Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eric Hildenbrand has noticed prices continue to rise this year, even with President Donald Trump in the White House. He doesn’t blame Trump, his choice for president in 2024, but says Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats who control his home state, California, are at fault.“You can’t compare California with the rest of the country,” said Hildenbrand, who is 76 and lives in San Diego. “I don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the country. It seems like prices are dropping. Things are getting better, but I don’t necessarily see it here.”Voters like Hildenbrand, whose...

President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains underwater. But Democrats are faring worse, according to a new poll from The Wall Street Journal released Saturday. The new survey, conducted by Democratic pollster John Anzalone and Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, found Democrats’ popularity at its lowest point in three decades of WSJ polling, with 63 percent of voters holding an unfavorable view of the party. Only 33 percent of voters hold a favorable view of Democrats, with a meager 8 percent holding a “very favorable” opinion, for a net negative favorability of 30 percentage points. While voters still have significant concerns over...

New York State Attorney General Letitia James quietly circulated a petition Saturday to other Democrats pushing an end to the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. An early draft of the petition circulated to multiple elected officials and obtained by The Post did not condemn Hamas terrorists for the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. “We are united in this moment by a truth we can no longer ignore: a famine is unfolding in Gaza before the eyes of the world,” according to the draft, which claimed to be on behalf of a “coalition of multiracial, multiethnic, and multifaith elected officials.” “There...

There is no shortage of moral horrors plaguing the planet — in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Haiti, in El Salvador, in Florida’s Alligator Auschwitz — but nothing compares with what Israel is inflicting on the people of the Gaza Strip. However barbaric the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, nothing justifies the systematic starvation of an entire population in the name of trying to kill terrorists. It pains me to write this, not just because I am Jewish and ashamed of a state that calls itself Jewish and thereby implicates every Jew, even if unjustly, but as a human being...

Joe Rogan was no fan of former President Joe Biden, but the podcaster raved about his scandal-tarred son Hunter Biden — gushing that a bizarre interview in which he held forth about his illegal drug use showed he was “smarter than his dad.” “And he could be president. How about that?” Rogan said on Wednesday’s episode of his “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast after playing a clip from Biden’s interview with “Channel 5” host Andrew Callaghan. “He could. No bulls–t. Hunter Biden, after all he’d been through, look, his dirty laundry’s all out there. We all see it. He was...

The director of national intelligence gave the Justice Department little warning before she demanded an investigation. President Trump made clear this week that Tulsi Gabbard was back in his good graces. A few weeks ago, Mr. Trump excoriated Ms. Gabbard, one of his top intelligence officials, over a video she filmed during a trip to Asia that he saw as self-promotional, and she was left out of some meetings in the lead-up to the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, according to two people with knowledge of what happened. But on Tuesday...

Social Security's retirement fund is set to run short in just seven years — which could end up slashing benefits for millions of Americans by thousands of dollars a year. According to latest projections, retirees could face automatic 24 percent benefit cuts as early as the end of 2032. Social Security relies on its trust fund to provide monthly benefit checks to around 70 million Americans. Once the reserves are exhausted, federal law requires that benefits be cut to match incoming revenues

The preliminary agreement suggests there is a path forward to lowering the auto duties on other major trading partners, as well.President Donald Trump’s “massive” trade deal with Japan is buoying foreign carmakers — and alarming American car companies who fear they are now at a disadvantage.Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on all foreign auto manufacturers in early April, a duty that also applies to cars made by U.S. companies from parts imported from Mexico and Canada. But now, the president is planning to lower the tariff to 15 percent for Japanese autos and auto parts, the White House confirmed...

Following a day of talks focused on domestic issues, such as bail reform and health transfers, Canada’s premiers are wrapping up their three-day gathering in Muskoka presenting a united front in the ever-looming threat of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war. “We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said during a post-meeting press conference. “What’s happened is that the pressing threats that Donald Trump has made to our economy have meant that instead of occupying all of our meetings and squeezing out conversations about bail reform and immigration, we’ve been meeting a...

Another day, another leak. CNN and The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that sources say the Pentagon Inspector General has ‘evidence’ that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Signal chat included classified information from Central Command. The Pentagon Inspector General expanded his investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the double-encrypted app Signal in May. Steven Stebbins took over as Acting Inspector General after President Trump fired the previous IG and 17 other inspectors general. Stebbins was first appointed to his position in 2015. Pete Hegseth has been under heavy attack since before his confirmation hearing and the leaks keep coming....

