There Are Still Heroes Among Us
Fighting ICE. Fighting the Epstein class. Fighting Putin.
Ready for America’s new golden age? Well, stay ready ’cause it ain’t here yet. The U.S. economy grew by just 1.4 percent (annualized, inflation-adjusted) in the fourth quarter of 2025. That’s significantly less than 2.5–3 percent economists had predicted, and way behind last summer’s 4.4 percent rate.
A big reason for the slower growth was the record-long government shutdown. Government spending counts directly into GDP, so less spending means less growth. But there are knock-on effects, too—all those employees who aren’t getting paid are spending less money, and so on and so on.
And, oh, yeah, also the tariffs and the deportation of large parts of the workforce. Could be those had something to do with it, too. Happy Friday.
The Season of Light and Darkness
by William Kristol
Minneapolis, Minn.—“It is safer,” the political philosopher Leo Strauss wrote in 1965, “to try to understand the low in the light of the high than the high in the light of the low. In doing the latter one necessarily distorts the high, whereas in doing the former one does not deprive the low of the freedom to reveal itself fully as what it is.”
I’ll follow Strauss’s guidance and begin with the high.
Here in Minneapolis yesterday, some of us from The Bulwark spoke with local citizens who mobilized over the past months to try to deter and monitor assaults on civil liberties. We met with others who had organized themselves to help their neighbors under assault.
We also paid our respects at their unofficial memorial sites to the memories of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. At the Pretti memorial, I was particularly moved by a hand-made placard with the words of the Lord to Joshua (Joshua 1:9): “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
We will not soon forget the examples we saw of Minnesota strong, and Minnesota courage.
When I got back to the hotel, I caught up on the news of the arrest in London of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and on announcements in other European countries of criminal probes into the complicity of their nationals in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. I thought of the heroic efforts of the Epstein survivors and of those who stood with them in pursuit of justice and accountability and the truth. Finally, at least in some countries, they may see some modicum of justice.
And then I read up a bit on the situation in Ukraine as we approach the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion. The Ukrainian people continue to fight heroically and with amazing success, despite the abandonment by their largest arms supplier and most powerful ally, the government of the United States.
The people of Minnesota. The Epstein survivors. The citizens of Ukraine. Three remarkable examples for all of us of resistance, persistence, and courage in dark times.
We do not lack today for examples of the impressive, of the admirable, of the high—yes, of the heroic.
Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., by striking contrast, we see the low revealing itself fully as what it is. Some adjustments in tactics notwithstanding, the Trump administration remains all in on its commitment to mass deportation, mass intimidation, and mass brutalization. Needless to say, the Republican party in Congress remains unwilling to curb this effort in any meaningful way. And it remains clear that no one engaged in the atrocities we’ve seen will be held accountable by this administration. How could they be? They were following orders from the most senior officials.
And the Trump administration’s Epstein cover-up continues. Yesterday, President Trump was asked by Peter Doocy of Fox News, in light of the arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor, “Do you think people in this country at some point, associates of Jeffrey Epstein, will wind up in handcuffs, too?” Needless to say, Trump expressed no compassion for the victims and no desire to see justice done. There was not even any acknowledgement that something awful had happened. Instead Trump said: “I think it’s a shame. I think it’s very sad. I think it’s so bad for the royal family. It’s very, very sad to me. It’s a very sad thing. When I see that, it’s a very sad thing. . . . So I think it’s a very sad thing.”
Trump is saddened by any embarrassment to the royal family. He’s not outraged by anything Mountbatten-Windsor or Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell did. And there is no evidence the Trump administration has any interest in seeing justice done, or any intention of having the truth come out. We have an executive branch that is on the side of the Epstein class, not the Epstein survivors.
Earlier this week, Trump was asked about peace prospects in Ukraine. Needless to say, there was no condemnation of Putin’s brutal aggression. Instead he blamed Kyiv for failing to achieve peace, and indeed threatened Ukraine. “Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”
We have an administration in power here in the United States that is hostile to the rule of law at home and to the fight for freedom abroad. We citizens cannot look away from or wish away that reality. But we can also understand the reality of the admirable actions of Minnesotans and Epstein survivors and Ukrainian freedom fighters. We can insist on understanding the low in light of the high. In doing so, we increase the chances that the high prevails over the low.
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Brazening Through It All
by Andrew Egger
For months now, it’s been perhaps the most horrible and tragic congressional scandal you’ve barely heard of. Last September, Regina Santos-Aviles, a staffer for Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), died after dousing herself in gasoline and setting herself on fire outside her Uvalde, Texas home. Although several outlets reported Santos-Aviles and Gonzales had been having an affair, Gonzales flatly denied it: “People throwing rocks at me, saying I’m doing nasty things, I totally get that,” he told a reporter in November. “But the rumors are completely untruthful.”
This week, Gonzales’s story got a lot less tenable. The San Antonio Express-News reported that Santos-Aviles had confessed the affair to another staffer, and that she had “spiraled into a depression after her husband discovered the relationship and Gonzales abruptly cut her off.” That staffer also shared a text message in which Santos-Aviles confirmed the affair to them.
Meanwhile, Santos-Aviles’s widowed husband Adrian Aviles has broken his silence too, confirming the affair in an interview of his own. “I said the truth would come to light when it’s time, and the time is now,” he told the Express-News on Wednesday. “Tony abused his power. . . . I hope that Tony will stand up and be accountable for his actions.” He added that Gonzales, a father of six, “pushes, you know, family values and Christian morals . . . denying the fact that he’s ruined somebody’s life.”
