The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1005: Michael Lewis: Government Workers Aren't the Corrupt Ones
21 Mar 2025
Trump loves to complain about the deep state while Elon claims he's rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse with all his mass firings. But DOGE should be looking higher up the food chain to target the graft: for example, the South African immigrant whose car company would not have gotten off the ground without the taxpayer money he still collects. In contrast, government workers are mainly mission-driven and they're not in it for the money. Michael's new collection of essays takes a look at some of the characters who populate our federal workforce, including people performing small miracles without fame and glory. Plus, the risk of Trump politicizing economic data and his plan to destroy whatever trust people still have in the government. Michael Lewis—and Sarah Vowell, who profiled a record keeper at the National Archives for the new book—join Tim Miller for the weekend pod. show notes The new book, "Who Is Government: The Untold Story of Public Service" Tim's "Bulwark Takes" on some of the men taken taken to the El Salvador prison camp Adrian's "Huddled Masses" newsletter on ICE deportations based on tattoos George Conway emergency pod on the Paul Weiss law firm caving to Trump Michael's book, "Losers: The Road to Everyplace but the White House" Tim's playlist
Full Episode
Hey, das ist für dich. Egal wie du frühstückst. Ob mit deinem Lieblingsmüsli, einer fruchtigen Bowl oder cremig schaumigem Kaffee. Mit Alpro wird jedes Frühstück einfach für einen gesunden Start in den Tag. Mit wertvollen Vitaminen und Mineralien. Ohne Zuckerzusatz. Und immer phantastisch lecker. Alpro.
Hey guys, just a couple of programming notes. There are two news stories that me and my colleagues have our hair on fire about and I did not get to them on this podcast. I want to direct you to where you can find our Scorch Not Takes. For me, it is the continued revelations around the men that we have sent to this world. barbarische El Salvador-Prisonkampfeuer.
Und die Tatsache, dass, laut ihren Anwälten, zumindest ein paar von ihnen tatsächlich nichts illegal gemacht haben, hier legal unter dem venezuelischen temporären Schutzstatus waren und verletzt wurden, basierend auf einer Missverständlichkeit ihrer Tattoos oder einer Regierung, die nicht kümmert oder intensiv schuldig ist. Wir werden die Wahrnehmung herausfinden.
Aber es ist einfach so krass und so unamerikanisch. Ich habe einen 11-Minuten-Rant über das gemacht, als mein Blut letzte Nacht heiß war. Ihr könnt das entweder auf unserem YouTube-Feed oder jetzt, wir verändern das in einen Podcast. Sucht für Bulwark Takes.
in your podcast feed, subscribe to that feed, and then you can see it's under the headline Breaking the New News about the El Salvador Deportations.
So, in addition to that, Adrian Carrasquillo in his newsletter for us, Huddled Masses, writes about this tattoo issue and gives you some historical examples of how the government has screwed this up before, misunderstanding the tattoos of the people that they're detaining. So please go read that as well. One other thing, George Conway,
His hair was on fire over Paul Weiss' law firm's capitulation to Donald Trump. Trump extorted them. It's a complicated story, but essentially an executive order that was going to target the firm because of their work on some of the investigations against Trump.
The head of Paul Weiss went to the White House, groveled, cut some deal where they're going to do 40 million in pro bono services for Trump. It's absolutely insane. George Conway knows all the players. So we taped an emergency episode of George Conway explains it all together. So go check that out on that podcast feed or also on YouTube. So those are the news stories.
We got a good one coming for you next. It is Michael Lewis of Moneyball fame and Sarah Vowell. They have a new book out about who is government, which is very relevant right now, given everything that's happening with Doge. So stick around for that. Hello and welcome to the Bullwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller.
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