Shock, surprises and suffering are the most immediate results of all wars. Russia's brutal, yet deeply flawed invasion of Ukraine has profound implications for the West, global democracy and the future of Europe and Russia. How do we Fix It shares the perspectives of two prominent thinkers, Jane Lytvynenko and Robert Kagen. Richard and Jim also share their analysis of the unexpected early outcomes of the war.
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The facade of the East Wing of the White House is demolished by work crews on Oct. 21, 2025 in Washington, D.C. The demolition is part of U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to build a ballroom reportedly costing $250 million on the eastern side of the White House.
The White House is full of so much rich history and tradition — it helps tell the story of America itself. And it’s an incredibly impressive and intimidating venue for facilitating international diplomacy.
As Michael Douglas’ President Andrew Shepherd says in “The American President,” “The White House is the single greatest home court advantage in the modern world.”
President Trump understands the value of first impressions, even (and especially) if they’re not painting an accurate picture. He may have put gold leaf in his NYC bathrooms, but he also inflated the value of his properties and his own net worth for years. He famously pretended to be his own spokesman to appear more established. He’s sold everything from luxury ties to luxury homegoods, most of which were made cheaply in China.
For Trump, you can forget if it’s genuine or not — it just has to look rich.
So no one should be surprised that on his second-go-round at president, he decided the White House — the people’s house — needed the Trump touch, too. Not known for subtlety, Trump’s already made noticeable changes, painting over fixtures in the Oval Office a garish gold, and festooning the place with gold vases, trophies, and coasters.
And now he’s building a new ballroom, much like the one he uses at Mar-a-Lago to host his corporate and political pals.
The new ballroom will cost $250 million, and Trump insists that it’s being entirely funded by private donors. With his penchant for misleading about his own expenditures, I guess we’ll just have to take his word for it.
But as America watches aghast that the White House East Wing is being torn up, Trump is reveling in the destruction…er, construction. At a Tuesday press conference he moaned, “You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back. You hear that sound? Oh, that’s music to my ears. I love that sound. Other people don’t like it. When I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.”
It’s not hard to see why. Trump’s used the office of the presidency to rake in the cash, boosting his personal net worth by a record $3 billion just since 2024.
According to Forbes: “No president has used his position of power to profit as immensely as Trump.” He’s primarily done that with a crypto venture he announced last September named World Liberty Financial, and a memecoin, all of which he helped make possible by rolling back regulations and signing favorable legislation. How convenient.
But that’s not all.
He’s announced a new “Arc de Trump,” a structure that will be built across from the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary. We don’t know how much it will cost or who is paying for it.
He’s refurbishing a $400 million Qatari plane he was “gifted” in May, which is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $1 billion. Trump says he’s donating the plane to his presidential library foundation.
A New York Times report this week alleged Trump is asking the Justice Department to pay him $230 million personally, over its investigations into him, an idea he later defended.
This is all happening while the government is shut down, and costing taxpayers $15 billion a week. And it’s happening as Trump just handed Argentina a $20 billion bailout while American farmers suffer under his dumb trade war. And it’s happening while 22 U.S. states are either in a recession or on the brink. Trump doesn’t care.
Of course, fleecing the American people isn’t new for him.
Last year, the House Oversight Committee revealed Trump was charging more than a thousand bucks a night on the taxpayers’ credit card so that Secret Service agents protecting his family could stay at Trump hotels.
After lying about the results of the 2020 election, he fleeced his own supporters, encouraging donations to help “Stop the Steal,” donations which he then used to pay his own legal bills and Melania’s stylist.
From golden sneakers to Trump Bibles, he’ll get his hands on Americans’ money any way he can.
But Trump is stuck in the 1980s — both in terms of his gaudy interior design aesthetic and his assumption of where the American economy is. He may learn in the midterms that greed isn’t as good as it was for Gordon Gecko when his voters can’t afford gas or groceries.
Or maybe he’s stuck in the 1780s, his faux-French “Arc de Trump” a fond homage to the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, whose lavish spending while their people starved prompted an actual revolution.
Will Americans tire of Trump’s excess as they struggle to meet basic needs while he shrugs and says, “Let them eat crypto?”
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.
IN FLIGHT - OCTOBER 19: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the press on October 19, 2025 aboard Air Force One. The President is returning to Washington, DC, after spending his weekend at Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Every American president has a foreign policy doctrine. But no president has ever had one quite like Donald Trump’s.
