December 10, 2025

Wednesday, December 10th, 2025 - Trump’s dictator besties; Musk regrets DOGE; Hegseth flexes AI; Miami goes blue; Swift’s showgirl chaos = bots

8 minutes

Today’s Headlines: Trump had a busy week: he gave himself an A++++++ on the economy, and in a Politico interview, openly admitted he has “no vision for Europe” while praising autocrats like Orban in Hungary and Erdogan in Turkey. European security officials are sounding alarms too, warning that Russia’s hybrid warfare campaign—political sabotage, infrastructure attacks, energy manipulation, and propaganda—could escalate into a full-blown war by 2029. Meanwhile, Netanyahu says he speaks to Putin “regularly” to protect Israel’s borders, particularly against Syria, so the lines are already being drawn. Over in tech, Elon Musk confessed on Katie Miller’s podcast that DOGE was only “somewhat successful” and that if he could do it again, he wouldn’t. And the Pentagon, under Pete Hegseth, is rolling out Google’s Gemini AI for unclassified work like onboarding and administrative tasks—but the NYT is suing because Hegseth’s new press rules forced reporters to sign gag orders or lose access. In Florida, Miami elected its first Democratic mayor in 28 years, Eileen Higgins, a former Peace Corps director and mechanical engineer, ending decades of GOP control and running on a government efficiency platform. Let’s travel back to Taylor Swift’s October album release real quick, remember the nazi, trad wife chaos around it? Turns out, less than 4% of accounts drove 28% of the conversation, and over 73% of the inflammatory posts came from inauthentic or conspiracy-focused accounts. Basically, most of the outrage wasn’t real—it was engineered.

Resources/Articles mentioned in this episode:

Politico: Full transcript: POLITICO's interview with Donald Trump

Financial Times: Russia’s hybrid warfare puts Europe to the test

Times Of Israel: In Knesset debate, Netanyahu says he regularly talks to Putin to safeguard Israel's 'vital interests'

WSJ: New York Times Sues Hegseth, Defense Department Over New Press Rules

Axios: Musk says DOGE was only "somewhat successful," wouldn't do it again

Axios: U.S. military to use Google Gemini for new AI platform

Politico: Miami elects first woman mayor, ends GOP’s 28-year control of City Hall

Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift's Last Album Sparked Bizarre Accusations of Nazism. It Was a Coordinated Attack

Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage and edited by Grace Hernandez-Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

...more