Trump is using the presidency as a branding opportunity. He’s slapping his name on as many buildings, monuments and government projects as he can
In 2011, Donald Trump published a book with the self-help guru Robert Kiyosaki titled Midas Touch. It’s a typical self-empowerment manual in which the pair expound on the secrets of entrepreneurial success while drawing on their personal experiences. At one point, they write, “Building a brand may be more important than building a business.”
That was certainly Trump’s approach to business: he was the New York real estate tycoon who turned his fame into a brand that symbolized luxury and savvy strategy – even if his companies had filed for bankruptcy six times. Trump spent decades trying to use his name to turn a profit: he owned an airline and a university, and slapped his moniker on vodka, steaks, neckties, board games and even bottled water. Leveraging the fame he gained from the Apprentice TV show, he expanded to licensing Trump-branded global real estate projects built by other developers. In many of these ventures, Trump collected licensing fees, rather than investing his own money, ensuring that he profited even if the businesses collapsed.
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© Photograph: Doug Mills/AP
© Photograph: Doug Mills/AP
© Photograph: Doug Mills/AP
Rightwing parties want to follow in US’s footsteps of minimal government intervention, but at what cost?
Next month, Donald Trump will welcome a poverty-stricken family to peruse his plans for a $300m glitzy state ballroom in the White House. The event will be staged as part of National Poverty in America Awareness Month, the time every year when charities document the number of US residents surviving on low incomes.
Of course, the president will do no such thing, preferring to summon the press to watch him rub shoulders with the billionaire class as he did at last month’s black tie dinner for the Saudi ruler and his entourage.
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© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
© Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images
Drummer Chuck Redd decided to cancel his yearly Jazz Jam after Donald Trump added his name to the venue
The president of the Kennedy Center has demanded $1m in damages and fiercely criticized a musician’s sudden decision to cancel a Christmas Eve performance at the venue days after the White House announced that Donald Trump’s name would be added to the facility.
“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment – explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure – is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” the venue’s president, Richard Grenell, wrote in a letter to musician Chuck Redd that was shared with the Associated Press.
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© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
The year 2025 saw a Swift engagement, a rapid rollback of rights and a slow release of the heavily redacted Epstein files
The year 2025 would have been far better if we could have sent a few billionaires and world leaders into intergalactic exile. Instead, we had to make do with Katy Perry spending 11 minutes on the edge of space as part of Blue Origin’s all-female crewed mission. Perry promised us all that, in service of women’s empowerment, the crew would “put the ‘ass’ in astronaut” and “make space and science glam”. Truly, one giant leap for womankind!
Space may have got glam, but it was another glum year for many on Earth. The war in Ukraine continued, with increasing numbers of women volunteering to fight. The civil war in Sudan raged on, with the UN urging the world not to ignore harrowing details of targeted sexual violence, torture, and abductions from the region. The slaughter in Sudan is so extreme that the blood can even be seen from space. Although I’m not sure the billionaires and celebs doing celestial joyrides in their expensive rockets are particularly bothered by that view.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead
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© Photograph: Xavi Torrent/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
© Photograph: Xavi Torrent/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
© Photograph: Xavi Torrent/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
© Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times
Kentucky’s Thomas Massie used the president’s insult to raise funds to run against a Trump-endorsed candidate
A Kentucky congressman singled out by Donald Trump on Christmas as a “lowlife” after co-authoring a law requiring the federal government to release all of its Jeffrey Epstein files says the president attacked him for keeping a commitment to “help victims”.
Thomas Massie then successfully sought donations for his run for another term in the 2026 midterm elections against an opponent that Trump – his fellow Republican – has already endorsed.
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© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
© Ian C. Bates for The New York Times
Attacks leave hundreds of thousands in city without heating as Ukrainian leader prepares for flurry of weekend diplomacy
A third of Kyiv is without heating after a Russian drone and missile barrage on the Ukrainian capital cut off power supplies, leaving hundreds of thousands of people facing freezing temperatures.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Moscow had used nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles, including ballistic missiles, in the overnight attack. “The primary target is Kyiv – energy facilities and civilian infrastructure,” he said in a post on X.
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© Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
© Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
© Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
As Americans tire of Donald Trump, a Democratic midterm ‘tsunami’ could sweep the GOP out of power
It was a wake-up call for America. In January, Donald Trump took the oath of office, declared himself “saved by God to make America great again” and issued a barrage of executive orders. In the ensuing months the US president and his allies moved at breakneck speed and seemed indomitable.
But as 2025 draws to a close with Trump struggling to stay awake at meetings, the prevailing image is of a driver asleep at the wheel. Opinion polls suggest that Americans are turning against him. Republicans are heading for the exit ahead of congressional contests next November that look bleak for the president’s party.
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© Photograph: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
© Photograph: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
© Photograph: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Did the 21st century begin on 1 January 2000? Or was it that blue sky day in September 2001 when the planes hit the twin towers? These images from the last 25 years chronicle modern history in the making
At the turn of the century there was a modest debate, mainly conducted on the letters pages of the newspapers – back then, still the prime forum for public discussion – as to when, exactly, the new millennium and the 21st century began. Most assumed the start date was 1 January 2000, but dissenters, swiftly branded pedants, insisted the correct date came a year later. As it turned out, both were wrong.
The 21st century began in earnest, at least in the western mind, on a day that no one had circled in their diaries. Out of a clear blue sky, two passenger jets flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 and so inaugurated a new age of anxiety – a period in which we have lived ever since.
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© Photograph: MARTY LEDERHANDLER/AP
© Photograph: MARTY LEDERHANDLER/AP
© Photograph: MARTY LEDERHANDLER/AP
Our cartoonists look back at a year of covering tragedy, farce and everything in between – and having to draw far too many Donald Trumps
In a year in which I’ve drawn too many cartoons about powerful people acting with impunity, the fall of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor stood out to me as a rare win for justice and accountability. Dark humour feels vital to make light of everything that’s going wrong, but I’ve also been trying to draw cartoons that highlight reasons for hope, such as the fragile ceasefire in Gaza or Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York.
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© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian
© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian
© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian
© Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
© Eric Lee for The New York Times
© Doug Mills/The New York Times
In an exclusive interview, the head of the TUC Paul Nowak says a customs union with the EU could boost the UK’s economy
Keir Starmer should seek out a far closer relationship with Europe, including a possible customs union, the head of the TUC has said.
Paul Nowak, TUC general secretary, said the British public recognised the need for a vastly improved trading arrangement and said it had become more urgent than ever because of the fickle nature of the relationship with Donald Trump’s United States.
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© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Country’s foreign minister says his president signed off on US air attack – key US politics stories from 26 December at a glance
US airstrikes in Nigeria on Christmas Day were aided by intelligence provided by the Nigerian government, the country’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Donald Trump had announced the strikes against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria after spending weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
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© Photograph: Abdullahi Dare Akogun/Reuters
© Photograph: Abdullahi Dare Akogun/Reuters
© Photograph: Abdullahi Dare Akogun/Reuters
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