Free Republic

The United States will ensure "robust, ready and credible deterrence" across the Taiwan Strait, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday, calling China "aggressive and coercive".Hegseth also stopped short of publicly calling on Tokyo to hike military spending, saying in Japan he trusted the close US ally to "make the correct determination of what capabilities are needed"."America is committed to sustaining robust, ready and credible deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait," Hegseth said, using Washington's term for the Asia-Pacific region.Beijing has stepped up military pressure in recent years around Taiwan, including near-daily air incursions, and has not...

The United States Army announced that it would no longer be allowing transgender-identifying individuals to join the military and would no longer be performing medical procedures “associated with gender transition.”“The #USArmy will no longer allow transgender individuals to join the military and will stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members,” The U.S. Army wrote in a post on X.The announcement from the U.S. Army comes after President Donald Trump previously signed an executive order stating that people who “express a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for...

A little detail from behind the wire. I was asked very recently for my thoughts on why President Trump is a giant of influence in world leadership, my response was simple: President Trump’s power is bottom up, historic global power structures are top down.President Trump doesn’t just represent an office or title, nor does he simply represent the majority of the American people; President Trump’s voice is the voice of every ordinary person, what the non-English speaking world defines as “simple people,” and he channels a global message from the majority to the top of the highest power structures.Smart leaders...