Free Republic

SBA suspends more than 111,000 borrowers in the state Earlier this week, the White House announced plans for a new anti-fraud task force targeting welfare abuse in California and other states, and assigned Vice President J.D. Vance, Andrew Ferguson of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Attorney General Pam Bondi. California Attorney General Rob Bonta fell all over himself Thursday claiming that the California Department of Justice was working to tackle fraud in the state. He even “pushed back” against the Trump Administration’s characterization that California programs are overrun by fraud and that state government is somehow facilitating this fraud....

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott told "The Charlie Kirk Show" on Thursday that Senate Republicans are going to pass the SAVE Act to mandate voter ID and verification of citizenship to register to vote, and if Democrats want to stop it, they'll have to do a talking filibuster. "The concept that you don’t have to show your ID to vote is foreign," Scott said. "We're going to get this done. The president is on board. He knows we have to use the talking filibuster to get his agenda done." "Is it a pain in the rear? Yeah. But so what?...

At first blush, Trump’s insistence on Greenland sounds outlandish, but recall over 20 yrs ago I began warning of foreigners aggressively claiming Arctic resources and waterways - while America slept. Russia was flagging underseas energy sources, our inventory of icebreakers dwindled to ONE reliable (against DOZENS of foreign-flagged vessels), and DC ignored my concerns of countries hogging new transportation routes that would screw us over. In explaining Alaska’s strategic location (30% of which is in the #Arctic) I was mocked for ringing the warning bells… but really I was just before my time. So now that attention is finally paid,...

The Trump Administration has told states to stop the long-standing practice of taking Social Security benefit checks from some children and youth in foster care. In a letter to governors, sent in early December, Alex Adams, an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told states to end what he calls "the orphan tax." Adams, who oversees federal child welfare policy, told states to quit taking Social Security survivor benefits from children in foster care. The monthly benefit is paid to a child whose mother or father has died but had worked and paid Social Security...

Members of New Mexico’s U.S. House delegation have signed on to cosponsor articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after a Minnesota woman was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer last week. “I know a lot of people are feeling very frightened out there, but we want you to know that we are conducting oversight; we are taking action,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M. Videos of Renee Good’s final interaction with a federal immigration officer before he shot and killed her have flooded social media feeds and fueled a national debate over whether the...

President Donald Trump's military intervention in Venezuela has emerged as a flash point in the closely watched Republican primary campaign between Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a long-running Trump antagonist, and retired Navy SEAL officer Ed Gallrein, who has the president's backing. Massie, showing his non-interventionist leanings, fired off a series of social media posts criticizing the dramatic action that captured Nicolás Maduro and removed him from the South American country. “Wake up MAGA,” Massie wrote. “VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for.” Gallrein responded that Massie had “shown...

Recent polling has shown young voters overwhelmingly disapproving of Trump and the GOP amid increasing anxiety over the state of the economy, while young people played a big role in helping Democrats win in 2025’s off-year races. “If you’re 29 and you’re paying out the nose for health care, and you can’t own your own home and groceries are killing you, you don’t really care about the conversations about tariffs. That’s not where you’re living. You’re living at, ‘Hey, I need the price of eggs to drop,’” said Brett Loyd, a longtime Republican pollster who now works with an independent...

He is not a neoconservative in the sense we once knew: he does not cloak American interventions in the language of democracy promotion, human rights, or universal values. Instead, he is a neoconservative without the values. What makes him distinctive is not the substance of his policies, but the way he frames them, stripped of the moralizing tone. Oddly enough, this makes his foreign policy more transparent—and perhaps, in some ways, more refreshing. Classical neoconservatism was never only about hawkish foreign policy. It was about the marriage of power and ideals. The movement argued that American might was essential not...

“Freedom-loving people everywhere can celebrate the downfall of dictator Nicolás Maduro and the possibility of Venezuela’s return to democracy, even if there are serious concerns about the constitutionality or legality of President Trump’s unilateral use of military force and its broader foreign policy implications.” “Trump stated that Machado does not have the support or respect of the Venezuelan people, so it would be difficult for her to govern. Nothing could be further from the truth. She is like the Lech Walesa of Venezuela. The United States would be wise to work with Machado and her team on a swift transition...

