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merriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 27, 2025 is:
apropos • \ap-ruh-POH\ • preposition
Apropos is used as a preposition to mean "with regard to." It is frequently used in the phrase "apropos of."
// Sean interrupted our conversation about politics and, apropos of nothing, asked who we thought would win the basketball game.
As an adjective, apropos describes something that is suitable or appropriate, as in "an apropos nickname."
Examples:
"Once, at the height of COVID, I dropped off a book at the home of Werner Herzog. I was an editor at the time and was trying to assign him a review, so I drove up to his gate in Laurel Canyon, and we had the briefest of masked conversations. Within 30 seconds, it turned strange. 'Do you have a dog? A little dog?' he asked me, staring out at the hills of Los Angeles, apropos of nothing. He didn't wait for an answer. 'Then be careful of the coyotes,' Herzog said." — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 8 Jan. 2025
Did you know?
Apropos wears its ancestry like a badge—or perhaps more fittingly a beret. From the French phrase à propos, meaning "to the purpose," the word's emphasis lands on its last syllable, which ends in a silent "s": \ap-ruh-POH\. Apropos typically functions as an adjective describing what is suitable or appropriate ("an apropos comment"), or as a preposition (with or without of) meaning "with regard to," as in "apropos (of) the decision, implementation will take some time." The phrase "apropos of nothing" is used to signal that what follows does not relate to any previous topic.
conulyranunculus
dailykos_feedThe data and election results are pretty clear: The GOP is in a rough place. But it’s not just the data—it’s the vibes. Here are 10 reasons why Republicans should probably start emotionally preparing for a rough 2026, because they’re in for a world of hurt.
We don’t need to look at polls to see that Republicans are already struggling at the ballot box. GOP candidates were utterly routed in this November’s off-year elections, without a single speck of good news to point to. And it wasn’t just the win-loss record. The margins were brutal.
Republicans had a legitimately strong gubernatorial candidate in New Jersey—someone who narrowly lost the previous cycle and was supposedly running neck-and-neck with his Democratic opponent in the polls—and Jack Ciattarelli ended up losing to Mikie Sherrill by 14 points.
In an early December Tennessee special election, Democrats outperformed President Donald Trump’s numbers in the district by 13 points. In Miami, Republicans lost the mayor’s race for the first time in 30 years, by nearly 20 points. Four years ago, they won that same seat 79–12.
Democrats don’t need anything close to those margins to win back the House and Senate in 2026. Results half as good would still produce a GOP wipeout. As one Georgia Republican put it after his party got trounced in special elections, “Our donors aren’t motivated and our voters aren’t either.”
We all know Trump isn’t well. His incoherence keeps getting worse. He can’t walk in a straight line. He struggles with stairs. He shows up at events and press conferences with unexplained bruising on his hands. He’s had multiple MRI scans in a single year. He falls asleep on camera. He misses events without explanation, oscillating between somnambulance and mania.
CNN’s medical expert has described Trump’s current state as “jarring.” He is obese, and deeply defensive about all of it, insisting he’s a paragon of physical and mental health.
The practical result is that Trump is incapable of campaigning effectively for his party. Worse, when he does try, he actively makes things worse.
He recently went on a short tour to claim he was the “affordability president,” only to spend his time rehashing grievances and mocking concerns about high prices as a “hoax.” He’s an albatross around the GOP’s neck, either unable or unwilling to do what’s necessary to shift the political conversation onto more favorable ground.
As 2025’s elections have shown, Trump motivates voters to vote against his party. The individual names on the ballot barely matter. For many voters, the only way to register disapproval of Trump is to vote against Republicans, and they’re doing exactly that. With Trump’s approval ratings now lower than they were during the worst moments of his first term, even during his catastrophic response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Republicans are staring down relentless headwinds.
At the same time, Trump’s most devoted MAGA cultists simply don’t show up to vote when he isn’t personally on the ballot. We saw this in 2018 and again in 2022. Trump can turn out some of the most disengaged voters in the country, but he’s never turned them into reliable Republican voters. Instead, he’s tied them entirely to himself.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump told supporters, “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.” Many people interpreted that as a promise to end elections. But it sounded more like pure narcissism—an admission that without Trump himself on the ballot, his supporters wouldn’t bother showing up at all. And he’s perfectly fine with that.
The Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential campaign largely boiled down to one argument: The economy is doing great. And by the numbers, it was—low unemployment, easing post-COVID inflation, and wage growth outpacing inflation. But that’s not how most people felt, especially those who are lower on the economic ladder.
Trump and Republicans capitalized on that disconnect, winning poorer voters for the first time while Democrats carried voters making over $100,000. But instead of locking in those gains by actually delivering for working-class Americans, Trump and the GOP immediately pivoted back to tax cuts for billionaires, while pushing tariffs and mass deportations that are inherently inflationary.
