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These are what I believe will be among the top trends and stories in 2025, in descending order.

10. ‘Superman’ will be the highest-grossing film at the box office.

Some will accuse me of leading off with a homer pick — I’m a huge fan of the last son of Krypton — but actually I am basing this on data. Director James Gunn averaged $360 million at the box office per “Guardians of the Galaxy” film, which in any given year is a top-five spot at the box office. The teaser trailer became the most viewed trailer in the history of Warner Brothers, one of the most lucrative studios in the history of Hollywood. And it’s also the fifth-biggest online debut for a trailer in the internet era, with all four movies ahead of it going on to do billion-dollar box office. Finally, there are the vibes. For years I’ve lamented that we are a broken culture more attracted to the perpetually broken Batman than the altruistic Superman, but after this last election — and given the huge view numbers for the teaser trailer — it appears that we are ready to look up again.

9. The Detroit Lions face the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59.

They’ve been the best two teams in the NFL all season, and this would be a historic achievement for both franchises. The Chiefs would be going for the first three-peat in the Super Bowl era, and the generationally hapless Lions would finally be the last original pro football franchise to make it to America’s greatest sporting event.

8. A respected public figure will come forward to claim he was abducted by extraterrestrials or communicated with them.

I originally thought this was going to happen a year ago, but the fleets of mysterious drones over the New Jersey skies and elsewhere portend that the UFO psyop is back on the menu for the new year.

7. Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift will finally marry in perhaps the biggest celebrity nuptials of the year.

And Travis will attempt to make a cultural statement of his own to counter his teammate Harrison Butker, by taking Taylor’s last name as his own, rather than the traditional posture or Taylor even going with the hyphen.

6. Trump will end the war in Ukraine.

Trump proved to be good at brokering peace deals in his first term, and one of the headlines of the first year of his second term will be the same. Russia will be awarded some territory, Ukraine will be diminished but remain sovereign, and a deal will be struck that could have been struck two years ago if both sides were willing.

5. At least one scandal or controversy will be later proven or credibly suspected to be an AI fake.

We have finally reached the time when it’s too hard to determine what is or isn’t real online any more, with AI-generated memes, photos, and videos that look totally real. That technology is simply too tempting not to weaponize, so it will be weaponized.

4. We will finally learn what the government truly knows about the JFK assassination.

I believe President Trump will fully unseal the national archives regarding what is still among the most controversial events in American history. He already vowed to do so during the campaign, and that was before the spirit of the age attempted to JFK him twice last year. Thus, if Trump needed any further incentive to fulfill his campaign promise, he now has it.

3. Trump’s approval rating will hit 55% at one point, most likely during the first half of the year.

For the longest time I thought for sure the spirit of the age would attempt to marginalize the Trump presidency right from the jump, likely by dumping the entirety of this shaky economy upon him all at once. However, the more I think about it, I think that it is more likely to happen next year when it’s an election year again (just as 2020 was with COVID). Furthermore, I sense that a majority of the country truly does want to be hopeful again, and Trump seems far more prepared to hit the ground running from a governing perspective than he was his first time around. According to Gallup, Trump’s previous highest approval rating as president during his first term was 49%.

2. As the year goes on, managing the Republican coalition will prove to be Trump’s biggest challenge.

Another reason why I think we may see the spirit of the age bide its time for the most part in 2025 is because of how shaky the current GOP coalition in DC is. Republicans have the slimmest House majority imaginable, along with some of the weakest leadership you could imagine. A younger and dumber clone of Ditch McConnell is now running the mostly RINO-infested Senate. There are wide swaths of fundamental disagreement on the right that we are already seeing create fissures weeks before Trump even takes office. While I think we will initially hit the ground running behind Trump’s leadership and mandate and get off to a strong start, eventually worldview is destiny — and there are fundamental worldview differences here on the right. The inconvenient truth remains that the GOP base does not want the same kind of governing that many elected Republicans in D.C. do.

1. The Trump-Musk partnership will be tested early and often.

We already saw some of this in December over both the budget and H-1B visas. There has never been a partnership like this in American history, or even perhaps world history. Essentially, the most famous man who has ever lived has teamed up with the richest man who has ever lived to save the freest country there has ever been. Those two successfully and simultaneously managing their own egos would be hard enough in the best of circumstances. However, between warring factions within their own coalition and a fake news media chomping at the bit to go full Yoko Ono and just manufacture tensions where none previously existed, the only thing harder than forging this partnership to win the last election will be maintaining it now that the election is won.