Free Republic

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he doubts Russia’s Vladimir Putin wants to end his war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were “ very close to a deal.” “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump said in a social media post as he flew back to the United States after attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, where he met briefly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump...

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s revoking former President Joe Biden’s access to government secrets and ending the daily intelligence briefings he’s receiving in payback for Biden doing the same to him in 2021. Trump announced his decision in a post on his social media platform shortly after he arrived at his Mar-a-Lago home and private club in Palm Beach for the weekend. “There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” Trump wrote....

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — U.S. flags at President-elect Donald Trump ‘s private Mar-a-Lago club are back to flying at full height. Flags are supposed to fly at half-staff through the end of January out of respect for former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Dec. 29. A large flag on Trump’s property in Palm Beach was initially lowered to half-staff according to protocol but has since been raised in the days after Carter was buried Thursday in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he is nominating Shalanda Young to lead the White House budget office and Nani Coloretti to serve as Young’s deputy. If confirmed by the Senate, Young would be the first Black woman to lead the Office of Management and Budget while Coloretti, who is Filipino American, would become one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the Biden administration. It would be the first time that two women of color will lead the agency, which helps the president develop an annual budget and monitors how tax dollars are spent. Young has...

After more than six months of work combating the coronavirus, negotiating a bipartisan infrastructure bill and repairing the U.S. image abroad, President Joe Biden should be heading out on vacation and a traditional August break from Washington. But with legislative work on the infrastructure bill keeping the Senate in session for a second straight weekend, and likely through next week, Biden hasn’t gone far — just home to Wilmington, Delaware, as he has done often since taking office. “Every president is always working no matter where they are,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, explaining that presidents can’t ever...

President Barack Obama heads to law school next week to push his nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Obama adviser Brian Deese said Friday that Obama will return Thursday to the University of Chicago Law School to argue for Senate consideration of the appeals judge’s nomination. Obama taught constitutional law at the university for several years before he entered politics. …

President Barack Obama said he takes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “at his word” for saying that an independent Palestinian state will never coexist with Israel as long as he is in office, yet another sign of the strained relations between longtime allies. […] Obama, who placed a congratulatory telephone call to Netanyahu on Thursday, said he indicated to the prime minister that the U.S. remains committed to a two-state solution as the only way to keep Israel secure. …

President Barack Obama on Saturday said the widespread mistrust of law enforcement that was exposed by the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri, is corroding America, not just its black communities, and that the wariness flows from significant racial disparities in the administration of justice. Speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual awards dinner, Obama said these suspicions only harm communities that need law enforcement the most....

He is "the architect" who steered George W. Bush to victory four times, twice as Texas governor and twice as president. But can Karl Rove organize his own garage? Can the master of Bush's political planning figure out where to put the ladders, paint cans and cardboard boxes? Rove's wife, Darby, raised the white garage door one morning last week to show journalists outside the million-dollar brick home that the deputy chief of staff, assistant to the president and senior adviser wasn't home. All the interest came on the eve of his testimony Friday before a grand jury investigating who...