Free Republic

National security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their posts in the Trump White House, according to multiple sources familiar with their departure. They are expected to leave Thursday, sources say. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Journalist Mark Halperin first reported the departures. In March, Waltz came under scrutiny after he put together a Signal chat and mistakenly included The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, disclosing discussions with top national security officials about plans for a military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. Goldberg published his account, and he initially...

Inside the White House, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been perhaps the biggest proponent of ”Liberation Day,” President Donald Trump’s promised unveiling of sweeping new tariffs on Wednesday. But as the day nears, the potential fallout from those tariffs may well liberate Lutnick from his role in the administration, according to half dozen people close to the White House. While Americans and much of the world brace for a possible season of pain following the imposition of the new tranche of tariffs, Trump’s orbit is ready to play the blame game should things go poorly for the White House. And...

President Donald Trump is putting a pause on all military aid to Ukraine and issuing an ultimatum to President Volodymyr Zelensky after their Oval Office meeting blew up on Friday. The president had planned to meet with his senior advisors on Monday, according to the New York Times, where he will consider the future of Ukraine aid, even as European countries are discussing how to increase their support for Ukraine. A White House official said Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal to end the more than three-year war sparked by Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine, and wants Zelensky...

A foreign service worker whose pregnant wife allegedly was denied emergency medical transport while stationed abroad has filed an affidavit in federal court against the Trump administration, claiming its “rushed, haphazard and cruel” push to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development has placed the mother and unborn daughter at grave risk. The worker, who identified themselves only as "Terry Doe" in a filing that's part of a larger case in federal court in Washington, D.C., charges that the U.S. government twice denied previously approved medical transport orders for the mother, who is 31-weeks pregnant. “Each day has brought...

FLETCHER, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump has ended the federal security detail for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who advised him on the COVID-19 pandemic, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. ... A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues, said that Fauci’s federal security detail was ended on Thursday and that he has since hired private security. (Excerpt)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump expressed support for Israel’s offensives against Hamas and Hezbollah in a recent call with the country’s prime minister — a position that could complicate his campaign’s outreach to Arab Americans claiming he opposes the war. Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu in one call this month, “Do what you have to do,” according to six people familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and confidential information. Trump has said publicly that the two have spoken at least twice in October, with one call as recently as Oct. 19. “He didn’t...

At least three women have claimed they had trysts with Robert F. Kennedy Jr over the last year during his failed presidential run after linking up through an anti-vaccine group he chairs, according to a report. Two sources told Mediaite on Wednesday they had direct knowledge of the woman’s allegations as Kennedy, 70, is already entangled in another alleged sexting fling with New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi. The outlet also reviewed texts from a woman detailing an alleged relationship with Kennedy this year. *** The trio of women know Kennedy from the Children’s Health Defense, which is an anti-vaccine...

Ukraine is “not winning” its war against Russia, according to a close advisor of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Despite the difficult situation on the ground, Zelensky’s belief in an outright Ukrainian victory is said to be unmovable, according to a new report by Time. The close aide said: “He deludes himself. We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.” Zelensky is said to feel abandoned by the West which he believes has provided Ukraine with enough support to stop Russia but not to outright win the war. he President is dead set against a truce or peace...

Germany is set to insist on delaying Ukraine’s accession to Nato over fears the move could take the alliance to war with Russia.An alliance source said Berlin would use the annual Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania this week to urge others to focus on security assurances, rather than membership proposals, to help Ukraine defend itself in the absence of accession.“Berlin is stand-offish at the prospect of offering immediate membership,” the source told The Telegraph. “It wants a process and time to develop guarantees to essentially block membership.”“Berlin doesn’t want to see Vladimir Putin potentially test Article 5.”Under Nato’s alliance’s Article...

Former President Donald Trump had been widely discussing with “close associates” ahead of his 2024 presidential campaign bringing back the death penalty, expanding the execution methods used by the federal government, and even broadcasting executions as a means to deter violent crime and drug dealers, Rolling Stone reported on Tuesday, citing multiple sources close to Trump. Rolling Stone’s Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis write that Trump has been regularly asking those around him, “What do you think of firing squads?” The article adds that “Trump has talked about bringing back death by firing squad, by hanging, and, according to two...

