Free Republic

Conservative activist Riley Gaines brushed off President Donald Trump's criticism of her on Monday, saying she does "nothing for the approval of man." Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer, was one of the many Trump supporters critical of an AI-generated image the president shared on social media on Sunday portraying himself as a Jesus-like figure. Trump has since deleted the post. "Seriously, I cannot understand why he'd post this. Is he looking for a response? Does he actually think this?" she wrote on X on Monday, commenting on the image. "Either way, two things are true. 1) a little humility would...

US President Donald Trump’s administration is likely to extend as soon as Friday (Apr 10) a waiver allowing countries to buy some sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The US Treasury Department has allowed purchases of Russian oil and products at sea since mid-March with a 30-day waiver that expires on Apr 11, part of efforts to control global energy prices during the US-Israeli war with Iran. Russia’s presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev had said that the original waiver would free 100 million barrels of Russian crude, equal to almost a day’s worth...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial is set to resume on Sunday after weeks in which Israel’s court system operated under emergency restrictions because of the war with Iran. The pause was not unique to Netanyahu’s case. Following the outbreak of the war on February 28, the Justice Ministry placed the courts under a “special emergency” format that sharply curtailed regular proceedings and left only urgent matters moving. That framework was extended several times, with the latest official notice stating that the emergency regime remained in place through Thursday. In the last hearings before the break, prosecutors were pressing him...

Two months ago, the Iranian regime was at its most perilous state since it came to power in 1979...But excitement among regime opponents abroad over the prospect of its downfall quickly turned to horror as the Islamist theocracy launched a brutal crackdown, killing as many as 30,000 protesters, according to some counts. While airstrikes and targeted killings of leaders have weakened the regime materially, they may also be reinforcing its internal cohesion, hardening its capacity for repression, and exposing the absence of any credible political alternative...If the Islamic Republic is to fall — with a more welcome replacement taking power...

I listened to Mark Levin’s radio broadcast last week and was reminded of two things. First, Levin is one of the most knowledgeable, clever, sincere, and passionate personalities in America’s conservative political movement. Second, other than sharing a love for America, we have radically different world views. I’m not criticizing Mr. Levin; I am thankful for the good he has done for America--he and every other “conservative.” I’m only singling him out insofar as he represents the most zealous, thoughtful, practical side of political conservatives. My point is that regardless of what we have in common about America, we have...

Iran has threatened to attack any oil tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil transits. US oil futures rose 18% to about $108 a barrel, their highest level since July 19, 2022. Brent futures, the global benchmark, increased 16%, near $108 a barrel. Surging oil prices have weighed heavily on stocks in recent days, as traders fear that a prolonged spike in fuel prices could lead to another spike in inflation and hurt the economy. Dow futures dropped more than 800 points, or 1.7%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures fell 1.6%. Triggered by...

Trump’s doctrine is simple: strike first at the guilty, strike hard from afar, skip the nation-building, and end wars on America’s terms. War is the use of arms to settle differences—tribal, political, religious, cultural, and material—between organized groups. It is unchanging. The general laws of armed conflict stays immutable, given the constancy of human nature. However, the manner in which war is conducted remains fluid. New weapons, tactics, and strategies elicit counterresponses in an endless cycle of tensions between defensive and offensive superiority. That said, has President Trump introduced a novel way of waging Western war against America’s foreign enemies?...

Trump’s strategy prizes preemptive deterrence over drift or isolation, exploiting leverage to sap rivals, steady allies, and avert the cascading conflicts that metastasized under Obama and Biden. Critics of Trump’s second-term foreign policy—the usual Left and some on the neo-isolationist Right—claim it is recklessly herky jerky and guided by no consistent grand strategy. Yet, in both the first Trump administration’s National Security Strategy paper and its second-term update, he clearly disdained ground wars abroad, nation-building, and isolationism. A better description of U.S. strategy across Trump’s two terms in office might be called Jacksonian or preemptive deterrence. That is, Trump’s foreign...

Trump’s strategy prizes preemptive deterrence over drift or isolation, exploiting leverage to sap rivals, steady allies, and avert the cascading conflicts that metastasized under Obama and Biden. Critics of Trump’s second-term foreign policy—the usual Left and some on the neo-isolationist Right—claim it is recklessly herky jerky and guided by no consistent grand strategy. Yet, in both the first Trump administration’s National Security Strategy paper and its second-term update, he clearly disdained ground wars abroad, nation-building, and isolationism. A better description of U.S. strategy across Trump’s two terms in office might be called Jacksonian or preemptive deterrence. That is, Trump’s foreign...

I grew up in a military family and lived on military bases most of my early life, five years of which were spent on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Honestly, it was the most Americana place I’ve ever lived. Think Mayberry surrounded by minefields. Thankfully we didn’t often encounter the minefields, but we knew they were there. Fourth of July was always the biggest day of the year. We had parades with tanks and marching bands and floats and classic convertibles with pretty girls waving from the back. The rest of the day would be filled with motocross races and boxing...

