As co-publisher of The Fulcrum, Debilyn Molineaux's name is synonymous with cross-partisan bridge building and the importance of civil dialogue in a democratic society. In this episode of How to Win Friends and Save the Republic from the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers, Debilyn discusses her path from advertising to being a candidate for public office to co-founding some of the most influential bridging organizations in the democracy ecosystem.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump dances off stage at the end of a campaign rally at the Grappone Convention Center on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Concord, New Hampshire.
Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters says the GOP midterm election “convention” will be a “Trumpapalooza.” It’d be better if everyone called it that.
American political conventions are one of the best examples — among way too many — of American institutional decay.
In the 19th century and much of the 20th century, the quadrennial party conventions were indispensable pieces of political technology. I mean that literally. Traditionally, conventions were where party stakeholders — elected officials, party bosses, etc. — chose the nominee. Factions representing regions, interests, even ideas (how quaint!) would debate and horse-trade with each other, sometimes over days of voting, to name someone the party could get behind.
That system started to atrophy in the 1930s, as Michael Barone, the great political analyst, has argued, because of the telephone. The kind of negotiating required for a nominee to win support was impossible to do by letter. It took too long, and besides, putting things in writing risked exposing deals and other favor-trading for which savvy politicians would never want a paper trail. You had to do it face-to-face.
“The conventions were thus communication devices,” Barone writes, “in which campaign managers assessed candidates’ strength — and responded. Votes would be held back, so as to show momentum on later ballots. Favorite-son candidacies would be launched, in the hopes that they could be withdrawn later for reward or parlayed into a dark-horse nomination. No one had an accurate idea of how many delegates candidates had.”
The telephone changed that. In 1936, President Roosevelt used the new technology of long-distance calling to organize support well in advance of the convention.
Polling, and then television, further sapped away the function of conventions. Who needs party bosses to tell you the mood of the rank and file, when polling can deliver a much richer picture? Why put floor fights and other fodder for opponents on TV? Better to offer a picture of solidarity and excitement.
But the real death knell came in 1972 with the “reforms” promulgated by Democrat George McGovern, which were quickly adopted by the GOP. These reforms — which I think were deformations of our democratic system — took the power to nominate a candidate away from the stakeholders and gave it to rank-and-file voters. We thus became the first and one of the only advanced democracies where parties can no longer choose their own candidates.
I think that was a disaster, but that’s a column for another time. One of the consequences of that disaster was that party conventions essentially became infomercials ratifying a fait accompli. The brokered convention — even the prospect for one — is gone now, replaced by a coronation.
But at least the coronation still serves a purpose. It’s still a necessary function of our electoral system. A boring, intelligence-insulting, performative function, but a function all the same.
This midterm “convention” isn’t even that. No one will be formally nominated. It’s just an opportunity for President Trump to put on a show — about himself.
Defenders might say there’s precedent for this, but their argument proves my point about decay. Democrats in 1974, 1978 and 1982 had midterm conventions. But those conventions involved various committee meetings in which party rules and resolutions were proposed and debated.
In 1978, President Carter defended the midterm convention.
“I believe it is very important for me, as a president, and also as head of the Democratic Party, to have my success and failures assessed objectively and openly by Democrats representing the grassroots of our party around the nation,” Carter said. “I think that was done in a very forthcoming way.”
The Washington Post reported that John C. White, the Democratic Party chairman, was worried that delegate disputes could “turn the convention into a public relations failure.”
“Of course we have a broad range of opinions on some issues within our party,” White said. “But if we get foolish, if we go beyond proper political division and look quarrelsome, these are things that could hurt the Democratic Party and the Democratic president.”
If you think the Dallas Trumpalooza is going to include an open and objective discussion of Trump’s failures, or feature even the slightest political division, I want to congratulate you for having just emerged from a decade-long coma.
This is a commercial with a live studio audience and nothing more. Indeed, the rot of our political institutions on display is not confined to the GOP. One of the featured keynote speakers is Attorney General Todd Blanche. Whether the already ethically compromised AG’s appearance at an expressly partisan event is a violation of the Hatch Act is something for the lawyers to debate. But the spirit of it is grotesque, and a sign that our parties aren’t the only institutions that have lost their way.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.
Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Washington, DC.
It is hard to believe that in the 250th year of America’s independence, corruption is emerging from within the very institution meant to prevent it — the White House.
It is not hidden; it is boldly in plain sight, festering and endangering the Republic. As Zephyr Teachout warns, corruption in plain sight is a real threat to democracy.
Today, corruption in America is not static — it grows, adapts, and accelerates when accountability collapses. In the United States, corruption has become exponential — corruption raised to a higher power — as public institutions weaken, oversight erodes, and leaders discover they can act without consequence. The Founders understood this danger. They built a constitutional system designed to prevent concentrated power, anticipating that future leaders might test its limits. Today, those limits are being tested in ways that threaten the Republic's stability.
