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Bulwark Takes
The Bulwark
The news cycle doesn’t slow down, and neither does The Bulwark. Bulwark Takes brings you bite-sized takes on the news of the day from the entire Bulwark team, including Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell, and Bill Kristol, and more.
48 claims · Clear filters
True80% confidence8 sourcesAug 21, 2026Scott Bessent has given DOGE access to the Treasury payment system.Said by BAs of 2026-08-21, the record shows Bessent personally authorized DOGE access to a Treasury payment system on January 31, 2025, per a congressional press release and contemporaneous reporting. Treasury's 'read-only' characterization and the later GAO findings about improper access concern the scope of that access, not whether it was granted.True90% confidence4 sourcesAug 21, 2026The U.S. Census Bureau has existed in some form since 1790 and in its current form since 1902.Said by BThe claim matches the post's wording and is supported by the Census Bureau's own history timeline, which says data collection began with the 1790 census and that Congress created a permanent Census Office on March 6, 1902. FactCheck.org independently says Congress established the Census Bureau as a permanent agency in 1902. The 1902 agency was called the Census Office and the Bureau name came later, a minor detail that does not change the core claim.True75% confidence7 sourcesAug 21, 2026A New York Times investigation by Dave Phillips found that a legal loophole allows wild horses to be sold by the Bureau of Land Management and then exported for slaughter.Said by BThe sources consistently report that a New York Times investigation by Dave Phillips (spelled Philipps in one source) found a BLM sale loophole that let wild horses be sold cheaply and then exported for slaughter. The post said the loophole "could" allow this, and the claim drops that qualifier, but the core finding is confirmed by multiple outlets and a congressional request.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.True80% confidence8 sourcesAug 21, 2026The U.S. Census Bureau released a paper this week claiming that at least 24,000 non-citizens voted in the 2020 election.Said by BThe Census Bureau's own August 18, 2026 report, 'Noncitizen Voting in the 2020 Election, A Beginning Analysis,' states that over 24,000 voter records represented noncitizens, so the core assertion that the Bureau released a paper this week claiming at least 24,000 noncitizens voted is supported. Fact-checkers dispute whether the report proves this, and Lead Stories notes it describes matched records rather than confirmed illegal votes, but that disputes the report's validity, not whether it makes the claim.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.True80% confidence8 sourcesAug 21, 2026The Census Bureau paper regarding non-citizen voting in the 2020 election lists no authors.Said by BMultiple sources state the Census Bureau's 2020 noncitizen-voting brief lists no authors, and the claim matches the passage's point. Wired reports that documents name contributors, and a later source says the Census Bureau's own emails identify authors, but the published paper itself does not name them.True70% confidence7 sourcesAug 21, 2026The Census Bureau paper regarding non-citizen voting in the 2020 election was produced by political operatives at an outside think tank.Said by BMultiple reporters, including NPR and WIRED, found that the Census Bureau's August 2026 noncitizen-voting analysis was produced by a team with ties to the Trump-aligned think tank America First Policy Institute (AFPI), not by career Census staff. The claim's "political operatives" wording is a characterization, and WIRED's finding that AFPI members were detailed into the Bureau complicates "outside"; the sources publish after the August 21 claim date but describe the August 18 production, so the core assertion holds as of that date.True65% confidence8 sourcesAug 21, 2026The Department of Health and Human Services and the NIH have published pronouncements about autism and vaccines that are untrustworthy since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over.Said by AAuthoritative sources (FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, AP/PBS, KFF Health News) describe HHS Secretary Kennedy's vaccine-autism statements and the CDC website changes made after he took over as false, misleading, or unsupported by new evidence, which supports calling those pronouncements untrustworthy. The evidence for NIH specifically is thinner, since NIH director Bhattacharya stated he had not seen a study showing any vaccine causes autism, and the sources do not identify NIH publications that were themselves discredited.True85% confidence7 sourcesAug 21, 2026Joseph Stalin executed statisticians who conducted a census in the 1930s because the results undermined his projections.Said by BMultiple sources show the 1937 Soviet census counted about 162 million people, well below the roughly 180 million Stalin expected, and that the statisticians who ran it were arrested and executed after the results were presented to him. The claim's wording matches the post's account, and the sources support its core assertion; the exact 1930s framing and the 'firing squad' detail are consistent with the record.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.True70% confidence7 sourcesAug 21, 2026Joseph Stalin executed his census head in 1937 because he did not like the data.Said by BSources consistently report that the 1937 census results were suppressed because they showed unwelcome low population figures, and that the census officials, including the census chief Kvitkin and the TsUNKhU head Kraval, were arrested and executed. Some sources say Kvitkin died in custody rather than being executed, and most sources are lower-credibility or old, so confidence is moderate.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.True60% confidence6 sourcesAug 21, 2026The nominal GDP of the United States in the second quarter of 2026 was 32 trillion dollars.The claim matches the passage's figure. Two BEA-derived data aggregators put Q2 2026 nominal GDP at about $32.56 trillion (annual rate), which is consistent with '32 trillion' within casual rounding. The primary BEA release excerpt confirms the growth trend but not the level, and an IMF/FRED series shows 8.12 trillion, which conflicts and is likely a different measure.True85% confidence4 sourcesAug 21, 2026South Carolina has a law prohibiting elementary school age boys from being on girls sports teams.Said by 3DSouth Carolina's Save Women's Sports Act, signed May 2022, bars students of the male sex from female-designated teams at public elementary, middle, and high schools, so the claim holds. The law covers all grades, not only elementary-age boys, and the statute and Reuters coverage do not directly confirm the 'four years' timing beyond the 2022 enactment date.True65% confidence7 sourcesAug 21, 2026One in ten young adults now has no in-person contact with other human beings on an average day.Secondary coverage of an analysis of the American Time Use Survey reports that about 10% of young adults (ages 23 to 29) had no in-person interaction on an average day, up from about 3% before the pandemic and holding steady through 2025, the latest data cited. The figure is for ages 23 to 29 rather than all young adults, and all the supporting articles trace back to one analysis, so confidence is capped.