The Friday Brief, December 19th, 2025

Inside

Be of Good Cheer
What To Expect From The Epstein Release Today
SINO: Speaker in Name Only
Anne Applebaum Says It Best
Russia Loses A Sub To A Ukrainian Underwater Drone
Trump’s Economy and The Heat Death of MAGA
Bari Weiss and Erika Kirk Flop
The Epstein Scam
What I’m Reading
Scenes From The Home Front

Before we start:

Nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ quite like an annual subscription to Against All Enemies, and to give the gift that keeps on giving, from now until next Christmas, click on the link below for 25% off an annual membership!

The Big Picture

Be of Good Cheer

There are two dogs and one of three cats in the room as I write this, which feels like the most honest possible way to end a year. Jane is looking guilty as leftover sin, having helped herself to roughly a one pound of a Honey-baked Ham she found too close to the edge of the kitchen counter. That’s on me.

It’s the last Friday Brief for 2025, and my message is…be of good cheer.

Not performative cheer. Not “smile while the house is on fire” cheer. Real, stubborn, human cheer. The kind you earn by living through a thing and realizing you’re still here.

Because here’s the burden that man put on all of us for a decade: everything had to be about him. Every conversation, every headline, every family dinner, every holiday. The sun didn’t rise until he tweeted. The day didn’t end until he raged. He made himself the malicious, malignant center of American life.

And yes, I’m going to tell you something that will sound like heresy to the doom-scrollers: that time is ending. Not over. Not safe. Not “mission accomplished.”

But his reign will end. His power will wane.