It is always helpful to look back over the previous year, both as a sense of accomplishment and as an indication of how the new year may go.

2025 was quite a year in many respects, much of it positive.

The U.S. economy is growing solidly, energy costs are dramatically lower than a year ago, employment is up, inflation is at 3 percent, our southern border is secure, and the national murder rate is anticipated to drop significantly.  In addition, America is not at war—in fact, President Trump has deftly ended 8 wars—and I predict Russia-Ukraine will be next.  (I will address Venezuela next week).

We destroyed Iran’s nuclear threat which had been the cause of debilitating fear and unrest across the Middle East.  We have also inflicted great damage on traditional terrorists and targeted damage on narco-terrorists and their boats carrying the American-killing poisons they bring to the U.S.  These kinds of decisive actions by our Commander in Chief have broadly put the world’s bad actors on notice that their evil acts won’t be tolerated.

As a nation, we are now firmly behind the advance of AI as the way of the future as data centers begin to spring up across Louisiana and the country.  Artificial Intelligence can be fabulous and life-changing but also be used for malicious purposes. I hope we are able, from a legal and public policy standpoint, to prudently maximize the positive aspects of AI—in much the same way we have attempted with the internet generally and social media specifically—while minimizing the bad.  I want AI to help find a cure for cancer but not in some way be used for human and child trafficking.  In connection with AI, I am grateful for Elon Musk who may have the best, most facile mind on earth right now and he deploys it for the good of America and mankind.

The U.S. Supreme Court continues to erase racial inequality by striking down affirmative action, racial quotas and Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) programs.  This includes the unanimous ruling wherein the Court held that Title VII specifically (and the Equal Protection Clause, generally) deems reverse discrimination to be just as odious and intolerable as traditional discrimination.  This decision by the Supreme Court is not only important because it again enshrines equality in our law, but it also prevents similar future cases of reverse discrimination from having to be proven based upon a higher legal standard simply because the claimant is a member of a so-called “majority” group (i.e. white or heterosexual).  The legal standard applied will now be the same in any alleged discrimination case.

For his part, President Trump has attacked the transgender delusion by blocking males from competing against women in sports as well as so-called Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE) initiatives across the federal government and in any American institution that receives federal funds.

He has also dismantled the Department of Education which has done less to teach—and more to indoctrinate—students than can be imagined.  Those education funds will now be—in a fashion that is both efficient and smart—block-granted to the states who know far more about their specific education needs than the federal bureaucracy in D.C.  Trump has also directly attacked antisemitism on college campuses by demanding that if college campuses don’t reform their blatant bigotry and viewpoint discrimination, they won’t receive federal funds and may lose their tax-exempt status.

Trump has also vastly improved the morale of our military men and women, as reflected in the dramatic increase in military enlistments and individuals wanting to serve in border enforcement.  He has also returned our military to its one core and critical mission: lethality.

I am sincerely hopeful that one of the good things that flows from the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk is that elected officials and national leaders of every kind will “cool down” their heated partisan rhetoric in recognition of the grave danger to which it gives rise.

While America will continue to grapple with and solve many challenges that it faces, I am encouraged at the thought of the tremendous talent and ingenuity of the American entrepreneur and the stunning ability of the free market and free people to adapt to tough times, as we have so many times in American history.  On that note, our Declaration of Independence is 250 years old this year!

There are many reasons to be excited about 2026!   Happy New Year!