{"id":861884,"date":"2025-07-11T23:11:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T04:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/people-feel-like-they-are-friends-with-us-how-the-bulwark-is-thriving-in-a-new-trump-era\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T23:11:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T04:11:57","slug":"people-feel-like-they-are-friends-with-us-how-the-bulwark-is-thriving-in-a-new-trump-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/people-feel-like-they-are-friends-with-us-how-the-bulwark-is-thriving-in-a-new-trump-era\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPeople Feel Like They Are Friends With Us\u201d: How \u2018The Bulwark\u2019 Is Thriving in a New Trump Era"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last Thursday evening, members of The Bulwark<\/em>\u2019s paid-subscriber Substack community were invited to ask hosts Sarah Longwell,<\/strong> Tim Miller,<\/strong> and Jonathan V. Last<\/strong> anything that was on their mind. Several wanted to know how to engage with MAGA supporters in everyday life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all gonna have different answers,\u201d Last said, kicking things off. \u201cI will give you my answer as somebody who lives his entire life in the real world surrounded by Trump people: In my view, the best thing I can do is to\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRub their face in shit,\u201d Miller interrupted.<\/p>\n

Last, entirely unfazed by Miller\u2019s quip, continued, saying, \u201cLive my life with love and generosity, to sort of show them that people like us don\u2019t have horns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Longwell chimed in, \u201cYou guys, he\u2019s lying to you right now!\u201d Last protested: \u201cI am not lying to you! Hand to God, that\u2019s how I roll in the real world.\u201d Miller and Longwell rolled their eyes, suggesting Last was less charitable in private. \u201cI get a string of text messages from him,\u201d Longwell said. \u201c\u2018These fucking idiots,\u2019\u201d Miller joked.<\/p>\n

At its peak, the livestream saw more than 3,000 active viewers, including fellow Substacker Chris Cillizza,<\/strong> with many chatting it up throughout. To Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark,<\/em> this type of unfiltered community conversation is what subscribers are truly paying for. \u201cI think the alchemy between us has been the parasocial relationships,\u201d she tells me. \u201cPeople feel like they are friends with us. One of us represents them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The media upstart, launched<\/a> in 2019 by \u201cNever Trump\u201d Republicans, is thriving in a second Donald Trump<\/strong> term, with the outlet expecting to reach 100,000 paid subscribers by the end of May and 1 million general subscribers by the end of June. Since The Bulwark<\/em> publishes little content behind a paywall, readers are presumably dropping $100 or more annually for a Bulwark+ membership to engage with the site\u2019s prominent voices\u2014and one another. \u201cThe thing that people really pay for is to go deeper with the community,\u201d says Longwell, adding that the site could easily \u201cconvert much more aggressively if we put more things behind a paywall. But we like to say you can\u2019t save democracy from behind a paywall.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulwark<\/em> has already evolved since its earlier incarnation, which came in the wake of The Weekly Standard<\/em>\u2019s demise; it\u2019s now meeting a new Trump era\u2014and the resistance emerging alongside it\u2014by expanding its capabilities for original reporting and video. The outlet boasts 1.25 million subscribers on YouTube, though, like other outlets trying to grow audiences<\/a> on the platform, it\u2019s still honing its strategy, wary of how an algorithmic tweak can throw things off course.<\/p>\n

Still, even while enjoying recent success, Miller says he would trade it all to not have to live through another Trump presidency. \u201cI\u2019d gladly not be hitting this milestone and be covering whatever is happening in Kamala Harris<\/strong>\u2019s first 100 days,\u201d he tells me. \u201cBut you know, that\u2019s not what the fates had in store for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early in his career as a Republican operative, Miller saw his future self serving as an administration\u2019s press secretary. That\u2019s now \u201ca dream that\u2019s dashed,\u201d he says, due to his willingness to express a point of view through The Bulwark.<\/em> Miller, who previously served as a top aide to Jeb Bush<\/strong> during the 2016 presidential campaign, argues that he has since been \u201cexiled by our party\u201d\u2014something he discusses regularly in content\u2014though he adds that \u201cthe audience appreciates that candor.\u201d (Miller has also been willing to acknowledge his own missteps<\/a> in GOP politics that helped give rise to the Trumpist right.)<\/p>\n

