Free Republic

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis excoriated Trump administration lawyers Friday in a remarkable status hearing centered on Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant and alleged MS-13 member who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March in what administration officials have acknowledged was an administrative error. The heated back-and-forth was full of eye-popping exchanges between the judge and the Justice Department, as she took umbrage with their attempts to invoke the state secrets privilege to shield details concerning Abrego Garcia from the court. "What world are we living in," Xinis asked in disbelief after more than two hours...

The White House says President Trump is “determined” to maintain at least a 10% tariff on all imports, meaning all nations should expect a baseline tax on their goods even if they negotiate trade pacts with the U.S. Dozens of trading partners are scrambling to negotiate down sky-high levies that Mr. Trump imposed, then paused, in early April. It’s a fluid process, but this much should be clear: Mr. Trump will only go so low.“The president is determined to continue with that 10% baseline tariff. I just spoke to him about it earlier,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said...

There’s a lie we’ve been telling ourselves for decades: That free trade with China would civilize them. Make them richer, freer, better. It didn’t. It made them bolder. Hungrier. More dangerous. What the West called “economic engagement,” China saw as an opportunity for weaponization. And now, the bill is coming due—for everyone. They’ve used the profits of global trade to fund: - Re-education camps - A high-tech surveillance state - Mass internment of minorities - And a military machine backed by the promise of global domination All while selling us the cheap plastic they use to buy time. And what...

Canadian exports to the United States are beginning to decrease in light of the trade war. Statistics Canada announced that exports to the United States, Canada’s largest trading partner, declined 6.6% during the first month of tariffs while imports from the United States fell 2.9%. March 2025 was the second-highest recorded monthly increase in non-US trade for Canada. Exports to nations outside the US rose 24.8%. Overall exports in March 2025 reached $69.9 billion, a slight decrease from February’s $70.04 billion posting, yet volume rose by 1.8%. The United Kingdom has been purchasing unwrought (crude) gold exports from Canada this...

Ford Motor has hiked prices on three of its Mexico-produced models effective May 2, becoming one of the first major automakers to adjust sticker prices following U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Prices on the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV, Maverick pickup and Bronco Sport will increase by as much as $2,000 on some models, according to a notice sent to dealers, which was reviewed by Reuters. Ford earlier this week said Trump's trade war would add about $2.5 billion in costs for 2025, but it expects to reduce that exposure by around $1 billion. Rival General Motors said last week that...

Protests from furious factory workers in China demanding back pay are spreading across the country after President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports began impacting the communist nation’s economy. Unrest has been reported across the country as workers have taken to the streets protesting unpaid wages and challenging unfair dismissals following the closures of factories squeezed by US tariffs, according to Radio Free Asia. Chinese industry leaders, meanwhile, are “extremely anxious” about the steep duties, with many telling factories and suppliers to halt or delay supplies, Wang Xin, head of an industry group representing more than 2,000 Chinese merchants told the...

President Trump appeared to acknowledge Wednesday that toy shortages are possible as his tariff hikes ripple through the economy. The CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot privately warned him last week about the likelihood of product shortages and price spikes. "Somebody said, 'oh, the shelves are gonna be open,'" Trump told reporters Wednesday. "Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more."

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into...

With four hats, including national security adviser, the former Trump rival is defying predictions he’d be a weak player. Marco Rubio is doing big things under President Donald Trump — way more than nearly anyone expected. The secretary of State was once thought of as one of the weakest players in the Trump orbit, a man who wouldn’t last long in the Cabinet because he faced many internal rivals and had major policy differences with Trump and the MAGA base. But Rubio has deftly earned the president’s trust, enough so that Trump this week gave him another powerful job as...

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) unloaded a heap of criticism Friday on recent actions and inactions by the Trump administration and fellow Republicans, bringing up the Ukraine minerals deal, talks with Iran, and more — while being sure to not criticize President Trump personally. “I represent the base and when I’m frustrated and upset over the direction of things, you better be clear, the base is not happy,” Greene said Friday in a lengthy post on the social platform X. “I campaigned for no more foreign wars. And now we are supposedly on the verge of going to war with...

