Good Riddance 2025
My quick and dirty look at an exhausting, shocking, and insane year.
Was there a day this past year that I didn’t think of Donald Trump? The pathetic answer is no, and what I wrote in 2025 reflected that sad fact. In any case, I hope I injected a bit of humor — albeit dark humor — into my observations. Here’s a quick look at a year many of us would like to forget:
Word of the year: Capitulation. It’s not nearly as buzzy as “67 (six-seven)”, “parasocial” or “slop,” but from where I sit, “capitulation” is the clear winner. One by one, our most esteemed institutions—universities, law firms, the media, Silicon Valley, Fortune 500 companies—genuflected before Emperor Trump. They bent the knee, trashed their stated principles, or simply paid him off.
Turns out democracy is surprisingly cheap.
Most intriguing person of the year: Usha Vance. The Mona Lisa of MAGA, the second lady sports a vague, vacant smile that invites conjecture. Is she content? Sad? Lonely? Or checked out? As I mused earlier this year: “Does she ever look across the breakfast table at [her husband JD] and wonder: Who are you? Or ask herself: What does my participation in all this make me?”
Her silence is her power. It may also be her indictment.
Saddest, most self-deluding man in America: Justice John Roberts. It’s hard to swallow Roberts’s drivel in his recent year-end report. Quoting President Calvin Coolidge, he wrote:
Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken.
To drive home Coolidge’s words, Roberts then added: “True then” and “true now.”
How this self-anointed institutionalist can say all this with a straight face after exempting Trump from any meaningful accountability, then ruling repeatedly to expand the powers of this extraordinarily dangerous president is beyond perplexing. Certainly, Roberts must be aware that 52% of Americans disapprove of how the Supreme Court is doing its job.
Either Roberts truly believes in his own bullshit or he’s got immense chutzpah. No wonder the Trump administration treats him like a tool. Because he is.
Heartbreaker of the year: Brad Karp. The expectation was that the charismatic leader of storied Paul, Weiss Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison would lead the resistance. Instead, Karp, a stalwart of the Democratic party, led the surrender. By brokering the first Big Law deal with Trump, he paved the way for other elite firms to make their own pacts with the devil.
Fair or not, this is now Karp’s legacy. “He’s brilliant in so many ways,” a lawyer who knows Karp told me. “But sometimes the important thing is to know right from wrong, especially when you’re leading not just a law firm but the legal profession.”
My most controversial post: Killing Journalists. Despite counsel from those wiser than I that I steer away from anything that touches on Gaza, I wrote about the killing of Al-Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif. As a result, I lost over two dozen subscribers in one day, including some I considered friends. Yes, I stand by what I said.
My second most controversial post: Zohran Mamdani Is Making Me Nervous – And I Voted for Him. I got slammed by friends, family, and complete strangers for criticizing his acceptance speech, which I found arrogant, callow, and foolishly belligerent. One reader called my critique “centrist limp dick garbage.”
Well, I guess I too am finally succumbing to Mamdani’s charms, because I was quite taken by his inaugural mayoral speech on Thursday. While he was unapologetic about being a democratic socialist, he also made a point of assuring those who didn’t support him. (“Regardless of whether we agree, I will protect you, celebrate with you, mourn alongside you, and never, not for a second, hide from you.”)
But what really resonated was what he said about being a New Yorker:
To live in New York, to love New York, is to know that we are the stewards of something without equal in our world. Where else can you hear the sound of the steelpan, savor the smell of sancocho, and pay $9 for coffee on the same block? Where else could a Muslim kid like me grow up eating bagels and lox every Sunday?
In short, it was a love letter, reminding us why New York remains, despite its harsh reputation, that city upon a hill.
Top 10 Ex-Careerist Posts for 2025:
Does Usha Vance Deserve Our Sympathy?
Why Can’t Mark Zuckerberg Be a Better Man?
Was that Davis Polk Associate Asking for It?
“We Should be Ashamed” - Big Law’s Silence on Covington & Burling
Now Trending: White Supremacist Legal Scholarship
Skadden Kowtows Before the Emperor
And That’s Why We Lost the Election!
Three posts not in the top 10 (but worth a read):
We Must Be More Mindful of the Fragile Male Ego
Before Carrie Bradshaw, There Was Annie Hall
Finally, if this was the year of capitulation, 2026 will test whether anyone still remembers how to stand.
On that note, happy new year!
Can this year be less eventful than last starting off with Maduro in in a celebrity filled Brooklyn jail (who is going to represent him?) and little Marco becoming the Viceroy of Venezuela? What's his title going to be in Iceland?
Nice! Happy new year.