Free Republic

President Trump ripped The New York Times on Tuesday morning over a report detailing the ballooning cost of his project to repair and renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. “The Failing New York Times, which is one of the worst newspapers anywhere in the World, and is losing subscribers on an hourly basis, is now at it again,” Trump wrote in a lengthy, early-morning Truth Social post. “Just like they covered my Landslide 2024 Presidential Election Victory inaccurately, and without shame, constantly making major mistakes and incorrect predictions at every path along the way, they are now trying to justify...

Naftali Bennett, a former Netanyahu aide who is seeking to replace him as prime minister for a second time, is offering voters a straightforward promise: a “rebuild.” Israel’s main anti-Netanyahu alliance, led by Bennett and Yair Lapid…offered a conservative, hawkish vision that carries echoes of Netanyahu — but none of his baggage. Their pitch will be tested in a momentous election this year that will reveal whether voters want younger faces to lead Israel through a period of growing domestic division and international isolation… Lapid’s centrist supporters say they do not agree on all issues with Bennett…But he is someone...

[snip] Cynthia West, a former congressional aide now running for school board in Florida, has alleged that Massie secured her a job in Congress, in the office of Republican Representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana, after the pair struck up a romantic relationship. However, West said Massie soon began engaging in behavior she "wasn't comfortable" with, after which she ended the relationship. West said Massie offered her $5,000 after she said she would file a wrongful termination complaint against Spartz, who she said had fostered a toxic work environment. West said she declined this as well as a $60,000 settlement payment...

Iran has rebuilt most of its missile infrastructure along the Strait of Hormuz, according to US intelligence assessments.The regime has reportedly restored operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along and around the narrow maritime chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.According to people with knowledge of the assessments, Tehran has also retained roughly 70 per cent of its pre-war missile stockpile and mobile launchers.About 90 per cent of its underground missile storage and launch facilities are now considered “partially or fully operational”, The New York Times reported.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday warned Democrats against forming alliances with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), accusing the former lawmaker of being a “proven bigot.” A student at an event hosted by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics asked Ocasio-Cortez about working across the aisle with Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), and if she stood by comments she made in 2021 about “legitimate white supremacist sympathizers at the core of the House of Representatives caucus.” Ocasio-Cortez said she stood by the comments, and that her work with Republican colleagues has been “about where we trust...

The Daily Wire was once ascendant in right-wing media. Now, the “anti-woke” company faces contentious layoffs, ideological battles and dwindling relevance online.The conservative media company Daily Wire was once a star of the MAGA digital universe, dominating social media feeds and podcast apps with a blend of “anti-woke” commentary, viral Facebook posts and culture-war stunts. In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the company co-founded by conservative pundit Ben Shapiro ranked as Facebook’s top English-language publisher for three straight months. Its sarcastic news items on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s salon visits gained millions more views than the websites of...

Foreign actors are attempting to undermine Canadian interests by interfering in Alberta's separatist debate, according to new report. Actors from Russia and the US are attempting to promote separatist ideas in what researchers behind the report described as a threat to Canada's "democratic integrity". The findings come as a proposed independence referendum in the western Canadian province could face a vote as soon as this autumn. Earlier this week, a group behind a citizen-led petition seeking independence for Alberta said that it had acquired the number of signatures needed to trigger a referendum. The Alberta separatist movement has its roots...

Rapper Kid Cudi has fired MIA from his tour after the British artist went on a rant that went viral while on stage in Dallas. While opening up for the hip-hop artist on 2 May, MIA was booed after saying, “I’ve been canceled for many reasons. I never thought I would be canceled for being a brown Republican voter,” as reported by Variety.

He also allegedly ran over Vallecillo's right foot, and drove away without saying anything to the student activists while Vallecillo yelled: 'You just rolled over my f***ing foot, oh my God.' The president of an Ivy League university has been accused of backing his car into a student and running over a second student's foot following an on-campus debate. The students involved in the debacle had attended a debate between supporters of Israel and backers of the Palestinian cause at Cornell University on Thursday night. After the event, the two followed University President Michael Kotlikoff to his car and grilled...

Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites across the Middle East since the war began, hitting hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft and key radar, communications and air defense equipment, according to a Washington Post analysis of satellite imagery. The amount of destruction is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government or previously reported. The threat of air attacks rendered some of the U.S. bases in the region too dangerous to staff at normal levels, and commanders moved most of the personnel from these sites...

