Damian Paletta

My pleasure.

Well, it was an incredibly consequential year for President Trump.

He accomplished a tremendous amount.

Whether voters supported it or didn't, no one could argue that he didn't have a huge impact, whether it was on tax cuts and tariffs he imposed and immigration changes that he was able to get through without much from Congress.

So what we'll be watching for in 2026 is whether he is going to be able to sell this to voters in the midterms.

He's not...

typically a great midterm election campaigner because he's not on the ballot.

It's harder for him to sell other people than it is for him to sell himself.

And so we're going to be watching really closely to see whether these kind of poor poll numbers that he has right now can improve in 2026 or whether the way he's been running his presidency turned enough voters off and enough independent voters off that Republicans really feel the brunt of it as we get later into 2026.

Well, he says his favorite word in English language is tariffs.

I don't expect that to change in 2026.

He might not have all the tools legally that he had in 2025, but he still will find ways to impose tariffs because it just gives him a tremendous amount of leverage over other countries.

The question is, if prices are going up for consumers in 2026, does he feel pressure on his own to kind of dial it back?

Otherwise, you know, Republicans could be really in for it in November.

Well, making prices lower can feel like putting the toothpaste back in the tube.

I mean, it's just really difficult to do.

He believes if there's lower rates at the Fed, then that'll bring down the price of homes and other stuff.

But I think he's really finding it difficult to get prices down everywhere.

And so affordability is going to be a key theme in 2026, and it's only going to get more intense as we get closer to November.

So my big question on this is how far does he push the envelope?