Now prices are rising again, unemployment and underemployment are creeping up, and Trump is insisting everything is fine. He’s repeating former President Joe Biden’s biggest political mistake—telling people they’re wrong about their own lived experience.
That doesn’t just alienate voters: It enrages them. Nobody likes being gaslit, and that anger helped fuel Democratic victories in 2025. As Democrats make affordability central to their 2026 messaging, Trump is actively making their job easier by denying voters’ reality.
Even in the polls—where Republicans usually find comfort—the numbers include warning signs. On the generic congressional ballot, GOP support remains stuck in the low- to mid-40s, but only lagging Democrats by a few points. Under normal circumstances, that might look competitive.
But this year, polling has consistently overstated Republican performance. In election after election, Democrats have outperformed their polling averages, often by wide margins. That gap matters. It suggests Republican support is soft, conditional, or simply not translating into actual votes.
In other words, the problem isn’t just that Republicans are polling poorly—it’s that even their best-case numbers aren’t materializing on Election Day. When voters do cast ballots, they’re increasingly ignoring individual candidates and using elections as a blunt instrument to register disapproval of the GOP as a whole. And that’s a dangerous place for any party to occupy heading into a midterm year.
A record number of members of Congress are heading for the exits. As of now, 29 Republicans and 24 Democrats have announced retirements. But while Democrats are defending open seats in a relatively friendly environment, Republicans are doing the opposite.
And it may get worse. Puck News reports that as many as 20 additional Republicans are expected to announce retirements in coming weeks, as defending a shrinking majority—and endlessly defending Trump—starts to look like a losing proposition.
Trump did alarmingly well with young voters in 2024, winning 43% of them. Many of those voters had no real memory of his first term, having been politically formed by social media posts and right-wing podcast culture rather than lived experience.
That’s changing fast. A recent Pew poll shows that among voters aged 18 to 34 who backed Trump in 2024, his approval rating was at 94% in February. But when that same group was surveyed again in early August, his approval had collapsed to 69%. Once young voters actually see Trump governing, the shine wears off quickly.
Once touted as proof that Trump was making durable gains with Latino voters, Miami’s mayoral election results instead revealed how shallow and transactional that support really was. As Trump’s rhetoric hardened, his deportation policies intensified, and the economic fallout of his agenda became clearer, Latino voters recoiled.
The GOP’s attempt to reduce the most GOP-friendly Latino voters (Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans) to culture-war fodder and anti-socialism warnings collapsed once those voters saw Trump’s policies directly threatening their families, livelihoods, and communities. And if that shift is happening among those core GOP constituencies, what do you think it’ll look like among more traditionally Democratic Latino voters who pulled the lever for Trump out of economic desperation?
What looked like a political realignment has turned into a backlash—and Miami is likely the template for what’s coming nationally.
Finally, the movement is starting to eat its own. The opening shots of a MAGA civil war have already been fired, and Trump is powerless to stop it. They can’t even wait until after the midterms to tear each other apart.
At the same time, Republicans are stuck managing open extremists like Nick Fuentes and outright Nazis who continue to inflame internal divisions and repel swing voters. The coalition that once looked frighteningly unified is now fracturing in public—and 2026 is approaching fast.
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Related | A year that Americans would rather forget
dailykos_feedWhen Donald Trump gloats online about the galling rebranded “Trump Kennedy Center,” he might face some challenges directing people to its website.
That’s because it’s already taken.
Toby Morton, a former South Park and MadTV writer, told Daily Kos on Friday that he saw the “writing on the wall” back in August and decided to scoop up both TrumpKennedyCenter.com and TrumpKennedyCenter.org.
“Once you’ve spent enough time watching branding, ego, and history collide, the joke basically writes itself,” Morton said.
Related | Kennedy Center already defiled with Trump's name
The comedy writer has a knack for using his creativity to predict—and buy— domains that might be of use to politicians down the road.
Morton has used his resources, most of which come from supporters’ donations, to purchase website domains to point out the absurdities of right-wing groups and personalities like Vice President JD Vance, Moms for Liberty, and Rep. Nancy Mace.
And with the Trump Kennedy Center, the comedian struck satirical gold last week when Donald Trump announced its illegal name change. However, Morton wasn’t exactly enthusiastic when he realized that his prediction came true.
“I sighed, stared into the middle distance, and thought, ‘Of course it did,’” he said.
What’s to come for the domains remains to be seen, as the sites still sit empty today. But from the purchase alone, Morton has already gotten plenty of reactions.
While he has received numerous anonymous offers to purchase other domains he owns, he hasn’t received any buyout requests for the two Kennedy Center gems—yet.
But Morton has never been on this comedic mission for the cash. Instead of money, Morton’s end goal is to use the power of laughter to highlight ludicrous actions coming from all political persuasions.
