The Dictatorship

How these 5 key questions could define American politics in 2025

Published

2 years ago

January 1, 2025

How these 5 key questions could define American politics in 2025

Between the demise of Joe Biden’s presidencythe assassination attempts on Donald Trump and November’s stunning results in the presidential election2024 was a wild year for political news. I’m not sure that 2025 will be much calmer. In fact, our political system could experience one shock after another, as Trump and his administration try to remake American government and conflict continues to roil the world.

How will Washington respond? What will the effect on our lives be?

I don’t really like to make predictions — that’s what fortunetellers are for. But since journalism is about asking the right questions, I’m sharing the five that are top of mind for me as we head into the new year.

1. Are the Republicans interested in governing?

They have 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They have Capitol Hill. They have the Supreme Court. Now what? Getting what you want is always dangerous in politics — it’s always easiest to blame the other side for your own shortcomings, but if the other side is in the minority, as the Democrats are in Washington, that becomes harder to do.

Our political system could experience one shock after another, as Trump tries to remake American government and conflict continues to roil the world.

Now, it’s all on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.; House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; and their reluctant ally in the White House, President-elect Donald Trump. If prices continue to rise, voters will make the GOP own inflation. If undocumented migrants keep coming across the border with Mexico, the GOP will own that explosive issue, too. The recent fight over government spendingwith Trump moving to spike a deal congressional Republicans had crafted, is probably an unwelcome preview of things to come.

Then there’s Elon Musk’s emergence as a political powerhouse. It was he who first objected to the spending deal, with Trump following his lead. Then, he promptly got into a fight about immigration, leading to a MAGA mini-civil war between hard-core isolationists and those, like Musk, who want to continue recruiting skilled immigrants to the United States. It has all been very messy, and very public.

Of course, the two parties could work together, agreeing to share responsibility without trying to constantly shift blame. But this is Washington we’re talking about.

Expect inaction followed by finger-pointing at shadowy “woke” forces, with frequent gusts of incompetence. And lots and lots of Elon X posts.

2. Which of his promises will Trump keep?

Implicit in Trump’s pitch to voters was a return to how things were before the coronavirus pandemic: a strong economy at home, no new entanglements abroad. But the “before times” were not quite as rosy as some of the president-elect’s supporters want you to believe. And time travel is never a good political strategy.

Did the migrant crisis get worse under Biden? Yes, but now it’s Trump’s problem, one that he has promised to solve. He’s also going to end the wars in Middle East and Eastern Europe — or so he says. Look out, inflation. Watch out, China. You’ve been put on noticegovernment bureaucrats.

Trump has been more disciplined during this transition than he was eight years ago, when the lobby of Trump Tower became a marble-clad circus. That’s a good sign, but for Trump to actually carry out his promises will require a level of focused multitasking and responsibility-delegating his first administration never really showed.

3. Who will emerge as the Democrats’ leader?

Everyone recognizes that, after November’s defeats, a new approach is necessary: to policy, to messaging, to Trump himself. But nobody has stepped up, thus far, to show the rest of the party how to manage those imperatives in a compelling way.

Sorry, folks, but it won’t be Vice President Kamala Harris, despite what her aides are whispering to reporters. She will always have her supporters, but there are simply not enough of them to convince other Democrats that she should be the party’s unofficial leader as it prepares to battle Trump for a second time.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, has shown an ability to keep his conference in line but does not yet have a national profile — and may, in fact, prefer a lower-key approach from that of his predecessor and mentor, Nancy Pelosi.

Sorry, folks, but it won’t be Vice President Kamala Harris, despite what her aides are whispering to reporters.

That leaves governors like Wes Moore of Maryland, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Maura Healey of Massachusetts as potential contenders. They have a tricky road ahead. The appetite for a full-on anti-Trump resistance is low, but nobody wants to be seen as a quisling, especially when it comes to issues like migrant deportations.

