Bulwark Takes

Tim Miller and Sarah Longwell discuss the deafening silence from President Donald Trump and his administration after the U.S. strikes in Iran. As of Sunday evening, no one from the White House has laid out to the American public the case or any clear objectives for the major assault. Three U.S. service members have been killed with others severely wounded. Note: Shortly after this taping, The New York Times published a report about a brief telephone interview the Times conducted with Trump Sunday in which he said the assault will go on for "four to five weeks" if needed and offered no clear vision for a transfer of power in Iran.

Sam Stein and Will Saletan watched the the Sunday shows and give their takes on the spin after the U.S. strikes on Iran, zeroing in on the mixed messaging from Republican lawmakers defending the action. From Lindsey Graham insisting it’s “not our job” to shape Iran’s future, to Ted Cruz struggling to define an imminent threat, the hawkish case for war raises more questions than it answers. They unpack the interventionists’ victory inside Trump world, the rejection of “you break it, you own it,” and the vague comparisons to a so-called Venezuela model that doesn’t seem to apply.

Tim Miller and Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) join Bill Kristol to discuss the latest developments in Iran.

Tim Miller takes on Trump’s Texas rally—from floating Ted Cruz for the Supreme Court to teasing a “third term” and congratulating a scandal-plagued congressman. Then he relishes a staggering Truth Social filing: $3.7 million in revenue, $712 million in losses.

Hayden Field of The Verge joins Andrew Egger to discuss the Pentagon’s fight with Anthropic and what it means for the future of AI. After Anthropic drew red lines around autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance, the Department of Defense responded by labeling the company a “supply chain risk” -- a designation typically reserved for foreign adversaries.
Read more from Hayden Field in The Verge, "We don’t have to have unsupervised killer robots"
Read more from Andrew Egger's Morning Shots, "AI Death Machines. No Human Oversight. What Could Go Wrong?"