Politics
Column: An Oscar-winning L.A. council member? Gov. Danny Trejo? Gustavo's 2025 predictions
The good news: None of the predictions I made in last year’s annual Gustradamus columna came true. If any did, it would have been a sign that the apocalypse is nigh.
The bad news: The apocalypse is here.
Donald Trump is about to become president and is licking his ketchup-specked lips at the prospect of punishing California for not rolling over for him like, say, Jeff Bezos did. Democrats are in the political wilderness now that Latinos seem to be over them. The city of Los Angeles faces a $130-million budget deficit. USC’s football team is playing in something called the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl, while UCLA’s squad is staying home and probably doing steps up and down Young Research Library.
With so much doom and gloom, I wish I could predict good things for 2025. But my Magic 8 Ball sees little to look forward to except a lot of laughs — because we’ll need to crack up at the cruelty and tomfoolery coming from the White House to keep from crying, you know?
This is some of what I see happening in the next 12 months:
*USC, desperate for football glory again, ditches the Big Ten Conference after just a year for something a bit more manageable: The high school-level Trinity League. They finish in last place after perennial prep powerhouse Mater Dei recruits all of their players, leaving the Trojans with a squad made up of the school’s marching band, outgoing President Carol Folt and journalism majors. The last group has never seen a football game — not even Madden.
*In one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden declares the Graffiti Towers — the long-abandoned trio of downtown skyscrapers that turned into L.A.’s biggest tagging canvas — a national monument. The City Council votes to charge an admission fee so people can tag and base jump to their heart’s content. The resulting crush of tourists rescues L.A. from fiscal insolvency.
Tagging on a partly completed downtown Los Angeles skyscraper directly across from Crypto.com Arena at LA Live.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
*Speaking of City Hall, L.A. Councilmember Monica Rodriguez is invited to appear in the live-action version of “The Incredibles” as her animated doppelganger: voluble, brilliant, bespectacled, fashion-forward Edna Mode. The San Fernando Valley politician wins a best supporting actress Oscar by doing nothing more than playing herself.
*After Donald Trump’s share of the Latino vote increased in every presidential election since 2016 — despite a barrage of insults that included bragging about the taco salad at Trump Tower — he shocks the world by granting amnesty to all illegal immigrants, including double amnesty to Venezuelans and Central Americans so they can vote twice. The move guarantees that Latinos will go Republican for the next generation. It also leads Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi to personally construct a 100-foot wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, brick by brick. Kamala Harris volunteers to stand guard in Calexico with a giant inflatable mallet, because she has nothing better to do.
*LeBron James announces he’s going to play until his 60s so he can become the first NBA player to lose alongside his grandson.
*Danny Trejo — whom I suggested back in 2020 should have been appointed California’s U.S. senator — declares he’s entering the 2026 gubernatorial race. All other candidates immediately drop out, because who wants to debate Machete? Trump immediately softens his anti-California stance, lest Trejo crush his short-fingered hands the first time they meet.
*Out of jobs, with no political future but a lot of time on their hands, former L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and ex-L.A. Councilmember Kevin de León start a podcast. It lasts all of one episode after both pass out from all the whine.
*Labor leaders deem the incoming senior class president at Baldwin Park High School anti-union because of a project praising hometown chain In-N-Out, whose workers have never formed a union yet enjoy some of the highest wages in fast food. They successfully recall the student after a $1.2-million campaign.
*The Times debuts its bias meter with my columna. The AI-powered doohickey self-immolates upon coming across my first use of Spanglish. Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong stops the project and focuses instead on trying to cure something easier than modern-day journalism: cancer.
Pedestrians pass by blooming jacaranda trees in South Pasadena.
(David McNew / Getty Images)
*Someone finds a purpose for jacaranda trees that’s actually beneficial to mankind.
*After a year of fighting online and via diss tracks, rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar announce they will decide their beef once and for all with a wrestling match in the parking lot of the Tam’s Burgers off Rosecrans and Central avenues in Compton. Since Lamar has the home field advantage, he offers Drake the first kick, punch, body slam, suplex, piledriver, Stone Cold stunner and wedgie. Lamar still easily wins. Drake returns to Canada and takes Justin Bieber with him.
