Free Republic

President Trump slammed his former FBI director, James Comey, for posting a coded photo that he said called for his assassination. “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant … That meant ‘assassination,’” Trump said in an interview with Bret Baier on Friday. Comey had posted a picture Thursday of seashells formed in the shape of “86 47” — a message that could be interpreted as “eliminating” him, since he’s the 47th president. One Webster’s Dictionary definition of “eighty-six” says the term means “to get rid of.” In the restaurant and bar industry, the phrase is...

House GOP leaders discussed a new, heightened state-and-local-tax deduction with a group of Republican holdouts as they race to salvage their party-line megabill from ruin. A $40,000 cap on the key deduction for individuals and $80,000 cap for joint filers was part of a list of items GOP leaders raised overnight as they scrambled to shore up ultraconservative votes, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private conversations. The SALT cap increase is one of the biggest hangups in the bill, which is filled with President Donald Trump’s domestic policy priorities. A band of SALT Republicans are publicly...

President Donald Trump is calling on Republican lawmakers to support “The One Big Beautiful Bill” that would cut taxes and stop illegal aliens from receiving Medicaid. Trump took to Truth Social to urge Republicans to galvanize behind the bill. “Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’ Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need,” he wrote. “The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%. It will be blamed...

Leo XIV defended the traditional family, unborn babies and the elderly – and that’s great. After American Cardinal Robert Prevost, who made most of his ecclesiastical career as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, was chosen to sit in St. Peter’s throne as Leo XIV, a question has reverberated across the world: is the new Pope woke? Seasoned conservative figures like Steve Bannon perceived the new Pope’s election as a liberal ‘coup’ to continue Pope Francis campaign to destroy the church – Bannon even equated it to the 2020 election steal. Prevost’s brother, on the other hand, has repeatedly stated that...

Adriana Smith was 9 weeks pregnant when she sought medical treatment for severe headaches. Medical providers gave her medication but didn’t realize Smith had multiple blood clots in her brain until it was too late. Smith was declared brain dead about 3 months ago. A Georgia hospital has been keeping her on life support since, and her son is now about 21 weeks. Doctors are hoping to get him to 32 weeks. These situations are rare, but not entirely unprecedented. One systematic review found that, in 35 cases of maternal brain death, 77% of neonates were born alive and 85%...

She's been called 'ICE Barbie' for treating her Cabinet position like a TV production, but now Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for an actual reality show pitting immigrants against each other 'for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship'. It may sound like a joke, but the idea is for real and is outlined in a 35-page program pitch put together in coordination with the DHS secretary, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. Noem is even offering up officials from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to tally votes for the made-for-TV contest. The pitch comes from Rob...

Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla said he’s considering taking legal action in the form of a civil rights lawsuit against the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. Bhalla said this is an effort to prevent the planned expansion of the turnpike, PIX11 News reported. Jersey City Mayor Steven Michael Fulop also announced Wednesday, May 14, at the “Rage Against the Turnpike” rally that his city will challenge the project in court, according to the Jersey City Times. “If you care about health, if you care about the environment, if you care about mass transit, it would lead you to the conclusion that this...

As we reported, Jim Comey posted a threatening message to President Trump that someone, probably him or his family, created with seashells in the sand. He said it was interesting, and he just happened upon it. Comey deleted after significant backlash, claiming he didn’t know what it meant. Comey, a former FBI director no less, didn’t take it down until Kash Patel, the new FBI director, said he was under investigation. President Donald Trump lashed out Friday against ex-FBI Director James Comey over the Instagram post. ABC fake news said “top Trump officials claimed was a threat.” Can you imagine...

Dear FRiends, We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. This means no spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers. And because we are not a 501C, we have preserved our God-given, constitutionally protected right to free speech without government intervention. If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today: Click here: to donate by Credit CardOr here: to donate by PayPalOr by mail to: Free Republic, LLC...

Eleven inmates considered "armed and dangerous" escaped a New Orleans jail Friday morning, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office said. The inmates were discovered missing during a routine headcount conducted at 8:30 a.m. at the Orleans Parish Jail, according to the sheriff's office. They are believed to have escaped sometime just after midnight. New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said one inmate has since been apprehended in downtown New Orleans through facial recognition, caught by a surveillance camera. Louisiana State Police identified the escapee as Kendall Myles and said Myles tried to flee on foot before being apprehended "without further incident."...

