Free Republic

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that Twitter and Facebook made the wrong decision in blocking President Trump from their platforms. Lopez Obrador said the move provided a hindrance to freedom of speech in a press briefing on Friday. "How can you censor someone? Let’s see, I, as the judge of the Holy Inquisition, will punish you because I think what you’re saying is harmful?" he remarked. "Where is the law, where is the regulation, what are the norms? This is an issue of government. This is not an issue for private companies." In a statement later in the...

With the election of Joe Biden, Democrats and their supposedly anti-war base now own the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and any other military conflicts which suddenly appear in the near future. President Trump spent the last four years trying to end those wars while successfully keeping the United States out of new conflicts. For his efforts, he was called a fascist, an asset of Russia, and a traitor to America. Trump brokered historic peace deals throughout the Middle East, yet Democrats and their agents in the media repeatedly called him a threat to democracy. As a United...

In November 2020, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hu Chun Ying, along with the foreign ministers of the three European member states, said that “The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) alone does not solve all the problems and negotiations and multilateral talks should take place in the Middle East.” The Iranian regime did not welcome the announcement. Over the past year, the Islamic Republic leaders have used all their resources to downgrade and neutralize the United States’ policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. The regime in Iran rushed to quickly implement a 25-year strategic pact between Iran and China...

Under no scenario would a unified European Union aligned with China be in the interest of America. Indeed, a united EU might not be a friend but a foe.Joseph Borrell, a former Spanish socialist and current High Representative of the European Union, recently argued the EU needs to be strategically independent. “It is foreseen that in 20 years, we [the EU] will not represent more than 11 percent of world GNP, far behind China, which will represent double it, below 14 percent for the United States and at par with India,” Borrell wrote, adding the next two decades would be...

America must decouple from China as soon as is possible. We are in a cold war with the “People’s Republic” of China. We may, one day, need to win a war against them. Freedom is on the line in our struggle against China, as it is a tyrannical, evil nation. Decoupling for those that don’t know, is separating your economy from the economy of another nation. Right now, the US and China have heavily intertwined economies because we opened relations with them under the Nixon Administration. They make basic goods and materials and ship them here, where we buy them...

President-elect Joe Biden has made clear in his staffing plans and public remarks that he intends to return America to many of the foreign policy positions championed by his former boss, President Barack Obama. While American mainstream media has largely cheered this – and glowered at President Donald Trump for defending his achievements by making regression more difficult under Biden – many of America’s allies, and some of its foes, around the world are making moves suggesting they expect a full return to the state of global affairs in 2016. The Obama administration’s foreign policy was defined by the tension...

Al-Shabaab does not pose a threat to America that cannot be handled more effectively by our global intelligence networks and ability to strike direct threats to our country.On Dec. 4, President Trump ordered most of the approximately 700 U.S. troops out of Somalia. The move wasn’t a full withdrawal, however, as the White House specified the forces will be moved to neighboring countries to continue targeting the al-Shabaab terror group. While addressing the tactical actions our troops would continue to perform in Africa, there was no mention of the strategic justification for our presence—because there is none. Al-Shabaab is unquestionably...

It was hard to help but notice – and be somewhat sad about – all those happy faces Thursday afternoon when President Trump announced that Morocco had become the fourth Arab country, after Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates to formally recognize Israel. These four agreements – all achieved in the last four months – establish Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and leader of his negotiating team on this, as one of the preeminent diplomats of our generation. These accomplishments, along with the president’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from former hot spots around the region, have dramatically remade America’s...

The most shocking thing about the recent news story that flatulent Russiagate hoaxer and American-nuking enthusiast Rep. Eric Swalwell was caught intertwined with a Chinese honey pot is...well, actually nothing about it is shocking. This is totally on-brand for the Dems and especially this particular clown. It’s not clear how far he got with this Democrat-diddling doxie, but the best case for Swalwell is that he was a fool who couldn’t see how unlikely it was for a DC 8 (and real world 5) to want anything to do with him other than as a mark. The worst case is...

Joe Biden made clear he wants to put the old gang back together when he announced his prospective national security team this past week including the likes of John Kerry, Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan. They represent the worst instincts and outcomes of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy of promoting endless wars while undermining allies and placating adversaries that the Trump Administration had to clean up. How do I know? I served as the Senior White House Advisor at the U.S. Department of State in the Trump administration, cleaning up the mess that the Obama-Biden administration left behind. While the...

