THE UNRAVELLING: 2025 Trends and Predictions from 21WIRE

21st Century Wire
NEW YEAR SPECIAL

Looking forward into the New Year, here are some predictions and trends to keep an eye out for.

This past year saw plenty of absolutely unprecedented world events.

Things are definitely coming to the head. Everyone can sense it.

The most notable area to look at this year will be economics. Trade turbulence and economic instability will persist, as 2026 is likely to be quite a difficult year for the US, European, and UK economies. Their addiction to the war in Ukraine, and Russian sanctions do not help the economic equation in the West. But politics and ideological virtue-signalling trump logic these days, so watch their economies crumble as a result. Expect the West to then scapegoat China for this systemic failure. All this and more.

What may be coming down the pipeline in 2026—here’s what we see happening…

GEOPOLITICS:

Trump’s Wars – Donald Trump claims to have already “stopped six wars” in the last 6 months. It’s beyond a joke at this point. On the real war front, Trump has been proudly boasting about his recent Christmas Eve attack on Venezuela, with reports that it was a CIA drone strike. No valid excuse has been given to justify his war on Venezuela, other than vague claims that President Maduro is a “Narco Terrorist” (a newly invented US term), or that Venezuela has somehow “stolen our oil and land”, according to an increasingly absent-minded Trump. So any remaining belief that Trump was going to be an antiwar president is official out the window. The fact remains US has bombed seven countries this year (Iran, Yemen, Venezuela, Somalia, Nigeria, Iraq and Syria). We can also add Russia, Palestine and Lebanon to because these countries were hit with the full blessing of Washington as well as integral support of US aircraft, munitions, intelligence and satellite targeting personnel. What’s more problematic is that no one inside the US, or internationally, is able to stop Trump from bombing or starting new wars. No doubt, this puts America, and the world, in grave danger.

Ukraine War Rolls On – Don’t be fooled by the photo-op and tweets. Despite all the ‘Peace Deal’ theatre from Washington, after every seemingly significant peace summit, Trump always conveniently caves to pressure from the British, Europeans, and little Zelensky. Washington privately knows that if the war ends, then its over-priced LNG gas rip-off of Europe could be in jeopardy, not to mention US and European defense firm share prices will also plummet. And Zelensky will not be bale to fund his marching powder habit, much less an indefinite proxy war against Russia. So there is plenty of motivation to keep the war going. Beyond this, is the fact that by appointing his son-in-law (Jared Kushner) and a shady property developer from Long Island (Steve Witkoff), Trump keeps the door of conflict open due to their gross inexperience and incompetence in international relations—which all but guarantees failure in reaching any binding peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine. Thus, it will grind on in 2026.

SEE ALSO: YEAR IN REVIEW: 2025 Top Ten (Real) Conspiracies

Attacking Iran (Part 2) – During his recent Christmas meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Israeli leader and war criminal Netanyahu, Trump declared that he’s now inclined to attack Iran in the new year. Another war with Iran will further destabilize a region that only wants stability after two years of crises. It seems that both Trump and Netanyahu view the June 2025 “12 Day War” with Iran as a “tremendous success”, but Netanyahu isn’t happy now and has argued more strikes are necessary in order to prevent Tehran from rebuilding its nuclear capabilities, which Trump said he will destroy again. But it’s not Iran’s nuclear weapons that’s the problem here—because Iran has none (despite claims to the contrary by Netanyahu and Trump). Rather, it’s Iran’s medium range missile arsenal which pounded Israel to the point that Netanyahu was forced to beg Trump to bomb Iran in order to stop Iranian missiles from smashing Israeli military facilities to pieces in June. This next round would mean that Iran could close the Straits of Hormuz, thus blocking Gulf monarchy oil from the global market, and causing a global economic collapse in the process. This is why Trump and Israel are obsessed with taking over Venezuela and its massive oil reserves. That said, there is a risk that either Israel or the US would use nuclear weapons again Iran. This would be a disaster for all involved.

Trump’s Venezuela Fail – In December, Trump’s oil embargo turned out the a matador blockade, as Venezuela ignored Trump threats and have continued shipping oil to China. Trump regime change and natural resource theft war on Venezuela seems to be a debacle on so many levels. You have to remember that Trump doesn’t have good luck with playing games in Venezuela—after he presided over two failed coups there in his first term. It was hugely embarrassing for Washington, which is why he’s gone in extra hard this time. The fact is that any US-led intervention—even a limited one, would have a destabilizing effect on Venezuela and the entire region. It would also destroy Trump’s presidency. It could create an immigration crisis too, by creating unnecessary humanitarian and security problems—as well as a bonanza for actual cartel human and drug trafficking (and great for the CIA’s black budget cash pot). But that’s the idea, isn’t it? 

