Free Republic

The Trump administration, which has made clear that it aims to slash government spending, is preparing to unveil a budget proposal as soon as next week that includes draconian cuts that would entirely eliminate some federal programs and fray the nation’s social safety net. The proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year would cut billions of dollars from programs that support child care, health research, education, housing assistance, community development and the elderly, according to preliminary documents reviewed by The New York Times. The proposal, which is being finalized by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, also targets...

President Donald Trump has built another wall, and he thinks everyone else is going to pay for it. But his decision to impose sweeping tariffs of at least 10% on almost every product that enters the US is essentially a wall designed to keep work and jobs within it, rather than immigrants out. The height of this wall needs to be put in historical context. It takes the US back a century in terms of protectionism. It catapults the US way above the G7 and G20 nations into levels of customs revenue, associated with Senegal, Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan. What occurred...

While all presidents tussle with the press, President Donald Trump has taken things to another level at the beginning of his second term. Trump, still in his first 100 days in office, has kicked the historic Associated Press out of the Oval Office and off of Air Force One, seized control of the White House press pool rotation to bring in friendly outlets, and now may take over coveted seating assignments in the Brady Press Briefing Room. All three moves generated howls of outrage from the White House Correspondents' Association, an 800-member group that previously self-policed access. "The White House...

Elon Musk has split with Donald Trump on tariffs in the latest sign the billionaire is distancing himself from the White House. The president's special adviser told a political rally he hopes to see a 'zero tariff situation' between the US and Europe to create a free trade zone. On Wednesday, Trump introduced a controversial 20 percent tariff for Europe along with even higher tariffs for other global trading partners as what he dubbed 'Liberation Day'. But while the president has been pushing US isolationism, Musk espoused a more collaborative approach. 'I hope that the United States and Europe can...

President Donald Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man. The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role, according to three Trump insiders who were granted anonymity to describe the evolving relationship. Musk’s looming retreat comes as some Trump administration insiders...

Inside the White House, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been perhaps the biggest proponent of ”Liberation Day,” President Donald Trump’s promised unveiling of sweeping new tariffs on Wednesday. But as the day nears, the potential fallout from those tariffs may well liberate Lutnick from his role in the administration, according to half dozen people close to the White House. While Americans and much of the world brace for a possible season of pain following the imposition of the new tranche of tariffs, Trump’s orbit is ready to play the blame game should things go poorly for the White House. And...

Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right French National Rally party, has been found guilty in an embezzlement case that could see her banned from running for office. Ms Le Pen and 24 other officials from National Rally were accused of diverting millions of euros from the European Parliament to pay for party staff. The money was meant to be used to pay for EU aides but instead was used to pay staff working for the French party. The defendants denied any wrongdoing. Prosecutors pressed for Ms Le Pen to be banned from running from office for five years,...

President Donald Trump’s new executive order on regulating elections is striking for the way it asserts broad powers for the executive branch that go far beyond what’s prescribed in the Constitution or sanctioned by courts. Experts expect the order to face legal challenges for that reason. This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access. But what’s also striking about the order is how it seeks to dictate some arcane details of the way voting systems work in some of America: Specifically, it bans the machine-readable barcodes or QR codes that...

Institutions like the military and colleges are sometimes said to mirror society. One can only wonder where we are headed as a Country, but more importantly we must ask if individual schools are trend setters. Take the Ivy Leauge schools and their affinity for foreign students who hate America, or how they pushed degrees without merit until DEI created a need for the degrees. In sports cheating is usually limited to gaining an edge on the field... sometimes fame, power or money are additional motivators. Take Michigan University and the Athletic Program as a whole. Multiple team sports were cheating...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine could be placed under a “temporary administration” as part of a peace process that could include help from North Korea and other Moscow allies, according to Russian state media. Speaking to a group of servicemen in Russia’s northern port of Murmansk, Putin laid out several provisions for a peace process to end the three-year war launched by Moscow in February 2022, according to Russia’s state news agency, TASS. Among Putin’s many suggestions was a call for new elections in Ukraine and the “signing of key accords” once the country is under international administration,...

