Free Republic

Zoom out: For now, MAGA is being held together by Trump's personality. But open disagreement has broken out over who should, and shouldn't, be accepted under its tent. U.S. support for Israel's operations in Gaza inflamed America First diehards and hardened Israel's MAGA allies. The online divisions have raged during the tenuous ceasefire, including tropes over Jews' supposed disproportionate influence in the U.S. A leaked group chat from New York State Young Republicans included racist comments and messages from a Trump administration nominee declaring he had a "Nazi streak." The revelation sparked debates over who — if anyone — should...

In recent weeks, automakers and other companies in the vehicle space are pulling back their investments in electric vehicles (EVs), including laying off workers in multiple states.The moves come in the wake of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which repealed incentives for consumers to buy electric cars.GM in particular is set to lay off 1,200 workers from its Detroit plant and another 550 from its Ultium Cells plant in Ohio. Meanwhile, another 850 are being temporarily laid off from the Ohio Ultium Cells plant and another 710 being temporarily let go from an Ultium factory in Tennessee. While those...

Senator Rand Paul is on a campaign to knock President Donald Trump off of his warpath. During Paul’s appearance on Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream asked the Kentucky Republican what information he wanted the government to provide about its military strikes in the Caribbean Sea. But Paul said that a briefing wasn’t what he was after. “A briefing’s not enough to overcome the Constitution,” Paul said. “The Constitution says that when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it. And during a war then, [there are] lower rules for engagement and people do sometimes get killed without...

Senator Rand Paul is tired of being the only Republican senator willing to stand up to President Trump. The libertarian spoke with Politico’s Dasha Burns just days after being deliberately left out of Trump’s gathering of GOP senators in the Rose Garden. “We have everybody but one person here,” Trump said Wednesday. “We’re just missing one person. You’ll never guess who that is. Let me give you—he automatically votes no on everything. He thinks it’s good politics. It’s really not good politics.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday defended the White House’s decision to strike Venezuelan boats, hinting that President Donald Trump may even “expand” military operations in the region. In an interview with CBS’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation,” the South Carolina Republican said Trump is “doing the right thing.” “President Trump told me yesterday that he plans to brief members of Congress when he gets back from Asia about future potential military operations against Venezuela and Colombia,” Graham said. “So there will be a congressional briefing about a potential expanding from the sea to the land. I support that idea.

An indecipherable email about my mother-in-law’s checkup has me reaching for the pitchfork.‘How do you come up with things to write about?” a young George Will once asked William F. Buckley Jr. That’s easy, said the National Review founder, “the world irritates me three times a week.” Most people seek to avoid the feeling of irritation. But for newspaper guys, irritation equals inspiration. Let me tell you an irritating little story that I think you will find relatable. It’s about my mother-in-law. She’s 86 and has been ill for a while. For the past few years she’s lived in a...

[H/T Red Badger]Since most portions of the post, including the video, contain profanity, I excerpted just the summary at the bottom of the page out of respect for FR's policy regarding profanity. Basically, the theory is the big insurance companies are threatening not to pay for Dem campaigns next year so Dems shutdown the government during which time the insurance companies get paid while those they insure (e.g., military) do not. Below is an AI analysis of the theory.SNIPSummary: The speaker claims the government shutdown isn’t really about political infighting or healthcare policy—it’s about protecting major insurance companies (like UnitedHealthcare,...

A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill have raised concerns about President Trump’s expanding war against drug cartels carried out without consultation or authorization by Congress, and are pressing for more information and involvement in a campaign whose legal basis remains murky. Most in the group have not expressed explicit opposition to the strikes that have been carried out so far against boats in the Caribbean Sea and, this week, expanded to the Pacific. The vast majority of Republicans have enthusiastically rallied behind them, and this month, all but two of them voted to block a measure that would...

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the midst of a federal government shutdown, the U.S. government’s gross national debt surpassed $38 trillion Wednesday, a record number that highlights the accelerating accumulation of debt on America’s balance sheet. It’s also the fastest accumulation of a trillion dollars in debt outside of the COVID-19 pandemic — the U.S. hit $37 trillion in gross national debt in August this year. The $38 trillion update is found in the latest Treasury Department report, which logs the nation’s daily finances. The U.S. hit $34 trillion in debt in January 2024, $35 trillion in July 2024 and $36...

