Free Republic

The oil industry is warning the Trump administration that a Hormuz-sized hole in the world’s petroleum market is steadily draining inventories to levels that are likely to send global energy prices surging in the next several weeks, according to four executives. Industry executives have flagged the issue to senior White House officials and Cabinet members in recent weeks as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing dialogue with the U.S. energy industry, the people said. The warnings came as recently as late last month as data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and other sources began showing that fuel makers were...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Tuesday that the Iran war is “over now,” while laying out what he described as the Trump administration’s non-negotiable conditions for any broader agreement currently under discussion with Tehran — including the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the surrender of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile, and severe long-term restrictions on the regime’s nuclear program before any sanctions relief would be considered. Speaking in his first public congressional testimony since the launch of Operation Epic Fury in February, Rubio argued the Trump administration’s military and economic pressure campaign has significantly weakened the Islamic...

The times, they are a-changin', as then-folk music troubadour Bob Dylan once sang about the radical era America found herself swimming/wading through in the Sixties. You could say the same thing about whatever they end up calling this era, and the second Trump administration at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Readers may have seen some of our pieces - so far on Wednesday - covering the Cabinet meeting open to the media. Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent, per a Playbook report on the team meet-up, explained that "The continued resilience of the economy speaks for itself, even during the Iran — the conflict."...

President Donald Trump will convene a rare Cabinet meeting at Camp David Wednesday as negotiations with Iran enter a critical phase. All Cabinet members are expected to attend the meeting, first reported by the New York Post and confirmed by Fox News, including outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The gathering comes as the administration weighs next steps in high-stakes negotiations aimed at securing a broader agreement with Tehran amid a fraying ceasefire. Trump in recent days has suggested the sides are nearing a potential breakthrough, while Iranian officials have publicly pushed back on claims that a deal is...

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. repostedthe Q@QAaronmagaBOOM! President Trump CONFIRMS his Iran proposal is NOTHING like Hussein Obama's failed nuclear dealIran's not getting ANYTHING unless and until the nuclear threat is 100% sealed."Don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about."May 24, 2026ransomnote: Below, Grok explains why Trump and others thought Obama's 2015 Iran deal was a disaster:Why Conservatives Like Victor Davis Hanson Thought Obama's 2015 Iran Deal Was a DisasterMany conservatives, including historian Victor Davis Hanson, believed President Obama's 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (called the JCPOA) was a very bad agreement. They said it...

Fresh strikes on southern Iran were launched by U.S. military forces early Tuesday morning targeting Iranian missile sites and vessels attempting to lay anti-shipping mines in the contested Strait of Hormuz. The targeted strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” but the military was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for the U.S. military’s Central Command, said in a statement as reported by AP. Following the strikes, the BBC reports U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a deal was still possible and pointed to talks on Tuesday between...

AJ Inapi (Allan)@aj_inapi🚨 AMERICANS NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.Most people are still viewing President Trump’s foreign policy through the old post-WW2 lens. That lens is obsolete. What P Trump is attempting is not a minor policy adjustment. It is a complete restructuring of the global economic and geopolitical order.Read that again.For 80 years, America operated under a “globalist” framework:• America paid the bills• America defended everyone• America opened its markets• America carried NATO• America protected shipping lanes• America subsidized allies• America tolerated trade imbalances• America exported democracy while factories disappeared and debt exploded at homeThat system enriched...

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that at the request of Arab leaders, he’s cancelled an attack on Iran that had been scheduled to take place the next day. “I have been asked by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as...

President Donald Trump is back from China with a very clear message to the Iranian regime. “For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!” - President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/33gyF0c0O5 — The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 17, 2026 “For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!” Before Trump left for China, it was clear that his patience with the Iranian regime was wearing thin. So if...

ISLAMABAD — Tehran held firm in its claim that its foreign minister Abbas Araghchi would not meet with US negotiators for a second round of talks during his Saturday visit to Islamabad — throwing into question the future of the negotiations. Abbas and the Iranian delegation left for the airport shortly before 6 p.m. local time after holding meetings with primary Pakistani mediators Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Friday that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would leave the US for “direct talks” with Tehran in Pakistan...

Like General Patton, President Trump also understands how to express himself in a way that serves the dual purpose of communicating with America’s enemies and, at the same time, with the American people. General George S. Patton knew how to get a point across: “When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember.” On April 5, 2026, President Trump directed a profane Truth Social...

Don't misunderstand what I'm about to say. The war in Iran will continue for at least another week, according to President Donald Trump, and probably much longer. There are still hundreds, maybe thousands of targets, human and places, to destroy, thousands of sorties to be flown by U.S. and Israeli forces, and American naval assets will soon be joined by up to 5,000 Marines. There undoubtedly will still be casualties to come, joining the 13 we've already lost in the last fortnight. But not only are we winning this war against Iran, the killer move that all but assures the...