The U.S. Constitution is clear: public office is a public trust. The Domestic Emoluments Clause prohibits a president from receiving any financial benefit from the federal or state governments beyond a fixed salary. The Foreign Emoluments Clause prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts, payments, or benefits from foreign governments without congressional consent. When a president abuses both clauses, he uses public authority for private gain — distorting constitutional processes and weakening the Republic. This is how Trump has distorted constitutional processes.
Reports show corruption did not simply appear during Trump’s presidency — he brought it with him from his private business into the White House, and it accelerated. What began as conflicts of interest grew into systemic self‑enrichment, expanding across agencies, foreign relationships, and federal decision‑making. Corruption did not remain linear; it became exponential.
The 47th president has blended public office with private business in ways ethics watchdogs and legal scholars describe as unprecedented in modern American history. Reports reveal he added billions to his wealth during his presidency — the most lucrative administration in American history. From cryptocurrency ventures to foreign government patronage at Trump‑branded properties, the scale and variety of the alleged conflicts have prompted ongoing legal challenges and congressional debate.
Trump’s corruption as a sitting president runs deep and remains unprecedented — a pattern observers describe as a form of kleptocracy, where public office becomes a vehicle for personal and family enrichment. Reports reveal this corruption multiplied — spreading from business dealings to federal agencies, from foreign delegations to domestic policy, from personal profit to institutional distortion. From directing foreign delegations, Secret Service agents, and federal officials to stay at his properties, to negotiating immunity through litigation, the president’s corruption spreads wide. Each action meets the definition of corruption: the abuse of public power for personal gain, carried out in ways that distort constitutional processes and place private interests above the public’s.
Trump’s corrupt practices in office mirrored the same self‑dealing behaviors he used in the private sector — imported directly into public power. He found every soft policy, every gray zone, every unenforced rule, and pushed through them all. By refusing to divest, he created a presidency where public power served private profit, where shell companies continued operating, where foreign and domestic money flowed into his properties, and where court cases documented a pattern of behavior that did not stop when he took the oath of office. Even family members — including Jared Kushner — became part of a system where private interests overlapped with public authority.
Reports show Capital One closed more than 300 Trump‑affiliated accounts after months of review, citing patterns consistent with money‑laundering risk. Foreign delegations routed wire transfers through Trump hotels, raising alarms under the Foreign Emoluments Clause. A Belgian diamond consortium that gifted Trump a lavish ring later received tariff relief — prompting senators to warn of potential bribery concerns. Watchdogs have tracked dozens of corrupt transactions across his businesses and political operations.
Trump’s corruption in plain sight shows he does not fear oversight, because Congress has abandoned its oversight role. Analysts warn that corruption carried out openly — without consequence — becomes a pathway to autocracy. He acts openly because he knows Congress will not stop him. His corruption follows a familiar pattern — pay‑to‑play, quid pro quo, tariff favors, foreign gifts, pardons for allies, and suing institutions that try to enforce the law. Reports reveal he even began selling early access to his market‑moving Truth Social posts — charging up to $100,000 a month for privileged access to presidential announcements while personally trading stocks that could be affected by those same posts.
Trump’s unkept promises are in clear view, as corruption harms small businesses across the country. Tariffs crushed small manufacturers, raising costs by 20–50 percent and forcing layoffs, closures, and bankruptcies. Pay‑to‑play access gave corporate giants preferential treatment at international summits while small firms were shut out. Cuts to inspectors general weakened fraud detection, leaving small businesses vulnerable. Corruption does not just distort institutions — it destroys livelihoods.
Corruption in America is endangering the Republic because it is festering and spreading rapidly through the nation’s institutions — weakening the constitutional systems that protect self‑government.
Corruption endangers the Republic because it weakens the constitutional systems that protect self‑government. When leaders use public office for private gain, checks and balances erode, agencies lose independence, and the rule of law becomes unevenly applied. Corruption distorts policy decisions, redirects public resources toward private interests, and undermines equal representation. It damages public trust — the foundation of democratic legitimacy — and creates conditions where authoritarian behavior can take root. Exponential abuse is dangerous because each violation makes the next one easier, faster, and harder to stop — accelerating institutional breakdown. The stakes are not partisan; they are national — because corruption weakens every institution Americans rely on. Corruption erodes civic trust, and without trust, democratic participation collapses.
The president’s corruption in plain sight has made American democracy feel unrecognizable. Reports show his self‑enrichment, retaliation, and use of government machinery for personal gain resemble patterns seen in authoritarian systems abroad. What should be a constitutional presidency has instead looked, at times, like a reality‑show presidency, where public decisions often resembled private interests. Millions describe the last several years as living inside a system where loyalty is rewarded over law. This is not ordinary corruption; it is corruption to the tenth power and beyond — corruption that distorts governance, weakens checks and balances, and threatens the Republic itself.
