Free Republic

President Trump clearly shocked House speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer yesterday with his televising of the Oval Office sit-down over his demand for $5 billion in funding for border security, including funding of critical mileage for his border wall.  Knowing well that Pelosi had already vowed publicly that "transparency and openness" would characterize the Democrat-run House starting next month, her plaintive request to speak in private scored points for Trump and revealed her hypocrisy before any substance at all was considered. The remarkable body language during the meeting tells the story of Trump's dominance.  Here is the...

In today’s Trump-administration Friday news dump, the New York Times reports that Trump’s infamous senior strategist Steve Bannon is out at the White House. A source close to the matter told the Times Bannon had actually submitted his resignation notice on August 7 and the announcement had been pushed back following the violence in Charlottesville. The Wall Street Journal attributes Bannon’s resignation to his disagreements with Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly. Politico says Bannon’s “tactics and behavior” ultimately did him in. And Reddit and 4chan, well, they’re bummed no matter what lost Bannon the job. Over on 4chan, users...

"I'd never seen the mainstream media sell their souls for a candidate the way they did for Hillary, and she still lost," says Sabo, who plastered faux movie posters all over Hollywood Boulevard. When Disney hosts its star-studded Rogue One: A Star Wars Story premiere on Saturday, guests will be greeted by artwork meant to rub it in the faces of liberal Hollywood that Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election. The artwork, posted at bus stops and other locations near the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, consists of parodies of the poster for the latest Star...

Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz will leave his post as the company's chief executive, the company said Thursday. Schultz will become the company's executive chairman, and current President and COO Kevin Johnson will become Starbucks' next CEO. The changes will take place on April 3, the company said. Starbucks shares dipped more than 3 percent in after-hours trading following the news of the planned leadership transition. "As I focus on Starbucks next wave of retail innovation, I am delighted that Kevin Johnson — our current president, COO, a seven-year board member and my partner in running every facet of...

Published on Feb 28, 2016 From the producers who brought you "The Producers," #Trumped is a new musical starring Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman and the unlikely candidate himself, Donald Trump.

This is one of the most difficult posts I have ever had to write. I had naively hoped that this election cycle, I would be treated to a substantive contest between a spate of highly accomplished two-term conservative governors, and Senators of great rhetorical skill acting as the ideological conscience of the bunch. As the primary wore on through the summer of 2015, it became clear that the GOP electorate was not interested in governors of accomplishment, but I still had hope for a final contest between two of my favorite Senators: Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. I hoped to...

An hour after a Ted Cruz-supporting super political action committee announced it would give $1.5 million to any charity if Donald Trump met him for a one-on-one debate, fellow GOP candidate Carly Fiorina jumped in on the action. Upping the ante, I'm free tomorrow at 8pm, @realDonaldTrump. My campaign will give $2mm to veterans' cause to debate at Drake U. (2/2)-- Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) January 28, 2016 My campaign will also donate $1.5 million to veterans' cause to join debate Saturday in Sioux City, @tedcruz @realDonaldTrump (1/2)-- Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) January 28, 2016 The former Hewlett Packard CEO tweeted late...

I've organized some words that I've heard a time or two, and proposed a few of my own. Please feel free to add some of your own. This is done in fun, and not to malign, criticize or be disrespectful to anyone. I truly hope that in time, all of us here on this wonderful forum will coalesce behind one candidate and campaign for that person and return our country to its former greatness and place of leadership in the world for those who inspire for peaceful freedom and liberty. May God Bless Our Country and the people who serve...

Donald Trump had it right on Vladimir Putin and ISIS; Chris Christie didn't have a clue By Paul Mulshine | The Star Ledger on November 17, 2015 at 7:46 AM, updated November 17, 2015 at 10:28 AM Chris Christie reacted to those terror attacks in Paris on Friday by trying to turn them to his political advantage at a campaign event in Florida on Saturday. "The world is desperate for a strong, secure, smart and tested American president," Christie said. "The hour is too late for people to be trained. We need a president who is ready to serve." We...