President Donald Trump says he believes the 2026 midterm elections will center on “pricing” as Republicans head into a critical period with control of Congress on the line. Trump’s comments follow a string of favorable economic reports over the last two weeks showing inflation is cooling and the economy is hotter than expected. The White House is keen to tout the latest data as it confronts cost-of-living concerns that have underpinned a string of Democratic overperformances across the country. Still, polls show Americans are struggling. Nearly half of respondents said they find groceries, utility bills, health care, housing and transportation...

Witkoff and Kushner on one side, Rubio and Huckabee on the other: beneath the surface, the US administration is divided over who should be Israel's next prime minister… There was one moment in the Knesset speech on the day the war ended that particularly troubled Likud. It happened when the president spontaneously praised Yair Lapid. "He's a nice guy," he said to Netanyahu — and then jabbed the prime minister: "You don't need to be so tough now that the war is over." Was this a hint that the president intends, God forbid, to adopt neutrality in the upcoming election...

Most Americans are not antisemitic, but concerns over Israel reflect “a real backlash to consensus view in American foreign policy,” United States Vice President JD Vance assessed in a Monday interview… The vice president said Fuentes serves as a “useful foil” for some pro-Israel conservatives, allowing them to avoid a substantive discussion about US policy toward Israel. Vance said that while he believes “Israel is an important ally... we’re also going to have very substantive disagreements with Israel – and that’s OK.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi “whiffed” on understanding how much President Trump’s base of supporters cared about the release of the files linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview published Tuesday. “I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as...

- Turning Point USA raised $389 million from its founding in 2012 through mid-2023, according to its tax returns. - In its first year, Turning Point USA brought in just $79,000, but a decade later—after Kirk had become a conservative star—annual contributions had soared 1,000-fold to $80 million. - Turning Point USA’s first contribution, $10,000 from fund manager Foster Friess, came after Kirk met him at the 2012 Republican National Convention, and Friess ended up backing the group for years, with his widow pledging $1 million to launch new chapters after Kirk’s death. - The Wayne Duddlesten Foundation, founded in...

Republicans in key battleground U.S. House districts are working to contain the political fallout that may come when thousands of their constituents face higher bills for health insurance coverage obtained through the Affordable Care Act. One of those is first-term U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., whose victory for the Allentown-area seat last year was among the narrowest in the nation. “I think that we need to deal with the reality of where we are now and even if you have a broken system, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t provide or offer relief to individuals who are dealing with those...

As federal health care subsidies barrel toward expiration, a bipartisan group of 35 U.S. lawmakers is calling on leaders in the House and Senate to hold a vote on extending the benefits before the end of next week. The group includes Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Grand Junction Republican who has been pushing for a renewal of the subsidies, known as the enhanced premium tax credit. The subsidies, passed by Democrats in Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic, helped lower insurance premiums for plans purchased through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, but are now slated to expire on Dec. 31. Many Coloradans have...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants the records in his divorce case to remain private. In a court filing earlier this week, Paxton’s lawyer argued that the case records should remain sealed because the media organizations arguing for their release want to “invade and publicize the most sensitive aspects of the Paxtons’ marital and private lives.” He added state law also does not require the records to be made public, calling the attempt to access them an “unprecedentedly broad and intrusive request.” Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, declined to comment for this story. Angela Paxton filed for divorce in...

“We did talk about the Epstein files and he was extremely angry at me that I signed the discharge petition to release the files,” Greene told CBS News in a “60 Minutes” interview that is set to air on Sunday. “I fully believe those women deserve everything they’re asking. They’re asking for it to come out. They deserve it.” “He was furious with me. He said it was going to hurt people,” she added, referencing the president’s comments about the release of the files. Trump originally indicated during his presidential campaign that he supported releasing the Epstein files, but reversed...

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, one of a handful of House Republicans who won in a district that then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried last fall, has a stark message for his party as the deadline to extend expiring health care subsidies and the midterm elections approach. …The swing-district Republican said even some of his more conservative colleagues have expressed an interest in his effort to reach a compromise on the ACA subsidies. “Affordability is such a crisis in this country right now,” he said, explaining that for low- and middle-income constituents, “a significant increase in their premiums is not an option.” Combating...

“When I have a problem, I call up Marco. He gets it solved,” Donald Trump boasts about his Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. This week, Marco Rubio is putting that reputation to the test. He is the key man on the two major international fronts the United States is currently engaged in, and with two very different roles: in the negotiations over the war in Ukraine, he took the reins to balance out what was initially a clearly pro-Russian proposal and try to push through a peace plan acceptable to Kyiv; in the standoff with Venezuela, he is...