Up First from NPR - The Second Trump Administration, South America Shifts Right, Time For Sports

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

NPR’s Ron Elving has been thinking about the state of U.S. politics since President Donald Trump returned to power. Also, several countries in South America elected conservative and even far right leaders in 2025, marking a political and ideological shift in the region. And, we’ll have the highlight reel from the year in sports. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Good morning, Daniel. Morning, Scott. Before we begin the show today, I want to take a moment to reflect on the value of public media. Yeah, public media is what makes up first, and all the podcasts you love from NPR, so unique. From its founding in the United States, public media has been meant to educate listeners and illuminate the stories from underrepresented communities to provide cultural insight that expands your perspective. Our commitment to those principles will never change at NPR, but with federal funding for public media eliminated, we now rely on your support to bring you up first more than ever. That's why we're especially grateful this holiday season, and we want to pause to appreciate the generosity of NPR Plus supporters and all of our listeners who've already stepped up to donate. And that includes listeners like Stephanie in California.

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What will 2026 bring for the Trump administration? I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Daniel Estrin, and this is up first from NPR News. In South America, socialist rule in Bolivia came to an end, and Chileans voted in an ultra-conservative president. political shift to the right, and an increase in U.S. actions in the region. The goal here is to bring security and stability to the hemisphere. What a year for sports.

We'll play the highlight reel. Also, quite a year for sports gambling scandals. Well, my bet, Scott, as you'll say, Fear the Deer one more time. Fear the! The odds are good. Please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. 20206 is just days away, so it may be a good time to look both backward at the year that was and forward to the year to come.

This time last year, we were taking stock of an extraordinary election. And now we're reflecting on the first year of the second Trump administration. And beer senior contributor, Ron Elvane, has been thinking about the state of U.S. politics. Both past and present. Ron, thank you for being with us. Good to be with you, Scott. I asked you last year what you were watching for in 2025, and you advised, buckle up. You're some kind of psychic? If I were, Scott, maybe I could find my cell phone more easily. You didn't need paranormal powers to see Trump's second term would be anything but normal. Even by the standards of his first term when he got impeached twice and indicted on both state and federal charges, yet he came back.

And despite all that, and there's a little chance he's going to. be cowed by threats of consequences this time around. The balance between Trump's impulses and the restraints on his power was more conventional the first time around. He was finding his way for a while, relying more on people who knew the Washington way or were well-established on their own in government or in the Republican Party. This time around, we have a cabinet and White House staff dominated by dedicated enablers, willing to carry out orders the way Trump has always thought all his employees should. But there are cracks in what had been the president's support in his own party over Ukraine, the economy,

the Epstein files. Do you see those divisions widening? The conventional wisdom says the closer we get to the midterms, the more we will see vulnerable Republicans distance themselves from Trump on health care, on food prices, or various other issues. That happens to any president who is down in the polls halfway through a term. Of course, there could be events, as there were in other midterm years, such as 2002 or 1998, those reversed the usual dynamic, but the elections coming in 26 are not the only source of stress in Trump's movement. There are tremendous divisions among some of his reporters who are not office holders, especially among the cultural activists and people in the media, the podcasters and online influencers, the ones who have provided so much of the heat around Trump. They're at odds with each other over Israel, over Epstein, over Venezuela.

and they're battling over who gets the MAGA megaphone when Trump begins to fade. One of the defining features of the second Trump administration is how it regards or disregards the rule of law. What are your thoughts? This term has featured serious policy shifts like the Trump tariffs and the deportation drive and the military strikes without congressional approval. We also see a lot of personal retribution against Trump's political enemies and provide evocative displays of will, such as the partial demolition of the White House and the Trump rebranding of the Kennedy Cultural Arts Center and the Institute of Peace. In all of this, we see a willingness to test the boundaries, try the locks on the doors, see what's open, see what happens, and ultimately to see who will step up to enforce the law.

In the year to come, we can expect these confrontations to continue and quite possibly escalate. What will you be looking at, especially closely next year? again this year, the focus will be on Trump. Not just what he does and what he says and what he spreads online. The focus will also be on how he looks and acts and behaves in highly personal ways. We've already seen a lot of this attention, especially in the visual and social media. The president turns 80 on June 14th. He's planning a lot of high profile events around his birthday, but he would not need those events to bring attention to his age. Are people going to be asking, is this the same Trump? Does he still have his famous?

