Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
Debilyn Molineaux is a visionary, storyteller, innovator and entrepreneur. Her life’s purpose is bringing about a thriving, just and healthy democratic republic in the United States. She launched the latest expression of her work, American Future, in late 2023, noting that imagination lays the tracks for the reality train to follow.
Unleashing Americans’ imagination about the future we want is the antidote to the malaise left by the conflict profiteers.
As a pioneer in the democracy ecosystem, Molineaux also offers consulting services to nonprofits, philanthropists, corporate leaders and foundations. She has co-founded or led initiatives over her 20-plus-year career to reach millions of Americans. Empowering her fellow citizens and scaling the work of her fellow leaders continue to be Debilyn’s passion and mission. Her actions help nurture and drive the large-scale collective action that moves our democracy forward.
Debilyn has initiated, partnered and advised on a multitude of big ideas:
- American Future, to add everyday people’s voices to the future narrative.
- Bridge Alliance, where hundreds of organizations became a pro-democracy ecosystem.
- National Week of Conversation, to provide a central annual event that promotes healthy engagement instead of toxic division.
- Living Room Conversations, to provide do-it-yourself conversation guides for understanding people with differences.
- Inter-Movement Impact Project, to connect several aspects of democracy work together.
- The Fulcrum, a news platform that covers democracy reform efforts at state and national levels.
- Bridging Movement Alignment Council, a network of more than 500 "bridging divides" organizations.
- JEDI Fellows (DEI initiative), to assist the pro-democracy ecosystem be representative using a four-fold diversity model (ideological, generational, gender and race/ethnicity representation) of the United States.
She brings a big idea or vision to reality by:
- Employing deep listening for underlying assumptions, blind spots and hidden assessments.
- Guiding purposeful conversations to ground dreams into action plans.
- Networking with people, sources and ideas that can be additive or collaborative to your idea.
- Challenging conventional wisdom and channeling missing voices.
- Communicating diplomatically, especially on tough topics.
I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Molineaux in June for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series. Watch to learn the full extent of her democracy reform work:
The Fulcrum interviews Debilyn Molineaux, President & CEO, Bridge Alliancewww.youtube.com
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.