Free Republic

Footage has emerged of President Donald Trump warning of the threat posed by Iran's Supreme Leader and America's goals in a war with the nation, 39 years ago. The video captured an interview with late journalist and television personality Barbara Walters in December 1987, where Trump appeared to predict the current crisis in the Middle East and laid out his war plans if he were president. At age 41, Trump said: 'The next time Iran attacks this country, go in and grab one of their big oil installations and I mean grab it and keep it and get back your...

Missiles caused 'extensive damage' in Qatar hours after Iran threatened to wage a 'full scale economic war' by attacking energy facilities across the Middle East. Video showed huge explosions in Ras Laffan - the world's biggest natural gas plant - as well as Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh.Energy sites in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar were evacuated after Tehran warned it would hit them with strikes in 'the coming hours'. Abu Dhabi authorities suspended operations at two of its sites, the Habshan gas facility and at the Bab oil field, after being hit with fallen debris from successful...

Donald Trump has deployed thousands of US Marines to the Strait of Hormuz amid mounting fears that America is set to put troops on the ground as the world's oil supply is strangled. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth approved a request by US Central Command for the deployment of a Marine expeditionary unit, typically including several warships and 5,000 troops, three officials told the Wall Street Journal.The Japan-based USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, and its attached Marines are now headed for the Middle East, where they join other Marines already in the fight, the officials said. The war spiraled...

A Lunar New Year celebration in Taiwan took a revolting turn when an elderly temple chief vomited over the country's president in full view of disgusted onlookers. Shocking footage captures the moment Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te is caught in the unfortunate blast as Lin Pei-huo, head of the Sacrificial Rites Martial Temple, falls visibly unwell during the public appearance. The pair had been standing side-by-side among local dignitaries when Lin began to show signs of distress. Wearing a red hoodie, President Lai appears oblivious at first as the temple chairman blinks repeatedly, clenches his fists and slowly turns his head,...

The Doomsday Clock, which has been ticking down to the end of the world for decades, is now officially closer to annihilation than ever before. On Tuesday, scientists with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the symbolic clock four seconds forward to 85 seconds to midnight. It's also the closest the clock has ever been to midnight in its 79-year history, meaning experts believe humanity has never faced a more dire threat of a world-ending catastrophe than it does in 2026. The group, which decides where the hands are set annually, cited multiple threats to global stability, including nuclear weapons,...

The man shot dead during a struggle with federal agents in Minneapolis has been identified as an intensive care nurse who treated critically ill military veterans. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was killed shortly after 9am Saturday after an altercation involving multiple federal officers. Minneapolis police confirmed the deceased was a white, 37‑year‑old Minnesota resident and US citizen. Pretti's friends have since confirmed his identity to the Daily Mail as they paid tribute to the 'good, kind' who they say was 'executed' by a Border Patrol agent. The University of Minnesota alumnus most recently listed himself as a ‘junior scientist’ on...

European leaders are said to vent privately in a secret text group chat whenever Donald Trump makes a 'wild' move, according to a new report. The informal messaging group, known as the 'Washington Group', brings together senior European figures who have grown accustomed to coordinating without Washington during Trump's second term, particularly on Ukraine. It includes leaders from both EU and non-EU countries, reflecting a broader 'coalition of the willing' that has continued to operate even as relations with the White House have grown more volatile. Figures said to be regularly exchanging messages include UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French...

Donald Trump has not ruled out using force to seize Greenland from Denmark as tensions escalate between the US and NATO. The president was asked in a telephone interview on Monday if he would use military force to take Greenland if a deal could not be reached over the Danish territory. Trump gave a simple response: 'No comment.' The president ramped up pressure as he imposed tariffs on eight European nations over their support for Greenland. The tariffs will start at 10 percent next month and rise again to 25 percent in June, remaining in place until a deal is...

Mayor Jacob Frey demanded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents leave Minneapolis in an explicit tirade just hours after a woman who was allegedly filming an anti-raid protest was shot dead inside a car by federal agents. The democratic politician told Donald Trump's ICE agents to 'get the f**k out of Minneapolis' after a woman, 37, was killed at a protest Wednesday. Witnesses claimed the woman and her wife were acting as legal observers and filming the protest when she was shot. But ICE insisted the woman tried to use the SUV as a deadly weapon. Frey reiterated, after...

A woman claiming to be the wife of a protester shot dead in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent screamed in anguish moments after watching her die. The 37-year-old woman was shot three times in the face at a protest in Minneapolis on Wednesday after she ignored ICE agents' demands to get out of her car, reversed it and tried to drive off. ICE claimed she deliberately drove her burgundy SUV at agents but witnesses dispute that and Mayor Jacob Frey called it 'bulls**t'. Video shared online captured a witness speaking to a woman who claimed she...

