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
Mixed60% confidence7 sourcesAug 29, 2026The current administration has removed legal protections from over one million people who previously had them.Said by BSources support the claim's scale on some measures but not others: Stateline (Jan 2026) reports more than 1 million TPS holders terminated and 1.5 million losing temporary status, and The New Yorker (Aug 2026) says more than a million immigrants lost protections. Reuters reports 'hundreds of thousands' stripped of status, and FWD counts about 502,000 by end-2025, while some terminations remain blocked by courts. The claim's 'over one million' falls within the range of estimates, so the verdict depends on the measure used.Mixed60% confidence9 sourcesAug 21, 2026Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy six times.Said by BRead literally as personal bankruptcy, the claim is contradicted: sources say Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy. Read as the post intended, that the businesses he controlled filed six Chapter 11 cases, the claim is supported by PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, the Washington Post and NBC, which count six filings from 1991 to 2009.Mixed55% confidence6 sourcesAug 21, 2026The bond rate has been consistently around or above 5%.Said by AAs of 2026-08-21 the 10-year Treasury yield was about 4.7%, and sources say it did not breach 5% until September 15, so 'consistently around or above 5%' is contradicted for the benchmark 10-year. The 30-year yield was roughly 5.2–5.3% in August, which supports the claim if 'bond rate' refers to the long bond, so the verdict depends on which measure is meant.Mixed60% confidence6 sourcesAug 21, 2026Scott Bessent is attempting to create a deal between the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS to share tax records with immigration agents.Said by BThe record shows Bessent co-signed the IRS-DHS/ICE data-sharing memorandum of understanding in April 2025, so the deal and his role in it are supported. But the claim that he is 'attempting to create' the deal as of 2026-08-21 is contradicted, since the agreement had already been signed and was under litigation and congressional scrutiny by then. The post's wording is loose, so the claim is graded as the post's reference to the existing deal rather than a new negotiation.Mixed60% confidence7 sourcesAug 21, 2026The Trump Department of Justice acknowledged in a court filing in January 2026 that Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employees unlawfully accessed confidential Social Security Administration records to share with an outside political group.Said by BThe January 16, 2026 DOJ filing is well documented as acknowledging a secret agreement between a DOGE employee and a political advocacy group to share Social Security data to overturn election results, so the purpose element is supported. However, the filing hedged that DOGE 'may have' violated rules, and SSA said it had not seen evidence that SSA data actually reached the group, so the claim that DOGE unlawfully accessed records and shared them with the group is overstated.Mixed60% confidence8 sourcesAug 21, 2026Long-term interest rates for 10-year, 20-year, and 30-year U.S. Treasuries have increased due to debt problems and political dysfunction.Said by BThe sources support that U.S. long-term Treasury yields (10-, 20-, and 30-year) rose sharply in 2026, to multi-decade highs, and that deficits and debt are one contributing factor. They contradict the claim's implied primary causation by debt and political dysfunction: Yale, J.P. Morgan, and Russell attribute most of the rise to expected Fed policy, real rates, inflation, and term premium, and Yahoo reports that economists treat political dysfunction as a commentators' explanation rather than the driver. The claim also drops the post's hedge "some of" and was checked as of 2026-08-21, when these sources' yield levels were already elevated.True92% confidence8 sourcesSep 15, 2026Donald Trump has voted by mail.Said by BMultiple tier1 and tier2 sources (AP, Reuters, Snopes, PolitiFact, NBC, Politico) report Trump voted by mail in Florida elections, including a March 2026 special election and the August 2026 Republican primary, with the White House confirming the August vote. The claim's core assertion is supported; the specific 2026 elections and that the post's passage references the same act are peripheral details, and the claim as extracted matches the passage's 'he also voted by mail'.True90% confidence8 sourcesSep 15, 2026Donald Trump has characterized mail-in voting as an inherently corrupt system.Multiple tier1 and tier2 sources report that Trump repeatedly and directly described mail-in ballots as 'inherently corrupt', including in a July 16, 2026 primetime address and later remarks, so the claim that he characterized mail-in voting as an inherently corrupt system is supported. The claim's wording is a faithful paraphrase of the passage, which refers to mail-in balloting being inherently corrupt; the sources also show he made related statements, and fact-checkers rate the underlying assertion as unsupported, but the claim is about what he characterized it as, which is confirmed.True65% confidence7 sourcesSep 15, 2026ZBiotics has sold more than 14 million bottles of its Pre-Alcohol product.The claim is supported as of 2026-09-15: sources from July 2026 report ZBiotics had sold more than 15 million Pre-Alcohol bottles, which is consistent with the claimed 'more than 14 million'. These figures are company-reported and unaudited, so confidence is moderate.True92% confidence6 sourcesSep 15, 2026The Supreme Court issued a 7-2 ruling denying a stay on a lower court's injunction against Donald Trump's mail-in ballot restrictions for the U.S. Postal Service.Said by BMultiple tier-1 and tier-2 sources report that on September 14, 2026 the Supreme Court voted 7-2 to deny the Trump administration's emergency application for a stay, leaving in place a lower court injunction against the USPS mail-ballot rules, with Thomas and Alito dissenting. The claim matches the reporting, though the sources also note the August injunction history and that the order was brief and unsigned.True90% confidence4 sourcesSep 15, 2026Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred with the majority opinion in the Supreme Court's denial of a stay on the mail-in ballot restriction.Said by BThe Supreme Court's unsigned September 14, 2026 order denied the government's stay request, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed a one-paragraph concurrence agreeing with that denial. The extracted claim is faithful to the passage, and the sources confirm the concurrence in the denial.True95% confidence5 sourcesSep 15, 2026Justice Brett Kavanaugh stated that applying the mail-in ballot rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious because election officials lack sufficient time to implement it.Said by BKavanaugh's concurrence in the Supreme Court's September 14, 2026 order (No. 26A305) states that applying the mail-in ballot rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious under the APA because state and local election officials lack sufficient time to implement it; the primary opinion text and multiple outlets confirm this. The claim's added framing ('stated') matches the concurrence, and the passage does not depart from it.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.