This year’s Oscar winners had what Donald Trump and hubristic AI executives desperately need more of

A few presenters at this year’s Oscars made jokes at Donald Trump’s expense, without ever mentioning him by name. The real rebuke to the president, however—and to some other aspects of our current moment—came from genuine displays of humility in the winners’ speeches. Although an actor’s livelihood literally depends on faking emotions, most of last night’s winners appeared truly humbled by their victory, and grateful to those who helped them achieve it. Taken together over the 3.5-hour broadcast, they created a perfect contrast to a government and tech sector whose gauche displays of dominance feel as unwelcome as they are unearned. Trump’s grotesquely narcissistic self-regard may have been more jarring back when he first became president. He seemed to embody every quality that parents tend to dissuade their children from adopting—constantly boasting about his own qualities and accomplishments, real or imagined. In 2026, the consequences and limits of his notorious, self-aggrandizing v