Lebanese Civil War? –We predicted this last January, and Trump and Israel have done everything possible to make this a reality in 2026. In the their recent meeting, Trump and Netanyahu also discussed Israel’s theory that Hezbollah’s is ‘rebuilding’ its arsenal of long-range missiles in Lebanon, thus justifying more continuous bombing of South Lebanon. Meanwhile, Trump ghoulish special envoy Tom Barrack (working on behalf of Israel), US special envoy Tom Barrack (pictured above) has been openly egging-on a civil war in Lebanon after ordering Beirut to use its Army to disarm Hezbollah. Insane, but that’s what Israel has ordered. Now that Trump’s favorite terrorist, self-appointed ‘President’ Al-Jolani in Syria, has just handed the Golan Heights to Israel, while Israel forcibly annexes even more land in South Lebanon. A civil war would be perfect for Israel and Washington, as it would allow more bombing, stealing of territory, and killing of Lebanese people—all of which helps Netanyahu in the polls.

A.I – AI is fundamentally reshaping warfare and global power dynamics by enhancing military capabilities (intelligence, autonomous systems, targeting), fueling an international arms race (US, China, Russia), raising critical ethical/legal dilemmas (killer robots, accountability), and becoming a new pillar of national power, influencing economic competition and policy. This trend is now in full swing, and we’re already seeing the wide-ranging effect of this—in government policy, budget spending, and forward investment in academic research. Combine this trend with the newly popular, but ultimately futile policy of Military Keynesianism , and we have a very dystopian problem on the horizon. In terms of economic, the AI stock market bubble is real, but it won’t pop in yet—there is a lot more inflating to do, before the rug is pulled in US, as China’s open sources Deep Seek model continues to grow and make real-world economic impacts driving Chinese production and efficiency, as opposed to just share prices—like the elite US monopoly model is currently doing.

Military Keynesianism –  What is Military Keynesianism? It is the old Neocon theory that large government defense spending will somehow stimulate economic growth—creating jobs, and boosting industrial production, somehow acting as a ‘fiscal stimulus’ similar to that of public works. The idea that pumping up the military-industrial complex will save us is a delusion for sure, but you have to remember the ultimate object here: to wage more wars. But aside from bankrupting societies, this agenda is ultimately playing Russian Roulette with thermo nuclear war. This is especially promoted during an economic recession. This is where we are now.

The ‘Defensive Pre-emptive Strike’ – This is another inane idea currently being pushed by British and European warmongering fanatics. “It’s become clear that that peace dividend needs to be reversed, and we need to invest more in our radar capability, in our airborne air defence, and also in, ultimately, our ability to shoot down these drones and cruise missiles,” crows British Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is telling us that war between NATO and Russia will come by 2029. Some US hawks are also talking-up the use of nukes. But the worst seems to be Germany—now trying to “justify pre-emptive unpopular measures,” including a forced conscription and a gigantic 20% boost in defense spending. Will this include nuclear weapons? If so, that’s will be the end of Europe as we once knew it. In other words, the lunatic have now taken over the asylum. Let’s be honest: it wouldn’t be the first time in history that intellectually-challenged members of European managerial class dragged Europe into a massive war—which only benefited that central bankers. Déjà vu? 

US POLITICS:

Trump’s Poll Numbers Continue to Crater – This will only get worse in 2026. Frankly, it will be a miracle if he’s able to finish out his term. Trump’s biggest demographic collapse has been with his shrinking popularity among independents. From 43% in 2024, down to 4% in late 2025—that’s a 40x drop in just 12 months. These were the voters who catapulted him into office… twice. And now they are gone for good.

The Return of Civil Rights – Something funny happened to the Left this past year: after two decades of coastal elite Democrats glad-handing oligarchs, and welcoming a incremental Neoliberal authoritarian agenda, Trump’s version of fascism suddenly engendered a renewed skepticism of Big Government, and trampling of the US Constitution. Trump’s overly-aggressive ICE kidnappings, and targeting Muslims for deportation, are a clear violation of the 5th Amendment protecting due process. Also, Trump and Rubio’s attack on the First Amendment by banning anti-genocide student protests on US college campuses, and targeting foreign students for deportation if they dare to criticize Israel—is an egregious attack on constitutionally protected free speech. Also, by casually deploying US military America’s city streets is a violation of Posse  for fighting crime – in late 2025, states successfully sued to keep troops off streets in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland – All this has created the perfect storm, whereby….

