Bulwark Takes - Tim Miller, Andrew Egger and Will Saletan on Trump's White House Address

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Tim Miller, Andrew Egger and Will Saletan react to Trump's White House address. From grievance speedruns to tariff denial and whatever is going on with that garland.

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It's the morning shots newsletter. Go sign up for that at the Bullock.com and Will Salatin. We all signed up for some pretty pointless duty tonight. So we might as well hang out together and laugh about it. Donald Trump gave like one of the stupidest presidential addresses in history. It's a competitive category with mostly him as the other contestants and maybe W. During mission accomplished. But we can rank them later.

We announced nothing. I guess that's not true. He's giving a very meager Christmas bonus to the troops, which we appreciate the troops. And we thank them. Besides that, he spent most of the speech complaining about Joe Biden. and we could run through the details if we want. But, Andrew, why don't we start with you? What was your impression of our...

Can you imagine? We pay a lot of attention to this guy every day. Imagine being the kind of voter that this sort of addresses for, right? You're going to watch Survivor. You're about to watch Survivor. It was going to start at 9, but I'd start at 922. Exactly.

You pay no attention to politics. You know Donald Trump is president. Obviously, maybe you have some of these economic gripes that polls show more and more people have. But it's not like you've been watching the show, the Donald Trump show all along. You're like, oh, the president's speaking. Let's see what this is all about.

I've watched some of these before. And he gets up there. And the first thing he says is, we inherited a mess and we're going to fix it. But look, it's taken some time. You know, we're not done yet, okay? Get off our back. And then he just is off.

And he barely takes a breath for, what, 20 minutes? I mean, it was really just one thing after another, after another, a festivist of grievances and a parade of boasts about, you know, we got, we're getting, we're getting boys out of women. Or sorry, yeah, we're getting men out of women's sports and we're, we're solving the, you know, the Biden inflation and we're bringing in all this money with tariffs and it means just thing after thing after thing. And I mean, I feel like it was sort of written to be a speech that was one and a half times as long as it was, but he just blazed through it and signed off. And here we are. I think they were running the prompter fast because they didn't want CBS to cut out and go to Survivor.

I looked at my little thing and my YouTube TV and it said Survivor's supposed to start at 922. So they're running that prompter a little faster than usual. Because I was concerned I was on 1.25 speed for a second there because he was talking a lot. Well, what was your takeaway? So for people who are too young to know about this, there used to be on Saturday Night Live, there was a guy named Garrett Morris. And he would do, they would do the news, the fake, the joke news.

And then at the end of the news, they would say, and now the headmaster of the New York School for the heart of hearing, Garrett Morris. And they would say, our top story tonight. And he would just shout, our top story tonight. Basically, this whole speech was, if I should shout this louder,

and without any punctuation and just go on for, what is it, 20 minutes, half an hour, that somehow this message I'm putting out, that everything's great, even though all of you people know that, like, things cost more, that somehow that's going to sink in just because I say it. And Andrews sort of nailed it. The first seven words of this thing were,

11 months ago, I inherited a mess. Okay, so inherited was the big theme of this, right? everything that's wrong is I'm blaming on other people. But the 11 months thing is kind of a problem because you've been president for a year and you're still blaming people. And at some point when you say, I blame the other party for this and this and this and this,

the message that people get, particularly if they're ordinary people who just, you know, tuned, got this because they wanted to watch their show. The message isn't like that it's the Democrats' fault. The message is you're a guy who blames other people. And you blame them even when you've been in office for a year. here this is a good point this is kind of like so i have tds obviously anyone who's watching this probably does so may so i think to myself maybe i'm not judging this correctly how would someone

else the you know average survivor mom take this in and i think to your point about the blaming will we're 11 months in now and i compared to maybe a sports thing right like lSU has a new coach next year lane kiffin and i'm like let's say we're five and three and aren't going to make the playoffs next year and he does a speech after the game and he's like you know brian kelly left me a mess I'm going to be like fuck you Brian Kelly left you a mess You got paid 90 million to come here And get us into the goddamn playoff

I'm going to run through my notes here Way too much garland I know people have criticized me Because I like the Oval Office renovations I don't like the Christmas version I just wanted to say that He says the first time we heard about Affordability was last year

