Free Republic

Trump’s whirlwind week: pushing peace abroad, restoring order in D.C., boosting markets with tariffs, and scoring a CBO win—all while critics scramble to keep up.A week ago, I was writing about Donald Trump’s summit meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska to talk about ending Russia’s war with Ukraine. A few days before that, I wrote about the Trump administration’s announcement that it would conduct a thorough “internal review” of the Smithsonian Institution and its vast network of museums, research centers, and related activities. It turns out that when Trump ordered the elimination of DEI initiatives, he meant it. In recent...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for his "heartfelt congratulations" on the country's independence day, as Washington presses on with its efforts to broker a deal to end three and a half years of war in Ukraine.

Critics...have pointed to his record as evidence of failed leadership. Attorney General Ken Paxton blasted Phelan’s legacy as “one of betrayal,” citing his reliance on Democrat votes and his role in the impeachment. Phelan’s opponents have also noted the repeated special sessions called by Gov. Greg Abbott during his time as speaker due to a failure to pass conservative priorities.

MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart almost lost his cool on Saturday when discussing the backlash against Cracker Barrel’s redesigned logo. During an episode of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Capehart and co-host Eugene Daniels criticized those outraged over the restaurant’s recent logo redesign, arguing that the backlash is a waste of time and another excuse for MAGA supporters to play the victim. “There are real things people are concerned about, and they’re losing their minds over a redesign. What the — See? I’m trying not to curse,” Capehart told his co-host. The Tennessee-based restaurant chain angered people on social media last week when...

“Don’t mess with Texas” is a homespun aphorism that expresses a genuine sentiment. Texans, and to a slightly lesser degree, Wyomingites, are independent cusses. They’re proud of their states and their beliefs, and pushed too far don’t whine about why government isn’t making things right. They handle it themselves and vote the useless weasels out at the next electoral opportunity. One such weasel is long-serving Texas Senator John Cornyn. Once thought a reliable Republican, he forgot which state he represents and stepped on a known Texas land mine: gun control. In Texas, weakness on the Second Amendment and cruelty to...

On the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Polish President Karol Nawrocki drew parallels between past and present-day aggression in a message posted on social media. In his statement, he referred to “unresolved injustices” and “sick dreams of an empire.” “Eighty-six years ago, Stalin and Hitler signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact—an agreement that paved the way for World War II and claimed the lives of millions around the world. Poland was the first victim of German, and later Soviet, aggression,” Nawrocki wrote on Saturday, August 23rd. He continued: “Germany has still not paid its historical debts, while imperialist sentiments have reawakened in...

Donald McPherson, believed to be America’s last surviving “ace” from World War II, passed away on August 14, 2025. He was 103 years old. McPherson earned the Congressional Gold Medal and three Distinguished Flying Crosses during his service as a US Navy pilot aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex in the final battles of World War II. McPherson enlisted on January 5, 1943, after the Navy waived a two-year college requirement for its aviation cadet training program. He earned his commission and wings at Corpus Christi, Texas, on August 12, 1944. He was assigned to fly a Grumman F6F Hellcat...

Why is measles dangerous? The recent measles outbreak underscores the need for every child to be vaccinated. Jesse Couk, M.D., a Piedmont infectious disease specialist, explains why measles is dangerous and how it can be prevented.

The last sugar beet factory in California is closing after almost 80 years in business. The Spreckels Sugar Company factory in Brawley in the Imperial Valley has already begun the closure process that will soon lead to the loss of 700 local jobs. The Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative, which owns and runs the factory, said it could no longer keep up with declining sugar prices as well as post-pandemic inflationary pressures. The factory was the last of its kind in the state that turned the root sugar beet into sugar, and marks the latest of a series of companies...

DOGE staffer fights off a mob and sparks a national conversation on violence and virtue, the presidential medal of freedom, and celebrating what this country needs — balls. Thug life. It was 3AM or so a few weeks back when Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old working with the Social Security Administration in Washington D.C., walked Emily Bryant back to her car after a party, and a small mob attacked them — around ten people, according to police who witnessed the assault. Edward shoved Emily in the driver’s seat, slammed it shut, and squared off against the assailants. A couple got around...

