Bulwark Takes - The Most Unhinged 24 Hours of the Trump Era (So Far)

Episode Date: November 15, 2025

Sam Stein gives a rapid rundown of a chaotic 24 hours in Trump-world, from corruption allegations and lavish gifts, to meltdown posts, MRI secrecy, and Trump lashing out at critics. It’s all so over the top, even MAGA’s most influential figures are beginning to notice the blatant corruption.

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slash audio boom to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash audio boom. Hey, everyone, it's me, Sam Stein. I am the managing editor here at the bulwark, and I'm joining you on a Saturday morning because some crazy stuff is happening. Like, obviously crazy stuff happens all the time, but last night in Trump world,

it was particularly wild. So I want to step back before we get to last night, insanity because we had a really crazy day even before that. There was a whole host of things that were happening, for instance, among other things. There was a story that came out that said RFK Jr. Our HHS secretary still uses psychedelics. I thought that was really wild and may have even smoked. I don't even know how to pronounce this. Demethylotryptamine. Jeez, I don't even know. Whatever. It's a drug that makes you feel like you're close to death. Don't smoke it. That was just one. We had another report. The deputy FBI director, Dan Bonjino, may have not taken

a polygraph test prior to getting hired for the job. That's pretty wild stuff. There was also the president melting down over the Epstein files where he called on the attorney general to just investigate the Democrats that were, I mean, he's pretty overt about it. He's just investigate the Democrats that were named in these files. And then she said, sure, I'm on it. And she appointed someone to do it. It was just sort of brazen. And then there's another story that the DHS secretary had sent millions of dollars of ad contracts to a firm that had ties close to her. Listen, any one of these alone would have been a salacious scandal, but it all happened in the 24-hour period. And yet that's not the thing I want to focus on. So there was a tweet yesterday that really caught

my attention. And it was by a guy who normally doesn't catch my attention for things other than wild conspiracies. And it's a guy named Mike Cernovich. Now, you might know Mike Cernovich because he's a conservative magish operative who was integral in the peace gate scandal. Anyways, he's fairly loyal to Trump and, you know, you don't expect stuff like this for him. But he put up a tweet yesterday about a visit he had taken to D.C. And this is what caught my eye. Quote, the talk of everyone was how overt the corruption was. It's at levels you read about in history books in nearly every department.

Lots of do people just think Democrats will never win and they'll all get. get away with this question mark that really stood out like you don't normally hear people say stuff like that from that side of the ledger even though it's true and some of the things that just read you overtly corrupt steering contracts to a firm that's tied to is overtly corrupt another story that didn't even mention is that they're in talks to make a settlement with michael flynn trump's old national security advisor who is caught up in all the russiagate stuff and lying to the feds. They want to settle for $50 million.

It's basically a payment from the DOJ. Another thing that didn't even read you, senators, Republican senators, tucked into the government funding provision, provision that allows them to sue the Department of Justice for $500,000 each because they access the metadata on their phone records. It's just a payoff. And it's happening out in the open.

This is nothing to say of Trump getting his own potential settlement of $230 million. or getting the Qataris to send him a jet that he says is going to be for Air Force One, but oh, he gets to keep him put in his museum, like he'll never fly it. Anyways, so this caught Mike Sernovich's attention. And that's kind of notable that even people like him are like, whoa, this is pretty brazen. And that leads me to the story that is just like, it's insane. So the Swiss delegation to the United States has been trying desperately. to get out from under the 39% tariffs that Trump has put on the country,

like a lot of other countries. And like other countries, they've, you know, tried hiring lobbyists. They've worked the hell. They've worked their contacts. And then, according to our old pal, Mark Caputo, they did something pretty brazen. They gave Trump a ton of gifts. And so this is what Mark writes. To cut tariffs and President Trump imposed on the country,

the Swiss sent a delegation of industry tycoons bearing gifts, a special Rolex desktop clock, a one kilogram personalized gold bar, and loads of flattery. The Swiss bar given to Trump during the delegation's visit on November 4th, so that's just like a week and a half ago, was stamped with 45 and 47 an homage to his presidential terms. It's worth a little more than $130,000. Trump accepted the gifts on behalf of his presidential library, making them legal, White House officials say. They gave him a $130,000 gold bar.

