Internships on Capitol Hill have long been viewed as the province of the rich, or at least those who could afford to spend a semester or summer without getting paid. A nonprofit civic education group took the lead in changing that with a paid internship program started three years ago, and this summer Congress itself is doing more to pay for its collegiate help than ever before.
Paying more interns is seen as a small but serious step toward improving how Congress functions, because there's a strong expectation the place will work better if it's staffed by a more economically as well as ethnically broad-based group of people.
College to Congress aims to bring more diversity to the intern pool by giving low-income students opportunities to work for members of both parties. The 18 students chosen for this summer have all their expenses related to housing, travel, food and professional clothing paid for—more than $26,000 each.
The new investment by the taxpayers is not as generous. Last fall Congress agreed to spend $14 million on paid internships. Each House member has been given $20,000 for that purpose. Senate funding differs depending on the size of each senator's state, but the average allotment is closer to $50,000.
The money will guarantee a boost in young people who can get by on the Hill for a few months without trolling receptions for free food or hoping their parents will come through with some help. Two years ago, only 8 percent of House Republicans and 4 percent of House Democrats paid their interns, the advocacy group Pay Our Interns estimates. In the Senate, it was 51 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of Democrats.
The same report pegged at $6,000 the average cost for someone to live and work in Washington during an internship.
These are the College to Congress interns and their placements:
- Ana Aldazabal of La Habra, Calif. and California State University at Fullerton is with Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif.
- Onyx Brunner of Chicago and Yale is with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.
- Joshua Cardenas of San Francisco and Wesleyan is with Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
- Abigail Christopher of Brick, N.J. and University of Delaware is with the GOP staff of the Education and Labor Committee.
- MyChale Cooper of Tuscaloosa, Ala. and University of Alabama is with Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala.
- Kendall Criswell of Tuscaloosa, Ala. and University of Montevallo is with Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y.
- Matthew Garza of Weslaco, Texas and Colby College is with Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del.
- Bridger Jimenez of Long Beach, Calif. and California State University at Dominguez Hills is with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
- Jalen Johnson of Albany, Ga. and University of West Georgia is with Sen. Sonny Perdue, R-Ga.
- Alyssa Kurke of Glassboro, N.J. and American University is with Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H.
- Reecha Patel of Bartonville, Pa. and Lehigh University is with Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa.
- Khymaya Perkins of Detroit and Dartmouth is with the House Democratic Caucus.
- Madison Piel of Marlborough, Conn. and Assumption College is with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark.
- Marissa Reyes of Prosser, Wash. and Barnard College is with the Senate Democratic Diversity Initiative.
- Ryan Schiesser of Franklin Furnace, Ohio and Shawnee State University is with the GOP staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
- Tyler Swartzell of Fargo, N.D. and The College of William & Mary is with Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
- Jasmine Teeny of Troutdale, Ore. and Biola University is with the GOP staff for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
- Justin Walker of Lexington, S.C. and University of South Carolina is with Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa.
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.