Free Republic

President Trump has set aside, at least for now, plans to sharply escalate the American military assault against Iran, with particular concern that intensifying the war could dangerously drain the Pentagon’s already diminished stockpile of Patriot antimissile interceptors and other air defense munitions in the Middle East. The threat to interceptor stockpiles is one of many considerations that have made a return to major combat operations a hugely risky endeavor, administration officials say. Mr. Trump and his top aides are also uneasy about the prospect of a widening war in the Middle East, the alienation of key Gulf allies who...

A newly-uncovered Biden White House memo from the administration's final days revealed plans that could have expanded Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to more than 3 million noncitizens while acknowledging that previous court challenges had blocked many of President Donald Trump's efforts to end the protections. TPS is meant for foreign populations experiencing crises like political unrest or natural disasters, and while Trump has tried to end the "temporary" provisions for Haitians, Nepalese, Salvadorans and Sudanese people, lawsuits from pro-migrant advocates have halted most attempts. "My investigation uncovered that the Lame Duck Biden White House tried to keep millions of illegal...

The New York Times said on Saturday that the U.S. Department of Justice had ordered several of its journalists to testify before a federal grand ​jury after they reported on security concerns involving President Donald Trump's new Qatari-donated Air Force One. The ‌media organization said subpoenas were issued on Friday, asking that the journalists appear before a grand jury on Wednesday to testify "in regard to an alleged violation of federal criminal law." ...in some cases delivered to reporters' homes by federal agents, the ​news outlet reported. It described the move as "an extraordinary escalation in President Trump's efforts ⁠to...

The new Air Force One, which President Trump flew on earlier this week to Turkey, lacks the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities, according to multiple officials who have been briefed on how the jet was retrofitted.Experts say the absence of those capabilities on the Boeing 747-8 aircraft, which was donated by Qatar, creates potential risk in using the jet abroad, a dynamic underscored by the abrupt decision on Wednesday for Mr. Trump to leave Turkey on the old Air Force One at the urging of the Secret Service.The episode...

AAmong the greatest early accomplishments of the second Trump Administration was the shuttering of USAID. It’s great in part because it’s saving billions previously supposedly spent on trans camel surgeries in the third-world, but also because it has shut down innumerable Democrat NGOs and non-profits, including the Democrat National Committee, which, within a month, went broke and had to borrow millions just to keep the lights on. It seems USAID’s money—taxpayer money—wasn’t just spent on bizarre, leftist boondoggles overseas. It largely funded the Democrat Party and their cronies in America. Smart, that Trump guy. A recent, tear-drenched New York Times...

A one-year-old baby is in a St. Louis County, Missouri, hospital with brain bleeding after being brutally beaten and tortured by two suspected illegal aliens, who allegedly recorded the abuse. Antonio Belli-Espejo, 27 years old, and Irais Martinez Santos, 26 years old, have been arrested and charged with one count of felony child abuse each after a one-year-old baby was found unresponsive in an Overland, Missouri, apartment. When first responders arrived at the scene, the baby was unconscious and began having a seizure. The child was rushed to a nearby children’s hospital and is suffering from brain bleeding. Belli-Espejo and...

American intelligence agencies have determined that Iran or potentially another group could retrieve Iran’s primary store of highly enriched uranium even though it was entombed under the country’s nuclear site at Isfahan by U.S. strikes last year, according to multiple officials familiar with the classified reports. Officials familiar with the intelligence said that Iran can now get to the uranium through a very narrow access point. It is unclear how quickly Iran could move the uranium, which is in gas form and stored in canisters. U.S. officials have said that American spy agencies have constant surveillance of the Isfahan site...

New satellite imagery and flight tracking data show a base in central Jordan has become a key hub for the U.S. military’s planning for possible strikes on Iran. Imagery captured on Friday shows more than 60 attack aircraft parked at the base, known as Muwaffaq Salti, roughly tripling the number of jets that are normally there. And at least 68 cargo planes have landed at the base since Sunday, according to flight tracking data. More fighter jets could be parked under shelters. The satellite images also show more modern aircraft, including F-35 stealth jets, compared to the aircraft normally seen...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired or sidelined at least two dozen generals and admirals over the past nine months in a series of ousters that could reshape the U.S. military for years to come. His actions, which are without precedent in recent decades, have come with little explanation. In many cases, they have run counter to the advice of top military leaders who fought alongside the officers in combat, senior military officials said. The utter unpredictability of Mr. Hegseth’s moves, as described in interviews with 20 current and former military officials, has created an atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust...