With the new mineral rights deal between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv, President Donald Trump fulfilled his pledge to hold Ukraine financially accountable for the billions of dollars that has already been provided in military assistance. This now opens a new avenue for the U.S. to provide weaponry to the country without using any taxpayer funds. Following months of discussions, the deal was signed on Wednesday. It established a common investment fund to which both countries will contribute, including through the sale of mineral rights, oil, and gas licenses in Ukraine — with a 50/50 profit split. The agreement states that...

Australia’s Anthony Albanese claimed a historic second term as prime minister on Saturday in a dramatic comeback against once-resurgent conservatives that was powered by voters' concerns about the influence of U.S. President Donald Trump. Peter Dutton, leader of the conservative Liberal party, conceded defeat and the loss of his own seat - echoing the fate of Canada's conservatives and their leader whose election losses days earlier were also attributed to a Trump backlash. [snip] Albanese would be the first Australian prime minister to win a consecutive term in two decades. He said Australians had voted for fairness and "the strength...

McDonald’s sales dropped in the beginning of the year, marking the second consecutive quarter of declines as customers pull back their spending amid economic uncertainty. In the United States, its largest market, same-store sales dropped 3.6% — the chain’s worst drop since 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic when people were told to stay home. Net income for the first quarter was $1.87 billion, a decline from $1.93 billion compared to the same period a year ago. However, McDonald’s notes that since last year had a Leap Day, or an extra day to make money, that slightly hurt...

The Republican-led Texas House has officially caved to the radical Left’s war on free speech—and shockingly, it’s being spearheaded by none other than the state’s own scandal-plagued former House Speaker Dade Phelan. On Tuesday, House Bill 366 passed with bipartisan support, making it a potential crime in the state of Texas to share or distribute AI-generated and “altered media”—including political memes—without a government-approved disclaimer on political ads. According to the bill: “A person may not, with the intent to influence an election, knowingly cause to be published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording, or video...

The U.S. economy shrank in the first quarter despite underlying strength in consumer and business spending. Gross domestic product contracted at an annualized rate of 0.3 percent, the Department of Commerce said on Wednesday. The decline in U.S. gross domestic product marks a sharp reversal from the 2.4 percent growth rate recorded at the end of last year. This was the lowest rate of growth since 2022, when the economy avoided an official recession but contracted for two consecutive quarters. Final sales to private domestic purchasers, a closely watched measure of business and consumer health, expanded at a healthy pace...

The U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of 2025, as businesses rushed to stock up on imports ahead of tariffs and consumers eased their pace of spending. The Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced across the economy—fell at a seasonally and inflation adjusted 0.3% annual rate in the first quarter. That was the steepest decline since the first quarter of 2022. The reading fell short of the 0.4% growth that economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected. The decline in GDP in the first quarter reflected front-running ahead of...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reportedly said he is "a Republican and a supporter of President Donald Trump," but said he has the votes in the Senate to strip the presidential authority on tariffs to give it to what Trump says is a do-nothing Congress.Trump has frequently warned Congress about reducing the authority of the president and forcing America to do nothing as Congress has for decades – failing to balance free-and-fair foreign trade or rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in massive government spending that Paul himself is against."This resolution would undermine the administration's efforts to address the unusual and...

Last week, the Trump administration put three children who are U.S. citizens on deportation flights with their mothers. According to the family lawyer, “one of them is a 4-year-old boy with stage 4 cancer who was deported without medication or the ability to contact their doctors.”

Mexico will no longer deny Texas farmers the lifeblood of their business, according to the Trump administration. Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico is obligated to send Texas water from the Rio Grande while the U.S. sends Mexico water from the Colorado River. The current five-year deal calls for about 490 billion gallons from the U.S. to flow to Mexico each year, while 570 billion gallons from Mexico is to head north, according to CNN. Because Mexico has been far behind in its obligations, the State Department denied a request for water for Tijuana, marking the first U.S. denial since the...

"GOP Sen. Rand Paul says he expects to have enough votes in Senate to pass resolution to effectively block Trump’s tariffs. But Paul, who expects the vote Wednesday, attacked Speaker Johnson’s move to block such resolutions as “dishonesty.”" *** The background to this, via Politico: The White House warned that Trump will veto a bipartisan Senate resolution that would terminate his sweeping global “Liberation Day” tariffs. The statement of administration policy from the Office of Management and Budget, sent to congressional offices Monday, comes ahead of an expected vote this week forced by several Democrats led by Sen. Ron Wyden...