I happen to be extremely bearish on Pete Buttigieg, the outgoing transportation secretary, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. I said I wouldn’t make predictions, but here’s one: Both Mayor Pete and Big Gretch are going to suffer DeSantis-style devaluations.

Then there’s John Fetterman, the iconoclastic junior senator from Pennsylvania who has broken with his party on Israel and immigration. Will he continue to rise by bucking liberals? Is he serious about working with the Trump administration? And would he wear shorts and a hoodie to his own inauguration?

Oh, and never count out AOC.

4. What will the courts do?

We tend to focus on the Supreme Court, given how hugely consequential its decisions are. But while it receives thousands of petitions, the Supreme Court reviews only about 100 cases per year. That means the vast majority of federal cases will remain in lower district and circuit courts.

During his term in office, Biden appointed 235 federal judges — just one more than Trump. That means that many courthouses are now sharply divided, so that even the famously liberal 9th Circuit isn’t quite what it used to be. Then there is the whole other matter of state courts, which are also becoming increasingly conservative.

All that will make the fight against Trump much more difficult for liberal attorneys general and progressive interest groups who want to stop the incoming administration from rolling back environmental rules and protections for trans people.

5. Will wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East end?

Whatever your own views on geopolitics, the images and stories that have emerged from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s campaign against Hamas have been heartbreaking: flattened cities, maimed children, prisoners and hostages tortured.

If you want to be hailed as a peace-brokering dealmaker for the history books, you’d better move quickly.

At this point, it’s difficult to see either conflict ending soon, even with Trump’s unpredictable, unconventional involvement. Then again, maybe his unorthodox approach is exactly what other world leaders need to accelerate their push for peace.

Do it quickly, Mr. President-elect, and there could be a Nobel Peace Prize in it for you. Just imagine showing off that medal to guests at Mar-a-Lago. But if you want to be hailed as a peace-brokering dealmaker for the history books, you’d better move quickly.

And, of course, there’s the unexpected — the unknown unknowns, to borrow from Donald Rumsfeld. But we can’t worry about those. American democracy still stands, the New York Mets have Juan Sotoand “Happy Gilmore 2” is coming soon. Not bad, by my count. Not bad at all.

Alexander Nazaryan

Alexander Nazaryan writes about politics, culture and science.

The Dictatorship

Trump Media to sell Wall Street access to market-moving Truth Social posts

Published

19 hours ago

July 17, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump Media to sell Wall Street access to market-moving Truth Social posts

Christmas. 17, 2026, 12:57 PM EDT

Trump Media & Technology Groupa company owned by President Donald Trump, is offering Wall Street firms access to a new speciality service that rapidly delivers and curates market-moving posts from the president’s preferred social media platform.

Truth Social, which launched in 2022, has become the platform where the president offers high-impact statements and announces major decisions. Among those statements, Trump has frequently unveiled changes to U.S. tariff policy; discussed meetings with world leaders, like Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin; and, in recent months, provided updates on the ongoing war with Iran.

The service, announced Thursday, has been dubbed “Truth API.” An API, or application programming interface, allows software applications to communicate with each other.

“Markets already move on Truth Social posts,” said Kevin McGurn, interim chief executive offer of TMTGin a statement. “As adoption grows, we expect Truth API to become a meaningful, ongoing source of revenue for the company, creating lasting value for shareholders.”

Trump is the majority stakeholder of Trump Media, which positions him to profit from the company’s new revenue stream. The White House has said that while he is in office, Trump’s assets are held in a trust that is managed by his children.

While the company says the new service will include posts from high-ranking accounts, Truth Social is mostly an echo chamber for the president, his allies and his supporters. Aside from Trump’s own profile, other accounts rarely produce impactful news or information. That raises questions about whether the president will weigh how the service could benefit him financially when he posts on the platform.

The White House and TMTG did not respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment.

Wall Street investors already rely on other applications to provide real-time data and market-moving information to react quickly and integrate data from Truth Social and other social media platforms.

