Free Republic

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's Twitter squad is pushing the idea that Donald Trump rage-quitting the Fox News debate because he thinks Megyn Kelly is mean to him makes him as presidential as Ronald Reagan, because Reagan also skipped a GOP debate in Iowa. For all his faults, Ronald Reagan ran a campaign of optimism and small government in 1980. That campaign ended in a landslide over incumbent Jimmy "malaise forever" Carter. No one would mistake the "Trump train" and its never-ending anger, xenophobia, and even class envy for a campaign of optimism. Sure, Trump, like Reagan, wants to "make...

Trump isn't the first top-tier presidential candidate to skip a debate. Ronald Reagan did not attend a Republican debate ahead of the 1980 Iowa caucuses, which he lost to George H.W. Bush. Reagan went on to the win the nomination and the presidency.

Even though I beat him in the first six debates, especially the last one, Ted Cruz wants to debate me again. Can we do it in Canada?

Donald Trump holds a seven-point edge over Ted Cruz among likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers, according to the results of the latest Monmouth University poll released Wednesday afternoon. In the survey, conducted largely before Trump announced his boycott of Thursday's debate on Fox News, he surged 11 points from last month in the same poll to 30 percent, while the Texas senator remained static at 23 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio finished in third place with 16 percent, followed by Ben Carson with 10 percent. No other candidates received double-digit support, with 3 percent undecided among those candidates.

BLOOMFIELD, Iowa - James and Brooks Schooley are raising a young family in this tiny Iowa community. They support Ted Cruz and brought their kids to an old church near the Bloomfield town square to hear the candidate, along with Iowa Rep. Steve King and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The Schooleys like Cruz's faith and his fealty to the Constitution. But their choice is also shaped by their wariness of the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump. "He's not principled," James Schooley told me, referring to Trump. "He just goes by emotion." "I feel like he doesn't stick to the Constitution...

No one else cares. Since the political class is still in a quandry over how Donald Trump keeps rolling even as he does things they are sure will bring about his end, let’s use tomorrow night’s Fox News debate as the perfect case in point. Trump is apparently going to skip the debate because of his antipathy toward Megyn Kelly, or hers toward him, or whatever. Upon learning this, the entire world of political people immediately went into overdrive analyzing the move. Is it shrewd? Does this present an opening for Cruz? Does he look like a baby? How will...

As many of our viewers know, FOX News is hosting a sanctioned debate in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday night, three days before the first votes of the 2016 election are cast in the Iowa Caucus. Donald Trump is refusing to debate seven of his fellow presidential candidates on stage that night, which is near unprecedented. We’re not sure how Iowans are going to feel about him walking away from them at the last minute, but it should be clear to the American public by now that this is rooted in one thing – Megyn Kelly, whom he has viciously...

Trump likely understands the turmoil likely to result from his decision--and Trump almost always benefits from turmoil. Perhaps this time he will as well. Trump pounded another stake into the heart of today's so-called Mainstream Media. Trump's decision to withdraw from the coming Republican debate will be financially devastating for Fox News. And, Trump's decision to withdraw will almost certainly harm Fox more than Trump. But why did Trump take this path at this time?

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly said Wednesday she will be "surprised" if Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump sticks to his decision to skip the network's GOP debate tomorrow night. Trump's campaign announced Wednesday evening he would not be participating in the seventh Republican primary debate after Fox mocked him for questioning Kelly's objectivity. Instead, the billionaire will host a fundraiser in Iowa for veterans and the Wounded Warrior Project. "I'll be surprised if he doesn't come," Kelly said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "I know he says he doesn't want to now, but I'll really be surprised because I...

"My guess is that people who bought advertising time thinking that Donald Trump was going to be on the stage are going to be very disappointed when nobody decides to watch that GOP debate," Lewandowski said Wednesday on "Good Morning America." [....] The GOP frontrunner also lambasted Fox for insulting him. He said the network's statement on Tuesday afternoon was "a disgrace to good broadcasting and journalism" and asked "Who would ever say something so nasty and dumb." Who? Roger Ailes is who. For days Trump had been calling Kelly "biased" and claiming she shouldn't be allowed to moderate the...

Many broadcast hours and column inches are sure to be used today and tomorrow regarding the decision by Donald Trump to skip the Fox News debate in Iowa. Predicatively 90% of those reports will most likely circle around a Donald Trump -vs- Megyn Kelly narrative. Obviously that aspect will be the preferred hook used by Fox News to avoid sunlight; it is also profoundly wrong.

