The year in review and what to expect in 2026

The U.S. is on pace for the largest one-year drop in murders the nation has ever recorded. Other major crime categories measured by the index were also down nationwide. The Trump administration last week announced a crackdown on care given to transgender youth in the U.S. – Nineteen states, D.C., sue HHS over gender-affirming care crackdown. DEI Died This Year. Maybe It Was Supposed To, reads a headline in Wired Magazine. Is this all the result of Trump’s ‘common sense’ campaign? Human Events reminds Americans that they need to – Vote like Trump is on the ballot in 2026.

Prof. Pedro Blas González, Sgt. Betsy Smith, Dr. Randall Bock join me to discuss the year in review and what to expect in 2026…

Is the National Police Association seeing the change in crime rates?
What are the reasons for the decrease in violent crime?
Mental health factor?

U.S. murders on pace for largest one-year drop on record

The U.S. is on pace for the largest one-year drop in murders the nation has ever recorded. The decline in killings is part of a broader decrease in violent crime. Mass killings in the U.S. also fell in 2025, reaching their lowest level since 2006.

Other major crime categories measured by the index were also down nationwide and across locations of all population sizes, including motor vehicle thefts (23.2%), aggravated assaults (7.5%) and robbery (18.3%).

President Trump has prioritized cracking down on violent crime in his second term, though there is no clear evidence linking his policies to the decline.
Trump has deployed National Guard troops to various cities throughout the country that he says require additional support alongside law enforcement to fight escalating crime. D.C. — which he has claimed was made safer due to his efforts — saw nearly a 28% decline in murders this year. (Axios)

Nineteen states, D.C. sue HHS over gender-affirming care crackdown

The Trump administration last week announced a crackdown on care given to transgender youth in the U.S. In addition to the declaration, HHS also issued two proposed rules that would withhold federal funds in connection with gender-affirming care and another that would bar facilities that offer this type of care from receiving Medicare or Medicaid funding.

“The Kennedy Declaration has immediate, significant, and harmful impacts on the Plaintiff States as administrators of state Medicaid programs and as regulators of the practice of medicine,” the suit reads. Kyle Faget, a lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, told STAT the scope of the declaration issued by Kennedy is “enormous.”

“It essentially says to the medical community … you can’t, without significant risk, provide gender-affirming care even if you believe that is an appropriate standard of care,” she said. She added it would essentially exclude those providers from practicing within entities that accept federal funding — even if they provide gender-affirming services in a private practice.

“We’ve never seen a declaration issued like this before. Declarations tend to be issued in public health emergencies. That’s not what they chose to do here,” she said.

From a medical standpoint, between the oath that doctors and medical professionals take – no matter what – to the political ramifications of a ‘hot potato’ topic like this – Does the medical community have an obligation here, or do they withhold care?

A coalition of Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia has sued the federal health department, calling a declaration that rejected gender-affirming care signed by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. an overreach of his authority.

It argues that Kennedy exceeded powers Congress had granted the Department of Health and Human Services by attempting to define standards of care. At a press conference last week, Kennedy dismissed the threat of legal challenges, declaring that the department would win any such court battle.

Politically, the Trump admin has made this a central theme in Trump’s ‘common sense’ campaign to change the national narrative – Do they have the politics on their side and who wins in the end? (STAT)

DEI Died This Year. Maybe It Was Supposed To

I’m a Black staffer at WIRED. My position feels more precarious than ever. There’s a reason for that. I’ve worked at WIRED as a writer for eight years, and with much success. Eight years is also an eternity in news media, and especially if you are Black. All industries suffer from unique growing pains. Ours just so happens to have laughably high turnover rates, a distaste for racial and gender diversity, and the dubious distinction of being perpetually on the verge of extinction.

The only reason I’ve survived, I joke, is because I’m Black. It’s a silly thing to say, particularly because I have no actual proof of it other than the occasional feeling.

You shape the position, but the position also shapes you. You become the voice, are shoehorned into the race beat, assigned stories to write about the killing of yet another Black person gone too soon. You retrace their last breaths in Minneapolis, in Georgia, in New York, in Every City, USA. You’re asked to make your stories more “poetic,” to report on the pain of your people, to find meaning in a moment that adds up to the same grim algebra every time: Black life is at best conditional in America. And for a very long time, though probably a little too long, I was OK with the gig because there wasn’t anyone else at the publication who was going to do it.

Today, race can feel like a job-market albatross in a way it hasn’t in a generation or two, as diversity initiatives are being bulldozed and the federal government, steered by MAGA apologists, has reframed DEI into a slur, often against Black people. “That became the problem—and the ignorance,” says Kai Lawson, an executive and former DEI lead at Dentsu Creative. (Wired)

Vote like Trump is on the ballot in 2026—because he is 

Do Republican voters understand the importance of these midterms?
Will Republican voters get out to the polls in the midterms?

As we prepare to enter 2026, we once again face a critical election cycle. Too many on the right tend to treat the midterm elections as a breather. A pause. A chance to rest after the intensity of a presidential cycle. After all, Trump is not on the ballot. Or, is he?

The truth is that if conservatives lose the House in 2026, impeachment will be back on the table before the ink is dry on the election results. It will be immediate. It will be performative. It will be political. We have already seen this movie. We have already heard Democrats vow to do it again. Make no mistake about it. Donald Trump is on the ballot in 2026.

If Republicans lose the House in 2026, the next two years of a Trump administration will be consumed by investigations, impeachment hearings, and endless political theater.

Cabinet officials will be dragged before hostile committees. Policy momentum will grind to a halt. America’s priorities will be stalled not because voters rejected them, but because conservatives failed to show up when it mattered most. That is why 2026 matters just as much as 2024 did.

The Left is counting on exhaustion. They are counting on complacency. They are counting on conservatives to believe that a single win means the battle is over. It is not. It never is. (Human Events)

Prof. Pedro Blas González is a Professor of Philosophy at Barry University, Miami Shores, Florida. Check out his recent book, Philosophical Perspective on Cinema.

Sgt. Betsy Smith is a 29-year veteran of a large metropolitan police department in the Chicago area, and now the spokesperson for the National Police Association.

Dr. Randall Bock is a physician with over 30 years in primary care and an investigative journalist known for his rigorous critiques of health policy. Catch him every Friday at 5 pm ET on America Out Loud PULSE.

On Viewpoint This Sunday, our goal is not just to report the facts and the news, but to understand the core of the problem and offer resolutions that provide a path forward toward lasting peace. Our distinguished panel of experts will provide the context for the current battle and the long-term consequences of this historic clash of good and evil. Rate the program, leave a quick review, and subscribe to Viewpoint on Apple Podcasts by clicking here — your voice for the fight forward – Malcolm Out Loud.