Midterm Elections – Republican will likely lose the House and Senate in the upcoming Midterm elections this November. This means that Trump will surely face another impeachment by the House in 2027, and this time the Democrats will be spoiled for choice as to which charge to hoist the Orange Man up on. Failing that, they may try to remove him from office by invoking the 25th Amendment on the basis that Trump is mentally impaired, or cognitively and emotionally unstable.

America’s Retail Collapse – Main street is dying a painful death in America. Just look at all the abandoned strip malls, and empty shops along EVERY main street, in nearly every city and town across America. It’s all part of rapidly expanding desolate retail landscape. It’s bad: The US retail landscape is undergoing a major “collapse” or “apocalypse,” marked by accelerating store closures (15,000+ expected in 2025), bankruptcies (like Saks, Joann Fabrics), and major ‘restructurings’ (Macy’s, Kohl’s) due to e-commerce dominance, shrinking consumer base, massive inflation, high debt, and over-expansion in the early 2000’s—forcing retailers to streamline physical stores for profitable locations and online growth, with significant job losses and transformations in shopping malls and essential goods access continuing into 2026. More pain is coming…

Economic Crash – Most financial experts will agree the the US economy is already in the process of gradually collapsing. Trump’s tariff wars have only delivered stagnation and inflation in the real economy, while the Wall Street stock market bubble continues to inflate—which is only enriching the financial speculator class (perhaps the only remaining staunch supporters of the Trump Administration). The fact is that Trump’s belligerent economic policies have killed US exports and killed trust in the US globally, while his aggressive foreign policy has been rapidly driving global capital away from the US dollar. Trump and his court wizard, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, are desperately trying to push a multi-trillion dollar layer of “Stablecoins” in order to create a new artificial demand for the failing US dollar, desperate to stave off China in the coming currency wars. Two massive red flags for the fiat US dollar during 2025: gold hit an unreal record high at $4,794 per ounce, and Silver also reached record highs at $83.62 per ounce. Bitcoin hit $126,000. The party is only getting started—expect a lot more of this in 2026The dollar is dying, and Uncle Sam is broke: America’s galactic $38 trillion national debt now requires a $1 trillion annual interest payment—and that’s money Washington doesn’t have.

Fascism – One of the problems with authoritarian regimes, is that the worse things get politically and economically, the more desperate ruling class get, and so they are naturally inclined to either blame immigrants (Venezuelans, Chinese, Somalians), and religious minorities (Muslims), or simply lash-out at the opposition elements in the population. In reaction to public disenchantment, the Establishment with usually blame their own failing policies on a “a crisis of democracy”.  This was true for Biden, as well as with Trump, and also with the EU in Brussels, and that gaggle of depressingly unpopular (and mostly despised) European leaders like Macron, Starmer and Merz. The US have a particularly acute problem, in that Trump is actively dismantling due process and the rule of law—both domestically and internationally. This includes deploying US troops on the streets of America to quell social unrest against government failures.

EUROPE:

EU Censorship – Fascism is alive and well in Brussels. It’s dark. Rather than have a come to Jesus moment, the technocrats are now doubling down. Account freezes, social and financial erasure, and political blacklisting, without trial or conviction. This is a fast growing feature of the European Union, with the unelected EU Commission in panic mode over losing the war in Ukraine, and so they are going full Stalin—constructing an opaque mechanism that can be turned inward, targeting its own citizens and residents while circumventing due process. At present, the EU’s sanctions list against Russia includes 59 individuals and 17 entities, which you can view here. In Germany, the government is arresting any pro-Palestine activists daring to come out in public to oppose Germany arming a genocide in Gaza. Expect a massive push-back though in 2026, as the legal wheels begin to turn against EU tyranny on both fronts.

Cashless Society – The number of ‘cashless’ transactions across European member states are now heading towards an average of 70%. In countries like Sweden, they have surpassed 90%. This means that Europe is ripe to be the first large common market to adopt the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). What makes this extremely dangerous, is the fact that central banking elites and the politicians they own—want to link the CBDC to a new Digital ID, effectively controlling what you can buy, sell, or spend on, as well as where you will be allowed to spend it. This will fundamentally alter your relationship to money, the state and faceless corporations.

Digital IDs – It’s now clear the UK’s Starmer regime are rushing to implement a totalitarian Digital ID system. Why the rush? Clearly, the Establishment are planning for a major crisis event. Most likely this is either a plan to trigger World War III against Russia, Iran and China, or they are planning a economic collapse and will need to Digital ID to control and punish an unruly and unhappy population. The over-the-top, aggressive state censorship is one indication that UK, and the EU are working towards fazing out basic freedoms like free speech and free assembly. It’s being rammed through as we speak, but a massive public backlash will come, as this becomes another defining issue of basic freedoms for this generation and beyond.

