Opinion

Like the awards shows of the entertainment industry, season-ending sports competitions such as the World Series and the Super Bowl are a reflection of this country’s social and political mood. True to his experience as a business owner, entertainer, and national leader, Donald Trump made history as the first president to attend the Super Bowl, which took place in New Orleans, home state of House Speaker Mike Johnson, who shared the suite with Trump and his daughter Ivanka.

In the first of what will be many contentious confirmation processes of the new Trump administration, Pete Hegseth became the new Secretary of Defense in a wild 51-50 vote. The tie-breaking vote by Vice President JD Vance was necessary because three Republican Senators joined the 47 Democrats in voting against Hegseth. Despite this, Hegseth is in, and Jewish groups are celebrating his confirmation.

For over a year, Jewish students on American college campuses have been the subject of targeted harassment and attacks at the hands of their fellow students and faculty. This issue has been ongoing for decades, but it truly broke out into the open after October 7, when radical Jew-haters on these campuses took a cue from Hamas to enact their own scaled-down intifadas. During this time, people of conscience everywhere, both Jewish and non-Jewish, Democrat and Republican, were demanding the federal and state governments to address this growing issue. Now that President Donald Trump is back in office, those grievances are being answered.

 In the symbolic heart of Brooklyn, Grand Army Plaza, on the steps of the borough’s main public library, nearly 300 supporters of mayoral candidate Zohran Kwame Mamdani gathered this past Saturday to celebrate their canvassing and fundraising efforts.

Peter Beinart, a noted liberal Jewish journalist, recently argued in a New York Times opinion piece that the State of Israel does not, in its current form as a Jewish state, have an inherent right to exist. According to Beinart, only people have an inherent right to exist, and it is the obligation of a State to protect its populace. If it doesn’t, its right to exist is forfeited, and a new State with a more representative government should be formed in its place.

A week of a Trump presidency has more news and actions than the four years of Biden. Every moment of every day it seems like something else is occurring.  Between the military, the border, California fires, ICE deportations, pardons, and a dozen other things that Donald Trump directly addressed and indirectly affected, this difference between the country now and what it was a few weeks ago is astounding.  Trump is not only projecting strength on the world stage, he is actually using the absolute power America wields to further American interests.