Molineaux is the lead catalyst for American Future, a research project that discovers what Americans prefer for their personal future lives. The research informs community planners with grassroots community preferences. Previously, Molineaux was the president/CEO of The Bridge Alliance.
Whenever we or our loved ones are harmed, it is our human tendency to seek vengeance. Violence begets violence. Violent words lead to violent actions, as we’ve witnessed in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The violence of the gunman is his alone.
Our response to violence is about us.
I confess that when I first heard the news, I experienced two seconds of satisfaction that Trump, the man who has used violent rhetoric, was reaping what he sowed. The next moment brought up dread that more violence would follow, blame would be cast upon President Joe Biden.
My third thought was more measured and reflective. What was my role in the increasing levels of societal violence? Others will quote polls about our willingness to use violence to achieve political aims. Others will quote statistics about gun access and gun violence. These statistics are conceptual tools to measure what individuals think about and care about most. Being statistics, most of us will exclude ourselves from the findings. We believe we are better than what the statistics show.
We should take a second look. What do we have the power to change? That would be ourselves.
We can let go of our initial responses to hearing the news about the attempted assassination, letting these thoughts pass through our system without attaching any meaning. They are our unfiltered and unconsidered thoughts. We can choose a more reasoned and humane thought that is actionable. Thoughts like:
- How am I increasingly open to violence?
- What have I posted on social media lately?
- How am I speaking with my friends who are deeply committed to their candidate?
Our self-image may be peace, diplomacy and compassion. We may have the self-image of a warrior, protecting others. We may consider ourselves “above the fray.” There are endless self-images we adopt.
Regardless of our chosen or unconscious self-image, we can practice acts of kindness towards others. It is a step towards non-violence that doesn’t threaten our self-image as peaceful people. It calls us towards more peaceful action. Kindness pulls us toward each other, as citizens.
When we squabble and fight amongst ourselves, we grow mean and harden our hearts to each other. Our tone grows sharp and biting. In these moments of stress, we are not peaceful or diplomatic or compassionate or protective or above the fray. We are RIGHT and they are WRONG.
This self-righteous response is low-level emotional violence. If allowed to remain, it will root deeply and present itself as arrogance and condescension towards others. Justified in violent words. If it grows, actions may follow.
Violence is a response to feeling powerless. During our never-ending campaigns, we citizens are told we have power, at the same time the campaign experts and PACs seek to manipulate us to do their bidding. Vote for “our chosen” candidate or don’t vote at all. Tactics of demoralization or obstacle building are rampant. So are get-out-the-vote efforts to overcome dissuasion tactics. We never quite know if what we think are our own thoughts. And we could never admit to being influenced by the campaigns at all, so these efforts go unaddressed.
Add in conflict profiteers, whose business is based on self-righteousness (they and their listeners are RIGHT!) with permission for violent rhetoric and it is inevitable that violent acts will follow. People who listen to conflict profiteers, be they mainstream media or YouTubers, slowly brainwash themselves into violence as acceptable action. Conflict profiteers are banking on us losing sight of our shared humanity.
Let us begin anew on a peaceful path. Commit to rooting out violence from yourself. It’s the only place to start.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.