Bulwark Takes - Cap, Gown, Chaos

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Sam Stein and Lauren Egan talk through Trump’s chaotic Alabama speech, from trans athlete rants to a bizarre story about a real estate developer.

Hey guys, it's me, Sam Stein, Managing Editor at The Bulwark, and I'm joined by Lauren Egan, fresh off of a duck hunt, or was it a deer hunt? Which one, Lauren? I'm more into deer, actually. Thanks for asking, though. I'll send you some deer jerky. I want to make sure I understand what the camo's for. I almost wore my camo tonight. It's just my cozy clothes, okay? We're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about Donald Trump's address before the University of Alabama. I was going to call it a commencement address. It's not actually a commencement address.

It is just an address right before the commencement ceremonies. But it was before the University of Alabama students. A lot of people were in cap and gown. We're going to get into it. It took some weird turns, especially for a speech to graduates. But before we do that, subscribe to the feed. Really appreciate it. So Lauren, you're in SEC country. It's different than where I'm currently residing, where I'm from. Set up like a little bit sort of culturally what it's like at Alabama.

And, you know, obviously the state is very red, but is the student body red? Like what are those schools like in your estimation? Yeah. I mean, it's still a red state and it's, but it's, it's a college campus. So definitely going to be, you know, more conservative than perhaps where you went to school or what some folks that go to school in the Northeast are used to, but it's, it's a college campus. So there's, it's a bit more of a mix. But you know, there was enough people on campus that didn't want to show up to the

Trump speech that went to a rally with Doug Jones and Beto O'Rourke there. So like there's conflicting political opinions on campus for sure. Gotcha. The reason I asked is because the speech that Trump gave was more akin to what you would traditionally get at a political rally, especially just a Trump rally, right? Like going through all the great things he's done, how low gas is, jobs coming back, tariffs are great. RFK Jr. is going to make all the food so spectacularly healthy.

Elon's doing a hell of a job. The tech giants now kiss his ass. I mean, it was just like all the greatest hits. But there were two things in particular that stood out to me. One was how much he talked about trans athletes. I mean, it came up at least twice, maybe more than that. And for extended periods of time, he even got into this little thing where he did a weightlifting thing. I don't

know. What was that? He was just mimicking or mocking. Just like mocking. Yeah. I mean, it was, yeah. And I was just sort of surprised. I mean, I get it. Like he's, he ran on this platform. He's anti-trans, but like, I don't know. I just figured that kids, students really weren't as into that stuff as he was. And that that's not necessarily the proper form to make those types of remarks. But what do I know? Right. It could be very much popular in Alabama. Yeah. Well, I think there's a few things. One, it's still supposed to be a graduation speech. So these aren't typically the venues where you get into some of the more political type things that sort of just like go off into the world, kids and do great things. He eventually got to at the end of it.

Sort of. Yeah. Yeah. Like normally you kind of skip over some of those, you know, like more contentious political points, but I don't know, like this generation is more conservative than, than we typically think younger generations to be. You know, he talked about, I was a former college swimmer in the sec. He talked about college swimming. That's been like a big thing in the sec. Um, uh, you know, like a lot of Kentucky swimmers have made a big deal about it. Um, so I, and he mentioned it in the speech, he said, this is an issue that I'm on the right side of this. The popular opinion is with me, not with them. So clearly,

he thinks that this is something that people care about. I mean, you know. The other crazy thing that was part of the speech, and it came like smack dab in the middle, was he went on like a fairly lengthy tangent about William Levitt. And for those who don't know the name, William Levitt is a famous housing developer. He basically remade the country, mostly starting with New York. Levittown is off of his name. It's basically cookie cutter suburban housing.

And he pioneered it in the post-World War II era. And Trump made a long speech. And it was like, it was hard to understand where he was going. Because at one point in time, and we'll play a little bit this. At one point in time, he started talking about how successful Leavitt was and how he was in France with a trophy wife. And he was just, let's play here and then we can talk about it on the other side. But he lost his momentum. He wasn't good at it anymore. And he was at a party on Fifth Avenue.

I'll never forget. And it was a party of a very, very powerful man was having the party in a magnificent apartment overlooking the park. And I walked in and there were 50 or so people. I recognize most of them, all the biggest business people in the world, actually. Very glamorous. I was doing well. I was young and I was doing well. And I was invited to parties like that. And I looked in the corner and there was Mr. William Levitt sitting all by himself on a chair. All right. And so then he's talking about like Levitt kind of suffering this fall from grace.