It’s unclear how Truth API will differ from existing services or how much the company plans to charge for the service. TMTG said it would rely on “industry-standard delivery methods” to deliver Truth Social posts to customers “in milliseconds.”

According to the company, clients have already signed up ahead of the service’s launch, which is slated for as soon as August. 1.

The stock market often reacts to Trump’s posts, even when the content later proves to be inaccurate, misleading or states something that ultimately does not come to fruition.

For example, Trump posted in April that Iran had agreed to “fully” reopen the Strait of Hormuz shortly before U.S. markets opened. Minutes later, he said a U.S. naval blockade would remain in place.

The president also vowed on the platform to increase tariffs on countries to 15% after a Supreme Court decision struck down his use of widespread tariffs. However, the tariff rate has remained at 10%, and it’s unclear if or when it might be raised.

Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.

The Dictatorship

Mullin threatens to penalize states that do not cooperate with DHS on election security

Published

19 hours ago

July 17, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Mullin threatens to penalize states that do not cooperate with DHS on election security

Christmas. 17, 2026, 12:50 PM EDT

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday that his department will penalize states that do not cooperate with the federal government to “secure our elections” ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Announcing in a news conference what he called a new Department of Homeland Security program to safeguard U.S. elections, Mullin said states that refuse to participate may be deprived of federal funds and resources to run their elections. State election officials may also be personally held accountable by fines, penalties and potential prison time, he warned.

“Working with [Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick]we are going to make our security enhancements mandatory, meaning that if these states want a grant and they want to be reimbursed to work or to run federal elections, they’re going to have to implement security issues,” he said.

Mullin said that states will have to “look at who voted in their states” and that if their election officials do not adhere to federal directions on security measures, “then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time.”

If states do not hand over voter roles to federal officials, Mullin said, the government will scour public records of voters.

“You must be a U.S. citizen, and you must be eligible to vote before and after the election,” he said. “We will scrub all election records,” looking for noncitizen voters and others ineligible to vote, including votes linked to deceased people.

“We will go through those records one by one, and we will pursue everybody,” he said.

He threatened to prosecute noncitizens for voting, which is illegal and a highly rare occurrence. An analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center of Elections between 1999 and 2023 found only 77 instances of noncitizen votingeach of which was investigated by the authorities.

“If you’re illegal and attempted to vote, or you tried to vote illegally for someone else, we will find you, and we will charge you,” Mullin warned.

According to Mullin, DHS found hundreds of thousands of noncitizens who are registered to vote in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania, without presenting a breakdown of the data or explaining the department’s investigative process.

Mullin’s remarks follow President Donald Trump’s primetime speech on Thursday night, during which he again promoted conspiracy theories about his 2020 election loss and pushed for more voting restrictions.

DHS’ involvement in the campaign is a preview of what is shaping up to be a whole-of-government approach that could instill uncertainty in America’s election security ahead of the November midterms and impose stricter laws that civil rights advocates say will burden voters.

In his Thursday night speech, Trump repeated falsehoods about the 2020 election, saying it had been “rigged and stolen.” He accused China of buying and stealing tens of millions of voter data files and said Venezuela was capable of manipulating elections.

Declassified intelligence released by the White House that intended to prove his claims instead undermined it. Afterward, several Trump officials — including current and former intelligence and administration officials — told MS NOW that no U.S. intelligence exists showing that any foreign country influenced the outcome of the 2020 election

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Julia Jester and Brian Bennett contributed reporting.

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

The Dictatorship

The average American is paying the price for Trump’s corruption

Published

19 hours ago

July 17, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A federal judge this week rightly rebuked President Donald Trump’soutrageous $10 billion lawsuit against his own countrywhich originally ended in a bogus settlement that would have created a $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund for his allies and would have granted him and his family sweeping immunity from IRS audits. In ruling that Trump manipulated the judicial process for his own benefit, the judge reinforced what many Americans had concluded long ago: Trump has transformed the presidency into one giant grift.

