Free Republic

*** The promise from President Donald Trump was clear: expose it, clean it up, and drain the swamp. Now more than a year into Trump’s second term, many voters are beginning to ask a simple question: Where are the results? ***Approval ratings for FBI Director Kash Patel are slipping. Only 40 percent of likely voters view Patel favorably. Even more striking, just 32 percent believe he is performing better than previous FBI directors, while 37 percent think he is doing worse.[Rasmussen Reports] *** During the campaign, Trump promised unprecedented transparency on a series of long-running controversies that many Americans believe...

President Donald Trump’s complaints about how the media has covered the war in Iran are “entirely justified,” according to an op-ed published by Mark Penn — a former pollster for President Bill Clinton — and former New York City Council president Andrew Stein in the Wall Street Journal. Penn and Stein argued the mainstream press appears hellbent on painting Operation Epic Fury negatively, no matter how the war is actually going. Their Monday article — titled “On Iran, Is Only Bad News Fit to Print?” — said coverage of the war has gone far beyond merely being critical and instead...

After being asked about Olympians not accepting invites to the White House, 2026 Olympic gold medalist Amber Glenn told Us Weekly that she would decline an invitation if given one. "I’m electing not to either, so I do not blame them whatsoever," Glenn told the outlet. "It is our right to be able to choose what we do and don’t endorse, and I think it is a decision that each individual has the right to make."

Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss funneled millions of dollars to the left-wing organizations that are organizing the anti-Donald Trump "No Kings" protests and spearheading lawsuits targeting President Trump's immigration and energy policies, according to new tax filings obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. They reveal the extent to which Wyss, a foreign national, is central to anti-Trump resistance efforts. The Berger Action Fund, one of two nonprofits Wyss has used to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing causes, gave a total of $57.3 million to 11 activist groups between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025, the disclosures show....

One of President Donald Trump's longtime Republican critics, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., joined Gang of Eight Democrats in opposition to Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. strikes on Iranian military targets. Trump has not sought congressional approval for an attack on Iran, Massie wrote on X, rebuking "acts of war unauthorized by Congress." "When Congress reconvenes, I will work with @RepRoKhanna to force a Congressional vote on war with Iran. The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war."

The case of two anti-Trump leftists, one of whom is transgender, who shot up a school in Denver last week has been placed under seal by a judge, banning the public from seeing it. Devon Erickson, 18, and Alec McKinney, 16, opened fire on two classrooms at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) charter school in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, on May 7, killing one student and injuring eight others. 16-year-old Alec McKinney identifies as male but is biologically female, having been born Maya Elizabeth McKinney. Following the shooting, it emerged that his accomplice Erickson had posted anti-Christian and anti-Trump...

Austin McCubbin, a longtime Trump ally who ran Mace’s 2022 House re-election campaign, wrote in a Dec. 1 post on X that he was breaking with the congresswoman “out of loyalty to the President” and encouraged voters to “scratch her name from the list” of GOP contenders. McCubbin pointed to the recent discovery of an alleged tie between Mace and a PAC affiliated with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) McCubbin claimed it became clear she “totally embraced” the funds and that she told him she directed a friend to write a seven-figure check to the PAC. “She distanced herself, and...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) warned that President Trump calling Democratic lawmakers “traitors” is “reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible” “But if you take it at face value, the idea that calling your opponents traitors — and then specifically saying that it warrants the death penalty — is reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible.” “It’s not something that is helping the country heal wounds. I think it stirs things up,” he added. The president vented his fury after the Democrats posted the video in which they urged members of the military to refuse unlawful orders. “It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these...

MARGARET BRENNAN: ... Is the President holding himself to the same standard that he is asking of others when it comes to dialing back dangerous rhetoric? PAUL: You know, everybody knows that the President is famous for his unfiltered social media. But if you take at face value the idea that calling your opponents traitors and then specifically saying that it warrants the death penalty is reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible, there are a number of other ways to describe it, but it’s not something that is helping the country heal wounds. I think it stirs things up and- and really, I...

“Having your own opinions is one thing. Voting against the party on every single issue, you’re eventually going to make too many enemies, and that is the problem that Thomas has had,” Vance told the crowd. “It’s not one issue. It’s not three or four issues. It’s that every time that we’ve needed Thomas for a vote, he has been completely unwilling to provide it,” he said. “It’s because we can never count on him for some of the most difficult votes. I wish that that weren’t the case. I say that as somebody who’s known Thomas well before I...

