Free Republic

Protests that sprang up in Los Angeles over immigration enforcement raids and prompted President Donald Trump to mobilize National Guard troops and Marines have begun to spread across the country, with more planned into the weekend. From Seattle and Austin to Chicago and Washington, D.C., marchers have chanted slogans, carried signs against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and snarled traffic through downtown avenues and outside federal offices. While many have been peaceful, some have resulted in clashes with law enforcement as officers made arrests and used chemical irritants to disperse crowds. Activists are planning more and even larger demonstrations...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump made no secret of his willingness to exert a maximalist approach to enforcing immigration laws and keeping order as he campaigned to return to the White House. The fulfillment of that pledge is now on full display in Los Angeles. The president has put hundreds of National Guard troops on the streets to quell protests over his administration’s immigration raids, a deployment that state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions. Trump called up the California National Guard over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the first time in 60 years a...

Washington (AP) — After the raucous rainbow-hued festivities of Saturday’s parade, the final day of World Pride 2025 in the nation’s capital kicked off on a more downbeat note.Thousands gathered under grey skies Sunday morning at the Lincoln Memorial for a rally and protest march, as the community gathers its strength for a looming fight under President Donald Trump’s second administration. “This is not just a party,” Ashley Smith, board president of Capital Pride Alliance. “This is a rally for our lives.”Smith acknowledged that international attendance numbers for the bi-annual World Pride were measurably down, with many potential attendees avoiding...

A federal appeals court is allowing the Trump White House to ban the Associated Press from the Oval Office and other restricted spaces for now in a ruling that blocked a lower court's ruling that claimed the ban was unconstitutional. In a 2-1 order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted in part a stay of the lower court's April 8 ruling that declared the content-based ban unconstitutional. Both of the judges who ruled in the administration's favor were nominated by President Trump in his first term.

President Donald Trump is free to bar the Associated Press from some White House media events for now, after a U.S. appeals court on Friday paused a lower court ruling mandating that AP journalists be given access. The divided ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit temporarily blocks an order by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who ruled on April 8 that the Trump administration must allow AP journalists access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and White House events while the news agency's lawsuit moves forward.

A 19-year-old man was arrested after spending months planning an attack on a U.S. Army site in suburban Detroit, authorities said Wednesday. The man was planning a mass shooting at the Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command in Warren, commonly known as the Detroit Arsenal, on behalf of the Islamic State group, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. But he didn’t know that he had been scheming with two undercover FBI employees, who recorded audio and video images of their meetings with him, including handwritten diagrams of the site, referred by the Army as TACOM, authorities said.

U.S. stocks leapt after China and the United States announced a 90-day truce in their trade war. The S&P 500 jumped 3.3% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 1,100 points, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 4.3%. Hopes for an economy less encumbered by tariffs also sent crude oil prices higher. The U.S. dollar strengthened against other currencies, and Treasury yields jumped on expectations the Federal Reserve won’t have to cut interest rates so deeply this year in order to protect the economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Honduras next week to attend the inauguration of President-elect Xiomara Castro, the Central American country’s first female president. Castro, the leftist opposition party candidate, won out over the country’s ruling party in November. She will be inaugurated Jan. 27. She is the former first lady and her husband, José Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the army in a coup in 2009. She rode a wave of popular discontent with 12 years of National Party governance, which peaked in former President Juan Orlando Hernández’s second term.

For years, President Donald Trump blamed “communists” for his legal and political troubles. Now, the second Trump administration is deploying that same historically loaded label to cast his opponents — from judges to educators — as threats to American identity, culture and values.Why? Trump himself explained the strategy last year when he described how he planned to defeat his Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in the White House election.“All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country,” he told reporters at his New...

It got “60 Minutes” sued by the man who became president of the United States. Now it’s up for a major award — for precisely the same aspect of it that so enraged Donald Trump. Last fall’s “60 Minutes” story on Kamala Harris — the subject of Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against CBS — was nominated for an Emmy Award Thursday for “outstanding edited interview.” Trump, in his lawsuit, complained that the interview was deceptively edited to make his Democratic election opponent look good. The annual News & Documentary Emmys will be awarded in late June. “60 Minutes” is competing...

