The Brief

State capitalism. MAGA Marxism. Crony capitalism.

Those are just some of the terms business and political commentators have used this year to describe how President Donald Trump's policies are reshaping U.S. free-market capitalism. There are some differences in definition — but all of these terms underline how dramatically Trump has blurred the boundaries between business and government, to an extent that could have long-term consequences for the U.S. economy and the country's global standing.

"When the American government appears to favor a company over rival companies, that distorts the marketplace," says Ann Lipton, a veteran business law expert and professor at University of Colorado's law school.

"It means that other firms have less incentive to compete on innovation, which is sort of the opposite of how a free market is supposed to operate," she adds. "It's just bad for the economy."

There's ample evidence this year of Trump actively favoring some U.S. companies and investors, while threatening others. In August, he publicly called for the resignation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan — until Tan came to the White House to meet with him, and agreed to give the U.S. government a 10% stake in the tech company.

Several other tech CEOs also spent the year appearing to personally court Trump. Take Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who runs the world's most valuable company and is among the donors funding Trump's controversial plans to build a White House ballroom. This month, Trump said the U.S. would grant Nvidia permission to sell one of its more advanced semiconductor chips in China — as long as the U.S. government gets a 25% cut of sales.

Lipton calls this capitalism by "schmoozing," and warns that it could seriously damage the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, thus hurting the overall economy in the long term.

"We're not going to get the best innovations. We're not going to get the best products," she says. "If [businesses] are competing on their ability to schmooze, then that's bad for everybody."

Intel did not respond to an NPR request for comment. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Nvidia said, "In our discussions, President Trump focuses on his desire for America to win as a nation and his efforts to protect national security, American prosperity and technology leadership."

China-style 'state capitalism'

Business leaders have always spent some amount of time trying to cozy up to the White House, no matter its occupant. But Lipton and business insiders across the political spectrum say that Trump's direct influence over private companies this year — and the degree to which some of those companies and their leaders have sought to appeal to him personally — is pushing the U.S. economy away from free-market or "rules-based" capitalism.

This system, traditionally embraced by both businesses and Republicans, has helped make the United States into the dominant global economy.

But now, these business insiders say, Trump's policies are creating a government-controlled style of "state capitalism," in which the government — rather than competition between private businesses — shapes the economy. Some go so far as to call it "crony capitalism," meaning that the U.S. government picks winners and losers based on the president's personal relationships.

"We are seeing a shift away from the type of rules-based capitalism that has made America's economy so robust for so long. And there's a lot of risk in that," says Daniella Ballou-Aares, who co-founded the consulting firm Dalberg and served in President Obama's State Department. She now runs the Leadership Now Project, a coalition of business leaders that has endorsed candidates from both political parties.

In October, her group and The Harris Poll surveyed business leaders across the political spectrum — and found that 84% are worried "about the current political and legal climate's impact on their companies."

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang listens as President Trump speaks at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in November in Washington, D.C. Nvidia has spent the year seeking the U.S. government's approval to sell more of its semiconductor chips in China.

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A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says "this narrative about how [President Trump] reshaped capitalism is significantly overstated" and calls Trump's policies by and large "the traditional free-market policy-making that you would expect coming out of a Republican Administration."

The official dismissed claims that the White House is engaging in "crony capitalism," and says "there are companies that are benefiting [from Trump's policies] whether or not they have a good relationship with the administration."

The official also notes that so far, the U.S. government has largely sought to take ownership stakes or revenue-sharing deals from companies that play a role in economic and national security: For example, Intel and Nvidia both sell the semiconductors at the center of the artificial-intelligence arms race with China. The U.S. government has also taken stakes or other interests in U.S. Steel and MP Materials, a rare-earth minerals mining company, among others.

"What we're trying to do is very much embracing the free market and the growth that it unleashes, but making targeted interventions where there's too much on the line," the official says.

Tech winners vs. everyone else in corporate America

Businesses largely welcomed President Trump's victory in last year's election, in part due to frustration with what they perceived as a harsh and "anti-business" regulatory climate under President Biden.

And some seem pretty happy with his first year in office — especially the tech billionaires whose "Magnificent Seven" companies are powering the A.I. boom.

"The Magnificent Seven and Trump 2.0 are really on the same page to a large extent," says Daniel Kinderman, a political science professor at the University of Delaware who studies what he calls "authoritarian capitalism" and business responses to right-wing movements.

Some of President Trump's policies, including his sweeping tariffs and his changes to immigration policies for highly-skilled foreign workers, have complicated the business of Big Tech. But most tech CEOs have tried to avoid criticizing those policies publicly, and instead focused on donating to Trump's personal projects. Apple's Tim Cook, for example, this summer presented Trump with a gold-plated and glass plaque as his company promised to invest $600 billion in the United States.

