Free Republic

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Only one in four Americans approves of the U.S. strikes that killed Iran’s leader, while about half — including one in four Republicans — believe President Donald Trump is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Sunday. Some 27% of respondents said they approved of the strikes, while 43% disapproved and 29% were not sure. About nine in 10 respondents said they had heard at least a little about the strikes, which began early on Saturday. The poll was conducted during the strikes on Iran by the U.S....

Saudi Arabia joined Israel in lobbying the US to launch strikes against Iran. Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, argued in favour of an attack during multiple phone calls with Donald Trump in the past month, sources told the Washington Post. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, also continued his long-standing campaign urging the US to join strikes on Iran, the Post reported. Iran has continued its retaliation after the US and Israel launched a barrage of strikes on Saturday morning, killing its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Correspondents in Dubai reported a fresh round of explosions on Sunday...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan voiced deep concern and sadness on Saturday over U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, while condemning Tehran's drone and missile strikes on brotherly Gulf nations, APA reports citing Daily Sabah. Turkish Erdoğan added ⁠that the U.S.-Israeli ⁠attacks on Iran violated Iran's ​sovereignty ​and targeted ⁠the peace of the Iranian people. In a speech in Istanbul, he said ⁠Iran's ⁠attacks on Gulf countries were also unacceptable and he warned that without restraint and diplomacy the ⁠region risked being "dragged into a circle of fire."

Donald Trump's immigration crackdown is fracturing his own party, with Republican governors openly defying the White House over detention expansion as political fallout from the carnage in Minneapolis threatens to cost him at the midterms. Kristi Noem was rebuffed this week when she tried to build a new illegal migrant camp in New Hampshire by the state's Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte. Merrimack residents were outraged when it emerged that the Homeland Security Secretary planned to use their town to expand Trump's mass deportation effort. Ayotte, a moderate Republican governing a blue state, informed Noem that she would not assist in...

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s blanket fiasco may not have been about a blanket at all. The so-called ICE Barbie allegedly had her rumored beau, expired-special-employee Corey Lewandowski, fire a Coast Guard pilot last May after Noem neglected to bring her favorite weighted blanket onto the second flight of one of her trips. But three DHS insiders that spoke with the Daily Mail indicate that the spectacle may not have been about an abandoned blanket, but rather a mysterious bag with potentially embarrassing contents. . . .

Last June when the United States targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in a series of coordinated airstrikes with Israel, President Trump boasted that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” He said that on the day of the operation, which hit the enrichment facility at Fordow, buried under a mountain, as well as sites at Natanz and Isfahan.In the ensuing days and months, Trump repeated this claim, saying that Iran’s nuclear facilities and capabilities had been “obliterated.” In August he said, “We obliterated … the future nuclear capability of Iran.” In October he said, “Well, they don’t...

If China invades Taiwan and cuts off its chip exports to American companies, the tech industry and the U.S. economy would be crippled.Federal officials have for years tried to wean Silicon Valley from its dependence on Taiwan, an island democracy roughly the size of Maryland that makes 90 percent of the world’s high-end computer chips. In secret briefings held in Washington and Silicon Valley, national security officials warned executives from companies like Apple, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm that China was making plans to retake Taiwan, which Beijing has long considered a breakaway territory. A Chinese blockade of Taiwan, the...

US stocks retreated on Monday as investors grappled with the fallout from the Supreme Court's rebuff of President Trump's most sweeping tariffs, which has thrown major trade deals into doubt. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) led the way down, losing roughly 1.3%, or over 600 points. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) both fell roughly 0.6%, coming off a volatile but winning session on Friday. Growing uncertainty about the global trade landscape is unsettling markets amid debate about Trump's next moves and reaction from countries that have signed US trade pacts. The Supreme Court's...

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen is turning down an offer from President Trump, who has openly sought to acquire the island from Denmark, to send a Navy hospital ship to his country. “It’s going to be a no thank you from here,” Nielsen wrote on Facebook. “President Trump’s idea to send an American hospital ship here to Greenland is noted. But we have a public health system where treatment is free for citizens. It’s a deliberate choice. And a basic part of our society. It’s not like that in the United States, where it costs money to go to the...

After much talk of an economic slowdown, February brought reassuring headlines. The official unemployment rate had fallen as another 130,000 jobs were added to the US economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is good news, but it is not the whole story. The official unemployment rate counts only people actively looking for work – it does not capture those who would like a job but have stopped searching. The official unemployment rate is so narrow that it hides long-term changes in the economy. In fact, things are far worse than the official figures suggest. This matters for...

