Kachman, a recent graduate of Michigan State University's James Madison College, is a volunteer writer for Wolf-PAC, which seeks to build grassroots support for a constitutional amendment permitting more regulation of money in politics.
Many of us have worked from home during the pandemic, but not everybody has that luxury. Have you been to your local grocery store? Minimum wage workers who have kept food on our tables have been called "frontline heroes" – and yet when the chance arose to increase their wage to $15 an hour, the proposal was voted down. And the vote was not just along party lines – eight Democrats joined Republicans in rebuffing the bill.
These votes are influenced by the massive power that special interests have over our government. Shopping at a National Grocers Association member store? The NGA has taken a hard stance against raising the minimum wage. Ordering takeout from a restaurant? The National Restaurant Association poured almost $3 million into campaign contributions to both major parties to secure influence in Washington, D.C., and defeat minimum wage legislation. This recent disappointment for minimum wage employees is symptomatic of the corruption that prevents fair pay for hourly employees across the country. While some areas are working to remedy this issue locally, it is woefully insufficient in the face of national inaction.
Congress created the minimum wage in 1938 to ensure that the lowest-paid members of society could keep up with the cost of living. But the federal minimum wage has not been raised for 12 years. In 2019, popular support for raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars reached 67 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. If the goal is to help workers and a majority agrees with the raise, what is taking so long?
It is a response to pressure from major groups that funnel millions of dollars to legislators at the expense of the American people. Many prominent business groups publicly oppose H.R. 582, the Raise the Wage Act. Open Secrets, an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit that records public donations, reports the NGA, NRA, National Federation of Independent Businesses and others have all made significant political expenditures in the last two years. The National Association of Manufacturers spent $14,610,000 on lobbying in 2019, the NRA spent $2,890,000, and the NFIB spent $4,720,000. These groups buy influence in D.C., giving them an outsized voice in policies that affect American workers.
Popular and common-sense bills such as H.R.582 will not gain traction until we remind our national legislators that they represent their constituents, not the large corporations and special-interest groups. To achieve fair minimum wage legislation, we must remove the influence of big money on our politicians by reforming campaign finance laws. The idea that politicians might loosen their grip on this money is about as likely as seeing them support a fair minimum wage for their constituents. However, we have a path forward: Amend the U.S. Constitution to control campaign financing, and take the conversation out of the hands of corrupt politicians. This would force national leaders to serve the people. You can help in this effort by joining Wolf-PAC, a volunteer organization dedicated to bringing about such an amendment.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.