Such gifts appear to have helped: Apple's iPhones have escaped the worst of Trump's tariffs.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Kinderman points out that for wealthy and powerful CEOs, Trump's degree of personal involvement in their businesses at least makes it efficient to deal directly with him — if they can keep him happy — instead of wading through the slow and complicated red tape of federal regulatory processes.

"These companies are a huge portion of the American economy," he says. "And I think Trump is also giving them, to a large extent, what they want."

In August, Apple CEO Tim Cook presented President Trump with a gold-plated and glass plaque, as his company pledged to invest a total of $600 billion in the United States.

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Still, he and others warn that, taken to the extreme, codependent relationships between political leaders and CEOs don't always end well for the latter.

In more authoritarian countries, where leaders exert much more control over private businesses, the stakes can be especially fraught. Russia, Hungary, and China all exercise some form of state-controlled capitalism, where an autocratic leader cultivates relationships with oligarchic business CEOs — and can quickly force them out of favor.

As one extreme example, Ballou-Aares invokes Jack Ma, the Alibaba founder who built one of China's biggest tech companies before criticizing the country's financial regulations … and then largely disappearing from public view for several years.

"We know that crony capitalism never really ends well for most companies," she says. "I mean, tell Jack Ma that autocracy is okay for business."

'Most CEOs are pretty frustrated'

Outside of Big Tech, many businesses feel a lot more conflicted about how President Trump is reshaping U.S. capitalism. Some have even filed lawsuits against the administration, over its tariffs and its immigration policies.

"Despite the handful of tech titans that do seem to admittedly genuflect at the White House and at Mar-a-Lago, most CEOs are pretty frustrated with what's happening," says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale management professor who regularly speaks with CEOs.

Pockets of frustration from corporate America have become more visible recently. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the administration over its plans to start charging $100,000 for H-1B visas for highly-skilled foreign workers — although it did so while praising Trump's "ambitious agenda."

And JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon, who runs the country's largest bank and is one of the most prominent non-tech CEOs in the country, recently told CNN why his company had declined to donate to Trump's White House ballroom.

"Since we do a lot of contracts with governments here and around the world, we have to be very careful about how anything is perceived," Dimon said. "We're quite conscious of risks we bear by doing anything that looks like buying favors or anything like that."

That said, most businesses are reluctant to publicly criticize President Trump or his policies. Smaller companies lack the power to effectively stand up to the White House. And even those running the country's biggest companies are unwilling to draw the personal attacks that Trump can often wield, or the ensuing partisan boycotts and financial damage that can follow.

Earlier this month, demolition work continued where the East Wing once stood at the White House. President Trump ordered the East Wing and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden leveled to make way for a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom that he says will be paid for with private donations from companies including Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google.

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Many businesses have neither the appetite nor the capacity to take on the U.S. government. They just want to focus on making money, even if that means adapting to dramatic tariffs or other sharp shifts in government policy.

"It's tactical fire-fighting," says Drew DeLong, who advises businesses around the world as head of corporate statecraft for the consulting company Kearney, and who served in the State Department during Trump's first administration.

"Every moment and every hour you spend on tariff mitigation is one less hour that you spend on innovation," he says. "There is an urgency towards fire-fighting as best as they possibly can, but there's also a fatigue."

'Merger review has been weaponized'

The Trump Administration's approach to approving — or not — corporate mergers has drawn some of the highest scrutiny, because of the nexus of political and business issues at stake.

For example, the Federal Communications Commission this year approved several telecommunications mergers only after Verizon and T-Mobile agreed to terminate internal policies around "diversity, equity, and inclusion," or DEI. Then it threatened to take federal action against some ABC affiliates over Jimmy Kimmel's comments about Charlie Kirk's killing on his ABC late-night show; the owners of some of those stations were also seeking federal approvals for mergers. (ABC parent Walt Disney suspended Kimmel's show for almost a week, before reinstating him. ABC did not respond to requests for comment.)

"Merger review has been weaponized into a tool for control," says Elizabeth Wilkins, the former chief of staff to Lina Khan, who oversaw U.S. merger review as chair of President Biden's Federal Trade Commission.

"With those kinds of tools hanging over corporate leaders' heads, we have seen an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear — which breeds silence," adds Wilkins, who now runs the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank.

The exception is, again, for leaders who cultivate close ties with the president. This year, the White House helped broker a deal for a coalition of U.S. investors to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok — and asked for an unusual multibillion-dollar payment to the federal government, which business experts have compared to a "shakedown" or "extortion." Some of those same investors, including Trump ally Larry Ellison and his son, David, are now seeking even more media deals.

Some business experts say now that corporate America has a better idea of President Trump's playbook in this administration, they expect to see companies and their executives feel more confident about how and when to push back against White House policies that they think will damage their businesses and the wider economy.

