Out with the old and in with the new as the saying goes, or in the case of 2025,

it's back to the future with the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

As America and her allies prepare for Trump 2.0, what can we be certain of in an increasingly unpredictable and fractious world?

Welcome to PowerPlay, Politico's weekly podcast, where we talk to some of the most influential people on either side of the Atlantic.

I'm Anne Mikkelvo, your host.

If you haven't already, please take a moment to follow this podcast, so you don't miss an episode with a guest you'd like to hear from this year or next.

To chew over an eventful 2024, look ahead to what 2025 might have in store for us all,

I'm joined by Politico's finest festive duo from both sides of the Atlantic. Returning to the powerplay microphone, this time

from Berlin, is global editor-in-chief John Harris. Hi there, John. Hello, good knock my talk,

and John's going fully global to end the year on his tour of Europe.

And with me in Brussels is Nicholas Vinokour, editor-large in our Europe newsroom and author of Brussels Playbook.

Nick, hi.

Hi.

Hi. Good to be here.

Great to have you both.

We will start with what lies ahead.

Biggest event for a lot of us and many others around the world is, of course, Donald Trump has run the presidency. He is going to come back into the centre of power after defeating Kamala Harris. John, I'm going to ask you as you look towards that inauguration in January, how do you see this administration

coming together? Now that we know a lot, if not all of the appointments, what are you reading

here in the Rooms? There's many interesting things about it, including the radical nature of

some of these picks. President Trump is making it clear he wasn't just kidding, it wasn't just

blustering when he

talked about taking on adversaries in what he called the deep state. We see that with his nominee to read

...