Free Republic

The White House has cut or paused billions in funding to Democratic-run cities and states since the federal government came to a halt.President Trump has embarked on a legally dubious campaign to weaponize the federal budget during a contentious government shutdown, halting more than $27 billion in approved funding in a bid to punish Democratic-led cities and states. Rather than broker a legislative truce or seek to ameliorate the fallout of a costly fiscal stalemate, the president has leveraged the crisis to exact revenge on rivals, slash federal spending and pressure Democrats into accepting his political demands. Since the shutdown...

President Donald Trump’s second term had already brought misery to the nation’s 2.1 million civilian federal workers: unprecedented mass layoffs, strict return-to-office requirements and more red tape regulating everything from travel to printer paper. Now, with the government shut down, 750,000 federal staffers have been furloughed and many others are working without pay, even as Trump and his top lieutenants vow to put more federal jobs on the chopping block. “When did we become the enemy?” said one National Institutes of Health employee who, like other workers interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of...

The Trump administration is planning to roll out the first tranche of bailout payments for farmers in the coming weeks, likely using billions of dollars in funding from an internal USDA account, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter. But it won’t be enough: USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation fund — which President Donald Trump previously tapped to provide $28 billion in farm aid during his first-term trade war with China — has just $4 billion left in the account. Trump officials, including those at the Treasury Department, are looking at how to tap tariff receipts or other...

The Trump administration has telegraphed that mass firings are coming, but officials have cautioned that such moves could violate appropriations law.Senior federal officials have quietly counseled several agencies against firing employees while the government is shut down — as President Donald Trump has suggested he will — warning the strategy may violate appropriations law, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The officials cautioned that firings — known as RIFs, or reductions in force — could be vulnerable to legal challenges under statutes labor unions cited this...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech to top generals was supposed to serve as a rallying cry for military exceptionalism — but it didn’t land that way with many of the people it was targeting. Numerous defense officials — who watched senior brass scramble to Washington and then sit through a partisan speech from President Donald Trump and a return to old-school military standards by Hegseth — were left wondering why the event had occurred at all. “More like a press conference than briefing the generals,” said one defense official, who, like others, was granted anonymity due to fears of retribution....

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered 135,000 men to be conscripted into the army, the largest autumn draft held by the Kremlin in nine years. “From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025, conscript 135,000 Russian citizens aged 18 to 30 who are not in the reserve and are subject to enlistment into military service,” the decree states, according to the TASS state-owned news agency. Vladimir Tsimlyansky, head of the Russian General Staff’s mobilization department, has also insisted that the conscripted soldiers will not be deployed to the forces currently invading Ukraine, a promise Moscow has been previously accused of breaking.

A half-year ago in the Oval Office, President Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that “you don’t have the cards” in the war with Russia. On Tuesday at the United Nations, Trump lauded the performance of Ukraine’s army and poured scorn on Russia’s military efforts. “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump said on Truth Social after meeting with Zelensky. “Why not?” U.S. officials said that Trump issued the statement in part to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to make...

In the spring of 1968 I was a college senior about to graduate. It was a troubled but hopeful moment to be coming into adulthood. The civil rights movement and the peace movement were converging in the nonviolent fight for racial justice and to end the Vietnam War. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most charismatic leader on both fronts, the poetic prose of his speeches soaring with critical idealism, his pacifism increasingly militant as he made the connections between domestic deprivation and foreign intervention. On April 4 King was murdered in Memphis. It was a brutal blow to the...

While the world’s attention has been on the war in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank may have a longer-term impact on the future of a decades-long conflict that destabilises the entire Middle East. Western powers Australia, Britain, Canada and Portugal formally recognised a Palestinian state on September 21, a reaction to Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Most of the U.N.’s 193 member states already recognised Palestine and several others now plan to do so, a shift criticized by Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States. Netanyahu says a Palestinian state would be a security threat to Israel.Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen...

Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett claimed on Sunday that it caused her anguish to see that only two white lawmakers voted against the resolution honoring Charlie Kirk on Friday. Every Republican voted in favor of the resolution, but 58 Democrats voted against it, including Crockett and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who both cited their disagreement with his political views. Crockett asserted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Kirk “specifically targeted people of color” with his “rhetoric.” “One of the things I do want to point out that’s not been laid out, that honestly hurts my heart, is when...