"I think it is clear that the administration's approach here is broadly unpopular, including with business," says Ballou-Aares.

But Kearney's DeLong, the veteran of Trump's first administration, warns businesses to brace for much more policy change, and uncertainty about what capitalism and the economy will look like in the future.

"This is just year one," he says. "Where do we go [during] the rest of this administration? Where do we go after?"
Copyright 2025 NPR

This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Jan. 2, 2026.

Three Eastside walking clubs are hosting silent peace walks this week in East L.A., El Sereno and Montebello to support community members affected by recent immigration enforcement sweeps.

Called “For the Love of Our Communities: Peaceful Walks of Silence,” the idea sprouted last Wednesday, when communities on the Eastside saw one of the heaviest days of immigration enforcement since the raids began last June. Eastside L.A. Walking Club founder, Brissa Sanchez, wanted to host an event for people who want to show collective solidarity in their community, especially those who don’t feel safe or comfortable participating in massive protests.

“A lot of us are probably feeling depleted of exuding all this energy towards showing up in different ways, whether it’s at a protest or constantly being bombarded with everything that we’re seeing on social (media),” said Sanchez.

So last week, she reached out to other local walking clubs who were interested in participating. At the East L.A. Walking Club gathering on Wednesday, Sanchez will lead the group through relaxing breathing exercises, she said.

The walks are in honor of “our neighbors that have been affected by our horrible political climate,” the El Sereno Walking Club wrote in an Instagram story.

Participants are encouraged to bring candles and flowers, some of which may be provided onsite. The walks are meant to be a space where neighbors can be present with one another and “grieve together,” rather than march and protest, the post says.

“These walks are a moment to be present with one another, to walk quietly, and to move through our city with care.”

Last week, federal immigration agents and their vehicles were spotted in Boyle Heights and East L.A., and at least 6 people were taken in the operations.

On Friday, Los Angeles communities came together to protest during the “ICE Out” National Day of Action, marching from City Hall in downtown L.A. to Boyle Heights and back.

Find a silent walk near you:

Montebello

The Montebello Walking Club will meet Monday, Feb. 2, and Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 5 p.m. at Montebello City Hall.

East L.A.

The East L.A. Walking Club will meet Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 6 p.m. at 5718 Whittier Blvd. The route is posted on the club’s Instagram page.

El Sereno

The El Sereno Walking Club will meet Sunday, Feb. 8, at 8 a.m. The route will be posted on the club’s Instagram page.

The Trump administration is scaling back plans for this year's field test of the 2030 census, raising concerns about the Census Bureau's ability to produce a reliable population tally for redistributing political representation and federal funding in the next decade.

The 2026 test was designed to help the bureau improve the accuracy of the United States' upcoming once-a-decade head count. A mix of communities in six states, as well as a national sample of households, was expected to take part in the experiment.

But the agency is now set to reduce the number of test sites to two — Huntsville, Ala., and Spartanburg, S.C. — while adding plans to try replacing temporary census workers with U.S. Postal Service staff, according to a Federal Register notice that was made available for public inspection Monday before its official publication.

The bureau is also cutting a plan to provide Spanish- and Chinese-language versions of the census test's online form, which is now set to be available only in English. Households can start using the form to respond sometime in the spring, the bureau's website now says, and if they don't, they may get a visit from a census or postal worker.

Spokespeople for the bureau and its parent agency, the Commerce Department, did not immediately respond to NPR's questions, including those about what prompted these changes. In a statement Monday announcing the "launch of the 2026 Census Test," the bureau said it "remains committed to conducting the most accurate count in history for the 2030 Census and looks forward to the continued partnership with local communities."

Census test plans for rural communities and Indigenous tribal lands are cut

Among the locations no longer part of the census test are rural communities in western Texas and Indigenous tribal lands within Arizona and North Carolina. Those include the Fort Apache Reservation, home to the White Mountain Apache Tribe; San Carlos Reservation, home to the San Carlos Apache Tribe; and the Qualla Boundary, home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Terri Ann Lowenthal — a census consultant, who was once staff director of a former congressional subcommittee on the national count — calls this development on the road to the 2030 census "disheartening."

"The descoped 2026 test plan is confusing and unclear to the public — a product, regrettably, of the administration pulling a black-out shade over all planning for 2030," Lowenthal said in a statement. "Equally troubling, we already know from the last census that not fully evaluating promising new methods and improved operations, for example in rural areas and on American Indian reservations, can lead to a less accurate count in many communities."

The cutbacks to the test come after the bureau has refused to update lawmakers in Congress charged with overseeing its work and after the administration disbanded all the bureau's committees of outside advisers, who previously received periodic briefings on 2030 census planning during public meetings.

Over the past year, the bureau, which is the federal government's largest statistical agency, has also had multiple departures of experienced staff members as part of the Trump administration's slashing of the federal workforce.

