Free Republic

Among Donald Trump's proudest boasts is his claim to have brought millions of new voters into the Republican Party. Part of his strength, his son Donald Trump Jr. said in Cleveland, is his ability to speak to people who "aren't necessarily the traditional Republican voters." "Actual workers" — like the people who put up sheetrock in Trump's buildings - "those are the guys who are going to vote for us because we're speaking with them, we're not speaking at them, we're not lecturing them," the younger Trump said. But many party leaders fear Trump has embarked on a zero-sum game:...

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham urged Donald Trump to clarify his position on defending European allies after a New York Times article quoted the GOP presidential nominee as not fully supportive of the NATO alliance treaty. “Statements like these make the world more dangerous and the United States less safe,” Graham, R-S.C., said this morning. “I can only imagine how our allies in NATO, particularly the Balkan states must feel after reading these comments from Mr. Trump,” Graham said. “I’m 100 percent certain how Russian President Putin feels – he’s a very happy man.” Trump, in a New York Times interview...

I rarely write about American politics. Here in Israel, existential national threats prevent me from dwelling on America’s problems. In Israel, Arabs butcher our thirteen-year-old daughters in their bedrooms and gun down our brothers and fathers, and the impotent leadership responds in typical fashion— with powerful speeches to comfort the bereaved. So naturally the demise of America cannot take up much of my time. But that doesn’t mean I’m disinterested. I am concerned with America’s welfare. As a Jew with a sense of history, I appreciate the haven America provided us throughout the last few centuries, when most countries offered...

For example, asked about Russia’s threatening activities that have unnerved the small Baltic States that are among the more recent entrants into NATO, Mr. Trump said that if Russia attacked them, he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing whether those nations “have fulfilled their obligations to us.” Mr. Trump had nothing but praise for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s increasingly authoritarian but democratically elected leader. “I give great credit to him for being able to turn that around,” Mr. Trump said of the coup attempt on Friday night. “Some people say that it was...

The Congressional Budget Office recently released its long-term budget outlook. There isn't much new there; we are still in the red, and it will only continue to get worse. Considering the extent of the problem, you would think someone on the campaign trail would pay attention. Yet no presidential candidate really is. First, CBO projects that the federal public debt-to-GDP ratio will go from its current 75 percent (up from 39 percent in 2008) to 86 percent in 2026 and 141 percent in 2046. On the deficit side, CBO projects that by 2020, our deficit level will reach $1 trillion,...

With the Republican National Convention set to wrap up on Thursday, and the Democratic National Convention getting ready to kick off in Philadelphia next week, one prominent oil executive is noting that the industry has fared better under Democrats than Republicans. Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, says that he has noticed the trend during his 42 years in the business. That may sound strange considering the two parties’ diverse platforms when it comes to energy. The Republican party is touting deregulation and has said that it does not support the Paris Climate Accords. Going a few steps further,...

The United States runs its air operations against ISIS in Iraq from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. The base, used by other NATO forces as well, is not American. It is Turkish, and the U.S. needs government permission to fly from there. Since the 15 July coup attempt in Ankara, U.S. forces at Incirlik are essentially hostages to the Turkish government. The Turkish base commander and his aides have been arrested; U.S. personnel are confined to base; outside power has been cut off; and while the U.S. has been permitted to resume operations over Iraq and Syria, it is working...

You're fired! Trump to purge federal government of Obama henchmen with aid of new law making it easier to ax civil servants Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor heading shadow transition team, reveal plan for law change to clear out Obama's appointees 'As you know from his other career, Donald like to fire people,' Christie said in closed-door meeting with donors Campaign is drawing up list of federal employees it wants fired if Trump wins the election Christie said law change is needed because Obama could make his appointees proper civil servants who are more difficult to ax Move would...

Attacking big banks is as American as apple pie. But it’s a new entry on this year’s Republican menu. In a convention surprise, the Republicans inserted a plank in the party platform calling for the restoration of a Depression-era law, the Glass-Steagall Act, that separated commercial and investment banking. The law was repealed in 1999 during the Clinton administration, with bipartisan support, at the behest of the big banks, which said they needed to combine their investment and commercial functions in order to compete on the global stage. It didn’t turn out so well, of course... ...What the Republican Party...

Much has been made about Jewish Republicans and their apparent hesitance for Trump, as well as the aggregate set of Jewish voters. The liberal media has done much to demonize Trump with them, by pointing out a few rogue Twitter trolls, who may or may not be DNC/Crooked Hillary shills. Here's the truth: Donald J. Trump will prevent a Europe-like scenario of Muslim immigration to the US. That Europe-like scenario is the sheer amount of Jews fleeing the continent because Muslim anti-Semitism has increased with the Islam population, and leftist and formerly center-left parties have courted the Muslim vote with...