President Trump's flurry of recent presidential pardons has cost crime victims and taxpayers approximately $1.3 billion in restitution and payments, according to a review by House Judiciary Democrats. The pardons absolved hundreds of convicted criminals from having to pay for damages and restitution caused by their crimes. Victims have not been made whole, the Democrats said — including U.S. taxpayers who must now foot the bill for the millions of dollars in repairs and cleanup from the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.The Judiciary Committee Democrats' investigation, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, also cited several multi-million...

Estonia has requested a consultation with other Nato members after Russian warplanes violated its airspace on Friday. Estonia's foreign ministry condemned the incursion as "brazen". It said three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered the Estonian skies "without permission and remained there for a total of 12 minutes" over the Gulf of Finland. A Nato spokesperson said the military alliance "responded immediately and intercepted the Russian aircraft", calling it "yet another example of reckless Russian behaviour and Nato's ability to respond". Italian jets responded to the incursion under Nato's mission to bolster its eastern flank, while Finland and Sweden also scrambled...

From a screenshot a friend just messaged me, minutes ago, on Sep 19, 2025. (05:45 AP Pacific time) "The media is biased and should be punished. That is the mainstream media."

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was suspended by ABC on Wednesday following a brief pressure campaign from the Trump administration as well as conservatives in the media, who successfully twisted Kimmel’s words following last week’s assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. During Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, the comedian criticized conservatives for trying to “score political points” off Kirk’s death. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel...

“That is, unfortunately, the cancer known as white supremacy,” said the Texas congresswoman after learning about Kirk’s comments about her and the Democratic Party. A month before his shooting death, conservative activist Charlie Kirk attacked U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, blaming her and Democrats for being part of a “sinister” plan to replace white people in America. While discussing the issue of redistricting congressional maps, which played out dramatically in Texas last month, Kirk said on his Aug. 4 podcast show, “The great replacement of white people is far more sinister than any redistricting project.” “That is at the core...

Russia’s gasoline sales hit a two-year low on Tuesday as Ukrainian drone strikes and surging harvest-season demand intensify the country’s fuel shortage. Data from the St. Petersburg Exchange, reported by Kommersant on Wednesday, shows that sales of A-92 petrol dropped 21.7 percent to 15,600 metric tons on Tuesday, the lowest level since 2023. Sales of A-95 petrol fell 15.5 percent to 12,060 tons compared with the previous day, bringing total gasoline sales on the exchange down 19.1 percent to 27,700 tons. The sharp decline comes amid unscheduled shutdowns at several large Russian refineries, as Kyiv reportedly escalated its campaign against...

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia is deliberately slowing its economic growth in order to suppress inflation. "As for the decline from more than 4% GDP growth: this is not a decline, it is a deliberate action. It is a slowdown in growth in exchange for curbing inflation and maintaining macroeconomic stability," Putin said during a televised meeting with top lawmakers. A graph published in Russian central bank's report earlier in September showed two consecutive quarters of gross domestic product (GDP) decline in quarter-on-quarter terms, aligning with the common definition of a technical recession.

In the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, Republicans on Sunday criticized some Democrats, suggesting language used by them contributed to Kirk's killing, claims that Democrats rejected. **SNIP** Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized Trump's threats that his administration would go after the "radical left" that he blamed for political violence. "I want to be really clear about this. This is an example of something that is hurting," Buttigieg said. "We are not getting the leadership that we need to bring this country together from the White House." "The response to this cannot be for the government to crack down on...

The backlash against FBI Director Kash Patel over the bungled search for Charlie Kirk's assassin has intensified as it emerged he went on an expletive-laden rant against his staff over the failures. Patel came under fresh fire after it emerged that suspect Tyler Robinson had finally been arrested for the alleged murder of Kirk, 31, after being turned in by his own family. Robinson's arrest Thursday night came after a 33-hour manhunt in which two other men were wrongfully detained. The mix-up led Patel to incorrectly announce that investigators had someone in custody on Wednesday before he was forced to...

'This shouldn’t even be a debate': Colorado students march against gun violence Denver7 was there when Jefferson County students walked out of class to demand more be done to stop gun violence in the wake of the Evergreen High School shooting By: Richard ButlerSep 12, 2025 WESTMINSTER, Colo. — Hundreds of students at Standley Lake High School walked out of class Friday afternoon, lining Wadsworth Boulevard with signs and chants calling for an end to gun violence. The demonstration comes just two days after two students were wounded in a shooting at Evergreen High School before the shooter turned the...