The Bulwark

Washington, DC area (principal base) · Center Enterprises, Inc. · Largest pro-democracy bundle on Substack

Overview

The Bulwark is an American news, opinion, and podcast network that emerged in December 2018 from the wreckage of the Weekly Standard — the neoconservative magazine co-founded by Bill Kristol that was shut down by its pro-Trump owners after its staff refused to adopt a supportive stance toward the Trump administration. Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who had been organizing anti-Trump conservative activism, co-founded the publication alongside Kristol and conservative radio host and commentator Charlie Sykes to provide what its founders described as "a home for rational, principled, fact-based center-right voices who were not cowed by Trumpism." Over the following six years, the publication evolved from a news aggregator and opinion site into one of the most prominent political media operations in the United States — building a subscription revenue base approaching $5 million annually, surpassing 1 million YouTube subscribers, and expanding its team to approximately 20 full-time staffers. It describes itself as "the largest pro-democracy bundle on Substack" and is incorporated as Center Enterprises, Inc.

The Bulwark's audience has grown significantly beyond its original Never Trump conservative constituency — the 2024 election cycle, in which the publication's analysis of Trump's return to the White House and the realignment it represented drove explosive audience growth, attracted subscribers and listeners from across the political spectrum who share its defense of democratic institutions rather than its founders' conservative ideological heritage. Publisher Longwell has described this evolution directly: the publication serves "a media escort from former Republicans on their way to support for Democratic candidates" — a characterization that reflects both its audience's political trajectory and the publication's conscious positioning as a democracy-first rather than conservative-first voice.

Founding: From the Weekly Standard's Ashes

The Weekly Standard, founded by Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes in 1995, was the intellectual flagship of neoconservatism for more than two decades — the magazine that provided the intellectual architecture for the Bush administration's foreign policy, championed liberal interventionism, and defined the establishment conservative position on most major policy questions of its era. When Donald Trump won the Republican nomination and then the presidency, the Standard's refusal to accommodate itself to Trumpism created a fatal commercial tension: its ownership, Clarity Media Group (itself owned by Philip Anschutz), had other media properties that were moving in a pro-Trump direction, and the Standard's anti-Trump editorial stance became commercially untenable. Clarity shut the magazine down in December 2018, after 23 years of publication.

The closure — described by Charlie Sykes as a "murder" — immediately prompted the founding of The Bulwark. The site launched on January 8, 2019 (some sources date the initial aggregator to December 2018), initially as a project of the Defending Democracy Together Institute, the 501(c)(3) advocacy organization led by Kristol. Within weeks, key Weekly Standard staff had migrated to the new publication, bringing with them the editorial culture — wonky, combative, allergic to both left-wing progressivism and MAGA populism — that had defined the Standard at its best.

Key People

Sarah Longwell is the publisher and the organizational anchor of The Bulwark. A former Republican strategist who turned against Trump early — she was running anti-Trump Republican advertising campaigns before founding the publication — she also founded Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT), a political project that spent millions in advertising to persuade Republicans to vote against Trump in 2020 and 2024. She conducts regular voter focus groups across the political spectrum and hosts the Focus Group podcast, which has become one of the most methodologically distinctive offerings in the political podcast landscape — direct recordings of voters discussing their political views and decisions, rather than pundit analysis of what voters might think. Longwell's combination of organizational leadership, direct voter research, and media production has made her the indispensable operational center of the publication.

Jonathan V. Last (known as JVL) is the editor and one of the publication's most distinctive voices — a prolific analyst whose daily newsletter, The Triad, sets the editorial agenda, and whose breadth of reference (politics, film, television, demographics, military history) gives the publication a cultural texture that distinguishes it from purely political commentary. Tim Miller, a former Republican operative who worked on Jon Huntsman's and Jeb Bush's presidential campaigns before co-founding the opposition research super PAC America Rising, became the publication's YouTube face during the 2024 cycle — driving the subscriber growth from 50,000 to more than one million in the span of roughly a year. He operates from a home studio in New Orleans where he works up to twelve hours a day producing content. Bill Kristol remains editor-at-large and publishes the Morning Shots newsletter with Andrew Egger. Sam Stein, formerly of Politico, is a senior reporter. Catherine Rampell, a Washington Post economic columnist, contributes regularly.

