Ready for America’s new golden age? Well, stay ready ’cause it ain’t here yet. The U.S. economy grew by just 1.4 percent (annualized, inflation-adjusted) in the fourth quarter of 2025. That’s significantly less than 2.5–3 percent economists had predicted, and way behind last summer’s 4.4 percent rate.

A big reason for the slower growth was the record-long government shutdown. Government spending counts directly into GDP, so less spending means less growth. But there are knock-on effects, too—all those employees who aren’t getting paid are spending less money, and so on and so on.

And, oh, yeah, also the tariffs and the deportation of large parts of the workforce. Could be those had something to do with it, too. Happy Friday.

The Season of Light and Darkness

by William Kristol

Minneapolis, Minn.—“It is safer,” the political philosopher Leo Strauss wrote in 1965, “to try to understand the low in the light of the high than the high in the light of the low. In doing the latter one necessarily distorts the high, whereas in doing the former one does not deprive the low of the freedom to reveal itself fully as what it is.”

I’ll follow Strauss’s guidance and begin with the high.

Here in Minneapolis yesterday, some of us from The Bulwark spoke with local citizens who mobilized over the past months to try to deter and monitor assaults on civil liberties. We met with others who had organized themselves to help their neighbors under assault.

We also paid our respects at their unofficial memorial sites to the memories of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. At the Pretti memorial, I was particularly moved by a hand-made placard with the words of the Lord to Joshua (Joshua 1:9): “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

We will not soon forget the examples we saw of Minnesota strong, and Minnesota courage.

When I got back to the hotel, I caught up on the news of the arrest in London of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and on announcements in other European countries of criminal probes into the complicity of their nationals in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. I thought of the heroic efforts of the Epstein survivors and of those who stood with them in pursuit of justice and accountability and the truth. Finally, at least in some countries, they may see some modicum of justice.

And then I read up a bit on the situation in Ukraine as we approach the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion. The Ukrainian people continue to fight heroically and with amazing success, despite the abandonment by their largest arms supplier and most powerful ally, the government of the United States.

The people of Minnesota. The Epstein survivors. The citizens of Ukraine. Three remarkable examples for all of us of resistance, persistence, and courage in dark times.

We do not lack today for examples of the impressive, of the admirable, of the high—yes, of the heroic.

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., by striking contrast, we see the low revealing itself fully as what it is. Some adjustments in tactics notwithstanding, the Trump administration remains all in on its commitment to mass deportation, mass intimidation, and mass brutalization. Needless to say, the Republican party in Congress remains unwilling to curb this effort in any meaningful way. And it remains clear that no one engaged in the atrocities we’ve seen will be held accountable by this administration. How could they be? They were following orders from the most senior officials.

And the Trump administration’s Epstein cover-up continues. Yesterday, President Trump was asked by Peter Doocy of Fox News, in light of the arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor, “Do you think people in this country at some point, associates of Jeffrey Epstein, will wind up in handcuffs, too?” Needless to say, Trump expressed no compassion for the victims and no desire to see justice done. There was not even any acknowledgement that something awful had happened. Instead Trump said: “I think it’s a shame. I think it’s very sad. I think it’s so bad for the royal family. It’s very, very sad to me. It’s a very sad thing. When I see that, it’s a very sad thing. . . . So I think it’s a very sad thing.”

Trump is saddened by any embarrassment to the royal family. He’s not outraged by anything Mountbatten-Windsor or Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell did. And there is no evidence the Trump administration has any interest in seeing justice done, or any intention of having the truth come out. We have an executive branch that is on the side of the Epstein class, not the Epstein survivors.

Earlier this week, Trump was asked about peace prospects in Ukraine. Needless to say, there was no condemnation of Putin’s brutal aggression. Instead he blamed Kyiv for failing to achieve peace, and indeed threatened Ukraine. “Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”

We have an administration in power here in the United States that is hostile to the rule of law at home and to the fight for freedom abroad. We citizens cannot look away from or wish away that reality. But we can also understand the reality of the admirable actions of Minnesotans and Epstein survivors and Ukrainian freedom fighters. We can insist on understanding the low in light of the high. In doing so, we increase the chances that the high prevails over the low.