Molineaux is president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, and Nevins is its co-founder and board chairman. They are co-publishers of The Fulcrum.
The last few years have been especially hard on our families. Most of us, in one way or another, have suffered loss — of faith, of friends, of family members. And these moments of loss are especially poignant during the holidays. While Hollywood has lifted our expectations of happy family gatherings, few of us experience the Hollywood version.
The holidays are normally frantic and stress-filled as we feel pressure to be more accommodating and offer more grace to family and friends. We need grace ourselves. We have extra obligations and extra worries, and many of us face the stress of travel.
And through it all we want to uphold our family traditions and recreate the way they used to be. But we are conflicted because the way it was is not the way it is today. Instead, we should let go. Let go of our expectations of each other, of recreating a happy past. Let's create a happy future by starting exactly where we are.
We are not the same people we were. Our families have changed. We've lost people and added others as we grow older and the next generation adds to the family tree. Some families have grown closer while others have grown apart. We are more strident in our tone with each other.
Many families feel the stress of economic change and uncertainty, of the pandemic, of divisive politics and the shifting culture. As the world seems to be changing at a faster and faster pace, many families in America are showing signs of stress. There is fear of splintering because of hurt feelings, harsh judgements and unyielding self-righteousness.
We offer this as prayer for us all.
Let us take a holiday from our troubles and just be family. For a few days this year, let us look for the best in each other. Let us love unconditionally because of our shared humanity. Let us be vulnerable and fragile as humans doing the best we can, during this extraordinary time of change. Amen.
We offer these thoughtful pointers for families from Living Room Conversations:
- Ask thoughtful questions, inspired by whatever honest curiosity you feel.
- Try to understand, not convince or persuade.
- Share personal stories and experiences, not data points.
- Use humor, if possible. Be willing to laugh at yourself when and where appropriate. Humor can lighten the mood and make the conversation enjoyable.
- Use first-person language. Own your feelings and express them as "I felt ______ (feeling) when you ______ (describe specific behavior and when it occurred)." For example, "I felt frustrated when you said I was unrealistic this morning."
- Explore and reflect rather than disagree directly. For example, starting sentences with "I am wondering ..." can be very productive if it is sincere.
The winter season in the northern hemisphere is filled with bright celebrations during short, dark days. The light in our loved one's eyes is especially needed this year — that bright and welcoming gaze. Let's welcome each other home for this holiday season.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.