Free Republic

The foul odor of TDS is definitely in the air when the editor of the Washington Monthly, published on the pages of Friday's Atlantic magazine website, can somehow connect the actions of an enraged Democrat congressman in 1856 caning anti-slavery Republican Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate to President Donald Trump.The author of the hit piece incorporating an incident from a couple of centuries ago is careful to discount the idea of making historical comparisons but that was exactly what Rob Wolfe did in "The Vicious Beating That Reshaped America."

Polls indicate that President Donald Trump is doing a lot that most Americans don't support: The war with Iran; the arbitrary tariffs; the retribution campaign against his perceived enemies; the 250-foot Triumphal Arch; the $1.776 billion fund intended to reward Trump loyalists. (Even Republicans don't like that one!)

The Iran war is on the ballot in South Carolina, where GOP primary voters will determine the political fate of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a steadfast ally of President Trump and one of the Senate’s most hawkish members. … Graham’s advocacy for the war has even extended to telling South Carolinians to prepare to send their sons and daughters to the Middle East.

"Bass has a real race on her hands, if in fact Raman is the one who advances," he said. "And the Democratic establishment is backing Karen Bass. But versus Spencer Pratt, she was crushing him. She wanted to face Pratt. She wanted nothing to do with Raman. That's why these conspiracy theories simply make no sense, people."

A group of states led by California and New York is preparing to sue to block Paramount Skydance from acquiring Warner Bros., Reuters reported on Friday. Last year’s merger between Paramount and Skydance already sparked criticism over concerns about antitrust issues and the impact of centralizing control of major media and entertainment companies. The criticism grew as Paramount settled a lawsuit President Donald Trump had filed against CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which numerous legal experts had assessed as a fundamentally weak case on First Amendment grounds. It was widely speculated that political...

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is talking with the leaders of the largest artificial-intelligence companies about having the government acquire “pieces” of their firms. It could prove to be among the most significant federal interventions in the private sector in modern history. The president’s comment confirmed NOTUS reporting that he has been discussing the idea with tech executives for more than a year. He said he is aiming to invite “all of them” to the White House as soon as next week. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has talked to Trump about having shares of AI...

The Trump administration on Friday auctioned off rights to drill in a pristine wildlife refuge in Alaska, but the lease sale attracted only two bidders on a few tracts of land. Of the about 60 tracts of land opened up for leasing by the Trump administration, only five received bids.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has issued a pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison for making illegal stock trades based on inside information after he left office. Buyer was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 for trades made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000, representing the amount of the illegal gains, and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.

Fox News is taking heat after a new survey showed former Sen. Sherrod Brown holding a surprisingly large lead over Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio, a state President Donald Trump carried comfortably in each of his three White House runs. Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Ohio by more than eight points in 2016, defeated Joe Biden in the state by a similar margin in 2020 despite losing nationally, and expanded his advantage to more than 11 points over Kamala Harris in 2024. Husted, who was appointed to the Senate in 2025 after Vice President JD Vance vacated the seat, is...

Jill Biden has detailed her "frosty" encounter with Melania Trump. In her new memoir, A View from the East Wing, the former First Lady, 75, detailed what occurred before the handover between her husband, Joe Biden, 83, and Donald Trump, 79, on January 20, 2025. On the bitterly cold winter's day, Dr. Biden initially struggled with her choice of outfit, wanting to appease the Trumps. Still, the meeting between the two couples was tense and awkward. Later, Biden and Melania shared an equally edgy ride from the White House to the Capitol to witness the 79-year-old Commander-in-Chief's swearing-in ceremony.

The oil industry is warning the Trump administration that a Hormuz-sized hole in the world’s petroleum market is steadily draining inventories to levels that are likely to send global energy prices surging in the next several weeks, according to four executives. Industry executives have flagged the issue to senior White House officials and Cabinet members in recent weeks as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing dialogue with the U.S. energy industry, the people said. The warnings came as recently as late last month as data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and other sources began showing that fuel makers were...

