Yes, "The past year has been tough for all of us, but don’t worry, because next year will be even worse.”

No, these are not my words. They belong to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She made this pessimistic forecast for 2026, warning us all to brace for a challenging year.

But still, please don’t get too excited. A new year always means a new beginning, new opportunities, even though this one promises otherwise.

As we say in Turkish, "Gelen gideni aratır!” (Literally, "The one who comes after is worse than the one who came before”). Our popular pop singer Sezen Aksu translates it as "Better the devil you know (than the devil you don't).” For a new chief in your office, I know it is true (by experience!). But for a new year, don’t we have to be a little more optimistic than Meloni? At least we could think that no year could be worse than this simply because the American people are not going to reelect Donald Trump, not in 2026, not in 2028, not ever! But then again, Trump will be with us next year and the next and the next after that. Only God knows how many more wars he is going to "stop," how lower the prices will be in the United States, how many boats he will blast out of the open seas.

In short, the ending year was a growing pile of failures, corruption and scandals, mainly coming from this senile old man who is running (or so he thinks) the most powerful nation on the face of the earth. His closest assistant, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said, "The president has an alcoholic’s personality,” which, according to respectful scientists, is often associated with several personality disorders, including antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD), with a higher risk of impulsivity (failures), risk-taking behavior (corruption) and disregard for social norms (scandals).

Susie’s unusually candid and at times unflattering assessments of the president, unfortunately, herald a series of "I don’t know,” and "I know nothing about it,” and "I don’t understand,” and variations of similar lame excuses. Amanda Marcotte of Salon.com compiled the instances of Trump’s playing coy, such as nominating an anti-science social media influencer as surgeon general and saying the next day he doesn’t know her. Attempting piracy in full daylight off the Venezuelan waters, and when asked, replying, "I don’t know that happened.”

A year full of scandals

Take the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as an amalgam of a Trump-induced failure, corruption and scandal. Did it really cut government spending? A New York Times analysis found that the group’s biggest claims were largely incorrect and that its many smaller cuts added up to little savings. Elon Musk’s department of smoke and mirrors' 29,000 job cuts to the federal government didn't save a real billion dollars; quite the contrary, pushing out essential civil servants did a disservice to the people. Musk said it would reduce federal spending, but on DOGE’s watch, federal spending did not go down at all. It went up.

Trump finally fired him, but the harm had already been done. That harm will extend to the subsequent years, because the federal government won’t be able to train enough people to hire. Americans don’t know anymore who is the lame duck: the Congress or Trump, who dominates not only his Republicans but also the Democrats. Even the senior Democrats say they are handing over too much power to those (in the words of professor Paul in the movie, "The Holdovers") "hormonal vulgarians” at the White House. (I have the strong urge to quote every insult Paul says in that movie.)

Another point that could put a little smile (or a smirk, at least) on your face: Trump shows signs of getting hold of his belt loops, which had been seized by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Last time, Netanyahu had him trailing all over Iran and making him bomb empty carcasses of nuclear facilities. I believe the Farsi people are much cleverer than the Zionists. They wouldn’t put their atomic bombs where Netanyahu could find them.

Also, Israel’s covert activities in Syria to frustrate its new government have been exposed, and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa seems see the Zionist trap. The YPG (the U.S.-backed Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist organization) has been stalling the process of unification in the country. The U.S. ambassador in Ankara said clearly that Washington is not supporting Israel’s idea of a federation in Syria.

All together, these all look like signs of Trump’s regaining consciousness and remembering that he had not promised the American people not to make Israel "greater." During the campaign for his first term, Trump had lavished all the occupied Palestinian and Arab lands on Israel, hoping to have the billions of donations from the rich U.S. Zionists, but not anymore. First of all, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) money is so toxic now in the U.S. after what Israel has done as a reaction to the Oct. 7 raid of Hamas that major recipients of that money are making announcements that they have not accepted it anymore.

Secondly, "The Epstein Conspiracy” is now fully understood as a Zionist blackmail scheme against the honest but weak "hormonal vulgarians” in American politics. They will draw a veil over it depending on how much Trump and others continue supporting Israel’s colonial settler politics. But when a trap and the trappists’ aim are in the open, it may not work as effectively. The Epstein files are not going to have a sensationalist impact on the American public opinion.

While I wish you a happy new year, I kindly ask Meloni to read more often a fellow Roman, Marcus Aurelius, who once said, "Never let the future disturb you – you will meet it with the same weapons of reason and mind that, today, guard you against the present.”

Not only Meloni, but we all can learn from the fetish book of the curmudgeonly instructor Paul of the movie "Holdovers": "The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius," emperor and philosopher: "Concentrate on living what can be lived ... then you can spend the time you have left in tranquility. And in kindness. And at peace with the spirit within you.”