Molineaux is president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization that houses The Fulcrum.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
— Margaret Med
In May 2017, I was invited by my colleague Cheryl Hughes to participate in an annual event she created for the city of Chicago called On The Table. It has since been replicated in over 30 cities across the United States. The idea was simple: Have a single day dedicated to citizens talking about what they wanted for Chicago. Cheryl's team focused on recruiting and supporting conversation hosts — those courageous individuals who would invite their friends, family, colleagues and adversaries to conversations about their collective futures.
My experience that day led me to ask, could we do this nationally? I consulted with Cheryl and she said the funding community didn't believe it was possible. It was too broad in scope. Chicago was hard enough ... and their budget had grown incrementally over their four-year history.
In October 2017, Cheryl and I (now fast friends) co-convened a group of 20 people to discuss the idea of "a national conversation" to help Americans connect with each other and reduce toxic polarization. We started with ideals and purpose: to heal the soul of America.
Those in the meeting were mostly optimists. We had experienced the heart-opening and life-uplifting power of generative conversations. We talked about a website or platform where organizations could list events, provide toolkits and generally promote the idea that talking to each other was necessary and fun. #GivingTuesday was our business model when we needed a little infrastructure but shared ownership of the content. We also recognized strong optimism and wishful thinking about our goal with little pragmatism. It was time to get real.
After lunch, I asked, why should we NOT do this? The pragmatists spoke up and the challenges were all too real and grim. Lack of funding, no media attention, lack of influence, the public's lack of interest, etc. The usual challenges to new ideas.
Next I asked, should we do it anyway? YES was the fervent response.
By the end of that meeting, we had committed to create a National Week of Conversation, which launched in April 2018. I am forever grateful for the tireless efforts of Pearce Godwin, John Gable, Caroline Klibanoff, Sandy Heierbacher, Serena Witherspoon, Cheryl Graeve, Jaymee Copenhaver and many, many others for getting us started. And to my co-creator, Cheryl Hughes, for inspiring all of us with On The Table.
By 2019, Pearce was leading the team with his # ListenFirst Coalition and dozens more organizations. Last year, the National Week of Conversation became a months-long campaign, #WeavingCommunity, meeting the extraordinary needs of 2020 with hundreds of partners.
It's almost time for the fourth annual National Week of Conversation, June 14-20, kicked off by a two-day event, America Talks, on June 12-13.
You're invited to join this national event from the comfort of your home. You're invited to help our nation move forward.
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.