Bulwark Takes - Ask JVL: On AI, Iran War, Populism and Should Sarah Run for the Senate?

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

Jasmine poses Triad readers’ questions to JVL: How can we stop Trump's slush fund? Will AI discourse dominate the 2028 campaign? Why does Trump keep turning down Iran's proposals to end the war? What is the true definition of populism? All that and more (like whether JVL thinks his best friend, Sarah Longwell, should run for Senate in Pennsylvania) in this week’s mailbag.Paid members of the Bulwark can get the full episode on Apple Podcasts, YouTube or Substack.

Hello, everyone. This is JVL here with my real life friend and colleague at the bulwark. Jasmine Green. Jasmine and I have now met in Meetspace together. It was amazing. She is a tall person. And as lovely as the day is long. Jasmine, it's good to see you. It's nice to see you too. Let's ask each other some questions. Yes, let's do it. The top question this week is from Sue G who asked. Is there anything that can be done to stop Trump and the DOJ from setting up the $1.776 billion dollar slush fund to benefit his criminal plans? Now, you just wrote a great triad on this, and this question was asked before the triad. So the short answer is I don't think so. We're going to find out.

We have some people who have filed attempts to stop the process. But I think it's unlikely to work. I don't think there's any judicial relief available. And once the money is gone, I mean, this is a little bit like in a movie where somebody is moving dollars from one Swiss account to another. And, you know, like they push the button on their phone and you see transfer, transfer, transfer. Once you get to 100% it's transferred, it's gone. The American government doesn't have control the money anymore. And so I think it is highly unlikely that this can be stopped.

sorry. Oh my goodness. It's all very bad. Well, some of the comments were suggested that the bullwarkers should flood whatever website they use for filing the claims. Yes. What if we just inundate it with like absolute garbage? Will that maybe slow things down a bit? So I saw that and I admire the passion.

Admire the spirit. I love it. I do not think that's how this is really going to work. I don't think this is going to be like an open casting call for class action lawsuits where, you know, like, did you, did you eat asbestos in the 1970s near the Camp Lejeune? If so, call us, right? I don't think that's how this is going to work. I suspect that in order to actually get your claim noticed, you will have to know somebody who knows somebody. And my guess is that the way these things work is that there will be various finders fees and that everybody who is associated with anybody getting paid is going to get their beak wet because that's how this stuff works.

So I think these things are all going to be pretty personally directed. And I would be surprised if there is a legit just clearinghouse where anybody can walk in the front door and say, hi, I, Cletus Smith was personally harmed. in a material fashion by Joe Biden, sleepy Joe Biden's lawfare. I don't think that's how it's going to work. If it did, then you could do that. Like, people did this during the Doge stuff, right? And there were Doge tip lines set up and resourceful citizens just sort of flooded them with fake tips to make it hard for them to disambiguate the genuine from the fake. I don't think that this is how this is going to go.

Sorry. Oh, that's so unfortunate. Yeah. Even more unfortunate than I can't get a slice of this pie. Not to be greedy, but wow. Sorry. I know. $8 billion.

Yeah. Okay. The next question is from Kim Z, who asks, one, do you think AI will be one of the main topics come 2028? And two, do you think it makes sense to have a bulwark content expert on AI? Great questions, both of them. I think AI will be an issue, whether there will be an issue that people vote on. probably not, although you never know. I mean, data centers may be an issue that people vote on. If so, that is more likely to be at the state and local levels, though, where people can actually stop them getting built.

I understand that Bernie Sanders is trying to create a national moratorium on the building of data centers. I understand that. But again, I just find it hard to believe that that's going to influence a lot of votes. It is possible if there's an enormous disruption. And you see what some of the doomsies are saying, well, you know, 25% of all white-collar workers laid off within 10 years or something, then maybe AI could wind up being a big ticket political issue. I think it's unlikely. I think AI will be one of these incredibly important issues

that has reasonably low political salience in terms of actual, you know, it'll be something everybody mentions as part of their grievance, but in terms of actual policies, uh, they get passed, you know, things to be done about it.

I think probably not. Should we have somebody dedicated to AI? We have talked about this. We have talked about having somebody dedicated to tech stuff. I think it fits clearly within our mission. There are a couple people out there who I read all the time, who I would love to absorb and who I just, I think their stuff is great and is a natural fit for us.

The problem is, I don't know how much real interest there is in a broadway. So like I'm super interested in this. Kim, is it Kim who put this question in? Yes. Yeah, Kim is super interested in this. There are dozens of us. But when I write about tech, and here's the thing, I see all the data on how the things we publish perform.

And I know that when we write about tech, foreign policy, or business stuff, it just doesn't do as well as straight politics. And so, you know, you have to make sure that it's the kind of thing that would be economically sustainable for us because everything we do is based around sustainability. So I don't know. But if Molly White wanted to come over to the bulwark, I mean, I wouldn't care. I just say, let's do it, Molly, because I think she's amazing. And there are like two other people in that space who I think are fantastic. Yeah, I agree with that.

