Free Republic

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Seattle issued a preliminary injunction late Friday night blocking President Donald Trump's executive order halting federal funding of gender-affirming care for transgender youth. King, a Biden appointee, previously said the executive order “blatantly discriminated against trans youth.” The temporary restraining order issued on February 14 was set to expire at midnight. King filed Friday's ruling hours before the temporary pause was set to lapse. “The Court’s holding here is not about the policy goals that President Trump seeks to advance; rather, it is about reaffirming the structural integrity of the Constitution by ensuring that...

An Indiana Republican congresswoman who was born in Ukraine and immigrated to the United States 25 years ago jabbed the president of her birthplace following a shouting match with President Donald Trump.(snip) "If you could give advice to President Trump right now about this minerals deal that's floating around, his desire that mirrors yours and mine to end the war, what advice would you give President Trump?" asked Gaetz, who resigned from his position in November ahead of the release of a damning ethics report into misconduct allegations. "Be as tough as you can with them," replied Spartz, adding she...

Gunshots fired at a Tesla dealership in Salem, Oregon A Tesla showroom in Oregon was struck by gunfire just weeks after an arson attack damaged the same dealership, according to local authorities. On Wednesday, just before 5 a.m., Salem police responded to reports of damage at a Tesla facility. Officers discovered that several showroom windows had been shattered by gunfire. No suspects have been identified, and no arrests have been made as of now. The FBI has joined the investigation alongside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and local law enforcement. The same Tesla dealership, located in...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is doubtful that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has what it takes to make a deal and achieve peace, discussing his position during an interview on Breitbart News Saturday. When asked about his public remarks — that perhaps Zelensky should resign — Graham said, “Nothing’s changed.” The senator said he spoke to President Donald Trump, who was very unhappy with how things unfolded but had been upbeat prior to things going south. He recognized that Trump is going to get the best deal he can.

Explanation: With spacecraft thrusters at top center, the rugged surface of the Moon lies below the Blue Ghost lander in this space age video frame. The view of the lunar far side was captured by the Firefly Aerospace lunar lander on February 24, following a maneuver to circularize its orbit about 100 kilometers above the lunar surface. The robotic lunar lander is scheduled to touch down tomorrow, Sunday, March 2, at 3:34am Eastern Time in the Mare Crisium impact basin on the lunar near side. In support of the Artemis campaign, Blue Ghost is set to deliver science and technology...

Former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice appeared on MSNBC following Ukrainian President Zelensky’s disastrous and insulting behavior during a meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Friday.Rice made her allegiances clear as she parroted Zelensky’s own negotiation verbiage while openly objecting to a deal that would be better for America.Susan Rice’s interview on MSNBC is telling for 2 main reasons, both revealed in first minutes in same sentence: “Zelensky was compelled to agree to a horrible deal that would have sent Ukraine’s minerals to the United States” without any concrete security guarantees.” 1/— Margot Cleveland...

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) says he is preparing legislation to feature President Trump on a new $250 bill. 'Grateful to announce that I am drafting legislation to direct the Bureau of Graving and Printing to design a $250 bill featuring Donald J. Trump,' Wilson wrote in a Tuesday post on X with a mock-up of the proposed bill. (Current laws prevent a living person from appearing on U.S. currency.)

Many of you probably watched what took place between Donald Trump and Zelenskyy tonight. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, you might be thinking to yourself, Oh my God, Donald Trump just screwed up. However, as a lifelong practitioner of martial arts, strategy, and philosophy, let me explain the difference between what you believe you witnessed and what actually happened. Donald Trump has been under constant political persecution since the beginning of his first term. Over time, he has learned to be patient and calculated. Tonight, Zelenskyy was invited to the Oval Office. However, both Trump and JD Vance...

It is unclear why Zelensky came to the White House because he was clearly not ready to make a deal. Zelensky said Russia must bare the full cost of rebuilding Ukraine and that the $300 billion of Russian assets already seized in Europe is not enough. This demand alone is a dealbreaker. He said he did not want to compromise with Russia, shaking his head no when Trump said both sides must compromise. He repeatedly said a ceasefire is not enough and must be backed by a US security guarantee. This deal only included a ceasefire, so he clearly should...

Mike Waltz added that productive negotiations and a minerals deal would have been a "positive moment for UkraineNEW YORK, March 1. /TASS/. The entire team of US President Donald Trump has unanimously advised him to stop any negotiations with Vladimir Zelensky after the heated exchange in the White House on Friday, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said. “We had a meeting after that exchange, after the press was asked to leave, and we advised the president pretty much unanimously that after that insult in the Oval Office we just do not see how that could move forward, that any...

he departure of Joy Reid from MSNBC, Jimmy Olsen Acosta from CNN, Woodchuck Todd from MSNBC, Norah O’Donnell from CBS and Lester Holt from NBC are ratings driven. Their ratings dropped because their opinions and reporting are dull, predictable and boring. The constant barrage of sustained outrage over misrepresented events such as labeling as a Nazi salute Elon Musk stretching out his hand now competes in the public arena with a little thing that I like to call the truth. This greatly undermines the propaganda value of media outlets. Things are going so far south for the Washington Post that...