A notice calls the people the U.S. military recently killed on suspicion of drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea “unlawful combatants.”President Trump has decided that the United States is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are “unlawful combatants,” the administration said in a confidential notice to Congress this week. The notice was sent to several congressional committees and obtained by The New York Times. It adds new detail to the administration’s thinly articulated legal rationale for why three U.S. military strikes the president ordered...

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt rejected the idea that "both sides" are to blame for escalating political violence in the U.S., saying, "the George Soros empire has financed a vast ecosystem of radicals, all working together, dropping off bricks at riots to unleash a tidal wave of violent anarchists on our streets and to prop it up in an army of researchers and experts and journalists and propagandists who downplay the political violence." "Bluesky, the left-wing alternative to X, was so overwhelmed with these posts that the platform was forced to issue a statement warning its users to stop glorifying...

Yesterday, there were a lot of rumors floating around about the ban on Medicaid for illegal aliens being stripped from the bill. Thankfully, that's not true. It's very much in the bill we just passed. You can look it up below. Page 602. Section 77109. Here's where the rumor came from: During yesterday's vote-a-rama, an amendment banning Medicaid for illegal immigrants was voted down. The clip of that vote started circulating online—and folks took that to mean that the provision had been stripped from the bill altogether. But that was just one of many "messaging amendments," designed to force Democrats...

A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, according to officials familiar with the findings. The early findings conclude that the strikes over the weekend set back Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months, the officials said.

Mexico’s president is threatening to “mobilize” the country against a Republican proposal to tax remittances, which advocates say would choke off cash flow to Mexican drug cartels. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum raged against the proposal in a speech against the law, which imposes a tax on money sent out of the United States by foreign nationals. “If necessary, we’ll mobilize,” Sheinbaum said. “We don’t want taxes on remittances from our fellow countrymen. From the U.S. to Mexico.” President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” includes a 3.5 percent tax on remittances, a policy that experts told The Daily Wire is...

Ukraine is getting more help in its war with Russia. A Patriot air-defense system that was based in Israel will be sent to Ukraine after it is refurbished, four current and former U.S. officials said in recent days, and Western allies are discussing the logistics of Germany or Greece giving another one. ...The White House’s National Security Council does not provide details on the strength and placement of defense systems, said James Hewitt, a spokesman for the council The delivery, which has not been previously reported, comes as Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine, including an April 24...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat. Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.

At this point, the left isn’t even trying to hide their lawfare. Judge James Boasberg—the Deep State loyalist and rent-a-gavel—has now been handed his fourth Trump-related case. ... And we’re supposed to believe that this is just a coincidence? No. The left’s shameless weaponization of the judiciary has moved from subtle plots and plans to straight-up Soviet Union-type chess moves. Judge Boasberg is no longer pretending to be impartial—he’s the go-to hitman for the Deep State regime, and he’s happily rubber-stamping whatever political prosecution the DC Swamp throws his way. And these power players couldn’t care less that the American...

The Pentagon was scheduled on Friday to brief Elon Musk on the U.S. military’s plan for any war that might break out with China, two U.S. officials said on Thursday.Another official said the briefing would be China focused, without providing additional details. A fourth official confirmed Mr. Musk was to be at the Pentagon on Friday, but offered no details.Hours after news of the planned meeting was published by The New York Times, Pentagon officials and President Trump denied that the session would be about military plans involving China. “China will not even be mentioned or discussed,” Mr. Trump said...

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said he was "proud" to block a proposal from Democrats to protect federal workers from potentially getting reclassified as political appointees under the incoming administration. The measure was introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) as a way to prevent such reclassification without congressional approval. He asked for unanimous consent to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act, warning about “attempts in recent years to erode the independence of the federal civil service,” a reference to efforts President-elect Trump made in his first term. Kaine and other Democrats fear that Trump, now reelected, may attempt to reclassify...

Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri addressed a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Thursday demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) hand over internal communications with special counsel Jack Smith regarding his latest superseding indictment of the former president. Schmitt criticized Smith’s indictment in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump as well as the DOJ’s renewed interest in the “Russian election interference bogeyman” as evidence of political weaponization, according to the letter.... ... the DOJ is blatantly ignoring norms and for the first time in our nation’s history prosecuting its political opponents—not only while votes are...