or, you know, very sympathetic to the Russian government. She's kind of a Sea List MAGA person as well. She's very tight with Candace and Tucker. She has been promoted by them relentlessly, even when she had like an infinitesimal audience. Which, given Tucker and Candace's closeness with the Russian government, raises some interesting theories for me. Most importantly, this woman dated a guy who's a parent officer in the fsb, the Russian, you know, secret intelligence and a Spetsnaz officer. So like, like a commando has been involved with like African Wagner, you know, schemes. So basically a guy who's like, clearly like a Russian intelligence officer. So she goes on Tucker now this week, and Tucker's like, look, some people are saying you're a Russian intel operative. I don't really care. Maybe you are. Let's hear what you have to say. Let's play that cl. You have been accused of being a foreign intel operative.

[Andrew Egger]

Right.

[Will Sommer]

Which you deny, of course. I just want to say out loud, I don't care because that's not the point. The point is, is the story you're about to tell true or is it not?

[Andrew Egger]

She denies it.

[Will Sommer]

Her story is not true. The stories she's about to tell, like, it's all just her being like. There are these, these terrible people on Twitter who say, I'm a Russian intelligence agent, bro.

[Andrew Egger]

If you ask a Russian intelligence agent if they're a Russian intelligence agent, they have to tell you. If you ask them, they have to let you know.

[Will Sommer]

And she says it in the most half hearted way. He's like, are you Vladimir Putin? She's like, no.

[Sam Stein]

It was so non convincing. Of course I'm not

[Will Sommer]

talking about her Russian intelligence boyfriend. And Tucker is like, you told me about this guy and you said he was a good guy like you. It sounded you're allowed to date people. And she's like, it was. He was a muscular intelligence agent, you know, like, she doesn't quite Say he's, she says he's a former military man. It's very weird. And like, obviously I have a great passion for Russian infiltration of right wing media, but it is just comical to me how you have this lady who's like, I think, like, has these really extensive documented ties and yet these guys keep putting her on in a way that is like promoting her. And it makes you wonder what's up with Tucker and Candace. Very interesting.

[Sam Stein]

What is the status of Tucker right now? It's. I will note in the comments, people are like, man, haven't heard that name in a little while. It does feel like he's kind of receded a touch. Yeah.

[Will Sommer]

You know, he had some moment that I was looking at. I feel like a week or two ago he had something. But I, you know, it's the summer, you know, he's up in Maine. Not unlike you, Sam, you know.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah.

[Will Sommer]

You know, you could have gone to the cabin. I do think Tucker's losing his fastball a little bit. I mean, his great skill was that he could. Even after he left Fox, he kind of straddled this world where he could hang out with Candace, he could hang out with Nick Fuentes, but also he was getting invited to the Turning Point conventions. He was still kind of a Trump world figure. He was going to the White House, but I feel like, I guess after the Iran war and he's kind of been pushed more into the oppositional camp.

[Andrew Egger]

Did you guys see that picture of him and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Joe Kent and Thomas Massie? And that was strange. Like they're, they're like planting some flag, like, we're coming to take over the right, so watch out.

[Will Sommer]

Yes. Yes. And Laura Loomer was, There was a wine glass near Tucker and she's like, Tucker's not supposed to drink. He's. He's an out of control alcoholic. And then if you look at the picture, it's like, well, it's kind of clearly someone else's glass, I guess.

[Sam Stein]

Classic glimmer. I did see that mass he met with Mike Flynn. What was that? Did you guys see that one?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I think, I think Massey, you know, he's sort of losing his, you know, Libs loved him in the old summer 20.

[Sam Stein]

There's the picture. Is this Tucker's cabin?

[Will Sommer]

Sort of looks like it. Yeah. There's Brian Glenn, newly married to Marjorie Taylor Green. You know, Marjorie Taylor Green. We haven't talked about this on Mega Monday, obviously. They got married in Vegas two weekends ago.

[Sam Stein]

Well, before we get, before we get There. Who are these people? The front left. Who is this woman?

[Will Sommer]

Front left is Massey's new wife, I think.

