Generally speaking, nobody outside of Washington, D.C., brunch spots cares very much what happens at think tanks. But recent upheavals at the Heritage Foundation are not only making news, they are potentially framing what the Republican Party will look like after President Trump leaves office.

The current kerfuffle at Heritage, the nation’s leading conservative think tank, began on Oct. 30, when its president, Kevin Roberts, gave a speech defending Tucker Carlson for interviewing a snarky young Holocaust denier.

‘The Heritage Foundation didn’t become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians, and we won’t start doing that now,’ Roberts said.

A pitter-patter of outraged resignations came almost immediately, even after Roberts apologized for his remarks, but last week, almost two months later, nearly an entire division of Heritage’s legal and economic experts jumped ship to former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom (AAF).

The significant question in all of this is whether Roberts playing footsie with antisemites is the real or only reason why so many top experts joined the exodus to Pence’s outfit, and there is some reason to be dubious.

Take for example Trump’s zealous use of tariffs in international trade. This kind of protectionism is constitutionally anathema to exactly the type of conservative economist who prowled the halls of Heritage, but the think tank itself was standing by the president’s policies.

Add to this that Heritage seems to be leaning heavily into Vice President JD VanceJD Vance’s 2028 presidential ambitions, in fact Roberts’ original video may have been intended for the veep who is close with Carlson and has made fighting globalism and saving small industrial towns the centerpiece of his national message.

The problem is that most of the longtime Heritage economists really like globalism and think saving ‘Nowhere, Ohio’ from oblivion is a pipe dream. Now, they truly have no seat at the table, either at Heritage or in the Trump administration.

Such tensions also exist in foreign policy and immigration, and a cynic might suggest that the Heritage bleedout is just another example of conservatives with strong ideological differences from Trump deciding it’s no longer working to cozy up to him, and taking whatever current moral outrage is available as an offramp.

This is exactly what Pence did after the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, leading him to found AAF, which, by the way, is as anti-tariffs as the day is long.

In this fight for the soul of the Republican Party and conservative movement, both Heritage and AAF are redefining what a think tank is and what it does, in important ways.

Traditionally, wealthy donors would give money to guys with good hair to get elected and also fund bald guys at think tanks, who were rarely seen or heard from, to produce the actual policy. But voters have seen through this, leading the think tanks to more direct outreach to the public.

In the 2024 election, Heritage’s ‘Project 2025’ was a headline story for months, something completely unprecedented in the history of presidential politics for a think tank. Today, through moves such as hiring Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, Heritage is committing to more populism and activism and less back-room algebra.

AAF is starting to play this game too. The think tank put out a satirical X post comparing the flood of Heritage staffers coming their way to a college football team dominating in the transfer portal, another hint that more than moral outrage was at play here.

The headwind that AAF is likely to run into with conservative voters in their anti-populism efforts is that populism is popular, and globalism, along with many other core tenets of the pre-Trump GOP, isn’t.

The best chance for AAF, and it’s not a bad one, is to focus on lowering prices by lowering tariff. But a conservative think tank yelling that prices are too high while the GOP holds the White House and Congress is a nightmare for Republican midterm hopes.

The more vital question is what American voters want more, deeper discounts on foreign goods from China or functional communities where they can raise their families? For AAF to succeed it must address the latter, not just the former.

In Vance’s, and increasingly Heritage’s, vision of America, our small industrial towns see a revival through tariffs and foreign investment. In AAF’s vision, those towns may continue to wither, but Americans are free to move to where the jobs and abundance are.

Neither proponents of these visions can guarantee the success of their proposed programs, but the ‘save our towns’ side is currently in power and ascending. If AAF wants to change that, it needs more than moral outrage. It needs to convince Americans that globalism really wasn’t so bad, and that it is time to return to it.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on Sunday called for President Trump to only focus on America’s needs as the president meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The president has been heavily involved in the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts since returning to the White House.

Trump met with Zelenskyy on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago to discuss a peace plan aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war that began with an invasion by Moscow in February 2022.

Netanyahu arrived in Florida on Sunday ahead of their scheduled meeting on Monday at Trump’s estate to address Israel’s conflicts in the Middle East. It will be the sixth meeting of the year between the two leaders.

Greene, responding to Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy and Netanyahu, said that the Trump administration should address the needs of Americans rather than becoming further involved in global conflicts.

‘Zelensky today. Netanyahu tomorrow,’ she wrote on X.

