Free Republic

It's NOT ENOUGH: Voters Say Trump WINS Aren't WORKING!

Over the course of 2025, the average tariff rate on U.S. imports increased from 2.6 to 13 percent. In this blog post, we ask how much of the tariffs were paid by the U.S., using import data through November 2025. We find that nearly 90 percent of the tariffs’ economic burden fell on U.S. firms and consumers. [...] We highlight two main results. First, 94 percent of the tariff incidence was borne by the U.S. in the first eight months of 2025. This result means that a 10 percent tariff caused only a 0.6 percentage point decline in foreign export...

Oh, the horror! The sheer, unmitigated brutality! Vice President JD Vance's motorcade descended upon the Winter Olympics in Milan like a fleet of rogue armored personnel carriers, "wreaking havoc" in ways that would make even the most dramatic speed skating wipe-out look tame. At least, that's the breathless hysterical narrative spun by the Daily Beast in its latest masterpiece of journalistic gymnastics, headlined "Vance's Clunky Motorcade Wreaks Havoc at Winter Olympics." Penned by the intrepid "Breaking News Reporter" Vic Verbalaitis, this exposé reveals the true villain of the 2026 Games: not doping scandals or judging controversies, but a convoy of...

Olympic patriotism for Team USA just isn’t the same anymore.We had a schtick here at SB Nation circa 2014 with the Sochi Winter Olympics, or more aptly, a social media strategy that led us to posting endless, tongue-in-cheek, jingoistic patriotism during the games. There were the traditional medal counts and tracking the achievements of U.S. athletes that were earnest, but also intentionally cringy images of Ronald Regan riding a velociraptor, a muscled George Washington covered in bandoleers, and Abe Lincoln smoking cigars. It’s horrifically clichéd now, but it wasn’t back then. The intention was to juxtapose the honest, legitimate pride...

Less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Trump's first year back in the White House had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security document obtained by CBS News. The official statistics contained in the DHS document, which had not been previously reported publicly, provide the most detailed look yet into who ICE has arrested during the Trump administration's far-reaching deportation operations across the U.S. The internal DHS figures undermine frequent assertions by the Trump administration that its crackdown on illegal immigration is primarily targeting...

Bad Bunny is expected to perform the Super Bowl half-time show on Sunday entirely in Spanish – which has inspired fans to quickly learn the language. In October, the Puerto Rican singer – born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – kicked off the 51st season of Saturday Night Live expressing pride over the achievement in Spanish, after which he said in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!” That declaration further stoked the anger of some conservatives who have vilified Bad Bunny for speaking out against US president Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. The...

Having said that, the claim is going viral on the left, so you need to have your facts lined up to challenge your TDS-suffering friends and acquaintances. esterday, Donald Trump posted an interesting video on his social media about voting machine election fraud in 2020. This is obviously a topic dear to his heart. Moreover, as the investigations in Fulton County, Georgia, demonstrate, it’s still a very hot and important topic (making it all the more bizarre that Senate Republicans will not push the SAVE Act, which aligns with the bipartisan public desire for election integrity). That Trump would post...

An organization known as Leaving MAGA has made headlines by putting up signs across Pennsylvania urging MAGA voters to abandon the America First movement. The billboards have been placed in York, Hanover, and Mechanicsburg. Rich Logis, the founder of Leaving MAGA, claimed, “The billboards represent a growing number of people in the MAGA community who are starting to have doubts.” […] Charlie Gerow, a GOP strategist, said, “These types of political billboards pop up all over the place all the time… the good news is it simply isn’t working because Trump voters have swelled Republican ranks in recent days.” …

The death of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis man killed by federal agents, has been ruled a homicide, the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office said. Pretti was shot Jan. 24 during a chaotic encounter with federal immigration officers in Minneapolis. Citing government records, ProPublica identified Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez as the two officers who fired at Pretti. The news outlet reports that Ochoa has been a Border Patrol agent since 2018, while Guituerrez had been with CBP since 2014.

Donald Trump's second year of his second term began with a pursuit to conquer more foreign territory abroad as he attempts to calm unrest over his ruthless deportation campaign at home. He's navigating the the headwinds of year two of Trump 2.0 with most of his top team in intact. In his first year, the highest-level ouster came when National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was pushed aside due to his role in the infamous Signal-gate texting scandal. Former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino exited his role in December, after complaining about mounting stresses on his family life. One government insider...