Trump’s shameless attempts to cash in on the U.S. presidency are why I have introduced legislation to establish basic safeguards that should apply to every president, regardless of party. My proposals would require presidents to place their assets in blind trusts and prohibit sitting presidents from owning or trading individual stocks. I have fought to prevent presidents from receiving blanket immunity from federal tax law, and I have introduced a constitutional amendment that would let Congress review the most egregious abuses of the presidential pardon power.

Trump has transformed the presidency into one giant grift.

Most of these proposals have been flatly rejected by the Republican-controlled Rules Committee along party lines. My constitutional amendment has gained the support of one lone Republican, Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who’s retiring.

But these aren’t partisan ideas. Nor are they radical. They’re commonsense protections rooted in a simple principle: Public office exists to serve the public — not enrich the officeholder.

Because corruption isn’t just unethical. It’s also expensive.

Americans know what it feels like paying more for groceries, gas, housing, healthcare and energy. Families are stretching every paycheck and making impossible decisions about what they can afford. At the same time, Trump and his family are becoming wealthier — obscenely so.

According to newly released financial disclosuresTrump’s personal fortune grew by roughly $2 billion last year. From cryptocurrency ventures and foreign business deals to stock trades involving companies affected by government policy, the Trump family is amassing wealth because he’s president.

Take cryptocurrency.

Trump’s own financial disclosures showhe and members of his family made $1.2 billion through a network of cryptocurrency ventures last year. At the same time, his administration aggressively rolled back regulations and championed a crypto-friendly agenda that directly benefits those investments.

Those ventures have also attracted foreign investors seeking influence with the administration — including Binance founder Changpeng Zhaowhom Trump later pardoned for a federal money-laundering conviction.

In fact, an entire pardon-shopping industry has sprouted up around the president, with lobbyists reportedly charging as much as $1 million to seek clemency from the White House.

Those pardons have erased more than $1 billion in fines and restitution owed by duly convicted defendants. That money was intended to compensate victims and repay taxpayers. Instead, it disappeared with the stroke of Trump’s pen.

Those pardons have erased more than $1 billion in fines and restitution owed by duly convicted defendants.

Then there is the president’s personal stock trading.

Trump’s financial disclosures show him making an average of 80 stock trades a dayoften involving companies with business before the federal government.

He purchased substantial holdings in Palantir, a major federal software contractor, and then publicly promoted the company on social media. He bought shares of Nvidia a week before his administration approved the sale of advanced microchips to China, a market the company’s CEO has said could ultimately generate $50 billion annually.

Trump made more than 300 previously undisclosed stock purchases just one day before unexpectedly announcing that he would pause many of his import tariffs.

When the president can trade stocks and simultaneously move markets through official government actions, Americans have every reason to question whether public policy is serving the country or his personal investment portfolio.

When Trump isn’t enriching himself, he appears to be ensuring that family members and political allies benefit too.

One of his Mar-a-Lago neighbors — and a major political donor — received a no-bid contract to remediate algae in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Donald Trump Jr. holds a multimillion-dollar stake in a drone manufacturer that recently secured a major Pentagon contract.

Different schemes. Same basic story.

Every taxpayer dollar diverted through favoritism, every contract awarded based on political connections and every market distorted by self-dealing carries a cost to the taxpayers.

It means fewer resources to lower housing costs, strengthen public schools, improve infrastructure, expand healthcare and help working families make ends meet.

Different schemes. Same basic story.

The government should work for the American people, not for whichever politician occupies the Oval Office.

That’s why the reforms I have introduced matter.

Reforms that are not about one individual, but instead about restoring public trust in our democracy and ensuring that no future president — Republican or Democrat — can use public office as a personal profit center.

Corruption isn’t just immoral. It isn’t just illegal.

It’s expensive.

And American families are paying the price.

Rep. Johnny “Johnny O” Olszewski Jr. represents Maryland’s 2nd congressional district, which includes major portions of Baltimore County, Carroll County and parts of Baltimore City.