Senate Republicans are seeking $1 billion of taxpayer money to help fund “security adjustments and upgrades” linked to Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project. The proposal was outlined in a reconciliation package focusing on federal law enforcement and border security spending, which was released by Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday. The legislation also allows for part of the $1 billion package to be used for security upgrades for the East Wing Modernization Project—also known as Trump’s ballroom project—including “above-ground and below-ground security features.”

President Donald Trump gave ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl an exclusive phone interview on Monday — shortly after he accused Karl of lying about a previous phone call. “Jonathan Karl, of ABC Fake News, made a statement that I called him early in the morning, the day after the assassination attempt, to ask whether or not HE was OK,” Trump posted to X. “No, this was a hit on ME, not HIM, and I didn’t make such a call, why would I do that?” Trump wrote. “He called me, but I didn’t take his call — He just...

The establishment consensus is hardening. President Trump’s war with Iran is the culminating disaster of the most damaging and misguided American foreign policy in history. Iranian leaders are humiliating the U.S., German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned. “Superpower suicide” is how Wendy Sherman, a top Iran negotiator under President Obama and Joe Biden’s deputy secretary of state, described Mr. Trump’s Iran policy to ABC News. As Ms. Sherman sees it, the Iran war has alienated allies, assisted Russia financially, and weakened America’s position vis-à-vis China. For Fareed Zakaria, the question is no longer whether the administration’s policies will backfire but whether...

The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Service committees on Saturday expressed they are “very concerned” about the withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany amid President Trump’s feud with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump on Wednesday had announced that he was reviewing a possible reduction of U.S. troops in Germany. “We are very concerned by the decision to withdraw a U.S. brigade from Germany,” the chairs, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), said in a joint statement. “Germany has stepped up in response to President Trump’s call for greater burden sharing, significantly increasing defense spending...

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Friday warned that the growing national debt is “a ticking time bomb” and he called on his fellow lawmakers to do “much more.” The U.S. national debt crossed 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of the first quarter, the first time the debt crossed that line since 1946. The debt surpassed $39 trillion in March, a mere five months after it reached $38 trillion. Roy told Fox Business’s Cheryl Casone that the debt is “a ticking time bomb and that some of us have been talking about for a long time.”...

Two Israeli political heavyweights on Sunday said they would join forces in elections scheduled for later this year in an effort to unseat longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers in a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government they formed in 2021, ending 12 years of Netanyahu’s rule. Now they plan to merge their parties into single faction headed by Bennett, calling it a partnership between the center and the right. Bennett said if elected, the new government on its first day would establish a state commission of inquiry into the...

Support for President Donald Trump’s war with Iran has dipped to the same levels as unpopular wars like Vietnam and Iraq, according to a new poll. A survey released by ABC-The Washington Post-Ipsos shows support for the ongoing conflict in Iran is continuing to fall, with six in 10 Americans calling the military action a mistake and just 2 in 10 calling the campaign a success. “President Donald Trump’s war in Iran is as unpopular among Americans as the Iraq War during the year of peak violence in 2006 and the Vietnam War in the early 1970s,” The Washington Post...

The United States has burned through thousands of missiles since the Iran war began on Feb. 28, diminishing the armaments needed in a potential future conflict with China tied to its tensions with Taiwan.The U.S. military has used 1,100 long-range stealth cruise missiles — nearly all of the total number left in Washington’s stockpile — and fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, The New York Times reported. The U.S. only produces roughly 100 Tomahawks a year, meaning under current production, it could take 10 years to replace.In addition, in less than eight weeks American forces have spent more...

President Trump has reportedly told his aides to prepare for a prolonged US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical waterway for global energy flows. On Wednesday, the president told Axios he is maintaining the blockade until Iran agrees to a deal over its nuclear program. The pressure campaign carries mounting costs beyond Iran. While the near-total cessation of flows through the key waterway is cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Tehran, it’s also choking key corners of the global market. By extending the blockade, Trump is wagering that Iran’s export-dependent economy will...

The U.S. national debt now exceeds 100% of gross domestic product, crossing a once-unthinkable threshold, on the way toward breaking the record set in the wake of World War II. As of March 31, the country’s publicly held debt was $31.265 trillion, while GDP over the preceding year was $31.216 trillion, according to data released Thursday. That puts the ratio at 100.2%, compared with 99.5% when the last fiscal year ended Sept. 30. That figure will likely climb for the foreseeable future because the federal government is running historically large annual deficits of nearly 6% of GDP, which add to...