‘Can we just do America?’ the congresswoman continued.

The congresswoman has been a vocal critic of supplying U.S. military aid to foreign countries amid the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.

She has also referred to Zelenskyy as ‘a dictator who canceled elections’ and labeled Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a genocide and humanitarian crisis.

This comes after Taylor Greene, who is set to resign from the House in January, had a public spat with Trump over the past few months as Trump took issue with the Georgia Republican’s push to release documents related to the investigations into deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump had withdrawn his endorsement of Greene and called her a ‘traitor’ over the public feud.

A fresh Russian attack against Kyiv involving hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles is putting the ‘true attitude of Putin and his inner circle’ on display, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, as he prepared to meet with President Donald Trump. 

The overnight blitz in Ukraine’s capital left at least one person dead and 27 injured, local authorities told the Associated Press. It unfolded as Zelenskyy is set to meet with Trump in Florida on Sunday, where he said he will share a 20-point peace proposal to end the conflict with Russia. 

‘Another Russian attack is still ongoing: since last night, there have been almost 500 drones – a large number of ‘shaheds’ – as well as 40 missiles, including Kinzhals. The primary target is Kyiv – energy facilities and civilian infrastructure,’ Zelenskyy wrote on X on Saturday morning. ‘Regrettably, there have been hits, and ordinary residential buildings have been damaged. Rescuers are searching for a person trapped under the rubble of one of them.’ 

‘There have been many questions over the past few days – so where is Russia’s response to the proposals to end the war offered by the United States and the world? Russian representatives engage in lengthy talks, but in reality, Kinzhals and ‘shaheds’ speak for them. This is the true attitude of Putin and his inner circle,’ Zelenskyy added. ‘They do not want to end the war and seek to use every opportunity to cause Ukraine even greater suffering and increase their pressure on others around the world.’

Zelenskyy also said Saturday that, ‘If Russia turns even the Christmas and New Year period into a time of destroyed homes and burned apartments, of ruined power plants, then this sick activity can only be responded to with truly strong steps.’ 

‘The United States has this capability. Europe has this capability. Many of our partners have this capability. The key is to use it,’ he declared. 

Trump, ahead of the meeting with Zelenskyy, has said he will call the final shots on a peace deal to end the conflict.

‘He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,’ Trump told Politico Friday. ‘So we’ll see what he’s got.’ 

The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that it carried out a ‘massive strike’ overnight, using ‘long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air, and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles’ and drones, on energy infrastructure facilities ‘used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,’ as well as ‘Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises.’ 

The ministry said the strike came in response to Ukraine’s attacks on ‘civilian objects’ in Russia.

Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said its air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Adygeya overnight. 

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancey and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

As a writer, there are times when I read something and think, ‘Wow, that’s good, this cat has chops.’ Very rarely do I read something that’s new, that I didn’t know was possible. Ben Sasse, he just wrote one of those.

The former Republican senator from Nebraska was informing the nation that he has stage four cancer and is going to die soon.

‘Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence,’ he write. ‘But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.’

It may seem trivial, or even cruel to ponder Sasse’s written words when we know the pain he and his family must feel, but it is not trivial to me, and never has been in the history of man.

Shakespeare called death the undiscovered country, but Sasse preferred to focus on what we know, writing, ‘To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.’

‘Kinda,’ as a writer, this casual usage that my editors often change when I employ it is the embodiment of what Sasse has wrought here. His words make me think that beauty always portends tragedy, but that’s okay. To invoke a New Yorkism, it is what it is.

Sasse, who went from the Senate to serve as president of University of Florida until last year, goes on to say, ‘A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during Advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears’

Aside from a few modern references, Sasse’s letter to our nation would have been understood perfectly 2,500 years ago in Athens, where such writing of the examination of the human condition was born.

Sasse tells us that, ‘Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: 

‘When we’ve been there 10,000 years…We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise.’

Maybe what stands out the most in this incredible piece of writing is that it is not performative at all, in an age in which everything is. In the law, a dying declaration holds special weight. In Sasse’s pen, it holds our hearts.

Much of our languages’ great work involves death, Dylan Thomas imploring his father in poetry: ‘Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

As I read his profound letter to us, I couldn’t help but see the image of Sasse in his running clothes, stooped on a stone wall at the capitol, chopping it up with Schumer and McCain. Just a regular guy, one of us.

Reading his words about his own mortality, I see now he is much more than that. I spend almost the whole time I’m awake reading, when I’m not writing. At 50, little surprises me. This did.

