To call 2025 a tumultuous year would be an understatement. It already feels like January was about five years ago, and I expect the rest of President Donald Trump’s second term will move at a similarly breakneck pace.

That said, it helps to take a breather and reflect on what actually happened and what it means for American politics today and in the future.

Without further ado, here are the biggest winners and losers of 2025.

The federal government has long contracted with leftist nonprofits in the name of justice or helping other countries, but the funding ballooned in the Biden administration, and the Department of Government Efficiency represented a historic attempt to expose and shatter this ideological piggy bank.

Before DOGE, I investigated the woke groups that infiltrated and advised the Biden administration, and my research uncovered not only that these groups received federal grants but that many of them sued the Trump administration to block his policies—particularly to keep the gravy train flowing. I testified in Congress about this research twice, and the Dao Prize honored me for it by designating me a finalist.

The Trump administration cut off the funding streams for immigration groups that moved illegal aliens across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency clawed back extravagant grants to climate alarmist groups. The State Department shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development. Congress finally cut off funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service.

After Scott Walter and I highlighted the leftist nonprofits that worked with Arabella Advisors, Microsoft founder Bill Gates withdrew his foundation’s entanglement with them, and Arabella Advisors purportedly dissolved, leading to the emergence of new entities.

Contrary to leftist fearmongering, civil society remains strong. Americans remain free to contribute to causes they believe in, we just aren’t being forced to do so with our tax dollars anymore.

Candidate Trump campaigned on protecting children and bringing back sanity on gender. He has........

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