Lorraine Ali: In an age of cowardly leaders, we're holding out for a hero. Spider-Man to the rescue!

Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times on Aug 24, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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President Donald Trump on Monday held a meeting at the White House to celebrate the heroic action of 16-year-old lifeguard Ryder Williams, who saved the life of 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai when the boy was swept off his feet along the Santa Cruz coast. A video of the rescue went viral.

“He’s a real hero. I don’t know if I’d do it. I wouldn’t, probably,” Trump said of Williams. He then addressed the boy, “You’re lucky I wasn’t on the service that day.”

Trump’s cowardice was on full display, as it had been a week earlier when reports surfaced of a flight he was meant to take out of Turkey after a NATO meeting in July. The military received intel of a possible assassination attempt by Iran, so the president secretly disembarked from Air Force One, hid in an airport catering container with aide Natalie Harp, and was whisked away to another jet waiting on the tarmac.

But somewhere in all the chaos, Trump managed to post on Truth Social that he was flying out of Turkey on Air Force One — the possibly targeted plane he had left behind with press and members of his administration still on board. The president sent the decoy plane into the air with everyone inside.

With leaders like this, is it any wonder that the public still has an insatiable appetite for superheroes? They are selfless protectors (yes, even Deadpool) who put themselves on the line to save others. Even as many of the films and TV series anchored by Marvel or DC characters cease to be original, creative or even good, the mad love persists for Iron Man, Batman, Wonder Woman and other masked, gaudily costumed heroes.

Case in point: “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” just smashed domestic records with a $360-million debut in North America, crossing the $800-million mark faster than any movie, ever. Peter Parker is, after all, the most relatable out of a group that includes the Hulk and Ant-Man.

But it’s also nice to believe there’s someone out there who has your back, someone in charge who’s looking out for your well-being — even if they’re nowhere close to real and shoot webs from their wrists or suddenly expand when they’re angry or, conversely, shrink down to the size of an ant.

Trump, by his own admission, is more Barney Fife than Peter Parker. His actions hardly fit the tough-guy image that MAGA Washington likes to portray. And he’s not alone.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes every chance he can to post clips of himself working out, with a rap-rock soundtrack and all. His fitness challenges with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are a show of strength, but only a show.

RFK Jr. didn’t appear all that manly when he left behind his wife, Cheryl Hines, during a rapid evacuation from the Washington Correspondents’ Dinner in April. Gunfire broke out at the Washington Hilton during the annual dinner after a suspect breached a security checkpoint. Viral clips showed RFK Jr. being quickly escorted away by protection officers, leaving Hines behind. She struggled in her heels to keep up. The clip was reshared with the awkward theme music from “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the HBO comedy in which Hines played Larry David’s long-suffering wife.

Other acts of cowardice by elected leaders include Sen. Ted Cruz seen at the airport leaving Texas for a vacation in Cancún, Mexico, as a catastrophic winter storm descended on the region. The deadly weather front in February of 2021 meant multiple deaths, massive power grid failures, freezing temperatures and water shortages for millions of Texans. He cut his trip short but not before sparking public outrage for leaving during a time of crisis.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was shown on security footage sprinting through a Capitol hallway to evacuate during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. It would have been a normal reaction to such horrifying, violent circumstances if hours earlier he hadn’t been filmed raising his fist in solidarity with the very protesters who later breached the building.

Thor would have dared the rioters to come closer, then kicked their collective butts.

There are no superheroes to make up for the lily-livered words and actions of our leaders, but thankfully there are actual heroes, like the teen lifeguard Ryder Williams, and the fantasy of Spider-Man to get us through.

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