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- [00:00]
A
Hey, everybody. Tim Miller from the Bulwark here with our publisher, Sarah Longwell. Donald Trump had some remarks this morning, and they're as unhinged as usual. So I want to review some of them with her. Trump was speaking at the Museum of the Bible. He loves the Bible, by the way. Loves the Bible?
- [00:16]
B
You think he's read the Bible?
- [00:18]
A
Well, one of my favorite videos is when my man John Heilman asked him what his favorite Bible verse was, and he's like, all of them. They're all my favorite. Do you have a favorite between the Old Testament and the New? No, the same. They're just.
- [00:30]
B
They're just very. They're very similar. The Old and the New. New Testament. Remember when he was out in front of that church and he held it upside down, he was trying to make a statement and he just.
- [00:38]
A
Yeah, it's kind of like a dirty diaper. He was holding Bible. Anyway, he was there for a Religious Liberty Commission meeting where he gave some remarks. And I want to start with the most alarming of the remarks. It is. There is this what's. It's kind of like a mental twister that he puts us all in, where simultaneously he wants to take credit for the decrease in crime that we're seeing over this year, 2025. It started last year, really, but he wants to take credit for it. And also he wants there to be an emergency that requires him to send in the National Guard to deal with the crime. So, like, those two facts are in conflict. But, you know, that doesn't ever bother Donald Trump. Incongruity doesn't ever bother him. So today he's trying to take credit for the drop. And he has this aside that I.
- [01:29]
C
Want to show everybody there's no crime. They said crime's down 87%. I said, no, no, no. It's more than 87%. Virtually nothing and much lesser things. Things that take place in the home, they call crime. You know, they'll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime. See? So now I can't claim 100%.
- [01:53]
A
Okay? So things that take place in the home, they call crime. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this is crime. So I guess he's trying to decriminalize domestic violence. Take us really back. Make America great again, like 1952 great.
- [02:09]
B
Well, this is one of those things where if it's just a little fight, like if you left the toilet seat up, not a crime, the Fight that.
- [02:18]
A
I do that all the time, by the way.
- [02:21]
B
And yeah, port to lose in our house, like, we, you know, our boys, that's a real problem for us. But, you know, when you have, let's say a fight about that or, or what you're going to have for dinner and maybe even it gets a little heated, you know, the, the, your, your, your rival sports teams are playing and you're really torqued up at each other.
- [02:40]
A
Or misplaced the car keys. This morning. My husband was taking the kid to school and I was, I was in trouble. Got a little heated at seven because you're late.
- [02:48]
B
Right. So everyone's mad. None of those things are crimes. Those, those are, those are little fights. The things that get categorized as crimes are when violence or threats of violence are taking place. And it's interesting to me that Donald Trump would do like, oh, you know, there's just a little, a little fight in the home. And they try to say that that's a crime. But the reason he's saying that they, they want to make that a crime is because they want to make him look bad, that they categorize domestic violence as a crime. Just so they can't say that crime is zero. Nobody can say crime is at zero because of Donald Trump. And that's how the libs are going to get you. They get you because they still mark down domestic violence as a crime. And I think that it is both. The casual way that he dismisses it is the kind of thing where, like, in Donald Trump's mind, the idea that you just have a physical altercation with a spouse, which of course, we know he has in his life, that he has done terrible things to previous spouses. He was accused of rape by one of his previous spouses. He's been accused of rape by multiple people. And so for him, the idea that violence against women would constitute a crime is both silly. Why would that be a crime? And two is just somebody trying to do mean things to Donald Trump. Trap.
- [04:11]
A
Yeah. Do many things to men. And one of his most consistent positions, he has very few consistent positions, but one of them is like always being on the side of the per. And me too accusations. Always the woman is overstating it or lying or being hysterical or they aren't really his type or whatever. Like, there's always a reason why the woman in a situation is not telling the truth. And so that's him here. And the casualness of the comment, it's reminiscent of the Access Hollywood. Right, Right. Where he's just, he didn't even conceptualize in that Access Hollywood tape that he was admitting to sexual assault. Right? He was just like. It was just two guys chatting, and he's just like, look, they let you do it. You know, if you're a star, they let you do it. And he's discussing, you know, grabbing women against their will by the genitals. Similarly here, you know, he's just kind of making the side, and he's just like, you know, there are these cases where the women are complaining about their husbands after they have a little fight. Like, we all know that's not really, really a crime. They just being dramatic, right? Like, it is. They are revealing asides about what his mindset is in these sorts of situations.