My mother died of damnable cancer when I was 24, her final request of me was to write and deliver her eulogy, and I’ll be honest the request felt too hard. But when she died, I had a job to do, and for two days I did nothing but write, it was her last gift, she knew me, and she got me through it.

I’m so grateful for Sasse’s words, and that at a time when everything is so ugly, he took the occasion of personal horror to buck us up. His great-great-grandchildren will know of it and feel rightful pride.

God bless Ben Sasse and his family, and may his profound and beautiful words echo down the centuries as the epitome of grace in a falling world.

As a writer, I want to say, thank you senator, I know right now it must seem completely insignificant, but there is a scribe in West Virginia today who will be forever changed by those words, and I’m grateful for it.

This year has had no shortage of alarming Chinese espionage efforts targeting the United States that were uncovered by government officials.

2025 saw the conviction of a former active-duty military member accused of selling Navy secrets to Chinese intelligence, the arrests of Chinese nationals accused of trying to recruit active-duty service members as intelligence assets and smuggle dangerous toxins into the United States, the disruption of a Chinese ‘Hacker-for-Hire’ ecosystem, and more.

‘President Trump is not afraid of the Chinese,’ Gatestone Institute senior Fellow Gordon Chang said on Fox Business’ ‘Mornings with Maria’ following a new arms sale to Taiwan. However, Chang lamented that Trump was ambivalent to the ‘information war’ with China, noting that ‘the Chinese are able to tar him and tell the rest of the world that Trump is afraid of the Chinese … but when you look at the reality, President Trump is going after China across the board,’ Chang argued.

One of the alarming Chinese espionage headlines to hit the news this year was an effort by several Chinese nationals to smuggle a pathogen described by the government as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into the United States in 2024. A complaint against the suspects was unsealed by federal officials this year, leading the case to make headlines nationwide. 

One of those individuals complicit in the case, Yunqing Jian, 33, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and a researcher employed at the University of Michigan, was allegedly receiving money from the Chinese government for her work on the pathogen the suspects were trying to smuggle. Meanwhile, her boyfriend, who worked at a Chinese university conducting research on that same pathogen, initially lied but then admitted to smuggling it through the Detroit airport so it could be taken to the University of Michigan laboratory where his girlfriend worked.

Jian eventually pleaded guilty. She was later sentenced to time served and then deported back to China. Her boyfriend was immediately deported to China when he was caught at the Detroit airport trying to bring the toxin into the United States.  

Just this month, a separate Chinese researcher from Indiana University was also accused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of trying to smuggle a dangerous toxin into the country, this time Escherichia coli (E. coli). The FBI identified the smuggling suspect as post-doctoral researcher Youhuang Xiang, who also allegedly made false statements to law enforcement.

Federal officials have disrupted Chinese intelligence efforts to recruit assets in the United States this year as well, according to Justice Department communications.

In July, federal officials disrupted a ‘Clandestine PRC Ministry of State Security Intelligence Network’ that was operating in the United States and was attempting to bribe active-duty soldiers with thousands in cash to work for them as assets. 

The following month, in a separate case, a federal jury convicted former Navy sailor, Jinchao Wei, also known as Patrick Wei, who was caught trying to sell military secrets to a Chinese intelligence officer for $12,000.

Hacking was a big part of Chinese espionage efforts in 2025 too. 

A major Chinese-linked hacking threat referred to as ‘Salt Typhoon’ was reported this year to have launched an attack compromising at least 200 American companies as part of its broader efforts that have included gaining access to law enforcement wiretapping mechanisms and information on members of Congress, according to the top cyber chief at the FBI. Critical infrastructure manufacturers like AT&T, Verizon, Charter Communications, and others have reportedly been exposed by the group, which was first uncovered publicly in 2024 but whose efforts have dated back several years.

Earlier this year, in March, the Department of Justice also announced that federal officials had disrupted a ‘Hacker-for-Hire Ecosystem’ operating out of China at the direction of Chinese intelligence officers as well. These malicious actors worked for private companies and as contractors in China, which was intended to hack and steal information in a way that would obscure the Chinese government’s involvement, the DOJ said.

China’s increasing acquisition of farmland in the United States has been of growing concern during 2025 as well, with Chinese-linked entities buying up land near military bases, including a trailer park near Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force Base. 

