Know Your Enemy - What We Got Wrong (and Right) about the Right in 2025 [Teaser]

Matt and Sam look back at the American right in 2025—and offer predictions about the year ahead.

Duration: 6m
Broadcast on: 15 Dec 2025
Audio Format: other

Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at patreon.com/knowyourenemy.

As the end of the year approaches, we wanted to look back at another year of trying to understand the American right—what we got wrong, what we got right, and what to expect in 2026. The conversation begins with the cracks showing in Trump's coalition, his plummeting approval ratings, and the possibility that Charlie Kirk really was helping hold the marriage of MAGA and the GOP together, then consider if we should have seen this coming (or not) and what it might say about our understanding of Trump, Vance, Kirk, Musk, and others we've considered on KYE in 2025.

Sources:

Christopher Flavelle, "How Biden Ignored Warnings and Lost Americans’ Faith in Immigration," New York Times, Dec 7, 2025

Bilal Baydoun, "What Musk's DOGE Really Cut: Trust, Safety, and Democracy," Roosevelt Institute, May 29, 2025

Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again (2025)

"Jill Lepore on Nationalism, Populism, and the State of America," EconTalk, April 15, 2019

Ryan Burge, "Religion Has Become A Luxury Good For The Middle Class, Married College Graduate With Children," ReligionUnplugged, July 12, 2023

Matt Dinan, "Permission Structures: How AI-skeptic Professors Can Still Help Students Write Papers," Prefaces, Dec 10, 2025

I think there's also, I mean, something that I'm observing a lot, is just that it seems like the different factions of the intellectual worlds of the right, the different factions of the base, the influencers in the MAGA, entertainment sphere. There's a lot of tension, acrimony, disorder, you know, fights, struggle. And I have various theories about why that is. But one certainly is that all of these people, whether they're in the administration or in the kind of media ecosystem of the MAGA movement, they all look for direction to Trump. I mean, Trump is always saying this. What is MAGA? What is America first? Well, it's what I say it is. You know, he's the flag bearer. They're supposed to sort of move as he moves. And when Trump, I think, is kind of diminished, as it seems to be he is, and his authority is a little bit weaker over the movement than it has been in the past. And without him to sort of, like, direct them in the last instance, you know, to be their North Star, I think these various factions are getting rowdy, rambunctious, restive. And I think, relatedly, I think there is this kind of ability to see a post-Trump future. That's causing a lot of frenetic kind of energy and tension within the coalition, within the different intellectual factions, and that also just raises the specter of succession, which means there's more intense kind of scrutiny on JD Vance and people wondering whether he can do it. Yes, Sam. I want to say, lately, it especially seems like the lameness of JD Vance is really coming through. Like, did you see Vance talking to the troops on Thanksgiving? He's like, "Thanksgiving is the most uniquely American holiday. You know, Christmas, of course, the birth of Jesus, all of these other holidays, they're very important, and I love Christmas as much as anybody. I've got three little kids, but Christmas is a holiday that 1.8 billion Christians celebrate all over the world. Thanksgiving. What we celebrate tomorrow, that is a uniquely American thing. That's why, for example, we have, you know, Turkey. Think about Turkey. Who really likes? Be honest with yourselves, who really likes Turkey. You're all full of sh*t, everybody who raised your hands. Turkey doesn't actually taste that good. But on Thanksgiving, on the most American holiday, I got a fan over here, on the most American holiday, we're going to cook a turkey by God, because that's what Americans... Why can he just show up at Thanksgiving and talk to troops somewhat normally without, like, being the try-hard? Try-hard, dork-wad. There's just something deeply wrong with him, and he says these things that are awkward, and I just don't think he ends the sauce at a national level. This is something that, notably, Chris Rufo, since 24, he's been talking about how JD Vance is the one who's going to be able to draw the lines in an effective way to hold the coalition together and mediate these conflicts. And Rufo seems to think, and the sort of JD boosters think, that the reason Vance can

Transcription truncated.

Matt and Sam look back at the American right in 2025—and offer predictions about the year ahead.