Last year, some of the leading advocates for improving dialogue among politically diverse Americans convened a two-day virtual event in which thousands of people engaged in one-on-one conversations. And now America Talks is returning for a second round in April.
America Talks will once again offer the opportunity for people to better understand those with differing viewpoints through a guided conversation. This year, participants may participate in a small-group talk rather than a one-on-one discussion.
The program will take place April 21 and 23, kicking off the National Week of Conversation, during which dozens of organizations will host events designed to bridge the partisan divide.
“The vast majority of Americans don’t want to be divided,” said Pearce Godwin, CEO of Listen First Project and co-director of America Talks. “As the personal pain and national fear caused by this toxic polarization increases, people of good will are looking for a way out. Thanks to Gannett, thousands of Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs will be invited to take that step together.”
Gannett is back as a media partner for America Talks, and is expected to be a primary source of registrations through USA Today and its other properties. Other sponsors include Walmart, Microsoft, Twitter and the Bridge Alliance. (The Fulcrum, which is a media partner as well, is operated by the Bridge Alliance.)
Godwin, who worked on Republican campaigns before founding Listen First, runs America Talks with Brandyn Keating, a former Democratic operative who now leads the anti-polarization organization YOUnify.
“We are thrilled to invite all Americans to an experience in which differences are greeted with respect and curiosity,” Keating said. “Americans' capacity to solve problems has no bounds when we honor one another's humanity. And participants are always shocked about how much they do agree on.”
People who sign up for America Talks answer a few survey questions. The answers are used to match each respondent with someone who has a different set of beliefs. After the event begins matched participants are sent to breakout rooms for guided one-on-one or small-group conversations.
Register for America Talks and learn more about the National Week of Conversation.
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.