Alex Pretti’s last words were, “Are you okay?” Renee Good’s were, “I’m not mad at you.” Both were fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers this month. Neither was holding weapons. They were observers, present to record, witness and alert their communities. We all saw what happened to them. ICE brutality is not new. The agency has instituted inhumane conditions and separated families for decades. Thirty-two people died in ICE custody in 2025, but that was also true in 2004. What has changed is not the violence. The change is that we can no longer pretend we do...

The BBC must stop box-ticking casting that 'shoe-horns' ethnic minority actors into period dramas, a review has urged. In a damning independent report into the corporation's content, the BBC was also told it needs to improve coverage of the working class and women over 60 if it is to keep engaging audiences. The broadcaster has been conducting 'preachy' diversity casting in a string of its dramas, resulting in ethnic minorities ending up in inappropriate settings, the review found.

Kristi Noem has been left utterly humiliated as her hard-charging ICE agents were given new rules last night to ignore 'agitators' and only arrest 'criminal' migrants as part of Trump's new deportation agenda. *** Trump appointed Homan to take command of immigration enforcement in Minnesota. Homan is a longtime rival of Noem and her rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski. [Ed. note: gratuitous, superfluous] 'This is common sense cooperation that allows us to draw down the number of people we have here. Yes, I said it. Draw down the number of people here,' Homan told reporters.New guidance for ICE directs agents to...

The president told 'New York' magazine he feels "the same as I did 40 years ago" in a new interview about his aging“I hate to waste a lot of time on this, but if you’re going to write a bad story about my health, I’m going to sue the ass off of New York magazine," he said. "There will be a time when you can write that story, maybe in two years, three years, five years — five years, no one is going to care, I guess. Go ahead and sit down.” Speculation about Trump's health has run rampant in...

Reading CNN’s ridiculous hot takes on the Trump economy is enough to knock a few points off your intelligence quotient. Its TDS-afflicted reporters consistently behave as if writing in contradiction just to sour public opinion doesn’t affect the credibility of their arguments. CNN Business Senior Writer Allison Morrow didn’t even try to hide the inconsistency in her January 23 anti-Trump screed headlined, “Trump’s ‘run it hot’ economic strategy could work — but it’ll cost Americans dearly.” Did you catch that? If Trump’s economic plans work out as intended, how will it hurt Americans? Wouldn’t that outcome be the antithesis of...

On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough, speaking of the shooting death of anti-ICE protester Alex Pretti, Scarborough said: "Many people were describing [it] as an execution-style shooting."Joe, if you want to accuse ICE of the execution-style shooting of Alex Pretti, have the decency and guts to say so yourself, instead of putting it in the mouths of "many people." The bare minimum that journalistic integrity required was to name names of some of those "many people." But you failed to clear even that low bar. Shame on you. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Recently released federal data shows the rate of improper payment in Minnesota's Medicaid program is far below the national average, the state's Department of Human Services says. According to the data released by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the error rate in Minnesota is slightly over 2.1%, compared to the national average of 6.1%. The human services department says the data was collected before it started implementing measures to cut down on fraud risk. "We're committed to making Minnesota a national model for preventing fraud and catching errors," said Shireen Gandhi, the temporary human services commissioner. "This...

Politico, leaning entirely on the results of a focus group consisting of nine (count 'em, NINE) people has been able to somehow determine what they see as a big political trend out there reflected in the title of this story on Friday by Samuel Benson, "These Gen-Z Trump voters don’t want JD Vance in 2028."The subtitle reinforces what looks to be a dire (as projected by Politico based on the focus group NINE) political future for Vance: "A recent focus group of 18- to 24-year-old Trump voters suggests weaknesses for Vance among young Republicans."

President Donald Trump’s climbdown on Greenland capped one of the most erratic episodes involving a modern president on the world stage. Within hours Wednesday, Trump flipped from demanding “right, title, and ownership” of the semiautonomous Danish territory to celebrating an “infinite,” “forever” framework deal over its future. Outside the right-wing bubble, Trump is being mocked for another “TACO” (“Trump always chickens out”) moment after dropping the threat of tariffs on European nations until they agreed to give him Greenland. Just as with his “Liberation Day” tariffs, the president may have been spooked by the result of his own actions.

Former Democratic strategist James Carville has predicted a 'wipeout' for Republicans at the 2026 midterms. On Saturday, Carville forecast a startling loss for Republicans in the upcoming midterms, with Democrats managing to pick up a 'minimum' of 25 seats and likely regain control of the Senate. 'Frankly, it's going to be a wipeout,' Carville told Fox News' Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday in America. 'Your viewers need to know that the Democrats are going to pick up at a minimum 25 seats, maybe as high as 45. In all likelihood, the Democrats will carry the Senate.'