Maybe true for him But I don't think that's the case for regular people Transgender for everybody was happening that he mentioned that in the first minute before saying anything about what he's going to do or the economy. He mentioned that when he came in there was transgender for everybody. He claims that the foreign countries

aren't laughing at us anymore. I would have to object to that. Then this is me and my voice. This is embarrassing for the country that this is happening. I think that. And then I came to realize what we were bumping this for. And then he started talking about minors. He goes, we're giving

minors something. I got a little nervous in Epstein stuff was coming. but it was the clean, beautiful coal, actually. It was the ERS. And then I was wondering why the prompter is moving so fast and wondering why the Tampa, St. Pete Mall, Santa was doing the press conference. And then he announced the soldier's dividend. And then my final comment was,

where aren't arresting people are going to a war. So I guess this is better than what the speech could have been. So I don't know. Do you have any reaction to any of those notes? Can I throw in a couple of others? So he mentioned again that prices are coming down. Prices are not coming down like ordinary people. Scott Bassett, the Treasury Secretary, says, like twice a week,

he says, we're not going to do what Joe Biden did and tell people they aren't feeling things. And then the president comes out and says, hey, everything's great. Prices are coming down, even when they aren't. My favorite part of this speech, though, was when Donald Trump said, because the buildup to the speech is MAGA voters feel like Trump is spending too much time on foreign affairs and not enough on domestic stuff. So Trump gets up and he says that we're the hottest country in the world, he says. And then he says, that's said to me by every single leader I've spoken to.

So his message to all the MAGA people at home who are unhappy about things at home is, don't worry, things are great. All the foreign leaders are telling me that things are great for you here in America. Maybe that'll work. People like to feel like we're hot, you know. I don't know if they're actually believe. it. Andrew, what did you think about my reaction? I think you have to put this speech in the context of like the latest Trump move, which is that some of his advisors have finally prevailed on him to

start talking about affordability in a way that isn't just, I'm so mad that I have to talk about affordability. Don't you know this is all a hoax by the Democrats? Well, he did basically say that like in the first minute. Yes, he continues to say that as like a lead in to it, right? But like he at least is has been like convinced by the Susie Wiles of the world that he has to say some things about this right um but the the basic foundational like elements of the problem which are all of these tariffs that he's put on all these other countries that have you know put a pillow over the face of the economy and all these different ways he remains completely full steam ahead on them right I mean like there's there's no moderation coming there's no even like modicum of of like relief

that he seems to think is necessary. He just thinks it's, no, you know, we're going to get through this. Maybe, maybe you're right. Maybe we're in a rough patch. Maybe they're not faking these polls that there's economic anxiety out there like he seemed to think a couple weeks ago. But look, just give me a minute. Give it some time.

These tariffs are going to work. But they are working. And the thing that they're doing is raising prices and collecting some money for the U.S. Treasury. But like, but they're pushing, they're putting upward pressure on prices and downward pressure on jobs. And that's just where we're going to continue to be. Um, so, uh, so I don't know.

We're using that money for the Patriot benefit. Were you guys not impressed with the Patriot benefit? A $1,700 Christmas bonus for the troops? Tim, you must have, like the olden days, like a black and white TV. It's like, you know, because let me tell you, in like, 1968, if you told the troops, they're getting a $1,700 Christmas bonus, they'd be thrilled. I thought, you know, not to take anything away from that, but it's like $100 a month. I don't know.

Look, if I were in a military family, I'd be grateful for this. It's like, it's not nothing. They could have done a bill, though. They could have put it in the bill and I don't know, giving them a 10-5% raise or something. Oh, but that would require Congress and that wouldn't be that wouldn't be Donald Trump's. This has to be unilateral from the king. He's giving you this money. But also, Tim, you must have been in meetings where they sit around and they say, well, here's the amount of money we have.

We can't give everybody $2,000 like you said. Here's what we got and someone, some little genius came up with. Well, well, if we give it to the troops, here's how many of them there are, we can get about 1,700. oh, that's great. What a great little gimmick. I don't think the tariffs are bringing in a record. I mean, the tariffs he had promised that we were going to get free IVF. We're going to pay down the debt. People are going to get a Trump check.

Like, all of those things have been floated. I'm sure there have been other things floated. You know, it feels a little meager to me. I don't know. Well, that's because the number that he has in his mind for what the tariffs are bringing in is $18 trillion, right? I mean, he thinks that, like, that's money that we can use when, in fact, he is not only talking about actual tariff revenues in the treasury,

he is also talking about like every promise that every world leader has like given him a gauzy handshake deal on of like, oh yeah, we'll totally bring, you know, two trillion dollars of investment into your country, sir, if you lift some tariffs on us,

he's like money in the bank. And so like he, he basically thinks he can buy anything with that amount of money. But in fact, I mean, the amount of money that has been brought in is between $100 billion and $150 billion this year. That's not nothing. That's quite a lot of money. It's money that's getting sucked out at U.S. businesses as additional taxes. But, but yeah, I mean, look, the dividend is fine. It's a good thing. It's like good for the troops, but it is like one small thing. That's not like what the economy is going to rise or fall on. It's a little bit like no tax on tips in that way where, you know, he did get rid of tax on tips in the one big beautiful bill, but also people who are working for tips in Las Vegas or whatever are realizing that tourism is trying up because of the broader economic, you know, pressures. And, and, and,

