Free Republic

President Trump is facing a growing political problem in America’s agricultural heartland, as he looks to import Argentinian beef to help bring down prices for U.S. grocery shoppers. The Trump administration is reportedly looking to quadruple low-tariff imports from Argentina, raising the quota to 80,000 metric tons per year. The news has enraged America’s beef farmers — and the Republican senators who represent them. “This isn’t the way to do it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said of Trump’s efforts to drive down prices. “It’s created a lot of uncertainty in that market. So I’m hoping that the White...

A vividly hued Picasso portrait of longtime muse and partner Dora Maar that had remained out of view for more than eight decades sold Friday at auction for 32 million euros (about $37 million), including fees. Painted in July 1943, “Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)” depicts Maar in a brightly colored floral hat. Maar, an artist and photographer herself, had been Picasso’s partner and muse for about seven years, and the relationship was coming to a painful close. The work was purchased in 1944 and had not been on the market since, remaining in the...

As the political establishment runs about with their hair on fire screaming about the upcoming horrors of a Mamdani win in the New York City mayor’s race, I laugh with delight.Include political and social “elites” and I agree 100%.First, lets get real. NYC, unfortunately like a lot of places in the country, is basically one-party rule. Therefore, whoever wins the primary has an enormous probability of winning the general election. The real fight is in the primary.Everyone knows this. Everyone. I’m not the one who didn’t take the communist Mamdani as a serious candidate and basically handed him the primary...

The EV revolution is getting stripped for parts. California’s green dream is dying by a thousand copper cuts. You can’t plug in progress when the streets are unplugging the city. VIDEOS OF CRIMES AT LINK.................... BRIEFING ... Every now and then, a story drops that’s so dripping in irony it feels like satire. Los Angeles, the city that prides itself on being the crown jewel of “green innovation,” has officially short-circuited its own electric dream. The city’s extravagant vision of “zero emissions” is being shorted out by something painfully fitting: the homeless are ripping the copper wiring straight out of...

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a formal letter to top California officials Thursday, warning them against any attempts to arrest or impede federal law enforcement officers enforcing immigration laws. The letter, addressed to Gov. Gavin Newsom; state Attorney General Rob Bonta; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, stressed that federal agents and officers are carrying out lawful duties, and any interference by state or local officials is both "illegal and futile." The letter was sent after Pelosi, the former House Speaker, and Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-Calif., issued a statement Wednesday threatening to arrest...

The Trump administration excels at sowing uncertainty. But it is sending an unambiguous message to crypto entrepreneurs who may be operating on the fringes of the law, or outside of it: Don’t worry about a thing. ICYMI: President Donald Trump on Thursday issued yet another reprieve for a crypto mogul who happens to have greatly enriched the Trump family’s net worth. Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, served a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2023 to charges related to anti-money-laundering violations. Zhao, widely known as “CZ,” was released in September 2024. After months...

A Republican measure that would pay essential government employees faltered in the Senate, and the G.O.P. blocked a pair of Democratic bills to pay a broader swath of workers.Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked legislation to pay federal employees who have been working without compensation during the government shutdown, thwarting Republicans’ latest effort to weaken their hand in the federal spending fight. The defeat was part of a series of failed partisan votes on the 23rd day of the government shutdown that underscored the depth of the prolonged impasse, with neither Republicans nor Democrats showing any indication that they planned to...

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed the streets and sidewalks for blocks around the Israeli Consulate in New York City on Sunday to protest issues including a potential end of an exemption for religious students from compulsory service in Israel’s military. The protest at the consulate, a block from the United Nations campus in Manhattan, illustrated the complex relationship between Israel and segments of the large population of very religious Jews in New York and its suburbs. The two influential, and often rival, grand rebbes of the Satmar community both called on adherents to participate in the demonstration. It comes after...

Popular protestant apologist “Cleave to Antiquity” has announced that he is becoming an Orthodox Christian, catching many of his recent collaborators by surprise. “Cleave to Antiquity” is the moniker of Pastor Benjamin Merritt, who serves at a non-denominational church in Holiday, Florida. There, Merritt leads apologetics classes “Defend the Faith,” which cover topics ranging from refuting Seventh-day Adventism to addressing Freemasonry and Catholicism. Notably, pastor Ben started his YouTube channel specifically to respond to claims of Eastern Orthodoxy and has been active in the apologetics circuit since then, laying down show after show exposing the errors of their beliefs. And...

U.S. President Donald Trump said he stopped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from fighting in Gaza, a war he said would have continued "for years" without his pressure on Netanyahu. “He would have just kept going,” Trump told TIME in a newly published interview. “It could have gone on for years. It would have gone on for years. But I stopped him, and everybody came together when I stopped him.” Trump and Netanyahu have heaped praise on each other publicly. But Trump has also shown signs of frustration with Netanyahu's hardline approach, saying in his recent speech to the Knesset...