Mojo, and when the midterms have passed, the spotlight must inevitably shift to the question of succession. And Pierre Senior contributor, Ron Elvin, thanks so much, my friend. Happy New Year. Thank you, Scott. Happy New Year to you. Several countries in South America elected conservative and even far-right leaders in 2025. It is a political and ideological shift, and it comes as the 20th. administration has increased military power and political pressure in the region. Here's Secretary of State Marco Rubio right before Christmas, defending U.S. actions there. The goal here is to bring security and stability to the hemisphere, to the region, the region we live in, okay, which has not received enough attention.

For more, we go now to NPR correspondent Kerry Kahn in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Thanks for being here, Carrie. Hello, Daniel. So let's start just talking about this big turn to the right in the region. Yes, it's been in the last few years. In some ways, it's part of the natural swings, the power alternations here. The left had big gains before, but started losing major elections recently, especially in Argentina and in Ecuador last year. And this year, we saw decades of socialist rule in Bolivia fall and an ultra-conservative candidate just flipped Chile last month. So what is the big issue here for voters? Is it anti-incumpancy? Is it something else?

Partly it is, but overwhelmingly voters are concerned about crime, violence, and security. And in the case of Chile, also illegal immigration, that to me is the significant shift in the landscape here. When the left took power, the major emphasis back then was economic inequality, social issues, the environment. Now it's safety. And the left just has not come through with either effective policies to combat, the organized crime violence, or credible promises. is that they're going to do something better. And the right has really straightforward, tough on crime plans and slogans. And I'm not commenting on the quality of the rights proposals. All I'm saying is that they are resonating better with voters. Hmm. Okay. So what are some of those measures?

Get tough on crime, like those made infamous in El Salvador, the Mano Dura, Iron Fist policies that are just being emulated everywhere, bringing the military to patrol the streets, build maximum security prisons, tough in sentences, and in many places, the population is more than willing to curb civil rights to combat that crime. Also, many just want to crack down on illegal immigration. Remember, nearly 8 million people have fled the authoritarian rule of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, and most have stayed here in this region. The right has deftly conflated and merged the high crime fears and illegal

immigration, like with the recent win in Chile by the ultra-conservative there. He pledged to build fences, even dig huge ditches along the border, as well as start mass deportations of migrants. Wow, which sounds a lot like Trump's pledges here in the U.S. Yes, no surprise that Trump's policies get a very warm reception, and they're being mirrored here, too. Among conservative voters and anti-left voters, his military intervention against Venezuela and drug traffickers is very popular. Trump's also stepped in for many of his favorite candidates and his allies. There was that $20 billion bailout for Argentina's far-right libertarian president, Javier Mille, that came right before he was facing a tough midterm election, and Trump pledges support for the new right leaders in Bolivia and in Chile.

And the populist anti-crime rhetoric is really working. Some have even coined it with a new term security populism. Will Freeman of the Council on Foreign Relations was talking to me about that. And he says it's not surprising that this is gaining so much popularity, given how powerful and rich organized crime groups have become here. The sheer kind of corrupting force of that money is more than any country's institutions can really deal with. And we're seeing countries like Uruguay and Chile that had relatively strong institutions just falter in the face of these crime gangs.

Why are these crime groups becoming so powerful right now? I mean, hasn't organized crime been a problem for a long time in Latin America? Sure, but they're richer than ever. They're making billions and not just from drugs, but migrant trafficking and increasingly illegal gold trafficking. Gold prices are soaring right now. And so is demand for drugs in the U.S. and Europe, and especially cocaine. It's on the rise in the U.S., but cocaine use is at an all-time high in Europe.

And so is coca production, and that happens mainly in Colombia. So most cocaine smuggling and transportation goes through Ecuador. And I just spent a lot of time there this year, and I spent time with this one banana farmer. And I just want to tell you a little bit about him. He battles extortion and kidnapping attempts by the cartels. He told me this one story that has stuck with me so much. He was visiting friends in Europe, and they were all partying, and someone pulled out cocaine. And he said he was just floored.

He told them, don't you know what that has done? Your consumption has done to my country? And he said the people at the party just could not connect the dots with him. Oh, wow. Are we going to see more of this shift to the right in the coming year? We have some big elections next year here in Brazil. where leftist Luis Anasio Lula de Silva is struggling with his own messaging problems and his age. He's 80.