‘From smuggling crop-killing pathogens and E. Coli into the United States, to conspicuously purchasing a trailer park that shares a fence with America’s entire B-2 bomber fleet and selling ‘green’ tech devices that spread kill switches across our electrical grid, Communist China seeks to harm the American homeland,’ Michael Lucci, a China-hawk and the founder of State Armor Action, a conservative group with a mission to develop and enact state-level solutions to global security threats such as those emanating from China.

‘Furthermore, these events are just the tip of the iceberg,’ Lucci continued. ‘Lawmakers across the country must accelerate action to shield Americans from CCP influence, espionage, and sabotage. Communist China treats the United States as an enemy, and it is past time we recognize the CCP party-state always and everywhere chooses conflict with the United States.’

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Saturday that his country ‘is willing to do whatever it takes’ to end its war with Russia ahead of a meeting Sunday in Florida with President Donald Trump.

In a series of posts on X, the Ukrainian leader said, ‘If the whole world – Europe and America – is on our side, together we will stop Putin,’ but, ‘if anyone – whether the U.S. or Europe – is on Russia’s side, this means the war will continue.’

‘There are no other options here. And this is a risk for all countries in the world. Because Russia will not stop, regardless of any agreements, any eloquent messages from them. They will not stop at Ukraine,’ Zelenskyy warned. He is set to meet with Trump in Florida on Sunday, where Zelenskyy said he will share a 20-point peace proposal to end the conflict with Russia. 

The posts came after Russia launched a fresh overnight attack against Kyiv involving hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles. Zelenskyy said the attack put the ‘true attitude’ of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle on display.

The overnight blitz in Ukraine’s capital left at least one person dead and 27 injured, local authorities told the Associated Press. 

‘Another Russian attack is still ongoing: since last night, there have been almost 500 drones – a large number of ‘shaheds’ – as well as 40 missiles, including Kinzhals. The primary target is Kyiv – energy facilities and civilian infrastructure,’ Zelenskyy wrote on X on Saturday morning. ‘Regrettably, there have been hits, and ordinary residential buildings have been damaged. Rescuers are searching for a person trapped under the rubble of one of them.’ 

‘There have been many questions over the past few days – so where is Russia’s response to the proposals to end the war offered by the United States and the world? Russian representatives engage in lengthy talks, but in reality, Kinzhals and ‘shaheds’ speak for them. This is the true attitude of Putin and his inner circle,’ Zelenskyy added. ‘They do not want to end the war and seek to use every opportunity to cause Ukraine even greater suffering and increase their pressure on others around the world.’

Zelenskyy also said Saturday that, ‘If Russia turns even the Christmas and New Year period into a time of destroyed homes and burned apartments, of ruined power plants, then this sick activity can only be responded to with truly strong steps.’ 

‘The United States has this capability. Europe has this capability. Many of our partners have this capability. The key is to use it,’ he declared. 

Zelenskyy added in another X post later Saturday morning that, ‘Ukraine did not start this war. Russia started it.’

‘Ukraine supported President Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire. Ukraine has agreed to many different compromises, and this is documented in our draft agreements, in our 20-point plan. Ukraine is willing to do whatever it takes to stop this war. For us, priority number one – or the only priority – is ending the war,’ Zelenskyy continued.

‘For us, the priority is peace. We need to be strong at the negotiating table. To be strong, we need the support of the world: Europe and the United States. And this includes air defenses – which are currently insufficient, weaponry – which is currently insufficient, and money – thankfully, there is now a European decision, but, frankly, there is a constant shortage of funds, in particular for the production of weapons and, most importantly, drones,’ he said.

Trump, ahead of the meeting with Zelenskyy, has said he will call the final shots on a peace deal to end the conflict.

‘He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,’ Trump told Politico Friday. ‘So we’ll see what he’s got.’ 

The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that it carried out a ‘massive strike’ overnight, using ‘long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air, and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles’ and drones, on energy infrastructure facilities ‘used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,’ as well as ‘Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises.’ 

The ministry said the strike came in response to Ukraine’s attacks on ‘civilian objects’ in Russia.

Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said its air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Adygeya overnight. 

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancey and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Donald Trump entered 2025 pledging to end wars and reorient U.S. foreign policy around what he repeatedly described as ‘peace through strength.’

Throughout the year, Trump has cast his diplomacy as peace-focused, telling reporters, ‘We think we have a way of getting peace,’ and publicly arguing that his record merited a Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. State Department echoed that framing in its year-end summary of diplomatic efforts, highlighting initiatives it said aimed to ‘secure peace around the world.’