and storm clouds so uh so i don't know i it's good for the troops but i'm not sure the troops are even better off with the economy where yeah it's not that good for them i guess is my point um here's here's my real like serious takeaway about about it about how i he they're struggling and like if this is the best thing they're struggling i mean there was before the speech aOC tweeted something like remember whatever he says epstein files are just to come out in two days and and so think of what he says in that context and in that context this was a nothing burger right i mean like i in that some of all fears thing where where he's going to you know start a wag the dog war like start arresting political foes or start doing something to distract

from the epstein files like this was a nothing burger just as like a as just like grading him on trump is good at distracting everybody and changing the narrative i don't i think he achieved nothing on that front and then on a substantive front they don't seem to know what to do about the economy and again like again like the dividend whatever we can discuss whether or not we think that that's a sufficient Christmas bonus for the troops. But like, that's obviously not a plan to fix the economy. And they don't seem to have any other one, except for hoping that the big, beautiful bill kicks in next year. Right? I mean, am I judging that's too harshly? And it feels like they're really lapping around for not.

No, he doesn't have an answer. As Andrew said, he doubled down on the tariffs and the promise that he's making about the investment coming in is something people just don't feel yet. like he could be right about it i agree with andrew it's just a bunch of smoking i mean he's a bunch of rich people and a bunch of other leaders told him we're going to invest this much money they don't it hasn't materialized there's no commitment that that nothing requires them to do that people aren't feeling that what they're feeling is the increase in prices an ordinary person watching this speech all they know is look things are costing more and if i have to explain what how the the government's policy relates to it you know the most obvious thing is they're taxes all the products that are coming into this country.

So, like, that's just a really simple thing that people can, could understand readily. And as to, like, him having a nothing burger here, he's been complaining for days that the polls don't show, don't reflect, are not giving him credit for all the great stuff he's doing. He's like, he second guesses whether the polls are real. This is their fake polls.

But then he says, like, people just don't understand. So this whole speech, I think, was to him, him just saying, look, other people aren't communicating this well, What if I just get on TV and say the same thing that I've been saying, but loudly in front of like this large national audience? And what's wrong with people? They must understand. So the next thing that's going to happen is if the polls don't move, what's he going to do then? Is he going to say the polls are fake?

Is he going to blame somebody else? He should just wore the full Santa suit, I think. You know, and he had all the garland. He should have kind of just gone. That would have been distracting at least. That would have got people talking. I wouldn't have gotten a little more garland in the shot. That was like 70% garland.

to that capacity there i i thought it was pretty high on the garland uh where are you just andrew like just the grading him like on the trump performance scale like he doesn't seem to have the juju that he you know that he's had in the past and that's yeah coming in two days like what he didn't give us anything he didn't you know there were no racist comments i didn't even do anything offensive for people to get mad about like he it none of his he didn't have any of his bag of tricks he didn't trump is smollies just so he did take a shout at the samalis the samolians as he calls them, yeah. The, uh, Trump is always at his best, like, kind of charismaticly and rhetorically when he is seeming, like, totally in command when he's just like, he's, he's working his audience,

he's surrounded by his base, you know, he's, he's doing these transgressive moves and they're eating it up and he's just like up there like, I can say anything I want. I'm God, you know, that kind of stuff. And this was so far the opposite of that because of exactly what Will said right now. He spent that whole speech aggrieved, like, like not just sort of like channeling grievance, but like personally aggrieved that the things that he thinks he thinks he is doing a fucking amazing job of being the president and he does not see that reflected in what he gets back from like polls and things and all these stuff he's like what how am i not getting credit for all of this stuff right and that is you know it's it's not a very attractive place for anybody to be let alone you know this guy um and i think that that because of all of that the stuff he's saying like all that victory lap stuff it would make a lot it would land a lot differently in an environment where he was like a wildly popular president at 60% approval where he's like we are all celebrating together these great things that I have done that you're all really happy about but because it's the opposite of that because he's like in the 30s the high 30s like

literally a third of the country's happy about all this stuff it literally just feels like him kind of hectoring the viewer and and again it was so loud and so nonstop he's just shaking his finger at the American people for 25 minutes, basically without stopping. Like, don't you realize all the problems are the Democrats' fault? And I am your savior, you dummies. You don't know, I just don't think people are going to find it very compelling. Just spitballing. The McDonald's thing really worked for him. Maybe he could have called in the McDonald's CEO, said, I won't tear if you, if you'll do like a

99-cent Christmas shake. And then he goes to McDonald's and does an address from there where he starts handing out people free Christmas shakes. that feels like that would have got people chatting a little bit. I don't know. It would be nice. I think the only shakes Trump cares about are in the Persian Gulf. Oh, ooh, Will, that's pretty good. That's a B-minus.