[Sam Stein]

Okay. And then. And then Brian Glenn, former. Marjorie.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah. Her husband, Marjorie Taylor Green. We got Tucker at the head of the table. Joe Kent, I guess. Joe Kent's wife. Or, or have Massey three.

[Andrew Egger]

Three married couples. And Tucker Carlson.

[Sam Stein]

I don't see the wine glass. Oh, I see the wine glass. That's not Tucker's. That's clearly Marjorie Taylor's. Brian Glenn's. Okay.

[Andrew Egger]

Marjorie is the only person drinking wine at this table, as far as I can tell.

[Will Sommer]

Let's go.

[Sam Stein]

They look like they're drinking hot chocolate. What. What's with the mugs?

[Will Sommer]

Why do they all have. I think those are Tucker branded mugs. That's just like here at the Bulwark, you know, when we drink our branded mugs, it looks like they had fun, I guess.

[Andrew Egger]

It's a cool chandelier. I like that.

[Sam Stein]

Very cool chandelier. A lot of antlers on it. The. Okay, I'm just looking around. Just looking around. There's a duck up there. There's a rifles. Yeah.

[Andrew Egger]

I do not actually think these guys are going to stage a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. I guess it's possible there's going to be a power vacuum after Trump, but, But I think, I don't know. I'm not sure they have the juice.

[Sam Stein]

It reminds me so in some point of this out, because there's a story about Elon deciding to donate a hundred million dollars for Republicans in the midterms and cycle. But like 12 months ago, Elon was going to start the. Was it the America party or American party? I forget which one was. He's like, I'm done. I'm starting this fresh party now. He's just, you know, back on the reservation. I just feel like more or less maybe Tom Massey's or, I don't know, maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene would do something like that, but I don't think it gets very far.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, I, I. Who knows what this crew cooking up? Maybe, I mean, Joe Kent, obviously is a big Charlie Kirk truth. Or maybe they're cooking up a defense for Tyler Robinson. Who knows?

[Sam Stein]

Okay. All right, let's close this out with my favorite topic, Trump and golf. The man is a bonafide cheater. Absolutely. Bonafide cheater. There's no doubt about it. There's a lot of evidence of it. There's video evidence of it. Rick Riley, famous sports writer, has written extensively about this man. Cheating. He cheats all the time. Trump won. What was it, his 43rd? 40th. Do you remember what it was? I'll try to find the actual post. He run his four. There it is. Okay, that's the second post. So he claims to have won the senior championship at Bedminster Golf Club this weekend. He says he shot a 70. This would be, I think, his 43rd title. I don't know if that's true. It's pretty remarkable. They happen to be all tournaments played at his club. And he's a cheater. And there's.

[Andrew Egger]

You gotta read that post, though.

[Sam Stein]

The winning shot in the Bedminster Club Championship. He includes a video of it. Thank you very much to all who of those who participated. I won with the score of 70. And I'm so honored in that, unlike the rest of the field, I'm given very little time to practice because I'm focused on many other things. It's called talent. And I have it and they don't. Just on the members of his own club. Unbelievable.

[Will Sommer]

Just some random other old guys. He's just like a bunch of losers. I'm running the world and you guys can't get a 70.

[Sam Stein]

Wow. Barely got time on the range and these old hacks couldn't even do it. Oh, my God. So good. I will say the shot he did post was a very nice shot, but there is no way that he shot a 70. He's 80 years old.

[Will Sommer]

He would be, like, incredibly good, right?

[Sam Stein]

So, yeah, basically it's. I'm assuming It's a par 72 course. That means he was 2 under for the whole round, which you got to be like. I mean, at 80 years old, that's just absolutely insane. Like, not gonna happen. I wish we could pull up the video of the caddy. Do you remember that video where the caddy just dropped the ball so he could hit it? That was the best. Guy cheats. Any thought there? You guys don't play golf, so you don't care?

[Will Sommer]

No, no. I'm waiting for Trump to rehab East Potomac. Then there will be a course worthy of my talents.