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday said the Trump administration would need guidance from the courts on how to handle tariff refunds after the Supreme Court struck down duties authorized under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. “Well, we need the court to tell us what to do. They’ve created a situation where they struck down the tariffs and gave zero guidance on this,” Greer said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” “Historically, you know, as a trade attorney, in my experience, courts will normally give you some instruction on what to do, when.” “The Court of International...

Victor Schwartz, 67, became the face of the battle to strike down the president's controversial tariffs when he sued the government last April. Schwartz has owned VOS Selections in Manhattan since 1987 and feared the tariffs would devastate his small business. He argued that the US President lacked the authority to impose tariffs without congressional approval, becoming one of the few dissenting corporate voices to publicly oppose the fees

President Donald Trump said Friday he will sign an executive order imposing a new 10% “global tariff,” hours after the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping “reciprocal” import duties in a major rebuke of his trade agenda. The new tariffs will come on top of the existing levies that remain intact following the high court’s decision, Trump said as he raged at the ruling during a White House press briefing.

President Donald Trump raged over some disappointing economic news shortly before his Commerce Department delivered it to the public on Friday morning. “The Democrat Shutdown cost the U.S.A. at least two points in GDP. That’s why they are doing it, in mini form, again. No Shutdowns!” declared the president in a 7:50 a.m. Truth Social post. “Also, LOWER INTEREST RATES. ‘Two Late’ Powell is the WORST!!!,” he added. Less than an hour later, his administration announced that the United States’ GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025. The 43-day government shutdown last fall...

ith all eyes on the U.S. military buildup around Iran right now, the Russia-Ukraine War has been temporarily upstaged. It will not play second fiddle for long. The recent trilateral talks in Geneva involving the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States have been unable to resolve a principal issue of disagreement: Ukraine’s martial-law-president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s refusal to cede any land and Russia’s insistence that the Donbas region — specifically the four eastern territories that have already held a referendum in support of becoming part of the Russian Federation — be acknowledged as sovereign Russian territory. As the war heads...

The talks are still alive. Just. Iranian and US diplomats, engaging indirectly through Omani intermediaries, have yet to make any substantive progress towards a framework of understanding that governs further talks – as Kafkaesque as that might sound – but they are talking, and that is the best that the diplomats can hope for right now. What separates Iran and America is a vast chasm between their respective red lines, and beyond that, the very substance of the talks themselves. The US is not willing to countenance an Iran that enriches uranium, has a ballistic missile programme and arms proxies...

The husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members told officials that he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report obtained by The New York Times. The women said Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, had touched them inappropriately at the Labor Department’s building on Constitution Avenue. One of the incidents, during working hours on the morning of Dec. 18, was recorded on office security cameras, the people said. The video showed Dr. DeRemer giving one of the women an...

Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Charlie Kirk are by far among the most popular media figures among Republican voters, according to polling conducting by Rich Barris of Big Data Poll, obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.Among the Republicans surveyed, a whopping 74.7% viewed the late Charlie Kirk either very or somewhat favorably. Similarly, Joe Rogan was viewed favorably by 62.4% of Republicans, while Tucker Carlson received a 52.1% favorability rating.Conversely, rightwing commentators such as Mark Levin, Laura Loomer, and Nick Fuentes scored far lower on this key favorability index, with significantly larger portions not recognizing their names.Mark Levin received a 39.7%...

The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon.Why it matters: A U.S. military operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign that would look more like full-fledged war than last month's pinpoint operation in Venezuela, sources say.The sources noted it would likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that's much broader in scope — and more existential for the regime — than the Israeli-led 12-day war last June, which the U.S. eventually joined to take out Iran's underground nuclear facilities. Such a war would have...

"The South Carolina GOP senator is using golf, good humor and frequent White House visits to try to influence foreign policy and keep Trump close as he faces a primary challenge.I’m his north star,” Graham told NBC News in an interview this week, a bold remark few in his party would dare make. “We disagree, but he knows where I am coming from. He sees me helping him as much as anybody in the Senate.” ADVERTISING Late last month, Graham temporarily blocked a $1.2 trillion deal to avert a government shutdown. Asked by reporters why he would block something that...