Illustration by Christopher Cruz
The year 2025 has been a doozy. For many of us, it started with questions about Donald Trump’s second term. Would it be the same? Would it be worse? Would it somehow be . . . better? (That last one obviously was wishful thinking.) In the intervening year, I think readers of this magazine have settled on “worse.”
It has been a confusing blend of attributes: cruelty, administrative incompetence (but intense competence for cruelty), utter stupidity, economic precarity (but again puzzling competence at fomenting precarity), bigotry, warmongering, war-solving (?), and tariffs. To characterize it is to run out of ways to characterize it.
My initial thought about this uniquely unpleasant political concoction was that the timing for a second Trump term—leading into 2026—is, in a word, lousy. 2026 is supposed to be a banner year for the United States!
First off, multiple U.S. cities are hosting the World Cup. Cities like Boston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, and others are supposed to show off. The eyes of the world will be on this country, scrutinizing our welcoming attitude. We are expected to brim with sporty fervor, jubilant fans, and energetic settings that elevate the mood. In normal times, American cities would crush at this. As the home of foam fingers and face paint, hot dogs and kiss cams, the United States was built for the global celebration of soccer!
But now, as players come from all over the world, will Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem be conducting inexplicable immigration raids of World Cup games, as she has promised to do during the Super Bowl?
That was a baffling pronouncement, not just because of its cruelty but also its administrative wastefulness. Would most immigrants have enough disposable income to go to a Super Bowl? The cheapest tickets cost about $3,000, a price most average people can’t afford.
For the World Cup, do we want visiting footballers to be subjected to Noem’s threats? Can a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent tell the difference between a “criminal” immigrant and a goalie from Real Madrid?
What’s truly unfortunate about the timing is that 2026 marks the 250-year anniversary of our country—our semiquincentennial, if you’re being fancy. I’m a big patriotism nerd. Born to parents who chose this country as immigrants, I don’t take for granted what their cross-continental move has given me. I can speak, do my stand-up comedy, heck, write in these very pages with a freedom that my cousins in Iran can only dream about. Iranians who have dreamed, who have stood up, who have moderately approached this kind of speech have been detained, tortured, or killed. Telling a joke for me is no joke. It is a fundamental right that I hold dear.
That’s not all I hold dear. I love the voting! I love knowing that my vote gets counted and elections aren’t rigged. I love that Americans waltz into the voting booth like it’s normal, because it should be! But in so many places around the world, it’s not the norm. I especially love Election Day stickers.
Celebrating our milestones as a country is important, a reminder that our country is special and that our rights are outstanding. We have traveled a long, long road to make them essential to the American firmament.
But celebrating our 250 under Trump? A man who seems hell-bent on altering—if not destroying—the very thing my parents chose this country for? Celebrating under those circumstances feels . . . tough.
And yet, we need to commit to this celebration as another act of resistance. In fact, I recently did a democracy series in Philadelphia for TED Talks called “The Great Experiment,” and in one episode we discussed how long it took to merely get a plurality of Americans eligible to vote. It was a gargantuan effort that spanned decades (and centuries). And yet, we didn’t give up. We didn’t get annoyed about how incremental change is. We stuck to it, we celebrated our victories, and eventually suffrage expanded.
We are not just built for celebrating sports; we’re built for effort. There are no quick fixes here; there is no app for democracy. It requires time, energy, and commitment, and, as Americans, we know exactly how to do it. We’ve been doing it for 250 years.