OTHER TRENDS…

‘The Trillionaire Club’ – After the fake Covid pandemic, we witnessed the billionaire class take advantage of that crisis in order grow the wealth gap exponentially. The next step is to establish a new ‘trillionaire’ class—which experts predict will happen in the next 5 years. Two charter members will be tech oligarchs Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Larry Ellison. Club membership is based on extreme wealth concentration, monopolistic power, inherited fortunes (over 36% of present billionaire wealth), cronyism, and tax avoidance, private islands, private armies, whilst creating an immense, unelected global influence operation to promulgate themselves—all of which ultimately destabilizes the economic system and exacerbates poverty on a scale never seen before in human history. These trillionaires will also be buying governments and pushing for a digital technocracy.

Ozemic epidemic – 2025 saw the parabolic rise of anti-obesity pharmaceutical drugs like Ozempic which mimic GLP-1 satiation signals in the body. However, it classic American style, people are being price-gouged by Big Pharma and the USA’s predatory insurance industry, leaving many people unable to afford their over-priced, high-tech “slimming tablets”. Another typically modern American problem: which some are getting skinny on Ozempic, they are still eating junk and processed food, and consuming sugar, carbs, and alcohol, along with gallons high fructose corn syrup in Sprite and Coca Cola. They are simply displacing and relocating an underlying problem of the modern American diet.

Natural Health Renaissance – One of the positive outcomes of the Covid pseudo pandemic crisis was the explosion of alternative health content creators offering advanced dietary and non-pharma solutions for people with chronic health issues. The results have been astounding for those willing to take the material on board, and make this area of research their personal mission. In other words: more people are now taking responsibility over their health and medical situation. 2025 was the definitely year that Big Pharma has begun to lose its hold over the general population. This trend is irreversible, and will only grow geometrically from here on out…

Plummeting vaccination levels – Another result of the disastrous Covid pseudo pandemic was that the Establishment’s frantic roll-out of the experimental mRNA ‘vaccine’ injection—and the millions of dead and vaccine injured victims of this reckless Big Phara-Government enterprise—has been plummeting vaccination levels across the board. This dirty end of the Big Pharma industry has now been thoroughly exposed as offering no real benefit to humanity—thanks to best-selling books like Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and The Forgotten History, which exposes the generational fraud of mainstream ‘medicine’, and the fact that vaccines, antibiotics, and other medical interventions may not responsible for the increase in lifespan and the decline in mortality from infectious diseases. Quite the opposite, in fact. Couple this with the May 2025 announcement from RFK Jr’s Health and Human Services (HHS), of an immediate removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and healthy pregnant women. Now that the veil has been lifted, this predatory, rent-seeking industry will never recover.

Reject fake online life & Embrace in-person real events – Another tragic hangover from the phony pandemic has been the over-reliance on ‘hybrid’ and virtual, remote meetings and events. However, there’s been a massive rebound in the preference for in-person interactions and more meaningful, authentic high-value activities—including relationship building, complex problem-solving team exercises, group activities, and in dating events. This also means less time spent on the smartphone…

No Device Zones – A big trend in 2026 will be to proliferation of Neo-Ludite spaces—a growing push for “no-device” or limited-device environments in schools, restaurants, and bars to combat distraction and encourage real-world engagement, with schools banning phones for better focus, and some eateries locking them away for better dining, though this contrasts with some businesses embracing phone use for reviews and ordering; overall, it’s a push-pull between digital detox and digital integration, with a strong movement towards reclaiming attention. The big winners here will be children under 15 years-old, as more and more schools see the benefits of taking the phones out of the hands of fragile, developing minds. It’s something to look forward to this year…

So there we are – 2026, boldly going into the new year

HOW ACCURATE WERE WE? TAKE A LOOK BACK AT PREVIOUS YEARS…

THE RECKONING: 2025 Trends and Predictions from 21WIRE

GREAT REALIGNMENT: 2023 Trends and Predictions from 21WIRE

CREATIVE CHAOS: 2022 Trends and Predictions from 21WIRE

INTO THE FIRE: 2021 Trends and Predictions from 21WIRE

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN: 2020 Trends and Predictions from 21WIRE

AROUND THE CORNER: 2019 Trends and Predictions from 21WIRE

SHAKE & BAKE: 2018 Trends and Predictions from 21WIRE

THE BIG SHUFFLE: 2017 Trends and Predictions from 21WIRE

LOOKING AHEAD: 2016 Predictions and Trends from 21WIRE

GAME CHANGERS: 2015 Predictions and Trends from 21WIRE

PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR WINTER FUNDRAISING DRIVE HERE

21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.

Source: https://21stcenturywire.com/2026/01/02/the-unravelling-2025-trends-and-predictions-from-21wire/