Jonathan V. Last: We Got a Billionaire Problem

**Tim Miller** (0:12)
Hello and welcome to The Bulwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. We got another double header for you today in segment two, Katherine Pompilio has a bombshell lawfare story out today that reveals many, many, many, many more January 6th pardon recipients have committed subsequent crimes and previously known shocker.

**Jonathan V. Last** (0:30)
No kidding. Criminals did the crime.

**Tim Miller** (0:33)
Yeah, that's interesting.

**Jonathan V. Last** (0:35)
Story at 11

**Tim Miller** (0:37)
There he is. Now you know who's first. He's the author of the Triad Newsletter, which you better have signed up for. He's a pinball wizard. He's a 2026 People's Champion for his work on that very newsletter. It's JVL. What's up, man?

**Jonathan V. Last** (0:49)
Hey, babe. It is good to be here with you, my friend.

**Tim Miller** (0:52)
Thank you for doing this, you know, doing a little extra podcast work this week. You got The Secret Podcast tomorrow, every Friday. If people haven't signed up for Bulwark.

**Jonathan V. Last** (1:01)
I'm not on The Secret tomorrow. They're going to do it without me because tomorrow is Flash's graduation.

**Tim Miller** (1:07)
There's a secret, but you're not in it?

**Jonathan V. Last** (1:09)
There is a secret, but it's a no JVL secret.

**Tim Miller** (1:11)
Secret guest. Every Friday, at least one of JVL and Sarah have a bonus behind the paywall podcast for you. And congratulations on Flash's graduation. He's a man. What a young man you've raised. All right, let's do some politics.
I know you love foreign policy and believe that people care deeply about it. I wanted to start with that.
I feel like it should have been kind of bigger news. I don't know. The House passed a War Powers Resolution yesterday, and it directed Trump to remove US armed forces from hostilities with Iran unless Congress votes to declare war authorizes using military force, which is kind of an interesting concept. This is one of those stories for me that's like, well, on the one hand, it is better than what could have been, right? Which is everybody just allowing Trump to do whatever he wants. On the other hand, it's far short of what we would wish for our Democratic Republic. Only four Republicans voted with all the Democrats on this. Fitzpatrick, Massey, Davidson, Tom Baird of Michigan. Notable that all the Democrats have now come along, and there were a handful of stinkers at the beginning of this war, even though us neocons, former neocons were like, this is the stupidest shit we've ever seen. A couple of Democrats got fooled by it. So all the Democrats have gotten in line, four Republicans voting for this. What would you make of it?

**Jonathan V. Last** (2:29)
It's pretty bad for Trump, I think.

**Tim Miller** (2:32)
Oh, bad for Trump, great. I thought-

**Jonathan V. Last** (2:34)
Bad for Trump.

**Tim Miller** (2:34)
I thought you meant bad for America.

**Jonathan V. Last** (2:36)
No, no, it's like reasonably good for America. I mean, I sort of lost my mind. Nobody cares about these things. I get hung up on words because of what I do for a living. But when Rubio was testifying on the Hill this week, he said that the war is over. He was like, oh, there was a war. Because you motherfuckers have been telling us for 90 days now that this isn't a war. It's not a war, not a war, not a war. Because the word war has a legal meaning.
It's not a euphemism.
It's a thing that requires actual... There are a chain of legal things which has to happen when you are in a war. And the administration just lied about not being in a war. And now that they are trying to get out of it...

**Tim Miller** (3:18)
We'll have more on Marco in a second. But similarly, he said that we could have a deal today, tomorrow, any day.

**Jonathan V. Last** (3:26)
And you know what, he's right. We could have a deal any day now. And eventually, we will have a deal. And when we do, all the people who said we could have a deal anytime soon will be proven right and they can go out and say, look at me. Look at me. I was there.
No, it's good. I would say it probably doesn't help the negotiating position of President Trump.
But on the other hand, I would say that that's actually probably good because the president does not seem to understand how weak his position is, which is why he didn't cut a deal soon. I mean, he should have just run away from this thing weeks and weeks and weeks ago and taken the loss. He didn't.