In a statement, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan said he was "alarmed" by the bureau's announcement about significantly cutting testing.

"When the Census Bureau doesn't accurately count people, the communities most in need lose out on critical resources," said Peters, the top Democrat overseeing the bureau on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "I have long pushed the Census Bureau to conduct robust testing of strategies to reach historically undercounted communities to ensure that every person gets counted. I urge the Census Bureau to reverse its decision and conduct the 2026 Census Test with all six of the communities as planned."

Dante Moreno, a lobbyist for local governments at the National League of Cities, says leaders of some of the canceled test sites were informed of the bureau's changes on Monday after months without updates. The test's new focus on online census responses has now raised more concerns.

"Rural areas in general are just less likely to have cell service or internet service. So how do you fill out those questionnaires? Or if your home is a mile away from another home, how do you make sure that people know that you exist there, that they know to come to you so you get counted?" Moreno says.

Similar questions are on the minds of the Indigenous tribal leaders whose communities are no longer invited to participate in the test, says Saundra Mitrovich, a census consultant with the Native American Rights Fund, who co-leads the Natives Count Coalition.

"Many of our native populations are also dealing with language assistance concerns. And when we can't rightly respond to that or participate in pulling together an operations plan that will address that adequately, then it becomes a challenge. Are you listening to our communities? Are you upholding that federal trust responsibility for tribes?" says Mitrovich, who is a tribal citizen of the Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California.

Exactly how postal workers will help with the census test is unclear

Preparations for this census test have already suffered from delays in raising public awareness and finalizing a staffing plan, partly due to uncertain funding from Congress. And the bureau had been waiting for months for a White House agency to approve a plan to contact administrators of college dorms, nursing homes and other group-living quarters to get ready for counting. The bureau's Monday announcement about its revised test plan makes no mention of group quarters.

Bringing on Postal Service workers to help conduct the census test is expected to raise a raft of questions among both advocates of the count and USPS. A 2011 Government Accountability Office report found that replacing temporary census workers with higher-paid mail carriers is not cost-effective. Still, such a move has had the vocal support of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has claimed it could save the government money.

USPS spokesperson Albert Ruiz referred NPR's questions, including whether postal workers would be expected to work for the census test in addition to their regular jobs, to the Commerce Department.

"The United States Postal Service looks forward to participating in the 2026 Operational Test in Support of the 2030 Census," Ruiz added.

Edited by Benjamin Swasey
Copyright 2026 NPR

Gov. Gavin Newsom touted California’s drug interdiction efforts during a San Diego news conference Monday that contrasted the state’s public safety efforts with combative tactics by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Since 2021, Newsom said, National Guard troops have seized 34,357 pounds of fentanyl worth an estimated $506 million at California ports of entry.

“This is what the National Guard should be doing,” Newsom said at the event at “This is the kind of partnership that makes sense.”

Last month a federal judge ended federal control of the National Guard troops in Los Angeles and returned them to Newsom’s command, six months after President Donald Trump ordered 4,000 troops to the city to quell protests against federal immigration raids in California. Newsom argued that Trump’s deployment of the Guard diverted them from duties including drug enforcement and wildfire prevention.

Newsom terms out after eight years as governor this year, and is expected to launch a campaign for president in the 2028 election. He has positioned himself as a resistance figure against Trump’s intensified immigration crackdown and heightened federal control over states.

On Monday, Newsom argued that California is combatting crime and patrolling its border, while responding to disruption in the wake of the administration’s mass deportation campaign.

“It's the kind of thing that we should be doing more,” he said. “It's not about politics. It's not about creating anxiety and fear.”

CalMatters could not reach the White House for comment Monday.

Newsom denounced sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles and other California cities, noting that one of the early ICE actions involved arrests of kitchen staff at the San Diego restaurant Buona Forchetta last May.

The ICE surge escalated in Los Angeles, prompting public demonstrations, then a crackdown by the Trump administration.

“We saw the federalization of the National Guard, hundreds of millions of dollars wasted of taxpayer money,” Newsom said.

As the Department of Homeland Security draws down its controversial "Operation Metro Surge" in Minneapolis, where ICE officers fatally shot two U.S. citizens, Newsom lamented that the operation’s leader, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, was sent back to California.

“We're hardly celebrating that,” he said.

Newsom said that earlier Monday he spoke with residents of El Centro, where Bovino originally held command. Community leaders described how local organizations are helping children left in charge of households after parents are detained in immigration raids, and aiding people in ICE custody.

Newsom pointed to CalMatters reporting that immigration arrests in San Diego have quietly surged by 1,500% over last year, “but without the fanfare of what you're seeing in your living room and on your screen happening in places like Minneapolis.”

