Free Republic

President Trump dominates the political landscape, holding off lame-duck status for now. But some signs are emerging that prominent members of his party are readying 2028 presidential bids. Those moves are only likely to accelerate after November’s midterms. A post-Trump landscape will be tricky to navigate. The president has transformed his party during his decade in political life, shifting its policy positions on topics from immigration to trade, and transforming the tenor in which it conducts debate.

The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and three other terrorists being held in Guantánamo Bay will finally stand trial in 2028, a military judge ruled Wednesday. The ruling from Lt. Col. Michael Schrama came just two weeks before the 25th anniversary of the world-altering attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the head plotter, and three of his alleged co-conspirators have been held at the Cuba military base since 2003 in the long-delayed case.

We've been reporting on the various people contemplating or being talked about as possible 2028 candidates to run for president in the Democrat Party. The names being kicked around are a festival of failure, including California Gov. Gavin "Hairgel" Newsom, the "don't ever call me Border Czar" Kamala Harris, and the thirsting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14). But now those people may have company, because guess who is confessing he's "kicking the tires"? Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). He said to Meet the Press anchor Kristen Welker that he had been considering running in 2028, that he'd been to New Hampshire...

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) insists he has “zero interest” in running for president in 2028, but a growing corner of the Democratic internet is acting as though he may not get the final say. The Georgia Democrat’s national profile has surged in recent weeks as clips of his increasingly combative attacks on President Donald Trump rack up attention online, fueling comparisons to former President Barack Obama and speculation that another relatively young senator could make a rapid leap from Capitol Hill to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That attention reached another level after Ossoff took an unusually personal swipe at Trump during...

Hegseth traveled to Iowa in his "personal capacity," according to the Pentagon, appearing at a fundraiser for Republican Rep. Zach Nunn.

Kamala Harris on Friday signaled she’d support abolishing the Electoral College and packing the Supreme Court – an indication that the former vice president has moved further to the left since her disastrous 2024 presidential campaign. “I know this is going to be controversial coming from me, in particular,” Harris said in remarks at the National Urban League Conference in Nashville, Tenn., before laying out part of her potential 2028 platform. “We need to revisit the Electoral College. We need to revisit the point of expanding the court, to 13 justices like we have 13 district courts. We need to...

What Axios' Alex Thompson is hearing from Democratic insiders about the party's most likely 2028 Democratic nominees, as told to Jim VandeHei for his weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter: 1. Kamala Harris. She is far ahead of every other contender with Black voters, still the most important voting bloc in a Democratic primary. Her allies argue that no one else is as prepared for a national campaign. She was a better candidate in 2024 than in 2020 and is working hard to be a better, more authentic, less cautious candidate in 2028. Harris is likely a beneficiary of Democrats' preliminary choice...

Democratic Senate candidates James Talarico and Jon Ossoff are facing scrutiny over significant donations from Reid Hoffman, a billionaire mega-investor with former associations to Jeffrey Epstein, after both accused Republicans of representing the billionaire "Epstein class" over working Americans. Both Talarico, running in Texas, and Ossoff, running in Georgia, have repeatedly criticized billionaires’ involvement in politics and charged Republicans with being beholden to the "Epstein class" instead of the American people. Meanwhile, Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn who has previously admitted to spending a night on Epstein’s Caribbean island, has heavily invested in both campaigns. In the Texas Senate race,...

Extraordinary address comes ahead of November midterm elections, with Republicans at risk of losing their majorities in Congress WASHINGTON—President Trump delivered an extraordinary prime-time address in which he alleged that the U.S. election system had been compromised, ramping up his efforts to sow doubts about his 2020 election loss, raise skepticism about the coming midterms and pressure lawmakers into passing sweeping voter-ID legislation. Speaking in the East Room on Thursday night, Trump said he was declassifying a trove of intelligence documents that he argued showed efforts by the Chinese government to interfere in or influence the 2020 U.S. election. He...

