Free Republic

The assassinations of Iran’s senior leaders by Israel and the United States have triggered unprecedented churn within Tehran’s political and military establishment, eliminating the supreme leader and some of the most powerful men in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but have left in place a hard-line government and little hope of a diplomatic breakthrough, according to regional and Western officials. Rather than usher in what President Donald Trump has called “more reasonable” leadership, the surviving Iranian regime is newly emboldened to inflict economic pain, pushing Tehran and Washington further apart in negotiations, according to the officials who spoke on the...

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering firing U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in recent days but publicly praised her performance after the report surfaced, as congressional scrutiny over the Justice Department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein case files intensifies, according to The New York Times. Trump has floated Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin as a possible replacement but has not made a final decision, the Times reports. The deliberations over Bondi’s future intersect with mounting bipartisan pressure on the Justice Department to fully release materials related to the sex offender Epstein, placing the attorney general at the center of an...

Oil surged 10% Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump warned of further military aggression against Iran in the next two to three weeks, dampening hopes for an imminent de-escalation in the conflict. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures for May were up 10% at $110.21 a barrel as of 8:13 a.m. ET. June futures for international benchmark Brent crude rose 8% to $109.25 per barrel. Trump in his speech attributed the increase in oil prices to the “Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.” He said...

The line Joe Biden used to put into nearly every big speech — “I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future” — is a long way from what he says in private now. These days, multiple people who’ve spoken to him over the last year say, Biden often punctuates conversations with: “You think we can actually come back from this?” The 83-year-old Biden continues to feel out a post-presidency that may prove to be one of the shortest in history and is already one of the most complicated. There are days when Biden is heartbroken, indignant or in disbelief about...

Fox News anchor Mark Levin and former Fox News star Megyn Kelly continued mocking each with high school-esque sexual insults on Saturday, extending their smutty feud that began two weeks ago. The latest round started on Friday, when Levin branded Kelly [EXPLICIT] referring to the 1972 porno flick — after she mocked him for suggesting President Donald Trump bring in Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to manage the relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rather than Vice President JD Vance. “Oh the stories I hear,” Levin said about Kelly. “Filthy mouth."

The European Union is expanding its powers to track, raid and deport migrants to " return hubs ″ in third countries in Africa and elsewhere, quietly adopting tactics of the Trump administration that have drawn public criticism across the 27-nation bloc. The EU continues to tighten migration policies after right-wing parties took power in some countries in 2024. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, from the center-right European People’s Party coalition, has said that the new measures will prevent a repeat of the 2015 crisis caused by Syria’s civil war, when about 1 million people arrived to seek asylum....

Judging by Donald Trump’s outbursts of late, he can’t seem to decide whether reopening the Strait of Hormuz is easy or hard. He also can’t seem to decide whether he needs international allies to help with this urgent task or not. Iran’s blockade on oil shipments exiting the strait—done in response to Trump’s attack—is causing worsening global consequences daily. So it would be useful for Trump to settle these arguments in his own mind already. But Trump’s incoherence on the Strait of Hormuz actually reveals something else, as well: a massive political weakness. .....

President Donald Trump’s top official overseeing disaster response insists he was once teleported to a Georgia Waffle House.Gregg Phillips, appointed in December to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Office of Response and Recovery, made the claim during a January 2025 episode of the podcast Onward, CNN reported on Friday in a deep-dive profile of the top official.“Teleporting is no fun,” Phillips said on the podcast, co-hosted by conservative activist Catherine Engelbrecht. “It was real.”Phillips, a longtime conservative activist who repeatedly shared conspiracy theories on social media before being appointed to a top FEMA position, described an incident in...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said that overthrowing Iran’s regime will require a “ground component” along with a revolution, as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with the Middle Eastern country nears the start of its fourth week. “It is often said that you can’t win –– you can’t do revolutions from the air, that is true,” Netanyahu said in a press conference in Jerusalem. “You can’t do it only from there, you can do a lot of things from the air and we’re doing –– but there has to be a ground component, as well. “There are many possibilities for...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced backlash for quoting historian Will Durant to say, “Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan.” During an English-language press conference in Jerusalem on Thursday, Netanyahu defended America and Israel’s military operation in the Middle East, arguing in favor of the West asserting strength. “History proves that, unfortunately and unhappily, Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan,” he said. “Because if you are strong enough, ruthless enough, powerful enough, evil will overcome good. Aggression will overcome moderation.” The comments sparked outrage online, with some calling them “blasphemous,” prompting Netanyahu to clarify his...