With President George W. Bush, it was to invade resource-rich countries under the pretext that there are terrorists there, preferably preemptively. Bomb them to spread freedom and democracy, but leave the Middle Eastern monarchy in Saudi Arabia that’s backing them alone, because, well, they already run a country that sells oil to the U.S.
President Barack Obama ran the show like a party van. Pile in as many allies as possible for the trip down regime-change highway. And if some of them insist on driving — like France and the UK did en route to overthrowing Libya — then all the better for when the crash inevitably occurs.
Trump has been nothing short of a gravitational force that has bent global conflicts to his will — for better or worse — like Bush. But he also likes having allies around, like Obama. The difference? No president has ever been so overt in factoring in the cash benefit for America. And one American, in particular: himself. Arguably, the Trump Doctrine could be described as overtly monetized hegemony.
The transatlantic relationship under Trump looks like a subscription renewal scam, with Trump telling Europeans that their 2 percent NATO defense spending commitments just randomly got upped to 5 percent.
Trump also recently went over to Israel to celebrate the peace deal he says he worked out between Gaza and Israel. In his speech to Israeli parliament, he singled out from the audience Israeli-American megadonor Miriam Adelson, whom he suggested loves Israel more than America. He conveniently left out the fact that his campaign benefited from about $100 million of her largesse, according to Forbes.
Of course, peace talks under the Trump Doctrine come with a side of commerce. In September, the Trump administration also proposed selling Israel $6 billion more in weapons, the Associated Press noted. “We make the best weapons in the world, and we’ve got a lot of them. And we’ve given a lot to Israel, frankly,” Trump said in his speech, turning alleged war crimes into a showcase opportunity. “I mean, Bibi would call me so many times, ‘Can you get me this weapon, that weapon, that weapon?’ Some of them I never heard of… But we’d get them here… And they are the best.”
Trump also talked about how rich the surrounding Arab countries are, and how they’re going to pay to rebuild Gaza now. So here comes “Trump Gaza,” the resort, probably — if the AI-generated video that Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this year is any indication.
Trump’s son-in-law, real estate mogul Jared Kushner, was front and center during Trump’s Israel trip as a negotiator without any public mandate, and has already publicly salivated over the “valuable” Gaza oceanfront property.
Sounds very American profits first. War is milked for weapons sales as long as possible, and then things wrap up with a connected few well-positioned to get first dibs.
Similarly, Trump had been talking up the notion of giving long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine capable of striking Moscow — something that Europe wasn’t even yet willing to do with its German Taurus missiles despite all their anti-Russian tough talk. Why not? Because any plausible deniability would go out the window. Tough to argue against the idea of the West being directly at war with Russia when its own personnel would be needed to operate the guidance systems for these long-range strikes.
But we’re not talking about Trump giving Ukraine a gift here. Rather, it would mean him selling them to European countries for Kyiv. Suddenly the guy who keeps talking about how much he wants the Nobel Peace Prize sounded like he was on the verge of the kind of recklessness that could launch a third world war, and the only thing standing in the way was the notoriously janky common sense of European leaders.
It was after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Trump’s mind refocused back on peace, at least temporarily. Trump said that the U.S. needed to keep its Tomahawk supply and that “a lot of bad things could happen” if they were to be used. Surely his change of heart has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that, by his own admission, he and Putin talked about future trade deals between the U.S. and Russia for when the bombings wrap up.
See the pattern? Peace first. Unless there are easy profits to be made for America from war. At least until there’s an even better opportunity for private profiteering.
Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist and host of independently produced talk shows in French and English. Her website can be found at http://www.rachelmarsden.com.
Your Essential Guide to How Trump Will Handle Literally Any Foreign Crisis was originally published by the Tribune Content Agency and is republished with permission.
political polarization
In the column, "Is Donald Trump Right?", Fulcrum Executive Editor, Hugo Balta, wrote:
For millions of Americans, President Trump’s second term isn’t a threat to democracy—it’s the fulfillment of a promise they believe was long overdue.
Is Donald Trump right?
Should the presidency serve as a force for disruption or a safeguard of preservation?
Balta invited readers to share their thoughts at newsroom@fulcrum.us.
Brenda Marinace from Maryland shared these thoughts...
I found this article disappointing. The Fulcrum standards aim to expand their reach, remove personal bias, avoid vilifying any party, and build bridges through a solutions-based approach.
This article seems more like a challenge than an honest request. I cannot imagine any Republican even reading the Fulcrum, much less responding to your challenge. It appears to dismiss the 77 million Americans, presuming them to be wrong and defying them to come up with support for President Trump. It’s not inviting at all.