Former CNN host and independent journalist Don Lemon claimed in a new interview that he’s “serious” about possibly running for president in the 2028 election — and insisted he’d be a “really good” commander-in-chief. Lemon made the eyebrow-raising declaration on “Can’t Be Censored” podcast hosted by Karman Wong and Travis Dhanraj, insisting that everyone wants to know if he has White House aspirations. “Do you have political ambition? Is that true?” Dhanraj asked on Wednesday’s show. “No, but people keep asking me if I’m running for president,” Lemon answered. “And I don’t know. I might. I’m serious. I don’t know....

The Bartender's Thinking BIG! 😆

The decisive primary sweep by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s left-wing comrades gave Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez such an ego boost that Democratic insiders predict it could spur a White House bid in 2028. The “Squad’s” queen bee may ditch her long-anticipated plot to unseat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for bigger game after three radical Mamdani-backed insurgents running for House seats on Tuesday defeated old-guard Dems, pushing the party even further left, the insiders said. “New York’s clean sweep was a political earthquake that shows voters generally want to shake up the system,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change...

In “Communion,” Vance weaves his faith journey, beginning in his childhood, through his recent life changes and with his own policy and cultural views... His account of his faith journey, at times, seems to focus on his return to Christianity more broadly, with Catholicism presented as the variety he chose. “I’m not a particularly sectarian person, and this is not a particularly sectarian book,” Vance said in the book’s opening chapter. Although he said he became Catholic for “what I believe are good reasons,” he credited his Protestant spiritual foundation as a key factor in his journey back to God...

Vice President JD Vance, in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning,” said he and his wife, Usha Vance, will discuss a 2028 presidential run after this year’s midterm elections. “Usha and I will absolutely sit down and talk about what comes next for our family,” Vance told CBS. “The way I make decisions is I try not to make them until I absolutely must.” He said he expects President Donald Trump to be “very supportive” of his eventual decision. “I have no doubt that the president of the United States is going to be very supportive of anything that I...

Kamala Harris remains the clear favorite among Democratic voters eyeing the 2028 presidential race, according to a new national survey. The latest Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found the former vice president backed by 27% of left-leaning voters, nearly doubling the support of her nearest rival, fellow California native governor Gavin Newsom, who came in second at 14%. While Harris maintains a sizable advantage, the poll suggests her grip on the party’s electorate may be loosening somewhat. Her support has slipped from 33% in October and 31% in March to 27% in the latest survey. Newsom has also trended downward,...

@GeneralMCNews BREAKING: Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene have been vacationing together in Costa Rica.

JD Vance, now the lone dove in Donald Trump's cabinet after Tulsi Gabbard's resignation, has been left more isolated than ever and is even considering abandoning a run for the presidency in 2028, multiple sources tell the Daily Mail. Gabbard's resignation letter cited her husband's diagnosis with a rare form of cancer. But the whispers racing through the West Wing find common ground: Iran. Vance's most senior non-interventionist ally is gone, and even as he expressed his sorrow for the exit of his 'dear friend' on Friday, insiders told the Daily Mail that his own future is at the front...

A stunning new poll by The Heartland Institute’s Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center and Rasmussen Reports reveals that 51% of young Americans who are likely to vote in the next presidential election would like to see a democratic socialist in the Oval Office. The survey found that nearly three-in-10 young Americans who voted for President Trump in 2024 would prefer a democratic socialist win the presidency in 2028. Those earning less than $100,000 per year and those earning $200,000 or more also voiced strong support for a democratic socialist in the White House whereas the only income cohort to...

Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp signaled his state is joining the nationwide redistricting battle Wednesday by calling for a special legislative session to redraw the congressional maps. Kemp signed a proclamation that calls a special session of the Georgia General Assembly for June 17 to address the Supreme Court's historic ruling that is expected to require changes to the state's electoral maps before the 2028 elections. The Supreme Court ruled last month that Louisiana's second majority-Black congressional district relied too heavily on race and was therefore an unconstitutional gerrymander. The special session will only be allowed to cover two topics....

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) dismissed a question of whether or not she’ll run for president in 2028 on Friday night, stating that her “ambition is way bigger.” “My ambition is to change this country,” Ocasio-Cortez told Democratic strategist David Axelrod during a conversation hosted by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. “Presidents come and go, Senate, House seats, elected officials, come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever. A living wage is forever. Workers’ rights are forever. Women’s rights — all of that.” The representative is among a group of people whom voters see as potential Democratic candidates for...