We’re bringing you the best episodes of 2025 before your Morning Edition team returns mid-January.

It was another big year for the human headline that was U.S President Donald Trump, and political and international editor Peter Hartcher was an essential listen each week on our podcast as we tried to make sense of it all.

This episode was recorded in May, just as Trump was poised to introduce what he called his ‘big beautiful bill’, which was predicted to tip government debt over the one trillion mark.

What did it matter? Because, Hartcher argues, these figures point to an empire in decline. 

Hartcher explores what it would mean if the United States ceased to be a great power, and what it would take to bring America back from the brink.