My Thirteen Questions for 2026
What I’ll be watching in the new year.
Every Friday, we close out the week here at Wake Up To Politics with a special column for paid subscribers, which often takes the form of answering reader questions.
But this week, I have some questions of my own: specifically, twelve questions about the year ahead. (Plus, some bonus questions at the end…)
In this week’s paid subscriber column, I let you in on what I’ll be watching as 2026 approaches.
We cover the gamut, from the latest inflation tea leaves to Trump’s plans in Venezuela to the prospects for a rising “techlash” and the raging conservative media wars to the future for Susie Wiles, Zohran Mamdani, Clarence Thomas, Mary Peltola, and more.
This is your can’t-miss wrap-up to the year that was, and a guide to staying on top of all the action coming our way in 2026. Let’s dive in:
1. Will Donald Trump return to his populist roots?
If I had to boil down why Donald Trump won in 2024, I would say:
Frustration with the state of the economy
Frustration with immigration policy
Frustration towards elites and the status quo
Frustration with a more outward-looking foreign policy
Eleven months in, it would be hard to argue that Trump has not fulfilled his promises on immigration. But on each of the other realms, Trump’s focus appears to be slipping.
On several of the crucial battles that have defined 2025, Trump has repeatedly sided more with elites than with his populist allies, including his embrace of Big Tech and AI1 and his dithering over the Epstein Files (set to be released today). Not to mention his bill to slash Medicaid while cutting taxes disproportionately for the rich, his pardons for white-collar offenders, his gold-plated redecorations of the White House (and destruction of the East Wing), his lavish parties at Mar-a-Lago, and his renaming glitzy cultural institutions after himself — not exactly the actions of a populist.
He has seemed more interested in winning the Nobel Peace Prize2 (or, conversely, with his adventurism in Venezuela) than adopting an isolationist “America First” foreign policy.
And, perhaps most damningly, poll after poll show that voters do not believe he is paying enough attention to inflation and the economy (and, to the extent he is, that he is actively hurting it by imposing tariffs).
As I’ve written before, it is not unusual for a president’s focus to drift once they enter office. But it normally takes aides willing to stand up to the president to get them back on track, to say things like (in this case) Mr. President, maybe voters would prefer you spend your time looking for ways to reduce prices rather than writing plaques for a Presidential Walk of Fame?
We know there are some advisers in Trump’s orbit trying to nudge him in this direction. In 2026, I’ll be looking to see whether they make headway. With control of Congress up for grabs, will Trump return to focusing on the economy, or will he continue to lose sight of the message that brought him to the White House?3
A chain of events from yesterday is telling. A string of announcements suggested that Trump’s advisers might be trying to regain his populist footing by reviving the old Bill Clinton strategy of triangulation: dancing around the political spectrum and adopting small-bore, popular stances from both sides of the aisle. Hence his move to the right restricting transition-related care for transgender minors (backed by 56% of Americans), paired with a dart to the left by moving closer to legal marijuana (backed by 70% of the country), as well as $1,776 bonuses for service members that are likely to please everybody.
But then the Kennedy Center moved to rename itself. Guess which story led the New York Times last night? Not only that, but neither of Trump’s more populist-seeming announcements beat out a more prominent story on health care, and Trump’s “warrior bonuses” were nowhere to be seen.
Popular policy announcements won’t help a president who constantly tramples over them. If the president doesn’t act quickly to reposition himself away from allying with elites (or coming off like one himself), 2026 could prove a bruising year for his party.