Bulwark Takes - Trump’s “Gatsby” Party Proves He’s Lost Touch With Reality

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

Sam Stein takes on the jarring contrast between Trump’s over-the-top Mar-a-Lago Halloween party and a violent ICE arrest in Chicago—two scenes that capture everything wrong with America right now.

Hey, everybody. It's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at the bulwark. I am coming to you on Sunday, morning after the World Series, but also two days after Halloween. And I'm doing a full video because there is this split screen thing that happened on Friday that just kind of blew my mind for a variety of reasons. One, in Mara Lago, Trump's secondary home down in Florida, where they threw a great Gatsby-themed Halloween party filled with Burlese, dancers and women dressed up and men in tuxedos and tails and ice loosges and stuff like that. And it just looked so over the top and so outlandish that it kind of blew my mind. I mean, maybe a fun party actually, like, I guess if you're into that stuff,

everyone's dressing up, so why not the president, right? But just look at this video. Let's play video one from there and just take a look at the scene down in Mar-a-Lago. I don't know. I'm not like trying to be a puritan about this stuff. Again, it looks fun for people, I guess. But like, just close your eyes for a second. And imagine what would have happened if Joe Biden threw a party like that.

People's minds would have been blown. Their jaws would have on the floor. It would have been considered so utterly inappropriate. Hell, I'm old enough for remember when Barack Obama got in trouble with the press because he invited common to the White House to do rap poetry. That was considered unbecoming of the president. And then you have that scene. And that wasn't the only scene.

There was a ton of other stuff. Again, this is a gathering of some of the wealthies people. They're all decked down in tuxes. It's not like they're like going trick-or-treating or doing something wholesome for Halloween. They are living it up like they're in the Gatsby's. like this is Moulin Rouge. They're all having nice drinks and stuff. And this is all during a government shutdown. Okay. This is during a government shutdown when president is demolishing the East Wing to build his ostentatious ballroom where he's posting about this new marble

bathroom he's constructed in the White House, mocking the old bathroom because they had old plumbing. I mean, the level of out of touchness that is exhibited here is surprising, honestly. I would suggest a president and administration that just doesn't give a fuck because I don't really understand why they would do this. I mean, just check out this second video here from Mar-Lago. And I, this one even was more incredible than the first. I mean, the president's there. The president's there. Did he get a dance like that?

I got to know. I doubt it. Maybe a secret service issue. But I just can't fat. It's like indescribable to me that they did this. Again, could be fun. Definitely would have been involved in something of that nature when I was in like my college years. That seems great.

But these are, it's sort of like elderly. men at a club hanging out in Halloween, again, while the government's being shut down. And that gets us to the split screen because it's not just the shutdown that's happening right now. There's a lot going on in the world, especially with regards to ICE and Border Patrol, and especially in Chicago, where it's become basically ground zero. And you have, you know, lower income minority communities that are being absolutely terrorized and not just lower income minority communities now, but middle income and even upper

income communities in that neighborhood in Chicago that have had Border Patrol walking through going nuts on the citizens. Now, mind you, they always have a rationale or justification for what actions are doing. And in this video, it's the same exact thing. In this video, what proceeds what you're about to see is, this is just from reports, a Issa Border Patrol car is driving and another car backends it. Now, people on the scene say that the car stopped abruptly, the ice car stopped abruptly in order to get a collision so that they can then have this confrontation.

I don't know. I wasn't there. That's the allegation. That's the counter allegation. But check out this scene. And just while you're watching this, think that this is happening roughly around the same 24-hour period as Donald Trump and his buddies in Marlago are out there yucking it up,

having champagne and martini's and watching burles dancers, you know, do provocative dances in front of the clientele. This is also happening in America right now. Put the gun away. We need to sue people, you're a piece of shit. You're going to fuck out of here. You're a piece of shit. Leave her alone.

Let her go. Let her go! Let her go! Let her go! Get the fuck out of here! Let her go! Get the fuck out of here! Let her go! Let her go! Get the fuck out of here! You pull the gun on people!

Fuck you, you piece of shit! You're fucking piece of shit. You fucking piece of shit. Leave her alone. You're a piece of shit. Fuck you. Get the fuck out of here. Willing a gun on business?

Fuck you. You violent piece of shit. Get the fuck out of here. Get out of here. Get out of here! Get the fuck out of here! Get the fuck out of it! Get the fuck out of here!

Get the fuck out of here! You're a piece of shit! Get the fuck out of here! Who like you? Get out of your boss's ball! Glad you let you let them fuck them. Get out of here! Get the fuck out of here!

You're a piece of shit! Get out of here! Get out of here! Let him go! Let him go! Let him go! Let him go! Let him go!

Pucking assholes! What the fuck out of here? You are not smoking. Get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out of here. here. Let them go. Let him go. Let him go. Let him go. Get out of here. Get out of here. A piece of shit. Get the Fuck out of here. Get out of here. You leave. You leave. You leave. You leave. You fucking leave, you asshole. Let him go. Let him go. Let him go. Get the fuck out of here. Get out of here. Get out of here. Leave him alone. Leave him alone. Leave him alone.

Let him go. You win. You win. You fucking leave. Get the fuck out of here. Okay. So that was a long video. That, that, that, like, really shook me up a lot when I was watching it.

I'm going to explain what the Department of Homeland Security says about that video. They say, like I mentioned, that the red car in it. rear-ended the government car and that they resisted arrest and that the guy who you saw on the ground who was getting punched in the head towards the end of it was grabbing the officer's genitals with his hand as he was handcuffed like that and that's why he punched him that's their explanation they were still pointing guns at people who had gathered the reason that they didn't get closer is because the other officers were holding canisters of pepper spray threatening to spray people.

What you didn't see prior to that video was that officer who flashed a gun. He threw a woman onto the sidewalk. That's terror, man. That is just pure terror right there for everyone involved. And it's happening increasingly across this country as ICE and Border Patrol are ramping up operations. They are tearing communities apart. I don't care if you think one side is at fault to the other. The idea that you have to escalate to this level is absurd.

It's un-American. It's gross. It's scary, honestly. And the reason I wanted to show that right after the Moulin Rouge at Mar-a-Lago is because you cannot have as incredible, And as sad a dichotomy as what you just witnessed there. People at the upper crust of society with the most power, with access to the Oval Office and the president himself, yucking it up, watching burless dancers, drinking their martinis, having a good old time, watching scantily clad women gyrate on chairs, like at the same time that these people have guns. pointed at them because an officer got hot after someone rear-ended him, maybe because he

wanted that. I just don't see how you can continue to have this coexist. I don't. It is, it's grotesque, honestly. And it's obviously problematic, too, for this country where communities are being torn apart and the people who are atop the government get to have a good old. great Gatsby ball on Halloween. So that is a microcosm of the current place we are in. It's a sad microcosm, but it is what it is. And it really is what it stuck with me throughout this

Halloween weekend. I hope this was informative. I hope you enjoyed what you heard, or at least that you learned something from it. Thanks a bunch. Talk to you soon.