Amid scrutiny for how the city of Los Angeles and its agencies handled the response to the Palisades Fire, new reports indicate that repairs to fire hydrants could have been made before the blaze erupted. According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Fire Department failed to immediately alert the city’s Department of Water and Power that more than 1,000 fire hydrants needed repairs. LAFD reported the findings of its inspections in mid-February, despite the fact that they were performed months earlier. The inspections were performed well before the Palisades Fire, which torched tens of thousands...

February 18, 2025 NEW TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ISSUING SWIFT ORDERS TO END WOKEISM IN OUR MILITARY. Since January 20, 2025, President, Donald J. Trump, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have released a wave of Executive Orders (EOs), Memoranda, and other directives to strengthen morale and readiness in our military. The Center for Military Readiness (CMR) is pleased to present this Summary of the most consequential EOs and Memoranda signed since Inauguration Day, 2025, with links for easy reference. This comprehensive (8 page) article provides more details about directives of interest to CMR: CMR: DEI Wall Crumbles Under Pressure from the...

Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif) declared that "millions of Americans are downright ashamed of the way Trump treated President Zelensky. In a complete reversal of former President Biden's successful something for nothing approach to dealing with Ukraine, Trump has suddenly insisted on a quid pro quo minerals deal in exchange for peace. This is no way to treat an ally who is fighting for the kind of democracy we Democrats tried to give to America in the last election." Rep. Mike Quigley (R-IL) agreed with Schiff, saying "what Trump doesn't understand is that Putin doesn't just want to conquer Ukraine. He...

Multiple vaccine projects have been paused by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy paused a multimillion-dollar project to create a new Covid-19 vaccine in pill form on Tuesday, and the Food and Drug Administration canceled an advisory committee meeting on updating next season’s flu vaccine, an advisory committee said Wednesday. The Covid project was a $460 million contract with Vaxart to develop a new Covid vaccine in pill form, with 10,000 people scheduled to begin clinical trials on Monday. Of that, $240 million was reportedly already authorized for the preliminary study. Advertisement “While...

At the tail end of the fiery Oval Office exchange pitting Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky against President Trump and Vice President Vance, Trump spent two heated minutes on a theme the media will likely bury. “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” said Trump. “He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia.” What Trump did not say, but he might have, is that the constant scapegoating of Russia and Putin made America’s proxy war against Russia an easy sell. What Trump might also have said is that before he...

An “Appeal to Congress” from five former secretaries of defense warns that Donald Trump is firing flag officers, which is unprecedented and an assault on American political norms. This letter is an appalling package of dangerous claims and dumber than a box of rocks. But let’s take a helpful detour before we get into the details. An essay Thursday from a professor at the U.S. Naval War College makes a similar argument and perfectly represents the moment:Here’s the core of the argument, and if you read it carefully you’ll notice an interesting concession right at the center:All evidence suggests that...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took to social media Saturday to clarify comments he made during the contentious back-and-forth with President Trump at the White House a day earlier, saying lasting peace in Eastern Europe would be “difficult” without U.S. support. Zelensky, in a lengthy thread on the social platform X, expressed gratitude for the U.S. assistance to Kyiv during Russia’s three-year invasion of his country, reiterated the two nations’ “strategic” partnership and said no one wants peace more than Ukraine. “We’ve been fighting for 3 years, and Ukrainian people need to know that America is on our side,” Zelensky wrote,...

During a remarkably combative Oval Office meeting on Friday, both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he was insufficiently thankful. “You have to be thankful. You don’t have the cards,” Trump said, adding a bit later, “You gotta be more thankful.” “Have you said thank you once this entire meeting?” Vance asked. Trump might have been referring to Zelensky’s posture toward Trump in particular, as Vance appeared to be. But as their heated exchange with Zelensky reverberates around the world, it’s worth noting that Zelensky has thanked the United States on numerous...

The State Bar of California sought to save money with a new bar exam that offered the choice of remote test taking.Test takers complained of glitches and chaos when taking the test. Test takers seeking to practice law in California experienced chaos this week as the State Bar of California fumbled the rollout of its new attorney licensing test, leaving many unable to complete their bar exams and some filing a proposed federal class action lawsuit.The online testing platforms repeatedly crashed before some applicants even started. Others struggled to finish and save essays, experienced screen lags anderror messages and could...