Free Republic

Layoffs of federal employees officially began Friday as the U.S. government shutdown entered another tense phase, according to Trump administration budget chief Russell Vought, who confirmed the sweeping reductions in a social media post. “The RIFs have begun,” Vought announced on X, using the acronym for “Reductions in Force.” The Gateway Pundit reported last week that President Donald Trump met with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, a key architect of the Project 2025 blueprint, to determine which federal agencies, deemed by Trump as “political SCAM Democrat Agencies,” should face cuts and whether those cuts will be temporary...

The Supreme Court will likely agree with lower courts that ruled President Donald Trump can’t use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose broad tariffs, according experts surveyed by JPMorgan. Trade and legal experts said the odds that the high court will rule against the Trump administration are 70%-80% and expect a decision by the end of the year

Brick by brick, President Donald Trump is building a wall around the world’s largest economy. As America’s tariff barriers on everyone else have gone up, so has the drawbridge, making it harder for migrants to enter the country. The president wants to turn America into a fortress that keeps out foreign incursions. In fact, he is cutting America off from the very goods and talent that helped make its economy the envy of the world. Already the damage is starting to show; once wreaked, it will not easily be reversed. That is not how investors see it. In the six...

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador was sentenced to 30 years in prison for repeatedly raping an 11-year-old girl in Virginia Beach. On Wednesday, the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office shared the mugshot of 35-year-old Ricardo Lionel Mejia, who was sentenced on Tuesday. Mejia was booked into the Virginia Beach Correctional Center on October 9, 2024, after pleading guilty to three charges of raping a victim under the age of 13, indecent liberties with a child under 15, and statutory burglary. The sheriff’s office stated that he will serve a 30-year sentence at the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) facility on...

An Indian Redditor who claimed to be an ex-Amazon employee took to Reddit to share his rant against Indian managers in US workplaces. The post went viral with anti-H-1Bs reveling in the fact that Indians are exposing the toxicity they create in American companies. The Redditor said Indian managers do not hire Americans because they know they can't push them to work 24/7; and Americans won't hesitate to push back if they are made to work extra. Citing the toxic behavior of the Indian managers for leaving Amazon, the person claimed that the real hiring criteria in Walmart is one...

María Corina Machado, the 2025 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, dedicated her recognition on Friday to her Venezuelan people and to President Donald Trump, stating that Venezuelans need his support “more than ever.” The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced its prize recipient on Friday morning Oslo time, awarding Machado for decades of advocacy against socialism in her native Venezuela. While the left-leaning Committee did not mention socialism at all in its announcement of the award, failing to recognize who is repressing the former Venezuelan National Assembly member, it did congratulate Machado for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the...

Zohran Mamdani is on track to become New York City’s next mayor. That’s bad for your interests, even if you don’t live, work, or spend time in the rotting Big Apple.Manhattan’s financial sector is the beating heart of the American economy. Every day, trillions of dollars course through Wall Street, making NYC the nation’s indispensable financial engine. It is not just a local hub but a national artery, driving investment, credit, and economic activity across the country.Decisions made in New York City ripple outward to affect retirement accounts in Ohio, mortgage rates in Florida, and small business loans in Texas.Now...

Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather weighed in on David Ellison’s hire of Bari Weiss as editor in chief at CBS News, warning that it portends a culture of fear in the news division as staffers worry about their jobs. On his Substack, Steady, Rather put Weiss’ hire in the context of the Skydance-Paramount merger, noting that the companies bowed to pressure from the Trump administration in order to get the transaction approved by the FCC. “That deal and the hiring of Weiss signals to everyone, especially to the man in the Oval Office, that CBS is no longer...

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt gained national attention during the men's team run to the 2018 Final FourDolores Bertha Schmidt, who became known across the country as Sister Jean, the beloved and enthusiastic chaplain of Loyola Chicago basketball, died Thursday at 106 years old. "Loyola University Chicago is greatly saddened to confirm the death of Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, BVM," the university announced. "This is a tremendous loss of someone who touched the lives of so many people. We appreciate everyone's thoughts & prayers during this difficult time." Sister Jean served Loyola's students for more than six decades, retiring just last...

Yet another far left crazy, who threatens to murder conservatives, arrested. and charged by DOJ. Hopefully most of them will end up in jail for very long periods of time.

Ten years ago, my daughter asked me “Why do we have health insurance if we aren’t allowed to see the doctor?” I had a three-day rule where my premise -- most non-serious conditions resolve in 72 hours -- so no need to waste my time or money going to urgent care. Besides, rising premiums pushed me into high-deductible health insurance. More than a year ago I rushed my younger child to urgent care and the bill remains unresolved. After a heavy object was inadvertently dropped on his finger, causing it to swell 2X its original size, we headed to urgent...