Should we do the fact checks? I don't know, who cares? Crime wasn't close to record levels under Biden. Trump didn't inherit it in the lowest inflation U.S. history, nowhere close to 25 months. I mean, who cares? Trump has gone back to asserting that he cut drug prices by 400, 500, even 600 percent. It's worth noting that a 100 percent price cut. would be the cost of zero so that that isn't really happening um i don't know uh here we go

banon is also doing this alive uh he pointed out that uh oh yeah banon was that too intense for a broadcast audience what bannon's thought they should probably get bannon back in there i don't know at susy seems a little out to lunch i don't know maybe i'll give them too many good ideas with the McDonald's and getting Bannon back in there. I'll shut up. All right. My final thing, go ahead, Andrew. I was just going to agree with you. They totally miss Steve Bannon or somebody likes Steve Bannon. I mean, like the populist thing has gone totally missing. It's all just a bunch of mega, straightforward, mega sycophants and like tech people and billionaires around him now. And you can see it. I was embarrassed. We're laughing. I feel embarrassed. Do you have the capacity for

embarrassment anymore? I don't, I'm not sure why I feel embarrassed, but it's, The country is stupid. Like, we're, it's really unbelievably stupid that we're here, that this person is the president, and that that was real, that that was not a spoof. I don't know. I mean, is that kind of just too obvious of a point to make at this point? You can't even say it anymore?

Maybe it was legit to feel embarrassed for, on behalf of America and Americans being stupid when this guy got elected, which happened with, like, one and a half percent of the vote, just to be clear. He's at, like, a 40-60. He's below 40, and it's approval. he's like under 20 points underwater in his approval rating so i wouldn't say americans all are stupid they're wising up i wonder if cbs airing this gets gets david ellison back in trump's good books as far as this whole they all airs deals concerned i don't know they all

aired it across oh did they okay yeah yeah i mean i wonder i wonder how the ratings will compare to the erika kirktown hall i didn't notice that the eric kirk kirk town hall which was very heavy in my X-Feed. It had two million fewer viewers in the Army Navy post-game analysis. That tells you a little something. That tells you a little something. You know, I mean, the Army Navy game isn't exactly you know, it's not always good Alabama. You know, it's not Ohio State Michigan or anything. The post-game had three and a half million and then it dropped two more million. I don't know. All right. Anything else? Any other

takeaways? Any Christmas cheer you want to offer us, Will? Christmas cheer. I got, I don't know. I'm like, ponies? Do I have a pony for us? Do I have a pony coming out of this? I mean, I think the reception to this speech will be exactly what we've just said. There was nothing here. So, you know, if you thought that Donald Trump had some other ammo that he was going to bring out that was suddenly going to, like, get his mojo going again, I think the answer is, no, we just saw that, and that's my pony. Andrew, what are you feeling right now? I mean, you didn't feel embarrassed. You don't, are you unhappy to be here? You feel annoyed that you,

you had to do this? Like, what's, what emotion is coursing through your veins right now? Yeah, I don't know. It's weird to me. My whole professional career has been in the Trump era. So, like, I don't really, I don't necessarily have the same sort of memories as of the before times as you guys do. You have to have the memories of the before times. I don't know. Yeah, no, it's, it wasn't embarrassing. You see what other prime ministers do in other countries. You know, you could watch one of their speeches and kind of. Yeah, I skip, I skip church tonight to stick around and watch him yell at the camera for, yeah, yeah, Wednesday night services in Advent, that's a thing.

Maybe it would have been, what's the, what's the vibes in the pews these days at your church about Mr. Trump? Or is that not coming up? We don't really bring it up. You're not bringing it off? Maybe do a little focus group next week. See what people are saying. Rabble Rouse. I feel like, I'm not rabble rouse.

I'm not saying I should do it. I'm saying you should do it. Tim, what do we recommend for somebody who's just been in the Trump era? like go back and watch like all the way to like Jimmy Carter and the sweater. Like presidents used to talk at a lower decibel level, you know, and like just less shab. I've got a Gerald Ford. I've got to watch a Gerald Ford speech because he was mocked for being a moron and being very not capable of like living up to the rhetoric of those who came before him. And I think if you go right now and everybody after I sign off YouTube a Gerald Ford speech and you watch that, you'll be like, wow.

This is like Epictetus. this guy is like one of the great orators of our time um anyway all right that's will salleton and Andrew agger who is really unhappy he didn't go to church services tonight but that's okay you know advent still continues there's more advent left all right you have other opportunities uh thank you for joining us and uh we'll be seeing you tomorrow