This 1958 Porsche-Diesel Junior 108L tractor is said to have been purchased by the seller out of Germany in 2020 and has been refurbished. The tractor is finished in red with beige wheels, and power is from an air-cooled 822cc diesel single paired with a dual-range three-speed manual transmission. Equipment includes headlights, turn signals, taillights, a hinged engine cover, dual power take-offs, a drawbar, front and rear pin hitches, a red and tan-painted steel seat, a fender-mounted jump seat, and a two-row cultivator. This Porsche-Diesel tractor is now offered in Pennsylvania with a bill of sale. Porsche-Diesel Junior tractors were...

Conservatives are flaming each other over a group chat and liberals are protesting "kings." Meanwhile, Christians in Nigeria are being hunted, murdered, and buried in silence. Video has now emerged of an October 14th mass funeral. Most of these wooden coffins hold children and their mothers. This heartbreaking mass burial of Christians - mostly children and their mothers, actually happened on the 14th. Nigeria will go down in history as the country that has drunken the most Christian blood in all of human history, with zero remorse. Loud shame pic.twitter.com/YTH8Wtcbtj— J. C. Okechukwu (@jcokechukwu) October 21, 2025Take note of the...

One of America’s largest convenience store chains, Wawa, boasts a cult-like following, inspiring merch, tattoos, songs and even marriage proposals. Now Wawa is hoping to expand that powerful customer loyalty found in its core markets into the Midwest and South. The company — with deep roots in Philadelphia and South Jersey — has built a reputation on fresh, high-quality food and beverages — items not typically associated with gas stations. Its signature hoagies, Sizzli sandwiches and popular limited-time offers such as the Thanksgiving-inspired “Gobbler,” have made Wawa a destination.

The family of a 21-year-old Indian-origin truck driver, who has been accused of causing a semi-truck crash that left three people dead in the US, on Friday rubbished claims that he was intoxicated while driving, saying he was an ‘Amritdhari Sikh’ (baptised Sikh). Jashanpreet Singh allegedly rammed his truck into slow-moving traffic in Southern California on Tuesday, Fox News reported on Wednesday. -snip- Back home in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, Singh’s family is in shock after they learned about the incident. The family hails from Purana Shala village in Gurdaspur. Singh’s father Ravinder Singh on Friday trashed the allegations that his...

"If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that the U.S. military overnight struck a Tren de Aragua drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean, killing six "narco-terrorists." "At the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea," Hegseth posted on X. "The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As demo and construction continued on the highly publicized construction project to build a new White House ballroom, a new report said President Donald Trump had already made his 73rd trip to Home Depot since the start of the renovation. Seeking to complete the project without going over budget, Trump arrived at the local Home Depot with yet another list of materials and tools needed, marking his 12th trip of the day and his 73rd of the last three days. "Forgot to get some of this stuff when I was here this morning," Trump told reporters as...

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday night that the Justice Department has opened investigations into Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot over sustained efforts to dox and obstruct federal immigration agents. While speaking with Fox News, host Jesse Watters asked about recent comments from former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who announced a new project aimed at “unmasking” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents nationwide. “We want to create a centralized archive of all the purported criminal actions of ICE and CBP agents,” Lightfoot said of her new website while...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) pledged to support his colleague Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) as he faces a Trump-backed primary challenge in 2026. In an interview with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns for “The Conversation,” Paul said threats lobbed at Massie from President Donald Trump and others close to the president should raise alarms for any lawmaker, and vowed to help his Kentucky colleague maintain his seat. “Thomas Massie is going to win,” Paul said. “I’m going to help him. I’m going to be with him every step of the way.”

President Donald Trump's project to construct a new grand ballroom at the White House has been grabbing all the headlines, but have you heard about all the amazing features it's going to include? The Babylon Bee has obtained an exclusive list of things being added to the ballroom: 1. 25-foot ceilings to accommodate Barron: He'll finally be able to stand up straight. 2. Diet Coke fountain: A true sign of luxurious opulence. 3. Ball pit: For the kids, and any administration officials who want to cut loose. 4. UFC octagon: Nothing caps off a beautiful state dinner like watching two...

Key Points The consumer price index showed a 0.3% increase on the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3%, both lower than expected. Excluding food and energy, core CPI showed a 0.2% monthly gain and an annual rate also at 3%, also less than forecasts. The BLS released the data specifically because the Social Security Administration uses it as a benchmark for cost-of living adjustments in benefit checks. Otherwise, the federal government has suspended all data compilation. ==================================================================== Prices that people pay for a variety of goods and services rose less than expected in September, according to a Bureau...