A Florida Republican has erupted in fury at a local news reporter who asked about the future of Venezuela in the wake of dictator Nicolás Maduro's capture. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart hit back against the accusation that members of his party are not 'willing to support' popular Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, despite US President Donald Trump's comments to the contrary. He ripped into the reporter for 'putting words in my mouth' while adding that he thinks Machado will be the country's 'next democratically-elected president'. This marks a departure from the party line, as Trump appears to have thoroughly dismissed...

President Donald Trump appeared to give nonchalant confirmation of the first US land strike in Venezuela during a radio interview last week that received little attention. The president said that the Christmas Eve strike was on a facility 'where the ship comes from' – seemingly referencing the origination location of the alleged drug vessels that the US military has been targeting in the Caribbean and Atlantic over the last three months. Speaking to radio host and billionaire John Catsimatidis on WABC, Trump made the bombshell suggestion that US forces have already started conducting land operations in Venezuela. 'I don't know...

Elon Musk's much heralded chainsaw couldn't make the cut. Despite the Trump administration's efforts to slash government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, federal expenditures actually increased in fiscal year 2025. A new investigative report from the New York Times released this week showcased that many of the contracts cut by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by tech billionaire Musk for the start of Trump's term, were already winding down, or were not on track to reach their maximum spending allotment. The findings were stark: Of the top 13 contract cancellations in DOGE's database all 13...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is preparing to dash to Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate for an urgent meeting, just days after declaring in a Christmas message that he hoped Vladimir Putin would perish. It comes as the Russian dictator suffered a humiliating Christmas Day defeat after Ukrainian forces took back full control of a city the Kremlin had claimed two months ago. Ukrainian media reports suggest the high-stakes meeting with Trump could take place as soon as December 28, if final arrangements are agreed. The Kyiv leader confirmed that preparations are underway after receiving an update from his chief negotiator, Rustem...

Kash Patel is at the center of another embarrassing fiasco after the FBI released a person of interest detained over the mass shooting at Brown University. The FBI had wrongfully detained a 24-year-old Army sniper whose name and photo was leaked to the press by cops, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha admitted on Sunday. A gunman opened fire during a review session for an introductory economics final exam at around 4pm on Saturday. He killed two students including Ella Cook, 19, vice president of the Ivy League school's Republican club, and injured nine others. Forty-eight hours later, the FBI...

The man arrested in connection to the deadly shooting at Brown University drove from Wisconsin to Rhode Island with a laser-equipped firearm, according to law enforcement. Aged in his 20s, the unidentified gunman killed two Ivy League students and injured several more before FBI agents snared him at the Hampton Inn hotel in Coventry. Sources told CNN he drove from Wisconsin to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island - a journey which would have taken around 17 hours. The person of interest also had two guns in his possession at the hotel and one of them had laser sight, sources...

Trump officials have been accused of bigotry after the portrait of former President Joe Biden's transgender assistant secretary for health was altered to reflect her birth name. Admiral Rachel Levine's portrait has hung in a hallway of the Humphrey Building in Washington DC - the Department of Health and Human Services's headquarters - since she became the first trans woman to win Senate confirmation in 2021. Following the 68-year-old's four years of service under the Biden administration, her name was reverted to Richard Levine, the name she was given at birth. Levine's dead name - a trans person's original name...

The Trump administration blamed Biden for failing to catch the Jan 6 pipe bomb suspect - with Dan Bongino even alluding to a 'massive cover up.' 'There is a massive cover-up, because the person who planted those pipe bombs—they don’t want you to know who it was, because it’s either a connected anti-Trump insider, or this was an inside job,' Bongino said in 2024. 'Those bombs were planted there. This was a setup. I have zero doubt.'

Donald Trump's latest power play may be derailed by a member of his own political party in a vote planned to take place over 500 miles away from Washington, DC. Indiana State Senator Michael Bohacek, a Republican from the Hoosier State, has pledged to vote against a draft congressional map that would see two Democratic seats eliminated because of the president's inflammatory rhetoric. The proposed map comes as part of a redistricting effort aimed at keeping a GOP majority in Washington, DC, after the 2026 midterm elections. As midterm elections typically result in the president's political party losing seats, Trump...

President Donald Trump shared a social media post claiming Afghans would 'chop off your head' and 'assume you were a witch' if you showed them a Nespresso machine. Robert O'Neill, the Navy Seal veteran who claimed to have killed Osama bin Laden, shared a post on X appearing to oppose the immigration of people from Afghanistan to the United States. 'If you've never been to Afghanistan, you wouldn't understand,' O'Neill wrote. 'If you showed these people a Nespresso machine and gave them a free coffee, they would assume you were a witch and chop off your head... But let's bring...