Bulwark Takes - Trump Keeps Posting CRAZY Stuff About The Iran-Israel War

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

Sam Stein and Andrew Egger break down a surreal and alarming day in American foreign policy, as President Trump seemingly live-blogged potential military action against Iran on Truth Social, calling for “unconditional surrender,” and urging 10 million people in Tehran to evacuate. We unpack what this means for U.S. policy, global stability, and the ever-blurring line between social media and warfare.

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W-A-T-E-R to 64,000. By texting 64,000 you'll agree to receive recurring automated marketing messages from Pocket Hose. Messages, data rates may apply, no purchase required. Terms apply available at pockethose.com slash terms. Hey guys, it's me Sam Stein, managing editor at The Bullock. I'm joined by Andrew Egger our author of Morning Shots, and we're here to talk about war and truth social and whether the two actually can be and should be combined.

I want to just level set with the viewers here. It's 2 45 p.m. on Tuesday. We have a highly dynamic situation. We don't turn these videos around instantaneously. So by the time that this goes up, it's possible we have a number of different other bleats from President Trump. It's possible we have a situation in Iran that is different than the current situation, which is already pretty dire. But this afternoon, something very unique happened in that we had our first, I know, that I know of instance in which the

commander in chief was sort of live tweeting what was going on in his head with respect to potentially bombing a foreign country and getting the US involved in a Middle East war. So just to recap, and then we'll get your, your perspectives on this quote, we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran Ron had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment and plenty of it but it doesn't compare to American made conceived and manufactured stuff quote unquote nobody does it better than the good old USA then around that time he said we know exactly where the so-called supreme leader is hiding he is an easy target, but is safe there

We're not going to take him out in parentheses kill exclamation point Jesus fucking all right at least not for now, but we don't want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter That used to be his new catchphrase and And then finally he bleats in all caps, unconditional surrender. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what to say. What are we doing here?

Yeah, let me add just one more onto this, which was a couple hours earlier, he shared a text from Mike Huckabee. Oh God, yes. Ambassador to, is Huckabee the ambassador to Israel? Is that what he's doing? Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, just an amazing text. Just read a little bit of it. Oh, God, yes. Ambassador to… is Huckabee the ambassador to Israel? Is that the… is that what he's… Yes, yes, yes.

Okay, yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, just an amazing text. Let's read a little bit of it. Mr. President, God spared you in Butler, Pennsylvania to be the most consequential president in a century, maybe ever. The decisions on your shoulders I would not want to be made by anyone else. You have many voices speaking to you, sir, but there is only one voice that matters, his voice.

I am your appointed servant in this land and am available for you But I do not try to get in your presence often because I trust your instincts No president in my lifetime has been in a position like yours not since Truman in 1945 a little gesture at the atomic bomb there. I don't reach out to persuade you only to encourage you I believe you will hear from heaven and that voice is far more important than mine or anyone's else You sent me to Israel to be your eyes ears and voice and to make sure our flies above our embassy. My job is to be the last one to leave. I will not abandon this post. Our flag will not come down. You did not seek this moment. This moment sought you. It is my honor to serve you, Mike Huckabee." Trump tweets this whole text out,

screenshot of it on Truth Social. Trump says, from Mike Huckabee, a pastor, politician, ambassador, and great person. So that's the, he's like, thanks for sending that along, Mike. Yeah, it's like a reality show. It's like you're watching someone's, you know, we don't need to see what's on his phone, but he's going to show us what's on his phone. And it's just like, everything is just, it's geared towards trying to gin up suspense, although there's plenty of suspense that already exists. In one sense, the spectacle is just the thing itself, right? I mean, like it's insane that

