Bulwark Takes - Trump’s World Tour of Insecurity (w/ Jack Cocchiarella)

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Jack Cocchiarella takes on the aftermath of Donald Trump's international trip amid the government shutdown and SNAP benefits halting, returning with no apparent advantages for the US and unclear messaging around China closing in on Taiwan.

Hi, I'm Jack Cottrell with the Bullwork, and I'm just so tired of us indulging with the Trump fake tough guy act. This is probably the most insecure person in the country, and we allow him to act like he is this strong man, especially on the world stage. Trump just coming off of his like world tour, acting like the tough guy, acting like the big man, acting like any world leader is intimidated by him, when in reality, they kind of just play him. Trump was gifted a crown and almost served like what was essentially McDonald's on one of these state visits. I think world leaders understand how to appeal to Trump, especially Xi Jinping, who Donald Trump was confronted about the conversation. They had in a 60 minutes interview that Donald Trump

did today, which really, again, shows how insecure he is and really his misunderstanding of foreign policy. But before we get into that clip in which Trump got some well-deserved pushback, finally, I want to start with his analysis of how he thinks his world tour went, because I think it's a little bit different than everyone else's perception. But overall, I guess on the scale of from zero to ten, with ten being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12. I think it was a 12. Okay. A 12 out of 10. For what you might ask? What did Trump get out of any of these conversations, besides hopefully a little media attention away from the Epstein files, a government shutdown. He can't negotiate his way out of 42 million people losing their food assistance.

Did we get anything? No, Donald Trump has probably once again, like, bumped up the number of the investment that he always is claiming. Whenever he goes on some trip, some state visit, he always says that that nation is always going to be investing, like, more than their GDP in the private sector in America. But Trump was getting some pushback on on all of this during his interview. And the clip really just sheds light, again, on this insecurity, on Donald Trump's fundamental misunderstanding of the reason why he was taking what I can only just call like a distraction trip because there was no purpose. And Trump gave that away with what he said about Taiwan right here. One potential flashpoint with China, probably the potential flashpoint

with China in the coming years, is over the issue of. Taiwan. The Chinese military is encroaching on Taiwan's sea lanes, it's airspace, it's cyberspace. I know you have said that Xi Jinping wouldn't dare move militarily on Taiwan while you're in office. But what if he does? Would you order U.S. forces to defend Taiwan? You'll find out if it happens. And he understands the answer to that. Why not say it? This never even came up yesterday as a subject. He never brought it up. people were a little surprised that he never brought it up because he understands

it and he understands it very well. Do you mind if I ask when you say he understands, why not communicate that publicly to the rest of us? Well, because I don't want to give away, I can't give away my secrets. I don't want to be one of these guys that tells you exactly what's going to happen if something happens.

The other side knows, but I'm not somebody that tells you everything because you're asking me a question, but they understand what's going to happen. And he is openly said, and his people have openly said, Senate meetings. We would never do anything while President Trump is president because they know the consequences. But what are the consequences? More importantly, the idea of Xi Jinping bringing up Taiwan

is laughable. Why would he bring it up? Why would any Chinese dictator ever bring it up? That is your job. Your job is to project strength to ask those questions. And if you're not, what's the purpose of these trips? Trump, before that meeting, announced that for the first time in decades, we would be testing our nuclear arsenal, something that makes no sense other than just Donald Trump's idea of intimidation. Again, this is projecting out that the Tough Guy Act, the insecurity is very clearly underlying this. But you should be asking those questions. And if you want to project strength on the world stage, you would. I think the pushback was good, but we also have to keep in mind that

this is now Barry Weiss's CBS, and she's running the show. So, of course, questions around the most pressing matters of U.S. foreign policy and Donald Trump's inability to do diplomacy or met with, oh, dear leader Trump, I'd like to gently push you on why you're not actually doing your job. And we are only getting this clip. It's a bit of a teaser from what will be the rest of the 60 minutes interview. But considering that if there is even one edit in this, I think someone should probably sue 60 minutes, considering that that is now the legal precedent that Donald Trump has said. I'm not sure that this is going to be like earth-shattering journalism. But once again, this shows that Donald Trump is fundamentally misunderstood what his role is in this

