Free Republic

House Democrats are preparing an ambitious 100-days agenda focused on delivering their campaign promises — making life more affordable and conducting vast oversight of the Trump administration — if the party seizes majority control in next month’s elections. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to become House speaker if the party wins power, said the Democrats will be united “right out of the gate” on reinstating Affordable Care Act tax breaks, reversing Republican Medicaid cuts, holding votes against the Iran war and undoing President Donald Trump’s tariff regime. They expect to launch the agenda in the first 100...

Diesel futures traded sharply higher Tuesday, as doubts mounted about the likely impacts of the Trump administration’s latest efforts to push prices down. U.S. diesel futures were up 5% by midday to their highest level in weeks. In Europe, diesel futures rose by about 3.8%, while gas futures spiked to levels not seen all year. A move higher in futures markets typically signals that prices will climb in the coming days. Already, the average nationwide price of diesel is up 70% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. The cost of unleaded gas has risen by more...

More Republicans are speaking out against President Donald Trump’s decision to let Vladimir Putin’s Russia temporarily export diesel fuel on the global market, expanding the bipartisan blowback over the deal. Six GOP senators joined six of their Democratic colleagues in a letter Tuesday urging Trump to cancel the arrangement allowing Russia to supply 4.8 million metric tons, or nearly 36 million barrels, of diesel through mid-April. “This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded,” the lawmakers wrote. Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Oklahoma’s Alan...

Guess what, Audie? President Obama was not on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Truman was not aboard the Enola Gay. Ordering something and carrying it out are different jobs. But on Friday's CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish held Pete Hegseth to a different standard. The setup was Jonah Goldberg criticizing the way Hegseth had announced the public firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the Islamist terrorist who murdered 13 soldiers at Fort Hood: "Secretary Chesty McBroseph is just trying to show off how macho he is; a max-T thing." Cornish then took her shot at Hegseth. "And...

President Donald Trump's agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to boost diesel supplies is drawing criticism from within his own party, exposing Republican divisions over the White House's latest attempt to bring down fuel prices ahead of November's midterm elections. The pushback follows Trump's announcement Friday that Putin had agreed to supply millions of tons of diesel fuel to United States and global markets. The administration subsequently authorized transactions involving Russian diesel, with the Treasury Department issuing a temporary license allowing Russian-origin diesel to reach global markets. The move drew scrutiny because Congress just weeks ago approved the Lindsey O....

Voters who backed Democratic former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 are far more enthusiastic about casting ballots this November than those who supported President Donald Trump, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found, in a potential warning sign for Republicans heading into the midterm elections. The six-day poll, completed Monday, also found that men were more enthusiastic about voting and more certain to cast ballots than women, and that male voters showed signs of shifting toward Democrats. That could signal erosion in Republican support among a demographic that was a pillar of Trump's 2024 victory. Some 48% of 2024 Harris voters said...

The Trump administration argues that its proposed multibillion-dollar Russian oil deal would advance American foreign policy interests and lower energy prices. But most of the ownership in the deal would go to a group of Middle Eastern investors, including some with business ties to key U.S. officials involved in the negotiations, according to people familiar with the talks. The deal, for a worldwide portfolio of oil fields, refineries and gas stations now owned by the sanctioned Russian energy giant Lukoil, has become intertwined with the U.S. talks with Russia over ending the war in Ukraine. The United States government, through...

Trump's fault #5673......... 1:52 video at link.............

Donald Trump is now 'very seriously' considering a diesel export ban as gas prices hit record highs – despite his top cabinet officials saying for months the move was off the table. 'The blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn't work,' Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at an event last week. As the President's top energy official responsible for oil and gas production and the management of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Wright has warned that the ban 'would put upward pressure on gasoline prices and jet ⁠fuel prices'. He said in May that the ban was then 'absolutely' ruled...

The arrogance of the oligarchs is extraordinary. THEY WANT IT ALL. In this election, Musk and other billionaires will spend huge amounts of money to make sure that Congress works for them — not working families. We can beat them. Educate. Organize. Get your friends to vote.

As their midterm picture darkens, and gas and diesel prices soar, some Republicans who backed the war for months are now changing their tune. As President Trump warned in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in recent days that he might “annihilate” Iran, a growing number of Republicans were scrambling to find distance from a costly war that has swelled into a midterm crisis for the party.The split screen showed how Mr. Trump and his party’s battleground candidates are increasingly at odds as the November elections approach. With no clear resolution in sight, the war has sent the...