* Elon Musk — who’s suing the California Coastal Commission for not allowing him to launch more SpaceX missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base — decides to move his operations to Mt. Whitney. Newsom — a longtime friend and benefactor of tech bros — tells Musk that’s cool, as long as all those rockets don’t harm the environment. Musk responds by training the bears up there to drive his Cybertrucks so he can start a new Uber rival. Newsom praises Musk’s move as environmentally friendly. The mega-billionaire then turns Mt. Whitney into his lair, calling it Mt. Mar-a-Lago.
*I take a long, relaxing vacation — eh, who am I kidding! Consider it a miracle if I take a two-hour break — and it certainly won’t be at In-N-Out, which will continue to be overrated.
Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired on Wednesday after months of infighting with senior Pentagon leaders and disagreements over how to revive the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding program.
Mr. Phelan is leaving the Pentagon and the Trump administration effective immediately, wrote Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, in a terse statement.
In his role leading the Navy, Mr. Phelan had championed the “Golden Fleet,” a major investment in new ships including a “Trump-class” battleship. But Mr. Phelan’s leadership was marred by feuds with senior leaders in the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, Pentagon and congressional officials said.
Mr. Phelan is the first service secretary to leave the administration, though he is the second one to clash with the defense secretary. Mr. Hegseth also has butted heads with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll over promotions and a host of other issues. Mr. Hegseth fired the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, earlier this month.
The Navy secretary has no role overseeing deployed forces, and Mr. Phelan’s firing is not likely to have significant implications for the conduct of the Iran war or U.S. Navy operations to blockade Iranian ports or open the Strait of Hormuz. As the Navy’s top civilian leader, his main responsibility is to oversee the building of the future naval and Marine Corps force.
But the tumult could make it harder for the Navy to replenish its stock of Tomahawk missiles and high-end air defense systems, which have been in heavy use in Iran.
Tensions had been simmering for months between Mr. Phelan and his two bosses — Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Feinberg — over management style, personnel issues and other matters.
Mr. Feinberg, in particular, had grown increasingly dissatisfied with Mr. Phelan’s handling of the Navy’s major new shipbuilding initiative, and had been siphoning off responsibility for the project from him, said the congressional official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Mr. Phelan, a White House appointee, also had a contentious relationship with his deputy, Under Secretary Hung Cao, who is more aligned with Mr. Hegseth, especially on some of the social and cultural battles that have defined the defense secretary’s tenure, the officials said.
A senior administration official said that Mr. Hegseth informed Mr. Phelan before the Pentagon’s official announcement that he and President Trump had decided that the Navy needed new leadership.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Phelan referred all questions on Wednesday evening to the Defense Department.
Last fall, Mr. Hegseth fired Mr. Phelan’s chief of staff, Jon Harrison, who had clashed with senior officials throughout the Pentagon. The unusual move highlighted the broader tensions between Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Phelan.
Still, the timing of Mr. Phelan’s firing caught some Pentagon and congressional officials off guard. On Wednesday, Mr. Phelan was making the rounds on Capitol Hill, talking to senators about his upcoming annual hearing with lawmakers to discuss the Navy’s budget request and other priorities.
“Secretary Phelan’s abrupt dismissal is troubling,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Wednesday night. “In the midst of President Trump’s war of choice in Iran, at a moment when our naval forces are stretched thin across multiple theaters, this kind of disruption at the top sends the wrong signal to our sailors and Marines, to our allies, and to our adversaries.”
Mr. Phelan also had a close relationship with Mr. Trump. In December, Mr. Phelan appeared alongside Mr. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort to announce the “Golden Fleet” and the new class of battleships bearing Mr. Trump’s name.
“John Phelan is one of the most successful businessmen in the country — in our country,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s been a tremendous success.”
Before joining the Trump administration, Mr. Phelan ran a private investment fund based in Florida.
“He’s taken probably the largest salary cut in history, but he wanted to do it,” Mr. Trump said at the December press conference. “He wants to rebuild our Navy. And you needed that kind of a brain to do it properly.”
But Mr. Trump’s effusive praise masked deeper tensions with Mr. Phelan’s Pentagon bosses.
Bryan Clark, a naval analyst at the Hudson Institute, said that Mr. Phelan was “driving the Navy in a different direction” than what Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Feinberg wanted.