Social Security’s finances may be in worse shape than thought. The Social Security Trustees — who release a report each year on the health of the program that supports about 70 million retirees and people with disabilities — have been relying on overly optimistic forecasts for future fertility rates, according to a blog report from the Cato Institute. Those forecasts are at odds with projections from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — the nonpartisan federal agency that provides Congress with independent analysis of budgetary and economic issues — which both have much more sober forecasts...

The remaining three correspondents at “60 Minutes” huddled this week to discuss their futures following the firing of Scott Pelley, according to a report, as former star Steve Kroft warned that the iconic newsmagazine “no longer exists” in the form viewers have known for decades. Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl and Jon Wertheim met on Wednesday for more than an hour amid growing turmoil at CBS News following Pelley’s ouster and the sweeping shakeup orchestrated by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, the Status newsletter reported on Thursday. The meeting came just hours after The Post reported that CBS insiders believed Whitaker...

Saturday's episode of The Weekend: Primetime on MS NOW pretended to present a balanced discussion between a Republican and a Democrat strategist in cowboy hats about the Texas Senate race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton. Co-host Elise Jordan introduced one of the guests this way: “Joining us now is Mark McKinnon, former advisor to George W. Bush and John McCain… Mark, you have a long career advising Republicans in Texas.” In reality, McKinnon’s Republican credentials are extremely thin and dated. His last significant Republican work was on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, which he quit because he wanted Barack...

The world is getting more uptight about lending money to President Donald Trump’s government — causing interest rates to climb in ways that are worsening affordability pressures, hampering economic growth and creating a new risk for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. The energy price spike triggered by the Iran war has seeped into the price of bonds that help fund the U.S. government. Interest rates on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note are topping 4.44%, up from 3.95% before the war started at the end of February. Average mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels in nine months, while auto...

President Trump likes his military and diplomatic victories quick, clean and decisive. (snip) But now, Mr. Trump has hit the stalemate phase of his presidency. The war with Iran is clearly at that stage. When he declared a cease-fire on April 7, Mr. Trump said on social media that the end of combat operations would be conditional on “the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” It wasn’t. Even if commerce now resumes across the strait under a memorandum of understanding still under negotiation, it will still leave the future of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs exactly...

In what could be viewed as the most brazen conflict-of-interest issue in President Trump’s second term, the Pentagon just awarded Dell Technologies a $9.7 billion contract to manage Microsoft software across the entire U.S. military. Trump bought Dell stock just months earlier, publicly urged Americans to buy Dell computers weeks before the announcement, and received a $6.25 billion pledge from the Dell family. That’s the conflict part. WHAT HAPPENED The Department of War awarded Dell Federal Systems, the government-focused subsidiary of Dell Technologies, a five-year, $9.7 billion contract to supply and manage Microsoft software licenses and subscriptions, across the U.S....

The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime target of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House and the oil-rich nation. It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.” But DEA records obtained by The Associated Press earlier this...

The social media post by President Trump made it sound straightforward. The United States would orchestrate a deal to end the war with Iran and, in exchange, a slew of countries across the Middle East and South Asia would join an agreement, called the Abraham Accords, establishing relations with Israel. In fact, he said, that “should be mandatory.” But half of the countries he named — such as Egypt, Jordan and Turkey — already have relations with Israel. And the other half — including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan — have no interest in establishing them anytime soon. As a...

The negotiations between the United States and Iran to end their war are following President Trump’s familiar playbook for resolving a Middle East crisis: agree to a cease-fire and deal with the toughest problems later. Analysts say the approach has had mixed results in the Gaza Strip, where Mr. Trump brokered a truce last year between Israel and Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group. Plans for a so-called Phase 2 agreement — under which Hamas was to lay down its arms and Israel would allow Gaza to be rebuilt after a devastating war — have stalled. A similar approach in U.S....