'What more do you need to see?' Conservatives stumped by MAGA 'running cover' for Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he speaks to members of the media on board Air Force One en route from Scotland, Britain, to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., July 29, 2025. REUTERS Evelyn Hockstein
Bulwark editors Jonathan V. Last and Sam Stein were aghast at how fast MAGA circled the wagons around President Donald Trump after he was confirmed to be a liar about a suggestive letter he denied sending to longtime friend and convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
House Democrats released a birthday card Trump denied sending to Epstein, released to House members by the Epstein estate. The card depicts what looks to be the outline of a nude woman with her pubic area undergirded by Donald Trump’s signature. “Bulwark Takes” podcast hosts Last and Stein say the poem the outline frames appears to suggest a predilection for “dirty secrets,” possibly involving underage women.
“I'm not surprised [the card] is real,” said Stein. “If you think back to when the [Wall Street Journal] initially published this … the idea that the Journal would have cavalierly published something so explosive without having 100 percent certainty, knowing fully well that they were going to be sued, no matter what, it was always preposterous that they didn't have the goods. … But a lot of people look stupid now because obviously it was real. The only question was, would it ever surface?”
READ MORE: 'Disturbing': Top Dem says new Trump-Epstein photo 'more incriminating' than birthday book
Last asked if MAGA would break with Trump over this, but Stein was unconvinced.
“The immediate reaction — like, that Charlie Kirk thing was ridiculous. [He] was like, ‘does this below look like the actual signature from the president? I don't think so at all. Fake.’ … It's like they're still running cover for the guy,” said Stein. “… [T]here was a moment in July where things looked a little bit iffy for him with his base and they were not happy, and yet, here we are in September and you have this stuff coming out and they're still being like, ‘well, it's a hoax.’”
Stein added that seven Republicans on a discharge petition to force the release of all the files related to the Epstein investigation “have basically taken their name off of it.”
“And so, … we're in this place, yet again, where this guy gets basically 95 percent to 99 percent of his supporters to just rally behind him, no matter what. … If you step back, he wrote a letter to this guy, where it's clear he's insinuating like dirty secrets involving young women. What more do you need to see? I mean, what more do you need to see?”
Read more: 'Come over here weenie': Video shows GOP congressman taunting protester before altercation
Last and Stein lambasted House Speaker Mike Johnson for claiming Trump was actually an FBI informant and that he was on the inside helping to bring down Jeffrey Epstein.
“Isn't that possible … with this letter and drawing, that he was like [law enforcement infiltrator Frank] Serpico, that this was all the things you have to do when you're undercover, Sam? I mean, sometimes they're not pretty … but you got to do what you got to do to get the gangsters. And this was Donald Trump playing the long game to bring down this pedophile empire. Possible?” Last asked.
“Okay, so — no,” Stein said. “Mike Johnson walked that back but QAnon does believe that. … Do people actually think that? It's absurd, but yeah! I guess some people have deluded themselves into believing it. Not me.”
Last agreed, and marveled at “Trump's trick” for mass delusion where he's “able to delude 45 percent of the country into believing 15 different self-contradictory truths.”
Head the and see the “Bulwark Takes” podcast at this link.
