Free Republic

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un ordered the communist nation to prepare its “toughest anti-U.S. counteraction to be launched aggressively” during an end-of-year party meeting, state propaganda ordered on Sunday, an apparent attempt to be ready for major foreign policy changes under incoming American President Donald Trump. Kim’s Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), the only legal political entity in the repressive communist state, regularly holds end-of-year meetings to evaluate its performance over the past year and recalibrate its leadership. Kim appoints or removes officials at will, gives multiple speeches on his various ideological priorities, and usually concludes with some excoriating of...

Several blasts hit a U.S.-led coalition military base in Baghdad early on Sunday from an apparent rocket attack, a U.S. military official said. The official did not immediately say if the attack caused any casualties or significant damage.

SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio soldier was killed after a recent attack in Afghanistan, according to U.S. Army officials. Sgt. 1st Class Javier J. Gutierrez, 28, of San Antonio, died Saturday, Feb. 8 from wounds he sustained during a combat mission in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. According to a report from The Associated Press, the U.S. Military said “an individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun. We are still collecting information and the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time." Gutierrez was one of two...

A 21-year-old Aurora man has been identified as one of the U.S. soldiers killed Saturday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Miguel Villalon was in a vehicle that was struck by an IED in the Kandahar providence. The City of Aurora said Villalon was an East Aurora High School graduate and proudly served in the U.S. Army. Villalon is the second Chicago area service member to die overseas in the last week. On Sunday, 23-year-old Army Specialist Henry Mayfield Jr. of Hazel Crest was killed during an attack in Kenya. Aurora released the following statement as they mourn the loss...

Like every presidential election that liberals lose, years later we’re still hearing about how unfair it all was. Of course, the favorite complaint of liberals this time around is “Russia did it!” Even if you accept for the sake of argument that Russia wanted Trump to win and hacked John Podesta’s email (and neither of those assertions may be true), buying some inconsequential Facebook ads for both sides and revealing the contents of John Podesta’s emails (none of which turned into truly major stories) wasn’t exactly a game changer. Liberals also noted that Hillary would have won had the election...

full title - Rod Rosenstein’s Right-Hand-Man Who Oversees Mueller Probe Abruptly Resigning from Justice Department The Justice Department’s senior-most career attorney, Associate Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools, is planning to step down for a job in the private sector, according to a source familiar with the matter. Schools works under Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and has had a significant role helping manage special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. NPR previously reported his departure. As the highest-ranking career official, Schools has served as a key adviser on many sensitive matters within the department, including the firing of former FBI Deputy...

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has spoken with people in the West Wing and in Congress about a new plan to knock the Russia investigation off the rails, according to a new report. The Washington Post reported Wednesday night Bannon has a proposal he is presenting to people in President Donald Trump's circle. The plan is designed to protect Trump as the Department of Justice probe into Russia collusion continues. The multi-pronged approach, according to the Post, includes firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, instructing the White House to stop cooperating with FBI special counsel Robert Mueller, and...

Michael Wolff, author of the sensational Fury and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, is supposed to be on a speaking tour to promote his book, but many of the dates for his shows have been canceled after several controversial media appearances by the author. Wolff in late February announced the tour that had at least 18 stops across the U.S. and was supposed to last through April and into mid-May. As of Tuesday, however, shows planned for Portland (April 13), Los Angeles (April 14), and San Jose (April 17) have been canceled, according to websites for the venues where...

THE author of the explosive new Donald Trump biography Fire And Fury has taken his cue from the title and stormed out of an Australian breakfast TV interview. Appearing in an interview with Ben Fordham on Today, Michael Wolff - crossing from London - was grilled on a range of topics relating to the US President, from gun control to North Korea. But it was when talk turned to Trump’s alleged infidelities that it all went south. “You said during a TV interview last month that you are absolutely sure that Donald Trump is currently having an affair, while President,...

President Trump said Wednesday that the Obama administration should be under investigation for Russian meddling instead of him and his campaign. “Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why aren’t they the subject of the investigation? Why didn’t Obama do something about the meddling? Why aren’t Dem crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Sessions!” Mr. Trumptweeted.

On Thursday, the panel on MSNBCÂ’s Morning Joe dog piled author Michael Wolff for propagating an unfounded rumor that President Trump had been having an affair with his ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley. The confrontation became so heated that the showÂ’s co-anchor Mika Brzezinski eventually cut the interview short and asked Wolff to leave. Michael Wolff became a media fixation in January upon publishing his anti-Trump book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Following the controversial bookÂ’s release, he appeared on HBOÂ’s Real Time with Bill Maher, where he claimed that President Trump was having an affair....