I mean, yeah, it's going to his library. What the hell? This is madness, people. Like utter madness. But it worked. Swiss delegation got their tariffs down to 15%, as Axios reported this morning. And this isn't the only type of thing. thing we've seen. You know, there's that infamous moment where Tim Cook gave Trump this kind of

engraved glass disc with a gold case on it. And that was just to commemorate the company's investment in the United States. Everyone is lavishing this president with gifts. It is blatant corruption, the likes of which we've honestly never seen. And people are talking about it, including Mike Cernovich, which leads me to Trump last night. So, Trump's had these kind of meltdowns before where usually on Friday night he just posts a lot. He lets it all out. The week's been kind of building up and he just got to let off steam. And that's what Trump does.

But even by those sort of historic standards, I felt like last night was particularly crazy. So he gets pressed, for instance, on why he got an MRI recently. And the guy just cannot be honest about it. He's like hiding something or just unwilling to admit to something or simply, I guess, the most generous explanation is he can't remember why he got an MRI. But this type of attitude, like I don't need to tell you anything about my own, you know, medical history or what's going on. It's an arrogance that like, you know, kind of Bidenish a little bit where they hate things,

but much worse because they're just being like, screw you. Here's the middle finger. And here's the video. so you can watch it for yourself. Getting an MRI is very sad in a way you think I shouldn't have and other people got it. I had an MRI.

Here's what I had an MRI. I had an MRI. The doctor said it was the best result he has ever seen as a doctor. That's it. I have no idea what they analyze. But whatever they analyzed, they analyzed it well.

And they said that I had as good a result as they've ever seen. Now, the other thing I took is I took, as you know, advanced, very advanced test on mental acuity, because I think a president should have to do that. And as you probably heard, I hasted it. I got a perfect score. I got the highest score. I got a perfect score. I mean, the most innocent explanation is he doesn't know what he got an MRI of. Does anyone actually believe that? Do you ever go into a doctor, get an MRI, and then forget within

a couple months what it was on? I mean, it's absurd. And if that were actually the case, it's kind of alarming. But it's sort of an arrogance that he doesn't actually have to be transparent about very basic stuff. But that wasn't even the most, you know, crazy thing. Later, he starts getting on to true social. And he has this to say about Congress from Tom Massey, who is one of the people who's pushing hardest for the release of the Epstein files. Did Thomas Matzzi sometimes referred to as Rand Paul Jr. because of the fact that he has always votes against a public party, get married already? Question mark, question mark. Thomas Massey's wife. died. Okay. His wife died. Yeah, he remarried. What a jerk. Boy, that was quick. No wonder the polls

have him at less than 8% chance of winning the election. Anyway, have a great life. Thomas Ann question mark. I'll give it to him. That's kind of funny, I suppose. His wife will soon find out that she stuck with a loser. I mean, if someone talked like this in your normal life, you'd be like, this dude has got issues. Like, I don't want to hang out with this guy. He seems troubled. And it's kind of, again, the sort of arrogance behind that is, it's telling. This guy doesn't think that anyone should oppose him. Everyone should kiss the ring and get in line. And then, of course, and we're going to talk a lot about this, he unendorsed Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, because Representative Marjorie Taylor Green also has had the temerity to say she wants the Epstein

files released. She's gone on shows like The View to speak out against Trump. And the most recently she said she thought he was straying from the American First agenda. But most normal people would say, hey, Marjorie, let's talk it out. Or I disagree with Marjorie Taylor and think she's wrong. Here's why. Not Donald Trump. Donald Trump has gone on an absolute, you know, heater going after her repeated posts, trying out stupid stuff like Marjorie Taylor Brown, because I guess green grass goes brown when it's not watered.

That was, that was weak stuff. It gets back to the fundamental issue here, which is we have a president who believes that whether it comes to members, of Congress, law firms, academia, countries. They need to pay homage to him. They need to actually bribe him. They need to show him love, affection, and lavish him with gifts. And if they don't, he's going to smack them down, whether it's through tariffs or through a social media post. And that's just the world we live in, where we have someone in the White House who feels like he doesn't have to play by the rules that are normally there, including being transparent about basic health stuff, and he feels like everyone else has to bow down to him. And it's starting

to stand out to the point where people like Mike Sernovich no longer can ignore it. So that's my rant for this Saturday morning. Hope you'd enjoyed it. We're going to have much more on Marjor Taylor Green later in day, so check back later. Talk to you. When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, all birds or skims, sure. You've think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business, making selling, and for the shoppers buying, simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet. And the not-so-secret secret, with shop pay,

that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout skim's uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash audio boom, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash audio boom to upgrade your. selling today. Shopify.com slash audio boom.