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Winners & Losers: A Trump Three-Peat

You know he's earned it. But you're going to want to learn more about our Winner, Kittie Knox.

Sam Osterhout's avatar
Sam Osterhout
Jun 30, 2026
∙ Paid

This week, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation, and there couldn’t be less enthusiasm.

But there should be. We’re in a rough spot right now. There’s no getting around that. But no matter what happens to the United States, time will continue its march forward, nature will run through its endless incredible cycles, and the universe will continue to speed into oblivion.

Rather than a birthday, this year feels like a wake. Of course, we mourn the loss of things and people we love. That would be an apt way to describe the way most of us feel heading into this American holiday: mourning.

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But it’s not exactly right. Like the universe and nature and time itself, we will continue. We might be changed. But we will go on.

I watch my kids growing up, little by little and sometimes all at once, and I understand just how we’ll go on. America is not dying. We’re not mourning the loss of something. If anything, we’re mourning the loss of what might have been.

But that’s also wrong. We don’t know what might have been, and now we have an opportunity — I’d say a responsibility — to build something better.

These past weeks I’ve been focusing less on what we’ve gotten wrong, and more on what America has done right. The Winners these past weeks have been a little more historical than usual. This week is no different.

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