Free Republic

Hell hath no fury like a Republican senator scorned by his own party’s president. After Sen. Bill Cassidy fell far short in his Louisiana primary, the longtime Republican lawmaker delivered a concession speech that took some unsubtle shots at the president who orchestrated his defeat. “When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to,” the senator said. “But you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen.”In the same concession speech, the Louisianian said, “Let me just set the record straight: Our country is not about one individual. It...

A CSPAN caller who said he voted for President Donald Trump three times delivered a shocking takedown of the president Saturday on Washington Journal. The caller, who identified as Thomas from Hawaii, told host Taylor Popielarz that he now regrets his votes for Trump. “It’s hard for me to say this,” Thomas said. “But I think if I can open up about it in public that it might help others. I wanted to believe Trump was the real deal for a long time — even though I had doubts because I knew enough about his business history to think otherwise....

At a time of historically high political violence in the U.S., a substantial number of Americans doubt the legitimacy of recent attempts against President Trump's life. Trump has been the subject of three assassination attempts over the last two years, however, a NewsGuard/YouGov poll released Monday finds that 30% of Americans think at least one of those incidents was staged. The findings come just weeks after a gunman allegedly attempted to storm the White House Correspondents' Dinner, where Trump was in attendance, but was stopped at a security checkpoint by law enforcement before reaching the main ballroom. In the weeks...

A new report revealed that Iran has seized a ship laden with weapons and is taking it back to Iran. The so-called “floating armory” was based in the Gulf of Oman, according to Vanguard, a maritime risk management company. The ship is “bound for Iranian territorial waters,” Britain’s Maritime Trade Operations group said, according to the BBC. The BBC said the Honduras-flagged Hui Chuan had told Vanguard it was operating as a floating armory, designed to store weapons that would be needed by security companies that protect ships from piracy. The BBC said the ship was last documented to be...

Iran has rebuilt most of its missile infrastructure along the Strait of Hormuz, according to US intelligence assessments.The regime has reportedly restored operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along and around the narrow maritime chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.According to people with knowledge of the assessments, Tehran has also retained roughly 70 per cent of its pre-war missile stockpile and mobile launchers.About 90 per cent of its underground missile storage and launch facilities are now considered “partially or fully operational”, The New York Times reported.

A decorated FBI official who is suing the agency for wrongful dismissal said he was asked to pledge loyalty to Donald Trump during his vetting for the role. In his first interview since leaving the FBI in 2025, Brian Driscoll, who served as the interim director of the agency under the US president, told CNN he was repeatedly asked about his personal political views while being interviewed for the role. Mr Driscoll and two other senior FBI officials are suing Kash Patel, the head of the agency, and the FBI over allegations of wrongful termination. The lawsuit accuses Mr Patel...

Secret new assessments say Iran has operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting that its military remains far stronger than President Trump has asserted. The Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities. Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33...

About 352,000 Russian soldiers had died in the war against Ukraine through the end of 2025, according to a new estimate, underscoring the high cost that President Vladimir V. Putin is willing to bear to pursue his battlefield aims. The figure was released on Saturday — the day of Russia’s annual May 9 parade celebrating victory over Germany in World War II — by the exiled Russian media outlets Meduza and Mediazona. The number raises the prospect that about half a million soldiers in total have died on the Russian and Ukrainian sides. In the more than four years since...

The Deep State leaked a CIA Iran war dossier to the Washington Post that refutes Trump’s claims that the Iranian Regime’s missiles are mostly decimated. On Wednesday, President Trump sparred with a reporter in the Oval Office during a meeting with UFC fighters. The reporter asked Trump about his decision to pause Project Freedom amid a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump told the reporter that the US military has decimated Iran’s missile capabilities and they probably only have about 18 percent left. “You’re facing an opponent right now in Iran that has refused to submit. You seem optimistic...

Border Czar Tom Homan told CBS News that President Donald Trump is talking to his advisors about offering some form of “legal status” to many illegal migrants. A pro-migration reporter at CBS asked Homan on Wednesday: “Would you support a compromise, sir, that involves giving legal status [amnesty] to the millions of people who are here illegally but are otherwise law-abiding?” “I’m not gonna get ahead of the President on that,” Homan cautiously responded. “I work for the President,” Homan added, as the Colombian-born migrant reporter interrupted him to insist that “Something has to be done to address that [illegal...

