Free Republic

President Trump let his wife Melania co-sign legislation Monday to outlaw artificial intelligence-generated porn with real people’s faces — moments after claiming that Russian president Vladimir Putin had gushed about the first lady during a high-stakes phone call about the Ukraine war. The Take It Down Act, which spurred the first lady to make a rare trip to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers earlier this year, criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery — including “revenge porn” that features real images and artificial intelligence-generated photos and videos. After Trump, 78, signed the legislation, he passed the bill and a pen...

Last month alone, district court judges issued 15 temporary restraining orders halting actions of the Trump administration. That’s more restraining orders than were issued during the first three years of the Biden administration. So far, district courts have blocked an extraordinary range of executive actions, ranging from the attempted repeal of birthright citizenship and a bid to end “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs to an effort to take down government web pages that discuss sex-change operations. * * * The effort to throw a judicial monkey wrench into every one of Trump’s administrative efforts has become a well-thought-out strategy on...

Last Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education (DOE). As he shared during his remarks, he's hopeful that members of Congress will vote to do so, even Democrats. As Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) posted to X, he's heeding the call. He's introduced such a bill before and previewed that he's doing so next week as well. The effort to dismantle the DOE has been decades in the making. The senator's father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), had introduced a bill to do so in the early 1980s, not long after it was established...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: Elon Musk Announces the Department of Education no longer exists - MSNBC 7:16 PM · Feb 9, 2025

The spread of DOGE-centric legislation and bureaucracies has taken off like a SpaceX rocket in several states across the country since Elon Musk and lawmakers like Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., began their work this year. Bean, chair of the bipartisan DOGE Caucus, was asked about copycat initiatives popping up around the country and remarked, "America has DOGE fever." "As elected officials, we must ensure we are good stewards of taxpayer dollars. This means we must identify, investigate and eliminate wasteful spending." With a governor’s race in November and President Donald Trump only losing their state...

With the new Republican-led Congress in place -- and with President-elect Trump's 2024 victory formally certified -- the election season is officially over. Governance and results will be the order of the day, especially in 2025. Over the weekend, there was a fair amount of chatter about Trump pushing for 'one big, beautiful bill' to push through major elements of his agenda. This would be legislation passed using the budgetary tool known as 'reconciliation,' which is immune from a Senate filibuster, so long as its provisions are germane to the budget and meet certain requirements. (The Senate filibuster, I should...

The big story this week is how X (formerly Twitter) worked to dramatically change the American legislative process. As Chamath Palihapitiya said, "People are underestimating what happened here [The Continuing Resolution]. This was a multi-hundred billion dollar grift that was stopped on a dime over 12 hours of tweets. You would have never thought this was possible. To put a dagger in something that big that had so much broad support just a few hours earlier is so consequential in how the United States can run going forward." But if you grasp the background for this feat -- the story...

CLAIM: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) claimed during Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate debate Friday night with Republican businessman Eric Hovde that the pro-migration Senate legislation was the “toughest border bill” in years. VERDICT: False. The bill would have allowed up to 5,000 illegal aliens to enter the U.S. Southern border daily, and its toughness pales in comparison to the comprehensive House border security bill, H.R. 2.

In the doctors’ lounge recently I witnessed a physician having an angry shouting match with the TV. The TV was airing CNN so I was initially sympathetic. I realized he was yelling about the Compromise Border Bill that would have solved the Nation’s Immigration Issues save for the fact that Trump and his Spawn of Satan Allies (Republicans) blocked it, for no other reason than to keep the Nation in Turmoil in order to keep the issue in play for the elections. Then Tampon Tim mentioned it several times during the recent debate. Wanting to be an informed voter, I...

