Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump’s huge win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday enshrines one of the most astonishing comebacks in American political history. Losing one-term presidents almost never mount subsequent successful primary campaigns, much less pull off landslides that demonstrate utter dominance of their party. Trump transformed the GOP in his populist, nationalist, nihilistic image in 2016. By claiming 50% of the vote in the biggest win in caucus history, putting him on course to his third consecutive nomination, he showed that eight years after his outsider presidential victory, the current GOP is entirely his party. “The big night is...

CNN — It was only a matter of time before former President Donald Trump went birther on Nikki Haley. After all, the former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador is a pioneering candidate, the daughter of immigrants from India, and she’s rising in the polls. It’s not only concern about his electoral prospects that’s driving him; Trump’s massive yet fragile ego also feels threatened. So he reached for the most reflexive slur he could find via the far-right news site Gateway Pundit, reposting on Truth Social the false claim that Haley is not constitutionally eligible to be president because her...

Donald Trump faces massive court action in the United States. He faces 34 felonies in Manhattan related to an alleged hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. A civil trial is currently underway revolving around allegations he raped author E. Jean Carroll in a dressing room in 1996. And on Friday, the Justice Department announced a probe into his relationship with the Suadi Arabian government-backed LIV Golf. Trump denies all allegations. But Trump is passing the time with a golf trip to Scotland and Ireland to visit his properties. It’s in Ireland where, during a round of golf,...

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald J. Trump responded on Friday to a promised subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault with a lengthy, rambling letter that attacked the panel’s work, reiterated false claims of widespread voting fraud and presaged a potentially bruising battle over whether he would be compelled to testify about his role in the riot and his efforts to subvert the 2020 election. In a 14-page missive that did not address whether he would comply with the subpoena, Mr. Trump perpetuated the same lies that had fueled the attack and boasted about the size of...

RINGGOLD, Ga. (AP) — As he met with voters recently in a part of northwest Georgia where Donald Trump is still very popular, David Perdue invoked his belief in the lie that elections in 2020 and 2021 were stolen from the former president and himself. “First of all, it was stolen,” Perdue said. “The facts are coming out.” When the rally was over, Perdue visited the storefront office of a group that similarly espouses election falsehoods. Perdue posted a photo on his Facebook page of himself beaming as the group’s cofounder talks under a banner proclaiming “a legal vote requires...

Mark Graham for The New York Times Dan Rather, 72, was in Dallas recently to coax more viewers to watch "The CBS Evening News" and the network's local affiliate, KTVT. DALLAS — At lunchtime in a hotel dining room here the other day, Dan Rather stood before a group of car dealers, jewelry store owners and furniture wholesalers, sounding more like a politician on the hustings than the network news anchor he is every weekday evening. Flanked by images of himself projected on oversized screens, Mr. Rather sang the praises of KTVT, the local CBS station he had come...