Free Republic

President Trump used an AI-generated video to mock Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Monday, hours after he met with the Democratic congressional leaders at the White House to discuss the looming government shutdown. The faux footage, posted by Trump on Truth Social, shows Jeffries – depicted with a mustache and sombrero – standing silently next to Schumer, who, in a fake voice, argues in favor of giving “illegal aliens free healthcare” as part of an effort to court “new voters” for the Democratic Party. A traditional Mexican folk song plays over the 35-second video, for...

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered a meeting with top military leaders from around the world to gather on short notice. The meeting is slated to take place at Quantico in Virginia next Tuesday, per the Washington Post. A meeting of the officials was confirmed by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who said Hegseth "will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week," but did not address additional details, the outlet reported. Military members from around the world have been ordered to attend the meeting, the outlet reported. The order also comes as Hegseth has been looking to overhaul...

AUSTIN (KXAN) — It’s not every day that Austin Mayor Kirk Watson starts an Austin City Council meeting talking about bong hits. But today’s meeting — at least until public comment had wrapped up — was anything but standard. “If Anita Bong Hit is here, but I haven’t seen any of the Bong Hits in a long time…even though bong hits have long been an iconic part of Austin, Texas and brought much happiness to our city. In fact, if any of the Bong Hits are here, it would be a high point in our day for us to get...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed Monday that he’s nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — presenting the commander in chief with the letter he sent to the committee responsible for bestowing the honor. “I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize committee,” Netanyahu told Trump at the White House. “It’s the nomination of you for the peace prize, which is well-deserved. And you should get it.” Netanyahu then reached across the table separating the US and Israeli delegations to hand the letter to Trump.

The successful hit reportedly hobbled Iran’s ability to respond to the first wave of Israeli Air Force strikes across the country. Israel secret services used a fake phone call to trick the top commanders of Iran’s air force into gathering at a single location before taking them out in a targeted strike, an Israeli Channel 12 commentator has said. In a statement confirmed to the JC by Israeli sources, Amit Segal told the Call Me Back podcast on Monday: “What Israel did was create a fake phone call for 20 members of the air force senior staff an calling them...

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants to see the war between Ukraine and Russia come to a close following their meeting at the NATO Summit. Trump was asked about the meeting during his press conference at the summit in the Hague, Netherlands. “He couldn’t have been nicer. I think he’d like to see an end to this, I do. What I took from the meeting — couldn’t have been nicer, actually — but I took from the meeting he’d like to see it end,” Trump said. “I think it’s a great time to end it....

Trump is heading to NATO for a trip lasting barely a day. It’s the pattern of his second term — attend international meetings, but don’t stay long.President Donald Trump left last week’s G-7 gathering in Canada a day early. This week he is scheduled to arrive at a NATO summit in The Hague for an abbreviated trip, arriving Tuesday and returning to the White House by Wednesday. Later this year, he may skip the G-20 in South Africa altogether. Trump has a long history of brushing off global summits — and, sometimes, physically brushing off the leaders who attend them....

Who would have thought a corrupt and racist New York Attorney General would have been the agent used by divine providence to effect the reform of the National Rifle Association? Neal Knox and his reformers nearly succeeded in taking over the NRA in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War is a collection of writings by Neal, edited by his son Chris. The goal of Neal Knox and his organization was to make the NRA management and finances more transparent and to focus the NRA on being more effective politically. Those efforts were stymied by...

cis’ funeral in Rome, President Donald Trump revealed Tuesday evening what he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed during their viral meeting at the Vatican when both were in attendance for the late Pope Francis' funeral. "I was telling him that it's a very good thing if we can produce a deal, that you sign it, because Russia is much bigger and much stronger," Trump said Tuesday evening during a town hall hosted by NewsNation, which he participated in by phone. The pair met face-to-face for the first time since their contentious Oval Office meeting in February, while both attended...

As this correspondent sits in the Press Office at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the NRA in Atlanta, Georgia, there is time to reflect on the enormous progress which has been made in restoring rights protected by the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights.The first time I was in Atlanta for more than a plane exchange was within a month or two of 51 years ago, while on active duty in the United States Army, in 1974. This correspondent attended the NRA Annual Meeting in Atlanta in 2017.In 1974, traveling across state lines with firearms was a...

