Free Republic

President Trump has spent his first year in office treating Joe Biden's presidency as a historical aberration — not just undoing his policies, but casting his entire term as illegitimate. Why it matters: Presidencies usually fade. But in just one year, Biden's has been reduced to a footnote by a successor committed to dismantling every pillar of Washington's old liberal order. 1. Democracy: Biden built his presidency around the idea that American democracy had been assaulted by Trump 1.0 — that Jan. 6 was a defining national trauma requiring accountability and moral clarity. Trump has inverted that premise, pardoning thousands...

Former first lady Jill Biden went to Minnesota in 2022 to highlight the billions of dollars in investments for childcare that were part of Democrats' American Rescue Plan Act, where she stood next to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and praised him for his leadership helping families. "We helped states like Minnesota safely keep open childcare centers and family childcare providers and boost pay for their workers," Biden said during a February 2022 visit to the University of Minnesota's Child Development Laboratory School alongside Walz and then-Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. "We supported high quality providers that enrich children's...

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from withholding $80 million to administer Minnesota's food stamp program while the state reviews the eligibility of 100,000 households amid claims ​of widespread fraud.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development likely paid out more than $84 million in ineligible assistance to Minnesota during President Joe Biden’s final year in office — including to more than 500 “deceased tenants,” according to officials and documents reviewed by The Post. HUD has been looking into billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded housing aid doled out by the Biden administration — and its most recent review found $84.6 million in potentially erroneous payments in fiscal year 2024. That included up to $496,000 in improper assistance to 509 dead tenants. Approximately $246,000 more was shelled out to 20 people...

As a sweeping fraud scandal grips Minnesota, a conservative energy watchdog is encouraging lawmakers to scrutinize billions of dollars in Department of Energy grants they say were rushed out the door in the final weeks of the Biden administration, warning that internal red flags were ignored and taxpayer money may have been exposed to waste and political favoritism. Power the Future founder and director Daniel Turner sent a letter to Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Monday, calling on lawmakers...

The Trump administration moved to end a Biden-era rule on Monday it said created a fraud-friendly environment for daycare providers seeking federal funds. The Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule that will reverse regulations that required agencies to distribute government funds to daycare providers based on enrollment, not attendance, and before any care was delivered. HHS said the rule opened up the door for widespread fraud, including the kind currently under investigation in Minnesota. “Congress appropriated this funding to support working families and ensure children have safe places to grow and learn,” said HHS Secretary Robert...

Biden admin gave child care centers billions without verifying attendance — allowing ‘loopholes and fraud’ In child care, that ends now. https://x.com/PressSec/status/2008541001137463322Video TranscriptHello, I'm HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill. I'm Alex Adams, HHS Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families. For the past two weeks, everyone's been asking questions about the political patronage system in Minnesota. Incompetent state officials, through negligence or by design, for years have stood by as taxpayer money was diverted into the pockets of politically connected cronies. State officials have been unwilling to provide definitive confirmation about the size and scope of fraud. This...

Former President Joe Biden’s long career in politics allowed him to retire with the largest taxpayer-funded pension of any ex-prez in US history — $417,000, or more than his presidential salary, an expert says. Biden, 83, was in line to rake in the massive amount from two pension funds in his first year as former president, according to an analysis by National Taxpayer Union Foundation Vice President Demian Brady. “It’s pretty unusual, historically unusual, to have such a large pension amount,” Brady told The Post. “I would have to say that it’s the largest,” the taxpayer advocate said when asked...

BOGOTA, Colombia – The Biden administration said Friday that it was offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, after he assumed a third term in office despite evidence suggesting that he lost Venezuela’s recent election. The announcement was a retaliatory measure by Washington, which does not recognize Maduro as the rightful president of Venezuela. Maduro has presented no evidence that he won a July election, while his opponent Edmundo González has presented thousands of publicly available vote tallies that he says indicate he easily won the most votes. The United States...

"Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro. As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy." 6/21/20

This didn’t age well.An old tweet from Joe Biden claiming Trump “admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro” surfaced on Saturday after President Trump captured the Venezuelan leader following precision military strikes on the South American country. During the 2020 election cycle, Joe Biden said if he were elected President, he would “stand with the Venezuelan people for democracy” as he criticized Trump for reportedly being open to meeting with Maduro.“Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro,” Joe Biden said in response to June 2020 report claiming Trump is “open to meeting with” Maduro.“As...

Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro. As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy.

Move over, Tim Walz, because Joe Biden looks to be giving you a run for your money when it comes to fraud. In the final year of the Biden administration, federal officials sprayed billions of taxpayer dollars meant to keep struggling families in their homes around the country like confetti, sending a shocking slice of that money to dead people, ineligible non-citizens, and tenants collecting more than the law allows. “A US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report found more than $5 billion in taxpayer funds went to ‘questionable’ rental assistance recipients during the final year of the...

The U.S. Department of Education has reported an end to more than $1 billion in attempted student aid fraud in 2025. These reforms were needed after the massive waste and fraud resulting from loosened rules during the Biden regime. “Federal investigators found nearly $90 million in aid had already been fraudulently disbursed, including over $30 million to deceased individuals and more than $40 million to bots posing as students,” according to a report from Campus Reform. That’s a lot of fraud, but it’s hardly surprising. Under Democrats, fraud and waste are rampant, as we learned in the era of DOGE....

Wyoming's oil and gas producers say Christmas came early last week when the Bureau of Land Management extended the deadline for compliance with bonding requirements that threatened to shutter small operators across the state. The Direct Final Rule delays enforcement of Biden-era regulations that would have increased bonding costs by 1,400% while the Trump administration works toward permanent solutions. "This marks significant progress in addressing the anti-oil and natural gas regulations that were handed down during the previous administration," said Pete Obermueller, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. "While this rule does not cover new bonds and does not...

For Christmas, former President Joe Biden gave everyone scrolling through X something to talk about by sharing a strange family photo — with himself hardly visible. Biden, 83, shared the image of himself and seven members of his family around 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve, writing: “Wishing you a peaceful and joyful Christmas Eve filled with love.” Surprisingly, the gaffe-prone 46th president wasn’t front and center, as is common for family patriarchs.

.The Department of Justice (DOJ) has reversed a Biden-era decision that allowed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to commit abortions at the expense of taxpayers. ...

The White House/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain. Not only did the Obama and Biden Administrations go to great lengths to protect Hillary Clinton, they went to unconstitutional lengths to get Trump. The Obama-Biden Administration prevented agents investigating Hillary Clinton from reviewing some eight thumb drives of intel based on purported concerns over executive and congressional privilege, newly released documents reveal. This reality renders last month’s revelation that the Biden Administration approved Special Counsel Jack Smith’s subpoenaing of congressional Republicans’ toll records even more appalling — and the Democrats’ weaponization of the criminal justice system even more obvious and outrageous. Last week, Sen....

Federal prosecutors say the Biden‑era border crisis produced one of the most brazen cybercrime cases in years. The Department of Justice charged 54 alleged members of the Venezuelan terror gang Tren de Aragua with using sophisticated malware to loot millions from U.S. ATMs and funnel the cash back to their criminal network. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska unsealed two sweeping indictments charging 54 individuals for their alleged roles in a nationwide ATM “jackpotting” conspiracy tied to the violent Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TdA). Prosecutors say the group deployed sophisticated malware to force ATMs across...

The criticisms against Sec. of War Pete Hegseth are “entirely political,” and anyone could have said the same things about “the Obama and Biden administration—and much more egregiously.” Hegseth has turned the U.S. military around in ways no one thought was possible, like getting the military back to meeting all of its recruiting quotas, explains Hanson during today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” Recruitment under the Biden administration fell “some 40 to 50,000 recruits,” and former Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin’s Pentagon used excuses like “people are out of shape, in gangs, using drugs, etc.”