Hey Republicans, it’s time to get out the shovels and dig a very deep hole. Then bury forever the stench and false innuendo coming from the Jeffrey Epstein case. Especially now that the dead monster’s cohort, Ghislaine Maxwell, has told the Justice Department that she never once saw President Trump “acting inappropriately in any way” and that he “was never inappropriate with anybody” despite a long association with Epstein. Those should be the final words of the sordid saga and give the GOP the confidence to stop runnin’ scared on the subject and drop its foolish obsession with the case....

Just a reminder that AI isn't up to planet crushing intelligence yet. I asked perplexity.ai, "Who is the woman in the attached photo?" The AI responded:The woman in the photo is Marilyn Monroe. This iconic image is from the famous scene where she sings "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The style of her dress, hair, and the classic vintage microphone are all signature elements from that performance. After I pointed out why that couldn't be the case, it suggested maybe Lauren Becall. Without a clear identifying feature, it is not possible to definitively...

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch demurred Saturday when asked if she’d run for mayor in four years. “I’m not a politician. I’m a public servant,” said Tisch, 44, who received a rousing welcome from the roughly 100 people at the Southampton hotspot 75 Main, per an attendee who called her reception “tremendous.” “People think she’s doing a terrific job as police commissioner,” the source said. The commissioner, who was introduced at the breakfast by First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, spoke for nearly 30 minutes minutes and touched on a range of Gotham-centric topics. She said she opposed President Trump bringing in...

It’s been a long time since I was shocked by anything Donald Trump said. But when the president called in to Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” this week to discuss his on-going efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, he said something that stunned me. “I want to try and get to heaven, if possible,” Trump said. “I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”

An online petition attributed to a group calling itself “Punjabi youth” has drawn more than 1.7 million signatures, calling on federal authorities to release Harjinder Singh, an undocumented immigrant truck driver convicted in a deadly Florida crash.

A fire at Russia's Novoshakhtinsk refinery was burning for the fourth day on Sunday after a Ukrainian drone strike, the acting governor of the region said. A fire was reported at in Novoshakhtinsk on Thursday. The refinery there sells fuel mainly for export, and has annual capacity of 5 million metric tons of oil, or around 100,000 barrels per day. Yury Slyusar, the acting governor of the Rostov region, said he had a meeting in Novoshakhtinsk. "The fire area at the Novoshakhtinsk oil products plant has now been reduced," he said on Telegram. "Since August 21, firefighters have been fighting...

In a game of Russian roulette with a standard Colt revolver, the chances of instant death are one-in-six. Terrifyingly, that’s the same as the odds of humanity being wiped out within 75 years – everyone dead in a cataclysmic and total breakdown of civilisation, according to Oxford University futurologist Toby Ord, an expert on the threat of artificial intelligence. Does it sound impossibly bleak? His colleague Nick Bostrom is more pessimistic still. He rates the possibility of human extinction by the next century as one in four. Pulitzer prize-winning writer Jared Diamond is even less hopeful, predicting our species’ chances...

from the Middle East and Africa. We, as critics of mass immigration and multiculturalism, must understand why individualism, honesty, guilt, and deferring gratification are particular to the West. Helpfully, authors like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ed Husain can explain. You do not understand how these people think. They will not produce the same civilisation as us.

Vice President JD Vance remains confident the U.S. can broker an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine despite potential hang-ups that have emerged since President Donald Trump’s meeting this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We believe we’ve already seen some significant concessions from both sides, just in the last few weeks,” Vance said in an exclusive interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” Vance also weighed in on a Russian missile strike in western Ukraine overnight Thursday that hit an electronics factory owned by a U.S.-based company. Asked by moderator Kristen Welker if he was “enraged” by...

33-year-old newlywed communist Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party’s nominee for New York City mayor in this fall’s election, struggled to bench press 135 pounds at a campaign stop in Brooklyn Saturday, needing help by a spotter, reported the New York Post. New York Post excerpt: Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani struggled to execute a single unassisted bench press rep while trying to impress a crowd at the annual Men’s Day open streets event in Brooklyn Saturday. Photos showed the 33-year-old Socialist, and Democratic Party nominee, was unable to lift a bar loaded with what was said to be 135-pounds off the...