He meets up with him at an apartment. Levitt has like, you know, is sulking alone, no friends. And Trump's big takeaway is Levitt told him apparently, I lost my momentum. And that showed up as the other thing that up to the graduates. What is he trying to tell us? I don't know. I think I don't quite know. What do you think he's trying to tell us? I couldn't tell if it was like a commentary about like Biden or like what? No, I don't think it was Biden. I don't think it was Biden.

I think, I don't know. You go, you go. I have a theory of this. Okay, no, I want to hear your theory because I was listening to it and I was like, is he trying, is this supposed to be like some thinly veiled something about Biden or is he trying to tell us that he's running out of steam as he approaches 80 years old? No, no. He's not.

So this is my theory. That Trump – and I think it's actually fairly simple. I think Trump views like the only thing that matters in business, in politics, whatever, is perseverance. And that if you just don't give up or like give in to your critics, if you just, you know, buckle down and plow through it, like you'll be fine. And that explains 98% of Trump, right? Like any scandal that would have ruined any other politician, Trump is just like, screw it. I'm sticking through it. Like, yeah, they have me on tape saying I like to grab her by the pussy and that's fine. I'm going to go through it. And like, yeah, like I, I, I shook down, you know, world leaders to like get dirt on Biden. I'm just going to go through it. And yeah, I got impeached twice and yeah, I sparked a riot. And I think he honestly believes

that if you just don't stop, nothing can stop you. And so William Leavitt becomes this story, this cautionary tale. And the reason I think this is because he's used the story at least once before. There was an infamous piece. I don't know if you remember this. Were you in political journalism in 2017 or now? Oh, I was just entering political journalism. Do you remember the famous Trump speech to the Boy Scouts, the Boy Scout Jamboree? Oh, yes.

Oh, my God. Yes. The one where he was talking about weird sexual exploits in front of the Boy Scout Jamboree. That was like the beginning of my journalism career. So I was like, wow, so glad I chose this as my career path. It was a wild speech. It was a very wild speech. It was shocking because

it came really early in the Trump presidency and everyone didn't know if he was going to be as crazy as he was in the campaign. And clearly he was. Anyways, that was when he first brought up the William Levitt story. And it was almost, and I looked at it, it was almost verbatim to what he said tonight in Alabama. And it was so shocking at the time in 2017 that a Levitt ancestor, I think it was the grandson. No, the son sent an email to the times, you know, admonishing Trump for using his father's story saying Donald Trump couldn't hold a candle to my dad's achievements. So we're like coming full circle. Of course, now trump tells that story and everyone's just like oh it's just trump just another trump story but that is interesting that this like that that's

what stuck with him so long you know well he's also like in the real yeah yeah but he's in the real estate business this guy probably was an icon to him or at least he knew him right and to watch him in the corner of an apartment building without friends probably stood out for trump yeah i just don't know if it's a good graduation speech no definitely not like the most uplifting story you could be telling students um as they enter the world but sure why not i i will say the lot my my real takeaway was that the students behind trump who sat there and kept a stoic face and occasionally did applaud. I, you know, I kept wondering what is going through their heads. Like, do they, I mean, I can't, I don't know what I would do if I was in that situation.

Yeah. Well, you know, I think that this, I don't know how this election worked for who sat behind Trump, but I have to imagine that there were people that were like, you know, they were pumped about, about Trump being there. Well, I don't, I don't know. Yeah, sure. Maybe they were screened, but, but like, it wasn't, it's not like this event was since actually commencement is tomorrow, this event wasn't mandatory in order to get your diploma. So like plenty of people didn't go to it. Uh, they went and hung out with Beto, Beto and, uh, uh, Doug Jones. Or they did, or they did things that you would do two nights before your graduation. Yeah, or they were out at the bars. I don't know.

So yeah, if you showed up tonight, you wanted to see. You were in it. You were into it. All right. Well, let's put out a plea. If you are a student at the University of Alabama, if you were at the event, hit us up. We have a tips line. That's the bulwark slash tips. We want to hear about it. We might read your remarks, keep them anonymous if you

want. All right, Lauren, thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you for sitting through this and watching it. And thank you guys for watching our video. Really appreciate that too. Subscribe to the feed and we will talk to you a little bit.