"Only two and a half more years"
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"Only two and a half more years" is the consolation John Kiriakou offered in 2026 when asked about domestic policy, in this instance the rescinding of the greenhouse gas endangerment finding by a viewer who worked at the Environmental Protection Agency.

His first admission was that such questions cost him sleep, "I lose sleep over these issues. I really do", and the only comfort he could name was arithmetic: "There's only 2 and 1/2 more years of this. Even if a Republican wins, it likely won't be as bad."

The list he assembled to justify the alarm ran across a single news cycle: wholesale, across-the-board deregulation; statues of slave owners announced for Washington; efforts touching on whether married women could vote; a murder charge brought over an abortion pill; the renaming of the Kennedy Center; and the minting of a gold coin bearing the president's face on both sides. His comparison for the last of these was a foreign one, "It's Turkmenbashi all over again."

Why it will not be reversed

Put to him that even a Democratic successor would not roll most of it back, Kiriakou agreed and gave two reasons: "they wouldn't, because they're cowards. And because they want the power and authority for themselves."

His evidence is the last transition. Joe Biden "did not roll back much of the Trump first term stuff at all", and the example Kiriakou reaches for is the one closest to his own interests: "in fact, Joe Biden never reestablished relations with Cuba."

He extends the same logic to Congress, expecting the legislature to concede whatever authority it retains the moment a Democrat wins the White House.

See also

- Joe Biden
- The 2021 Cuba protests
- Donald Trump
- Ranking Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden
