Daniel Schuman is the policy director at Demand Progress, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on issues related to civil liberties, civil rights and government reform.
What's the tweet-length description of your organization?
Demand Progress is a progressive nonprofit focused on building a modern democracy. Our 2.5 million members are dedicated to fixing Congress, protecting our civil liberties, rooting out corruption, ensuring the ability to communicate freely online, and addressing undue corporate power.
Describe your very first civic engagement.
Accompanying my parents to vote.
What was your biggest professional triumph?
For years and years and years we had been pushing Congress — and the Library of Congress specifically — to publish the data behind its antiquated legislative information system, THOMAS. Library top management had successfully opposed these efforts and Congress was indifferent, but slowly we built up a constituency inside the legislative branch and we were about to have an amendment offered on the floor that likely would have succeeded. Suddenly, a deal was cut to avoid a scene and a task force was formed instead, with the idea that our proposal would go there to die. Instead, the task force brought together people from all across the legislative branch who not only realized the usefulness of this idea and endorsed it, but have continued to meet on a regular basis and push forward many reforms. We had aimed for a policy change and instead created a mechanism that changed the culture.
And your most disappointing setback?
I've watched my fair share of legislation make it to the finish line only to die or stall for unbelievable reasons. This is not uncommon — and there's always next Congress.
How does your identity influence the way you go about your work?
It gives me unfair credibility to advance my issues and I use it to push to make Congress more open and inclusive.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
Everyone likes to be praised and no one likes to be criticized. Both are important.
Create a new flavor for Ben & Jerry's.
Berry Toasted (strawberries and champagne).
West Wing or Veep?
Yes, Minister.
What's the last thing you do on your phone at night?
Push 'Ignore' when it warns me it's time to turn it off.
What is your deepest, darkest secret?
I've never been to the top of the Capitol, but always have wanted to go.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."