[Sam Stein]

I will say the worst performing MAGA Monday we ever did was when you and I talked about the East Potomac Golf Course renovations. It's like, negative reviews. It was awful. I guess the block community doesn't care for this stuff.

[Will Sommer]

You know, Sam, I know you said this was the last item. I would also like to talk about Vivek getting booed at the conference. Yeah. So, of course, folks, remember Vivek Ramaswamy, currently running for governor of Ohio. He appeared at a Young Americans for Liberties is sort of a more libertarian minded group at their national convention in Ohio. And he got booed off the stage. And I think his speech was supposed to be like 45 minutes. And after 12 minutes he was like, whatever, I'm out of here. Let's play that clip of the matter

[Sam Stein]

is, you know, no matter what happens in whichever direction we go, people, my generation have already made it.

[Andrew Egger]

We're gonna be fine.

[Sam Stein]

It's gonna be your generation. And you need to give them a. Does they call him a political Cretan?

[Will Sommer]

Oh, you're a political cretin. So the, so I, I watched this full 12 minute speech and, you know, the crowd did not like Vivek. You know, about half of them were with him, I guess, and half were heckling him, which is not a good ratio if you're trying to give a speech. And so, you know, ultimately he did obviously give up.

[Andrew Egger]

Up.

[Sam Stein]

Who are the hecklers?

[Will Sommer]

I, It's a little unclear. I mean, I, I, because obviously it's a dark room or whatever. I mean, the, the Young Americans for Liberty people, they said, you know, actually we love vake, like the, the national organization, I think what's going on here. It's obviously a lot of racism, but basically Vivek has been dogged for a while by this. He has this very, like, up by your bootstrap thing that I don't think plays number one very well in Ohio. It's kind of like before J.D. vance made his pivot from being like, you know, these rednecks, it's all their own fault. Then he's like, it's not their fault, actually, it's Yale's fault or whatever. So, you know, the, he's still doing this thing where it's just like, if you're a loser, that's kind of your own fault. His whole speech was about that. And, you know, that made people mad when he says people of my generation. So people like late 30s, early 40s, millennials, like, you know, they're fine. That obviously incensed people.

[Sam Stein]

I also like that he did an ad where he played it where he's just hitting a bunch of tennis balls as if that was like a very relatable thing for people.

[Andrew Egger]

And there are some real policy splits here too. I mean, there's a couple things that have really like become like shorthand for all the stuff Will's talking about right now. Like, you know, the, the real nativists want to get rid of H1B visas. So you can't bring in high skilled foreign workers. Vivek is, you know, anti getting rid of those, those visas, things like that. I did. It's kind of like a funny little psychodrama that, that he is a young candidate, but I, but obviously kind of an elder millennial. Right. And so when he says my generation's doing fine, he means mine as opposed to yours, you people out in the audience. But they all kind of seem to take that as like, what do you mean we're all doing fine? Right. Fuck you, Vivek.

[Will Sommer]

I'm at the Young Americans for Liberty conference. My life's in the pits.

[Sam Stein]

How old do you think Vivek is?

[Will Sommer]

I think 40. 41.

[Andrew Egger]

That sounds right. Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

You're 40. Young for me.

[Will Sommer]

Old soul.

[Sam Stein]

Old soul. I mean, he presents old. I will say he does present old.

[Andrew Egger]

And he has such an interesting backstory because he went kind of like straight from college into like finance world and then straight from that into founding like this weird like biotech company that was finance adjacent, that was all about sort of pitching venture capitalists on these, these drugs. And he didn't necessarily make a lot of important contributions in the field of medicine, but he did make a lot of money and then immediately parlayed that into this political career. So he has had this, you know, high flying life that I think a lot of people are a little bit pre primed to say, you know, my generation's doing great. It's been, it's been easy for me at least. I've worked pretty hard and done pretty well for myself. And like, well, your, your, your path is not one that is necessarily like median. Right?