On Thursday, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump called in to liberal nitwit Chris Cuomo’s CNN television show and things got messy VERY quickly. CNN's TV Host Chris Cuomo began by lecturing Trump about comments he had made about fellow GOP candidates like Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson. “I’m not saying be Mr. PC. I’m not saying be Captain Gentility and let everybody beat you up,” Cuomo said. “But the idea of returning a blow every time you receive one, you know that doesn’t work in any high level situation.” Trump, however, wasn’t about to let Cuomo get away with attacking him and when...

Donald Trump latest's close-up is coming from the unlikeliest of magazines: Rolling Stone. The magazine, well known for its progressive bent, interviewed and photographed Trump for its September 24 cover. The article's most-talked-about passage on Wednesday was a Trump comment about rival Republican 2016 candidate Carly Fiorina. Writer Paul Solotaroff was sitting with Trump watching a newscast when a video clip zoomed in on Fiorina. "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?" Trump said to Solotaroff. "Can you imagine that, the face of our next president. Trump added, "I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not s'posedta say...

Chances are Donald Trump has mastered the art of “under-promise, over-deliver.” The man best known for his confidence, even arrogance, has a surprisingly humble attitude toward his own debate skills. The pressure not to make a critical mistake was already great enough on the top candidates participating in next week’s Republican presidential debate, but it has increased exponentially with the emergence of the outspoken business magnate as the GOP front-runner. The other candidates have their hands full developing a “Trump strategy” to counter what the leading contender may do — a task made all the more difficult when Trump himself...

Pressed about whether he would back the Republican ticket if he fails to win the nomination himself, Trump left the door open for a third-party bid of his own. “I would have to see who the nominee is,” he said.

Is "The Donald" in for the long hall, or is he going to "Pull Out" at the last minute -- like he has done so many times before? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/16/donald-trump-us-presidential-race I don't think he has demonstrated that he is in for the long haul. Therefore I have taken the liberty to give him the handle of Trumpus Interruptus! I confess that I was excited (as was his collective base) when he announced in 2012 that he was considering a run for the republican nomination for President of the United States. I was thus willing to overlook the fact that he was...

During the 2008 election cycle, Mitt Romney was often accused of treating politics more like a consumer-focused business than an exercise in leadership. “My view is, we ought to double Guantanamo,” he said, radiating the sense that if primary voters wanted something, anything, he’d be willing to sell it. His strategists obsessed about creating and selling “Brand Romney.” To many, these efforts made him look like a crass twit, a market researcher’s caricature of the perfect Republican candidate, even as he came in second-place for the GOP nomination. This election, however, Romney may have to compete with Donald Trump.

The latest Pew Research Center national poll released today underscores how slender a beachhead President Obama has established among whites more than two years into his presidency. In his 2008 election, Obama ran well only among two groups of whites -- young people and white women with at least a four year college education, two groups that are generally receptive to government activism. In the 2010 GOP landslide, those groups stuck with Democrats relatively more loyally than the rest of the white electorate, but the party's support tumbled even among them. Figures provided to National Journal by Pew from the...

For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has publicly admitted that politics has trumped science. The agency acknowledged yesterday that it approved a device to help with knee-replacement surgeries—a device the agency’s own scientists said often failed—only after it received pressure from a cohort of Democratic congressmen from New Jersey, where the device’s manufacturer is located. The $3000 device was known as the Menaflex, a “collagen scaffold” that supported a damaged meniscus in the knee. It failed its initial reviews but received approval in December of last year anyway, during the waning days of the Bush Administration....

DONALD TRUMP has figured out that America is addicted to addiction stories. With Tara Conner, the current Miss USA, you see the pattern with red-white-and-blue efficiency: Young hottie works hard, makes it, parties too hard, is seen bouncing half-naked on Fox News every 20 minutes, middle-aged male solons on same network tut-tut young babe's immorality, and when that gets old even for middle-aged men, she enters rehab. Yes, this is the age of the short- attention span scandal. Over-achievers hit rock bottom before they're 21. And what a story, with the possibility that Trump could utter his signature "you're fired"...