Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
March Madness has come and gone and once again it has engaged America like few sporting events can do.
The Cinderella stories of schools like Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florida Atlantic, and Princeton have thrilled us all with their underdog performances. So much has remained the same over the years including the buzzer beaters, as well as the David versus Goliath stories that bring excitement to fans and us all.
Yet under the surface so much has changed. We are living in a new age of college sports. The new era of name, image, and likeness (NIL) which now allows payments to student athletes has altered the framework of college sports. While the game might look the same on the field of competition, it is quite different under the surface as student athletes are now being paid for the use of their name, image and likeness. This new world has raised the question of whether these athletes are effectively just being paid to play and whether they really are student athletes at all.
Sports in America, like pop music, theater, art, fashion, dance and film, are powerful influences in our country. Pop culture with mass accessibility appeal can serve as a catalyst for both the best and the worst of America and college athletics is no exception. However, this new world of promotional paid activity for student athletes can also serve the greater good rather than just add to the frenzy of self-aggrandizement, wealth and celebrity.
Examples abound of athletes using their fame for good. Chase Griffin is an inspiring example of a young student athlete who uses the platform his athletic talents have provided him to serve others. This video speaks to that power:
https://www.allvotenoplay.org/video-library/v/chase-griffin-and-lisa-solomon?categoryId=63efa1541678910f74c85f8d
The story and work of Aaron Maybin, a former pro and Penn State football player from Baltimore, is yet another example. Aaron has created a non-profit that provides aid, both personal and economic, to help underprivileged and at-risk young people in the inner city of Baltimore to excel beyond their current conditions. His story is a powerful one indeed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWC7dJpeCl8&t=15s
Of course, the game on the court has thrilled us all. So let’s congratulate Florida Atlantic, Connecticut, Miami, and San Diego State for making it to the Final Four but let’s also celebrate other great victories as well.
Let's also celebrate Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Chicago, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology for ranking highest in the number of Nobel Prize winners. They have done so through their ability to hold their students and faculty to rigorous standards, encourage their talents, and offer facilities that allow students and faculty to explore and expand upon their theories.
Let’s celebrate the universities who are at the forefront of finding ways to use sport for good. Penn State University alumni have established Success With Honor dedicated to competing at the highest level without compromising one’s integrity in the pursuit of excellence by allowing student athletes to build valuable life skills, represent businesses and impact charitable organizations. At Northwestern University, alumni created TrueNU which energizes student-athletes, charities, and Northwestern University supporters to positively impact our community and our world. And at the University of Indiana there is Hoosiers For Good, a charity based NIL collective whose mission focuses on pairing Indiana athletes with charities and requires these athletes to participate in awareness fundraising and promotional work in support of these charities.
And so, let's rejoice in the excitement of sport in America. Let’s root for our team to win on the field of competition. And let’s rejoice and celebrate the victories off the field as well.
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.