David Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
The Team and the Bridge Alliance are proud to announce the creation of the Engaged Athlete Fellowship.
The Team and the Bridge Alliance are ideally suited to partner in this important endeavor, expanding the Bridge Alliance’s civic ecosystem to a new, promising audience of leaders and influencers.
The Bridge Alliance is a leader in the world of non-partisan democracy reform and civic renewal, bringing hundreds of organizations together to support a movement to co-create a thriving, just and healthy democratic republic. Through their Citizen Connect initiative, people from all walks of life, political parties, race/ethnicity, identities, and religions can become civically engaged. All participants have the common conviction that America is stronger if We the People work together. It isn’t about agreeing on everything; it’s about finding what we can agree on and making it happen.
The Team provides award winning offerings to help athletes become great teammates, leaders, and citizens. Since their inception in 2020, The Team’s innovative approach to civic engagement has positively impacted over 50,000 student athletes around the country. The Team’s past student athlete civic leaders have won many prestigious awards and recognition for their work including invitations to work on programs with major sports figures like NBA star Stephen Curry and Athletes Unlimited’s Cassidy Lichtman. Their stories of modeling innovative forms of civic engagement have been profiled in major media publications like ESPN, The Fulcrum, Teen Vogue, Forbes, and others.
Starting this fall, this inaugural fellowship will empower student athletes from across the country to strengthen non-partisan civic participation on their teams, on their campuses, and in their broader communities.
The Engaged Athlete Fellowship program will focus on three areas:
● Provide a leadership and developmental curriculum developed by esteemed professors, coaches, professional athletes, and civic leaders.
● Provide mentorship, support, and a financial stipend for the athletes personalized civic engagement or service project on campus or in their community.
● Participate in a multi-day all expenses paid summit in Washington, DC to meet other Fellows, participate in workshops, network, and present their work from the year.
The Engaged Athlete Fellowship is led by Joe Kennedy, a 2007 graduate of Northwestern, a former basketball player and coach who served as a special assistant for the Office of Public Engagement at the White House. Most recently, in September of 2022, Kennedy became the first Executive Director of The Team. During the 2020 election cycle, Kennedy connected with Coach Eric Reveno, where they became a major force leading a new college athletics movement to expand student athlete voter registration and create civic resources for coaches and teams. Coach Joe Kennedy is working towards a future where all student athletes and athletic departments establish civic engagement as a priority, and he believes the Engaged Athlete Fellowship can make that dream a reality.
“More than 500,000 student athletes are largely overlooked by most traditional civics programs, and yet, these athletes are often some of the most powerful voices and influential leaders on their campuses. We are building energy around the importance of athletes, coaches, and administrators becoming more engaged citizens. We offer tools and resources to help them shape the future they want to create.”
Joe’s staff includes Hannah Nusbaum (Director of Programming), Elizabeth Ford (Fellowship Coordinator and former Penn Volleyball Player), plus advisors Chase Griffin (Quarterback, UCLA Football), Lisa Kay Solomon (Professor, Stanford d. school), and Eric Reveno (Coach, Oregon State Basketball).
The Fellowship is about impact and action, and athletes are encouraged to dream big. The Team co-founder and Stanford Futurist and Designer in Residence, Lisa Kay Solomon, succinctly and clearly sums up what the Engaged Athlete Fellowship is all about.
“What would make it easy for student athletes to take the first step? Every resource, program, and relationship is aimed to reduce the noise and friction of this moment, and focus instead on foundational moves to support democracy and ignite civic agency.”
Listen to advisor Chase Griffin (Quarterback, UCLA Football) as he tells his story showing how the leadership learned on the field was harnessed to help his community and country.
In the coming weeks we will introduce you to the Engaged Athlete Fellows with the hope of inspiring you to use your time, energy, and skills in whatever way you choose to help your community, your state, and your country.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with U.S. President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on May 27, 2026 in Washington, D.C. Trump met with his Cabinet days after saying a peace deal with Iran was“ largely negotiated” amid expectations around the re-opening the Strait of Hormuz.
The worst deal in the history of deals
As a former Republican, sometimes it’s fun to look back on the things we — I was part of a “we” at one time — criticized Democrats for, and not all that long ago.
Remember, if you will, when Republicans condemned former President Bill Clinton for pardoning his brother and his corrupt donor friend Marc Rich?
Or, remember when Republicans wagged their fingers at former President Barack Obama’s golf outings? Or his executive orders? Or his Syrian “red line”?
Or all the times Republicans went after former President Joe Biden’s gaffes?
While those criticisms may have been justified at the time, they look patently ridiculous next to our current president’s cartoonish and downright dangerous offenses.
Offenses like pardoning Jan. 6 insurrectionists — nearly 100 of whom have gone on to be arrested for, charged with, or convicted of crimes separate from the events of that day.
Or wreaking havoc on the global economy by instituting reckless tariffs on friends, neighbors, and enemies alike?
Or taking a proverbial sledge hammer to countless government agencies that have put every American in danger, whether on airplanes, in hospitals, at job sites, or in natural disasters.
That’s just a few, but nothing looks worse next to his predecessors than Donald Trump’s supposed Iran deal, at least as it’s outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding, the details of which Trump was loath to share.
And for good reason — they are shockingly bad and humiliating for the U.S.
I remember Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA from 2015 very well. I, along with many Republicans as well as a cadre of foreign policy experts, criticized that deal for its obvious and problematic concessions to a very bad actor who we’ve long known could not be trusted. But trust was what we gave the Iranian regime, as well as sudden access to a boatload of cash — $100 billion, to be exact.
All of Obama’s provisions were temporary, which would allow Iran to restart enriching uranium upon their sunset; the deal didn’t address Iran’s ballistic missiles, or its funding of terrorist proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas; the supposed “anytime, anywhere” inspections came with a 24-day delay, if Iran so chose, giving them ample time to hide any suspect materials; and it didn’t require any congressional authority.
In short, I’d argue it wasn’t a great deal. But as bad as it was, it looks like the Magna Carta next to Trump’s.
Trump’s deal would give Iran immediate sanction relief and access to $300 billion, presumably to use to fund terror proxies; it doesn’t secure any upfront limits on uranium enrichment or missile development; it allows Iran to charge for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in the future; and it calls for Israel to stop its attacks on Hezbollah, another win for Iran.
Neither Americans nor the Middle East are safer than we were 100-plus days ago when Trump decided to pursue this folly. And in fact, our economy is weaker for it. But Iran is unquestionably stronger and more emboldened.
They’ve seen Trump’s weakness, unseriousness, and frighteningly limited appreciation for history. They’ve seen him retreat on most of his core threats to the regime, from bombing their cultural sites to ending a civilization overnight. And they’ve taken notice as he’s abandoned the promises that were supposedly central to his justification for war in the first place — regime change, liberating the Iranian people, and removing Iran’s nuclear materials.
What a waste of blood and treasure, not to mention American might and power, only so that our enemies can watch us limp desperately toward a conclusion that’s being described — by the right — as “unthinkable,” “appeasement,” and “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.