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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.
12 claims · Clear filters
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.Can’t tell45% confidence6 sourcesAug 21, 2026Oil prices are rising because the president is mishandling the war in Iran.Said by ASources firmly establish that oil prices surged after the Iran war began in late February 2026 and stayed above $100 through August, but they attribute the spike to the war and the Strait of Hormuz disruption itself. Whether the president is 'mishandling' the war is an evaluative judgment that the sources discuss through commentary and analysis rather than document as a checkable fact, so the claim is unverifiable as a causal assertion about mishandling.Can’t tell50% confidence4 sourcesAug 21, 2026Both political parties in the United States are currently cutting taxes and increasing spending.Said by BThe claim departs from the passage: the post says both parties are 'eager to cut taxes more and raise spending' (a stated desire), while the claim asserts that both are currently doing so. The sources also cut against the 'both cutting taxes' part: Republicans enacted tax cuts, but Democrats are described as favoring higher taxes, and CBO shows spending rising under current law.Can’t tell50% confidence7 sourcesAug 21, 2026Political appointees in the Trump administration have gained access to confidential records at the U.S. Census Bureau.The sources show Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute (AFPI) staffers detailed to the Census Bureau with access to its data, but they describe think-tank staff rather than the 'political appointees' the claim names, so the sources do not directly establish the claim as stated. The claim also states a settled fact ('have gained access') where the post only said such operatives 'can get access' or 'help getting access', so it departs from the passage somewhat. The Wired and PIIE reports are dated after the 2026-08-21 claim date, and the 2021-2022 sources concern 2020-era pressure rather than confidential-record access.Can’t tell45% confidence5 sourcesAug 21, 2026The Trump administration deleted a data series on the number of transgender people murdered.Said by BSources document that the Trump administration removed gender identity questions and some LGBT violence-victimization data (NCVS, BJS brief, BOP inmate statistics), but none says a data series counting transgender murders was deleted. The post's own wording does refer to a deleted trans-murder series, so the extraction is faithful, but the sources describe nearby violence and victimization data rather than the murder-count series the claim names.Can’t tell30% confidence4 sourcesAug 21, 2026The Chinese Communist Party dictated official demographic data in China.Said by AThe sources establish that the CCP controls China's political system and that some analysts consider official Chinese demographic data unreliable or 'probably fake,' but none documents that the CCP or Politburo directed the content of official demographic statistics. The claimant's Politburo-dictation claim is therefore neither substantiated nor refuted by the provided sources.Can’t tell40% confidence3 sourcesAug 21, 2026There are zero boys playing in girls sports in the state of South Carolina.Said by 3DThe claim asserts an exact count of zero boys playing girls' sports in South Carolina on 2026-08-21, and no source reports any participation count for the state. South Carolina's law (Code 59-1-500) bars male students from girls' teams in public schools, which makes zero plausible, but a prohibition does not establish the count, and the sources do not address enforcement or private schools in that count.