How has Gonzales responded to all this? By going on the attack. “I WILL NOT BE BLACKMAILED,” he wrote in an X post yesterday, sharing a screenshot that appeared to be a partial email from a lawyer discussing an unspecified non-disclosure agreement proposal. “Disgusting to see people profit politically and financially off a tragic death. The public should IMMEDIATELY have full access to the Uvalde Police report. I will keep fighting for #TX23.”
Adrian Aviles quickly responded: “We have never blackmailed anyone. What we’ve seen instead is a constant pattern of evasion, refusal to take accountability, and outright lies to protect your image.”
“We chose to hold back the full police report and body cam footage for one reason only,” he added. “It shows my wife suffering severe burns in horrific detail. . . . Nothing in that police report protects you, that decision is about protecting our child’s well-being.”
You get the idea. It’s a horrible, stomach-churning story, the kind that would send any politician with the tiniest ounce of shame immediately out of the public eye and perhaps into monastic life. Instead, Gonzales is fighting for re-election, with early primary voting getting underway as he tries to stave off a challenger from further to the right, gun-nut Youtuber Brandon Herrera.
Meanwhile, cold hard political realities mean the disgraced incumbent may still have a shot. Trump has yet to withdraw his endorsement of Gonzales, and as recently as last month his political operation was actively working to enforce it: Campaign lawyers for Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to Herrera in January demanding he stop using Trump’s image and likeness in campaign materials. In a Truth Social post Monday morning—just before the latest revelations started dropping—Trump called Gonzales a “terrific Representative” who “has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election” and “WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!”
At the same time, Gonzales has faced basically zero pressure from other Republicans in Congress to resign—an unsurprising fact given Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House. (Also unsurprising: My requests for comment to the White House, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office, and Gonzales’s campaign went unanswered.)
It’s hard to imagine a bleaker vignette of Republican politics today: A thoroughly disgraced lawmaker trying to brazen his way through personal scandal by heaping up allegations of witch hunts and plots, all while the more powerful allies whose coattails he hopes to ride to victory look uncomfortably the other way—and, if he fails, a somehow even crazier future lawmaker waiting in the wings. What a time to be alive.
AROUND THE BULWARK
Why Team Trump Talking About ‘Lethalitymaxxing’ Should Alarm You… Trendy internet slang meets eugenics, the manosphere, and neo-Nazis, writes ILYSE HOGUE.
The Creative Joy of a Cold, Dead Winter… Val McDermid’s new book evokes an earlier Scot’s love of the bleak, NICK RIPATRAZONE writes.
The Bulwark LIVE from Minneapolis… On the flagship pod, SEN. TINA SMITH joined TIM MILLER on Wednesday for the first show of a two-night Bulwark run at the historic Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis.
Former General: Hegseth’s Loyalty Tests Are Paralyzing Military Promotions… On the latest Command Post, LT. GEN. MARK GERTLING and BEN PARKER break down Pete Hegseth’s interference in officer promotions, Kristi Noem’s latest scandal, and more.
This Oscar-Nominated Documentary Will Change How You See Prisons… On The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, SONNY BUNCH welcomes ANDREW JARECKI and CHARLOTTE KAUFMAN to discuss their conscience-shocking film, The Alabama Solution.
Quick Hits
A LITTLE SPENDING MONEY: More and more voters may be deserting him every day, but Donald Trump still wields one enormous weapon to keep his party in line going into the midterm elections: a staggeringly large war chest totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion. Per PBS News:
Trump’s stockpile—which dwarfs any amounts raised by his predecessors in their second terms—is not easy to precisely calculate given that much of it is being collected by groups that aren’t required to file regular financial disclosures. . . .
But what is not in question is that it represents a mountain of cash that could reshape Republican politics for years to come—if he chooses. He’s been reluctant to spend money on other people’s races in the past, and he’s even found ways to funnel some cash to his own businesses.
The money quote (so to speak) comes from the Campaign Legal Center’s Saurav Ghosh: “I think a lot of people are asking, ‘What’s it all for?’” What, indeed! Read the whole thing.
THE BALLROOM APPROACHETH: Like it or not, the One Big Beautiful Ballroom is going forward. To the shock of no one, the White House’s Commission of Fine Arts—which is constituted entirely of Trump appointees after he fired every sitting commissioner last October—moved speedily and enthusiastically to approve Trump’s East Wing construction project Thursday. Politico reports:
Moving with unusual speed, six members of a key advisory panel approved in one fell swoop both the concept and the final plan after receiving an updated briefing on the project to build a $400 million ballroom in place of the East Wing abruptly torn down last year. The hearing wrapped up the commission’s review process, which normally would include a wait between conceptual and final approvals.
“The president has actually designed a very beautiful structure,” commission Chair Rodney Mims Cook Jr. declared, adding that “the United States just should not be entertaining the world in tents. It is really outrageous that we do that, and no president has really stepped up to the plate to require that be corrected, until President Trump.”
If you think about it, it’s really a miracle we made it this long without an enormous ballroom dominating the White House complex. Maybe now we finally have a chance at being a great and good country.
Cheap Shots
Can we start moving from calling it a "deportation campaign" and start calling it a "detention campaign?" It seems A LOT of people are being DETAINED, at a huge cost to Americans and a boon to the companies who are contracted to manage these facilities while neglecting the detainees. By all appearances, it's about cruelty and money.
"Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., by striking contrast, we see the low revealing itself fully as what it is."
As a DC resident I have to object to this. We all know Trump is always in Mar-a-Lago which is objectively a lower low of a place. A bigger swamp, filled with a more disgusting group of people does not exist in America than Florida.