ATLANTA (AP) — The pastor of a Georgia megachurch who led a nationwide 40-day “fast” boycott of Target stores over the retail chain's commitment to diversity initiatives is now calling for that effort to continue as a “full Target boycott.” The Rev. Jamal Bryant said this week that the Minneapolis-based retailer has not met all of the boycott effort's demands. Among them: Restoring its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion principles and pledging money to Black-owned banks and businesses. Target announced in January that it would phase out a handful of DEI initiatives, including a program designed to help Black...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will no longer give wire services a permanent spot in the White House press pool following The Associated Press’ victory last week in a lawsuit over its exclusion, The Post has learned. Instead, the White House is giving a second spot to “print” journalists — a term henceforth including wire reporters — who will get access to President Trump in small event spaces. ... DC US District Judge Trevor McFadden last week ordered the AP’s restoration to the press pool — after weeks of exclusion over editors’ refusal to update the AP Stylebook to refer...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden returns to the national stage Tuesday to elevate liberal concerns that President Donald Trump's agenda is threatening the health of Social Security. The 82-year-old Democrat has largely avoided speaking publicly since leaving the White House in January, which is typically the tradition for immediate past presidents. That's even as Trump frequently blames Biden for many of the nation's problems, often attacking his predecessor by name. Biden is expected to fight back in an early evening speech to the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled in Chicago. While Biden has...

U.S. egg prices increased again last month to reach a new record-high of $6.23 per dozen despite President Donald Trump’s predictions, a drop in wholesale prices and no egg farms having bird flu outbreaks.... ....The farms that had fall outbreaks have been working to resume egg production after sanitizing their barns and raising new flocks, but chickens must be about six months old before they start laying eggs. Thompson said those farms did not come back online as quickly as anticipated. The increase reported Thursday in the Consumer Price Index means consumers and businesses that rely on eggs might not...

This seems, on the surface, like a victory for the legacy media - but it's not the victory they were hoping for. Here's why. On Tuesday, Judge Trevor McFadden granted the Associated Press (AP) an injunction against the Trump administration's banning them from press events in the Oval Office and the East Room. The AP claimed that the administration blocked their access because of editorial viewpoints, and Judge McFadden agreed. Here's Politico's Senior Political Affairs reporter Kyle Cheney's X thread with some details; this takes a little unpacking.BREAKING: Judge McFadden has *granted * the AP’s injunction against the White House’s...

THE HILL – A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the Associated Press’s access to key White House spaces after it exiled AP reporters over the organization’s refusal to use “Gulf of America” in its popular stylebook. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of President Trump, directed the White House to resume allowing the AP into the Oval Office, Air Force One and other limited spaces when they’re made available to other press pool members. The judge also granted the AP’s request for returned access to events open to all credentialed White House reporters, though...

WASHINGTON (AP) — "Democratic officials in 19 states filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s attempt to reshape elections across the U.S., calling it an unconstitutional invasion of states’ clear authority to run their own elections. Thursday’s lawsuit is the fourth against the executive order issued just a week ago. It seeks to block key aspects of it, including new requirements that people provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a demand that all mail ballots be received by Election Day." “The President has no power to do any of this,” the state attorneys general wrote in...

Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk plan to rally across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the administration's actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues. More than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations have been planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The protests are planned for the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states. Protesters are assailing the Trump administration's moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge accused the Justice Department on Wednesday of attacking her character in an effort to undermine the integrity of the judicial system, forcefully pushing back against the Trump administration's criticism of the courts for rulings that blocked parts of the president's agenda. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell’s comments came in an order denying the Justice Department’s bid to remove her from a case over an executive order punishing a prominent law firm. The Trump administration had asked for the case to be moved to another judge in Washington’s federal court, accusing Howell of demonstrating “a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — As congressional lawmakers scramble to respond to President Donald Trump’s slashing of the federal government, one group is already taking a front and center role: military veterans. From layoffs at the Department of Veterans Affairs to a Pentagon purge of archives that documented diversity in the military, veterans have been acutely affected by Trump’s actions. And with the Republican president determined to continue slashing the federal government, the burden will only grow on veterans, who make up roughly 30% of the federal workforce and often tap government benefits they earned with their military service. “At a moment...