the president is doing this, obviously, like we stipulate that, right? Just total lunatic land that we're in here. At the same time, it is actually kind of helpful that he's doing it in some ways because like it is, he ultimately does control a lot of decisions, right? I just mean in terms of like assessing where he's coming from on this stuff, because it is, he ultimately does control a lot of decisions. I just mean in terms of assessing where he's coming from on this stuff, because I feel like a lot of the time people talk about Trump's foreign policy on the kind of like hawks versus doves sort of thing, where it's like, is he a peace through strength guy? He likes to talk about that. Is he like a sort of neocon light, you know, speak softly and carry a big stick

and do deterrence, that kind of thing. And then he's also got this whole- Andrew, I couldn't disagree more with you. I couldn't disagree more. I find this very unsettling, this stuff. Like, Tehran- Well, let me finish spooling out my thoughts, Sam. It is unsettling. Of course it's unsettling.

But just let me make this point. Like, there's that thing, and then there's his whole coalition of doves, right? Of like, you know, no more foreign wars types, you know, like all those guys in his coalition. And like, I think that that, like, Trump kind of varies back and forth between those two things because that's not really how he thinks about these things, right? He just likes winning and he likes power. And like, so what we have going on here is like, it's exactly the opposite of like what's

happening in Russia and Ukraine, right? Trump resents having to kind of go into that war on behalf of the smaller, weaker group there. Trump is loving being on the side of Israel right now, because Israel's winning in Iran. Israel has air dominance, Israel's hitting Tehran and doing all the stuff that Israel wants to do, and Trump is like, yeah, USA, USA,

they're using our planes, they're using our bombs. This is great, we're having a great time. I think that's just kind of at the core of how he views all this stuff. And it is kind of useful, I guess, to get it laid out there, right? That even though it is obviously horrifying and unsettling and just sort of deeply unreal.

I mean, it's just so weird to get these sort of like, you know, a dear diary. Israel hit Iran again today and it was a great time for everybody. Well, that is weird for sure. But I disagree with you. I don't think it illuminates how he thinks about these things. I think it sows confusion about how he thinks about these things. So for instance, what does he mean by we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran?

Who's we? The good guys in his view, right? No, but who's we? Are we involved? Is the US involved? Why the US is involved? That's what's so bizarre about this, right? He can't stick to a normal... In what capacity are we involved?

Are we patrolling Iran's airspace or is Israel with our provided equipment? I mean, I don't know. That's the stuff, right? But I think you can say, like, we have complete control of the skies over Iran. And the we there is Israel using American equipment, right? But we don't know.

American-made, conceived, and manufactured stuff. He's just firing away these missiles. The other one that really got me was people of Tehran should evacuate immediately, which he said last night. That's a city of 10 million people. Just with a bleak. He's like absolute chaos in the capital. I mean, why would you do that?

Now, look, it's interesting to the degree that what it does illuminate is just sort of his incessant need for attention and to be the center of attention, right? Like that I get and I mean, I'll get it, but it's just who he is. But we're also sort of unfamiliar with this type of approach. It's just totally different than anything we've ever dealt with before. You know, it used to be that Joe Biden was ridiculed because he didn't say much in these moments.

I think Trump is over-torquing in the opposite direction. He's saying way too much. And it's just like, go put the phone down and come up with some strategic plan here, or more concrete decisions. So I think he's oversharing. Did you see that clip of him talking to reporters, I think on Air Force One, shortly after he sent out that,

everyone in Tehran should evacuate immediately tweet. What did he say? They were like, well, what do you mean by that? Are you saying that we're gonna hit Tehran? He's like, no, I wasn't saying that. I was just kinda saying, you wanna be safe. Out of an abundance of caution, if you're in Tehran, you should evacuate immediately. It was just completely insane.