The opposition to the Trump administration’s policy was carried out by the likes of “Anonymous” — who bragged of working inside the administration to countermand legal directives by systematically and illegally leaking classified information — and by a biased media that reached a new record of 80–90 percent negative coverage of the current administration and its policies. Joe Biden’s team, if it were to be wise and without arrogance, would build on the present policies, which have created far more strategic advantages for the West in general and the U.S. in particular than had the more praised but often empty...

Action Follows Last Month’s Seizure of 92 IRGC DomainsSAN FRANCISCO – The United States has seized 27 domain names that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unlawfully used to further a global covert influence campaign.As described in the seizure documents, all 27 domains were being used in violation of U.S. sanctions targeting both the Government of Iran and the IRGC. Four of the domains purported to be genuine news outlets but were actually controlled by the IRGC and targeted audiences in the United States, to covertly influence United States policy and public opinion, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration...

President-elect Joe Biden introduced his foreign policy team to the nation Tuesday, saying numerous world leaders have called to tell him they are looking forward to the U.S. returning to “lead the world” after President Donald Trump’s administration. Biden’s foreign policy strategy intends to stray away from Trump’s more contentious relationships with certain world leaders, which Biden’s imminent administration views as unproductive. Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Tony Blinken, argued America “can’t solve the world’s problems alone.” Biden’s team is notably much more friendly toward China than the current administration, with the incoming president describing the communist regime as...

China Daily, the Chinese regime’s propaganda outlet, has spent millions for the past 6 months on U.S. publications, according to its statement filed last week with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.....China Daily is headquartered in Beijing, China. It is owned by the Publicity Department, an internal division of the China Communist Party. The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, the Seattle Times .... some of the notable receivers. Los Angeles Times received $340,000 for advertisements and $111,501 for printing newspapers in the past six months. China Daily has spent millions running supplements—called “China...

One factor in a bunch of Americans opting for Donald Trump in 2016 was his promise not to start a new war in the Middle East — but the D.C. establishment secretly kept troops in Syria, and lied about it to the president.Defense One, a subsidiary of The Atlantic, came out with a story last week about a man named Jim Jeffrey. If you haven’t heard of him, don’t feel bad, but he’s pretty important in Washington, D.C. Under his fancy title, he’s been appointed to oversee the U.S. fight against ISIS and what are supposed to be the limited...

Leftist elites in Europe are tying their fate with Democrats, becoming a natural adversary of any future Republican administration. That is a long-term mistake.“Biden’s victory returns a recognizable, reassuring figure to the Western throne,” an Atlantic essay claims, “a restoration of the old dynastic order — a figure who will hear Europe’s petitions with respect and grace.” Europe, it appears, banked on Biden, whom it believes will deliver. At least such is the received wisdom. Politico argued the same, saying, “For many European leaders, Biden’s win represented more than just the prayed-for end of Trump’s presidency — it was a...

A reprioritization of America’s strategic interests would cement the legacy of the first president in the era of great-power rivalry.n a recent memo advocating a swift U.S. drawdown from Afghanistan, Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller gave shape to the fundamental political stand of the Trump administration—realism and restraint. “We are not a people of perpetual war — it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end,” the memo read. This comes after a rapid purge in the last couple of weeks, in which President Trump dismissed Defense Secretary Mark...

“You know, Joe. I ran because of you.” On June 16, 2015, after decades of being fed up with what was happening to our country, President Trump decided to come down that golden escalator and do something about it.He spoke plain truths. America didn’t have victories anymore. Our economy was in shambles, GDP was shrinking­­ into negative territory. We weren’t beating China. All Americans were getting was rhetoric from politicians, when they just wanted a job.  President Trump didn’t need the job or money. He wasn’t beholden to any big donors or foreign nations. He lived the American Dream. He...

The following is the English-language version of “The Importance of Being Candid,” a speech delivered by Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger in Mandarin Chinese from the White House during a video conference hosted by Policy Exchange in London. Click here for Mandarin version. I’d like to thank Dean Godson and Policy Exchange for inviting me to deliver the ninth annual Colin Cramphorn lecture. We all look forward to a time when we can gather again in person for events like this. With new vaccines and therapeutics on the near horizon, I’m optimistic that day will soon arrive. In the...

Trump said," We are energy independent for the first time. We don’t need all of these countries that we had to fight wars over because we needed their energy. We are energy independent." The M E has realized we don't need them and as a consequence are reverting to Pre WW II attitudes of , "please help us " instead of the time when we were dependent upon them and the atttude was,' USA , you suck it up cause we own your economic heroine. " There is an overarching and VERY simple foreign policy lesson here. If you make...