Rep. Jerry Nadler accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of antisemitism on Thursday after the health secretary said he believed “early circumcisions” were a cause of autism. “Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol,” Kennedy said in a meeting about his push to discourage the use of Tylenol among pregnant women over autism concerns, which has drawn widespread concern among medical professionals over its lack of evidence. President Donald Trump, who was present, said there was ample evidence for Kennedy’s concern but neither man cited any. Kennedy, who has...

~As you know, I regret that Donald J Trump is susceptible to the blandishments of the Royal Family. Likewise, I regret that he seeks the validation of the King of Norway and the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. I have had little regard for the latter at least since they enNobelled the world's Numero Uno celeb terrorist and Slav rent-boy addict Yasser Arafat. By comparison, this year's winner, the little-known Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, seems a more or less deserving winner. As for Trump getting frosted out, Reuters reports: Ahead of the Nobel announcement, experts on the award had...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With the peace agreement between Israel and Hamas tentatively settled, President Donald Trump reportedly set his sights on quelling the longstanding unrest between Yankees and Red Sox fans. "We're going to make a HISTORIC and TREMENDOUS deal that will unite these two fanbases and bring an end to this 3,000 YEAR CATASTROPHE," Trump said in a post to his Truth Social account. "THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!" Yankees and Red Sox fans have been caught up in an intense rivalry since ancient times, fueled primarily by their vastly different demographics. The largely blue-collar Bostonians...

For the better part of a year, we've been reporting about Richard Cox, the Tier III registered child sex offender currently terrorizing women and girls in and around Arlington and Fairfax Counties in Virginia. Cox has repeatedly exposed himself and engaged in lewd acts in locker rooms, and authorities have turned a blind eye because Cox "identifies" as a woman. Advertisement Back in September, we learned Cox, a registered child sex offender, had schedules for children's swim classes on his phone, presumably so he could be in the locker room before and after those classes took place. VA's Democratic gubernatorial...

Critics cringed hard over what was slammed as a “creepy” exchange between President Donald Trump and a self-described recovering “Trump Derangement Syndrome” sufferer during a White House roundtable on Trump’s favorite boogeyman, Antifa, on Wednesday. Brandi Kruse, a conservative content creator from Seattle, told Trump she was “living proof that you can recover” from so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which isn’t an official medical diagnosis but just a partisan insult that Trump fans often derogatorily hurl at critics of the president.

Join Libby Emmons as she fills in for Tim Pool, with guest Andy Ngo, Nick Sortor, James Klug, and Richie McGinnis as they talk about antifa and their current activites, and their interactions with them. Of interest...Andy Ngo points out that people should be concerned that, under the pretense of 2nd amendment rights, trans militants are stockpiling weapons and training for the purpose of killing those they consider transphob and fascist Ngo feels the left has embraced an assassination culture, and it's just a matter of time before there is another assassination of a conservative or person on the right.

[Catholic Caucus] Austrian bishop appointed by Francis hires homosexual ‘married’ man as personal secretary An Austrian bishop has appointed an openly homosexual and civilly “married” man as his personal secretary.As a report by the blog Novus Ordo Watch revealed, Bishop Johannes Freitag, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Graz-Steckau, has hired Domenik Kainzinger-Webern as his private secretary. Freitag was appointed auxiliary bishop of Graz-Steckau on January 31, 2025, by Pope Francis.A picture on Kainzinger-Webern partner’s Instagram profile shows the two of them commemorating their fourth “wedding” anniversary. A picture on the website of Salinenmusik Altaussee documents their ceremony, which took...

VIDEOIt was fascinating to watch Abigail Spanburger reveal herself as a complete unfeeling robot during the Virginia Governor Debate. The psychological description of that mental condition is "psychopathic." Someone who displays a lack of emotion or empathy. There were several people who analyzed the debate performances but the person who should have weighed in was Dr. Buddy Rydell to analyze the robotic behavior by Spanberger.

Former Vice President Harris said on Thursday that any checks and balances to hold back President Trump have not worked. On tour to promote her new book about her campaign, “107 Days,” Harris spoke with journalist and podcaster Kara Swisher at the Warner Theatre to a sold-out audience. “The point is that the guardrails have failed, for the most part,” Harris said. “Except one, which is the people and the power of God.” “So right now, in this moment, if the Supreme Court isn’t a guardrail … what is, from a legal point of view, the guardrail that you see?”...