“I don't care what side you're on, I'm gonna make fun of you,” Morton told Daily Kos in an April interview.
However, longtime Trump ally and president of the Trump Kennedy Center, Ric Grenell, disagrees with Morton’s jokes.
“Support for the Arts should be bipartisan so it’s shameful that the radical left keeps boycotting the Arts to make a political point,” he told Daily Kos on Friday.
Related | Comedy writer dishes on how humor can help us survive Trump
The formerly named National Cultural Center was renamed by an act of Congress in 1963 as a “living memorial” for John F. Kennedy following his assassination. Trump’s obsession with the institution has been met with unease, disgust, and poor ticket sales.
Trump purged the previous board of trustees in February, installing himself as chair and other loyalists who ultimately signed off on the center’s rebrand.
Artists bailed and major productions, such as the hit musical Hamilton, canceled performances.
When the center’s name change became official, and Trump’s tacky name was added to the building’s exterior, another longtime performer at the arts center also called it quits.
Chuck Redd, a musician who hosted the center’s annual Christmas Eve show for nearly two decades, walked away on December 19.
But the White House, driven by Trump’s narcissism, has already come up with replacement programming sure to excite fans of the arts.
Last week, sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Melania Trump’s upcoming self-titled documentary would hold its premiere at the center.
Unfortunately for the Trumps, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be able to market the movie on a splashy new Trump Kennedy Center website, thanks to Morton.
For now, Morton gets a chuckle out of the curious emails he receives as the owner of the domains for the repulsively rebranded Kennedy Center.
“Those [emails] are my love language,” he said.
dailykos_feedA cartoon by Drew Sheneman.
Related | CBS News' censorship of '60 Minutes' story spectacularly backfires
dailykos_feedIn Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort, ICE and border patrol won big as immigrant families spent the holidays living in fear or separated from loved ones.
The president’s bloated Big Beautiful Bill earmarked $170 billion over the next four years for immigration enforcement, which includes the construction of disgraceful new detention facilities.
However, projects have been underway long before federal funds were guaranteed after Republicans in Congress passed their grotesque spending bill.
In July, Florida's “Alligator Alcatraz” opened its doors. The following month, Homeland Security chief Krisit Noem was slammed after teasing the “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana.
Reports of human rights abuses have also surged along with Trump’s brutality aimed at immigrants.
Immigrants are subjected to horrendous conditions at ICE facilities across the U.S. One getting significant attention for its treatment of ICE detainees—and protesters outside—is Chicago’s Broadview detention facility.
However, no amount of outrage from Americans has been able to slow Trump’s heavily funded deportation machine.
According to a glowing year-end report from Homeland Security, more than 2.5 million immigrants have either left the country voluntarily or have been deported by the government’s hastily hired ICE agents.
Related | Next Democratic president needs to crush ICE
And the president has tripled his bribe to get people to willingly leave the U.S., upping the offer to $3,000.
As of early December, DHS claims 1.9 million immigrants have opted to self-deport.
The government shows no signs of slowing down its cruelty, either.
The Washington Post reported last week that the Trump administration has employed contractors to overhaul the deportation processing system, planning to build massive warehouses near detention centers that would house up to 5,000 immigrants instead of shipping them hundreds of miles away from their homes.
Related| The dark history of Trump's retro 'patriotic' imagery
It’s unclear whether the private detention companies bidding on the drafted plans will be the same ones that have questionable ties to border czar Tom Homan.
The Trump administration has also brought shuttered prisons back to life and used military bases to ramp up its drive to recklessly boot millions of people from the country—leading to at least 30 deaths of people in ICE custody.
This included a disturbing four immigrant deaths in four days between Dec. 12-15 at ICE facilities.
Meanwhile, the ghouls at DHS continue to hype up their inhumanity with heinous memes and promotional videos.
“We didn’t have this meme-ification of various serious operations, these things that are life or death. … It’s not a joking matter,” David Lapan, a DHS press secretary during Trump’s first term, told the Washington Post.
As the year comes to an end, it’s terrifying to think what kind of inhumane actions DHS and ICE will take with their influx of federal funds.
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ebooksconulydailykos_feedComedian and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel gave a stark warning to the world about the rise of fascism and tyranny in the United States in a Christmas message broadcast to the United Kingdom.
Kimmel was asked by broadcaster Channel 4 to provide an “alternative” address to accompany the official message aired by King Charles each year.
“From a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year. Tyranny is booming over here,” Kimmel said. He noted that Trump “would like to shut me up because I don’t adore him in the way he likes to be adored.”
“Here in the United States right now, we are both figuratively and literally tearing down the structures of our democracy -- from the free press to science to medicine to judicial independence to the actual White House itself,” he added. “I want you to know we’re not all like him, we’re not all like that.”
