America is in the midst of a crisis of character with an assault on our shared values. Our nation’s leader is attacking our very Constitution as well as encouraging each of us to view each other as enemies.
America’s Founding Fathers recognized the trouble this could be for the success of our national experiment.
Going back to the beginning, in his first inaugural address, our first president, George Washington, understood the need for unity and that he served the people of this new nation. He described the “indissoluble union” between virtue and happiness, stating that a nation's prosperity depended on adhering to a set of principles.
In his first address to the nation, Washington shared: “In these honorable qualifications, I behold the surest pledges, that as on one side, no local prejudices, or attachments; no separate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great Assemblage of communities and interests: so, on another, that the foundations of our national policy, will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; and the pre-eminence of free Government, be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its Citizens, and command the respect of the world.”
There have been 45 different presidents since the office was established in 1789 with Washington; what we are now witnessing when it comes to “immutable principles of private morality” from Washington's 44th successor is horrendous.
President Donald Trump’s character has been in question since he entered public life, with plenty of examples to point to of his crassness or cruelty. We all saw him make fun of the New York Times reporter with a disability. We heard him bragging that he could grab women by their private parts, as well as disparaging our war heroes.
But what makes this period more dangerous is the fact that Trump is using the full force of the executive branch and the bully pulpit to seek retribution and enact an agenda based on cruelty.
Here are just a few examples, in no particular order, of Trump’s actions or rhetoric in just the last couple of months:
Trump told mourners at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them.”
During a Fox News interview, following the assassination of Kirk, Trump said that he “couldn't care less” about unifying the country.
While speaking at an Oval Office press conference on autism, Trump blamed mothers for their child’s autism and told women that they need to “tough it out.”
At the United Nations General Assembly, Trump told world leaders that their “countries are going to hell” if they do not follow his policies.
During an address to the U. S’s top generals and admirals, Trump suggested troops use cities as military “training grounds” and that “That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.”
Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors, was moved to a minimum-security facility shortly after meeting with Deputy Attorney General and former personal attorney to Trump, Todd Blanche.
Detaining U.S. citizens without due process, as well as sending immigrants to foreign gulags or countries outside their country of origin.
Trump directed the Department of Justice to pursue his perceived political enemies, like former FBI Director James Comey, as well as others, via a Truth Social post to “Pam” (Attorney General Pam Bondi).
Just a short time after meeting in the White House to discuss the government shutdown, Trump shared an AI-generated video on social media, depicting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero and a mustache.
Every American should be asking themselves, do Trump’s ideals and actions, like some of the ones mentioned above, align with the core of our founding and those fundamental mores that
Washington encouraged all of us, but especially the President, to uphold.
Since voters do not generally vote on character and instead on things that matter more to them, like the cost of eggs or safety in their communities, we are left to confront the issue of shared values at a societal level, while at the same time holding our political parties responsible for not acting as guardrails.
Please make no mistake, the blame for the unbelievable fall from grace lies with the President of the United States and the Republican members of Congress who have abdicated their power to provide a check or to legislate.
However, the Democrats are not without fault in this regard. The Democratic Party appears unable to step up to meet this moment, as evidenced by its failure to recognize the threat and put forward a strong 2024 presidential nominee.
What Americans are living through now is not about left versus right, Democrats versus Republicans, or even liberal versus conservative—it is rejecting what is in front of us and recommitting to the values that we, as Americans, believe in and have based this fragile experiment upon.
Lynn Schmidt is a columnist and Editorial Board member with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She holds a master's of science in political science as well as a bachelor's of science in nursing.
Americans across the political spectrum have continued to ask about the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s connections among the political elite. (Angela Weiss/AFP)
A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.
Only Trump doesn’t care about housing
It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.
It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.
In that speech, Trump promised, “We’re going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.”
As of mid-2023, there had been a housing shortage of nearly four million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Americans all over the country were either priced out of buying new homes due to low inventory, trapped in their existing homes by sky-high mortgage rates, or facing exorbitant rent hikes thanks to corporate investors buying up rental properties. Americans needed help, and Trump promised it.
Cut to March of 2026, when Trump reportedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “No one gives a sh*t about housing.”
That kind of thinking may explain why Trump this week suddenly announced he was canceling a signing ceremony for the bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a housing bill co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott that passed the House 358-32 and was approved in the Senate on Monday.
Trump instead demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act, his controversial election grievance bill that doesn’t have enough Republican support to get passed in the Senate.
It’s just the latest in a line of policy self-owns where Trump has seemingly intentionally made life more difficult for Republicans hoping to keep their majority. Despite midterm elections occurring in the midst of a blistering economy and an unpopular war, they were surely hoping the housing bill would give them something — anything — to brag about when they returned home to their districts.
And very much to the contrary, Americans do give a sh*t about housing. According to a recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a whopping 79% say the cost of housing is extremely or very important to them. Eighty-three percent say Congress should take action on the issue — like it just did. Eighty-nine percent say the House and Senate need to work together to pass affordable housing legislation — like they just did. And 63% say they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker if they helped pass legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs — like they just did.
There aren’t many issues that unite Americans like housing does, and very few bipartisan policy wins Congress can point to, and yet, Trump is holding that bill hostage in order to get his pet project — which doesn’t even have the support of his own party — pushed through.
If you’re trying to make sense of something so nonsensical, as I’m sure many Republican lawmakers are, it’s certainly sad but not actually all that complicated. Trump said what he needed to get reelected and then promptly abandoned his promises in order to pursue his own self-interests, even if those interests are bad for Republicans and bad for voters.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.