- [05:16]
B
You know, and obviously our minds go to Access Hollywood because that was sort of the original kind of stunning. Oh, God. He just says these things. But then also, if you look at when he was being questioned, and I believe it was by Robbie Kaplan in the Eugene Carroll case, he is in his deposition saying, rightly or wrongly, yeah, when you're a celebrity, you can get away with these things. Like, he, he is always casually believed that he can sexually assault women and that assaults on women are something that are just, you know, an annoyance. And, yeah, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're making it up or taking it too far or complaining too much about it, which is the implication here. And I do think that when it comes to Donald Trump, there's so many things to be outraged about and so many things that he shows sort of a total moral degradation about, but, like, it is wild how much, and not just wild about how he talks about women and how he clearly thinks it's fine to treat women. But, like, that's why voting for him and like, knowing people voted for him, I think hits so badly because you do know these things about him. And people are like, yeah, you know, the way he talks about women, I mean, it's not great, but, like, you know, who can, who can hold him accountable for that? And that's a man of society. Yeah, that's right.
- [06:39]
A
All right, I want to just play a couple other clips since, as I mentioned, this was a Religious Liberty Commission meeting, I guess we'll show you what he had to say about the topic at hand.
- [06:49]
C
And I created the first ever Department of Justice task force to eradicate anti Christian bias. And for those people that are a little bit naive or not well read, there is a tremendous anti Christian bias. We don't hear about it. We don't think about it, you hear about anti Semitic, but you don't hear about anti Christian. Now you have a strong anti Christian bias, but we're ending that rapidly. I will tell you, it's a whole. We're in a much different world today than we were one year ago. This is like a different world.
- [07:27]
A
A classic Trumpism there. You hear about anti Semitic, but you don't hear about anti Christian. It's just like this is they, this is. I think it's important to just address the merits of this because, like, one of the. Or rationales that you hear for, for people from evangelical folks on the right and others on the right for supporting Trump is. And, and from sometimes from Jewish folks about why they support Trump was that, like, there was a big assault on religious liberty and institutions during the Biden years and that, you know, Christianity was coming under attack and that they needed Donald Trump because he'll be, you know, a fighter for them. And I, like, again, there are a few, you know, examples of this, and I was always sympathetic to the point of view, you know, like forcing, what was it, the one where they tried to force the Catholic nuns to carry birth control on their Little Sisters of the Poor. Yeah, Little sisters of the poor. Right. There are certain examples of this where it's true, but, like, it is like this, this myth. There's like this origin myth that, like, the churches are being stormed, you know, by, by the left. And that, like, this is something that is, you know, really critical, that that is fought back against. I don't know. Do you think I'm wrong to be dismissive of that?
- [08:48]
B
I don't think you're. Well, here's the thing. I do think that we are living through a time in which we are trying to resolve the tension between religious liberty and the rights of, let's say, women to hold certain jobs in the church, gay people to be able to get married. And like, there's actually been a pretty normal conversation, you know, so Hobby Lobby or Little Sisters of the Poor, you know, do these religious institutions have to allow gay adoption if they run adoption companies? Do they have to provide birth control if they're Christians? And like, those bespoke questions as a culture, I actually think those are, those are okay rubs for us to figure out. Like, where does religious freedom start and where do the rights of. Well, if you're getting federal funds, in the case of, let's say, a Catholic charity that does adoptions or churches, you know, if you're getting federal funds, what is that? What is your obligation then to the public. Okay, so those are like normal issues that a society can work out. In places like Utah, Mormons and the gays have been in a really good, productive conversation about how do we balance these things? Because there is a balance there. That being said, the idea that everywhere Christians go, they are under assault. No, no, you have never been more ascendant, my friends. Never been more. Never been more in charge of all the things. I don't, I don't think there's a massive. And also they're winning most of the religious freedom.
- [10:13]
A
Part of this is like this feeling of need to be aggrieved. Like, you. You have to tell everybody who said that, like, oh, the other side, they're cheating and they' you know, and they're advancing against you because it gets people mad and it drives up their anger. And, and, and you see this really across all, you know, kind of political tribes. But, like, it is particularly acute in maga, this desire that, like, they are aggrieved. Some mysterious other, whether it's the deep state or in some cases the Jews or in some cases somebody, you know, the gays or whatever are taking this from you and they're taking this from your children and you need to be mad about this. And like, that is what this is really more than like a specific complaint about the cake baking. Right. It's more about, like telling these folks. Like you're hearing. You've been hearing a lot about the anti Semitic lately, but I want to remind you, I care about the anti Christian because the godless elites are coming for you. That's really what's happening.