Americans were forced to sit through one of their biggest cultural events of the year in a language that is not theirs, surrounded by symbols of other, foreign places. The Super Bowl is supposed to be one of the cultural cornerstones in American life that still belongs to Americans. There are only a handful of days each year when most of the country pauses and gathers around the same screen to participate in something recognizably ours. It’s a shared experience — rooted in common language and culture and tradition. Which is why the Super Bowl half time show this year...

The head of U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil on Friday told President Donald Trump that Venezuela is “uninvestible” under current conditions, saying major changes were needed before his company would return to the country that has seen its crude oil resources sink into disrepair. The comments by Exxon CEO Darren Woods were a blow to Trump’s hopes that American oil majors would move quickly to make big investments in Venezuela — and cast doubt on the president’s insistence that U.S. companies are prepared to spend $100 billion or more.

Is The Atlantic magazine trying to send its readers a not so secret message? Although it's profile of California Governor Gavin Newsom by Helen Lewis on Tuesday, "The Front-Runner," was generally positive it was also chock full of Gettys as in the oil fortune family of patriarch J. Paul Getty.In fact the name "Getty" was so important in Newsom's personal, business, and political background that it appeared a total of 22 times in the article (including the Getty Images attributions of five of the photos used). Although a Republican presidential hopeful so attached to a family whose fortune was based...

Many local New Yorkers and visiting tourists were rightly upset to see a massive billboard in Times Square proclaiming that, “Jesus is Palestinian. Merry Christmas.” Making matters even worse was another billboard containing a citation from the Quran (Surah Al-Imran 3:45), with Allah announcing the good news of the birth of Jesus the Messiah. The ads, which were sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), was said to be acts of “cultural resilience.” In reality, they promoted falsehood and stirred conflict at a time that is still sacred to hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide. As for allegedly demonstrating unity...

The phrase “Woke Right” arrived almost overnight... James Lindsay traces the history of “woke” as a mindset rather than a policy list. For him, “woke” is a way of seeing the world through a single lens of power and grievance. It falsely elevates politics to a pseudo-theology—that of a cosmic struggle between oppressors and oppressed. It is inspired by resentment, which inevitably fosters online mobs, practices cancel culture, and treats ideological opponents as heretics who must be hunted down rather than debated. Lindsay argues that a similar pattern has emerged on parts of the Right. He points to Groypers and...

Some Heritage Foundation staffers are speaking up about a controversial video its president, Kevin Roberts, released on Thursday. After Tucker Carlson released his friendly interview of white nationalist Nick Fuentes, there were calls for Heritage, which has made a show of allying itself with Carlson, to disavow the former Fox News host. Instead, Roberts released a video defending both Carlson and Fuentes. “We will always defend truth, we will always defend America, and we will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda. That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains – and as I...

SACRAMENTO, CA — In a historic move, California's famous black bears, in cooperation with the NAACP, met on the steps of the state capitol to demand that they now be referred to as "Bears of Color." "For too long our people have suffered with this outdated and harmful epitaph," a spokesbear told reporters gathered at a press conference. "This is not the name we chose for ourselves. We demand to be called Bears of Color from now on." Gathered members of the press looked on in confusion as a coalition of bears took turns at the microphone, explaining their...

SAN DIMAS, CA — A group of bored high school students asked their chemistry teacher this week when he was going to teach them how to cook meth and go on crazy adventures in an RV. The group peppered teacher William Wright with questions about how to cook "really pure crytal meth" and "when the actual fun part of chemistry was going to start, with the drug cartels and feds and whatever." "I'll be honest, I had no idea what these kids were talking about," Wright told reporters. "I don't know where they would get such wild ideas, but...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Construction workers tasked with building a new White House Ballroom reportedly discovered 1,357 stashes of cocaine hidden within the walls and ceilings of the East Wing. Work on the project was briefly postponed on Tuesday when a wheeled excavator demolishing a section of the East Wing suddenly tore through what turned out to be several kilos of heat-sealed polyethylene-wrapped cocaine, scattering it into the wind. Initially, workers cleared the area, fearing asbestos exposure, but after becoming strangely energetic and fearless, they returned to work. Secret Service agents later determined that the powdery substance was actually cocaine...

I’ve got some absolutely wonderful news for all the liberals who think it’s wrong to lock up serial criminals who are under 18 years old.This 15-year-old has been arrested and released 111 times.Charlotte has given him permission to steal as many cars as he wants.He also had multiple guns, and did internet searches on committing murder.The ABC News affiliate of Charlotte, North Carolina, just reported the following:https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/no-accountability-residents-demand-action-repeat-offenders-drive-up-crime-charlotte/NTJDQ7ARVZBYRKHYHTOCU4VY4U/‘No accountability’: Residents demand action as repeat offenders drive up crime in CharlotteBy Eli BrandOctober 16, 2025CHARLOTTE — In their quarterly report made this week, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department mentioned repeat offenders as one...