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In hindsight, this was a bad month to take a break from the podcast.
With an invasion of Venezuela (because let’s just call it what it is), the threat to annex Greenland “the hard way” if necessary, and an imminent response to Iran’s killing of thousands of protesters, it seems Trump 2.0 has kicked into another gear. With absolutely no signs of things calming within the White House, we should all buckle ourselves in for a rough ride.
So, ahead of our proper launch next week, I wanted to run through some of the things I predict will be the biggest talking points throughout 2026.
Firstly, and rather obviously, the road to 2028 will officially begin. The midterms are always a pivot moment in the election cycle, and November 2026 will be both parties’ opportunity to take stock of the midterm results and get the ball rolling on the Presidential election, but murmurs of potential candidates on both sides of the aisle are always getting louder.
Let’s put aside the possibility that Trump might engineer some way to stay in power, which I personally believe will face more opposition from his own party than any other batshit thing he tries to do, not least because if there’s one thing a politician will fight to the death for, it’s their own political ambition. Trump 3.0 and beyond would certainly spell the end of any presidential ambitions for Vance and Rubio who, at the moment, are touted as the frontrunners for the GOP nomination.
But let’s not dismiss fringe characters like Marjorie Taylor Greene and even RFK, whose involvements in a candidacy race would not be inconsequential. If I had to put money on the republican nomination right now, I’d probably get good odds for a Vance-Kirk ticket… and I don’t think that’s as crazy as it sounds.
Then of course there’s the democrats, who are riding high from Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in NYC, even though he is constitutionally ineligible to follow that momentum through to a Presidential bid. Not to mention there are still many pockets within the Democratic party who remain far too centrist to throw support behind Mamdani, Sanders, or AOC. Whether that’s the right choice I’m certainly not qualified to determine, but it certainly seemed like their desperation to please everyone is ultimately what cost Harris the 2024 election.
If Trump has proven anything, it’s how to impassion a minority with such fervor that you can win an election without winning the popular vote, and I suspect if Democrats want to derail the MAGA train, they need to be less sensitive to critics and embrace the left a bit more.
Whatever happens over the next three years, this is where the next election will start to take shape, and there will be many twist and turns on the road to 2028.
Next up, we’ve heard about it incessantly over the past couple of weeks, and unfortunately I don’t think The Donroe Doctrine is going anywhere.
It became frighteningly clear to us all since the publication of Trump’s national security strategy, just how strongly he feels about America’s guardianship of the western hemisphere. He has since followed through in Venezuela, will imminently act against Iran, and is working out how to take Greenland and, in the process, dismantle NATO and isolate the US from the rest of Europe. This from a guy who has already bombed seven different countries and still seems aggrieved that Nobel aren’t begging him to accept the peace prize.
Anyway, this is a year when global political tensions are already at their most strained since the second world war, and will continue to be tested throughout 2026. Right now, only Trump really knows how the US will respond to any of this, so it’s up to all of us to ensure his actions are met with appropriate challenge and scrutiny, be it through this little newsletter, academic debate, or any other platform we have to voice our concerns, because, right now, having a voice is a luxury we should not take for granted.
On a much lighter note, I think Artemis will become a major talking point this year, particularly if their mission to orbit the moon is successful, as it lays the groundwork for a future manned landing on the moon, the likes of which we have not seen for over 50 years, and amidst all the doom and gloom in our world right now, organisations like NASA give me hope.
I also have a young daughter who is obsessed with rocket ships and tells everyone she is going to Mars. I personally would love for her to grow up in a world where that dream can be realised, so when Artemis finally lands people on the moon, including the first woman, I’ll be watching on the TV with my daughter and millions of others around the world, to celebrate the boundless potential of humanity.
It’s probably no coincidence that Artemis is ramping up just in time to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, which will of course become a focal point for many events this year, including the first ever sporting event hosted on the grounds of the White House.
President Trump has been a long time fan of the UFC, a mixed martial arts promotion headquartered in Las Vegas, and while most UFC fans might celebrate a milestone birthday by getting Octagon-side tickets or even a box, Trump has pulled his Presidential strings to do one better: he’s bringing the UFC to his front garden for what he’s promising to be the greatest card of all time, and scheduled for his 80th birthday. Remember when Biden used to get ripped apart for being too old by the now soon-to-be Octogenarian President?
I guess that’s why he always needs to seen watching grown men beat the crap out of each other. Manly. American. STRONG.
And finally, I’m going to throw a curveball in here, but with recent news about Grok making waves here in the UK, I think AI in politics will continue to become a real hot button issue for voters, especially in the US with midterms coming up.
We’re seeing social media become such a central tool in politicans’ personal brands these days, not to mention in elections campaigns, and the use of AI has already been taken to some questionable lengths by both democrats and republicans.
I predict both sides will play the ethics card in relation to the fair and appropriate use of AI in politics, to both bolster their own brands and smear their opponents’, and I am going to predict that we’ll see at least one AI campaign scandal as the midterms approach.
IS THE PRESIDENT ABOVE THE LAW?
WHAT IS AMERICA’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE MIDDLE EAST?
WHY DOES THE PRESIDENT ONLY SERVE TWO TERMS?
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