As 2025 draws to a close, The Public Eye team looks back at a year of publishing our signature in-depth reporting on and analysis of the Right. This year’s issues covered timely topics—from antidemocratic attacks on public education to how tech surveillance is fueling the current regime’s mass deportation agenda—while drilling down on a few key themes. In this year-end roundup, we’re highlighting important stories to read before the year’s over. Check out these articles and each issue to learn more about what’s behind the Right’s authoritarian takeover, to inform and fuel your resistance in 2026!

Kitana Ananda, Editor of The Public Eye

Calling In: Author Q&A with Loretta Ross by Chancie Challiham

As the Right weaponizes notions of “wokeness” and “cancel culture” gone amok in its attacks on racial, gender, and reproductive justice, how can we build a broader human rights movement? In our Q&A, PRA researcher Chancie Calliham speaks with Loretta Ross about her new book, Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel.

Trad Values Meets Tech: The U.S. Right’s Pronatalist Coalition by Gaby Del Valle

The growing movement of right-wing pronatalism is divided into “tech” and “trad” wings. Journalist Gaby Del Valle investigates what unites Silicon Valley billionaires and traditional conservatives in a convenient but fragile coalition: an ideological commitment to encouraging rich White people to birth more babies that reproduces hierarchy and inequality.

Canaries in the Classroom: Public Education and Authoritarian Politics in West Virginia and Kentucky by Mary Reynolds and Carol Mason

Scholars Mary Reynolds and Carol Mason examine the origins and half-century influence of the Heritage Foundation’s “parents’ rights” and anti-gender campaigns to advance their decades-long project to dismantle public education.

Gender and Authoritarianism: A Framework for Analysis and Action by Annie Wilkinson

PRA senior researcher Annie Wilkinson presents a critical framework for understanding the growing anti-gender Right in the U.S. and globally by analyzing the centrality of gender to authoritarian politics and opportunities for intersectional feminist resistance.

Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days: Authoritarian Gains and Consolidation by Political Research Associates

We witnessed a sweeping escalation of authoritarian attacks in the second Trump administration’s first 100 days: From the assault on trans and immigrant rights, to attacks on racial justice, government services, and the movement for Palestinian freedom, and more. In this analysis, PRA researchers offer their clear-eyed assessment of the regime’s unfolding agenda in these and other key areas to watch. 

Tech Capitalism and the Neoreactionary Movement Behind DOGE by Matthew N. Lyons

Looking at Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative, political analyst Matthew N. Lyons examines the growing influence of tech capitalists and neoreactionary ideas within the Trump administration—and how it may reveal fault lines in the regime.

A Deep State Affair: How the Right Fell out of Love with the FBI by Faith Lazar

Amid growing political repression today, scholar Faith Lazar traces the Far Right’s changing relationship with the FBI, revealing how the MAGA coalition has selectively mobilized the “Deep State” narrative and anti-FBI sentiment to capture power and reshape the state.

“We Must Fight for Everyone” for Immigrant Justice: Author Q&A with Silky Shah on Unbuild Walls by Ethan Fauré

PRA researcher Ethan Fauré speaks with Silky Shah, author of Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition, about the history of the U.S. detention and deportation system, recent anti-immigrant escalations, and insights for resistance drawn from two decades of organizing.

Florida Is the “Tip of the Spear”: How 287(g) Expansion Fuels Mass Deportations by Jessica Pishko

Journalist and lawyer Jessica Pishko probes Florida’s efforts to be the “tip of the spear” of Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda by expanding participation in 287(g), a program that empowers state and local officers to act as de facto ICE agents.

DHS’s Immigrant Tracking Tech Lays the Ground for Authoritarian Surveillance by Anita Say Chan

Scholar Anita Say Chan connects the history of 19th century anti-immigrant eugenics to DHS’s tech-driven surveillance of immigrants, revealing how today’s anti-immigrant regime builds on an old playbook to design a system for wider political repression.

The Latest from Religion Dispatches

That Jerusalem Cross is a Commitment to a Military Operation so Far Beyond the Mere Disruption of Drug Trafficking by Annika Brockschmidt and Thomas Lecaque

It’s never a good sign when the Jerusalem Cross hits the news in the United States. No symbol has to become a symbol of hatred and religious violence, but the Jerusalem Cross, right now especially, is potently associated with violent Christian nationalism, narratives of “the West” as a Christian monolith violently opposed to Islam, and neo-crusader rhetoric.

Marking a New Low in Catholic Theology, Church Still Considers Women Inferior to Men by Mary E. Hunt

Pope Leo XIV ordered the release of the Summary of the Study Commission on the Female Diaconate last week, marking a new low point in Catholic theology. The second commission that convened on the ordination question, whose work has been opaque, decided that women cannot be deacons, either as the lowest of three orders (deacon, priest and bishop) or even apart from this model. And just for good measure, the commission dredged up the previous ban on women priests—as if anyone had forgotten it.

Yoram Hazony is Surprised by Blatant Antisemitism in the MAGA Coalition — But Antisemitism is Second Nature for Nationalists by Ben Lorber

On November 20, Israeli nationalist Yoram Hazony sat down for an interview with conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat to offer an explanation for the rise of antisemitism on the MAGA Right. After Tucker Carlson’s controversial interview with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes on October 27, MAGA has been consumed by passionate debates over whether the ideas espoused by figures like Fuentes ought to be welcomed as legitimate in the conservative conversation.

Bad Muslim, Good Mayor — Mamdani Wins Decisive Victory over Islamophobic Election Tactics by Ambereen Dadabhoy

On November 4, 2025, New York City elected Zohran Kwame Mamdani as its first Muslim mayor. Throughout his campaign—from polling at 1% of the vote in January to an all-but-assured victory this week—his opposition consistently and shamelessly leaned into Islamophobia. That bipartisan opposition included the usual suspects, from bigots like Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Congressman Randy Fine to neoliberal white women like failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and unhinged Zioinist actress Debra Messing.

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