Ukraine's leaders have been told that aid from the US may not last forever, an official from President Joe Biden's administration told The Washington Post this week.The senior official told The Post the Biden administration has a "very strong view" that continually approving large aid packages for Ukraine will be difficult with a Republican-led House."We will continue to try to impress upon them that we can't do anything and everything forever," said the official, referring to conversations the administration's staffers have had with Ukraine's leaders. The official was granted anonymity by The Post to talk about sensitive foreign policy matters.Biden...

Wagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organisation, first deployed in the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and now a private extension of the Russian army in Ukraine with close ties to Putin. The source told the outlet how squadrons of prisoner conscripts are sent in waves over and over, leapfrogging to move the front line slightly closer to the enemy while Russian artillery continues to explode overhead. The source said: 'Sometimes there is an order not to wait for the shelling to end - the 'Musicians' [Wagner recruits] are so disciplined that they will go anyway because they stand a...

#Russian president #Putin is not an ordinary person, and so is his "friendship" with the leadership of some countries. Recently, one could observe how Putin and his envoys "cajole" the #Iranian leadership. 1/12 Image The Russian president meets and calls #Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi regularly. Relations between the leadership of #Russia and #Iran have not always been smooth. There were many problems, such as the spread of #COVID-19, #Syria, #Iran's refusal to pay for... 2/12 Image the construction of the Bushehr and Bushehr-2 nuclear power plants by #Russia and other difficulties (you can find the details in our earlier posts)....

Pope Francis could be ousted in 'secret plan' by Vatican hardlinersVatican conservatives are waging a “secret plan” to put Pope Francis under such stress that he resigns, it has been claimed. The campaign against the Argentinian pontiff began just days after the death of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.Despite previously stating he will resign if his health deteriorates, it was thought highly unlikely that Francis would decide to step down while Benedict was still alive to avoid there being three Popes living in the Vatican – a situation without precedent that would have embarrassed the Catholic Church.But with Benedict’s death on...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to force the West to end its sanctions by causing a widespread famine, Yale historian Timothy Snyder argues. Snyder, a Levin professor of history at Yale University, pointed to Russia's ongoing blockade of Ukrainian grain, which shows no signs of stopping. Ukraine is a major global producer of grain, supplying mainly Middle Eastern and Asian countries. Snyder argues that Putin's plan is not only to destabilize Ukraine by cutting off exports but also destabilize the European Union by generating "refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, areas usually fed by Ukraine." "When the...

‘SpaceX employee said Elon Musk exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, documents show. The company paid $250,000 for her silence’

A prominent oligarch told friends that Putin's 'psychiatric health is bad' He and other billionaires are fearful over the leader's next moves in Ukraine Investigative journalist Christo Grozev said oligarchs believe Putin has cancer An oligarch close to Vladimir Putin has warned friends that his 'psychiatric health is bad' and there is a 'very real' threat he could use nuclear weapons. The prominent billionaire has told associates that the Kremlin leader's 'psychiatric health is bad indeed, and 'stories about him going bonkers are not a joke'. He and others with huge business empires closely tied to Putin, 69, are fearful...

Buffalo, NY (Sat, 11/26/21) I was visiting aging father in a major hospital in Buffalo, NY. My stepmom (dad’s wife) was frantically concerned about his missing items including his vaccination card (showing they both got their boosters back in October), all while a nurse was checking his vitals. Then in an un-solicited comment, the nurse stated: “…Hospitals in the [Buffalo] area are filling up with mostly VACCINATED patients..”. She went on: “The problem is they take that shot and think they are safe, but they’re not.” She stated they should still wear the mask and do the social distancing thing....

Vice President Mike Pence has not ruled out an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment and wants to preserve the option in case President Donald Trump becomes more unstable, a source close to the vice president says. The source said there is some concern inside Pence's team that there are risks to invoking the 25th Amendment or even to an impeachment process, as Trump could take some sort of rash action putting the nation at risk. As of Saturday evening, Trump and Pence still have not spoken since the Wednesday incursion at the US Capitol that left five people dead,...

A report from a Supreme Court staffer is indicating that Chief Justice John Roberts folded on the landmark Texas election fraud case because he was scared of pushback from left-wing terror groups like ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter. State representative Matt Patrick of District 32 relayed the testimony during an impassioned plea on the Texas House floor for political figures across the nation to fight the vote steal. “He said the justices, as they always do, went into a closed room to discuss cases they’re taking and to debate,” Roberts said. “When the Texas case was brought up, he heard...