The Political Scene Live: A Year Since Trump’s Win, What Have We Learned?
The New Yorker | November 22, 2025
Host: Evan Osnos with Susan Glasser and Jane Mayer
[Live from the JFK Forum, Harvard IOP]

Episode Overview

One year after Donald Trump's return to the presidency, The New Yorker’s top political journalists gather for a live show to reflect on biggest lessons of Trump 2.0. With Trump's presidency at a possible inflection point, plunging approval, and cracks emerging in GOP unity, the discussion probes what’s changed, what’s disturbingly constant, and what the year has revealed about both Trump and America. The panel explores core themes–from the Epstein files scandal to creeping authoritarianism, the MAGA movement’s future, and the media’s role–with candor, humor, and deep experience reporting on American power.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Epstein Files: A Turning Point?

[02:10–04:37, 04:37–09:16]

• Trump and his allies fiercely resisted the release of the Epstein files, branding efforts at disclosure a "Democratic hoax" and pressuring even loyalists to keep files secret.
  • “He called members of his party who were supporting this idea traitors. And yet, within the span of a week, you have both the House and the Senate passing the bill. The vote in the House was 427 to 1.” — Evan Osnos [03:27]
• Susan Glasser: For those who grew up politically in the Trump era, his disruption is the new normal, a reminder that what’s “crazy and unprecedented” to some is baseline reality to younger Americans.
• The bipartisan move to release Epstein files signals, perhaps for the first time, real Republican pushback against Trump, but panelists caution against "irrational exuberance."
  • “Beware irrational exuberance.” — Susan Glasser [06:22]
• “It’s a moment when both parties go against the president that begins to really tarnish his image.” — Jane Mayer [07:43]
• The scandal cuts to the visceral antagonism toward impunity for elites, crystallizing MAGA base concerns and fracturing Republican unity.

2. Trump 2.0: What’s Different?

[14:18–19:25]

• Trump learned the lesson of “the cadres”: he replaced senior officials with fiercely loyal, often unqualified, MAGA true believers, removing moderating influences like Mattis and Kelly.
  • “Donald Trump is a president operating without any visible constraints.” — Susan Glasser [15:10]
  • “He is a radicalized version of himself... radicalized by the failure to win reelection in 2020, radicalized by January 6, and especially the prosecutions of himself and some of his inner circle.” — Susan Glasser [16:27]
• The “bad boyfriend theory”: Trump is unchanged at his core—self-aggrandizing, unconstrained by truth, and drawn to vengeance—and now has even fewer guardrails.
  • “You’re not going to change that, by the way.” — Jane Mayer [17:48]
  • “Power…doesn’t corrupt. Power reveals. And he has revealed himself to us now.” — Jane Mayer, invoking Robert Caro [18:47]

3. Notable Images and “Seismic” Shifts

[20:03–23:16]

• Osnos recalls inauguration day 2025, where oligarchs—not elected leaders—shared the stage with Trump: “the world’s wealthiest people lined up next to a president… the leaders of Congress were relegated to the audience.” — Evan Osnos [20:03]
  • “It felt to me like a seismic geography of power.” [20:13]
• The administration's overt preference for autocrats, especially the opulent welcome for the Saudi crown prince soon after, demonstrates Trump’s admiration for and alignment with “America’s autocratic frenemies at the expense of America’s allies.” — Susan Glasser [23:19]
  • The “raising of the East Wing” and lavish White House decor, symbolic of a presidency “jumping the shark.” [23:01–23:16]
  • “There’s no polite way of describing just how much love he was lavishing on this young Gulf prince.” — Glasser [23:46]

4. Authoritarianism and Institutional Breakdown

[22:12–24:36, 28:16–33:45]

• Trump’s rule is defined by his moves to centralize power and sideline traditional institutions and oversight: firing military chiefs on racial grounds, bringing national security and State Department roles tightly under White House control.
  • “You could say that actually the pardoning of the January 6th insurrectionists was the signature act of the Trump 2.0 presidency.” — Susan Glasser [35:25]
• The media is increasingly controlled: the White House press corps “Kremlinized” and Pentagon journalists replaced by “Trump adjacent entities.” — Susan Glasser [28:40–29:56]
• “I was really struck by the national security types… they thought that essentially having an undeclared war on a false pretext… was really crossing of a red line.” — Susan Glasser [30:33]
• Immigration and environmental rollbacks have deep, lasting legacies— but are getting less public attention.
  • “If the thing that we might look back on… is what’s happening with the environment and climate change and the policies that are just destroying natural resources.” — Jane Mayer [31:27]
• The Supreme Court, once considered a bulwark, is now seen by Mayer as deeply politicized due to “targeted political operation,” likely unable to check Trump’s movement.
  • “We can’t really count on the courts to change us because they are a political branch and they're very political.” — Jane Mayer [33:17]

