Free Republic

Starting last fall, the Department of Homeland Security spent $464 million on a no-bid contract to buy 10 used airplanes from a firm in Northern Virginia. That was an enormous price tag, but the department said it had no time to consider other offers. The planes were needed urgently for deportation flights. But since then, the department has barely used this new fleet — for deportations, or anything else. The department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has long outsourced its deportation flights by chartering planes from private companies. It also uses military and Coast Guard aircraft. In a written statement,...

Fox News anchor Bret Baier undercut President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that the U.S. “totally” controls the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil flows. On Tuesday, Trump spoke with reporters and addressed the strait, which Iran effectively closed after the U.S. and Israel launched the current war on the country in February. But somehow, the president insisted the U.S. has it all under control. “We totally control the Strait of Hormuz,” he said, reality be damned. “We have control over it. Nobody else. Only us. Our navy is unbelievable, and things are going...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected President Donald Trump’s 15-point Gaza peace plan on Sunday, declaring that Israeli forces will not withdraw from the territory until Hamas has been “genuinely” disarmed. “Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting, dealing another setback to the U.S.-backed effort to end the war in Gaza. כל עוד אני ראש ממשלה, לא תקום מדינה פלסטינית – לא בעזה ולא ביו"ש. לא פת״חסטאן ולא חמאסטאן. pic.twitter.com/C1W8BIjckQ — Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) August 10, 2026 The Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will...

President Trump signaled on Sunday that he's prepared to allow economic pressure on Iran to mount — as opposed to ordering a new military offensive — even as the country continues to defy the U.S. Why it matters: Only a week ago, Trump was on the verge of ordering a return to major combat operations. But in an interview with Axios, he did not make any new military threats. Trump also didn't express any anger or frustration about the fact that Iran has been holding up an announcement on a deal with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. On...

In August 2024, candidate Donald Trump told a rally crowd that Joe Biden was "using the strategic reserves, which is meant for military, which is meant for war," and pledged that "We have to fill up the strategic reserves immediately." Two years later, with the United States locked in a protracted conflict with Iran, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is doing the opposite of filling up. According to figures circulated by Geiger Capital and Hedgeye, the SPR has fallen roughly 25% in recent months and now sits at its lowest level in about 43 years, covering an estimated 16 days of...

President Donald Trump raged to Fox News’s Trey Yingst about Tuesday night’s surprise attack by Iran on U.S. troops in Jordan, telling him “we are going to beat the ------- ---- out of them.” Yingst, Fox’s chief foreign correspondent, reported on Trump’s comments while joining Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning and noted that Trump added, “We’ll be hitting them hard.” “Yeah, guys, good morning. President Trump reacting to that Iranian attack on U.S. forces overnight in Jordan. President Trump tells Fox News about Iran: ‘We are going to beat the ------- ---- out of them.’ He went on to...

Israel recently shared intelligence with the US about a new Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump, according to a report. The latest assassination plan, reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, comes after years of Iranian regime threats to kill Trump as revenge for the 2020 killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem Soleimani by US forces. When asked for comment, the White House referred The Post to Trump’s Wednesday remarks at the NATO summit in Ankara. ”They want to take out the US leader — me,” Trump said. “I’m on whatever list. I saw this morning I’m...

Republicans on Capitol Hill are split over Vice President Vance’s rebuke of Israeli officials who criticized the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. and Iran, highlighting the broader debate on the right about foreign entanglements and the U.S.’s relationship with Israel. The MOU establishes a 60-day window for peace talks — which Vance is helping lead — and pauses active hostilities, including by securing a ceasefire in Lebanon where Israel has been battling the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah. But the deal has drawn sharp criticism from some Israeli officials, including national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who argued that Israel is...

President Donald Trump told Marc Caputo of Axios on Thursday that the U.S. had bombarded Iran into “unconditional surrender.” His remarks came a day after he signed a memo of understanding meant to end the current war. Pundits and politicians from across the political spectrum have panned the deal as being too lenient on Iran. Some of the loudest criticisms have come from the right. Fox News host Mark Levin called it “unthinkable,” while his Fox colleague Trey Gowdy said the deal will make Iran “richer.” Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Trump is getting “very poor advice.” The arrangement,...