He said the state is responding with lawsuits challenging the administration’s mass deportation efforts, and distributing money to community organizations for legal aid, counseling and mental health support for people affected by immigration raids.

In the wide-ranging press conference, Newsom weighed in on topics from his efforts to seek $33.9 billion in wildfire disaster assistance for Los Angeles, to his rejection of Trump’s bid to restart offshore oil drilling. He cited Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ shared misgivings about the proposal.

“We have a well-established opposition in the state of California,” Newsom said. “I find it ironic and interesting that so does the governor of Florida. When Donald Trump advocates for offshore drilling off the coast of Mar-A-Lago, I'll know the sincerity of these efforts.”

Newsom distanced himself from former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, saying “My opinion was a little different than the prior administration’s on border security.” He called for reforming the immigration and asylum systems to account for long-time residents without legal status, mixed status families and workforce needs.

“Those things need to be front and center in our conversation and debate around immigration, but unfortunately, it's not, because it's been bastardized,” Newsom said.

He pointed to the state’s seizure of half billion dollars worth of fentanyl, along with methamphetamine, guns and cash, as evidence that California’s approach is working.

Since October the National Guard has seized 3,005 firearms and $34 million in cash, Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers of the California National Guard said, freeing other law enforcement to perform their duties.

“What it means is that my team enables sworn law enforcement officers to get on the street and do the hard work that they have to do,” Beevers said. “It also enables Customs and Border Protection agents to be able to be on the border where they belong.”

Newsom described California Highway Patrol officers and National Guard troops as “Swiss Army knives” that fill multiple roles in disaster response and public safety. In August, the governor deployed California Highway Patrol officers on crime suppression teams in San Diego, the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, the Central Valley, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area, to seize illegal weapons and drugs.

“Everybody knows that we are proud to be partners and part of the solution,” California Highway Patrol Commissioner Sean Duryee said. “I look at it as the National Guard is the first line of defense.”

The highway patrol, Duryee said, is “the last line of defense before those narcotics are in our communities.”

Newsom said he’s committed to working with the Trump administration on “legitimate public safety concerns,” but cast doubt on the potential for such a partnership.

“That's not again what this is about,” he said of Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign. “It's about terrorizing the community. It's about chaos. It's about fear.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Want more Olympics updates? Get NPR's behind-the-scenes newsletter for what it's like to be at these Games.

There's no shortage of Winter Olympics storylines to watch — and we're not just talking about sports.

Hundreds of athletes will vie for medals in 16 different sports over the course of a jam-packed 2 1/2 weeks in the Milan Cortina Games. They will compete at venues spanning a nearly 9,000-square-mile swath of northern Italy, in front of in-person spectators (a welcome return after the COVID-19 restrictions in Beijing in 2022) and on an even bigger world stage.

Rising stars — and one new sport — are making their Olympic debuts, while familiar fan favorites are returning, some in pursuit of a comeback after many years away. Lifelong dreams are on the line, but there are also geopolitical tensions, environmental questions and so much more.

Here are some of the threads we're following:

1. Iconic American women are chasing comebacks

Lindsey Vonn grimaces after crashing in a women's downhill race in Switzerland on Friday.

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Legendary American athletes — many of them women — across multiple sports are returning to the Olympic stage after years away. They could include Lindsey Vonn, who retired as the winningest female skier in history in 2019 but returned to competition after a partial knee replacement in 2024. She qualified for the Games at age 41 amid a triumphant World Cup season, though her participation was cast into doubt when she crashed during a competition a week before the opening ceremony. She still plans to compete — in at least her first race — despite a ruptured ACL, calling it her "most dramatic" comeback in a career full of them. Figure skater Alysa Liu reversed her teenage retirement and now brings a 2025 world title and renewed love of the sport to her second Olympics. Another former teenage phenom, halfpipe snowboarder Maddy Schaffrick, clinched a spot in her first Olympics at age 31, over a decade after retiring from burnout in 2015. And Alpine skier Breezy Johnson is aiming for redemption on the same Cortina slopes that destroyed her knee and her last Olympic dreams just weeks before she was set to compete in Beijing in 2022.

— Rachel Treisman

2. International tensions may be uniquely high for U.S. athletes

There's always a political dimension to the Olympic Games, but this year, U.S. athletes could face a uniquely tense atmosphere. The Trump administration has sparred with European athletes over a wide range of issues, including repeated threats against Denmark's sovereign territory in Greenland. (The U.S. and Denmark men's hockey teams are scheduled to face off on the ice on Feb. 14.) Some Italian politicians have also voiced concern about the role of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who plan to help with security at the Winter Games. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala told local media that after the violence in Minneapolis, ICE agents are "not welcome" in his city. Vice President Vance, a frequent critic of European leaders, is expected to attend the opening ceremony at the Games on Feb. 6.

