**Podcast Summary: Bulwark Takes – Trump Trolls, Dems Lecture—Guess Who Wins? (w/ Arthur Delaney)

Date: October 1, 2025
Host: Sam Stein | Guest: Arthur Delaney (HuffPost)**

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the ongoing government shutdown, the political dynamics fueling it, and the wildly different worlds inhabited by Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. Host Sam Stein interviews Hill reporter Arthur Delaney, unpacking not just the current negotiating impasse but also the ways each party is playing the shutdown politically, including Trump’s inflammatory online trolling and the Democrats’ more earnest, procedural messaging.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Shutdown Fatigue and the New Normal

• Shutdowns lose impact through repetition:
  • Delaney notes that the drama of past shutdowns has faded due to their growing frequency, despite real consequences.

  • “I think just through sheer repetition, the drama is much less this time, even though the effects are significant…we’ve done this before.”
    — Arthur Delaney (01:03)

2. Negotiations: Real or Theatrical?

• Stalemate as process:
  • Stein presses Delaney on whether negotiations are genuinely happening or just for show.
  • Delaney describes “talks” happening on the Senate floor but no substantive movement:

    • “There are no negotiations.” — Arthur Delaney (01:30)

    • “There’s like a few senators were huddling…we could all see them…Senate Republicans were just like, screw you guys.” — B (01:34)

• Democratic resistance and motives:
  • Delaney acknowledges that Democrats are participating in the process but frames it as reactionary, especially given Republican moves on Obamacare subsidies and spending rescissions.
  • Stein underlines how Republicans keep undercutting bipartisan agreements, giving Democrats a legitimate reason, beyond optics, to hold firm.

3. The “Rescissions” Factor

• Dysfunction over trust in deals:
  • Both delve into the impact of Republicans unilaterally walking back spending agreements, and the Biden administration’s own unilateral rescissions.

  • “The administration also unilaterally undid several billion dollars in foreign aid funding. So your Democrats have pointed out repeatedly, we're supposed to agree to a deal that you then don't honor.”
    — Arthur Delaney (04:02)

• Rescissions don’t move the public:
  • Both agree that although rescissions matter procedurally, they’re too abstract for most Americans to motivate public outrage.

4. Partisan Project Cancellations & OMB’s Moves

• Russ Vought’s ‘brazen’ tactics:
  • Former OMB Chief Russ Vought is actively canceling “blue state” projects and subsidies, which Delaney and Stein highlight as both partisan and possibly illegal.

  • “He's also being, like, brazenly partisan about it…it's like every state that's Democratic."
    — Arthur Delaney (05:33)

  • Stein wants Delaney to confront Republican Senators with the question: Would you accept a Democratic OMB canceling red-state projects?

5. Damaging Trust and Political Calculus

• Republican discomfort:
  • Some Republicans reportedly dislike the administration’s retaliatory shutdown tactics, recognizing that it doesn’t help resolve the impasse.

  • “Republicans don't really love this aspect of it on Capitol Hill. The payback.”
    — Arthur Delaney (07:27)

6. Trump’s Trolling and the Dissonance of Political Messaging

• Absurdity and offensiveness:

  • The discussion pivots to Trump posting (and deleting) racist AI-generated videos of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. While Democrats respond with indignation and procedural language, Trump world leans into the trolling.
  • Clip of Caroline Levitt (Trump spokesperson), defending the president’s penchant for memes:

    • “He likes to share memes, he likes to share videos, he likes to repost things…it's quite refreshing that we have a president who is so open and honest directly himself.” (08:20)

• Political worlds apart:

  • Stein and Delaney agree that the two parties’ tactics are comically mismatched—Trump’s unserious, race-baiting memes versus Democrats’ high-minded lectures.

  • “You have, like, Hakeem Jeffries: 'This is undignified.' …and then the White House and Trump are like, Yeah, yeah, it’s hilarious. Look at this guy in a sombrero.”
    — Sam Stein (08:45)

  • “I take it as a hint that the shutdown will be long.”
    — Arthur Delaney (09:04)

• Calling out the racism:

  • “Sometimes it’s corny when progressives say, well, that's racist. But I honestly, what else can you say about it?”
    — Arthur Delaney (09:21)

  • “How is putting a black man in a sombrero racist? …Come on, people, what is this stupid playground taunting?”
    — Sam Stein (09:40)

7. Economic Messaging and Political Entrenchment

• Jeffries pivots to economic critique:
  • Rather than focusing only on procedure, Jeffries frames the shutdown and project cancellations as job-killing Trump economics, a potential vulnerability for Trump.
• Both sides digging trenches:
  • The hosts agree both parties are locking into their most comfortable talking points, even if these don’t move the shutdown closer to a resolution.

8. Predictions: How Long Will the Shutdown Last?

• Reluctant wagers and black swan events:
  • Delaney guesses “three weeks,” with Stein cynically taking the under, recalling past failed predictions.

  • “My reckless guess is incredibly reckless.”
    — Arthur Delaney (11:25)

  • They reference a recent crisis (the Charlie Kirk assassination), noting the fast-moving craziness of Washington now:

    • “Do you remember the assassination of Charlie Kirk? It felt like a world destroying phenomenon...so much crazy stuff is constantly coming out of the White House.”
      — Arthur Delaney (12:00)

9. Alliteration and the “Schumer Shutdown”

• Political branding and blame games:
  • Stein asks if Chuck Schumer is “disadvantaged” by the phrase “Schumer Shutdown” just sounding good. Delaney agrees, noting Republicans are leaning into alliteration, even as they try attacks on immigration.

  • “Schumer Shutdown—it just sounds good...You need an alliteration. It just doesn’t work [for other names].”
    — Sam Stein (13:23)

10. Democratic Messaging Challenges

• Ineffective counter-campaigning:
  • Delaney observes Democrats’ communications efforts are falling flat, with minimal live-stream viewership and little “lightning in a bottle.”

  • “Hakeem Jeffries was trying to do a 24-hour live stream—yeah, you have fewer people watching this than you have in the Democratic caucus.”
    — Arthur Delaney (13:37)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The government shut down, but I'm still at the Capitol. We're still doing stuff over here. This part of the government's still open.”
  — Arthur Delaney (00:17)
• “Democrats need a way to climb down. They definitely are the ones who precipitated this by not voting for a clean government funding bill, you know, which they've always said is what you gotta do.”
  — Arthur Delaney (02:02)
• “They're not, like, they're not working in the same world.”
  — Sam Stein (09:04)
• “You just described what it was like if I were your editor still and I like made you do a story and then I just rewrote all the story. You would stop doing—Start now.”
  — Sam Stein (04:56)
• “I predicted that you would be rude on this interview.”
  — Arthur Delaney (11:48)

Important Timestamps

• 00:00–01:16 – Shutdown context, “new normal,” less drama
• 01:16–04:39 – Sticking points: negotiations vs. talks, Democrats’ motives, rescissions
• 05:33–07:27 – OMB’s partisan project cancellations, reactions from Republicans
• 08:20–09:54 – Trump’s AI video trolling of Jeffries, White House response, and the disconnect
• 10:29–12:00 – Entrenchment, Republican messaging, predictions on shutdown length
• 13:07–13:54 – “Schumer Shutdown” alliteration, struggles with effective Democratic messaging

Conclusion

This episode vividly spotlights the dysfunction and performative politics of the shutdown era, laying bare a Capitol Hill where old rules and outrage have dulled, and the very language of politics has become playground taunting on one side and hollow lectures on the other. In the end, both hosts see little movement ahead—just deepening trenches, a divided media sphere, and plenty of meme wars to come.