diplomacy. And any state visit that he has taken, he has gotten what? And especially on this last trip. Donald Trump is the first president in American history to leave the country during a government shut down and not just to go play golf or fuck off with some new construction to leave the country. And so you'd think that there would be something for us all to gain out of him, considering that this is the America first presidency in which we hand out billions of dollars to Argentina. But there wasn't. Donald Trump said that this was a 12 out of 10 tour because he got

a hamburger and a gold crown and got to say that he's a big, strong, tough guy who's like firing off nukes again? I don't know, but that's the point. He doesn't know. And it's a good thing that he got pushed back, no matter how gentle it was, only to reveal, again, Trump doesn't really seem to care. There was no actual point to this trip. I think we kind of have to come down on that. I'm not the biggest fan of calling everything a distraction, but certainly at the time in which Donald Trump is facing historic unpopularity. Every poll is worse and worse and worse for the this administration, because why wouldn't it be? Donald Trump is happy to starve people right now. Folks are seeing their health care premiums double and triple. It's no wonder that he would

like to shift a little bit of attention by bleeding crazy shit at 3 a.m. while he's on state visits that amount to nothing, because that's kind of what Donald Trump is after, the flattery. And that's it. Because wow, this is the America first administration. What's happening at home? Again, people are starving. And Donald Trump is purposefully doing something. That was pointed out by Congresswoman Laura Friedman on Fox. And a clip that I think is really important to this larger discussion that Republicans have had narrative that they're trying to push about SNAP. I think this clip really is how Democrats need to be framing the conversation while Trump is

abroad or I guess golfing. Surely you guys, and I don't mean Democrats, I mean you guys as in our elected representatives need to find a way to move this forward without going back to. to these positions. No, we won't do this until they do that. There has to be a middle ground, Congresswoman. I agree. And look, most of the, a lot of the benefits for SNAP, for instance, are highest in red states, in red southern states. But it doesn't matter to me that these people voted for Donald Trump.

It doesn't matter to me if they're MAGA. I don't care. I don't want to see any American go hungry. When I'm here in the district every weekend, I have people coming up to me nonstop at the grocery store on the street saying, please stand strong. Don't give in. I can't lose access to health care. is too important for me, too important for my family. So that is a bright line for me, something that my constituents have been extremely clear about.

We have been talking about the SNAP benefits now, about this being a risk for weeks now. It is my position, it's been the position of AG's, it's been the position of the Democratic Party that the emergency reserves in the SNAP program were meant exactly for a government shutdown and other funding interruptions. Why do we think that?

Because it's literally written into the bill. Why did it take a court order for the Trump administration to do their right thing and prevent Americans from going hungry? Why did the Trump administration say, we're not going to release SNAP funds, sue us? Why did it take a judge saying, this is clearly written into the bill that these emergency funds are to be used

in case of a government shutdown, feed Americans? Why did it take that? But instead of scrambling to find a way to fill people's EBT cards and make sure they don't go hungry, we've got a president who spent half the night tweeting photos. of his new gilded bathroom so that he can be comfortable when he goes and has a poo. Moving on from that as quickly as we can.

Well, we're not going to move on from that. I don't think we should move on from that. I think this is entirely the point. And I think Republicans realize that trying to push this narrative at the beginning of the shutdown that they thought they thought that they would win on. And it's kind of funny that usually when we're having these conversations, it's kind of like Democrats doing the more precise. procedural jargony talking points about the Senate parliamentarian and there's a filibuster and

