Podcast · thebulwark.com
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.
138 claims
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.True60% confidence5 sourcesAug 21, 2026Before the pandemic, three or four out of every hundred young adults had no in-person contact with other human beings on an average day.Several outlets report that about 3% of young adults had no face-to-face interaction on an average day in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, which matches the claim's 'three or four out of a hundred.' All of these reports appear to trace to one Financial Times analysis of Census/ATUS data, and no primary ATUS release in the sources states the figure directly, so confidence is capped.True80% confidence6 sourcesAug 21, 2026The National Symphony Orchestra is performing Mozart's Piano Concerto Number 21 on November 20, 21, and 22, 2026.Multiple sources list Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 (K.467) on the NSO's Nutcracker & Cinderella program with Jorge Federico Osorio, with dates of November 20, 21 and 22, 2026. Venue listings differ (Schlesinger Hall/Alexandria for Nov 20 versus Kennedy Center in another listing, and Lisner Auditorium for Nov 21-22), but no source contradicts the performance dates. The extracted claim matches the passage's garbled dates and does not add anything the post did not say.True90% confidence7 sourcesAug 21, 2026Scott Bessent is intervening in the bond market.As of 2026-08-21, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had announced an unusual bond-market intervention (doubling long-dated Treasury buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation), and Reuters reported that Trump said Bessent acted on his own authority. The claim's wording matches the post's wording, and 'flailing' is opinion, so it is not graded; the sources describe the intervention as ongoing, with buybacks starting Sept. 9.True60% confidence5 sourcesAug 21, 2026Donald Trump promised to pay down the national debt for more than a decade.Sources document Trump's 2016 pledge to pay off the roughly $19 trillion debt, and his 2025 statement that he would 'soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT' shows the promise was repeated about a decade later. That supports the claim's core, though no source states the 'more than a decade' span explicitly, so the duration rests on inference from the 2016 and 2025 dates. The claim matches the passage's wording, and no source contradicts it.True90% confidence6 sourcesAug 21, 2026The U.S. national debt grew to $40 trillion this week.As of the August 21, 2026 post date, the U.S. gross national debt had just crossed $40 trillion that week: the Treasury's Daily Treasury Statement put total public debt at $40,047,426,000,000 on Tuesday, August 18, and Reuters and AP reported the milestone the same week. The claim's wording matches the post's own "This week, it grew to $40 trillion," and later sources (October–November) show the debt remaining above $40 trillion, which does not change the August 21 assessment.Can’t tell60% confidence4 sourcesSep 15, 2026Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump that the 2020 U.S. election was rigged because of mail-in voting.Said by 2CThe only account that Putin said this comes from Trump's own description of their Alaska meeting, which Reuters, NBC, PolitiFact and others report without independent confirmation of Putin's words. Fact-checkers do reject the underlying claim that the 2020 election was rigged by mail-in voting, but no source confirms or refutes that Putin said it.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Can’t tell50% confidence7 sourcesSep 15, 2026Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump that if Trump had won the 2020 election, there would not have been a war in Ukraine.The only source for the private exchange is Trump's own account on Hannity, which the claim relies on, and the Kremlin did not confirm it. Putin did publicly say in January and August 2025 that the Ukraine crisis might not have happened had Trump been president or his 2020 victory not been stolen, so the sentiment is documented even though the private conversation is not.Can’t tell40% confidence3 sourcesSep 5, 2026The United States reached 40-year highs in inflation during the Biden administration.The sources consistently show US inflation hit a 40-year high in 2022 (AP, Politifact, White House), and that high came during Biden's term. However, the passage only says 'we just saw 40-year highs on inflation' and never ties them to the Biden administration, so the extracted claim adds that scope and departs from the passage, which makes the verdict unverifiable.Can’t tell50% confidence11 sourcesSep 5, 2026Maria Bartiromo shared internal Fox News editorial information and private text messages with the Trump White House.Said by AMultiple outlets report, citing Status and anonymous sources, that Bartiromo passed Fox guidance and a text message to the White House, but Fox gave no reason for her exit and her lawyer calls the reports false. The extracted claim also drops the post's hedge "as far as this reporting goes," so it is graded as a reported allegation rather than an established fact.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Can’t tell35% confidence6 sourcesAug 29, 2026USCIS leadership has instructed employees in the fraud detection and national security directorate to stop detecting criminal fraud and national security threats.Said by BThe only source addressing the alleged instruction is a Senate press release (published 2026-09-15, after the 2026-08-29 post) describing an unverified whistleblower disclosure that USCIS officers were told to stop national security and anti-fraud work. No authority has confirmed or refuted the directive, and the post's own account of the 'credible story' is not evidence, so the claim cannot be graded as of 2026-08-29.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Can’t tell40% confidence6 sourcesAug 21, 2026Stephen Moore called himself one of the architects of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.Said by BThe claim is about Moore's own act of describing himself as an architect of the 2017 TCJA, and no source records him saying this. Many sources do call him an architect of the TCJA, and a CPAC bio uses that framing, but that is third-party or promotional description rather than his own statement. The extraction is faithful to the passage, and the claimant's own account cannot corroborate it.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.