Recently, Miller has been channeling his full energy into the outlet\u2019s YouTube offerings, posting videos on the platform usually six to eight times a day. The channel features a range of content with headlines like \u201cTrump\u2019s Latest Interview Should FREAK YOU OUT\u201d and \u201cMAGA Cultists Are IN FOR IT! Tariff Agony INCOMING!\u201d Many videos include a thumbnail picture showing Miller with a look of astonishment mixed with disgust on his face, and many feature discussions with a range of guests, including Michael<\/strong> Steele,<\/strong> Tom Nichols, Derek Thompson,<\/strong> and George Conway.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around the time of heightened discussion around whether Joe Biden<\/strong> would drop out of the 2024 presidential race, Miller started putting more effort into the outlet\u2019s YouTube content, with Longwell agreeing that they needed to not only meet their audience on the medium, but also understand \u201cthat the platform demands a certain way of presenting oneself.\u201d It\u2019s \u201cjust the language that people on the platform speak,\u201d Longwell adds, also admitting that it was \u201cdifficult\u201d at first to translate their written commentary\u2014the presentation of which \u201clooks a lot more like The Atlantic<\/em>\u201d\u2014for the YouTube crowd, but \u201cengaging in that platform\u2019s language has really helped us grow there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once they saw steady growth, Miller noticed what the platform\u2019s algorithm was rewarding, leading to the channel\u2019s transition into its current style. \u201cThere\u2019s an adjustment to: How are we going to package the content in a way that will do well on YouTube so we can maximize the number of people that see it?\u201d He remains acutely aware of not going \u201coverboard,\u201d saying that \u201cyou don\u2019t want to mislead,\u201d but adding that \u201cit\u2019s just the nature of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

While initially known primarily for commentary, the outlet has invested in a lean but effective newsroom, one led by Politico,<\/em> Daily Beast,<\/em> and HuffPost<\/em> veteran Sam Stein,<\/strong> who was drawn to what The Bulwark<\/em> was building.<\/p>\n

Stein had a desire to get back to the \u201cupstart mentality,\u201d which he experienced early in his career at places like HuffPost,<\/em> where he was the site\u2019s first reporter<\/a>. \u201cYou have more freedom to be punchier and more direct with your reporting and more provocative with your headline writing,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was all really alluring.\u201d By the spring of 2024, Stein took matters into his own hands, reaching out to Miller to inquire if The Bulwark<\/em> was hiring. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018No, we\u2019re not hiring. We have enough reporters.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018What about me?\u2019\u201d Stein recalls. Miller put him in touch with Longwell, to whom he pitched his experience at establishment outlets as an asset to help the independent media venture \u201coperate and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Something that also made \u201cthe jump attractive is that The Bulwark<\/em> had a more multimedia dimension to it,\u201d compared to Politico,<\/em> Stein tells me. \u201cThe chance to do some video was an added bonus.\u201d (Stein, like Miller, is a familiar face to MSNBC viewers.) However, Stein expressed a bit of concern about \u201coverinvesting\u201d in YouTube, given how the news media has been burned before by social media algorithm changes. \u201cIt\u2019s just\u2014we\u2019ve all lived through those episodes where you rely a lot on third-party platforms. We\u2019re highly aware of that,\u201d he says. \u201cI just don\u2019t want to get to a place where something changes and we\u2019re like, Oh no, we overdid it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With that being said, Stein is ensuring the editorial future of the publication by building out the outlet\u2019s reporting prowess through Substack newsletters. \u201cIt was really Sam\u2019s vision to bring on a SEAL team of really talented people who he thought could take The Bulwark<\/em> from a niche commentary space to a mainstream publication that still had a certain perspective,\u201d Longwell tells me.<\/p>\n

That team has included the likes of Adrian Carrasquillo<\/strong> covering immigration, Jonathan Cohn<\/strong> covering the administration\u2019s institutional dismantlement, and Lauren Egan<\/strong> covering how Democrats are fighting back. The \u201ccherry on top\u201d for Stein was poaching Will Sommer<\/strong> from The<\/em> Washington Post<\/em> to cover the online right. \u201cOver the years, the weird characters that he came to cover with his expertise, they\u2019ve become like power brokers,\u201d Stein adds, specifically referencing Sommer\u2019s coverage of Laura Loomer.<\/strong> \u201cThere was, from the top down, a recognition that we are at a place editorially where we need to supplement our great essay writing, commentary, and analysis with original reporting, and that there\u2019s almost a moral rationalization around hiring people who can dig in\u201d on these specific subjects, Stein says.<\/p>\n

Still, The Bulwark<\/em> won\u2019t allow recent success to provide a false sense of confidence about the \u201ceconomics of this industry,\u201d according to Stein, who tells me, \u201cWe\u2019ve seen plenty of outlets overextending in times of success.\u201d The Bulwark<\/em> is \u201cdoing things strategically,\u201d he adds, \u201cand with an eye toward making it sustainable from a business standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulwark<\/em> has an opportunity to differentiate itself in the marketplace, suggests Longwell, as consumers see major media and tech companies as \u201ckowtowing\u201d to the administration. \u201cOur authenticity has been a big part of the draw,\u201d Longwell says, adding, \u201cThere\u2019s a combination of the fracturing of the old media environment, along with Trump coming in, that has just created kind of the perfect storm in which we\u2019ve been able to really thrive and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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