A government panel called for a new independent authority to handle tens of thousands of IDF trauma and PTSD cases. Unlike in past wars, where emotional traumas made up about 15% of claims filed, since 2023, nearly 50% of the war claims filed have included emotional trauma such as PTSD. About 25,000 claims have been filed relating to wars since 2023. One major change the committee recommended is financing a weekly emotional trauma visit instead of once every two to three weeks. In addition, the ministry would provide an IDF representative whenever a harmed soldier appears before the committee, submitting...

A U.S. official says the U.S. military shot down two Iranian drones that were trying to strike commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz tonight. “It appears Iran has attempted to strike commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz tonight. U.S. forces shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones. Traffic flow through the Strait continues,” the official said. The attack occurred after Trump spoke about being close to a deal with Iran this afternoon.

Fox News contributor Mark Thiessen joined anchor John Roberts on Thursday to discuss the latest developments in President Donald Trump’s negotiations to end the conflict in Iran, which Thiessen warned risked putting the U.S. in a weaker position. Roberts introduced Thiessen and noted, “He’s got a new column out today in the Washington Post titled ‘Trump Risks Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory.’” Roberts continued: You’re offering the president some advice here, including on X, where you said: “Here’s what Iran sees after being warned not to. They hit UAE and fired on a U.S. ship, and we didn’t...

The U.S. government learned last week that it may have reached an unfortunate milestone: The size of its debt surpassed the nation’s total economic output. It was a striking imbalance, according to early estimates, one that the country has experienced only in rare circumstances — briefly during the pandemic, and in the aftermath of World War II. But the development barely seemed to register in the nation’s capital, where few policymakers bothered to acknowledge the latest warning sign about the government’s poor fiscal health. The root of the problem is well-documented and widely known. U.S. debt has soared in recent...

OK. I have been doing my best to read the Trump tea leaves, figure out the Art of the Deal, and parse all the information out there so that I can figure out Donald Trump's strategy in the Iran War. I thought I had a good handle on it, and until the past few days, Trump's behavior accorded pretty well with my overall theory. Trump's strategy appeared to have been to pressure Iran into full and complete capitulation on the issues of nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles (which exist to make attacking Iran nearly impossible), and to get the Strait of...

Six months before Election Day, America’s $39 trillion national debt has moved from an abstract fiscal concern to a dinner-table anxiety… A new national survey released Thursday by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation found that 92% of registered voters are concerned that the national debt is fueling inflation and driving up their personal cost of living, including prices for groceries, energy, housing, and transportation. The figure includes 94% of Democrats, 92% of independents, and 89% of Republicans — a degree of bipartisan alignment rarely seen in today’s fractured political environment… The concern extends beyond deficits in the abstract. Eighty-eight percent...

The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Service committees on Saturday expressed they are “very concerned” about the withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany amid President Trump’s feud with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump on Wednesday had announced that he was reviewing a possible reduction of U.S. troops in Germany. “We are very concerned by the decision to withdraw a U.S. brigade from Germany,” the chairs, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), said in a joint statement. “Germany has stepped up in response to President Trump’s call for greater burden sharing, significantly increasing defense spending...

The U.S. national debt now exceeds 100% of gross domestic product, crossing a once-unthinkable threshold, on the way toward breaking the record set in the wake of World War II. As of March 31, the country’s publicly held debt was $31.265 trillion, while GDP over the preceding year was $31.216 trillion, according to data released Thursday. That puts the ratio at 100.2%, compared with 99.5% when the last fiscal year ended Sept. 30. That figure will likely climb for the foreseeable future because the federal government is running historically large annual deficits of nearly 6% of GDP, which add to...

Donald Trump's naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is unraveling after dozens of Iranian vessels secretly slipped past US surveillance, even as the regime tightened its grip on the critical oil passageway by attacking three tankers. Approximately 34 Iranian oil tankers have slipped through the blockade, with 19 vessels exiting the Persian Gulf past Trump's navy and another 15 ships entering from the Arabian Sea toward Iran, according to the Financial Times. Six of those tankers were smuggling Iranian crude oil totaling 10.7 million barrels, estimated to be worth approximately $910 million in revenue for the regime. The report...

Former Republican congressman Devin Nunes is out as the CEO of Trump Media — the company that owns Truth Social — after the firm recorded a $712 million net loss in 2025. In a press release, Donald Trump Jr. issued the following statement on behalf of the Board of Directors: I want to thank Devin Nunes for his dedicated service to the Company over the past four years, and congratulate Kevin McGurn on his appointment as Interim CEO. Kevin brings deep experience across media, technology, and capital markets, as well as a strong understanding of Trump Media’s operations and strategic...