Congress’s refusal to enforce oversight has allowed corruption to accelerate. Inspectors general were weakened. IRS oversight was undermined. Public corruption units faced political pressure. The power of the purse — a core constitutional check — was eroded as federal funds were redirected toward presidential priorities without authorization.
Americans can reverse this exponential abuse of power. Congress can strengthen disclosure rules so presidents must report all business interests, investment accounts, foreign gifts, and outside income. Lawmakers can pass conflict‑of‑interest laws that prohibit presidents from owning or operating businesses that benefit from federal decisions or foreign investments. Congress must pass and enforce policies that clearly separate public leadership from private business — even when presidents refuse to divest or violate the Emoluments Clauses. Oversight can be rebuilt by restoring IRS independence, re‑empowering inspectors general, enforcing the Anti‑Deficiency Act, and strengthening the FBI’s Public Corruption Unit. Democracy can still be repaired, but only if citizens insist that public office serve the public good.
Reports show corruption has multiplied. The deeper question is whether we will allow it to keep multiplying — whether we will normalize what we once condemned. Corruption grows when accountability shrinks, but accountability can grow too.
The math is simple: multiplication can work both ways. Corruption can multiply — or citizens can subtract its power. The next exponent is ours to choose.
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Carolyn Goode is a retired educational leader and former principal who has spent her career advancing civic responsibility, equity, and public engagement. She writes about democracy, leadership, and the values that strengthen American communities.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting with Australia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 2, 2026.
“Muscles, dudes in dresses, testosterone.”
That’s how one European defense official described the priorities of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a bombshell new report from CNN on the growing concern inside the U.S. military over Hegseth’s leadership.
Hegseth might not disagree with the characterization. He’s made it his mission to focus his attention on the culture wars, wokeism, DEI, and what soldiers look like, and it’s creating “turbulence” inside the military he oversees.
Recent high-profile resignations and firings by Hegseth have also brought increased scrutiny at the Pentagon, with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll abruptly announcing he was leaving this week.
“You’re taking away three of the most seasoned combat leaders of a generation who are in a unique position to articulate battlefield requirements,” a former Army official said of Hegseth’s “forced exits” of Army Chief of Staff Randy George, former head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa Gen. Christopher Donahue, and former commander of U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command Gen. David Hodne.
This all comes against the backdrop of what is perceived as an increasingly unwinnable and also unendable Iran war, which is losing support by the day.
In March, opposition to the war was at 47.3%, and now, six months later, it’s at 55.7%.
None of this is helpful for Republicans who are campaigning in tight and uphill contests all over the country. They are already having to defend President Trump’s tariffs and burgeoning trade war with Canada, his impolitic comments about affordability “hoaxes,” and the sense that his priorities — building ballrooms and hosting UFC fights — are out of whack with voters.
The never-ending war in Iran is the last thing they want to be talking about.
Hopes that Trump can effectively wind the war down before the midterms have been whittled down to a nub — prediction markets don’t have peace talks occurring until 2027.
But he could make a move that improves the politics of this quagmire for him and Republicans in time for elections: fire Hegseth.
Hegseth’s net approval is at a miserable -22 — well below other Trump cabinet officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Bobby Kennedy Jr.
His own commanders are publicly voicing their concerns about his leadership. Reports of critical shortages of missiles and other materials are bringing into question our military’s readiness. And stories of hellish conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, including attempts by multiple sailors to jump overboard, are dogging Hegseth’s tenure. Not to mention earlier scandals over legally questionable drug boat strikes and improper use of Signal chats.
A change in leadership would have the practical effect of restoring order to the Defense Department, and the political effect of changing the narrative for Trump and Republicans at a crucial time, just two months before midterm elections.
Hegseth doesn’t want to do this job anyway, it appears. Despite being busy prosecuting a war that’s disrupted the global economy, killed and injured hundreds of U.S. troops, and made the region far more dangerous for our allies, he’s been seen on the campaign trail, stumping for candidates in Iowa and Kentucky — explicitly partisan, political moves that other Pentagon leaders have always avoided.
“We’re restoring the warrior ethos inside our department because that matters. We need guys like this man right here having our back in Congress,” he said of Rep. Zach Nunn in August.
As long as I’ve known him, Pete has wanted to run for president, and he’s reportedly said as much to friends and colleagues.
So Trump should do him, Republicans, and all Americans a favor, and cut him loose so he can go back to Fox News and focus on the things that matter to him: muscles, dudes in dresses, and testosterone.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.
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.