Free Republic

The president's one-man-show approach to policy has sidelined Congress, agencies — and a whole K Street culture.Intel Corp. looked like a winner in the Washington lobbying game at the start of 2025.The federal government was set to funnel more than $10 billion to the American microchip giant, thanks to a long influence campaign by the company’s executives and hired Washington hands, who spent three painstaking years lobbying Congress, federal agencies and White House advisers.Just a few months later, when a political controversy over the CEO’s links to Chinese companies put Intel’s deal with Washington in jeopardy, the whole drama was...

FETTERMAN CAMP ACCUSES DEM GROUP OF GRIFTING: Last weekend, Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman’s campaign issued a warning to donors about a purported scam. And for once, it wasn’t Fetterman’s Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz, at whom they were leveling the charge, your host reports. — On Twitter and over email, Fetterman’s campaign manager Brendan McPhillipslaid into what he called a “scam PAC” that was “using John’s name and likeness for their own fundraising.” — “These people are only pretending that the money they raise goes to John and our campaign. In reality, they are tricking thousands of donors...

President Donald Trump lit into the U.S. intelligence community on Wednesday, telling his intel chiefs to "go back to school" just one day after they publicly contradicted him on several of his foreign policy priorities. "The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran," Trump wrote on Twitter. "They are wrong! When I became President Iran was making trouble all over the Middle East, and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are MUCH different, but a source of potential danger and conflict." He continued, "They are testing Rockets...