Bulwark Takes - What Would Jesus Do? Apparently, Build a Billion Dollar Ballroom

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Tim Miller and Cameron Kasky join together in New Orleans for a weekend potpourri: the most expensive congressional primary in history (and why a Parkland survivor is rooting for the libertarian gun guy), Eric Metaxas declaring God's divine will is being spent on Trump's ballroom, and why Trump's Iran threats stopped meaning anything weeks ago. Plus: oil at $107, the parliamentarian strikes back, and Tim gets caught on Geese Reddit.

Ladies and gentlemen, we've got Tim Miller here. My name is Cameron Marley Caskey. This is the Bullwark podcast. We got a great day of content coming for you. What's going on, Cameron? What are you doing here? I'm spending the weekend in New Orleans with my friends, Tim and Tyler, and the wonderful Toulouse, and we are hanging out.

That's so good to have Cameron here. This isn't really a stupid. It's kind of like a little buddy comedy vibe. We're getting pretty close to each other. But it's been nice to have Cameron. I want to do a little weekend potpourri for everybody, where I discuss a couple of topics that have caught my eyes. but before I just rants to you by myself, I kind of wanted to get Cameron's take on what's happening with Thomas Massey in Kentucky.

Because it intersects with a few interests of yours. First, you have the Gen Z child of Rand Paul, screaming anti-Semitic slurs at a bar at Mike Lawler. And Michael Lawler isn't even Jewish, right? Not Jewish, yeah. So there's that. And his Twitter handle is Tasty Brew 1776. That's Rand Paul's son's Twitter? I mean, that's like AI-generated conservative Twitter handle.

On the nose. Okay, it's also intersecting with you because, you know, you're doing some stuff here. Boy, Roecona, has been working with Massey on, you know, the Epstein bill and the Iran War Powers bill. And APEC is big in the race. So a lot of your interests are intersecting in this Kentucky congressional race. So it's one on your take. It's a very fascinating thing. So for anyone who doesn't know, this primary to stop Thomas Massey is now the most expensive

primary in history. There is more money that has been dumped into stopping Thomas Massey than ever before. And it's kind of, yeah, it's kind of infuriating because here I am rooting for the most conservative member of Congress, the member of Congress who has cast the most Republican votes. Here I am saying, hold strong, baby. And he doesn't believe that, like, government should exist. Like, you think government should, like, basically do, like, roads and military and, like, that's it.

So for, again. And not even really military that much. Yeah, for anyone who isn't locked into the Massey of it all, this is the most conservative person you could possibly imagine so much. I mean, we're talking, this guy's got a farm. He's got patents. He's the type of guy who you picture sitting on his porch cleaning a shotgun. Well, he has the guns Christmas cars. Have you ever seen that?

That was Massey? Yeah, that was the same. I remember that, of course, because I have a gun control background. And I remember seeing that and being like, this is so psychotic. A little risky. And here I am being like, well, we need this man to win. Explain that. I think it's kind of a referendum on money in politics.

I think that at a time when we are reexamining money's role in politics and how much influence certain interests and organizations can have in our elections, it's interesting. We've got two groups spending a lot in elections. We've got A-PAC and we've got A-I-Pax. And there's really only one space bar dividing the two. So it gets a little complicated. Do you take AI PAC money? Crypto is spending a ton of money. Sports betting is spending a ton of money.

And I think a lot of people are looking at this and saying, wait a second, this is kind of fucked up. It's kind of weird that a pro-Israel organization can run attack ads on a candidate for their association with ICE or can dump truck money into Illinois 9 under elect Chicago women. And I'm just like, I feel like there's room for some transparency here. For sure. But again, Thomas Massey is really like the hardcore conservative of yesteryear. This man built like a national debt ticker.

Like, how would you describe it? Do you know what I'm talking about? He's got like, it's like a lapel pin, right? Well, it's, it has, we'll throw a picture of it up on the screen. Thomas Massey's beard, by the way, is doing a lot of heavy lifting. He looks pretty badass with the beard. And pre-beard Thomas Massey. I just saw the ticker.

