Overview of The Bulwark Podcast — “Jonathan V. Last: We Got a Billionaire Problem”
This episode features a wide-ranging conversation with Jonathan V. Last about Trump’s Iran policy, the politics of Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, the unraveling of CBS/60 Minutes, Elon Musk’s power and wealth, and Democratic candidate strategy. The second segment shifts to a sobering interview with Lawfare’s Catherine Pompilio, whose reporting found that 97 January 6 pardonees have since been arrested, charged, or convicted of other crimes.
JVL on Trump, Iran, and Political Damage
War powers and the Iran mess
- The House passed a war powers resolution limiting Trump’s ability to continue military hostilities with Iran without congressional authorization.
- JVL argues the resolution is:
- Good for America in the sense that it restrains Trump,
- but also a sign of how far short Congress still falls in reclaiming its constitutional role.
- He emphasizes that the administration lied about the status of the conflict, insisting it was “not a war” until it became politically inconvenient.
Trump’s weak negotiating position
- JVL argues Trump should have walked away earlier and taken the loss rather than dragging out a bad situation.
- He thinks the Iran situation has made Trump look weaker, but paradoxically, that may help him politically if he can pin blame elsewhere.
- He floats the idea that Trump’s “madman theory” only works if he is the only unstable actor in the room; instead, he is boxed in by Iran, Netanyahu, and his own need to avoid war.
Rubio vs. Vance
- JVL suggests Marco Rubio benefited politically by aligning himself with Trump’s position on Iran, even if he had reservations.
- He contrasts Rubio’s behavior with J.D. Vance’s, arguing that Trump will never forgive Vance for being right early about how disastrous the Iran adventure could become.
- His broader point: Trump rewards loyalty over principle, even when loyalty means pretending a bad strategy is working.
CBS News, 60 Minutes, and Media Corruption
How serious is the CBS situation?
- JVL says the takeover/capture of CBS News is serious but not apocalyptic.
- Even as broadcast networks decline in total viewership, a platform like 60 Minutes still matters because a few million viewers can still shape national agenda-setting.
The real danger
- He argues the issue is not just incompetence; it is corruption:
- a network being reshaped into something closer to a state-aligned media outlet,
- with different rules depending on which party is in power.
- He warns that this creates a two-tier media environment where accountability is asymmetric.
What should be done
- JVL suggests Democrats should seriously consider:
- strengthening the FCC and FEC,
- tightening enforcement around coordination and campaign money,
- and using the rule of law to respond to abuses that have long gone unenforced.
Elon Musk, SpaceX, and the “Billionaire Problem”
SpaceX and rule changes
- JVL lays out a detailed critique of the reported NASDAQ rule changes designed to help SpaceX’s IPO.
- His claim:
- NASDAQ altered rules so SpaceX could be included in index funds more quickly,
- which would force passive funds to buy shares,
- artificially boosting valuation and helping insiders cash out.
Why this matters
- He calls it a “bank heist” in structural form:
- enormous wealth lets a company pressure institutions to rewrite rules in its favor.
- JVL argues this is not normal capitalism; it’s casino-style power engineering.
Billionaires and social harm
- He makes a blunt normative argument:
- there should probably be a cap somewhere around $15 billion,
- not because of fairness alone,
- but because extreme wealth becomes a tool of market distortion and political abuse.
- His core thesis: once wealth becomes large enough, it stops being just wealth and becomes raw power.
Democratic Politics and Candidate Strategy
“Vanilla” candidates may be underrated
- JVL responds to polling and candidate chatter suggesting that boring, conventional Democrats are currently outperforming flashier options.
- He says the environment matters:
- in a high-approval opposition year, you might want a more dynamic figure;
- but in a Trump-disaster environment, a vanilla candidate may be ideal because the base is already motivated by hatred of Trump.
Chuck Schumer gets credit
- Despite his flaws, JVL says Schumer deserves credit for:
- candidate recruitment,
- and winning recent shutdown fights.
- He argues people often dismiss Schumer because of his bad messaging and lack of charisma, but the scoreboard matters.
California vote-counting frustration
- JVL is highly critical of California’s slow vote counting:
- he sees it as a self-inflicted legitimacy problem,
- especially in a period when Republicans are eager to claim elections are rigged.
- His solution: preserve access, but move the voting window earlier and force timely counting.
Dark JVL: Autonomous Naval Drones
The future risk he’s watching
- JVL’s “dark” concern is not electoral politics but autonomous sea drones.
- He argues that naval drones are more dangerous than aerial drones because:
- data transmission through water is difficult,
- so they are more likely to be fully autonomous,
- which raises the risk of escalation and unintended consequences.
Why it worries him
- He sees this as a likely future of warfare where machines make rapid decisions at sea with limited human oversight.
- The worst-case scenario could include:
- attacks on shipping,
- major disruption to global trade,
- and unpredictable escalation in conflict zones like the Persian Gulf.
Catherine Pompilio on January 6 Pardonees and New Crimes
The main finding
- Pompilio reports that among roughly 1,600 people pardoned by Trump for January 6 offenses, 97 have since been arrested, charged, or convicted of other crimes.
- That number is far higher than earlier public estimates from CREW and The New York Times.
How she found them
- She used:
- hyper-local news searches,
- court records,
- county clerk calls,
- and even Claude-assisted search automation.
- She noted that many of these cases are buried in local reporting or sentencing memoranda, making them easy to miss.
Types of crimes
- The post-pardon offenses include:
- murder,
- rape,
- child sexual abuse material/child exploitation,
- domestic violence,
- DUIs,
- assault,
- and other serious offenses.
- She notes that some were minor or unusual, but many were clearly severe and violent.
What’s most disturbing
- Some individuals were not just pardoned and then reoffended; some were released from prison because of the pardon and then committed new crimes.
- Pompilio emphasizes the human cost:
- victims,
- family destruction,
- and in some cases suicides tied to the aftermath of January 6 and its legal consequences.
Takeaway
- Her reporting suggests Trump’s pardons did not merely “close the book” on January 6.
- Instead, they may have enabled further harm, while the broader misinformation ecosystem continued to validate the people involved.
Bottom Line
This episode ties together two major themes:
- elite abuse of power at the top of politics and media, and
- real-world fallout from Trump’s lies and pardons at the ground level.
JVL argues that billionaires, institutions, and political operatives increasingly exploit broken rules for private gain, while Pompilio shows how Trump’s January 6 pardons have had serious downstream consequences in the form of repeat offending and more victims.