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy appeared to have a mental episode live on Larry Kudlow’s Fox Business show Tuesday, adding yet another entry to the long, bipartisan list of alarming age-related lowlights from our country’s leaders. “I’m sure Jesus loves him, but everybody else thinks—everybody else …” said Kennedy, 73, before trailing off. You can see it in his face—his eyes and mouth particularly—as he struggles to remember what he meant to say or where he is before ultimately giving up

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — She hadn’t seen cracks like that since the earthquake. Now they snaked up her buttercream dining room walls and etched tiny ravines in the ceiling. “Crazy,” Fernande Vital said to her husband as they eyed the damage. “They’re driving me crazy.” Clearly, they’d spread. Like the scars on all those buildings back home, she told a construction-worker friend who, as a fellow Haitian, understood. He’d also survived the 7.0 mega-tremors that once leveled much of their island nation. Fernande had figured calamity wouldn’t trail them to America, land of the free, home of the Kardashian opulence on...

In this first year of his second term, President Donald Trump has claimed broad powers to unilaterally restructure much of how the U.S. government functions. Some of these assertions have gone completely unchallenged. Others have been litigated, and although lower courts have been skeptical of many of these efforts, the Supreme Court has been more approving. Trump has taken as much advantage of his new powers as he plausibly can, prosecuting his political enemies, firing independent agency heads, and dismantling federal agencies almost at a whim. One salient question now is: When and if the Democrats return to power, how...

Last week saw a massive document dump that reconfirmed what we knew about the Russian collusion hoax. It was a deep state, legacy media, and Democrat plot to undermine the first Trump presidency. Former CIA Director John Brennan and ex-FBI Chief James Comey are now subjects of investigation over their conduct regarding their operation. The next question is when James Clapper and Barack Obama will be roped into that probe. Obama especially since his fingerprints are all over this mess.

MASERU, Lesotho —Crowds of women, bundled up in wooly hats and mittens against the sharp winter chill, wait every morning at the gates of a garment factory in Lesotho's capital, hoping that a few among them will be called in to work a shift. But no-one comes out and the factory gates – which bear the name of the Taiwanese company that runs it in red Chinese lettering – remain firmly shut. It's one of the few factories in what used to be called "the Denim Capital of Africa" that's still operating after U.S. President Donald Trump announced in April...

<p>Mossad spy agency head David Barnea visited Washington this week as Israel seeks the Trump administration’s help in moving Palestinians out of Gaza, Axios reports, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.</p><p>The two sources say Barnea told US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff that Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Libya have shown willingness to take Palestinian refugees from Gaza, and that Washington should offer “incentives” to those countries to agree to the relocation.</p>

Behind the razor wire of her rundown Florida federal prison, Ghislaine Maxwell was always clinging to the hope that when Donald Trump was back in the White House, he’d set her free, a jailhouse source told The Post. The disgraced British socialite — called “Max” by her fellow inmates — is still waiting. Maxwell, 63, was convicted in 2021 for recruiting and grooming underage girls for billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019. She has served three years of a 20-year sentence. “Max was very into her appeal,” the source at FCI...

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that the government grocery store plan from New York City mayoral candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D) is “a new and fresh plan for New York City. But it’s been tried in other cities around the country and has had some real successes.” Warren stated that Mamdani “said, we’ve got a problem with entire food deserts where people can’t get access to grocery stores. He said, I’d like to take a look at whether or not we can have some kind of — like we do on military bases...

The New York Times famously sparred with the Biden White House over the refusal to grant interviews with its journalists during his presidency, but former President Joe Biden finally ran to the paper this month as President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers put a harsh spotlight on his use of an autopen. The interview was widely panned, with many suggesting the Times buried the most crucial part of its own story, and it had essentially done more harm than good for Biden. Now, the Gray Lady faces widespread criticism and the Trump administration will investigate the legality of Biden's pardons...

The news of “The Late Show’s” cancellation by CBS doesn’t just end a franchise that had, to this point, lasted more than 30 years. It looks like the beginning of the end of an entire category of television. With one network now opting out of late-night talk entirely, how long will it be before the genre just goes away? CBS announced the cancellation nearly a full year before it is to take effect, making current host Stephen Colbert a lame duck of sorts; he will continue hosting the show through May 2026, at which point it will simply disappear. Observers...