He's going on a debt back. debt badge. Yeah, so there's the premier Damas Massey right there with the debt badge. Yeah, it's got a digital element to it. And he made it himself. He's a very, he's clearly got a lot of technological skills. I mean, he has dozens of patents, which, you know. How many do you have? I don't have any patents. I have the Gen Z activism industrial complex. That's my patent. So we have debt man. We've seen this face. Now, has updated the beard. Go back to the beard. What are you thinking about the beard? I mean, it's just a very, very, very, you know, a very, you know, great beard. It's the type

of beard that does a lot of work for you in politics. I think there's some people where maybe the beard is not the option. Other people where I see it working either way, to be honest, I don't have an opinion on Buttigieg. I think the beard looks fine. I think I like shaved Buttigieg a little more.

I'm 50-50 as well. It's fine. I wrote an article last week. People can check out at the blog.com about Roe and Massey and how it showed like this different model. Like the old model of getting shit done in Washington right was you know you you work the inside game you go into the ways and means committee you go do a bipartisan bill with someone on the other side you know and they're both establishment figures and like meet the middle

and you give them some pork and they give you right like that's how ship worked in politics in the movies and like there hasn't been any bipartisanship lately like there's basically nothing and row and massie like offered this new model which is kind of like an outsider's bipartisanship where they're both basically like, F the leadership, like, we're going to press forward on these two things, Epstein and the Iran war vote that we know that the people are for, but that's getting blocked. And I don't know. I'm kind of interested by that model. And like, Massey might, like, basically the opposite of you politics-wise, but like, that

is an appealing part of it for me. Yeah. I mean, I think that Epstein and Iran are actually maybe the quintessential examples of the types of things that when we talk to conservatives, we can get them to say. yeah, this is too much. Yeah, right. And, you know, horseshoe theory leads to a lot of people becoming crackpot maniacs. But there's also a degree to which when you're thinking that outside the box,

you can horseshoe into finding some things you agree on. Yeah, right. And a lot of Republicans, I talked to a guy pretty recently about this. A lot of Republicans wanted that isolationist Trump. They wanted that Trump who's not going to get involved to all this war shit. And these are people who don't necessarily listen to. to bulwark or read any similar things and don't realize how bad we're getting fucking dog walked. Yeah, right.

But they're sick of it, and they've had enough. And I think what Roe and Massey have done is recognized that not only are they going to find these things we agree on, they're also going to do such as someone who is like a chair of the Bernie campaign and someone who wears the debt badge. Right. So it really goes to show a lot of things in government that don't happen that I think people want are actually not happening because there just isn't the political willpower to do it. Nobody's making people do it.

So, for example, before what Roe and Massey did on the Epstein files, if you had asked me about it, I said, well, there's nothing that can be done. Yeah. And here they are doing it. And in the article I wrote, the Polymarket was like 11% likelihood that it was going to get released last summer. I'm sorry, real quick. Why do you have the geese on your laptop? Oh, because I like the geese.

Oh, you're just on geese Reddit when we're talking about Iran and Epstein? Yeah, can I not be on geese writer? No, you can be on geese right. For anyone who doesn't know. I'm very able to, I'm like, I can multitask. My bad. My bad. Yeah, fun behind the scenes, FYPod.

Fact, back when Tim and I had our duo show, if there was a guest who you thought was bad and, you know, I mean, there was some guests who I think were pretty organic on camera and pretty fun to watch, but weren't necessarily that insightful. I mean, it's hard. Like being organic and comfortable on camera and having something insightful to say are not the same thing. And there are some people who really work on screen and have no depth and people with a ton of depth who just don't work on screen. Right. And when we had a real stinker, you know, we can't hit them all.

You know, not every episode is going to be our only two-time guest, Terry Sisson. We would be texting each other. There were multiple episodes where we were like, what the fuck do we even say here? We're doing our best because we want to create good content for you guys. You know, we want to make it good. All right. So Tuesday, you're with the debt badge man. Call your mema, everybody.

Call your me ma'am if they live in Kentucky 4. Massey is winning with voters under 64 and getting shlonged by all the senior citizens. And it's a problem. Yeah, I think it's one of those elections that means a lot more than just. the election. It's one of those elections that is a referendum on something. I think it's going to say a lot about money and politics and it's going to say a lot about spending because one thing that I think gets left out of certain conversations is that Harris outspent Trump, I think, three to one. And the way that social media works, I think that what money and politics means and how necessary

it is in certain ways, it's just shifting a little bit. So Massey's getting outspent to the gojillionth degree. And I guess we're about to learn if that still works. All right. Everybody, we got a great show for you. I have a few other. We're talking about some bullshit. I'm going to let Tim go ahead.

