Free Republic

That the incoming Trump administration will go after its political enemies, using all levers of state power to intimidate and persecute those who previously sought to hold the president-elect accountable, can no longer be portrayed as hysterical speculation, nor as something that would surely be opposed by cooler heads in a Republican-led Congress. Donald Trump ran as the candidate of “revenge” and "retribution," filling his meandering campaign speeches with complaints about those who had investigated him over his connections with Russia and incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Anyone hoping an electoral victory would spur a change in heart —...

ANALYSIS:▪ Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett discussed his efforts to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia. ▪ Pro-Russia commentators have focused on his saying that a peace deal was "blocked" by the West. ▪ But Bennett has clarified that no such deal existed — and said talks broke down because of apparent Russian war crimes.A former Israeli prime minister is walking back his suggestion that the United States may have "blocked" an agreement last year to end the war in Ukraine, a claim that had been amplified by Russian state media and Kremlin sympathizers in the West.But a reader...

An understandable desire to avoid a nuclear war could actually make the world more dangerous if it means rushing to implement a "peace" in Ukraine that serves Russian interests, an expert told Insider. Such a move, which some influential figures have called for, risks setting a precedent that atomic blackmail is the way to win wars and take territory troops can't otherwise hold, a model that could be copycatted by even the weakest nuclear-armed states, and may only succeed at delaying another war. Pavel Podvig, an expert on Russia's nuclear doctrine and capabilities at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research,...

Seven more Republican leaders have announced their endorsement for Pennsylvania's Democratic candidate for governor Josh Shapiro, following photos of GOP state Sen. Doug Mastriano wearing a Confederate military uniform. This comes one month after nine Republicans vowed to support the Democratic candidate and called Mastriano an "extremist" who threatens American democracy. According to a statement released by the Shapiro campaign on Tuesday, the group includes Michael Chertoff, the former US Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, and Mario Civera, a former state representative. Shapiro, the state's attorney general said he was proud to receive the endorsement from...

Analyzing Trump's presidency, a fascism expert argues he tried to use the office to make money. The historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat described Trump to Insider as a "dedicated" and talented "grifter." When looking back on President Donald Trump's time in office, Ruth Ben-Ghiat sees someone who pursued a unique goal among his predecessors, one requiring extreme discipline and dedication from the unlikely leader. "Trump's aims as president were totally different from any other president, Republican or Democrat," Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York University who is an expert on fascism, told Insider. "His aims were autocratic in that he wanted to...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is best placed to take Trump's place as a 2024 GOP presidential nominee. An expert on authoritarianism told Insider that's because he's learned all of Trump's lessons. The expert added that DeSantis 'doesn't have the baggage of Trump,' and could rally voters.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat spends a lot of time thinking about authoritarianism. An historian at New York University, she is an expert on the rise of fascism in Italy and, most recently, author of the the book, "Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present," tracing the erosion of democracy from Russia to the United States of America. She is keenly focused on what happens when those in power lose their grip on it. "The authoritarian playbook has no chapter on failure," Ben-Ghiat wrote in a November 2020 piece for The Washington Post. "Nothing prepares the ruler to see his propaganda ignored and his charismatic...

US District Court Judge Reggie Walton said Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. Walton made the comments Thursday following the conviction of a January 6 defendant. Walton was appointed by former President George W. Bush. A federal judge on Thursday called Donald Trump a threat to democracy, accusing the former president of instigating a mob of "weak-minded" followers to attack the US Capitol on January 6, Politico reported. "I think our democracy is in trouble," US District Judge Reggie Walton said, "because, unfortunately, we have charlatans like our former president who doesn't, in my view, really care about democracy...