11 Warnings for 2026

The shit storm around us - none of it should come as a surprise. They told us their plans and now they're acting on them. It was all clearly laid out in Project 2025, the Republican playbook released in 2024.

Want to know what will happen in 2026?

Well, they're telling us again.

Next year's plans have all been documented in The Heritage Foundation's 2025–2026 Policy Priorities and the November 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS). These two reports spell out the operational objectives for the administration's second year.

Contained within these reports are 11 warnings about our near future:

1. The Border War Goes Hot: U.S. Troops Will Strike Land Targets in South America.

The NSS confirms the U.S. military was deployed to stop the "invasion" and declared drug cartels and gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Following deadly airstrikes on alleged drug boats that have killed over 80 people, the U.S. is poised to follow through on explicit threats to launch "land operations" inside sovereign countries like Venezuela. (BTW, Venezuela is about oil, not drugs.)

The escalation, demonstrated by the massive U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, will likely trigger severe, retaliatory actions that destabilize the entire region. The ultimate constitutional crisis will center on whether the President has unilaterally established a permanent, undeclared war in the Western Hemisphere. Moreover, clashes will escalate over using the military for domestic law enforcement and violating the Posse Comitatus Act.

2. Civil Rights Are Dead: The Legal End of Equality Enforcement.

The policy agenda includes a quiet but devastating legal maneuver: eliminating the ability of federal agencies (like the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights) to administratively investigate and enforce civil rights law. Enforcement duties would be transferred to the DOJ, but restricted only to costly, slow litigation in the courts.

This action effectively ends proactive federal protection for civil rights in schools, workplaces, and public spaces. Because litigation is prohibitively expensive and resource-intensive, most victims of discrimination (e.g., disabled students, victims of racial bias) will be unable to obtain relief, allowing discrimination to flourish while remaining technically illegal.

3. NATO's Breaking Point: The 5% Defense Fee Demands Immediate Payment.

The U.S. has demanded its allies adopt the Hague Commitment, raising their defense spending from 2% to an unprecedented 5% of GDP.

Allies who cannot afford the fee will cut vital domestic programs, leading to political instability and anti-American sentiment across Europe. Failure to comply will see the U.S. withdraw security guarantees, forcing major European powers to seek independent defense strategies and accelerating the dissolution of the postwar global order, thereby rewarding Russian strategic aggression.

4. The Ideological Loyalty Test: Firing the 'Deep State' and Purging 'Woke' Beliefs.

Watch for the mass removal of career civil service employees under the agenda to dismantle the administrative state and eliminate "radical gender ideology and woke lunacy" from the Armed Forces and government agencies.

The loss of institutional expertise across critical federal agencies will cripple the government's capacity to manage complex crises, from financial meltdowns to health emergencies. The long-term consequence is the permanent politicization of the bureaucracy, where official action is guided by political loyalty rather than objective data, fundamentally breaking the mechanism of expert governance.

5. The End of Universal Suffrage: Will the U.S. Restrict Voting Rights?

The Heritage agenda prioritizes "Ensure Election Integrity" by advocating for commonsense reforms like requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote.

This measure disproportionately disenfranchises marginalized communities who often lack ready documentation, leading to a narrower, less representative democracy. The ultimate constitutional crisis will center on whether the government can legally use its power to enforce one set of political views by making it harder for opposing groups to vote.

6. The New American Empire: Forcing Allies to Sign Exclusive Contracts.

The U.S. is aggressively implementing the "Trump Corollary" to reassert dominance and demand that dependent nations provide "sole-source contracts for our companies".

The seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela exemplifies this coercion. The immediate result is Latin American resentment toward U.S. economic colonialism. The severe long-term consequence is that these nations will aggressively seek investment from China and Russia, accelerating the decline of U.S. influence and the primacy of the U.S. dollar in the hemisphere.

7. The Global Economic Backlash Against U.S. Climate Policy.

The NSS explicitly rejects "disastrous 'climate change' and 'Net Zero' ideologies" and champions "Energy Dominance" via fossil fuels. The Heritage plan calls for repealing "toxic renewables subsidies".

European Union and other major trading blocs will likely impose carbon border adjustments (tariffs) on U.S. goods manufactured using high-carbon energy, risking a new trade war. The devastating third-order effect is that the U.S. will sabotage international climate efforts, ensuring that the world fails to meet critical emissions targets, locking in catastrophic long-term consequences from climate change.

8. The Nuclear Precedent: The Fallout from Obliterating Iran's Capacity.

The NSS confirms the U.S. military "obliterated Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity" with "Operation Midnight Hammer".

Iran and its proxies will initiate severe, asymmetrical retaliatory attacks against U.S. assets or allies in the Middle East. The most profound repercussion is that this action further establishes a new, dangerous precedent for preemptive military strikes against sovereign nations, destabilizing international norms and making the world dramatically less secure from war.

9. The Battle for Europe: U.S. Support for Nationalist Political Parties.

The NSS encourages the "growing influence of patriotic European parties" and is critical of allies for "civilizational erasure".

U.S. funds and diplomatic support will be channeled to populist, nationalist parties, actively destabilizing the current political structures of key democratic allies. The ultimate consequence is the internal political fracturing of Europe, which could lead to a sudden withdrawal of support for Ukraine or an immediate normalization of relations with Russia, fundamentally undermining NATO unity and rewarding Russian aggression.

10. Targeting the Nuclear Family and Individual Autonomy.

The "Put Family First" priority seeks to restore the nuclear family, reduce the supply and demand for abortion, and combat "radical ideologies".

Legislation will be passed to restrict abortion and challenge LGBTQ+ rights. This will trigger a new wave of internal migration as individuals move to states where their civil and reproductive rights are protected. The ultimate consequence is that the federal government will use its power to enforce specific moral and religious viewpoints as national policy, infringing on individual privacy and autonomy.

11. The Looming Threat of Eliminating the Education Department.

The Heritage policy explicitly calls for "ultimately eliminating the U.S. Department of Education" and replacing its role with state block grants without federal oversight.

The loss of federal oversight and funding, including the Office for Civil Rights, will lead to an increase in discriminatory practices against minority and disabled students (as mentioned in point 2). Beyond civil rights, the end result is the fragmentation of national academic standards and a massive decline in national educational quality and competitiveness.

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Thank you,

Sarah