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, but Will, how much of this is like that versus just straight up this dude's not white?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a lot of that. I mean I, I think it's a lot of racism. I, I will say, like, I think if you had a white guy up there, I think maybe they wouldn't love it. But, but I think it wouldn't be met with that reaction. I do think there's also like, oh, just over the past few years, I think the, the right has really started to hate Indian immigrants and, and that has seen, you know, in Texas we've seen like a big rise in that as well. So I think that that is just sort of like if we're watching kind of trends on the right. I think that's a big part of it.

[Sam Stein]

It's fascinating. One, I've been trying to get Andrew to go out to Ohio, follow The vague. But they won't respond. They like won't even like allow you to tag along or tell you.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah, the timing, the timing has been bad. I should get out there though. Maybe I still got.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I found a group of 30 year old slackers I'm gonna go yell at. Come on right along.

[Sam Stein]

It would have been great if you were at the Young Americans conference and you witnessed that would have been.

[Andrew Egger]

That one would not have been a public event. I imagine they've been. They have been running a very conservative media strategy, talking to a lot of friendly audiences and then showing up at a few state fairs. But it's totally unlike his presidential campaign a few years ago where it was like, I am this fringe candidate who's just trying to make a splash and he would go anywhere and talk to anybody. He invited me. I did a whole ride along on his bus for a couple of days in Iowa during that campaign. This time he's the Republican nominee for governor and he just wants to run out the clock and win in a reddish state. So it's much more buttoned down and they're doing a lot less talking to press.

[Sam Stein]

Unclear if it'll work. Honestly. Honestly. I mean like it's a weird. It's a weird cycle. And then you got like, I don't think Max Miller is going to matter for his race, but it doesn't help with the turnout. So there's that. Oh, I see. Sorry. I see we have a couple more topics we got to get to. Well, we don't have to get to them, but there is something about the griperization of GOP staffers I get which I do think is related to this. So Politico has that story about how just basically there's grippers all over the place.

[Will Sommer]

Yes, this article is. GOP staffers say the party has a graper problem. This is a recurring issue with touch on here at MAGA Monday. Basically that the pipeline for GOP staffers is all gripified. It's either Nick Fuente's fans or people who are otherwise racist and anti Semitic. You know one thing that really struck me in this article, you want to talk about how gray provide the young GOP is in this article they interview the head of a group called the College Republicans of America who said there's not a griper problem. Man, don't worry about it. Now that guy. There's a lot. There's a couple different factions of the College Republicans of America. That's the groiper version. Their political director is a guy named Kai Schwemmer, who's tight with Nick Fuentes. And like, it's so crazy. I kind of wish.

[Andrew Egger]

Good article.

[Will Sommer]

I wish Politico had noted that. That's like, that's like, really, like, they're like, turning the shades down. They're like, no gripers in here.

[Sam Stein]

Do you think it's. Do you think that's like. I mean, it seems from the outside like that this is true. Like, that the grippers are kind of

[Will Sommer]

infiltrating, constantly facing these, you know, racist young Republican leaks. We know the New York magazine just had an article two weeks ago about the New York Young Republicans Club. I think they're. One of their officers had this, you know, bigoted Twitter account. You know, this is something that keeps coming up for the right. And I don't think it's an accident.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah.

[Andrew Egger]

But I don't know single young Republican staffer who would dispute this. I think it's. I think it's a known fact among the actual young Republicans, and there are a lot of older Republicans who are still, you know, burying their heads in the sand about all of this. But it is a genuine and a growing problem as far as the actual professional Republican Party is concerned.

[Sam Stein]

Is that true on the Hill, too? Or is that.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I mean, I think. Look, you know, I mean, certainly maybe not the Hill, but, you know, we saw the. There was that article about the drama at the Heritage foundation where some guy quit and he was like, I'm just tired of debating who the bad guys were in World War II. You know, give me a break here. You know, one thing about the Hill, this article sparked, you know, Representative Victoria Sparks to tweet. She was like, I wouldn't say the issue is so much gripification as it is the baseline level of competence of Republican Hill staffers. And it's like, can you imagine being in her office and be like, what?

[Sam Stein]

Yeah.