By the close of 2025, several conflicts saw impressive diplomatic progress, while others were still experiencing issues after years of hatred and violence.

Gaza (Israel–Hamas)

The most consequential diplomatic development of the year came in early October, when the Trump administration helped broker a ceasefire framework between Israel and Hamas. The agreement halted large-scale fighting after months of intense combat and enabled the release of all remaining hostages from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, except for the body of Ron Gvili that remains held captive by Hamas terrorists. 

The administration later cited the ceasefire as a central element of its 2025 diplomatic record. While the truce largely held through the end of the year, core issues including Gaza’s long-term governance, demilitarization and enforcement mechanisms remained unresolved, as well as rebuilding the enclave after the massive destruction and displacement. U.S. officials continued working with regional partners on next steps as fighting paused, as Israel’s Netanyahu is expected to meet with President Trump next week for talks on Gaza and other issues. 

Armenia–Azerbaijan

In August, Trump hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House for a U.S.-brokered peace declaration aimed at addressing decades of conflict tied to Nagorno-Karabakh. The agreement focused on transit routes, economic cooperation and regional connectivity and was promoted by the administration as a historic step.

While the historic declaration was signed, implementation and deeper reconciliation is still ongoing.

Ukraine–Russia war

Ukraine remained the most ambitious and elusive peace target of Trump’s 2025 agenda. The year opened with Trump insisting the war could be ended through direct U.S. engagement and leverage over both Kyiv and Moscow. Diplomacy intensified in August, when Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, a summit framed by the White House as a test of whether personal diplomacy could unlock a settlement.

In parallel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was received at the White House, where Trump reiterated U.S. support for Ukraine while signaling that any peace would require difficult compromises. U.S. officials explored security guarantees and economic incentives, while avoiding public commitments on borders or NATO membership.

By December, talks accelerated. Ukraine entered new rounds of U.S.-led negotiations, and Trump told reporters the sides were ‘getting close to something.’ On Christmas Zelenskyy said talks with U.S. officials had produced a 20-point plan and accompanying documents that include security guarantees involving Ukraine, the United States and European partners. He acknowledged the framework was not flawless but described it as a tangible step forward. Zelenskyy is reportedly readying a visit to meet with President Trump, possibly as soon as Sunday.

Bloomberg reported that Russia views the 20-point plan agreed to between Ukraine and the U.S. as only a starting point. According to a person close to the Kremlin, Moscow intends to seek key changes, including additional restrictions on Ukraine’s military, arguing that the proposal lacks provisions important to Russia and leaves many questions unanswered.

Democratic Republic of Congo–Rwanda

In early December, Trump hosted the signing of the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The agreement reaffirmed commitments to end decades of conflict and expand economic cooperation through a regional integration framework.

By the end of the year, Reuters and the Associated Press reported that armed groups remained active in eastern Congo, underscoring the fragility of the accord, though both sides seemed to be invested in a long-term peace.

India–Pakistan

After a terrorist attack in Kashmir and retaliatory strikes raised fears of escalation, U.S. officials engaged in emergency diplomacy. Trump announced a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed rivals, with a potentially catastrophic escalation between the two nuclear powers avoided.

Cambodia–Thailand border dispute

On the sidelines of an ASEAN summit, Trump helped mediate a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand following months of border clashes. 

Diplomatic efforts led by ASEAN and supported by external parties are ongoing, but fresh clashes and mutual recriminations between Thailand and Cambodia continue to challenge peace prospects and have led to large-scale displacement and civilian harm. Following the recent flare-ups, and with offers for mediation from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a new ceasefire was agreed upon on Saturday to end weeks of fighting on the border.

Iran–Israel confrontation

Following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, the Trump administration focused on containing escalation and reinforcing deterrence. No diplomatic agreement followed, but the confrontation did not expand into a broader regional war by year’s end.

Recently Israel warned that Iran might use its ballistic missile drills as a cover for a surprise attack. 

Sudan

Sudan remained one of the world’s deadliest conflicts. U.S. diplomacy has focused primarily on efforts to halt fighting and expand humanitarian access rather than brokering a comprehensive peace.

In December, Saudi Arabia and the United States presented Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan with a three-point proposal aimed at ending the war, facilitating aid delivery and transferring power to civilians, according to Sudan Tribune.