Kimmel ended his speech by asking viewers not to give up on America, noting, “we’re going through a bit of a wobble right now, but we’ll come around.”
Kimmel was chosen for the broadcast because in September the Trump administration, via the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), directly targeted him for removal from the air after the comedian commented on the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel has been a longtime critic of Trump and has used his show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to mock Trump for years.
After the program was taken offline, with the assistance of conservative ABC affiliate owners Sinclair and Nexstar, public outcry against the decision led to Kimmel’s triumphant return.
Unlike his predecessors in both parties, Trump has been unable to maintain calmness and maturity when mocked by comedians—a standard part of being a major public figure like the president.
Just before the Christmas holiday, Trump fumed that he was being made fun of by one of Kimmel’s competitors, “Late Night” host Stephen Colbert—and called for the broadcast licenses of networks airing comedians who don’t like him to be pulled.
Trump highlighted his vindictiveness in a Christmas evening post where he warned that Democrats and other detractors should “enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas.”
Over the last year, allies of Trump have exerted their control over major media outlets to bend coverage in Trump’s favor. For instance, Trump inaugural donor and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has overseen an exodus of voices critical of the right in the paper’s editorial pages and has been praised by Trump for pushing the paper in a pro-MAGA direction. Simultaneously, Trump allies like billionaire Larry Ellison have taken over Paramount, which owns CBS, and paid off millions to Trump for a frivolous lawsuit.
Related | Trump threatens TV networks in unhinged Merry Christmas rant
There has been considerable blowback as well, most recently at CBS News, where conservative editor-in-chief Bari Weiss spiked a “60 Minutes” report exposing the Trump administration’s affiliation with abusive policies at El Salvador’s CECOT prison. Instead of squashing an unfavorable story, CBS has come under withering criticism for days on end.
Kimmel was the perfect spokesperson to continue arguing for First Amendment speech under Trump—targeted for regime censorship, he received public support and was restored, and now continues to mock Trump with the contempt the American president has earned.
silveradept
lsandersoncalimacdailykos_feedAs millions of Americans were celebrating Christmas, Donald Trump was launching new military strikes, excitedly announcing that he bombed alleged ISIS terrorists in Nigeria to avenge a non-existent Christian genocide.
“Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper," Trump wrote in an unhinged Truth Social post. “May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”
Of course, while there is undoubtedly terroristic violence in Nigeria, there is no evidence that it is a Christian genocide, as Trump claimed.
Related | Shady foreign leaders are pouncing on Trump's thirst for peace prize
“Portraying Nigeria’s security challenges as a targeted campaign against a single religious group is a gross misrepresentation of reality," the Nigerian government wrote in a post on X back in September. "Terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology—Muslims, Christians, and those of no faith alike."
What's more, even if there was a Christian genocide to avenge, Trump would need to go to Congress to get authorization for the strikes—which he did not do.
"There’s no authority for strikes on terrorists in Nigeria or anywhere on earth. The 2001 [Authorization for Use of Military Force] is only for the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks," former Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican who left the party in protest of Trump, wrote in a post on X. "The War Powers Resolution doesn’t grant any authority beyond the Constitution. Offensive military actions need congressional approval. The Framers of the Constitution divided war powers to protect the American people from war-eager executives. Whether the United States should engage in conflicts across the globe is a decision for the people’s representatives in Congress, not the president."
But Trump has ignored the Constitution to launch multiple military strikes without Congress’ input, one of the many ways he’s shredded the founding documents of this country to simply do what he wants.
Just last week, Trump launched airstrikes against alleged ISIS targets in Syria. And let’s not forget his attack on Iran earlier in the year.
And, of course, Trump has been carrying out illegal military actions in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific without congressional approval, some of which likely constitute war crimes.
Related | Trump uses ‘drug boat’ bombings to justify illegal deportations
Trump claimed, without providing any evidence, that the boats the military is blowing up are trafficking drugs. Yet even if they are, that does not give him carte blanche to launch strikes without Congress' go-ahead.
Ultimately, Trump's bloodlust is completely counter to his campaign promise that he would not launch new wars if elected president.
It's also a joke given that he has deemed himself the “peace president” as he campaigns endlessly for a Nobel Peace Prize.
But GOP lawmakers, who have neutered themselves of their constitutionally granted powers to let their Dear Leader do whatever he wants, don’t care.
In fact, many of them were cheering Trump’s latest military strikes.
“Thank you @POTUS for standing up against Christian persecution. The PEACE President!!” Rep. Ralph Norman, the South Carolina Republican who is groveling for Trump’s endorsement in his bid for governor of the Palmetto State, wrote in a post onX.
Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican running for Senate in the Peach State, even posted an image of a military plane with a Santa hat along with the text “Merry Christmas, Nigerian terrorists.”
Merry Christmas, indeed.
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