[Andrew Egger]

It's the same thing, though, right? I mean, it's the same problem. You have, you have all of the old pipelines for, like, bringing new people in that used to be like, come work on conservative policy and follow in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan and we're gonna, we're gonna, you know, change America with, with this vision that we have. And that is all completely gone. And it's just like march in, you know, goose step to Trump content all day long at every step in sort of like the professional pipelines up to getting here is just a completely different group of people, and they are less competent and more racist and more insane.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. But Fuentes is not like super into

[Andrew Egger]

Trump right now, but these are long standing, systemic. Like it's decades, it's like a decade of all of this that has led to the crop who's now aging into it. So even though the gripers and all these guys are turning away to a certain extent now, I mean, you still have to deal with all of the people that were in high school or were in college or now we're interns and are now young, young staffers all through the movement.

[Sam Stein]

Sorry. Well, you're gonna say something.

[Will Sommer]

Oh, no, no. I, I, I, I think that a lot of gripers coming up.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, God. Okay. Last, last but not least, collapse of MAGA media. Yeah, I was a little bit surprised by that one.

[Will Sommer]

New York Times had an interesting article about how people ranging from Candace Owens to Benny Johnson, kind of all across the political spectrum of the right are seeing their numbers really fall year to year. Here we can, you know, you can see these for this is sort of a combination of 12 right wing influencers and they are down, down, down. You know, compared to March 2025, let's say their views on X are like a quarter of what they were a year ago or 14 months ago. I mean, these people are in the doldrums. Benny Johnson, Tucker, all these people all over the place.

[Sam Stein]

You know, there's, I, I'd be very curious. I want to dive more into these numbers because obviously I follow this stuff a lot. The, the X1 is kind of the most interesting thing to me. I don't really understand that because it's not like the platforms changed much from its algorithm or, I mean, Elon still owns it. YouTube stuff. Yeah, I guess. I don't know. Is this just. Paul is like, you know, the partying power. Their, their media is going to have some difficulty because it's either easier to be oppositional.

[Will Sommer]

You know, there might be something to that. I mean, I, I think that's certainly part of it. I mean, it is worth noting a lot of these peaks came, if you're looking at podcast listens, the peaks came in like, you know, like September of 2025. I guess there was this sense of, you know, the first couple months of the Trump administration where it was just like, we're gonna live forever, you know, America will be maga. And then the vibe shift quickly ended.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, the bubble definitely burst. Okay, well, look, if you're watching this and you want to make them struggle even further, the best way to do this is subscribe to the Bulwark and just increase our numbers at the cost of theirs so that we have the competitive advantage. In all seriousness, do subscribe to the Bulwark. We're trying to make a big push for not just paid subscribers, although that is the bread and butter for us. But free subscribers on substack. If you get a free subscription, you get access to, like, what, 50 of the stuff we do anyway. It's a great addition to your news diet. And then you can decide over time whether you want to pay for more. But a free subscription is great and you should pass it along to a lot of other people. Really, actually, no costs, a lot of value add. And then if you really support the mission, do a paying subscription. I believe we have a 14 day free trial, though. And so if you want to do that, that's great. You can also subscribe to us on YouTube. So if you're just watching this on YouTube, do that. It's a really great treat for yourself in the dog days of summer. All right, fellas, it's been real. I really like it. We're gonna leave with video of Trump cheating at golf. We pulled the video of Trump cheating.

[Will Sommer]

Thank goodness.

[Sam Stein]

Yes, I know.

[Advertisement Voice]

The.

[Sam Stein]

The masses were demanding this. Let's just watch his caddy cheat for him. Here we go.

[Will Sommer]

That's brave.

[Sam Stein]

And I'm just gonna hit that. Have you guys not seen that video?

[Will Sommer]

I. I think I've seen it before, but I kind of like the little alley oop he does. I know that guy's a pro.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, that's not. That's a cat. He was cheated many times before. He's. No pause.

[Will Sommer]

Just.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, I got the ball here. Just gonna drop it casually. And that's how you shoot a 70 and win your 43rd straight seniors open championship at your own club. All right, Will, Andrew, see you guys later. Everyone subscribe to the Blur because I said thanks for another edition of Mega Mondays.

[Will Sommer]

Thanks, everyone.