Venezuela

As the year closed, Venezuela emerged as the United States’ clearest point of direct confrontation. The administration framed its posture as an extension of its broader ‘peace through strength’ doctrine, even as the risk of escalation lingered.

While the White House pursued de-escalation and negotiated arrangements elsewhere, its approach toward Nicolás Maduro relied almost entirely on pressure, not talks. Trump continued to cast Maduro as a criminal threat tied to drug trafficking, accusing him of rejecting the results of Venezuela’s last election and stealing the presidency.

With no diplomatic channel open, the U.S. maintained sweeping sanctions and stepped up efforts against cartel networks linked to the regime. There was no peace process in sight — but some opposition figures and U.S. allies argued that sustained pressure could still force political change in 2026, and ultimately hasten the end of Maduro’s rule.

It was an off-year when it comes to elections, but 2025 was on fire on the campaign trail, as next year’s looming midterm showdowns took shape.

While it was never expected to match the intensity of the tumultuous 2024 battles for the White House and Congress, this year’s off-year elections grabbed outsized national attention and served as a key barometer leading up to the 2026 midterm contests for the House and Senate majorities.

Here are five of the biggest moments that shaped the campaign trail.

5. Trump pushes mid-decade congressional redistricting

Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, President Donald Trump in June first floated the idea of rare but not unheard of mid-decade congressional redistricting.

The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Trump’s first target: Texas.

A month later, when asked by reporters about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, ‘Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.’

The push by Trump and his political team triggered a high-stakes redistricting showdown with Democrats to shape the 2026 midterm landscape in the fight for the House majority.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.

But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.

Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

California voters earlier this month overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Right-tilting Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.

Republicans are looking to GOP-controlled Florida, where early redistricting moves are underway in Tallahassee. A new map could possibly produce up to five more right-leaning seats. But conservative Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP legislative leaders don’t see eye-to-eye on how to move forward.

‘We must keep the Majority at all costs,’ Trump wrote on social media this month.

In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge this month rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

And Republicans in Indiana’s Senate defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.

But Trump scored a big victory when the conservative majority on the Supreme Court greenlighted Texas’ new map.

Other states that might step into the redistricting wars — Democratic-dominated Illinois and Maryland, and two red states with Democratic governors, Kentucky and Kansas.

4. Jay Jones text messages revealed, rocking Virginia’s elections

Virginia Democrats were cruising toward convincing victories in the commonwealth’s statewide elections when a scandal sent shockwaves up and down the ballot.

Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones instantly went into crisis mode after controversial texts were first reported earlier by the National Review in early October.

Jones acknowledged and apologized for texts he sent in 2022, when he compared then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if he was given two bullets, he would use both against the GOP lawmaker to shoot him in the head.

But Jones faced a chorus of calls from Republicans to drop out of the race.

And the GOP leveraged the explosive revelations up the ballot, forcing Democratic Party nominee, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, back on defense in a campaign where she was seen as the frontrunner against Republican rival Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.

Earle-Sears didn’t waste an opportunity to link Spanberger to Jones. And during October’s chaotic and only gubernatorial debate, where Earle-Sears repeatedly interrupted Spanberger, the GOP gubernatorial nominee called on her Democratic rival to tell Jones to end his attorney general bid.

‘The comments that Jay Jones made are absolutely abhorrent,’ Spanberger said at the debate. But she neither affirmed nor pulled back her support of Jones.

While the scandal grabbed national headlines, in the end it didn’t slow down the Democrats, as Spanberger crushed Earle-Sears by 15 points. Democrats won the separate election for lieutenant governor by 11 points and Jones even pulled off a 6-point victory over Republican incumbent Jason Miyares.

3. Democrats overperform at the ballot box

Just eight days into Trump’s second term in the White House, demoralized Democrats had something to cheer about.

Democrat Mike Zimmer defeated Republican Katie Whittington in a special state Senate election in Iowa, flipping a Republican-controlled vacant seat in a district that Trump had carried by 21 points less than three months earlier.

Zimmer’s victory triggered a wave of Democrats overperforming in special elections and regularly scheduled off-year ballot box contests.

Among the most high profile was the victory by the Democratic candidate in Wisconsin’s high-stakes and expensive state Supreme Court showdown.

With inflation, the issue that severely wounded them in the 2024 elections, persisting, Democrats were laser focused on affordability, and the wins kept coming.

In November’s regularly scheduled elections, they won the nation’s only two gubernatorial showdowns — in New Jersey and Virginia — by double digits. And they scored major victories in less high-profile contests from coast to coast.