"Saudi Arabia is reported to have told him its airspace cannot be used for operations." Donald Trump has suffered a major operational setback as he has been reportedly told by Saudi Arabia that the US cannot use their airspace, says former US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, David Satterfield.

Fresh questions are being raised over why US President Donald Trump abruptly paused “Project Freedom,” the naval mission launched to secure commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. According to reports, Saudi Arabia refused to allow US military aircraft involved in the operation to use its airspace or bases, forcing Washington to halt the mission days after it began. The developments come as the US claims progress in talks with Iran over a possible deal. However, Tehran has pushed back against reports of a breakthrough, with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf mocking US media coverage of the negotiations as...

President Donald Trump’s abrupt reversal on his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz came after a key Gulf ally suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, according to two U.S. officials. Trump surprised Gulf allies by announcing “Project Freedom” on social media Sunday afternoon, the officials said, angering leadership in Saudi Arabia. In response, the Kingdom informed the U.S. it would not allow the U.S. military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase southeast of Riyadh or fly through Saudi airspace to support the effort, the officials...

Donald Trump is on the verge of securing a sweeping peace deal with Iran that would lift US sanctions, free billions in frozen assets and open a path to uranium enrichment, mirroring the Barack Obama pact he spent years trashing. If signed, a 30-day window would open for both countries to negotiate a larger agreement covering the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of all US sanctions on Iran, and new limits on its nuclear program. The deal calls for Iran to halt all uranium enrichment for 12 to 15 years with automatic extensions if Tehran violates the...

The United States and Iran are closing in on a one-page memo to end their war, a Pakistani source involved in the peace efforts told Reuters on Wednesday, confirming an Axios report citing two US officials."We will close this very soon. We are getting close," the source said, with Pakistan's Foreign Minister adding that the country is working to ensure the agreement would lead to a "permanent end" to the conflict.According to Axios, the US expects a response from Iran within 48 hours regarding the key points of a one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told...

Donald Trump is on the verge of securing a sweeping peace deal with Iran that would lift US sanctions, free billions in frozen assets and open a path to uranium enrichment, mirroring the Barack Obama pact he spent years trashing. A one-page, 14-point memorandum of understanding is being negotiated between senior Iranian officials and Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The White House believes the memo could finalize a framework to end the war within 48 hours. If signed, a 30-day window would open for both countries to negotiate a larger agreement covering the reopening of the Strait of...

There’s been a change of mood across the country – and not one that is favorable to the GOP. Last November, the prediction markets gave Republicans a 70 percent chance of keeping control of the Senate. Now their odds have deteriorated. It looks likely that the Democrats will win both the chambers – so what’s happened? The latest polls all tell the same story. The economy is no longer Trump’s superpower. Of those polled by Fox News, three- quarters rate the economy negatively, with 70 percent feeling it’s getting worse. Voters now trust Democrats on the economy more than Republicans...

The U.S. conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of MT Tifani (IMO: 9273337) late Monday, according to a Pentagon post on X. Tifani sails a Botswana flag, while Majestic X sails a false Guyanan flag. The International Maritime Organization considers both ships to be stateless.On Tuesday, following the Monday interdiction of Tifani, Iran said it fired upon and seized two ships – MV Epaminondas (IMO: 9153862) and MV MSC Francesca (IMO: 9401116). MV Euphoria (IMO: 9235828) was also damaged on Wednesday near Iran, although it is unclear whether Iran also targeted the ship for seizure.The U.S. has right-to-visit stateless...

The suspect was ultimately stopped. But that isn’t proof that the system worked, in fact, it’s evidence that every decision made leading up to the moment didn’t.... Saturday’s assassination attempt is not proof that the Secret Service functioned as it should; it’s evidence that the Secret Service has failed Trump yet again.

The U.S. military, which has been responding to Iran’s loitering drone attacks, has finally adopted Ukraine’s air defense technology. As low-cost drones continued to damage high-value military assets, it is interpreted that the U.S. has deployed Ukraine’s combat-proven response system at key Middle Eastern bases. On the 22nd, Reuters reported, citing multiple sources, that the U.S. has deployed Ukraine’s command and control platform at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, a key military asset in the Middle East, to defend against Iranian drones.… Ukrainian military officers are reported to have visited the base over recent weeks to train U.S. forces...