If I had any lingering doubts about Donald Trump being the best possible candidate for President, he erased them with his announcement of Mike Pence as his preferred VP. It is not about Mike Pence, although he is a great selection. Go to 13:40 in his announcement speech. At that point in the speech, Mr. Trump explains the "Johnson Amendment". This was an amendment to the US Tax code in 1954 proposed by Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and eventually passed that prohibited Pastors, Ministers and Priests from addressing political issues in their sermons on the penalty of losing their tax...

If he wins the presidency, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would seek to purge the federal government of officials appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama and could ask Congress to pass legislation making it easier to fire public workers, Trump ally, Chris Christie, said on Tuesday. Christie, who is governor of New Jersey and leads Trump's White House transition team, said the campaign was drawing up a list of federal government employees to fire if Trump defeats Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election. “As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people,” Christie...

Whether or not Melania Trump cribbed a passage from a Michelle Obama speech, there is one crucial sentiment Donald Trump’s Slovenian born wife certainly didn’t copy from Obama’s — the inherent pride of being an American citizen. As the media pours over one passage in Melania Trump’s Republican National Convention speech that is similar to Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech at the Democratic National Convention, they overlook a key sentence that was undeniably written by Mrs. Trump and reveals all the difference in the world between these two women and their husbands.

Hillary, the Black Lives Matter Candidate Where racist pandering and cop-hatred meet. July 19, 2016 Matthew Vadum    CLEVELAND -- Hillary Clinton's appalling address to black activists yesterday suggests that she may be an even more fanatical supporter of the dangerous, violent Black Lives Matter movement than Barack Obama. Clinton is clearly now the Black Lives Matter candidate. Spewing lies and half-truths, she has become increasingly radical on the issue of race relations in recent months. The former secretary of state, U.S. senator, first lady, and now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, speaks warmly of those black criminals who kill...

A great memeber here and Navy veteran, MagUSNRET, made some comments that need to stand alone so more people read them, take heed, and hopefully TAKE ACTION! Without honest and open elections, with NO voter fraud, we do not have a Republic. Her comments: As this is the third election cycle convention thread I have been on, I am compelled to post this yet again, in hopes it gets some traction THIS time. Active Duty Military votes are very often claimed to have arrived “too late” to be counted,or were “lost at sea”, or they are not counted unless and...

by Tyler Durden Jul 18, 2016 Howard Kunstler I was in the streets of Chicago in 1968 during the Democratic Convention. It was only a few months after Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot to death. The “establishment,” as we called it back then, was all set to nominate Vice-president Hubert Humphrey who had started out in Washington as a Midwestern progressive firebrand but was now was broadly perceived by America’s hippie youth as a stooge and a sell-out to the evil forces running the Vietnam War. I wasn’t exactly a protester, more like a proto-journalist, there to...

Donald Trump’s idea to build a wall along the southern border of the U.S. has been called everything from controversial to harebrained, but—to the likely dismay of some of the oil majors—it’s now officially part of the Republican Party’s platform. As it turns out, the idea has been on the GOP table for a while, and Trump was just the man to voice it loudly and persistently enough. Trump’s wall is on the agenda, should he become president. A wall stopping people and vehicles from illegally crossing into the U.S. may appear to be a simple and effective solution to...

Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol airs his concerns about Donald Trump being the Republican nominee one last time before the Republican National Convention. "It would be a wise thing to do at this convention," he said, "to talk about the kinds of people he would have --reassure people who your Secretary of State is going to be, reassure us that his Attorney General is not going to go after his personal enemies." "Instead, if it going to be this ridiculous personality show, with his wonderful family, the three wives -- that's what he wants to do though. He doesn't want...

Voters tend to think House Speaker Paul Ryan is just making a political move with his call to (block presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton) from receiving intelligence briefings following the FBI's conclusion that she was “extremely careless” with classified information during her time as secretary of State. But voters trust her Republican rival Donald Trump slightly more when it comes to handling the nation's secrets.

Donald Trump remains within striking distance of Hillary Clinton as the Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland. A national Morning Consult survey taken over the past weekend shows the bellicose businessman trailing the former secretary of State in a head-to-head matchup, 41 percent to 39 percent. In our previous survey, Trump was just one point behind Clinton. One-fifth of voters remain undecided. The presumptive Republican nominee leads his Democratic counterpart among independents by 11 points, 38 percent to 27 percent. Clinton boasts a large advantage among young voters: 47 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 back her, compared...