Here are 5 crucial political questions to ask in 2025

01 January

With the arrival of 2025, the United States is getting ready to enter a new political phase. Joe Biden's presidency is winding down, a new GOP-controlled Congress will be seated on Friday, January 3, and President-elect Donald Trump's second term will begin on January 20.

In a listicle/opinion column published on New Year's Day 2025, MSNBC's Alexander Nazaryan lays out five "key" political questions to ask this year.

"Between the demise of Joe Biden's presidency, the assassination attempts on Donald Trump and November's stunning results in the presidential election, 2024 was a wild year for political news," Nazaryan argues. "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."

Nazaryan's five questions are: (1) "Are the Republicans interested in governing?," (2) "Which of his promises will Trump keep?," (3) "Who will emerge as the Democrats' leader?", (4) "What will the courts do,?" and (5) "Will wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East end?"

"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," the MSNBC journalist explains. "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."

For #3, Nazaryan stresses that it remains unclear which Democrat will lead the way when it comes to "policy," "messaging" and "Trump himself.

"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," Nazaryan writes. "That leaves governors like Wes Moore of Maryland, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Maura Healey of Massachusetts as potential contenders. They have a tricky road ahead."

Nazaryan continues, "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."

The MSNBC journalist describes himself as "extremely bearish" on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and outgoing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

"I said I wouldn't make predictions," Nazaryan argues, "but here's one: Both Mayor Pete and Big Gretch are going to suffer DeSantis-style devaluations".

Read Alexander Nazaryan's full listicle/column for MSNBC at this link.

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