Free Republic

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...

Donald Trump’s Department of Justice on Friday released more than 300,000 pages of photos and evidence connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The vast trove includes images showing the disgraced financier and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell socializing with high-profile figures, including former president Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson. One photograph appears to show Clinton in a swimming pool alongside Maxwell and several unidentified, partially clothed women. Clinton broke his silence on Friday to turn the tables on Trump, releasing a statement that declared: 'The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late...

Tensions are boiling inside the Department of Justice regarding President Donald Trump's appointment of an inexperienced prosecutor to handle explosive cases against his political enemies – including James Comey and Letitia James. Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan for the Eastern District of Virginia forged ahead with convening a grand jury against former FBI Director James Comey, despite having little to no support from Attorney General Pam Bondi's team. Other reports suggest that the DOJ didn't want to go after Comey yet because they were more focused on landing charges for disgraced former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton, whose home...

Donald Trump was handed another blow on Wednesday when a federal judge denied his administration's attempts to release grand jury testimony from the Jeffrey Epstein case. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman deemed Trump's Justice Department did not provide adequate reasoning to unseal the highly-protected materials. He also said that the grand jury motion was likely a 'diversion' coming from the Trump administration. '[T]he court denies the government's motion to unseal the Epstein grand jury transcripts and exhibits,' the Clinton-appointed judge wrote in his Wednesday decision. It comes after Attorney General Pam Bondi moved at the direct of the president this...

President Donald Trump said Thursday that no progress was made in ending the war with Ukraine after he conducted another lengthy call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump spoke to reporters at Joint Base Andrews ahead of a trip to Des Moines, Iowa. -snip- We had a call. It was a pretty long call. We talked about a lot of things including Iran and we also talked about, as you know, the war with Ukraine,' Trump said. 'And I'm not happy about that,' he said. Trump was then asked if he made progress with Putin on a peace deal with...

President Donald Trump blamed Donald Jr.'s Russia meeting for the breakdown of his marriage to ex-wife Vanessa, even as he gave his blessing for his former daughter-in-law's relationship with Tiger Woods. Earlier this month, DailyMail.com exclusively broke the news that the golf icon was dating Donald Trump Jr.'s ex-wife before the couple went public in a social media post on March 23. The president, who teed it up with the 15-time major winner before jetting into New Orleans for the Super Bowl last month, delivered his verdict on golf's newest power couple Monday. 'I love Tiger and I love Vanessa....

The 1,500 additional active duty troops Donald Trump deployed to the southern border began arriving on Thursday morning. The Pentagon confirmed the 1,000 Army soldiers and 500 Marines deployed south include those from Military Police units as well as combat engineers and intelligence specialists to aid in detection and monitoring of illegal border jumpers. The additional active forces, which adds to the roughly 2,500 already currently stationed along the border, will also aid in constructing barriers along the border and providing the air power for deportations. Defense Department officials confirmed their forces will fly the 5,400 migrants who are currently...

A final poll by the New York Times has Donald Trump behind Kamala Harris in four critical swing states: Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin. They are tied in Michigan and Pennsylvania and Trump is up by one point in Arizona. It's a razor-thin race with just two days to go to Election Day. A shock poll released Saturday night had Trump behind Harris three points in Iowa, a solidly red state. The vice president is also closing the gap with Trump in the betting markets, in a sign of momentum for her in the final days of the campaign....

Republicans supporting Kamala Harris say that there's a 'silent majority' of Americans that will give her the edge over Trump. The former lawmakers say that pollsters may have overlooked these Americans as they collect data. Polls show that Trump and Harris are neck-and-neck in nearly every battleground state heading into the last few weeks of the campaign. Former GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock told the Daily Beast: I think there’s a silent majority. I think there’s a silent group of women who will crawl over broken glass to vote against Trump and who will quietly vote for Harris. Comstock is joining...

Harris was initially enjoying what she thought was a fun song but it appeared she was clued into the translation of the lyrics by Executive Director Mariana Reyes, who accompanied her on the trip. The song took aim at the vice president, the Biden administration in general and their policies.A half dozen demonstrators performing on the street in front of the vice president signaled support in their song for the Palestinian people amid conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza, as well as for Haiti as gang violence threatens to completely collapse the island's government.'Long live free Palestine and...

