From Musk to Gaza: Issues We're Watching in 2025

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

80% : Musk will occupy a prestigious position in the top tier of Trump whisperers.
73% : For Musk's influence to grow, his chemistry with Trump must remain strong.
55% : This year, it goes without saying that most of us here at FP will be watching the return of Donald Trump to the White House -- and the profound impact his policies are likely to have on many parts of the world, from Ukraine to the Middle East.
55% : This year, it goes without saying that most of us here at FP will be watching the return of Donald Trump to the White House -- and the profound impact his policies are likely to have on many parts of the world, from Ukraine to the Middle East.
55% : He is already turning up in unexpected places; in November, for instance, he met with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations; in early December, he joined Trump in a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at Mar-a-Lago.Musk's views -- and financial conflicts of interest -- will be watched most closely in relation to U.S. policy toward China and Russia.
52% : Corporate CEOs seem confident they can dissuade Trump from carrying out his more radical promises.
51% : In 2024 alone, we saw an undersea cable-cutting incident involving a Chinese-flagged bulk cargo carrier in Sweden's exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea -- and futile efforts by Sweden to get China to cooperate with the investigation, even though it's obliged to do so under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
49% : While it may not be as dramatic as war, it is even more consequential as shipping transports more than 80 percent of global trade.
49% : In 2025, the EU should prioritize adopting the EU-Mercosur free-trade agreement despite staunch French opposition.
47% : Musk's frequent channeling of Kremlin talking points on Ukraine will be a second area of focus, as Trump prepares plans to bring the war to a rapid close.
42% : With rare exceptions, most U.S. companies have long favored free trade and open immigration.
40% : His official role co-leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) comes with the grandiose and almost certainly unrealistic goals of cutting $2 trillion -- or around one-third -- from the U.S. federal budget.
39% : One way for Beijing to abandon its current economic playbook might be a grand bargain between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to restore China's access to advanced U.S. technology.
39% : As Europe struggles to stem its economic decline vis-à-vis the United States and China, 2025 will show whether EU institutions and member states are able to take an inward look at their glaring economic weaknesses and boost innovation financing.
36% : The return of Donald Trump as U.S. president and his threats of levying steep tariffs on Chinese goods is not the most significant challenge for Beijing.
35% : Businesses are gambling that they can walk Trump back on these issues.
34% : The president-elect may wobble if markets react negatively; Trump sees the stock market as a key measure of his performance.
32% : Did corporate America make a good bet on Donald Trump?
32% : Corporate America's bet on Trump is going to matter far beyond corporate boardrooms.
31% : DOGE's influence will rely on Musk's ability to use his access to intervene in the U.S. government by persuading Trump to selectively cut government programs and personnel.
26% : Trump, as we know by now, is on the opposite side on these issues.
25% : Even if they do eventually split, Musk's place at Trump's side has already emerged as one of the most unpredictable and controversial issues to watch as Trump starts his second term.
22% : On immigration, Trump told NBC News that he favors deporting entire families, including their children that are U.S.-born citizens, and is set to reverse a policy that prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting migrants at sensitive locations like schools, churches, and hospitals.
19% : Also last month, Musk entered a war of words with anti-immigrant Trump supporters over the merits of H1-B worker visas -- a feud he appeared to have won, at least for now, when Trump subsequently came out in favor of the visas.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.