Bulwark Takes

Episode: Trump’s U.N. Speech Was a Global Embarrassment

Date: September 23, 2025
Host: Sarah Longwell
Guest: Andrew Egger

Overview

In this episode, Sarah Longwell and Andrew Egger discuss Donald Trump’s recent address to the United Nations, dissecting both the content and the global reaction. Egger, who watched the full speech, breaks down Trump’s performance, policy pronouncements, and the unnerving atmosphere in the assembly hall. The episode examines how Trump’s grievances, braggadocio, and disregard for global norms signal not just a spectacle but an international crisis of American leadership.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tone Shift: From Mockery to Alarm

• Early in Trump’s first term, world leaders laughed at his outsized claims (01:16), but Egger observes a shift:

  “He has blown up like half of the institutions that unite us with the world…nobody’s laughing. You know, it’s like, wow, we have a real problem on our hands.” — Andrew Egger [01:43]

• Foreign leaders now seem apprehensive, wary of antagonizing Trump.

2. Trump’s Personal Grievances vs. Policy

• Trump opened by revisiting a decades-old complaint about not winning a contract to rebuild the U.N. headquarters (03:05), an anecdote Egger dubs,

  “None of this shit matters.” — Andrew Egger [03:50]

• Trump’s approach is “Trump’s show, and he knows it”; he centers the speech on personal slights before touching international policy (05:30).

3. Performance, Appearance, and Energy

• Longwell remarks on Trump’s physical decline and the performative aspect:

  “He looks awful…he sounds marble-mouthed…he is in peak Oompa Loompa orange…like a toddler with a machine gun. It’s like people are like, just keep him calm, maybe give him some candy. Nobody make any sudden moves.” — Sarah Longwell [06:09]

• Laughter from the room feels less like support, more like placation.

4. Fixation on Petty Details

• Trump’s absurd focus on escalators and building materials puzzles both hosts.

  “Donald Trump on escalators, man, I don’t know what to tell you.” — Andrew Egger [05:21]

• Longwell compares this to Trump’s digressions into his golf course expertise, noting,

  “Old people do this where they lapse into a, like, expertise from when they were younger.” — Sarah Longwell [08:05]

• Egger likens Trump to a petulant omnipotent child from The Twilight Zone, with the world tiptoeing around him [08:43].

5. Substance: “America’s Back” and World Affairs

• Trump’s core message: “Only the USA is hot. Everyone else is falling apart” (09:29).
• He rails against green energy policies:

  “It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion...If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail. And I’m really good at predicting things.” — Donald Trump [11:00]

• Egger critiques the anti-climate message as less policy, more performative trolling [12:25].

6. Authoritarianism and International Lawlessness

• Trump boasts about U.S. military force:

  “We have no choice... We will blow you out of existence.” — Donald Trump [15:05]

• Egger dissects the legality (or lack thereof) of recent U.S. actions:

  “They didn’t announce this as a policy, right? They just blew up a boat. And after they blew up that boat, the Pentagon was sort of scrambling to try to find a US statutory justification for doing that.” — Andrew Egger [17:41]

• The administration’s attitude appears to be: “We just have the authority to do this…We’re not pointing at any particular statute.” (17:41).

7. Misinformation on Migration and Human Trafficking

• Trump conflates child trafficking and family migration:

  “They lost more than 300,000 children…Many of whom have been raped, exploited…And we found a lot of these children and we’re sending them back.” — Donald Trump [20:27]

• Egger rebuts:

  “These are families that wanted their kids to be able to go to the US… It’s not the case that they were snatched off the street corner in Guatemala and brought up here to be sold into slavery and now the Trump administration has rescued them.” — Andrew Egger [21:59]

• Longwell calls this “deeply pernicious and gross,” as it hinders serious discussion on real trafficking and enables cruelty [25:08].

8. The Cult of Adulation and Alternate Reality

• Trump’s messianic self-image:

  “Everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize for each one of these achievements.” — Donald Trump [27:00]

• Egger notes,

  “In the last year, he has created for himself this unbelievable new world where everyone he interacts with…kisses his ass all day.” [27:18]

• Longwell contextualizes the bubble of sycophancy:

  “People around Donald Trump have constructed, like, a real playpen for this guy so that…he can live in his own alternative universe.” [28:55]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “He sounds sleepy…you think about all the times he called Joe Biden sleepy…That is how Trump sounds.” — Sarah Longwell [06:09]
• “The toddler with a machine gun thing…like an old episode of the Twilight Zone…that is, like, exactly the behavior of all of these foreign leaders around Donald Trump right now.” — Andrew Egger [08:43]
• “It is not the case that like they were snatched off the street corner in Guatemala and brought up here …and now like the Trump administration has rescued them from that…he’s making up stuff, he’s lying.” — Andrew Egger [21:59]
• “Lying about human trafficking and conflating it…is actually…deeply pernicious and gross…” — Sarah Longwell [25:08]
• “It’s a remarkable place for…America, the nation of laws…to be, as far as at least this particular policy is concerned. It’s really something.” — Andrew Egger [19:41]
• “Just total permission for global chaos and degradation. Great.” — Sarah Longwell [29:29]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:29 – Intro; Andrew Egger sets up Trump’s U.N. performance
• 01:22 – Trump’s infamous “didn’t expect that reaction” moment replayed
• 03:05 – Trump’s UN construction grievance anecdote
• 04:14 – Trump’s slights over lack of UN recognition
• 05:21 – Escalator mishap humor
• 06:09 – Longwell’s comments on Trump’s appearance and energy
• 09:29 – Trump’s USA braggadocio, attacks on Biden and the world
• 11:00 – Trump denounces climate change as a “con job”; green energy rant
• 14:58 – Trump’s threats on drugs and military force
• 16:25 – “We call them water drugs,” unhinged policy execution
• 20:27 – Claims about child trafficking and returns
• 21:59 – Fact-check of migration and trafficking rhetoric
• 25:08 – Longwell’s critique of conflation tactics
• 27:00 – Trump: “Everyone says I deserve the Nobel Peace Prize”
• 28:55 – Discussion of Trump’s insulated reality and global impact

Conclusion

Sarah Longwell and Andrew Egger deliver a brisk yet sobering analysis of Trump’s 2025 U.N. speech, painting a picture of a president increasingly detached from fact and accountability, presiding over a global order marked by fear, confusion, and lowering standards. The episode is a clarion call not to normalize behavior that, just a few years ago, would have caused international outrage, highlighting the dangers of unchecked grievance, authoritarian drift, and global permissiveness in the Trump era.