Free Republic

If you've been following coverage of the Trump administration's military action against Iran, you've probably noticed something: A lot of people are determined to convince you that the United States is losing. They're wrong. Even worse, many of them know they're wrong. Critics across the political spectrum — from Democrats to elements of the so-called horseshoe Right — are pushing narratives that paint the conflict as a disaster in the making. The goal is simple: Undermine public confidence and turn what is shaping up as a strategic success into a perceived failure. Three particular claims are circulating widely. All three...

On Monday’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough predicted that the U.S. conflict with Iran would end in “disaster,” repeatedly warning that American intervention abroad “always leads to disaster” before concluding ominously: “This won’t end well either.”Mika Brzezinski responded with a sarcastic aside. Noting Graham’s “Free Cuba” hat, she said she felt like there was another hat missing: a “FAFO” hat. Mika's implication was unmistakable: by confronting Iran, the United States is the one that will “find out.” Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

A report for Iran International has revealed that American forces involved in Operation Epic Fury notified an Iranian warship twice that an attack was impending and advised the Iranian sailors to abandon the vessel, the outlet published on Saturday.An Iranian sailor who was killed when the warship Dena was struck by the US near Sri Lanka had called his father shortly beforehand, saying American forces had issued two warnings for the crew to abandon the vessel, a source close to the family told Iran International.The Iranian navy warship's commander refused to allow the crew to abandon Dena despite the imminent...

MS NOW’s Chris Hayes continued his vile and disgusting opposition to the current war against Iran on Friday. It is not that Hayes is opposed to the war, but rather how he expresses his opposition. The All In host essentially declared that the U.S. is not differentiating between civilians and combatants, while former colleague Mehdi Hasan accused the crew of USS Charlotte of being worse than Nazis after the torpedoing of the Iranian frigate Dena. Hayes and Hasan were discussing reports that suggest the U.S. is responsible for the strike that hit an Iranian girls' school that resulted in many...

CNN was accused of pushing out “pro-Iran regime propaganda” by the Trump administration on Thursday after a reporter for the network said it appeared daily life was continuing despite the ongoing war. Senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen said during a segment that all the shelves in shops are stocked, “even with fresh things,” as he casually held a cup of coffee. “Fuel seems readily available, and you just don’t see any degree of panic anywhere,” he said.

President Donald Trump is just incredibly lucky. He kept rolling the dice on the economy and somehow the doom-sayers keep losing. All the experts said his tariffs would drastically increase inflation; instead it went down. Democrats projected at the end of 2024 that "Mass Deportations Would Deliver a Catastrophic Blow to the U.S. Economy." It has not.This luck just has to stop at some point. Such is the weird attitude of Politico's economics correspondent, Victoria Guida. She thinks that the economic success of the Trump administration is based just on the sheer luck of making the correct gambles as reflected...

A classified report by the US National Intelligence Council concluded that the Iranian regime was unlikely to be toppled even by a large-scale assault, the Washington Post reports. Three people familiar with the report tell the newspaper that the assessment, completed around a week before Israel and the US launched their assault on the Islamic Republic, outlined small- and large-scale assaults as scenarios for potential succession. The report concluded that protocols would be followed if supreme leader Ali Khamenei were to be killed to ensure the regime’s survival, with it “unlikely” that Iran’s opposition would take control. The Post says...

The BBC has been accused of mistranslating remarks by Pete Hegseth about the conflict with Iran, after a speech was altered in a way that suggested the United States was targeting the Iranian “people”. BBC Persian, which broadcasts to audiences inside Iran, translated comments by the US defence secretary as saying Washington was bringing death to the Iranian “people”. However, Mr Hegseth had in fact referred to the Iranian “regime” as the target. The error was quickly highlighted by pro-Israel media campaigners, who argued it raised questions about the BBC’s impartiality. The translation also sparked criticism and debate across social...

Mr. Putin is also grappling with the arrival of a new world of unbridled American power under President Trump, which is checking Russia’s global influence and ripping up Moscow’s playbook for partnerships abroad. For years, Mr. Putin supported anti-American authoritarian governments in Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, with little worry that Washington would use its overwhelming military power to kill, capture or push out their leaders. That has now changed, as Mr. Trump has demonstrated a willingness to disregard international norms and engage in foreign adventurism by fully exploiting Washington’s might. The last two months have brought the U.S.-Israeli killing of...

Couric: Do you have a Zoolander problem? Are you just ridiculously good looking as Vogue said? What do you do about that? Newsom: You don’t do anything about it…It’s just who I am. Good. Lord.