— Brian Mann

3. NHL players return to the Olympics

Brothers Brady and Matthew Tkachuk are among the NHL players set to make their Olympic debut for Team USA.

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Olympic hockey hasn't included players from the world's top professional league for more than a decade. Finally, that era is over, and we get to see some incredible teams play in a best-on-best format (although the tournament won't include a Russian team, due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022). Some of the league's biggest stars, like Edmonton's Connor McDavid, Toronto's Auston Matthews and Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon, are well into their careers without having had the chance to play for Olympic gold, and that changes next month. The star power on Team Canada alone runs from MacKinnon and McDavid to the legend Sidney Crosby and the San Jose Sharks' 19-year-old phenom Macklin Celebrini. The Americans are no slouches either, with Matthews, the Tkachuk brothers and a trio of talented goaltenders led by Connor Hellebuyck, last year's NHL MVP — and they'll have their eyes set on the first Team USA gold since the "Miracle on Ice" in 1980.

— Becky Sullivan

4. Ski mountaineering makes its Olympic debut

A 2025 Ski Mountaineering World Cup women's mixed relay event in Bormio, Italy, where the sport will make its Olympic debut.

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These Games feature several new medal events and one entirely new sport: ski mountaineering. In "skimo," as it's called, athletes race both up and downhill, alternately wearing and carrying their skis in backpacks. Alpine countries like Italy, France and Switzerland tend to dominate in skimo (after all, that's where the sport has its roots), but there will be a pair of rising American stars to root for: Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith, who earned the U.S. its inaugural Olympic skimo spot with a historic World Cup mixed-relay win in December in Utah.

— Rachel Treisman

5. A new generation of U.S. curlers takes the rink

For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. will not be represented by curling legend John Shuster at the Olympics. Shuster competed in every winter Olympics from 2006 to 2022, and led the U.S. men's team to a surprise gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. At the 2025 U.S. Olympic Trials, Shuster's team was defeated by a crew of Gen-Z curlers led by 24-year-old Danny Casper, whose team is currently ranked sixth in the world. On the women's side, Team Peterson — led by sisters Tabitha and Tara Peterson — heads to the Olympics a second time. And Olympics newbies Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse, world champions in 2023, will represent the U.S. in mixed doubles.

— Pien Huang

6. Mikaela Shiffrin wants to put her 2022 Olympic disappointment behind her

Mikaela Shiffrin smiles after placing first in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Slalom in late January, just days before the start of the Olympics.

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Mikaela Shiffrin is the most decorated skier ever, full stop. Nobody, man or woman, has won more races than Shiffrin, who has 108 World Cup wins, 12 season titles (in three different disciplines) and five overall titles to her name. But Olympic success has proved more elusive for Shiffrin. She has won just three medals in her three Olympic appearances — including a stunning shutout in 2022 when she missed the podium in all five of her events. Then, in 2024, Shiffrin sustained a freak injury that could have derailed her career. In a race that fall, she crashed and sustained a mysterious but severe puncture wound that sidelined her for months. Now, though, Shiffrin has returned to top form in her signature event, the slalom. She has competed in eight World Cup slalom races so far this winter and won all but one (in which she finished second). You'll have to be patient, though: The women's slalom is one of the very last alpine skiing events of the entire Olympics.

— Becky Sullivan

7. The logistical feat of a widespread winter Games 

Organizers are calling these the most geographically widespread winter Games in history, spanning an area of roughly 8,495 square miles. They are co-hosted by metropolitan Milan and the Alpine resort town of Cortina d'Ampezzo, dispersed across four main competition clusters and six Olympic villages. Even the opening ceremony is spread out, hosted primarily at Milan's historic San Siro Stadium with simultaneous athlete processions at venues in Predazzo, Livigno and Cortina. And, in a historic first, two Olympic cauldrons will ignite the action: one in Milan and one in Cortina. The Feb. 22 closing ceremony will take place between the host cities, at a Roman amphitheater in Verona.

— Rachel Treisman

8. Could the U.S. win its first-ever biathlon medal?

Deedra Irwin, pictured warming up before an event in 2023, could be Team USA's best hope for its first ever medal in biathlon, which combines cross-country skiing with precision rifle shooting.

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Biathlon is the only winter Olympic sport in which the U.S. has never won a medal. Brutal! The sport is way bigger in Europe, and athletes from countries like Norway and France have traditionally dominated. Then, at the 2022 Games in Beijing, Deedra Irwin came closer than any American before her when she finished in seventh place in the women's individual event. Now, she's back for a second try. Like many American biathletes, Irwin took a winding path to the sport. She didn't even grow up around guns — her first memory of firing a gun was at a ladies' night at her college's shooting range — and she didn't attempt the sport until she was in her mid-20s, after pursuing a career as a Nordic skier (and living out of her car). Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Campbell Wright just scored his first ever podium finish in a World Cup race. ("Not gonna lie, I've been wanting a podium pretty bad. Maybe too much … but today it worked out!" he wrote on his Instagram after.) It's the second Olympic appearance for Wright, who's ranked No. 10 in the world, but his first for the U.S. after the dual national switched his national allegiance from New Zealand.

