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December 29, 2025
Once again, you have the privilege of being among the true cognoscenti, in that you are now about the read my predictions for 2026, which have made multiple fortunes for regular readers who immediately go to the betting sites after reading this annual article.
But before we proceed, we will do what few other prognosticators do, review last year’s predictions:
The Stock Market will gain 5%. Hopefully you did not bet on this as my firm belief that the stock market is overvalued has been proven wrong again – or at least deferred. The S & P Index gained 17%.
President Trump’s popularity will be 50% or higher for the first time. Correct. President Trump crossed this threshold several times according to reputable pollsters although presently he is in the mid to low forties.
There will be cease fires in both the Ukraine and Israeli Wars. Half right. A tenuous cease fire has occurred in the Mideast but President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine have not born fruit.
President Trump will succeed in deporting violent illegal immigrants. Correct. While a few liberal judges have been able to slow this process, President Trump has deported 650,000 illegals and almost two million have left voluntarily.
Inflation will decrease. Correct but inflation has not decreased as much as it needs to. This is President Trump’s main liability at this point.
The Supreme Court will allow the banning of transgender treatments. Correct
The Steelers will win the Super Bowl. Sadly incorrect. We got beaten in the first round of the play offs
The Steelers will make the playoffs again. Undecided but unlikely. We need to beat the Ravens this weekend to win our division. Unless the same ref (whose seeing eye dog was not allowed on the field for some reason) that stole the Raven’s touchdown in our last encounter is on the field again, the momentum is in the Raven’s favor.
Penn State will win the National Title. Incorrect. We lost to Notre Dame in the semi-finals but at least we were preserved the ignominy of being pounded by the eventual winner, Ohio State.
The UConn Men will make the Elite Eight. Wrong. But that was because of horrible officiating our 77-75 loss to Florida.
The UConn Women will make the finals. Correct. We actually won the whole thing.
Now for 2026.
The Stock Market will be flat, but the Dow will hit 50,000. The forward valuations are too high; the tech stocks are way overvalued and not every company will make a fortune in AI.
The Republicans will hold the Senate. Republicans presently have a 53 to 47 majority and just by luck, there are not many competitive races they could lose. The main three are North Carolina (Republican), Maine (Republican) and Georgia (Democrat). Even if the Republicans loss these two seats, they will still have a majority. Michigan (Democrat), Ohio (Republican) and New Hampshire (Democrat) have open seats, but they will probably not change.
The Republicans will hold the House. This is against the popular wisdom as Democrats have been winning the few elections that have occurred in 2025 by larger margins than expected. But this is misleading because the Democrats passionately despise Trump and show up in droves while the Republicans are sitting at home watching Netflix. This will not be the case in 2026.
The Ukraine War will not end. Those who were optimistic, myself included, now realize that Putin wants to conquer the entire Ukraine and will not stop the war otherwise. The only impediment would be if Europe and the United States sent troops into Ukraine while allowing Ukraine fighter pilots to bomb Moscow. This risks a nuclear war.
Maduro will be deposed in Venezuela. President Trump has stopped the flow of oil out of Venezuela and the people are behind Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado who won the last election by 70% until Maduro threw out the results.
Ryan Fazio will be the Republican gubernatorial nominee for Connecticut. Presently, the front runner appears to be former New Britian mayor Erin Stewart, but she is perceived by many Republicans as being too liberal. There is talk of former New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey (pronounced McCoy) throwing her hat into the ring as she is now a Greenwich resident. But she will have difficulty as a political outsider receiving the necessary 15% at the Republican Convention to obtain a place on the primary ballot. Gathering signatures to circumvent this is a tedious expense process. Plus, I like her, meaning she is too conservative to win.
Ned Lamont will win reelection. Connecticut is a Deep Blue state, and no Republican has won a statewide race since 2006. When you add up all the state and municipal workers – retired and still working, those on public assistance and affluent suburban Trump-hating whites, the number exceeds 50%.
The Supreme Court will declare race-based congressional districts unconstitutional (Louisiana v. Callais).
The Supreme Court will disallow Trump’s tariff policies but not retroactively. (Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump).
The Supreme Court will allow birthright citizenship (Barbara v. Trump). Presently, if a pregnant woman illegally enters the country and gives birth in an American hospital, that child is an American citizen. This is unlikely to change
The Steelers will win the Super Bowl. Readers may wonder how this can happen when I previously stated that we will probably not make the play offs. But anyone who has difficulty grasping this reasoning does not know any Steeler fans.
The UConn Men will make the Final Four. Presently we are ranked eighth, but our record is 12-1 and we are first in the Big East. Hurley is a great coach and teams like Duke and Gonzaga will choke at the end.
The UConn Women will win it all. Presently we are ranked first and have a 12-0 record. Unless one of our stars is seriously injured, things are looking good.
Ohio State will win the national football championship. Yes, I know they lost to Indiana 13-10 but that was a fluke. Ohio State’s team is a wrecking crew.
Read Dr. Bentivegna’s books for free:
Two novels on Fairfield County politics and race relations, The Lords of Greenwich and Respect.
Dr. Bentivegna’s year in Haiti as a young doctor. The Neglected and Abused: A Physician’s Year in Haiti.
Contact Dr. Bentivegna: [email protected]
Follow on Twitter (X); @joebentivegnamd
Dr. Bentivegna gives anyone his permission to republish this article
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