Here a Crack. There a Crack. Everywhere a Crack Crack!Yes, if Politico is seeing cracks (of the GOP variety) then you know it must be election season. And right on cue with a little over a month left until the midterm elections Politico is seeing huge cracks in the Republican party. In fact they are so insistent on GOP cracks that you almost get the sense they want Republican-inclined voters to get demoralized and neglect to vote this year.For an example of how much Politico is desperately hyping the GOP Crack theme you need only to look at their Friday...

Vice President JD Vance was reportedly the anonymous White House source behind a story that President Donald Trump’s administration is now pointing to as evidence for why Politico deserved to lose its White House access. The revelation, first reported Wednesday by Oliver Darcy’s Status, adds a striking wrinkle to the administration’s defense of its Friday decision to boot Politico from the White House grounds alongside CNN and MS NOW. The Washington Post reported just minutes earlier that the White House had identified six Politico stories in a Tuesday letter laying out its case against the outlet, accusing it of reporting...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is urging “a resolution” to the Iran war, sending the strongest signal to date that Republicans on Capitol Hill are feeling the political sting of the long-drawn conflict heading into the midterm elections. “It’s been a priority and an objective of every administration, for 50 years nearly, to ensure that Iran didn’t have a nuclear capability. Now that’s done. Operation Epic Fury was an epic success. … The world is safer because of it,” Johnson said in an interview with a local TV station. “But now we’ve got to bring that to a resolution.” Johnson did...

Polls continue to dole out depressing numbers for Republicans, with several Senate races defying earlier predictions and Democrats radically outperforming how then-Vice President Kamala Harris fared against President Donald Trump in 2024. The polling numbers for Trump and the GOP have been brutal as his second term has progressed, with Americans’ views on his handling of the economy and immigration — topics on which he had previously outpolled Democrats — taking a dive. The president’s war in Iran has been another issue dragging down his polling, specifically because of its impact on gas prices. Several recent polls have had shocking...

Israel is treating the new documentary “NAZA,” by the Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, less like bad publicity than a national security crisis. Eyal Zamir, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, pledged to use “every tool at our disposal” against the documentary, which features anonymous interviews with 24 intelligence officers and soldiers, most involved in remote strikes in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for legislation that would let the state strip Abraham and Szor of their citizenship. Israel’s culture minister has asked the Interior Ministry to investigate them for treason. Activists and staff members...

... So he flew to Venezuela, one of the few countries where he could enter as an Iranian without advance permission, and embarked on a weeks-long trek northward to the U.S. Near San Diego, he crossed the border illegally and presented himself to ask for asylum on Feb. 2, 2025, he said. Saleh Fard never walked freely again inside the borders of the United States, but its government would soon dictate where in the world he could live. He arrived the same day that the Trump administration signed a deal with Panama to “repatriate foreigners that enter [U.S.] territory without...

President Donald Trump told Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst that “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future” on Iran and that “my question is, if and when do I blow the entire nation up?” In a Sunday morning appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend Yingst reported he had just spoken with Trump and conveyed the substance of his conversation with the audience. “He tells Fox News he’s in a ‘deciding mode’ and that ‘very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future,'” Yingst said. “The president described the current choices...

President Trump said on Sunday that he has agreed to convert plans for a massive triumphal arch into a "top grade Military Complex," equipped with snipers and drone storage. "At the strong request of the United States Military, and for National Security purposes, I have agreed to convert the magnificent Triumphal Arch, planned since the Civil War Era many years ago, at the Receptive Circle adjoining the Arlington Memorial Bridge, into a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch," Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Work on the 250-foot-tall arch was expected to begin this month, with plans to...

Even Ohio and Iowa, after trending Republican for years, are battlegrounds in the midterm elections. An old saying suggests that the road to the White House runs through Ohio. For more than 125 years, the Buckeye State has served as the nation’s bellwether. More recently many Midwestern states—not only Ohio, but also Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota—have turned either ruby red or navy blue. That polarization has hit a tipping point. The heartland is set again to become the nation’s pre-eminent battleground, and Democrats need to appreciate what that means for the future. The history is dramatic. Barack Obama won...