Yeah. Would you want to do this, like long term? Are you interested in this? Me? Right about AI? You just spent 30 minutes trying to get to. your camera set up. So maybe not the most tech savvy of the people. But is that, I don't know, like, do you like reading about this stuff? Or do you just sort of glaze over and be like,

ugh? No, I definitely don't glaze over. I'm very passionate about the detriment that AI will have on human capacity to flourish and think independently. I, I'm like, it actually keeps me awake. I think about this genuinely last night going to sleep. I was so stressed about it. I don't know. feel like a lot of things that are written about AI are trying to, in some way, advertise it or look at the bright side or encourage people to use it. And I am a Luddite when it comes to most things, but especially AI. And I just can't stomach it. I just don't think there's, I think there's very, very, very few upsides to AI. And I think the downside is like, it's tremendous in that it is actually rotting our brains. All right. So what are your, your, oh, JVL.

So here, okay, give me your worst case scenario, your like median scenario, and then you're like, okay, not great, but like we can live with this scenario for AI. What do those three things look like in your mind as you look at what AI presents to us as possible futures? I'll talk about in worst case. My worst case scenario is that children will be in school and, relying so much on AI that they are genuinely unable to have original thoughts for themselves. And this worries me a lot, which is already, which is already happening. Already happening. My dad works in public schools. My sister works in public schools. My best friend works in public schools. And I talk to them all the time and they tell me they're so frustrated and concerned about the school eight children who genuinely cannot answer basic questions. Like basic questions,

like what is the first month of the year? I'm not sure. Let me ask. AI, like stuff like that. So that's my worst case scenario. The median case scenario is that hopefully there would be some kind of legislation passed that like severely restricts AI, like age restrictions for AI the same way that

some states are trying to do for social media so that only people 18 plus have like free reigns to AI. I do not think children should have access to AI. And then the lukewarm scenario I think you said or like the one is like meh is that the AI bubble burst and

everyone realizes, one, the AI bubble bursts, like, economics-wise. And, like, these companies are just no longer able to, like, sell it because that's connected to the second thing, which I hope that people become so deeply frustrated with AI that they will actually, like, boycott it. There was a college graduation ceremony recently. I'm forgetting where. I saw this. Did you see this? And the, and the speaker was like, you all love AI. AI is great. And they booed him. They booed him to hell. That, that gives me. so much hope. That is actually my bit of hope you're in for today. Yeah. That made me feel so good inside. Yes, boo AI until no one ever wants to use it ever again. Yeah. I mean, these things, you were too young to remember Google Glass? No, I'm not sure what that is. So, so there was a moment when Google made the first wearable, mass-produced wearable, and they were glasses with like a camera in them that talked to the internet. And the idea was like meta, like meta, right? But This was early and there was a lot of like, hey, this is the future.

No way to stop it. And the answer was like people just fucking hated it. And so like all over San Francisco, there were bars that outlaw, like just said, if you have these things on your face, we're going to throw you out. We won't tolerate this shit. And I would like it if certain sectors took similar lines towards AI. It's not inevitable. Totally agree. I mean, it might be inevitable.

We'll say. Everyone revolt AI. Please join me. Okay. That was good. I like fired up Jasmine. There's some things that truly just like they make me so mad and AI is one of them. The next question comes from Eric. If Democrats win the Senate, I expect Republicans will claim fraud and use every lever they have to prevent seating enough Democrats to keep control. How can Democrats stop this? A, unlikely the Democrats are going to win the Senate. I think that's a very, very heavy lift. It's not impossible, but it's probably like a one in ten scenario, maybe a one in eight.

I am more concerned about Republicans trying to prevent the seating of House members. So one of the things I am worried about is if Democrats have like a three-seat House majority, could Republicans decide they're going to launch a lawsuit saying, hey, these majority-minority districts, they're unconstitutional. And this state over here, pick your state, has one of them. And so that person should not be able to be seated because they were elected to an unconstitutional district. So I think that is one of the things we're likely to see. And I do worry more about the House. the Senate in this score.

The size of the majority matters. If what Democrats are looking at is like a plus 12 majority or something like that, it becomes much harder. If it's a narrow majority, if it's plus five, I don't know. So, I mean, all of the turnout stuff really will matter. And all of the marginal, those marginal seats will play a big determining factor in whether or not Republicans feel like the juice is worth the squeeze. So we're bringing it back down. That's okay.

Sorry. It's all right. It happens. Our next question is from Becky G. who asks, My friend's MAGA husband is more upset about shoplifting at Target than a $1.7 billion slush fund to be handed out to convicted criminals. Is it possible to change the narrative of blue crime collar is bad, which is concrete, and white color crime is so what, which is more abstract and often complicated? Yeah, I really struggle with this because I find it hard to see this through the lens of anything other than racism. And this is like a new thing for me. I mean, new within the last decade of my life.