Imagine this: The author of the most popular book in the country goes on Bill Maher’s show and says the following about President Barack Obama: “There is something in the book that I was absolutely sure of but it was so incendiary that I just didn’t have the ultimate proof,” he says. “I didn’t have the blue dress.” The host pushes the coy writer for a hint. “You just have to read between the lines toward the end of the book,” the writer answers. “When you hit that paragraph you’re going to say, ‘Bingo!’” Within moments, every person with a...

Hillary Clinton, 2019 Grammy winner? That’s what host James Corden was hoping for, after a pre-taped segment during Sunday night’s award show where he had the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate read excerpts from Michael Wolff’s book, “Fire and Fury,” as part of a spoken word audition spoof. Clinton was shown reading from of the bombshell Donald Trump book, first with her face hidden and then revealing who she is. “He had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one reason why he liked to eat at McDonald’s. No one knew he was coming, and the food was safely pre-made,” she reads....

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has vehemently denied a rumor started by “Fire and Fury” author Michael Wolff that she is having an extramarital affair with President Trump, calling the allegations that she slept her way to the top “disgusting” and “highly offensive” to women in power. “It is absolutely not true,” Mrs. Haley told Politico in an interview published Friday. “But it goes to a bigger issue that we need to always be conscious of: At every point in my life, I’ve noticed that if you speak your mind and you’re strong about it and you...

It must be frustrating for his media detractors and the Never Trumpers. They’ve tried throwing everything and the kitchen sink at him but nothing sticks. He’s a racist.He’s a liar.He’s a misogynist.He’s colluding with Russia.He’s  unstable.He’s mentally unfit.He’s got dementia.He’s unhealthy.Did I mention he’s a racist? Having been unable to prove any of the first four allegations the media was certain the results of President Trump’s annual physical would confirm the next four. Although the initial reports proved to be disappointing they pursued the details of the results like rabid dogs. Although  none of them are real doctors they all...

Good news for all those anti-Trumpers out there who couldn't get enough of Michael Wolff's work of fiction, Fire and Fury. The book (novel) will be produced as a TV series according to an exclusive January 17 report in the Hollywood Reporter. Of course, it is pretty much a given that the portrayal of President Donald Trump will end up being so over the top divorced from reality that it will inadvertently end up as a comedy series where much of the audience will laugh at, not with, the producers of the show.

On Tuesday night, while Gary Cohn was fuming about President Trump's latest comments, Steve Bannon was excitedly telling friends and associates that the "globalists" were in mass freakout mode. Today, Bannon reveled in the disbanding of the president's business council, seeing this as yet more evidence that the Trump administration is at odds with the "Davos crowd," as Bannon often calls these corporate elites, in a voice dripping with contempt. Bannon saw Trump's now-infamous Tuesday afternoon press conference not as the lowest point in his presidency, but as a "defining moment," where Trump decided to fully abandon the "globalists" and...

President Trump is weighing a “huge reboot” in his White House staff after becoming disappointed with several aides, according to a report on Sunday. The shake-up could include White House press secretary Sean Spicer, top strategist Steve Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Axios reported. “He’s frustrated, and angry at everyone,” Axios quoted an unidentified confidant in the White House. “The advice he’s getting is to go big — that he has nothing to lose. The question now is how big and how bold. I’m not sure he knows the answer to that yet.” Trump has complained about some...

President Trump is considering ousting both White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen Bannon, Axios reported on Friday. Aides and advisers to the president told Axios that, while Trump is considering a major shakeup in the West Wing, it's not clear when it would happen or if Trump will "pull that trigger." "Things are happening, but it's very unclear the president's willing to pull that trigger," one top aide said. Firing them both would be an enormous upheaval for the young presidency, which has yet to hit its 100-day mark. Axios did not say who could...

President Trump is considering a broad shakeup of his White House that could include the replacement of White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the departure of chief strategist Steve Bannon, aides and advisers tell us. A top aide to Trump said he's contemplating major changes, but that the situation is very fluid and the timing uncertain: "Things are happening, but it's very unclear the president's willing to pull that trigger." Insiders tell me that the possibilities for chief of staff include: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who developed a bond with Trump as one of the earlier...