Free Republic

Trump’s trade war isn’t working, but neither did previous administrations’ policy of accommodation.As President Trump meets Xi Jinping in South Korea, I believe America’s China strategy needs a course correction—but not a knee-jerk reversion to a pre-Trump status quo. If we want to win the competition with China, we need to think well beyond the next election and even the next decade. We need to rebuild a durable bipartisan consensus over how to approach the world’s most consequential relationship. That will require a plan that avoids the big swings we’ve seen in our China strategy the past two decades. For...

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts declined to distance the conservative organization from Tucker Carlson, in response to criticism that Tucker has become "anti-semitic." KEVIN ROBERTS: I'll have more to say on this in the coming days, but today I want to be clear about one thing. Christians can critique the state of Israel without being anti-Semitic. Of course, anti-Semitism should be condemned. My loyalty as a Christian is to Christ first and to America always. When it serves the interest of the United States to cooperate with other allies, we do so with partnerships on security, intelligence, technology. But when...

Two of the biggest unions in the federal workforce — the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association — are demanding that Democrats reopen the government now. It’s not because they’ve turned MAGA or suddenly embraced the GOP budget: both unions are as progressive as ever. It’s because their members are working without pay. And the plight of these workers shows just how difficult it is for Democrats to wring concessions through shutdown tactics.Because it’s illegal for federal workers to strike, these employees don’t have much choice. They are subject to what could be called...

The United Nations human rights chief said Friday that U.S. military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying illegal drugs from South America are "unacceptable" and must stop. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk called for an investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to mark the first such condemnation of its kind from a U.N. organization. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for Türk's office, relayed his message on Friday at a regular U.N. briefing: "These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The U.S. must halt such attacks and take...

As politicians prepare to jet into Belém, Brazil, for the 30th annual UN climate meeting, philanthropist Bill Gates has provided a straightforward insight: climate summits like COP30 should prioritize what truly improves human lives, and not just chase reductions in emissions or temperatures. His point is both refreshingly overdue and, frankly, obvious common sense. I have long argued that policymakers should always ask: What’s the smartest way to do the most good with limited resources? For billions of people in the developing world, tackling immediate challenges like poverty and disease outweighs chasing distant temperature goals.In poor countries, parents are not...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14)Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

Before Eric Adams can start explaining the conspiracy that took him down, the soon-to-be-former mayor of New York City must make his morning smoothie. On a chilly recent Friday, he is standing in the stainless-steel kitchen of Gracie Mansion, the stately official residence on the Upper East Side, layering blueberries and ginger and flaxseed and greens into a Nutribullet blender.“People think that our stomachs are like a washing machine—that when you eat, everything mixes up together—and it is not,” he says, whirring the mixture into a greenish-brown sludge. “Our stomachs are like a sink, where what you put in it...

The extent of the UK coastline and remoteness of some of the locations where small vessels can arrive creates opportunities for smugglers of goods and people. That's according to an inspection carried out by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI). The findings came just days after a previous border watchdog, John Vine, warned BBC South East that smuggling people and drugs into the UK using yachts was a real threat. The Home Office said work is already underway to address several of the concerns raised. The inspection was released under the new Chief Inspector, John Tuckett, but...

Zohran Mamdani is not a serious person. How do we know? Because, with just a few days to go before Election Day, he has not expressed his views on New York City ballot proposals two through four, which strike at the heart of the “affordability crisis” he pretends is central to his campaign. I say “pretends” because none of Mamdani’s signature campaign proposals, estimated to cost $7 billion per year, will actually reduce the cost of living in New York. He must know that, unless his pricey Bowdoin College education left him appallingly ignorant of how the real world works.You...

Paramount Global has delivered a devastating blow to music fans worldwide, announcing the permanent shutdown of five iconic MTV music channels by December 31, 2025 according to the BBC. For 44 years, MTV has been a cultural juggernaut, shaping youth culture, launching musical careers, and defining how generations consumed music, fashion, and pop culture. The closure of these beloved networks signals the end of an era that captivated audiences who once gathered around television screens, eagerly awaiting the next music video from their favorite artists. The affected channels—MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live—have long served...

