Bulwark Takes - Why Has the Media Stopped Fighting Trump’s Lies?

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

Will Saletan takes on Donald Trump’s latest assault on reality, this time targeting the nation’s job numbers. He explains how Trump's delusion about the 2020 election morphed into a movement, why so many Republicans are still playing along, and why the media has stopped pushing back. Get 30% off your first order from Soul at https://GetSoul.com with promo code BULWARKTAKES

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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. But MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hey, it's Will Salatan from The Bullwork. So, as you probably heard by now, Donald Trump has launched an all-out assault on our country's job numbers, our employment numbers. He says they're rigged, and he fired the Commissioner of Labor Statistics. And the whole Republican Party is falling in line behind this lie.

What I want to show you today is how we got here. We got here because Republican politicians and a lot of voters understood that Trump was delusional about the 2020 election. He said it was rigged and stolen. And they thought that that delusion could be compartmentalized, meaning it was a one-off. It didn't really matter. And that he could still function rationally as president. And they were wrong. A man who is delusional about a rigged election is also going to be delusional about everything else being rigged. Let me take you back to last year. Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump insisted that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen.

And a lot of voters decided that this delusion about the stolen election didn't really matter. Let me show you what I mean. This is the AP Votecast survey of people who actually voted in 2024. It's like an exit poll. 65% of voters said Joe Biden legitimately won. the 2020 election, which means they knew that when Trump said the election was rigged, he was wrong. But more than a quarter of those voters voted for Trump anyway in 2024. They knew that he was lying or diluted, but they thought that was okay. So those voters, that quarter of

the 65%, basically one-sixth of the electorate, made the difference in 2024. They were betting that Trump's crazy talk about the rigged election was just a one-off. So those voters put Trump back in the White House. And maybe they thought he'd leave his fantasy about the rigged election in the past. He did not. In fact, he took his re-election in 2024 as confirmation that he was right about the rigged election in 2020. And he became even more obsessed. Since Trump returned to the White House, he has repeated his allegation about the rigged election more than 90 times.

That is three times a week. And he's not getting shot down when he says it. He's getting support. Check out this video of Trump, speaking at CPAC, the conservative political action conference in February. He's talking here about Mike Lindell, the number one proponent of the rigged election lie. Listen to the applause. He said that election of 2020 was rigged. And he's more of a believer today than he was even four years ago.

But now it's okay to say it, Mike. Now it's fine. Now it's fine. The voters reelected Trump, so he feels totally vindicated. And here's another speech a month ago in Iowa. Again, listen to the crowd. And then they cheated and rigged the election. They rigged.

You know, they don't even turn off the cameras when I say that now, because now they know it's true too. But they knew it was true before. There it is again. They know it's true. He feels more confident than ever. And he's not just getting validation from these crowds. He's getting it from Republican elites.

Here he is at a dinner in April for the National Republican Congressional Committee. This is not a bunch of Yahoo's in Maga Hats. These are Republican politicians and big donors. A thing that never would have happened if the election wasn't rigged. We had a rigged election and we can say it and say it loud and say it. proud because the election was rigged, and we can't let that stuff happen anymore. That's a big room, so the applause might be a little hard to hear. But here's a smaller room where you can hear it.

This is Trump talking in May to the board of the Kennedy Center. Again, these are wealthy, well-connected people. After the election was rigged, the second one was rigged, whether you like it or not, it was rigged like nobody's ever seen. And now people are seeing it. Now people don't even fight me. You know, they used to say, sure, it's not really nice to say. I'm an honest, it was rigged, and unfortunately, that's what happened.

Trump is living in a world where all the people around him echo him or support him in his insanity. That includes the Oval Office. Here he is two months ago. Watch Elon Musk, nodding along as Trump repeats his story about the rigged election. There was a lot of dishonesty in the election, as you know, of 2020. That's been now caught. People understand it. It was a rigged election.