- [11:01]
B
Yeah, but also the Christians are on offense right now. I mean, because like, he has done things like tried to do executive orders that are like, you know, eradicating anti Christian bias. Right. Like, we've seen him do things like that. So they are using the federal government in ways with religion that are absolutely bizarre, but that are meant to say, hey, we're here for you Christians. Like, we are. We are. You are the dominant ones. And this is where Charlie Kirk and a lot of these other folks, they want to make sure trad wives, all this stuff, they are culturally ascended. They are getting actual help from the federal government to say, you are the anointed religion. And that's part of where I think that thing's coming from with Donald Trump right there.
- [11:49]
A
I just pulled up the Eradicating Christian bias executive order. It cites this fake news from 2024 where the Biden administration supposedly declared Easter Sunday transgender day of visibility which was just like not actually happened. And. But God was very popular online. So I think, I guess that that didn't just.
- [12:11]
B
Those days happen to coincide on the calendar. Isn't that what happened?
- [12:17]
A
The Democrats are gonna make you bow to a transgender God every Easter. And there's no more Easter egg hunting. Okay, there's no more Easter egg hunting. What you're gonna do is it's gonna be a non binary. It's gonna be some sort of non binary role anyway. All right, final, final clip.
- [12:34]
C
You know, people don't realize about the Biden. It was a very mean administration. He's a mean guy, actually not a smart guy, never was, but he was a mean guy. No, he was a mean guy. And he knew enough about what was going on. He wasn't like some of the people that surrounded him on the Resolute, the beautiful Resolute desk in the Oval Office. They were stone cold mean. But Joe Biden and the Biden, they were mean people. What they did to people, what they did to J6, what they did to so many people, they were mean people. These were really radical, horrible people. And he wasn't that way 20 years ago. He was never the brightest bulb in the ceiling.
- [13:19]
A
They're very mean. What they did to the J6ers. They're very mean. It's the only example. I like how that he gives that one example and then kind of just, then it's more of the general Trumpism, how mean they are. The mean Biden administration. I think this is important. This is psychology work is what this is like. It's important for people. Sometimes I've, I think libs missed this about the right. Most people, not all. There's like Stephen Millers who kind of like to be the villain. But most people on the right want to self identify as good people. They want to self identify as good people. And so you have to give them some little chum to make them feel like they're the good people and the other people are the bad people. You know, not everybody wants to be the black cat. And like, even with so little that Trump has to work with, they still, he still presses forth by talking about how mean Joe Biden was to the poor people that stormed the Capitol.
- [14:09]
B
There's another psychological thing at work, which is to take something that it was universally thought of as wrong and bad. There was nobody post January 6th that would have defended those rioters. They all said, throw the book at them. Go get them.
- [14:25]
A
Scott Jennings called them terrorists, no different than the terrorists.
- [14:29]
B
That's Right. And they are domestic terrorists and the FBI and the DOJ tried them as such. And the only mistake was that Donald Trump wasn't included in that. More effectively that they went from the bottom up. But so Donald Trump in absolving folks on January 6, in any other world, that alone, taking the people who stormed the Capitol trying to overturn an election and just absolving them, that would be enough for that. Should like there should be a moral revolt over that. But what Donald Trump has done, and they just did this with Ashley Babbitt where they, they are now celebrating her as a hero. They buried her. They like gave her a special military, military funeral. She didn't die fighting for the country. She died as a traitor trying to overthrow the country. And but this is the work of Donald Trump right now. The psychological work is to make you take something that you know deep down is bad and reframe it as good. That is a thing that he tries to do. And even though I think a lot of, I know listening to voters, they won't go for it as like, no, I think that what everybody did that day was, was good and right. What it will do is it pushes them to a place where like, I don't care about this anymore. Yeah. It's a mixed bag and like, I'm just not going to fight about it.
- [15:44]
A
That's an insightful point, Sarah. And it's really touching that our president, you know, tried to turn bad people's actions into good at the most important, the most appropriate rather place for such an effort, the museum of the Bible. So thank you anyway. Subscribe to the feed, everybody. We'll be back soon. That's Sarah Longwell. I guess.