In 1993, I stood in front of someone and swore my oath of enlistment. I'd joined the United States Navy and vowed then and there to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. During my time in Uncle Sam's Yacht Club, I was never called upon to defend against foreign enemies. However, now that I'm in civilian life, I keep finding myself needing to defend us from domestic enemies. We call them the Democratic Party, unfortunately. In recent weeks, the insanity has reached a fevered pace. We've got everything from former presidents calling for the regulation...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he told Ontario's premier not to run an anti-tariff ad that prompted President Trump to end trade talks with Canada. Carney also confirmed that he apologized to the president during a dinner at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this week because Mr. Trump was "offended." Ontario's television advertisement that aired in the U.S. criticizes Mr. Trump's tariffs by citing a speech from former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The ad infuriated Mr. Trump, who ended trade talks with Canada and said he plans to hike tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 10%.

Remember Marjorie Taylor Greene going off the rails during one of Biden's State of the Union addresses? Well, maybe her appearance on Bill Maher's show Friday night was super appropriate for Halloween, because it looks like that version is the ghost of the past. MTG joined Bill on 'Real Time,' and she came off incredibly reasonable and not a party hack. She talked about splitting with Trump on a variety of issues, including releasing the Epstein files, healthcare, opening the government, and pouring money into foreign aid -- especially to Argentina -- while 42 million Americans don't know where they'll...

The U.S. Department of Labor under the Trump administration has released a new social media ad alleging that some companies are misusing the H-1B visa program to displace young American workers. The campaign singles out India as the primary country benefiting from the visa system, reigniting debate over its impact on the domestic job market. “Young Americans have had the American Dream stolen from them, as jobs have been replaced by foreign workers due to rampant abuse of the H-1B visa,” the department wrote in a post on X. The post added: “Under the President of the United States and...

A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s request to add a documentary proof of citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form cannot be enforced. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, sided with left-wing and “civil rights” groups that had sued the Trump Administration over his executive order aimed at bolstering election integrity. The order, titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” directs federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Social Security Administration (SSA), and Department of State to provide states access to federal databases to verify voter eligibility and citizenship during...

New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani holds a commanding 25-point lead over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) less than a week out from the race to succeed outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), according to a new poll. An Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey released Thursday shows Mamdani at 50 percent, Cuomo at 25 percent and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa at 21 percent. Close to 4 percent say they’re undecided. When undecideds are factored in, Mamdani’s support grows to 51 percent, while Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary...

The FBI’s growing list of domestic threats has mutated in recent years to include every conceivable affiliation of Americans across the political spectrum: right-wing violent extremists, left-wing violent extremists, black identity extremists, and animal rights extremists. The current administration has even added nihilistic violent extremists—those who “believe in nothing”—to the laundry list. The Biden administration, for its part, aided in this exercise by vastly overstating the threat posed by Trump-aligned conservatives in the wake of January 6th. But neither Democratic nor Republican administrations have ever grandstanded about another significant threat group that the FBI secretly monitors on U.S. soil: Israeli...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today released the following statement after Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents in Ft. Myers arrested Joseph Giancola, a Florida man, who made online death threats to kill ICE officers. Joseph Giancola posted to the social media platform Bluesky under the pseudonym “Cain Delon.” Some of the death threats Giancola made online include: “Shoot the ICE Nazis down like the rabid dogs they are” “Just get a gun and shoot the ICE Nazis down” “Start by shooting ice thugs dead” “Shoot those ice thugs dead” “Shoot the ICE agents down.” “They...

I never touch Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, an aversion that goes back long before I got disgusted with the politics that its co-founders—Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, two Jewish kids from Long Island—espouse. I like my ice cream exquisitely simple (cream, whole milk, quality Dutch cocoa, egg yolks, a little white and a little brown sugar, a little vanilla, and a little almond extract = paradise). For that reason, I’ve always considered Ben & Jerry’s to be overly complicated, poisonously sweet glop. And then there were the politics. There are no leftist political issues that Ben & Jerry’s ice...

How does a Reformed Christian celebrate All Saints Day if we view all Christians as saints? Well, it is a day that we can remember and praise God for those who have traveled before us, both those who have made great marks on the church and those how have made great marks on our lives. In some ways, American Christians might think of it akin to the American holidays like Memorial Day or Veterans Day in which we remember those men and women who have given their lives to protect the nature (Memorial Day) or who have given their time...