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky proclaimed that his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the funeral for Pope Francis has the “potential to become historic”. Zelensky met with President Trump in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican after joining other world leaders in paying their respects to the Pope. A photograph of the meeting showed Trump and Zelensky sitting opposite each other in chairs within the grand sixteenth-century church. The meeting came amid increasing tensions between Washington and Kyiv, which has so far baulked at the peace deal framework laid out by Trump administration negotiators, likely including...

President Donald Trump plans to meet on Thursday with Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who published the Signal story in March and the hoax story claiming Trump called fallen World War I soldiers “suckers” and “losers.” Trump announced in the late morning Truth Social post that he would be meeting with Goldberg and two other Atlantic reporters for a meeting: Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on “Suckers and Losers” and, SignalGate, something he was somewhat...

President Donald Trump on Monday met with chief executives from three of the nation’s top retailers, who came to the White House to discuss how his sweeping tariff plans could impact their import-heavy business models. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and Target chief executive Brian Cornell both attended, as did Home Depot CEO Ted Decker. A White House official told CNBC earlier Monday that a representative from Lowe’s would also be at the meeting. After the meeting concluded, an official told NBC News that no one from Lowe’s attended. After the meeting wrapped, the three companies issued nearly identical statements. “We...

Celebrities did not respond kindly to comedian Bill Maher visiting the White House for dinner with President Trump and were even more incensed over his retelling of the dinner. As Breitbart News reported, Maher finally divulged the details about his dinner with Trump weeks after teasing it, describing the president as gracious and completely different from the man he knew on television. “He’s much more self-aware than he lets on in public. Look, I get it, it doesn’t matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian, it matters who he is on the world stage,” Maher said...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was mocked after she was captured hiding her face behind a stack of binders to avoid being seen standing in the Oval Office when President Donald Trump spoke to the press. The 53-year-old Democrat was flanked by two White House aides as she shielded her identity behind a set of blue folders she was holding before her scheduled meeting with Trump on April 9, according to a photo taken by the New York Times. Whitmer was in Washington DC to discuss issues including tariffs and a recent ice storm which Whitmer has since asked for a...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is under fire from fellow Democrats after appearing alongside President Donald Trump during a White House signing ceremony, sparking accusations that she was used as a political “prop.” “Just a f—ing disaster,” said one Democratic operative, who usually supports Whitmer but spoke anonymously to NBC News. “It feels like it removes some of the momentum she had as a politically savvy swing-state Dem.” Whitmer was in Washington for what was supposed to be a private meeting with Trump on Wednesday. Instead, she ended up standing off to the side as the president signed executive orders calling...

Comedian Bill Maher had two words for those who would criticize his scheduled meeting with President Trump at the White House: “&&&- you.” During an interview with comedian Andrew Schulz on his Club Random podcast, Maher discussed his scheduled meeting with President Trump and how it would bother hard leftists. “Kid Rock was here a couple of weeks ago and he said ‘I want you to meet Trump. I’m going to take you to the White House.’ So now we’re going to do that,” he said.

President Donald Trump has a multi-faceted plan to restore U.S. energy dominance after four years of the Biden administration giving the fossil fuel industry the cold shoulder, oil executive Mike Sommers told FOX Business on Thursday. The American Petroleum Institute president and CEO was among the 15 industry leaders present inside a closed-door White House meeting with Trump this week. He detailed the contents of the talk on "Mornings with Maria." "The president said we're going to have an opportunity to finally open up some of these federal lands and federal waters that were restricted by the Biden administration. He's...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday he was ready to come to the negotiating table to begin peace talks and expressed regret over last week’s meeting at the White House where he sparred with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance and blew a minerals deal with the U.S. Zelensky wrote on X: I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace. None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready...

Could the lunch menu at the White House explain the reason for Zelensky's lousy attitude? I am thinking that because I just now saw via CNN.com what was on the menu for after the meeting. Here it is:"White House chefs were at work in the West Wing on Friday laying out plates of rosemary chicken, celery root puree and collard greens when the sound of raised voices began floating over from the Oval Office."Hey, I'm not a fussy eater but that lunch menu doesn't sound exactly appetizing. I knew they were going to have lunch so envisioned something like smoked...