The year ended with Democrats winning a mayoral election in Miami, Florida for the first time in a quarter-century, and flipping a state House seat in Georgia.

The Democratic National Committee, in a year-end memo, touted, ‘In 2025 alone, Democrats won or overperformed in 227 out of 255 key elections — nearly 90% of races.’

But Democrats are still staring down a brand that remains in the gutter, with historically low approval and favorable numbers.

Among the most recent to grab headlines: Only 18% of voters questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey this month said they approved of the way congressional Democrats were handling their job, while 73% percent disapproved.

That’s the lowest job approval rating for the Democrats in Congress since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question 16 years ago.

2. Democrats’ primary problem

The Democrats overperformed in this month’s special congressional election in a GOP-dominated seat in Tennessee — losing by nine points in a district that Trump carried by 22 points just a year ago,

But there were plenty of centrist Democrats who argued that state Rep. Aftyn Behn, the Democratic nominee in the race, was too far to the left for the district.

Republicans repeatedly attacked Behn over her paper trail of past comments on defunding the police.

And the U.S. Senate campaign launch this month in red-leaning Texas by Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a progressive champion and vocal Trump critic and foil, compounded the argument by centrists.

‘The Democratic Party’s aspirations to win statewide in a red state like Texas simply don’t exist without a centrist Democrat who can build a winning coalition of ideologically diverse voters,’ Liam Kerr, co-founder of the Welcome PAC, a group which advocates for moderate Democratic candidates, argued in a statement to Fox News Digital.

And the center-left Third Way, in a memo following the Tennessee special election, argued that ‘there are two projects going on in the Democratic Party right now. One is winning political power so we can stop Trump’s calamity. The other is turning blue places bluer.’

‘If far-left groups want to help save American democracy, they should stop pushing their candidates in swing districts and costing us flippable seats,’ the memo emphasized.

1. Mamdani wins NYC mayoral primary

It was the story that has dominated campaign politics for the past six months.

Zohran Mamdani‘s convincing June 24 victory in New York City’s Democratic Party mayoral primary was the political earthquake that rocked the nation’s most populous city and sent powerful shockwaves across the country.

The capturing of the Democratic nomination by the now-34-year-old socialist state lawmaker over frontrunner former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates propelled Mamdani to a general election victory.

Mamdani’s primary shocker, and later, his general election victory, energized the left.

But it also handed Republicans instant ammunition as they worked to link the first Muslim New York City mayor with a far-left agenda to Democrats across the country, as the party aimed to paint Democrats as extremists.

But Trump, who had repeatedly called Mamdani a ‘communist,’ appeared to undercut that narrative with a chummy Oval Office meeting with the mayor-elect last month.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country is engaged in what he described as a ‘total war’ with the U.S., Israel and Europe.

In an interview published Saturday by Iranian state media, Pezeshkian said that he believes the Western powers want to bring Iran ‘to its knees,’ The Times of Israel reported.

‘In my opinion, we are at total war with the United States, Israel and Europe,’ Pezeshkian said. ‘They want to bring our country to its knees.’

Pezeshkian argued that the current conflict is more complex than the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, saying his country is now under pressure ‘from every angle,’ according to The Times of Israel.

‘If one understands it well, this war is far more complex and difficult than that war. In the war with Iraq, the situation was clear, they fired missiles, and we knew where to hit,’ Pezeshkian said, according to The Jerusalem Post. 

‘Here, they are besieging us from every aspect, they are creating problems for us in terms of livelihood, culturally, politically, and security-wise.’

Despite the strain, Pezeshkian claimed Iran’s military emerged stronger following its June conflict with Israel, according to The Times of Israel.

‘Our beloved military forces are doing their jobs with strength and now, in terms of equipment and manpower, despite all the problems we have, they are stronger than when they attacked. So if they want to attack, they will naturally face a more decisive response,’ he said.

The interview with Pezeshkian was released ahead of a planned meeting this coming week at Mar-a-Lago between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Tensions remain high following a brief but intense air conflict in June that was kicked off by Israel. 

The fighting resulted in roughly 1,100 deaths in Iran, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, while Iranian missile attacks killed 28 people in the Jewish State.

On June 22, President Donald Trump announced U.S. forces had launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

‘Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror,’ the president said. ‘Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.’

A US-brokered ceasefire between Iran and Israel took effect on June 24.

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.