I have spent years working toward returning respect across the country, imploring our legislators to lead the way as self-serving rhetoric only builds anger and violence and enables retribution. The Fulcrum has published several of my articles. Without respect, without open dialogue, we cannot bridge build.
Please accept that others have a right to their beliefs as well. My career was in protecting Florida’s unique environment. We could have hated and vilified those paving our lands. Instead, we chose inclusion. Civil engineers helped develop wetland protection. Developers helped ID sensitive areas, thus freeing others for development. Our government included us in land use planning. In fact, Elliott Mackle of the famed Mackle Brothers, who developed several cities in Florida, was once elected our President. We respected each other, and Floridians benefited from it.
I will not take the bait regarding whether President Trump is right. I do not know, and neither do you. That’s the point. How about honestly interviewing and presenting unbiased viewpoints? Making him the enemy, making 77 million Americans the enemy, humiliating or excoriating him and them is not inclusive. My Republican friends want democracy saved as well, and some believe Democrats are the problem. I fear your mindset will not permit other such viewpoints, however.
You included many reasons why you feel the way you do. I, too, am a granddaughter of an immigrant who raised me. Of my six married grandchildren, five are married to recent immigrants from various countries. I was also a columnist for a major newspaper, with columns in five or six other fourth estate venues. My husband was a New Yorker, and we lived in the Chicago area for 10 years recently, with a daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter still living there.
We desperately need respect returned. As I wrote this, I glanced up to see a brawl break out among some National League football players. The lack of respect, sportsmanship, is so overwhelming.
Please help the Fulcrum lead the way to understanding and grace.
We invite you to read the opinions of other Fulrum Readers who accepted Hugo's invitation.
Also, check out "Is Donald Trump Right?" and consider sharing your thoughts at newsroom@fulcrum.us.
The Fulcrum will select a range of submissions to share with readers as part of our ongoing civic dialogue.
We offer this platform for discussion and debate.
An Independent Voter's Perspective on Current Political Divides
In the column, "Is Donald Trump Right?", Fulcrum Executive Editor, Hugo Balta, wrote:
For millions of Americans, President Trump’s second term isn’t a threat to democracy—it’s the fulfillment of a promise they believe was long overdue.
Is Donald Trump right?
Should the presidency serve as a force for disruption or a safeguard of preservation?
Balta invited readers to share their thoughts at newsroom@fulcrum.us.
David Levine from Portland, Oregon, shared these thoughts...
I am an independent voter who voted for Kamala Harris in the last election.
I pay very close attention to the events going on, and I try and avoid taking other people's opinions as fact, so the following writing should be looked at with that in mind:
Is Trump right? On some things, absolutely.
As to DEI, there is a strong feeling that you cannot fight racism with more racism or sexism with more sexism. Standards have to be the same across the board, and the idea that only white people can be racist is one that I think a lot of us find delusional on its face. The question is not whether we want equality in the workplace, but whether these systems are the mechanism to achieve it, despite their claims to virtue, and many of us feel they are not.
I think if the Democrats want to take back immigration as an issue then every single illegal alien no matter how they are discovered needs to be processed and sanctuary cities need to end, every single illegal alien needs to be found at that point Democrats could argue for an amnesty for those who have shown they have been Good actors for a period of time but the dynamic of simply ignoring those who break the law by coming here illegally is I think a losing issue for the Democrats, they need to bend the knee and make a deal.
I think you have to quit calling the man Hitler or a fascist because an actual fascist would simply shoot the protesters, the journalists, and anyone else who challenges him. And while he definitely has authoritarian tendencies, the Democrats are overplaying their hand using those words, and it makes them look foolish.
Most of us understand that the tariffs are a game of economic chicken, and whether it is successful or not depends on who blinks before the midterms. Still, the Democrats' continuous attacks on the man make them look disloyal to the country, not to Trump.
Referring to any group of people as marginalized is to many of us the same as referring to them as lesser, and it seems racist and insulting.
We invite you to read the opinions of other Fulrum Readers:
Trump's Policies: A Threat to Farmers and American Values
The Trump Era: A Bitter Pill for American Renewal
Federal Hill's Warning: A Baltimorean's Reflection on Leadership
Also, check out "Is Donald Trump Right?" and consider accepting Hugo's invitation to share your thoughts at newsroom@fulcrum.us.
The Fulcrum will select a range of submissions to share with readers as part of our ongoing civic dialogue.
We offer this platform for discussion and debate.