Charlie Sykes, a Wisconsin conservative radio host who became one of the most prominent Never Trump voices through a contentious 2016 on-air interview with Trump, co-founded the publication and served as editor-in-chief before departing in early 2024, citing exhaustion from the relentless daily production volume of anti-Trump commentary and a desire to access "that part of my brain that is not TrumpTrumpTrump."

Podcasts and Video

The Bulwark Podcast

Tim Miller (host)

The flagship daily political podcast — "the flagship podcast of the Never Trump movement and the reality-based community." Guests include journalists, politicians, and analysts. Daily frequency; the main driver of the publication's audio and YouTube growth.

The Next Level

Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller, Jonathan V. Last

Weekly show combining political analysis with pop culture — the trio discusses the week's news, campaigns, and elections, with forays into film, television, and broader cultural topics. Available free and in ad-free member edition.

The Focus Group

Sarah Longwell

Direct recordings of voter focus groups conducted by Longwell across the political spectrum — Republicans, Democrats, independents, persuadable voters — providing unmediated access to how real voters think about political choices. Fourth season as of 2025.

The Illegal News

Sarah Longwell with legal experts

Weekly show on the intersection of law and politics — Longwell and a legal expert unpack court filings, rulings, and procedural developments of the Trump era. "Conversations about justice without the jargon."

The Secret Podcast

Sarah Longwell and Jonathan V. Last

Member-only podcast for Bulwark+ subscribers — the most candid and informal of the publication's audio offerings, available exclusively to paying members.

Business Model and Growth

The Bulwark takes no advertising, accepting no corporate or political advertising that might compromise its editorial independence. Its revenue comes almost entirely from Bulwark+ memberships at $100 a year or $12 a month — a subscription model that publisher Longwell has said was generating more than $5 million annually as of 2024, making it financially sustainable without dependence on outside donors or the philanthropic foundations that fund many nonprofit news organizations. Founding memberships at $300 and above provide additional support. Members receive access to exclusive newsletters, ad-free versions of all podcasts, member-only shows, livestreams, and archived live events.

The YouTube growth during the 2024 election cycle was extraordinary by any measure in the media landscape: from 50,000 subscribers in September 2023 to more than 631,000 by September 2024, passing the 1 million subscriber milestone by 2025. Tim Miller has been the primary driver of this growth — producing eight to ten videos a day at the peak of the election cycle, mastering YouTube's thumbnail and titling conventions while maintaining substantive political analysis. The platform's combination of daily written newsletters, podcast audio, and YouTube video has allowed The Bulwark to reach audiences across all the modes of political media consumption simultaneously.

Editorial Position and Audience Evolution

The Bulwark's ideological positioning has been a subject of ongoing discussion from its founding. It launched as an explicitly conservative anti-Trump publication — defending what its founders described as "true conservatism" against the MAGA deviation — but has evolved toward a broader pro-democracy positioning as its audience has expanded beyond former Republicans. AllSides rates it "Right-Center"; Media Bias/Fact Check rates it "Right-Center" with "High" factual reporting. Critics from the right, including the Capital Research Center, have argued that the founders' neoconservative lineage makes their claim to be defending authentic conservatism suspect. Critics from the left have noted the surreal spectacle of publication audiences applauding Bill Kristol — one of the primary media advocates for the Iraq War — at liberal venues like the Atlantic Festival.

The publication has been candid about its audience's political evolution, describing it as serving readers and listeners who prioritize the defense of democratic institutions and constitutional norms over partisan loyalty to either major party. Whether that constitutes a conservative publication, a centrist publication, or a pro-democracy publication is a question the publication itself has stopped trying to resolve — its About page describes it simply as "home to Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller, Bill Kristol, JVL, Sam Stein, Catherine Rampell and more," rooted in "good faith" and positioned as the "largest pro-democracy bundle on Substack."

Access and Usage

The Bulwark publishes freely at thebulwark.com. Most written content is free to read without a subscription; Bulwark+ memberships unlock exclusive newsletters, ad-free podcasts, and member-only content at $100 per year or $12 per month. Podcasts are available through all standard podcast platforms and through the website. The YouTube channel at youtube.com/@thebulwark has surpassed 1 million subscribers. The Bulwark also operates on Substack, where it is the largest pro-democracy subscription bundle.