— Becky Sullivan

9. In-person spectators are back  

The COVID-19 pandemic restricted in-person spectators and required masks (with some exceptions) at the last Winter Olympics, in Beijing in 2022. Many athletes have shared that they're looking forward to competing in front of crowds, feeding off the energy of a packed arena and getting to take in the moment with their loved ones by their side. Figure skater Alysa Liu, who competed in Beijing, told reporters: "I had a lot of fun at that one. Everyone's saying, 'Listen, that one's nothing compared to what a real Olympics is like.'"

— Rachel Treisman

10. Environmentalists say the Games are damaging a delicate ecosystem

Clouds hang over the 'Seceda' Dolomites mountain in the northern Italian province of South Tyrol, which is hosting Olympic biathlon events.

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The Italian Dolomites are a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site, and organizers promised to use the Games to "showcase the importance of protecting sensitive mountain ecosystems." But environmentalists say water resources are being strained, and construction projects have further contributed to the "urbanization" of a mountain system already stressed by overtourism. As the region faces warmer and shorter winters due to climate change, most sporting events will take place on artificial snow and ice. The organising committee estimates it will require 250 million gallons of water — the equivalent of nearly 380 Olympic swimming pools — taken from local rivers, streams and lakes, which environmental groups say could strain the local ecosystem. Eight key environmental organizations in a joint statement denounced the Games' sustainability claims as "greenwashing" and pointed out that the organizing committee has failed to conduct in-depth environmental surveys of the impact of these changes on the Dolomite region.

— Ruth Sherlock

11. After doping scandals in Beijing and Paris, will Milan have clean competition?

The Milan Olympics open at a time of deep division among international agencies that police athletes to prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has long served as the global leader protecting clean sport. But critics say WADA failed to properly investigate doping scandals ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics, involving a Russian figure skater, and at the Paris Summer Games, involving a group of Chinese swimmers. "It necessarily and unfortunately clouds the confidence heading into these [Milan] Games," said Travis Tygart, head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, in an interview with NPR. In a statement this month, WADA President Witold Bańka called for unity. "We hope that, like us, you are feeling revitalized and eager to work together to advance clean sport in 2026," he said. But trust remains at a minimum, with the U.S. government withholding its WADA dues in an effort to press for reform.

— Brian Mann

12. U.S. figure skaters are poised to make the podium — and history 

The recently nicknamed "Blade Angels" — Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito — will represent Team USA in women's figure skating.

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This is arguably the strongest figure skating team the U.S. has sent to an Olympics in years. The stacked roster of Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito could win the U.S. its first women's singles gold since 2002. On the men's side, Ilia "Quad God" Malinin is favored for gold — and poised to become the first person to land a quadruple axel (a jump that only he can do) at an Olympics. In ice dance, seven-time reigning national champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates are looking for redemption after finishing just off the podium in Beijing in 2022. The U.S. is also seeking to defend its 2022 gold medal in the team event, with Japan now its main rival in light of Russia's effective exclusion from the Olympics.

— Rachel Treisman

13. Can the U.S. work its way up the medal count? 

The U.S. won 25 medals in 2022, placing fifth in the overall medal count behind Norway, the Russian Olympic Committee, Germany and Canada. Norway has long dominated the Winter Olympics medal count, going into this year with a total of 405 and a record 148 gold. The U.S. is hoping some of that special sauce might rub off on its ski jumping team, which has won only one medal ever, at the inaugural 1924 Olympics. After 2022, the ski jumping federations of the U.S. and Norway officially partnered to share coaches, training facilities and sports scientists. That has given the U.S. a boost and at least one Olympic medal contender: 20-year-old Lake Placid, N.Y., native Tate Frantz, who moved to Norway to train and work with Norwegian coaches and jumpers. "I'd say it was extremely important," Frantz told NPR. "It pushes you astronomically." The U.S. is also hoping the return of NHL men's hockey players to Team USA will give the men a shot at a gold medal for the first time since 1980.

— Rachel Treisman

14. Team USA bobsled moms could medal 

Bobsledder Kaillie Humphries holds her son, Aulden Armbruster, during the 2025 IBSF World Championships. She went through IVF treatments while competing.