Whereas I previously, I could sit and say, well, you got to understand like there's violent crime, then there's nonviolent crime. There is the type of crime you can see with your own eyes because it's happening in your neighborhood. which leads to feelings of lawlessness and safety versus the abstracted crime of this thing that's happening on Wall Street, you know, which you never actually see. I actually don't believe any of that stuff. I think it's basically all racism. And I'm sure that's too reductive.

I'm sure it's not all racism. I'm sure these things are complicated. But also it's mostly racism, right? I mean, the concerns about crimes are all about, well, are the people who are doing it, the people I hate already. Because if so, then I'm very concerned about crime. And if the, the people doing it are people who I like, well, then I am not bothered by it. It's all like in-group, out-group stuff. And none of it is actually based in principle. All right. Let me ask you a question.

We're going to start doing this. I'm going to start mixing out. Okay. So we talked last, last time we did this, but how you have really come of age during Trump, you don't really know a world of normal minus Trump, where American politics was not involved in a conversation about, huh, should we have a democracy or not? But this is a thing, which was most of my life, which was, you know, we had all this very robust and energetic politics and it was about stuff like, how do we achieve greater health care coverage? What should regulation for businesses be like? How should educational standards be determined? And how should How should schools be funded?

These are the types of fights we used to have. If, let's just pretend that we some point in the future wind up in an America that is kind of normal again. I don't think that's going to happen, but we're pretending. We're doing make-believe Jasmine. What sort of issues would you be like really interested in? Like if we lived in a normal America where you didn't have to have fights about, huh, the government is stealing almost $2 billion in order to give it to people

who attempted to overthrow an election. The president is threatening genocide. If we lived like a normal-ish America again, what subjects and policy conversations would interest you? And would you just love to sink your teeth into? I think this is a really hard question to answer. Because you never lived there.

Right. Right. This is like trying to get me to imagine a different universe, which is a creator. of exercise. But if we lived in some normal America, I mean, the things that I'm most passionate about are education, racial justice, and prison reform. These are just my personal interest. Education, especially now because of AI, like I said earlier, I'm just very concerned

that children are not being cared for when they're in school, that children are being given up on. I'm very concerned that, like, teachers and states and school boards have truly given up on American school children. And I think there is nothing more terrifying than the idea that kids are going to school and learning next to nothing, or being pushed through grades and, like, they are struggling with reading. Or they're being told, hey, AI is going to solve all this for you. Like, it'll do everything that you were supposed to learn. Education power is one of those platitudes that is just very, very true. Yeah. And it's, Education transformed my life, like, truly.

I would not be anywhere where I am today if I didn't, if, one, I didn't have my parents who really encouraged me to read and to try my best in school. And if I didn't have teachers who pushed me and saw my value and saw my potential. And I'm very worried that this is a really multifaceted issue, but I'm very worried this is no longer happening in schools. So that's the first thing. If you're a queen for a day, I'm sorry, I'm going to make you expand on this. If you're a queen for a day and you. and you could pass one educational reform. Like, what would be the most important reform you would do?

Oh, I think I would make it mandatory for schools to have more tutors and more assistant teachers. I think it is so difficult to be one teacher to manage a classroom of 30 students and bear their responsibility. of having, and you have no other help of all 30 of students, sometimes more than 30 students, to pass your class. It is, I cannot, like I said, I have a lot of people in my life I'm close to who are teachers, and I have so much respect for them because it is so hard to manage 38-year-olds. And it's a lot easier if your school has after-school, has funding for after-school tutoring, or if your school has funding for every five students, there's one assistant teacher. And I was very lucky that in my high school, we had, you know, we had a whole day that was literally tutoring.

It was called Colloquium. Oh, that's really cool. It was Limbloom Math and Science Academy in Chicago, Illinois is one of the most interesting schools in the country for a lot of reasons. And one of them is that on Wednesdays, we would literally have a day that was just tutoring where you would go to your teachers and it wasn't graded and you would get help on the things that you learn throughout the week. That's so cool. Limblin was one of the top performing schools in the state of Illinois and also in Chicago. And I really think that is why. So I would honestly make every school have colloquium.

That's really cool. Yeah, it's amazing. You said it was your dad who teaches? Your dad and your sister teaches? Yes, my dad is a counselor for students with special needs. So he doesn't teach as more like he manages. And then my sister is a substitute teacher and my best friend is an art teacher. And they are all saints who are doing the Lord's work.

That's awesome. So this next question comes from Don G. Who asks, What do you think about Sarah Longwell running for the Democratic Senate nomination in Pennsylvania for 2028? All right. I'm going to give you my hot take on Sarah, but on the other side. So if you're listening to this or reading this and or watching it and you haven't joined Bullwork Plus, come on.

Come on. Come hang with me and Jasmine. Hear all the things I have to say about my best friend. Forever Sarah Longwell.