Bruce Bond and Erik Olsen have been friends since middle school in New Canaan, a tony Connecticut suburb of New York, where they indulged their shared passion for debating politics, economics and other current events. Bond was a distance runner at Princeton and then spent 30 years as an information technology entrepreneur, software developer and industry analyst. Olsen went to Principia College and got an MBA from UCLA before launching his career in investment management, fund management and real estate investment.
On a joint family vacation in 2009, while bemoaning the angry tenor of public discourse, they landed on the concept for their organization. Common Ground Committee's main work is hosting public forums where prominent figures from opposing ends of the political spectrum reveal their shared areas of agreement on an often polarizing public policy issue. Their answers have been edited for clarity and length.
What's democracy's biggest challenge, in 10 words or less?
Both: The inability of elected officials to overcome emotion with reason.
Describe your very first civic engagements.
Bond: It was in seventh grade. I had recently become interested in environmental issues and volunteered to be the student leader and organizer on my town's "Clean Your Mile Day" committee.
Olsen: When my children were younger, we worked at a homeless shelter during Christmas through an activity organized by member of our church in California. I've been active in church since my teens.
What was your biggest professional triumph?
Bond: Nothing in my career has been more satisfying than obtaining the recognition, funding and personnel that enabled Common Ground Committee to move from a bootstrapped, volunteer-only startup to a strong, growing and talent-rich organization.
Olsen: I've been self-employed in small businesses since 1986, which in itself is a professional triumph. But I must echo Bruce, who deserves most of the credit, that getting CGC to its current level of operations has been quite an achievement.
And your most disappointing setback?
Bond: While working for a tech start-up, the company was purchased by a larger firm. I had been assured I would be able to benefit greatly should that happen. But the founders had decided behind closed doors that the spoils of a buyout would not be shared by non-owners. It was very disappointing, but it was my fault for not getting something in writing when I joined the firm.
Olsen: Not being able to stabilize the business I developed with two partners in 2014. Everyone we talked with thought we had a great idea, including prospective clients. But we could not get enough to sign on the dotted line.
How does your identity influence the way you go about your work?
Bond: My identity has a lot to do with a "no limits" mindset and putting a high value on inclusion and teamwork. From what I know about the democracy reform movement, both are crucial if we are ever to bring healing to the problems of incivility and polarization in the nation's politics.
Olsen: At Common Ground Committee I'm influenced by my desire to find truth. It leads me to constantly question things. But I've come to realize that my sense of truth is not necessarily shared by others.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
Bond: My favorite advice was from my dad the day before my wedding: "Remember that what's yours is hers, and what's hers is hers." But the best advice was really from a teacher and mentor who instilled in me the value of listening for direction — particularly from the "voice within."
Olsen: Don't make decisions based on fear.
Create a new flavor for Ben & Jerry's.
Bond: I'm confident they would have a best seller in Common Grounder Swirl, a mix of vanilla and chocolate ice cream ribbons.
Olsen:Maybe a blueberry and raspberry swirl. With nuts.
"West Wing" or "Veep"?
Bond: Neither one. I prefer "24" and the Jack Bauer relationship with the president. President David Palmer had it going on!
Olsen: "West Wing." If it were only that easy. And clear.
What's the last thing you do on your phone at night?
Bond: After plugging in the phone to recharge overnight, I take my iPad to bed and will often turn out the light and listen to a recorded article using a soft headband with wireless speakers in it. Works every time.
Olsen: Set the timer to shut off the podcast I'm listening to after 15 minutes.
What is your deepest, darkest secret?
Bond: I went to my high school senior prom with the 13th girl I asked. The first 12 politely declined. Very humiliating.
Olsen: I would prefer a romantic old movie to any sporting event — except possibly the Super Bowl, if there is a party.
A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.
Only Trump doesn’t care about housing
It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.
It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.
In that speech, Trump promised, “We’re going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.”
As of mid-2023, there had been a housing shortage of nearly four million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Americans all over the country were either priced out of buying new homes due to low inventory, trapped in their existing homes by sky-high mortgage rates, or facing exorbitant rent hikes thanks to corporate investors buying up rental properties. Americans needed help, and Trump promised it.
Cut to March of 2026, when Trump reportedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “No one gives a sh*t about housing.”
That kind of thinking may explain why Trump this week suddenly announced he was canceling a signing ceremony for the bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a housing bill co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott that passed the House 358-32 and was approved in the Senate on Monday.
Trump instead demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act, his controversial election grievance bill that doesn’t have enough Republican support to get passed in the Senate.
It’s just the latest in a line of policy self-owns where Trump has seemingly intentionally made life more difficult for Republicans hoping to keep their majority. Despite midterm elections occurring in the midst of a blistering economy and an unpopular war, they were surely hoping the housing bill would give them something — anything — to brag about when they returned home to their districts.
And very much to the contrary, Americans do give a sh*t about housing. According to a recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a whopping 79% say the cost of housing is extremely or very important to them. Eighty-three percent say Congress should take action on the issue — like it just did. Eighty-nine percent say the House and Senate need to work together to pass affordable housing legislation — like they just did. And 63% say they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker if they helped pass legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs — like they just did.
There aren’t many issues that unite Americans like housing does, and very few bipartisan policy wins Congress can point to, and yet, Trump is holding that bill hostage in order to get his pet project — which doesn’t even have the support of his own party — pushed through.
If you’re trying to make sense of something so nonsensical, as I’m sure many Republican lawmakers are, it’s certainly sad but not actually all that complicated. Trump said what he needed to get reelected and then promptly abandoned his promises in order to pursue his own self-interests, even if those interests are bad for Republicans and bad for voters.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.