5. The Future of MAGA

[33:58–37:32]

• What will become of MAGA after Trump?
  • The Republican Party, says Glasser, “isn’t going back” to its pre-Trump establishment era. The 2020 election denial has become a “condition” for GOP leadership.
• “MAGA’s part of our history. And Donald Trump now supersedes Ronald Reagan as the signature Republican president, I would say, of our lifetimes.” — Susan Glasser [36:13]
• Who might inherit Trump’s mantle? Panelists are skeptical of successors like J.D. Vance or Don Jr.: “Expect the unexpected… but I am not seeing that kind of charisma.” — Jane Mayer [36:31]
• Osnos draws on lessons from Xi Jinping’s China: Don’t name a successor—power in movements like this is precarious to hand off. [37:32]

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the uniqueness of Trump 2.0

  “Donald Trump is a president operating without any visible constraints. And even where there are constraints, he's essentially bulldozing over them.” — Susan Glasser [15:10]

• On the MAGA base & class

  “The victims of Epstein, they were basically working class, powerless. They are very much like sort of the MAGA base. And these people were taken advantage of and exploited… there's a real sense that this country's not cohering anymore.” — Jane Mayer [13:38]

• On media complicity and courage

  “It’s parts of the system need to stand up and do their thing. Right? Like to me, the thing about being a journalist in this era is like, time to slide down the fire pole. This is what we got into journalism for.” — Susan Glasser [48:06] “Give more voice to the people who are standing up… it's enough that a few people do the right thing and others learn from them.” — Jane Mayer, citing Hannah Arendt [49:03]

• On optimism and backlash

  “The response to cruelty and fragmentation and every effort to divide us will be somebody who has the capacity to pull people together… politics really doesn't like a vacuum.” — Evan Osnos [44:21]

• On the new normal

  “For a whole generation of Americans… what we define as the new abnormal is, in fact, the new normal.” — Susan Glasser [05:13]

Audience Q&A Highlights

Foreign Policy & Trump’s “Theatricality” [39:07–43:52]

• Trump craves the power and spectacle of foreign policy, where checks on presidential authority are weakest; relishes meeting autocrats; sidelines State and Defense Departments, leading to “opaque” military leadership turbulence.

Media’s Role & Responsibility [46:09–49:28]

• The panel stresses the media must not cower, despite mounting government and corporate pressure. Courage—reporting both what’s wrong and those taking a stand—is crucial to public understanding and institutional resilience.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:10] – One year since Trump 2.0: state of play
• [04:37] – The meaning of the Epstein files vote
• [14:18] – Trump 2.0 vs 1.0: radicalization, removal of constraints
• [20:03] – “Seismic” inauguration, oligarchs and new power geometry
• [22:12] – Authoritarian affinity in foreign policy
• [28:16] – Undercovered stories: Press corps, Pentagon, Venezuela war
• [31:27] – Environment/climate, SCOTUS politicization
• [34:25] – The post-Trump, post-MAGA Republican future
• [39:07] – Q&A: Foreign policy normalization, military purges
• [44:21] – Q&A: Can unity overcome rage-bait/fragmentation?
• [46:09] – Q&A: Media’s role, courage, and public trust

Tone & Style

The episode is pointed, wry, and deeply knowledgeable. The panelists combine measured pessimism with institutional insight, not devoid of hope or humor (running jokes about “irrational exuberance,” the “bad boyfriend theory,” and the “Kremlinization” of the White House press pool). Glasser and Mayer bring decades of institutional memory, while Osnos steers with clarity, and all three speak directly and candidly about their own doubts, surprises, and responsibilities as chroniclers of this tumultuous era.

This live episode offers a sharp, timely “rough draft” of history, chronicling how American institutions, norms, and political culture have been permanently altered in just twelve extraordinary months.