Free Republic

VININGS, Ga. — Brad Raffensperger is fighting to save his political future as MAGA takes hold of the Georgia GOP. The secretary of state rose to national prominence by defying President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but he is carefully trying to avoid the anti-Trump lane while he runs for governor. Instead, he’s running an old-school campaign aimed at an old-school Republican Party: He’s holding low-key events compared with his GOP opponents’ flashier rallies, and he’s focusing on bread-and-butter issues, rather than harping on election security. At one Atlanta-area rotary club gathering in April, Raffensperger was all...

Senate Republicans on Tuesday vented their frustration and disappointment over President Trump’s decision to endorse state Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn (R) in the Texas Senate Republican primary, a move that deals a crushing blow to Cornyn’s hopes of winning the May 26 runoff. “I don’t understand. He is an ethically challenged individual,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said of Paxton, who was charged with defrauding investors in a Dallas-area tech startup before he completed a pretrial diversion program. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she was “supremely disappointed” in Trump’s endorsement of Paxton over Cornyn. “I don’t understand...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed rising gas prices as “peanuts,” even as new polling shows his economic approval rating falling to a new low. The remarks highlight growing pressure on the White House as inflation and fuel costs remain high, weighing on voters and shaping political sentiment ahead of the midterms. The disconnect could have broad implications for U.S. households and the 2026 elections, with rising prices and the Iran war expected to remain central campaign issues.

One of President Donald Trump’s former Border Patrol goons has been on a tirade against his administration, claiming officials are retreating from the mass deportation crackdown that was initially promised. Greg Bovino retired as Border Patrol “commander-at-large” earlier this year amid backlash for his leadership in Minnesota, where two protesters were shot dead by federal agents.

'The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department's intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,' said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. 'As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.' Donald Trump has reached a $1.8 billion deal with the IRS to dispense taxpayer funds to victims of 'lawfare' as part of a settlement in his case against the government. The President, his sons Don Jr and Eric,...

Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo agreed with analyst Ryan Payne’s take that the Federal Reserve may now have to raise interest rates to combat persistent inflation in a striking assessment given President Donald Trump’s public months-long campaign to pressure the central bank to cut rates. Bartiromo had just rolled back a clip from her interview with investor Jeffrey Gundlach on Sunday Morning Futures in which she floated whether newly-appointed Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh might raise interest rates, to which he replied that a “hike” was an “odds on bet.” Trump had berated and attacked Warsh’s predecessor Jerome Powell for...

The pro-Israel lobby that’s pumped millions into Democratic primaries this year is facing the next test of its political power on the right in ruby-red Kentucky. [AIPAC] and other pro-Israel interest groups have uncorked over $9 million in a bid to unseat Republican Rep. Thomas Massie on Tuesday in a competitive primary that has shattered spending records. Prominent pro-Israel GOP donors have funneled millions more into a super PAC stood up by President Donald Trump’s political operation that has spent nearly $7 million on the race. Overall ad spending has topped $32 million, making it the most expensive House primary...

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...