Many broadcast hours and column inches are sure to be used today and tomorrow regarding the decision by Donald Trump to skip the Fox News debate in Iowa. Predicatively 90% of those reports will most likely circle around a Donald Trump -vs- Megyn Kelly narrative. Obviously that aspect will be the preferred hook used by Fox News to avoid sunlight; it is also profoundly wrong. Megyn Kelly, and her sidekick Chris Stirewalt are the visible symptom, not the actual underlying issue. Their partnered 'too-cute-by-half schtick' has been ongoing for several months, including the coordinated antics at the last debate, and...

Presidential candidate Donald Trump said he is "most likely" not going to participate in Thursday's night Republican debate hosted by FOX News Channel and moderated in part by Megyn Kelly. Trump made the comments at a Tuesday evening press conference in Marshalltown, Iowa. Trump said he would probably hold a charity event a charity event to raise money for veterans and the Wounded Warrior Project. DONALD TRUMP: I told FOX you should give money to the Wounded Warriors. I'm not a fan of Megyn Kelly. I think she's a third-rate reporter, frankly, not good at what she does. They could...

Trump said he would host his own Iowa town hall to raise money for veterans and let other networks cover it. One clear sign of the gravity of tonight's development is the sense of confusion that is swirling throughout Fox. The network is split between Kelly's allies like Brit Hume and conservative anchors that are furious that Kelly - who graces the cover of Vanity Fair this month - has become the face of the network. An anchor fumed that Kelly hosted Michael Moore on her program tonight and the lefty filmmaker defended her against Trump. "That would be like...

Ever since Donald Trump's rise to 2016-contender prominence, the rap on him, and perhaps part of his broad appeal, has been that he's not a conservative. And he's not -- he's a nationalistic populist. Yet there's another way to understand The Donald's professed politics: as that of the first prominent "European-conservative" American presidential candidate. He's not so much America's next Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater, but her first Marine Le Pen. A prerequisite for grasping this is first understanding the true natures of liberalism and conservatism. While many have their own definitions of the latter -- and will stubbornly insist...

National Review contributors recently joined together in criticizing Donald Trump and his candidacy for President of the United States. Stefan Molyneux responds to Thomas Sowell's contribution to the National Review's "Conservatives Against Trump." “In a country with more than 300 million people, it is remarkable how obsessed the media have become with just one — Donald Trump. What is even more remarkable is that, after seven years of repeated disasters, both domestically and internationally, under a glib egomaniac in the White House, so many potential voters are turning to another glib egomaniac to be his successor….”

Conservative talk radio host Mark Levin said that Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was similar to an establishment Republican compromiser after the real estate mogul pledged earlier to work closely with Democratic leaders in Congress. "You might as well vote for Jeb Bush," Levin said. "I bet he would get along with Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer. Lindsey Graham gets along with them great. Marco Rubio got along with them great." In an interview Tuesday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Trump said, "I've always had a good relationship with Nancy Pelosi. I've never had a problem. Reid will...

On the same day that Donald Trump earned the endorsement of evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr., Jeb Bush expressed doubt over whether Donald Trump is a Christian, remarking that the Manhattan businessman merely views faith as another political tool. Asked by reporters in Nevada on Tuesday whether he believed Trump to be a Christian, Bush said he does not. "No, I don't know what he is," the former governor of Florida said, according to video posted by ABC News. "I just don't think he has the relationship that he says he has, if you can't explain it in any way...

In the wake of Donald Trump’s endorsement by evangelical leader and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., Republican rival Jeb Bush had some strong words for the real estate mogul and his faith, calling him a “flip-flopper." "Trump views all this not from a position of his faith, he views it all as politics. I think faith goes way beyond politics,” he said to reporters following his campaign rally. When asked by reporters if Bush thinks that Trump is a Christian, he said that he doesn’t. “No, I don’t know what he is," he said. "I don’t think he has...

Donald Trump has plucked one of the top congressional staffers on Capitol Hill to guide his policy on immigration and other important issues. Stephen Miller has served the last seven years as director of communications for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who has been the U.S. Senate's most reliably anti-amnesty member in recent years. Miller, 30, confirmed Tuesday he will be joining the Trump campaign as the billionaire's senior policy advisor. "I am excited to announce that I am beginning a new job as Senior Policy Advisor to presidential candidate Donald J. Trump," Miller said in an email. Ann Coulter, author...