I have other popery. You go do a puzzle to loose, okay? We're going to finish the potpourri with everybody. Hey, everybody. Look at Cameron Cowski. Isn't it nice to have him down here with me in New Orleans? Let's chat a little bit more about what else is happening out there in the news. Two things I just wanted to talk about.

One is the ballroom. and the other is what we're seeing again with the spike in oil prices. All right, a couple things in the ballroom. First, we had a big ruling from the parliamentarian. The parliamentarian still matters in the U.S. Senate. And basically, essentially the ruling was that they cannot do the funding for the ballroom within the reconciliation package. The sickos who have been following the stuff closely know that reconciliation is like the one budget bill a year

that the Senate can push through going around the filibuster based on our current cockamamie system. You can do one budget bill a year, but the elements of that bill have to fit certain rules. And the ballroom funding, it was ruled, did not qualify. And so that means that in order to get funding for his ballroom, he would need 60 votes, which means he would need Democrats and not just John Federman,

but some other Democrats. And so that is a hiccup for Trump, at least for now. We'll see what they do next. The thing, though, that I really wanted to show you about the ballroom and just about how sick the MAGA Christian nationalist movement is at this point, I wanted to show you this video from Rededicate 250 event. Let's watch. It's hard to believe that it would take two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand. It's extraordinary.

We only had to wait 200 years. That is Eric Metaxus. He is one of the Maga-Charlatan pastors. We don't call him pastor around here. We just call him Eric, Mr. Eric. And yeah, Eric Metaxus thinks that, I guess God's divine will is being served by this ballroom. He believes that. It took two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man who could bring that ballroom finally to stand.

I mean, what? The loaves and the fishes, the water into wine, that God, that God using his energy on Donald Trump's ballroom right now. And the other previous presidents did not have the Lord God at their back because they did not successfully. we get the ballroom? And like, these people are fucking nuts. What do you? I mean, how do you even do this with a straight face? Who's even listening to this?

Like, even the craziest evangelical MAGA has got to be like, I, I mean, I want President Trump to succeed, but I'm not praying for the ballroom. I, a ballroom that finally needs to stand where it needs to stand. What? What? What in Jesus' teaching made you think that he cared about fancy ballrooms? And this is just a total affront. This guy is such a freaking clown.

It's embarrassing, really. I saw him walking around on TPA USA one time. I don't know. Sometimes you can just sense it. I just looked at him and I felt like he knew. There was a sadness inside him, a desperation for recognition and a sadness. That's Eric Metaxus. So the ballroom news, the Lord might be with Trump, but the parliamentarian is against.

And as of right now, point to the parliamentarian. We'll see how that shakes out. The other thing I just wanted to mention here overnight, and obviously, you know, this stuff is dynamic with the markets. But Trump once again told Iran that the clock is ticking. as a result, oil prices surge to above $107 a barrel, another spike. Not as far as we thought maybe it could have gone, but again, we're getting way outside that landman range of $60 to $90.

Now we're back into the 107 territory. You can see the little green line popping up there. This is just going to be so hard for them to unravel. I don't know why the markets are so responsive to Trump's threats because he's just been doing the same thing over and over again for like weeks now. we almost got a deal we almost get a deal if we don't have a good deal i'm going to kill you if we don't have a deal i might skin your face if we don't have a deal i'm going to take the iranian soccer team and send them to guantan if we don't get a deal then i am going to bomb turan the only city whose

name i know in iran like i just they he keeps doing the same thing it is unbelievably weak and humiliating over and over again Trump is doing this. He is just making these empty threats that he refuses to back up and as a result,

the straight stays closed. Prices keep going up and there's, you know, in the good news side of things, there's additional pressure happening on oil prices now because of Ukraine's successful offensive going after more oil refineries in Russia, in Moscow. So I think global oil

market is in tatters and what Trump is doing right now is clock is ticking it's like hasn't it been ticking for months what it was it's just it's so embarrassing and feckless um all right everybody hope you enjoyed a little weekend potpourri a little bonus time with cameron appreciate cameron for popping on here my like not made for guest studio uh i'll be back uh obviously on monday with Bill Crystal. I did let do a show with Cameron one time. If you want to go back in the FYPod archives, it is a classic. I'll have Bill Crystal on tomorrow discussing all of this and much, much more.

So we'll see you all then. Subscribe to the feed. Thanks.