And then watch this scene from a month ago. You're going to see on the right of the screen, Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, and Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, standing there obediently while Trump spouts his lie. That election was rigged and stolen, and we can't allow that to happen. And here's one more scene from a few days later. This is Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and Christy Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, standing with Trump at an airport in Florida. Watch Christy Noem on the right of the screen, and you'll see her start to nod as Trump talks about the rigged election. The election in 2020 was rigged, millions and millions of votes. It had to do with COVID and a lot of things, but it really had to do with their crooked people. The Democrats are very good at cheating in elections. And that's why I said too big to rigged. They tried this one too.

But after about 902, they gave up too many votes, you know, too big to rig. Bullwork takes a sponsor by salt. I got to tell you, my days of drinking my calories are behind. me. Having some drinks can be fun, but I'm glad I've found an alternative that lets me feel great, both in the moment and the next morning. Out of office gummies from Seoul. Soul is a wellness brand that believes feeling good should be fun and easy. Soul specializes in delicious, hemp-derived THC and CBD products designed to boost your mood and help you unwind. They're best selling out-of-office gummies. We're designed to provide mild, relaxing buzz, boost your mood and enhance creativity and relaxation. I've been taking a low dose of

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is the press challenging it? But the press did challenge it. They debunked it over and over. And now they're tired, and they want to move on. So they don't even flinch anymore when Trump says it. Let me show you three examples.

The first one is from Fox News in February. Watch Brett Bear's face at the end of this clip. And you'll see him smiling. If the election weren't rigged, this would have never happened. And let's see whether or not Fox lets you put that in, okay? The election weren't rigged. Do you hear me rigged?

Let's see, I mean, it would have, this would have never happened. It wouldn't happen with Putin, and October 7th would have never happened either. See, Trump is testing the network. He says, I'm going to repeat my story that the election was rigged. And let's see if they put it on the air. And they did. And Bear didn't push back at all. He just sat there and smiled.

That's Fox. So let's see what happened a couple of months later when Trump went on ABC with Terry Moran. This is a war that if the election weren't rigged, and it was totally rigged, the 2020 election. If it weren't rigged, you wouldn't have that, you wouldn't have had the embarrassment of Afghanistan. You wouldn't have October 7th with Israel. You wouldn't have any of the problems that you have right now. And he wouldn't have had inflation either. Moran knows this is bullshit.

But he's got a list of questions he's trying to get to. So he just moves on. And here's one more. Trump on Meet the Press with Kristen Welker. You're going to see her push back, but Trump doesn't give an inch. And she's got other stuff to get to. So just like Moran, she moves on. Let me ask you, sir.

There's no question about it. The election was rigged. The facts are in, and it's still being litigated. Let's go. You did take your case to court more than 60 times and didn't with those cases. I want a lot of court cases. Just to button that up, sir. Just to button that up.

What are you talking about the election? How worried are you? Are we talking about the election of 2020? Let's talk about here and now. Let's talk about here and now. Are you worried about a recession? That is how we got here. And here's where we are.

Trump, Tuesday morning on CNBC. Watch the host, Joe Kernan, laugh and roll over when Trump does it again. But what they did in the 2020 election is grotesque. I mean, that was a rigged election. We can't litigate that. We can't relitigate that here. I'll go back to rigging again. Well, you can use it because everyone knows.

You know what, a year ago, you would have been upset if I said it. Today, it's different. I say it all the time. It was a rigged election. 100% rigged. So it shouldn't be a surprise when Trump does the same damn thing about the job numbers. Watch Kernan roll over again when Trump says the job numbers are fake. And it was a big number.

And obviously the numbers were rigged. The numbers were rigged. It's totally rigged. Smart people know it. People with common sense know it. And a lot of people like to keep their head under the covers. Let's move on to this. But there were other revisions downward from prior to the election because the numbers were rigged.

Okay. And as you said, okay, they've given up. The press is done fighting Trump. He said the election was rigged. He said it over and over. And people stopped fighting him. And the crowds and the donors. and the politicians decided to just go along.

And they're doing the same thing now with the job numbers. When Trump said in 2020 that the election was rigged, that was a warning. It was a warning that he's delusional. And then he tried to overthrow the election. And that was a warning. And way too many voters blew off that warning. They thought, okay, he's wrong about the election,

but he can be rational about everything else. And the lesson of what's happening now with the rig job numbers is that was wrong. Trump is a whack job. And he's going to be a whack job about everything he touches. See you next time.