The teenage boy who shot two schoolmates and then himself at a high school in Evergreen, Colorado, Wednesday, was “radicalized by some extremist network” before the attack, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. The shooter, 16-year-old Desmond Holly, has reportedly died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His two victims were transported to Denver-area hospitals, where they remained in critical condition, Thursday, the Denver Post reported. Investigators believe he opened fire at the school just before 12:30 p.m. Spokeswoman Jacki Kelley did not provide details about Desmond’s radicalization other than the the fact the evidence was found in Desmond’s phone...

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration violated federal law in the use of National Guard troops amid Southern California immigration enforcement operations and accompanying protests. Judge Charles Breyer found President Donald Trump’s administration violated federal law by sending troops to the Los Angeles area. The judge in San Francisco did not require the remaining troops to be withdrawn, however. He set his order to go into effect on Friday. The order comes after California sued. *** Lawyers for the Republican administration have argued the Posse Comitatus Act doesn’t apply because the troops were protecting federal officers, not...

NSA general counsel April Doss advocated for banning Trump from social media for "insurrection," called for crackdown on GOP "disinformation."A top lawyer for President Donald Trump’s National Security Agency previously worked for Senate Democrats on their discredited probe attempting to tie Trump to Russia and has a history of partisan anti-Trump activism, a Daily Wire investigation reveals. April Falcon Doss is the current general counsel for the NSA, the powerful cyber-intelligence agency, according to the agency’s website. A longtime veteran of the agency, Doss also worked as an NSA intelligence lawyer from 2003 to April 2016. But in between those...

Sen. Rand Paul's call to cut the Trump administration's request on border security spending for the president's "big, beautiful bill" has left him on the sidelines for negotiations on the megabill, Instead, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who chairs the chamber's Budget Committee, said this week he's the lead negotiator in the talks on the border part of the budget, "Senator Paul usually votes 'no' and blames everybody else for not being pure enough," said Graham in the interview. "As chairman, you … don't have that luxury sometimes. You have to do things as chairman [that] you wouldn't have to do...

CBO projects $3T added to debt from bill that tackles tax policy, border security, healthcare reforms President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" is projected to increase the debt by $3 trillion, with interest, or $5 trillion if made permanent, according to estimates. An estimate of the House-passed bill by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects it would add more than $2.4 trillion to primary deficits before interest over 10 years, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonprofit public policy organization. As of Wednesday, the national debt, which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors,...

A federal judge in Boston on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration’s directive to strip Harvard University of its ability to admit international students. Judge Allison Burroughs issued the ruling from the bench after an emergency hearing on the administration’s move, which upended the lives of the 27 percent of Harvard’s student body that is made up of foreign students. “I want to maintain the status quo,” Burroughs said from the bench, according to CNN. Harvard quickly sued the administration last week after the directive was given by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which also...

[Judge Allison Burroughs] has temporarily paused the Trump administration's move to cancel Harvard's student visa program. Harvard filed suit against the Trump administration over the policy, and a judge granted its request for a temporary restraining order to preserve status quo while the case plays out in court. Judge Allison Burroughs, a 2014 Obama appointee, set a hearing for 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Boston federal court. Harvard said the policy will affect more than 7,000 visa holders — nearly a quarter of the student body — and is a "blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause,...

She’s cracking. Gov. Kathy Hochul sounded off Wednesday about the “outrageous” price of eggs — jokingly telling New Yorkers to make chocolate cake with applesauce instead. The unprompted recipe suggestion came as Hochul, during a news conference in Midtown, slammed President Trump’s tariffs for driving up prices on everything from avocados to children’s toys. “And I’m done talking about the price of eggs — just give up eating them,” she said, drawing laughter. “It’s just outrageous, outrageous.” “You can make a really good chocolate cake with applesauce,” she added. “I digress, it’s also vegan.”

MAGA ally Ben Shapiro has stunningly turned on President Trump and urged him to listen to Elon Musk's criticism of his tariff policy. Shapiro, a long-time supporter of the president, smashed the illusion that tariffs are a good business deal for Americans to smithereens, with a startling insight on Monday: 'Musk is right. Musk happens to be 100 percent right about this.' The Tesla CEO has been in lockstep with the president on key voter issues since he returned to the White House, but came out swinging against tariffs and exposed a feud with the key advisor who helped bring...

After nearly three weeks in the minority, Democrats have finally settled on a target to rally against: Elon Musk. The party and allied groups this week have shown up at the doors of agencies impacted by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, held rallies and press conferences calling the president’s ally an “unelected billionaire,” and introduced legislation to push back on the administration’s efforts to eliminate agencies and force out federal employees. The coordinated effort comes after weeks of Democrats grappling with how to oppose the new administration after a bruising election in which President Donald Trump made gains with key...