WASHINGTON — In keeping with his penchant for shocking the defense industry, President Donald Trump today seemingly revealed plans to develop a twin-engine version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter known as the F-55, as well as an upgraded “F-22 Super.”But former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he was “mystified by Trump’s comments,” and analysts said that what the president described would be a highly challenging engineering endeavor on par with creating a clean-sheet aircraft. They also questioned the wisdom of spending scarce budget dollars on a twin-engine advanced F-35 when the newly announced F-47 is already planned to...

A bronze statue of First Lady Melania Trump has apparently disappeared from her hometown of Sevnica, Slovenia. Local media said the statue was sawed off at the ankles and carried away from the area, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Friday, noting police are investigating and trying to find those responsible. “The original wooden statue was torched in July 2020. The rustic figure was cut from the trunk of a linden tree, showing her in a pale blue dress like the one she wore at Trump’s presidential inauguration in 2017. The replica bronze statue has no obvious resemblance with the...

WASHINGTON — The GOP-led House Budget Committee voted to reject a sweeping package for President Donald Trump’s agenda on Friday, dealing an embarrassing setback for Republican leaders. The vote in the Budget Committee was 16-21, with five conservative hard-liners joining all Democrats in voting against the multitrillion-dollar legislation. After the vote tally was read, Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the committee chair, adjourned the hearing and told members they would not be meeting again this weekend. Negotiations with the GOP holdouts will continue in the coming days and Republicans on the panel will try to regroup as soon as Monday. Republican...

Trump appointed three conservative Supreme Court judges during his last presidential term, pushing the Supreme Court balance to a 6-3 conservative majority. That led to the overturn of Roe v. Wade and other conservative advances. If reelected on November 5, he may be able to replace the two oldest conservatives with younger nominees, guaranteeing the conservative majority for many years, legal analysts believe.

Many homeowners have seen their property taxes increase in recent years because of rising housing prices and local tax rates. But the property tax assessment isn't always set in stone: filing an appeal may lower the cost for years. The median property tax bill in the U.S. in 2024 was $3,500, up 2.8% from $3,349 in 2023, according to an April report by Realtor.com...... Appealing your assessment is "not a terribly difficult investment of time for a residential property owner," said Sepp. "The processes are reasonably easy and fair." Should you be successful, the change typically takes effect for the...

The Trump agenda suffered a major setback today after a handful of Republicans voted a key bill delivering it down in committee. Now, the largest tax increase in American history looms unless the GOP does an about-face. As The Gateway Pundit reported, the House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee—led by Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO)—previously released the text of a monumental new tax reform package titled “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill.” The bill, strongly backed by President Donald Trump, is aimed at delivering historic cuts to American families, workers, and small businesses. The 389-page bill includes a long list...

U.S. — Former FBI Director James Comey found himself in hot water this week for posting what he claimed was a natural rock formation that appeared to spell out "EXPLODE TRUMP'S HEAD WITH A BOOMERANG.' The photo, posted on Comey's Instagram account, depicted a collection of rocks which he claimed to have found sitting in a natural formation. According to Comey, it was entirely a coincidence that they happened to spell out "EXPLODE TRUMP'S HEAD WITH A BOMBERANG." "Cool rock formation on my beach walk," Comey wrote in a caption that accompanied the image. The viral photo immediately attracted negative...

On May 10, 2025, in a rare display of dugri דוגרי - Israeli straight talk, or 直截了当 in Chinese - PRC Ambassador to Israel Dr. Xiao Junzheng made his first TV appearance since arriving in Israel six months ago. The 45-minute prerecorded interview with Maayan Hoffman for ILTV touched on everything from Hamas to Iran, tariffs to Taiwan, and managed to avoid the usual diplomatic fog. Top headlines: The ambassador finally issued China’s unambiguous, on-the-record condemnation of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre. 581 days later. The ambassador even wore the yellow ribbon for the 58 hostages still held in...

The head of Budapest’s Office for the Protection of Sovereignty claimed that tens of millions of dollars from the United States and the European Union have funded left-leaning media institutions over the past three years, with the intent of overthrowing the conservative government of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. Supposedly independent media outlets in Hungary have been propped up by money from the now-axed United States Agency for International Development (USAID), other State Department programmes, as well as from the European Commission, Tamás Lánczi said this week. The top man at the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty said that the...

Ford has announced a recall of over 250,000 vehicles over a potential issue that could make their brakes defective. Ford announced in a filing to the National Highway Traffic Administration that it would be recalling 273,800 Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs due to braking issues. The report stated, “SUVs’ front brake lines “may be in contact with the engine air cleaner outlet pipe,” causing possible brake defects. “A brake line leak may cause longer-than-expected brake pedal travel and result in a reduction in the rate of deceleration,” added Ford. Check out what Fox Business reported: Ford is recalling 273,800 Expedition...