...Germany, perhaps more than any other country in Europe, feels adrift, orphaned and even betrayed by its closest ally. But if Germans have been pushed out of the nest, they are also beginning to respond, amid deep soul searching and questioning about the future — both their own and Europe’s. The biggest indication that shock is giving way to action came this week, as the German Parliament voted to loosen the country’s long aversion to debt so that it could begin rebuilding a military and a domestic infrastructure that had fallen into neglect. It was a groundbreaking step, given taboos...

White House insiders have vented their anger at National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, with one reportedly calling him a 'f***ing idiot' after it emerged that he added a prominent journalist to a secret group chat revealing highly sensitive war plans. 'Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a f***ing idiot,' the source, identified as a 'person close to the White House', bluntly told Politico.

FIRST ON FOX - FBI Director Kash Patel is strongly refuting a CNN report alleging he is implementing a "major cutback" of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in a memo to ATF employees, Fox News Digital has learned. CNN reported Saturday that Patel "has outlined plans to move as many as 1,000 ATF agents to the FBI" and "cutting ATF’s agents by more than a third," according to three unnamed sources. **SNIP** "I want to address a report from this weekend speculating about the intentions of FBI leadership with personnel decisions at the ATF," Patel began...

Vice President JD Vance criticized the judgment of his boss, President Donald Trump, in a leaked group chat in which Vance and several other senior Trump administration officials discussed the possibility of American military strikes against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen. On Monday, The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he had accidentally been added to a Signal group chat in which the Principals Committee – the heads of the top American national security agencies — debated how and whether to strike the Houthis earlier this month. At one point, after National Security Advisor Mike Waltz informed the group that they...

Nearly one in 10 adults in the United States identifies as L.G.B.T.Q., according to a large analysis from Gallup released Thursday — almost triple the share since Gallup began counting in 2012, and up by two-thirds since 2020.The increases have been driven by young people, and by bisexual women. Nearly one-quarter of adults in Generation Z, defined by Gallup as those 18 to 27, identify as L.G.B.T.Q., according to the analysis, which included 14,000 adults across all of Gallup’s telephone surveys last year. More than half of these L.G.B.T.Q. young adults identify as bisexual. ...Members of Gen Z were most...

Elon Musk’s cost-cutting and fraud-finding apparatus, the Department of Government Efficiency, came out swinging in recent days. The result? Two stunning strikeouts. A series of announcements by DOGE as well as claims by Musk and President Donald Trump about the agency’s efforts have crumbled under scrutiny even as they’re broadly repeated by conservative pundits, sympathetic media and the White House. Two of the most notable claims — around Social Security fraud and $8 billion savings found in a Department of Homeland Security contract — have been debunked. Meanwhile, Trump’s agenda is set to add to the federal government’s deficit well...

Matt Schlapp, the face of the Conservative Political Action Conference, allegedly sexually assaulted a man at a bar in Virginia last weekend. According to independent journalist Yashar Ali, seven witnesses say that the chairman of the American Conservative Union “allegedly engaged in lewd conduct and allegedly sexually assaulted a man at a bar on Saturday night near a property he owns in north-central Virginia.” Ali reports that restaurant and bar is located in north-central Virginia which is allegedly nearby a property owned by Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp. The Schlapps are vocal supporters of President Donald Trump with Mercedes...

PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump is reportedly becoming fed up with his new pal Elon Musk with the tech mogul being too "clingy". Musk has spent the past few days going on fiery online tirades against the British government with UK politicians now even said to be urging Trump to ditch the Tesla chief. Billionaire Musk has been Trump's biggest fan over the past few months and even helped propel him into the White House. The pair have been inseparable since the Republicans swept to a landslide election win in November. Musk reportedly joined the future president on an important phone call...

Let's keep in mind that the left, Never Trumpers and RINOs will be pushing out every rumor, lie, out-of-context quote, including the kitchen sink, to fracture MAGA and cause dissent. A lot will be click bait and to keep their readers happy.

Ronny Chieng, star of Crazy Rich Asians and correspondent for The Daily Show, called Trump voters 'f***ing morons' during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday. 'There's nothing inherently evil or bad about [a] conservative mindset, I just think that we would like to have conservatives who aren't f***ing morons,' Chieng told host Jimmy Kimmel, as Kimmel and the audience roared with laughter. However, X users slammed Chieng for his remarks X, with one user writing, 'Ronny Chieng needs to be canceled.. said everyone who voted for Trump was stupid.. I say all Trump voters boycott his shows.'