Senate Republicans are discussing voting on a bill that would prevent millions of low-income Americans from losing access to food aid on Nov. 1.The bill from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) would fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for the duration of the shutdown, which on Wednesday entered its 22nd day. The Department of Agriculture warned earlier this month that if the government shutdown dragged on “there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a brief interview that senators were discussing “some options,” though...

CNN's Harry Enten explained that the government shutdown is HELPING President Trump's approval ratings. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. Do you agree with TYT's take?

Tension between Indiana University and its student newspaper flared this week with the elimination of the outlet’s print editions and the firing of a faculty adviser, who refused an order to keep news stories out of a homecoming edition.Administrators may have been hoping to minimize distractions this homecoming weekend as the school prepares to celebrate a Hoosiers football team with its highest-ever national ranking. Instead, the controversy has entangled the school in questions about censorship and student journalists’ First Amendment rights.Advocates for student media, Indiana Daily Student alumni and high-profile supporters including billionaire Mark Cuban have blasted the school for...

The shutdown became one of the three longest in U.S. history on Friday, with lawmakers indicating they believe it will drag on and few signs emerging of progress toward reopening the government. That isn’t stopping questions about what could force lawmakers toward the negotiating table to figure out a resolution, especially with a number of potential pressure points front and center for lawmakers in the coming weeks. Here are some key dates to keep an eye on in the coming weeks that could force action. Oct. 24: Next paycheck for federal employees Government employees — whether they are furloughed or...

President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court, for the first time, to clear the way for him to use National Guard troops to support the president’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation drive.Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed an emergency appeal with the high court Friday, seeking to lift lower-court rulings that are currently preventing Trump from deploying National Guard troops he pressed into federal service to aid Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in Illinois.Sauer argued that a temporary restraining order issued by a federal district judge in Illinois “improperly impinges on the President’s authority and needlessly endangers federal personnel...

His post, which has since been removed, was picked up by the San Francisco Standard, and had reportedly said that Thiel argued that because we are increasingly concerned about existential threats, the time is ripe for the Antichrist to rise to power, promising peace and safety by strangling technological progress with regulation.

Peter Thiel, the billionaire political svengali and tech investor, is worried about the antichrist. It could be the US. It could be Greta Thunberg. Over the past month, Thiel has hosted a series of four lectures on the downtown waterfront of San Francisco philosophizing about who the antichrist could be and warning that Armageddon is coming. Thiel, who describes himself as a “small-o orthodox Christian”, believes the harbinger of the end of the world could already be in our midst and that things such as international agencies, environmentalism and guardrails on technology could quicken its rise. It is a remarkable...

The Washington Post reviewed leaked audio from four off-the-record lectures the tech investor delivered in San Francisco over the past month that fused beliefs about religion and technology.Tech billionaire Peter Thiel recently warned that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and critics of technology or artificial intelligence are “legionnaires of the Antichrist” in private lectures on Christianity that connected government oversight of Silicon Valley to an apocalyptic future, according to recordings reviewed by The Washington Post.In the four, roughly two-hour lectures, which began last month and culminated Monday at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Thiel laid out his religious views to...

King Charles will become the first reigning English monarch since Henry VIII split from Rome in 1534 to pray publicly with a pope during his state visit to the Holy See next week.The king will join Pope Leo XIV at an ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel during his visit with the queen to the Vatican on 22-23 October, a gesture regarded as a “significant moment” in relations between the Catholic church and the Church of England, of which Charles is supreme governor.The royals will also visit the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, whose connections with the English...

Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defense League and one of Britain's most polarising figures, has travelled to Israel while awaiting a court verdict in the UK. The far-right activist — known for his anti-Muslim campaigns — was invited by Israel's Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, according to The Guardian. The trip drew swift criticism from British Jewish groups, who called the invitation 'deeply inappropriate'. Robinson's politics have always revolved around Islam. For over a decade, he's portrayed himself as a defender of Western civilisation under siege — from refugees, from multiculturalism, from what he calls 'Islamisation'. That...

The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, surveyed 2,565 registered voters from Oct. 2-6, 2025, via opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages. The poll found that 15% of registered voters cited price increases and inflation as their top issues, followed by government corruption (13%), the economy/jobs (11%), health care (9%), illegal immigration (8%), and crime/violence (7%). "Name anything that's getting less expensive," pollster Mike Noble told The Center Square. "Literally everything is going up from insurance premiums to you name it. More and more is coming out of pocket." Noble said polls across the...