there's this many boats. And that's now like the footing that Republicans are on, like they're kind of on the back foot. Like John Thune is talking about procedure. Well, Democrats are just finally making it very clear that your premiums are doubling and tripling that Donald Trump wants to steal away health care for millions of people so we can pay for the largest transfer of wealth in history. But I also think that now it is important for us to hammer the conversation around Snap Because obviously, Republicans have realized, okay, we're failing on this health care line that the illegals are stealing your health care. That hasn't seemed to work. Now let's go invoke some more racist tropes by talking about SNAP. And that is exactly what's happening. I couldn't tell you how many disgusting, bigoted conservative influencer creators were like doing blackface with like fried chicken being like, oh, I'm taking my SNAP benefits. First of all, nothing gets me more upset than this, this conversation around free speech that somehow the right has co-opted the conversation like, oh, my anti-social behavior, like, oh, I put on blackface for Halloween and people don't like me

anymore and said, hey, maybe you should be fired and like kicked out of society for being a bigot and being a freak. And now that they've equated that with like the state inflicting itself on people's ability to speak on a college campus to write an op-ed, to have a photo of fat-faced J.D. Vance while they're entering the country. Those are two wildly different things. A little rant there. But I think it's important that we talk about the fact that Republicans have now latched onto this issue and they're trying to evoke racist tropes to change the narrative around the shutdown. They're saying, okay, well, we can't land the plane on health care being the problem and Democrats selling you out to illegals because they're not America first. So we're going to

be America first by denying children food. Is that what it is? Is that what it is? Because that's what's happening right now. I don't know how this is America first when you're saying that, oh, it's the fault of 42 million people that they're going to be going hungry. And that's what I hear from Republicans right now, is that why are 42 million people on SNAP? Well, it's because we haven't changed the federal minimum wage in decades. People aren't paid living wages. Do you know who's the biggest beneficiary of SNAP benefits? It's not the racist welfare queen that some Republican wants to conjure up in your mind. We saw a Republican congressman the other day say people on SNAP should stop smoking crack and get jobs. Well, these people do have jobs, not paying them enough to be able to afford to live. The biggest culprit of that being Walmart, who is having their profits subsidized by SNAP benefits because they don't pay their employees enough to actually afford to live, to afford to feed themselves and their families, no matter how many hours they work. And at the same time, Walmart is now set to lose billion

because people's EBT cards aren't being funded, because that money is spent there. So maybe we look at the profits and the billions of the Walton family rather than evoking these racist tropes. But one of the worst tweets I saw about Snap, I just have to talk about the close because I need to rant about this for 30 seconds. So some random blue check conservative account wrote on Twitter, the point of EBT is to ensure people don't starve to death. That's it. Even if we agree that's a worthwhile goal, I'd hope we do, it can be achieved. with neutral loaf. Neutral loaf provides the correct incentives. You won't starve and you'll be motivated to earn enough money to eat real food again. And in the description that they post that they

show on Google, it says neutral loaf is a bland, nutritionally complete food, often called prison loaf serve to inmates who misbehave. Okay. Before I freak out, let me first say that these people for about three, four years have been saying that we need to stop sending our money to Ukraine so we can feed Americans at home. And now that it's time to feed Americans at home, they're suggesting prison slop. The conservatives who told you that the Democrats were going to create breadline society in America, which by the way is what's happening right now in the United States because Donald Trump's economic policies are so fucked that people have to turn to food pantries because of skyrocketing costs and this idiotic shutdown.

that he has cost, those same people are now saying that we should torture those who work a 40-hour work week, unable to feed their families because of the economic system that we have created and which billion-dollar corporations are being subsidized by not paying their employees with SNAP. It is not people who are mooching off this program. It is not a crime if a kid gets a cookie. It is giant corporations not paying nearly enough for people to be able to eat. What is America first about anything that these conservatives want? Donald Trump is off having a world tour for we don't know what yet still because he won't talk about tariffs. He won't talk about Taiwan. He won't close a deal, which aren't happening anymore. And at home, people are

starving as conservatives offer up prison lup. That is Trump's America. What could possibly be America first about this? With the bulwark, I'm Jack Hotchrella, and I'm a little pissed today.