President Trump asserted on Thursday that he had no plans to commit ground forces to the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, even though he has acknowledged he is contemplating moves that could drag the military into land combat operations. Mr. Trump’s comments still left some room for him to reverse course. “I’m not putting troops anywhere,″ Mr. Trump told a reporter who asked about using ground troops. “If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.” The president has spent several days alternating between threats to escalate strikes on Iran — which at times he has insisted are an “operation” or an...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) late Tuesday said President Trump has “no reason” to invade Tehran but urged the president to “take” Kharg Island to cripple the Iranian regime’s economy. “No, we’re not going to evade Iran,” Graham told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “There’s no reason to, we’re going to destroy their ability to hurt us, have a nuclear weapon, build missiles to hit America and terrorize the region.” “Kharg Island — 90 percent of their income comes from oil and gas revenue,” he continued, adding that “100 percent of that revenue generating capabilities on a single island, Mr. President, take...

Vice President JD Vance is projecting loyalty to Donald Trump as the president leads the United States into the type of war the Iraq veteran didn’t want — and as the new conflict complicates Vance’s political future. Vance allies have played down the impact the operation in Iran could have on his presidential ambitions, insisting that a mission involving the U.S. military only for a matter of weeks won’t stay in voters’ memories. People close to the vice president have also conceded to The Washington Post, however, that a months-long conflict will pose a problem for whoever is the next...

Two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the dominant narrative has settled into a comfortable groove: The United States and Israel stumbled into a war without a plan. Iran is retaliating across the region. Oil prices are surging, and the world is facing another Middle Eastern quagmire. US senators have called it a blunder. Cable news has tallied the crises. Commentators have warned of a long war. The chorus is loud and, in some respects, understandable. War is ugly, and this one has imposed real costs on millions of people across the Middle East, including the city I live in. But...

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Wednesday over why he was the only Senate Democrat who did not sign a letter pressing for an investigation into the strike on an elementary school in Iran. Fetterman joined The Source to discuss the ongoing U.S. military operation and his view of the war as it continues through its second week. Reporting on Monday claimed that the U.S. campaign in Iran was responsible for a strike on a girls’ elementary school that killed 175 people, most of whom were children. In a letter addressed to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth,...

In 1991, American officials flew to Israel to keep the country from retaliating against Scud missile attacks and joining the Gulf War. In 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned it would be “in Israel’s overwhelming best interests not to get involved” in the looming invasion of Iraq. In 2026, the United States went to war alongside Israel. “It’s the first time,” said Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, “that Israel is going to war together with a superpower.” The United States has been the Jewish state’s most important backer for decades, providing it with weaponry and working...

President Donald Trump and some of his closest advisers were caught off guard by the scope of Iran’s military response to U.S. strikes, while key Gulf allies have privately expressed anger at the White House’s decision to escalate the conflict, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The publication reported Friday that “the president and some aides were surprised at the breadth and scope of Iran’s retaliation,” which included missile and drone launches targeting regional countries from Azerbaijan to Oman, according to people familiar with the matter.” Gulf allies have reacted sharply behind closed doors. “Allies in the Gulf are...

Abraham Lincoln is thought of by many as not only the greatest American statesman but as a great conservative. He was neither. Understanding this is a necessary condition for any genuinely American conservatism. When Lincoln took office, the American polity was regarded as a compact between sovereign states which had created a central government as their agent, hedging it in by a doctrine of enumerated powers. Since the compact between the states was voluntary, secession was considered an option by public leaders in every section of the Union during Hie antebellum period. Given this tradition—deeply rooted in the Declaration of...

Fox News host Mark Levin said it is safe to ignore anyone claiming President Donald Trump’s supporters are turning against him because of the war on Iran, with Levin saying on Saturday that only a handful of “nut jobs” and “neofascists” are trying to make that argument.Levin went off on reports, polls, and influencers — without naming anyone in particular – that have said the war is unpopular with Trump’s Make America Great Again base.“Polling? Seriously? Okay, I got a poll for ya,” he said on Life, Liberty, & Levin. “The latest poll shows 92% of MAGA supports the president...

New documents show the crew on board the United States' newest aircraft carrier are growing increasingly frustrated by design flaws that lead to regular failures in the ship's toilet system. The USS Gerald R. Ford has been deployed for seven months since it left Norfolk in June. On board the carrier, the crew is battling a toilet system that the General Accountability Office reported in 2020 was undersized and poorly designed. The system continues to fail during deployment, forcing the crew of 4,600 sailors to live with a system that randomly breaks down during their months at sea. NPR has...