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Several elite athletes are back at the top of their sport after giving birth. Kaillie Humphries is back on competing in her fifth Olympic Games (her second for Team USA; she represented Canada for her first three competitions — or four, if you count the year she served as an alternate). She has a 1-year-old son, born after several IVF attempts. "I got back in the bobsled 4 1/2 months postpartum, so it wasn't the ideal timeline," Humphries says, "I'm not a spring chicken anymore." Still, Humphries is a top contender in monobob, for which she won a gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and won again at the IBSF World Cup in January. She's joined by Elana Meyers-Taylor, the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history, and a fellow mom who's also back for her fifth Olympics. Meyers-Taylor returned to competitive bobsledding after the birth of each of her children, now 3 and 6. "It's been quite a bit on my body," she says, citing years of breastfeeding, lack of sleep, back pain, and getting older, "I might not win every race and every day might look crazy and chaotic…But I wouldn't trade it for the world, clearly," she says.

— Pien Huang

15. U.S. men look to end a 46-year medal drought in cross-country skiing

Gus Schumacher, pictured at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Trondheim in 2025, could earn U.S. men their first cross-country ski medal in almost half a century.

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Alaskan Gus Schumacher is the strongest medal contender for U.S. men, who have won only a single Olympic cross-country medal, Bill Koch's silver in the 30K in 1976 in Innsbruck. American women Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall took the first-ever U.S. gold in cross country in the team sprint in Pyeongchang 2018. Diggins won a silver and bronze in Beijing in 2022. On the World Cup tour, Schumacher has shown he can beat the world's best in middle-distance events in the skate skiing discipline. He's having his best World Cup season ever, with two sprint podiums on successive days in the last races before the Olympics. Vermonter Ben Ogden is another to watch. He has turned heads with bold tactics in the more traditional classic technique and has had good results in skate skiing races, too. A hard truth, though, is the dominance of the Norwegian team and a strong field of Europeans. But don't count the U.S. out for a medal in the four-man relay, it's a notoriously unpredictable event and Schumacher, Ogden and John Hagenbuch were on the team that won the event in the 2019 Junior World Championship.

— Eric Whitney 

16. Multiple snowboarders could land a historic three-peat  

U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim became the first woman ever to win two Olympic gold medals in halfpipe in 2022. Since then, she's added jaw-dropping new tricks to her repertoire, including landing a cab 1260 (3 1/2 revolutions) in competition — another female first — and a 1440 in practice. She's aiming for gold again, even after a last-minute shoulder injury kept her from training in the weeks leading up to the Games. Two other women are also hoping to become the first snowboarders to three-peat in consecutive Winter Games: The Czech Republic's Ester Ledecka in parallel giant slalom and Austria's Anna Gasser in big air.

— Rachel Treisman

17. The U.S. sends its strongest long track speedskating team in decades 

U.S. speedskater Erin Jackson, pictured in January, is the defending Olympic gold medalist in the women's 500-meter event.

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The prolific Jordan Stolz — a favorite in the 500, 1000, 1500 meters and the mass start event — is poised to make speedskating history unseen since U.S. speedskater Eric Heiden won five gold medals in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. After a strong finish at the World Cup, Erin Jackson now heads to Milano Cortina to get ready to defend her Olympic title at her third Games, skating fast and turning left in the Women's 500 and 1000. Four-time Olympian Brittany Bowe brings her decades of inline speedskating experience, explosive power and technique to the Women's Team Pursuit. The Women's and Men's Team Pursuit — which involves two teams of three people racing in tandem — is going to be hot at these games. Team USA has dominated this event over the past four years, mastering the precision, technique and grace that consistently yields top results. Skaters are a mirror image of one another during every lap of the race. It'll be much like watching synchronized swimming. Any slight misstep may be the difference between coming in first or 10th.

— Rolando Arrieta 

18. Some Russian athletes can compete, but not under their own flag 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended Russia and its ally Belarus after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But it did allow a small number of heavily vetted athletes from those countries to compete as "Individual Neutral Athletes" (AIN) in Paris in 2024, without any national anthems, flags or colors (instead represented by a turquoise logo). Similar rules apply to these Games, with neutral athletes' participation at the discretion of each international sports federation. Russian athletes — even top NHL players like Alex Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov — will be noticeably absent from the hockey rink, while a select handful will compete in sports including figure skating, cross-country skiing and short-track speedskating.

— Rachel Treisman 

19. Women cross-country skiers will race on equal footing with men for the first time

Women have long struggled to achieve parity at the Winter Olympics, and the 2026 Games mark another milestone. Female cross-country ski racers were first allowed to compete in a single short-track event at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo. This year, women will compete in the same number of events — a total of six — as their male counterparts. They'll also ski the same distances, including the grueling 50k endurance race. "I'm really really excited to have equal distance for men and women at the Olympics," three-time U.S. Olympic medal-winner Jessie Diggins told NPR. Diggins plans to compete in all six events at Milan-Cortina. "I think it's really cool and an important way to show, especially young women in sport, hey, you got this," she said.

— Brian Mann
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