It's a bigger population than New York, I believe. Just being like, hey, get out of New York City tonight. What are you supposed to do? It's just chaos, total chaos. Never seen anything like it. We've seen stuff like this a lot in other domains under Trump 2.0, right? There's the whole point of the whole taco thing,

the Trump always chickens out thing. It's like Trump's gonna say some insane shit and you are probably in your best interest to ignore half of it because half of it's not gonna come to fruition. And that is hard enough when it's just like the stock market that he's talking about and tariffs and all that stuff. And like even then it's like, okay,

I guess we're gonna try to just like keep a stiff upper lip and assume it's all, he's gonna be saying something new tomorrow. It is much more difficult, I'm sure, if you are sitting in Tehran to see this sort of thing and be like, what are you supposed to say? Ah, I bet he's just bluffing. But it's, he tweets and the chaos follows and it's, yeah.

And the other impact of it is that they are so attuned or they seem so attuned and interested and invested in shaping domestic public opinion about this stuff. Which I'm assuming is why Trump's doing all this to begin with, but secondarily you saw last night Pete Hexeth going on Watersworld, all things like as this was all playing out. And then this morning you had the JD Vance post on Twitter. How would you even describe it? It's just sort of like a sort of a defense of Donald Trump as a human being and then laying the predicate for potentially some military action, but also saying it would be within the construct

of an American first-form policy. It was just a very sort of interesting, I thought the fact that he felt the need to issue the post was itself interesting. They care so deeply about the public opinion, especially of their people online. Yeah, yeah, and that last bit is, I think, the most insane part of all, not the most insane, but such an insane

sort of secondary part of all of this is that if you are not, if you out there in TV land watching this are not actively kind of following along with the posting habits of particularly JD Vance, but also Donald Trump and a lot of these other people in the administration, it is like impossible to overstate how much they are constantly triangulating their message to the people in their base who are less mad about this or that or the other thing on Twitter. So J.D. Vance is out there slapping down individual pieces of criticism on Twitter. He had a post

criticism on Twitter. He had a post for, quote, tweeting Dave Rehoboie this morning who was doing some critique of something secondarily related to this Iran stuff and accusing him of supporting Ron DeSantis in the 2024 primary. That's what these guys are thinking about right now is how do I get this domestic critic off of my back by reminding all the other Trump supporters that this guy who's criticizing me right now was a Ron DeSantis guy last year as we inch toward potential global war. I mean, it's just, it's so insane how far up their own asses they are on this stuff

with the online discourse. Yeah, I think that's the issue I have with it is that there's so much going on and the stakes are not minor, they're existential and people will die and you're like, you know, I gotta post this, I gotta go in water's world. You know, it's like at some point, you know, you should probably just focus on your job.

I say that as I post a million times a day, so. Posters are gonna post, man. Posters are gonna post, yeah. Speaking of, people should read the Mike Lee piece that Joe Pritikin just put up for press pass, it's really good, some amazing stats in there. All right, Andrew. Thanks, man. I appreciate this. We'll be following the true social accounts. So anyone who's watching this doesn't have to, it's our public service to the

population. Uh, and we'll be in touch on all these other things and we'll talk to you later. Hi, I'm Richard Karn and you may have seen me on TV talking about the world's number one expandable garden hose. Well, the brand new Pocket Hose Copperhead with Pocket Pivot is here, and it's a total game changer. Old-fashioned hoses get kinks and creases at the spigot, but the Copperhead's Pocket Pivot swivels 360 degrees for full water flow and freedom to water with ease all around your home. When you're all done, this rust-proof anti-burst hose

shrinks back down to pocket size for effortless handling and tidy storage. Plus, your super-light and ultra-durable Pocket Hose Copperhead is backed with a 10-year warranty. What could be better than that? I'll tell you what, an exciting radio exclusive offer just for you. For a limited time, you can get a free pocket pivot and their 10-pattern sprayer with the purchase of any size Copperhead hose. Just text WATER to 64,000. That's WATER to 64,000 for your two free gifts with purchase.

W-A-T-E-R to 64,000. By texting 64,000, you'll agree to receive recurring automated marketing messages from Pocket Hose. Message and data rates may apply. No purchase required. Terms apply. Available at pockethose.com slash terms.