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The Washington Roundtable’s 2025 in Review

December 13, 2025·36 min·3 clips

Jane Mayer admits she misjudged Trump's ability to dismantle American norms and values so swiftly in his second term.

Susan Glasser, Evan Osnos, and Jane Mayer convene for The New Yorker’s Washington Roundtable year-end episode to assess the first year of Donald Trump’s second term. Glasser opens by framing the central paradox: Trump consistently shocks but rarely surprises, and yet 2025 produced events that genuinely caught even seasoned observers off guard. Osnos identifies his chief misjudgment as underestimating how quickly and completely major institutions would capitulate—major law firms paying hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services to avoid being banned from federal property, Ivy League universities surrendering academic freedom, and Congress abandoning its constitutional role as a check on executive power. Mayer singles out the deployment of Elon Musk through DOGE as a particularly unforeseeable escalation, as well as the administration’s willingness to openly flout the rule of law on issues ranging from ICE arrests to foreign aid. The group discusses how Trump’s approval rating has cratered to historic lows—particularly on the economy—yet his party in Congress has not broken from him. Glasser raises the surprise of the Supreme Court’s continued deference to the executive, particularly John Roberts, whose institutionalist reputation has been thoroughly undermined. Osnos notes that the most meaningful resistance has come not from institutions but from individuals—street protests, No Kings Day demonstrations, and grand juries that have refused to indict targets the administration wanted prosecuted. Venezuela is highlighted as a foreign policy shock: Trump’s first term was characterized by disengagement from Latin America, making the aggressive ouster of Maduro and its explicit link to destabilizing Cuba a genuine surprise. The group ends on a note of cautious hope, arguing that democratic recovery depends on citizens working collectively rather than waiting for institutions to act.

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