Donald Trump said that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) are on the short list to be his running mate in the 2024 general election. He also dispelled rumors that he is considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a vice presidential nominee and said his team never reached out to the independent candidates. Speaking with Fox News Sunday host Maria Bartiromo, Trump said he won't announce who he plans to run with in the 2024 ticket for 'a while.'

Rep. Ilhan Omar shockingly called for international protections and support for Palestinians after their fundamentalist terrorist group Hamas carried out a brutal terrorist attack on Israel. The progressive Minnesota congresswoman expressed her compassion for the people in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip amid widespread criticism for her and her colleagues' response to the violence. 'Reminder, Gaza doesn't have shelters or an iron dome and to please pray for them,' Omar wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'May peace prevail in the region and move us towards a moral awakening to care about the human suffering we are...

Last week brought yet another campaign reset for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a DailyMail.com poll found his support in the crucial early state of Iowa had crashed by nine percent. But stop to ask the actual men and women who will take part in the first contest to choose the Republican nominee next year and they will tell you to ignore the headlines and that there is a long, long way to go. 'I think that Trump is in the lead now, but Trump's gonna say something dumb and make a mistake, and people are gonna turn to Ron,'...

South Carolina Republicans still favor Donald Trump to be their nominee in 2024 by a margin of 21 percent – with two politicians from the Palmetto State coming in third and fourth place behind the former president and Florida's governor Ron Desantis. Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, once governor of South Carolina and former Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, earned 18 percent in the latest Winthrop University poll taken among the state's GOP primary voters. Meanwhile, current South Carolina Senator Tim Scott's announcement Wednesday that he's taking the next step toward a bid for president coincided with the release...

U.S. special counsel Jack Smith has issued a subpoena to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to appear before a grand jury, it emerged on Monday, in the latest sign that the prosecutor appointed to investigate former President Donald Trump's is speeding ahead with his probe. Smith remains in Europe where he is recovering from a bicycle accident. However, he has made a string of high-profile moves since being put in charge of federal criminal investigations into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has issued subpoenas to officials in five states, and brought a string of Trump's closest...

Senate Republicans are on track to pick up two seats in the western United States in the 2022 midterms to win back a majority in the upper chamber, according to a projection 30 days until Election Day. Blake Masters could beat out Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a RealClearPolitics projection shows, despite the incumbent having an average 1.8 percent polling advantage over his GOP challenger in the adjusted October figures. The projection also estimates that Republican Adam Laxalt will best Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada in November. Laxalt has a 1.3 percent average polling advantage over the incumbent...

In a general head-to-head matchup between President Joe Biden, 79, and his predecessor Donald Trump, 76, the incumbent Democrat would emerge victorious, a new poll shows. This is the first time a Yahoo News/YouGov poll has shown Biden besting Trump by 6 percent or more in six months – as the spring and summer saw months-long economic decline with record high gas prices, record high inflation and the country dipping into a recession with two straight quarters of negative GDP growth. Of the 1,634 respondents, 1,247 are registered voters and would be eligible to vote in a presidential election if...

Joe Biden's student loan relief plan could trigger up to $1,100 in state-level taxes in at least 13 states because the $10,000-$20,000 in forgiveness could count toward an individual's income when filing their taxes. Some of the states with the largest poverty levels, including Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi are among the states where individuals and couples could see increased tax burdens due to the student loan forgiveness. The Tax Foundation think tank notes that 13 states currently would consider this relief income, but the states that might impose taxes on this student loan relief could shrink if legislative or...

U.S. forces are now considering sending fighter jets to Ukraine as it continues to face an assault from Russia, according to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. Lieutenant Colonel Kendall said that Ukraine is busy dealing with its 'right now problem' in an allusion to its ground-based fighting in the Donbas region. But he also said that assistance in the form of aircraft may be needed. 'We'll be open to discussions with them about what their requirements are and how we might be able to satisfy them,' the Air Force head said during the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Wednesday....

The Biden administration has approved a Trump-era project finishing a section of the southern border wall in the western-most point of the U.S. along the border with Mexico in California. Completion of this project will lead to the permanent closure of the U.S. side of Friendship Park, which is a binational spot between San Diego and Tijuana where separated families could meet and touch without a wall between them. [this is not an extensive addition to the wall] Please read more at the link...