“He was championing initiatives like the battleship and frigate that don’t align with where the D.O.W. leadership is taking the military, which is toward submarines, stealth aircraft, unmanned systems and software-driven capabilities like electronic warfare and cyber,” Mr. Clark said in an email, using the abbreviation for Department of War, as the administration calls the Defense Department.
Mr. Phelan also clashed with Mr. Hegseth over personnel issues in the Navy and Marine Corps, a former senior military official said. Mr. Hegseth has directed service secretaries to scrub the social media accounts of general- and admiral-level promotion candidates to ensure they are not deemed too “woke” by Mr. Hegseth’s standards, the official said.
Maggie Haberman and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
Politics
Manhattan DA’s office employee charged with sexual abuse after alleged incident on Queens subway
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An analyst with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was arrested Tuesday on allegations that he sexually abused a woman while off duty, police told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
Tauhid Dewan, 28, is accused of inappropriately touching a 40-year-old woman’s private area during a late-afternoon rush-hour subway ride in Queens, according to local outlet PIX11.
The victim was reportedly a random woman, the outlet added, citing sources who said she and the suspect were strangers.
A spokeswoman for the office told Fox News Digital that the staffer has since been suspended.
MAN ARRESTED IN NYC STRANGULATION DEATH OF WOMAN FOUND OUTSIDE TIMES SQUARE HOTEL
Tauhid Dewan, 28, was arrested in New York City Tuesday following allegations that the Manhattan DA staffer innapropriately touched a woman during a subway ride (LinkedIn)
According to the New York Police Department, Dewan was arrested around 5 p.m., possibly after returning from work.
PIX11 added that the arrest occurred minutes after the incident, which allegedly took place on a No. 7 train near the Junction Boulevard station.
He was subsequently arrested by the NYPD Transit Bureau and is facing multiple charges, including forcible touching on a bus or train, third-degree sexual abuse, and second-degree harassment involving physical contact.
He was also charged with acting in a manner injurious to a child under the age of 17, suggesting a minor may have been nearby and either witnessed the alleged conduct or was placed at risk by it.
ERIC SWALWELL FACES MANHATTAN SEX ASSAULT PROBE AFTER ENDING CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CAMPAIGN AMID ALLEGATIONS
Tauhid Dewan is an employee of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which is led by DA Alvin Bragg. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Law enforcement sources said Dewan has no prior arrests, local outlets reported.
According to city records, Dewan has worked at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as a senior investigative analyst for nearly four years, since July 10, 2022.
People board a train at a subway station in New York City on Aug. 1, 2025. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
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His arraignment in Queens Criminal Court was scheduled for Wednesday, according to state records.
SAN FRANCISCO — With the California governor’s race quickly approaching, six candidates will face off Wednesday evening in the first debate since former Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race in the aftermath of sexual assault and misconduct allegations.
The debate takes place at a critical moment in the turbulent contest to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. Ballots will start landing in Californians’ mailboxes in less than two weeks, and voters are split by a crowded field of eight prominent candidates. The debate also takes place after former state Controller Betty Yee ended her campaign because of a lack of resources and support in the polls.
Two Republicans — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton — and four Democrats — billionaire Tom Steyer, former Biden administration Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan — will take the stage at Nexstar’s KRON4 studios in San Francisco. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, both Democrats, were not invited to participate because of their low polling numbers.
As the candidates strive to distinguish themselves in a crowded field, the debate could include fiery exchanges about the role of money in politics and potential heightened attacks on Becerra, who has surged in the polls since Swalwell dropped out. With the debate taking place on Earth Day, environmental issues are also likely to be raised.
The Wednesday night gathering is the first televised debate in the gubernatorial contest since early February. Last month, USC canceled a debate hours before it was set to begin over mounting criticism that its criteria excluded all major candidates of color.
The 7 p.m. debate is hosted by Nexstar and will be moderated by KTXL FOX40 anchor Nikki Laurenzo and KTLA anchor Frank Buckley. It can be viewed on KRON4 (San Francisco), KTLA5 (Los Angeles), KSWB/KUSI (San Diego), KTXL (Sacramento), KGET (Bakersfield) and KSEE (Fresno). NewsNation will also air the debate.
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