One of the most ludicrous criticisms of President Trump’s war against Iran is that “he has no plan.” As we will see, the President’s future strategic and tactical actions are shrouded in utmost operational secrecy. As they should be. But the national press and our political commentariat - five days into this historic war - are demanding that the President tell us about all of his war plans. Should we tell the surviving Iranian Mullahs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards what our warfighting plans, goals and strategic moves are? Asked another way, did Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and President Franklin Roosevelt...

Has there ever been a period in American history in the memory of almost all living people in which there has been so much change in the year since Donald Trump returned to the presidency in 2025? The whirlwind of change, both national and worldwide, is almost beyond comprehension. And in the midst of writing about all that shock over the sudden changes initiated by Trump, it is possible to slip up and make stunning admissions.Such seemed to be the case with Politico senior executive editor Alexander Burns when he appeared to slip up on Monday in "Trump Buries the...

On the third day of the new war with Iran, and after years of building a political reputation grounded in opposition to foreign intervention, Vice President JD Vance broke his silence: He supports the strikes and believes the latest adventure abroad is not only prudent but consistent with his and President Trump’s promises not to risk American lives for regime change.The difference between this conflict and the Global War on Terror, Vance told Jesse Watters of Fox News, was that Trump “is not going to let his country go to war unless there is a clearly defined objective.” The stated...

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump denies that Israel dragged the US into war with Iran, insisting that if anything, the opposite could be true and that he felt Iran was going to attack first. Trump was asked by a reporter in the Oval Office, “Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran? Did Netanyahu pull the United States into this war?” “No, I might have forced their hands. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they [the Iranians] were going to attack first,” Trump claims in response, during...

WATCH: In a Facebook Live stream, Sinclair-owned CBS Austin multimedia journalist Vinny Martorano refuses his bosses' order to spin and downplay the rally in support of the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran. In the video, Martorano is seemingly practicing for a live shot and noting that people were "celebrating the attack. He's then hand a phone: CREW MEMBER: [Hands him a phone] MARTORANO: What does that mean? CREW MEMBER: It means they don't want us to focus on this. MARTORANO: [Shrugs] All right. [Hands the phone back] Well, I am. RALLY CHANTS: Thank you Trump! Thank you Trump! Thank you Trump!...

No senior Trump administration officials or cabinet members appeared on the Sunday show television circuit a day after the US and Israel began a major military operation in Iran, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The absence of any Trump officials was noteworthy because many administration officials recognize the steep task they have in explaining the reasoning behind and the overall objective of the Iranian attacks to the American public. The major TV networks requested representatives from the Trump administration for interviews. Such requests are standard practice but are considered especially important right now.

Clearly, the “Saturday Night Live” writing team had a lot of work to do on Saturday, as they opened the show with a sketch about President Trump’s early morning attack on Iran. In the Feb. 28 cold open, Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) gives a press conference about the military action. “It’s me, Donald Trump, FIFA Peace Prize winner and Nobel Peace Prize taker,” he began. “Remember that? I launched this attack after me and my board of peace…we were bored of peace. As we all know, Iran has been two weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon for...

In the wake of Iranian Supreme Leader Aylatollah Khamenei coming down with a killer headache after getting a U.S. warhead on his forehead, on Saturday, The Washington Post published one of their infamous glowing remembrances of Islamic terrorists. The paper fondly remembered the brutal Islamic dictator as a “avuncular figure” with an “easy smile” and love for “Persian poetry.” Readers might remember when The Post fluffed up the former leader of ISIS as an “austere religious scholar”; well, they're back at it again with Khamenei in their obituary titled: “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is dead at 86.” The...

You’ve heard of Optimist International, the global service organization. If there were a “Pessimist International,” MS NOW military analyst Barry McCaffrey could be kicked out of it — for being too darn negative. Caution is warranted when predicting U.S. success in foreign military operations. Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq remain sobering reminders. But appearing on MS NOW’s continuing Iran coverage last night, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey — Bill Clinton’s former drug czar — took pessimism to new heights. In roughly two minutes, McCaffrey declared success in key American objectives in Iran “unlikely” four separate times — and added a “not likely”...

MAGA-aligned billionaires Larry Ellison and his son David have dramatically won a bidding war for CNN’s parent company—and are now on track to turn it Trumpy. Their Paramount Skydance company suddenly has won its bidding war against Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery after upping its bad and the younger Ellison attending Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. The move comes two days after Paramount Skydance revised its offer for the media conglomerate which also owns HBO, and is Hollywood’s biggest movie make, from $30 per share to $31 per share. Once the deal goes through CNN is widely...