In Colombia, leftist President Gustavo Petro has taken on a very public fight with President Trump, not sure how his party is going to fare there. And security is still going to dominate politics. That's a given. It doesn't look like gold prices are plunging or the drug supplier demand is dropping. So these gangs and their corruption, their power and their violence will still be top issues for voters. here. Okay, NPR's Carrie Khan and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, talking about the shift to the right and far right in South America. Thank you, Carrie. You're welcome. And now it's time for sports. A World Series

to cherish, an NFL dynasty deflates. Plus, what sport didn't have a gambling scandal in 2025? Sports writer Howard Bryant joins us. Howard, thanks for being with us. Hello, Scott. One gambling scandal after another in sports this year from the NBA, Major League Baseball, college basketball, players suspended for gambling and having bets on certain occurrences in the game, which is how I'll describe prop bets. In the year ahead, do fans need to ask, can I trust what I'm seeing? This day was coming, and I think that the sports leagues had taken the position that I never agreed with. I never quite understood it. These players make so much money that they would not risk the adrenaline rush that comes with gambling.

And we've seen that not to be the case. We've seen that Major League Baseball with Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Classet are involved in a scandal. They may never play again. We've seen the Jante Porter and the NBA, now the Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier case. Obviously, in tennis, the issue was more economic, the lower-ranked players trying to fund their careers are susceptible because the players don't make any money until you reach the top 50. You know, you've got to be a really, really good player to pay for that sport traveling around the world. And the attitude has been that, well, essentially the leagues are going to take the money.

The commercials are everywhere. I mean, media is funded by draft kings and fan duel and the rest of it, and then the players take the fall. And so the more you watch these games with your high-definition televisions and the controversial calls, especially in the NFL and the NBA, the more you begin to wonder, are you watching a legitimate contest? And that is the death knell for sports. So the question's really going to be, are you going to trust what you're watching, or are we simply going to watch these athletes be the ones who individually get bounced out of the game and the game maintains its legitimacy?

I think it's a very, very difficult balance. And I think 2025 really showed that. But that was a historically great world series. Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Bligeys in a series that twisted turn and set records over seven games. See, I'm choked up. You are, you're reclaimed. It's incredible, Scott.

I mean, that is the thing that we love about the games. Every time there's a scandal, whether it's steroids, whether it's gambling. When the game has played at its best, people come to it and they love it, and it reminds them of all the reasons why they get hooked on the, you know, in the first place, when their team wins. Greg Maddox once told me the great Hall of Fame pitchers told me it's baseball. You can't ruin it. And that Dodgers Blue Jays World Series was one of the greatest things I've ever seen in covering this stuff for 30 years. It is that reminder of the power of what sports brings for us. And no bigger name than Shohei Otani. Once again, we talk about all the scandal,

but you also talk about the things that these athletes can do. And you're looking at an all-time great player who can do things that none of us have seen, all start. level pitcher, all-star level hitter, all-star-level talent. And you feel like you've seen it all, and then in something like baseball, there's always something we haven't seen. And the same thing is true in the other sports as well, Scott. I think that it's been such an interesting year in 2025 because there's this feeling of, you know, gloom all over the country and the world. And then there's also this feeling that the games, the money has gotten so big and we are all so jaded. But then you get these moments.

However, the Kansas City Chiefs haven't had a lot of great moments. They started off the year in the Super Bowl. They're now six and ten, not in the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Do we have to mark the end of an era? I don't think so yet. I mean, obviously, Patrick Mahomes with the injury, the Patriots had down years. They thought the dynasty was over in 2009, and then they came back and went to the Super Bowl and won three more of them. So it will be interesting to see what happens to Patrick Mahomes and what happens to the Chiefs,

but I wouldn't count them out yet. the interesting thing for me is going to be this year you've got it looks like the the ravens are in trouble the chiefs are out and this has got to be josh allen's time with buffalo they've got to find a way to get there i mean there's no clearer path for him than this year i know there's a bunch of new young guns but they're the ones right now who have to be the favorites to get there all right sports writer howard brant we'll look forward to talking with you about all of it thanks so much my pleasure Scott, happy New Year. And that's up first for Saturday, December 27th, 2025.

I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Daniel Estrin. Elena Tworick produced today's podcast, and she had help from an extremely cute puppy named Georgie. Also more help from Dave Mistich and Michael Radcliffe. Our show has been edited by Samantha Balaban, Gabriel Dunitoff, Melissa Gray, and Dedey Skanky. Andy Craig is our director, our technical director. is David Greenberg with engineering support from Nisha Highness, Zoe Van Genhoven, and Zach Coleman.

Our senior supervising editor is Shannon Rhodes. E.B. Stone is our executive producer, and Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. At the end of every year, many of us resolve to make small changes in our lives. But what would it take to make a big change? And what about if you've already reached retirement age? Tomorrow on the Sunday story, WBUR reporter Anthony Brooks shares stories about people he's met We've done just that. And for all of the news that you might need to end your year, well informed,

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