The Irish government has abandoned plans to implement controversial new hate speech laws following widespread backlash from free speech advocates. Justice Minister Helen McEntee confirmed on Saturday that Dublin will drop new hate speech provisions in the proposed Criminal Justice Bill, admitting that the “incitement to hatred” section of the legislation did “not have a consensus,” the Irish Times reports. Critics of the speech restrictions have noted that the government failed to actually define what constitutes “hate” and therefore the law would have given broad powers to the state to crush dissent. The scope of the draconian powers would have...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House this week approved a sweeping package of bills to counter China’s influence, shoring up a largely bipartisan push to ensure America comes out ahead in the competition between the world’s superpowers. The efforts would ban Chinese-made drones, limit China-linked biotech companies from access to the U.S. market, strengthen sanctions and deepen ties with Asian countries. The campaign to target Beijing this week shows how curbing China’s power has emerged as a rare issue of political consensus.... One contentious measure seeks to revive a Trump-era program to root out Beijing’s spying in American universities and...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) is who he wanted 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris to pick and Walz has “passed some very good legislation.” CNN host asked, “[Y]ou actually wanted Vice President Harris to pick Gov. Walz as her running mate. What did you make of their debut tonight in Philadelphia?” Sanders responded, “Well, it sounded very good. And the reason that I wanted Gov. Walz is, as you know, he comes from a rural state. He has been a champion of the working class....

President Biden signed a piece of legislation into law on Friday urging China to mend ties with Tibet and its leaders. The legislation, named Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act, received broad bipartisan support and will encourage China and Tibet to resolve the long-standing dispute over Tibet’s governance. President Biden signed a piece of legislation into law on Friday urging China to mend ties with Tibet and its leaders. The legislation, named Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act, received broad bipartisan support and will encourage China and Tibet to resolve the long-standing dispute over Tibet’s governance.

Three drag superstars will lobby House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle next week to advocate for greater protections for LGBTQ people and fight against a rising tide of hate and threats made against the community. Drag performers Jiggly Caliente, Brigitte Bandit and Joey Jay will meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, part of a “Drag Lobby Day” organized by MoveOn Political Action, a progressive advocacy group. “MAGA Republicans have been viciously assaulting the rights and freedoms of the LGBTQ+ community for far too long,” Nakia Stephens, the group’s campaigns director, told The Hill in an emailed...

A handful of Senate Republicans on Friday vowed to block major Democratic legislation and White House nominees for top positions in retaliation of a guilty verdict against former President Donald Trump on Thursday. Trump was found guilty of 34 felony charges related to falsifying his business records in order to hide a hush money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has maintained his innocence, and vowed to appeal the ruling in a speech Friday. The group of eight Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, accused the White House of making "a mockery of the rule...

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed legislation Thursday to create a state-level gun control center mirroring the federal office of gun violence prevention created by the Biden Administration. The Associated Press reported that Moore lauded the creation of the gun control center at a signing ceremony, saying, “Maryland became the first state in the nation to officially answer President Biden’s call.” Democrats touted the center as a way “to foster a statewide partnership with federal and local agencies to reduce gun violence.”

@RandPaul Speaker Johnson and the Uniparty are united behind their laundry list of bad ideas. From borrowing $95 billion from China to send it to other countries to killing a FISA warrant requirement — they’re ticking all the boxes to put America last. Their latest America Last Legislation: Ukraine: $60.84 billion Israel: $26.38 billion Indo-Pacific: $8.12 billion Tiktok Ban REPO Act What do Americans get? Inflation and wide-open borders.

PARIS (AP) – French President Emmanuel Macron has announced new legislation to legalize “aid in dying” that will allow adults facing end-of-life illness to take lethal medication, a first in the country. The move follows last year’s report indicating that most French citizens support legalizing end-of-life options. In an interview published Monday by French newspapers La Croix and Liberation, Macron said the new bill will be restricted to adults suffering from an incurable illness who are expected to die in the “short or middle-term” and who are suffering “intractable” physical or psychological pain. Macron said the law will offer “a...

House Democrats are now reviving legislation to bar Trump from the ballot in light of the US Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to put Trump back on the Colorado ballot. The US Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled Trump can stay on the Colorado primary 2024 ballot. The Supreme Court said the states lack the power to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution against Presidential candidates. “This case raises the question whether the States, in addition to Congress, may also enforce Section 3. We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office....

President Biden renewed his calls for Congress to pass gun violence prevention legislation after Wednesday’s deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade. The shooter in Kansas City, Mo., opened fire during the victory parade and killed at least one person and injured over 20 more, including at least eight children. “The Super Bowl is the most unifying event in America. Nothing brings more of us together,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday. “And the celebration of a Super Bowl win is a moment that brings a joy that can’t be matched to the winning team and their...